Why I LOVE Zodiark's Theme (EndCaller) || Final Fantasy XIV: OST 

Which Endwalker track do you want next?

In an eerie way, this is the final swan song of hope for those who sacrificed their lives and aether in hope that the world would be saved. There's a slight undercurrent of hope, pride and joy, combine with an overwhelming sense of sheer desperation and sadness; not only from their long imprisonment - but what Fandaniel is planning to do - they know. They, who were supposed to be saviors of the Star, are about to be used for its actual annihilation.

Endcaller is the "Song of hope" of the Ascians

Finally a person who knows the lore while reacting to the music. Love it man

Soken is a literal god of composing. I've never had a game make me fight multiple bosses while having both chills and tears in my eyes. The music just takes all that built up emotion inside you and rips it out in climactic moments and makes you feel like these fights really ARE life and death struggles.

This song was originally not going to be the Zodiark ost. Here was a interview with soken and ishikawa. Interviewer: Are there are other tracks that leave an impression? Soken: Hmm, its hard, there’s so many this time… (laughs). If I had to say, its ‘ENDCALLER’. Actually, this track wasn’t originally composed for the Zodiark fight. Ishikawa: The file’s title was “generic last boss music”. I thought “there’ll be nothing generic about the last boss” (laughs). I personally think this theme was going to be the final boss theme for dungeons because it is a remix of the endwalker theme. But they decided to use it for Zodiark and let the song be orchestral arranged by Yoshitaka Suzuki.

We were all at lv83 like "Already?!"

You go in to it here, but I feel it's worth expanding on: the "On Wings of Hope" section of Endcaller is what I call the "Heroic Challenge." It's something that comes up in a lot of boss fight themes. The boss theme is dark, menacing, Minor key, and all of a sudden there's a section in a Major key, and/or another instrument comes in, challenging the darkness. Possibly even bringing in the Hero's leitmotifs. Like in "The Dethroned" by Michael Salvatori, there's a section where the boss, Savathûn, her theme goes into the background, and the chorus comes in, singing the "Guardian" leitmotif. The player-character's theme. It turns the boss fight theme into a true duel. The boss throws their power around, battering the heroes, but then the music switches, giving the players an "I still stand!" moment, challenging the boss's might. This is what makes it a true battle theme, not just the big bad's theme.

I think looking back as a first time experience Zodiark's fight and music was one of my favourites. In hindsight it's like my love for Fellowship of the Ring, re-visiting it reminds me that it was essentially the start of a longer epic journey. And in all the music you could hear those motifs that would be re-visited down the road.

A song for the Amaurotian souls trapped within Zodiark. 'Song' and 'prayer' synonymous, they persevere within his body, trapped in vow and continuing their duty of forestalling the Final Days. Zodiark carries their prayers, their psalms. That one day their wish for the return of what was once Paradise. I never even thought of this until you brought it up. Thank you Marco!

As someone who have followed the trailer and various pre-launch footage of endwalker When the "Song of Hope" leitmotif came in during the Zodiark encounter, it was something special. At first, the "Song of Hope" motif was heard in the trailer, associated with the Sharleyan section, Amanda's vocal immediately captured everyone and people associated this to be the Sharlyean city theme. However, when the media tour came and the Sharleyan city theme was actually revealed, it caught me quite off guard because you barely hear the "Song of Hope" motif. Instead, the Sharleyan theme is an instrumental rendition of "Flow" for the most part. The "Song of Hope" motif only comes up at the very end for a brief moment. All these left me wondering, just where would be the first prominent featuring of that leitmotif be? And so it was not just the anticipation for the story, but the anticipation for the music too, that was part of the build up for my personal experience. And of course, when we finally hear the full version of Flow, and the "Song of Hope" motif comes in at the end to tie everything together as an emotional resolution, it was beautiful.

Yeah, the down version of Wings of hope, it's the lament of the asciens, trapped in that twisted Primordial. And we bear that heritage as the beared of the crystal of Azem, shard of the Last Azem.

I'ld like to see your retrospect on "answers" now after endwalker. This whole time, the first theme we had was a song called "Answers", the female voice being confirmed as being sung by Hydelan. Who were the male voices in the chorus? why do we carry on when redemption's beyond us?" My theory is the male chorus in answers are the ancients from the world un sundered / ascians looking on at the world "what do we do? all hope is lost.. our perfect world!" , even in the song "the land is alive, so believe' , they didn't beleive it was, as it was not their perfect world. Furhter more, All this time we had the 'Answer' to live life, a response to the question "why do you live?" that we are just now getting asked in the story. Bravo to the song and story writers for this.

Boy oh boy, where do I begin with this song?!?! One of my (admittedly many) favorites in the entire expansion! You honestly covered so many things I also love about it. I've always LIVED for Amanda Achen's verses in Footfalls, so the specific refrain/reprise of them after all this ominous, incredibly powerful music-this time with the male chorus and with orchestral accompanying instrumentation had me signing those lyrics to myself in this fight. ESPECIALLY when synced-up with fight mechanics that we're now all having to perform, using our attacks and abilities in concert with moving, dodging his return onslaught. "Oh no... our healers are down and our Red Mage is almost... *starts singing these verses about hope and standing in the dark and being able to carry on*" But then comes the revelation of potential DIFFERENT English lyrics instead of the Pseudo-Latin. I was SLAIN in my seat watching this! I know this was a fan's own heard and interpreted lyrics. However, this completely recontextualizes the male chorus. These were actually the Convocation of the Twelve after The Decision™ to finally proceed with the plan. The lyrics themselves showing their lust for darkness; they were now fully Tempered of Zodiark. The fanatical rapturous call for their own blood sacrifices, that they were now, themselves, hungering to give in order to feed Zodiark's evil and consume the Star, not save it... And the use of the word FAITH in stark opposition to HOPE in the Footfalls' original lyrics was such an INCREDIBLE parallel. Final Fantasy XIV has journeyed from being an absolute joke and flop in 1.0 to becoming a MASTERPIECE. We just needed to give those seeds first planted in 1.0, which nearly perished entirely, about, oh, six expansions to germinate and grow into a bountiful forest.

I have this theme drilled into my head thanks to numerous wipes. Thank god that it was such an enjoyable piece of music

"Only the first boss of the expansion, by the way"

I think I listen to this track at least every other day, and I never realized it was a version of Footfalls. Why do I have dumb ears.

You didn't mention it, but on this same thread on reddit about the Zodiark lyrics, there's the wings of hope part, which goes like this: "On wings of faith, you rise up through the night, Our Lord Zodiark! Carry on our home, All we knew, our perfect world, Let the chorus of hope take all!" If it's right or wrong idk, but I like the idea that amaurotines are also singing about Zodiark as their hope, and we are crushing it down. It's beautiful.

i'd say the moon is pretty high up there, so i wouldn't say were at our lowest.

If you think about the plot of the game, and exactly how/why Zodiark was summoned... You can hear the subtle hints of hope and desperation throughout the song. The intro is a happy chorus, celebrating Zodiark returning, growing strong again, followed by by the fight of them fighting, struggling against the WoL, using every ounce of power they have to stop the 'hero' from destroying their final attempt to save their old world. Because the Amourotians did not know the truth behind the end of their world, they still see Hydaelyn as the villain. The being who fractured their world, and made their sacrifice to Zodiark in vain. And now, we, the champion of Hydaelyn, are here to officially exterminate their only savior? You can -hear- their pleas for struggles throughout the song. It's incredibly well written.

i like the first part of the endsinger fight music as it has bits from all previous theme musics and expansions like this is the culmination of all those stories

This is really fascinating! The use of leitmotif is so genius in this expansion. Having spent months listening to Footfalls, it was engraved in my brain. Then when it got to the "second half" of this song for the first time, I was singing along with it as the fight went on. "On wings of hope, you rise up through the night, higher, oh higher~♪" That turning point usually happens when you're about 40% into his healthbar, so it provides a much needed second wind on your first run when you're feeling overwhelmed by the new mechanics. Absolute masterpiece.

Its good that this song is so amazing, because I have fought the extreme version about 70 times and still haven't gotten the mount yet. Also it's actually funny that the Amaurotines saviour is so demonic looking

Great breakdown of the song, makes me appreciate it even more now! 5:30 - 6:00 hits so hard every time maaannn

Really looking forward to the next Eorzean Symphony orchestra for a chance to hear this one, since a lot of the songs with 'vocals' (like 'Ultima', 'The Worm's Tail, 'From the Heavens' and 'Invincible', to name a fair few) are actually given official lyrics. Often they're very interesting and give big expansions to lore, or just enchance the atmosphere. Would recommend.

5:29 and 6:05 Want to share some analysis thoughts! I know different people get different experiences going into fights. To me, Zodiark felt heartbreaking and tragic--these people who gave their lives to save their world, their loved ones, getting bent instead toward destroying all that remained against their will. And the conclusion of the fight sees any hope they had of going home again destroyed. It would have been simpler if Zodiark had truly been evil or monstrous, but he embodied the hopes and dreams of probably billions of innocent people. That got twisted with time, circumstances, and inflexible tempering--but the story there was a tragedy rather than something fundamentally evil. I get a sense that there are moments in the song exploring the nobility, sadness, and tragedy of Zodiark (particularly the Footfalls-influenced bits), and other moments where the danger and twisting of the situation are communicated as you mentioned. In a way, the Footfalls lyrics broke my heart if read from the perspective of the Ancients themselves too--for whom the darkness/night didn't represent something horrific but hopeful. And beyond the immediate, the lyrics presented in Endcaller imo explore how both tempering (long term) and Fandaniel (immediate) twisted the desires for hope, survival, and salvation into weapons. I've found a few cases where there are immediate meanings for the player or the world as it is, then additional contexts it can be applied to. For me the fight has juxtapositions between the meaning for WoL, for the Ancients/Elidibus/what Zodiark is meant to be vs what they became, and for Fandaniel in particular. (As an aside, I've found Fandaniel has INTENSE Paradise Lost-devil motifs going on in ways that are beyond exciting! A lot of 'why am I unsatisfied with paradise/why was I made imperfect/am I wrong or is everyone else' stuff going on--among other things. Also forbidden fruit/apples and serpent/caduceus bits. So while I don't strictly read Zodiark as the devil thematically, I do think Fandaniel-as-Zodiark fits hardcore and got excited when you mentioned that connection.)

Every step we take, echoes in our wake winding round our fate to forge ahead should we lose our way tire of all this pain we wont be afraid to forge ahead

Everyone was wrong. "ohh we're doing this now!?"

I think it's quite interesting to note that anytime we have a song that involves both Hydaelyn and the people of Etheirys, there's usually a soloist or upper section acting as the voice of Hydaelyn, while tenors and bass act as "the voice of the people" who are trying to find some form of hope in trying times. It's a neat detail here, where the lower sections still act as the sort of tense, questioning voice, almost as if they're wondering if this will be the final days.

I regret watching this before bed. I just logged out and after I watched this, I have this itch to go back in and relive the moment my WoL went through this trial. Thanks for analysing this because it definitely opened my eyes (or ears) on how the music accompanied us throughout each moments!

This is by far my favorite song in FFXIV, let alone Endwalker. And what gets me the most is that during production this song's name was "Final Boss Generic" which when you think about the themes for every final boss previously...yeah, this is the generic expected final boss theme. BUT IT GOES SO HARD AAAAAAA The version of The Song of Hope here just breaks me because after every major plot beat the emotional tone of it's inclusion in Endcaller changes drastically. The first time you're fighting Zodiarc, The Song of Hope feels like Hydaelyn's prayer to you and the hopes of all of Eorzea. Rise up, defy the darkness, ring hope for all. But then when you learn about Meteion and Hermes, you realize that this is still the dark reprise of The Song of Hope, and how Hermes' hopes for Meteion fell to despair, and so too did he. The Song of Hope wasn't for us, it was trying to call out to the heart of Hermes buried within Fandaniel's doom... Or maybe it was because it was that the Amaroutine's hopes were always doomed to fail from the very beginning. Or maybe it's Venat showing us how painful it can be to carry hope forward through eras of suffering Or maybe it's the blue Meteion that breaks first from the Endsinger's chorus saying it's not the end... God this expansion is so beautiful.

This song gives me goosebumps every time I listen to it. It's probably my favorite out of all the games. When it came on, I blasted my speakers and enjoyed every moment of the battle. The fact that Soken threw it in a file called generic final boss theme makes me wonder what bangers were left on the cutting room floor

Hair's lookin good this vid Marco :)

I also really appreciate that the voice actor (in English) has lines that reflect the lyrics. Like "It will be glorious!"

Only one correction. This track is arranged by Yoshitaka Suzuki. VGMDB of each FFXIV OST has correct arrangers and composers for each track. But yeah, this track is epic.

Finally someone else who appreciates this BANGER! It's my fave track from the expansion by A MILE

Just in case ppl post the “lyrics” here… there aren’t official lyrics for this song lol. the choir was generated with an AI that, when given some words to base the text language on, is able to create pieces like this!

I wonder if the "Song of Hope" section is about how the Ascians who created/manifested Zodiark felt/are driven yet. ''E'er our vows endure, and remain forever strong. Standing tall in the dark do we carry on" being the line I think might be the biggest mark of this, both of our party standing tall in the dark in defiance of Zodiark, but also of the Ascians' continued influence and will through Zodiark, still standing tall in darkness clad, carrying their legacy forever until we defeat him.

ALL IN EXISTENCE, BENT TO MY WILL

For reference, Amanda's part of Footfalls is also part of its own song named "With Hearts Aligned"

I've always thought this: The "On wings of hope" section is entirely meant to be sung by the Ancients. The first verse is about them: "E'er our vows endure/And remain forever strong/Standing tall in the Dark do we carry on" is absolutely the song of the Ancients who gave of themselves to create Zodiark. Then the second verse is their plea to YOU: "On wings of hope, YOU rise up through the night/Higher, oh higher/ Carrying our song / Cradled fast within your arms/ That its chorus might ring for all!" Their vows endured. They remained strong. They carried on. Now, they tell us, as we defeat their dark god, that it's our turn to ferry their song even higher. I'd say "they should've sent a poet," but they obviously did.

Aside from the obvious part starting at 5:30 that's great, I think one of my favorite small moments of this song is the bit at 2:20 where the chanting cuts out and has its notes replaced by the horns, followed by the swell after.

If you want to know the secret behind Soken's brilliance, it's lots and lots of... ...chicken karaage.

This track has traumatized me with how long clearing the Extreme took

I don't know if you've heard of this game, but a game that I personally love both for music and for design is Outer Wilds. It's a space exploration game all about knowledge and discovery. I would definitely recommend giving it a playthrough before reviewing the music, but I would absolutely love to see what you think about their songs

I can't wait to hear his Endsinger review especially when the transition hits.

I love how the opera singers in this song are actually the ancients that sacrificed themselves to bring about Zodiark. The lyrics consist of lines such as “For the dreams of home! For the lives we’re owed! For the inner voice of the lost one!” “Zodiark, the many! Zodiark, the mighty! Darkness consumes all to the one who won’t just let you. Wake up! Please save us!” and the classic “Zodiark! Take our lives! Give a thousand more!” It really is a beautiful song

I hope that when they eventually do an Ultimate Zodiark encounter (which will almost definitely be his fully formed self), we actually get to hear lyrics that aren't muffled. Also really enjoy the fan attempts to transcribe the lyrics, particularly the "Wings of Faith" bit ending with "Let the Chorus of dark take all" would be genius if Soken actually did have intended lyrics in mind.

My man. When I first entered the area before the trial and saw Zodiark in his (Almost) full glory, and knew he'd be the trial? I was just in chat blasting off asking why the god damn god of the ascians was trial number one xD

ALL IN EXISTENCE BENT TO MY WILL!

i love the higher oh higher part cos its like. . . . it could be about Zodiark OR Meteion like BRO

Considering so much of Endwalker is also almost a loveletter to FF4, I also feel there are some motifs of the Zeromus battle theme in the music for Zodiark.

The music of this fight is so powerful feeling. It fits very well for the most powerful primal (if he was fully formed, at least).

We now have lyrics for this, and know that that the "song of hope" moment is a spin on the original lyrics "On wings of faith you rise up through the night, Our lord, Zodiark" Notice how much more....dependent this version seems to be?

When I got to zodiark, I was like what!? This early?! Also Soken is awesome, love that guy.

The better part of the "extra" lyrics is that it implies that the "song" in foot falls could be from the endsinger. If zodiark one, the endsinger and dynamis would have wiped everything out as everything fell to darkness. It also could tie into why its present in her 2nd phase. She carries the song as the last line of what would be fandanial's will

I think the "song of hope" part has different meaning for me. For me its all the sacrificed ancients in Zodiark, who still have hope for their future fighting against the Fandaniel version of Zodiark. Zodiark was born to save the Ancient World not to destroy it so it would make sense for me. and thats why this is sung by chorus at least thats my interpretation

remembering how this song made me feel my first time running it (as a paladin so i think it really works) made me want to resub

GOD THEY ARE DOING AN ORCHESTRAL VERSION!

I think this track is also referencing the og FF1 battle theme? I could be wrong, but I am hearing bits and pieces at multiple points. (Mid video, so not sure if you mention it!)

I feel like as an opera singer you'd have a really good analysis of Garuda's theme (Fallen Angel). It is slightly spares on lyrics and mostly is the energy and sway from vocal chorus.

Cool, since I never played FFXIV I was expecting the Esper Theme from Final Fantasy XII, but this is clearly better...

Reflecting on this song i think i might know why the vocals arent understandable. And i think its to blur the line between us and the ascians. With 1 word replaced the lines are as follows: On Wings of Hope He dances on the wind Higher O Higher ever our vows endure and remain forever strong Standing tall in the dark do we carry on. On wings of Hope you rise up through the night Higher o Higher carrying our song cradled fast within your arms that its chorus might ring for all! This is just as much their fight as it is ours a contest of wills Their God vs Us about the only fault i have in this interpretation is that the context of the battle is that Zodiark stirs not because of the plans of the ascians but because of Fandaniel and his Omnicidal Ideation. Which imo could still be explained by the distorted and nefarious tone of this rendition. like a Broken Record on repeat for so long that its become maddened its not the first time weve seen time effect the Ascians. what couldve been a test between the two of us has been warped and twisted by its founders dying and the remainders wearing its corpse as a mask to hide its far darker ambitions

if you look closely at Hydaelyn she has alot of the same features as zodiark such as the horns and the halo aswell as the angel wings (zodiark indeed has angel wings) and in the cover art they are both depicted in humanoid shape. the tentacles are probably due to his lower half being torn away

You could even say the men are singing in a... tempered... manner.

The FFXIV music keeps surprising me, truly a special game Also Day fifty-nine of recommending Stay Gold from the Arknights OST

While yes, we are currently fighting the "Dark" we do not fight a "devil". Zodiark is a primal, he was created for a purpose, he is not inherently evil. All he does is what he was meant to do. What the Ascians/old civilization wanted Zodiark to do.

Hi Marco! I hope you could do a reaction to FF15: Episode Ignis Battle Theme 🙏 I really love all your reviews as you described each piece like you already listened to those for a very long time: accurate and precise. Also I wanted the people to realize how the music in this FF game is on another level and how unappreciated this game is. But anyways thanks for making these videos because of how these reactions always brings a smile to my face. Love from the Philippines. Godbless and more power to you my man. 😊🙏❤️

Zodiark is handsdown the best boss theme in Endwalker. Zodiark and Nidhogg boss theme is a proof than Soken is the perfect successor of Nobuo Uematsu. He's not only capable of making FF song that has rock & roll twist but his arrangement of orchestra style music is also very amazing.

Hey, you know what? I think you can check out ost from Lobotomy Corporation. Which is one of the best game I’ve played. It’s developers always have a good taste in music.

🤔 I got you a good question: Have you heard the end song of the original FFXIV game, “ANSWERS”? That’s one song I would love to see your REACTION!! That being said, I’m loving your reactions to the FF OST! Keep at it! Still recommend FF6 DANCING MAD, and FF7 ONE WINGED ANGEL.

So, there is unofficial lyrics for this song. They are usually by people that aren't too far off the mark if you wanted to check them out. It adds a lot of depth to the song and the connection to "Song of Hope"

No right to play "With hearts aligned" until you finish Endwalker! :)

Can you do a breakdown to haloweak narwhal ?

I am become zodiark

6:41 needs an entire track

Sometimes it feels like people analyzing things sound like a conspiracy theorist trying to connect miscellaneous dots together

I love this theme but I was A bit disappointed at how traditional fantasy it was, when vast majority of shadowbringers trials were hella experimental and weird. But still love this track

I'm not sure if it's just me, but I felt like Soken is doubly crazy, because it sounds to me like it's *also* based on the original Final Fantasy battle theme: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-XjPF3AwVPM4.html Check out the first four notes of the melody vs. the part at 2:08 in this video With Zodiark being sort of the original biggest bad (?), and looking kind of like Chaos, the final boss of the original Final Fantasy, I figured he wanted to pay tribute to Uematsu.

Great video, just a BIG suggestion/recommendation. The FFXIV community are well done to keep spoilers. So I suggest to be careful with the thumbnail and your title (using the name of the song or the dng/raid is better)

How distracted by the music were you when ya first fought him?

Alternatively, the wings of hope rising though the night, going higher and higher was Meteion's song, once. Xodiark doesn't strike me as particularly devilish - I can't think of anything in Christian folklore that describes the devil as a barrier against elemental hopelessness.

Sepherot's theme from remake

The problem with Zodiark's theme is that it doesnt feel like its Zodiark, its Endwalker theme and it doesnt have a particual charisma (even Soken admitted it on an interview). Zodiark's themes and motfs are on Elidibus and Emet's theme, the emotions, hopes and lives of the people of Etherys (except Hydaelyn) are placed there, on Elidibus melody and lyrics not on Zodiark music.