In July of 2023, Square Enix came to Las Vegas to put on a convention revolving around their MMO, Final Fantasy XIV. I’ve been playing the game for a while and managed to get some highly sought-after tickets to both the convention, and the Eorzean Symphony the day after the convention. Each of the two days of the convention ended with a musical performance on the main stage inside the convention center. A piano recital on the first day, and a rock concert on the second day by The Primals, an in-house band led by the lead composer for Final Fantasy XIV, Masayoshi Soken. I’ll start with the piano concert and The Primals from the convention proper, and move on to the separately ticketed Eorzean Symphony after. All three events also featured vocal appearances from Amanda Achen and Jason Charles Miller!

The piano recital was done by Keiko, another composer for Final Fantasy XIV. The compositions were moving, though I was occasionally distracted by feedback coming through the microphones on stage. I suspect this is due to the fact that the whole performance is being done inside of the giant concrete cube that is the convention hall. I had a good amount of empathy for the sound engineers trying to navigate those murky waters. The convention was set up such that there was not enough sound treatment on the walls, or enough booths and other miscellaneous objects to diffuse the sound coming out from the speakers.

The Primals concert wasn’t quite as plagued by issues with feedback, though it still had it’s moments. I think a combination of the high octane rock arrangements of the in-game music being played, as well as the removal of seating for a pit for people to dance in may have helped with the feedback issues when compared to a seated piano recital in the same room the night before.

The Eorzan Symphony was a separately ticketed event, in which The Wild Faery Company played special arrangements of the game’s music at a separate venue. From an audio perspective this event went off without a hitch, which was probably made easier by the fact that it was performed inside of a specially treated theater rather than a concrete convention hall. The music was lovely, and the setlist comprised of music from the game that was played in two acts. The setlist was organized such that all the music was played chronologically, starting with the base game and working through it’s 4 expansions. The first act covered the base game and the first two expansions, while the second act covered the 2 most recent expansions. Photography was forbidden, however the conductor did invite us to take photos with the symphony on stage shortly after the show had concluded.