Lost Ark’s game director Keum Kang Seong Hyung (aka Gold River) made his official exit as game director at last evenings (Korea local time) concert (that was also live streamed). Citing health reasons, he made an announcement back in May that he would be stepping down. The 1200 tickets to the concert at the Lotte Concert Hall in Seoul, sold out immediately once they went on sale a couple of weeks ago. Conductor Doo-Hyun Ahn led the KBS Symphony Orchestra through some of the games original soundtracks (he noted he had not really played the game prior, and that this was really his first time conducting the music from a game; he’s well known in film and television orchestration). While the game itself hasn’t really panned out for me, it still has some of the best game music out there (I was hoping they would cover a lot more ground since there are so many great pieces from the islands).
The concert itself was phenomenal (did it come close to the one for Genshin Impact? IMHO, close but not enough to top it; HOYOMIX is really on another level in terms of composition and arrangement since they have that advantage being an in-house music department). I’m normally a rock/metal type (having attended several hundred concerts of many big western and Japanese acts since the 80’s), but also really enjoy symphonic ones as well. Besides the symphony orchestra, two city choirs, a soprano singer, and several of the Korean voice actors/actresses also took part in the performance.
The affair was obviously an emotional one for Gold River (even though he never did shed a tear during his speeches, it was clear that he was taking in the moment of having seen the game through to this point, where it culminated in an actual live symphonic concert of some of the games music). It’s honestly going to be a monumental task for the next director to fill those shoes (they honestly can’t and just need to be themselves).
Update: apparently, Gold River had kept his real emotions in check throughout the concert, but let it out after it was over (based on this image that was snapped after).
This is someone who literally put his life into the game (and possibly caught some flack early on since he said something during his speech that resonated with me; he basically said (paraphrasing) not to make fun of other peoples dreams. Even I thought early on as realist (based on the tech and game engines available at the time when the initial trailers came out), that it would be difficult for the studio to deliver on a lot of the cinematic game play they were trying to achieve. But they did.
While the game isn’t for everyone, I still have a lot of respect for what he and his team were able to achieve over the years, and how it has managed to touch a lot of people across the globe. As I wrote before, I wish him all the best with recovering from his health issues,
