EScape

"eScape" is the boss theme of Omega from Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood.
Parts of it are derived from the theme of Azys Lla, "Order Yet Undeciphered".
==Lyrics==
===eScape===
The official lyrics for "eScape" were released during the lore panel of the Fan Festival 2018 in Las Vegas. The lyrics were released again later on the Shadowbringers: Final Fantasy XIV Original Soundtrack.
;English
:A drifting tender
:Come ride, heroes, ride
:Her galleon severed
:Away with the tide
:The stormheads gather
:Come ride, heroes, ride
:Illusions scattered
:Away with the tide
:Why
:Do weathered warriors wander their way whither wanting wonders wait
:Hark the heralds, anchors aweigh! Hither happens mine escape
:Freedom forgone, sinking apace. Comets crumble, Phoebus fades
:Under cosmic clamor decayed, hides a path untaken
:Ancient echoes
:Come ride, heroes, ride
:In deafening silence
:Away with the tide
:A wave of hazard
:Come ride, heroes, ride
:A-whorling inward
:Away with the tide
:Time
:Stellar stories starward bestrewn, slipping sidewise, see, they're snakes
:Twixt the leaves you'll find naught amiss—missing aughts and crossing fates
:Freedom surgent shifting ahead, comets dancing in her wake
:To the cosmic clarion's accord, along the path not taken
:Try, dare the dead tread ahead on a road that is borrowed
:Design, through the sum of their sons do they seek tomorrow
:Tonight, witness then as the end shall begin what was final
:Their lies, folding back, further back, ever back to the primal
;Japanese translation
:彷徨える連絡船
:さあ、乗り込め、英雄たちよ
:母線から切り離され
:潮流と共に流されゆく
:沸き立つ嵐雲
:さあ、乗り込め、英雄たちよ
:散乱せし錯覚
:潮流と共に流されゆく
:何故―
:疲弊せし戦士たちは、欲深き奇跡が待つ場所へと彷徨うのだろう
:伝令、抜錨せよ！　の好機が到来する！
:控えめな自由さえ、急送に消えゆく　彗星は崩れ、も消えゆく
:腐敗せし宇宙の喧騒の下に潜伏することこそ、選ばれざる道
:古のこだま
:さあ、乗り込め、英雄たちよ
:耳をつんざくばかりの沈黙の中
:潮流と共に流されゆく
:危険という名の波
:さあ、乗り込め、英雄たちよ
:渦へと呑まれ
:潮流と共に流されゆく
:刻とは―
:天に散らされし星の物語、蛇の如く、這いずりまわる
:の合間に異常はなく、失われしは「」と交わる運命
:急上昇する自由が前方に転じ、その船跡に彗星が踊る
:宇宙のクラリオンが奏でる和音に合わせ、選ばれざる道の途上
:かの死者が、借り物の陰謀の道を進もうと挑む
:子孫の成し遂げたものを通じ、彼らは明日へと生き延びようとする
:今宵見よ、が終結させしものを、再びのだ
:彼らの偽りは戻り、永遠に戻り、そして原点へと還るのだ
===A Long Fall===
:A drifting tender
:Come ride, heroes, ride
:Her galleon severed
:Away with the tide
:The stormheads gather
:Come ride, heroes, ride
:Illusions scattered
:Away with the tide
:Try, dare the dead tread ahead on a road that is borrowed
:Design, through the sum of their sons do they seek tomorrow
:Tonight, witness then as the end shall begin what was final
:Their lies, folding back, further back, ever back to the primal
===Eikonoklasm===
:Why
:Do weathered warriors wander their way whither wanting wonders wait
:Hark the heralds, anchors aweigh! Hither happens mine escape
:Freedom forgone, sinking apace. Comets crumble, Phoebus fades
:Under cosmic clamor decayed
:Time
:Stellar stories starward bestrewn, slipping sidewise, see, they're snakes
:Twixt the leaves you'll find naught amiss—missing aughts and crossing fates
:Freedom surgent shifting ahead, comets dancing in her wake
:To the cosmic clarion's accord
==Game appearances==
===Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood===
"eScape" plays in the , where the player fights Omega for the first time. The maritime-themed lyrics fit into a greater theme in Alphascape depicting Omega as a ship of cosmic proportions; for example, Omega has Larboard and Starboard Wave Cannons.
"eScape" was first released as track 4 on the Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood - EP digital mini album. It is track 4 on the Shadowbringers: Final Fantasy XIV Original Soundtrack.
====Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers====
"eScape" was arranged into "A Long Fall" , the theme of and track 83 on the Shadowbringers: Final Fantasy XIV Original Soundtrack. "A Long Fall" was arranged by Soken and contains elements of "Out of the Labyrinth", "Shattered", "Rise" and the "Prelude".
====Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker====
"eScape (Journeys)" is used as the theme of . It is taken from the Journeys: Final Fantasy XIV ~Arrangement Album~. It is track 58 on the Endwalker: Final Fantasy XIV Original Soundtrack.
"eScape" plays during the battle aginst a dynamis-empowered Omega with all of its forms in the fifth phase of . It is track 52 on the 'Growing Light: Final Fantasy XIV Original Soundtrack.
===Final Fantasy XVI===
"eScape" is arranged as the theme for the downloadable content "Echoes of the Fallen". "The Worm Mounts" is an arrangement by Saya Yasaki that plays as the field theme of the Sagaspire. "The Secret of Its Laboring Heart" is an arrangement by Justin Frieden that plays in the upper part of the Sagespire.
"Eikonoklasm" is an arrangement by Takafumi Imamura that plays during the Omega Aionios boss fight during the second phase. The arrangement is an intense, techno remix of the original with some orchestral segments. The lyrics for the refrain can be heard as well, heavily distorted.
"The Worm Mounts", "The Secret of Its Laboring Heart" and "Eikonoklasm" are tracks 1, 2 and 3 respectively on the Final Fantasy XVI - Original DLC Soundtrack - From Spire to Sea.
The DLC director Takeo Kujiraoka said that the music choice for the first DLC of the game deliberately contrasts with the main game's medieval European setting. The new location, Sagespire, is a relic from the advanced Fallen civilization, and to capture its cybernetic essence, the soundtrack adopts a futuristic, upbeat digital-rock style for the Omega battle. The main composer, Masayoshi Soken, reimagined the Omega theme from Final Fantasy XIV – "eScape", resulting in a distinctive and drastic rearrangement. There are no narrative connections between the two Omega.https://www.square-enix-games.com/en_US/news/final-fantasy-xvi-echoes-of-the-fallenhttps://blog.playstation.com/2023/12/07/final-fantasy-xvi-two-new-story-dlcs-announced-first-launches-today/
===Theatrhythm Final Bar Line===
==Arrangement album appearances==
===Journeys: Final Fantasy XIV ~Arrangement Album~===
A band arrangement of "eScape" is performed by The Primals which appears in this album.
===Pulse: Final Fantasy XIV Remix Album===
An EDM remix of "A Long Fall" arranged by Takafumi Imamura was featured on the album Pulse: Final Fantasy XIV Remix Album.
===Scions & Sinners: Final Fantasy XIV ~Arrangement Album~===
"A Long Fall" was arranged by The Primals for their album Scions & Sinners: Final Fantasy XIV ~Arrangement Album~. The music video features The Primals dancing to the various in-game dances, as well as a dance associated to the song by the fanbase.
A piano arrangement of "A Long Fall" was also released on the album, both arranged and performed by Keiko.
==Live performances==
===Final Fantasy XIV Digital Fan Festival 2021===
Both the band and piano arrangements of "A Long Fall (Scions & Sinners)" were performed during the Digital Fan Festival 2021.
The band arrangement was performed by The Primals and the piano arrangement was performed by Keiko and Masayoshi Soken on piano four hands.
===The Primals: Live in Japan - Beyond the Shadow===
An arrangement of "A Long Fall" by Masayoshi Soken was performed live by The Primals and recorded as track 18 on the album. An arrangement of "eScape" was also performed live and recorded as track 21 on the album.
==Compilation album appearances==
===Final Fantasy XIV Vinyl LP Box===
"eScape" is track 6 on side B of the Stormblood Vinyl LP album. "A Long Fall" is track 3 on side B of the Shadowbringers Vinyl LP album.
===Time and Again 2: Final Fantasy XIV Raid Dungeon Themes===
"eScape" is track 13 of disc 1 on the album.
==Behind the scenes==
"eScape" was composed by Masayoshi Soken. The lyrics were written by Michael-Christopher Koji Fox and the vocalists are Fox and Soken, who described "eScape" as a "cosmic sea shanty".
"eScape" was used in the 2019 April Fool's joke, wherein Square Enix announced an "Omega" smart speaker. When the couple in the "commercial" for Omega asks for "romantic music" while frying chicken tenders, Omega begins to play eScape. This is because many players have misheard the first few lines as "Chicken tenders / Get ready to fry" or a similar mondegreen, rather than "A drifting tender / Come ride, heroes, ride".
"A Long Fall" was praised for its catchiness and energy. Music producer Alex Moukala argued that the song was successful because of its funky guitar chords, and compared the song to an anime opening. The Gamer wrote, "I have danced my way through ... The Twinning and I know you have too," and praised the music video for "calling out" players for dancing to "A Long Fall".
===twinning.mp4===
After the release of Shadowbringers, YouTuber kcat729 released a video called "twinning.mp4" of a dance laid over footage of the Twinning and with "A Long Fall" playing at the same beat as the dance; there were two red, one blue, and one green dancers, so that the dancers formed a light party.. Other fans followed suit with dance videos of their own.
twinning.mp4 was popular enough that The Primals incorporated the dance from it into their music video for "A Long Fall". According to Soken, this was because he needed more exercise after a year in quarantine due to COVID-19, while Naoki Yoshida said that the development team wanted "to see the players getting happy and excited". The Digital Fan Festival 2021 featured a live performance of twinning.mp4, with Toshio Murouchi as the healer. This version of the song is in Theatrhythm Final Bar Line, under the name "Band: A Long Fall", which makes multiple references to the Fan Festival performance. The stage mimics the light patterns of the performance, with four colored spotlights turning on and off in time with when the spotlights shone on the dancers, and on Supreme difficulty, the note patterns resemble the dance movements.
Season 2, Episode 9 of featured a segment in which its main characters, Popuko and Pipimi, dance to twinning.mp4.
==Etymology==
The word "Phoebus" appears in the lyrics. Phoebus (Φοῖβος, Phoîbos, lit. "pure, bright, radiant") is the chief epithet of Apollo. 
==Citations==
==External links==
* The Twinning / A Long Fall on Know Your Meme
Category:Battle themes from Final Fantasy XIV
Category:Battle themes from Final Fantasy XVI