Why Final Fantasy 16’s ‘Cascade’ Music is Such a Big Deal

Throughout Final Fantasy 16, music has played a significant role in telling the game’s tragic tale, between the calming tones of Rosaria and the fast-paced anthems of various Eikons. In the case of The Rising Tide‘s main boss theme, ‘Cascade’, the story of how it made its way into Final Fantasy 16 can be traced back to the game’s first trailer, shown three years before the game’s release.

In The Rising Tide, the second expansion for Final Fantasy 16, the main focus was on Leviathan the Lost, the serpentine Eikon of Water notably absent from the base game. Before the final main story quest, ‘Back to Their Origin’, Clive receives a letter from an unknown sender who asks Clive to help them free Leviathan’s Dominant, the infant Waljas, from an unjust fate. As the story of The Rising Tide continued, players were treated to a tune that would become the main leitmotif for the expansion. This tune reached its crescendo when Ifrit and Leviathan came to blows at the end of the DLC, as ‘Cascade’ sent keen-eared players on a nostalgia trip to a time when Final Fantasy 16 was first made known.

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Final Fantasy 16’s ‘Cascade’ is the Perfect Awakening and Bookend

In 2020, Final Fantasy 16 had its first public appearance during a PS5 Showcase leading up to its launch. Dubbed the ‘Awakening’ trailer by Square Enix, this gave Final Fantasy fans their first glimpse at Clive, and a taste of what the developers, such as producer Naoki Yoshida and lead composer Masayoshi Soken, had up their sleeves. A song played during the trailer’s latter half, matching the beat of Clive’s Eikonic abilities. The song went unused in the base version of Final Fantasy 16, leaving fans to wonder if it was left on the cutting room floor.

However, just before The Rising Tide‘s release, Yoshida said that Soken and his team had plans for the Awakening trailer’s missing theme. Those plans came to fruition during the DLC, as Leviathan’s theme was divided into multiple phases to match the battle. The first half started with ‘To Sail Forbidden Seas’, followed by a low rumbling motif of The Rising Tide‘s main theme, as Leviathan and Ifrit clashed on Mysidia’s open waters. Keen-eared fans were then treated to a callback to both Final Fantasy 16‘s premiere and another Square Enix game scored by Soken.

Leitmotifs Are A Final Fantasy Franchise Staple

After the first phase gave players a low-key version of The Rising Tide’s main theme, a “DPS check” midway through the fight featured an orchestral rendition of Final Fantasy 14‘s ‘Through the Maelstrom’, which was used against that game’s version of Leviathan. The final phase started with a triumphant fanfare to ‘Cascade’, and the chorus from the ‘Awakening’ trailer of 2020 returned. With Leviathan on the ropes, and Ifrit poised to tame the rampaging Eikon and save Waljas, the high-key brass and thumping drum beats sounded clear as the waters. Though the song was hinted as players accepted The Rising Tide‘s story quest, and throughout Mysidia’s Haven village, the fight against the formerly lost Eikon deserved an equally lost anthem that was found again.

Given both Soken’s and the Final Fantasy franchise’s penchant for leitmotifs, the reference to the ‘Awakening’ trailer within the game’s second, and potentially final, expansion served as a bookend for the game, as a full-circle moment. Although Final Fantasy 16 development has come to a decisive conclusion, it is safe to say that Soken, Yoshida, and the rest of Creative Business Unit 3 gave FF16 a fitting musical finale for Final Fantasy fans to enjoy forevermore.

Final Fantasy 16

Final Fantasy 16 is an action RPG developed by Square Enix. Set in the land of Valisthea, six different factions are on the brink of war due to a spreading disease known as the Blight. Much of the plot revolves around summoned monsters called Eikons, who are controlled by unique humans called Dominants. 

Released

June 22, 2023

Genre(s)

Action RPG

ESRB

M For Mature 17+ Due To Blood and Gore, Partial Nudity, Sexual Themes, Strong Language, Violence

How Long To Beat

36 Hours

Metascore

87

PS Plus Availability

N/A