The last post in this series was about Final Fantasy XIV, and so is this one. The difference is that between then and now, I’ve picked up the two expansions to the game (Heavensward and Stormblood) when they were on sale, so now my healer is level 70 and has approximately 100,000 health all of a sudden.

One of the new discoveries in that time has been advancing the main story, which I stopped doing to wait for others in our group. It’s extremely hit or miss — some cutscenes are better than others, especially the deeper into the content you get. Voice acting becomes much more frequent later on. Sometimes you feel like a big hero as the Warrior of Light, and sometimes you’re not just running errands, but the most meaningless errands known to mankind.

Still, one thing I’ve really enjoyed is finally getting the change to take on more trials. There’s only one of these in the first 40 levels — Ifrit — but I always heard strong things about the big boss encounters. As you get farther into the game, you skip past the four-person trials and enter eight-player territory, where all the roles double. It makes for a frenetic but fun experience, working together to fell the massive elemental enemies.

The biggest standout has been Garuda. She’s a bit crazy, as you can see below in the intro video for her fight. But she delights in that insanity, and her theme reflects it. There’s a cool organ opening, with some slightly off-kilter vocals. Then it’s a whisper (“…now fall…”) and into the fray we go with guitar and pounding drums. The music fits well with the cinematic, and once the fight picks up steam, there’s a cool part where the guitar insistently strums as things get especially frantic. I’ve been listening to this theme in the background when I’m trying to get work done lately, and I love it quite a bit. Take a listen.

Fallen Angel (Garuda’s Theme)

Music to My Ears covers soundtracks or individual songs from video games. You can view all posts in the series by clicking here.