Final Fantasy XIII Sound Director Tomohiro Yajima Interview

OSV: Hello Yajima-san. It’s great to get the chance to speak with you. Can you start by telling us what your role on Final Fantasy XIII involved as the title’s sound director?

Yajima: I did anything and everything related to sound, including the sound system layout, playing out the image concepts for sound effects and making the appropriate decisions, sound effect approvals, managing the development schedule and staffing, balance checks and debugging, etc. I was responsible for the final sound and balance of the BGM, sound effects and voice.

OSV: How were you approached to take on this role? I know Square Enix works on a large number of titles at any given time, and with such a large sound department, how were you selected among the team to handle Final Fantasy XIII?

Yajima: I had been involved in planning the sound system for the Crystal Tools engine, and the sound design for FINAL FANTASY XIII was a natural extension of my work on the project. I officially joined the team when Toriyama-san approached me with a formal invitation, as it seemed like it would be a lot of fun.

OSV: We recently spoke with Final Fantasy XIII Director and Scenario Writer Motomu Toriyama, and he noted that he was responsible for approving music, while you were responsible mainly for sound design. Did you have any interactions with Masashi Hamauzu while working on Final Fantasy XIII, and did the two of you work together to create a cohesive sound for the game?

Yajima: Our work areas are very close, so Hamauzu-san and I held weekly meetings. We debated about sound balance and exchanged thoughts on staging, working together to produce the best possible results.

OSV: What were your interactions with Motomu Toriyama throughout the game creation process? Was he responsible for approving all the final sound effects for the game as well?

Yajima: I was the decision-maker on matters pertaining to sound effects and staging for the most part. Toriyama-san would check the game and let me know if he felt anything was out of place, and I’d make adjustments based on his comments.

OSV: The world of Final Fantasy XIII is definitely unique, so I’m wondering what your approach was to the sound design. Were you mainly working on creating futuristic, foreign sounds, or did you also try to go for organic sounds in some of the more natural settings in the game?

Yajima: As I mentioned during the GDC 2010 session, my goal was to create “real” sounds based on physics, but with a very expansive feel. As for the futuristic areas, I relied on existing, cutting-edge technology to imagine sounds of the near future. The command and cursor sounds are based more on my personal take on magic and fantasy.

OSV: How much of the sound effects were you responsible for recording? How many hours were recorded overall for Final Fantasy XIII? Did you find yourself using any stock sound effects from sample libraries, or was it all original sounds?

Yajima: I can’t remember exactly how many hours were spent recording since we held sessions whenever the need came up. I just know that we recorded and mixed a ton of sounds. We did use existing sounds to put together some of the sound effects, but ultimately all sounds are original unique to FINAL FANTASY XIII. We used a variety of methods to create these sounds, including recording and overlapping different sounds or utilizing the effector and synthesizer.

OSV: Does Square Enix have a Foley stage set up for this kind of work, or was one created specifically for this title? Do you have any interesting stories about how you created a particular sound effect in the game with something unusual?

Yajima: We have a Foley stage set up in our building, so we definitely made use of that for the sound effects in FINAL FANTASY XIII. I’m not sure if this is anything out of the ordinary, but my directions on footsteps are extremely specific, so when we were recording at our Foley stage the staff were running non-stop to get as much out of the session as possible. Our staff ran a very long distance for this project. We had them jump dozens of times for the jumping sounds, so everyone was very tired towards the end of the recording session. I could actually tell how tired they were from listening to the sounds of their jumps.

OSV: Were you responsible for any of the other sounds in the game, such as the voice over work in the game? Was it difficult to mix music, sound effects, and voice over work to make a balanced sound environment?

Yajima: I was in charge of balancing the overall sound system with space control and sounds. In battles, up to 80 different sound effects and voices could be activated depending on the player’s controls, so it was challenging to create a system that could automatically regulate the overall balance, including the BGM.

OSV: How big was your sound design team on Final Fantasy XIII? Were certain people responsible for recording, and others for editing and implementation?

Yajima: The team’s size shifted throughout development, but the core team consisted of around 10 staff members. We created task forces with the composition, sound effects and programming teams to tackle sound programming, sound system development, composition, manipulator, sound effect creation, mixing and recording.

OSV: I really liked how the game’s treasure chests made a whirring sound that made the player aware of their presence. Were you involved with the decision to have treasure chests generate this sound, and are there other interesting uses of sound effects in the game that we may have missed?

Yajima: Of course! I was the one that said “let’s go with this sound!” As for other sound effects, the shop selection sound effects should be interesting – we created sounds that match the different shop styles.

OSV: Looking back at your work on Final Fantasy XIII, would you say it’s your best work to date? What has the title meant to you and your career as a sound designer?

Yajima: Yes! I am completely satisfied with my work on this project. FINAL FANTASY XIII was a project in which I was not only able to pursue the highest quality, but could also explore new ways to streamline the development process as well as discover new technological possibilities.

OSV: Yajima-san, perhaps you can tell us more about yourself since fans in the United States don’t know very much about you. Can you tell us about your background in sound design, how you came to work at Square Enix, and what other titles you’ve worked on in the past?

Yajima: A sound staff from Square Enix (Square Soft at the time) approached me in 1996, and I entered the company as a sound engineer. My tasks involved the planning of sound systems as well as direction of sound effects. It was my first gig working on sound effects, as I had been doing some freelance composing prior to this. I worked on Xenogears, Vagrant Story, FINAL FANTASY XI and FINAL FANTASY XII as the sound effects director, and with Dawn of Mana and FINAL FANTASY XIII as sound director.

OSV: Fans often overlook the sound design in games. Would you like to tell us in your own words why the work you do is so important to the final product? Do you have anything inspirational to say to perhaps get more people interested in the field of sound design in the future?

Yajima: Sound effects are like air. You don’t really think about how important it is, but you can’t go without it… It’s never an element that’s front and center, but a very important factor that really affects a game’s story, visuals and players’ emotions in a big way. Sound effects don’t have to be in any particular shape of form, so one of its main appeals is that you are free to create whatever you can imagine. For example, magic sound effects are always very fun to take on, and it’s satisfying to be able to share the sounds that I imagine with players. Also, there are no set rules on creating sounds, so you can pursue realistic sounds if you want to, using a mike or Foley stage. I think it’s very satisfying to be able to create something that you are happy with, using whatever methods you think are right.

OSV: Are you able to tell us what you’ll be working on next?

Yajima: That’s a secret… But I’m aiming for an even higher quality than FINAL FANTASY XIII, so please keep an eye out for my future endeavors.

OSV: Thank you for your time, Yajima-san. Congratulations on completing your work on Final Fantasy XIII!

[Special thanks to Amelia Cantlay at Square Enix for providing translation and for allowing us to make this interview available in both English and Japanese]