Writing one of Final Fantasy 14’s sauciest songs required its lyricist to consult the tomes—Wikipedia’s incredibly thorough BDSM page
Final Fantasy 14’s Arcadion raid series, introduced in the Dawntrail expansion, has emerged as one of the expansion’s standout features. The raid consists of 12 encounters built around a wrestling theme, with Creative Studio 3 implementing a distinctive creative approach: each fight receives its own unique character theme song, an effort that goes beyond the developer’s typical approach for eight-player raids.
The composition process for these tracks involved unexpected research requirements. According to the report, the lyricist for one of the raid’s more explicitly themed songs needed to conduct research on mature content to authentically capture the intended tone and lyrics. This research notably included consulting Wikipedia’s comprehensive article on BDSM—a practical example of how video game music creators often draw from unconventional sources to achieve their artistic vision.
This behind-the-scenes detail highlights the often-overlooked dedication required in video game audio composition, where creators must research diverse and sometimes unexpected topics to craft authentic and contextually appropriate content. The individual character themes for the Arcadion fights have contributed significantly to the raids’ overall identity and memorability within the Final Fantasy 14 community, demonstrating how thoughtful music composition enhances player engagement with raid content.