Original: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IiG4vo9k9U
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Credits:
Production: Masayoshi Soken, Michael Christopher & Koji Fox
Album: DEATH UNTO DAWN: FINAL FANTASY XIV Original Soundtrack
source
This song plays during a boss battle. But Soken, the composer of the song was going through cancer while creating this. So that could also have influenced his choices/direction.
So, this is a boss battle theme, a gigantic, climactic one at that. It is, however, a boss who is the last of his people, fighting for his (frankly evil) plan to bring everyone he knew back, despite the fact he can't even really remember who those people are anymore, because it's been so damn long.
The song is a discordant mess that comes together, because that's what it's about: a lost man, giving his all, in a desperate last ditch attempt for something he can't even remember anymore.
And yeah, the lead composer was, at the time of writing, undergoing treatment for cancer, which he wasn't sure he'd recover from. (He has since made a full recovery) But you can definitely feel some of that dread, hope and sense of finality, especially with the lyrics, which reflect well on the character you're fighting at the time
It's a theme of 5.3 trial boss – Elidibus, third and last unsendered ascian to fall. It didn't feel particularly good to defeat kid that already forgot why he's doing all those things so theme is quite melancholic. You can actually compare this to much happier version of it in "Fleeting Moment" from Endwalker which is rematch between him and protagonist
I remember playing through this whole patch in like a day and by the time I got to this boss it was like 3 am lol. Probably my favorite fight in all of FF14! Also I love the ticking timer in this track, it’s a constant reminder that you’re running against the clock based on what’s happening in the story rn.
this one is heavily tied to Shadowbringers, which you listened to almost a year ago
Shadowbringers was the main theme for the expansion of the same name, and this theme plays during the capstone bossfight of the patch-content for the expansion
I loved this track and this is for a plot theme hit hard in the game. You can always look forward bangers in XIV. It got a piano variant "fleeting moment" in later expansion (without vocal), which is also extremely nice.
(No spoilers, just themes)
The maybe unexpected calmness of this song fits very, very well with the dignity of the boss you're facing here. Despite having his back against the wall, his singular focus on his goal leaves no space for doubt or fear. It's not even about 'confidence', it's about a noble soul with a long, long road behind him clashing against one more obstacle he intends to take out like all the others.
The melancholy and underlying fatigue shines through in the song to me, there's bits of simmering defiance, of yearning, but the one you're fighting doesn't care about himself at all; these are just blips on his radar and they won't stop him.
Your foe is practically on auto-pilot after eons of striving forward, and still ready to fire it up without limit like it's the most natural thing in the world to him, without mercy or second thoughts. He'll do what needs to be done from his perspective, nothing else matters. This odd combination of intense passion and detachment kind of paints of a picture of what you, as the hero of your own story, might become if you lose track of what your mission is even for – an implacable machine of power and conviction, but cut off from what incited this conviction in the first place and unable/unwilling to connect to the world and the people of today. A relic that inspires pity as well as respect.
You're fighting pure, stubborn, devoted heroism that lost its cause, and it doesn't have a single fudge to give about its own desperation. It's tragic, frustrating, and so, so freaking cool, and To The Edge reflects the mindset of the one you're up against very well, imo.
As stated, this is a boss theme. This is, in fact, one of the most tragic bosses in the game. The last of his kind, the hero of his people, desperately trying to bring back all that he knows even though his memory is actively deteriorating. As he puts it, he is "mankind's first hero and its final hope."
Down to the last moments, he believes in himself and his people, the humanity that was once his. A beacon of light against the dark, though it just so happens that the "dark" is the current humanity. Everything that the player wants to protect. It's one mankind against another, and there is no possible way to have both. From almost any perspective but our own, it could even be seen as this man, Elidibus, being in the right. The game genuinely makes you feel bad for putting him down, revealing that, due to reasons beyond the scope of this comment, he had a fairly childlike mind, and he died clutching the only mementos he had of his half-forgotten friends of times long past, muttering impossible promises of hope to people that could never hope to hear him as he fades into light.
"My people. My brothers. My… friends. Stay strong. Keep the faith. At duty's end, we will meet again. We will. We… will. The rains have ceased, and we have been graced with another beautiful day. But you are not here to see it."
honestly: this is a song that requires context because of all the references. without context: it just sounds like a vibe song. with context: you cry/tear up. especially after a certain part of the fight.
"Sounds like something held together by scotch tape"
Holy shit you have nailed the Boss this song is about. The rest of the comments explain this in detail, but that's this guy in a nutshell, pushing himself to his limits and beyond for a cause he barely remembers, for people he has long forgotten, after a Literal Apocalypse that destroyed their world. To the Edge, indeed.
It was impossible for this song to not stick with me after encountering it in game, the context surrounding it makes the song hit so much harder.