Six of the best Final Fantasy XIV boss themes

The Final Fantasy series has always been known for its excellent music, but Final Fantasy XIV specifically stands apart as having one of the most astonishingly spectacular soundtracks in the franchise’s history. This is at least partly due to lead composer Masayoshi Soken having the opportunity to continually expand and build on the soundtrack with each new patch and expansion — but the fact remains that Final Fantasy XIV has one of the best soundtracks in the biz.

As is so often the case with RPGs, much of the best music can be heard in the game’s battle scenes. Indeed, there’s actually a strong argument to be made for Final Fantasy XIV being a piece of interactive musical theatre, thanks to how many of the boss fights have lyrics that are directly relevant to what is going on, and how following the mechanics of the fights can often resemble a kind of “dance” as much as anything.

So today we’re going to celebrate six of the best boss themes from throughout the series’ history to date. There are a lot more than six that I’d love to highlight but, well, the format is to have six — so six it is. If you have your own favourites, feel free to share them down in the comments!

From the Ashes

Final Fantasy XIV’s first eight-player raid cycle, The Binding Coil of Bahamut, was a noteworthy part of the game’s history. Primarily intended to provide some closure to the “Calamity” storyline that had closed off the 1.0 version of Final Fantasy XIV and provided the justification for A Realm Reborn being a bit different, it provided a series of extremely challenging battles that is still pretty tough to get through today.

This track, heard in the penultimate “Turn” of Coil, marked an incredibly emotional moment in the overall storyline that helped to answer some lingering questions — before placing the Warrior of Light in an unenviable situation where they had to strike down someone who was quite rightfully regarded as a hero. The music reflected the melancholy and drama of the moment — and reflected the fact that the battle was a furious one. It is also based on the “Answers” theme song to A Realm Reborn — which is heard in its full epic choral entirety in the following Turn of Coil for the grand finale.

Truly one of the finest tracks in Final Fantasy XIV history — and one that a significant portion of the player base likely still haven’t heard, as Coil can still be a challenge to this day!

Revenge Twofold

This track, heard during dungeon-concluding boss fights later in the Heavensward patch cycle, brought a real sense of drama to proceedings. By incorporating one of the main musical themes heard throughout Heavensward, a sense of coherence and an ongoing “hero’s journey” was brought to proceedings — apt, since part of the point of Heavensward was to uproot the Warrior of Light from their traditional “home” and send them off to other parts of the world.

Dungeon runs in Final Fantasy XIV aren’t always directly important to the main story, particularly in both A Realm Reborn and Heavensward, but this track helped make it feel like what you were doing really mattered.

Freefall

Freefall is part of a three-song suite that accompanied the absolutely definitely positively final fight with the great dragon Nidhogg — and the conclusion of the Dragonsong War storyline that had run through Heavensward and about half of its patch cycle. It’s yet another magnificent example of Soken’s approach to Final Fantasy XIV’s soundtrack: taking existing themes and presenting them in new ways to heighten the drama of the situation.

In this case, we once again hear one of the main themes of Heavensward — the same one used in Revenge Twofold, as it happens — but with everything dialled up to 11. It’s enough to make anyone encountering this battle for the first time an emotional wreck.

Beauty’s Wicked Wiles

One of my personal favourite boss themes from all of Final Fantasy XIV, Beauty’s Wicked Wiles is one of the best examples of the game as a piece of interactive musical theatre. Hell, there’s even a sequence during the fight where your entire party ends up hypnotised and literally dancing while the camera pans around you — and it just works perfectly with the musical accompaniment.

It’s also a noteworthy theme for eschewing the sort of “orchestral and scary choir” drama that typifies a lot of the more exciting moments throughout Final Fantasy XIV’s narrative. The battle that this track accompanies is an important one — but the atmosphere is very different to anything you’ve encountered before, and that makes it extremely memorable.

Who Brings Shadow

“Final boss” tracks for Final Fantasy XIV rarely disappoint, and this music, which accompanies the first phase of the final story battle in Shadowbringers, is a great example. Embodying the more electric guitar-heavy sound of the Shadowbringers soundtrack as a whole, it’s a great introduction to a climactic fight that really helps reflect the fury of the antagonist and how, despite the fact that the Warrior of Light and friends are having to beat them down, there’s a certain degree of understanding there.

This is another great example of Soken using a previous motif — in this case, one of the main themes heard throughout the entirety of Shadowbringers. It’s always especially dramatic when a main theme is brought back during a grand finale, and this is a great example of this musical trope at its finest.

Finality

At the time of writing, I haven’t yet started Endwalker — I’m working my way through Eden, the Nier raid and Shadowbringers’ post-game content first — but I did overhear this theme a lot while my wife was playing through Endwalker when it first came out. And it’s quite possibly the finest “dungeon final boss” theme in all of Final Fantasy XIV. I don’t know the context of any of the dungeons in Endwalker as yet, but the sheer dramatic energy of this piece means that everyone is set to be an extremely exciting affair.

And yes, I have no shame in admitting that one of my main incentives for wanting to finally make it through the rest of Final Fantasy XIV is to hear this theme in context. Because it’s amazing stuff, for sure — but I’m sure Soken has plenty more wonderful themes up his sleeve for me to enjoy in the years to come!

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