Many of the area themes draw from these vocal themes. The game rarely missteps when it comes to vocal themes, and I’m glad to see that pattern continue here. Rounding out the vocal themes is the excellent and epic “Answers” composed by Nobuo Uematsu and sung by Susan Calloway, which is a repeat from the Before Meteor soundtrack that still holds up so many years later. It’s an impressive reworking of the cliché evil empire theme into a believable national anthem that has some commonality with sombre European anthems, performed with folk and jazz inflections. There is also “Home Beyond the Horizon,” the Garlemald anthem which mixes “Imperial Will” with a new melody. As before, her classical voice is still a welcome change from the usual pop singers that appear on vocal themes, and I find her mature and motherly tone especially fitting here. The band version “Flow Together” is also excellent, with a more dynamic performance from Achen to match the energy of the track. This track will draw comparisons to “Tomorrow and Tomorrow,” but I find “Flow” to be a much better track with richer harmony and stronger instrumentation. The other major vocal theme is “Flow” sung by Achen. It’s not the sort of theme that one associates with emotional moments in video games, but Soken makes it work incredibly well (in part due to the use of the instrumental and the distorted “Echoes in the Distance” as lead-ups in the game).
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It too is surprisingly effective in context, and is sure to be another fan favourite in a game already full of them. Miller, who sang for Shadowbringers, returns for this, an even moodier rock track with a fittingly spacious sound. Closely related to “Endwalker” is “Close in the Distance,” since they share a chorus melody. Immediately following is the title screen track, “Prelude – Tales.” This has a bit of the “Endwalker” melody sung by a distant Achen, and when combined with the changed harmony for the “Prelude” segment, it’s a nice little atmospheric piece.Īlthough the other vocal themes don’t show up until much later in the soundtrack, they are motifs for the rest of the soundtrack. I’m sure many players will find this track elicits many emotions in them, even if it isn’t their usual style of music. Taken on its own it may not seem like much, but as a follow-up to everything that came before it’s surprisingly effective in many ways it feels like the natural evolution to “To The Edge.” The track only improves as it builds and works in other themes, making it a fitting and rousing start to the end of the major arc. The initial theme “Endwalker” is impressive enough in how understated it is as a melancholy rock track that could have come from the 90’s. The track features vocalist Sam Carter from The Architects, as well as Amanda Achen who sang for Shadowbringers.
The soundtrack begins with the opening cutscene track “Endwalker – Footfalls,” itself a medley of some of the new vocal themes for the expansion, peppered with nods to melodies of earlier expansions as well. As per usual, the album is available both digitally and on Blu-ray.
It is also notable that Soken and the team have decided to not let the area themes be much influenced by the urgency of the narrative, instead having the themes focus on the locales so that they stand on their own. This allows the expansion to establish and develop its own musical ideas over the bulk of its 62 tracks (though seven of these tracks come from earlier soundtracks). Although narratively the expansion is the end of a major arc, musically there are actually only a handful of explicit references to earlier themes where appropriate, the game simply reuses older tracks verbatim. As with previous expansions, the team for the soundtrack is led by Masayoshi Soken. Endwalker: Final Fantasy XIV Original SoundtrackĮndwalker: Final Fantasy XIV Original Soundtrack is the soundtrack that contains all of the new music for the 6.0 Endwalker expansion of Final Fantasy XIV before its major content patches.
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