Another day, another Final Fantasy XIV post. This time we’re looking at the boss theme from Stormblood, which really grew on me as we progressed our way through that expansion.

Since the last post, our group completed Heavensward and Stormblood and has moved on to the most recent expansion, Shadowbringers. Shadowbringers has all kinds of neat things going for it, like the Trust system that lets you bring popular NPCs into dungeons or a surprisingly dark and gritty story. Once we’ve had a chance to complete the main story portion, I imagine I’ll put something up about some of the cool new tracks that the new addition brought with it.

Instead, let’s focus on Stormblood a bit. The expansion had its hits and misses, but this theme rocketed up the charts of my favorite tracks from FFXIV — no small feat considering how good the soundtrack is as a whole. It has sort of a trepidatious opening with neat sounding brass and strings, an imposing bass line and even bells. Then the choir kicks in with its short chorus, and we’re in business. It’s the perfect accompaniment for an intense boss battle, dodging mechanics and trying to eke out victory with your group.

One of the things I love about XIV is the OST’s consistent implementation of familiar themes. Each expansion has had a couple tracks that get remixed throughout, like a town theme that gets more intense later on with a battle version. Triumph is no different, and it’s cool to sit around in Kugane and hear familiar pieces of the melody in that song as well. All of it helps tie pieces of the world together into a more cohesive experience, as well as helping to delineate content from each expansion.

The Final Fantasy XIV soundtrack spans more than 700 tracks now, and has to rank among the best soundtracks ever made. That’s because of bang for your buck, but there are dozens of intricately crafted bits of music along the way. Between homages to other Final Fantasy games and a stunning original score, XIV continues to impress every step of the way.

Triumph (Stormblood Boss Theme)

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