Immersion Breaking Mini-Boss Music in Dungeons

[Vivi_Bushido]

This is something that's bugged me for a really long time and I now feel like speaking up about it, but has anyone ever felt like the songs selected in the new endgame dungeons are kind of unfitting and out of place?

Let's take Amaurot as an excellent example of this. Nice story telling dungeon, really get's you moving, pumped up. You get this really beautiful track that is incredible to listen to and really sets the mood very well. Then you reach the mini-boss and you get unfitting boss music used all the way from ARR 2.X. Like, you're at the end of the story and everything hangs in the balance and we're listening to FATE music. In a dungeon like Amaurot, I think it would have set a much better tone if the dungeon music had continued to play all the way through until the dungeon's final boss.

I do not know what SE's metric is for where they decide to place certain Mini-Boss music at. I don't know if they even have one at all, but in story driven dungeons like Amaurot, it's not FATE music all the way from 2.X. I really want to encourage SE to consider more immersive mini-boss tracks when they make newer dungeons.


Also for reference, here is the music I am referring to:
(Possible Story Spoilers if you watch those videos)


Amaurot Theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtxR97bgF-Q
Amaurot's Mini-Boss Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hCwKNrT6Jg

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

They just changed all the miniboss themes for 5.0 dungeons. Or at least, it's been changed in all the dungeons I've run through.

[QT_Melon]

They just changed all the miniboss themes for 5.0 dungeons. Or at least, it's been changed in all the dungeons I've run through.

Most of them. Mt Gulg still has a few so I wonder if it's just end game.

Honestly I like the remix - but I feel like it's guitar theme is more suited for PVP. But given that Shadowbringers doesn't have PVP on the first...well...

I will say though I do like all of the tracks, it's the first time I've turned off the battle music in game because it feels too loud. Soken has a pretty good track record though I just feel the placement isn't suiting for where they were.

parts of High Treason feels more like great music for overworld fights as well as dungeon bosses.

Honestly though, even though I feel the mix may miss the mark in style - I do like the idea that each Xpac should not get the same "generic mini boss" music in each dungeon and *should* be expansion specific.

[Tlachtga]

Most of them. Mt Gulg still has a few so I wonder if it's just end game.

I think Mt Gulg kept its theme because its titled Torn From the Heavens, which is really fitting

[StriderShinryu]

It does seem a little odd when you get the super hype banger for like the second boss. Not really immersion breaking, per se, but definitely a little out of place feeling.

[DumdogsWorld]

Honestly I like the remix - but I feel like it's guitar theme is more suited for PVP. But given that Shadowbringers doesn't have PVP on the first...well...

IMO, it's one of the those songs where I dislike maybe 5% of it, and love the other 95%.

The intro is what I hate about that song.

[Fynlar]

I wasn't a fan of this change at all.

It would have been fine for them to do just in the new 5.2 dungeon because I would have been able to accept it as them trying something new, but the new track is basically just a remix of Insatiable (the last boss theme from Shadowbringers dungeons) which is normally a pretty impactful track, particularly the first time you hear it. But when you're basically hearing it for every single boss encounter, it loses a lot of that impact, and now it will just suffer from overexposure.

[Nestama]

It does seem pretty unfitting, depending on the boss and setting. First and second bosses of the level 73 dungeon and Grand Cosmos probably could have just kept what they originally had (A Fine Death, I think it was? Alternatively, if he could/were allowed to, Soken could have given those dungeon bosses the theme 'Reign of Pain,' Shantotto's theme. Definitely would fit well in Grand Cosmos). Amaurot could have had Phantoms on the Lake or Nemesis and Twinning Tumbling Down or Shattered.

I dunno. I don't mind the theme, but it definitely doesn't fit for some fights. High Treason and Paradisaical Predicaments could have worked, too.
One good thing I will say though is that at least Persistence is gone. I hate that boss theme the most in FFXIV and wish it would stop being used.

[Espritduo]

It does seem SE went way overboard with people's comments about the mid-boss music being out of place in certain fights. Like, people were only really complaining about Amaurot's midboss music being the super boring, tame music for what were supposed to be apocalyptic, final dungeon opponents. The music for the rest of the midbosses throughout ShB was fine and didn't need changed. Now it's way worse than before because it ruins the best dungeon final boss music in the game by overplaying it everywhere. It's annoying that SE can never seem to find a happy medium with adjustments and always has to go to one extreme or the other. Glad I got to experience the amazing Insatiable theme while it was still impactful.

And what's really a shame is that Soken has so many amazing themes that can be used, but just aren't. The guy does such an amazing job continually pumping out kickass music every patch, but the people implementing his music do such a lazy job putting it the game sometimes, preferring to either use the same old music over and over, or pick one new song and use it to death instead. And this doesn't just apply to boss battles, the whole game suffers from this. I really enjoyed the new Qitari beast tribe theme, and yet it is not used for the beast tribe mount. Nor are any of the other unique beast tribe themes, which are all good, ever used for their beast tribe mounts, except the Namazu.

[GrizzlyTank]

Yeeh, there is a lot of dungeons that would be better off if he mini-boss theme was removed, like Sohm Al (Hard).

Also wouldn't have minded it if they decided to reuse some of the trails and raid themes for certain dungeon bosses to mix it up.