Best impactful theme in this entire game is????

[Lunaxia]

Answers prior to Endwalker, followed by Neath Dark Waters* and Mortal Instants (one is a remix of the other, granted, but both were equally impactful in their own right) then Footsteps in the Snow.

*Needs the ticking though.

[Jojoya]

I've seen Hopeful Dynamis (Meteion's theme) impact people who haven't even played the game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ngx96H3i8X8

[Zeastria]

https://youtu.be/Dwl9DaaGUdM?si=SwtGiyEM1XpAXS-b
Took me loong time to find on YT!

[Zairava]

Gonna have to go with Answers with this one chief. The first cutscene I seen launching the game in 2017. It sucked me in to the world itself, and the song still carries importance to the story today. I could watch that intro cutscene now and it still would hit me where it hurts.

[Bonoki]

I'm actually not the biggest fan of the, To the Edge music that played in Warrior of Light. Wasn't bombastic enough for me I guess. But considering how it was made, it's really hard to ever say anything negative about the piece. To which it's arguably one of the most highly replayed FFXIV tracks on Youtube. Doesn't take much to guess why.

Personally, I'm more of a Close in the Distance person. Some of the solo duty songs like from Shadowbringers are also kind of impactful for me too. Raktika and Raz-da-han other good pieces.
A canidiate for one of my least liked songs is Labyrinthos and some of the slice of life kind of music that's been around since ARR. Just bored of them, no other reason than that.

[LilimoLimomo]

I don't recall Answers playing during Shadowbringers?

Ah, I meant Endwalker, thanks for correcting my brain goof!

[Carin-Eri]

Every step we take
Echoes in our wake
Winding 'round our fate
To forge ahead

Should we lose our way
Tire of all this pain
We won't be afraid
To forge ahead

Fearless hearts ablaze
(When the world comes crumbling down)

No more time to waste
(Know I'll be there)

No, it's not too late
(Though our fleeting moment has gone)

To forge ahead
(You're not - you're not alone YEAH)

As we ride again
(As you turn your eyes to the stars)

To another end
(Oh, I'll be there)

Where it all begins
(With my chorus guiding you)

Forge ahead
(Forge ahead)

[Raim]

Breaking Boundaries that was used for the final quest of each job storyline.

[Enkidoh]

Answers still is the track that has the most emotional impact on me (and really, what more needs to be said about Uematsu's magnum opus?), but another more obscure and very unappreciated track is Piece of Mind by Nobuo Uematsu from the 1.0 soundtrack (unrelated to the Gnath theme in HW by Soken with the same title).

Track 43 on the Before Meteor OST album, this melancholy piece showed up in a few places such as when first arriving in one of the cities as well as selecting a Path Companion, and did play in ARR initially during the Beta test when also first arriving in one of the cities... only for it to disappear at launch. Which greatly saddens me as it was such a beautiful, emotional piece that still brings me to tears (I think it would have worked brillantly at the end of EW...).

Coming a close third is Unchanging, Everchanging by Masayoshi Soken from the Shadowbringers OST, the night theme for Lakeland.

Now, I'm not usually a fan of the night themes, regarding them as a little too understated (and Unchanging, Everchanging is, at it's core, just a slow piano rendition of Lakeland's day theme The Source), but Lakeland's is an exception due to the context - when you first hear it, you've just gone through Holminster Switch, vanquished it's Lightwarden, and... brought the night sky back to the area after a century - you've literally achieved the utter impossible in Norvrandt. And it's that impact hearing it for that first time, standing there at the Northern Staging Post overlooking the area in the dim coolness of the night as the soft piano chords drift over, the hopeless task to save the First, and the Source, did not seem so remote. I still often stand in Lakeland at night just listening to it.

[Lunaxia]

snip

I disagree regarding the night themes, but it's nice to see someone else appreciate Unchanging, Everchanging! It really is a beautiful piece, and it reminds me of HW's Skylords in the way it not only underscores the mood of the zone it's in incredibly well, but somehow captures the poignancy and emotional aspect of the expansion's overall story too. Really underrated IMO.