Best Video Game Soundtracks of 2019
Second Runner-Up: Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers
Reviews Editor Zhiqing Wan: Final Fantasy XIV is incredible in that the music seems to just keep getting better and better with each expansion. The music in A Realm Reborn was impressive enough, but the bar got raised even higher in Heavensward.
Then, the game reached new musical heights with Stormblood. And now, composer Masayoshi Soken has outdone himself yet again with the soundtrack of Shadowbringers.
The story arc of Shadowbringers is probably the darkest one yet in Final Fantasy XIV, so it’s only fitting that the accompanying music should have a bit of an edge to it as well. This is most apparent in the expansion’s main theme, featuring electric guitars and percussion as the main forms of instruments. Couple that with the hard, screaming vocals, and you’ve got a strong rock song to kick things off the right way.
That’s not to say that Shadowbringers doesn’t lean into the softer side of music either. Civilizations, the environmental theme that plays in the Rak’tika Greatwood, is a serious fan-favorite with Shakira-like female vocals echoing through the fleeting, yet persistent beat.
Soken experiments with classical instruments clashing with electric ones in strong boss themes like Insanity as well, making Shadowbringers’ soundtrack one of the most varied and diverse ones we’ve heard in the Final Fantasy series.
