I'm not a big fan of Hildebrand. The slapstick humor just isn't for me. I deeply wish, however, that we'd get more quests like the Scholasticate questline. The very creepy lore drop from the end of that one is the kind of thing I really like.

What game from Square under performed?

as some one that adores FFXIV i wish they would listen to their fans specially in regard to what they are doing with the lore. i used to crave the stories from heavensward to endwalker (ARR was a bit rough but it was setting up the lore) and now im not caring enough to log in to do MSQ when the patch drops like i used to. adding not alot of casual content but it being funneled to mid/hardcore raiders it feels a little barren for us normal but dedicated players. the patch cycles are getting longer but the content isnt getting much better as far as im concerned (and yes i know its starting up something new so it may take a while). most of the new characters are very enjoyable and i dont care what happens to them at all really. ive just gone back to leveling alts even tho its not needed in this game.

I would say that it is not a question of lore, Stellar blade does not have the best Lore but it continues to attract players, ironically the best moments of FFXIV are associated with its Lore, its characterization and the revealing armor, I have no way of showing numbers but I dare to say that during 2B's glamour appearance there were many more people in FFXIV than ever before. They need to play with FOMO like Fortnite do.

I’m working with the hindsight of just beating the Endwalker Patch content but not being too far into Dawntrail but I think there’s a simple way to include Cylva and Unakalhai into the plot of the 13th without too much disruption or relying too much on purely optional content. In the 6.5 the First has started sending its excess light to the Thirteenth and the Thirteenth is sending their excess Darkness to the First, to hopefully bring equilibrium to both reflections, so the people of the First have a unique solidarity with the Thirteenth. Also Y’sthola has the grand goal of finding a way to allow freely travel between the Source and its Reflections. So all we need is A. Y’sthola to successfully bridge the First and the Source. B. An inciting incident in the 13th that will require heroes from Across the Rift to travel to the Thirteenth. Of course some of those Heroes will be the Scions of the Seventh Dawn and the Warrior of Light, but also volunteers from the First, here to reprise their Role Quest Positions: The Cardinal Virtue Hunters. The Cardinal Virtue Hunters were pretty much functionally MSQ Characters that you at least had to partially interact with and don’t require that much Dialogue variation. They might have the “Oh it’s a shame the Cardinal Virtues’ trail went cold, and we should resume the hunt at some point.” Dialogue but you can easily make small tweaks to the Dialogue for if they’re here to Help the Thirteenth out of a general sense of Solidarity or if they’re here to help because it’s Cylva and Unakalhai’s home and they’re their friends. Cylva can pretty easily tag along without her big reveal if the player hasn’t completed all the Shadowbringer Role Quests, and she can gently nudge the Player towards completing the Shadowbringer Role Quests or the Conclusion Quest if they’re player hasn’t already. Unakalhai can be written into the Role Quest in a way where he can easily removed or added into a scene without effecting the plot, or if we have a Mercrydia focused expansion before a Thirteenth focused expansion (Or we get a mixed focus expansion like Stormblood) then he can make a big MSQ appearance if perchance we run into the Warring Triad as a big inciting event? It will take work but shouldn’t be undoable, just have G’raha Tia say either: “But according to our investigation the Warring Triad should still be imprisoned in Azys Lla” or “I thought you defeated the Warring Triad in Azys Lla?” And then have Unakalhai be like “I’m back from the First” or “No the Warring Triad is still in Azys Lla and these are from the 13th” or something. And that way you don’t need to do that much. You’ll miss some of Unakalhai’s arc but that’s a decision the player is willing to make by just skipping a ton of Blue Quest content over the course of several expansions.

For me, I'm tired of babysitting these twins and I hope 8.0 has them doing something else. I feel Y'shtola is not that deeply developed honestly. Even in DT I thought Y'shtola would be way more important after discovering the portal, but it still felt a bit flat for the reasons you state. I also thought that if we need to bust through a barrier or defend a city from flying ships I would call Cid and Nero before Y'shtola or G'raha. And Urianger caring more about a contest than people around him dying? That really angered me and I started skipping cut scenes after that. I only want G'raha with us because we made him a promise and I assume we are going to keep it by going on adventures with him. Also G'raha is a bit of a narrator in each of the last 3 expansions where his character does break that 4th wall in order to give the player something to think about or how to connect the story to ourselves IRL. He does this Ultima Thule as well and I really like having a character who does this. Just a warning though: WoW players complain about new casts of characters every expansion and it's one reason people started to hate the WoW story and left the game. The people here who desire the same for FFXIV are misguided. One of the things I dislike about Stormblood is it feels like many of the characters and that world are useless after Stormblood. Sadly I'm getting the same feeling from DT. Maybe Estinien being with us is why HW still feel somewhat relevant to me. Maybe G'raha being around keeps us tied to ShB a bit. And I do think they keep the twins around because of how ARR started.

The problem with some of these ascians returning is they would have needed to be found by an unsundered before they were "defeated". So some time between Emet and Elidibus' defeat? It was described by Amon as being presented with the memories from the crystal and I assume some of the abilities of the ancient. Any Ancients who reappear now I think would have to be wondering around since ARR and not accounted for. I also assume their power may be diminished now. I think if we did run into one it would be similar to the AR storyline in EW where we just meet a traveler who has interesting powers (but not dangerous) who eventually reveals who they are through the raid series.

"Lahabrea lost his mind"... this is why people should definitely do the Pandemonium raids. LOL Emet's actions in our fight against Elidibus are not because he believes in our cause so much as he has now regained the knowledge he lost. He now can remember the events on Elpis so he realizes that creating Zodiark was never going to save them and therefore Elidibus' actions aren't going to help them either. He has information he didn't before. I also think he likes a good rest and thinks Elidibus needs one as well. As for him wanting to put the WoL out of their misery? When he wanted to meet the WoL in Amaurot it was to present us with the crystal and memories of Azem (IMO). I believe this because it's what he did with all of his fractured council members - he met with them privately to present the crystal and the memories (abilities more like) of them as ancients to them. He isn't able to complete this for the WoL and we know he's not really dead, which is why Hythlo can do this later for him.

We can only pray and hope to ever have people like Raha in our life.

just to point out, venat didnt ask azem for help but her second in command, since she knew the wol so she would have known azem couldnt be apart of the summoning

Half of her people gave their life then another half to insure life would go on then to ask that those selfless act s he forgotten because Venat needs to be the all goddesses at the cost of her race. She never gave them a chance Emet-Selch did nothing wrong

okay, after catching up, I have some personal frustrations to vent. Why start us off with Ysayle- revealing to us that she's not actually evil, Estinien and Alphinaud accompanying us, setting the tone for what should have been a wholesome long adventure for the story, only to move away from it almost entirely not long after? This group was easily the best part of Heavensward for me, the conflict of beliefs, perfectly balanced mix of personalities, wholesome moments, moments of redemption, I was so certain Estinien and Ysayle were going to be a thing, felt like they should've been, especially after knowing Ysayle ultimately only wanted company- to feel wanted. I felt the story getting slightly stale to me once the focus shifted. Couldn't care less about the Vanu storyline or the trip to Sharlayan encountering the goblins. Would say the same for the Gnath but the group was what made it fun. Ysayle felt like such a waste in the end, I'm sickened. They had more than enough subject matter to have the story revolve primarily around these 4 aforementioned characters (including the player), with Ysayle's redemption (that they could've driven home a lot harder in the end), Estinien's firm conviction and conflicting ideals with Ysayle, which essentially already defines Heavenswards' entire story. Missed out on peak, what a great shame.

I'm currently new to FFXIV and when I got to the first Hraesvelgr scene I felt so bad for Ysayle she didn't deserve any of that. Finding this video with the thumbnail being "She deserves better" was just too true.

Where is it stated that limit breaks are dynamis? I thought it’s been stated that it’s from a collection of aether??

Zenos said something else in that scene with Jullus that struck me... "... What meaning there is to be found in the petty vicissitudes of your existence must be gleaned by you and you alone." Zenos pretty much knew the answer to Meteon's question, which was a rather fun thing to see.

Nahmaa and Venat are phonetically similar so that is another connection of substance to consider

From playground bully to baby-girl, he's a good bean and I look forward to seeing them more.

I do feel a little bad here. Becuase i was so excited to get into shadowbringers i got so pissed that i was forced to do the crystal tower raids that i skipped every single cutscene about them. I'm so sorry graha baby he deserved so much better from me lol.

I loved him at first for his insane levels of petty and evil but then I saw his story and cried and wanted to hug him.

I don't nessisarly mind like the main group that goes with the WOL, the twins and krile are fine but we really didn't need everyone else showing up so much. Though I do love Estinien showing up just to fight the the king and fuck around that is great.

Maybe Azem's absence was due to visiting the Milala in the future?

I love this arc!

One of the things i think people dont get is that a "Protagonist" is not the same as "Hero" Frodo is the protagonist of LotR. Sam is the "hero" Wuk Lamat is a Protagonist. WoL is a Hero.

Hythlodaeus is still alive on the day that Venat sundered the world, as in a day at a point in time after Zodiark was already summoned...

I kinda wish they’d make dungeon/raid quests red or something instead of the blue marker pretty much any “important” quest has

After I realized what was going to happen as I got to the duty, I became so incredibly moved and excited. Already, this would have been my favorite quest - but the actual duty on top of it? After I finished, I'm pretty sure I sat there for like a good ten minutes of pure astonishment from how good it was. I really feel like it is my favorite quest of all time, and I think it'll be really hard to top. Words really cannot describe how much I love it. I wish I could experience it again for the first time.

I'm planning on going through the whole MSQ again with a fine comb so I can better recognize things like this video's concept on my own. Great video.

fun fact, one of the a rank hunt marks in il mheg is name "o poorest Pauldia'" and her hunt description shows that she betrayed her older sister sauldia thanks to tadric's machinations and became a monster!

Not necessary to do Eden raids, as of yet! I would know, Ive just finished Dawn Trail and have only begun Eden 😅😅😅😅

Thank you for posting what seemed like I understood, but I had to hear it: why I trusted so much to play the game and learn my current job; Little Mouse didn't want to be a pain on his party in any JOB.

bet you didnt play any other FF games huh

I would not be surprised that he let Venat do her things while he set out to find a way to fix EVERYTHING that was caused by Hydaelyn and Zodiark. Venat probably did told him/her but he declined both offer (Venat and Emet). I think the key was a prototype solution for merging the shards with the source. He probably also was working on something to merge back the soul together. But, we did find a way :P

The coolest twist of events ever seen in a game for me. You go through the whole game fighting the Ascians as a nobody, then later as the WoL, seeing them as the enemy and unworthy of any pity. Then you get to the end of Shadowbringers and Endwalker and discover that YOU, the player is a sundered shard of Azem. An Ascian (or ancient if you will). And the people you have been fighting the whole time were former colleages and friends from a lost age.

I only unlocked New Game+ to do Hildibrand again.

Miss my messed up buddy

I don't know how it's even possible to misinterpret Otis this much.

Please, do update 🙏🏼

Weird bird girl discovers Fermi Paradox, weird bird girl becomes the next filter. Also maybe call Azem "they", because Azem's gender is dependent on your character's gender. Ardbert was just my Masculine side.

Since you wanted a crazy insane theory: Shoebill is the creator of the hearth of Sabik. The ancients do not know where neither of the two appeared from. They appeared around the same time. And not even Metion could read his emotion. Saying that he is either the perfect being or has no tought. If he is indeed the perfect being then its just one inmortal bird capable of transversing stars that we see on all places and not multiple birds.

Being depress is natural but doing genocide because you were depress is simply evil. Just as hiding information that may potentially prevented a genocide is evil.

No... He's a villain, and there is a difference between antagonist and villain, all villans are antagonists, but not all antagonists are villains. You can't kill an inconprehensible number of people, chose to sacrifice even more to a dark god all while being aware and willing of what you are doing without being evil.

"How Endwalker FIXES Zenos" wdym, my boi was perfect from the begining!

I mean, at least she got more acknowledgment than Papalymo.

Based on my life experiences Metion was right. Just syaing.

She is such a sweetheart. One of the main reasons I suffered to grind for Starbird.

I think even if Hermes didnt sucumb to despair and talked meteion down from the despair and nihilism being sent by her sisters, those other entelekies are still out there. With or without Meteion, they would've sung their song of despair.

This is more of a character issue. Wuk Lamat got too much attentionk when she shouldve been dropped past half way. Urianger and Thancred are the best scions. They were wasted Alphinaud has been useless since Stormbloods end. I dont give Ali credit in EW. Because imo, what she said didn't matter or make sense. Krile was unneeded and honestly she didnt get enough. I dont find it believable to be connected to parents you didn't and dont know. The series also assumes all parents are good. I think touching someone you dont know is weird even if they are your offspring Yshtola has been obsolete. Graha is better than she is Graha was executed well here TLDR, its not a scions shouldve been left out, its that there was too much focus on Wuk Lamat. Its a shame bc stormblood had the best characters and execution. DT has same writer, yet DT is the worst

I know I’m super late to the party, but I agree. She didn’t do a single thing wrong. If she wasn’t tainted by her creator, I am 100% sure she wouldn’t have laid a finger on anybody or anything.

I've heard a lot of complaints about DT, but I had no problem whatsoever with taking a back seat for an expansion. After everything we've done, being the main character after we've saved the universe seems... Egotistical.