My Endwalker Experience. [Spoiler Safe] 

To be fair, once you get past the queue it's pretty much a perfect release. No bugs and no lag at all.

The crawl at the end of the "swap" gave me more anxiety than ive had in a game in ages and i loved that scene so damn much for it.

Zone 1 & 2: “ It’s fine.” Zone 3: “Damn!” Zone 4: “Noice.” Zone 5: “Holy shit!” Zone 6: “HOLY SHIT!”

I just finished msq a few hours ago. This is something everyone has to play. What a finale!

I lost it during the scene when Jullus cried over the soup when he realized it's the small things that makes life worth living. I had never ugly cried for a video game before that moment.

Devs: "Yoshi-P how much fanservice will we include for our players?" - Yoshi-P: "Yes."

if zone 3 blew his mind... 5 and 6 are gonna splatter his brain across his walls.

Oh boi I just finished the level 87 dungeon im not gonna say anything but if u know u know holy moly

The most impressive part of this expansion is how many times it knocked me off my feet, where I kept thinking, there's no way they're doing this, but then they do it.

the radio song is by far my favorite music theme in the expansion, i just love how they use it. on the other hand "that" duty shows through gameplay how determined WoL is, even under those conditions it refuses to give up.

I loved how the first Trial was so hard. Really feeled like an achievement to finish.

the character's just hanging out and you getting to spend this downtime with them is my favorite thing honestly. it's storytelling we dont normally get elsewhere (because often they see it as irrelevant) and it lends soooooo much to making you love the other characters that your surrounded by. Also Graha eating getting and eating that burger was the cutest thing ever.

I'm at the level 88 of msq and I'm beyond shocked that SOMEHOW they managed to top SHB 5.0 and it's not even the end. Also for those who get it, I am in love with "resolute civilian". I need her to become a scion lol

I made it to the 3rd zone. The character development and the relationships are just mindblowing. They do such a good job connecting you to the cast.

A couple thoughts: - If he is really enjoying the story in the first three zones, I really can't wait to see what he thinks about what comes after! This is easily one of the most ambitious (and largely successful) stories I've experienced in any game. - I too really appreciate the time and resources spent on the small character moments.

Following Bellular's Format of non-spoiler: The Third Zone towards the end, felt like a Christmas story. :) It was so cozy.

One of the things that we say a LOT in the XIV community, and I'm sure you've heard it at this point, is that XIV is a Final Fantasy game *first*, and an MMO *second*. The entire way the story is presented is very similar to how the other numbered Final Fantasy games, and beyond that other JRPGs in general, choose to present their content. This means more focus on the slower "human" aspects, where a western-created game might choose to instead focus on more action-oriented gameplay. Having said this: I finished Endwalker on Sunday evening and it has been a whole rollercoaster of emotions. The final boss in the level 83 dungeon that you talked about feeling like a primal trial fight... a lot of people expected that boss to *be* a trial, not the last boss of the second dungeon. Similarly you may find some of the content in your near future to be surprising as well. Side note - the Zenos bodyswap storyline was SO uncomfortable for me. I spent the entire time S C R E A M I N G at Zenos and Fandaniel to GIVE ME MY BODY BACK. For me, though, it was the level 87 story content that had me in an emotional wreck because it was just... perfect. I could have happily spent even longer in that part of the game if the story hadn't forced me to move on. It was (almost) everything I would have asked for had doing so been an option. But move on I did, and the rest of the MSQ did not disappoint. I'll be very interested to see the takes of all the former WoW content creators on the trials and max level content when it's impossible to outgear the content, and almost nobody knows what they're doing.

I’m in love with the speech bubbles with their art over it in midst of the big combat battles. It gives me dynasty/samurai Warriors nostalgia vibes.

30+ some years of gaming and this is the first time my expectations for a hyped product have been exceeded.

I was in bozja when the world went down. People were warning each other that if we leave the instance, we'd get booted out. So there we stayed, in bozja.

So far up to lvl84. The story beats keep going from "I expected this", "This seems logical" to "This sort of twist already?", "Is this really going to happen?". I think they've done a good job pushing the right narrative elements "far enough" to make certain moments quite realistic, even daring for a video game. I'm very eager to see how the plot will be resolved. The two Dungeons and the Trial I've done feel more fun than ever. However, the story is so engaging, that I just want to know what happens next.

I just completed the MSQ a few minutes ago. Holy cow was that amazing! Easily beats Shadowbringers by a mile! So many moments in the story that will leave you spellbound. I lost track how many times I've exclaimed "Whaaat???"

Endwalker triumphs over all the expansions based on my experience. There were times my jaws dropped that I kept pressuring myself to keep playing sacrificing my sleep knowing I got work the next day. For those people who have made it pretty deep in the MSQ, the first trial could've been the end but no, there's more.

"a bit spooky" Oh you sweet fuckin' summer child

This expansion makes FF14 easily one of the best stories they have ever told.

SPOILERS: - - - - - - - - - My only issue with the body swap is that I _really_ hoped we'd get to see us fighting the Scions. That would have been awesome. I felt they ended that aspect of the confrontation too soon and could have mined it a bit more.

The unnamed "third zone" was around the point in which I started saying "this expansion has a real shot at topping Shadowbringers". Then the 4th zone happens, and suddenly each and every chapter thereafter is somehow increasingly breathtaking in its own unique and beautiful way, each with its own setting and theme masterfully crafted into the whole. There were legitimately points where I had to stop and take 20 minutes because I was exhausted from crying, gasping or cheering. Every scene hit its note, every emotion that needed to be conveyed was done so beautifully, and every story that needed to be told was wrapped up perfectly to leave me feeling whole. My journey as the Warrior of Light now over, I'm left feeling as though I've been broken and remade a dozen times, my outlook on life renewed. As a writer my standards for storytelling has ever been high, and I never in my life would have believed that the most beautiful and complete story I've ever experienced would come from an action bar MMO -- but from the bottom of my heart it has.

this entire expansion just feels like an X.3 patch, but like, 50 hours long. its truly incredible

I took a four day weekend and regularly had insta-queues early in the morning myself. Ended up completing the MSQ already. It made me feel my own feelings!

NPCs following you are actually a great QoL too, we used to select the NPC and type /beckon to make they go towards you before and it was such a bad system lol When Bellullar said "First up" I thought he would tell me to wait on queue to watch the video D:

Without any spoilers: This expansion is so good it makes Shadowbringers look like ARR. This game is a milestone achievement in gaming, a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I am utterly and completely lost for words how blown away I was from start to finish. Oh and Soken has ascended godhood.

I always think with these games, we’ll how the heck are they going to purvey any kind of sense of threat when you’re an immortal god that can kill anything? The dinner scene and what happened literally made go “OH SH*T THAT”. Wish they went a little further with it and made it have a lasting consequence as painful as it might have been lol

They managed to beat Shadowbringers..... I was in AWE whole time I played.

The first act is a bit slow. After that, every zone feels like a patch onto itself. By the time you hit the first trial you go wait what? And it’s a non-stop crazy emotional ride to the end.

I've finished Endwalker, people ask me to compare it to Shadowbringers A LOT, "it is as good as shadowbringers?". You can't compare the two... I imagine it as an essay, first paragraph is the Intro (ARR), next 3 paragraphs are story/plot points (HW, SB, SHB) and the conclusion being Endwalker doing heavy lifting in the closure department, yes the story is great- but Endwalker is so much more than a story leaving you with questions, you're getting answers and closure by way of the narrative. The two are vastly different but similar by being beautiful executed.

I highly recommend that you _always_ do the trust version of the dungeon _first._ Chances are you'll win, but it'll take awhile. But you get a much better understanding of the mechanics as well as just _super_ lore immersion at the same time. I really hope the continue to refine this system, as it's one of the best things FFXIV has going for it compared to literally every other MMO.

I just wanna say how much I love this community, I just got to Zone 3 and I've been able to freely read comments without anyone spoiling a thing, you guys are great!

This is the first time in my life that I have though "So that is what a magnus opus is supposed to be". The entire body of work by Yoshi and Soken is a testement to storytelling that will go down in history for how well it was executed.

I beat the MSQ last night. Anybody below level 86 msq has no idea what's in store

Taking out HQ mats is somehow the thing that blew my mind most where quality of life is concerned. It makes the market soooo much cleaner and it also makes me feel like every strike of my pick matters even in the early expac where HQ mats used to matter the most. Being a gatherer is making me rich right now and it feels so good. Also, I said while writing on SHB that the scene where your character coughs up white goo is the most terrified I've ever been for my avatar in a game, but EW's dinner scene destroys that. I was so worried about both my WoL and his friends.

By the twelve, this is what the epitome of narrative rpg should be. What a journey! IMO Avengers pales against Endwalker!! The plethora of feels!!

Just finished, this is my favorite story ever. Just incredible

I finished EW MSQ on Sunday, and I... just wow. I can't say anymore, words just fail me. I have to say it wasn't what I expected, but it still delivered. I know in the final stretch, especially one particular part, I was balling my eyes out. Once I was done with the MSQ I got the catharsis I desired, and I was emotionally drained, in a good way. I have NO clue how they are gonna go forward from here, but if it is even half as good as ShB and EW was, I can't wait to experience it.

I commend the servers being so stable once you get in, this is preferable to making it in and then getting booted out and restarting the queue from scratch. However, I do really just wish I could sit in queue without having to babysit the queue itself. If that's the price we're paying for it being stable in-game, okay, that's a good trade. Obviously, it would be nice to have it all.

I'm floored about how well the voice acting has gotten. I used to set it up in japanese, just because i thought it was better. I switched back to english after going through the start of EW (like halfway through first zone) and.. wow.

I just finished the MSQ a few hours ago. I've not had any major issues at all. No bugs, no lag at all. 3:30 Correction, the zone's not called Radz-at-Han it's called Thavnair. Radz-at-Han is the city located in Thavnair.

The psychological analysis of humanity in the ends of this expansion are incredible when you realize the parallels to our reality

“If you turn bad, who’s gonna stop you?” Man I hope you play DRK soon if you haven’t already. And the way they animate your character walking, I felt like, at least from a distance, your character walks in very much the way as Zenos does. Really nice character animation touch :)

I just finished the 4th zone and while I agree about the slow start, the 3rd and 4th blew me away, both visually and narratively and Jullus is one of my favourite characters now, I hope he survives this expansion (since I'm still very far from the end so I have no clue how all of this is gonna turn out) ♡

I have finished the MSQ and man, this game has made me so thankful to be a part of it and its community.

There was an interview with YoshiP where he said something along the lines of "once you are around level 83, perhaps you'll think "you will go this far?"" And that was obviously in relation to the body swap scene. I was expecting some crazy place somewhere, like really going somewhere far, but not this... Not this at all. You know, I am really attached to my character, 0 fantasias, been playing since 2.5, I really like her, I can't imagine a XIV warrior of light differently than her. We shared many moments together and she's precious. So Zenos stealing my body I felt like I am going to jump out of my skin. It was at that moment where I got absolutely infuriated and wanted to beat both him and Fandaniel with a rusty pipe. The sense of urgency and hopelesness as you were making it to your friends as this unnamed garlean soldier was incredible. Bravo to the XIV team really.

I just wanted to say I really appreciate the editing your team does for these videos. Underappreciated.

Just beat the msq last night and it's a hell of a journey, I friggen loved it. Just a lot of woa moments and yes I cried too.

When I played it I felt the 80-83 part was too slowly paced, but now I think that was deliberate, because once the story takes off it never stops.

I'm so happy I finished the MSQ and final Trials and Duties! I haven't been online or on any social media since Thursday night!!!! Around level 85 on, I cried allot. Man this was great!!!

I can't wait to come back to this video in 6 months when I've actually caught up to Endwalker, seeing as how I'm only in Heavensward. So.....thanks for the spoiler free section, I'll continue watching at 11:04 when I return.

Anima was extra awesome as a big fan of FFX.

For those that don't heed the warning to NOT go down into the comments section, my post is a spoiler: Yeah that sequence where you're the Garlean soldier was frustratingly amazing. That's what I'd call it. It was tough, scary, and for the first time in the whole game you feel truly powerless and weak. I personally even lost the first fight because I didn't grasp the fact that I wasn't an unstoppable force anymore. Didn't use the defense buff because I thought I wouldn't need it. Didn't use the attack buff at the right time either. It ended with us both dying at the same time, which I feel is the perfect example of how you're not a super human any longer. And having to run around and scavenge made it feel all the more perilous. Then, when you finally get through that area, you do the typical WoL thing and try and save a bunch of people...only to fail, because you're just a normal soldier now. Absolutely frustratingly amazing.

Thank you for the ground targeting settings info! I love you!

Without spoilers, I feel like Endwalker only starts at Lv.83, and everything before that is just the intro, which is not a bad thing, but past level 83, it just gets crazy. I lost count of how many times I got teary eyes watching these really powerful scenes. 5.3 was definitely an emotional patch, but EW just multiplies that tenfold. There's also a lot more humour and little moments of silliness this time around compared to the previous expansions, and I love it.

@22:40 To top it off, there's actually MORE to it than that. You pan over several misc background NPCs having little moments. But those NPCs include characters from many job questlines. So to we of many alts, even those characters are also ones we known and have had story with. Like just in a few seconds there, there are characters from the Bard, Scholar, White Mage, and Gunbreaker quests, the GNB guy doubling as appearing in the Bozja quests. Naturally, of course, they and others will acknowledge various milestones relating to their content when you can speak with them.

the only thing ive got to say is damn Props to SE the servers are so stable i didnt encounter any bugs so far no crashes whatsoever its probably the smoothest MMO expansion lauch ive ever played (even when the game has explodet in the past months with so many new players.) and the servers beeing so stable makes the queue take longer ofc since the people dont crash out of the game but hells its so nice!

This game rewards you so, so deeply for your investment in characters. The more you care about them, the more emotionally invested you’ll be- and the better the story is. Personally, I’m feeling broken and battered and bruised and I have never been more glad to be part of this journey. It’s been amazing from start to finish, and I’m excited for everything coming up.

That part when you are in the empty (redacted) in zone 6 with twins and there is no backgroud music, no ambient noises, no nothing, just silence and your own echo

I’m impressed somehow they managed to make this feel like a FINAL FANTASY game too on top of being xiv!!!!!!! Music is a BLAST too!!!

I cannot wait until you finish MSQ. So many moments I know you’ll love

Can’t wait to see the vids after you finish the 4th and 5th zones.

Can't wait to hear your thoughts on the zone 5 msq, for me that is where everything get really interesting

When I beat the Tower of Babil dungeon, all I could think of was "this seems a bit too fast, doesn't it..." And then the game proceeds to scare the ever living fuck out of me with the quite literal out-of-body experience duty.

I just finished MSQ two hours ago. So good.

I gata say I was grinning ear to ear during that bit before you go to the 3rd zone they have so many of the class/job related characters there that it was just awesome to recognize them. Thaumaturges guild, pugulist guild, dragoon story, bard story, Machinist story, The white mage refers to you as a white mage if you have lvled one even if you arent on that class at the time... I know if forgetting some, but I ran around that room talking to all of them and just had a big smile for all of it.

I’m working on a story series for this now and I have to say I am loving it!

I finished MSQ yesterday morning. Though the story isn’t perfect, it was so well done that it had more effect on me than 3.3, 5.0 and 5.3. I was fighting back tears for literally hours after the credits rolled. I’m not even an emotional man, but the ending hit me like a truck. They outdid themselves. I honestly hope they don’t try to beat this bc if they do they will fail. Endwalker is up there with Return of the King in my book.

I need Matt reactions and I play some of the duties and dungeons with the scions because they are my friends and it felt right to do the fights with them. Finish the game in 3 days and for me is by far the best story in gaming in the last 20 years.

I'm so excited to see what Bellular has to see about the 1st trial. I'm level 86 atm and the 5th zone has been my absolute favorite so far.

There is a dungeon in the fifth zone that you should only do with trust, that's it.

Something very important, the story of the raid in Stormblood is quite important to EW. So make sure you have done that.

SPOILERS That moment when Jullus finally broke down really really got me. Such a powerful scene.

i totally agree with your thoughts about the narrative design you talked about in the spoiler section. I know a friend who really hated those sequences but i found them fascinating and really well designed, whereas i normally dont enjoy them.

On a whim I started watching you gaming news years ago. When I first saw you playing and saying good things I was hopeful. Hearing you be so excited has me excited again. I’ve been playing since 2.0. And I still suck…! WTF!?

I wanna say, the slow moments of the msq felt special too, it kept the pacing from getting monotonous going from hype to hype, and a lot of them gave me a feeling like ,"oh this is the peaceful/boring area I need to protect".

I didn’t think shadowbringers could be topped. But Fuck me they did it. Master story telling. I didn’t want it too end. My only gripe

I am so excited to try out your game really looking forward to it

I appreciate that you clearly indicated how far you were into the story so that I could choose whether to watch the spoiler section or not.

As I played through the story i went from saying it was equal to SHB or better than, settling in the end on better than. Not to take anything away from SHB, but with this you are comparing to 10 out of 10 games, and when forced to pick one, i'd probably end up on EW. The balance of slow and fast is grand imho. The slow downs allow you to digest the high points before reving up again. Overall as Asmon once said "game good". Enjoy the ride! I feel like the npc follow you part was part to appease the RP crowd, and part to slow down the speed runners lol.

Finished it today, Christ Dunno how they manage to keep topping themselves.

Thank you for making a spoiler-safe video!!! I have barely been able to play due to the dreaded 2002 error (which I hope can be mostly fixed by tomorrow) Even when I would log right back in, every time I would not have my queue spot saved and I would have to start at the back of the 6K+ queue. Tonight (Tuesday night) is the first night I am not experiencing a 2002 error. (I work and have a family so I cannot really play during "off-peak hours)

Finished the game a day ago and still amazed at what they achieved. Looking forward to the next thoughts video!

I thought it was brilliant that the Propaganda Radio "protected" them from being tempered, but in essence they still were

Three words for you: The Final Zone

i gotta say i love the patch quality feel in the msq is not all in a big bundle of base game with the leveling (which they do fine) but the story is rich and engaging im in 88 and i had so much feelings during this expa.. also love the integration of voice acting. as someone who doesnt like to read+ mild adhd sometimes i have to read stuff twitch or triple to comprehend, it has me more engage and actually reading and clicking the npc to see what they think about what is currently going on in a quest

With each 'arc' in the story, without fail there has been multiple moments that have got me making an audible noise out loud. I have screamed, cheered, teared up, panicked, gotten so angry so much and I'm at the *LEVEL 86 MSQ* It's insane how the devs have just gone from strength to strength and we're getting rewarded so much for all the content we have touched on from ARR to ShB. I'm just well and truly amazed and everything I've experienced so far has made playing the base game and all the expacs before totally worth it

I have to say EW really feels like the end to a final fantasy game, I really loved it

SPOILERS FOR ENDWALKER FIRST HALF . . . . . . Finding out who Fandanial was before really made his theatrics and the way he acted made good sense and it's something I don't see people talking about more

Having finished the MSQ I cannot wait to see what you have to say!

I just finished Endwalker. I spent a few moments having to get up from my computer and taking some breaths and trying to calm my heart and emotions down. It was incrediably strong story. I can't WAIT till you get to the last zone!! You'll love the hell out of it.

It gets even better. 4th zone slows down a little, which I didn't mind as I found it a fun little diversion which some nice lore. 5th zone it just goes full speed after that and it's crazy. And I agree. A lot of the negative comments I've seen are people saying there's stuff that's too slow. To me, those slow points are when some of the best character moments happen, so I love them.

The body swap duty is probably my favorite in the game. For really no other reason then it does that whole 'show, don't tell' thing about WHY the Garleans are so fucking terrified of us.

Can't wait for the fifth (and sixth for that matter) zone video.

Great video! I'm excited to see more of your thoughts on Endwalker. Some advice that you can take or leave would be adding the MSQ player level for the spoilers. I'm level 87, but I was still afraid you might spoil me on something before I got some of the way into the video.