well, the INTRO was really good...(Final Fantasy XIV Shadowbringers) 

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What’s happening in the game when this plays? Your crying.

"Let expanse contract, eon become instant! Champions from beyond the rift heed my call!"

This track goes along with the opening cinematic for Shadowbringers. The very beginning of the song borrows the opening vocalist from a track called Tomorrow and Tomorrow. At about 5:18 ish where you hear the violin and cello, that is a call back to FFIII and a song called Eternal Winds. Soken does a lot of call backs to previous FF games. He does this several times for Endwalker - Footfalls where he calls back to the previous expansion for FFXIV. All of the individual tracks that Soken wrote for FFXIV are really dependent on context from the game. They are super well written but each on kinda fits to a specific scene or area.

I realized the first time I played this song for my sister in the car how important context is for it. It's not bad on it's own but it definitely has a lot of negative space when you're not watching (or thinking about) the trailer or contents it's tied to. So your conflict makes a lot of sense.

Regarding the mixing of the male lead vocals in the majority of the song, the sound director and composer of the piece, Masayoshi Soken, is on record that he typically treats vocals as just another instrument in the mix, so songs he composes tend to have vocals that are more "in the mix" than other composers on the music team for FFXIV. Some of this comes from earlier in the game's life when their budgets were smaller, getting a male vocalist meant singing himself, and Soken does not view himself as a strong vocalist, so the use of distortion, vocoding, and other effects to get the sounds he wanted from the vocals was a necessity.

RIDING HOME, DON'T LOSE HOPE.

One of the reasons vocals sit a bit lower in the mix is that often characters will have voice acting over top of this music. It plays in the climactic moments and incorporates several themes from throughout the expansion.

4:12 "let's keep discovering here" is such a good phrase, might use it myself. love the idea that everything's can be a personal discovery

Most of the different parts of this theme have their own full song in the ost so this one is sort of a medley of the different themes. Can't really explain what's going on in the game while this plays without major spoilers and a lengthy exposition, but what I can say is that you'll probably be emotionally invested in what's happening and this song will most likely elevate those emotions hhhhh

This music was designed to be the backdrop to the trailer for Shadowbringers. I think it would be worth it to watch that to get a recontextualization for the music. It really is one half to the whole.

If you like the intro you'll like the song "Tomorrow and Tomorrow". It has the same intro and keeps the same vocalist throughout the song. It's a stunningly beautiful and deep song about preserving the memories of those who've died. If you like "Tomorrow and Tomorrow" you'll really like "Flow" which is about your soul flowing into the afterlife, which is represented as a vast and dark ocean, where you rest until it's time to reincarnate. Each of the memories of your life are like individual rain drops, coming together to form a river, flowing into the afterlife.

At the part where you said "let me know whats happening" when that song plays youre staring down your nemesis getting ready for a final battle

The song is used as the background music for the expansion trailer of Shadowbringers. My theory is that the song isn't so overpowering because it has to make room for dialogue, sound effects and visuals. It is by that reason I think it might be difficult to get the full experience with the track alone. Expansion themes also incorporates several songs to give the full breadth of the content included so it can sound segmented. Hope this helps! (also excuse my english as it isn't my first language)

This is actually trailer music that is a "mash-up" of multiple songs in Shadowbringers. The songs that I know in this intro are: Tomorrow and Tomorrow, To The Edge, and Eternal Wind

This is the just the music to the intro trailer of Shadowbringers. First part is only a small portion of the full song Tomorrow and Tomorrow (there's another version called Knowledge Never Sleeps which is also nice). Now if you want some cataclysmic, brain melting arrangement of the thematic material on hand here, I highly recommend listening to the track called Invincible. Haven't been able to stop listening to it since I did that part of the game.

FFXVI - 'Find the Flame' That's it. That's the comment.

The full song plays along with the games cinematic trailer for the expansion also named Shadowbringers. However the song is combination of 2 others, one being called Tomorrow And Tomorrow and Eternal Wind (which this song itself is a montage of Final Fantasy IV) with the remaining being Shadowbringers itself. As you play the expansion, you will often hear smaller motifs of the song in the background music but the song itself wont play until the characters encounters the boss of the main expansions story.

It's fair not feeling that extra bit that gives you the feeling of not hitting the high for all the build up. Not having that context is important too. Like everyone else is saying, its a medley used for the trailer. Basically sets up the leitmotifs we'd be hearing for the next 2 years.

The composer Soken is a fan of Rage Against the Machine, that's why despite being a Japanese composer the lyrics for the game are all in english and he tends to take inspiration from them in his works.

Definitely worth watching it with the trailer for the visuals. Feel like its one of those packaged with either the ideologies of the story it's a part of or by the footage that accompanies it.

This plays at the end of the expansion during one of the coolest scenes in the game, I get chills every time I watch it.

So initially this is during an opening cinematic but at one of the very last fights of the expansion a huge high point emotions high... this song starts playing and plays throughout the fight... evokes such emotions as LETS GOOOO!!! but also tears... of yes! We are gonna do the thing! lets finish this!

One thing to note is that a group of the developers of the game including the composer Soken play these songs as a band called the "Primals" live at the fan events and live concerts which is awesome.

This piece was written to fit the Shadowbringers trailer, and honestly listening to it without watching the trailer is only experiencing part of the music. Every part of the song has a cinematic purpose that cannot be understood otherwise.

This version is for the Shadowbringers trailer but when the song itself kicks in ingame is the end of the main story and is one of the hypest things Ive ever seen or heard in videogames.

when the guitar comes in at the beginning, after having played FFXIV, i still get teary eyed. It's actually insane. Like my body's just natural reaction to the freaking Hype and PTSD of the game.

Shadowbringers will make you cry. It is so sad and so dark. I love this song. I think it is my favorite.

Just wondering Tony, did you check out the lyrics for this when you reacted to it? P.S: The male vocals is also the vocals for "Rules of Nature" from the Metal Gear Rising OST if I remember correctly edit: Oh yeah, to answer your question on when this song plays, it's the opening for the Shadowbringers expansion and it also plays at a pretty climatic moment in the story, I've got spoilers here so avert thy eyes if thine wish not to see. But it also plays where you're facing down the big bad, your friends are all down and out, it's just him and you, but you're also on the verge of imploding and turning into one of the strongest monsters called a lightwarden to exist, since you kind of slew all the other lightwardens and absorbed their aether (think mana from usual fantasy games). My explanation doesn't really go the scene or the build up to that point of the story justice though, so someone else can probably do it better.

Answers is still my favorite FFXIV opening theme. It's so impactful and emotional.

what you heard was the trailer version, basically a mix of various songs. the beginning has a extended version. the rock part its the "leit motiv" of the expansion, almost on the end with the chello its a reference to an old ff game and the last part is again the leit motiv

You're hearing a bunch in this that not having played you're going to miss out on. It's worth nothing that many of the parts your hearing are actually multiple pieces that have been mixed together to tell the story of the full expansion. This isn't the first time we've heard these motifs though and it wont be the last. These pieces include: "Tomorrow and Tomorrow" (The opening) "Who Brings the Shadow" (The part where the guitar comes in) "Four-Fold Knowing" (The ooh-ah choir) The team that got these songs ready to go on an album said they struggled to get the songs to work that way, because the music was always intended to loop and be condition based, but I'd say they did a damn fine job. When we hear the closest to this version of the song in the game ("Who Brings the Shadow") we're actually in what I would consider to be the highest climax moment of the entire game thus far. The rest of the comment will describe where we were in the story as if you asked where we were when that plays in game as we never actually hear "Shadowbringers" During the story. The "Big bad" has just exposed his true face after playing his full hand. You're just now emerging from an ethical dilemma having being given the story of your enemy you're realizing that this whole time you've been playing (In game we're talking days of real life play at this point) you've not been fully aware of the full truth and though you're not "the bad guy" the big bad isn't either. Your both fighting to save the world and all your friends and family, but for one to win the other must lose. You're both in a moral gray area. As the song starts you've just been defeated by him, and you're at deaths door, your friends defeated and are laying on the ground behind you after trying to defend you. You are the last remaining hope for your own world and everyone and everything in it, and things are looking grim, in the moment it looks like you've lost. A familiar face you met last expansion (if you're slamming through the story still probably a day or so ago) shows up and you come to the realization that the reason you're not strong enough to defeat the big bad is because you're not whole and the familiar face is your other half. You fuse with your other half and gain the strength to fight once more. With your newly found strength and the help of your last standing friend (surprise, it was for us too) you summon your real life friends (or random people you've never met before but they are still real people) and you walk into what in my opinion is the most story important fight in the entire game. Upon defeating the big bad you're able to summon the power of light that you've tried to do many times before but you've never been able to accomplish to defeat him. The light takes the shape of the weapon of your other half. In your foe's dying breath you're met with a request by the person you've just defeated "Remember us. Remember we once lived" as by killing him you've wiped out the last of his people with the sanity to still remember them, and if you forget, then the memory is gone. The final more whimsical motif you hear (the part where you mentioned the drums under the violin) is from the Old Sharla theme, a city that at the time of this expansion we had not yet visited and was only teased to us. From beginning to end this song truly captures the entirety of the story delivered in the 4th part of this 5 part story. Having have played through it all and listening, I still get chills every time. The time we're given this song truly matters as well, the lyrics beautifully retell the history of the entire expansion as you're standing at the door to the fight to bring it all to a close. I have thousands of hours in this game, I'm fascinated in the story, but their music really is what sends them over the edge from good to great. And if you haven't already played it, did you know that the critically acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV has a free trial, and includes the entirety of A Realm Reborn AND the award-winning Heavensward expansion up to level 60 with no restrictions on playtime?

Its always a tough call, but i think Shadwobringers had the best OST of any FFXIV DLC. It was the most diverse, and dynamic sound they've put out and fits the content of shadowbringers perfectly. Just my opinion 😂. The Alexander raid is another one people love the music from. If they did anything well, its making the music match perfectly with whats going on during the game. Id typically be in tears by the time this starts playing 😂😂😂😂😂😂

Wow wow wow whoever recommended this knows the good stuff :)

Different perspective; I had some experience with Motion Capture and gotta say those recent Final Fantasy games have, aside from the realistic performance capture, a seriously stylish fight and movement choreography. Considering how important the story and dialouges were in this franchise, they really did it justice this time. PS. You almost saw me as Leon in those new Resident Evil Remakes🙂 PS. You have an amazing channel, I'm glad I've found it.

the intro is a different vibe because it belongs to an entierly different song, called tomorrow and tomorrow thats entirely sung by the female vocalist and has that same intro, its used here to be an introductory piece that then leads into the main song TBH shadow bringers pairs well with the actual trailer, than by itself, as the entire song is paced to accentuate the trailer, and moments there in.

I still get goosebumps listening to this track. Bit of a shame you didn't get to hear it in context, but still glad you got the chance to listen!

I'm glad I'm not the only one who wishes the mixing placed some more emphasis on the vocals in FFXIV themes! While I get the reasoning behind it and it works well in-game and for cinematics, it'd be nice if there were a separate mix just for listening (or possibly for the game to use dynamic music and tone vocals back a bit when cinematics or gameplay need attention?). Wishful thinking but I definitely understand both the reasoning and the common frustrations towards it.

Late to the party for this one, but this song is part of the cinematic trailer for the expansion, so some of the vocal weirdness is in part because there are spoken lines with this song. If you haven't already gone down that rabbit hole, it is very worth seeing how this song handles along side the spoken vocals and animations that were all being designed together. Also the other thing going on is the joke that this expansion was the lead composer's rock album. There is a lot of rock and orchestral rock throughout this expansion as a musical theme.

this song is the main theme of shadowbringers and is a mix of different songs from the expansion, but the vocal/rock section is mainly from the "finale" boss fight of the expansion! the people who work on the music spoke in the past about how they chose english vocals for their boss themes so that the japanese audience dont get too distracted, so my thoughts is that they muffle the vocals a bit so that the english audience too doesnt get too distracted during the boss fights, which i think is pretty cool! In terms of not having much of a thematic change, this game often uses different songs that are strung together in sequence as you click through dialogue. this way no matter how slow you are, when you get to the part when the music is suppose to kick in it can happen as the devs intended. During the story you have a more suspenseful almost atmospheric BGM before this song (just the rock section, not the beautiful vocals at the start) kicks in the moment a character hands you an item and then you go into the boss battle. it has a lot of emotional weight for the fans of this game :) thank you for checking it out

The thing is this expansion brings the biggest twist in FFXIV to date. So while the things are really big the conflict is less good vs evil and more so the new vs the old, conviction vs conviction. There's still a ton of tension in the story but it becomes more about defying expectations and proving your worth to carry a bigger legacy than you've ever carried. It's also about getting home.

The music works a lot better when you see the visuals from the cinematic.

The shadow ringer opening video really brings out the song even more. It's pacing when played together really sets it above conventional method

Yes the music is in service of the visuals of the Shadowbringers game trailer. Why it can seem disjointed without context.

It's a bit disjointed because it's a trailer music, so the music changes a lot based on what the video is trying to represent. Like at 7:39 in this video, this section is a modern rendition of Eternal Wind from Final Fantasy 4.

Shadowbringers was a complete mindfudge when it was coming out, all the theories going on and a universal love for the trailer and this song.

Probably a ton of answers in here already, I'm too lazy to scroll through them all. But what's going on during this piece, is basically that you as a player have spent the past few years growing from "an adventurer" to "The Warrior of Light". It's become the player's identity at this point and you're just so used to it. You then get this trailer seeing a being of light absolutely stomp on your so-called warrior of light, with the final line of the trailer saying "Become the Warrior of Darkness". All in all they're throwing your entire world upside down and you have NO idea what's waiting when the content drops on you. As others have mentioned though, this is absolutely better experienced with the trailer due to the vocal lines delivered by the characters, and the cutscene playing.

5:37 "HAAAAAAALL "DINING HAAAAAAAAAALL" "HIDEY HOOOOOOOOOLE"

This one definitely hits a lot better if you've played the games and get all the musical references (FF3 crystal tower for example) I'd suggest checking the cinematic out sometime!

Another great spng to listen to is Endwalker - Footfalls. It has something like 6 different sections to it, the main/opening, Heavensward, Stormblood, main 2, Shadowbringers, and Finale and all are strung together in a way that both reminds you of your journey and prepares you for the journey ahead.

Tearbringers and then end feels

It's a shame your introduction to this was without the trailer that this specific arrangement of Shadowbringers tunes was written to accompany. The various tone shifts make a lot more sense in the context of the trailer. There's a lot they wanted to show off in the trailer and not all of those elements are so thematically linked that a single style of music would be appropriate throughout. The tunes that this is an arrangement/medley of are significantly more thematically cohesive when listened to as individual tracks.

Bruh when eternal wind kicks in I lose it everytime xD

Part of the reason why this song "doesn't develop" is the plot of this expansion: There is a world adjacent to the primary one, that is slowly tipping to elemental Light. If darkness is chaos, light is order, and the most rigid order is Stasis. The world is trapped in an inability to change.

Now I want him to listen side by side with Revenge of the Horde and FFXVI's Away.

This particular version of the composition was used for the theatrical trailer for the Shadowbringers game expansion, that's why you hear so many transitions in the song. It's kind of following along with the action in the trailer. There are bits of these themes, though, that play in different scenes in the expansion. Listen to Tomorrow and Tomorrow.

IF you wanted to hear a 'cleaner' version of the theme, instead of the trailer version, and the second part called "Invincible" Look up FF14 Hades. Dudewhereismyspoon has a great video capturing them both in entirety. I think you're enjoy those even more.

Just listen to Tomorrow and Tomorrow for the full version of the "intro"

Omg finally you listened FF14’s songs!! 😭😭😭😭😭

heavenly delusion op 🙏

Man, Id love to go through this expansion for the first time again, experience all the emotions and feelings for the first time. I hadn't cried that hard in a game since Suikoden 1, FF6 and FF7 back in the late 90's.

Love to see someone catch that it's the same chord progression in the opening and later on in the song... But did you catch that both are variations on the melody from Answers?

the intro is about introduction to the new stuff but without fully revealing whats going on, then if u want to have full story music that focus on exact one part, then its not the Intro for new Expansion, but rather look for a soundtrack from some boss fight, which solely focus on it, instead of combining multiple layers

watch the shadowbringers trailer

A lot of the FF14 trailer music is usually a medley of tracks arranged to loosely fit together but coincide more with the visuals (it's why they flow sort of oddly as a piece) and like others had mentioned it's mixed for VO or in-game SFX so it's compressed all to hell to fit the in-game mix. I'd love it if they did a less compressed, more balanced mix of the tracks (especially the more busy ones that get a little muddy due to the compression), but it costs money to remix everything so while I get it, still sort of a bummer

when specifically the part you talked about is playing you are fighting a precursor of mortal kind, a near godlike entity older than recorded history and a paragon among his people who's perview was the use of magic itself. In another lifetime he was one of your closest friends and before the battle he pleaded with you to see his point of view before your irreconsileable ideologies forced a confrontation, casting off his mortal guise and revealing his true name as Hades. With the aid of heroes from other dimensions, your own reflections and shards of your own original self, you kill Hades and he only asks that you remember that all the people who put their trust in him at the end of their world once lived in a final farewell to a friend who now is but a shadow of what they once were in his eyes and wears the face of a stranger. ... then some timetravel bullshit happens, even after he literally comes back from the dead briefly to help you out of a jam, and then even later he briefly comes back from the dead with another friend of yours, having regained an erased part of his memory where he specifically said he would never do anything as cringe as try to restore the original world after a desperate godcreating ritual backfired and act out a moody reminder of what was lost, recreating the capital city of their doomed society, only to have literally done all of that... the character is a really well written and likeable antagonist.

Man. What an expansion.

love this! although i think watching it with the trailer hits more, even if the viewer doesnt know whats happening, it all feels so epic. but i understand this is a music channel so its all good!

This is the song that got me into FF14. It’s been almost 3 years now, and still playing. ( In a dungeon as I type this). XD

We see you got hooked completely in the intro. She also had the full song "Tomorrow and Tomorrow" and "Flow" later for the game, and you all love them.

Best way to put it is its both a theme of all the themes and of the main bosses. We will hear it at the story climax and credits so its a very introspective piece

I begin to play FFVI coz I heard Dancing Mad..an absolute piece of art. So is the first FF that Im playing and is full of awesome music, I mean really. Have Tony reacted to it? Coz I had seen that people talk about Dancing Mad at the level of One Winged Angel (another masterpiece) that he already react..

The main themes for each of the Final Fantasy 14 expansions tend to have a couple of stylistically different segments because they're played over the main trailers and have to match the wildly varying visuals. My favorite is Footfalls, the Endwalker theme since it actually revisits the themes from the previous expansions over its entire song.

If hes still looking for ffxiv music some pretty big winners are Flow and Dedicated to Moonlight

Thi track is the main theme for the Shadowbringers expansion. Its written for the purpose of driving the expansion trailer. As such, it benefits greatly by watching the trailer as you listen.

This is easily my favorite track from FFXIV. I would say what makes it so good is the pairing of the trailer. Combined with the story happening in the trailer, it can really give you chills. especially at the end.

Youve opened pandoras box now by listening to ffxiv music, it is an incredible soundtrack all the way through with some bangers. Soken is an incredible composer.

i'm not sure how the process was, but most of the variances of this song its decompose through the OST. when you play the game, this song (the main theme of the expansion) feels like a remix of all the ones you experienced to the climax, but at the same time it doesn't. works both ways, as a combination of all main themes or as a guide of them, a "father" song (for my lack of words to describe this with my restrict music knowledge). apparently, this repetition of themes and accords in different songs its a common thing for Masayoshi Soken in FFXIV and it builds a lot for the storytelling. sorry for bad english and i love your videos!

Shadowbringers takes place on the First, a parallel dimension on the brink of collapse, where the player character is summoned to rescue and restore the world. Several comrades accidentally trapped there join them, as well as Emet-Selch, an immortal villain who seeks to harness the First's apocalypse to restore his deity, Zodiark. Emet-Selch accompanies and tests the player character, confident despite their meddling. Basically this world is being swallowed by light and creatures of light (that look more like angelic hellspawn) have overun the world. You arrive with few remaining cities left to save

Just reached the shadowbringers story and yeah this slaps

We need to see him react to Close in the Distance

Id like to add that this expansion "Shadowbringers" took the main character to an '*alternate world*' (for lack of interest in spoiling any story points) so some of these motifs or themes are plays on the original pieces from earlier expansions. Its very well crafted when put into the context of the story and very hard to explain specific parts without spoiling something for some players. lolol

I believe if you want some stronger vocal mixing, The Primals covers bring the levels up. Soken's personal band.

"Find the flame" final fantasy xvi uff epic

Soken is a great composer but because he up until recently composed mostly for an MMORPG, a lot of his music, and music from this game is contextual, experimental, and varied. I honestly don't expect people who haven't played the game or aren't super into this sound to love the song, but I think most who play the game appreciate it more. Not calling Soken a bad composer by any stretch, but even from his score in FFXVI he definitely leans heavily into one type of sound, and when experimenting often goes full rock. People who like that sound are gonna love it, but I can definitely see those who don't like it as much. I hate when people treat Soken like this untouchable god, he's human too, and not every one of his tracks will land.

You should try out Answers, the main theme of the base game.

The violin part is a callback to Eternal Wind, a theme from Final Fantasy III back in 1990: [[ ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-79iWS0reUGA.html ]] The reason is that Shadowbringers borrows some elements and themes from FF3. One thing that's great about Shadowbringers composer Masayoshi Soken is that he knows when to take a step back and fill in recompositions from Nobuo Uematsu, the main composer of Final Fantasy 1 - 11. (That's also the part in the trailer where old-skool Final Fantasy fans started bursting up in tears screaming "that's Eternal Wind!" in reactions. :D)

Soken is a bloody GENIUS! All the music in FFXIV always perfectly match the scenes in which they play during. It evokes soo much emotion from the player, me included Q_Q

We Faaaaaaaaall

Yeah there's a few different mixes of this song. The audio balance is different in game, soundtrack, tailer, etc. There's also a live band version which doesn't have the choir. This version is primarily in the trailer. In game, it doesn't have the choir and violins

The trailer makes this soundtrack make a lot more sense lol

Reminded me of a Dragonsdogma song

I would really like this guy to give his thoughts on Aoharu and Re Aoharu from Blue Archive.

The warrior of darkness 💪

In this expansion of FF14, possible spoilers by the way, you're fighting these enemies called sin eaters that can attack normal people and transform them into sin eaters. The world was covered in light, in this thing called the flood mentioned in the lyrics . There is no darkness at night time. You're fighting to bring things back into balance and rid the world of sin eaters. Your character is the only one who can make this happen. There's more to it but I wanted to keep it as simple as possible.

Watch the Cinematic that goes with it.

Rug pulled!

the FFXIV ARR intro, has imo the best intro music.. (but the Shadowbringers expansion from a story perspective, is the best..)

Maybe you should listen to FF XVI theme song Moongazing by Kenshi Yunezu, the same person that make chainsaw man op

So, lemme give you some lore context that's missing from these comments, in case you're interested! SPOILERS for anyone playing 14 who hasn't reached Shadowbringers. This is the game's third expansion, and its story takes place on the First, a world that sorta acts as a mirror or reflection of the one we had become familiar with up until that point. This reflection of the world has undergone a catastrophic event called the Flood of Light; an event that wiped out 90% of the world and its population, and turned its people into horrible, yet also "angelic" monsters of Light called Sin Eaters. The sky remains perpetually flooded with golden rays of light, even at nighttime. So this is effectively a fantasy post-apocalypse where Light and angels are the main antagonists. Your job is to become the Warrior of Darkness, by destroying the Sin Eaters and returning Darkness back to the First, which counterintuitively acts as its salvation. Hence the name "Shadowbringers". I, for one, find this concept alone to be an incredibly cool fantasy concept and I think the sounds that this track brings to the table reflect it well. The dichotomy of Light and Dark, of simultaneous hopelessness and hope, of a hero's burden to save a damned world that by all accounts, should be well past redemption. It hits all the notes of classic Final Fantasy-style high fantasy, while bringing something new and interesting to the table. This game's story is more about the journey than the destination, and this track even reflects that. The way the song unexpectedly shifts tone from the intro is very intentional; this expansion represented a major shift in the game's story into something a little more mature, complicated, and darker. It's also where we start seeing a more rock-inspired tone taking over a lot of the OST, whereas most of the music prior to this point had been more classic fantasy music. You'll notice that the lyrics reflect a sense of mourning for a world long since lost to the Light, along with a sense of hope that "this isn't the end" and "our journey isn't ending here".