Reacting To Video Game Music! | FFXIV – Endwalker



Once again, shoutout to the FF community for the requests!

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My intro/outro theme is from a very talented artist named Otso, I highly consider checking the song out! It’s called “Cute ninjas (don’t) cry”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lUcti_dhfs

#FFXIV #FinalFantasy14 #Reaction

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39 thoughts on “Reacting To Video Game Music! | FFXIV – Endwalker”

  1. Unfortunately it's a little hard to find good versions of the theme without all the trailer SFX, as I don't think the official song has been released. There are some good covers and some versions with mostly removed SFX though!

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  2. Now that you've reacted to the main themes, there is so much other good music packed into FFXIV! Some of my favorites:

    Zone OSTs:
    Coerthas Field Theme "Fealty"
    Amh Araeng Theme #1 "Sands of Amber"
    The Rak'tika Greatwood Theme #1 "Civilizations"

    Boss Music:
    The Weapon's Refrain Garuda OST
    Sophia's Theme
    Seat of Sacrifice Theme "To the Edge" (Late game spoiler stuff)

    I look forward to your future reactions 🙂

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  3. So that little theme at 3:58 is our player's leitmotif (which makes more sense when you remember this is an MMO). If you like it, it's appeared in some other songs along this 10-year journey. I'm not saying you should react to all of these, but it might be interesting to take the little journey when you have the time. That goes for anyone else interested in a little leitmotif history.

    A preface, if you're going to listen to FF music, the prelude is mandatory. Soken in particular loves fitting the prelude into his songs and making fans nostalgic.
    Here's the FF14 version, but one can be found in just about any FF game: https://youtu.be/tcfSs4fIwug

    Torn From the Heavens: https://youtu.be/AJSM4tAeEAA
    – "What if the prelude were a boss theme?"

    Penitus: https://youtu.be/jx3QPiTcXa4
    -Fantastic song in its own right, and yes, those 7 minutes are not just a loop. you'll hear this really well a bit after 2 minutes in.

    The Maker's Ruin: https://youtu.be/1l69nQsEHxI

    A bonus callback, A Land Long Dead: https://youtu.be/JVB0msE5v10
    – You'll hear something familiar in here even if it isn't quite this leitmotif.

    Heartless: https://youtu.be/8ncf5RV62lI

    From the Heavens: https://youtu.be/jYDj-L5Aeyk
    – Mind the length on this one in particular. Looping is the norm for FF14 songs on Youtube.

    More Than Truth: https://youtu.be/s0bE4wSOe78

    Context with some spoilers can be found here: https://pastebin.com/6YkcamBk
    Obviously, it's hard to give any sort of substance in the context without explaining (spoiling) some things.

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  4. In terms of iconic FFXIV songs, while there are many, Answers is one of the big ones I'd say. I'd love to hear your thoughts on it in the future, it's one of the most important songs in the game's history at this point!

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  5. the song is not officially out. But its in this trailer.
    In youtube youll only found covers.
    Also, there is a segment in this song 2:50 3:32
    All of that is sung in Dragonspeak, but cause the lyrics are so hard to hear in the trailer, we wont get the Dragonspeak lyrics until the official song is out.

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  6. If you want to understand some of the theme transitions, I would highly look it up the following:

    1) Torn from the Heavens
    2) Heavensward Trailer (not Dragonsong).
    3) Stomblood Trailer (not Revelations, but you should totally check that out too!)

    You've already watched Shadowbringers, so I'm keeping that one off the list 😛

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  7. If you're interested, the song at 4:05 you seemed impressed by is called "Torn from the Heavens" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJSM4tAeEAA

    What's super neat about this song is that since this is the last expansion of this story arc, ALL the major theme songs were thrown into it.

    A Realm Reborn: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJSM4tAeEAA
    Heavensward: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4phUCJlomPo (Around 4 15)
    Stormblood: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFqfN-ju1MQ
    Shadowbringers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tyuIh12_HU

    Not these exactly songs but you can at least hear the melodies and see 😀 So it's really exciting as a player watching this trailer when it dropped gasping at all the main themes. I would be curious to know also what you wrote down!

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  8. Not really a song to react to as its mainly just piano bgm, but "The Warrens" is my all time favorite from FFXIV. Def give it a listen if you need a chill track to relax to. Its a really pretty song

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  9. As many have said – the song is put together from several other songs (which you have all reacted to I think): Heavensward theme, Torn From the Heavens, Stormblood theme, brief Shadowbringers there if you listen closely… it's essentially a love song to the players who have been waiting for a decade for the ending of the current story arc. That's why all FF14 players rush to tell people to listen to this. Each of us have an emotional investment to certain parts of the story and that just… * chef's kiss *
    But like you said… It is a really cool song on it's own. Because of the previous reasons mentioned you heard like 4 different bands in it. I believe the main singer is from The Architects (did I spell that correctly? I only know what they shared in the summer).

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  10. This song while being its own thing is also a culmination or homage the the other main themes from past expansions. I recommend listening to "Heavensward", "Brotherhood (Stormblood main theme is a pain to find. It starts at 3:45 in the launch trailer)" and "Shadowbringers (which you did already)"

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  11. The Leit Motifs are what I love about all the FFXIV music, its like a game listening to every single track in the game trying to find the leit motifs Soken weaves into the each OST to make a scene come alive and to draw the player back to previous parts of the story where the current narrative is hinted at. The Endwalker Main theme is just a massive love letter to all the amazing fucking tracks over the past 10 years created for the fans by Soken and Uematsu.

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  12. A very interesting song to cover since you've just done a Nier Automata song reaction also, is the song "Possessed By Disease" which is a song from the collaboration made between Final Fantasy XIV & Nier Automata a few years ago and it is a pretty interesting music to listen to that should tickles fancy your love for all types of musics (besides country 😉 )

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  13. One of the cool things they do for FFXIV is hold player contests: design armor or weapons for tank/healer/etc, create hairstyles (and yes, they end up putting the winners, runners up and honorable mentions of these things in the game eventually), but 5 years ago during the Heavensward expansion they held a music contest. Play your own rendition of the piece entitled Night in the Brume. There were lots of great entries, with the winner being Kara Comparetto, a classical pianist. Her cover was great, but it's not my favorite. That title goes to someone using the in game crafting sounds (hammers, saws and the like) for the most of percussion section. Youtube never seems to like me posting links so instead, if you search "[FFXIV_HW_Music_JP] Pharrell Nefertiti" it should pop up. Not for a reaction or anything, it's just a cool listen. And if you just search FFXIV_HW_Music you should get most all of the still public videos people submitted.

    As for suggestions for what music to react to from FFXIV: yes. Just all of it. So much musical variety and honestly none of it that I've disliked. The closest thing was one area in game is freezing cold, constantly battered by blizzards, with the music there feeling totally oppressive. But it just worked; it completely fit. Just like an actor playing a character you hate and cheer when they receive a horrible death on screen. if the actor wasn't doing his job well, you wouldn't hate the character would you? It was in the summer, it felt like 1000 degrees outside… and I wanted to get out of that damn snowstorm and curl up next to a nice, warm fireplace. The most part of that feeling came from the music. I absolutely got tired of it, but I also completely respect it for doing its job. Job well done!

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  14. If you're looking to branch out and discover new songs on your own, I can give a list of games where I've enjoyed the soundtracks. I won't flood you with specific songs, but the soundtracks are wonderful in general. I would say watch for the games people commonly recommend to avoid a conflict there, but do explore the others in your own time when you want some new background music.

    Aquaria: I have yet to play it, but I'm often in the mood to listen to the entire soundtrack. A lot of it is really relaxing and works well as work background music.

    Ar Tonelico: Again, haven't played it yet, but holy shit is the OST special and unique in so many good ways. It comes with an intriguing conlang mixed with Japanese. Akiko Shikata and KOKIA have a whole bunch of other songs outside of the games too. I lied when I said no specific songs because these games really deserve an easy click: https://youtu.be/MeSUaKHRz44

    Bravely Default: If I had a favourite OST overall, this would be a strong contender. Bravely Default 2 was composed by the same person, and Bravely Second was not, but still had some quite intriguing tracks.

    Celeste: Lena Raine deserves every bit of praise and more. Absolutely fantastic work all around. It's even better in-game where you have the regular music being dynamic based on your progress in each chapter. I recommend NOT listening to Farewell solely because I want to say it's worth going through the entire game, the harder bonus levels, and the free DLC chapter just to experience this track the way it was meant to be. The game itself is an absolute gem even as someone who never really got into platformers. When Farewell played through, I felt something I've never felt before. It was a completely unique experience deserving of the time investment. While the whole OST is phenomenal in game, it's still amazing on its own.

    Child of Light: Great soundtrack to a shorter (relatively) game full of charm.

    Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross: Beloved games and beloved OSTs.

    Doki Doki Literature Club: No joke, the music is genuinely great. I wouldn't recommend listening before watching/playing through the short game though.

    Danganronpa series: Great music in the context of the game. Much more effective after watching/playing through them because of the high emotions all throughout the games.

    Zero Escape series: Same deal as Danganronpa in many ways, but this series is less lighthearted in its tone and music. This series shut down my brain at one point with its big reveals and I needed the night to recover. The story was fantastic and the music was very well connected.

    Dust: An Elysian Tail: Charming and fun game headed by one person. Amazing music. 9 years after its release, I'm still eagerly looking forward to word on a sequel or related game from him and I really hope he gets the same composer. Keep watch in August 2022.

    Erutan: Not a game, but a person. She has dozens of covers of video game music (including numerous FF ones) dating back many years, and her voice and instruments are beautiful. Out of respect to her, I'm going to explicitly leave this as an own time thing instead of finding anything of hers to react to.

    Final Fantasy: Obvious. Uematsu has earned legendary status as the composer for most of the series. I find the titles after he left to be very enjoyable to listen to as well. That includes sequels. All of the games in the series (including 10-2, 13-2 (!!!), 13-3, and both the original and remake of FF7) are worth listening to at some point.

    Golden Sun: An older trilogy. Great music with some very iconic songs. Here's hoping Nintendo gets Camelot to do something more with the series.

    Kingdom Hearts: The story is where you get all the controversy. Yoko Shimomura's music is beloved. She blessed us with FF15 as well as some of the songs in Xenoblade (usually the ones with her signature violin haha). The series titles are hard to keep track of, but it includes KH1,2,3, DDD, 358/2 Days, BBS, CoM, ReCoded, and KHUX.

    Zelda: I'm particularly fond of the Link's Awakening Remake OST after loving the original on my GBC. They did good work with the music in the remake.

    Nier: Obviously been suggested. It includes Nier Gestalt/Replicant and Nier Automata. Keiichi Okabe did the Drakengard music as well (Two's Song and This Silence is Mine are definitely video recommendation worthy, but the latter could well fall into my Farewell list if I had played this game yet). There's also a Replicant HD out now, but I'm unsure how touched up or changed its music is. Everyone's going to recommend Weight of the World, but I'd recommend not listening to it for the same reason as Farewell. The regular English/Japanese/Chaos versions are alright, but there's one version of this song (not the FF14 one) that takes advantage of the game building emotions all the way through to the end. Reaching the end of this game is another one of those experiences where I've felt something that I've never felt before. It can hit you regardless of whether you adore Yoko Taro's approach to the game up to that point.

    Ori and the Blind Forest: Magical shorter game. Fantastic soundtrack. Its area themes also work dynamically, albeit as a binary on/off for whether to play the second "half" of the song. The definitive edition and sequel come with more great music.

    Persona: You'll no doubt get recommendations for these. I love listening to the Persona 3 soundtrack in particular.

    Tales of ____: I have the most experience with Symphonia. Another solid JRPG series.

    Thomas Was Alone: Short game and short OST, but quality in its charm and how the music adds to the barebones nature of what's on screen.

    To the Moon: Very short story game mostly by one person. Completely worth watching/playing. Do yourself a favour and consume the music through the game before separately. You can try to hold it back, but the music will make you cry.

    Undertale: If you haven't managed to play/hear it yet, it's been a staple of this generation. Again, mostly one person behind it.

    VVVVVV: Again with the one person thing. I promise it's alphabetical. The soundtrack to this game is more niche, but you'll see lots of love for it.

    Xenoblade Chronicles series: Expect recommendations. The series has fantastic music. I adored XC1's soundtrack, but it's XC2 that really feels like my strong contender for favourite with banger after banger after banger. XCX was composed by Hiroyuki Sawano and has its own pile of great songs, but it's a VERY different style to XC1 and XC2. "Uncontrollable" definitely seems to be the fan favourite from XCX.

    Ys series: More niche JRPG series, but I can almost guarantee you'll start seeing recommendations at some point. They know how to hit you with bangers without fail. I particularly love Ys Origin's OST.

    Minami: Okay, not a game again. Not even game music covers. Minami deserves the utmost success in her career and I'll be damned if I don't do my part. I've never seen someone put as much emotion into songs as she does. The videos add an extra layer, especially when you don't understand Japanese. Here's her most popular song, which was used as an anime OP: https://youtu.be/0YF8vecQWYs
    I can't help it, here's another song, she deserves it: https://youtu.be/HIRiduzNLzQ
    As much as I'd love to see it, I would very much recommend not trying to react to these on video for the safety of your channel.

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  15. just for the heck of it I'll throw out a song from a different jrpg franchise, "Dark Silver Wings" from Granblue Fantasy, with a connection that the composers for granblue (Tsutomo Narita) and for FF14 (Masayoshi Soken) are both protégés and former assistants of Uematsu (a man that needs no introduction)

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  16. I'd really love to see what you think about some older FF music. They just re-released a few of them with new arrangements, I think FFIV Pixel Remaster Battle 2 is a pretty good pick to listen to, although I'd be interested to see any of the 90s FFs on this channel. Keep up the great work!

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