Let's talk music - Dawntrail really drops the ball reusing old themes

[DynnDiablos]

I want to state upfront I am not a Dawntrail hater. I really love it (it seems to be a minority opinion). However, one thing I've been annoyed about with Dawntrail more than Endwalker is the lack of unique music in cutscenes.

Heavensward, Stormblood, Shadowbringers (and to some extent Endwalker) all brought their own unique themes that were utilized in scenes etc. They brought a "flavor," so to speak.

Dawntrail seems to recycle all the old themes, borrowing A LOT from Shadowbringers, which I feel music fits the themes and style of that expansion and feels really, really out of place in Dawntrail.

I feel music is so important to set the tone and give each story its own sense of identity. Dawntrail is so distinct with its visual style and flair and cultures, yet most of that is lost when we're slammed over the head with the Shadowbringers music cues.

Sorry, small rant.

[MoofiaBossVal]

I feel the use of decade+ old stock music has been detrimental. Not just in cutscenes (this is a 500+ hour long visual novel but you're hearing the same ARR stock music over and over again), but also in FATEs, since every 2 years you have to do 400 of them to get the music rolls but you're listening to the same ARR fate music every time. If Nihon Falcom a black company can release a 100+ hour long JRPG every year with 90 tracks and a brand new suite of cutscene tracks every two games, I don't see why FFXIV the game that costs $200+ per year to play ($40 box expansion every 2 years + $15 monthly subscription) can't either, especially with Square's prestige. They could acquire talent Falcom can't. But when you read the annotations on the FF14 blu ray OSTs, the comments seem to always be complaining about a lack of time and how they're constantly having to cut, and how they default to certain tricks like piano arranges of night themes to churn out tracks.

[chizLemons]

Completely agree, and also noticed it. I didn't enjoy Dawntrail at all like you did, but one of the things that bothered me was the reuse of themes, and weird choices of music placement all around. Particularly, the reuse of "More than Truth" from Shadowbringers, in scenes that not only had no relation to ShB, but it didn't even fit the overall mood of the track.

Meanwhile, I didn't notice many NEW BGM themes for cutscenes, other than two silly ones that were only played once or twice during the first part.
And when they DID play that...interesting choice of theme song ("Smile" I think it's called?) during the MSQ, it felt SO out of place. Like in the train montage.

[DynnDiablos]

Completely agree, and also noticed it. I didn't enjoy Dawntrail at all like you did, but one of the things that bothered me was the reuse of themes, and weird choices of music placement all around. Particularly, the reuse of "More than Truth" from Shadowbringers, in scenes that not only had no relation to ShB, but it didn't even fit the overall mood of the track.

Meanwhile, I didn't notice many NEW BGM themes for cutscenes, other than two silly ones that were only played once or twice during the first part.
And when they DID play that...interesting choice of theme song ("Smile" I think it's called?) during the MSQ, it felt SO out of place. Like in the train montage.

SMILE seems to come out of nowhere in some instances and I was like huh, that was weird. I agree with you on "More Than Truth" it was so overused.

[Dorito_Burrito]

I put "Machinations" on loop in my FC estate (as a prank).

[AnimaAnimus]

(this is a 500+ hour long visual novel but you're hearing the same ARR stock music over and over again).

It's even worse. A lot of the music we hear so frequently has been around since 1.0

[Arzalis]

Yeah. The new tracks are fantastic and FFXIV is the game with the higher number of original pieces of music in existence, but they insist on mostly using the same like 3-4 for quest cutscenes they've used since 2.0.

We do have a few newer ones mixed in there (like the one from ShB) but it'd be nice if they could vary it up a lot more. They don't even need to make new ones if they just don't want to, just reuse some different tracks.

[SwadTheFrog]

I want to state upfront I am not a Dawntrail hater. I really love it (it seems to be a minority opinion). However, one thing I've been annoyed about with Dawntrail more than Endwalker is the lack of unique music in cutscenes.

Heavensward, Stormblood, Shadowbringers (and to some extent Endwalker) all brought their own unique themes that were utilized in scenes etc. They brought a "flavor," so to speak.

Dawntrail seems to recycle all the old themes, borrowing A LOT from Shadowbringers, which I feel music fits the themes and style of that expansion and feels really, really out of place in Dawntrail.

I feel music is so important to set the tone and give each story its own sense of identity. Dawntrail is so distinct with its visual style and flair and cultures, yet most of that is lost when we're slammed over the head with the Shadowbringers music cues.

Sorry, small rant.

As someone that genuine dislikes Dawntrail but always appreciates music use, I absolutetly agree with you. The first half has practically none of the themes or instruments you'd hear in south american regions (seriously, why the hell iis the Capital's Theme not something like Bossa Nova instead of American Jazz?), and how the second half sometimes willl shove in themes from ARR that do not the "ooOoOoO ScI fI" zones at all. The vast majority of the DT original tracks are actually really good, but the reuse is so bad. They reused the Skydeep Cenote theme so goddamn much.

[Gaddes]

I put "Machinations" on loop in my FC estate (as a prank).

I actually never realized what that music's title was, I always just associated the tune with "ok here's the cutscene where we get down to business." But to be fair, that theme has been used a ton in every expansion since ARR, so I honestly wasn't as bothered by that one popping up.

[Isala]

SMILE seems to come out of nowhere in some instances and I was like huh, that was weird. I agree with you on "More Than Truth" it was so overused.

That song was the moment it clicked for me why this entire expansion felt so bad. They turned XIV into a Live Action Disney Movie.