The Beautiful Ode to Endurance Reveals the Endwalker’s Lyrical Travel in FFXIV
Final Fantasy XIV’s Endwalker expansion has been delayed to December 7. However, the MMO’s main theme song will be out in just a few short days on November 17. Endwalker – Footfalls is the official title of the Masayoshi-Soken-composed banger that you can hear in the full trailer. I have ten thousand theories about Square Enix’s official lyrical reveal, all of which make it hard for me to stop crying until my eyes hurt.
Square Enix has resolved months of controversy in a new Lyrical journey blog post from FFXIV team. It shares exactly what you heard in the Endwalker song, and clears up my personal list misheard words. It’s a lot of the things we have suspected for a while. Footfalls is a tribute of the Warrior of Lights’ journey so far. There are nods Heavensward and Stormblood. Shadowbringers is also mentioned. But, we won’t be able to see the whole story until Endwalker arrives.
There are parts that are less obvious. Footfalls in Dragonspeak has a section with lyrics that is similar to Heavensward’s theme. It’s not a typo. The lyrics have been slightly altered, with the addition of the line “Death comes. Our slumber disturbed.” between verses. FFXIV revealed that we all ally with Tiamat, and that she is there to help us fight Lunar Bahamut. She’s probably quite pissed that she has to deal with another Bahamut version that betrays his legacy. The Heavensward lyrics seem too acknowledge this.
It also has a line that echoes, “Tales about loss and fire and faith,” which is the same one as in the Endwalker title screens. Community discussions are full of back-and-forth over what part is a reference to each expansion, but I’m convinced “loss” is Shadowbringers–everyone can argue amongst themselves over the other two. We saw some of the most difficult beats in the story dealing with grief. However, the overall story of Emet Selch, Elidibus and the origins to Zodiark makes it seem too fitting.
I agree with everyone who believes that the mention of “you’re not alone” links to its Final Fantasy IX influence. It doesn’t seem too far-fetched, considering that one of FFIX’s themes is named exactly the same thing. Endwalker’s raid series Pandaemonium shares its name with a location in the 2000 RPG. The two appear a lot alike.
FFXIV has a long tradition of using song lyrics to express the viewpoint of key characters. Fanbyte’s Michael Higham explained this in his early Endwalker impressions. It’s amazing how many of my favourite moments from the MMO’s story are punctuated with its lyrics. Although I will have to wait for version 6.0 for a while, I will be analyzing these lines of text in the next mont.
