What was the earliest composition written for Final Fantasy XIII, and was it based on preliminary story concepts?
Masashi Hamauzu: The main battle theme “Blinded by Light” was the first piece of music written for the game. This was over three years prior to the release, preceding development of the overall concept and storyline. I incorporated both the image of fantasy and a near-future setting, patterned after [Motomu] Toriyama’s vision of the game at the time. It turned out to be a fairly accurate impression of the end results. 1UP: The two key “worlds” of Final Fantasy XIII, Cocoon and Pulse, display contrasting musical styles. Cocoon’s cinematic orchestral pieces such as “Fighting Fate” are opposed to Pulse’s peaceful field themes, such as the music for the Yaschas Massif. What made you decide upon these thematic distinctions for the game score? Hamauzu: This was intended to be a long game, which provided some challenges. It was important for there to be variety to the character of the sound design in order to maintain players’ interests over that span of time, though random variation wouldn’t
