Composer reacts: Sophia Theme (Equilibrium) | Final Fantasy XIV

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  • Опубліковано 29 сер 2024
  • Composer: Masayoshi Soken
    • FFXIV OST Sophia The G...
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КОМЕНТАРІ • 70

  • @wherestoomy8880
    @wherestoomy8880 Рік тому +42

    Heyy I'm glad you really enjoyed it !! @AtlasBenighted
    And many thanks for the reaction to this track too!
    There's actually a DOZENNN of tracks that have their own stories and own specialities that make them unique and stand out from the rest and each other, I genuinely think Masayoshi Soken is definitely Nobuo Uematsu's successor cause what a phenomenal track record he's been pumping out nonstop, and even if you had to compare he's "least" favourited ones they all stand for their own.
    For another fun fact, if I believe correct the guy was fighting cancer and composed one of the tracks in around Shadowbringers - Endwalker, and most likely even the newest FF16, what an absolute legend and he still delivers it on a golden platter, so much praise and love for him.

    • @Ragna289
      @Ragna289 11 місяців тому +2

      The song you mean is "To the Edge" from the shadowbringers 5.3 patch "Reflections in Crystal". I really love it and have seen the video of his and Yoshi-Ps speech on the fan festival. It was really emotional.

    • @wherestoomy8880
      @wherestoomy8880 11 місяців тому +1

      @@Ragna289 Yeahhh it’s that one ! Absolute legend though along with everyone in the team, they have a perfect synergy :D

  • @akroma443
    @akroma443 Рік тому +120

    Atlas: "This song has lyrics. It's extremely rare."
    Soken: "Hold my orchestra."

    • @raiyano7436
      @raiyano7436 6 місяців тому +1

      *laughs in Scream*

  • @hlonghi
    @hlonghi Рік тому +92

    Sophia song portraits quite the tragic tale: Koji Fox, the lyrics writer for Equilibrium, said it was about a girl whose father died in a battle against the Allagans. Her mother started beating her in grief and the girl prayed to Sophia.
    Sophia told her that balance in her family was broken and she must kill her mother... so she did. But then Sophia told her balance was still off and she must kill herself... so she did.
    Lyrics:
    The sigh of the shifting sea
    The kiss of the salt-sweet breeze
    The white of her silken dress stained in red
    A memory fading fast
    Her mother sits, eyes downcast
    A torn uniform in hand, farewells unsaid
    That once a certainty, lost in grief
    A daughter's desperate cries, unheard pleas
    Forsaken, beaten, tried, on her knees
    A prayer passes from her lips
    Into her soul, the Goddess whispers:
    "A heartbeat without harmony
    Is moonlight without dark
    The heart seeketh equilibrium
    With balance will your worry part.
    So still this broken melody
    And therewith shoulder thee
    One last step only leaving
    An empty hearth down by the sea
    An empty hearth down by the sea"

    • @shawnscouten5184
      @shawnscouten5184 11 місяців тому +17

      The even more tragic thing is that in the extreme version which is surprisingly canon(it’s an allagan simulation of what she was like at her true power) when she enrages she gives every player the same colour circle so balance is impossible showing her “equilibrium” was a lie all along and she will do anything to defeat us and escape to the point of denying everything she claims she is.

  • @pedropereira6888
    @pedropereira6888 Рік тому +52

    A full transcript of the lyrics was shown at Fanfest Las Vegas 2016. According to Michael-Christopher Koji Fox, the lyrics describe a Meracydian family torn apart by war against the Allagans and Sophia's brand of "justice" and "balance": after the father is slain in battle by the Allagans ("A torn uniform in hand, farewells unsaid"), the mother becomes abusive ("Forsaken, beaten, tried, on her knees") and, at Sophia's request, the daughter murders the mother to restore the imbalance created by her father's death ("The heart seeketh equilibrium / With balance will your worry part"), and then commits suicide, punishing herself for murder and leaving their home empty and forgotten ("And therewith shoulder thee / One last step only leaving / An empty hearth down by the sea").

  • @keNNy84682
    @keNNy84682 Рік тому +31

    need more final fantasy xiv songs

  • @asukacross
    @asukacross Рік тому +10

    Just found your channel because of this video. If this is your introduction to Final Fantasy XIV you are in for such a treat. Gonna be checking the rest of your stuff out all day now.

    • @AtlasBenighted
      @AtlasBenighted  Рік тому

      Welcome, not my introduction, by I know FF is a bottomless whirlpool of music

  • @UltimateLink1
    @UltimateLink1 Рік тому +9

    Something important to note about a lot of the vocal themes in FF14 is that they don't tend to be used as the only theme during fights. For Trial themes like Equilibrium in particular, they tend to only play in the second phase of the fight, with the first phase using an instrumental theme. In Sophia's case (and also Sephirot and Zurvan, her fellow Warring Triad members), an arrangement of Decisive Battle for FF6 is used as her phase 1 theme, in reference to her being based off a boss from that game. This lets a lot of them have really memorable phase transitions (like with the Shiva fight, where the music changes genre entirely from a grand orchestral ballad to an early 2000s rock song), and acts as some story telling using the music - you're learning more about the boss as you chip them down.
    Lyrically is where I think they're most interesting. As others have mentioned, the vocal themes are normally written from the bosses perspective. Sophia is a goddess of balance and justice, and so "Equilibrium" is a chilling tale about how one of her follower's lives was ruined by that brand of balance. Ravana is a god of war, and so "Unbending Steel" is about his perspective on the Dragonsong War as an outsider looking in, a war that he recognizes as being fought for the sake of itself at this point, which is something he revels in. Titan is the patron god of the kobolds, and his theme "Under the Weight" is about the anger they have over their land being taken by the people of Limsa Lominsa.
    Because this is used so often in this way, the rare cases where a Trial boss does *not* have a vocal theme often has that lack of vocals actually mean something about the boss. Like, Bismarck is a mindless beast that just devours everything in it's sight, because it's more a hungry beast than a living thinking person, so having lyrics in "Woe That is Madness" wouldn't make sense. Similarly, Seiryu has decided that giving into his inner rage and corrupting himself is the only way to stop an ancient evil from returning, something that's clouding his judgment, so "In the Dragon's Wake" lacks lyrics to show that there's not really thought behind his actions at that point.
    There are so many themes that I could recommend reacting to next, but here's a short list of ones I think might be interesting to analyze:
    * "Footsteps in the Snow" and "Oblivion" - Shiva's Phase 1 and 2 themes respectively
    * "Woe That is Madness" - Bismarck's Phase 2 theme
    * "Ink Long Dry" - The theme for the Great Gubal Library dungeon, in case you're a fan of freeform jazz
    * "Sunrise" - Suzaku's Phase 2 theme
    * "Answers" - The main theme of FF14: A Realm Reborn, and also Bahamut's theme
    * "Crimson Sunrise" and "Crimson Sunset" - The Day and Night themes for Kugane, one of the major cities

  • @scotty110
    @scotty110 Рік тому +10

    Oblivion, Return to Oblivion, Fiend, In the Balance, Dedicated to Moonlight, Scream. FFXIV has a number of tracks with lyrics and all have been well received by the players.

    • @TheWickedWizardOfOz1
      @TheWickedWizardOfOz1 Рік тому

      You're missing the other three dozen :D Unbending Steel, Beauty's Wicked Wiles, Through the Maelstrom, eScape, Under the Weight, Locus, Rise, Sunrise, Metal, Wayward Daughter, Amatsu Kaze, What Angel Wakes Me, To the Edge, Good King Moggle Mog XII, Rise of the White Raven, With Hearts Aligned...

    • @scotty110
      @scotty110 Рік тому

      @@TheWickedWizardOfOz1 i figured saying there was a number of tracks would give the impression there was more than i listed, but yes

  • @fulgerion
    @fulgerion Рік тому +12

    Equilibrium has a power behind it that many other themes don't have. It's one of the most powerful themes in FFXIV. And one of the most depressing. It is my favorite along with Primogenitor.

  • @TheIndigoEclipse
    @TheIndigoEclipse Рік тому +11

    "This song reminds me of Neir"
    hahaha, wait till you get to the FF14 Neir Raid songs. Kaine is so good.

  • @BeRadMH
    @BeRadMH Рік тому +13

    Music like this is quite typical for FFXIV, including battles and raids. The whole library of music for the game is exceptional.

  • @Hato1992
    @Hato1992 Рік тому +5

    It's amazing that in FFXIV even music and lyrics gives an additional lore to the game.

  • @SuperSpells
    @SuperSpells Рік тому +2

    The Legend of Dragoon or, as I like to call it, Legend of the Dragoon has some absolutely banger tracks. Off the top fo my head there are - Darts Theme, Lloyds Theme, Boss Battle 1, Uneasy Origin, and Ruins of Seles are all amazing.

  • @Jadenyoung1
    @Jadenyoung1 Рік тому +10

    FFXIV is quite the can of worms music wise. SOOO much stuff to unpack and loads of tracks.
    They also like to play around with motifs. You can find references to many other tracks in one song.
    Always nice to see someone going over it

    • @Drakni
      @Drakni Рік тому +2

      The motif references are what has made pandaemonium such an epic raiding experience for me - p6&7 building on the p4 motif, p9&10 building on both of those, culminating in an epic p12 building on all 3 of them (and p11 having its own story-relevant motifs too)
      Having my roots in wow where the music is definitely just a background element and is almost always forgettable to me, the songs on these raids absolutely elevates the entire experience of raiding in ffxiv for me

  • @dacomputernerd4096
    @dacomputernerd4096 4 місяці тому

    Final Fantasy 14 actually has a lot of tracks with lyrics, including songs used in boss fights. In fact, a lot of the boss fights do have lyrics.
    I think it's often a reflection of how a lot of the bosses you fight have a brainwashing ability that they use to force people to worship them, and some songs are the boss trying to convince you to lower your resistance to it and join them. An example of this sort of theme is Beauty's Wicked Wiles, the theme of the boss fight against Lakshmi, the primal of love, singing lines such as "Open the door, close your eyes" and "Give in to the hunger, cast off inhibition, let passion run wild tonight"

  • @brreakfastYT
    @brreakfastYT Рік тому +3

    Now I need to see a reaction to Fiend, Sephirot's theme xD

  • @InnoMori
    @InnoMori Рік тому +5

    I can understand not being able to get into the game but the story is just so good.. it’s a bit grindy and slow paced in a realm reborn but once you get into heavensward and beyond it’s just an emotional action packed cruise that has godtier music! Even if you didn’t experience the game it’s still great to see you experience a big part of what gives it its soul! The music!

    • @Oleandra-13
      @Oleandra-13 11 місяців тому

      I had to quit for a few months after Shadowbringers because the story really brought out some things I had been avoiding regarding the deaths of close family. The climax and ending really just punched me on the mental health. In a good way, but still...

  • @celadore
    @celadore Рік тому +7

    I typically do not like lyrics in my mmos but ff14 slipped it in in a clever way.
    Basically, almost all Primal fights have lyrics. Primals are summoned gods, and the lyrics are generally sung from the gods perspective. This weirdly gives the fights a much more personal feeling. An incredible example of this is the Ravanna (spelling?) fight theme.

    • @AtlasBenighted
      @AtlasBenighted  Рік тому +3

      It's rare because is hard to make them work

    • @mukakruda8474
      @mukakruda8474 Рік тому +5

      @@AtlasBenighted Sokken said "hold my beer" not only do a lot of fight shave lyrics, but the team works together to do an INCREDIBLE job making the songs go with the fights. Anyone who does the high end content in the game regularly can probably pick out exactly what mechanics are happening without looking by hearing the song. The FF14 team has the music team and the fight designers work together to map out the fights to the music, adds an even more incredible impact

    • @katomamundara8106
      @katomamundara8106 Рік тому +1

      @@AtlasBenighted You'll find the XIV team lead by Soken MAKE them work. You've heard of Answers by now, but after that the first 'full song' Boss theme (and first to be designed ground up as an individual boss' theme) I can think of is Ravana's theme (which is in 2 parts).

  • @jerome6519
    @jerome6519 Рік тому +3

    The raid and Trial music in this game isnt just to hype the player up for the fight it all adds deeper meaning to the story being told. most of the music will have lyrics to it which makes the music in the game so special. at least to me

  • @leristamerello8225
    @leristamerello8225 Рік тому +4

    Sophia herself is a trial boss, trials in XIV is only 1 boss, but they're quite a fight. A lot, and I mean A LOT of raids/trials have lyrics. And a lot of them are relevant to the boss your fighting.

  • @segafan2437
    @segafan2437 Рік тому +7

    an empty hearth down by the sea. :(
    lyrics are in almost every single boss theme in FFXIV actually, at least in one of the boss' phases.
    love your content btw, been watching for like 2 years now, back before the name change

  • @Hato1992
    @Hato1992 Рік тому +4

    A lot of FFXIV boss themes has lyrics. And many of those are not epic, but rather describes boss. Like for example Titania theme "What angel wakes me up". I wonder what would you say about this one ;)

  • @Aoenias
    @Aoenias Рік тому +1

    My favorite part is how similar phonetically the lyric "with balance" sounds to "imbalance".

  • @lorschat496
    @lorschat496 Рік тому +2

    You should do Dragon's Dogma Main menu theme "Into Free". It sounds like a legit anime opening

  • @ugxsan
    @ugxsan 7 місяців тому

    This song plays during Heavensward Trial series, a set of three boss fights that were released during the content patches following the game's first major expansion. All three of them are from Final Fantasy VI: The Fiend, The Goddess, and The Demon. In this game, they were given names, a back story, and as you're hearing here, unique themes they didn't have in their origin game.
    As you're talking about how unique and unusual this approach is for a boss battle, take into context that it's in the same set of boss battles as Sephirot's "Fiend" and Zurvan's "Infinity" because each one has a very different feel and approach.

  • @808pitfallseed
    @808pitfallseed Рік тому +2

    a lot of ffxiv boss themes have lyrics its pretty cool

  • @Feylala
    @Feylala 8 місяців тому

    One of my favorite ffxiv songs. I heard it, and just fell in love with it. Thank u for ur professional review.

  • @Theigzorn
    @Theigzorn Рік тому +1

    many trails / raidboss themes have lyrics in ff14

  • @carl10x
    @carl10x Рік тому

    Loved this video, subscribed!!

  • @MunirAybak
    @MunirAybak Рік тому +3

    Do A Plague Tale next

  • @EagleCeres
    @EagleCeres Рік тому

    FFXIV has different sets of raids: 8 man Trial fights vs mega bosses (with a harder "extreme" mode), 8 man Raid fights set up in 3 wings of 4 boss fights (with a harder "savage" mode) and 24 man Alliance Raids that go through multiple rooms of monsters and bosses.
    They all have independent story lines from the Main Story, but do add to the full gaming experience, and while not mandatory, they are highly recommended to challenge and play through, they are designed to be beatable on their normal modes, and very challenging at their hard modes.
    The music in all these raids are composed both for ambiance and to complement the mechanics by telling a deeper story of the current raid with their lyrics, making the experience that much more memorable (and depending on the difficulty, infamous).

  • @tyty8484
    @tyty8484 Рік тому

    11:37 The lyric is *Hearth* not heart. And in this case the word would be used as a symbol of one's home. So an empty house down by the sea.

  • @suzleber4
    @suzleber4 Рік тому

    my favorite song in FFXIV

  • @Arekiris
    @Arekiris Рік тому

    Most Raids in FFXIV from Heavensward and up have comprehensible lyrics.

  • @RockR277
    @RockR277 Рік тому

    You might be surprised how many raid boss tracks have lyrics in this game.

    • @AtlasBenighted
      @AtlasBenighted  Рік тому

      Oh reaaally?

    • @RockR277
      @RockR277 Рік тому +2

      @@AtlasBenighted Oh yeah, it's weirder when they _don't_ have lyrics.

    • @Toksyuryel
      @Toksyuryel Рік тому +1

      @@RockR277 And more often than not the ones that don't have lyrics are just instrumental versions of the ones that do have lyrics XD

  • @Raptor747
    @Raptor747 Рік тому

    My dude, Final Fantasy 14 songs OFTEN have lyrics. Dragonsong, With Hearts Aligned, To The Edge, Who Brings Shadow, just to name a few of MANY.

  • @DefenderX
    @DefenderX Рік тому +1

    Where have you been? Please review more FFXIV music :)

  • @williamlesmana3046
    @williamlesmana3046 Рік тому

    CMIIW but the xylophone-ish sound is sounding like a traditional instrument from indonesia called gamelan

  • @keNNy84682
    @keNNy84682 Рік тому +1

    not being irony we have nier songs within final fantasy xiv heheh

  • @VioletMoonfox
    @VioletMoonfox Рік тому

    Yeah...a *lot* of FFXIV boss themes have singing.

  • @Setulge
    @Setulge Рік тому +2

    Extremely rare... Nah, oh nah, bro. Don't make this a challenge. People WILL give you a list of trial/raid bosses that have lyrics xD

  • @KenanVonKaiser
    @KenanVonKaiser 11 місяців тому +2

    Mommy🥵!

  • @ironwolfsaber2739
    @ironwolfsaber2739 Рік тому

    FFXIV uses music as a story telling avenue. Use of lyrics are critical and relevant and are not afterthoughts.
    Story wise many of the raid boss fight songs have lyrics because they are in celebration of the god you are fighting. They are prayers or echos if those who supported that deity. There are a few rare lyrics songs outside of those kinds of fights but the more storied that antangonist history/story is the more likely it will have lyrics. Like the games national anthems or the over arching epic tale of the expansion.

  • @rafaelribeiro3375
    @rafaelribeiro3375 Рік тому

    Final fantasy have many materpieces

  • @RockR277
    @RockR277 Рік тому

    The composition you made reminds me a lot of something Phyrnna would do for Epic Battle Fantasy

  • @NotExplicable
    @NotExplicable Рік тому

    Do some FFXVI

  • @tamamoland4247
    @tamamoland4247 Рік тому

    hits dislike to give equilibrium to the like button as requested

  • @frankymr2
    @frankymr2 Рік тому

    Lyrics not rare in ffxiv songs.

  • @noea2171
    @noea2171 Рік тому

    Fate/Apocrypha main theme please 🥺🥺