One thing that probably should be brought up: Double Shield Boss (can't spell his name) was one of the most popular NPCs in the game before a large quest rework. Cape Westwind was the first 8-man trial in the game, vs. Double Shield Boss, and it became a community thing where if someone was new to act like it was going to be the most difficult fight ever, when due to item level scaling it was over in a minute. So even though the character is so forgettable, he was one of the most enduring NPCs from ARR because of the meme.
Fun fact, if you were a 1.0 player, the intro sequence skips the dream and just as you teleport into the world, at the city you started at, like at the end of the previous cutscene and you just waltz on into town with Cid being the only weirdo who remembers the WoL for whatever reason.
The algorithm has blessed me this day. I think this is the first time I've been suggested a channel under 1000, let alone 100. Here's hoping you have much success!
I’ve watched several summaries of ARR and this is easily the most engaging one, capturing the important events in a way that is informative and engaging. Really looking forward to the follow ups.
Tempering is absolute nightmare fuel, and I respect the game for going 'yeah this is a terrible thing and we're forced to kill the people who are tempered because if we didn't they'd sacrifice people to the primal'. Not many games would have the sheer cahones to put something that outright traumatising into their story and make it front and centre of a fair amount of the plot. Legit the first time I was going through the aftermath of Titan I had to stop playing for the night because I needed time to process it. Those soldiers who were with us, who were pretty cool for the short time we knew them, they were *dead* because they didn't have the same lucky break as us. God I love this game.
OMG I had to explain that whole quest block when playing with a fresh friend after the trimming, he noticed the guy suddenly wearing a scarf and asked what was going on there. I do think that it's a little sad that new players won't realize that goblin masks are full of porporri because they think we stink
24:05 To be fair, most people with amnesia don't have complete memory loss. More recent or more used memories tend to be lost while deeper, lesser-used memories are retained. It's very common for people with amnesia to not remember the names of friends they spend every day with, but things they didn't think about for years are easily remembered for them. It's not unreasonable to assume Cid knew about the corrupt crystals due to him being a renowned engineer, but because it isn't knowledge he actively uses it was retained.
i am honestly incredibly fond of the genuine work arr puts into presenting a lot of nightmare fuel concepts in msq. there's unmatched potential in character building and exploration, and it is so easily missed. i remember really thinking about the horrors of tempering, and then the immediate follow up of "are WE tempered" as ifrit says we belong to someone else. as much as hydaelyn is unambiguously the force of good in arr, there's an inherent horror in how little choice we actually have in the story. there's also one of my favourite bits of arr that i never see dicussed and its how filled with anger minfilia is. she takes the thancred reveal incredibly hard, and she more or less meets elidibus for 5 minutes after he breaks into her organisation and she decides to figure out how to megakill him and his friends. the various plotpoints of the post-patches are so interesting because they are a genuine tangle of politics and plotlines that makes the banquet's resolution inevitable. the refugee crisis cannot end in any other way, and ofc it is used as a chip in bigger politics. i would know, i live in europe. then there's the way minfilia's quest to murder ascians intertwine with alphinaud's doomed private army because she allows it!! and it is clear she allows it because it lets her focus on the important bits aka ascian murder. it's all such a neat tapestry of character motivations that hides in plain sight. we're missing the forest for all the trees until we get fucked over. the only bit i find tedious in the arr proper is the pure crystal bit. the brayflox and lead up to titan is meant to make you feel pissed and i appreciate it. i loathe the crystal gathering tho, the narrative purpose of that bit still eludes me.
Just watched your Heavensward video, now time for this one!! I love the way you approach explaining the story and also including your opinion on gameplay aspects like the trials and dungeon, I feel like a lot of other FFXIV story recaps don’t comment on those as much. Great stuff!
Thanks! The original plan was a straight up series of retrospectives but I didn't have the time to comment on as much as I'd have liked in that regard, so it's kinda both critique and recap in a weird sorta way. I rushed the ARR one a bit but I'm much happier with how the others have turned out so far.
I heard all praise about ARR at the time Shadowbringers was already out. I talked a friend into starting the game while I got distracted and was late maybe a month. Throughout all of ARR slog they were always "just you wait". And even if this was long after the big trimming of post 2.0 quests it still looked like a horrible slog that was mid at best. And than. "You should set aside enough time to watch the following cutscenes".
The last hour of the ARR msq was incredible and NOTHING in the game has made me more excited for the future of the game since. Nothing has even come remotely close.
Found this video by chance through recommendations. As someone who beat ARR years ago in 2019 and replaying them again with my girlfriend this video did a great job of doing a quick and easy overview of the main and post msq content for ARR. can't wait to watch/listen the rest of the expansions as they come out.
I was actually hella surprised when I saw the subcount, I subbed just because of it. I have more subs and all I did was post my crappy art like??? This is actually some great content for such little recognition given
Can really see this exploding at some point. This is the kind of review and story summation that's been missing imo! Gives people who want to join in Dawntrail a way to catch up on important lore if they would like to etc! Great little series :)
Okay, the trousers bit during your recap on the assault on Castrum Centri got a laugh out of me. Especially since...yeah, why did we *not* grab pants off the soldiers we dispatched? Seems like a curious omission...
You're lucky to have not had to run the Crysallis very often. I get it for the trials roulette once or twice a week minimum and about 50% of the time the party wipes because someone will either use the limit break before being sucked into the place where you have to destroy the aethereal tear or most of the DPS will try to soak the meteors and die. Sometimes wipes even happen before that when not enough people destroy the balls with alternating debuffs before the boss eats enough to wipe the party. 😅
To be fair there, even at current release it was completely possible to clear it even if you didn't limit break the tear, it was just so much easier to do it that way. Steps of Faith was FAR worse
Great work. ❤ Playing since 1.0 and looking back like this is really nice :) Since ff14 was my first mmo I never had much hate for 1.0 since I didn't know what to expect from a mmo. But going into the beta and then into arr, it was a fantastic journey. I didn't feel the slack much since 1.0 was worse paced and other older rpgs as well, so it was pretty refreshing in comparison. The combat was more exiting back then since you did had more skills and more skill options from the crossclass skill system, sch alone had 5 dots. So it was a bit busier and I see how ppl feel underwhelmed til 50 or even 60 nowadays. But happy you enjoyed it and many more even today.
I´m not a Final Fantasy Fan at all but your Video was really good explained and i liked the funny comments here and there! Keep up the good work this is good, really good!
This summay is amazing and relive once again this wonderful story is something i totally needed after disgrascefully finished DT. In regard of the Crysalis, there are many tips and tricks to know to make it a bit easier but it is still annoying when you get it in the Trial roulette. HINT: The debuff you get before being dragged to the second arena multiplies there in time by 10 but if you keep running while beeing dragged in the first arena you have the debuff expire before you are teleported and so there is nothing to multiply anymore ;)
Hi i just discovered your videos recently have been very much enjoying listening to them. Their is a very interesting hypothesis about the end of the crystal tower questline when Nero walks off. Some ominous beeping like sounds can be heard. These beeps can be translated using morse code that spells out a certain infamous quote from a certain birdy.
This is exactly the video i was looking for, im currently playing through heavensward and needed a video to listen to. You have an incredible voice and did a great job on this video. ❤
Yeah I didn't remember it when I went back through, either. That and Cape Westwind. Is it bad I miss the 30-second Ultima Weapon fight at the end of Praetorium? :p
I really enjoyed this. I've tried to watch other summaries of the FF14 story, but people always try to sound so dramatic and over the top I have to turn it off. I like this style. Straight forward, informative. A+
I think there's a lot about arr that I still really enjoy, especially in comparison to a lot of fans. however the one thing that really annoys me is how many cutscenes there would be during the dungeon. it always gave me a lot of anxiety doing them, trying to read the cutscenes as fast as possible and sometimes having to skip them because someone accidentally pulled the boss before I got there. of course, everyone was lovely and didn't mind waiting, but I'm very glad that's no longer an issue, with any cutscenes after the initial one being very short, and big story moments waiting until after you leave the dungeon
Yeah I think ARR gets a lot of undeserved hate. It's probably due to everything after it being so much better, though. I feel you on the anxiety btw - I remember my first runs through quite a few dungeons (and especially alliance raids) ending with bosses being pulled right at the start of the cutscenes. The way I see it, if I'm playing healer and my teammates die because they were too impatient, that's on them ;)
Unless you count some old Twitch VODs and *very* basic highlight videos, then yeah this is pretty much my first "real" RU-vid project. I know there's a lot I could've done better but I appreciate the compliment! 😅
There is NO lore behind Solar Bahamut. Literally the only thing that makes sense when you look at all the details and implications is that the WoL is using their knowledge of Summoning and what they know about Ancient Creation Magicks to develop their own techniques. It’s not a skill we learned from our Soul Crystal, we made it ourselves. Kinda feel like that idea, that the WoL is making their own techniques instead of learning old ones, carries onto most, if not all of the other jobs.
I had to run it again through with an alt because my first time through I skipped everything and plus it was 10 years ago LOL. Getting through 2.0 wasn't NEARLY as bad as everyone cried about. Doing the post patches is where it felt like it never ended. Anywho, great job on the video!!! 🙂🙂🙂
Yeah it's definitely the patch stuff that's the worst. I think a lot of the complaints are because Heavensward onwards are just so much better than ARR, rather than ARR itself being bad.
1:17:26 Your comment here asking about when Monks will get that move that Yda does inspired me to double check. Sure enough, Monks get it at Ultima Weapon: it's their LB3.
Haha yes! I actually noticed that when I hit one during the Lakshmi trial in Stormblood. I barely play melee DPS jobs, let alone get a chance to hit an LB3, so I hadn't noticed before.
Sadly nowadays a lot of the original experience is still lost since they reworked the dungeons for duty support. But some of the things are still there. Like one example, in Brayflox, it was common practice in the first boss while ARR was current to use sleep on the main boss while you took out the add because otherwise the outgoing damage was insane. (Actually Brayflox all around during ARR was incredibly difficult as a healer)
FAST FACT! @DynaChris The whole "Sister playing as brother" thing that you complained about with Nael with the Coils Raid series was ENTIRELY due to a general communication breakdown and translation error ALL THE WAY BACK TO 1.0! Nael was always intended to be a girl, and Japan's lack of gendered pronouns made it easy to disguise it, but it was never communicated to the English team, so they did everything assuming Nael was a guy. By the time that Raid series went out, then they realized just how big a hole they had dug, and had to desperately throw something together to make it all make sense.
I was probably a bit too harsh about that, to be honest. Interesting that it all stemmed from a mistranslation, though! I did do a little bit of research when putting these videos together, but only really found the backstory. I wish the 1.0 storyline was playable in some form (and properly translated!) but I doubt we'll ever get something like that :(
@@DynaChrisI know there is a fan project at the moment to get 1.x running, however it takes a lot of setup and is pretty finicky, basically requiring you to set up your own mini server. it's also built off of the most recent patch, which means the environment is all apocalyptic (and personally feels like a shame to me, as I'd love to explore how the game evolved over time firsthand) it's called project meteor if you're interested
I dunno about the holy trinity my man, all I'm seeing is blue dps, red dps, and green dps :D Also man the lore of Sastasha was dark once you payed attention...
I would like to point out (if it has not been pointed out) we are basically on an elevator fighting the ultima weapon. it's a fun little joke me and my friends like to make ever time we get the trial in MQS roulette.
Hey ! Fantastic video that was a pleasure to watch ! If I can add a fun fact about the poor voice acting in ARR, It's not just a problem in English, but in French too. And like for english voice cast, a big improvment was made during Heavensward !
I didn't know about the French voice cast, that's interesting! As I said in the video, I think a lot of the problem was voice direction, because there's actually a few really good actors in the ARR cast. Either way, it definitely improved in HW! :)
32:00 if anything having only you on the magitek reaper makes most sense doesn't it? It's not like there's multiple Maggy's. But it would be very difficult to design the dungeon to only allow one person to use it..
I actually ended up missing that you're meant to interact with the magitek armor in that dungeon lol. This was before the cutscenes were unskippable, so my entire experience of the dungeon was desperately trying to read everything, then sprinting to catch up with everyone else, who couldn't be bothered to wait for the cutscenes, and by that time had already completed the next fight triggering the next cutscene. and when I did catch up... I realised everyone had a maggy and I was doing chip damage to the enemies, struggling to stay alive while everyone stormed ahead in the armor x.x I know we all laugh at the unskippable cutscenes now, but experiencing it skippable was one of the worst experiences of my life xD
@@nerdychocobo Oh I can definitely imagine that it was hell for a first time player before the redesign.. I luckily came in right around the last ARR rework myself (6.1 to 6.2?).
@nerdychocobo I did the exact same thing in my first Praetorium run! Completely missed the armour and just ran along with everyone. Oh god it makes me feel so much better knowing I'm not the only one xD
It’s such a shame that the voice direction in ARR wasn’t very good because it featured two of my favorite voice actors (Sam Reigel and Taliesin Jaffe) who ARE very good actors. I think it simply suffered from poor direction. 😢
considering how short the turnaround is, yeah, i doubt anyone on the team could spare the time to direct the poor actors properly, or even do more than a few takes
It's been so long since I've seen that yda cutscene. Wow has the voice acting come a long way. Idk maybe the characters think you're stupid or something since you're never voice acted ever lol
4:30 --- She doesnt say "six" specifically, just that you have to find the crystals :P The more interesting part is, "by thy deeds will the crystals reveal themselves to thee". Also, not everyone is a FF veteran ;) 7:50 --- Its true, it wasnt the VAs "fault" that some of their lines feel flat... but you forgot to mention that SE back in the same was close to bankrupt from the failed 1.0. Thats (probably - we dont know) the reason the VAs got no direction and each only one take with minor or no time for preparations.
Yeah she doesn't SAY six, but there are six :p And yeah they were close to bankrupt (again) but as you say, we don't know and probably won't ever know if that's why the voice direction sucked. Either way, I'm glad it got much better from Heavensward onwards!
ydas voice in ARR is the same as tiki from fire emblem and i can atleast say that tiki usually is voiced well enough but i think thats because tiki is a child and it just fits better
A lot of it stems from how it used to be before the rework. It's nowhere near as bad now, but it used to be really tedious. I think the story vastly improves but the questing is still pretty sluggish. The payoff, though... *chefs kiss*
You used to be able to mix and match abilities from classes but I'd imagine it was a nightmare to balance when they started developing Heavensward so they abandoned it along with the ability to increase your base stats with accumulated points per level.
It really wasn't... it was more they dropped it because they found many players simply didn't have skills that were often considered "manditory" You'd see monks and ninjas refuse to AOE in dungeons because they didn't level up dragoon enough to get invigorate. You'd see healers always hard casting raise spells because they never leveled up black mage to get swiftcast. You'd see dark knights without provoke because players would just unlock that as their first tanking job and never got the skill from paladin. Most the skills didn't really break balance, they were just considered essential, so Square smartly decided that if they were so mandatory the job should just have access to those skills on their own.
A good video. And a good recap, but I'm worried this is going to be... a long project. A long, long, loooooong project, considering how many hours you get out of just the MSQ. Well, godspeed.
This is an excellent recap. Just the main msq and the raid stories. I started this game when endwalker came out so it's all still relatively fresh to me. But I'm happy to have watched this all. It will be a great thing to see as we approach dawntrail and refresh my memory on everything. Count me along for the ride! Also I'm really glad you basically skipped over the boring filler stuff before titan and garuda. Cause even slimmed down like it is now it's still a boring slog and cuts the pace of the story so badly.
Thank you! The pacing in ARR is all over the place. Pre-rework ARR was tough to get into. Took a few tries for it to really stick with me, and now I just regret not getting into XIV sooner!
@@DynaChris ah I had a little glance through the comments to see if anyone had but I mustn't have looked enough haha Either way great video and I've already continued to the heavensward one!
@@swolbadguy7811 Thanks! So long story short, I ended up realizing it was the monk lb3 when I went back through Stormblood and did it during the Lakshmi fight.
When he realized it was all pointless in the end, yeah. Think I might have skimmed through that flashback when it happens. Minor Endwalker spoiler, but there's a flashback involving him, so I'll be sure to add something about it when I record the voiceover for that video :)
It has its moments. I'm a fan of the older FF games and it's definitely got that sort of vibe to it. Patch quests drag on for far too long though, even after the big rework.
Gaius logic: Wants to rule over all of Eorzia, and will do so by force if he has to. Having a massive army, willing to go over bodies to reach his goal. Lahabrea: Puts a little hole in the ground, to show off some of Ultima's power. Gaius: Oh no this goes too far for me! This was not my intention!
Yeahhhh… Laha wanted complete devastation. Gaius wanted to rule. They did actually want two different things. Gaius didn’t mind causing some destruction if he eventually was gonna rule, but you cannot rule if everything is dead and destroyed. 😅
@ 52:23 A great feedback method for far fewer controlled-waves & much bigger wall-to-wall pulls would be if sweaty players used Party Finder / Discord to PRE-FORM, rather than using blind matchmaking and then complaining about casuals 🙃 It's really simple cause-and-effect. Pulling ahead of the tank or being disagreeable to smaller pulls; getting upset that others aren't playing the way YOU want them to play - it's an indication you're doing Olympic backstrokes in the shallow end of the YMCA pool (which is obnoxious behavior, in case whoever is reading this doesn't pick up on social cues) - this issue is super easy to avoid ever having to deal with & that's by using Party Finder / Discord for their intended purpose: PRE-FORM. Please, please STOP blind-matchmaking queueing if you're just gonna backseat & whine about it on Reddit later: it objectively makes the game worse for both of us, just because you couldn't click a few buttons (and give us both faster queues, btw ✨) The more you know 🌠
Sorry no aphlinaud is young and very Nieves but arrogant not so much it shown during heavenward it shown he very smart why he little arrogant cause this most his actions in rrb and 1st part heavenward comes from be to Idealistic and Nieve to world and how it really works
