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Song mentioned in this video;
Blackmore's Night – Way To Mandalay
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CJO7KJCtmk
This song drives me bonkers with how good it is. Like… nobody does this. This song makes the whole city of Ul'dah and nation of Thanalan feel "real", like… you can listen to this and picture it as something that people in a real place perform and sing around their de facto religion. It's more texture and reality than most places and societies get in an MMO. What do they sing at festivals in Orgrimmar or Stormwind? Or Divinity's Reach? You can imagine that there are such songs, but Soken just went ahead and wrote one and gave it this really big and festive orchestration.
And, as I have delightfully stolen from a reddit post, it's very nice to headcanon this is actually F'Lhaminn singing it.
Think of this song as a pray given music.
Just wait till Jesse sees the official Video for "Flow" from Amanda Achen on her Channel 😂😂
I love how theres a bit of of lyrics that are sung dreadfully in the beginning and then the mood shift after the "to scales we gladly go." To a more magical happy tune.
Its one of my top 10 ffxiv tracks cause its lore based involving the god nald and thal. Its a catchy tune and it just had a magical effect on the fight its self. Its seared into my brain. soken and team really outdo themselves
Ah <3 in the balance! I remember wiping accordingly on the first days just to make it play longer xD
I hope for the second raid that Halone is the main boss and that she will be metal af.
The reason the god is named Nald'Thal is because Koji Fox wanted "Thal's balls" to be a curse word.
AND THEN THEY MADE THAL'S BALLS INTO A MECHANIC IN THE FIGHT
The singer is an Indian lady named Tea, she's popular in Japan.
You need to listen to Close In the Distance from FFXIV, i might have to donate for that one. Its like the best one.
IMO, this is one those FFXIV tracks that goes even better with the sound effects and the boss speaking. I would say usually the song by itself is best for most fights, but this entire raid was made even better by the bosses going off. The context is probably important for that though.
Nald is the god of commerce and wealth. Thal is the god of death, he who weighs your soul.(on scales, like Anubis almost)
They fused into one being long ago and the game has a full religious city of greedy, super wealrhy merchants in the desert. So your visions of Aladin imagery is very intentional, the sitar and tambourine sounds to mimic coins are so nice to hear in VGM, we do not hear it so often
Something cool is that the song verses are more upbeat and happy for Nald, and darker for Thal.
I don't know if you caught it while listening, or if another comment pointed this out, but the song switches seamlessly between two time-signatures, again referencing the duality of the deity being fought. The first half of the song is done in 3/4 time (or more likely 6/8), and then it seamlessly transitions into 4/4 time at the time when the vocalist, in your words, "uses her singing voice". It then swaps back on the repeat, after the "we praaaay, we praaay twinfold" section.
I didn't catch this myself, and only noticed thanks to a comment from another video on this song, but now I can't stop hearing it, and it makes the song just that bit more impactful.
Too bad this song is mostly atmosphere and build up with no payoff. I like it but it always feels half-finished.
It's funny that you mentioned the fact of dancers and gold. cause it's based off of the gods of Uldah, one of the 3 starting cities. The market and trade Nation. Walking through the streets there are dancers, it is the dessert. The gods in this sense are called the 12 and NaldThal are the gods of fortune and death which the people of Ul'dah pray to. The lyrics are a love song towards the city.
Dude check out Poet and the muse from Alan wake…. I hope a sub see's this and jog there memory of this fantastic song lol
"I wouldn't even know how to describe this genre."
Well, it wouldn't sound out of place in an Aladdin production, it has a sort of "fantasy desert kingdom" vibe to it, which considering Nald'thal is a patron deity of Ul'dah, a desert nation in Eorzea, is pretty spot on.
"What's going on? Did he duplicate himself?" Nald'thal, the being the players are fighting here, are actually twin gods. Nald and Thal combined themselves into one, and as The Traders, they're responsible both for balance (in an economic sense) as well as the balance between life and death (think the archetypal "weighing your soul by their deeds and sins").
I know it's not related to this game in particular, but if you were ever to check out a track from the Kirby series, might I suggest "Two Planets Approach the Roche Limit"?
Also this is me huffing copium, because there's next to none reactions to the Kirby OST on YouTube, tho I did watch your reaction to Checker Knights, that was awesome.
Asides from that, nice vid! I've been intimidated to start FFXIV due to the size of content and commitment, I'm not good with MMO style games, but the soundtrack is incredible
Others have said it, but you got the vibes pretty accurate–this song has ties to the rich City-State/Sultanate of Ul'dah. Heck, the tambourine is likely meant to deliberately evoke the jingling of coins. The boss is the twin god of Life + Death/Commerce.
The singer is Tea. She is a little hard to track down on social media, but you find her with the words liquid soul attacked. Maybe that's her band?
She is of Indian descent (India), lives in Japan and is married to a Japanese man I believe.
I was wondering when this one would come up.
One of my favorite parts of this song is how it transitions from 6/4 to 4/4 at around 2:20. While during the fight, Nald and Thal are constantly changing who’s in control, the song also changes from a lively dance in 6/4 to a more epic, imposing melody in 4/4. Fitting for swapping between the gods of life and death.
Also the line “sing till breath expires” feels like a challenge. And I always oblige.
One of my favorite raid fights by far! Nal'dTha'l are the twin gods of life, death, and commerce. Not to mention they are brothers of the same body. Hence the scales: merchant commerce and life and death. I can't wait to fight the rest of em and see what majesty awaits.
I know i am pretty much alone on this.
But as good as the song ison its own i feel its very lackluster for a final boss theme.
As said song is fine in itself but it kinda bubbles along for me and hasno heavy drop or refrain that makesme think of bursting out everything to beat a god i feel more like speeding along a Desert heading to unknown adventures
Dude this absolute BOP is amazing. I always crank my speakers when I get to this fight. The alliance raid boss fights are generally pretty long, about 15 mins normally
Fun fact: Nald'thal was originally a single entity. But the English localization lead Kojifox pestered the JP writer to spilt them for the sole purpose of being able to use the in universe curse word "Thals'balls". Because "Naldsthalsballs just doesn't sound right"
I am looking forward when Amatsu Kaze gets reacted to. Or the other FFXIV music that has been requested
As a resident Ul'dahn, this song brought tears to my eyes the first time I did it. Can't wait for the rest of this raid!
謝謝！
Glad u feel the desert, specifically, as we do. The theme is great, and we can share the feeling even u didn't get the content.
The singer's name is "tea" I believe. She has a channel called "tea & Hiroshi" and has commented on several videos of this song. And this song has only been in the game for a few months. This played at the end of a raid added in Endwalker's first major post-release content update in April.
I was waiting for you to say Disney, that was my first initial reaction to this song, but definitely in a good way.
I recommend quake 2 osts like Descent Into Cerberon , rage, etc next for uncontrollable eargasm
The real hard mechanic in this fight is the song getting stuck in your head for hours afterwards
This song is sing by "tea", who is from India and live in Japan.
Can not wait for the last song in the next 2 parts of the raid. Chances are in my eyes Gridania is probably going to be next. Halone will prob be in place of Rhalgr and the last boss Nophica with a song about nature.
The other section will be about fighting Llymlaen the Navagator and a song about Limsa, as the 3rd boss. While the last fight we will facing Oschon, the Wanderer, basically a reflection of the PC in the game you play.
Can not wait for the songs after Balance. Was so good being a fan of the 3 nations like myself.
Blackmore's Night is a good band. I love that genre of music a lot. Richie Blackmore is a legend. xD
I think my fav songs are Ghost of a Rose and I forgot the name of the other but it sings about the cycle repeating.
So when is Uncle Jesse going to play Final Fantasy XIV?
This song lives rent-free in my head for literal weeks at at time whenever I hear it, now. For context, Nald'thal, the Traders, are dual-aspected Gods usually represented as singular God. They are the single manifestation of twin deities: Nald, keeper of the living, and Thal, keeper of the dead. He is most often depicted as a discerning merchant holding a balance, hence the Balance symbolism. The reason the genre is hard to pin down is because it is much easier to call it 'Ul'Dah's Second Theme'. The entire song is like a hyped up variation of the themes surrounding a set of zones surrounding the deserts of the game. The instruments used, the way there's heavy brass and precussion, even some Arabic and African themes mixed is intentionally meant for players to draw connections as to these two gods' connection to the land they're primarily worshipped in. Most players immediately go 'It sounds like Ul'Dah, and they're from Ul'Dah, and it's really really fun to listen to'.
I remember the first time I did Aglaia. We were a small group in a voice call, and I was not the only one that started humming along. The melody is so simple yet infectious.
I love that you said endwalker music sounds theatrical because it really is. Endwalker felt like a finale performance in theater with the way the characters monologued and interacted and some cutscenes we're performed and the music just tied it all together. Thanks for giving this a listen!!
Your so right about Disney though! When I first did this fight and heard it, I strangely felt like I was playing Kingdom Hearts for a moment and I'm like "How did the atmosphere just shift?!" It definitely feels like an experience once you go through the battle phases.
Nald'Thal is the two-in-one god. Nald, keeper of the land of the living; Thal, keeper of the realm of the dead.
The Twin Gods, the Traders.
Soken: this isn't even my final form.
Soken has said that the seamless loops are due to having to compose for cutscenes but I think his loops rival John Williams and Vivaldi.
This song is just so good, whenever i do this raid i can't but help to swing behind my keyboard. 🙂
Its even more epic when u learn the lore behind it, so good!
Okay, Jessee, I need to thank you. I discovered Blackmore's Night thanks to this video, and I LOVE IT!!!!!!! So thanks
On the subject seamless looping, Most fight music like this, is also written toward the fight itself. In such that, big crescendos of a song generally also hit during big moments in the fight in sort of a way to pump you up.