The Complete Evolution of Dark Knights 

I can't speak to the rest of the XIV community, but I would say that the Dark Knight story line is one of the best job quest series in the game.

Dark Knights have always been my personal favorite Job, at least in theory. They’re not evil, yet they use a lot of abilities which many other fantasy stories would enlist as ‘evil’ or ‘corrupt’. I just wish it was more prevalent in the mainline games tbh, since it does have massive potential.

Though it's never been made canon by Square Enix, I like to think of Garland as the first Dark Knight in FF (the dark knight of Cornelia). But yeah, canonically, Leon is the first one.

I feel this got overlooked: the FF11 version of DK is more like the variant of FF4, where Darkness doubled damage at the cost of hp, melded with the Blood Sword (from numerous games) where all attacks gave the DK hit points on every attack. Every iteration after FF4 feels like a nod to one of the two variants from FF4.

I love FF14's version of the dark knight. They were once knights that became vigilantes so they could punish the untouchables of society when they started to break the law. I also like how they stressed that just because they use darkness doesn't automatically make them evil.

the one thing i love about opera omnia, its how it expands upon the Final fantasy 2 characters, especially their abilities. like how it shows Leon's Dark knight powers via his Dark bind, Dark erosion, and Dark stream abilities

You jumped one of the best entries of Dark Knight in the FF variation game Bravely Default / Bravely Second Dark Knight is so AMAZING there

One addition to the Tactics war of the lions. The unit needs to have at least 20 confirmed kills. As in the little red counter goes all the way down and the target turns into a crystal or chest.

I feel like 4 is an underappreciated game for how important it was. It was the first game to have a really good story that was expansive, with character arcs that mattered and multiple angles to the strife being felt. It introduced the Paladin, and gave the summoner a real leg to stand on.

Just started playing Dark Knight in 14. I love it a lot, the job quest story is amazing and cant wait to get to the lvl 80 quest to see what happens.

You gotta start including the Bravely series for these evolution videos

Its quite interesting on how each dark knight from different FF games has their own differences, stories , and abilities to show how they change through out the games

Dark knight is such a cool name and character, first discovered one in FFX-2 as the dressphere for Paine. Really was a sick design

This is a great video! Would have liked to get a shoutout to the Cave of Shadows in FFIII, which had all the ennemies multiply if hit by anything but a DK's katana. A very interesting forced class dungeon!

Cecil's been my favorite of the Dark Knights, mainly because I love his story and how he evolved from a Dark Knight to a Paladin.

I feel in love with Dark Knight ever since FFXI, when I saw a person wearing the artifact armor in town I knew thats what I wanted to strive for.

Ah "Of Course" The Dark Knight Rises

I just made a dark knight build for DND 5e last week. Crazy.

I like Bravely Default's take on the Knight as it makes the dichotomy of its wielder and his liege. Where a Paladine of light stands his shadow is nearby in order to help him in battle. It even works like that in game to great effect.

As a Dark Knight main in FFXIV I’ve been waiting for this.

After playing the full version of FFIV for the first time on the PS1, I've always been annoyed with Square's decision to remove 'Darkness' from Cecil's abilities in the first North American release on SNES. Not because of the ability's utility, but because removing it actually makes the fight with the Mirror Cecil on Mr. Ordeals nonsensical. Since the player has no idea that Darkness saps HP, it's not clear at all that the key to winning the fight is to always defend. The removal of Darkness ruined what was originally an amazing storytelling moment in the game that drives home the message that Cecil cannot win by relying on the Dark Blade.

*Final Fantasy 9 had a concept art of Dark Knight job in the early stage of creation. *Final Fantasy Dimensions has Graham as the prominent Dark Knight guest character (thought I would just mention it, since the video only explains about the job class). *Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia has currently not only Cecil from Final Fantasy IV as a playable Dark Knight, but Leon from Final Fantasy II as well. But since the game is still alive & online, it's possible that they would add more playable Dark Knight characters from other Final Fantasy series as well.

Love the Dark Knight. Wish you would have mentioned them from the Bravely Series even though its not “technically” a FF game. Great vid.

* sad bravely noises * 4 heroes get a spot light in this and it's an even lesser known title then it's reborn version, bravely default... Guess I'll give a quickie for it: Dark Knight appears as a job, but the user is Alternis. This version of DRK retains the troupe as it's other variations in the series. Dark bane is basically the single target darkness, while Black Bane was the target all damage. It's highest stat is STR and swords were it's go to, along with katanas, something that hasnt been done since FFIII. Minus strike is the true bread and butter of the job of inflicting more damage the lower it's health got. Dark Knight shows up again in the sequel, bravely second retaining the same stats and skills as before, but with slight alterations to it's traits and an inclusion of having an A rank with Greatswords(katana and swords are still S rank, spears also A). The job shows up once more but as a different name Hellblade, in Bravely Default II. This incarnation however regains it's lost high magic attack along with their power physical attacks. Every action, save for a few, in the Hellblade's diabolism action costs 25% HP to perform a selected elemental attack at three regular intervals. Similar, but not like it's previous entries. They have a passive trait called, deal with the devil, that restores 8% of the users hp and mp at the end of every turn. also has minus strike.

Ok 1. I just started replaying FFIV today and 2. Dark Knights are one of my all time favorite job classes next to Red Mage and Paladin. Thank you so much for this awesome video!!

I'm really thankful for this channel, it's on a wavelength perfect for watching when I'm grabbing a snack or relaxing in bed

To me, Dark Knights feel like they could be a one-man army. I've had ideas of how to make that happen. Most moves do require HP, but also some moves that make them more evasive and drain HP. (also, black and orange is a great color combo)

Dark Knight has always been my favourite FF job since my first Final Fantasy game I got into was FF4. I think the best representation happens in FFXIV where the power that they wield is more akin to a primal kind of magic; Warriors use the primal beast within to empower themselves while Dark Knights uses that primal magic instead and that magic is incredibly taxing on the caster, which is reflected ingame as the spells having a high MP cost (3000 out of 10k) and the recovery being somewhat slow though the spells themselves are notably powerful. As such, they come across as tanks not as defenders but rather avengers : Paladins will protect the weak and helpless, Dark Knights will punish those that uses power to oppress the weak and helpless.

I'm surprised you didn't mention the role Dark Knights had in Final Fantasy XV's plot. Noctis' Royal Arms sacrificed his HP just to take advantage of some abilities.

Yesss. Great coverage of one of my favorite classes

Love the video, but there was one glaring omission: Cloud Strife He uses a greatsword, his power is heavily associated with emotion and willpower, he starts with Black Magic materia and has a LB which is an upgraded black magic in Meteor Rain, has high strength and intelligence, armor is both blacks and dark blues, had a gray/non-chalant attitude towards most things, and is even referenced in FFXIV's Dark Knight as they have his victory pose, and Souleater's animation is Climhazard. I know FFVII doesn't have explicit jobs, but much like how Tifa is a Monk and Cid is a Dragoon, Cloud is very very clearly a Dark Knight

I would love to see the Paladin done next as it's the natural opposite to the Dark Knight and it has huge story significance in several Final Fantasy games especially Final Fantasy IV where it made it's debut.

This and Dragoon are my fav classes

I was so sure summoners were next, but Dark knights are fun too.

Thanks FF Union for covering my favorite FF class!

that was pretty instructive, can we talk about the dark knight's opposite, the knight/paladin some day?

These vids are edited so well, interesting lore too

Bravely Default 2 Hell Blade is probably the most creative. It uses its hp to deal different damage over time elemental attacks while also being one of the best spell casting jobs.

I can't believe you even talked about my favorite Dark Knight, Duane. I remember always dropping the CG Duane meme at BraveEx livestreams, and through whatever turn of events; he exists....in the spinoff. But its still incredible, and this is truly a complete history if it has Duane. Cheers.

I think it's really interesting that when I was younger I always thought I would be a Dark Knight, but as I grew up I started to idolize the Paladin role more. Dark Knights are still my favourite class in general though.

Considering in ffxiv they have the dark knight using large swords and the combination of physical attacks as well as magic, I've kind of retroactively seen Cloud from ff7 as a psuedo dark knight as well. This I think plays into his connection to Sephiroth, Jenova, as well as the fact he was previously a SOLDIER working for a evil organization like Shinra.

mad respect for mentioning FF Dimensions! You just earned yourself a sub, mister

Was actually looking for this yesterday

great video as always. for the next evolution video I'd really like to see monk/black belt, for sommons maybe alexander or shiva?

Love how thorough the video is. The original FF Dimensions is is a underrated game imo.

I wonder if Dark Knight will be the "main class" of the protagonist in FFXVI. It would be the perfect class for the character since the theme of the game will be much darker than previous FF games.

"I've been waiting for this!"

Great video! Though you did happen to miss Leon’s addition to Opera Omnia, a year(?) ago if I recall correctly. I’m surprised I noticed anything off about it, you went way deeper than I could’ve.

I sorta wish in FFXIV it kept attacks that risked HP for damage. Would be cool

Thanks for the vid! I play WoTV FFBE, and it's nice to see the jobs we have also be included here. :D Just to add: - Duane can now be upgraded to "Abyssal Dark Knight". He is currently considered to be one of the strongest physical attackers in the game. He is considered as a bruiser, with high HP and defenses paired with strong attacks that can lower Attack, Magic, and resistances of his enemies. He also has "Death Scythe" as his Limit Burst (ultimate skill), which is an AoE that absorbs HP based on damage dealt. His "Darkness" skill can also be upgraded to "Eternal Darkness" which gives more utility to the move. - Sterne Leonis' alt form "Knight of Ruin" can now be upgraded to "Bloodstained Knight". Unlike Duane, KoR Sterne tends to lean on the DPS side with lower HP and lower resistances. He also has higher attack, speed, and evasion. Moreover, his Limit Burst, "Destructive Fang", also restores HP based on damage dealt. Also, unlike Duane, he became a "dark knight" (while formerly from a Soldier class) due to the feeling of betrayal, and when he received the Accursed Armor that turns his hatred into power, he used it to slaughter everyone on his path, sometimes even innocent people, to get revenge on the one who wronged him. Also, if you still haven't done so, can you please create one for Assassins? WotV currently has only one assassin, Vinera, but her backstory is one of my favorites. Thanks in advance! :)

Yyooooo great video topic!!!! ❤️💙🔥🔥💙❤️

Yess can't wait for this! Love dark knights, and kudos for showing star wars the force unleashed, loved that game lol

Some extra trivia on the evolution of Dark Knight in FF14 To let the job still retain the same flavour of it's past incarnations, a lot of Dark Knight skills would use one third of your MP instead of HP a neat fact in the FFXIV setting MP comes from something called Aether which is all around world and inside people which they need to live, Black Mages would use their own inner Aether to cause pure destruction and to a similar extent Dark Knight would do the same for their skills effectively using their life energy without having a be an actual game mechanic. Also during the expansion it was introduced Heavensward it had a skill called Dark Arts which one could argue is XIV's version of Darkness where you would sacrifce 2400 MP to augment a skill which could be increasing your single target attack, applying Blind in one of your aoe attacks and even ehance a defence mitigation ability. They also had something akin to Charon or to be more specific Amok with their damage stance Darkside which would increase damage by 20% but periodically drain your MP. With the stance on you could not regain MP via outter aid and it solely came down to using your own MP regenerating abilites (and Eithers)! Dark Knight has been my favourite job aside maybe Dragoon ever since I was a kid and played FF4 for the first time. I really like learning of it's history and how it was interperated in other FF games/spins offs I've yet to play.

I love that you had Rua in the video to show how amazing DRK is

FFXIV dark knight main here. been a DRK fanboy ever since FFIV and I wholeheartedly approve of this video 😁

The design of Dark knight and Cecil story in FF4 is one of the reasons that made that game so charming to me

Dark knights need to build power based on negative emotions…not HP lose. Think along the lines of party members dying. Skills not working (frustration). Hitting an enemy repeatedly to build kinetic anger (think wailing on a zombie until they are blood pudding). Emotions.

I feel for a lot of these, you could also discuss the Bravely Default incarnations, because they are effectively Final Fantasy games

Best part of the Dark Knights are the Moogles dancing and singing

The Dark Knight is a narrative topos in FF series. Terra, Celes, Cloud, Barrett, Squall, Seifer, Steiner, Kuja, Auron are somewhat inside the Dark Knight's dilema and charater development.

Love this video and loving your backlog ive been watching through. I was wondering how you felt about the Bravely Default series appearing in these video's? I know it doesnt have the magical words "Final Fantasy" in the title but it's about as close as you can get 😁 And maybe to get you interested as well as answer the video's comment question; My favorite Dark Knight is from the original Bravely Default, for their passive that lets them deal a massive damage explosion when they are knocked out!

Excellent video, maybe now that's Endwalker is near, Sage?

you could argue cloud is a dark knight lard sword loaner/dark mind set can use black magic big sword

In Bravely Default 2 there's a job known as the hellblade obtained towards the end of the story in a way it's an evolution of The Dark Knight as all of its abilities that the old damage are basically Soul Eater but named after precious gems and deal Elemental damage to the Target. There's also the fact that you obtain it after defeating a military extremist who just wants the best for his country.

I think my favorite version if this job class is in the etrian series, they are called highlanders in that game. They use spears but just about everything else you would expect of the class exists with the high lander, though they also had the ability to use their allies hp to do powerful attacks too along with a different variation that one eats up their own. They also had a passive that would give allies TP (etrians version of MP) for taking their hp. Also have a buff that boosts attack for the party line but makes all attacks also consume their hp. And yes it doubled up for the highlander if you had that buff and used a skill that also consumed your hp.

There was also the nod to Dark Knights in Final Fantasy 8 through the Diablos GF which could allow the use of the Darkside ability.

Bravely default is basically final fantasy..include them in your History of evolution videos because they are amazing videos

For War of the Visions, all the Soldier class character have attacks that sacrifice HP for damage. In his normal form, Sterne has an limit burst that does bonus damage while he is lower health. As a Knight of Ruin, his LB also gets lifesteal added as an affect.

Dark knight entrance in Final Fantasy X-2 is metal as fuck, I always loved it Edit: oh and btw, I love these videos focusing and talking about the FF classes and its history and how they were in each game, these jobs made for me FF being so appealing to me so I don't want them to miss that distinction

Wow i learned a lot on Dark knights today, I am only familiar with them from tactics, Xi, and XIV.

Can't concentrate on the commentary with The Legendary Beast playing. One of the best tracks from FFVIII

Dark Knights in FF14 have in my opinion the best job quests in the game. The slow accumulation of frustration, grief and anger during the events of the main story and how it all eventually blows up with the single phrase "I tire of this charade". Marvellous, just marvellous. Extra points to Naoki Yoshida and his team for making an homage to FF4 in the next expansion, with the Warrior of Light's "canonical" job changing from Dark Knight to Paladin.

Final Fantasy Record Keeper also has a number of heroes that are Dark Knights from different FF games; each with associated job skills from the respective FF (as well as some new ones), and a Darkness ability type; that reinforced a lot of trends seen in other showings of Dark Knight around that time.

Worth adding that after the sidurgu quests in ffxiv darknight actually pulls from love for its power. Ffxiv making it so drk is powered by any strong emotion.

I’ve always considered Noctis from FF15 as a dark knight. Melee with black magic and the royal weapons sap your health. Head-cannon for me definitely has him as a dark knight, Gladio as a warrior, Ignis as a dragoon, and Prompto as a machinist.

Thanks!

Poor Bravely Default, missed the Dark Knight episode

Dark Knights in Explorers also had a passive that increased elemental damage so you could use Magic better than the other melee jobs if you used a weapon with a high magic stat.

Cecil is the GOAT.

Dark knight in Final Fantasy Tactics War of the Lions was honestly broken. I grinded out a full squad of them for giggles after having beaten the game just to see how ridiculous they were. Had my squad before fighting Wiegraf and absolutely steamrolled everything.

I am curious, would anyone consider Cloud Strife from FF7 a Dark Knight? I mean most of the characters in FFVII and FVIII are kind of fluid by design but since then dark knights, especially in FFXIV have been shown wielding great swords while also using magic, it seems to invoke Cloud vibes. Am I crazy?

FFXIV Dark Knight Job Quest is the best, my mind was blown.

You forgot the biggest trait of Dark Knights.....Edge Lords

I released a romhack for FFT that allows Ramza to become a Dark Knight after the battle with Gaffgarion. It fit his character progression so much. All of the Holy Knights in the game (except Agrias) were Lawful Evil characters, and Ramza was their Chaotic Good counterpart.

why remove the HP Drain in a port of an old game? like i get it not being a thing in FF14 as it is a tank and in general you cant really have high risk high reward Jobs when playing with other people, but FF3 Pixel Remaster? really, the hole point of Dark Knights is they risk their life to end the fight faster to avoid drawn out battles.

X2 had some interesting skills with the dark night and they were really good looking

While the idea of Dark Knight being classified as a Tank in 14 sounds odd, it brings to my mind most of the early game of FF4 when Cecil is frequently almost the only party member who can reliably not die from one or two hits.

Dark knight and Dragoon are my farvorite Job

Dark Knight is my absolute favorite class and Cecil is one of my favorite Final Fantasy characters.

One correction to Walking Dead, they don't have to be healed to full, they have to be healed for an amount totaling their max hp in the span of the status. You may say "Isn't that the same thing?" and I say "No and here's why" You cannot be reduced below 1 hp while under the effect of Living Dead, but you still take damage. If you're healed for half, brought back to 1 hp, and healed for half again in that span of time, you won't die. It's really not clear based on the tooltip, but that's how it works apparently.

7:32 "Ello Rua here!"

So to correct an error in your reporting: In ff3, shortly after recieving the dark knight class, there is a whole dungeon where monsters "split"/multiply if attacked with anything other than magic or dark blades. Moreover there was a higher enemy limit per encounter in the NES version of the ff3 meaning you could have more monsters on screen in the OG NES version. Also they still multiplied in the DS version, while they were ultimately called dark knights considering that the monsters where "dark knights" were most relevant in ff3 had to be finished by magic, a more proper translation of their name may have been magic swordsman rather than dark knight.

Should have asked around about the original iteration of DRK in FXIV. The original version of the class had a buff called dark arts that sacrificed MP to enhance the next weaponskill with various different effects but mostly extra damage, basically a nod to DRK sacrifice HP in previous iterations. Also Darkside was a buff that drained MP for every action to increase damage. And finally blood weapon was a buff that restored MP with any action but could only be used while in tank stance. Less related to past skills but keeping the idea of spending and recovering MP instead of HP you had blood price who made you recover MP for being hit and sole survivor which marked a target for death and restored 20% of your MP and HP if the target died before it expired. Basically because it was a tank they decided to move the idea of sacrificing resources from HP to MP, and it was cool.

First, thank you for doing all the research on these FF spin-offs that no one cares about. That's thorough professionalism. Second, the Dark Knight being introduced in Heavensward in FFXIV was what convinced me to give that game a try. It was a long, arduous road getting through ARR and its patches just to unlock it, then another to level DRK up to lvl 50 so I could main it for the story. By then, I'd forgotten who half of the Heavenward characters introduced so far were, but it was worth it. The Dark Knight storyline, as well as their purpose (to kill those in power who abused being untouchable, willingly being branded heretics, murderers, paraiahs and wanted men/women all to protect those who couldn't protect themselves) was just SO DAMN COOL! No wonder the writer for that storyline, Natsuko Ishikawa, was made head writer for Endwalker.

An interesting video, the DK has seen more outings beyond the main series and FFXIV is more a stand out whiles its likely one of the most known versions. Perhaps soon we can see an evolution of the Spoo... I means bards?

Commenting before I watch: I swear to god if Cloud or Auron are mentioned as being Dark Knights, I'll cry.

FFXIV's Dark Knight story is, in my opinion, the best tank questline and unlocking it in Heavensward was a great time

The FFX-2 dark knight is so badass. It made me wanna play DRK in XIV

I tend to not be a fan of Dark Knights that don't have hp draining abilities. My ideal version of a Dark Knight would be one in a turn based rpg, and their skills are all about draining your own health to do damage, only to then absorb health from your enemies/team mates.

Record Keeper's presence of Dark Knights went a bit beyond just the nameless job character. The class is represented by an entrie school of abilities (Darkness) that was all about dark attacks that came with risks - dealing self damage, dooming themselves to gain stat bonuses, abilities that were stronger under doom, etc.