In-Game music - do you like it??

[Alleluia]

For my sophisticated and erudite take on this:

I like all the leitmotifs. They are cool.

That is all.

[Reclusegamer]

My only hot take on the music is how it is APPLIED in some areas. I enjoy a lot of the music in this game, and as a fan of the main series I was not disappointed at all, but some of the songs in a majority of the trials and even some normal raids just feel..."off". Like they sound like songs that don't belong in that kind of atmosphere, like Fiend, Scream, and Close in the Distance, for example. I remember Ravana's song sounding extremely weird too.

I'll take the benefit of the doubt if the lyrics from songs like those actually say something about the lore of the fights but I'd have to google them outside of combat and I am just too lazy to care about it.

[Cleretic]

My only hot take on the music is how it is APPLIED in some areas. I enjoy a lot of the music in this game, and as a fan of the main series I was not disappointed at all, but some of the songs in a majority of the trials and even some normal raids just feel..."off". Like they sound like songs that don't belong in that kind of atmosphere, like Fiend, Scream, and Close in the Distance, for example. I remember Ravana's song sounding extremely weird too.

You've jostled some trivia knowledge out of my brain: Ravana's current theme was actually the second idea for Ravana's theme; the first one was moved off of Ravana and became Locus. We don't really know how much of what we know as Locus came into being after Ravana aside from... well, obviously the lyrics changed.

But ass for all those, I might be able to help you trace why exactly they fit the story of the parts of the game they're in. I don't really know what exactly your sticking point is for each of them, but it might resolve things for you.

Fiend: Sephirot was specifically envisioned and summoned in rage by his summoners; there wasn't really a 'Sephirot' before the tree-people that summoned him were forced to come up with something to defend against the Meracydians. That's likely why his song's so punchy and angry: he's always angry. The lyrics are mostly an ass-kicking anthem combined with scorn at a female-identified goddess of some kind; common theory is Hydaelyn, but I personally like the idea that it might be Sophia and we're getting a glimpse into a conflict that was over long before we turned up.
Scream: Fair warning that with Pandaemonium's story unfinished and the lyrics so far unpublished we don't have a full grasp on it. Musically it borrows a lot of progressions from Hic Svnt Leones to give nod to the fact it's different angles on the same organization/events, though, it borrows a lot of female-vocals 'goth/emo metal' stylings to better suit the bosses it plays for. It also shares a lot of Leones' lyrical elements of 'might be about vampires, or about wild animals eating prey'; it's definitely painting Pandaemonium as a godless, cruel and terrifying place. It's also vaguely plausible its lyrics might be more from Athena's perspective, but again, incomplete story.
Close in the Distance: The song's basically saying 'we've gone a lot of places, things look dark, but there will be a tomorrow we'll live to see'. I think it's very deliberate that so much of the lyrics can apply to the WoL, to Meteion, and potentially even to the dragons and Omicrons. It's very serene and peaceful, no real anger to it; I think that combined with the lyrics referring to a 'you' without any clear distinction is where people get that 'Christian rock' flavor. It definitely suits the part of the game where it starts playing... perhaps not so much the fact it keeps playing in Ultima Thule afterwards.
The Hand that Gives the Rose/Unbending Steel (Ravana's themes): So we've got a combo of a waltz and something plausibly close to Mongolian throat-singing here (it's not at all, but I can see where people get it). The lyrics are very much an ass-kicking theme, but there's some extra in that in the Extreme, the lyrics actually sync up to moves that share their name; mostly just a bonus, but it really underlines that Ravana is practiced, that he's leading a dance, and that he really wants to kill us.

[Carin-Eri]

My only hot take on the music is how it is APPLIED in some areas. I enjoy a lot of the music in this game, and as a fan of the main series I was not disappointed at all, but some of the songs in a majority of the trials and even some normal raids just feel..."off". Like they sound like songs that don't belong in that kind of atmosphere, like Fiend, Scream, and Close in the Distance, for example. I remember Ravana's song sounding extremely weird too.

I'll take the benefit of the doubt if the lyrics from songs like those actually say something about the lore of the fights but I'd have to google them outside of combat and I am just too lazy to care about it.

In terms of 'Close in the Distance' I'd have to firstly say that your comment - "but some of the songs in a majority of the trials and even some normal raids just feel..."off" doesn't apply to 'Close in the Distance' as it wasn't used in that context. It plays in the background at Ultima Thule and during the 'Final Walk' but I don't recall it being used during any form of combat.

And the song in itself is usually interpreted as being about overcoming, and having reasons to look beyond, the very thing that we were fighting against in Ultima Thule - Despair.

[Tehmon]

Love the music. But I have grown to detest that one '' wartable / negotiating / planning / let's get this shit on the road '' song that has been playing constantly since ARR I think. Give it a rest already, it's horrible.

[RukoBoshi]

Love the music. But I have grown to detest that one '' wartable / negotiating / planning / let's get this shit on the road '' song that has been playing constantly since ARR I think. Give it a rest already, it's horrible.

I agree, there's a lot of ARR songs that could/should be phased out.
Some of the casual theme, or recurring tense situation ones really aren't that good.
Or at least not good enough to have to listen to them for 10 more years.

[TDZ-Xaia]

I wish there was a way to turn off venture accomplished music jingle without having to turn off bgm

[SannaR]

I like the game's music. I don't think Stormblood is using Measure of his reach as the leitmotif for every area. At least not the one you're supposed to be thinking of lyrically. More that you're supposed to be thinking about the lyrics and themes of Revolution instead. Which fits the non Ala Mhigan sections just as fine.

[BlueKojiro]

Okay, everywhere this debate comes up I think people keep missing an important factor which I am genuinely curious about.

If you look through even this very thread, almost every single bit of praise the Soken fans are heaping on him comes from Shadowbringers and Endwalker. I've been slowly making my way through the main story quests and I just beat base-Stormblood last week.

What I would really love to know from all the Soken fans is this: were you a mega-fan *before* Shadowbringers, or only *after* Shadowbringers?

Because I can't judge any of the music from the last two expansions since I haven't played them yet, but if you asked me right now what I think about Soken, I'd say he's an uninspiring and amateurish ear-sore who occasionally strikes gold.

Before you jump down my throat though, just hear me out: I think the trials music is really great. I've looked up a few of the names of songs people keep throwing out and they seem to all be from one-time encounters in the MSQ or raid boss or trial boss themes. You know what songs I NEVER see getting brought up though? The Yanxia map theme. I hate that f***ing song with every bone in my body. It's got the vibe of the dorky kazoo-version tavern theme from WoW Mists of Pandaria, but it's the theme music for an entire majestic valley with an inlet and a giant Japanese castle. To call it a mismatch in tone would be an understatement. Yet this f***ing song not only has the gall to merely exist in the first place, no, it had to interrupt the otherwise great credit sequence of Stormblood which I had to immediately end the cutscene for lest I go deaf. I've heard maybe two or three hours of that song total, and I've only heard the Shiva trial theme for maybe 15 minutes max. It doesn't matter how good that song is when for most of the game I have to listen to either unmemorable songs or downright trashfire filth. For every sky islands from Heavensward there just has to be a Gridania, and this push and pull between "yes, I get to go back to this place!" and "oh god, not this place!" was really really draining. I have NEVER had that experience in another videogame before, and I exclusively listen to game soundtracks.

99% of game soundtracks I listen to consist of: An occasional 1-star, usually some discordant, suspensful cutscene track that just isn't pleasant to listen to out of context, maybe a 2-star, tons of 3-stars that are pleasant to listen to in context but didn't necessarily wow me, maybe a dozen 4-stars that are genuinely amazing songs that go right to the playlist, and then maybe three or four 5-stars that just knock my socks off and become instant favorites that I would have listened to even if I'd never played the game they come from. FFXIV's soundtrack so far would be: a few dozen 1-stars, several dozen 2-stars, a couple 3-stars, half a dozen 4-stars, and zero 5-stars.

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[BlueKojiro]

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So here's my question for all the super-fans: do you actually LIKE the music that you end up hearing for 99% of the game (overworld themes and that one cutscene they used for every planning/suspicious conversation scene)? Or did you just forget that they exist and are rating Soken purely based on the songs that you actually DO like?

Because if you DO actually like most of the music in the game, then we really are just going to have to agree to disagree, but if you DON'T and are just ignoring them, then I think that's a genuine problem. Masashi Hamauzu isn't my favorite composer of all time because he's made a ton of songs that I really really love among a sea of otherwise forgettable or downright annoying garbage. He's my favorite composer of all time because almost EVERYTHING he does is at least an instant 4-star to me.

This whole business with Soken just makes me feel like I'm constantly getting gaslit because every FFXIV fan talks about him having achieved god-like composer status, and I'm over here scratching my head wondering if I even played the same game.

I'll be okay if it turns out that yes, some people really just enjoy what I consider to be triple-decker a**-soaked diaper trash, but I just need to know if that's actually what's going on. It genuinely upsets me because I really wanted to love FFXIV's music because of how much praise its received, but it just doesn't seem to be happening for me and I don't know if it's just because it's not my style or because I just haven't gotten to the good stuff yet or if everyone is just having collective memory loss and ignoring most of the music that you actually hear in the game.