FILMMAKER REACTS: FINAL FANTASY XIV | [ALL TRAILERS!!] + [BREAKDOWN]

[@kaizammit]

Big discount for games, great offers, and limited time daily deals here at G2A 👉🏻: www.g2a.com/n/kai_filmmaker_reacts

[@unlimited971]

In the flame of truth, the falling blue light was simply mana. Or if you prefer ether Basically magical essence. When the big dragon charged its big attack it was charging the surrounding ether.

[@xialians]

The brightness is because who uploaded it recorded it using Reshade. you can tell by the filters.

[@ChaDMan97]

Should also look into dark souls cinematics.

[@chloekaftan]

i dont think its supposed to be that white, either your HDR settings are oversaturating it or the video uploader messed with it themselves.

[@chloekaftan]

@@unlimited971 to further explain, that scene where the falling blue light aka fragments of mana is falling across the land, its supposed to signify the rebirth of the land of eorzea with the return of mana to its aetherial sea, revitalizing the life of the realm to its original order. of course not all regions received this boon since all of the allagan ruins that also fell from the lesser moon of dalamud littered the land with tainted energies (evident by the giant mana crystal formations dotting eorzea, very obvious in mor dhona, particularly what used to be the carteneau flats), but most regions were blessed. edit: there were two kinds of meteors, one was the debris from the crumbling lesser moon of dalamud (the big red moon with the allagan seals embedded on it), and the other was Bahamut's skill "Teraflare" (which isnt even Bahamut's most powerful skill).

[@MrImjustaminorthreat]

13:55 "I like the music" meanwhile all the players holding back tears listening to Answers for the 500th time.

[@castoputa]

Also not holding back tears hehe

[@Novamancer]

Yeah..... answers hits different.

[@chloekaftan]

he wont know since he didnt experience the game...

[@MrImjustaminorthreat]

@@chloekaftan that's the point of my comment, it is such a good song on its own but to the people who have played the game it hits so much different because of all the meaning behind it.

[@nacidocoqui]

I... was not prepared for the feels train. Breath hitched, and eyes were brimming, had to come down here to make sure I wasn't the only one!

[@shadrsabirov6412]

i think they didn't use dialogue cause those characters are supposed to be you (the player's character)

[@voodooapostle]

Probably another reason they avoided dialogue is so that they didn't have to animate different mouth movements for different languages.

[@acgearsandarms1343]

Also the fact your player character is the strong, silent type in game. Everyone acknowledges it.

[@katarh]

@@acgearsandarms1343 (Nodders)

[@Nimi450]

Another reason is because they prefer visual telling to dialogues in cinematics. If you want dialogue and context, go play the game, is essentially what each of these Cutscenes are telling you.

[@Pmak]

All the main character can do is make hand gestures and nod :3

[@Mithrus]

14 legitimately has the best video game story i've ever experienced. Endwalker was the finally to a 10 year story and dawntrail was a the start of the next adventure. FF14's story is something I'll never forget and will be chasing that high for as long as i live.

[@DarkZodiacZZ]

14 has one of the best videogame villains ever. I will definately remember that he once lived.

[@oliverurbanik9647]

@@DarkZodiacZZ He is our friend... :(

[@timelessninja]

It's the same character through all the cutscenes, he just ages and changes weapons/armor throughout, though he is a placeholder for your own character. One thing about Final Fantasy 14 is that your same character can swap between classes and level up different classes. So you'll see with this he starts out as archer, goes to warrior, then Dragoon, Monk, Samurai, Dark Knight, Paladin, then finally Viper (the duel wield class). In the shadowbringers video, you can see him swapping between them in the fight with the angel enemy. Now, in game you can't swap mid fight/dungeon, but you can swap pretty much any other time.

[@Nimi450]

He was even given a lorefriendly name by the community too, Meteor Survivor. Which yes, is a midlander lore freindly name.

[@tylorhobbs8920]

@@Nimi450 Pretty sure the community name is Derplander. Meteor Survivor is actually derived from folks who dove through the code and found that name attached to him. It's a Dev name for the guy, and probably the closest thing to an official name he has.

[@Nimi450]

@@tylorhobbs8920 To me it's a bit of both some people told me they jokingly call him the Derplander like it's a surname, and others told me a logical name for him is Meteor Survivor since Hyurs have a tendancy to take name after significant events of their lives that chnage how they live.

[@chloekaftan]

@@tylorhobbs8920 i just like to think that hes Ardbert in an alternate timeline, makes me feel happy that hes doing well somewhere out there.

[@DSXtreme09]

@@chloekaftan I had the realization that if this is an alternative time Ardbert from the source, their name may ansteady be Albert, as remember, every first reflection of another character form the scource has a name that slightly differs from the original.

[@ArmoredPandaa]

Yea there is definetely something wrong with the flames of truth cinematic, it usually isn't that bright and pixelated.

[@Ferdy_Yuugitsune1040]

Definitely ! I have a saved video of it from few years ago and it was not that like that. Blame YT. ww xD

[@ShadeTrigger]

@@Ferdy_Yuugitsune1040 Flames of Truth is not an official trailer as it contains a cutscene from Coils of Bahamut. The uploaded put the cutscene at the end of the original trailer.

[@Ferdy_Yuugitsune1040]

@@ShadeTrigger NOTED！

[@KZorander]

I really wish people would stop putting the Coils version in these playlists.... and just stick to the opening cinematic from ARR itself.

[@chloekaftan]

@@KZorander as much as i like old man Louisoix Leveilleur, the music for that scene was all over the place. Nobuo Uematsu is a legend for making musical masterpieces but his incorporation of music into action scenes is pretty bad, Masayoshi Soken does it so much better in the expansions going forward with his excellent techniques of blending music together into Transcendent Works of Art. We are truly blessed to have Masayoshi Soken survive through his cancer and is now on remission, he is a treasure to this world.

[@GhostSquad09]

18:02 so the light being bad is exclusive to shadowbringers. That bluish light is Aether, which is basically life-energy.

[@Bardic_Knowledge]

Well, it's more imbalance is bad. Too much Light and too much Dark are both bad. It's just that Shadowbringers' story revolves around a place with too much Light.

[@DarkZodiacZZ]

@@Bardic_Knowledge Too much light -> nothing can live. Too much darkness -> nothing can die.

[@myoumyou90]

Shadowbringers is basically FF3 plot but instead of Darkness it's the Light.

[@Bardic_Knowledge]

@@myoumyou90 I mean, the Warriors of Darkness in 3 say that they fought their own Flood of Light in the past, so I'd say it's closer to getting to play a historical event of 3 than just being an inversion of 3.

[@catrianheir]

Every blind reactor gets the idea that Raubahn is a villain from the Heavensward trailer, and that hurts my friggin heart man. I mean I get why they think that, but he's a godsdamned hero! Also my favorite character.

[@AlleluiaElizabeth]

I mean he is a villain to his enemies, tbf. He knows how to dice some potatoes.

[@chloekaftan]

@@AlleluiaElizabeth too bad he didnt dice that Lolorito Popoto into french fries, that snark devil deserves much worse than what he got.

[@edwardking9359]

​@@chloekaftan He's ruthless, but he isn't entirely awful. He's actually been nothing but helpful since the whole heavensward incident.

[@cynthiahembree3957]

I mean he does look pretty ruthless in those scenes. They didn't have a proper chat with him like we did

[@pejman3]

The main character is always the same one since the bow/arrow to the dual wielding one, it's the player character. Since we can change class/jobs ingame the character in cinematics also does (as shown directly while in battle during the shadowbringer trailer)

[@snakkupakku]

I don't think anyone mentioned but a big reason there's a lack of dialogue in these (specifically for major characters) especially the earlier ones is these are the trailers for all regions of the game. They didn't start adding the trailer voices until later on and naturally as a consequence even for just narration they have to dub it for all the available audio languages: Japanese, English, French, German -- also China and Korea whose releases are separate, but also get the same cinematic trailers.

[@chloekaftan]

its also because the development of FFXIV had what is known as a "Technical Debt", where they downscaled the production of the game in order to deliver a product to the audience in a reasonable timeframe, this was especially evident with A Realm Reborn because they literally only had 18 months of work on this version of the game. Over time as they started to pick up their stride once more they started to reintroduce technologies that the game originally had back in, with motion capture, advanced camera work, custom animations that weren't just grabbed from an in-house library), better visual effects and graphical upgrades (considering this game was rebuilt with the same engine as FFXV it still has a lot of untapped potential under the bonnet/hood), particle effects, special cutscenes, and so on. but this took years to develop since they couldnt afford to delay their timetable, the memories of the 1.0 nightmare still haunted them to this day.

[@TertonSFM]

The people with animal ears/tails fall under what they call kemonomimi (literally "animal ears"), which is a more common thing in Japanese media compared to full on anthropomorphic characters. That being said, there are anthropomorphic races in game such as the lizard people (Mamool Ja) and lion woman (Hrothgar) in the Dawntrail trailer, but lorewise most of the other more beast-like races are usually persecuted due to their god's physical manifestations causing disaster and enthralling others.

[@clee5289]

Not a fan of the animal ears people. They look like cosplayers rather than a different race.

[@Runeknight101]

I legit hate that people include the Flames of truth version of the ARR vid instead of just End of an Era since it's such a ridiculous spoiler that requires game context to understand beyond the "OMG DBZ FIGHT WTF IS HAPPENING" and the original ending with the sacrifice is so much more impactful.

[@8BitCerberus]

100% this. And anytime I see reactors watching these if they watch End of an Era, there's always someone that chimes in saying they need to watch Flames of Truth. Like, no! Whether the person ever plans on playing the game, it's either a spoiler or it's completely out of context and cheapens the impact of the sacrifice.

[@lathyrusloon]

@@Runeknight101 same, it's visually cool sure but the emotional impact is mild compared to when you have the context of the coils.

[@castoputa]

My mind was blooooowwwwn it became my all time favourite game or media experience from that point on back in the day!

[@red5robb1]

If I had seen the flames of truth part before actually doing coils I'd have been so disappointed

[@chloekaftan]

as much as i like old man Louisoix Leveilleur, the music for that scene was all over the place. Nobuo Uematsu is a legend for making musical masterpieces but his incorporation of music into action scenes is pretty bad, Masayoshi Soken does it so much better in the expansions going forward with his excellent techniques of blending music together into Transcendent Works of Art. We are truly blessed to have Masayoshi Soken survive through his cancer and is now on remission, he is a treasure to this world.

[@imaninerrah3127]

A big part of these trailers is the teasing of new playable races, new "jobs" (classes), and locations. For example, the long camera view of the bunny girl in shadow bringers was when that race and job was added to the game. Later, those "flying lasers" is when the "sage" job was added to the game (that uses those). There is a lot of story that is sorta only makes sense to players. All that said, I had NO idea there was so much technical work in these. It's no secret that early in the game's life, they didn't have a lot of money. (Really early, they didn't have a huge budget for voice actors). You can see as the game gets bigger, more players, and more $$$, they get to stretch their legs. Awesome vid, thanks for making it!

[@MrKanooe]

I will describe these trailers as hype trailers, they don't really narrate a story, they're here to present you their titanic characters in many shape and form. it's not bad, it's rather good even, but it's a special approach.

[@alyssaphillips1744]

The character of each trailer is all the same person. He's called the warrior of the light, or the midlander(named as such in the first trailer). He's meant to represent you as the player. The fact that he has different weapons/armor in each trailer is meant to showcase the different jobs you can do.

[@WhatKindOfNameNow]

The trailer MC is also affectionately known as "Derplander" by the community. lol

[@cobbil]

His official name is Meteor.

[@thed4rknss673]

@@cobbil Meteor Survival actually, Meteor for short

[@prinstyrio0]

@@cobbil And we know him as John "Derplander" Fantasy

[@minilabyrinth]

Yeah each of these trailers is a massive expansion for the game. The main guy from the start is representing all of us, the player, he's like a default hume male. Throughout the trailers it showcases new jobs that will become available in that expansion, and thus the main guy gets new outfit/armor/job such as a Dragoon in Heavensward trailer, a samurai in Stormblood, a dark knight in shadowbringers (where he also rapidly swaps between his older jobs when fighting that evil angel), etc This is how the gameplay works, every character can learn all jobs and you can swap between them in-game

[@paine_inflicta]

With jobs, it's either showcasing new jobs, or older ones that are thematically relevant to the expansion or its setting - Heavensward, Dragoon was already available, but the job originates in the setting for the expansion. Stormblood, Samurai was new, Monk was an early job, but like Dragoon, originated from one of the locations for the expansion. Shadowbringers, the new classes were Dancer (showcased by bunny girl, which was also new) and Gunbreaker, (showcased by our ally Thancred) while WoL instead became the thematically relevant Dark Knight. Endwalker had WoL being Paladin, an old job, but showed off the new jobs with NPCs, Sage Alphinaud for the good guys, Reaper Zenos for the bad guys. Dawntrail gave us the WoL in new class Viper, and showcased the other job, Pictomancer through our ally Krile.

[@MacTaipan]

The Realm Reborn trailer is so damn fantastic, especially with the powerful music. It fits so perfectly. Nothing ever got me so hyped for a game like this trailer. And even after playing through the game, it still hits me every time I watch it.

[@xSaraxMxNeffx]

WHY DO YOU NEED DIALOGUE SO BADLY?! a film maker complaining about how hard a trailer leans on visual story telling is a take i wasnt expecting. as someone whos played and watched every bit of this other than 1.0; i dont even notice the lack of grunts and groans...its incredibly not necessary. especially with how PROMINENT THEY ARE IN GAME. @_@ id pay extra for a little less grunting.

[@myrany8407]

I used a fantasia to change the voice of my first character because I hated her combat voice so badly. SO I feel ya there.

[@Ferdy_Yuugitsune1040]

RACES INFO : - Rabbit ears peoples = Viera race = They are a race of hare-like humanoids who originally appeared in Final Fantasy 12 (FFXII) PS2, and one of the important playable character from it was Fran from Viera. I prefer they appeared as they should be like in FFXII because It is already Correct. - Lion peoples = Hrothgar race = they are a burly people of lionlike appearance. Lion people race first appeared in Final Fantasy 10 (FFX) PS2 which they were called Ronso. In FF14 Shadowbringer expansion, Ronso race also reappeared as the other name of Hrothgar race in an another world called "the first" where the MC (us, players) transported into. - Cat ears peoples = Mi'qote race = They are a race of hare-like humanoids of Final Fantasy 14 World. It's cat peoples of Final Fantasy 14, different than usual cat peoples you know. They exhibit bestial traits, some similar to the Mithra race of Final Fantasy XI (FF11). - The small/little peoples = Lalafell = They are a gnome-like race of FF14. it's FF14 version of gnome. They shares similarity with the Tarutaru race from Final Fantasy XI (FF11). There are two types of Lalafell. The Plainsfolk live in thatched-roof homes and have great hearing, and the Dunesfolk who live in the desert and herd animals. - Tall Elf-like peoples = Elezen = The Elezen are a characteristically very tall people, elf-like ears, long of limb and slender of build. They are also possessed of a somewhat extended lifespan in comparison to the Hyur. In FF11, these Elezen were called the Elvaan race - Human peoples = Hyur race = They are the most populous race in Eorzea FF14. In FF14 Shadowbringer expansion, on the world called the First, the Hyur race are called the Hume race. And Hume are a human race name in Final Fantasy XI. WEAPON AND MC INFO : - The GunBlade Weapon first appeared in Final Fantasy 8 (FFVIII) used my MC named Squall Leonheart and his rival Seifer Almasy. In Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age there was a Gunblade called Ras Algethi. - Warrior of Light is a recurring term in the Final Fantasy series since the first original Final Fantasy, referring to the player character. And in FF14 The player character is an adventurer in Eorzea during the Seventh Umbral Era who joins one of the three Grand Companies and becomes a key member of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn. - The main guy shown often are all the same person as the first trailer, but aging. The name is Meteo (the official name of the MC of FF14), and the Meteo doesn't talk in the game either, because the MC is us (players, we create the appearance and renaming Meteo in character creation). P.S : Squareenix (Was Squaresoft) known for make story telling only using sound effects, music, visual animation, and without voices (or grunts), for examples the 3D CGI of the original FF5, FF6, FF7, FF8, and FF9. It was their style at the time and I love it so much and i think it was amazing and more attractive. It makes me concentrate, thinking, and can fantasizing my own version of their voices in my mind (well, its Final Fantasy). So it felt extremely nostalgic when they did the same in FF14 trailers Flame of Truth, A Realm Reborn, and Storm Blood. You need to check FF8 and FF9 CGI Scenes or maybe only the openings) Not everything has to be voiced to do story telling, voicing should comes last if needed. (remember the impressive charlie chaplin 1915 film, The Johnstown Flood 1926 film, and Nosferatu 1922 film, those are real story telling arts).

[@DarkZodiacZZ]

If I remember correctly viera were also in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. Oh the good times in Ivalice.

[@kaala7939]

@@DarkZodiacZZ I was gonna say this but you beat me to it. 😂 Tactics Advance actually came out first too so their first appearance would have been Tactics, though ff12 would have been a bigger appearance.

[@Blackwing02]

12:30 "this is like Dynasty Warriors" As someone who took part in the Final Fantasy XIV 1.0 shutdown event (or at least tried to) .... yes.. yes it was. If you could stay connected long enough in this zone to fight that is.

[@Alxandear]

Woo-hoo! I've been waiting for this since you mentioned you had it recorded~ Let's gooooooo

[@kaizammit]

Sorry about the wait but I hope it will be worth it in the end, please let me know! Thank you so much for being apart of the community!

[@Alxandear]

​@@kaizammitNo problem at all! I love being a part of it and getting your reactions on everything. There was definitely something screwy with the video of some cinematics, it's not usually that bright. It's bright usually at times, but not *that* bright.

[@Theheadless1858]

Dawntrail is a new story. Shadowbringers and Endwalker were cataclysmic ending chapters to the first story. So everything about DT is lower in intensity as they are rebuilding. It seems this next story will take us on the trail of the sun/Azem (Azem our whole self, though you can think of it as a past life for simplicity’s sake).

[@VaultArchive72]

Azem is our fractured soul fully joined. Currently we have only I think 3 of the 13 fragments of Azem's soul which puts us on another level of power compared to everyone else who only has 1.

[@pipeisreal]

@@VaultArchive72 (big spoilers for ShB/EW for anyone reading and hasn't finished those) we have 9/14 compared to everyone else having 8/14. each rejoining/calamity is a +1 to our soul on the Source. so we start off with 1/14, since the Source also counts, and there are 13 reflections, hence 1/14. then 7 calamities later, we are now at 8/14. this is because everyone gets reincarnated in some form, which retains the combination of souls. then during the events of ShB, we rejoin with Ardbert, which now puts us at 9/14. there is one other character who is also at 9/14 however, being G'raha Tia. this is because his soul merged with that of his alternate timeline counterpart, who had gone through an additional calamity. in that timeline, everyone on the Source is at 9/14, hence when he migrated his soul to his body to the Source in our timeline, he retains his 9/14 rejoined soul. this does put him at a power level above others, though we are still stronger than him due to our ability to manipulate Dynamis, the Blessing of Light, pure combat experience, and other factors.

[@neotailz]

I'm not sure if the videos you watched are from the official Final Fantasy XIV channel, but if they aren't, maybe take a quick peek at their uploads and see if your thoughts on the lighting changes at all? Regardless, I've been waiting for this day ever since I found your channel!

[@kaizammit]

I believe they were, it was someones compiled list of them.

[@ShadeTrigger]

@@kaizammit Flames of Truth was not an official trailer as the last part is a cutscene that plays during Coils of Bahamut. The uploader combined the official trailer with the cutscene.

[@shineko79]

​@ShadeTrigger It was an official video, it's literally on the official FF14 channel. It just would not be considered a trailer, but just a cinematic

[@myrkrormr]

The guy with brown hair thats in every cinematic is the games representation of us as a player. he is the poster boy of 14 and his name is Meteor. Those cards are Levequests, basically just quests you can pick up from a guild. The tentacle monster is a Marbol, a staple monster of pretty much every FF. it has a move called Bad Breath which can cause every status effect in the game And yea, it was basically a Vision The super long dragon is Midgardsormr, the Dragon that breaks out of the Cocoon is Bahamut Those guys with spears are Dragoons. Known for their jumping abilities and effectiveness against dragons when youre a monk and that strong you dont need to breathe! Shadowbringers kinda brings the point home of Light isnt necessarily "good" and Darkness isnt necessarily "bad" Dont know if you noticed but in the Endwalker cinematic, each of the music tracks were the themes from the different expansions and base game Mi'qote are the cat people Viera are the bunny people Hrothgar are the FURRY cat people my theory is that they kept them mostly human like so they would be easier to animate? also people would have an easier time cosplaying them? if you make your races overly complicated, then creating gear for them is overly complicated. to this day, when viera and especially hrothgar wear headgear, its usually not visible, because most of the headgear isnt designed around their ears/headshape. where as for the other races, it can just be scaled up or down those two classes at the beginning: our boy Meteor is a Viper now, a dual wielding sword user that can connect the swords together at the pommel. and the short one with the colors is a Pictomancer, a mage that can paint things with magic into existence Dawntrail takes place after Endwalker. A Realm Reborn (2.0) to Endwalker is a 10 year journey for those of us who played from the beginning, some of us (me) even longer if you played since 1.0 Beta. Dawntrail is the beginning of a brand new chapter in the FFXIV story, hence why its more upbeat and laidback than the others.

[@thevonya3977]

He shall forever be known as Derplander to the veterans

[@TheNatix26]

Some of the community have started called him Meteor, this is not his name tho

[@pocketfluffal2134]

The Japanese community have named him Hiroshi

[@myrkrormr]

@@TheNatix26 ok, then what is his official name?

[@NakuruKouChannel]

i honestly think the trailer for Shadowbringers is the BEST trailer in all of media ever. the hype was so peak. i wonder if it's so good because of the context?

[@thomasdaniels2674]

I always love the look on the lalifel in the first trailer, looking back at 'you' like "come on, get up, do your job."

[@BloodyDIMISIS55]

exactly the reaction you get when someone AFKs and is about to get hit lol

[@AlleluiaElizabeth]

The music during the beginning of “flames of truth/realm reborn” might actually count as digetic kind of. The song is called answers and as the servers of 1.0 were getting ready to shutdown you could hear it echoing thru all the zones.

[@katarh]

The dragon from the first trailer that blasted the ship out of the sky is the father of all the other dragons you see in all the other trailers. Dragons are more or less neutral and on their own side in XIV but as you saw in the 6th one, some of them can be allies. Also: XIV is an MMO, but you can basically treat it as a single player game these days and ignore everyone around you and only play the game with NPCs in most dungeons. They did this because a lot of fans of Final Fantasy games said they did not want to play an MMO game.

[@lathyrusloon]

@@katarh I personally love the trusts, since it adds to the story immersion to have the characters involved right there besides you. Where before they felt useless at times because they always left the fighting to Meteor/us. I love replaying the duties with other players though.

[@Helbereth]

The main character (the basic looking dude with the stubble) is a representation of your character in the MMO. Commonly referred to as the Derplander, Meteor, or other various names, he represents the journey you go on through the main story as a silent protagonist. In dialogue scenes, your character never speaks, even when presented with dialogue options; they leave it open for you to voice them yourself, really. That's why he's very quiet in the trailers as well - it'd feel weird watching the trailer and hearing what's supposed to be your character saying much more than a few grunts.

[@Blazieth]

Important note about that first one: Those "cards" are just job listings for adventurers. They're not supposed to give you visions - the fact that you, the player character, get such visions is a rare special ability the player possesses and does not yet understand. In this case, the player is being represented by Mr. Generic McBrownHair. Take note - the game is an MMO, and thus fully online, but it is still very much a Final Fantasy game, and has a _strong_ Story aspect, and in fact the Main Story is largely a single-player experience, occasionally requiring you to enter multi-player dungeons, and even then, many of them let you go in with NPC party members instead. As for the second one... the part after the old guy fades to white is actually not part of this cinematic; or at least, not the trailer. It's an extra scene only revealed during a raid at what was, at the time, max level. In short, no one can remember what happened after that fade to white, so no one actually remembers _how_ that bigass dragon was beaten and the day saved, until it's revealed to us, and us alone, during that raid. You're also not wrong, in a way, about it being "The Final Cinematic". FF14 is infamous for its initial release being _GOD-AWFUL._ To the point where they actually closed the game down, rebuilt it from scratch, and re-released it. Thing is, they incorporated that into the story. That cinematic, up until the fade-to-white, played in-game at the moment the 1.0 servers shut down, concluding a story arc they'd been building for months beforehand. The story, at the start of the re-release, picks up five years later, with the cinematic of those heroes re-appearing after being vanished by the old guy.

[@WaterLockser]

One thing i had hoped you'd notice about Endwalkers trailer was how the soundtrack changed at certain parts of it to represent the previous expansions Heavensward theme for the dragon and Estinien Stormblood for the scene with Zenos whom you met in that expansion Shadowbringers briefly plays as it transitions from Graha to Y'sthola and then back the Footfalls (name of Endwalkers theme for the last bit)

[@shadowcat1606]

45:30 It may not be a single player game, but the core of this game, the experience at its heart is the main story campaign, spanning countless hours of story content. And at least for me, it's definitely one of the, if not THE, best story i have ever experienced in a video game. And i play lots of them.

[@tequilaselai]

Also, the Rocket Grandpa part of the ARR cinematic was stitched in and it's from the Coils of Bahamut raid series telling you what happened to Louisoix (aka Rocket Grandpa, aka the old elf man) and shows his transformation into Phoenix. It's never showed in the actual opening cinematic, it's only shown if you beat T11 of Coils.

[@thed4rknss673]

The game was trying to find their own identity in the first 2 expansions, that's why they're so much different from Shadow Bringers onwards, not only on cutscene, cinematics, but into game design as well

[@NiyaDym9262]

The Dawntrail expansion/trailer is supposed to be "hey you saved the world last expansion, have a vacation in a whole new place"

[@Ruukasu97]

flames of truth was the final cinematic that played when the servers shut down, after that they remade the game and called it a realm reborn. So they made the old world canon in a remake there are videos from players looking at the cacoon right before the servers went down, and all together got to watch the cinematic

[@myrkrormr]

Yup! I was there

[@IDayDream24]

Flames of Truth played when you beat 12th tier in Coils Raid, we got to see what happened to Louisoix. The trailer that played when servers shut down was cut off when he teleported the party away.

[@ShadeTrigger]

@@IDayDream24 Correct the official trailer doesn't include that cutscene.

[@chloekaftan]

the reason Dawntrail looks very positive themed is because it is, the reason why is because this expansion came out at the tail end of the Hydaelyn/Zodiark overarching story (a realm reborn > heavensward > stormblood > shadowbringers > endwalker) and it was an emotional rollercoaster for many people, especially those who started playing recently since they didnt have time to digest the story and emotions, the story got darker and darker and at some points became very grimdark, having lost so many loved ones, endured many hardships, and fought against all odds, you conclude the story standing at the top having won, but the victory feels hollow because so much sacrifice had to be made to achieve it. we are reminded to *"Look to those who walked before to Lead those who walk after"* as the everlasting burden of the Warrior of Light, but some began to feel emotionally drained due to it (having wept through hours of story i can intimately understand their plight). and after the disaster that was "World of Warcraft's Shadowlands" it became evident that continuing the never ending power-scaling trend of beating a bigger baddie than the last time all the time made it feel less genuine for wow players (especially when you go to beat a literal god only for the quest giver to give you the side eye like he expects you to bend over and spit shine his shoes). many wow players/refugees here will wholeheartedly agree with this. so FFXIV went down a different road, a fresh start to bring the story back to new beginnings, quite literally reminiscent of the story of A Realm Reborn for players who played since before the fall of dalamud (the permanent closure of the old 1.0 servers of FFXIV).

[@Tsuna_SoulSilver]

The EndWalker Trailer is what got me into FF14 and I am glad I did. It's my personal favourite as everything, especially the music (Footfalls) is the main reason why I gave it a try. It is still to this day that the Hydelyn/Zodiark story of FF14 my favourite story of all time in any media. The journey is long but it is a journey worth taking.

[@Rangar1997]

The game is an RPGMMO, which focuses more on story than online interactions. You can pretty much play 95% of the entire game alone if you want and just focus on story and personal enjoyment, or you can hook up with people in the community and still have the same experience. It's a game that's fairly easy to pick up, and still there's content that'll push you to your limits. In the end, much of what a player experiences is all very personal to them and what they want to get from the game. You can raid hard bosses, play Mahjong in the Golden Saucer all day, craft stuff, it's whatever the player really wants to experience that establishes the joy each player gets from the game.

[@Mage_man]

The dragon in the first trailer is Midgardsormr the father of Bahamut the dragon from the second trailer.

[@CloudDasherStudios]

50:15 When you make your damage type the ability to draw yourself doing their mom. (Never let the meme die.)

[@victorvicg]

Never get a picto mad. They can draw you preg

[@adamslosslessmusiccollection]

The first vision with the Midlander Hyur (human) is called the Echo. In the game’s lore, people have this Blessing so they have different gifts. Some people can see the past or future. You can also use it to predict what happens next in combat. The Echo also allows you to understand different languages as well as resisting the influence of being tempered/enthralled by Primal deities so you can defeat them.

[@KaraTak]

If i may add something up, there is not a lot of talks in their first trailers, cuz it's was, at this time, appropriate, since with lore you had the intel you needed + the lyrics of the song were important. And as many already said, you follow the same guy in all these trailers, it's representing the players in a way :)

[@Adu767]

Seeing the primary character (known as "Meteor" among the community, who is a stand-in for the player's custom character) evolve from trailer to trailer is one of the coolest things to me. You can actually see him visibly age, get deeper lines on the face, grow some facial hair, and get stronger with new weapons and styles. Because it's a stand-in for the character, he's meant to be a bit of a blank slate, which is why he is almost never given dialogue. For the races, almost all of the "non-human" races are just humans with accessory body parts like animal ears, horns, and tails. This is a very common thing with anime and anime-adjacent games like this, meant to keep the characters attractive and relatable from a human perspective. The full-blown cat people with fur and snouts are more of a recent addition. There are other beast-like races as well but those aren't playable.

[@AlleluiaElizabeth]

We also call him derplander. In fact that was the first nickname he got, with. Meteor only recently gaining any traction among English fans. Hadn’t heard anyone call him that in fandom till around the end of ShB

[@Adu767]

@@AlleluiaElizabeth Not to remind people of the passage of time, but ShB isn't recent. In fact, it was over 5 years ago now.

[@drayman101]

Okay, you talked about overexposure and bright light the entire video.... and I'm no filmmaker nor have much more than basic knowledge of photography and digital display tech.... but is your gamma set too high, or mine set too low? Cause it looked fine to me lol. It's also hilarious that you keep saying "why isn't there any dialogue?" because one of the big complaints (particularly from players coming from other MMOs) is how much reading there is and how many of the cutscenes are unvoiced, with dialogue boxes to read. Also the thought of "it's too daunting for me to try to get into it now" is exactly how I felt until my sister finally convinced me (and our mom) to play during COVID lockdowns... and despite the longevity of the franchise, every game (except some of the titles followed by a "-2", i.e. X-2, XIII-2, etc.) are completely self-contained narratives taking place in different worlds, and the only things connecting them to other titles in the series are recurring names, beings, enemies, themes and sometimes places, but usually used in a different way or reimagined to align with the particular title's world, often as an homage to the game in the series that originally introduced it. I've since gone on to play other games in the series, and it's been cool to see things I recognize from 14 in the games that predated it by years or decades. It's also not just you that doesn't really know what's going on in the trailers, us players don't either until after we start playing the expansion for the trailer, as they sort of highlight the themes and set the mood for the trailer... only after finishing the story and going back to watch it again does it fully make sense. Except the launch trailers, those are more direct and sometimes spoilery (especially the Shadowbringers one - they spoiled a major plot point, that was supposed to be a shocking revelation about a long-standing thing in the game's lore... and they just came out with it before it even launched, to a lot of backlash from the fans of the story) The narrative of 14 is a slow burn, but very worth the time to digest it, and you can play 3/4 of it for free.... have you heard of the Free Trial? (insert meme here.)

[@kaizammit]

A friend of mine has said he's got 4 months of life hours playing this game and told me to try it! When it's Over Exposed, you lose details in the whites, it's lost detail as they say. Today, the highlights tend to me much lower or brought down to fit with the rest of the image. You only go that bright or loss of information if it's a creative choice, it clearly was. Sounds like you had a good experience during the Covid times. Those were rare so hold on to that!

[@crimsonskies391]

im sorry but your obsession with dialogue was a bit much. sorry not trying to be negative but personally it annoyed me.

[@RosePosiepuddingpie]

Mood

[@Saykiata]

The brownhaired guy is a player character surrogate. He's standing in for you as the player, who might be one of the catpeople, elves, big blue guys, etc.

[@ninjafoxgamesgeekery]

You mentioned music's importance. You might also really enjoy Alex Moukala Music's reaction to these trailers. He's a music producer, so he's focusing on the story the music tells even with small aspects of the notes going up/down at key moments. The music director, Masayoshi Soken, has done an interview with him where he said his analysis was spot on with Shadowbringers and how he was trying to depict the emotions.

[@kaizammit]

That sounds interesting!

[@ChrisDeebo]

I can say the early trailers(First 2) did have that brightness problem but it became less once Heavensward rolled out. In Stormblood, the patch trailers actually got VERY good and by Shadowbringers someone finally convinced them that dialogue in the cinematics would enhance the trailer(My theory is whomever was in charge of Stormblood patch trailers was behind that decision).

[@dragontamer150]

Its the same guy throughout all the trailers, as he's the stand in for the player character who can be more then just human man, and because you can play every single class on one character, which he demonstrated in Shadowbringer by swapping, though we can't do that mid battle.

[@AlleluiaElizabeth]

I wish we could do that mid-battle. It’d be sick.

[@shamrockshnake1366]

oh, i wasnt expecting this

[@kaizammit]

I recorded it a while ago but never got round to editing it, here it is! Enjoy

[@JM-nothing-more]

​@@kaizammitit's kind of funny seeing the difference in your hairstyle from the current Space Marine 2 video to this one from a while ago

[@kaizammit]

That was my last haircut and it was in May. That's when I filmed all the trailers for this game.

[@leonidaskupler3673]

timestamps to help you guys out~ 00:00 intro 02:05 ffxiv classic trailer 10:12 ffxiv a realm reborn trailer 22:10 ffxiv heavensward trailer 27:57 ffxiv stormblood trailer 33:07 ffxiv shadowbringers trailer 39:49 ffxiv endwalker trailer 46:31 ffxiv dawntrail trailer 52:57 endwalker breakdown 1:23:49 outro

[@kaizammit]

You're a better chap than me fella haha 💪🏻👍🏻

[@balcanoy]

Good react! The light issue is defo the video you have there. I mean its usually bright but that vid is brighter than usual

[@samronin1141]

You're right towards the end of the Dawntrail trailer. These are all trailers for the upcoming expansions tot he game. So they show off new areas you will explore and new races and classes/jobs you can play as. Typically one new main hub city and two new classes per expansion. Although that may well change over some of them. I have only cleared the first main story arc and need to play a lot more yet. As far as the human bar ears thing that is also a very common thing in Anime etc. See the Neko type characters. I think it is so you avoid suggestions of them being too animal like even before you consider sub fandoms like Furries. Just look at Warcraft and their introduction of the Worgen where they are clearly fairly Werewolf like but without tails. In FF XIV you have the Mi'qote which are those with the vaguely cat like ears and tails and usually the classic slim figures. And the Viera were added later which have the very rabbit like ears. Then you have others like the Hrothgar which is the very big feline looking option which until Dawntrail only came in large beefy male types. Then they added a female version as seen in the trailer there.

[@samronin1141]

Also you seemed to miss some of the ADR in the Endwalker trailer. Saying about how she isn't reacting or making noise about taking the hit. You can hear her exhaling strained and somewhat pained. Sure they could have sold it more, but it was there but could be easily missed while discussing the film making side of it.

[@CantyCanadian]

I'm surprised there are still G2A sponsorships going around considering a lot of game devs flat out asked people to pirate their games instead of buying them off that site due to the amount of stolen credit card cashback the company causes.

[@65Reidlos]

1:03:34 these are twins that go back to day 1 of the game, they are very protective of each other but being the "young teens" of the group they can be a bit snippy with each other. The red one is very "let me at them, ill beat teh crap out of em" all the time lol the blue one is sorta that wise scholar before his time type

[@sirensoulegaming4158]

A good way to summarize how these trailers work for someone who HAS played the game, is that as players we are privy to information, and these trailers often build hype around "who is this person? Where are we going next?". Usually the games story gives you enough to go on to add 2 and 2 together, so when you see these things in the trailers for the next expansion, player hype builds up, even though dialogue is lacking. Like the Heavensward trailer for instance, players of FFXIV at the time would have a good idea what that giant towering city was even though not a single word was spoken, because of the snowy biome surrounding the city. For reference, only one area we could visit up to that point had snow in it, and lots of references to a city called "Ishgard" are made by people who were there, so players were like "ah yes, thats ishgard". The very edgy looking armor is also Dragoon Armor, and players of FFXIV at that time are acutely aware that the combat arts of the Dragoon (playable in A Realm Reborn) came from Ishgard, so seeing lots of these knights together more firmly cements where a lot of this next expansion takes place. Of course, to someone who is watching these trailers but hasn't played the game, very little is clear. So the short version really is, that these trailers were more made for existing players, to drum up hype, than people who hadn't played before.

[@LeoSiegfried]

Fun Fact Sam from Architects did the lyrics for this trailer 40:00

[@itsRakka]

Hi, I think the reason they don't put grunts in the trailers was VA related newer in game trailers have voices for returning actors

[@tyler5013]

The 2nd Flames of Truth trailer you watched is the one that dropped right as the original servers were shut down to explain why the world was destroyed and entice people to come back, the version with the old man dying required people to beat the 1st raid series when the game re-released

[@CelebrinL]

The lion lady (Hrothgar) at the end of the DT trailer is actually a different race than the cat-ears (Miqote) people. The male Hrothgar are also more bestial, moreso than the females imo. Edit: There is also a bestial canine race called the Lupin, though they aren't playable unfortunately.

[@saifis]

The no dialogue thing was a meta thing of the age, and the media its a set thing of a game especially when its an MMO, it'd be like having people say your flim is lacking because it lacks interactivity, that it takes them out of your flim because they can't make choices and change things in it.

[@brakthalas]

I think if you had re-watched the Shadowbringers trailer you would have put together that it is the same dude in every cinematic. I like this batch watching and picking one to analyze.

[@BananaMellor]

Coming in late so I won't say too much. One thing caught my ear, the bit about the scion's tattoos (archon marks) looking like facepaint (in the Endwalker trailer). It's actually an interesting point that they aren't 'blending in' with the skin, as they are not based around ink being injected into the skin. Well, even if they are they are presumably more rooted as a magic mark of sorts. We've never actually seen them applied or removed, though we did see a faked version fade when the magic was cut off. I presume the 'real' ones are applied and removed in a similar fashion, though they may very well last until the individual dies. I'm not sure how much they actually used the above as a guide when creating the animation but I had never even thought about it until you mentioned that it didn't quite look like an ink tattoo.

[@JayRhea]

1:11:17 the "tattoos" aren't traditionally placed as they would be in the real world where it's ink threaded into the skin. Its more akin to an "arcane stamp" that's magicked onto them to show they belong to a specific order of study.

[@RoastBeef-cr8iz]

Guy is WAAAAYYY to obsessed with having it all spoken out plainly for him. It's a T R A I L E R. You're here expecting it to be like a feature film the whole time when the basic idea is to show off the concepts and features of the game. It's all about the visuals. No point telling the story before you play it.

[@RosePosiepuddingpie]

Agreed. That sort of annoyed me a bit. I'm used to game trailers with no voice overs or even text. That's..kinda how a lot of game trailers go.

[@jdogzerosilverblade299]

think the first trailer is meant to be a preview of what the job entails. which would be cool as in a sort of clairvoyance magic in the cards. would also explain why its metal instead of just a contract paper.

[@Cole_Zulkowski]

this is the type of game where their storyline is something you can not pay attetion to but only watch in shock in awe and just enjoy with popcorn and a hot coca or hot coffee

[@Ajkkl21]

The thing people don't always get about FFXIV is that its a narrative driven rpg game first and mmo second.

[@ArtbyAna]

also I feel I should add: the red head with the red eyes and pointy cat ears is a Miqo'te. the lion lady is a different playable race, the Hrothgar. chibi peeps are lalafel, the elves are 'elezen', the bunny ish people are viera, and then there's hume (human - yes it's the same guy in each trailer), and rogedyn who are like... giants? ish. final fantasy 14 came from final fantasy 11, the other mmo, and miqo'te are the new name for the 'mithra', catgirls. only in 14 we got catboys not just catgirls. but it's an anime thing. :)

[@pejman3]

I wonder if we could consider the music in the 2nd trailer to be actually diegetic as during the end of the world event in the first version of FF14 the song basically played everywhere as the moon was slowly descending/crashing

[@DBfan12]

It’s weird hearing you complain about the lack of dialogue, when my favourite trailers are the ones without it XD I love the way they Show don’t Tell, and when they added dialogue it just took me out of it. Also, I’m not sure if it’s you’re computer, but I think the lighting looks fine? Like, when it’s bright it’s supposed to be bright.

[@devonm042690]

19:00 That version of the cutscene is the trailer for A Realm Reborn. Flames of Truth is a different version of the cutscene that's part of the end of A Realm Reborn.

[@tielcat]

This is an MMO that you can totally play alone, as in you don't need a group of friends or a guild or anything like that to clear content. You can join group stuff like dungeons or raids with random people thanks to the duty finder. Only on super hard stuff do you need a tight group. I play this solo all the time and I don't feel like missing out much. Hope you don't get discouraged cuz it's an MMO, it's a fun game to play! As for the dialogue issue, yeah, I guess it's easier when they tell you what's going on, but in my opinion, the visual storytelling is clear enough, or at least enticing enough, for us to get a clue or guess what's going on and want to see more. Hope you join us, trial to lvl 70 is free now :D

[@kaizammit]

You can play up until lvl 70 for free, wow, that's good.

[@KaldwinUnderscore]

1:02:27 "Very youthful looking, is that cause they're elves" I mean yes it's that, but it's also that they're both sixteen lmao

[@cynthiahembree3957]

True Elezen are so tall. Which is crazy because the twins are still the same height as my WoL lol

[@ghosttkeeper]

Yes, the brown haired guy you see in every cinematic is basically the main character, aka us - he represents the player's character. I imagine that is also largely why he doesn't talk in these (except the very first trailer). I don't really know why he was silent even while fighting though, I do agree in the previous trailers they should've given him at least SOME type of voice even just for the grunts, breathing etc. In-game it is also like this, the player character can select a voice but you will only hear it in battle or through emotes like /laugh or /yes. We can pick dialogue options, but our character does not talk. He also switches classes in the trailers (especially Shadowbringers is a good example of this, when he fights the angel-statue-looking enemy) because that is how Final Fantasy 14 works - you're not limited to just 1 class like in some other MMOs, you can freely switch from one class to another and level them all up. He has had a few different haircuts in the trailers as well, but I think he is still quite easy to spot since he's the only clearly important human with brown hair in the trailers. Though for those just discovering these trailers, it might be hard to realize that it is always the same character.

[@kjkj128]

Someone has probably explained this already, but the first trailer is actually for a different game you can't play anymore! The original ff14 (which released in about 2010) wasn't very well received and had huge problems. Everyone thought the game was a flop so the new person they hired to run the game decided to destroy the game (literally) and make a new ff14. That is what the second trailer is about, in universe the big moon that held the dragon thing was dropped onto the continent blowing up large sections of the world and killing thousands. A Realm Reborn, or 2.0 as some people call the new game is set 5 years later once the world has started to rebuild and you can still see leftovers of the destruction to this day. A very creative way to reboot a game imo. As for the over exposed look in the earlier trailers, I don't think that is supposed to be a lore thing. It was just a very popular style for game cinematics around that time. The only one I can see being story related is the Shadowbringers trailer, but that one looks closer to Endwalker than the earlier ones.

[@Gortash]

Much appreciated video

[@KAMI__KITSUNEE]

i just watched ur cyberpunk 2077 one last night!! i LOVE ffxiv more than anything icw to watch this!!

[@kaizammit]

I hope you enjoy the video and thank you for watching CyberPunk with me, that's awesome!!

[@KAMI__KITSUNEE]

@@kaizammit ❤️

[@UnstoppableSmooze]

I would also suggest watching the gameplay trailers as they have dialogue and are much more like traditional trailers

[@RydiaLS83]

yes, it is the same main character. you seen since the first Trailer. he suppose to be representing of your character going through all these expansion stories (Adventurers). we just call him. "World". lol

[@DTNNooby]

I only watched for the second trailer. that trailer was when they basically rebooted the whole game (v1.0 of FF14 was not popular at all) they actually had an ingame calamity event you can read about online but the trailer was both a send off and an introduction to "A Realm Reborn" which is basically where FF14 as it is today started.

[@SashaTheQwaser]

Time for some random trivia for @kaizammit : The dragon in the second trailer, Bahamut, has a measured wingspan of 12.88KM. That should provide a sense of scale.

[@SashaTheQwaser]

Also, the city in the Stormblood trailer is actually explorable in-game. Including the gigantic tower, which is actually a jumping puzzle. The sheer level of work they put into this is INSANE.

[@Zyrvaria]

Lovely video Kai, great breakdown (as always). I feel like I can give some context to all of these as I have been playing this game actively since A Realm Reborn. Before I do though I'd just like to say a word on how much I love this game, it is by far my favourite game story ever, it genuinely changed how I view the world around me. I'd highly recommend giving it a try. Warning: this comment ended up being WAY too long To start I'll give you the names of some of the races in FFXIV from what we saw prominently featured in the trailers We have our standard human type called Hyurs, the brown haired man you see throughout these trailers is called Meteor and he is a stand in for the player character. as the character you make is integral to the story of the mmo, but your character can be any of the 8 playable races so they went with the default human male character to be the representation of the player. Next up the chibi people: they are know as Lalafells. Then we have the cat-eared humans: they are the Miqo'te, and yeah they are basically just humans in cosplay. We have long-eared elves in the form of the Elezen. The bunny-eared humans are called Viera (and they are the longest living race in the setting, most races live to about 100, while Viera can live about 4-500 years). The lion looking lady you saw in dawntrail is one of the Hrothgar, they are basically our only animal looking playable race. Finally we have the lizard people you saw in dawntrail: the Mamool Ja, they have 3 primary clans who all look different, sometimes a child can be born that has two heads, who grow up to become massive and are way stronger too which leads to the massive guy you saw in the dawntrail trailer fighting Meteor. I left out some races (including my favourite one) as I don't think all of them are super relevant to the trailers themself And now moving on to the trailers themself in order of appearance: (I will try to avoid going too in-depth on these as that would make an already long comment, way too long) 1.0, the original release of the game: this trailer is very confusing yeah, it shows some big story moments for the world at large, like the dragons fighting the giant floating ships. I am not going to claim to perfectly understand everything in this trailer so I'm just gonna move on. A New Beginning: I am going out of order for the next two trailers. This trailer depicts an event called the "Calamity", it is what happened to the world of FFXIV at the moment when they shut the servers down to prepare for the 2.0 re-release of the game. The world was almost fully destroyed by the dragon seen in the trailer known as Bahamut, but somehow the world was saved, no one knew how (we get shown in the Flames of truth trailer). When the old man (Louisoix Leveilleur) teleported the main character and his companions he also sent them 5 years into the future when the world had mostly managed to rebuild to become "A Realm Reborn". Flames of Truth: this isn't actually a trailer, well okay it mostly is, but the last part after where Louisoix teleported Meteor and his companions away was only shown to us in a cutscene in the raid series that came out after the 2.0 re-release, where we delved into the mystery of what happened to Bahamut and Louisoix with his two grandchildren who we don't see in a trailer until Endwalker Back in order now for Heavensward: this trailer starts with the event that happened right before Heavensward starts, our character and our allies are framed for regicide and are forced to seek asylum in the nation of Ishgard, where as the trailer shows, we are then drawn into the 1000 year long war they have with the dragons, where they fight with a group of knights known as Dragoons, seen in the trailer either doing THE final fantasy dragoon pose on top of a really tall building, or jumping really high at dragons to skewer them with spears. A recurring character you see for the first time in a trailer here is also in both the Endwalker and Dawntrail trailers. That being Estinien, a white haired Elezen Dragoon (He's not easy to recognize here as he's wearing the "default" dragoon armour, he's the dragoon at 24:58 and 26:47), who ends up joining the main cast of characters towards the end of Shadowbringers. Generally speaking if you see someone with a spear who jumps really high they are most likely a dragoon. Fun note the man sitting in a jail cell that you called "villainous" is one of our allies who was also betrayed when we got framed for regicide Time for Stormblood: I don't have a lot of to say here, I think you nailed the fact that this was when they really started to build up the main characters (especially the player character) as being incredibly powerful. As you also said, this was while not the first time they expanded the world of FFXIV this was a massive increase to the size of the world. Bringing us to two occupied nations in Ala Mhigo which is where the trailer starts, and Doma which we don't see in the trailer. Instead of Doma we are shown the nation of Hingashi, a neutral isolationist party on the world stage. Foreigners are only allowed to come to the port city of Kugane for trade which is where the last part of the trailer takes place. Shadowbringers time: This trailer built a lot of intrigue at the time as we were seemingly fighting the Light, even though we were the Warrior of Light, I won't go to deeply into why that is but in essence, FFXIV's story is all about balance, too much of Light or Dark is a bad thing, and the events of Shadowbringers happened because of an excess of Light. as such you take up the mantle of Warrior of Darkness to try and stop a Calamity of Light. This was also the time Soken (the lead composer and sound director for the game) decided to move towards a new style of main theme for the expansions, doing a more rock/contemporary theme as opposed to the more orchestrated themes that were used previously Something very fun about this trailer is how Meteor uses the previous poster jobs in the trailer. Every expansion has 1 (or 2 in the case of Stormblood) poster job(s). The jobs he used are : Archer from the 1.0 trailer. Warrior (axe wielder) from A new Beginning/Flames of truth. Dragoon from Heavensward. Monk and Samurai from Stormblood. Before he changed right at the end into a Dark Knight (my main job

[@aleciaregister162]

at 1:16:00 The man in white is the father of the twins in red and blue earlier in the trailer, he's not evil per se; but he is dedicated to a course of action that is at cross purposes with the hero's group. And also desperate, b/c he thinks the path he's taking is the only way to save them (the twins) from the calamity that the hero's group is trying to stop. His agenda is escape, instead.

[@contagiousstorm]

That 2nd trailer you watched was actually played as they shut down the original game to remake it from scratch. They quite literally destroyed the world with an apocalyptic event to start over.

[@ExileTwilight]

Sort of, Flames of Truth is the altered version that you get when (nearly) finished with the Coils of Bahamut raid series

[@varadero146]

It happened! Great job, and nice breakdown :)

[@kaizammit]

Thank you so much for watching!

[@varadero146]

btw, you mentioned single player. This game's main story is mostly single player content (quests, cutscenes) doing the worldbuilding and character building. Even it being an MMO at core, you portrayed as main character in the game (unlike wow, for example), and other characters explained as adventurers, that help you on the way. Also many of those cinematic frames, or situations, recreated in game as cutscenes (in engine), but cinematic itself built that way so you can't track the story accurately, giving false leads. Anyway, if you have about 500 hours of spare time, you're welcome to try experience that game's story xD Being more than 10 years in the making as one chunk, making it sorta unique (even expansions here don't have that story "gap" like in other MMOs, and continuing what was built before)

[@katrinahubbard8478]

One thing you should know about Alisae and Alphinaud (young elves), they are twins. She is the more ready-to-battle while he is excellent in the debate and political arenas. Alisae herself NEVER reveals weakness, she never lets anyone hear her in pain, which is why they didn’t voice that but. For her to fall to the ground clutching her side after she tries to stand, that shows just how badly injured she was. The dynamic between her and Alphinaud is he is often way overprotective of her, to the point of almost being patronizing about it at times. This is also why his character is a support class, known as Sage. Basically a sage’s damage gives power to their healing and can even cause healing to a selected ally (damage to an enemy basically translating to a certain percentage of that healing). This is why she says “I can look after meself you know”, but because she’s actually very glad to see her brother and the Warrior of Light (whip is you), there’s no real bite to it. Almost like she’s just saying it because she’s trying to show him she is ok now without taking their focus off the battle and thereby possibly getting them killed. The avatar shown as the “main character” is basically the placeholderfor your avatar, whatever you make them look like. He/she is never voiced because the SE producer for XIV, Naoki Yoshida, wants you to use your own head canon to decide what they sound like. However your avatar does make sounds of exertion in fights in the game. I hope that clears up little bit that may not be immediately clear to someone who has T played the game yet

[@Null_Experis]

in the second trailer, the fight is between the Eorzean Alliance and the Garlean Empire. Pureblooded Garleans are incapable of using magic, so they developed advanced technology that allows them to mimic magic. They DO have guns and mechsuits and airships, but they're all somewhat clunky and slow.

[@lionhartwu6470]

It's probably been said but the bunny people are called veria and the chibby people are called lalafel and yes the character you see in all openings is the warrior of light and is the same guy each expansion gave him a new class so 1.0 he was an archer a A Realm Reborn he was a warrior in HW he became a dragoon in SB he became a Samurai in ShB he became a Dark Knight in EW he became a Paladin and in DT he became a Viper (new class that was added in DT) so yeah he was the same character from the beginning in 1.0

[@Kyukon-038]

The oddly suspicious close up of the bunny girl dancing with the discs? It doesn't hold plot relevance to the world, but instead that was the official announcement to us, the players of the Dancer Class, and Viera (Bunny eared) race. The reason the guy in the evil chair has a fake out cut in spinning motion before his actual reveal? Showing the scythe the second time he shows up was the official reveal of the reaper class.

[@VaktheFox]

"Nooo, I don't want to have visual storytelliiiing, I gotta have everything told to meeeee!"

[@thecadhouse3509]

FR, the guy's accessing content for people already in the know and questioning "why aren't they telling me anything". S'like bro, these are Expansion Trailers, the people watching them would already have the context necessary, so obviously the media isn't going to waste their time telling them what they already know. That's not a flaw in their design, that's just the design.

[@kaizammit]

@thecadhouse3509 you think they spend that kind of money to make them (trailers) just for a customer already in their ecosystem? That's not how marketing works .

[@edwardking9359]

​@kaizammit In this case it kinda is, though. These are trailers for the expansions, and you only reach those expansions after playing for a long time. These trailers aren't really meant to get new people into the base game, they're meant to hype up existing players into dropping 30 quid on the new expansion and keeping their subscription active. Excited existing players are also more likely to recommend the game to people, and FFXIV thrives on that word of mouth marketing more than most games do.

[@cynthiahembree3957]

@@kaizammit Yes actually they do. Both Shadowbringers and Endwalker trailers were a love letter to the playerbase. It's to hype up people who play the game. In fact since the story is told in chronological order it is advised new players do not watch the cinematics due to spoilers. It's also why they have the same characters in every trailer so people can geek out about the new class and their favorite character. You can think of it like cheering for your favorite football team.

[@Animus_Altia]

​​@@kaizammit There's also just the fact that people can be drawn into the story by the sheer mystery of all the clearly well-built and developed concepts and characters being teased at in all these trailers without explaining them. Of these trailers explained themselves too much they'd spoil a lot of great moments actually playing the game. Heck, there are aspects of some trailers like Endwalker that are outright deceptive of the true content of the expansion without ever lying. One can get hyped on grand spectacle like this and all the things you don't understand just as much if not moreso than if the trailers actively explained things.

[@eternalsummer8409]

Another less noticeable one with the endwalker trailer, the cloaked man near the end, is one of only a few characters who look directly forward and centered mid screen, everyone else except him and the final guy are looking or angled slightly left or right

[@sweeney472]

Love all these trailers! The guy in the centre of all these trailers effectively represents you as the character. 1.0 was obviously the original game but it landed with pretty bad reception, lots of issues plagued the launch of the game so they brought in new people to basically recreate the game and relaunch it with A Realm Reborn. The trailer with the big dragon in flames of truth was basically how they "destroyed" the world to launch the "Realm Reborn". The big red orb that the dragon burst from was visible in game leading up to the servers shutting down, at which point people were greeted with the new trailer. On your point about Shadowbringers and light being poisonous... Short version Light and Dark exist, there's effectively a balance, but there are worlds consumed fully by Light or Dark. In Shadowbringers you effectively end up where Light is dominant and in effect you bring back the dark (hence, shadowbringers) to bring it back to balance. One thing you might now notice looking back at the Shadowbringers trailer is that the character effectively 'cycles' through all of the job/classes in order of the previous trailers to try and solve his problem with the Angel type enemy. Starting with Bard from 1.0, Warrior from ARR, Dragoon from Heavensward, Monk & Samurai from Stormblood, before settling on Dark Knight to beat his foe. The guy with the Scythe is the same guy you have a showdown with in the Shadowbringers Trailer, he has a massive crush on us! 🤣. You can effectively play the game single player now, you can get NPC allies to do all the dungeons you need to do and later on, those NPCs are the supporting characters of the story which you see in the trailers. Endwalker was the end of a story arc going back to A Realm Reborn. Dawntrail is our beach holiday, hence the cheery nature of the trailer 😄. Obviously, not everything goes to plan! Around, I think it was about 2021, FFXIV got a large influx of players. A competing MMO (World of Warcraft) was hit with various issues, their worse expansion possibly ever and loads of wider issues around staff welfare, sexism and MUCH worse with their developer & publisher Activision Blizzard. I suspect it gave them a huge injection of income which I think is reflected somewhat in the improved quality for Endwalker and Dawntrail. Bit of trivia... The two white haired characters are Alisaie (red clothing, female) and Alphinaud (blue clothing, male). They're the grandchildren of the powerful wizard guy who sacrifices himself in the ARR trailer and their father is the white haired elf-eared character that that the cat woman talks to later in the trailer. Been expecting this video since you did the ShB trailer. Good stuff as always!

[@taldir5228]

Actually you can complete most content alone or with npcs if you don't want to play it like typical online game. There is hundreds of hours of story told through dialogue and cutscenes so it doesn't feel like your typical online game

[@timelessninja]

I've been waiting for this 😃😃

[@kaizammit]

I hope you enjoy the video! Sorry about the wait.

[@timelessninja]

@@kaizammit No need to apologize, I really appreciate your insight into these trailers.

[@RitzyBusiness]

The games story is single player, definitely worth a go even if youre not into multiplayer games. Some older content requires cooperating with other players but most content does not.

[@shinobi2424]

The lore reason why some of the races look more humanoid is because the humans were really in to them and eventually their races slowly became what they are now. FFXI has some of the original designs and they are more animalistic in that game.

[@sakon5147]

I really enjoyed your cold viewing from a Filmmaker standpoint. As stated by other comments, the cinematics are typically with expansions, or major points in the game for things like Flames of Truth. The great thing you point out in the early cinematics is how slightly off things are, this actually coincides with the amazing (def look up the Noclip documentary on it sometime, if interested, well worth the watch ) IRL struggles and story that the game itself went through as the game, the players, and dev team were finding their footing with FF14. Also as said the guy in all the trailers is the same guy, and the player stand in, loveably nicknamed Derplander, hence why the major lacking in the voice department. You as the player are the voice. Also they did a VA and voice update patch from 1.0 to 2.0. The expansion cinematics are there to hype new jobs, characters and locals, they tend to focus more on the game atmosphere, world building, and sneak peak into the new content coming 6-12 months into the future from when those trailers released. In game story cinematics are where you find the grunts and groans till the later expansion cinematics when they really nail down their story and trailer formula. You see the Launch Cinematic with the cards was for a game that had high hopes and a lot of problems. The A Realm Reborn (ARR) Cinematic was when the devs literally deleted the old game world (in universe and in real life) and started over and rebuilt the whole game, still some off things with the cinematic but they were def finding their groove. Flames of Truth was a special Cinematic after beating the ARR final boss basically, filling in information on what happened to the world. Going forward the cinematics and game find their identity and the quality and story just keeps getting (mostly) better. Heaven's Ward and Stormblood are better and the game has found its feet and identity with some slips here and there, Shadowbringers and Endwalker are so good its ridiculous, the story and game now has peaked and is wrapping up and concluding 10 years of growth, the Journey of the players and devs in an epic culmination. Dawntrail is a new start in the Journey, a fresh story after all this time while retaining the lessons learned over time. The fact that you find the "flaws" especially in the early stuff tells the irl story alongside the improved visual story telling along with the better sound mixing and grandiose feel that the trailers and game kept improving upon. I would say as daunting as it is, 14s story is well worth the play through if you have the time and inclination.

[@kaizammit]

Thank you for watching and for commenting ✌🏻. Nice lengthy boy that.

[@sakon5147]

@@kaizammit Haha ya, sorry bout the book I left ya!

[@sebastiancanaba3516]

15:00 "I feel like this is the final ever cinematic, like the final boss" oooh, no this is the intro to the game