I'm In LOVE: Omega Is BEYOND Brilliant, And You Must Try It 

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All of the side content is worth doing before going into the next expansion. Because it is all world building and gets referenced in both MSQ and side stuff in future expansions. That's my 2 cents.

If you want more Alpha, you can explore the world and maybe you may come across him on his little adventure :)

Now there's only one more "required reading" instances. Being "The Twinning". Once he see's that, i want to see what he thinks of that whole thing.

“I think this must be what mortals call “hope.” It is...beautiful.” -Tales from the Shadows, A World Forsaken Omega learning hope again, especially after what we learn in Endwalker…I’m getting choked up right now.

So glad you felt the thrill of pushing your WOL's body and soul to their limits. Of confronting ever-mightier foes. And for no reason other than pure enjoyment either, it is optional content. Is that not so ... adventurer?

If you complete Omega before doing Endwalker, Alpha shows up with Omega in tow alongside the Ironworks team in cutscenes, and are about in the garage before the launch.

I really hope that they're aware that Alpha randomly spawns around the realm of Etherys after completing Omega raids cause its so nice to see them just living their best life.

Man i cannot wait for him to do the Werlyt questline from Shadowbringers.

@5:30 We were getting Sigmascape around the same time as the Tsuyu patches and Doman Enclave. Cyan's Theme from FF6 (elsewise spelled Kaien, Hien's father), a character in 6 who hailed from a land called Doma, retroactively became the theme for FF14's Doma as well, and the intermission music for the Tsukuyomi encounter. So not only were the FF6 references in Omega neat, they tied in a very parallel fashion to the Stormblood Patch MSQ.

Always found a funny that there was a world destroying AI as a non-mandatory side raid. 😆 _"Why are we worried about the Garlean Empire when there's Omega?!"_

One of the best bits after you beat the raid is being able to run into alpha and omega in the overworld at different locations

Best part is? In 6.1 they're releasing side quests that tie Omega to the Endwalker story.

One of the things the lead writer of Endwalker stated for people to do before the expansion was the Omega raid series. Since you've finished Endwalker you now know why. :) Enjoy the rest. Wait til you get to Werlyt if you haven't. That was a good story that opens up new trials.

for me as a OS ff player ,all those fights in the omega quest line were a welcome Trip down memory lane . my only gripe is that you cant Suplex the ghost train .

I love that you've noticed the parallels between the Omicrons and the Garleans. When I was going through Ultima Thule, that part affected me particularly deeply, not only because of my familiarity with Omega, but also because I love Garleans, I love their history and culture and the whole tragedy of their existence and ultimate fate. It got me thinking "wow, if there was a timeline where Garleans were left to their own devices with no interference from the Ascians, no Zenos, no Warrior of Light... would this be how the far future of Etheirys could have turned out?" And I think the aftermath of Garlemald's fall and the resolution of the Omicron despair also parallel in a way. When the Garlean cavalry arrives to save the day, we can see a face that is both new and yet still inextricably rooted in their culture and mentality. But in a different context, from a new point of view, it manifests as determination to live up to their pride - find new meaning in their ethos despite knowing that it was built upon lies and misconceptions. The Omicron civilisation never experienced that kind of catharsis, but if it had... Ultima Thule tells us that it might have been possible for them to change and reclaim their lost "soul". If any of that was intentionally written to be seen that way, I'm excited to see where the Garlean civilisation goes from here. Despite everything they've done and everything that's happened to them, throughout it all, they've preserved both their vulnerable humanity and their indomitable pride. They're still mean buttfaces, but they're mean buttfaces who are easy to relate to; and if the history of their real-world counterpart is anything to go by, one, two or even three falls aren't enough to end their story.

If you can get a group to boost you, might be worth taking a look at the end-of-tier bosses in savage. Each of them has an additional phase, and avoiding spoilers, really does change how you view these fights.

To all the new people, understand that everything Bellular is praising with the story and stuff, is designed to be played in the order it came out. It can work retroactively yes, but you miss out on on some of the craft by doing so. For example, if Bellular had done this series BEFORE Endwalker, there are additions, dialogues, and scenes that he would have seen including these characters. I'm glad he's actually doing them now, not going to hold that against anyone. But if you're playing the game for its story and presentation first, then worry about end-game raiding with your teams afterwards, I would highly recommend doing all the side-content (like this) at the time they would have been available.

And this is where the part where Bellular speedran through the MSQ is starting to bite back a bit: Doing all of these absolutely amazing side content VASTLY expands the main story itself. Omega is basically mandatory due to the sheer amount of lore importance it has through the entire story, but especially in Endwalker.

the savage versions of Stormblood were really really good, both in terms of mechanics, and cinematics. Man, when that cutscene of Exdeath savage came out, that really hyped me up to complete the tier!

Best part I loved about doing this back when it was main content, every single holiday event that followed (and one part in the MSQ for Endwalker), Alpha and his friend shows up!

A fun note, you can find Alpha and Omega travelling around in Eorzea :). I always take pics with them

Just wait until you get to the Gaius trial series and Eden, both have so much good storytelling and character development that really gets the gears turning on how they might be able to include those stories back into the MSQ

I recommend going through the savage verions of the last fights. Even when you come back at lv90 unsynced its still worth to experience some of the fights. Stormblood had some of the best raids.

For the Endwalker spoiler section: Also worth pointing out that Omega's downfall was from being unable to accurately replicate our ability to transcend our limits, which framed in the context of Endwalker has more plot significance than just "omega couldn't beat anime protagonist power". Since as a machine without emotion, he had an obvious deficit (that would be clear to anyone who'd played EW but I'm avoiding mentioning here explicitly, just in case).

Alphascape v4.0 is my favorite raid. While I didn’t do the savage version while it was current, it’s worth doing for a few reasons. You get an awesome omega mount (Alphascape v3.0 boss) and you get to see a new boss that isn’t in the normal raid version. Plus the weapons you can get are some of the nicest looking weapon glam pieces in the game. The music, aesthetics, mechanics, everything is just so good. I still get goosebumps when I hear the music (Heartless orchestrion roll). Oh and you can randomly encounter Alpha and their friend anywhere in Eorzea after you complete the quest line. I have seen Alpha wandering around exactly twice in the past almost four years. Everything about this is so good and a big reason I keep coming back to FFXIV. Edit: also I’m really really hyped for the eventual Omega ultimate fight. I was obsessed with TEA while I was doing it and absolutely love the Alexander lore, but with Omega I’m going to absolutely lose my shit.

The Savages for these are insanely good. Definitely recommend trying them sometime.

The Omega series is raid story writing done right, in total you get like 3-4h of story + 12 bosses with a really good story.

Idk if you know this Bellular, but you can see Alpha and Omega running around in the world, it's really cool to see.

The end of the doom train had me tearing up, knowing the reference to the two people you see in the end cutscene.

Have you don The Sorrow or Werlyt series yet? That one really got to me.

Alpha is indeed a Gigakewh

I don't know if this is still the case, but after completing the Omega raids you could find Alpha and Omega out in the world. I have found them at a campfire in central thanalan, in the kitchens at mor dhona too.

Stormblood has the best post content (Omega 8M, Ivalice 24M, Four Lords Chain 4M). Play them all if you enjoy Omega.

So one amazing thing with it is the theme for Omega-M/F, Heartless, borrows the leitmotifs of Torn From the Heavens, which is generally considered the Warrior of Light's own theme (and indeed is part of the final phase of the final trial of Endwalker's theme), because by this point Omega is specifically trying to copy YOU.

Also fun to note the dungeon Stigma Dreamscape showcases the war on the dragonstar which led to midgardsomr to come to ethyreis

When I first meet a precious bby chocobo in the wilds I did not expect this absolute nostalgia trip into childhood. So fun and that ending T_T! So glad you're checking out this extra content, a lot of my favorite content are from side content (Sorrow of Werlyt for example another nostalgia bomb for me).

@15:30 From the end of the Omega questline in Stormblood until I'm not sure when (maybe it can still occur?), the player can randomly encounter Alpha journeying at random spots across Eorzea. There is a similar creepy incident which can occur for players who've completed Tam-Tara Deepcroft HM but not Palace of the Dead.

After completing the raids, Alpha and OMG start roaming Etheirys together and can be randomøy found at various locations. They'll also make a guest appearance in Scholar's Harbor, when all your friends and acquantances near and far (you'll want to revisit those scenes when you've completed more optional content from Shadowbringers and before btw.) bring the shipments of refined adamantite, and ain Thaumazein as the *Ragnarok II* as you set off for Ultima Thule.

I hope you get a chance to play the sorrows of werlyt as well, fantastic trial series with a great story.

Now that you have seen Alpha and his companion off into the world, they will pop up all over the place as NPCs exploring the world. The team will even sneak them into some event cutscenes when they come around. It's a nice touch that they aren't just gone.

As a response to what you were talking about near the end, about going to try out Mists of Pandaria. You don't get that experience like you would have back then, even when I first played MoP only a year after it came out that one zone in the middle was changed and I couldn't experience it as it was back then. That is one of the major differences I really care for in FFXIV, where older content isn't nullified or ignored because "Ooh new shiny expansion". The older stuff just isn't brushed under the rug and ignored. Even low level fates you can still participate in and get a somewhat close experience to that level bracket. The level sync system is great, so even though these Omega raids are now two expansions old now, you can still go in and experience them as fairly close as you would like to as back then. Of course it isn't 100% the same as it would be on launch, as odds are you run with a team that knows the fight already, has higher gear to make the slightest difference in DPS output, but the fact that these fights can still, well, put up a fight is a wonderful thing. All content is relevant and will always be. Meanwhile when a new expansion hits in WoW, well, goodbye old stuff to never be seen again! You want to run an old dungeon from a previous expansion? Get ready to faceroll it and never be able to get a similar experience of doing it normally again. Which of course can be fun, but even FFXIV gives you that option by selecting "unrestricted party" and go in with less players than the normal unsynced. Anyways I am glad you enjoyed the Omega raids, it made me want to go log in and run some of them while listening to this, it's a good time!

i love that Alpha appears with cids ironworks to lend a hand at the end of endwalker. i had a big grin at it's lil cameo

I did NOT expect you to reference Mike in your videos :D

I love the side clip showing the older FF references! Nice touch.

Fun fact. You can see alpha and his omega friend in the world at various places randomly! love seeeing them every now and again.

Aside from the self-references that the Omega raids have in the Alphascape, there is actually one last reference: the very first fight Alphascape fight against Chaos. This fight references two different final battles against the same enemy - the final boss of Final Fantasy 1, and the final boss of Dissidia Final Fantasy (whose design inspires the character model for the FF14 raid boss). As side notes, Chaos in Final Fantasy 1 has ties to the antagonist Garland. (Won’t explain just in case you want to look it up yourself or want to wait for Strangers of Paradise.) Alpha technically also has his own games in the form of the Chocobo Mystery Dungeon series, so people who enjoy the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games - have fun! Finally, the Kefka savage raid has SOOO much built into it from Final Fantasy 6; I could write an entire paragraph on that fight alone, but this isn’t the time for it. 😂 I hope you also enjoy both the “Ivalice” alliance raids & the post-Shadowbringers “Save the Queen” content Bellular! I’m sure the references to Final Fantasy Tactics and Final Fantasy 12 will engage you. 👍

Seeing the Omega raid for Kefka was what got me to buy the game. No regrets.

Finally! As one of those posting and asking you to do Omega i'm happy you enjoyed it

There's a few extra surprises in savage, you can check them out unsynced (while you're at it, unlock access to some ultimate fights). Do the 4th fight of each tier of Omega raid for some bonus content.

Don't forget to check out the gear that you get by turning in the raid tokens, they have some really impressive sets, even as far back as the Alexander raids

I have found that even some of the side quests reference stuff from games passed. That Wayward Carbuncle quest 👌

If you loved the lore behind Omega, I highly suggest trying the Savage version of Alphascape V4.0 (O12s, as everyone calls it), I think it's one of the most thematically well-integrated fights in the game. In Stormblood, they began experimenting with a system where the final fight of every raid tier in Savage has a 'hidden' boss that is not present in the Normal version of the raid, so there's a little something extra in that fight. As you mentioned, the entire story of the Omega arc is Omega pitting a bunch of opponents within a multiverse against one another to try and assess who the 'Strongest' one is, so it can parse all the combat data in order to be able to confront the 'winner' & defeat them in combat so that it can pursue it's goal of becoming the strongest being in the universe. Now if you'll remember, Omega continuously underestimated the Warrior of Light's group throughout the entire story as it's processing was unable to comprehend exactly where the WoL's source of power came from. So by the time you reach O12, it's processing will have mistakenly led it to believe that the human form is the most optimal configuration, hence why it transforms from it's default form to Omega F/M between O11 & O12. In the savage version of that fight - once you've defeated Omega F/M - it triggers another failsafe after experiencing an error that states "Probability of defeat has risen to unacceptable levels; imitation of mortal form and behavior provides negligible improvement of combat capabilities". So, it quickly parses all the combat data once again to figure out what went wrong, which makes it come to the realization that a "Drastic overhaul of combat logic required". Omega attempts to assume a new form that can defeat you; However, it's unable to safely match the WoL's power level, causing it to experience a fatal error during the transformation sequence which results in it turning into a grotesque amalgamation of machinery w/ humanoid features. As a result, the entire second half of that fight essentially consists of you fighting an AI that effectively fried itself trying to match your power level, so a large portion of the mechanics are themed after computer errors/protocols as it attempts to repair itself (like 'Hello World', 'Critical Error', 'Patch', 'Critical Overflow Bug', 'Overflow Debugger', etc.). In other words, Omega is just continuously glitching out the entire fight after pushing itself beyond its limit in an attempt to defeat you. It's a difficult fight, but the way they wove the entire overarching narrative into the fight design itself was just so incredibly well done, it's still one of my favorite Savage encounters in the game.

“iM LOVE” -Bellular Typo

Endwalker spoilers I'm a little surprised I didn't see it in the video, but Omega's pursuit of what causes us to be strong is in hindsight him trying to ultimately understand dynamis: a force of emotion that was long lost to the Omicrons in pursuit of their perfect bodies. Omega understands there is something there, but sees our feats as illogical because he can't comprehend it. The payoff? Omega DOES begin to ultimately understand. Endsinger directly calls out limit break as being dynamis and what does Omega M/F do in the latter half of the final fight? BLM and BRD LB3s.

i am really happy for michael, that he is looking forward for all the gameplay islands in ffxiv, and the joy of seeing which adventure awaits.

Seeing you happy and enjoying a game is super uplifting. I hope your pleasant experience continues!

Fun fact that I will repeat again. Now that you have cleared the Raid, Alpha and Omega can be found in the open world exploring. Players have catalog the spots. Also they tend to pop up somewhere in the area in most of the seasonal events too.

I made all content in the order it came out. So also the raids, although I only started again last year (from scratch) and I never had to wait longer than 20-30 minutes on the server light. (I play DD)

FF as a series has always been willing to change things up instead of simply iterations. Sometimes it doesn't work, but it can also result in some crazy awesome stuff.

Wow I never really made the link of similarities between the Garleans and Omicrons. Good point!

So glad you did this series! As a sprout, I was going "Uh, I'm not going to get a single reference in this series, am I?" But it didn't matter - I enjoyed the raid for the story it told, and the challenging mechanics. And Alpha is BEST BOY and I carry his little clockwork everywhere, all the other pets have been forgotten.

Now you need to play Alexander and then the Twinning. Your mind will be blown.

Alpha and OMG show up at Sharlayan during END, if you've finished the Omega raids before getting there. You can see them in NG+ or by choosing the story completion option while using The Unening Journey at any inn room.

If you finish the Alpha omega quest line before finishing a certain part near the end of endwalker you had a scene where alpha is with cid and crew on the dock :)

This is really well timed. Since during 6.1x they are doing a follow up to omega and the omicron of Ultima Thule

Love your videos, lore is not only in blue quests, but in many side quests too. I am so curious, if you have tried out the carrier job questline? (its post ARR questline) and the blue quests which is very similar to HW warding triad questline, similar questlines are present in every expac. These questlines are really good and has a lot of world building, loads of lore.

The savage version of the final fight for delta, sigma, and alphascape each have a unique final boss that I think you should do! The mechanics and the spectacles is what really draw people to savage.

I think you made your point perfectly when you remarked on the fact that we can still enjoy Omega as if it were current content because of how well level syncing works in FFXIV. Omega is by far my favorite normal raid series. I enjoyed every bit of it and I was sad when the story was over. That's how you know they did a good job. I'm looking forward to seeing your take on the NieR alliance raid series.

One thing you missed is that just like Deltascape (Delta = 5) and Sigmascape (sigma = 6) reference ff5 and ff6 respectively... Alphascape references ff1, where Chaos was the final boss and Midgardsormr and Omega Weapon were both superbosses

If you do savage the last fights each raid part there's a completely different transition to each boss. Like kefka turns into good kefka and omega male and female turns into a final form

Omega himself is also from FFV, and so is Shinryu for that matter!. And the two of them both reside in - wait for it... the dimensional rift. I'm not sure if Michael has done Hildibrand either but Gilgamesh is *also* from FFV, he goes missing in the interdimensional rift, and then *appears in FFVIII, talking about the interdimensional rift*, making him seemingly the same character traveling between worlds.

Omega was also the start of the devs adding a little extra to the capstone of each tier. O4S, O8S, and O12S have entire phases that you don't see in the Normal version. This has since been carried forward to Eden and Pandæmonium.

if you would like to do something that isn't combat related but has something different to offer, do the doman restauration questline. i found it very rewarding to reconstruct that place and it has a few really beautiful cutscenes. different to ishgard restauration you can still do the doman stuff from beginning to end because it's individual.

Glad to see you noticed the thematic parallels between the Garlean Empire and the Omicrons. When the Omicron that G’raha Tia confronted in Ultima Thule gave its spiel on the history of the Omicrons, I immediately noticed how it’s “justification” for conquest was extremely similar to Lord Quintus’ argument for the Garlean Empire’s existence. Using the Omicrons as a metaphor for being essentially the extreme thematic/logical conclusion of the Garlean Imperial philosophy was an extremely effective narrative choice and smart way of connecting Endwalker’s various diverse elements.

I always smile when I get the Omega series in the daily roulettes. Loved this.

I appreciate that you're getting the authentic pug experience.

Stormblood had my favorite raids. This set, the 24 man raids. They did amazing this expansion for me.

After completing this series you can randomly find Alpha & OMG in the world. They change with every major patch (like 6.1 coming up). They also will sometimes be featured near holiday events like the Fire Festival last August They were at the island. However they will only show on screen if you've beaten this content. It's kinda a cute additive

Thanks for giving the profound insights. Now I’ll do side quests there and do omega again with new game plus (I done it already but I forgot some parts when I was doing endwalker). And also they announced there would be quests related to this so I can look forward to 6.1 even more (this won’t be spoiler, right? If so, I don’t mind this post being deleted)

I love that you're making 26 minute long videos about Omega in 2022. Brilliant.

Alpha is the best BOI. It's been over... 2 years and after that Alpha has been following me around as my public minion for 90% of that.

Not sure if anyone mentioned this to Bellular before, but will toss my note into the ring. Go back and rewatch the cutscene where the big delivery happens near the end of EW. Something will be different. It actually applies for multiple bits of side content in that scene.

I loved this story so much. Maybe even more than the MSQ, though obviously its much smaller! I binged the whole thing in one night with not quite 1-hour queues but I was up till 6am back in the fall when I did this! Worth it. Alpha is my favourite

Definitely check out the short stories and rewatch certain cutscenes from Endwalker, the changes may surprise you

you even get a few additional story beats in endwalke,r if you have completed omega before endwalker. (like alpha nd the crew showing up towards the end)

What GShade preset do you use

After what we witness in Ultima Thule about the Omicron race, I want to think that Alpha is actually the evolution of Omicron in terms of regaining the soul after losing it through body augmentation. The Omicron can live on and find new purpose via Alpha.

I haven't done this yet omg thank you!

You will have more Alpha. Now that you've done the raid, they'll be showing up in various places throughout the story and especially when holiday events hit. I found the pair of them chilling by a Christmas tree in Gridania this last year. They were in the choir audience a couple years ago. So, their story really is continuing. Alphas design is based on the Chocobo Dungeon series. I think he's usually called Bokko, after the one on FFV which was important enough to have his own name. Which is another but of lore winks and nods, as Omega and Shinryu are both in the forms they had from FFV. It is decidedly marvelous how they manage to integrate things and not feel cheap about it. As a long time series fan, I was concerned that 14 would be nothing but fan service to older titles and have nothing to offer itself. However, the majority of fan service doesn't really take off until post ARR. I feel like they have earned every reference they drop because they manage to make the lore envelope those older things and have them make sense and feel at home where they are. - I still want to suplex a train. Monk isn't high enough yet.

I just went through the Alexander questline and that's also bonkers! In the best way possible!

I'm starting in the Final Fantasy series, I'm partway through FF1, looking forward to getting up here later!

Just wait till you do party finder for the omega savage raids, the mounts and challenge are so good and the little extra bits you get from savage are cool.

I love how if you are not familiar with the other FF games, their references in XIV could motivate you to look into it. Wait till you notice the Ascian/Ivalice connection. So many details into this game. The FF fan's game.

Just adding for extra lore, there's an omega short story under Shadowbringer short stories on FFXIV lodestone. also iirc its easier to get groups for older raids if you queue right after daily resets cause they use normal raid roulette to fill slots for people actually queuing content (not roulette)

Whisper of the Heart is the most underrated Ghibli film! So, it fills my heart with joy there's another person who considers it one of their favorites too!

Fun fact, after you complete the Omega Raids you can find Alpha and small Omega in random zones in Stormblood as they wander around adventuring.

The effect of storytelling. When FFXIV players say the story of the game is amazing. They aren’t exaggerating.

Now that you've finished the Omega raids, I suggest you rewatch the Bonds of Adamant(ite) cutscene #2 with "Reflect Quest Progression" on 🙂

StB 8man raids really were amazing. Cried multiple times 😁