This is it. The day we watched our world end.

When FINAL FANTASY XIV first launched, it was riddled with programming issues and the developers were trying too hard to make it similar to an older MMO. Eventually, they brought in Naoki Yoshida to be the game's executive producer to fix everything. His solution is depicted in the video: destroy the game and rebuild it from the ground up. Two years later, FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn was released, marking one of the greatest rebirth/comeback stories in all of video game history.

We, the players/Warriors of Light, were on those fields. We fought back the Garleans until Dalamud cracked open. We fought back our tears (unsuccessfully) as we watched Bahamut destroy everything. It wasn't until later, as we completed the Binding Coils of Bahamut raids, that we found out what Louisoix had done to beat back the dragon at the end.

And it was not until just recently...we found out the true meaning of these lyrics.

The second she starts singing always gets me. It causes years of memories, friendships, experiences to come back to me all at once.

The song itself is so powerful, but it becomes even more so once you have the context of the story all through the game to go with it. Answers always brings a tear to my eye.

10 years to get the answer to the song answers.
Well worth it.

The way this game wields it's music like a greatsword at the players is masterful.

Yet the cries echoed still



Definitely one of the greatest songs in the FF canon. I rank it with the likes of Dancing Mad and OWA

Came for the react, stayed for the intro. That was WIIIIIILDDDDD!

It's amazing that it's taken the game 10 years to answer the single question of why given life must people in the world of FFXIV live and die. Having played this game since a realm reborn when answers was released, this song brings a tear to my eye everytime. It's so good to see the reaction to it.

So this song was one of the last songs written by Nobuo Uematsu before he retired as the main composer for the FF series. The guy is an incredible composer  who has incredible discography under his belt. He still composes and does concerts, but he no longer takes lead on projects.

But if you have written both Dancing Mad and One Winged Angel, I guess you have nothing to prove.

Mind a lot of video game music is written to work in conjunction with playing the game, some is great on its own but other is memorable because what it means.

Dancing Mad from FF6 is a great song, but the reason why it's memorable is the context of how it was used. It was the song playing as you faced the mad tyrant  Kefka in a final battle, only for you to lose, understanding that this is only the middle of the game and be forced to watch as he wins and destroys the world.

Context for FF14 also helps. This song is heard in the beginning of the story line.  Lines from it are peppered through out the game. But what's important the writters have managed to create a story told over 10 years, that makes the song some of the best foreshadowing ever
We were given the answers before we knew what the questions were.

In short the world of Eorzea was sundered many eons ago. It shattered the world into 13 lesser dimensions. The fate of these worlds are fought over by the sinister Ascians and the sentient crystal Hydelin. You serve Hydelin as her champion, the warriors of light. But as the story develops and you put down the more cartoonishly evil Ascian the rest explain that they want to restore the world pre sundering, to a paradise without pain and death.
As the story develops we learn Hydelin was one of their numbers. The protector of her people, who's love for all life knew no bounds.
Something happened and their world was destroyed. To keep themselves alive they created an artificial god called Zodiark who would allow them the illusion of peace from before the calamity. It only cost half of the lives of their population.

Hydelin would not allow it to pass. For her people to rot and expire in delusion. So she sundered the world.

The lesser worlds were bad places to be. The age of plenty was no more. People fought, suffered, lived and died "asking why?".  And every second of it killed her. Our suffering was her suffering, but she kept the course because she believed that humanity will find the strength to go on and find a way forward.
Or she put it : "And even in deepest despair light everlasting."

And we get told that as Answers is sang. What started this saga, now closed it and we know what the Answer is .

And all then cry like little babies because it's really powerful story telling and I am not doing it justice.

This is only the tip of the iceberg for what FFXIV offers musically. But really, the experiences that go along with it, gives the music a whole other level of meaning.

Yes someone who dont stop the video to talk

Fills me with joy to see ff14's music reaching more and more people, you've only scratched the surface of the amazing library of music in this game, love it brother hope you get to hear more!

This piece right here was composed by Nobuo Uematsu, a Japanese composer who had been working on Final Fantasy music since the first installment of the series, in 1987. In 2004, he left the company to found Dog Ear Records. Since then, he's been working on his own music and working with Square Enix, the producers of the Final Fantasy series as a freelancer. When they first created the original FFXIV (14) , he was tasked with writing the game's soundtrack. Unfortunately, the aspects of most of the rest of FF14's game experience were lacking to the point that it failed as an MMO. New development teams were then hired to try to fix the issues with the (very expensive and unprofitable) game. And ever since, the quality of the game has gone up. And the music is still as good 😎, shout-out to Masayoshi Soken and the dev team. Now, if you listen to most of the more recent FFXIV music, you'll find that Masayoshi Soken either composed the music or re-mixed the original soundrack. You'll find that a lot of players who have gone through the current story mode content have an emotional connection to many pieces of the soundtrack. You might hear a lot of comments like "I just tear up when this song plays now" from FF14 players when discussing certain musical pieces. That's because the sound director and his teams have worked diligently and in tandem with the writers and gameplay developers to add layers to the story with music via leitmotifs and narrative-driven lyrical choices. The music is also often designed at certain points using small chunks of music that are easy to listen to over and over so that the tempo of the player's progress in a boss fight maps with the progression of the music in the song. This game won the guinness world record in 2017 for being the video game with the most original soundtracks, at the time having nearly 400 original pieces of music. And that was two Expansion Packs ago!

ah the final fantasy xiv big one. i sing along to every word.

No clue why but I love seeing music people analyze or react to music, it's interesting to hear what someone with more context thinks about these things, glad this popped up on my front page

For anyone who hasnt yet realized it. The five expansions in the hydaelyn ark each represents a stage of grief.

ARR is ignorance. Each side thinks they are just, yet each side makes decisions that lead to their downfall.

HW is anger. All is justified because i was wronged

SB is bargaining. Similar to ARR yet each side is trying to find a better way, ultimately realizing that no amount of negotiating will end their struggle.

Shadow bringers is obviously depression. Emet and Raha hiding their feelings to carry on their mission. Ardbert and Elidibus Desperately carrying on because their pain cant be meaningless.

And End walker, "acceptance, at long last" acceptance will look different based on the choices you make in each previous step. For some they carry on with hope as their only comfort. Some choose ultimate nihilism. And those who refuse to accept eventually end up mentally ill. There was even suicide.


Thats why this story is so powerful. It told the longest and most complete story of grief ever seen in media. Told from a variety of perspectives and over such a long process that it was subtle enough to sray hidden until the very end

I love how you just jammed out for a few minutes and just said dangerous at a certain point :D

Check this out ;) Close to the distance or the dragonsong :) from FF XIV too

Epic intro my dude xD

That intro was like a fever dream lol