Frogster, TERA's European publisher, sent us an exclusive interview with the duo behind the game's music. Read on for a behind-the-scenes look at the creative process!

Will you both return to compose the music for the expanion pack?

Inon: For the expansion pack, Cris Velasco and I will be on composing duties. For your reference, Cris is famous for his work on God of War.

How do you select the theme for each region in the game?

Rod: We receive a lot of materials such as images, movies, music, documents, etc., from the Bluehole Studio sound team. The composing starts after we’ve created an overarching theme from the provided materials, and during the recording process we’re constantly in contact with Bluehole Studio to update them on our progress and gather feedback.

What about the themes for each race? How did you select what was the most appropriate theme?

Inon: There are seven pieces of "race music." I composed the music for Human, Aman and High Elf and Rod composed music for Castanic, Popori, Elin and Baraka.

For Human, I tried to give the feeling that this race is brave and smart. For Aman, I tried to express their strong and brave character traits. And for the High Elves, I tried to create a sound that was mysterious yet beautiful.

Rod: For Castanic, I really tried to imply a certain degree of decadence while capturing their dark past. For Popori and Elin, I focused on their cute and fairytale-esque characteristics. And finally, for Baraka, I tried to express the Baraka’s secretive and, generally quite gloomy, temperament.

Was there a special moment while creating the soundtrack of TERA?

Inon: There is one piece of theme music which Bluehole Studio asked me to revise 10 or 12 times. It was hard to do but I was really happy with the finished product.

Rod: Bluehole Studio liked the guitar sound that I made. So for most of my TERA music, I included acoustic and electric guitar riffs that I played myself. It was great fun.

Do you have any favorite music themes in TERA?

Inon: I like the High Elf Race Theme because the kind of sound Bluehole Studio was after really played to my strengths.  It’s got a kind of elegant, mysterious tone that I really enjoy creating.

Rod: My favorite music is the Popori Race Theme.  I was able to create a really nice harmony with the acoustic guitar, oboe and flute.
 
Was it special to work on TERA or different when compared to other products?

Inon: The TERA game world seems much more diverse than any other MMORPG I’ve seen, and there’s a great deal of races in the game. In other words, there are a lot of chances to focus on different sounds and different emotions. I certainly wasn’t bored during the creation process. Also, the range of music I could make was really great. When we were creating the music for battles, it was a lot of fun to try and imbue the sound with a lot of energy.  That was a really exciting process, and was a real highlight.

Rod: I actually used to make music for the FPS genre. I had one chance to make music for an RPG, i.e. Hobbit. But even if it was my first time to work on a big MMORPG like TERA, Inon and Bluehole Studio gave me a lot of great help.  Working on TERA has really helped me expand my skills in composing, and it’s an experience I’ll look back on with fond memories.

Frogster is handling the publishing duties of TERA in Europe, while En Masse Entertainment is publishing the action MMO in North America.