Back in 2017, two Square Enix games vied for my personal favorite soundtracks of the year. NieR: Automata had incredible, haunting, driving tracks to establish its war ravaged world. Whereas Final Fantasy 14: Stormblood had a mix of imperial battle songs (an ode to the anti-colonialist focus of that expansion) and hopeful beats tinged with shamisen. Also this boss theme. Now those two properties are coming together in a much anticipated NieR x FF14 raid crossover. And, if the first trailer is any indication, the music is fucking wild.
Most of the trailer for FF14 patch 5.1 — Vows of Virtue, Deeds of Cruelty — will likely sound like nonsense if you’re not familiar with the game. In particular, there are some visual spoilers in there for people who haven’t beaten the main Shadowbringers campaign. Be warned! If you’ve already played the latest expansion, or don’t mind braving spoilers for some really great music, you can hear what I mean at about 2:08 in the video below.
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That’s an orchestrated battle version of “Weight of the World” — one of the undeniably best tracks in NieR: Automata. It appears to be the boss theme of the new raid (The Copied Factory). And it’s absolutely sick as shit, in my humble opinion. Like, Jesus Christ. I’ve been listening to this little snippet on a loop all morning. I know it’s going to spoil me for the actual battle itself, but I don’t really care. I’m in too deep!
It doesn’t hurt that Square Enix also cut the song over shots of new NieR enemies and the Hades battle from the end of Shadowbringers. Much like those soundtracks from 2017, both of those things are hardwired in my brain to bring out strong emotions at this point. I can only imagine that will get worse once they become inextricably tied together during The Copied Factory raid.
The one major downside is that FF14 raids tend to come in waves. I personally appreciate how they’re sliced up into parts. It makes it easier to play a single “chapter” in about 20 minutes and then move on. But that’s easy for me to say, since I didn’t play any of the previous raids until they were completely finished. Now I’m definitely going to play the first part and then have to wait for the other two somewhere down the line. Because you better believe that I am not missing out on the full version of this song, or the no-doubt wild boss fight that accompanies it. NieR designers Yoko Taro and Yosuke Saito are actually collaborating on this one. That’s sure to be a fun mix as well.
Oh! It all launches on Oct. 29 of this year, alongside the full patch 5.1, in case you were wondering. Although we kind of already knew that. It’s still nice to have confirmation — or a reminder to start grinding for gear so we’re all ready to raid on the last Tuesday of the month. Because, again: there is no way I am not listening to that full song on day one. You hear me? You hear me!?
