The track is marinated in medieval instruments, from organ to harpsichord along with slews of brass. The first area theme in the game is accompanied by “Solid,” an excellent theme that unquestionably sets the mood for the game. As much as I enjoyed the renditions of Final Fantasy XIV and A Realm Reborn, “A Cold Wind” is probably one of my favorites in the entire Final Fantasy series, using a heavy rhythm combined with a strings-and-piano duo and laced with French horns for an appropriately icy and dramatic effect. Like every game in the Final Fantasy series, Heavensward comes with its own Prelude that opens the game. The 3.0 themes that are used in this track include “Descent,” “Ominous Prognisticks,” “Solid,” and “For the Sky,” four of the most prominent themes featured in Heavensward. It’s divided up into several segments, and each one – including the opening vocal melody – brings a top-rate melody to the table, all of which get incorporated quite fantastically into the Heavensward score as a whole, with the exception of a very light excerpt from “Praetorium,” one of the best tracks out of the 2.0 score. However, the overall structure of the piece is great.
I’m still not enamored with this track just yet, perhaps because I’m still struggling to reconcile this sound with the sound delivered by the rest of the score. I found the opening vocals a little inaccessible, sounding a little like a something from the fifties or sixties (particularly through a murky filter that heavily distorts the voice), but the effect is gone soon enough, and we’re left with the raw voice, which is unquestionably beautiful. I have mixed feelings about the opening theme, “Heavensward,” the vocal theme of the 3.0 expansion. When the soundtrack was released last month, I quickly dove into the score to see what it had to offer for followers of the game and music of Final Fantasy XIV.
I have to confess that while I enjoyed the pre-2.0 music to Final Fantasy XIV, the 2.0 soundtrack, A Realm Reborn, is one of my favorite game scores, and I was highly anticipating the release of Heavensward – I was excited to see what else Soken would produce (along with composers Nobuo Uematsu and Yukiko Takada, who each submitted a few tracks as well), and anxious that it would not live up to the high standards he set with A Realm Reborn. Since taking the lead on the music of Final Fantasy XIV, Soken has risen to the challenge with both his original compositions and his arrangements of Nobuo Uematu’s work on the original score. Heavensward: FINAL FANTASY XIV Original Soundtrack Heavensward: Final Fantasy XIV Original Soundtrack
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