Masayoshi Soken

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About

Masayoshi Soken, also known as SOKEN, is a Japanese video game composer and sound editor for Square Enix who is famously known for being the lead composer, sound director, and founder of Japanese rock band The Primals for the relaunch of Final Fantasy XIV and expansions by his good friend Naoki Yoshida.

Early Careers

At a young age Soken is into music from his father who is a professional trumpet player, and his mother a pianist. Growing up, he was hired by Konami to work as a sound editor and designer. Later he joined Squaresoft (before Square Enix) in 1998 to focus his career on sound effect designs. In 2005, Soken worked on Drakengard 2 and Front Mission 5: Scars of the War. In 2006, he worked on Mario Hoops 3-on-3 as composer, and work alongside Kenji Ito and Tsuyoshi Sekito to create the soundtrack for Dawn of Mana with Ryuichi Sakamoto providing the main theme.

Final Fantasy XIV

In 2010, Soken became the sound director for Final Fantasy XIV 1.0 that later failed at launch and almost doomed Square Enix until Naoki Yoshida is put in charge to rework and relaunch Final Fantasy XIV in 2013 as Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. Soken has become prime composer for the relaunch of Final Fantasy XIV and further expansions. Later, Soken formed a Japanese rock band called The Primals with members of the Final Fantasy XIV sound team to play at events such as Final Fantasy XIV Fan Festival.

Cancer Reveal

In May 16th, 2021, during the closing ceremony of Final Fantasy XIV Digital Fan Festival 2021, Soken open up to give thanks to the devs, fans, and the community, while Soken reveal that he's been diagnosed with cancer in March 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic and has been fighting it and treating it with chemotherapy for a year. Fans around the world went on Twitter to trend the hashtag #WelcomeBackSoken along with other related hastags like #SOKEN.