Twinning blew my mind at release. My phases were, "what's going on?", "this seems familiar", "why's that here?", before hitting me. Might not have the same emotional impact post 5.X, but I'd still recommend it.
The Twinning is like that emotional cherry on top after finishing Shadowbringers. Like the story handing you a tissue and patting you on the back. It was as if it was saying " look how far you've come, look how far THEY'VE come." They being the in game characters, how the sacrificed everything for 200 years to get you here to this moment. The Twinning is a celebration of everything the WoL has done, the Iron works have done, and a thank to Alexander and Omega for also believing in us.
Can't talk about Alexander without mentioning the music... There's a lot going on there. It was a radical departure from what came before and it really feels like a significant milestone for all the music in the game that came after.
Soken said in an old interview that the melody and the phrase "7-2-7-2-3 send!" came to him while riding the subway to work, and it was almost the theme for Sephirot - Yoshi-P heard it and wanted it for Alexander instead, something Soken didn't even know was in development.
The greatest thing to me is still that they were able to implement the feature of stopping and winding time into the boss mechanics. That blows away my mind. Its the way to make the coolest part of the story INTO boss mechanics. Already back then this team was decades ahead of everyone else.
I'm not surprised Bellular missed the bit where they explain that Emet-Selch (and Hythlodaeus) regain their memories of their time in Elpis after returning to the Aetherial Sea, not when they were summoned with the Azem Crystal. He *did* rush through ShB and Endwalker like hella. Also he needs to unlock the Twinning, stat :)))
He admitted that thinking about stories after he's read/watched them isn't something he normally does, whatever that means. He rushed the story so hard because of perceived FOMO that he missed a lot of stuff. His commentary on Hermes boiled down to "he's depressed and that's sad, innit?" and yeah, he missed some basic stuff that was explained multiple times on at least 3 different occasions about how memory worked. Makes sense he didn't get Zenos, he barely understood the basic plot.
Emet remembered Meteion before EW. As soon as he we killed him. It was stated the memories return to you once you go back to the aetherial sea. That's why he helped us in 5.3 Can't wait for that Twinning video. It's absolutely mindblowing!
Kinda the point in going to the aetherial sea is you aren't coming back. He didn't help us after dieing, he helped us before he died. He created the crystal of Azem and left it and the rest to be found as a failsafe if he fell. He had no intention of doing so but in knowing who we used to be he allowed for the possibility. What appeared in 5.3 was as much a simulacrum as the rest of Amaurot. He knew Elidibus as he was could not bring their plans to fruition and as such he left the future to you, while providing the means to confront his ill comrade. All out of foresight, not remembrance.
@@Reshapable Exactly correct. It's also worth noting that the rest of the unsundered didn't know that he had created the Azem crystal, and he kept it hidden even from them (at least according to the recreation of Hythlodaeus). It doesn't excuse his atrocities, but even following the first end times/sundering, he clearly had more nuanced feelings about Azem and Venat and their faction than just the blind hate that the others did. With all of that being said, I have to say that while the Alex story may be very good in retrospect, at the time it was coming out it was not well received at all. They did not do a great job of making it an entertaining story in-game during release, and it was probably the weakest of any raid series in that respect.
@@Reshapable Hmmm…one thing that never changed with him though was his unexpected faith in Azem. EW really honed in how Emet was usually on the opposite end of Azem, but relished everything about Azem and the good Azem does. So, it seems to be very in character of Emet to create that back-up because he always knew Azem somehow comes in with some clutch heroism that might be useful one day.
Emet selch and Hythlo recovered their memories when they both returned to the ethereal sea. The currents of the sea washed away the magic done unto their memories bu Hermes. Remember the old teacher guy explains how it all sorta works!
I stumbled onto Alexander by just following a quest that offered lots of gil because I was strapped for cash in my sprout leveling days through HW. Didn't expect to get this banger of a raid, what an experience!
same lol. back in the day i didnt know about systems and structures and shit in games, so getting 12 big boss fights out of this random side quest seemed so cool
The writing team have a specific talent: making optional content fit into the narrative of the MSQ without being information that's needed to progress or understand the main story. They are standalone objectives that at the same time give further context which only enhances the lore that you've already gotten through the MSQ. It's fantastic writing especially as you work backwards and see the threads of future content that you either missed or never would have thought ties into the larger narrative as a whole. And that goes for the yellow side quests as well... they have quest chains assigned to some of them that are so rich for little addendums to the story or, at times, even gives you a reward (check out the 'Great Serpent of Ronka' quests on The Rak'tika Greatwood some time).
Alexander was definitely one of the more interesting raid experiences for me when I started playing and I mean that in the best way I can’t really think of a way to describe it other than say I was entranced in just exploring the inside of the thing to the point where sometimes I’d forget it was even a raid
ENDWALKER Spoilers 18:10 I thought he recovered his memories at the end of Shadowbringers, right after we defeated him. After all, when we summon him at the end of EW, he says something like "I've been forced to watch this show", referring to our journey from his defeat until his summoning. At least that's what I thought happened.
Yeah, I think you're right for two reasons. 1. In the Tower of Babil Hydalaen tells you she has an ally (Watcher) and one other who might come into play (Emet). 2. In your sleep in the Baldesian Annex, you hear Hythlodaeus talking to someone in your dream (Emet). The fun part is that you only have half of the conversation, but you can sort of fill in the blanks.
Emet Selch did recover his memories when he returned to the life stream. They mentioned during EW that they theorize memories lost can be returned when they go there.
@@beefkat5370 There are subtle nuances in there as well. Before the Mothercrystal if you say "We meet again Venat" she shows visible relief because she figures out you went to Elpis (which she hoped you would) causing a confluence of time between our two times and allowing Emet to become a piece on the board once he recovered his memories of that time (which, of course, he had by then). Then, at the end he concedes that he might be willing to give credit to Venat for foreseeing such an outcome. "But, you'll get no applause from me. Not after what I have had to do."
Heh, I feel you on the aether currents. I did most of alexander unsynched with a friend, just for the story, and the fact that she couldn't fly yet (and I didn't have a multi-person mount) ground our rush to a halt for a bit while she hunted down the last few.
you should be on the lookout for another FFXV collab event where you can buy the Regalia from that game which is a multi seated mount from the Golden Saucer for MGP, worth the sub just to have it
Thank you for making this! I skipped all the cutscenes thinking I can just watch it on UA-cam, but all of the vids are just unending journey videos with big chunks of story missing. I love your summary to fill in the gaps.
The Alexander raids had some of my favorite music tracks, especially Rise and Metal: Brute Justice Mode. Also he needs to do the Weapons trial series ...the devs really hit the feels there.
This was a great retrospective, thanks for making it! It's been so long since I did Alexanders story (did it when it was current) so I'd forgotten a lot of details and it was nice to re-experience the story through your eyes. Loving your XIV content as always, thanks!
There is something special about the Alexander raids and I don't think it's necessarily the fights. It's the enivorments in the raids as well as the touching story. All around beautiful raid series :)
The fact that Alexander sends adds to the past, and they were the ones who set it up the Stasis field and You enter the portals to stop that from happening was pretty cool, also if no ones enters the adds portals you simply die
So quick note note that was potentially missed and a fun theory in regards to your endwalker comments. During the track locus one of the lines is "celestial noise detected" almost like a certain song of oblivion. Obviously nothing concrete, but if true it really shows how good ishikawa is at pulling things together from all sorts of different sources and potentially how yes, Alexander knew about the endsinger.
18:30 actually, yeah, he sees that future, you know why? because of the twinning, that dungeon. The twinning was the mechanical process of moving across TIME and the RIFT. Omega moved the crystal tower across, and Garland brand Alexander(the Tycoon) across time. even if this alexander did not know, the blueprint version aka the tycoon sure knew the precise moment which the crystarium needed to exist in for the future to turn out as it did. Also 19:00 a Qayah free version of alexander was created "in the future" and by that i mean on one of the planets that meteion saw. During the final days dungeon, one of the dungeons features a civilization where machines have destroyed every single life but one, this is what the logical conclusion would have been to happen if there was no other influencing factor Either, the fact that alexander knew about everything including the 12 shards of ehterys, or that there was a human "osul" , contributing more then just the cold calculating heart of the machine to its own calculus.
26:20 This actually surprised me since I had assumed you'd have 'streamer privilege' to circumvent queues. Don't forget you can also create an open role Party Finder group or add specific criteria to get those quick clears. Don't be afraid to name drop your channel also.
@@jaylee9372 Thank you. Found an (10mo) old Reddit thread that discusses why he doesn't. Disregard the first sentence, but hopefully the rest helps. o/
fun fact, that horn was actually a macguffin in FF14 1.0's Limsa story line where through echos we piece together an plot of the former admiral to get one of these mythic horns for the Ascian and succeeds. but most creatures have 2 horns, where's the other, you might ask? on the tip of Tupsimati, Louisoix Leveilleur's famous ether siphoning weapon that again, was attempted to be taken by an Ascian for likely another rejoining plot. amazing what you can do when you try to not leave loose threads.
Interestingly, I think Alexander is the least interesting of the 'Normal Raid' stories. Which, I suppose, just sets the bar for the rest of them very high because - yes - Alexander is indeed very good. Edit: Also, the normal raids have a tendency to elaborate on important, but not essential, parallels to the side story that are used both to resolve loose threads and expand the overall world lore. And it's a great way to do it.
I thought Alexander was better than Coil. Coil isn't bad, but the story elements are very short, and a lot of its impact is as an epliogue to 1.0 rather than Coil having a story all its own. The environments and spectacle of Coil are top notch though.
@@jaeusa160 To be clear, I don't consider coil a 'normal raid' because it is not a part of the roulette and because it's story is basically part of the main story, without being mandatory - unlike the way they have done the normal raid stories. Coil is kind of it's own beast, in my eyes.
The Twinning is so amazing. It cant be overstated. One of the best musical mixes in the game, Gorgeous set pieces, and its literally a lynch pin of some of the biggest content in the game. All in an optional dungeon. Mind blowing.
I always enjoy not only your reactions but the recount of the story. I did this already but I find what part of the story is appealing and also the interpretation really makes me see the story from a different point of view. Thanks again!
The amazing thing is that we don't know who created the Enigma Codex. My headcanon includes the story of The Twinning and the Eighth Calamity. In the Twinning we see the artificial Enigma: The Tycoon which Biggs Descendant created in the likeness of Alexander to control the time-space of the crystal tower. I'd like to think that somewhere in the far future someone found those notes and used them to create the Enigma Codex which included the blue prints for the Tycoon or, the new name, Alexander. Somehow that codex ended up in the past. Basically Alexander was created to look and work like the Tycoon which was created to look and work like Alexander. I love time travel!
About raiding in other MMOs, I think the main difference is that other MMOs have sort of abandoned the idea of having complex and satisfying storytelling. They've realized that most of their players are perfectly fine with an average story if the raids/combat are fun, so they focus on raids and combat, rather than story. FFXIV on the other hand focuses on what makes the FF franchise popular: Stories. And on top of great stories, they've learned what makes raids and combat fun from other MMOs.
I do like how Alexander gets larger and larger in the zone as you progress through each wing of the raid. Going from an arm sticking out of the lake to a gigantic fortress which transforms the look of the whole zone.
Alexander has some of my favorite visuals in the entire game. Grinding down conveyor belts into a giant steampunk city inside of Alexander will never not be an awesome experience!
If I’m correct, the guy who work on FFXIV also work on Stranger of Paradise (which is technically a quite heavy budget as remaking entire FF main timeline games from Dissidia series) Couple parts between these games kinda hit a similar references in term of writing single dimensional characters.
@@dale7326 Actually no that I know of , the persons behind HWD are actually working on FF16. Stranger of Paradise is made by another team (and Nomura who have nothing to do with 14 if only Gaia's design :))
What's the deal with people hating on Lost Ark lol. I love 14, and I'm cassualy playing lost ark having fun with games. FFXIV does a lot of good things, but it's not for everyone, same with lost ark, same with wow, swtor, and others MMO out there. Just enjoy what you like :P
@@dale7326 no, actually ff stranger of paradise is from united works of nojima/nomura and team ninja. Also it just does a light remake of the first final fantasy and from the plot part, it isnt a godd work. The combat is nice though
As an ex-WoW player... one of the best things about FF14 that absolutely blew my mind is how they handle old content ... The level sync in this game is frickin' brilliant. All those content, from past and old still enjoyable till this day and you get rewarded for it. Wish Blizz would implement something like this. Time walking just doesn't cut it ...
Alexander is one of those rare quests that call directly back to a storyline that happened in 1.0. Travanchet (the unidentified Ascian) & Y'shtola crossed paths briefly in the original Limsa Lominsa storyline where he stole the horn out from under her. That made it all kinds of amusingly awkward while playing my Travanchet NPC character through the MSQ with the Scions. :D Though, in helping create Alexander, Travanchet inadvertantly put in motion the events that permanently derailed the Asican's grand plan of Rejoining by destroying the remaining Unsundered. See "The Twinning" dungeon for how Alexander effects events in Shadowbringers.
If you don't wanna wait too long you can try hosting a partyfinder and point out first time bonus, people gladly tag along for it for an easy extra reroll chance for their Wondrous Tails. And don't feel too bad for unsynching it, because you will get it from normal raid roulette quite frequently from personal experience so you will do the fights properly at some point or another lol. Alexander synched is mega fun.
It was a good time, but I gotta say that fractioning the raid into so many small pieces made Alexander feel less like a cohesive space that we were exploring, and more like a selection of arenas disconnected from each other.
One of the lyrics to Brute Justice's theme (this part of the song is from Alexander's POV): "Celestial Noise Detected." At the time of writing HW the writers probably intended that to mean that Alexander could detect Zodiark, because we're pretty sure the writers already had planned for him to be in the moon. That said, looking back at it now with Endwalker knowledge, it's probably safe to assume that current lore implies that Alexander could detect the Endsinger's song, even if he didn't quite understand what it was (or else I imagine he would have warned us).
With how seemingly neatly the FFXIV lore all overlaps and connects, you would think they have like a curator or a team of writers keeping track of everything just to make sure nothing too glaring or distracting gets missed or put in to the lore. I just imagine the Charlie meme with the string and dots grid behind him except its the entire FFXIV writers office, in a positive way of course.
I'm only into SB patches now but just went back and did FotF just this past weekend with a few friends and it was a great time. The effects in some of their fights are amazing. Like the time stop in this one or the glass breaking in Thordan. This team nails the spectacle aspect and it always has amazing music. I love it.
Alexander is a fantastic bit of storytelling! And what's great is that when they made it, they hadn't planned out all of the plot that goes on in ShB and EW, so it's brilliant how they made all of that work so well with it. As for the Twinning, honestly the thing that gets me is how the music is a fusion of the themes from Crystal Tower, Omega, and Alexander.
I love that FF got their claws in you for this MMO. As an old school MMO vet, this is by the best MMO I've ever played. Sure it has its flaws (raid lockouts for example) but its excellent compared to the competition.
@@shanegrayson7068 I'd guess it's more the reward system and how it harms the entire party if you have someone that's done a weekly clear already.. and also how you forfeit all rewards if you skip to a later raid during the week. That's caused no small amount of strife back when I went hard raiding in Shadowbringers.
I initially skipped a decent number of the Alexander cutscenes because my friends were doing the raids with me and I didn't want to feel like I was wasting their time. So glad to be able to go back and get the story!
Never skip story in FFXIV; it's *the* story MMO and the #1 reason why you're playing it. If someone gets upset that you're experiencing the content.. content which they themselves (probably) experienced in the past.. then you can promptly tell them off for being self entitled.
Im very curious how much they can make relations with what we Discover in Elpis and what we already have in the sundered world, and this only talking about the ‘concept’ to future being stuff going on. Just think about the implications we can have with Kairos, the time-controlling mega computer from Hermes, compared to Alexander as a primal itself and its concept final use being Typhoon (the twining), allowing shadowbringers to happen. I rly love this questline above all else as a lore bomb as it still has some questions if we think about everything we’ve seen so far
Wanted to talk about a couple of things regarding Shadowbringers & Endwalker spoilers. Firstly, Emet-Selch regained his memories from Elpis when he died in Shadowbringers, and not when he's summoned in Endwalker. Which is probably the reason why he helps you during the Seat of Sacrifice in 5.3. Secondly, Alexander's power is used a few times in the games story after Heavensward. It's used alongside Omega's power to get G'raha and the Crystal Tower to the First ot orchestrate the plot of Shadowbringers. Alexander's power is also implied to be used by Elidibus to get you to Elpis in Endwalker. Take that for what you will in regards to your theory about Alexander potentially knowing about the ancients
My thoughts were, "Huh, they really ARE all about the narrative, aren't they?" This was the first piece of side content that I just completely fell in love with, and it does still hold up! Enjoy Twinning, my mind was blown :)
Oh also a fun fact you can unsync solo or at most duo the Savage fights to get the mounts if you’re level 90 now. I almost solo’d a12s (Alexander Prime Savage) as a White Mage a few weeks ago. Brought my friend Summoner and the two of us killed it easy on Savage to get the weapons for glam and the mount!
It's interesting that you bring up the raid/alliance raid stuff being separate from MSQ and what that lets them do. I've honestly been thinking that an "easy" way to shake things up in the future might be to drop a surprise alliance raid in the MSQ somewhere. I think if we ever do another "war" expansion it might be worth doing. I know a lot of folks felt like the Doma Castle and Ala Migho dungeons in SB didn't quite have enough impact and I wonder if it had been different if they had something that felt more like the Bozja raids. Also I hear you on the queue times. I'm secretly hoping that they when they reduce the main scenario roulette rewards they also increase the normal raid roulette rewards, because that queue has needed more people running it for three expansions now. More generally, I'm hoping that once trusts are an option for the MSQ dungeons they can push people more towards trials/raids roulettes as daily content because I feel they are a much better expression of the XIV combar system than the dungeons.
The Alexander questline has got to be one of the best gaming experiences I've ever had. The Omega questline was a damn close second. Now I can't wait to see his reaction to The Twinning!
During Alex Prime, if you go into the black orbs and look to the bottom platform, you can see yourself standing there frozen with Alex readying to shoot the laser at you, if you clear it, you can see yourself dodge the beam
I’m glad I was not the only one who thought Alexander had a hand in probably setting up Endwalker and Shadowbringer to help save the Star through the WoL
I really looked forward to Alexander because he's a recurring summon I like from other FFs. On top of that, Cruise Chaser is based on my favourite summon from FF9 that was a namesake of mine for the last 22 years. So it was really cool to battle it, then Alexander Prime just blew me away.
I remember a few complaints of the story being slow in the beginning when it first came out though that may be due to having months in-between installments.
The first two tiers didn't have a huge amount interesting going on, even without the context of the wait between tiers, but the final tier hit a home run on tying it all up.
The Tank LB3 is based on Dynamis not Aether. Alexander is made via creation magic bvased on aether and can only control the flow of Aether. If intervention by Dynamis happens its something he cannot account for nor change. I think it was the Alexander seeing our capability to master Aether and Dynamis (as proven several times in Endwalker, like when we are in the soldiers body without our aether, the whole concept of Limit Break) made him realize that if he cannot "do it" we are the only one who might and of course the fight against him was just that test to check if we are up to it.
I wouldnt call the raids themselves B-plots. They look like B-plots but they are often plot adjacent or connected to the main plot in some way. Bahamut connected a lot of threads that were left loose, while a player could go through ARR and not touch the raid, there's still missing context and heading into heavensward you're left with questions that eventually you'll go back. The same thing can be said about how Crystal Tower - Alexander - Omega all tie together, along with Alexander tying together with the Elpis time recall. You get this feeling that because the bureau of architecture is responsible for all sorts of creations that Alexander must have been created by one of the trio to aid you in coming back to keep the time loop stable. You have exactly two time loops running concurrently within the story and you dont realize that until you get Shadowbrings and up to the 87 dungeon.
I was very skeptical about time travelling in story telling it always messes up the story of most of the medium but I am surprised they handled it pretty well and it's very self contained
Never overanalyze time travel plots though, they pretty much always have big holes, and these are no exception. However, the experience and narrative utilization is so good that I think all of us just are satisfied with that, and not foolish enough to try to nitpick things like the obvious Grandfather Parodoxes. Like Back to the Future, fun movies, don't pick apart at the time travel rules because they literally don't work.
gotta learn how to use that party finder to make groups instead of the duty one. a lot of people like myself look at party finder to help others clear content from time to time. makes for a shorter queue and people that more often than not know the fights and can help with mechs in it.
Small bit, I love how the writing team pulled in those bits of scientific theory--Schrodinger's Cat being the explicit one and Laplace's Demon being implied in the overarching story of Alexander
A lot of my friends really didn’t like the story of this raid and didn’t like Mide but I for one absolutely loved it and thought she was a fun character. Lots of back and forth with the time shenanigans and amazing boss fights. Alexander was a fun raid series.
And with all these incredible 8-player raids I hope he doesn't forget about the 24-man raids, tons of story and mostly a lot of fun gameplay. Freakin loved Void Ark and I mostly hear people talk about only the 8-mans
Omg, when you mentioned the connections to endwalker I immediately thought of the core of the facility. Hermes had control over it, used it on Emet and Hythlo. We know the identity of Hermes and we don't know where Alexander came from. Do we think the core to the Elpis facility is a party of Alexander and it's subsequent functions?
Bellular said it's not connected to the A plot. But actually it is connected to the A plot, but just not enough for you to miss the beats of the A plot because you didn't do it. For example, the future where G'raha comes from the future Ironworks used what Cid learned of Alexander and Omega to cross the rift and time and space. Time and space being Alex and the Rift being Omega. This is what you learn in the "Twinning" dungeon where you fight the Tycoon which is a replica of Alexander. Same with Eden, the restoration of the First is brought up but not to the point where it will confuse you if you just do the MSQ. It's brilliant.
There's one spot you are off Bellular regarding Emet Selch. Major spoilers * * * * 18:20 It wasn't us using the crystal of Azem that brought back his memory, it was his death as Hades at the end of Amaurot. It's why he showed up during the fight with Elidibus/Warrior of Light to bring us back from the nothingness Elidibus sent us to. The Emet we met in Elpis is the younger self of the Emet we knew during Shadowbringers. It's why he said "I bid them remember, but all this time, I'm the one who had forgotten...A right fool you've made of me, Hermes. And to add insult to injury, I've been denied a sound rest, forced to watch this clamorous show." when we bring him and Hythlodaeus back when we are going to face Meteion. When we bring him back with the crystal of Azem at that time, it was Emet after his death as Hades at the end of Shadowbringers with his already restored memory. I can't remember the exact location in the story during Endwalker, but it was stated that when you die and rejoin the lifestream, any memories you had forgotten would be restored to you as you fade to nothing.
I’m wondering how you’ll feel going through the Dun Scaith Alliance raids. I know you had to do crystal tower so you got the feel for the exploration and combat but if you’ve ever wanted to know more about the ancients of Mhach and the denizens of the 13th shard it’s full of information about them. (Still not enough though)
It was explained by the old guy in the Studium, that the moment people die, residual magic on them gets dispeled. Essentially Kairos' magic faded when Emet and Hythlo entered the aetherial sea. This is why in the Seat of Sacrifice intermission (the 5.3 trial), Emet pulls us out of the void that Elidibus threw us in, to everyone's surprise.
And right after their trust dungeon Hyth flatout says wonder what we'll find when we remember from returning to the star and hermes/Amon says that burned the memory further on the soul of that day but he didn't remember as Hermes/Fandaniel but all the shards raised did
Alexander was peak FFXIV for me - great atmosphere with the way you're lead through Alexander's bowels before most fights, trash that never overstayed its welcome, and story, story, story on all levels. Everything from the escalating levels of Fausts you deal with (culminating in what was exclusively a trash mob making a major appearance in a late Alexander raid boss), the Goblin Dr. Frankenstein who fused together several of his brothers in this horrible amalgamation in a room filled with their discarded masks, masks goblins never normally take off... the big twist at the end of the raid that happens in a boss fight... XIV has never stopped being good, but I really wish they'd bring back some of Alexander's atmosphere, well paced trash, and gameplay and story integration.
I’d encourage everyone newly introduced to Alexander in Final Fantasy 14 to look up the history of the summon in other Final Fantasy games. The entire idea of fighting or getting help from a “living machine” summon with ultimate power usually hits levels of awesome the other summons don’t often get to hit. While I’m personally not as familiar with Alexander’s introduction in Final Fantasy 9, I can confirm that the summoning of Alexander in Final Fantasy Type-0 is the equivalent of a nuclear deterrent. Just like Alexander in Final Fantasy 14 is dangerous because it has it’s own sentience, the cost of successfully summoning Alexander in other Final Fantasy games and having it rampage would mean major destruction. Hope you all enjoyed the story of Alexander!
Let's also not forget that Biggs's and Wedge's Excellent Adventure was in all likelihood the catalyst to them working on time travel theories that would generations later be used to send the Crystal Tower back in time.
We need some Bellular lore investigation. It has to do with the Time Travel. When you get to Shadowbringers, you’ll be enlightened on how one such method is achieved. This is actually the second method. The first, being Alexander. They do not properly explain whether the two are connected, or, why they weren’t connected. This is an important thing. What’s MOST IMPORTANT, is that the oldest civilization that we know of, the Ascians, had not discovered either.
I really loved Alexander. He was so cool and the story was nice. Its the reason why I wanted to do the Alexander Ultimate and the fight did not disappoint!
Twinning blew my mind at release. My phases were, "what's going on?", "this seems familiar", "why's that here?", before hitting me. Might not have the same emotional impact post 5.X, but I'd still recommend it.
I had a very similar experience with Twinning. lol
The music is awwwwwwwesome
The Twinning is like that emotional cherry on top after finishing Shadowbringers. Like the story handing you a tissue and patting you on the back.
It was as if it was saying " look how far you've come, look how far THEY'VE come." They being the in game characters, how the sacrificed everything for 200 years to get you here to this moment.
The Twinning is a celebration of everything the WoL has done, the Iron works have done, and a thank to Alexander and Omega for also believing in us.
I absolutely lost it at that boss reveal
I'd love a Belluar video explaining the Twinning because I don't always catch onto the time travel things until it's explained like this.
Can't talk about Alexander without mentioning the music... There's a lot going on there. It was a radical departure from what came before and it really feels like a significant milestone for all the music in the game that came after.
everybody loves ska sentai theme
"Celestial noise detected!"
He really knew!
Soken said in an old interview that the melody and the phrase "7-2-7-2-3 send!" came to him while riding the subway to work, and it was almost the theme for Sephirot - Yoshi-P heard it and wanted it for Alexander instead, something Soken didn't even know was in development.
@@SSDexter99 I think it did know too. Just due to that one line. But - as was mentioned - it couldn't do anything to stop it.
The greatest thing to me is still that they were able to implement the feature of stopping and winding time into the boss mechanics. That blows away my mind. Its the way to make the coolest part of the story INTO boss mechanics. Already back then this team was decades ahead of everyone else.
GOD, that was the coolest fight 😍
I'm not surprised Bellular missed the bit where they explain that Emet-Selch (and Hythlodaeus) regain their memories of their time in Elpis after returning to the Aetherial Sea, not when they were summoned with the Azem Crystal. He *did* rush through ShB and Endwalker like hella.
Also he needs to unlock the Twinning, stat :)))
He admitted that thinking about stories after he's read/watched them isn't something he normally does, whatever that means. He rushed the story so hard because of perceived FOMO that he missed a lot of stuff. His commentary on Hermes boiled down to "he's depressed and that's sad, innit?" and yeah, he missed some basic stuff that was explained multiple times on at least 3 different occasions about how memory worked. Makes sense he didn't get Zenos, he barely understood the basic plot.
B-but HE HAS TO rush THREE expansions in a month to meet EW's release with everyone that experienced the game organically months prior.
Emet remembered Meteion before EW. As soon as he we killed him. It was stated the memories return to you once you go back to the aetherial sea. That's why he helped us in 5.3
Can't wait for that Twinning video. It's absolutely mindblowing!
And he was SPICY about being bamboozled by Fandaniel.
Kinda the point in going to the aetherial sea is you aren't coming back. He didn't help us after dieing, he helped us before he died. He created the crystal of Azem and left it and the rest to be found as a failsafe if he fell. He had no intention of doing so but in knowing who we used to be he allowed for the possibility. What appeared in 5.3 was as much a simulacrum as the rest of Amaurot. He knew Elidibus as he was could not bring their plans to fruition and as such he left the future to you, while providing the means to confront his ill comrade. All out of foresight, not remembrance.
@@Reshapable Exactly correct. It's also worth noting that the rest of the unsundered didn't know that he had created the Azem crystal, and he kept it hidden even from them (at least according to the recreation of Hythlodaeus). It doesn't excuse his atrocities, but even following the first end times/sundering, he clearly had more nuanced feelings about Azem and Venat and their faction than just the blind hate that the others did.
With all of that being said, I have to say that while the Alex story may be very good in retrospect, at the time it was coming out it was not well received at all. They did not do a great job of making it an entertaining story in-game during release, and it was probably the weakest of any raid series in that respect.
Came here to say exactly this! Well put.
@@Reshapable Hmmm…one thing that never changed with him though was his unexpected faith in Azem.
EW really honed in how Emet was usually on the opposite end of Azem, but relished everything about Azem and the good Azem does.
So, it seems to be very in character of Emet to create that back-up because he always knew Azem somehow comes in with some clutch heroism that might be useful one day.
Emet selch and Hythlo recovered their memories when they both returned to the ethereal sea. The currents of the sea washed away the magic done unto their memories bu Hermes.
Remember the old teacher guy explains how it all sorta works!
I stumbled onto Alexander by just following a quest that offered lots of gil because I was strapped for cash in my sprout leveling days through HW. Didn't expect to get this banger of a raid, what an experience!
same lol. back in the day i didnt know about systems and structures and shit in games, so getting 12 big boss fights out of this random side quest seemed so cool
Also Alexander probably knew about the final boss of EW because it says in it's music "celestial noise detected".
Probably knew about 8th calamity too since Alexander can see all futures
Check out the morse code at the end of the Crystal Tower raid… 😁
Just so you know if you did the alexander raid before going into shadowbringers and endwalker msq you will get additional dialogue and also cutscenes.
This is why YoshiP always reminds ppl to do all the extra story raid for bonus messages
omega too
Cant wait for you to see the Sorrow's of Werlyt if you get the chance
I'm surprised Matt didn't point him at that already.
The writing team have a specific talent: making optional content fit into the narrative of the MSQ without being information that's needed to progress or understand the main story. They are standalone objectives that at the same time give further context which only enhances the lore that you've already gotten through the MSQ. It's fantastic writing especially as you work backwards and see the threads of future content that you either missed or never would have thought ties into the larger narrative as a whole. And that goes for the yellow side quests as well... they have quest chains assigned to some of them that are so rich for little addendums to the story or, at times, even gives you a reward (check out the 'Great Serpent of Ronka' quests on The Rak'tika Greatwood some time).
“Liquid metal” excuse me, that’s Pepsi Man. Of all the people Bellular…
yeah my entire FC runs in and screams 'PEPSI MAAAAAN' every time. Never gets old.
The worst part is Liquid Metal isn’t even it’s ingame name.
@@RamatiKat That's correct. It's actually "Pepsi Man", as has been stated above. 😎
Alexander was definitely one of the more interesting raid experiences for me when I started playing and I mean that in the best way I can’t really think of a way to describe it other than say I was entranced in just exploring the inside of the thing to the point where sometimes I’d forget it was even a raid
Alexander was when I realized I love the game and will play till the end
Sorrow of Werlyt is something you definitely have to check out, it's the Shadowbringers trial series and the story there is fantastic.
ENDWALKER Spoilers
18:10
I thought he recovered his memories at the end of Shadowbringers, right after we defeated him. After all, when we summon him at the end of EW, he says something like "I've been forced to watch this show", referring to our journey from his defeat until his summoning. At least that's what I thought happened.
Yeah, I think you're right for two reasons. 1. In the Tower of Babil Hydalaen tells you she has an ally (Watcher) and one other who might come into play (Emet). 2. In your sleep in the Baldesian Annex, you hear Hythlodaeus talking to someone in your dream (Emet). The fun part is that you only have half of the conversation, but you can sort of fill in the blanks.
Emet Selch did recover his memories when he returned to the life stream. They mentioned during EW that they theorize memories lost can be returned when they go there.
We sent him back to the Aetherial Sea where his memories were restored. They've been chilling there watching over us since until we call them back.
@@beefkat5370 There are subtle nuances in there as well. Before the Mothercrystal if you say "We meet again Venat" she shows visible relief because she figures out you went to Elpis (which she hoped you would) causing a confluence of time between our two times and allowing Emet to become a piece on the board once he recovered his memories of that time (which, of course, he had by then). Then, at the end he concedes that he might be willing to give credit to Venat for foreseeing such an outcome. "But, you'll get no applause from me. Not after what I have had to do."
Yes, upon our killing him in the Dying Gasp he both regained his memories and Zodiark’s tempering over him broke.
Heh, I feel you on the aether currents. I did most of alexander unsynched with a friend, just for the story, and the fact that she couldn't fly yet (and I didn't have a multi-person mount) ground our rush to a halt for a bit while she hunted down the last few.
you should be on the lookout for another FFXV collab event where you can buy the Regalia from that game which is a multi seated mount from the Golden Saucer for MGP, worth the sub just to have it
@@inoob26 or the refer a friend amber chocobo
@@Ladywizard or buy the whale mount
@@inoob26 just do DLR savage for the cerberus 4head
Thank you for making this! I skipped all the cutscenes thinking I can just watch it on UA-cam, but all of the vids are just unending journey videos with big chunks of story missing. I love your summary to fill in the gaps.
The Alexander raids had some of my favorite music tracks, especially Rise and Metal: Brute Justice Mode. Also he needs to do the Weapons trial series ...the devs really hit the feels there.
@5:50 Randomly getting A5N, yep, easy wipe if no one remembers gorillas or to respect the bomb radius.
This was a great retrospective, thanks for making it! It's been so long since I did Alexanders story (did it when it was current) so I'd forgotten a lot of details and it was nice to re-experience the story through your eyes. Loving your XIV content as always, thanks!
There is something special about the Alexander raids and I don't think it's necessarily the fights. It's the enivorments in the raids as well as the touching story. All around beautiful raid series :)
It was alright at the time, but the third tier really pulls it all together.
@@jaeusa160 I mean to each their own, I think the whole experience was fantastic :)
The fact that Alexander sends adds to the past, and they were the ones who set it up the Stasis field and You enter the portals to stop that from happening was pretty cool, also if no ones enters the adds portals you simply die
So quick note note that was potentially missed and a fun theory in regards to your endwalker comments. During the track locus one of the lines is "celestial noise detected" almost like a certain song of oblivion. Obviously nothing concrete, but if true it really shows how good ishikawa is at pulling things together from all sorts of different sources and potentially how yes, Alexander knew about the endsinger.
18:30 actually, yeah, he sees that future, you know why? because of the twinning, that dungeon. The twinning was the mechanical process of moving across TIME and the RIFT. Omega moved the crystal tower across, and Garland brand Alexander(the Tycoon) across time. even if this alexander did not know, the blueprint version aka the tycoon sure knew the precise moment which the crystarium needed to exist in for the future to turn out as it did.
Also 19:00 a Qayah free version of alexander was created "in the future" and by that i mean on one of the planets that meteion saw. During the final days dungeon, one of the dungeons features a civilization where machines have destroyed every single life but one, this is what the logical conclusion would have been to happen if there was no other influencing factor
Either, the fact that alexander knew about everything including the 12 shards of ehterys, or that there was a human "osul" , contributing more then just the cold calculating heart of the machine to its own calculus.
26:20 This actually surprised me since I had assumed you'd have 'streamer privilege' to circumvent queues. Don't forget you can also create an open role Party Finder group or add specific criteria to get those quick clears. Don't be afraid to name drop your channel also.
Pretty sure Bell doesn't stream FFXIV. He plays it alone or just with friends so he can better soak it up.
@@jaylee9372 Thank you. Found an (10mo) old Reddit thread that discusses why he doesn't. Disregard the first sentence, but hopefully the rest helps. o/
fun fact, that horn was actually a macguffin in FF14 1.0's Limsa story line where through echos we piece together an plot of the former admiral to get one of these mythic horns for the Ascian and succeeds. but most creatures have 2 horns, where's the other, you might ask? on the tip of Tupsimati, Louisoix Leveilleur's famous ether siphoning weapon that again, was attempted to be taken by an Ascian for likely another rejoining plot. amazing what you can do when you try to not leave loose threads.
Alexander story starts off meh but starting halfway gets interesting then ends great. Also banger OST.
Interestingly, I think Alexander is the least interesting of the 'Normal Raid' stories. Which, I suppose, just sets the bar for the rest of them very high because - yes - Alexander is indeed very good.
Edit: Also, the normal raids have a tendency to elaborate on important, but not essential, parallels to the side story that are used both to resolve loose threads and expand the overall world lore. And it's a great way to do it.
I thought Alexander was better than Coil.
Coil isn't bad, but the story elements are very short, and a lot of its impact is as an epliogue to 1.0 rather than Coil having a story all its own. The environments and spectacle of Coil are top notch though.
@@jaeusa160 To be clear, I don't consider coil a 'normal raid' because it is not a part of the roulette and because it's story is basically part of the main story, without being mandatory - unlike the way they have done the normal raid stories. Coil is kind of it's own beast, in my eyes.
Wow, I actually hadnt thought about the repercussions and the small tie ins Alexander has with Endwalker until now!
Great video!!
If you read the lyrics to the Brute Justice fight theme, you will see some *very* interesting points raised about the content of the newer expansions.
I really love the unique perspective your team brings to the way we think about what XIV does with its narrative, the structure/format. Thanks guys!
The Twinning is so amazing. It cant be overstated. One of the best musical mixes in the game, Gorgeous set pieces, and its literally a lynch pin of some of the biggest content in the game. All in an optional dungeon. Mind blowing.
I always enjoy not only your reactions but the recount of the story. I did this already but I find what part of the story is appealing and also the interpretation really makes me see the story from a different point of view. Thanks again!
The amazing thing is that we don't know who created the Enigma Codex. My headcanon includes the story of The Twinning and the Eighth Calamity. In the Twinning we see the artificial Enigma: The Tycoon which Biggs Descendant created in the likeness of Alexander to control the time-space of the crystal tower. I'd like to think that somewhere in the far future someone found those notes and used them to create the Enigma Codex which included the blue prints for the Tycoon or, the new name, Alexander. Somehow that codex ended up in the past.
Basically Alexander was created to look and work like the Tycoon which was created to look and work like Alexander. I love time travel!
About raiding in other MMOs, I think the main difference is that other MMOs have sort of abandoned the idea of having complex and satisfying storytelling. They've realized that most of their players are perfectly fine with an average story if the raids/combat are fun, so they focus on raids and combat, rather than story. FFXIV on the other hand focuses on what makes the FF franchise popular: Stories. And on top of great stories, they've learned what makes raids and combat fun from other MMOs.
I do like how Alexander gets larger and larger in the zone as you progress through each wing of the raid. Going from an arm sticking out of the lake to a gigantic fortress which transforms the look of the whole zone.
When Mide and Dayan had their ending it was genuinely lovely. I found it quite similar to BSG's Helo and Athena's ending.
Alexander has some of my favorite visuals in the entire game. Grinding down conveyor belts into a giant steampunk city inside of Alexander will never not be an awesome experience!
FFXIV is a great game. It has so much to offer that is lacking from other MMO's especially pay to win casinos like lost ark.
If I’m correct, the guy who work on FFXIV also work on Stranger of Paradise (which is technically a quite heavy budget as remaking entire FF main timeline games from Dissidia series)
Couple parts between these games kinda hit a similar references in term of writing single dimensional characters.
@@dale7326 Actually no that I know of , the persons behind HWD are actually working on FF16. Stranger of Paradise is made by another team (and Nomura who have nothing to do with 14 if only Gaia's design :))
What's the deal with people hating on Lost Ark lol.
I love 14, and I'm cassualy playing lost ark having fun with games.
FFXIV does a lot of good things, but it's not for everyone, same with lost ark, same with wow, swtor, and others MMO out there.
Just enjoy what you like :P
@@dale7326 no, actually ff stranger of paradise is from united works of nojima/nomura and team ninja. Also it just does a light remake of the first final fantasy and from the plot part, it isnt a godd work. The combat is nice though
Lost ark really pissed me off
As an ex-WoW player... one of the best things about FF14 that absolutely blew my mind is how they handle old content ... The level sync in this game is frickin' brilliant. All those content, from past and old still enjoyable till this day and you get rewarded for it. Wish Blizz would implement something like this. Time walking just doesn't cut it ...
Alexander is one of those rare quests that call directly back to a storyline that happened in 1.0. Travanchet (the unidentified Ascian) & Y'shtola crossed paths briefly in the original Limsa Lominsa storyline where he stole the horn out from under her. That made it all kinds of amusingly awkward while playing my Travanchet NPC character through the MSQ with the Scions. :D
Though, in helping create Alexander, Travanchet inadvertantly put in motion the events that permanently derailed the Asican's grand plan of Rejoining by destroying the remaining Unsundered. See "The Twinning" dungeon for how Alexander effects events in Shadowbringers.
I enjoyed the speculation in the latter half of the video! It's the type of content I was hoping to see from Bellular when he started covering FFXIV.
If you don't wanna wait too long you can try hosting a partyfinder and point out first time bonus, people gladly tag along for it for an easy extra reroll chance for their Wondrous Tails. And don't feel too bad for unsynching it, because you will get it from normal raid roulette quite frequently from personal experience so you will do the fights properly at some point or another lol. Alexander synched is mega fun.
It was a good time, but I gotta say that fractioning the raid into so many small pieces made Alexander feel less like a cohesive space that we were exploring, and more like a selection of arenas disconnected from each other.
One of the lyrics to Brute Justice's theme (this part of the song is from Alexander's POV): "Celestial Noise Detected."
At the time of writing HW the writers probably intended that to mean that Alexander could detect Zodiark, because we're pretty sure the writers already had planned for him to be in the moon.
That said, looking back at it now with Endwalker knowledge, it's probably safe to assume that current lore implies that Alexander could detect the Endsinger's song, even if he didn't quite understand what it was (or else I imagine he would have warned us).
No. It refers to the 3 jobs introduced in Heavensward.
Celestial noise detected - AST
Fragments in one direction - MCH
Delirium unsuspected - DRK.
Very nice video.
I hope you also get around to do all of Eureka and its grand lore as well.
Any chance of trial series vids from each expansion?
With how seemingly neatly the FFXIV lore all overlaps and connects, you would think they have like a curator or a team of writers keeping track of everything just to make sure nothing too glaring or distracting gets missed or put in to the lore. I just imagine the Charlie meme with the string and dots grid behind him except its the entire FFXIV writers office, in a positive way of course.
The best thing about Alexander is the music that you'd otherwise hear in a freezing warehouse rave somewhere in Frankfurt.
I'm only into SB patches now but just went back and did FotF just this past weekend with a few friends and it was a great time. The effects in some of their fights are amazing. Like the time stop in this one or the glass breaking in Thordan. This team nails the spectacle aspect and it always has amazing music. I love it.
Alexander is a fantastic bit of storytelling! And what's great is that when they made it, they hadn't planned out all of the plot that goes on in ShB and EW, so it's brilliant how they made all of that work so well with it. As for the Twinning, honestly the thing that gets me is how the music is a fusion of the themes from Crystal Tower, Omega, and Alexander.
I love that FF got their claws in you for this MMO. As an old school MMO vet, this is by the best MMO I've ever played. Sure it has its flaws (raid lockouts for example) but its excellent compared to the competition.
wtf are you talking about? raid lock outs have always been a thing. i can't think of an mmo that doesn't have some form of that.
@@shanegrayson7068 I'd guess it's more the reward system and how it harms the entire party if you have someone that's done a weekly clear already.. and also how you forfeit all rewards if you skip to a later raid during the week.
That's caused no small amount of strife back when I went hard raiding in Shadowbringers.
I initially skipped a decent number of the Alexander cutscenes because my friends were doing the raids with me and I didn't want to feel like I was wasting their time. So glad to be able to go back and get the story!
Never skip story in FFXIV; it's *the* story MMO and the #1 reason why you're playing it.
If someone gets upset that you're experiencing the content.. content which they themselves (probably) experienced in the past.. then you can promptly tell them off for being self entitled.
Im very curious how much they can make relations with what we Discover in Elpis and what we already have in the sundered world, and this only talking about the ‘concept’ to future being stuff going on.
Just think about the implications we can have with Kairos, the time-controlling mega computer from Hermes, compared to Alexander as a primal itself and its concept final use being Typhoon (the twining), allowing shadowbringers to happen.
I rly love this questline above all else as a lore bomb as it still has some questions if we think about everything we’ve seen so far
Wanted to talk about a couple of things regarding Shadowbringers & Endwalker spoilers. Firstly, Emet-Selch regained his memories from Elpis when he died in Shadowbringers, and not when he's summoned in Endwalker. Which is probably the reason why he helps you during the Seat of Sacrifice in 5.3.
Secondly, Alexander's power is used a few times in the games story after Heavensward. It's used alongside Omega's power to get G'raha and the Crystal Tower to the First ot orchestrate the plot of Shadowbringers. Alexander's power is also implied to be used by Elidibus to get you to Elpis in Endwalker.
Take that for what you will in regards to your theory about Alexander potentially knowing about the ancients
My thoughts were, "Huh, they really ARE all about the narrative, aren't they?" This was the first piece of side content that I just completely fell in love with, and it does still hold up! Enjoy Twinning, my mind was blown :)
Alexander is incredible. I love how naturally the game pushes you into it too.
Oh also a fun fact you can unsync solo or at most duo the Savage fights to get the mounts if you’re level 90 now. I almost solo’d a12s (Alexander Prime Savage) as a White Mage a few weeks ago. Brought my friend Summoner and the two of us killed it easy on Savage to get the weapons for glam and the mount!
happy lad enjoying the good old content, I still do when I get it in Roullettes or farming an old relic/glam
It's interesting that you bring up the raid/alliance raid stuff being separate from MSQ and what that lets them do. I've honestly been thinking that an "easy" way to shake things up in the future might be to drop a surprise alliance raid in the MSQ somewhere. I think if we ever do another "war" expansion it might be worth doing. I know a lot of folks felt like the Doma Castle and Ala Migho dungeons in SB didn't quite have enough impact and I wonder if it had been different if they had something that felt more like the Bozja raids.
Also I hear you on the queue times. I'm secretly hoping that they when they reduce the main scenario roulette rewards they also increase the normal raid roulette rewards, because that queue has needed more people running it for three expansions now. More generally, I'm hoping that once trusts are an option for the MSQ dungeons they can push people more towards trials/raids roulettes as daily content because I feel they are a much better expression of the XIV combar system than the dungeons.
The Alexander questline has got to be one of the best gaming experiences I've ever had. The Omega questline was a damn close second. Now I can't wait to see his reaction to The Twinning!
Have you done any of the Beast Tribe quests yet? I'd love to hear how you feel they compare to WoW's rep grinds.
During Alex Prime, if you go into the black orbs and look to the bottom platform, you can see yourself standing there frozen with Alex readying to shoot the laser at you, if you clear it, you can see yourself dodge the beam
I wiped many times on the Alexander raids and still do when I go in there for roulettes. Every time it's a pleasure because of that banger soundtrack.
I’m glad I was not the only one who thought Alexander had a hand in probably setting up Endwalker and Shadowbringer to help save the Star through the WoL
Very possible, they've said before that they created the basic outline for the story up to Endwalker when they were writing the post-Heavensward MSQ.
I really looked forward to Alexander because he's a recurring summon I like from other FFs. On top of that, Cruise Chaser is based on my favourite summon from FF9 that was a namesake of mine for the last 22 years. So it was really cool to battle it, then Alexander Prime just blew me away.
Before I watch the video, all I gotta say is... inject me that Alexander OST into my veins
I remember a few complaints of the story being slow in the beginning when it first came out though that may be due to having months in-between installments.
The first two tiers didn't have a huge amount interesting going on, even without the context of the wait between tiers, but the final tier hit a home run on tying it all up.
has bellular done the twinning dungeon yet?
Friendly reminder that this was out during Warlords of Draenor
The Tank LB3 is based on Dynamis not Aether. Alexander is made via creation magic bvased on aether and can only control the flow of Aether. If intervention by Dynamis happens its something he cannot account for nor change.
I think it was the Alexander seeing our capability to master Aether and Dynamis (as proven several times in Endwalker, like when we are in the soldiers body without our aether, the whole concept of Limit Break) made him realize that if he cannot "do it" we are the only one who might and of course the fight against him was just that test to check if we are up to it.
I'm SO glad he didn't do The Twinning until after these. :D
Wait until you do The Sorrow of Werlyt
I wouldnt call the raids themselves B-plots. They look like B-plots but they are often plot adjacent or connected to the main plot in some way. Bahamut connected a lot of threads that were left loose, while a player could go through ARR and not touch the raid, there's still missing context and heading into heavensward you're left with questions that eventually you'll go back. The same thing can be said about how Crystal Tower - Alexander - Omega all tie together, along with Alexander tying together with the Elpis time recall. You get this feeling that because the bureau of architecture is responsible for all sorts of creations that Alexander must have been created by one of the trio to aid you in coming back to keep the time loop stable. You have exactly two time loops running concurrently within the story and you dont realize that until you get Shadowbrings and up to the 87 dungeon.
I was very skeptical about time travelling in story telling it always messes up the story of most of the medium but I am surprised they handled it pretty well and it's very self contained
Never overanalyze time travel plots though, they pretty much always have big holes, and these are no exception.
However, the experience and narrative utilization is so good that I think all of us just are satisfied with that, and not foolish enough to try to nitpick things like the obvious Grandfather Parodoxes. Like Back to the Future, fun movies, don't pick apart at the time travel rules because they literally don't work.
@@jaeusa160 I think steins gate has a pretty fantastic time travel story with little to no plot holes.
gotta learn how to use that party finder to make groups instead of the duty one. a lot of people like myself look at party finder to help others clear content from time to time. makes for a shorter queue and people that more often than not know the fights and can help with mechs in it.
Heavensward’s Alliance raid series is also a ton of fun and worth running. Lots of lore, voidscent, and sky pirates.
Small bit, I love how the writing team pulled in those bits of scientific theory--Schrodinger's Cat being the explicit one and Laplace's Demon being implied in the overarching story of Alexander
A lot of my friends really didn’t like the story of this raid and didn’t like Mide but I for one absolutely loved it and thought she was a fun character. Lots of back and forth with the time shenanigans and amazing boss fights. Alexander was a fun raid series.
And with all these incredible 8-player raids I hope he doesn't forget about the 24-man raids, tons of story and mostly a lot of fun gameplay. Freakin loved Void Ark and I mostly hear people talk about only the 8-mans
Boom, 23 seconds after posted. Time to watch! I appreciate you guys' hard work and am looking forward to the Pale Beyond. :)
Omg, when you mentioned the connections to endwalker I immediately thought of the core of the facility. Hermes had control over it, used it on Emet and Hythlo. We know the identity of Hermes and we don't know where Alexander came from. Do we think the core to the Elpis facility is a party of Alexander and it's subsequent functions?
When you get to The Twinning, the most important thing to remember to do is
TURN UP THE MUSIC!
Did you by chane not the simality Mide has to Metion?
Bellular said it's not connected to the A plot. But actually it is connected to the A plot, but just not enough for you to miss the beats of the A plot because you didn't do it.
For example, the future where G'raha comes from the future Ironworks used what Cid learned of Alexander and Omega to cross the rift and time and space. Time and space being Alex and the Rift being Omega. This is what you learn in the "Twinning" dungeon where you fight the Tycoon which is a replica of Alexander.
Same with Eden, the restoration of the First is brought up but not to the point where it will confuse you if you just do the MSQ. It's brilliant.
When you do the Twinning you NEED to do a complementary video after that, what they pull there is just pure genius
There's one spot you are off Bellular regarding Emet Selch. Major spoilers
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18:20 It wasn't us using the crystal of Azem that brought back his memory, it was his death as Hades at the end of Amaurot. It's why he showed up during the fight with Elidibus/Warrior of Light to bring us back from the nothingness Elidibus sent us to. The Emet we met in Elpis is the younger self of the Emet we knew during Shadowbringers. It's why he said "I bid them remember, but all this time, I'm the one who had forgotten...A right fool you've made of me, Hermes. And to add insult to injury, I've been denied a sound rest, forced to watch this clamorous show." when we bring him and Hythlodaeus back when we are going to face Meteion. When we bring him back with the crystal of Azem at that time, it was Emet after his death as Hades at the end of Shadowbringers with his already restored memory. I can't remember the exact location in the story during Endwalker, but it was stated that when you die and rejoin the lifestream, any memories you had forgotten would be restored to you as you fade to nothing.
Cannot wait for an entire video dedicated to The Twinning. Still the best dungeon ever.
The Alexander Raid was the moment I 100% fell in love with FF14
I’m wondering how you’ll feel going through the Dun Scaith Alliance raids. I know you had to do crystal tower so you got the feel for the exploration and combat but if you’ve ever wanted to know more about the ancients of Mhach and the denizens of the 13th shard it’s full of information about them. (Still not enough though)
It was explained by the old guy in the Studium, that the moment people die, residual magic on them gets dispeled. Essentially Kairos' magic faded when Emet and Hythlo entered the aetherial sea. This is why in the Seat of Sacrifice intermission (the 5.3 trial), Emet pulls us out of the void that Elidibus threw us in, to everyone's surprise.
And right after their trust dungeon Hyth flatout says wonder what we'll find when we remember from returning to the star and hermes/Amon says that burned the memory further on the soul of that day but he didn't remember as Hermes/Fandaniel but all the shards raised did
Alexander was peak FFXIV for me - great atmosphere with the way you're lead through Alexander's bowels before most fights, trash that never overstayed its welcome, and story, story, story on all levels. Everything from the escalating levels of Fausts you deal with (culminating in what was exclusively a trash mob making a major appearance in a late Alexander raid boss), the Goblin Dr. Frankenstein who fused together several of his brothers in this horrible amalgamation in a room filled with their discarded masks, masks goblins never normally take off... the big twist at the end of the raid that happens in a boss fight...
XIV has never stopped being good, but I really wish they'd bring back some of Alexander's atmosphere, well paced trash, and gameplay and story integration.
I’d encourage everyone newly introduced to Alexander in Final Fantasy 14 to look up the history of the summon in other Final Fantasy games. The entire idea of fighting or getting help from a “living machine” summon with ultimate power usually hits levels of awesome the other summons don’t often get to hit.
While I’m personally not as familiar with Alexander’s introduction in Final Fantasy 9, I can confirm that the summoning of Alexander in Final Fantasy Type-0 is the equivalent of a nuclear deterrent. Just like Alexander in Final Fantasy 14 is dangerous because it has it’s own sentience, the cost of successfully summoning Alexander in other Final Fantasy games and having it rampage would mean major destruction.
Hope you all enjoyed the story of Alexander!
Let's also not forget that Biggs's and Wedge's Excellent Adventure was in all likelihood the catalyst to them working on time travel theories that would generations later be used to send the Crystal Tower back in time.
This is confirmed you you read the notes in the twinning dungeon
Looking forward to your video covering the Twinning.
I expect you and Matt to do your own version of the meme ;)
We need some Bellular lore investigation. It has to do with the Time Travel. When you get to Shadowbringers, you’ll be enlightened on how one such method is achieved. This is actually the second method. The first, being Alexander. They do not properly explain whether the two are connected, or, why they weren’t connected. This is an important thing.
What’s MOST IMPORTANT, is that the oldest civilization that we know of, the Ascians, had not discovered either.
I really loved Alexander. He was so cool and the story was nice. Its the reason why I wanted to do the Alexander Ultimate and the fight did not disappoint!
if you havnt done the lvl 80 trials diamond weapon story line yet, I think you will really like that one as well
Is it Eden time!?!?! Fux yeah it's Eden time. This one might be tougher even unsynched. E9S anyone?
Thank you for giving me a heads up on the Endwalker spoilers. I'm serious! I will watch the rest of this video later when I am done. 👍