I loved this! Thank you so much for fulfilling my request! Your analysis on it being sombre was incredibly accurate! As was the idea that he represents the mountain. Also he's a pain in the ass to fight lmao
If you felt a lot of different emotions, they did their job right. Lol Azdaha is an ancient elemental dragon that was given sight by the god of earth. Over time, Azdaha "eroded" to the point of corruption and tried to destroy everything. The god sealed him away where he continued to erode. To the point where he thought the god was nothing more than a prison warden. In this fight, you team up with said god to effectively put down his pet dragon and friend.
"The enraged earth will not absolve you!" "There is no atonement for a thousand-year pain!" Azhdaha was an earth dragon, and one of our friend's best friends in the past. But as he aged his defender's nature changed and he became angered at humanity becoming in his eyes like locusts. Our friend didn't have it in him to put his friend down, but managed to bury him underground where the dragon was initially found. At the end of his mind, Azhdaha split into 2 people to lure his friend back to him so he could have revenge. Rage Beneath the Mountains is the final confrontation with a senile dragon of thousands of years and how our friend relays that he too is growing too old for this world. Every time I hear this song I tear up, but I'm not sure who those tears are for. Are they for Azhdaha, who was imprisoned because his mind had turned him against his friends and his land? Are my tears for Zhongli, who is growing old and afraid of becoming like his friend? Is it for the Traveler, who has been tasked by Zhongli to carry the untarnished memory of his time in Liyue? Or are my tears for some other reason? I don't know.
I can tell my tears come from repent and respect. In my culture, there's one saying, "we may not be the bravest in the world, but we are well protected by the bravest of us". Azhdaha, Zhongli, and soldiers who fought with them millennia ago, they are the heroes in history, who gave everything to their people and the land they love. Heroes shouldn't die, they shall be remembered through generations and be memorized forever. Yet azhdaha had been forgotten, and Zhongli probably will go through the same way. When someone gave his everything to others, and nobody thanks him, even don't remember him, that's where the sadness come from. such emotions also appear when I played MetalGearSolid3, “The Boss” was the real patriot for USA, and She is even willing to bear the name of a traitor and die under the gun of her own student. In the end of the game, everyone in the world could only remember "the boss" as a traitor and terrorist. Only the student killed her and players would know, what she had given for her country, she's the real soldier and patriot. Repent comes from the sorrow for heroes forgotten, Respect for they being the heroes.
I was so amaze how musicians could tell a story just by hearing it, and it's scary cuz everything you said about "emotion" is on point of what is the real story behind the music.
One of the best tracks from Genshin! Yeah, the soundtrack has a lot of range. You travel to different lands, meet different characters, and the instruments used and composition tend to match the culture and theme of the area you're in which is represented by different places irl (For instance, China or Japan). Or 'theme' of the character you're fighting, etc. So picking songs out from around the OST can have that jarring feeling for sure, as they can sound very different.
Great reaction. Genshin's OST does take you for a ride, and the composer does a great job pulling influence from wherever the region is based on (this boss is located in Liyue, the Chinese influenced location, hence the eastern instruments.) He also does a great job of telling the story of the characters in the song. Another really good theme is Signora's as many others have said, so I hope someone on Patreon is requesting that. I, sadly, cannot support, but will leave a like.
I just found this video by accident, and I like your reaction a lot! Genshin's world has many different regions inspired by different real world countries, I don't know which song was your first, but Azhdaha is a boss in the region of Liyue, which is inspired by China, so the soundtrack in Liyue has a more chinese-inspired feel to it. Mondstat, another region, is inspired by medieval Germany, and Inazuma by Japan (these are the three regions we have so far, more are coming), and you can really tell which region is based on what country just by the music. That's why it might sound all over the place; the soundtrack utilizes traditional instruments and sounds from each culture they're inspired by for the soundtrack of each region. But the guitar for Azhdaha was a pleasant surprise, though it does make sense to help bring that feeling of rage that is such a big part of his story.
this is my favorite boss battle music from genshin. especially if you know the backstory of the boss we are fighting, it's perfect and the emotional tone is totally warranted. "An enormous dragon as ancient as the mountains themselves. In an age that has all but faded from memory, he stood shoulder to shoulder with one who ruled over a harbor of stone. But in the end, the two came into conflict, and the dragon was banished to a dark place deep underground. Over the long years of his imprisonment, his power has slowly dissipated. He has also become disfigured from the various kinds of erosion he has been subjected to. The faint rattling of this dragon lord's shackles and his deep, angry growl echo through the bowels of the mountains like memories of a bygone era."
wah how can he stay THIS calm while listening to this for the first time? I almost freaked out, even now after listening to it for several times, I still can't sit still while listening to it.
Glad you are finally doing more Genshin. I hope this is all phases of the Azhdaha fight (rbtm is the final phase) I'm sure you also have requests for Dvalin, Andrius, Childe, Signora and Raiden Shogun boss fights too.
I love that you picked up on it being emotional for a bit there. Azhdaha and Morax were basically best friends at one point, and this fight is basically his darker half's last attempt at destroying the person who wronged him. There's definitely an underlying sadness to this fight.
I feel like Andrius’ theme in genshin is also pretty good, even though it’s a lot chill compared to the music of other boss battles like signora and the shogun
An example of how I see it: 5:33 Here begins Azhdaha's relentless fury... This is Azhdaha. 6:07 This is you (Morax) fighting, inexorably advancing in the defeat of his friend... This is Morax. And this is a lament too. It highlights that at the same time that it's epic, all this is so sad... This is also Tragedy. 7:32 And these choruses highlight the epic importance of this fight, which will be historic... This is History. And you arrive at this moment after understanding the previous ones. It's simply grandiloquent And everything is full of moments like this. This is why I respect Yu-Peng Chen so fuckin much. It's like the Yoko Kanno of videogames.
Just so u know, this game has released 2 concerts of game music, just look them up on youtube, the 2nd one was recent and in honor of the chinese new year, its worth listening to them both becouse the feature music from all of the game's regions and characters, each having their own theme, as u heard with this video.
@@weertangel7231 He said he won't look anything that may be requested later. That includes every track in the concert. So, at least for now, that is out of the question.
If you liked this you could react to La Signora battle theme from Genshin or Raiden Shogun battle theme. Judgement of Euthymia song (officially titled Termination of Desires) is amazing too. Genshin is full of hidden gems when it comes to music.
The music of Genshin is extremely varied in general! I really hope some of the Patreons recommend Signora's theme because that boss soundtrack is absolutely insane.
welp this is my first time hearing the audio alone other than one from playing it and i had no idea it’d give me PTSD from hearing it alone 😅 anyway thank you for the great reaction! i’d love to see more of your reaction for this game’s OST because they have SO many good music
Genshin music has a lot of variety of sounds and themes, in game there's 7 main regions (currently available 3), and within them different areas some have their own themed music too, so the list of OST is immense but top quality
I must be the only person who gets all emotional over an epic battle theme. They were friends, and Morax must defeat him. ITS SO FRIGGIN' TRAGIC. t's like the reverse of the Gilgamesh epic. A fight started the legendary friendship between the King and the powerful monster. A fight ends the legendary friendship between the God Morax and the powerful monster Azhdaha.
It's interesting that you picked up a somber vibe from the song because apart from how grand and threatening Azdaha is, in the story, he used to be a friend and ally of one of the characters. You're fighting him again after he breaks the seal that sealed him away thousands of years ago. The character who knows him had to seal him because he started turning on humanity as his mind eroded over the long passage of time. He stopped being an ally if humanity and turned on humans. One of the characters was the person who made him, but was also the sworn protector of the humans of his realm. As such he had no choice but to defeat and seal his former friend. When you fight him yourself in the game, it's been thousands of years since that battle and he has festered even more hatred for that one character who is still alive, yet even as he fights to seal him one again, he does so reluctantly. You can get a sense of that in the music.
Genshin Impact is a single player game with optional coop for 4 characters. Represents a journey around the world, each country associated with a real world one in a specific time period. That reflects on the style and instruments chosen. The OST divides between specific gacha-character short songs (like the first song you reacted, Zhongli's theme was) that are focused on their individuality, and more experimental. And everything in those songs is there for a reason, for example a character has a song with entirely synthesizers, fake instruments for a fake human, and some people catch up on that long before the truth was told to us based on that reason alone. Then the environmental and bosses tracks that, sure, still are very memorable but... they lack personality a lot in comparison. And Azhdaha is the classical good guy corrupted for a reason he couldn't avoid. You need to put an end to his misery, is both a heroic track for an Epic being like Azhdaha, but also sad as f... The reason why I play Genshin Impact, are the things that most people don't even realize in the game, as you need to know the references to catch them up. The most obvious is Gnosticism, Ars Goetia, a bit of Ragnarök, Luciferism, and my favorite hidden pearl: The Tabula Smaragdina or Emerald Tablet is god-damn everywhere ( _that which is above is from that which is below, and that which is below is from that which is above_ ) and a lot, lot more. The game turns into a reference paradise that I love.
Signora is another amazing theme, and the best thing is if you then watch the raider shoguns battle themes it’s a continuation from signora into raider shoguns theme that over takes signoras in its prologue. It’s chilling!
This battle is probably the only thing i look forward each Monday. Just because of the amazing music and getting to battle Azhdaha with random strangers.
Thanks for reacting to this song, I was waiting for your opinion 0w0. I hope in the future you can hear more music from this game! I wish you a good day
I initially clicked on this video because I am a big fan of all of the Azhdaha-related content and was curious about seeing people's reactions to the soundtrack. However, what made me stay and watch through the whole video was actually the way your face would light up every now and then while listening to the music. You seem like a very warm individual and your smiles are super endearing! I will definitely check more of your content now :) Wishing you all the best! Keep up the good vibes!
Genshin impact has regions based on real world countries and the music of those regions are based on those countries that represent. That's why the it used a lot of different genres and instruments.
You deffinitely wanna check out Raiden Shogun's themes, there's the trailer ost for her and the actual boss fight ost. Also the game is really fun, despite being a gacha. Crazy how a gacha can be fun when it has good gameplay... Honkai Impact 3rd has some crazy good ost as well.
Hehe this is why Genshin is one thing I specifically mentioned when I said I like Eastern games for the soundtracks being genres and influences in a blender thing. I want someone to get you to check out some stuff from Astral Chain because there's some neat stuff in that one that you don't tend to find in games often.
This boss when you discover him as a new player and that you're not ready to face such a thing really packs a punch. For context Azhdaha is a earth dragon that served the god of earth in the genshin lore. Due to the over use of the earth by humans (mining and so on) this provoqued instability in the elements of earth and also the ley lines of the earth a drove it into insanity. In the end The god of the Earth element had to battle it. Their battle was one very big event on the genshin impact lore, a whole region got completly wrecked by their clash, this regions was a mining region known as the Chasm in the game. Because of their fight, the mines of the Chasm became impossible to be mined because it's totally destroyed, it was already pretty hard to adventure in it due to it having been place to the fall of a comet, but the fight between the Geo Archon (god of earth) and his Dragon made it one hell of a dangerous place to be. In the end the Geo archon managed to beat him and Seal him under the feet of a mountain. In the game, while doing a quest, his seal from many event becomes slowly undone and we as the player have to help the weakened god of earth re seal him. Truly an epic fight, in the game. During the quest , fighting him is a lot easier but he is still a boss to not be taken lightly. After the quest you can re do the boss as many times you want but the fight will be harder. Anyways great reaction and analysis of that amazing song! Maybe next time you could try listening to the boss battle OST of La Signora or maybe the whole new boss from genshin right now in 2.5, Battle Ost of the Raiden Shogun (guardian of Eternity), i think for the raiden boss fight the OST name is Magatsu Mitake Narukami no Mikoto.
if you like this you should check another game that has a great OST: Tree of Savior. The Misrus battle theme has this kind of operatic metal vibe (song is called Sacred Kind by SFA).
Genshin Impact has lots of different music for different enemies and regions. So a large variety of music currently in the game and in future expansions!
You should definitely listeb to the other boss themes! Caelestinum Finale Termini Dominator of Wolves Theme Tartaglia's Boss Theme Signora's Boss Theme Raiden Shogun Boss Theme
Azhdaha ... while he is a boss that can be done weekly, I did it in the story once, noped out and said I never wanted to see him again xD But especially Rage Beneath The Mountains is so good that I wished I'd hear it more often in the game. As you said, it got really emotional - and the story behind this boss is bittersweet in its own way :3
As long as you have a good shield character and renew the shield whenever it breaks or runs out, the boss isn't that hard, either that or take a good healer in. If you have invested in the same character for long enough, you may find attempting the fight again now goes way differently to how you remember
Okay. Now do Raiden Shogun - the normal two phases _and_ the transformed variant (might find it labeled as "weekly boss" variant, too). Trust me on this, Jesse: You will seriously, seriously, _seriously_ want to hear both.
Damit missed the live but this song is an absolute banger and the music is all over the place but a constant theme the plays to the music is tragedy,rage,wrath and darkness yet they all adhere to a sense of tragedy
Azhdaha is one of those bosses I can’t fight alone, I have to fight it with friends and even then we have difficulty. I never had the opportunity to properly listen to the music because I’m too focused on fighting. So it’s interesting to see what you think and how epic it sounds. And yup you’re right this boss takes up almost the whole screen 😂
The reason for this huge change in style between different tracks is because Genshin has 7 different nations inspired by 7 different real-world cultures. You'll see Asian instruments in the Asian inspired regions, medieval styles in medieval Europe regions, etc
Genshin is the story of an Empire that dominates all of Tyria, the world, through Archons and rules. But in which the different regions are no longer so happy with their dominance. One of those regions, Rusi... I mean, Snezhnaya is hatching a plan to defeat it in the end and liberate all of Tyria... although they may have murky motivations on top of everything. It is controversial because it sounds suspiciously reminiscent of reality.
the theme feel triumphant because the boss is a old god it is sad since story wise he is a god that have lost himself and gone far from his prime as for why the music is so different from each other is because the game set in a very diverse world
Azhdaha is a mythological being in Iranian/Persian mythology They're typically described as a large snake-like creature, with a large mouth with many teeth and bright eyes. In some depictions they also have wings and can fly as well. The main depiction difference between myth and Genshin would be that in myth they were large as in extremely long, but in Genshin Azhdaha is much more bulky