Masayoshi Soken – Final Fantasy XIV Vinyl LP Box

FFXIV has always had great music. Everyone's taste and preference is different, but regarding the records themselves, the sound quality is great. I have zero complaints with the pressings, but I do wish Answers was included in the A Realm Reborn record. My one complaint, however, lies with the protective outer sleeve. It is not very durable, and given the weight and bulkiness of the box set, it is very easy to split the outer sleeve with putting the box back in it. I have read about others splitting their sleeves, and despite how careful I am with my records, I split mine as well. Excluding the sleeve, I have no complaints about the box set as a whole. If you are a fan of FFXIV and a fan of music and records, it's worth buying.

A second volume of this box set is being released, containing a second volume of every expansion (including Endwalker). It's now up for order at the Square Enix store

JP: https://store.jp.square-enix.com/category/M07/SQEX_11057_61.html
US: https://na.store.square-enix-games.com/final-fantasy-xiv-vinyl-lp-box-vol_-2
EU: https://eu.store.square-enix-games.com/final-fantasy-xiv-vinyl-lp-box-vol_-2

A high quality set physically, though the sound selection does leave a little to be desired. What is there is fantastic, and I do appreciate that it must have been hard to pick the right tracks. I feel as though the selection probably came down to runtimes and story intervals in order to push a short narrative.

Regardless, I'd rate the collection a 5. The actual packaging and pressing is beyond fantastic for the price. Solid card-stock wallets, high quality artwork, anti-static sleeves, and the box is foil printed. It even comes with a kickstand for the record you might be playing at any given moment. The biggest shame is that the kickstand isn't a little more decorative and designed to stand the entire box.

This set is a very nice collector’s item; however, there are places where the audio leaves a lot to be desired.

Most of the tracks sound great. The orchestrated pieces from area BGM translate well into vinyl (e.g. city-state themes.) I particularly like how my cartridge (Nagaoka MP-150) picks up “Crimson Sunrise,” for example. The vinyl translation has also (subjectively) improved some tracks, like “What Angel Wakes Me,” but I would attribute that more to the characteristics of the cartridge rather than anything else. What I’m suggesting is that “What Angel Wakes Me” has not been remastered in any way, and unfortunately, this is where the issues start cropping up.

The tracks that stick out like a sore thumb are the vocal and/or rock-oriented tracks. They’re still just as compressed and lossy as any other release (e.g. “Oblivion,” “Shadowbringers.”) If you listen for the cymbals on “Shadowbringers,” you can hear them breaking up really badly. Here, it becomes glaringly obvious that they just took what previous release they had and slapped it onto vinyl.

There are also some unfortunate decisions with track ordering. I get some pretty mad IGD in “Dragonsong” and “Tomorrow and Tomorrow” due to them being the last track on their respective sides. I went as far as swapping turntables and cartridges to try to mitigate the issue, but no dice.

tl;dr: This is a nice set that I would still recommend any XIV fan to get, but let me be clear that this is a set for SE to sell merchandise. Don’t expect higher fidelity. Just because the medium is vinyl does not necessarily mean that SE has put the effort into making the audio any better.

Technical info regarding IGD mitigation attempts:

I originally attempted to digitally archive with a Pro-Ject Debut III Carbon + Nagaoka MP-150 (Baerwald.) Noticed the IGD, then tried with an AT VM540ML (Baerwald.) No improvements. Tried swapping to a Technics SL-1200MK7 + MP-150 (headshell gauge,) still the same. Gave up trying to mitigate.

The decisions behind what tracks were added or excluded from the ARR LP is a headscratcher. Oblivion is jarringly cut off half way through the song, while dull city themes take up space that could have been better used by more memorable tracks - not least of which is Answers. However the other LPs make up for this shortcoming, and on the whole this box set is a must for fans of XIV.

After finally listening to and appreciating the whole set, the sound exceeds what I expected could happen with the source material. Given this is absolutely a hi-res recording cut to vinyl, this shouldn't sound better than 1:1 rips of the of Blu-Ray audio, already well-mastered in its own right? Wrong.

I have played Final Fantasy XIV for over 3 years now, so am intimately familiar with all these tracks. They helped bring to life Eorzea and beyond, making the game all the more enjoyable. I know how well these can sound out of a good DAC when just critically listening to my FLAC rips. But the tracks that made it onto these LP's? They're realized like I never imagined, with transients, timbre, spaciousness, and imaging I never experienced with any other format of these songs.

Some of the best tracks in the XIV catalog- Wayward Daughter, eScape, Heavensward, Dragonsong, Shadowbringers, Return To Oblivion, To The Edge- have never sounded as intricate or sweet as they do with Bernie Grundman's expert cutting. Any fan of FFXIV with a well setup turntable owes it to themself to listen to this if they have the chance.

My most severe qualm with this set, tangential to the obvious "I wish this track were here instead of ____," despite all the gushing I've done, has to be the... interesting... track selection on the A Realm Reborn disc. ARR isn't the greatest OST in the game, and not in the FF series. But it has some stellar tracks that are bizarrely missing, placing the three starter city states' themes onto this set. Why not more classic tracks, like Nael's theme, Rise of the White Raven? Ramuh's battle theme, Thunder Rolls? Garuda's theme, Fallen Angel? Seven hells, where the hell is Answers?! Lacking Answers is ridiculous when the rest of the set includes one of the other iconic songs with Susan Calloway's vocals which perfectly personify Hydaelyn and foreshadow major story beats.

If nothing else, the city state themes should have been excluded to allow one of the aforementioned primals' themes, along with Rise of the White Raven and Answers. The rest of the set had normal raid music for the latter expansions; the omission of Nael's theme from T9, and Answers, the essential theme of ARR and set piece to T13, is extraordinarily egregious.

Still, given the mastering, the great selection of what tracks do exist on the HW, SB, and ShB discs, along with the packaging including detailed credits, beautiful sleeves, clean vinyl, and a nice firm box set to keep it all in, this set is an absolute buy if you can afford it. At the least, if you can't pay aftermarket prices, SE will surely repress this like they did the NieR set box and some of the older FF picture discs. Keep and eye out and have some cash in your wallet, as this is one set you absolutely will cherish.

Turntable: MCS 6602 (rebadged Technics)
Phono Cartridge: AT-VM95ML (Lofgren B, 2g VTF, 2 AS setting)
Preamp: Rolls VP29
Amp: Onkyo HT-R550
Speakers/Headphones: Polk T15 bookshelf/ATH-M50x
Subwoofer: Theater Solutions SUB-12F
DAC: Pro-ject DAC Box E w/ optical connection to media from PS4

Incredible music and, uncommonly for video game collaborations, great press!