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Originally Posted by waxattax
Is Takahashi not the big Mitsuda fan, then? Someone at Monolith Soft is.
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On the contrary. From the Xenogears OST liner notes:
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Originally Posted by Tetsuya Takahashi
To be honest, I had never thought that music was that important; that is to say, I had never even been conscious of it. Of course, I had understood that music had a vital role as one element of a work, I would never thought that it could save one to such an extent.
While directing the project, I came to a realization. Something feels wrong. There is something strange about it. There is something wrong with my blueprint.
When I felt like nothing would help, I chanced to hear some of the music that had been completed again. Hm? Whoa! These images are this good? ... I'm getting goosebumps. Somewhere coiled up in a corner of my consciouness my impressions had brightened. And again, I realized that the visuals had lost to the sound, to the music.
One of the people who has supported this project, Xenogears, is Mitsuda. Without Mitsuda's music, I would have fallen far short of the goals I had set, and probably would not have had the energy to keep going.
This soundtrack contains, in condensed form, everything that supported this work and helped elevate it.
The three vocal pieces are particularly spectacular. Paired with the visuals from Square, they are good enough to beat any other work's music hands down. It goes without saying, but I am proud to release this work.
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It was no surprise when Takahashi brought Mitsuda on board for Xenosaga Episode 1. When Takahashi was removed from production for Episode 2 by Bamco, Mitsuda was not asked to come back. In 2007 or so, Takahashi was once again in charge of producing and designing a game: this time Soma Bringer. And again he asked for Mitsuda's participation (it also ended up being Mitsuda longest soundtrack!)
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Originally Posted by Tetsuya Takahashi (Iwata Asks Interview on Xenoblade)
This title has 'Xeno' in its name and so partly for that reason, I got Mi-chan to work on the music for the epilogue.
...For that all-important final song, Mi-chan was the only man for the job. I've had a lot of opportunities to work with Mi-chan, and I've always felt that the music has played a really redemptive role. That's why I decided to ask him to work on this vital section.
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Well, with Mitsuda-kun, for example, he would know what kind of music we were looking for. In fact, I'd even say it was the other way round: that when I requested something, I'd know what kind of music he'd come up with. So in a lot of cases, all I had to do was to communicate the atmosphere we were looking for and leave him to get on with it.
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Then, suddenly, Xenoblade had a curious change in music direction. I'm still not entirely sure what went on during the development process. We do know that Takahashi specifically asked Mitsuda to do the ending theme, but whether he ever considered Mitsuda for the whole OST is uncertain. As for Shimomura, he says he chose her to have a different atmosphere--but didn't ask for a full soundtrack from her.
He didn't actually select Kiyota or ACE+;
they were recommend to him by Uematsu's Dog Ear Records. Takahashi
was in charge of music direction, as he kept in constant communication with them (
and was severely critical of their submitted pieces).
Why didn't he ask Shimomura to do the whole OST? Who knows. As for Mitsuda, I would say he was too busy on four DS titles and other projects during Xenoblade's principal development.