Final Fantasy 14's developer team confirms that one of Endwalker’s most emotional songs, Close in the Distance is from a specific character to your Warrior of Light

Final Fantasy 14 features a developer's band led by Masayoshi Sken, the game's sound designer. The Primals, who play tunes from the MMO, are really popular among fans. Close in the Distance is a song that brings tears to the eyes. It plays at the end of Endwalker. Spoilers will follow for this expansion and all expansions before it.

Close in the Distance begins muted, before Jason Charles Miller's vocals gradually come in as your friends, one by one put everything on the table to give you a shot at a better future. It's actually one of the few zones in the game that has vocal accompaniment.

It was revealed during a recent performance in the Yokohama Arena that this song belongs to a character very similar to yours. This was shared via an aside posted on the GameWatch website, which reads: "It's finally been revealed that it is a song by Ardert, the Warrior of Light."

What is it about this information that makes me feel like something is stuck in my eye? Ardbert, who was first introduced to players as the Warrior Darkness in Heavensward patches, becomes a steadfast friend to the Warrior Light, which is you.

During the Shadowbringers campaign, it is revealed that Ardbert was a fragment of the soul you lost when Hydaelyn divided the world into 14 pieces. He merges his soul with yours. This is why the revelation is so heartbreaking.

I mentioned Orpheus because you have to leave your companions in Ultima Thule. He's known as the Greek mythology's worst bag fumbler who, in a moment's doubt, sent his lover Eurydice into the underworld.

The zone is one of those "don't go back" situations. Square didn't intend to kill off all the cast in a single zone. Ultima Thule, however, is a place where despair reigns, and a single moment in which you doubt that your friends, even if they are not visible, are still behind you could turn your character into a monstrous monster called a Blasphemy. When you're facing the end of all things, and you feel increasingly alone, who sings to you? Ardbert, duh.

This means that zone music in Ultima Thule, in a sense, is completely diegetic, and in-universe. You hear a fragment of yourself, merged with you, but still there, reminding to keep going. I'm not the one crying, it's you.