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You can tell this footage is from when the dungeon first came out, Machinist has his gauss barrel equipped and has to cast each shot. Everyone waited for the Scholar to put Stoneskin on the tank and protect on the party LOL.
Bless the heart of whoever recommended this. One of my favorites in the game.
You've gotta love whenever you pull up an FFXIV track and you're staring at the play button with absolutely no idea what you're going to get when you hit it. Rock? EDM? Choir? Soken's pocket change in a ramen noodle cup? It's a surprise every time.
I wonder how can people hate this
some game sounds/voice lines go so well with the sounds. like innocence for example, its a good song on its own but the yelling of the boss makes it even better.
Originally, this song was just a short intro dungeon theme, like all the dungeons before it; the intro was so popular that players requested Soken make a full version–and for dungeons after. And thus full-length dungeon themes were born in FFXIV!
You know, for the hundreds of times I've run this dungeon, I don't think I've ever super closely listened to this song. It's quite interesting.
So, the boss at the end in the (Normal) version of this dungeon in a siren. The song in the (Normal) version is called 'A Light in the Storm/Through the Gloom' and it has more of the qualities you mentioned liking about it.
'Upon The Rocks' is from Pharos Sirius (Hard) and is a remake/redo of the original song. It's a bit more bombastic, as with most Heavensward music. The ghostly wailing in both tracks is likely the siren herself calling to the sailors. However, as she was killed in the (Normal) dungeon, the (Hard) version's wails are mostly likely echoes.
With over 700 tracks, a number that is constantly growing, you're definitely bound to run into something that's not your cup of tea. You'va also mostly heard expansion themes and trial/raid tracks which are designed completely different from dungeon and zone themes. And you mentioned sound effects influencing the overall feel of some songs and I can certainly agree, at least personally.
As for Upon the Rocks, I can see why it's a bit strange or confusing and not exactly enjoyable to everyone, but I'd say it's one of my top dungeon tracks. The ethereal voice of the siren from the previous normal mode is very enticing and ominous at the same time and I really like the buildup with the drums before the loop.
First heard this song doing palace of the dead and it was the one that stuck out most to me going through all the floors
Someday I'll figure out how to send a request. I set the jukebox in my house to play "The Mushroomery" and kind of just bliss out listening to it.
Also, happens that it's a remix of a ff1 track called "Matoya's cave" which is pretty darn good for what an NES is capable of.
AND… Nobuo Uematsu's band 'The Black Mages" does an awesome rock version of it
Funny enough intro is the part they made years later for return to the dungeon and then tacked on the older version of music on top of it.
Its funny that you mention the amount of songs written for FFXIV. Masayoshi Soken, the games main composer, has the Guinness World Record for “Most Original Pieces of Music in a Video Game.”
Square Enix also has a lot of games with paragraph length names haha
It’s be interesting to hear what Jesse thinks of “Ink Long Dry.” It’s definitely a unique piece that keeps its style consistent.
Guess I’ll just have to wait and see if he covers it in his three year(+) backlog xD
Ah, I love this background music so much <3 i'm so glad you got it requested. Probably it's my favourite dungeon music along with the Lost City of Ampdapor, Amaurot and the Burn's ost. So haunting and sad at the same time. Thank you for your reaction, it was a pleasure to hear and watch you giving your insights. Take care <3
The name change of the title is because "Light in the storm" is the first version (not the hard dungeon), while your reactions is on the hard. Main difference, if not only one, is the piano intro at the begin.
Fun fact: Originally, in the original Pharos Sirius, only 30 seconds of this played at the start of the dungeon, and we had to petition hard for years to get the full track added in. We finally got it, and it's also why most dungeons have a full work of music in them now. But that might be playing into what you don't like… The part you don't like that then leads back into you liking it is the ORIGINAL music. The intro you liked was later tacked on for the hard mode. But outside of th intro, everything else is the original work. But that could be playing into your feelings. But also that's an interesting take about requiring the sounds. The swings of blades and fwosshes of spells add a lot. This takes a bit of a back seat to the giant pulls (grabbing the attention of all the monsters you can) and the action.
The Normal and Hard version are two different versions of the same area. They go completely different routes and have different fights. The first one is a lvl 50 dungeon, and the hard version I believe is lvl 60, but we don't get Hard mode dungeons anymore.
Also, keep in mind, Soken holds the World Record for tracks of music composed for a single game.
Was happy when they updated this song in the normal version of the dungeon. Was originally 1 and a half mins long, but for an anniversary they extended it to play til you reach Siren.
Damn this brings back memory
Anyone else loved seeing this dungeon name when doing a realm reborn relics??
Wanted to recommend this for the longest time so… hell yeah 🤘
Do you see any hole that would fit this song? That's right, it goes in the square hole!
This one's cool, but mostly in the context of it being a remixed track of the regular Pharos Sirius dungeon. In the original dungeon you go up the lighthouse, in this one you go back down. The original feels more mysterious as though the siren at the top is singing it, this one keeps those themes but is more triumphant sounding because the siren has been defeated.
Pharos Sirius is one of the dungeons included in the free trial 🙃
The word you were looking for was "Prologue" I think.
If you like music with vocals you don't understand, try anything by Yuki Kajiura, she uses her own language sometimes refered to as Kajiurese.
Just the other day I scoured YouTube looking for someone reacting to this song. It's in my top 5 ffxiv dungeon OSTs. You should also react to the theme of a dungeon called The Burn, song titled 'A Land Long Dead'.
I'm just waiting for you to say something about this one just feeling different. lol
If it helps understand the song, the first dungeon you go from the bottom and climb the tower. THe theme is very similar, but now, you start at the top of the tower and go back down it. So, it starts with the end, and goes backwards through the music themes kind of.
Also, Soken.
some backstory on Pharos Sirius.
The dungeon is an old lighthouse, and you climb it to stop a Siren from wreaking havoc on the local merchant fleet. First dungeon you climb from the base of the tower to the top to confront the siren. The sound in that first dungeon is 'A Light in the Storm'. The dungeon was released in the first patch after Soken took over as the primary composer for FFXIV in the post 2.0 patches, so this is one of his first few works.
This dungeon is a rework of the old dungeon, but instead of climbing the lighthouse, you are descending into the depths beneath the lighthouse to confront something or another. Its been a while, and the boss may or may not be a giant slug. This is before Soken got the primals together I think, so a lot of his early music in FFXIV was still experimenting with a full orchestra / choir in the Uematsu style in my opinion. It isn't until a year or so later with the release of the track 'Oblivion', which I believe you heard before, or possibly just 'Return to Oblivion' that we started to get some of his proficiency in writing the more rock oriented stuff.
This game has a lot of gems that aren't always on the forefront. I really enjoy "The Burn ( A Land Long Dead )", "The Lost City of Amdapor ( The Scars of Battle )", "Yanxia Theme ( A Father's Pride )". Hope some people request these. 🙂
I don't think I've ever listened to this song by itself without running the dungeon, so I've probably only ever heard it a few times. It's neat and I respect it, but it's not one of my favourites
I like what you said about it being put together Hastily. This came out in ARR, which was when they were trying their hardest to keep the game afloat after a monumentally botched launch, I don't think the game had really found it's footing at that time so a lot of the music was kind of rushed into production while the team was stabilizing the game. I think what's most interesting about that powerful intro and the rest of the song is you can sort of hear the intro kind of spread out in the song.
I know you like to listen without Context but contextually this is an Abandoned Lighthouse that kind of got wrecked after a world ending event. There's a Siren at the top of the Lighthouse that has been sort of causing sailors to shipwreck and stuff so the music is supposed to be ethereal and haunting and a little alien like you're going through this echoe-y open light house hearing this singing just reverberating off the walls being drawn ever upward.
I dunno I think contextually it's one of my favorite songs, but that's the thing I have context for it. I can see what you mean in the ways that it falls flat.
Yes! Your comment that the intro seems disconnected is because that part was added to the original theme "A Light in the Storm" for the normal version of the Pharos Sirius dungeon.
I really enjoy this song while focusing on the dungeon in game, but outside of that…I agree that it's missing a little somethin'
If you haven't listened too god of war ragnarök feat Eivør I'd highly reccomend
you might be right on the rushing part: Heavensward 's schedule was all over the place, and there's a common thread of lyrics for songs being jot down in a matter of hours (for example Equilibrium and Cruise Chaser theme were both confirmed by the English localization lead to have been rushed)
You nailed it with your criticisms, except the reality is in reverse. I think what happened was the bulk of the song with the vocals and the melody was one of the extremely early pieces from the game. But it landed with fans, and years later when the game had a more concrete identity and a stable budget and production pipeline, they decided to send players back to some of those old dungeons, and so the audio guys got another crack at this, and reworked it in to a whole track and added that new intro.