Oh my god I never noticed the 'we fall' thing before... That is brilliant. This expansion really did something man, I can't describe it. Yesterday I was just going about doing random quests in the Crystarium bc I missed ShB so much. I have been watching your analysis videos as I do art and I love hearing about the world and it's characters as I draw them and it's honestly been lovely. Please keep making more videos, you're so good at writing them
Wow! The fact that i can provide inspiration/help for your drawing... that's so awesome I don't really even have the words to describe it Yeah, I would like to keep continuing with these and eventually cover other expansions too, I just put it on hold for now because I want to cover the main cast of characters first (I'll explain this in an upcoming video)
Keep cuttle"ing" that fish, you do what you do very well. Your story, of how you lost faith in SQENIX and were brought back into the fold by older versions, really served as a mirror to my own. I also started with Tactics, and X and from ps2 to game-boy Advance I fell for SQENIX for what they do so well. Now that I gave another title by SQENIX a try it is very interesting to find out that most of the games I loved have an influence in FFXIV. On it's own FFXIV shines with its own story and each patch effects or explains an expansion. Thank you for focusing a video on an entire expansion.
It's always nice to hear ppl having gone thro similar experiences! It's great to be actually excited for a mainline title again :D Also glad you could enjoy the video despite its lengthiness. I always planned for more parts (as I state in the video), but things kinda turned out such that I couldn't commit to those at the time. I should hopefully be able to release them in the near future. But aye, it's meant to be a whole playlist instead of just one video haha
@@imacuttlefish6832 .> no but seriously it was as long as it needed to be to get your point across. Sure it wasn't a ticktok millisecond long but it was long enough.
@@liony9400 Haha I dont think I wanna attract the tiktok audience anyway, so them not having the attention span to watch my content is a positive in my eyes! :D
1:37:09 At that part I was thinking, "We wouldn't have to sack half our population because we'd come up with a better plan." It was because the Ancients were so arrogant and overconfident that they ended up in the mess they were in to begin with. It could have been averted with some therapy, peer review or valuing consent. But every single one of them was convinced they knew best about everything all the way up til the end.
There are segments of Ishgard we never go to, if you look down at certain places. It's big, we just only have reason to go to a relatively small portion of it. FF14 uses its more limited world compared to say, WoW, to pull this trick a lot. You can even see it in action more clearly in a small way if you look at the amount of shacks that exist purely behind the Eulmore-Kholusia load screen
Gotta be honest I did take issue with some of the sidequests. Twine is a good example. As you said, the First is meant to be dying, it's people hopeless. Twine embodies this perhaps better than anywhere. Yet I go to pick up these sidequests and it seems like five or six people all have some sort of ambitious plan for the future
Hmm, it's been such a long time that i don't remember precisely what kind of a vibe I got while doing those sidequests. I'll take your word for it nonetheless!
X was my favourite before XIV. That music from the moonflow to kinda start the video with is just... perfect. Thank you :) Dude... why using so much ffx music? The nostalgia is just too much xD (I'm not complaining I'm just having some very strong feelings) Ik you are using from all, but I only know ffx xD Omg thank you so much for that ffx part. Dude. Best expansion of the best game and the best game after. Of course.. of course
Not sure if you'll see this but I am currently sitting on 5.4, looking for FF content that's safe to consume in terms of spoilers. Should I watch this video?
This video only covers MSQ till 5.3, because to me that's where Shadowbringers ends. It was also made before Endwalker came out, so all good on that front too!
What is your favorite expansion? Story wise? I'm always torn between HW and ShB bc man they were just something else. (EW Spoilers ahead) I was personally a little disappointed in endwalker, not to say it was bad, I really enjoyed it but it felt very rushed to me, compared to Shadowbringers and even Heavensward it lacks very much imo. I heard a rumour that it was two expansions packed into one so that would explain A LOT in terms of pacing and I think it suffers through what SB suffers through that is trying to make us care about so many different areas of the world rather than us being bound to one place like The First or Ishgard. It also almost forced emotional reactions with very little build up at many points? I did not connect to meteion as well as I connected with Ryne, for example. And I disliked Ryne to begin with, she was so meek and it irritated me. I play in Japanese so she sounds even more docile and scared in it but I grew to absolutely love her as the story went on, but with meteion, it felt forced. Firstly it happens in the later half of the game and lasted only about 15-20% of the story I think? Secondly, I think they tried riding her off the 'cute-and-friendly, must-protect' waves but it felt a bit cheap to me. It was like I had to like her bc she checked every point in archetype of the 'they did nothing wrong' villain. Also something about the way they introduced Dynamis made it feel more plot device-y than say the shards did in ShB. I think of I were to play EW again I would be able to feel, absorb and process everything better than I did in my first run perhaps bc it was all just so much to take in. Like, Zodiark is the first trial? Wow. It felt like they just wanted to get it over with. What is your opinion on EW? Ffxiv has this pattern where they release an okay expansion (ARR) , then a great expansion (HW) , then a meh one (SB), then a great one (ShB) and then again an above average one (EW) so I have high hopes for 7.0 xD
Shadowbringers for sure! It's the only FFXIV expansion that I would consider putting in top 5 of my fave Final Fantasy games. You are correct, Endwalker was initially meant to be two expansions. The first would heavily feature Garlemald and Anima would have been the final boss. The other expansion would then have been the Hydaelyn/Zodiark story part of it. And yeah, it clearly shows. I can, however, see it from the devs' perspective. They have been working on the Hydaleyn/Zodiark saga for so long by this point so by wrapping up the story they can begin a completely new story arc which is very liberating and exciting from an artistic point of view (kind of the same deal how series become stale after a few seasons). I don't wanna go too much into my thoughts on Endwalker because I rather replay it at some point and give it a thorough look (I also don't wanna commit to making an Endwalker analysis until minimum 6.5 when we have had both all the content as well as we have a lot more developer commentary - technically I could have went for easy views by putting out quick thoughts on the expansion when it released but I rather play the long game instead of doing it half-assed) But I guess a brief summary would be: I think it handled the characters really well, the payoffs and development were more than I could have ever asked for. But in terms of plot it felt probably the weakest of the expansions. It feels like a lot of those finales (Avengers Endgame is a good example) where it sorta just focuses more on wrapping everything up and giving you a lot of amazing moments but it's way too ambitious to do it in a way that doesn't sacrifice the plot and the pacing.
Oh my god I never noticed the 'we fall' thing before... That is brilliant. This expansion really did something man, I can't describe it. Yesterday I was just going about doing random quests in the Crystarium bc I missed ShB so much.
I have been watching your analysis videos as I do art and I love hearing about the world and it's characters as I draw them and it's honestly been lovely. Please keep making more videos, you're so good at writing them
Wow! The fact that i can provide inspiration/help for your drawing... that's so awesome I don't really even have the words to describe it
Yeah, I would like to keep continuing with these and eventually cover other expansions too, I just put it on hold for now because I want to cover the main cast of characters first (I'll explain this in an upcoming video)
appreciate the work you put into these long essays. You definitely deserve more subs.
Thanks, it means a lot!
can't wait to watch the whole thing hehehe i have been craving ShB content, I'm surprised there are not more long af analysis videos of ShB
I'm glad to hear it
Keep cuttle"ing" that fish, you do what you do very well. Your story, of how you lost faith in SQENIX and were brought back into the fold by older versions, really served as a mirror to my own. I also started with Tactics, and X and from ps2 to game-boy Advance I fell for SQENIX for what they do so well. Now that I gave another title by SQENIX a try it is very interesting to find out that most of the games I loved have an influence in FFXIV. On it's own FFXIV shines with its own story and each patch effects or explains an expansion. Thank you for focusing a video on an entire expansion.
It's always nice to hear ppl having gone thro similar experiences! It's great to be actually excited for a mainline title again :D
Also glad you could enjoy the video despite its lengthiness. I always planned for more parts (as I state in the video), but things kinda turned out such that I couldn't commit to those at the time. I should hopefully be able to release them in the near future. But aye, it's meant to be a whole playlist instead of just one video haha
@@imacuttlefish6832 .> no but seriously it was as long as it needed to be to get your point across. Sure it wasn't a ticktok millisecond long but it was long enough.
@@liony9400 Haha I dont think I wanna attract the tiktok audience anyway, so them not having the attention span to watch my content is a positive in my eyes! :D
1:37:09 At that part I was thinking, "We wouldn't have to sack half our population because we'd come up with a better plan." It was because the Ancients were so arrogant and overconfident that they ended up in the mess they were in to begin with. It could have been averted with some therapy, peer review or valuing consent. But every single one of them was convinced they knew best about everything all the way up til the end.
Same. That plan was way too excessive. No way we would go for something this insane. o.O
There are segments of Ishgard we never go to, if you look down at certain places. It's big, we just only have reason to go to a relatively small portion of it. FF14 uses its more limited world compared to say, WoW, to pull this trick a lot. You can even see it in action more clearly in a small way if you look at the amount of shacks that exist purely behind the Eulmore-Kholusia load screen
Amaurot is all done in an art-deco style. I would not be at all surprised if the movie Metropolis was an inspiration
Oh hm that's an interesting point. Looking at some images I can deffo see it. Since FFXIV does take a lot of inspiration from real life architecture!
1:48:08 my completionism comes in handy here. The fisherman facet quest (of all things) confirms that disease and lost medical knowledge is a problem.
Hah, sometimes it really does pay off!
Gotta be honest I did take issue with some of the sidequests. Twine is a good example. As you said, the First is meant to be dying, it's people hopeless. Twine embodies this perhaps better than anywhere. Yet I go to pick up these sidequests and it seems like five or six people all have some sort of ambitious plan for the future
Hmm, it's been such a long time that i don't remember precisely what kind of a vibe I got while doing those sidequests. I'll take your word for it nonetheless!
X was my favourite before XIV. That music from the moonflow to kinda start the video with is just... perfect. Thank you :)
Dude... why using so much ffx music? The nostalgia is just too much xD (I'm not complaining I'm just having some very strong feelings)
Ik you are using from all, but I only know ffx xD
Omg thank you so much for that ffx part. Dude. Best expansion of the best game and the best game after. Of course.. of course
FFX is deffo special so I can see that hahah
Not sure if you'll see this but I am currently sitting on 5.4, looking for FF content that's safe to consume in terms of spoilers. Should I watch this video?
This video only covers MSQ till 5.3, because to me that's where Shadowbringers ends.
It was also made before Endwalker came out, so all good on that front too!
What is your favorite expansion? Story wise?
I'm always torn between HW and ShB bc man they were just something else.
(EW Spoilers ahead)
I was personally a little disappointed in endwalker, not to say it was bad, I really enjoyed it but it felt very rushed to me, compared to Shadowbringers and even Heavensward it lacks very much imo. I heard a rumour that it was two expansions packed into one so that would explain A LOT in terms of pacing and I think it suffers through what SB suffers through that is trying to make us care about so many different areas of the world rather than us being bound to one place like The First or Ishgard. It also almost forced emotional reactions with very little build up at many points? I did not connect to meteion as well as I connected with Ryne, for example. And I disliked Ryne to begin with, she was so meek and it irritated me. I play in Japanese so she sounds even more docile and scared in it but I grew to absolutely love her as the story went on, but with meteion, it felt forced. Firstly it happens in the later half of the game and lasted only about 15-20% of the story I think? Secondly, I think they tried riding her off the 'cute-and-friendly, must-protect' waves but it felt a bit cheap to me. It was like I had to like her bc she checked every point in archetype of the 'they did nothing wrong' villain.
Also something about the way they introduced Dynamis made it feel more plot device-y than say the shards did in ShB.
I think of I were to play EW again I would be able to feel, absorb and process everything better than I did in my first run perhaps bc it was all just so much to take in. Like, Zodiark is the first trial? Wow. It felt like they just wanted to get it over with.
What is your opinion on EW?
Ffxiv has this pattern where they release an okay expansion (ARR) , then a great expansion (HW) , then a meh one (SB), then a great one (ShB) and then again an above average one (EW) so I have high hopes for 7.0 xD
Shadowbringers for sure! It's the only FFXIV expansion that I would consider putting in top 5 of my fave Final Fantasy games.
You are correct, Endwalker was initially meant to be two expansions. The first would heavily feature Garlemald and Anima would have been the final boss. The other expansion would then have been the Hydaelyn/Zodiark story part of it. And yeah, it clearly shows.
I can, however, see it from the devs' perspective. They have been working on the Hydaleyn/Zodiark saga for so long by this point so by wrapping up the story they can begin a completely new story arc which is very liberating and exciting from an artistic point of view (kind of the same deal how series become stale after a few seasons).
I don't wanna go too much into my thoughts on Endwalker because I rather replay it at some point and give it a thorough look (I also don't wanna commit to making an Endwalker analysis until minimum 6.5 when we have had both all the content as well as we have a lot more developer commentary - technically I could have went for easy views by putting out quick thoughts on the expansion when it released but I rather play the long game instead of doing it half-assed)
But I guess a brief summary would be: I think it handled the characters really well, the payoffs and development were more than I could have ever asked for. But in terms of plot it felt probably the weakest of the expansions. It feels like a lot of those finales (Avengers Endgame is a good example) where it sorta just focuses more on wrapping everything up and giving you a lot of amazing moments but it's way too ambitious to do it in a way that doesn't sacrifice the plot and the pacing.