Square Enix published a new piano collection for Final Fantasy XIV, eh? Sign me up! Pianist Keiko is back with some Dawntrail-centric arrangements, alongside Amanda Achen for two fantastic duets.
Readers may be forgiven for thinking this is Keiko’s second outing with Final Fantasy XIV. It is, in fact, her sixth. The album, entitled Piano Collections Final Fantasy XIV, compiles music from the first three arrange albums. These albums are half-Keiko, half-Primals. When this second album was announced, I had assumed it would be a “Volume two” in this compilation format, containing Keiko’s contributions to the fourth and fifth arrangement albums (Scions & Sinners, Forge Ahead). This album indicates two things to me. First, we’re unlikely to get that second compilation, so piano-completionists like myself might have to pick up those aforementioned arranged albums to get Keiko’s contributions. Second, the existence of Till Dawn My Tears Flow suggests there may not be a sixth album in this split-style arrangement series; rather, Keiko and The Primals may publish their music separately from now on. I don’t know this for certain, but it seems a likely conclusion.
Strangely enough, even though this release is significantly smaller than the two-disc collection (from the first three arranged albums), I do find Final Fantasy XIV Piano Collections – Till Dawn My Tears Flow the more compelling album. Perhaps the fairest approach would be to compare these latest Keiko tunes to those she produced on Forge Ahead. Even in this instance, with a cursory listen, I think this new collection of music is Keiko’s best.
The album opens with “Lost in the Deep,” a fantastic environmental theme (“The Skydeep Cenote” dungeon theme). This is the first of several times I find myself preferring Keiko’s arrangement to the OST counterpart. Keiko ascends and descends the piano like the virtuoso she is, handling dynamic ranges equally well. This is generally a softer piece, with some powerful accents in the left hand and a few cascading flourishes in the right. Among the solo piano tracks on this album (of which there are five in total), this one is my favorite. It is beautiful through and through, and easily eclipses my favorite picks from several Final Fantasy piano collections.
“Morrow’s Might & Magic” covers the daytime and nighttime variants of the theme music for capital city Tuliyollal. This piece includes the same motif found in the Dawntrail end-credits vocal track “Smile.” To add a bit of punch, this piano solo piece blurs the lines ever so slightly with the inclusion of finger snaps to keep things peppy. Keiko mixes swing tempo and straight common time throughout the length of this fun, wide-ranging musical journey.
“Roses of May (Dawntrail)” is certainly one I wasn’t expecting. Yes, we all know Final Fantasy XIV is king when it comes to crossover content. And this fantastic Final Fantasy IX track warrants Keiko’s attention. However, did I need yet another piano arrangement of this track when I have them from Shiro Hamaguchi and Louis Leerink (Piano Collections Final Fantasy IX) and again from Hiroyuki Nakayama (Piano Opera Final Fantasy VII/VIII/IX)? Apparently, it’s exactly what I needed. Keiko goes full Rachmaninoff with this arrangement, including the bold and sometimes dissonant arrangement choices found in the FFXIV variant of this song — used in-game for the battle against Queen’s Knight Zelenia. This version simply blows the others out of the water. Personally, I’ll never be able to perform a piece this advanced, and will have to stick to my Hamaguchi/Leerink version when I sit at the piano bench.
Two more pure-piano pieces to cover: “Crash in the Dark” and “Promises to Keep.” The former is the nighttime variant of “Flash in the Dark,” music heard in the Heritage Found location. Keiko’s own statement (via the English-language liner notes—thank you for continuing this trend, Square Enix!) is that the original recording has six layers of her own recording. Pairing that to one singular performance is not an easy feat, but I like what she did with it here. The latter track, not to be confused with “No Promises to Keep” from Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, is the only track on here that predates Dawntrail. “Promises to Keep” comes from the Shadowbringers era, and you can find the original version on the patch update compilation Death Unto Dawn. I’m curious why the step into the back catalog? This is a perfectly enjoyable arrangement of a great OST track from Masayoshi Soken, but I think I’d have preferred more Dawntrail tunes!
“Windswept Echoes” has a featured soloist in the form of … Keiko! In addition to playing excellent piano here, she utilizes a Melodion to cover—get this—the melody! Keiko has done this in past recordings, and the soundscape on this particular piece is just perfect. Compared it to its OST counterpart (the day field theme for Urqopacha), Keiko does more with less, elevating Saya Yasaki’s composition to the kind of music I’d want to hear performed at a high-scale club. I think, if Keiko had added an upright bass, this would be my favorite track on the album.
Finally, it’s time to bring vocalist Amanda Achen to the stage! “Smile” and “Bee My Honey” are the two vocal tracks on this album, and they are fantastic choices! In both instances, Achen utilizes her classical training and stage presence to deliver performances I would expect on Broadway. “Smile” is a fantastic ballad with some sharp twists and beautiful repetition. Keiko, providing not only the piano accompaniment but backup vocals, is the perfect pairing for Amanda Achen’s performance here.
“Bee My Honey” literally feels like an upbeat Broadway song (think most songs from SIX). The attitude that comes with the occasional pitch-bend, and the switch from singing to pronounced speaking during the outro couplet, makes it one of the most surprising tracks here. Amanda and Keiko trade vocal lines while Keiko keeps the pace perfectly with her piano chops. To prove just how good they are as a duo, Square Enix actually included a download code with this album to download HD video footage from the 2026 Final Fantasy XIV Fan Fest in Anaheim. This footage, just under six minutes in length, is a live performance of this exact “Bee My Honey” arrangement, and it is so much fun!! I hope that, at some point, this footage will be published on the Square Enix Music YouTube channel.
Last year, I published an article ranking every officially published Final Fantasy piano album. I had assumed that the next album to be published after this article would be a piano collection for Final Fantasy XVI, or maybe Final Fantasy VII Remake/Rebirth. I was wrong! And while I’d still love a full XVI piano album (likely from Keiko), I remain shocked by how much I enjoy Final Fantasy XIV Piano Collections – Till Dawn My Tears Flow. If I were to insert this album in the aforementioned ranking article, I think it would slightly breach the upper half, putting it significantly higher than the two-disc FFXIV set. To my fellow FF piano fans, you do not want to miss out on this one!
