What is SQ Relax? Who is Krystelle of Krystelle’s Chillwave? These questions, and more, to be answered below.
I once thought Square Enix’s music division retired the “SQ” moniker for their genre-specific arranged albums after Last SQ and the digital SQ Music Collections compilation album. However, the early 2025 album #SQkawaii Sounds -Final Fantasy- suggested that “SQ” might be back on the menu as a helpful label. Now, in 2026, we can see that it is clearly back in use with the new album SQ Relax – Krystelle’s Chillwave.
From a genre standpoint, chillwave is perhaps the appropriate term for the music Square Enix had previously released on their “Chill Out” albums (NieR Re[in]carnation, Around 80’s Mix). Here, you’ll find intentional inclusion of vinyls or cassette tapes artifact noises; this is “lofi hip hop mix beats to relax/study to” specifically for game music. If you like this kind of music, you’re going to dig SQ Relax. If you generally don’t like this kind of music but are fond of the source material from the Square Enix catalog, you may still want to give it a try!
Before we get into the tracks, a quick note about “Krystelle.” When Square Enix Music announced this album, they identified the young lady in the cover art as Krystelle—the official mascot of the Square Enix Music Channel’s Chill BGM Livestreams. We can see that she’s a lover of vinyl, and she’s definitely ready to do some relaxing and/or studying with these arrangements!
Square Enix collaborated with a total of nine arrangers for this album. With a total of 20 tracks, that’s an average of two arrangements per artist. While I have my preferences and could easily rank some favorites among these, I have to confess that the quality across these 20 arrangements is consistently strong.
To put things into perspective: both “The Sunleth Waterscape” (Final Fantasy XIII) and “Liberi Fatali” (Final Fantasy VIII) are fantastic tracks that make use of vocal clips from the source material in innovative ways. For whatever reason, I find that I’d much rather listen to “Sunleth” in its original form than this new arrangement. However, with the classic opening FMV music from FFVIII, I can listen to this new arrangement on repeat. No, it’s not better than the original (how could it be? That is a perfect piece of music), but the SQ Relax version dares to be different.
The reharmonization in “Liberi Fatali” is clever as can be. Changing up timing for inserting any of the four pseudo-Latin phrases (fithos, lusec, wecos, vinosec) is bold, especially with that repeated “fithos” in the second half of the track. I noticed myself getting lost and then finding my way back when I first listened to this one. But is it musically better than the arrangement for “Sunleth Waterscape,” beyond my personal preference? I don’t think I can say for certain.
A handful of other tracks also pull voice samples from the source material to great effect. NieR: Automata‘s “Pascal” has that innocent school children’s choral thing going for it; NieR Gestalt & Replicant absolutely nails the re-use of some haunting choir vocals; “Away” from Final Fantasy XVI keeps the big choir part subdued and held back till the latter half of the track; and then there’s one more special NieR track…
“Gōgan (Arrogance)” (from NieR Re[in]carnation) was first featured on the aforementioned Chill Out album dedicated to the now-defunct live service title. And it’s even from the same arranger, Christian Gulino. However! It’s not the same arrangement. This new version of “Arrogance” cuts the soft, zero-percussion intro, jumping right into the action. I also detected some subtle changes in Gulino’s new arrangement, including some smart choices with shifting the octave of the vocal parts and changing out some of the piano improvisation with other instruments. I think I prefer this version to the one prior to it.
Speaking of differing arrangements, I recently listened through the new Final Fantasy X – House Grooves album, which is much more up-tempo than this chillwave SQ Relax album, and I saw that Terry McGowan arranged “Fight With Seymour” on that album. But, wouldn’t you know it, “Fight With Seymour” is on this album too! That being said, it isn’t McGowan in this version.
This time we get arranger SEQUENCE mixing it up. And this very slow, very chill version of the upbeat boss battle theme was a surprise choice, at least in my mind. That track is known for being fast-tempo with some four-on-the-floor action! What’s it doing here? I could argue for a whole bunch of other FFX tracks in its place. Heck, I could argue for other FFX battle themes in its place! Nonetheless, SEQUENCE offers up a great version of this great theme, arguably more interesting and nuanced than what McGowan did on the House Grooves version.
Speaking of song selection, though, I have to give the first SQ Relax album points for an excellent tracklist. Early in, we get a double-play from Xenogears with “Village Pride” and “Bond of Sea and Flame.” We also get a primo choice from Final Fantasy V, the emotional piece “The Day Will Come” (also translated “Someday, Surely”). This might be my favorite track on the whole album. I really wasn’t expecting FFV to shine so brightly!
Other stand-out picks include a robust arrangement of “Meridian Child” from Trials of Mana and “Birds Fly, Fish Swim” from LIVE A LIVE (let’s face it, the whole SQ series has thrived thanks to great LIVE A LIVE song picks!). I was also grateful to see plenty of SaGa representation here.
Yet, despite these great picks, Square Enix’s music catalog is so vast that I do wish I could see some more deep cuts than what we have here. Even as I write this article, SQ Relax – Krystelle’s Chillwave Vol. 2 has already been published! And while it has some interesting choices as well, including some tracks from Legend of Mana and Octopath Traveler, the second volume is almost exclusively from the Final Fantasy series. I haven’t even listened to the album yet, only scanned the tracklist.
But I will say this, having listened closely to this first SQ Relax volume: if there is a third volume in the works, I am praying that Square Enix decides to go deep into the catalog. I’m talking Bahamut Lagoon, Brave Fencer Musashi, Drakengard, Front Mission, The World Ends With You, or maybe a newer game in the SaGa series that hasn’t seen much in terms of arrangements yet (Scarlet Grace? Emerald Beyond?)! If we’re hunting through crates of vinyl records, let’s grab those rare finds and enjoy some deep cuts!
While I’m an advocate for having a physical copy of any album, and you can get this one through several retailers, I will point out that Square Enix Music has made the entire SQ Relax – Krystelle’s Chillwave album available on their YouTube Channel as a single video to stream at your leisure! Feel free to listen for yourself before throwing down any of your hard-earned cash.
