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This fight's music slaps hard. One of my favourites <3 This boss is so cool that they gave him an ultimate fight (very very hard difficulty) with a great arrangement too, for all the 20 minutes circa of fight. So glad you liked it! Nice reaction Jesse, take care!
I'm waiting for one day Uncle Jeese will finally play FF14 and then all the music just click. It would be a manifient moment to witness
heroes plays during the 2nd phase of what I personally consider to be the hardest fight in the game so your statement about it sounding like a hard fight is pretty true
We might see a XIV country song in DawnTrail (please look forward to it)
Thordan: “If you believe your cause just, I call upon you to defend it with your life”
The Normal fight, The Singularity Reactor, is not very difficult and Heroes is the only song that plays during that fight.
The Extreme fight, The Minstrel's Ballad: Thordan's Reign, WILL WRECK YOU. It is one of the most difficult Extreme Trials that FFXIV has to offer. It is also the only place in the game where you can listen to Heroes Never Die, at least until you make it to the second half of the fight where Heroes starts playing.
Today we SLAY A GODKING!
Ahahahahaha funny you should say that it's a hard fight though. The required version that everyone does is one of the easiest in the game, still depressing how easy it is. While the optional extreme is BRUTAL lol.
Oooooh yee I hope someone links ya to the extreme version one day, both are visual spectacles but just for the sake of seein the extreme's final phase.
This reaction reminds me of how I felt the first time I played Heavensward
Heroes also plays during Thordan's phase in Dragonsong's Reprise, which is an Ultimate fight. Ultimate fights are "boss rush" type of fights that last for about 15 to 20 minutes (and it usually takes people months to beat them). Dragonsong's Reprise in particular pictures an alternate version on how the events in the Heavensward expasion unfolded, and it has a great soundtrack! It's final track, Revenge Twofold (Orchestral Version) is amazing, you should check that one 🙂
“Sounds like a hard fight” yeah it was the hardest extreme trial we ever got because of the weird patch it was in 😭
The second track you listened to is the first phase of the extreme trial, the first one you listened to is the only soundtrack in the story version, but is also the phase 2 music for the extreme version
Heroes contains the same leitmotif as much of Heaven's Ward, with a couple of elements that remind me a lot of a song from FF10 in one spot. I don't know the name of the track in FF10, but it's the one that plays when you land in the Al Bhed's home, while it's being attacked, I think.
This fight means a lot to me, and I’m really glad you enjoyed the songs. Surprised that no one mentioned, this WAS the final boss of base Heavensward. It was the first boss fight where the boss had made it personal for me, and loading into the fight to be greeted by this song was absolutely amazing.
I kinda agree that I get the feeling you are either tired of Soken or just not the biggest fan of his, most of times. Your mood just seems to change whenever it comes up, but its the first time I mention it in a comment since this is just my own interpretation.
About the 2 songs: not a big fan of Heroes myself. Got hyped pretty badly 8'ish years ago. Heroes never die on the other hand is one of my favorite XIV songs still. ALso can't go wrong with Knight of the Round. Great Extreme boss. Normal not so much, like usual
the brilliance in sokens work is the handling of leitmotifs. when you play the game you always have this feeling of "familiarness" in literally every content without sounding repeated if this makes sense 😀 the endwalker trailer (footfalls) even brings the base main theme with all expansion themes together and its freaking brilliant (love the dragonlanguage part the most), dont even want to start with the lyrics. the depth in details in this game is almost absurd, even some dialogues in the msq changes when you have this and that crafter & gatherer on an certain level 😀
Some of the music from Stellar Blade would be worth checking out
As few have already said this character and fight is based on the knights of the round summon from ff7, there is even a phase in the fight where they all attack in the same order and attack pattern as the og summon and you have to move and dance around to avoid the attacks
What I love about Heroes is how well it suits the actual fight in two different ways. The first section with the vocals is like a foreboding reminder that you are facing off against a king who now has god-like powers, and the famed knights of the Heavensward, Thordan's elite team of protectors who also have supernatural powers far beyond a normal person. The second phase speaks to the nature of the fight itself – It's much more aggressive and hectic. This matches the fight because a large portion of it requires players to be constantly on the move: dodging multiple attacks, spreading out or grouping up to disperse damage.. There are moments that just look like pure chaos if you don't know what you're doing. You can see for yourself here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVq7Pbng4dU.
I love THE PRIMALS rendition of Heroes. After the first set of chants it brings in this sick bass riff before coming in with the guitar. Incredible.
I just understood that you never listened to original Ultima, not Weapons Refrain version, would recommend giving it a listen
Edit: That would be "FFXIV OST Ultima Theme – Part 1 ( The Maker's Ruin )" and "FFXIV OST Ultima Theme – Part 2 ( Ultima )" on YouTube (second one would be my favorite)
This and Shinryu are my favourites. Oh, and warrior of light and white stone black…. Actually it's hard to pick a favourite 🤣
My favorite song in FFXIV it's Athena, the tireless one.
One of my favorite tracks and favorite fights, even if it's rather "old" all things considered in the game. It didn't make it into the game (they used the orchestral version in Ultimate) so I can't request it but if you can I'd love for you to take the time to listen to the Primals version of Heroes. Thank you as always with your honest thoughts and feelings on FFXIV music even if you're a viewer from outside. I'll always think of you as one of us with the amount of time you've put in with FFXIV content. ♥
✨BONUS Fun Facts about the song:
– this is the final boss of the Heavensward expansion main story
– the main motif used in this track is the main Heavensward theme
– the track didn't get official lyrics until the orchestra live version was made
– the lyrics are partially in dragon language; Thordan lied and convinced his people that dragons started the war
– the piano leitmotif in Heroes Never Die is the zone theme for Azys Lla, the zone in which you face Thordan
– this song is featured in Endwalker's final boss theme which takes motifs from every expansion's final boss
– the Ultimate version of the battle uses an orchestra version of Heroes + various other Heavensward themes (like Dragonsong!)
⏯ Thordan Extreme fight – https://youtu.be/YRkYVEvcONQ
⏯ Full Ultimate fight – https://youtu.be/vxVjYBqExlE
This is imo still one of the best fights in the game. Th extreme version synced down has a lot of different mechanics. Chains, towers, aoe baits, knockbacks, gaze mechanics, tank busters that require certain order of party members it has everything
this song gives me PTSD, but it's still a banger
It's interesting that you say this could be the theme for a 'final' boss. Every expansion in FF has a base story that ends with a major/final boss fight on expansion release, and then patch content that moves the story from one expansion to another with one or more key moments, including potential 'true' final bosses for the expansion that is ending. Thordan happens to be one of the first types and lorewise the outcome of the fight has far-reaching consequences beyond the circumstances that lead you into this conflict.
People always gas up Soken's tracks in the game but they always forget the bangers made by the other composers such as Heroes Never Die (Yoshitaka Suzuki) and Wrath of the Harrier (arrangement by Takafumi Imamura, original composer is Nobuo Uematsu). Another one by Yoshitaka Suzuki and Soken that you've not done is The Final Day. The Final Day cycles through all the end bosses of the base game and the expansions in order but in such a flawless manner
Just after the prelude is the main heavensward's theme/leitmotiv
So regarding your statement of it could be a final boss theme, 3.0 was when we got the first Thordan fight, and was the final boss of the launch of Heavensward. 3.1 is when you get Heroes Never Die the Extreme version of the fight (just ramped up difficulty) and swaps back to Heroes after his Ultimate End attack, as it is Knights of the Round from FF7. 3.3 would be the 'end' of the expansion's story (a trait retained through Heavensward, Stormblood and Shadowbringers that the .3 patch wrapped up that expansion's story and .4 and .5 began the new expansion story. In a sense, Thordan is the penultimate boss of Heavensward
I love your content! FF14 has the best score! <3
I remember this song starting for this fight was the first I was like. "Okay. Yes the music has taken me" I would queue in duty finder, not party finder, just to hear the music.
Love the extreme version music.
There actually is many songs like this. 14 just has tons of genres and tons of examples of each. And it all somehow slaps. lol
There are some Leitmotifs you won't quite catch in Heroes Never Die. When it goes soft and starts playing Piano, that's Azys La, which is a zone theme.
And of course, this boss fight is indeed the Knights of the Round. In FF7 it's King Arthur, but here it's Thordan. I won't spoil anything… But this fight is a highlight of the Heavensward story. And there's a Normal version of the fight for the story, an Extreme version of the fight which got you special weapons, and now… there is the Ultimate version of the fight in the form of The Dragon Song Reprised, an alternate "What If…?" scenario of the Heavensward expansion if a few things played out differently. The Ultimate version of this fight is currently considered the HARDEST fight in the entire game, with The Omega Protocol, the Ultimate version of the Omega raid in second place.
If you want to see the fight with Sound, here's someone's clear of the Unreal difficulty. Unreal is Extreme difficulty, but the fight is raised to the current level cap, which is 90.
https://youtu.be/h2IWR-zfw7E?si=1Fs2kN-HECqWPcRE
Heroes is a top 5 track in FFXIV easily, I love how majestic and holy it sounds then goes into a frenzy, it truly makes the fight so intense when you first hear it! My fav part goes ham from 2:05 PURE HYPE!
I'd say this style from Heavensward and ARR have been dropped for more experimental sounds as of late, but in Dawntrail, the new expansin coming up, it feels like it's ressurging, so this style of music might pop back up again for quite a few tracks in the near future.
On another note, one cool song that Heroes Never Die has a leitmotif of is Order Yet Undeciphered, which is the theme for the zone Azys Lla, which is essentially where the Thordan fight happens. I'd recommend it. I don't know whether anyone did so in your backlog 😛
"This sounds like final boss music" Because it is! King Thoridan VII is the final boss of the first expasnion Heavensward and him and the Knights of the Round are your finale to the base story. I loved this fight and ive had these songs playing in my in game house for years. Knights of the Round, Alexander, and Diabolos were def some of my favorite content in 14 from old games. All of these are very fun and have very good music.
Youve heard all of Alexander and now youve heard Knights of the Round, but not sure you have heard any Diabolos Raid music. (He was a summon in FF8, the Devil that summons gravity). The Diabolos Raid music is "Wrath of the Eikons" (Diabolos Theme), "Voidal Manifest" (Echidna, Scathach Theme), "In Darkness there is One" (Void Ark theme), "Shadow of the Body" (Dun Scaith Theme). Its all very Tim Burton mixed with classic FF music style, very very gorgeous.
"Is there a country song in this game?"
BOY DO I HAVE THE TRACK FOR YOU – Rythym of the Realm, the theme of the 24 man raid Euphrosyne, and probably the best of that raid series. It is an Endwalker raid!
Edit: On a re-listen, I think it is more country-adjacent.
You mention this having "final boss" vibes to it.
It is. This fight is the final fight from one of the expansions.
"Sounds like it could be a final boss, like, the END of a game."
This was actually the final boss for the initial Heavensward Expansion, not counting patches.
One day, when Jesse finally plays ff14, he'll hear the music with all the fight sound effects. 😉
I remember on that Christmas stream a few years back Tomorrow and Tomorrow gave you the feels.
"Sounds like a hard fight" Yes, yes it was lol. At the time of release, the Extreme version of the fight was considered the second-hardest fight in the game by many (me included).
Edit: The closest thing I can think of for country music in FFXIV is the chocobo racing theme, "Sport of Kings", but that sounds more bluegrass to me. I put that song on the request list a while ago.
I see jesse reacting to ffxiv . I click
That's Knights of the Round from Final Fantasy VII. Later in the fight, they all do Ultimate End together.
As for the fight itself: The Normal mode version is pathetically easy while the Extreme mode version is actually one of the hardest Extreme fights in the game. Heroes Never Die plays in Phase 1 of the Extreme mode only, while Heroes plays in the Normal mode and Phase 2 of the Extreme mode.
You are not wrong, as this fight was the END of the Heavensward expansion, he WAS the End Boss of a Game technically xD (before patches and new expansions etc xD)
I would recommend to start with : Heroes never die, then Heroes
This fight, and this song are a huge part of why I absolutely adored Heavensward.
The tribute to FF7, the beautiful chanting and rearrangement of Ishgard's theme… It was just the perfect conclusion to what remains one of the better storylines in 14.
Plus the weapons you could get from the the Extreme version looked pretty sick. A shame they never added more for the newer jobs.