Music's at the heart of Final Fantasy 14—the game brims with bangers, sure, but it's also an irreplaceable part of the game's story.
I've teared up to the hopeful swells of Dynamis while playing Endwalker, been pumped up by the guitar riffs of Shadowbringers during its roaring climax. Countless leitmotifs course through the game's soundscape like blood runs through a body's veins. Don't just take my word for it, though. Here's over 200 musicians—organised by youtuber Husky by the Geek—playing the game's greatest hits for 10 solid minutes.
This medley is a journey through each expansion, kicking off with the ripping Primal themes from A Realm Reborn before swooping into Heavensward, its mighty chanting replaced with electric guitar. "Brute Justice"—a love letter to Super Sentai opening themes—is blasted triumphantly by a guy somehow playing a trumpet through a full-body morph suit.
The vocals kick in near the end for a victory lap of Endwalker tunes—With Hearts Aligned, Footfalls, and Scream. It's a crash-course in Final Fantasy 14's musical history and a love letter all in one.
The medley also has a great little reimagining of lead composer Masayoshi Soken's infamous La Hee performance during 2021's fanfest. In case you missed that, Soken took to the stage to deliver an incredible minutes-long nightmare cover of the Rak'tika Greatwood's theme "Civilizations" (nicknamed "La Hee" after its repeated opening vocals). It's rendered in glorious orchestral fashion here, though the otamatones are still there. They're even in-tune, this time.
Husky, who has a ton of musical content on his youtube channel dedicated to his favourite games, wrote on Twitter: "When I started music, I always dreamed of playing in such community collabs. Now I'm the one who organises [them] … I loved arranging this song & assigned parts suited to everyone."
He also posted a full roster of over 200 community members that contributed—this includes musician Alex Moukala (who organised a similar choir of a staggering 1,000 community members last year), Twitch streamer Shenpai, drumming streamer The 8 Bit Drummer, community translation source and CEO of Atai Japan Aitaikimochi—the list goes on.
The video speaks to both a love of the game and a sign of the fanbase's raw excitement for Dawntrail, one that thoroughly struck my nostalgia for this game with a fully-charged Limit Break. Here's to 10 more years of bangers.
Final Fantasy 14's next big challenge: Making players feel like they're getting their monthly sub's worth—not just funding Square's flops while WoW stacks value
We have Final Fantasy 11 to thank for everything being on Discord, now—the app's co-creator made its prototype to talk strategy with his MMO buds
