Track 6-27: Dear Travelers

“Dear Travelers” is the very last track, playing over the post-epilogue end card with all eight travelers. It’s an emotional arrangement of the main theme, as if played for the travelers themselves.

This piece was director [Keisuke] Miyauchi’s idea. He came to me with a request: Just as a painter completes a piece by signing it, there should be a kind of “signature” from the game’s composer over the end card. I kept my promise to create one, and this recording is what you get when someone who has always gone around insisting that they don’t play the piano in public finally gives in and sits down to play. Perhaps because of that experience, it takes courage to listen to this piece even now. (Well, I also played the Cait theme, but still.)

I did think it was a lovely request, though. I’ve been writing game music for some time now, and it’s not every day the director or production team asks for something like this. After all, music may be important, but on the list of priorities it inevitably ends up lower than the storyline or graphics. On the other hand, it would be weird for a composer to push for this kind of thing themselves (although I did get away with being pretty pushy about this game…). To have someone save room for you and say, “Go ahead, this is where the music goes,” is a truly joyous thing, and I can honestly say I feel very fortunate to have ended up working with such a wonderful development team.

I guess with this being the final song, the mood turned a little sentimental, haha! Tomorrow, I plan to change tack a bit and start answering the questions I received on Twitter. I hope you’ll stick with me a little longer.

Translation: Matt Treyvaud