FFXIV Endwalker - In The Balance | Reacting To Video Game Music!
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Song mentioned in this video;
Blackmore's Night - Way To Mandalay
th-cam.com/video/8CJO7KJCtmk/w-d-xo.html
I listened to Blackmore's night a lot back in the day and you mentioning them again got me to check them out again :) brings back lots of good chill memories.
your recs are always on point, i put infected mushroom in my regular rotation on your recommendation
Ahh yes, Way To Mandalay is one of my favorite Blackmore's Night songs, up there with Under A Violet Moon and The Clock Ticks On.
The genre is: Soken
Yesssssssss love Blackmore's Night, Ghost of a Rose and Cartouche go hard
I think my favourite part about this song is how seemingly universal the love for this song is. Every time you get to this boss in Aglaia you always have half of the alliance dancing before the fight. It's really cute.
BGM to 100 bois
Too bad ff xiv is mid
@@BandedMetagrossMeteorMash low quality bait smh
It helps that "In The Balance" is an absolute banger.
@@copjing i tried ff14 for 3 days and i genuinely dont understand the hype
Can not wait for the last song in the next 2 parts of the raid. Chances are in my eyes Gridania is probably going to be next. Halone will prob be in place of Rhalgr and the last boss Nophica with a song about nature.
The other section will be about fighting Llymlaen the Navagator and a song about Limsa, as the 3rd boss. While the last fight we will facing Oschon, the Wanderer, basically a reflection of the PC in the game you play.
Can not wait for the songs after Balance. Was so good being a fan of the 3 nations like myself.
This fight is the final bosses in the new raid "Aglaia", which revolves around the pantheon of gods ("The Twelve") that are worshiped on the continent the game takes place in. Throughout the events of the entire game's history (over 10 years now), The Twelve have been mentioned and each city-state has their own deity that they worship (you also pick your patron deity when you create your character), but we don't really know much about them. This raid series gives us the opportunity to learn more about them. It's a welcome addition to the game, as the gods have been a backdrop in the game's world since the beginning, but haven't ever really been fleshed out or focused on in their own content until now (exception being in FF14 v1.0, I believe, but I didn't play back then).
The symbols are coins clinking.
Nald'Thal are the gods of Death and Taxes....
What really gets me with this song is how it’s the perfectly idealized vision of Ul’dah
Wealth, happiness, never needing or wanting
And yet, the actuality of Ul’dah is a refugee crisis, constant backstabbing and undercutting, and the making of a tragedy that was the catalyst to this game’s very first expansion
But this song speaks of what the city should be, can be, and maybe someday will be, because that’s what the Traders embody
Alchemy 70 quest (or just 1.0) spoilers:
It’s worse than that. F’lhaminn is pretty much directly responsible for Minfilia losing her father because of a plot she took part in to force ul’dah to go to war with garlemald. She helped orchestrate the goobue breaking free but it wasn’t subdued quickly enough and killed warburton.
@@mjtechnoviking44 I just recently leveled up my crafters and was blown away by that quest line. I was so shocked by the reveal
And for it to be the song of the patron God of Ul'Dah fights perfectly
@Michael Benson america agrees
Mad lad Soken back at it again, using the clinking of coins as an instrument in a song about the god(s) of commerce and the underworld. Also, you're absolutely spot-on about deserts and palaces. This is a hymn to Nald'thal, who is the patron deity of Ul'dah, an ultra-capitalist desert sultanate.
the only bad thing I can say about it is that the clinking coins is such a subtle touch that it's easy to miss when you listen to it in game, with all the other sounds going on. Or at least I could never tell at the usual audio balance I use.
Warning: I'm going to be a fucking insufferable nerd in the next two sentences of this comment, I apologize.
It is more aptly termed mercantilist rather than capitalist, owing to what we have seen of its functioning. It is also more typical of fantasy worlds since mercantilism is pre-capitalist and associated with the late middle ages and the renaissance.
Wasn't sokken this time.
@@simfilesymlink4593 According to fandom, it was composed by Masayoshi Soken and arranged by Ryo Furukawa and Soken.
Well and overseer of the underworld.
edit: Twin gods combined together.
My friends: "You're doing Aglaia for the gear and minons, right?"
Me, turning down all the sound options so I can better listen to In the Balance: "Sorry, what?"
When this raid came out earlier this year, I remember a lot of runs where everyone let this song loop twice so everyone could jam before initiating the fight. As well as people in all caps typing out lyrics that we could decipher/understand clearly.
And then for the falling spheres, "THAL'S BALLS" being spammed in chat, especially when most of alliance was dead lol.
So excited for the rest of this raid series to come out if only on the possibility that we'll get another banger like this.
Not gonna lie, Thall's Balls was a long con
@@Carsu12 not Thal's bloody balls
/cheerwave
@@gappy6964 I mean, there's a lot of blood ON those balls usually..
@Phoenix I'm on Crystal (Brynhildr to be precise) and while we can be pretty quiet, we don't mind chatting over there.
I personally would love to be more chatty but I'm playstation, so I gotta focus on either mechanics/moving or typing on my little plug in keyboard.
So, this is actually fairly interesting to me on several levels. Throughout 14, a lot of the cultures you encounter are in some way shape or form shaped by the pantheon of Twelve, and the newest raids are actually about meeting and fighting those gods. With Nald'Thal being the twin gods of Life and Death. Nald, keeper of the living, Thal, keeper of the dead, and collectively they're known as The Traders, trading the souls of the dead for new life, etc. There's also the context that Nald'Thal is the patron deity of Ul'Dah, one of the main city-states of the game. So the song works both as a sort of encapsulation of what it means to worship these gods, but also works as a sort of national anthem for Ul'Dah.
That said, the Middle Eastern vibe in the song is very appropriate since Ul'Dah is very much modeled after the sultanates of the Middle Eastern countries.
Someone on reddit said it perfectly: This song is pretty much Ul'Dah: The Musical. And I am here for it.
I love that you said endwalker music sounds theatrical because it really is. Endwalker felt like a finale performance in theater with the way the characters monologued and interacted and some cutscenes we're performed and the music just tied it all together. Thanks for giving this a listen!!
That vibe was definitely intentional. Between Fandaniel literally being meant to harken thoughts of a Shakespearean performer, the marketing saying things “let the curtain fall on the final chapter” and “the strange has been set for the end”… I really enjoy how theatrical the expansion is, like you’re truly playing through a storybook epic/a legend that’s been adapted to the stage
9:14 "It looks like stuff got real."
Yep! If you screw up that mechanic the entire raid dies and you have to start the boss from the top.
One time there are a few in my raid that keep wiping this phase on purpose. 2 of em healers just moved and yoinking people at the last second just to topple the balance thus failing the mechanics. When they're asked why they'd do that, they said just to keep listening to the song. I hate them, but I also can't blame them
There's a special voice line that plays if you manage to actually survive screwing that up. Hard to do, but you can pull it off with well-timed Healer LB3s.
@@jedimasterpickle3 Got a link or source for that? Tried to google it and couldn't find anything. Awesome if true though.
Also, wouldn't that be a tank LB3s?
@Ry He's expressed interest before about tidbits *lmao*
"What's going on? Did he duplicate himself?" Nald'thal, the being the players are fighting here, are actually twin gods. Nald and Thal combined themselves into one, and as The Traders, they're responsible both for balance (in an economic sense) as well as the balance between life and death (think the archetypal "weighing your soul by their deeds and sins").
0:43
Jesse: "Enough talk."
My stupid gamer brain: "HAVE AT YOU!"
The lyrics are hard to understand, so here they are:
O twin gods bless this land, to us treasure bestow
City of desert sands, water and gold below
Lifeblood and rubies red, precious coins cast aglow
Four hands our fortunes mend, that want we may not know
And when we reach our ends, to scales we gladly go
Our fates are yours to bend, to hells and heavens flow
Under arid sky, with silk veils we weave a rainbow
Voices lifted high, dreams upon our backs we carry
When day beckons night (day and night dancing),
As does restless time we never slow
Trusting hand in hand, life death will follow
Stoke now nascent flame, brighter burn, dance with souls afire
May ember catch and red-gold spark rise to new heights
May we want for naught coin can buy
Never see wealth’s river run dry
May we find fortune after life
For this we pray, we pray, we pray, we pray twinfold
Stoke now kindled flame, hotter burn, sing till breath expires
May those who wander paths in the dark find firelight
May we all as true equals die
Never fear unjust favor’s bite
May we be judged by what is right
For this we pray, we pray, we pray, we pray twinfold
I don't know if you caught it while listening, or if another comment pointed this out, but the song switches seamlessly between two time-signatures, again referencing the duality of the deity being fought. The first half of the song is done in 3/4 time (or more likely 6/8), and then it seamlessly transitions into 4/4 time at the time when the vocalist, in your words, "uses her singing voice". It then swaps back on the repeat, after the "we praaaay, we praaay twinfold" section.
I didn't catch this myself, and only noticed thanks to a comment from another video on this song, but now I can't stop hearing it, and it makes the song just that bit more impactful.
The twin gods, Nald'Thal, the Traders; commerce and death are their domains and are based off of Gemini.
Literally death and taxes 😹
Also Pluto with a touch of Janus
@@FlickTakFlakAttack actually this is tribute to Greek underworld and Egyptian Anubis: for Greek underworld you had to pay coins for the ferry man Charon. Anubis weighted your heart agains the feather. If it is unbalanced in favor of the feather, you might not pass and be devoured by Ammith
@@Tazrael no - they are two separate Gods. Janus symbols gateways, transition and change. Pluto was the main god of the underworld (it’s the Roman version of Hades, actually)
It’s also deeply inspired by the ancient oriental tradition to offer food, riches, water and shelter to any stranger in help. The more you offered shelter and your wealth with the poor and peoples in help - your scales have been in favor when you Final had to justify before God
-First time here, any advice?
-Yea, bgm 1000%
This and The Twinning. 100% every time.
Every time we're in someone in chat will type if BGM is less than 100% it's a DPS loss.
The singer goes by the name of Tea here is her Twitter twitter.com/teaLiquidSoul
The singer's name is "tea" I believe. She has a channel called "tea & Hiroshi" and has commented on several videos of this song. And this song has only been in the game for a few months. This played at the end of a raid added in Endwalker's first major post-release content update in April.
The story the lyrics spell or is so fun, just followers of the twin gods enjoying life and welcoming death and how they'll be judged.
My favorite small bit of the song is the clinking of coins at parts as the god of trade and the afterlife.
Edit: you're right in with the visuals, the god is the deity of a desert city called Ul'dah.
As you guessed by the epicness, we're currently fighting the Twelve gods that the people worship. Most people already commented on the lore and stuff, so I'll just add about how HAPPY the gods are to fight us. Especially Nald'thal. You'd expect it to be scary but it's actually fun times lmao! They encourage us and challenge us the entire fight. "You are deserving of a reward!" is the most iconic line after succeeding the balance mechanic. (I play in JP and they're SO charismatic. I've heard good things about EN too)
Now something I can't verify, but I've read that the song has been written in both 4/4 and 3/4 in different parts of the song, to further enhance the fact that they are twin gods. If it's true, then goddamn that's genius. But I can't really tell, I just play piano & lyre for fun lmao
Saaaameeeeee best comment
16:45
On the nose. The area in Algaia you traverse is first the Heaven of Lightning, and then you ascend into the Heaven of Fire where Azeyma and Nald'thal reside. As you approch Nald'thal's palace of gold, you can see there's a vast desert that surrounds it. It's crazy how this one song can audibly paint a picture of what an area looks like.
My favorite part of the song especially is near the beginning: "Beauty of desert sands, Water and gold below." When the singer says 'gold' you can hear the sounds of coins clinking together as a percussive instrument. It's that little bit of detail and flair that makes me fall in love with Soken's work over and over. He knows the little things enhance the song that much more.
OH TWIN GODS BLESS THIS LAND
In the Balance is basically a prayer from desert capitalists to the god of capitalism (who is also the god of death) and praising him for blessing them with good fortune and bounty, and also saying they're totally okay with dying and being sent to whatever afterlife is deemed appropriate for them since they know they deserve whatever they get.
Soken has said that the seamless loops are due to having to compose for cutscenes but I think his loops rival John Williams and Vivaldi.
Soken is insane, but the good kind that should be admired and enjoyed for generations of FF Fans to come! xD
You’re going to LOVE the new FF14 raid song called “Scream”
This song lives rent-free in my head for literal weeks at at time whenever I hear it, now. For context, Nald'thal, the Traders, are dual-aspected Gods usually represented as singular God. They are the single manifestation of twin deities: Nald, keeper of the living, and Thal, keeper of the dead. He is most often depicted as a discerning merchant holding a balance, hence the Balance symbolism. The reason the genre is hard to pin down is because it is much easier to call it 'Ul'Dah's Second Theme'. The entire song is like a hyped up variation of the themes surrounding a set of zones surrounding the deserts of the game. The instruments used, the way there's heavy brass and precussion, even some Arabic and African themes mixed is intentionally meant for players to draw connections as to these two gods' connection to the land they're primarily worshipped in. Most players immediately go 'It sounds like Ul'Dah, and they're from Ul'Dah, and it's really really fun to listen to'.
First time hearing this song in XIV had me going, "I must dance!"
"It's sounds so epic"
well the whole point of this raid is you are being tested by the 12 gods that your civilization worships(4 per raid tier), so it sounding majestic/grand/epic is very fitting.
This is one of my favourite songs in the game and it came out of no where! We normally don't get voiced songs for Alliance raids. Here are the lyrics:
O twin gods bless this land, to us treasure bestow
City of desert sands, water and gold below
Lifeblood and rubies red, precious coins cast aglow
Four hands our fortunes mend, that want we may not know
And when we reach our ends, to scales we gladly go
Our fates are yours to bend, to hells and heavens flow
Under arid sky, with silk veils we weave a rainbow
Voices lifted high, dreams upon our backs we carry
When day beckons night (day and night dancing),
As does restless time we never slow
Trusting hand in hand, life death will follow
Stoke now nascent flame, brighter burn, dance with souls afire
May ember catch and red-gold spark rise to new heights
May we want for naught coin can buy
Never see wealth’s river run dry
May we find fortune after life
For this we pray, we pray, we pray, we pray twinfold
Stoke now kindled flame, hotter burn, sing till breath expires
May those who wander paths in the dark find firelight
May we all as true equals die
Never fear unjust favor’s bite
May we be judged by what is right
For this we pray, we pray, we pray, we pray twinfold
This track ♥ Even when it already played in the trailer, I was asking what song this was while others were more hyped about some FF9 remixes - but when it finally played ingame I was so very happy. The fights and everything going with it is lots of fun, too! :D Actually, the one we're fighting is the one my character chose as their deity long long ago, so I'm still tearing up about this track xD You were also right about gold and majestic, because the city it alludes is the Pearl of the Desert, a very wealthy city with royalty!
i dont have any ff nostalgia personally and this song is easily my favorite in the game up to this point. it's just such a jam
Glad u feel the desert, specifically, as we do. The theme is great, and we can share the feeling even u didn't get the content.
"I wouldn't even know how to describe this genre."
Well, it wouldn't sound out of place in an Aladdin production, it has a sort of "fantasy desert kingdom" vibe to it, which considering Nald'thal is a patron deity of Ul'dah, a desert nation in Eorzea, is pretty spot on.
You've imagined it correctly!
Nald'thal, is the overseer of the underworld and god of commerce, is the guardian deity of Ul'dah. He commands the element of fire and is the single manifestation of the deific twins Nald and Thal.
Ul'dah, the Pearl of the Desert, is one of the three city-states in Final Fantasy XIV and has a very oriental touch.
You said it sounded a little Disney at some point.
I could _definitely_ see this being sung at the start of a Disney movie set in Ul'dah, as the people's song of prayer to their patron deity Nald'thal, introducing us to the setting.
Most likely my favorite track from FFXIV. ❤
This and To the Edge are my favorites and I cant decide which i truly enjoy more
it's great, but it can't override my massive dislike for Ul'dah. Flow wins for me, because I still can't make it through the whole song without crying.
Ultima Thule, all versions back to back to back rules my mind
@@Keira_Blackstone Haha I'm the opposite! I love Ul'dah so it enhances my love for this song.
This boss's room doesn't show, but on the way there the scenery is indeed a very Aladdin-esque city with a good deal of towers and golden domes, surrounded by sand.
I love that you pointed out how her singing style is between singing and "talking" - this boss Nald'Thal is/are the twin god(s) of life and death (Nald and Thal). The significance of this is the way the elements of light and dark are characterized in FF14 - light by passivity and dark by activity. When she's singing about things you enjoy in life (gold and rubies), her voice is more passive. When the focus transitions to death/afterlife and worship of gods (praying for life after death) its more powerful and enchanting.
The sound of this song can be simplified as rich - the horns strings and numerous percussions with enchanting vocals all layered together and the quality of sound is much more full. Hell, they're even clinking coins to make music in there! All of this is because Nald'Thal is also the god of trade/commerce - no expense would be spared in making this song.
There's an upload of this somewhere on youtube where the singer commented on how much she appreciates everyone's love and support of this song.
She replied to Alex Mousala's reaction.
@@Darkojin1 That's awesome! Didn't know she had seen his take on it :)
IMO, this is one those FFXIV tracks that goes even better with the sound effects and the boss speaking. I would say usually the song by itself is best for most fights, but this entire raid was made even better by the bosses going off. The context is probably important for that though.
yes! you are deserving of a reward
thankyou nald'thal 👉👈
I must say though, I really, really love the perspective you have to offer on FF14's soundtrack as someone who knows music and is an outsider to FF14.
Like, yeah. It'd be cool if you joined us too-game's great-but I'd say there's a certain objectivity in consuming media without being emotionally invested in it, and understanding/making inferences without knowing the context and intent.
"I'm going to turn it up a little"
Yeah, I say that every time I hit this fight.
Hearing you bring up Blackmoore's Night reminded me of the demo CD my mom had of them when I was a kid. We'd gotten it from the local Renaissance Festival out of a basket they put there as promo. "Way to Mandalay" was the single on it, and I remember listening to it so, so much. Thanks for triggering those wonderful memories!
The "I guess shit got real" part you mentioned...THAT really isn't far from the truth; As basically the players have to shift themselves to one or the other side of the room to balance the scales in the middle, before they're frozen in place....and if the scales are uneven, the players all get killed and have to start the fight over from the beginning. ^^;
"Palace, gold, sand, desert, magic", a good summary of this section of the game!
I love that the clinking of coins is used as an instrument for the song of the twin gods of life, death, and commerce.
Blackmoore...now that's a name I haven't heard for a while!
I know for a fact that you'll get a groove on my dude! Can't wait to see the reaction! 😁
The reason the god is named Nald'Thal is because Koji Fox wanted "Thal's balls" to be a curse word.
AND THEN THEY MADE THAL'S BALLS INTO A MECHANIC IN THE FIGHT
The singer for this piece is Tea, a very popular Indian singer. She's absolutely incredible.
Your so right about Disney though! When I first did this fight and heard it, I strangely felt like I was playing Kingdom Hearts for a moment and I'm like "How did the atmosphere just shift?!" It definitely feels like an experience once you go through the battle phases.
The song feels big because we are fighting legit Gods, not facades birthed by faith and legend but true deities. These are the gods of the lands of Eorzea for FF14. We are finally learning about them, but first we must prove our strength.
I manage to get the taste of the raid before the recent Free Playtime is expired (thank you Yoshi-P), and i gotta tell ya it's amazing.
And the music doesn't stop me from boredom, i still listen to it for a month now.
You're probably not still reading comments on this video, but I want to point out something that really shows how phenomenally this game treats its own music and the way it connects to the world at large.
This song showed up without context in a trailer for a new patch, without showing the boss associated with it, but people were able to guess the plot beats of this raid and that this song was for this boss because of a single fucking leitmotif in this song matching a leitmotif from a song from the original version of this game that is no longer playable.
People heard the 1.0 Ul'Dah theme and immediately put together "We're going to fight Ul'dah's God in patch 6.1."
Nald and Thal are basically the "Gemini" and part of the raid series where we fight the 12 deities.
They are the Gods of life and death. (one is death, the other is life)
That's why it is called the balance. The balance defines if you shall live or die basically.
When they merge they are known as Nald'Thal.
nald'thal aren't good nor evil. they're born together as the twin gods of life and death presiding the place of judge of all souls.
So when is Uncle Jesse going to play Final Fantasy XIV?
Everyone else: fighting and doing mechanics
Me: 💃💃💃💃
As someone that in the game chose the Immortal Flames and mainly uses Ul'dah as his hub, this song makes my eyes tear everytime.
It's such a positive and energetic vibe to me and, with all that my character went through it makes me proud that we are affiliated with Nald'Thal, incredible job by Soken and Tea.
Then the boss fight itself is amazing and fun. It's nothing super hard or anything but it has so much spectacle and cool moments like when Thal's Balls are crushing down.
This song is sing by "tea", who is from India and live in Japan.
I remember the first time I did Aglaia. We were a small group in a voice call, and I was not the only one that started humming along. The melody is so simple yet infectious.
This song is so good. Even when I'm annoyed by something during the fight, it acts like the song which soothes the savage beast and I just kind of get pacified and hum along eventually. And I always have to greet Nald'Thal with a Gold Dance, given he is the patron deity of my starting city.
Just don't let him hear Lucy Pyre's version.
The Raid came out in April, most likely been constant demand since then to do the song. But it is actually a good song.
With their patch schedule, the next such fight should be dropping around December, have fun looking forward to those requests when that happens.
I am looking forward when Amatsu Kaze gets reacted to. Or the other FFXIV music that has been requested
On the subject seamless looping, Most fight music like this, is also written toward the fight itself. In such that, big crescendos of a song generally also hit during big moments in the fight in sort of a way to pump you up.
It's so ironic you mention deserts and Aladdin type vibe. That boss in the video was a deity relating to a city named Uldah. Which is out in a big desert area.
But he relates to merchants and wealth. But also life and death. So he's a deity of balance as well.
It's always impressive how music is a language that you seem to be able to innately understand in one way or another. Just from its tempo and instrumental arrangement you really picked up on the overall theme and atmosphere, even the parts leading up to and following the clip you see. And you do that regularly.
Bravo Sir 👏
Surely you jest, the genre is VGM, where everything's allowed 👍
As a resident Ul'dahn, this song brought tears to my eyes the first time I did it. Can't wait for the rest of this raid!
Yes! I love this song! Your reaction is amazing as always :)
those are the twin gods of life and death. thats why this theme is just so epic sounding.
This song was probably the breakout hit from the latest big patch. Was stuck in my head for like a week after playing the raid for the first time. It's super catchy.
Like, I would wake up with this song in my head. It was bad for a while. lol
This song is the epitome of:
"OH TWIN GODS BLESS THIS LAND! TO US, TREASURE BESTOW! CITY OF DESERT SANDS! WATER AND GOLD- oh shit, messed up my rotation 😮.........PRECIOUS COINS CAST THEIR GLOW!
The gods of death and taxes.
One of the best prayers in any video game.
Honestly as far as FF14 raids go, this fight is pretty chill. It looks significantly more chaotic than it actually is to play, and there are only a few tricky parts. Which is good considering half the people playing are probably messing with sound settings and trying to line up dancing emotes to the beat during downtime.
the only sucky part is how easy it is for 2-3 people to intentionally grief everyone with the scales
I'd prefer them condensing 6 boss fights to just the final boss alone with 6 HP bars so I'd have 6x the time to jam to this BGM gdi
You should review your crush Amanda Achan rendition of "Flow" from her channel
Less good and evil, more life and death :D
Nald'Thal is the two-in-one god. Nald, keeper of the land of the living; Thal, keeper of the realm of the dead.
The Twin Gods, the Traders.
So a bit of lore, Nald'thal are known as the Twin Gods who oversee the Underworld and coincidentally is also a patron god of commerce for one of the city states Ul'dah as it serves specifically as its Guardian Diety. This god in particualar is known as the twin god, but inhabit one body. So split apart they are known as Nald and Thal, one who oversees the living and the other who oversees the dead. The scales motif is similar to some other religions but its more known in Egyptian Myth namely the weighing of the heart using the Feather of Maat (Egyptian God of Truth and Justice).
Oddly enough Ul'dah and Thanaland is a representation of the Middle East and parts of North Africa and Central Asia. So the middle eastern vibes do ring with the music.
"What's this? Good and evil thing?"
No, more like, life and death xD While Nald'thal (twins) are the Traders and bring prosperity to Ul'dah, they are also gods of life (Nald) and death (Thal). Also, you better believe people were spamming "Thal's balls" when those balls were coming down on the party
Heck, this song was very beloved and 'WHAT IS THAT? WHERE IS THAT?" when the trailer for the patch came out. Soken just knows how to excite us.
'Finishes the 3rd raid boss, proceeds to see in chat' TURN THEM MUSIC SLIDERS UP! We need to Rock Out to this wonderful Song!
This happens practically every time I run the raid in question for this Song alone.
And I perfectly agree! Always a pleasure to listen to this
Nald is the god of commerce and wealth. Thal is the god of death, he who weighs your soul.(on scales, like Anubis almost)
They fused into one being long ago and the game has a full religious city of greedy, super wealrhy merchants in the desert. So your visions of Aladin imagery is very intentional, the sitar and tambourine sounds to mimic coins are so nice to hear in VGM, we do not hear it so often
Something cool is that the song verses are more upbeat and happy for Nald, and darker for Thal.
The real hard mechanic in this fight is the song getting stuck in your head for hours afterwards
Twins - The Traders Gods, one God of Life and Death, and other patron of Merchants and trading, both as one entity and two beings. At some point in battle they ask you to Balance the Scales, where players are getting "weight symbols" and need to spread to two sides to Even the Scales. If they Fail - it's the most beautiful and pleasant WIPE you can get in this game :D
All the lyrics are basically prayers to them :)
Song is super catchy, enchanting and always bring something into attention, but it's not one to listen for 1 hour straight :P
Crazy how music can paint a picture. Look up Uldah and see how accurate you were with your dipiction! Nald Thal is the guardian deity of Uldah.
As for Genre of the song Jesse, I'd call it simply Progressive Video Game music.
Hello Jesse's, it would be nice if you could check Husky by the Geek cover, even if you don't record it. It's really good.
This song drives me bonkers with how good it is. Like... nobody does this. This song makes the whole city of Ul'dah and nation of Thanalan feel "real", like... you can listen to this and picture it as something that people in a real place perform and sing around their de facto religion. It's more texture and reality than most places and societies get in an MMO. What do they sing at festivals in Orgrimmar or Stormwind? Or Divinity's Reach? You can imagine that there are such songs, but Soken just went ahead and wrote one and gave it this really big and festive orchestration.
And, as I have delightfully stolen from a reddit post, it's very nice to headcanon this is actually F'Lhaminn singing it.
You're right on the epicness. This game is a JRPG, which of course means killing gods is a common pastime. But in this raid series, you're fighting your own pantheon. When you create a character you get to pick a patron god, and it's one of this pantheon, so everyone already has that hook to like these characters. Most gods you've fought at this point are summoned beings, created by collective faith without an actual divine being behind them. But this time, this pantheon is a new kind of creature and we're not quite certain what they are yet. Personally though, my preference goes to the other bosstrack "Radiance". And this may or may not be because of my bias towards my own patron deity being the big burly muscle man at the start that plays the song. No vocals on that one, but something about the melody coming through just makes it feel epic, and the fight is just fun.
It's even better when you're playing this. I main Reaper for this raid and it's so much fun. This may be my favorite raid boss all time.
General context gist: Nald'thal is one of a set of gods (life and death, twins who are one god). He's not very important in this. The song is thematically representative of a specific desert palace style of area in the game. The lyrics are thematically relevant, but mostly allude to the past, how people felt when this desert kingdom was much more new. You can notice in the boss fight scales are used, and this is also thematically relevant as this symbol of this particular land, the scales of judgement (not about guilt). There's no real genie element, but there is plenty of magic involved. Heavy emphasis on wealth, magic, power, and knowledge.
One of my favorite parts of this song is how it transitions from 6/4 to 4/4 at around 2:20. While during the fight, Nald and Thal are constantly changing who’s in control, the song also changes from a lively dance in 6/4 to a more epic, imposing melody in 4/4. Fitting for swapping between the gods of life and death.
Also the line “sing till breath expires” feels like a challenge. And I always oblige.
THAL'S BALLS! HOW DID I MISS THIS!
This is the latest ear worm from FFXIV. Yes. I think at this point, Soken has been so successful with the music that he probably has near free reign to experiment.
Ah
I know you liked Flow, here'sanother official remix.
th-cam.com/video/eytA3zSUrDM/w-d-xo.html
i remember when this dungeon was patched in i was one of the first to run this (because i immediately unlocked and queued up for it) and when we reached this boss it was... emotional to say the least. Might be my favourite boss music ever.
(Also that cutscene in the middle of the fight will forever be in my heart)