Yasunori Mitsuda discusses composing for Xenoblade Chronicles 2, would like to do a soundtrack release

A portion of a VGMO interview with composer Yasunori Mitsuda...

VGMO: Of course, the biggest news of the year would be that you would be participating, once again, on Xenoblade2 (English title: Xenoblade Chronicles 2). Could you discuss your overall role in the soundtrack production and what challenges/concerns you had when working on this soundtrack? Could you let us know if there are currently any plans to release the soundtrack?

Yasunori Mitsuda: The biggest news of the year, huh? I’ve still got another big one that should be announced soon (laughs)! [Editor’s Note: This has since been confirmed to be EPISODE IGNIS for Final Fantasy XV] Anyways, Xenoblade2 was a ton of work. In my role as a producer, I handled proofreading (checking all the scores), managing the budget, sound checks, and the sound program. It was an impossible amount of work for one person. The biggest challenge was that, since the other composers didn’t have much experience recording with orchestras, I was handling controls, identifying issues in the written music, and gently relaying the director’s requests to the team—all work that required a lot of attention. Of course, since I also had to write my own music, it was a pretty rough one and a half years.

I definitely want to offer the soundtrack for sale, but since the number of songs is what it is, I wonder how I’d go about doing that…