Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is poised to be one of this year’s most epic games to be released on the Nintendo Switch this year. Just as epic is the wide landscape of the game is its accompanying music.

In an interview with VGMO, Composer Yasunori Mitsuda talked about his experience composing and managing the music for Xenoblade Chronicles 2. In his perspective, his role as producer was a lot of hard work but it was all worth it.

VGMO: Of course, the biggest news of the year would be that you would be participating, once again, on Xenoblade2 (English title: Xenoblade Chronicles 2). Could you discuss your overall role in the soundtrack production and what challenges/concerns you had when working on this soundtrack? Could you let us know if there are currently any plans to release the soundtrack?

Yasunori Mitsuda: The biggest news of the year, huh? I’ve still got another big one that should be announced soon (laughs)! [Editor’s Note: This has since been confirmed to be EPISODE IGNIS for Final Fantasy XV] Anyways, Xenoblade2 was a ton of work. In my role as a producer, I handled proofreading (checking all the scores), managing the budget, sound checks, and the sound program. It was an impossible amount of work for one person. The biggest challenge was that, since the other composers didn’t have much experience recording with orchestras, I was handling controls, identifying issues in the written music, and gently relaying the director’s requests to the team—all work that required a lot of attention. Of course, since I also had to write my own music, it was a pretty rough one and a half years.

I definitely want to offer the soundtrack for sale, but since the number of songs is what it is, I wonder how I’d go about doing that…

Mitsuda also continued, talking his musical contributions to the upcoming game.

VGMO: Fans were also happy to learn that you would be contributing more to the soundtrack than in the first game. Could you describe what types of styles and sounds you were aiming for with your contributions and what we can expect, generally speaking, from the other composers on the soundtrack once the game is released in December?

Yasunori Mitsuda: Let’s see… On Xenoblade2, I wrote the main theme, important event themes, and the vocal theme that plays in the end of the game. The soundtrack in total was a staggering 120 pieces, but that was divided among five people. As a result, I wrote a lot more music than the previous game’s soundtrack had. The portion I was responsible for has a lot of pieces that I think will really remind you of Xenogears. I tried not to break down the Xeno sound that I built up (like I mentioned earlier in this interview), so I hope you’ll enjoy it.

With 120 pieces of music, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is going to be one of the more musically intense game to come out this year. Fans who have preordered the collectors’ edition would be able to get a taste of the soundtrack with the included music CDs.

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 launches for the Nintendo Switch on 2 December 2017