FFXIV Community Rallies Behind Masayoshi Soken


#WelcomeBackSoken goes trending.

Bet you didn’t think the Final Fantasy Fanfest would leave you crying, did you?

The Final Fantasy XIV fanfest just wrapped up, but this year’s festival left us with an equally heartbreaking and heartwarming story. As players gathered to celebrate everything Final Fantasy, we learned that composer Masayoshi Soken had been diagnosed with cancer, a fact that was kept from most of the development team. Soken had continued to work hard on Final Fantasy XIV out of dedication to the community while receiving treatment.

FFXIV director Naoki Yoshida, aka Yoshi-P, had an emotional moment on stage discussing the pain of keeping his good friend and coworker’s status a secret. Fair warning to anyone who isn’t an emotionless golem; this video is going to hit hard. The story has a somewhat happy ending, as Soken’s cancer has since gone into remission.

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An outpouring of support from the FFXIV community has blown over Twitter today, with players showing support and welcoming back Soken both online and in-game.

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Knowing that Soken was battling cancer has also given a whole new perspective on “To The Edge” which was composed while he was in the hospital, as well as the generally uplifting tone of Patch 5.3 overall.