This expansion's story, characters, the music, the themes, everything was just top notch. For (as you said) a gothic, medieval-fantasy lover HW hits all the right spots, even when you first visit Dragonhead for the first time in ARR and the tense, echoing choir music starts playing with the snowfall and those gaslighted street lights, I was just so hooked. Didn't help the fact that as an astronomer, finding the observatorium there gave me nerdgasm. I am always conflicted between this and ShB to be my favourite. I love how he starts panicking at the end, when I first noticed it I got so happy and excited bc well, I felt badass. Seeing a primal give up the fight or die is one thing but legit having them panic in disbelief just makes you feel like, "man, I really am something aren't I?" it's almost scary. Like they didn't have to do that but they did! They really thought how he would react as a character against another character not just an OP af boss. I agree that this is where it is cemented that we just as a warrior are very strong by themselves, a power that is only amplified through Hydaelyn's blessing, etc. When we first became the azure dragoon I was a bit annoyed like, "really? We're ALSO the azure dragoon? What non-sense," but after this fight I really understood how strong the WoL really can be by themselves and made me feel like she actually deserves the azure dragoon title and why fanfare and admiration for her is also well placed. Also isn't there lore reason to having party members fighting with us in dungeons and trials? So, were we really doing the fight alone? I always thought having 7 other people with us was canon? I feel like the game has become too easy now and wish I could play ffxiv as hard as it used to be back in HW as I only joined in January 2021. If you don't mind me asking, what DC/world are you on?
I too love the HW aesthetic, it's awesome! I too was a bit skeptical about the WoL's power levels at one point but I came to accept it when I realized how the developers embrace it haha So, admittedly the whole whether u fight alone or with other people is a bit of a technical thing to answer. It's ultimately kind of left up to interpretation, but the way I have personally always looked at it is, if the game explicitly mentions you bringing other people (eg before a 24man where NPCs are saying you'll bring other adventurers, in Operation Archon you fight with adventurers recruited by the Grand Companies, when you use Azem's powers to summon allies to your aid etc.) then that's when you have people fighting by your side. But if there's no mention of it in the dialogue, in the duty description or anywhere then I often simply presume it's just the WoL and the other people are there just for gameplay purposes. But as I said the game kind of leaves it open enough that you can assume either way (for example, they never have enemies referencing you having a strength in numbers). But for me it's a lot more fitting that the WoL would have fought Thordan alone so I simply went with that. I should have probably clarified it.
@@imacuttlefish6832 Hey, that is a great way to interpret it, regarding the full party vs fighting alone thing. I think I'll make that my head canon too now xD I can't wait for the 6.2 update when we can run HW dungeons with NPCs. I feel that would fill in answers for this question as well. Also cool! I'm on Light/Zodiark
For me the normal trials are so easy i forget them really quickly, but the memory of them gets replaced by the "real fight" - like in this case, Throdan ex. Same happened for Ultima, even tho i did ARR and not skip cutszenes it was meaningless, just some trash mob that stood in my way to finally reach heavensward. I didnt like the fight and story of ultima. But as soon as i have progged and done UWU that totally changed and I started to love it and reread about ARR ultima. If it pops in a duty roulette the BMG makes me remeber the epic supression progg and sets me right back. Now its Thordan - something that didnt mean anything to me when i did Heavensward and i totally forgot the lore about suddenly pops back up because DSR is so fucking epic. Thats why im here and checking YT Heavensward/Thordan Content. Really makes me wish they would put more love into this big Expension fights. Like make the normal mode closer to the extreme, requiring some progg hours before you actaully finish the expension. It makes it waaay more memorable
It's a fair point. It's good game design to have enemies that are strong in setting to also pose a threat in gameplay. If a guy is made out to be super threatening in the story but you smash them no problem then the impact will be lessened. It's something quite unique to video game stories, which can be awesome when done right but also incredibly bad when done wrong. I think thats why I remember Second/Final Coil so fondly. Enemies like Nael and Bahamut Prime felt like a real threat cos you had to progress through those fights to earn the story. Took my blind Min IL static like 2 months to clear Bahamut and man did it feel awesome to see the conclusion after all that effort. But I also see why they didn't go for it again. Some ppl just want to enjoy the story so they rather make the story mode easily winnable by everyone. You no longer even see stuff like 3.3 Nidhogg or 4.0 Shinryu. Instead all the difficulty is in the harder versions. Awesome comment, I am glad to see someone who feels the same way!
Really good video and I'm glad you made me further realize why I love this encounter so much
Awesome!
This expansion's story, characters, the music, the themes, everything was just top notch. For (as you said) a gothic, medieval-fantasy lover HW hits all the right spots, even when you first visit Dragonhead for the first time in ARR and the tense, echoing choir music starts playing with the snowfall and those gaslighted street lights, I was just so hooked. Didn't help the fact that as an astronomer, finding the observatorium there gave me nerdgasm. I am always conflicted between this and ShB to be my favourite.
I love how he starts panicking at the end, when I first noticed it I got so happy and excited bc well, I felt badass. Seeing a primal give up the fight or die is one thing but legit having them panic in disbelief just makes you feel like, "man, I really am something aren't I?" it's almost scary. Like they didn't have to do that but they did! They really thought how he would react as a character against another character not just an OP af boss. I agree that this is where it is cemented that we just as a warrior are very strong by themselves, a power that is only amplified through Hydaelyn's blessing, etc.
When we first became the azure dragoon I was a bit annoyed like, "really? We're ALSO the azure dragoon? What non-sense," but after this fight I really understood how strong the WoL really can be by themselves and made me feel like she actually deserves the azure dragoon title and why fanfare and admiration for her is also well placed.
Also isn't there lore reason to having party members fighting with us in dungeons and trials? So, were we really doing the fight alone? I always thought having 7 other people with us was canon?
I feel like the game has become too easy now and wish I could play ffxiv as hard as it used to be back in HW as I only joined in January 2021.
If you don't mind me asking, what DC/world are you on?
I too love the HW aesthetic, it's awesome!
I too was a bit skeptical about the WoL's power levels at one point but I came to accept it when I realized how the developers embrace it haha
So, admittedly the whole whether u fight alone or with other people is a bit of a technical thing to answer. It's ultimately kind of left up to interpretation, but the way I have personally always looked at it is, if the game explicitly mentions you bringing other people (eg before a 24man where NPCs are saying you'll bring other adventurers, in Operation Archon you fight with adventurers recruited by the Grand Companies, when you use Azem's powers to summon allies to your aid etc.) then that's when you have people fighting by your side.
But if there's no mention of it in the dialogue, in the duty description or anywhere then I often simply presume it's just the WoL and the other people are there just for gameplay purposes.
But as I said the game kind of leaves it open enough that you can assume either way (for example, they never have enemies referencing you having a strength in numbers). But for me it's a lot more fitting that the WoL would have fought Thordan alone so I simply went with that. I should have probably clarified it.
Oh, also I play on Chaos/Ragnarok
@@imacuttlefish6832 Hey, that is a great way to interpret it, regarding the full party vs fighting alone thing. I think I'll make that my head canon too now xD I can't wait for the 6.2 update when we can run HW dungeons with NPCs. I feel that would fill in answers for this question as well.
Also cool! I'm on Light/Zodiark
For me the normal trials are so easy i forget them really quickly, but the memory of them gets replaced by the "real fight" - like in this case, Throdan ex.
Same happened for Ultima, even tho i did ARR and not skip cutszenes it was meaningless, just some trash mob that stood in my way to finally reach heavensward. I didnt like the fight and story of ultima.
But as soon as i have progged and done UWU that totally changed and I started to love it and reread about ARR ultima. If it pops in a duty roulette the BMG makes me remeber the epic supression progg and sets me right back.
Now its Thordan - something that didnt mean anything to me when i did Heavensward and i totally forgot the lore about suddenly pops back up because DSR is so fucking epic. Thats why im here and checking YT Heavensward/Thordan Content.
Really makes me wish they would put more love into this big Expension fights. Like make the normal mode closer to the extreme, requiring some progg hours before you actaully finish the expension. It makes it waaay more memorable
It's a fair point. It's good game design to have enemies that are strong in setting to also pose a threat in gameplay. If a guy is made out to be super threatening in the story but you smash them no problem then the impact will be lessened. It's something quite unique to video game stories, which can be awesome when done right but also incredibly bad when done wrong.
I think thats why I remember Second/Final Coil so fondly. Enemies like Nael and Bahamut Prime felt like a real threat cos you had to progress through those fights to earn the story. Took my blind Min IL static like 2 months to clear Bahamut and man did it feel awesome to see the conclusion after all that effort.
But I also see why they didn't go for it again. Some ppl just want to enjoy the story so they rather make the story mode easily winnable by everyone. You no longer even see stuff like 3.3 Nidhogg or 4.0 Shinryu. Instead all the difficulty is in the harder versions.
Awesome comment, I am glad to see someone who feels the same way!