Really such an amazing experience getting to this point in the story. I really did think this would have been an ending boss but that proved to be incredibly wrong haha. I am just so inspired and impressed by both Soken and this game. Such a ride. Glad to revisit the music here on the channel.
Links:
Feel free to support me on Patreon, this is where I grab suggestions for the channel along with my own choices:
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Reddit Post of Lyrics:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/rd6u61/endwalker_first_trial_lyrics/
Chapters:
00:00 Zodiark is the Beginning
00:21 Music
00:37 Choral Footfalls
01:15 Music
01:27 Sad Footfalls
02:08 Music
02:29 Marcato Singing
02:54 Music
03:08 Tales of Loss, Fire, and Faith
03:55 Music
04:29 Danger Danger
05:12 Music
06:20 On wings of Hope…
06:40 Endwalker Trailer
07:19 Lyrics
07:46 Explaining Lyrics
08:49 Music
09:04 Low vs High
09:21 Music
09:41 Fight For Our Ideals
10:21 Zodiark Lyrics?
11:10 Desperate Amaurotines
11:32 Mixed Messaging
11:56 Setting the Stage
Credits:
Developer: Square Enix
Designer: Nobuaki Komoto
Composers: Masayoshi Soken, Nobuo Uematsu, Naoshi Mizuta, Tsuyoshi Sekito
Singers: Sam Carter (Architecs), Amanda Achen
FINAL FANTASY is a registered trademark of Square Enix Holdings Co., Ltd.
© SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD. All Rights Reserved.
Background Music:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxPWEudVo3M&t=655s
source
Which Endwalker track do you want next?
We were all at lv83 like "Already?!"
Yeah, the down version of Wings of hope, it's the lament of the asciens, trapped in that twisted Primordial.
And we bear that heritage as the beared of the crystal of Azem, shard of the Last Azem.
Just in case ppl post the “lyrics” here… there aren’t official lyrics for this song lol. the choir was generated with an AI that, when given some words to base the text language on, is able to create pieces like this!
Sepherot's theme from remake
I think I listen to this track at least every other day, and I never realized it was a version of Footfalls.
Why do I have dumb ears.
Great breakdown of the song, makes me appreciate it even more now! 5:30 – 6:00 hits so hard every time maaannn
In an eerie way, this is the final swan song of hope for those who sacrificed their lives and aether in hope that the world would be saved. There's a slight undercurrent of hope, pride and joy, combine with an overwhelming sense of sheer desperation and sadness; not only from their long imprisonment – but what Fandaniel is planning to do – they know. They, who were supposed to be saviors of the Star, are about to be used for its actual annihilation.
I don't know if you've heard of this game, but a game that I personally love both for music and for design is Outer Wilds. It's a space exploration game all about knowledge and discovery. I would definitely recommend giving it a playthrough before reviewing the music, but I would absolutely love to see what you think about their songs
Boy oh boy, where do I begin with this song?!?! One of my (admittedly many) favorites in the entire expansion! You honestly covered so many things I also love about it.
I've always LIVED for Amanda Achen's verses in Footfalls, so the specific refrain/reprise of them after all this ominous, incredibly powerful music—this time with the male chorus and with orchestral accompanying instrumentation had me signing those lyrics to myself in this fight. ESPECIALLY when synced-up with fight mechanics that we're now all having to perform, using our attacks and abilities in concert with moving, dodging his return onslaught. "Oh no… our healers are down and our Red Mage is almost… *starts singing these verses about hope and standing in the dark and being able to carry on*"
But then comes the revelation of potential DIFFERENT English lyrics instead of the Pseudo-Latin. I was SLAIN in my seat watching this!
I know this was a fan's own heard and interpreted lyrics. However, this completely recontextualizes the male chorus. These were actually the Convocation of the Twelve after The Decision™ to finally proceed with the plan. The lyrics themselves showing their lust for darkness; they were now fully Tempered of Zodiark. The fanatical rapturous call for their own blood sacrifices, that they were now, themselves, hungering to give in order to feed Zodiark's evil and consume the Star, not save it… And the use of the word FAITH in stark opposition to HOPE in the Footfalls' original lyrics was such an INCREDIBLE parallel.
Final Fantasy XIV has journeyed from being an absolute joke and flop in 1.0 to becoming a MASTERPIECE. We just needed to give those seeds first planted in 1.0, which nearly perished entirely, about, oh, six expansions to germinate and grow into a bountiful forest.
This song was originally not going to be the Zodiark ost. Here was a interview with soken and ishikawa.
Interviewer: Are there are other tracks that leave an impression?
Soken: Hmm, its hard, there’s so many this time… (laughs). If I had to say, its ‘ENDCALLER’. Actually, this track wasn’t originally composed for the Zodiark fight.
Ishikawa: The file’s title was “generic last boss music”. I thought “there’ll be nothing generic about the last boss” (laughs).
I personally think this theme was going to be the final boss theme for dungeons because it is a remix of the endwalker theme. But they decided to use it for Zodiark and let the song be orchestral arranged by Yoshitaka Suzuki.
This is by far my favorite song in FFXIV, let alone Endwalker. And what gets me the most is that during production this song's name was "Final Boss Generic" which when you think about the themes for every final boss previously…yeah, this is the generic expected final boss theme. BUT IT GOES SO HARD AAAAAAA
The version of The Song of Hope here just breaks me because after every major plot beat the emotional tone of it's inclusion in Endcaller changes drastically. The first time you're fighting Zodiarc, The Song of Hope feels like Hydaelyn's prayer to you and the hopes of all of Eorzea. Rise up, defy the darkness, ring hope for all. But then when you learn about Meteion and Hermes, you realize that this is still the dark reprise of The Song of Hope, and how Hermes' hopes for Meteion fell to despair, and so too did he. The Song of Hope wasn't for us, it was trying to call out to the heart of Hermes buried within Fandaniel's doom…
Or maybe it was because it was that the Amaroutine's hopes were always doomed to fail from the very beginning. Or maybe it's Venat showing us how painful it can be to carry hope forward through eras of suffering Or maybe it's the blue Meteion that breaks first from the Endsinger's chorus saying it's not the end… God this expansion is so beautiful.
Hi Marco! I hope you could do a reaction to FF15: Episode Ignis Battle Theme 🙏 I really love all your reviews as you described each piece like you already listened to those for a very long time: accurate and precise.
Also I wanted the people to realize how the music in this FF game is on another level and how unappreciated this game is. But anyways thanks for making these videos because of how these reactions always brings a smile to my face.
Love from the Philippines. Godbless and more power to you my man. 😊🙏❤️
Its good that this song is so amazing, because I have fought the extreme version about 70 times and still haven't gotten the mount yet.
Also it's actually funny that the Amaurotines saviour is so demonic looking
I think looking back as a first time experience Zodiark's fight and music was one of my favourites. In hindsight it's like my love for Fellowship of the Ring, re-visiting it reminds me that it was essentially the start of a longer epic journey. And in all the music you could hear those motifs that would be re-visited down the road.
Hey, you know what? I think you can check out ost from Lobotomy Corporation. Which is one of the best game I’ve played. It’s developers always have a good taste in music.
As someone who have followed the trailer and various pre-launch footage of endwalker
When the "Song of Hope" leitmotif came in during the Zodiark encounter, it was something special.
At first, the "Song of Hope" motif was heard in the trailer, associated with the Sharleyan section, Amanda's vocal immediately captured everyone and people associated this to be the Sharlyean city theme.
However, when the media tour came and the Sharleyan city theme was actually revealed, it caught me quite off guard because you barely hear the "Song of Hope" motif. Instead, the Sharleyan theme is an instrumental rendition of "Flow" for the most part. The "Song of Hope" motif only comes up at the very end for a brief moment.
All these left me wondering, just where would be the first prominent featuring of that leitmotif be?
And so it was not just the anticipation for the story, but the anticipation for the music too, that was part of the build up for my personal experience.
And of course, when we finally hear the full version of Flow, and the "Song of Hope" motif comes in at the end to tie everything together as an emotional resolution, it was beautiful.
Cool, since I never played FFXIV I was expecting the Esper Theme from Final Fantasy XII, but this is clearly better…
I have this theme drilled into my head thanks to numerous wipes. Thank god that it was such an enjoyable piece of music
5:29 and 6:05 Want to share some analysis thoughts!
I know different people get different experiences going into fights. To me, Zodiark felt heartbreaking and tragic–these people who gave their lives to save their world, their loved ones, getting bent instead toward destroying all that remained against their will. And the conclusion of the fight sees any hope they had of going home again destroyed. It would have been simpler if Zodiark had truly been evil or monstrous, but he embodied the hopes and dreams of probably billions of innocent people. That got twisted with time, circumstances, and inflexible tempering–but the story there was a tragedy rather than something fundamentally evil.
I get a sense that there are moments in the song exploring the nobility, sadness, and tragedy of Zodiark (particularly the Footfalls-influenced bits), and other moments where the danger and twisting of the situation are communicated as you mentioned. In a way, the Footfalls lyrics broke my heart if read from the perspective of the Ancients themselves too–for whom the darkness/night didn't represent something horrific but hopeful. And beyond the immediate, the lyrics presented in Endcaller imo explore how both tempering (long term) and Fandaniel (immediate) twisted the desires for hope, survival, and salvation into weapons.
I've found a few cases where there are immediate meanings for the player or the world as it is, then additional contexts it can be applied to. For me the fight has juxtapositions between the meaning for WoL, for the Ancients/Elidibus/what Zodiark is meant to be vs what they became, and for Fandaniel in particular.
(As an aside, I've found Fandaniel has INTENSE Paradise Lost-devil motifs going on in ways that are beyond exciting! A lot of 'why am I unsatisfied with paradise/why was I made imperfect/am I wrong or is everyone else' stuff going on–among other things. Also forbidden fruit/apples and serpent/caduceus bits. So while I don't strictly read Zodiark as the devil thematically, I do think Fandaniel-as-Zodiark fits hardcore and got excited when you mentioned that connection.)
I'ld like to see your retrospect on "answers" now after endwalker.
This whole time, the first theme we had was a song called "Answers", the female voice being confirmed as being sung by Hydelan.
Who were the male voices in the chorus? why do we carry on when redemption's beyond us?"
My theory is the male chorus in answers are the ancients from the world un sundered / ascians looking on at the world "what do we do? all hope is lost.. our perfect world!" , even in the song "the land is alive, so believe' , they didn't beleive it was, as it was not their perfect world.
Furhter more, All this time we had the 'Answer' to live life, a response to the question "why do you live?" that we are just now getting asked in the story.
Bravo to the song and story writers for this.
When I got to zodiark, I was like what!? This early?! Also Soken is awesome, love that guy.
ALL IN EXISTENCE, BENT TO MY WILL
Hair's lookin good this vid Marco 🙂
Every step we take, echoes in our wake winding round our fate to forge ahead should we lose our way tire of all this pain we wont be afraid to forge ahead
i like the first part of the endsinger fight music as it has bits from all previous theme musics and expansions like this is the culmination of all those stories
Really looking forward to the next Eorzean Symphony orchestra for a chance to hear this one, since a lot of the songs with 'vocals' (like 'Ultima', 'The Worm's Tail, 'From the Heavens' and 'Invincible', to name a fair few) are actually given official lyrics.
Often they're very interesting and give big expansions to lore, or just enchance the atmosphere. Would recommend.
Endcaller is the "Song of hope" of the Ascians
Can you do a breakdown to haloweak narwhal ?
While yes, we are currently fighting the "Dark" we do not fight a "devil". Zodiark is a primal, he was created for a purpose, he is not inherently evil. All he does is what he was meant to do. What the Ascians/old civilization wanted Zodiark to do.
I think the "song of hope" part has different meaning for me.
For me its all the sacrificed ancients in Zodiark, who still have hope for their future fighting against the Fandaniel version of Zodiark.
Zodiark was born to save the Ancient World not to destroy it so it would make sense for me.
and thats why this is sung by chorus
at least thats my interpretation
Zodiark was never going to be the final boss, because Zodiark is not a Villain. Zodiark is the only reason the planet survived. Even completely broken asunder by the usurper and actual villain, Hydaelyn, 1/14th of his power protected the planet from The Endsinger. Learning that not only did the people of Amaurot NOT DIE; Zodiark only used their Aether but kept ALL OF THEIR SOULS SAFE INSIDE HIMSELF. And now all of those souls have returned to the Lifestream, ready to be reborn.
There's a lot of nuance people have to wade through, but it requires brains being capable of looking at Hydaelyn / Venat and going "Wait, so blue DOESN'T equal good?" A lot of the musical motifs reflect here and there, but, I personally felt a bit of a disconnect due to this song not originally being written for Zodiark. There is definitely a dark majesty to it all, but ultimately it comes across as a tragedy.
I just hope we do what G'raha did, not change the future, but create a new timeline, where our loved ones on Elpis get their own timeline through the resolution of Pandaemonium. 🙁 I still can't go to Elpis without getting emotional from the music.
i'd say the moon is pretty high up there, so i wouldn't say were at our lowest.
A song for the Amaurotian souls trapped within Zodiark. 'Song' and 'prayer' synonymous, they persevere within his body, trapped in vow and continuing their duty of forestalling the Final Days.
Zodiark carries their prayers, their psalms. That one day their wish for the return of what was once Paradise.
I never even thought of this until you brought it up. Thank you Marco!
Considering so much of Endwalker is also almost a loveletter to FF4, I also feel there are some motifs of the Zeromus battle theme in the music for Zodiark.
The problem with Zodiark's theme is that it doesnt feel like its Zodiark, its Endwalker theme and it doesnt have a particual charisma (even Soken admitted it on an interview).
Zodiark's themes and motfs are on Elidibus and Emet's theme, the emotions, hopes and lives of the people of Etherys (except Hydaelyn) are placed there, on Elidibus melody and lyrics not on Zodiark music.
I feel like as an opera singer you'd have a really good analysis of Garuda's theme (Fallen Angel). It is slightly spares on lyrics and mostly is the energy and sway from vocal chorus.
🤔 I got you a good question:
Have you heard the end song of the original FFXIV game, “ANSWERS”?
That’s one song I would love to see your REACTION!! That being said, I’m loving your reactions to the FF OST! Keep at it!
Still recommend FF6 DANCING MAD, and FF7 ONE WINGED ANGEL.
This song gives me goosebumps every time I listen to it. It's probably my favorite out of all the games. When it came on, I blasted my speakers and enjoyed every moment of the battle. The fact that Soken threw it in a file called generic final boss theme makes me wonder what bangers were left on the cutting room floor
The FFXIV music keeps surprising me, truly a special game
Also
Day fifty-nine of recommending Stay Gold from the Arknights OST
So, there is unofficial lyrics for this song. They are usually by people that aren't too far off the mark if you wanted to check them out. It adds a lot of depth to the song and the connection to "Song of Hope"
I am become zodiark
For reference, Amanda's part of Footfalls is also part of its own song named "With Hearts Aligned"
This track has traumatized me with how long clearing the Extreme took