"I take it this is your prey, but why does it still live? Surely it is no match for you. I would have thought you to be above something so banal as despair. Am I mistaken?"
Before: "Tch! I've made it to the end of existence, I'm not faltering now." After: "....remind me to thank Tataru.....her armor held up wonderfully....."
I think my favorite part of this is that the Scions created a shield over you. They succeeded in doing what they couldn't do at the end of 1.0. Louisoix would be happy.
Luey is my favorite character in all of Final Fantasy 14. It is a shame the character did not get more spotlight. The bottom three starting with the worst would be 1. That one conquerer who created Sapphire Weapon. 2. Alisae and Alphanad's father. 3. Alisae
Not only did Venat's hope for humanity lead for this, so did Louisoix's. From the inception of the sundering and the creation of A Realm Reborn. A hope that strong bonds could conquer all.
@@BearWitch_Project Yep! That's part of why this hit me so much harder. Rather than putting their faith into a binding for Bahamut, they are protecting their last hope for humanity: you. Also the realization that this game, much like us, survived a whole decade through its own trials.
The interesting thing is that after the Scions protect the party with the shield, Meteion gets panicked and start to unleash repetitive attacks as if she couldn't understand what is happening....a moment of desperation...
I've seen some comments before go "The final phase is way too easy" but that's exactly the point. The second phase is, quite literally, all about you. That's when the boss hears the boss music. When they are the one panicking. And they did it perfectly IMO.
@@bretmiller2952 I'm also glad that the final phase was so easy, because there's no way I'd have been a functional human enough to do more complex mechanics with tears in my eyes. lol
@AmphiDsf but it was. Just because it was only the same sample doesn't mean that the rest of it wasn't arranged to match with it. It's not a whole vocal arrangement if that's what you mean, and you'd be right
@@Amphidsf I'm wondering then, if this isn't the final form of this song, what battle they could unleash the whole thing for. I can only think of one possible situation which would merit it... A trial versus Azem Maybe he claims our WoL powers from us in the end, setting us up to not be OP going into the next arc
@@katomamundara8106 I saw someone made that joke when I did this trial the first time yesterday! I was all like, "huh?" So that was what that meant! LOL
@@sorimachi8738 I kinda wanna do a gag, as a tank. The add refills our LB bar, I want to make out like I used one of our two LBs accidentally too early(specifically during the add) so every newcomer shits themselves while I announce profusely that I'm sorry for wiping on the second crash while it appears again. 😆 Given, if a DPS doesn't use it first 😂
The issue is more that North Americans can't understand the whole "power of friendship" troupe. It's a real thing in more collective cultures such as Japan. People there find there sense of self in their relationships and therefore think upon them in times of trouble to persevere. We are just a bunch of self-centered assholes who can't understand the troupe from cultural differences lmao
im pretty sure thats why the mechanics get way easier in this phase, its like a hype moment that could be ruined if you had to do too much critical thinking
@@AA-lf4mk its also a kind of improved take on the last part of the King Thordan fight, after you survive his limit break. He actually just starts flailing his sword around. Likewise, Endsinger is just slapping you with her wings for most of it.
If FF14 was an Isekai anime it would be titled "That one time I started out picking mushrooms out of a tree and ended up fighting a cosmic deity of despair while riding on the back of a combat sexual dragon."
What I love most of all is that we're not JUST blindly rejecting the endsingers answer. We go through what Meteion goes through, we build an understanding and after all of that we can still keep our conviction and come to a different answer - hope. Its not naivete that fuels us but our experience, our journey.
Yeh! And in the end, we do overcome the determination set before mankind. Unlike the ancients who sacrificed more and more of themselves to achieve the future they desired, proving they lack respect even for their own lives, even against the sheer improbability of it we never sacrificed anyone. We scoured our memories and fought against fate until we found a way forward without resigning ourselves to letting our friends die for victory.
Still looking forward to finding the other six pieces of hermes' soul and drop kicking them into the ground repeatedly for how he did that poor birb wrong.
My favorite part of the overall narrative of Final Fantasy XIV is that hope is important and not the product of the naive or childish. The world fucking sucks, we'll suffer, we'll cry, we'll face Despair... And we'll tell it that it has no power over us.
I slightly felt bad for Livia and Rhitahtyn in aethereal sea. Like we beat gaius 'good' but these guys died for his cause "twice" and he doesn't even believe in it anymore. Like damn
I love that this is isn't just makers ruin though. It's combined with what I consider meteions theme in a sense. The wings of hope part. Screams meteion pre evil
not to be pedantic but nihilism is accepting that our lives *dont* need a grand purpose, her 'philosophy' is called Fatalism, and that's why she literally has a move called Fatalism lol
We will stand against fate. - Alphinaud No matter the cost! - Alisaie We've been here before... -Thancred Many a time. - Uriange Thus do we know... - y'shtola To never give up. - Estinien For hope will shine again! - G'raha'tia
Hythlodeus would be going nuts and cheering, while Emet feigns disinterest and looks away with a roll of his eyes... Before glancing back every so often and tapping his finger on his arm to show he's actually super into it and just doesn't want to let it show.
@@Archris17 As much as I'd like to also say venat would be cheering, she seemed like a very calm type but unlike Emet not afraid to show her emotions so I think she's just standing there smiling, maybe whispering a few words of encouragement/hype and maybe tensing just a tad every time an ability nearly grazes us.
@@FlorenceFox it so satisfied after my team survive a lot of dead and heal and rez in first phase become this phase it just amzing everything go to We have to win this!
*Meteion:* Why can't you see the limitation of living?! *WoL:* *No!* That's YOUR limitation! You sit here in your closed-off universe, obliterating other lifeforms like you're some kind of queen! *Alphinaud and Alisae:* He's right! We Eorzeans used to have people much, much bigger than us! For their sake, we'll move forward! *G'raha Tia:* The spirit of life is limitless! I've staked everything on its greatness, too! *WoL:* Mark my words. This crystal will pierce a hole in the universe. And that hole will become a path for those that follow after us. The dreams of those who have fallen. The hopes of those who will follow. Those two sets of dreams weave together in a crystalline pattern, turning and wending a path towards tomorrow. That's Eorzea! That's the Scions of the Seventh Dawn! *My crystal is the crystal that creates the Heaven's Ward!* **Sorairo Days intensifies**
The player's never gonna get an LB4 cause LB4 was Elidibus' attempt to recreate the dynamis overload using aether. LB3 is the most powerful dynamis attack we'll ever have. Though it would have been fun as hell to have unlimited lb3's and have people just using them constantly til Endsinger was finished. I mean we're in a realm of pure dynamis where aether can only exist because we believe it can, empowered by the prayers of our comrades and the hope of all souls in existence wishing for happiness. What *better* time is there for a permanently-filled lb3 bar?
@@clintmatthews3500 yes and the ship "ark" looks like the ark gurren Lagann, there is a drill weapon for Dragoons, there are quotes which are references (we believe in hydaleen that believed in you, etc.), Dynamis is like spiral power and more.
Fighting against a deity that is powered by basically despair and fights by flinging celestial bodies at you, having a former enemy facilitates you fighting that deity, and a fist fight at the very end? Very much so.
As a tank who went into this blind I used LB3 for the first meteor and then afterwards immediately doubted myself thinking crap maybe the first one we mitagate and then the second one we LB, was fully prepared to be wiped and then the scions saved our ass and it was the hypest shit ever, god I love this game...
I blind tanked this too and I got the warrior LB3 off with like a tenth of a second to spare before the wipe, and watching the ground rise up to meet the meteor and save the party while everyone in chat went “WE LIVED???” Into this part of the fight, I dunno if that’s gonna be beaten by anything else tbh
I distinctly remember seeing her charge up the second one, look at my mitigations on cooldown one by one, then seeing the Limit Break not even at 1, and saying out loud "I have nothing left for this..." It was a really fitting emotion, in hindsight.
Endsinger: You gifted them escape, and left yourself powerless. Bereft of the synergy you claim is your strength. WoL: I don't know how many times I have to say it. I am *never* alone.
What I really love is that the goal of this fight isn't to kill Meteion. She's just a victim of a burden that was to much for any one person to bear. Your job isn't to defeat her, it's to show her hope.
@@TheBonkleFox I just thought she survived at the end when you the Scions disband at Mor Dhona then you see the bird that looks exactly like her fly around.
@@Frostfang_Piglet We... don't actualy see metion after our battle with Zenos. An only mention of her is that she told the scions that we were right behind her. So yeah, it is possible she's the bird
I don't think Meteion was ever truly a villain. At the risk of sounding pretentious, the only real villain in Endwalker is nihilism. The whole story is one big treatise against nihilism. Fandaniel seeks to end all life because he has been deeply affected by humanities cruelty, and this is compounded by his memories as Hermes. Hermes, similarly, sees the cracks in the "perfect" existence of the ancients and takes issue with it. He creates Meteion to try and find meaning in his increasingly depressing existence. Meteion is simply an unfortunate consequence of Hermes struggles. She's certainly an antagonist, but I wouldn't call her a villain. Just a victim of despair.
I literally screamed oh my god at that point and my neighbors probably worried about me. Followed soon after by 'JESUS CHRIST SOKEN CALM THE FUCK DOWN' when the vocal part kicked in.
@@_kalia in the End of an Era/Answers cutscene, the Scions are shown praying for Louisoux using the power of the Twelve to seal Bahamut in the same manner as they are praying for the WoL here
Just in case, I'll leave this here... "Our song of hope, she dances on the wind higher, oh higher E'er our vows endure, and remain forever strong Standing tall in the dark do we carry on On wings of hope, you rise up through the night higher, oh higher Carrying our song, cradled fast within your arms That its chorus might ring for all"
I wonder if Midgardsormr sang a more somber version of this to his clutch while seeking his "last bastion of hope" after fleeing his crumbling planet...
I really like the subtle detail of Meteion's desperate flailing in this phase. Not only is she desperate to end all suffering and wrought by despair, but she is also basically a child and lacks the ability to handle her powerful emotions. This phase is her final tantrum.
Yeah, I felt really bad for her. She only did what Hermes told her to do, and answered his question in the only way she could. I don't consider her a villain, just Hermes.
This part hit real hard with how panicked Metion's actions become. She's clearly lost all sense of reason and is just wildly flailing at us trying to piece together what is going on. To me it also really shows that Metion never was a fighter. Her main form of defense when exploring the universe was to either run or hide and that becomes abruptly clear as she just flails hopelessly at us here.
The way she's just swiping at us and then in the lead up to the crescendo she just curls up and releases not a song of oblivion but a scream of despair. It really gave me that feeling that the sorrow she's been harbouring is so powerful it's become her only hope and she's struggling to let it go. I think anyone who has wallowed in depression before can relate to how voilently you can react to being forced to accept the hardships that come with striving for true happiness. The gentle embrace of nothingness versus the painful struggle of hope.
Endsinger isn't actually Meteion, though. She escaped and was pleading with it as the blue starbird. The Endsinger is the manifestation of all the despair she collected and nurtured. It's like she had a petri dish of bacteria and fungus that she gathered and it overgrew and became a complex lifeform all its own.
@@mjs3188 She is a congregation of Meteions. The blue bird was manifestation of a part that we managed to convince at this moment, but she was nothing to despair left in the nest
This song represents that best of moments in any Final Fantasy game; when the villain has thrown everything they have at you, when they've gone on and on and on about the futility of life/love/existence (delete as approrpriate) and yet you just...keep...fighting. The fact that you not only keep fighting for something they deem worthless but are actually winning because of it stupefies them every single time. Always great.
@@DarthAlphaTheGreat I mean kefka won and had nothing left for his ambition, the party was scattered around the world and probably MIA if you dont go after them, but yeah he won and he got his wish that was to die and the world was destroyed/dead in a sense and would never be the same again
I know it was never their intention, but Endwalker coming two years into an isolating and exhausting pandemic made the game resonate all the more. There were times I was just in tears as I could relate the emotions of the characters on screen to what's happening in real life. This song wrecked me when it started playing.
I think there is some element of intentionality to it. Much like how Soken created the Seat of Sacrifice theme while fighting cancer. Art is never created in a vacuum.
@@clintmatthews3500 Climate change too Just generally manmade problems becoming apocalyptic because we overestimate how much the world can support us, that's what the first section was
@@Luxai To me last dungeon and trial are visually and mechanically better than Shadowbringers ones, but that doesn't help enough with beating that absolute banger of a villain. Emet is just too charismatic and quirky. And he had better build up due to, in my opinion, problematic pacing of second part of Endwalker. Also Zenos should either die after initial duel or have a talk like last one much faster so he could evolve into something less shallow.
@@haganame1240 Yeah, Meteion just feels weird, like somebody shoehorned their anime OC into the plot, and overused tropes like villain is actually big sad on the inside or friendship is magic isn't helping. Too little focus on the struggle to survive against the final days, and the scions dying had zero impact since the game wasted no time in basically telling you outright that they would come back.
@@Luxai she is not a boss. Endsinger is collection of her sisters and other worlds emotions of despair, pain and death. So like despair incarnate with a help of dynamis.
Honestly, I still love getting this in roulette. I've even specifically qued up for it since clearing it just to do it again, and love doing it with new people (I always go tank so I can be sure they get the LB the first time - much more epic than wiping because no tank was expecting it, lol)
The fact that Song of Hope without a doubt represents the Scions and all of our allies (Hell, the entire planet, just listen to the lyrics) while Maker's ruin is obviously the Hero of Light's own theme, completely drowning out any remnant's of the Endsinger theme, is also just wonderful musical storytelling.
I like how the "Wings of Hope" can refer to the dynamis being influenced by our supporters, the Ragnarok that carried us through the Sea of Stars, or goddamn Zenos literally carrying us through this fight, depending on your interpretation
This isn't just Meteion wondering why she's hearing boss music. This is Meteion watching as the Warrior of Light makes a show of walking to her orchestrion, turns Meteion's boss theme off, and puts his/her own on. xD
Players during Heavensward: Man I love how king Thordan swings his sword hopelessly after his LB. But it feels too short to see it sometimes. Endwalker: How about a whole phase dedicated to it?
The simplicity of this Expac is amazing imo. The big bad isnt some benevolent god. Its a harpy esque little girl suffering from depression. And Depression truely is the greatest evil of them all.
This reminds me of a meme I found somewhere. I think it was originally a joke, but it hit me a certain way. It started as a joke, "What if we picked Star Trek races for professions they should be really bad at?" like a Vulcan emotional support or something. But then someone said "What about Klingon psychologist" and someone posted after that something incredible. I don't remember the exact words, but something to the effect of: "In fighting suicide and depression, you fight against a powerful foe, one which never sleeps, one which may be given no quarter, one which, if you show even the slightest weakness, will pounce. It is an unending battle against an implacable foe. And any warrior who fights it is among the most worthy and honorable of us all, having earned their place in Stovocor (Klingon Valhalla)" I was like "But...that doesn't seem ill fitting at all!" To fight and overcome the literal embodiment of despair itself...
@@SubduedRadical Reminds me of the Klingon lawyer on DS9 who made the courtroom his "battlefield" and source of honor. While the traditional warrior is obviously heavily favored, it looks like Klingons can still find honor in other fields as well. I find that commendable.
I lost someone I loved very much in a most abrupt way only a few months before Endwalker came out. The talk with Venat and the final trial hit so fucking different man. When youre grieving its so easy to forget all of the wonderful things and good people you have in your life.. I still have grief, but im super grateful that this one came out when it did. Thank you, 14
I'm sorry it happened but glad this helps. I do ended thinking the whole deal of this expansion was depression and grief. And they handled it masterfully.
Same here. Especially on the walking quest. My tears gushed remembering a late friend who died days before my birthday this year. ;-; this expansion hits deep in the feels but im really happy this helps me move forward thanks to this game
I was running this for the first time on Discord. When "our song of hope" started, we all hyped up as frenzied apes and begun singing the lyrics loud af in a chorus. I fckng love this game.
@@ModestSusanooh an earth-shattering reveal. It explains so much about how we've survived up to this point, being able to harness this great, unknowable force (at least to everyone in current-day Eorzea). The sheer depths of our determination, letting us reach deep to topple incredible beings who could never imagine that such power exists. Practically everything we ever face is composed of incredibly dense AEther, meaning it has no clue what an LB bar would even begin to look like, or what it would be capable of. Not even the ascians could handle this
We will stand against fate. - Alphinaud changed his fate by changing his ways and as a person. No matter the cost. - Alisaie has always been determined to do the right thing, no matter the cost. We've been here before... - Thancred has felt this way before due to his difficult past, but now has hope. Many a time. - Urianger felt alone all his life until he learned to open up to people. Thus do we know... - Y'shtola has learned a lot on her quest for knowledge. To never give up. - Estinien gave in to revenge once before, and will never make the same mistake again. For hope will shine again! - G'raha was a symbol of humanity's last hope, once in the Eighth Umbral Calamity timeline and again as the Crystal Exarch in the First which made him resilient and hopeful.
I saw a late friend of mine in Emet. A grump yet was there to help others, and offer words of encouragement. When Emet encouraged us to seek out new adventures before we set off to face Meteion, it reminded me so much of him. (Confident in us we'd see things through, and wanting us to see more of what life has to offer -for we inherited the will of Travelers, have we not?) I ended up crying, all the way through the Endsinger trial -because how could I stop after what felt like seeing my late friend again after so long, hearing him tell me to keep moving forward? Words can not capture the love and appreciation I felt in those moments.
I think I know how you felt, and im so glad thats the message you took as well. I lost my mom in late september to late stage cancer. It was in venat that I felt her the most. We may never meet, but I hope youre able to move on and have a wonderful life like your friend would have liked
As a being born of despair and pure nihilism, Meteion could only panic and become desperate in the face of overwhelming strength born of hope. The WoL at that moment fights on behalf of all the souls of Etheirys; past, present, and future. They fight as they always have, for those they've lost and for those they can yet save. We made a promise to find our own way and save our star, and nothing would stop us from keeping those promises.
This feels so much like when Proof of a Hero hits while fighting Fatalis, suddenly you are the wild force of nature and the boss is just trying to survive you.
Something I love is how the Endsinger’s attacks become frantic and she starts flailing about trying desperately to stop you and deny the power of your Hope in the face of Despair.
The background also shows this as well. Her Darkness of Despair is trying to fight back the brilliant Light of Hope. A good contrast to ShB where the last glimpse of Light was trying to fight back the overwhelming Darkness.
I loved this also with Thordan as well, as soon we still stand after his long attack with all his knights, he starts swiping is sword desperately, really broken stance on him. While Thordan is very easy, I still enjoy it for its visuals and feeling.
@@gvenelran6116 Back in 3.0 proper, Thordan's fight was actually challenging and you could wipe if you didn't have the DPS to take out the Knights in time during the transition phase. Endsinger, likewise, can be quite difficult if you have new players that don't really know the mechanics and can still be slowed down a bit by player gear (this is becoming less prevalent as people continue to gear up and so can carry newer players if they get it in a roulette). I don't think it's quite up there with Shinryu in terms of launch difficulty. That fight was brutal at Stormblood launch because you got your level 70 AF gear from your job quests, which weren't mandatory, so you had tons of people coming into the trial with sub-70 gear who couldn't survive some of the raidwides and couldn't kill the adds fast enough.
We fought basically the physical version of the apocalypse, in a void of nothingness, on the back of a dragon. The warrior of light has to be the greatest hero in final fantasy history.
All FF go very far, but I think you're right. Lightning from FF XIII was the contender, having fought the littéral God of Creation, but I think the WoL topped that achievement. The Endsinger was, without a doubt, a threat of universal proportions.
Yup, and the shield they created is a parallel with Ultima's fight at the end of Praetorium. But this time, is not a goddess shielding you, but your friends XD
2:02 i love how they don't add they lyrics right here bc so many of us know that it's "One brings shadow, one brings the light. Two toned echoes tumbling through time". When it was said that after Endwalker we would unlock the true meaning of each song she wasn't kidding lol
God I loved this moment. That moment when you go from fighting the boss to becoming the boss; you're no longer struggling to save everyone, she's struggling just to survive.
What's funny about this is when zenos shows up and reality starts shaking as he breaks through and rams metion. Speaking for metion I was like this is totally a "Why do I here boss music?" Moment! Turns out zenos was just the DJ playing our boss music while we fight. Lol
@@edwardnowakowski5990 Finally? Maker's Ruin has been our theme since ARR, returning during our showdown with Lahabrea in HW, copied by Omega to understand us, cemented by the slower version that plays in ShB during Ardbert scenes, and brought to full glory in this moment. It's always been there.
Really like that they did the King Thordan thing where after you survive the big attack, she just starts swinging wildly and youve already pretty much won at that point
Literally the worst part of this fight. Portraying a boss first as an omnicidal threat to all existence, and then turning them into a total pushover ruins all believability. But then, this does come right after the deus ex machina trainwreck of ultima thule, so not really surprising at that point. Just disappointing.
Me: "Oh no she's using a crazy bullshit ultra move I should use tank lb3 it!" *USES TANK LB3 LIKE A FUCKING BOSS* Me: "I AM A GENIUS!! AHAHAHAHAHAHA-" Endsinger: "and now like all of my mechanics, I shall repeat this mechanic." Me: "OH NO!!" *All the scions tank lb3 it for me instead with the power of their literal thoughts and prayers* Endsinger: "HOW?! HOW ARE YOU NOT DEAD?!!" Me: "THE FERMI PARADOX IS NO MATCH FOR THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP!!!!!!!"
That big AoE assault is such *chef's kiss* because in so many fights, it feels like the DPS and Tanks are the ones fighting the boss, while the healer is just topping everyone off, but here... When that happens, the Healers feel like they are directly nullifying her shots, and it's her power against their power.
9 months ago I got the free trial for this game expecting to just dick around with some friends and uninstall soon after. Yet here I am now at 4 in the morning crying my eyes out on my desk and enjoying every fucking second of it. god I love this game
People meme the "have you heard of the award winning game" line but they really put endless effort into it, and while it has a slow start, SHB and EW are absolutely top tier for me, easily rivaling single player games. They rebuilt the game, put the story threads together and then brought it all to such a satisfying conclusion. So rarely do you have games that, over almost a decade, manage to pay off like this, but FFXIV could do it because they knew this story was coming to an end and they got successful enough that they could allow themselves to make a fresh start with a fresh story and bring this one to a fantastic end. Say about Square Enix what you will, but Yoshi-P and Business Division 3 have a goddamn infinite amount of passion for the game and it freaking shows.
@@Gremlyne The "Have you heard of FFXIV" meme is like a gardener who plants the same seed into the ground which will grow into a beautiful flower later on. Sure, the same joke for the 82nd time gets buried into the ground, but the people who play it afterwards to understand end up enjoying the plot and possibly crying. If not they, then the others around them who caved in to see what the fuss was all about. ...Probably explains the Sprout Icon for new players now that I think about it. They cry enough, it grows up to be plucked, having reached a full growth - As a game and story player both.
Literally the same exact thing happened to me. I picked it up at the beginning of July, got through stormblood around november, then stayed awake for 40 consecutive hours to finish shadowbringers before endwalker during thanksgiving break. Hit patch 5.3 and cried my eyes out more than I have for 10 years on no sleep. Legit one of my favorite experiences ever. Then EW OMG its so good. After this journey I feel like I've experience the adventure of a lifetime in 6 months. I cried sporadically through the entrance to the final dungeon continuing into the final fight, and through the credits. This game got me through a very tough time, and I love it way too much.
People who were excited for Endwalker freaking out over the Song of Hope, but you really gotta appreciate how the lyrics of Maker's Ruin really tie it all together. Get it? _Together?_
@@HimeBurrito No that's a mashup a lot of songs like Ultima and Wyrm's Tail and Invincible and Dragonsong, etc. Maker's Ruin is the song that plays during turnabouts normally, like versus Ascian Prime and is commonly thought of as the boss theme of your Warrior of Light and their supporters because it's about fighting together and dying together in the light of the crystal and has big comeback energy.
Experiencing this in the game for the first time was such a wild mix of emotions. You're somehow fighting, dancing, crying, and vibing all at the same time. It was so beautiful!
Try being a Bard. Shooting, singing, dodging, crying, and Vibing. I should have been a Tank during this that fight when I first played it. It would have been easier lol.
I wish I didn't see this thumbnail when I wanted to search for Footfalls back in the day, gave me major spoilers with one image. I will never search for a song before finishing a game ever again.
It wasn't until I watched this fight back that I realized the way the Scions were praying was a throwback to when they were praying to the Twelve to imprison Bahamut again.
"We will stand against fate!" "No matter the cost." "We've been here before." "many a time!" "Thus do we know." "To never give up." "For hope will SHINE AGAIN!" God I havent felt this much love for an ending boss fight since the final boss of Persona 5 royale. Inject this anime bullshit into my veINS LETS GO
@@rampant1apart Except for once the Power of Friendship not only is properly woven into the plot, but has every single reason in existence to exist and then some!
@@katomamundara8106 Oh no, I agree. I think it was well executed too. I'm just exalting in how they stuck to the old classic Power of Friendship but executed it so well and stuck the landing.
"This can only end in misery and desolation!" I know. We know. In all likelihood that's the most probable outcome; that we end just as all the others stars have. In misery and despair. But we've watched a world just about consumed by light crawl itself back from the brink. Seen them unite as one people and build a new future for themselves. We came to that world when it was broken, when it was desolate and bleak; and we left it with renewed hope, the barren wastelands in bloom. The First is not perfect by any means, but they're trying. And that's all we're asking for, really. A chance to try; and should we fail? The aetherial sea will still be there. Our souls will still be there. New life will emerge, and we'll get another chance. We'll try and we'll try and we'll try, until we succeed, or the sun burns out.
it's easier than that really, the whole philosophy on EW is that you never stop trying and that's exactly what life consists in, never will you achieve a life without pain, in that acceptance, accepting pain as something that you have to live with, that's how you move on, you try and you try and you'll never stop because trying is living, of course we'll try to make the best decisions in life but pain and loss will be everpresent, it's part of life just like darkness it's part of light. those stars burned because they strived for a life where no pain, no conflict and no loss was present.
This very moment absolutely destroyed me and built me back up again. Everything about Endwalker mirrors my own personal journey throughout life so far. I struggle with serious depression and have lapsed into nihilism quite often in the past. Meteion is me in my darkest hours, while the Warrior of Light is my own will to survive and push past my personal limits that ultimately brings me out of it. The Scions? Well, they are my wonderful friends who have supported me every step of the way. I have never cried so much in my life. Playing through this expansion was a transcendent experience. It was catharsis incarnate. Thank you Squeenix, Yoshi P, and the FFXIV Dev Team. Thank you so, so much.
I myself have struggled with depression and suicidal thoughts, and this expansion hit especially hard. But the underlying message of hope brought tears to my eyes, and reminded me to never give up. May your suffering ease and light and love find their way into your life.
Two of my favorite things about this fight were: - Limit Breaks confirmed to be powered by Dynamis, a.k.a the WoL's emotions. "Surpassing your limit" is such a cliche anime trope, but who cares? I love that they started adding lore to the game features. - You're fighting against the embodiment of negative emotions. Throughout the expansion. Emo Meteion keeps telling you that life is pointless and that suffering is inevitable. She wants those who oppose her to despair, and at first it seems like she succeeds, but then you get the friendship powerup. There's a lyric in Footfalls that goes "Our song of hope, *she* dances on the wind higher, oh higher" and "On wings of hope, *you* rise up through the night higher, oh higher." I happen to play a fem-WoL and while I'm sure it wasn't the intention, it felt like the song was about my WoL, because throughout the entire series, in the darkest, most dire situations, everyone's hopes are placed on the Warrior of Light. The single, consistently unfaltering light of hope for the world.
@@CowsdaemonRSNL Think of Aether like water and Dynamis like oil. You can't normally mix them, but you add in a third element and you can make an emulsion of them. That third element? Extremely potent emotion. Elidibus was 100% invested in his quest, putting all his heart and soul into it, breaking the limits.
Endwalker and Shadowbringers are equal to me, for different reasons. Endwalker really pulls towards the game's "Epic badass moments" far better While Shadowbringers grabs your heart and tears it right out. Both insanely strong in their respective field.
@@Mortal_Indeed This is actually a great way to put it. Shadowbringers is amazing on its own, while Endwalker requires the story up to that point to give it the context it needs, but holy crap, does it ever use that context as amazingly as possible.
@@ZanAzoth I will not deny. Shadowbringer had some heartbreaking moments and I was ugly crying over a freaking NPC I just met 2 minutes ago ends up being killed off. As you just saw how much of a good person they were. End up being turned into a monster (Yep you know who I am talking about). To have an ending that was bitter sweet. Though will agre that Shadowbringers is its own self-contained story. Being...well...it kind of was if you think about it. It had some points that tied it to the main story but you could easily seen it as its own game. To now Endwalker. FF14 Dev Writers are fucking evil fuckers. I was in tears throughout most of the damn story. Then, this fight and the second phase. I was ugly crying and needing to fight. All because it was so damn beautiful. Yet it was the fight AFTER that was a good closure to a lot of plot threads. Yet, the story never ends. There is more to discover and more challenging enemies to fight. See you out there...Adventurer.
I love how Urianger's prayer at 1:00 is just like, "yeah, she always does this shit, I'm gonna put on some tea, talk to you guys in a few when she's back"
Honestly, the minute Maker's Ruin started playing, I broke. I was very moved by many of the events that led to this fight, and the epic medley of the first phase. But that song, a favorite of mine from ARR, followed by Song of Hope and our fellow Scions cheering us on... it's so emotional you know?
All thanks to Momma Hydaelyn. She watched us grow, packed us a lunch, then sent us on our way and now takes a well deserved rest. Holy shit dude, what a tale for the ages in mmo history.
You know if someone had told us that this story would end with us fighting a giant bird girl on the back of a dragon who is also an antagonist in space back in 2013 I don't know if we would have believed it
When you realise that Etheirys hosts some of the weakest creatures in the universe, being split 1/13 of what they used to be, of what they should be, yet that very fact makes them the strongest to fight back against despair and hopelessness-- One more reason why this fight is the most epic in the franchise.
WELL AKSHEWALLY, the Source Denizens are at 7/13th strength (with WoL and G'raha at 8/13ths), but the point still stands and makes Venat's logic pay off.
because despite being 1/13th of what we should, we've found a thousand ways to make up for it. And most of all, we havfef the enduring human spirit, the will to never give up and spit in the face of death. To me...that's what EW was about.
@@DanTalksGames Why would G'raha be at 8/13 ths? The First didn't have a G'raha he merged with. Isn't the G'raha in Shadowbringers an old G'raha that went back in time and into the First, then reunited with his young self? XYZ years old G'raha became one with 24 year old G'Raha but they're still the same person, one was just older.
When this started to play, I just flatout started crying xD I love this part ;; I did this as a summoner, and when the Scions prayed for us, summoning Demi-Phoenix truly got another meaning.
I totally feel the same way about getting invested in my job like that! Being a dark knight, and all the themes of using your despair as reason to keep fighting made it so satisfying using all these dark moves with my shadow Frey at my side in order to destroy pure sorrow. It gave me a sort of elation that I never thought a piece of art could give me. Just seeing a visual representation of conquering this existential depression hits home.
Omg same. I’ve been in love with the “our song of hope” part ever since hearing it in the trailer, so when it finally showed up in phase two of the FINAL BOSS BATTLE I started sobbing and yelling into my mic XD
I was convinced that my group had lost when it all faded to black. Then the guitar hit, and I just lost all semblance of control over my emotions. I was an absolute mess for the next hour. So fucking good.
@@Deadflower20xx God, I went dancer this expansion after hearing the "song of hope she dances on the wind" and had the same emotional attachment. I wasn't HUGE on the dancer questline but the fact they dance to lift the darkness from the hearts of those who watch them REALLY felt like it hit hard this whole expansion. T_T I also lost my shit and nearly died like an idiot when I heard the song of hope chorus because I got too excited
Ngl, doing this as a dragoon and star diving the second the “song of hope” bit played was the most powerful feeling I had this expansion… ofc until “that, I can’t deny” solo duty
For me, it always syncs up so well with Phoenix as Summoner. Not only have we taken up Archon Louisoix's legacy, but his Circle of Knowing has joined with us as they did with him, finally succeeding his hopes for the people of the world. Can't really think of a better way for it to line up...To call forth the warmest memory of the man to aid me in striking back against the dark of despair.
Any of the big jumps or proccing Nastrond at that part feel so great! First time for me I did Dragonfire Dive. And I got that same high you're talking about.
I was today years old when I realized the purple (representing despair) and gold (representing hope) are having themselves a DBZ beam battle in the background.
Zenos will allow nothing to get between him and his rematch, thus in a field of extremely dense dynamis it grants him invulnerability and the ability to move at beyond lightspeed to keep up with the prey of his rival.
Really? I was far to frustrated with how much of a health sponge she was more than anything. Thordan and Hades at least had the integrity to go down quickly during their final desperate struggle but she overstayed her welcome and since I really didn't feel any sympathy for her since I viewed her as little more than a Necron clone, I was completely dry eyed during it.
@@silverstrider2046 i think it was because of your comrades praying for you that everybody started tearing up, i didnt even notice her health during the first run.
I completed Endwalker with the same group of friends I started A Realm Reborn with. We experienced the journey together from beginning to end and honestly, it made the finale of Endwalker hit even harder with every emotion imaginable. We'd experienced tragedies and hardships in our real life over the years we played. Every time, we overcame. We never gave up on ourselves or each other.
So I sifted through saw people mad cause power of friendship....but lets be real if you all payed attention to ARR this same thing happened and Failed. So here where in life and death exist at same time, were dreams made true a reality in which the ghost of the past walk. With power born from emotions would breed the idea that in Darkest night when all else is lost and you lil lost sheep cant find yourself should light brighten the path and show you that in darkest time, hope can be achieved yet standing alone will not help, so gather the hope of friends, allies, enemies who all seek a common goal of survival only then can there hopes and dreams live on in you so let roar the emotions and scream NOW THAT IN DARKEST TIME WE WILL NOT FAULTER. :3 there does that feel better than crying over power of friend ship.
Our song of hope, she dances on the wind higher, oh higher E'er our vows endure, and remain forever strong Standing tall in the dark do we carry on On wings of hope, you rise up through the night higher, oh higher Carrying our song, cradled fast within your arms That its chorus might ring for all
That works but I think the song's referring to us. We're clashing against the Song of Oblivion, the Endsinger. From a philosophical standpoint and considering the context you could consider us, the Warrior of Light the Song of Hope, the Hopesinger. We're carrying everyone's hope, song on our back. The "That its chorus might ring for all" probably refers to the fact that if Meteoin came out on top Etheirys doom would've been all but set in stone and many more would come to perish.
In the Japanese vo, te Endsinger has this creepy deep adult female voice with reverb, but when she falls at the end with her last sentence about "where is happiness" her voice slowly changes to that of a little girl's - Meteon's. Goddamn the attention to detail in this game.
* Makers Ruin starts playing *
WoL: "I'm the final boss now."
only until endsinger extreme
i bet the mechanics will get crazier when this song plays in extreme :D
*our companions pray for us*
The Endsinger: Why am -I- hearing boss music?
@@Traten65 I usually don't like the "why am I hearing boss music" meme, but DAMN does this make it feel like it being so
@@Saihamaru bro if we don't get to do some zenos dragon shit in the extreme version im gonna be disappointed
The Endsinger: Fuck.
"I take it this is your prey, but why does it still live? Surely it is no match for you. I would have thought you to be above something so banal as despair. Am I mistaken?"
The realization that the person who believes most in you in the entire universe isn't your dearest friends, it's your greatest rival
Yes, that was said at some point. You're sharp!
@@vaidenkelsier7757 EXACTLY!!! None of my friends understood my fascination with Emet Selch/Hades. The part he played in this game was so deep.
Looking at the PC's face it was like a "**mutters under breath** Shut uuuup... read the damn room. I'm trying to be dramatic here..." moment. XD
Before: "Tch! I've made it to the end of existence, I'm not faltering now."
After: "....remind me to thank Tataru.....her armor held up wonderfully....."
Zenos: who tf is this?
WOL: Despair, given form in Dynamis
Zenos: lmfao
WoL: lol same
WoL: Wanna help kick its ass?
Zenos: sure y not
Zenos: hey don’t forget our fight after this
WOL: yea yea I remember bro, just promise not to die alright, you still gota show me that body trick.
@@Reve_Hyrulier why this make me feel :(
I think my favorite part of this is that the Scions created a shield over you. They succeeded in doing what they couldn't do at the end of 1.0. Louisoix would be happy.
Luey is my favorite character in all of Final Fantasy 14. It is a shame the character did not get more spotlight. The bottom three starting with the worst would be 1. That one conquerer who created Sapphire Weapon. 2. Alisae and Alphanad's father. 3. Alisae
He technically did? But I won't spoil anything for any other commenters who read this :)
Not only did Venat's hope for humanity lead for this, so did Louisoix's. From the inception of the sundering and the creation of A Realm Reborn. A hope that strong bonds could conquer all.
@@BearWitch_Project
Yep! That's part of why this hit me so much harder.
Rather than putting their faith into a binding for Bahamut, they are protecting their last hope for humanity: you.
Also the realization that this game, much like us, survived a whole decade through its own trials.
@@lanceknightmare He gets a lot more screentime in 1.0, the twins are basically his replacement initially
The interesting thing is that after the Scions protect the party with the shield, Meteion gets panicked and start to unleash repetitive attacks as if she couldn't understand what is happening....a moment of desperation...
Brings me back to King Thordan when he starts freaking out and slashing wildly after Ultimate End fails to do more than 2000 damage. xD
I've seen some comments before go "The final phase is way too easy" but that's exactly the point.
The second phase is, quite literally, all about you. That's when the boss hears the boss music. When they are the one panicking.
And they did it perfectly IMO.
@@bretmiller2952 I'm also glad that the final phase was so easy, because there's no way I'd have been a functional human enough to do more complex mechanics with tears in my eyes. lol
Exactly, she's basically flailing as if "swimming" through your light, her movements are completely panicked.
@@rueceless7580 Yeah, i find it soooo cool. As IF the bosses had emotions too.
"I wish the Sharlayan part of the cinematic was it's own song"
Soken: say no more
i was saying this through msq and when i got here i lost it hah
@Corey Moser But it wasn't. It was still only the 30 seconds.
@AmphiDsf but it was. Just because it was only the same sample doesn't mean that the rest of it wasn't arranged to match with it. It's not a whole vocal arrangement if that's what you mean, and you'd be right
@@Amphidsf Yeah, i'm still waiting.
Its still a sample.
@@Amphidsf I'm wondering then, if this isn't the final form of this song, what battle they could unleash the whole thing for. I can only think of one possible situation which would merit it...
A trial versus Azem
Maybe he claims our WoL powers from us in the end, setting us up to not be OP going into the next arc
The first time I did this someone said “Oh no, enrage timer.” I was so shocked, no way at 40%!
I then found out it was OUR enrage timer.
I make this a running gag when I get this trial and see we got newbies. "Shit, we're gonna miss the DPS check, too many deaths" xD
@@katomamundara8106 I saw someone made that joke when I did this trial the first time yesterday! I was all like, "huh?" So that was what that meant! LOL
@@katomamundara8106 SOMEONE SAID THIS YESTERDAY and I was like WTF ?
Gotta say, i feel guilty as well doing this running gag as well. But yeah this is literally roles reversed. WE are the boss for endsinger.
@@sorimachi8738 I kinda wanna do a gag, as a tank.
The add refills our LB bar, I want to make out like I used one of our two LBs accidentally too early(specifically during the add) so every newcomer shits themselves while I announce profusely that I'm sorry for wiping on the second crash while it appears again. 😆
Given, if a DPS doesn't use it first 😂
Maker's Ruin appearing from nowhere in an epic version is the equivalent of us telling to the boss
"Call an ambulance... BUT NOT FOR ME!"
This is the most JRPG moment in the entire game and I LOVE it. It's so earned.
Closely followed up with the most shonen anime showdown XD
@@RyvenBrandon That, I can't deny.
It's so hammy and cliche AND I LOVE IT!
It earns this power of friendship moment like no other JRPG.
It was genius. They had dynamis to make it the ultimate JRPG moment and they went for it. Madlads
@@naif9464 madlads make the best devs, after all
To all that say that "oh no friendship won".... We literally fight an embodiment of hopelessness in a place made out of consolidated emotions.
I think it would be more accurate to say hope won over despair, but I suppose it depends on your perspective.
Some Dumb Loser: But the power of friendship is bad--
Me, and intellectual: What you mean to say is BADASS.
@@AsaelTheBeast facts the whole DLC is the finding of hope and joy in despair
If there's one place where the power of friendship winning make sense, it's clearly here.
The issue is more that North Americans can't understand the whole "power of friendship" troupe. It's a real thing in more collective cultures such as Japan. People there find there sense of self in their relationships and therefore think upon them in times of trouble to persevere. We are just a bunch of self-centered assholes who can't understand the troupe from cultural differences lmao
In this very moment, we forget the mechanics, we forget our roles, we forget the enemy HP. It's pure instinct because we know we already won.
both us and endsinger
im pretty sure thats why the mechanics get way easier in this phase, its like a hype moment that could be ruined if you had to do too much critical thinking
@@AA-lf4mk its also a kind of improved take on the last part of the King Thordan fight, after you survive his limit break. He actually just starts flailing his sword around. Likewise, Endsinger is just slapping you with her wings for most of it.
It really was the hardest part for me, because I couldn't keep from dancing.
@@Nirual86 She attempts to overwhelm you with despair but it's instantly rebuffed by the light of hope
*100 years old on my death bed*
"Shall we send for a priest?"
"NAY CHILD, PLAY ME MY THEME TUNE".
[The flame of your life is spent, and yet you find the strength to stand.]
@@DeNihility I ain’t even lyin when I say reading that gave me chills bro
Thins makes two of us, and let the volume max out. Send me off with a song and smile.
@@Reve_Hyrulier A smile better suits a hero.
If FF14 was an Isekai anime it would be titled "That one time I started out picking mushrooms out of a tree and ended up fighting a cosmic deity of despair while riding on the back of a combat sexual dragon."
Our story sure escalated haha :D Also, I love "combat sexual dragon" xD
Wol at the beginning: hey I'm here to look for work
A few years later
Wol: *HOW DID A FEW JOBS BRING ME HERE!?!??*
@@leonides1527 Given name, bid to seek out strife and adventure. Is that not so, adventurer?
@@kutlumzrak2689 That, I can't deny.
@@natweigel Hahaha! ACCEPTANCE! At last!
What I love most of all is that we're not JUST blindly rejecting the endsingers answer. We go through what Meteion goes through, we build an understanding and after all of that we can still keep our conviction and come to a different answer - hope. Its not naivete that fuels us but our experience, our journey.
Yeh! And in the end, we do overcome the determination set before mankind. Unlike the ancients who sacrificed more and more of themselves to achieve the future they desired, proving they lack respect even for their own lives, even against the sheer improbability of it we never sacrificed anyone. We scoured our memories and fought against fate until we found a way forward without resigning ourselves to letting our friends die for victory.
Still looking forward to finding the other six pieces of hermes' soul and drop kicking them into the ground repeatedly for how he did that poor birb wrong.
My favorite part of the overall narrative of Final Fantasy XIV is that hope is important and not the product of the naive or childish. The world fucking sucks, we'll suffer, we'll cry, we'll face Despair... And we'll tell it that it has no power over us.
"The sorrow of a thousand thousand worlds weighs heavy. And yet you can walk on."
Meteion had no one to teach her how to have Hope. She was designed that way and Hermes was a depressed man when he made them.
*The Maker's Ruin starts*
Gaius, Lahabrea and Thordan like: We've been here before.
Me after running Prae alot: "Many a time."
Hades seeing the unleashed light of hope: Me too.
Omega M/F tried to appropriate the song as well.
As well as Thancred technically
I slightly felt bad for Livia and Rhitahtyn in aethereal sea. Like we beat gaius 'good' but these guys died for his cause "twice" and he doesn't even believe in it anymore. Like damn
The WoL has been given boss music. Head bang together people. Nihilism can't run from us.
Phase 2 is really like, "We're not trapped in here with Endsinger, Endsinger's trapped in here with us."
My thoughts exactly. Her little bit at the start could easily be replaced with "Why do I hear boss music???"
Any time 'Maker's Ruin' is playing in any form, it inevitably is accompanied by the boss panicking because the WoL is breaking reality again.
I love that this is isn't just makers ruin though. It's combined with what I consider meteions theme in a sense. The wings of hope part. Screams meteion pre evil
not to be pedantic but nihilism is accepting that our lives *dont* need a grand purpose, her 'philosophy' is called Fatalism, and that's why she literally has a move called Fatalism lol
“That, I can’t deny.”
"HA, ACCEPTANCE AT LONG LAST!"
The only correct response.
@@ThatBlackN3rd “The conflagration of our clash will scorch even the stars!”
When I saw the look in my WoL's face at that moment I shouted Let's Fucking Go lol
If you didn't pick this option, you missed out lol
We will stand against fate. - Alphinaud
No matter the cost! - Alisaie
We've been here before... -Thancred
Many a time. - Uriange
Thus do we know... - y'shtola
To never give up. - Estinien
For hope will shine again! - G'raha'tia
*Silent Nod* - Warrior of Light
Legit feels I died just because I was getting emotional xD
"This is Thancred" -Thancred
@@carlosfred8673 "My turn!" - Thancred
"A test of your reflexes!" - Zenos
Me as a healer during this part: I GET TO PRESS ALL THE BUTTONS!
YOU GET A HEAL, YOU GET A HEAL, YOU GET A HEAL, EVERYBODY GET HEALS!!!
Amen
Me as the Main Tank during this: COME ON, HIT ME! HIT ME LIKE YOU MEAN IT! NO NO, IT SHOULD BE MORE *LIKE THIS!*
HEAL SPAM THY NAME IS WOL!!!
Me spamming Afflatus Rapture in between Glare casts till I have enough power to hit her with the *blood for the blood lily*
I imagine Emet, and Hythlodeus, were probably screaming in hype as they watched from the lifestream.
Venat was probably hyperventilating from excitement.
With LETS FUCKIN GO emote?
Hythlodeus would be going nuts and cheering, while Emet feigns disinterest and looks away with a roll of his eyes... Before glancing back every so often and tapping his finger on his arm to show he's actually super into it and just doesn't want to let it show.
@@Archris17 he would 100% act like that😂
@@Archris17 As much as I'd like to also say venat would be cheering, she seemed like a very calm type but unlike Emet not afraid to show her emotions so I think she's just standing there smiling, maybe whispering a few words of encouragement/hype and maybe tensing just a tad every time an ability nearly grazes us.
WoL: Call an ambulance...
*Makers ruin kicks in*
WoL: ...But not for me!
Wol: STOP RESISTING
*punches endsinger*
Oh hey Rabtoons! Yo o/
I hope that line is in endwalker in a nutshell lol
*after the last, last fight...*
WOL: Call an ambulance... yes, it's for me.
LMAO Hey Raboons! Fancy seeing YOU here :P can't wait for FFT Nutshell :)
When the lyrics "our song of hope, she rises on the wind, highe oh higher" you know its time.
If you're not motivated to win when that kicks in, nothing will do it.
@@FlorenceFox at that point it was the strongest you’ve ever felt
@@FlorenceFox it so satisfied after my team survive a lot of dead and heal and rez in first phase become this phase it just amzing everything go to We have to win this!
I was singing along during my first time through the fight. SO HYPED!
Our song of hope she DANCES on the wind, not rises.
The spirit of "Who the hell do you think we are?!" lives on.
ROW ROW
FIGHT THE POWER!
Thordan didn't stand a chance...
*Meteion:* Why can't you see the limitation of living?!
*WoL:* *No!* That's YOUR limitation! You sit here in your closed-off universe, obliterating other lifeforms like you're some kind of queen!
*Alphinaud and Alisae:* He's right! We Eorzeans used to have people much, much bigger than us! For their sake, we'll move forward!
*G'raha Tia:* The spirit of life is limitless! I've staked everything on its greatness, too!
*WoL:* Mark my words. This crystal will pierce a hole in the universe. And that hole will become a path for those that follow after us. The dreams of those who have fallen. The hopes of those who will follow.
Those two sets of dreams weave together in a crystalline pattern, turning and wending a path towards tomorrow.
That's Eorzea!
That's the Scions of the Seventh Dawn!
*My crystal is the crystal that creates the Heaven's Ward!*
**Sorairo Days intensifies**
I still can't hear that line and NOT default to Area 11 before Gurren Lagann lmao
YESSS!!!!
Y'know, if ever there was a moment to give us LB4, this would have been it.
and no Weakness if you die and are Resurrected... but just that part of the fight.
The player's never gonna get an LB4 cause LB4 was Elidibus' attempt to recreate the dynamis overload using aether. LB3 is the most powerful dynamis attack we'll ever have.
Though it would have been fun as hell to have unlimited lb3's and have people just using them constantly til Endsinger was finished. I mean we're in a realm of pure dynamis where aether can only exist because we believe it can, empowered by the prayers of our comrades and the hope of all souls in existence wishing for happiness. What *better* time is there for a permanently-filled lb3 bar?
@@sunn7615 I wouldn't say never. It is always a possibility down the road.
@@sunn7615 what you just commented reminds me of Ultimate Ultima Weapon mechanic where every role has to lb3 once or its a wipe
@@IkkyuKid every role..... physical ranged players crying rn.
Really was our WoL’s “just who the hell do you think we are!?” moment.
@@clintmatthews3500 yes and the ship "ark" looks like the ark gurren Lagann, there is a drill weapon for Dragoons, there are quotes which are references (we believe in hydaleen that believed in you, etc.), Dynamis is like spiral power and more.
Fighting against a deity that is powered by basically despair and fights by flinging celestial bodies at you, having a former enemy facilitates you fighting that deity, and a fist fight at the very end?
Very much so.
@@sadi5713 "Dynamis is Spiral Power" Fuck you're right!
WoL: Meteion let me see you grit those teeth!
@@maurog.ocaranza4142 holy shit Dynamis really is just Spiral Power…
_Libera Me from Hell intensifies_
As a tank who went into this blind I used LB3 for the first meteor and then afterwards immediately doubted myself thinking crap maybe the first one we mitagate and then the second one we LB, was fully prepared to be wiped and then the scions saved our ass and it was the hypest shit ever, god I love this game...
I felt the very same way! :D
As a WHM who used all my mitigations and shield on the first one, I was thinking the same things.
I blind tanked this too and I got the warrior LB3 off with like a tenth of a second to spare before the wipe, and watching the ground rise up to meet the meteor and save the party while everyone in chat went “WE LIVED???” Into this part of the fight, I dunno if that’s gonna be beaten by anything else tbh
I distinctly remember seeing her charge up the second one, look at my mitigations on cooldown one by one, then seeing the Limit Break not even at 1, and saying out loud "I have nothing left for this..."
It was a really fitting emotion, in hindsight.
Endsinger: You gifted them escape, and left yourself powerless. Bereft of the synergy you claim is your strength.
WoL: I don't know how many times I have to say it. I am *never* alone.
As long as i have familly
@@antonissofoulis6032 *Vin Diesel has entered the chat*
*zenos breaks in* I know I said i'm never alone but even I don't know if I should be real worried or act like this is what I meant.
@@Notaforumguy007 Both this and the Vin Diesel comment are made funnier by the video of Zenos being bald.
Wol: The Scions dont need to be here. As long as they think of me now and then, our hearts will be one. My friends are my power!
What I really love is that the goal of this fight isn't to kill Meteion. She's just a victim of a burden that was to much for any one person to bear. Your job isn't to defeat her, it's to show her hope.
Exactly. I'm so glad she survived at the end.
@@Frostfang_Piglet ngl I'm not sure if she did or not. She talked about how she'd "expire" but tbh i think we gave her just enough to keep going
@@TheBonkleFox I just thought she survived at the end when you the Scions disband at Mor Dhona then you see the bird that looks exactly like her fly around.
@@Frostfang_Piglet We... don't actualy see metion after our battle with Zenos. An only mention of her is that she told the scions that we were right behind her.
So yeah, it is possible she's the bird
I don't think Meteion was ever truly a villain. At the risk of sounding pretentious, the only real villain in Endwalker is nihilism. The whole story is one big treatise against nihilism.
Fandaniel seeks to end all life because he has been deeply affected by humanities cruelty, and this is compounded by his memories as Hermes. Hermes, similarly, sees the cracks in the "perfect" existence of the ancients and takes issue with it. He creates Meteion to try and find meaning in his increasingly depressing existence.
Meteion is simply an unfortunate consequence of Hermes struggles. She's certainly an antagonist, but I wouldn't call her a villain. Just a victim of despair.
The callback to what happened in the ARR "movie" had me losing what semblance of sanity i had left. I love this game so much
I literally screamed oh my god at that point and my neighbors probably worried about me. Followed soon after by 'JESUS CHRIST SOKEN CALM THE FUCK DOWN' when the vocal part kicked in.
Can you elaborate on what the callback is specifically?
@@_kalia in the End of an Era/Answers cutscene, the Scions are shown praying for Louisoux using the power of the Twelve to seal Bahamut in the same manner as they are praying for the WoL here
@@jomiejomie Ohhhh, of course! Thanks!
... A video game made you lose sanity? ...
Just in case, I'll leave this here...
"Our song of hope, she dances on the wind higher, oh higher
E'er our vows endure, and remain forever strong
Standing tall in the dark do we carry on
On wings of hope, you rise up through the night higher, oh higher
Carrying our song, cradled fast within your arms
That its chorus might ring for all"
Tumbling down to the never
omg thank you i lob youuuuu
@@ChibiTails No no it's
TUMBLING DOWN TO THE *NEVEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR*
I wonder if Midgardsormr sang a more somber version of this to his clutch while seeking his "last bastion of hope" after fleeing his crumbling planet...
The soundtrack just released and this song is called With Hearts Aligned !
I really like the subtle detail of Meteion's desperate flailing in this phase. Not only is she desperate to end all suffering and wrought by despair, but she is also basically a child and lacks the ability to handle her powerful emotions. This phase is her final tantrum.
It's Thordan after Ultimate End all over again where the villains will has been broken and they're left flailing aimlessly before the WOLs might.
Hades did it too similarly however he thoight to spam, when rhyn was shiva the same happened
@@devxved Hades also had an enrage too if you took too long, which was funny given it was only the normal version of the fight too.
How can she spam??
Yeah, I felt really bad for her. She only did what Hermes told her to do, and answered his question in the only way she could. I don't consider her a villain, just Hermes.
This part hit real hard with how panicked Metion's actions become. She's clearly lost all sense of reason and is just wildly flailing at us trying to piece together what is going on. To me it also really shows that Metion never was a fighter. Her main form of defense when exploring the universe was to either run or hide and that becomes abruptly clear as she just flails hopelessly at us here.
The way she's just swiping at us and then in the lead up to the crescendo she just curls up and releases not a song of oblivion but a scream of despair. It really gave me that feeling that the sorrow she's been harbouring is so powerful it's become her only hope and she's struggling to let it go. I think anyone who has wallowed in depression before can relate to how voilently you can react to being forced to accept the hardships that come with striving for true happiness. The gentle embrace of nothingness versus the painful struggle of hope.
@@jjc101 The look on her face while she's curled up too. Suffering. Emotional suffering too, not cuz we kicked her in the head a bunch.
Endsinger isn't actually Meteion, though. She escaped and was pleading with it as the blue starbird.
The Endsinger is the manifestation of all the despair she collected and nurtured. It's like she had a petri dish of bacteria and fungus that she gathered and it overgrew and became a complex lifeform all its own.
The fact that that's same case as with thordan 7th on normal (msq) mode makes me fear Endsinger extreme more than next tier of panda savages...
@@mjs3188 She is a congregation of Meteions. The blue bird was manifestation of a part that we managed to convince at this moment, but she was nothing to despair left in the nest
This song represents that best of moments in any Final Fantasy game; when the villain has thrown everything they have at you, when they've gone on and on and on about the futility of life/love/existence (delete as approrpriate) and yet you just...keep...fighting. The fact that you not only keep fighting for something they deem worthless but are actually winning because of it stupefies them every single time. Always great.
FF villains: Life is meaningless, yours most of all
Player: *keeps living anyway*
villains: BUT HOW? HOW?! HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW?!
That’s every FF villain. Maybe slightly except Kefka…who does it because it’s fun, and died laughing. Still nihilistic.
@@DarthAlphaTheGreat I mean kefka won and had nothing left for his ambition, the party was scattered around the world and probably MIA if you dont go after them, but yeah he won and he got his wish that was to die and the world was destroyed/dead in a sense and would never be the same again
Kefka Exdeath and Necron enters
@@RasnerG it was just a bit but the emperor won too in some way, conquered earth, hell and heaven
"We've been here before..." "Many a time" *A player falls off the arena*
Yeah...
I know it was never their intention, but Endwalker coming two years into an isolating and exhausting pandemic made the game resonate all the more. There were times I was just in tears as I could relate the emotions of the characters on screen to what's happening in real life. This song wrecked me when it started playing.
"Such resonation, this was not my intention"
I think there is some element of intentionality to it. Much like how Soken created the Seat of Sacrifice theme while fighting cancer. Art is never created in a vacuum.
If the first section of Dead Ends wasn't a COVID reference then I'll eat some non-edible item.
@@clintmatthews3500 Climate change too
Just generally manmade problems becoming apocalyptic because we overestimate how much the world can support us, that's what the first section was
They knew exactly what they were doing when they wrote this expansion, I have no doubt. We all needed this one.
Can't can't can't wait to see this being played live by the Primals, it's inevitable
It's going to be INCREDIBLE
word
In person if Covid allows!
And hopefully another soken shitpost.
I hope with the singer Sam Carter from Architects!
When Hydaelyn said to "silence the song of oblivion... teach her a brighter melody" this is what the Scions came up with.
Kudos for my boy Zenos, who tank all this damage without being heal
Zenos's back is probably the strongest substance known to man...
The Playerbase: "Man the end of Shadowbringers was incredible, how can they ever top that?"
Yoshida, Ishikawa, & Soken in unison: "Hold my beer."
Not really...
@@Luxai To me last dungeon and trial are visually and mechanically better than Shadowbringers ones, but that doesn't help enough with beating that absolute banger of a villain. Emet is just too charismatic and quirky. And he had better build up due to, in my opinion, problematic pacing of second part of Endwalker. Also Zenos should either die after initial duel or have a talk like last one much faster so he could evolve into something less shallow.
“Hold my sake.”
@@haganame1240 Yeah, Meteion just feels weird, like somebody shoehorned their anime OC into the plot, and overused tropes like villain is actually big sad on the inside or friendship is magic isn't helping. Too little focus on the struggle to survive against the final days, and the scions dying had zero impact since the game wasted no time in basically telling you outright that they would come back.
@@Luxai she is not a boss. Endsinger is collection of her sisters and other worlds emotions of despair, pain and death. So like despair incarnate with a help of dynamis.
I wish i could experience this for the first time again.
Honestly, I still love getting this in roulette. I've even specifically qued up for it since clearing it just to do it again, and love doing it with new people (I always go tank so I can be sure they get the LB the first time - much more epic than wiping because no tank was expecting it, lol)
Love that Reaper play at 1:01.
Drg: I raised that reaper
Rdm: Nods in agreement
@@leonides1527 Reapers and Dragons share the same gear for a reason. xD
@@Kuroganemk2 Yoshi knew what he was doing XD
The fact that Song of Hope without a doubt represents the Scions and all of our allies (Hell, the entire planet, just listen to the lyrics) while Maker's ruin is obviously the Hero of Light's own theme, completely drowning out any remnant's of the Endsinger theme, is also just wonderful musical storytelling.
Is even better the moment you notice the achievements sing the lyrics as you beat Zodiark
I did not notice that originally. This is the first time I searched for it and this comment brought it together. Yes. Masterful.
I like how the "Wings of Hope" can refer to the dynamis being influenced by our supporters, the Ragnarok that carried us through the Sea of Stars, or goddamn Zenos literally carrying us through this fight, depending on your interpretation
@@Zetalight16 Maybe all of the above?
@@Zetalight16 Why not all three? :3
This isn't just Meteion wondering why she's hearing boss music.
This is Meteion watching as the Warrior of Light makes a show of walking to her orchestrion, turns Meteion's boss theme off, and puts his/her own on. xD
Meteion hears the lyrics in Latin.
Meteion: i'd feel disrespected if i wasn't scared as shit right now
@@TheGprinziv When the Stars start speaking Latin
"Yeah your mixtape is nice, but check this out..."
@@TheGprinziv I kind of want to hear that now...
Players during Heavensward: Man I love how king Thordan swings his sword hopelessly after his LB. But it feels too short to see it sometimes.
Endwalker: How about a whole phase dedicated to it?
I found out the hard way recently that he CAN in fact still kill you after Ultimate End fails. Heavenly Heel is a one shot, even at 90.
*Cuts to Endsinger throwing a tantrum*
The simplicity of this Expac is amazing imo.
The big bad isnt some benevolent god. Its a harpy esque little girl suffering from depression. And Depression truely is the greatest evil of them all.
I would consider it anything but basic but to each their own.
Sometimes the enemy is the wrong question at the wrong time.
@@Jepegish its basic cuz the retard skipped all cutscenes minus the last two
This reminds me of a meme I found somewhere. I think it was originally a joke, but it hit me a certain way. It started as a joke, "What if we picked Star Trek races for professions they should be really bad at?" like a Vulcan emotional support or something.
But then someone said "What about Klingon psychologist" and someone posted after that something incredible. I don't remember the exact words, but something to the effect of:
"In fighting suicide and depression, you fight against a powerful foe, one which never sleeps, one which may be given no quarter, one which, if you show even the slightest weakness, will pounce. It is an unending battle against an implacable foe. And any warrior who fights it is among the most worthy and honorable of us all, having earned their place in Stovocor (Klingon Valhalla)"
I was like "But...that doesn't seem ill fitting at all!"
To fight and overcome the literal embodiment of despair itself...
@@SubduedRadical Reminds me of the Klingon lawyer on DS9 who made the courtroom his "battlefield" and source of honor. While the traditional warrior is obviously heavily favored, it looks like Klingons can still find honor in other fields as well. I find that commendable.
I lost someone I loved very much in a most abrupt way only a few months before Endwalker came out.
The talk with Venat and the final trial hit so fucking different man. When youre grieving its so easy to forget all of the wonderful things and good people you have in your life..
I still have grief, but im super grateful that this one came out when it did.
Thank you, 14
I'm sorry it happened but glad this helps. I do ended thinking the whole deal of this expansion was depression and grief. And they handled it masterfully.
My deepest condolences. I'm glad you could pick something up from your time in 14 to help you
Same here. Especially on the walking quest. My tears gushed remembering a late friend who died days before my birthday this year. ;-; this expansion hits deep in the feels but im really happy this helps me move forward thanks to this game
@@erineclair3446 I feel the exact same way. Im sorry for your loss, but thank you for sharing that here. I hope you are well.
Nobody gives a shit
I was running this for the first time on Discord. When "our song of hope" started, we all hyped up as frenzied apes and begun singing the lyrics loud af in a chorus. I fckng love this game.
I think we all had that moment were we had to singalong
Is this… Dynamis
@@ModestSusanooh an earth-shattering reveal. It explains so much about how we've survived up to this point, being able to harness this great, unknowable force (at least to everyone in current-day Eorzea). The sheer depths of our determination, letting us reach deep to topple incredible beings who could never imagine that such power exists. Practically everything we ever face is composed of incredibly dense AEther, meaning it has no clue what an LB bar would even begin to look like, or what it would be capable of. Not even the ascians could handle this
@@firedrake110 untill Seat of sacrifice pulls it out too
@@izukazephoenix to be fair, that was coming from all the souls. He was just directing their strength lol
We will stand against fate. - Alphinaud changed his fate by changing his ways and as a person.
No matter the cost. - Alisaie has always been determined to do the right thing, no matter the cost.
We've been here before... - Thancred has felt this way before due to his difficult past, but now has hope.
Many a time. - Urianger felt alone all his life until he learned to open up to people.
Thus do we know... - Y'shtola has learned a lot on her quest for knowledge.
To never give up. - Estinien gave in to revenge once before, and will never make the same mistake again.
For hope will shine again! - G'raha was a symbol of humanity's last hope, once in the Eighth Umbral Calamity timeline and again as the Crystal Exarch in the First which made him resilient and hopeful.
that look the dialogue of power ranger after transformation lol
For those we lost, and for those that can still be saved.
I saw a late friend of mine in Emet. A grump yet was there to help others, and offer words of encouragement. When Emet encouraged us to seek out new adventures before we set off to face Meteion, it reminded me so much of him. (Confident in us we'd see things through, and wanting us to see more of what life has to offer -for we inherited the will of Travelers, have we not?) I ended up crying, all the way through the Endsinger trial -because how could I stop after what felt like seeing my late friend again after so long, hearing him tell me to keep moving forward? Words can not capture the love and appreciation I felt in those moments.
I’m sure your friend let out a hmph with your comment and then smiled
I think I know how you felt, and im so glad thats the message you took as well. I lost my mom in late september to late stage cancer. It was in venat that I felt her the most. We may never meet, but I hope youre able to move on and have a wonderful life like your friend would have liked
As a being born of despair and pure nihilism, Meteion could only panic and become desperate in the face of overwhelming strength born of hope. The WoL at that moment fights on behalf of all the souls of Etheirys; past, present, and future. They fight as they always have, for those they've lost and for those they can yet save.
We made a promise to find our own way and save our star, and nothing would stop us from keeping those promises.
And we were fighting for Meteion. She needed saving just as much as any other victim.
This feels so much like when Proof of a Hero hits while fighting Fatalis, suddenly you are the wild force of nature and the boss is just trying to survive you.
Yeah, the way it's a theme for the player and how hypes them up is really awesome.
Thinking of this song makes me think and feel on how Soken himself beat his own troubles, his own despair. Stayed hopeful no matter what.
Something I love is how the Endsinger’s attacks become frantic and she starts flailing about trying desperately to stop you and deny the power of your Hope in the face of Despair.
The background also shows this as well. Her Darkness of Despair is trying to fight back the brilliant Light of Hope.
A good contrast to ShB where the last glimpse of Light was trying to fight back the overwhelming Darkness.
I loved this also with Thordan as well, as soon we still stand after his long attack with all his knights, he starts swiping is sword desperately, really broken stance on him. While Thordan is very easy, I still enjoy it for its visuals and feeling.
@@WaryObserver ofc duty finder is easy, so is endsinger
@@gvenelran6116 Back in 3.0 proper, Thordan's fight was actually challenging and you could wipe if you didn't have the DPS to take out the Knights in time during the transition phase. Endsinger, likewise, can be quite difficult if you have new players that don't really know the mechanics and can still be slowed down a bit by player gear (this is becoming less prevalent as people continue to gear up and so can carry newer players if they get it in a roulette). I don't think it's quite up there with Shinryu in terms of launch difficulty. That fight was brutal at Stormblood launch because you got your level 70 AF gear from your job quests, which weren't mandatory, so you had tons of people coming into the trial with sub-70 gear who couldn't survive some of the raidwides and couldn't kill the adds fast enough.
When the anime opening kicks in during the last fight
Literally this, and loved it
That's the Zenos fight after
@@TheBroadestOne I just realized something, Zenos was our Anime Rival...
We fought basically the physical version of the apocalypse, in a void of nothingness, on the back of a dragon. The warrior of light has to be the greatest hero in final fantasy history.
All FF go very far, but I think you're right.
Lightning from FF XIII was the contender, having fought the littéral God of Creation, but I think the WoL topped that achievement.
The Endsinger was, without a doubt, a threat of universal proportions.
Agreed.
Best part is how the light is pushing back the dark.
nay theres no darkness or light at play here. its keeping the balance and accepting the bad and the good but in the face of despair always push back.
The light of the Scions hope is pushing the nihilistic despair of the Endsingers aura back with pure Dynamis.
@@drakologarnus7248 You can clearly see the light pushing against the darkness that surrounds her...
@@gbtygfvyg Or rather, hope pushing back the despair.....
@@myfyp2 also known as light vs dark
love the parallel of the scions praying for you like they did for louisouix in the Flames of Truth
Yup, and the shield they created is a parallel with Ultima's fight at the end of Praetorium. But this time, is not a goddess shielding you, but your friends XD
2:02 i love how they don't add they lyrics right here bc so many of us know that it's "One brings shadow, one brings the light. Two toned echoes tumbling through time". When it was said that after Endwalker we would unlock the true meaning of each song she wasn't kidding lol
OH MY GOD THAT LINE IS ABOUT VENAT AND METEION WHAT THE HELL
@@mjs3188 No, that line is about US and Meteion
God I loved this moment. That moment when you go from fighting the boss to becoming the boss; you're no longer struggling to save everyone, she's struggling just to survive.
That second raid wide just triggered OUR phase 2 not hers
I love that the WoL finally has their own boss music
What's funny about this is when zenos shows up and reality starts shaking as he breaks through and rams metion. Speaking for metion I was like this is totally a "Why do I here boss music?" Moment! Turns out zenos was just the DJ playing our boss music while we fight. Lol
@@edwardnowakowski5990 Finally? Maker's Ruin has been our theme since ARR, returning during our showdown with Lahabrea in HW, copied by Omega to understand us, cemented by the slower version that plays in ShB during Ardbert scenes, and brought to full glory in this moment. It's always been there.
@@johnreuss3587 fair, maybe I meant one I could sing along to, haha
Really like that they did the King Thordan thing where after you survive the big attack, she just starts swinging wildly and youve already pretty much won at that point
You know it's a good one when the boss has a panic attack.
I hope this phase gets implemented someway in EX
Literally the worst part of this fight. Portraying a boss first as an omnicidal threat to all existence, and then turning them into a total pushover ruins all believability. But then, this does come right after the deus ex machina trainwreck of ultima thule, so not really surprising at that point. Just disappointing.
Me: "Oh no she's using a crazy bullshit ultra move I should use tank lb3 it!"
*USES TANK LB3 LIKE A FUCKING BOSS*
Me: "I AM A GENIUS!! AHAHAHAHAHAHA-"
Endsinger: "and now like all of my mechanics, I shall repeat this mechanic."
Me: "OH NO!!"
*All the scions tank lb3 it for me instead with the power of their literal thoughts and prayers*
Endsinger: "HOW?! HOW ARE YOU NOT DEAD?!!"
Me: "THE FERMI PARADOX IS NO MATCH FOR THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP!!!!!!!"
That big AoE assault is such *chef's kiss* because in so many fights, it feels like the DPS and Tanks are the ones fighting the boss, while the healer is just topping everyone off, but here... When that happens, the Healers feel like they are directly nullifying her shots, and it's her power against their power.
Hopefully the EX will make it hit much, much harder. Got boring real quick
The End of an Era call backs with Thancred and Y'shtola had me over the moon, as did everything they said
I’m pretty sure Alisaie and G’raha are also in positions similar to Yda and Papalymo from End of an Era.
@@lordofinnistrad8757 Yup.
9 months ago I got the free trial for this game expecting to just dick around with some friends and uninstall soon after. Yet here I am now at 4 in the morning crying my eyes out on my desk and enjoying every fucking second of it.
god I love this game
People meme the "have you heard of the award winning game" line but they really put endless effort into it, and while it has a slow start, SHB and EW are absolutely top tier for me, easily rivaling single player games. They rebuilt the game, put the story threads together and then brought it all to such a satisfying conclusion. So rarely do you have games that, over almost a decade, manage to pay off like this, but FFXIV could do it because they knew this story was coming to an end and they got successful enough that they could allow themselves to make a fresh start with a fresh story and bring this one to a fantastic end. Say about Square Enix what you will, but Yoshi-P and Business Division 3 have a goddamn infinite amount of passion for the game and it freaking shows.
@@Gremlyne The "Have you heard of FFXIV" meme is like a gardener who plants the same seed into the ground which will grow into a beautiful flower later on. Sure, the same joke for the 82nd time gets buried into the ground, but the people who play it afterwards to understand end up enjoying the plot and possibly crying. If not they, then the others around them who caved in to see what the fuss was all about.
...Probably explains the Sprout Icon for new players now that I think about it. They cry enough, it grows up to be plucked, having reached a full growth - As a game and story player both.
Literally the same exact thing happened to me. I picked it up at the beginning of July, got through stormblood around november, then stayed awake for 40 consecutive hours to finish shadowbringers before endwalker during thanksgiving break. Hit patch 5.3 and cried my eyes out more than I have for 10 years on no sleep. Legit one of my favorite experiences ever. Then EW OMG its so good. After this journey I feel like I've experience the adventure of a lifetime in 6 months. I cried sporadically through the entrance to the final dungeon continuing into the final fight, and through the credits. This game got me through a very tough time, and I love it way too much.
"Surely you wouldn't let something as banal as despair defeat you..."
People who were excited for Endwalker freaking out over the Song of Hope, but you really gotta appreciate how the lyrics of Maker's Ruin really tie it all together. Get it? _Together?_
2 parts of the same song tucked away for 10 years created by a mastermind evil genius known as "Lord Soken"? Possible... possible.
Okey but which part of this video is makers ruin? Cuz isnt that the song before THIS happens?
@@HimeBurrito No that's a mashup a lot of songs like Ultima and Wyrm's Tail and Invincible and Dragonsong, etc. Maker's Ruin is the song that plays during turnabouts normally, like versus Ascian Prime and is commonly thought of as the boss theme of your Warrior of Light and their supporters because it's about fighting together and dying together in the light of the crystal and has big comeback energy.
Phase 1 WoL:"Why do I hear boss music?"
Phase 2 Endsinger: "Why do I hear boss music?"
Phase 1 Zenos: Did someone say *boss music* ?!
@Xaveze (OP)
More like,
Phase 2 The Endsinger: Wait, what happened to my - Wait, wait! This isn't my boss music!
Warrior Of Light: Indeed! It's mine!
Experiencing this in the game for the first time was such a wild mix of emotions. You're somehow fighting, dancing, crying, and vibing all at the same time. It was so beautiful!
Just like the Seat of Sacrifice.
Try being a Bard. Shooting, singing, dodging, crying, and Vibing. I should have been a Tank during this that fight when I first played it. It would have been easier lol.
I wish I didn't see this thumbnail when I wanted to search for Footfalls back in the day, gave me major spoilers with one image. I will never search for a song before finishing a game ever again.
that's how you're supposed to avoid spoilers
It wasn't until I watched this fight back that I realized the way the Scions were praying was a throwback to when they were praying to the Twelve to imprison Bahamut again.
"We will stand against fate!"
"No matter the cost."
"We've been here before."
"many a time!"
"Thus do we know."
"To never give up."
"For hope will SHINE AGAIN!"
God I havent felt this much love for an ending boss fight since the final boss of Persona 5 royale. Inject this anime bullshit into my veINS LETS GO
"We WILL play the Power of Friendship card yet again, you will LOVE IT!"
@@rampant1apart Except for once the Power of Friendship not only is properly woven into the plot, but has every single reason in existence to exist and then some!
Bonus Zenos 'prayer': "I'm a little busy right now so do your goddamn job!"
technecly Zenos is the final Boss
@@katomamundara8106 Oh no, I agree. I think it was well executed too. I'm just exalting in how they stuck to the old classic Power of Friendship but executed it so well and stuck the landing.
The WoL to Meteion: Look at me... I AM THE FINAL BOSS NOW.
Endsinger: “Why do i hear boss music???”
WOL: *In Ultra Aether Instinct* “Yeah you’re not leaving here alive”
WOL: "So this is the power of Dynamis...."
@@sparthyslaysstuff2405 Zodiark in spirit: "Damn hydaelyn your champion is truly something..."
@@antman4671
Hydaelyn with a box of tissues: My children grew so much T_T
Hermes: MY BIRD!!!
Zenos: DIBS ON WINNER!!!
"This can only end in misery and desolation!"
I know. We know. In all likelihood that's the most probable outcome; that we end just as all the others stars have. In misery and despair. But we've watched a world just about consumed by light crawl itself back from the brink. Seen them unite as one people and build a new future for themselves. We came to that world when it was broken, when it was desolate and bleak; and we left it with renewed hope, the barren wastelands in bloom. The First is not perfect by any means, but they're trying. And that's all we're asking for, really. A chance to try; and should we fail? The aetherial sea will still be there. Our souls will still be there. New life will emerge, and we'll get another chance. We'll try and we'll try and we'll try, until we succeed, or the sun burns out.
it's easier than that really, the whole philosophy on EW is that you never stop trying and that's exactly what life consists in, never will you achieve a life without pain, in that acceptance, accepting pain as something that you have to live with, that's how you move on, you try and you try and you'll never stop because trying is living, of course we'll try to make the best decisions in life but pain and loss will be everpresent, it's part of life just like darkness it's part of light. those stars burned because they strived for a life where no pain, no conflict and no loss was present.
*LB3 bar bings*
@@maurog.ocaranza4142 *Grins while channeling 'The End'*
@@arachineatzeer7478 kermit really goes hard
Everything ends. But before it does, we have a chance to LIVE.
This very moment absolutely destroyed me and built me back up again. Everything about Endwalker mirrors my own personal journey throughout life so far. I struggle with serious depression and have lapsed into nihilism quite often in the past. Meteion is me in my darkest hours, while the Warrior of Light is my own will to survive and push past my personal limits that ultimately brings me out of it. The Scions? Well, they are my wonderful friends who have supported me every step of the way. I have never cried so much in my life. Playing through this expansion was a transcendent experience. It was catharsis incarnate. Thank you Squeenix, Yoshi P, and the FFXIV Dev Team. Thank you so, so much.
I hear you and feel you fellow WoL, never give up, push forward, keep the adventures coming and enjoy the journey we have. WoL os never alone.
@@letingrad Thank you so much.
@@Metrikon9000 We'll all try to push back against this day by day. I don't know you, but I believe in you, and anyone else who has felt low like us.
Always remember that you are loved, and Love is the ultimate truth and the ultimate purpose.
I myself have struggled with depression and suicidal thoughts, and this expansion hit especially hard. But the underlying message of hope brought tears to my eyes, and reminded me to never give up.
May your suffering ease and light and love find their way into your life.
Two of my favorite things about this fight were:
- Limit Breaks confirmed to be powered by Dynamis, a.k.a the WoL's emotions. "Surpassing your limit" is such a cliche anime trope, but who cares? I love that they started adding lore to the game features.
- You're fighting against the embodiment of negative emotions. Throughout the expansion. Emo Meteion keeps telling you that life is pointless and that suffering is inevitable. She wants those who oppose her to despair, and at first it seems like she succeeds, but then you get the friendship powerup. There's a lyric in Footfalls that goes "Our song of hope, *she* dances on the wind higher, oh higher" and "On wings of hope, *you* rise up through the night higher, oh higher." I happen to play a fem-WoL and while I'm sure it wasn't the intention, it felt like the song was about my WoL, because throughout the entire series, in the darkest, most dire situations, everyone's hopes are placed on the Warrior of Light. The single, consistently unfaltering light of hope for the world.
About the first one, then why was Elidibus/WoL able to LB4 then? as iirc Ancients/ascians are very aether based and we know that those two dont mix
@@CowsdaemonRSNL Think of Aether like water and Dynamis like oil. You can't normally mix them, but you add in a third element and you can make an emulsion of them. That third element? Extremely potent emotion. Elidibus was 100% invested in his quest, putting all his heart and soul into it, breaking the limits.
labeling everything under tropes is a cliche trope itself.
I think the second part of that bit is about the WoL though (on wings of hope *you* rise up through the night)
It's actually pretty simple,
She (Venat) dances, and you (WoL) carry her song.
Endsinger looks like she jumped straight out of an Amano Artwork 😲
Hydaelyn too
amano’s beautiful face style reside deeply on many ff bosses, including Endsinger
Omega and the Elidibus also have that look. It's really cool.
Yes, it's good if you want to make the characters look more inhumane.
The Reaper teleporting off the edge was pure comedy within the badass moment.
as a red mage on vacation, I approve
0:33
The moment Endwalker confirmed itself as the best expansion ever.
For me, Shadowbringer > Endwalker :p
Endwalker and Shadowbringers are equal to me, for different reasons.
Endwalker really pulls towards the game's "Epic badass moments" far better
While Shadowbringers grabs your heart and tears it right out.
Both insanely strong in their respective field.
Lets just say Shadowbringer is the best self contained expansion, while Endwalker is the best expansion to end an epic saga.
@@Mortal_Indeed This is actually a great way to put it. Shadowbringers is amazing on its own, while Endwalker requires the story up to that point to give it the context it needs, but holy crap, does it ever use that context as amazingly as possible.
@@ZanAzoth I will not deny. Shadowbringer had some heartbreaking moments and I was ugly crying over a freaking NPC I just met 2 minutes ago ends up being killed off. As you just saw how much of a good person they were. End up being turned into a monster (Yep you know who I am talking about). To have an ending that was bitter sweet. Though will agre that Shadowbringers is its own self-contained story. Being...well...it kind of was if you think about it. It had some points that tied it to the main story but you could easily seen it as its own game.
To now Endwalker. FF14 Dev Writers are fucking evil fuckers. I was in tears throughout most of the damn story. Then, this fight and the second phase. I was ugly crying and needing to fight. All because it was so damn beautiful. Yet it was the fight AFTER that was a good closure to a lot of plot threads.
Yet, the story never ends. There is more to discover and more challenging enemies to fight. See you out there...Adventurer.
When you realize it was never Ultima and Omega’s theme song, it was yours.
I love how Urianger's prayer at 1:00 is just like, "yeah, she always does this shit, I'm gonna put on some tea, talk to you guys in a few when she's back"
Honestly, the minute Maker's Ruin started playing, I broke. I was very moved by many of the events that led to this fight, and the epic medley of the first phase. But that song, a favorite of mine from ARR, followed by Song of Hope and our fellow Scions cheering us on... it's so emotional you know?
All thanks to Momma Hydaelyn. She watched us grow, packed us a lunch, then sent us on our way and now takes a well deserved rest. Holy shit dude, what a tale for the ages in mmo history.
You know if someone had told us that this story would end with us fighting a giant bird girl on the back of a dragon who is also an antagonist in space back in 2013 I don't know if we would have believed it
I would. It's so final fantasy-ish that i'd have no difficulty believing it
When you realise that Etheirys hosts some of the weakest creatures in the universe, being split 1/13 of what they used to be, of what they should be, yet that very fact makes them the strongest to fight back against despair and hopelessness-- One more reason why this fight is the most epic in the franchise.
WELL AKSHEWALLY, the Source Denizens are at 7/13th strength (with WoL and G'raha at 8/13ths), but the point still stands and makes Venat's logic pay off.
because despite being 1/13th of what we should, we've found a thousand ways to make up for it. And most of all, we havfef the enduring human spirit, the will to never give up and spit in the face of death. To me...that's what EW was about.
The fact that our aether were splitted makes us even stronger to face despair since we got more room for dynamis, no ?
@@tydesantya Correct. The unsundered would have had no chance in Thule
@@DanTalksGames Why would G'raha be at 8/13 ths? The First didn't have a G'raha he merged with. Isn't the G'raha in Shadowbringers an old G'raha that went back in time and into the First, then reunited with his young self?
XYZ years old G'raha became one with 24 year old G'Raha but they're still the same person, one was just older.
When this started to play, I just flatout started crying xD I love this part ;; I did this as a summoner, and when the Scions prayed for us, summoning Demi-Phoenix truly got another meaning.
I totally feel the same way about getting invested in my job like that! Being a dark knight, and all the themes of using your despair as reason to keep fighting made it so satisfying using all these dark moves with my shadow Frey at my side in order to destroy pure sorrow. It gave me a sort of elation that I never thought a piece of art could give me. Just seeing a visual representation of conquering this existential depression hits home.
Same for me. This really felt like a true climax to an awsome journey
Omg same. I’ve been in love with the “our song of hope” part ever since hearing it in the trailer, so when it finally showed up in phase two of the FINAL BOSS BATTLE I started sobbing and yelling into my mic XD
I was convinced that my group had lost when it all faded to black. Then the guitar hit, and I just lost all semblance of control over my emotions. I was an absolute mess for the next hour.
So fucking good.
@@Deadflower20xx God, I went dancer this expansion after hearing the "song of hope she dances on the wind" and had the same emotional attachment. I wasn't HUGE on the dancer questline but the fact they dance to lift the darkness from the hearts of those who watch them REALLY felt like it hit hard this whole expansion. T_T
I also lost my shit and nearly died like an idiot when I heard the song of hope chorus because I got too excited
I love how Meteion starts frantically swiping her wings at this point. She knows it's over and is simply lashing out.
Ngl, doing this as a dragoon and star diving the second the “song of hope” bit played was the most powerful feeling I had this expansion… ofc until “that, I can’t deny” solo duty
The unexpected Tank LB was also a pretty hype feeling, overall amazing trial
I did this last night and hitted a Phantom Rush with the "tumbling down" yell, and I felt it man, never imagined a MMO could give you those moments
For me, it always syncs up so well with Phoenix as Summoner. Not only have we taken up Archon Louisoix's legacy, but his Circle of Knowing has joined with us as they did with him, finally succeeding his hopes for the people of the world. Can't really think of a better way for it to line up...To call forth the warmest memory of the man to aid me in striking back against the dark of despair.
Going Enshrouded as a Reaper at that moment was just... so good.
Any of the big jumps or proccing Nastrond at that part feel so great! First time for me I did Dragonfire Dive. And I got that same high you're talking about.
I was today years old when I realized the purple (representing despair) and gold (representing hope) are having themselves a DBZ beam battle in the background.
Warrior of light :"Look at me, i am the final boss now"
you aren’t the final boss, meteion. we’re your final boss.
Someone better have sent Zenos a com because the dude tanked that whole trial without one heal. ; D
He's using pure Dynamis!
Zenos will allow nothing to get between him and his rematch, thus in a field of extremely dense dynamis it grants him invulnerability and the ability to move at beyond lightspeed to keep up with the prey of his rival.
He won't let something as banal as despair get between him and his rematch
"We will stand against fate. No matter the cost! We've been here before...Many a time. Thus do we know...To never give up. For hope will shine again!"
I think everybody has tears in their eyes when phase 2 started
I was trying my hardest not to cry because I wouldn’t have been able to focus on the fight lol
I was definitely trying not to tear up
I sure as hell did xD I was healing my first run and it was a god damn wonder I managed to keep everyone alive lmao
Really? I was far to frustrated with how much of a health sponge she was more than anything. Thordan and Hades at least had the integrity to go down quickly during their final desperate struggle but she overstayed her welcome and since I really didn't feel any sympathy for her since I viewed her as little more than a Necron clone, I was completely dry eyed during it.
@@silverstrider2046 i think it was because of your comrades praying for you that everybody started tearing up, i didnt even notice her health during the first run.
I completed Endwalker with the same group of friends I started A Realm Reborn with. We experienced the journey together from beginning to end and honestly, it made the finale of Endwalker hit even harder with every emotion imaginable. We'd experienced tragedies and hardships in our real life over the years we played. Every time, we overcame. We never gave up on ourselves or each other.
I still can't believe they made the power of friendship a mechanic
"the power of sheer fcking friendship" needs to be a random line now.
So I sifted through saw people mad cause power of friendship....but lets be real if you all payed attention to ARR this same thing happened and Failed. So here where in life and death exist at same time, were dreams made true a reality in which the ghost of the past walk. With power born from emotions would breed the idea that in Darkest night when all else is lost and you lil lost sheep cant find yourself should light brighten the path and show you that in darkest time, hope can be achieved yet standing alone will not help, so gather the hope of friends, allies, enemies who all seek a common goal of survival only then can there hopes and dreams live on in you so let roar the emotions and scream NOW THAT IN DARKEST TIME WE WILL NOT FAULTER. :3 there does that feel better than crying over power of friend ship.
I like to think as the WoL began to win, a tiny sparkle of hope blossomed in the Endsinger and this is what sealed the victory.
“What is this defiance!?”
Me: power of friendship bitch!
Our song of hope, she dances on the wind higher, oh higher
E'er our vows endure, and remain forever strong
Standing tall in the dark do we carry on
On wings of hope, you rise up through the night higher, oh higher
Carrying our song, cradled fast within your arms
That its chorus might ring for all
Is the Chorus refereed to here is from M****n?
@@Hakimist-Empenadaist most likely
@@Hakimist-Empenadaist Almost certainly.
That works but I think the song's referring to us.
We're clashing against the Song of Oblivion, the Endsinger. From a philosophical standpoint and considering the context you could consider us, the Warrior of Light the Song of Hope, the Hopesinger. We're carrying everyone's hope, song on our back.
The "That its chorus might ring for all" probably refers to the fact that if Meteoin came out on top Etheirys doom would've been all but set in stone and many more would come to perish.
@@Hakimist-Empenadaist well she does sing a song of hope later on
In the Japanese vo, te Endsinger has this creepy deep adult female voice with reverb, but when she falls at the end with her last sentence about "where is happiness" her voice slowly changes to that of a little girl's - Meteon's.
Goddamn the attention to detail in this game.