Endless Grades: Pixel Saga composer Motoi Sakuraba interview video published ahead of Japanese version launch

LightCore Games has published an interview video with the renowned Japanese game music composer Motoi Sakuraba. This interview was conducted as Sakuraba worked on the soundtrack for the mobile RPG Endless Grades: Pixel Saga, which will have its release in Japan soon on July 29.

This Chinese mobile game has been one of the entries in Sakuraba’s resume. The composer has been best known for working on the Tales Of and Star Ocean series, as well as Valkyrie Profile and Valkyrie Elysium. More recently, he also collaborated with Michiko Naruke for the soundtrack of Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes.

This 2-minute-long interview video was actually already made for quite some time. Half a year ago in January, LightCore had published the same interview video but with Chinese title and captions, as the game is originally known in China as Eternal Dreamscape: Chronicles of the Unsung Heroes.

But with the questions in this new version translated to Japanese, we are now able to get a better overall context of the interview. Here is our summary of the interview video:

• While console games can afford to play longer tracks, mobile games tend to have a shorter pace, so Sakuraba focused on placing the memorable melodies and phrases at the beginning.
• Since Endless Grades has a story based on Norse mythology, the story ought to be heavy. But if everything feels so heavy, then players may end up feeling intimidated, so Sakuraba tried adding lighter tunes to make the game more enjoyable to play.
• Most battles already have a set objective, and battle themes are made to hype them up, so Sakuraba focused on making the phrases and melodies memorable.
• Sakuraba personally likes battle themes the most, so producing the regular and boss battle themes left the most impression on him.
• Putting contemporary music in a game with retro graphics would usually feel off to Sakuraba, but this game is totally fine for him to place even more contemporary tracks.

You can also find Motoi Sakuraba’s interview video in Japanese right below. Endless Grades: Pixel Saga has been available globally in English on Android and iOS since as early as December 2023, but the Japanese release will only be available later on July 29.