The latest release in the Gifts from Vana’diel music series, Final Fantasy XI Gifts from Vana’diel: Prime Memories Soundtrack, offers past and present players a glimpse into how the long-running MMORPG’s music has evolved more than twenty years after its beginnings. Final Fantasy XI veteran composer Naoshi Mizuta is still at the helm, and with over forty minutes of new music in this digital-only album release we get a sense for what’s getting better, what’s getting worse, and what is simply more of the same.
Most prominently, we have a performance by Mizuta’s band ‘The Nanaa Mihgo’s‘ (named for the famed Cat Burglar of Windhurst): Track 2, “Goddesspeed,” is a gloriously fun and upbeat adventure piece. Those violin parts get me every time. If you like the bright violin in recent Falcom titles (Ys, Trails), you’re going to love what Naoshi Mizuta does with violin on his Nanaa Mihgo’s projects. “Goddesspeed” is no exception. This is arguably the best track on Prime Memories.
Another solid composition in this collection is the title track to the pseudo-expansion, “The Voracious Resurgence.” This title track isn’t a tense battle theme, but instead serves as a strong statement used in story cutscenes and various environments. This piece showcases Mizuta’s continual growth as a composer, with instrumentation and melodic nuance exceeding even his best pieces from Final Fantasy XIII-2. So… yes. It’s quite good.
A surprising entry in this collection is the new harvest festival music, “Devils’ Delight.” The track opens with a big band swing sound, the drums and horns taking care of business. Then Mizuta throws in some toy piano for comp work before that near-mandatory violin, operating more like a fiddle in this context. Add an accordion for good measure, and you have yourself one raucous party song for the harvest festival!
As far as battle themes go, I think the most intimidating one is “Sojourner.” This serves as the battle music for the dragon Bumba in the new endgame content form known as Odyssey. The changing time signature throughout the piece, as well as the sharp dynamic shifts, foretell a challenging encounter with plenty of highs and lows. I really enjoy the syncopation on this particular track.
The final four tracks on this EP are also the final four in Voracious Resurgence. “Valhalla” and “All-Consuming Chaos” make up the final, epic two-part battle sequence. I appreciate both tracks, but I think “All-Consuming Chaos” is the more impressive piece by far, making excellent use of a synth orchestra. “Encroaching Perils” is a new theme utilized throughout multiple Voracious Resurgence sequences, and my understanding is that the song plays briefly in the cut scenes between the two parts of the final battle.
Afterwards, we get something akin to resolution in the ending music for Voracious Resurgence, “Your Choice.” I think this last piece is a bit of a letdown. In the past, Naoshi Mizuta has delighted us with endgame vocal themes (Seekers of Adoulin‘s and Rhapsodies of Vana’diel‘s end themes). Perhaps the budget just wasn’t there for Voracious Resurgence, even though it has been the dominant content for the legacy MMO from 2018 to 2023.
In my personal journeys through Vana’diel, and in my written coverage of Final Fantasy XI‘s music over the decades, I have experienced plenty to get excited about, and some things that leave me yawning or walking away. Prime Memories, for the most part, is worth getting excited about. There are some forgettable tracks, definitely. But this is a great, short collection of recent music for a game that you may have forgotten still exists. Be sure to check it out, whether streaming or via digital audio purchase.
