FFXIV - White Stone Black (Abyssos Eighth Circle) | Reacting To Video Game Music!

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#FFXIV #FinalFantasy14 #Reaction
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[@laxxboy20]

I love that Soken's music subscription service comes with a free MMO

[@ReveredDead]

Bruh he is up there with Mick Gordon. These guys are all legendary and without them. These games would be nothing.

[@Ren99510]

"I can never understand Soken's use of vocals..." I think in many cases it's very purposeful, it's like he's using it more as an instrument than actual vocals. Though if you do manage to catch the lyrics they are pretty onpoint with theming and story- but at simple face value I like the dynamic they add to the music.

[@Deuzen_FIN]

There's also been a few cases where the lyrics are originally just gibberish, meant to add to the piece as (like you said) another instrument; only later getting actual lyrics when they make a Primals or other LIVE version.

[@smward87]

Also got to remember the vast majority of time it's Koji Fox doing the singing, and bless his bald head, he is far from a professional singer, so they just put a bunch of filters over his voice to, as you say, make it just another instrument as opposed to actually being the focus of the song.

[@BaghNakh1]

It's similar to how Gyorgy Ligeti more late compositions delved into more experimental music and he has compositions where instead of "tone" (notes) he composes using timbre (tone quality). In case you aren't familiar with the concept, timbre is basically the characteristical sound "quality" that distinguishes one sound from the other, for example, you play a C on a piano and then the same note on a flute, despite both instruments playing the same note C, you can clearly distinguish both sounds being different since one is a piano and the other a flute, that sound characteristic that particularly distinguishes one sound from another, in this example, the piano and the flute, it's called timbre. I think this is how Soken sometimes uses vocals, not to express notes but just for the pure quality of the human vocal timbre, almost like background/ambient "noise" but obviously with a purpose/function to the composition, it's a pretty interesting concept, which is used a lot in the "noise" music genre for example.

[@Yokai_Yuri]

@@Deuzen_FIN The Alexander raid "Locus theme" comes into mind when someone refer to FFXIV lyrics as just gibberish;however, that are some cases. Sophia has good lyrics, Hades, Warrior of Light, even Titan.

[@FF-tp7qs]

When Finally Fantasy 16 comes out there will be a whole new bunch of Soken tracks to listen to

[@EzGamerx]

I cannot wait. One of my main hype points for that game is the music.

[@trial_with_an_error9687]

The main fight theme from the State Of Play trailer has me hooked off rip. Soken went off for FF16 I can just tell.

[@FF-tp7qs]

@@trial_with_an_error9687 Soken goes off on everything he does

[@harryrundle7897]

It's funny that you say that this song is just one long sense of tension, the fight itself feels a lot like that. It's a string of mechanics that are involved when it takes to learn and easy to execute once learned, but the tension is hoping everyone does what they need to do for 8 minutes because any mistakes generally means you lose. Basically 8 minutes of tension per run.

[@astrum_remi]

Even in patch 6.55 this fight is still very stressful. Maybe not as stressful as it was on content

[@thalesn]

This is certainly more of an ambience song. It doesn't stand out too much on its own, but, like you said, it sets the mood of voices in your head, it has some ethereal quality. So it perfectly fits the character that you're fighting. And the throwbacks to Embers do that as well.

[@user-ch7pp8gm4n]

3:10 actually, the 4th level boss IS the vampire with sword. That's why we love your channel.

[@mr.mystere4999]

This is one of the songs that not very many players have even heard. This fight ONLY happens in P8S, and not in the Normal/Story Mode version of the raid, so most players will never hear this song unless they happen on a video such as this or they buy the Orchestrion Roll off the Marketboard randomly.

[@Tengila]

Or someone in their FC does the fight and gets the orchestrion roll and decides to play it in the FC house on repeat for weeks on end...

[@raynhylance3546]

@@Tengila They have to make you understand what they likely listened to for hours on end

[@Dractonis]

@@raynhylance3546 ;_; no more

[@rev8399]

Jesse: Cool and weird and interesting Everyone else: REJOICE AND PARTAKE OF MY GIFT

[@masdrionalt]

I think this might be one of my favorites of your reaction videos recently, it was really nice just clearly hearing your thoughts as they were coming through. I don't watch every single video, but your approach to the commentary in this one in particular just stood out to me somehow.

[@BaghNakh1]

This is one of my favourite FFXIV themes. This song is pretty much EBM/Industrial, one of my favourite music genres, you could put this song on a playlist for a dark/goth electronic party and would fit right in, probably no one would believe you this song comes from a Final Fantasy game. It's amazing how creative and talented Soken is, he's able to compose catchy songs in such a wide array of music genres it's hard to believe a big part of the compositions come from one single guy (I say most and not all since some or maybe a lot of the themes are inspired in songs from previous FF releases but even taking that into consideration, this man's talents for making such a wide variety of arragements is something from another planet, Soken is an absolute top tier music composer/producer).

[@jaylee9372]

lol count me as one of the people who immediately thought "Interesting song with context but probably gonna bore him" when I saw the notification. The fact that you immediately connected it to Embers and the rest of the Abyssos raid-series motifs probably helped a lot. As for the title, it and the entire raid series has a lot of occult & alchemical references. White Stone Black refers to the "putrefaction" or decomposition stage of transmutation. The idea of this stage is to reduce the Self into its most basic form by burning all your "mental artifacts" down to nigredo, a uniform pitch black substance. With vanities stripped away, one is able to begin the process of refinement with the end goal being the creation of the "philosopher's stone". The whole thing is really just a metaphor for becoming enlightened by refining your "soul" through the process of breaking down and rebuilding it over and over again. It's interesting in the context of this raid because we're basically seeing the mad researcher from Embers (who is already something of a phantom) embarking on his own journey to enlightenment. Albeit in a way that is obviously corrupted by...something. We're still waiting on the next part of the story (due in ~2 months) that will fully explain what led him down this path and why.

[@trackeralias1124]

This song is burned into my head, we've been trying to beat this for about a month now, but we'll get there

[@Elban19]

I find this music underrated. Maybe it's because not many have seen this or heard it. It's on my best of 14 list and in my 14 house in game.

[@Mindistortt]

I have this one in my ff14 playlist. I really like this one for some reason. I really like the melody in the background at the beginning of the loop

[@valence686]

When I was playing this boss with the group it's exactly the drums that got to me. They're literally what sold the deal, and going again and again against that boss every time those drums kicked behind was really empowering for some reason, never got bored of it.

[@samuelperez2223]

This was part of the raids where you heard "Scream" also

[@user-ch7pp8gm4n]

And let's meet another day. New raid songs are also awesome.

[@snakkupakku]

This is just one of those FFXIV songs where immediately when I hear it I'm in that fight, I'm doing that boss and all the mechanics are coming back to me. It's definitely not the most stand-out song or anything but something about the intensity of it makes me feel like I'm holding my breath until the very end which is ideal for the second/final phase of a very rough boss fight.

[@kekon3]

Its interesting to think about, I didn't consider until watching your reaction that the song is the way it is probably as a good backtrack for players to think to. Or rather, it keeps a consistent flow as good accompaniment to the players solving how to survive the insane patterns. Good video!

[@GoGoCherryPie]

When you mentioned because of the repetition of the song you kind of shut it off almost whilst doing the fight- I have done this fight multiple, multiple times, and yet this is the first time I feel like I've 'listened' to the song, which sounds so odd but you're right. You are focusing so hard it almost calms you as you go from mechanic to mechanic, it's that same rhythm, same beat, that same lull that it feels like it glides you through almost? Such a weird point I picked up on but damn dude, you hit that one on the damn head o.o

[@SihariSahara]

Yea, this is what makes that song so good. It takes hours to learn that fight and while you learn the song gets pushed into the background until the rythm of song and fight merge together. I really liked scream as a song and it was quite nice when doing the fights on normal difficulty, but in the savage version it was inferior to other tracks like white stone black, which calmed me into that focused zen state.

[@DrumStixYTChannel]

Honestly, this is one song that I have been waiting for them to release the official lyrics for but they still have yet to do it. Song is definitely a bop and (to me at least) never got stale when I was learning this fight (unlike the first phase where I got sick of Embers eventually lol)

[@dingding12321]

agreed, this is absolutely a banger!

[@iEGeek]

I’d like to see a reaction between Forged in Crimson and Hyadain’s Battle of The Four Fiends.

[@josiedavis3792]

After having wiped on the first phase of this fight like maybe 600 times it felt good to hear this one, it was like a mark of progress. I don't care if it's like Mall Goth music I love it cause it's a song that not everyone in the game gets to hear in game.

[@post-mastersodium3136]

I love how you say "looks like a busy fight", which is definitely an understatement. It's an excellent fight which feels good to finally complete. Banging song too. Totally reminds me of skinny puppy. Very fitting for the fight.

[@CryselleSilverwynd]

You mentioned that Alexander was 5 songs, but those were actually spread out over multiple fights in an entire block of encounters. There are indeed more songs associated with this block, and you've even listened to some of them! In addition to Embers and White Stone Black, both Scream and Hic Svnt Leones are part of this same series.

[@skuddstevens]

Late discovering this video, but having only somewhat recently finished this fight in FFXIV, I can say that the constant tension is very fitting in-context. The fight is designed such that once you've learned each mechanic, they're not extremely difficult to do correctly, but one mistake in most spots will kill your entire party and force you to restart, so there's a very tense atmosphere while doing the fight that's matched very well by the music.

[@tickledpickle5671]

That Dragoon LB. *Chef kiss* Be well brother/sister Dragoon!

[@reaperx7164]

"White Stone Black" i believe has to do with Auracite (White Stone) being black (Black Auracite) and is refering to the "Heart of Sabik" which goes into the lore of the game back from A Realm reborn days, and was the core of the ultima weapon, other then that there is no other lore yet on it. As for the boss fight itself, the music is perfect cause thats one of the hardest fights introduced for a savage in a long time, need something i can zone out to rather then a sonf like "Scream" where i wanna sing along.

[@mechamaya]

Most raid bosses only have one phase, except the final fight of each tier on savage difficulty, has two "phases". The 4th, 8th, and 12th bosses.

[@seekittycat]

I feel like this needs to be relatively bare bones and chill to listen to cause people are going to listening to it like 300 times 😂. I actually saw the title and got PTSD. But I'm here for the reaction lmao

[@copjing]

A very cool song for a fight that makes me feel nothing but dread and pain! EDIT: To answer your question, yea this song is pretty recent. The fight itself has been out for quite a few months now but it's from the second phase of the final fight from the most recent tier of Savage content. Whether or not the final fight has a second phase or not is a total toss-up. This expansion all of them had a second phase but last expansion only one of them did. There's a lot of debate within the community surrounding the second phases and whether or not they're good or bad so Square has been fairly inconsistent with whether or not the last fight of the tier has them.

[@manbearpigsereal]

my problem with the checkpoint phases mainly stems from when the fights are either repetitive or bloated with easy mechanics, P4S is a great example of this, P4S essentially loops at the halfway mark with very little difference, and then phase 2 has 2 extremely easy mechanics in Act 1 and Act 3. This didn't need to be a checkpoint fight, it could have been one longer encounter with the fluff removed.

[@copjing]

@@manbearpigsereal Agreed. While it's nice to get another song (although we didn't even get that with P4S lmao) and another boss I feel like the 14 savage designers don't have enough time to actually make both phases interesting. Either one of the phases is a joke and all the interesting mechanics get lumped in the other phase (O8S, O12S, E12S) or both phases just end up kinda meh (O4S, P4S, P8S).

[@basch71]

IMO this is probably the most evil sounding boss theme in the entire game. Which would make sense considering how unnerving the boss looks. Looking like FF14's take on a Resident Evil boss.

[@trial_with_an_error9687]

Given what Hephaistos has done to people on the story of this raid, he is most certainly the most cruel, unnerving, heartless boss in the game. Forcefully twisting people into monstrosities, making them live in complete agony for his amusement and for his "scientific progress"

[@kiddemiko3072]

I just finally got the mount from here today. Imagine my surprise seeing the song posted here now! Time to listen to what Jesse thinks =)

[@c9bepis939]

i like this boss alot, just finished my static's reclears a couple weeks ago. this song certainly sets the frantic mood.

[@ridleyroid9060]

keep in context that this song you will hear for hours upon hours progging this boss (well unless you mute and put your own shit in which, yeah, fine, but Im more talking the devs accounting for it) since it's the 2nd highest tier difficulty raid in the game.

[@mindisfrozen]

From kiling gods, to killing angels while having some Devil May Cry music playing in the background. (Jackpot)

[@KatyWhitekavkj]

Loooove this track, never got tired of listening to it while progging P8S! Can I put in a request for 'Dedicated to Moonlight' from FFXIV for your next track? It's a bit different from anything else FFXIV has brought us so far and I'd be interested to see what you think :)

[@Robin-fx5hf]

Yeah I agree with this take, I love the song a lot but only because I did the fight, it is very hard and tense especially compared to the rest of the fights this raid tier, and it's a lot of fun and VERY tense, and the song really makes the fight. But, yeah on its own, with no context, it's pretty simple and bare bones. I'm glad you heard embers first and saw the video bc without that it wouldn't be insanely enjoyable

[@DragonOrbProductions]

all raid (bosses) battles are meant to be tense throught the entire fight, to keep you on your toes, and drive you insane XD

[@MBunn-uf1we]

this song reminds of the background music that was used for P.O.D

[@theeuphoguy108]

I'm curious how old the source video is, because some of those strats are so very different to what my group is doing now. It might also be a difference in data center strats (I raid on Materia, for context).

[@copjing]

I had a quick look through the video and they seem to be pretty similar to NA PF strats. NA1 is almost entirely NA PF except for the initial starting positions and stack position. HC1 looks to be entirely NA PF. Limitless looks similar to NA PF but people are a lot more spread out than they usually are nowadays. HC2 looks to be entirely NA PF as well. Only big difference seems to be Dominion which they're doing HTRM (as best as I can tell anyway, small video) whereas PF does THMR.

[@Kalanin399]

@@copjing This video is from an NA clear team, yes, from the Aether datacenter. The person who does this video (Uvi) put this out just a few weeks after the world first clear (and 1 day after their own clear), so these were the strats they used in their first clear. Uvi only posts their videos once they clear the content, so their TOP videos only came out a few days ago.

[@thalesn]

To answer your questions: if the raid is a multiple of four (like this one, the eight circle), the savage version has a second phase, which is essentially a new fight and often has a new song. Alexander had a lot of songs because Alexander wasn't just a single fight or just two phases of a fight. Alexander was the whole raid series, everything was directly related to Alexander.

[@dafire9634]

I definitely think Soken mostly uses Vocals as if they were an actual instrument, and then "actual meaning"(as a lot of vocals are just gibberish in the first version of songs a lot of the time) gets added later on

[@debrucey]

Which is a good choice for boss music imo, if the vocals are too loud and clear I start to focus on them instead of my rotation 😅

[@Sekainoowaride]

Vocal are either "Ambience" or "Center-Stage" 0 in between lol

[@xSHIELDBREAKERx82]

Of the two, Embers is still my favorite. However, I feel White Stone Black would be right at home in a club. And would be a damn hit too. And similar drumming style to this would be Exponential Entropy from A11.

[@Nedread]

It reminds me a bit of the Alexander themes, mainly Locus. Like, definitely the vocals have that same filter over them.

[@Dractonis]

6:45 So.... Scooter then? :D

[@ForlornLemon]

I really want to see your reaction to "Endcaller" What an amazing track

[@jacobnguyen8372]

I don’t know if you take suggestions in your comment sections but “Between Two Worlds” is a fantastic boss theme from Mili, the same person who composed the vocalized songs from Library of Ruina! It appears in the game that Project Moon just released, called Limbus Company! They’ve kept the heavy guitars and synths from Library in Limbus, but this one’s pretty different :3

[@nightlord531]

Waiting for 6.4-6.5 to come out so we can recommend those tracks because obvs they will be amazing

[@Solarasthma]

Tension is right. It's a very tense fight lol.

[@dhekti]

I think the same about the way the song is written, aka simple, repetitive & just tension. It is a really difficult fight and you need to focus so much on what's going on that an epic, overloaded music would have rendered people crazy lmao. And yeah, the fight is months old and some people I know/follow still struggle with it. It really packs a punch

[@mojojojox5043]

This has an unhinged feel at the start like something is slowly losing it. This seems like a fun beat to fight to, it seems ghostly with the vocals. There's a good pace to this, keeps everything moving. The guitar tone sounds pretty good although low in the mix. The vocals almost feel like a distant memory, honestly I don't have much to say about this one. I'm indifferent to this song, I don't dislike it but I don't love it either.

[@chaoschris8194]

This song is very Frontline Assembly.

[@aaron4832]

Reminds me of "The Prodigy".

[@Klefth]

This song sounds so much like Devil May Cry, while the boss looks like something out of Resident Evil. I wonder if someone in the team was on a Capcom kick.

[@dragonitejc]

RECEIVE OF ME DEATH

[@alejandroreyes57]

AND BE HONORED

[@StarfieldDisarray]

Love to hear something different from FF14.

[@aceflare2431]

Considering this stuff tends to come in 12s, such as omega and Alexander... What will 9-12 be like?

[@WickedIsPopular]

Listen to FFXIV "Forged in Crimson".

[@fenrir3097]

Man, there's a LOT of FF14 songs.

[@MyndZero]

The 6th/7th circle Scream for Abyssos is where it's at, not this one. 100%

[@irisheartt]

It does fit the heavily lovecraftian theme of the boss, but if I'm honest White Stone Black is very far from my favorite savage exclusive song, let alone the game in general.

[@jacobteague635]

I actually don't really like this song, the version from Husky by the Geek is so much better and I feel like it should have been like that. Then again, I haven't done the fight itself so I'm sure to will grow on me if I could ever find a group to do it with

[@magnieto1]

Nah, Ima say it, this does not touch Embers. At all. This is good, don't get me wrong, but yeah.

[@DeadEye364]

I want to love this song but the vocals need to be a little more pronounced.

[@enyaliosares4301]

I was super disappointed with the P8S themes. Both of them. Muted, quiet and boring.

[@makisbizarreadventure4669]

Honestly it was pretty hype getting to the scene transition the first time and hearing this. Especially since the first 4th floor didn’t change music at all. So for that alone I enjoyed this sudden change up. Best raid song? Nah but still enjoyable to me