Favorite Final Fantasy Music - FFXVI

Here we are, at the final numbered entry. Soken is back as the main composer, alongside the XIV squad. I think XVI’s soundtrack is very similar to the gameplay; some kinda eh, but when it hits? IT HITS. From the moment I played the demo, hell, even the moment I watched the first trailer, there were songs that I was like “I cannot get enough of this I need to hear it forever”. XVI is a game of huge moments that are the absolute strongest parts of the game, and as such, most of my favorites are the strongest parts of the game (there are exceptions.). Let’s finish up this series (until I start to do non numbered entries and sequels ehehhhhhhhhhh) with a bang! A fire? I’m trying to make a flame joke. Ifrit.

(also goddammit I gotta go with unofficial uploads again so pray nothing gets taken down)

5. Catacecaumene

First of all, WHAT is this title second of all: yesssssssss this is the Soken I know and love!!!! A lot of the game up to this point is strictly orchestral, which is NOT a bad thing at all, but then you destroy your first crystal, the big bad plot starts to Really happen, you’re in this big fuckin nothing void, you’re fighting this Creature (that doesn’t even snort!) and this goddamn techno beat comes out of nowhere!! I love the constant ascent (dndn duh Duh DUH DUH DUHDUH!) that repeats throughout the track, and that really cool tv static electro tube I’m playing Operation and accidentally hit the metal bit that plays the main melody (used again later on in the final boss fights!). It’s such a cool song and really brings you that vibe to the soundtrack that I think a lot of us were expecting when we see the XIV crowd on the development.

I also just looked it up after writing this katakekaumene was a place in modern Turkey that means “burnt land” so it fits with the nothingness void!

4. Titan Lost

The entire Titan sequence. Again, the entire Titan sequence, is AMAZING. Like, special shoutouts to Do or Die and Heart of Stone before and after this song, but this is obviously the highlight of the entire fight. Again, this is absolutely that type of soul we grew to love in XIV, placed in XVI. That heavy techno beat, the vocals sounding low and grumbly and gravelly, and that BIG choir. Like Under the Weight, the song FEELS like the earth oppressing you. And I mean, if you’re gonna be fighting an Actual Mountain, you GOTTA have a fucking banger as you’re doing it. (HEART OF STOOOOOOOOOOOONE!)

3. Away

This game just… throws you right into it. This game has one of the, if not The strongest intro out of any game in the entire series. That spiraling, building, winding intro, that heavy, slower beat (the first version of this song you hear draws it out a little with a bit of the prelude into it it fucks), into that chaotic, stressful string orchestra creates the tension for this massive kaiju battle, and every time they play it creates an excellent transition for the actual fight itself. The choir is grand and epic, alongside the mainly male vocals, I love those slight female ones that back the track, they’re absolutely beautiful, as well as the piano that plays, despite being a single instrument it FILLS the room.

Then you hit the chorus. This is the part right here. The melody itself is beautiful, the voices are awe-inspiring, the lyrics once you actually read them fitting Phoenix perfectly?????? FUCK DUDE!!!!! IT HITS SO HARD THAT WHEN IT PLAYS A SECOND TIME WITH A LOT OF THE INSTRUMENTS HOLDING BACK TO LET THE CHOIR TAKE EVEN MORE OF A HIGHLIGHT IT TAKES THOSE REMAINING CHILLS YOU GOT AND STOKES THEIR FIRES FURTHER STILL (IT’S A PHOENIX SONG IT’S A FIRE JOKE) I FUCKIN LOVE THIS SONG AND THE INTRO TO THIS GAME AND I LOVE JOSHUA THAT’S RIGHT THIS IS A ROSFIELD BROTHERS POST NOW WOOOOO-

2. Into the Mire - Stillwind

This is Probably the strangest pick of this entire list, ESPECIALLY after I was literally just glazing the fuck out of Away. But Into the Mire? I cannot get enough of this song. This made the first dungeon, this gray, depressing, goblin filled swamp, something really special to me. That main piano lives rent free in my mind, cycling, hitting heavy, sounding decrepit, yet still beautiful. I love the main melody, the chorus of the song, the “oo Oo OO Oo oo ooOOOo ooOOOo” that repeats a couple times, the entire song really has this sort of circular feel that constantly goes in and out and in and out and repeats back and forth over and over that I love so much, I love the ghostly vocals, I love the strings that take over the main melody, and then you also add in that mid battle version (the one that plays on the first “loop” of the song) with the heavier drums and the introduction of more strings coming in; the chorus almost becoming heroic, the bells twinkling in the back, that sort of industrial, construction like percussion; it sounds like an open, starry sky, which is really funny considering the context it plays in! I had this song set as my Hideaway music, because I could and have listened to this for hours.

1. Find the Flame

FFXVI came out close to the Height of my Guilty Gear enjoying (still really like it btw just not actively playing (this is besides the point)). When I played this game and got to this fight? This is fucking Clive’s Dragon Install. (I made this joke already in a much earlier post (this is still besides the point)). Find the Flame is pretty much the Main Theme of this game, and GOD. MOTHERFUCKING. DAMN. THIS IS A GIFT FROM GOD HIMSELF. THIS SONG FUCKS, IT BANGS, IT SLAPS, EVERY CRINGE ASS SLANG WORD FOR A GOOD SONG THAT I CAN POSSIBLY THINK OF, THIS SONG IS IT. YOU WANNA KNOW WHY THE MAIN TWO BROTHERS ARE PHOENIX AND IFRIT? BECAUSE THEIR THEMES ARE FIRE! That intro, the heavy hitting horn/string/vocal/percussion combo, that chanting! I fucking love every single verse/melody/whatever it’s called in this entire song, I feel pumped up and like I’m catching myself humming or singing along to it every time I hear it. I love the horns playing off right after that first vocal section, I literally could just have THAT part looping forever and I’d be happy. The “Find, the flame” section just keeps up that same heavy hitting percussion/chanting sound the entire song has, and for a fight that has Clive accepting this great trauma he’s been facing his whole life, it gets you fucking hyped, I love it so much.

It’s the final numbered list, so I’m making this post Extra long and cheating once again (but not really) and making this #1 spot a 2-parter, because the final boss theme, All as One, is a remix of Find the Flame, with a little bit of that main Final Fantasy theme thrown in there, an EXTREMELY healthy dose of the power of friendship in the lyrics, and the coolest, most anime fight we’ve had in the entire series. Find the Flame is such a hype song, and getting to hear it again in that last bit takes the silly, childlike feeling of “this is the coolest thing ever”, that literal pogchamp, soyjak pointing emotion that I feel like I’m gonna be made fun of for saying that this gives me (but you know I’m fucking right!). This is the song you remember your friends and enemies to, the song you tell the final boss “This is your Final Fantasy Sixteen”, and the song you fucking punch a god in the face to. Both of these together put the stupidest smile on my face, and I can’t get enough of either of them. They’re a pair in my mind, and the epitome of what I love about this game.

Honorable mentions honorably go to: Sixteen Bells, On the Shoulders of Giants; No Risk, No Reward; Press On, Reflections - Drake’s Head, To Sail Forbidden Seas, Do or Die, Heart of Stone, Ascension, Furor, The Riddle, Fighting Fate, Death Shall Me Devour, ‘Neath the Pall, Logos, and Hymn of the Penitent.