Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail has a pretty solid soundtrack, all told—I found myself bopping along to most of it, and I think the choice to make its capital city Tuliyollal filled with swingin’ jazz is inspired. I even like the corny rehash of the main theme during the story’s final trial (even with my more complex thoughts on the story surrounding it). Alas, one song is an exception to my appreciation: Smile.
For some context as to why Smile was a big deal: You’ve gotta understand the kind of good will Final Fantasy 14’s composer, Masayoshi Soken, has built up so far. Pretty much every expansion’s soundtrack has been a cornucopia of leitmotifs, buffeted by swelling moments and thoughtful arrangements. I still get chills listening to Tomorrow and Tomorrow, or tears stinging in my eyes at Flow.
Smile isn’t necessarily too bad in isolation, but it unfortunately has a lot of expectation riding on it as Dawntrail’s main theme. It’s an admirably brave, big, Disney-tier boisterous swing that unfortunately flings its fist way past the mark. The lyrics are fine—good, even—but speaking personally, I found the vocals of Akino (who is excellent in other songs from the game, such as Scream) to be mismatched to the style they were going for, and a little distracting when trying to listen to the game’s ending exposition.
Combine that with a chorus that goes from 0 to 100% real quick, and you get some unintentionally hilarious moments in the main story—like when you have to build a bomb train and crash it into a barrier, and you’re suddenly expected to clap along to a cheery building montage that blasts you with a whole choir immediately.
In other words, it’s an extremely rare miss—which makes some commentary from Soken, discussing the song on a recent blu-ray release of Dawntrail’s soundtrack (shared on the game’s subreddit by user Y0LOME0W), all the funnier.
“This track was ordered by none other than Nacchan Ishikawa on the scenario team. Specifically, she requested an ending theme in the style of a musical, and … well … I hate to say it, but musicals aren’t really my thing. Whenever the characters drop what they’re doing to burst into song, it just throws me off. Like, why are we singing now?!”
Considering that’s exactly what happens twice in Dawntrail’s main scenario quest (although I actually didn’t mind it during Wuk Lamat’s inauguration ceremony), it’s a little funny to hear him saying this now. It’s also interesting that it was ordered by Ishikawa—while she took on a more supervisory role for Dawntrail, she’s also credited with some of the game’s most loved storylines, such as Shadowbringers and Endwalker.
“That being said,” he continues, “I do like ‘The Blues Brothers'”—that explains the Tuliyollal theme, then—”so I was confident I could still make it work … Okay, I know it sounds like I was forced to make this song against my will, but I assure you I wasn’t, haha!” Haha, hah. Blink twice if you need help, Soken. I can help.
In all seriousness, while I wouldn’t be against Soken taking an honest stab at a musical-style theme (it might’ve cut down on the Wuk Lamat fatigue if she’d got all her speeches wrapped up into a solid “I want” song), I’m genuinely glad to hear he’s experimenting. One of the best parts about FF14’s soundtrack is that it’s all over the shop in terms of genre—one minute you’re headbanging to Metal or Under the Weight, the next you’re weeping openly into your G’raha Tia body pillow at Close in the Distance. Even if I didn’t like Smile all that much, I’m glad he tried—and will continue to try. Who knows, maybe Alan Wake’s softened him up on musical numbers, we’re overdue a dance number or two.