I quit WoW and played FFXIV for 100 days - Here's my thoughts so far

7 months ago, I took a chance on FFXIV. Turns out it changed my life.
I've started my first playthrough of Final Fantasy XIV over on Twitch. I hope some of you will join me on this adventure!
Will be streamed LIVE at: / justruss
VODs will be uploaded here: / @justrussvods
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🖤Discord / discord
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0:00 Thoughts on MSQ so far [SPOILERS]
11:30 Managing Expectations
14:25 Everything I love (and hate) about FFXIV
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Business Contact: [e-mail]

[@JustRuss]

Yo guys, I know the channel isn't yet up to speed but I wanted to post this one off the cuff to share my thoughts after 100+ play sessions. Once agian, this video is as much for me to look back on as it is for you guys! I hope you enjoy my blabbering. See you in the comments and the streams ❤

[@ridleyroid9060]

wow to FF to variety streamer pipeline is real.

[@nobodyspecial690]

FF being treated like the rehab center for wow streamers to get into whatever they want is a mood

[@k.vn.k]

Rehab center 😂😂😂😂 for what? Copium?

[@Kozmokast]

⁠@@k.vn.k considering how I’ve seen WoW players describe things, it’s 100% a rehab to fix the copium addiction for that game.

[@bakacdaz]

If I remembered correctly Yoshi-P himself once a WoW player so he might already know what people like about it and what people hate about it. (Not sure about he played WoW but he admid that FFXIV 2.0 is inspired by WoW)

[@Sekai420]

@@bakacdaz Yoshi P forced the entire development team to play WoW and used what they loved and hated and built a game. That's what 2.0 (A Realm Reborn) is.

[@Vosenbergen]

Always nice to see the perspective of a really seasoned WoW player especially after really giving XIV such a thorough dive.

[@JustRuss]

Yep! I'm definitely in no place to give a full review yet (or even close to it) - but I like to document my thoughts and feelings along the way to look back on when it comes time to make "that vid" that all creators do eventually haha

[@ExceedProduction]

You are doing the exact right thing: having fun your own way. Immerse, experience, hear, feel, think.

[@EbefrenRevo]

shut up.

[@TeusBael]

@@EbefrenRevo the f is ur problem bro XD

[@EbefrenRevo]

@@TeusBael people like you are my problem.

[@bendonatier]

Heavansward is interesting, because to me it ages like a fine wine. Even ignoring the patches, the parts of the story that hit make up the back bone thematically in a way that just grows as you push through the game. If ARR is where you fall in love with the world, Hevansward ia where you fall in love with the storytelling. The patches help, but so does distance.

[@JustRuss]

This is a really nice way to put it!

[@Jonnnna19]

With Heavensward you now get loads more talking cut scenes which really help with the story telling for me.

[@Experiment.626]

I’m also a 20 year wow vet that switched and I absolutely loved a realm reborn and I’m doing the game the same way you are doing it. msq then blues and raids and I’m also at the end of heavensward and I’ve been absolutely loving everything

[@JustRuss]

That's awesome! Love to hear it!

[@sammicoporsammicopor]

Its fun, isnt it? I can easily spend hours farming for stuff to sell on the market board. You might want to buy crystal clusters on the market board before dawntrail, they are going to be expensive after that game drops. By the way, you can farm crystal clusters but I recommend doing dungeons or farming something or even fishing to wait until the node or tree spawns while you are keeping busy. The nodes/trees to farm with miner & botanist are in mor dhona at 1 am, 5 am, 3 am eorzean time & the mining nodes spawn every 1 pm, 5 pm, 7 pm at summerford farms in la noscea & then 9 pm in mor dhona Happy hunting. Also try to sell a few things to see if they sale on the market board & go from there if it sells. I also forgot to mention, to see the special nodes you need to activate truth of the mountains/forests after the specified time. I would say wait five eorzean time ingame minutes, it will only take 6 seconds

[@gyderian9435]

Do the raids at the end of each expansion for best experience imho, maybe thats what you meant but wasn't clear 😊

[@Stoke3847]

15000+ hour wow player, played through a ban, private servers, new account, hardcore pvp and tons of raiding in wotlk...just gotten lost with wow over and over again. ff14 feels so inviting and the community of ff14 is so so considerate and thoughtful. You can tell how chill the player base is when a new player pops into the duty que and watches all the cutscenes and not a single complaint.

[@JustRuss]

Hahaha love that you are so on board with ff14 after so many hours in WoW. A lot of WoW players, especially long time ones, really struggle with the whole sunk-cost idea of switching over!

[@Stoke3847]

@@JustRuss I think it is a lot to do with what we've grown to be familiar with. I personally hate the movement of characters compared to WoW. Jumping/strafing and casting instant spells and sliding everywhere is just...bad looking. That and the 3 year long GCD....invisible walls EVERYWHERE compared. Just stuff to get used to. For me, that made it very hard to get into. That and no City Raids, Faction Wars/WPVP. Its just a different game altogether. Cant go in thinking WoW replacement, go in thinking youre in a complete new universe and reset what youre used to. Up to WoTLK, WoW is still my favorite. But...FF14 ran STRIDES past wow since.

[@benoitnoel100]

love the fact that almost every player will get "mad" if someone pull early while someone watch a cutscene xD. it rarely happens too which is really nice !

[@ferndiesel]

Aye! In fact, more often than not, people have a habit of "protecting" cutscene watchers, saying stuff like "hey guys, we have a first timer in our alliance. Pls don't pull the boss" and everyone is happy to wait

[@TheBachKornett]

Love the fresh opinions, the Haurchefant closure thing is totally valid, and everything in here is totally fine. Always be yourself and honest with the game and the community. Don't feel bad about not liking something you should, and vise versa.

[@JustRuss]

Thanks for the advice :D I try to stay true to myself the best I can

[@XieRH1988]

The gripe you had about how the 3.0 bossfight felt anticlimatic due to the boss dying so fast even at minimum iLevel is due to how the job kits and stat numbers change every expansion, but they don’t adjust older content to compensate. There's often a power creep which causes current job kits to become overpowered against older content. Even older Ultimate fights (the hardest endgame content) become easier to clear with new expansions because of the changes to the stats and job kits. And not too long ago there was also an issue of the 6.0 final boss dying too fast because it already got powercrept by the latest gear so story newbies going in with endgame-kitted veterans see the boss HP go down unnaturally fast.

[@JustRuss]

That makes a lot of sense actually, thanks!

[@warllockmasterasd9142]

I mean the original EX's from ARR are so precise that they get nerfed when brought to Unreal.

[@cassiusbright1062]

It should also be mentioned that Thordan normal was always a bit of a joke, even when it was brand new. It was always undertuned and potency buffs over the years completely trivialized it even further even on min ilvl. Thankfully all the other capstone trials are bangers, so there's that at least.

[@avyuir]

Regarding tab targeting, it is pretty bad if you have left it on default with no changes These changes can be made under Character Configuration and then Control Settings: Target Tab: I recommend changing the tab targeting to Type 2: Cone if you haven't already instead of Type 1: Ignore Depth Filters Tab: Change your target filter settings to aggroing enemies only when weapon is both drawn and sheathed. Hopefully that helps a little bit, I noticed when I changed those settings it brought it closer in line with how WoWs tab targeting feels but it definitely is not perfect

[@WarMonkeyPlays]

Beat me to the punch! I remember starting up FF14 and going - "wow this tab targeting is a mess" but changing those settings does significant improve it.

[@challengerdrakava1198]

I left WoW after 19 years to play FF14, best decision of my life in mmo-gaming.

[@JustRuss]

Definitely not the first, nor the last person I'll hear say that! I'm glad!

[@embryant1583]

Same here! I left in October and still loving it. I'm apprehensive about the next WoW expac, I feel I wont be as emotionally invested in it as FFxiv but willing to give it a shot at least.....but I can see me sticking with ffxiv for a long time

[@brandoncomer6492]

interesting take. I play both and while I enjoy FFXIV it is a mechanically inferior game to a rather large degree

[@ganjabear1892]

@@brandoncomer6492what makes you say that? I’ve been off wow about 2/3 years. Was disappointed by pvp balance for shadow loads and same old bgs with just new skins. Idk and even after running the same dungeons and heroics over and over. Raids were meh. Maybe I’m just tired of mmos but I do miss wow combat. But I’m also tired of so many spells and buttons and hotkeys. I like in Diablo or Destiny 2 etc obviously lacking the mmo side aspects, I like less buttons to relax. Not as big on rotation etc. miss wow world tho

[@brandoncomer6492]

​@@ganjabear1892 wows combat and scripting engine is far more advanced and performative. FFXIV uses a rudimentary combat engine heavily tied to a server tick cycle and extremely linear design scripting. It's comparatively unresponsive and simplistic. Just as an example consider M+ dungeons in WoW and how involved the various mechanics work in concert that require players to use kicks, CCs, AoE interrupts, etc. Nothing like that exists in FFXIV, and nothing like that can exist in FFXIV because the combat engine simply cannot handle the performative requirements that come along with it. Even encounters in FFXIV follow a strictly time script, the scripting engine doesn't allow for any sort of dynamic mechanics in the way WoW can.

[@25xxfrostxx]

ARR isn't "bad", it's just a side effect of the development where they had to rebuild the game from the ground up and then buy time for the team to make Heavensward. That resulted in the very long patch cycle and quest marathon between ARR and HW. It gets slow at times but the entire thing is packed with very important world building information, some you don't even realize was set up until much farther down the road. I have never played a game with music I enjoyed more than 14. In ARR the cities were the only places with night themes, outside it was just the sound of the wind, bugs, and birds at night. Then in Heavensward Soken went to a light piano version of the day theme. Then later... he learned to weaponize it.

[@leesakowski790]

Once you finished ARR "base" there were 100 MSQ quests you had to complete to be ready for Heavensward. 100 quests, already at max level, that felt like a lot of wasted effort. That is what killed it for a lot of people with ARR. I rolled a new character after Heavensward came out and I was already at nearly max level from the pre-Heavensward quests before even starting Heavensward.

[@ButASword]

The why or how of something is irrelevant to whether or not the result is good or bad. It may grant perspective or create a more sympathetic approach, but understanding the why of something doesn’t make it a more enjoyable experience.

[@guifmurb]

thats also all subjective. I like ARR and I play the game for 10 years :)

[@KyouTGD]

I played 3.0's ARR, and recently played through it again just to have another character. Even back then I liked it, but most of the parts I do remember feeling like a drag were removed. Vishap and Rhitatyn are two of my favorite changes. Those two fights are much more fun.

[@brandoncomer6492]

ARR is pretty bad, some of yall are in deep denial.

[@haramichiyo]

Haurchefant broke me. He, Aymeric and Estinien are my boys (I'm an Elezen fan to the highest degree). My friends logged on just after i had run the dungeon and watched the cutscene and they could hear the emotion in my voice when I said hi. I actually love the Heavensward expansion, it's right up there for me. But that is mostly because it's all elves and dragons, I'm a very easy lady to please

[@benoitnoel100]

there is no other game that brought me to tears. this game is the only one that, not once, not twice, but at the VERY least 3 times made me shed tears... i dont know where you are currently, but trust me the story gets even better as the expac goes on. you get more and more invested and every twist and dramatic event play right in your feeling... love that game to death

[@haramichiyo]

@@benoitnoel100 I finished the MSQ a few months ago. Bit I completely agree, I've never played a game that makes you feel the way this one does. I was simply relating to what Russ had written as to keep my comment spoiler free 😊

[@jimi_jams]

Once Thordan has done his ultimate attack on normal, he's expended all his power and because he's not a combatant at all, he spends the last 10% just flailing pathetically (he's visibly winded and has a damage down debuff on him). The Thordan EX fight is a different story, you get the challenge you crave there, and is one of my favourite fights in the game.

[@carolinemccall6748]

I came from 7 years of ESO. I started trial with AuRa man/Dragoon and ADD, so I kind of tried a bunch of stuff, crafted, fishing, etc. ESO story isn't front and center and actually isn't really required to enjoy the game. So when I finally realized I left the MSQ story sit, I finished all the way to Shadowbringers and waited for Endwalker to drop. I saw the male Viera and instantly bought and subscribed. I made a bunny boy ninja and ran through the game (to date) in one big gulp. It made more sense since I wasn't trying to remember who and what as much. ARR became where I really looked at the Scions since I knew where they would go and do. I felt more a part of the team Heavensward on and felt more of the emotions. I can't imagine trying to do this all with people watching and interacting. Glad you are having fun. One thing I wish I thought of when I started was leveling similar jobs together so I didn't have to hold onto or repurchase a ton of gear. Running Dancer, Machinist and Bard, swapping between to level was a blast and made it less grindy.

[@ElixarMari]

Can't wait for him to reach the start of Stormblood and we get the 300 days video

[@JustRuss]

LMAO

[@vinh1360]

Stormblood took me almost a month to beat playing casually. About to start shadowbringers now.

[@rambogodofwar9158]

​@vinh1360 shadowbringers is awsome

[@jarededwards7018]

been loving the vods man, keep posting em! its fun to live vicariously through them. and yeah, i think HW gets its reputation of being amazing from the 3.1-3.3 story

[@JustRuss]

I will do! Trying to keep that as up to date as I can!

[@MrDavid01228]

Yea, I have a feeling when he actually truly finishes the HW storyline he will like it a lot more. 3.0 really is just a breath before the dive

[@GypsyComet]

If you haven't done the Tribes at all, they are frequently a good window into their zones as world building. The Vath in Dravania are my favorite in HW.

[@JustRuss]

Ooooh i love the Vath so far but i've not done any tribe stuff

[@Xemvii]

@@JustRuss You should, its good exp, like a quarter of your exp bar for just doing daily tribe quests that are in range of your jobs level.

[@arindyl8938]

Thanks for the video, glad to hear your thoughts! I live in California so its challenging to catch your twitch streams, though I try! But its really nice to catch up on vods/hear your thoughts on youtube. I'm glad you like blind raiding - if you form your own static, you can continue to do that throughout your FFXIV raiding career (and play it any way you want, tbh, there will always be 7 other people who like the idea!) My son plays on a blind raid team, they just completed the latest raid tier. It's an extra challenge on top of already challenging content (I like my guides, please and thank you!) but its absolutely there for those who want it!

[@mikamischief1239]

Ahh a fellow ARR enjoyer! ^^ I don't like telling sprouts to "bear with" It because it's so much rich lore being passed out that will shape a good bit of the story to come. I also agree that fantasy Catholics wasn't as peak as folks likely remember, but I don't touch that point unless they try arguing down ARR at me lol. Best of luck moving forward!

[@Alissandre_Iskander]

I agree. ARR gets such a bad rap for being a slog when this is where most of the world and character building/establishing takes place.

[@Omegeddon]

@@Alissandre_Iskander It picks up once you get to the Primal fights

[@sircaballero]

I don’t think ARR is bad, it’s just the least good. The least good FF14 expansion is still not bad. The only parts I’d consider bad would be the VERY start where you’re killing squirrels and ladybugs, and the pacing of some of the postgame stuff. In the context of rebuilding the game after the figurative and literal calamity of 1.0, it’s nothing short of exceptional

[@autumneagle]

What really sold me on ARR was the small connections. A lot of the background characters, even ones you couldn't interact with but popped up with char bubbles when you got near them, ended up becoming recurring and eventually graduated into their own stories. We get a couple Scions out of it and a really creepy boss fight. Really won me over early especially since the Scion/Ascian/Hydaelin/WoL thing at first really didn't. It felt like I was just a clean up guy- the only person who could be around Primals without getting turned so it was just on me to do the thing but Lahabrea and subordinates were SO CAMPY at first. All that said, having finished the whole game now, I am completely enamored with my Scion family and really appreciate the Ascian for the characters they are

[@HannachiMariachi]

Really love your vibe when talking about the game and I think your approach to playing is lovely and way closer to what I experienced on my first playthrough than when a streamer just hyperfocuses the msq and doesn't engage much beyond it. I think both you and viewers will get a lot more out of it that way. Also, love to see a fellow ARR appreciater :3 Only been watching some of the highlight vids but I might check out the stream sometime!

[@JustRuss]

Love to hear that! Swing by the stream some time for sure! Lots of friendly faces over there

[@BaithNa]

That tier list is going to be spicy I hope you do one after every expansion

[@JustRuss]

That's the plan! :D

[@jasongentry6595]

Having only found your channel and stream recently im loving how much your actually involved wifh the story vs some other content creators who will enjoy the story but they dont do the kind of discussions you will about things. Thank you for putting yourself out there and taking the chats abuse lol.

[@JustRuss]

Hahah a knight lives to serve o7

[@mysterycookie_]

Welcome to the game 😊 10 year XIV vet here. Subbed so I can watch your journey through this amazing game. Really excited to see your perspective through this story and raids 😁 Endwalker ties everything in the story together phenomenally, the trials/raids are a blast to play in, the music is gut wrenchingly beautiful, and now is perfect time to start since the new story about to begin 😁 enjoy!!

[@JustRuss]

Thanks!

[@Tolly7249]

Oh your videos on the Bloody Banquet and The Vault are gonna be something alright!

[@JustRuss]

Haha yep! Is it weird that I'm looking forward to watching those back myself? :P

[@Tolly7249]

@@JustRuss I don't think so! Those were absolutely the story beats that make this game what it is. They're impressive for any RPG, let alone an MMORPG!

[@kaala7939]

@@JustRuss sounds like you are on your way to becoming an emotional vampire too. 😂

[@Kikkia2018]

I think WoW players have an easier time getting through ARR (I personally enjoyed it too, but I have only been playing WoW since Cata - I was too young for the internet during Vanilla lol) because we're used to the typical MMO "go kill 10 bears" fetch quest. My friends who hated ARR have not played WoW or any other MMO - for them, ARR was the roadblock they had to skip in order to enjoy the game, and they did end up enjoying HW onward after I bought skips for them. I even paid for a month sub for one of them since they were questioning the monthly cost, and now they pay their sub every month just to stand around in Limsa and look pretty lol. Personally, the FFXIV story is still the best story I've ever read / watched in my life so far. That might be a stretch, but I think one of the reasons I love it so much is the journey. It's not only one expansion and move on (as you've probably already noticed ARR to HW), the story keeps going and evolving and the friends we've made - and lost - along the way are there with us

[@gyderian9435]

I can second this, played wow from vanilla to shadowlands and jumped to ffxiv and loved every bit from the start. Then I found out about all the arr hate online lol 😅

[@gyderian9435]

And yes, definitely the best journey I've ever been on, and I've travelled the (real) world quite a bit 😊

[@WoWRefugee]

It's been a great journey watching you. I've even felt the urge to go back amd experience some content again and even try some I never did because of watching you go through it all. Keep it up and as long as your enjoying yourself... that's all that matters! 🙂

[@JustRuss]

Awesome! Glad I could inspire going back to some of those things

[@SicilianoFilms]

I've been popping in and out of your videos watching your journey. Take your time and enjoy it! I'm hoping in Dawntrail to find a new raid team that wants to go back and do everything from the beginning.

[@JustRuss]

Thank you I am! Good luck with your new team - it's definitely worth it!

[@razriga]

I remember really loving ARR, it was great to just explore the world and do whatever I wanted. I personally think that ARR struggle with pacing becasue some sections just really slowed down the pace to the point that the MSQ wasn't that interesting.

[@VashimuXIV]

I haven’t had the opportunity to tune into the streams as much as I would want to Russ, but I am delighted to hear that you are still having a good time with the game, and have fostered a good way to experience more than purely the MSQ. I know raiding isn’t everyone’s jam, I am not usually one for doing blind savage myself, but that’s genuinely really nice to see that you’re having a nice time doing those things with your community. It makes me wish I took my time more myself, but two years ago I really didn’t know much about MMO’s in the first place so that’s just hindsight. I hope you continue your adventures of seeing all the raid tiers and their savage equivalents in the other expansions as well. Cheers

[@JustRuss]

Thanks for the lovely comment and glad you have enjoyed the game in your own way too

[@VashimuXIV]

@@JustRuss No worries Russ. And seriously, Godspeed to you guys with Alexander Savage, those are no joke for when they were released. I believe in you!

[@nixilaas8071]

what did you think of the voice acting change going from ARR > heavensward

[@JustRuss]

I didn't hate the ARR voice acting except maybe Minfilia and Kan E, but it definitely got WAY better in HW

[@duledule3178]

Great video and im happy you have been enjoying the game

[@leonbraun3778]

Oh my goodness, you have such an amazing adventure ahead of you =) I'm also currently replaying ARR on an alt, doing the entire thing over again =) There is stuff I wish I could do for the first time again, and I know all the people who have played it would be excited for you that you get to live it all for the first time =) Have fun! =)

[@katarh]

The etiquette when a new tier of normal raids comes out is that everyone does them blind on the first day and everyone cooks - it's so much fun. With Savage raids, the world first teams will be fighting for a week or two to get through just like WoW, but most of the rank and file will only go into a party finder group blind for the first couple of tries - then we'll start looking at what little bits the guide channels have released if we do get stuck, (they're usually wrong for the first couple of hasty videos, so they've become their own meme.) You should absolutely be able to find others willing to current raid tier content blind in a static in the future. But no rush, take your time! Play the game the way you are having fun.

[@JustRuss]

Awesome! thanks for the comment

[@ThemisElidibun]

Nice, welcome to the community! I did the same back in 2021, came over to check it out and fell in love with the game, I had played WoW since 2006. This community is amazing. ♥

[@JustRuss]

Yep the community is ab absolute gamechanger with this game

[@lawrencebarber8583]

I also want to say I love how FF treats keeping older content valid. It sucks that with WoW the old stuff essentially goes away. I really like how FF keeps it going. Just wish we kept our full kit when leveled down 😂

[@BREAKocean]

Yeah some classes are not fun to play synced

[@JackgarPrime]

@@BREAKocean Black Mage gets it bad.

[@xixhae]

Russ I’ve loved watching your stuff since you reacted to my friend Scien’s video! I totally get the Haurchefant closure piece, and I’m sorry your overall expectations + thoughts of ARR were lowered based on community interaction. It is only getting better though, and I’m so excited to see your impressions and feedback of the game moving forward!!

[@Kujar3Player]

As for tab tageting it's really bad, but there's an option in the game to make it proximity based... The way it works by default is it targets things from left to right on your screen. Look into the settings, see if you like the alternative one more. I just kind of learned to right click on things instead.

[@benoitnoel100]

love to hear it, love to see wow player enjoy another mmorpg the same way most of them did back in the early days of wow, been playing ffxiv since the launch of 2.0 and hope to see some of yall in game !

[@roninthecollector3875]

Great vid. Currently going through MSQ for the first time and it's a great experience.

[@Calculusman1084]

I'm one of those weirdos who loved ARR and Stormblood. And only LIKED Heavensward. That said, I've loved every single minute of my Eozean journey, and I hope you do to!

[@EdenNeedsAYoutubeHandle]

Churning Mists night theme is so underappreciated! It's more low-key than a lot of highly-regarded tracks. It became a favorite of mine upon first hearing it, and I've included it in all of my orchestrion playlists for years now. Zone themes with the same kind of vibe in later expansions: - Stormblood: The Lochs night theme, "Old Wounds" - Shadowbringers: Lakeland night theme, "Unchanging, Everchanging" - Endwalker: the song title is "Neath Dark Waters (Scions & Sinners)" but saying anything else about it would be spoilers ;) These are honestly my favorite pieces of music in the entire game.

[@JustRuss]

Another Churning mists enjoyer!

[@naping]

I've wasted a couple of subs trying to get into FFXIV, because it just seems so appealing, but i have such a strong aversion to MSQ's in general, that i just have come to terms that I'm not meant to play FFXIV. Still I'm happy to hear about your FFXIV journey :) these vids pop up in my recommendation a few times a year.

[@raine4958]

Loving your content and journey! So, I think the combat bits stem from how jobs and fight design were then versus now. Jobs were far more technical and harder to execute properly, while the fights weren’t designed to be too difficult or as flashy. Stormblood and onward, it’s the opposite. Although Yoshi-P did say Dawntrail plans to kick it up a notch since some fights in Endwalker got a little too boring for lots of folks.

[@richs.500]

I've been playing since Endwalker released, having never played MMO's before. Two and a half years later, and there is still SO much content I haven't touched. I'm toying with starting the Alexander raids myself soon. Following your experience reminds me so much of my own, and there's so much joy there. I'm glad you're enjoying your experience.

[@JustRuss]

Awesome to hear! I love how much there is to do :D

[@Tarvos0]

You don't cry for arr, or heavensward. You cry for endwalker. >_>

[@Slimjim2147]

Shadowbringers destroyed me multiple times

[@FtanmoOfEtheirys]

tbf, each one makes you cry if you played it while it was current with time to wind down and collect your thoughts each time.

[@fluffykitten077]

took you that long, huh?

[@dazzlemasseur]

Endwalker was the finale. the best one was shadowbringer

[@MrDavid01228]

Honestly, I found the EW storyline to be a bit of a letdown, the pacing was off for me. ShB was by far the best, with HW a close second for me.

[@Doctor_Yiggles]

Alooo! As always really enjoyed your thoughts and progress on FFXIV. Thanks for sharing and looking forward to more of your progress and journey in FFXIV!

[@JustRuss]

Thanks, will do!

[@LoneWolfOtaku]

Take your time and enjoy the journey

[@lawrencebarber8583]

As a FF player from launch who has played most MMOs, I’m so glad you found Ff Russ! Welcome, take it at your own pace, find what you enjoy, and I hope you stay for a long long time!

[@BazzFreeman]

The normal-mode trials are intentionally eassier that you might expect because they're required for MSQ. Just makes it easier for more casual players to progress MSQ without major blockers. Have you run it extreme yet?

[@JustRuss]

Yep. Old man's got hands D:

[@kaala7939]

I hate that ARR gets such a bad rap compared to the other expansions, I love the world building of ARR and it's so necessary because all the other stuff in the game hits harder because of ARR and the world building the game did. I love all the expacs but ARR will always hold a special place in my heart.

[@bakacdaz]

I think it could be better than this but understandable since it was made in 2 years and make while still fixing original 1.X too. Made 2.0 playable in short time is important than anything at that time that while writting is mid and EN voice acting is so terrible even though some actor are not that new.

[@cassiusbright1062]

The bad rap for ARR usually comes from the filler and the mediocre combat content, even among those that hate it they tend to recognize the world building aspect. The problem is, it's also been fixed up multiple times now, so there's a lot less filler and the combat content (particularly the 47-50 range) has been made significantly better, so people continue to parrot that it's the worst thing ever while what they remember is all the original filler they had to go through. Meanwhile, HW has had no touch-ups, so is much closer to what ARR originally was.

[@kaala7939]

@@cassiusbright1062 I've recently been doing a ng+ I'm currently in stormblood which is by far my least favorite expac, and so far I've found Heavensward to be more grindy than ARR now. I was like I don't remember this...😂

[@trerandolph9739]

I played arr half a year before they cut some of it’s quest and I loved it. Also have you read some of the lines they removed in the localize version of ffxiv for haurchefant?

[@JustRuss]

Nope I've not heard any of Haurche's lines from that. I heard he seduces you in one of the other voiceovers thought :P

[@chrismarshall7131]

The 3.X patches address most of your concerns with HW.

[@saulmadrid9950]

Definitely do another post expansion vid on your thoughts of Stormblood. A lot of contention is tossed at the next expansion on the list and would love to hear your thoughts on the topic. Many would argue that if Heavensward was the peak of storytelling, then Stormblood would be the valley. For context, think of HW compared to Wrath of the Lich King and Stormblood to Pandaria or BfA.

[@rjwojo1]

“I haven’t cried yet… the game needs to try harder” Ishikawa smirking in the corner, “Hold my Saki” 😈

[@NakuruKouChannel]

glad to know you're still enjoying the game! knowing that you like ARR, cant wait to hear your thoughts on the rest of the journey

[@ShaggySummers]

Checked into your stream at the beginning of shadowlands and I feel like I really missed out on your FF journey. While I really enjoyed you as a person, I was just not into watching MMOs for a long time :D I hope you'll keep on doing well, you always seemed like a great guy and I will probably lurk from time to time :)

[@CNote-lx3ws]

yeah. Thordan's fight has been effectively a cutscene since its inception. Hopefully they do something with it

[@candykit5382]

Yeah thordan in the msq is incredibly undertuned, but I hope you do the minstrels ballad! It's a great extreme battle and much more satisfying defeat for thordan.

[@BorgWolf359]

I love everything FFXIV! I loved ARR because I came from GW2, ESO, & WoW! I still love the other games too, but I only play FFXIV now! I think you will enjoy all of the rest of the content! I am stoked for Dawntrail & am leveling up my Ninja so I will have gear for Viper! Great vid, keep up the good work!

[@JustRuss]

Thanks for the lovely comment! glad you are enjoying the game :D

[@jeremyphillips6564]

Aloo! Glad to hear you've been enjoying yourself! As others have said, try not to let viewers set your expectations for the MSQ. Some folks may get a little weird if you don't react/feel the same way they do about characters and story beats, but I'd hate for them to tarnish your experience. It's much better to just be honest and enjoy yourself. I also strongly agree about FFXIV's tab-targetting, it's pretty crap compared to WoW. My workaround was to change [tab] to target nearest enemy, then [ctrl-tab] to cycle through nearby targets. That's what got me through frontlines.

[@banggugyangu]

Great video. Glad you're enjoying the game. If you haven't tried it yet, I would highly recommend trying controller play to see what it's like. It takes a bit of setup to properly optimise it, but the controller support is unmatched in the MMO space. Ultimately not trying to convert you, but it's an aspect that a lot of players overlook that deserves a proper look.

[@num1adhdninja]

Praise be to you for going through Alexander! Worth the time. If you want more insights into the story, I would like to recommend a portion of the story called "The Coils." It's about Bahamut. However, I would recommend you to do it UNSYNCHED. "Story mode" as it were. It was the dev's first try in making raid content, and they accidentally made it Savage Mode as the "normal". So... yeah. Get someone high level to carry you, and enjoy the story.

[@thesunthrone]

Russ did that, MINE unsync and blind, it was an awesome prog to watch!

[@CyanPhoenix_]

I did get through the game pretty quickly (a lot quicker than you at least lol) but i didn't really even tear up until the end of shadowbringers. Also unfortunately you won't see it until level 90, but if you want thordan to really kick your butt DSR is there waiting for you :P

[@ixnay8392]

I've been running through a new character to prep for dawntrail. Just finished HW and getting into STB. I really appreciate your criticism of HW and honestly wouldn't have thought of it that way. I can definitely say after finishing HW, you're going to love the patch content. Even when I was synced for the final boss it was still a refreshing challenge. Cant wait till you get to run DSR after experiencing HW. 😎

[@Lewdiculous]

The "MSQ vampiring" will get real on Shadowbringers. You either get filtered by ARR or you become a walking advertisement. Congratulations on the journey. I think you will understand the "ARR underwhelming" feelings once you get to the end of Stormblood and finally into Shadowbringers and beyond, just because it gets *so much better*, that in comparison it makes ARR and HW for me to look bad, again, *in comparison*. And yeah, I also thought HW had a pretty slow start, but hey, it does build up eventually.

[@KibaAzure]

On the disappointing Thordan fight, that is unfortunately a problem the game severely suffers from for max expansion level content. SE simply does not tighten the ilvl requirement for max level duties and it results it everything falling over MUCH faster than it did when the content was fresh. There are mechanics in many alliance raids that players haven't seen for years for this very reason.

[@levifleener2902]

What data center and world are you on? Curious because I am finished with endwalker but in terms of doing most of the raids on savage I would be just as blind as yall and would love to help.

[@JustRuss]

Playing on Chaos EU Spriggan! Swing by the stream and get involved! :D many friendly faces there

[@meguryzer9689]

Oh, EU even. I'm surprised.

[@darkwulf2k]

The improvement to ARR in the form of cleaning up the quests def improved it. I played through it back in 2013, and i think why i enjoyed my time then was because it was new, I had to wait for the patches, and i got it in chunks, instead of having to play it straight through. I started playing 2 months after ARR released. I have fond memories of clearing coils back in the day, including my first Bahamut kill. As for Alex, I did it pre nerf to A3S, and was part of the static killer days, so i didnt do any of the savage alex til much later sadly. Reason, my static booted me, then fell apart weeks later due to A3S. Will say this be glad you don't have to deal with TP, and Accuracy rating. That added an extra level of difficulty to the fights that was annoying.

[@TheMCmace]

the game gets way better later on so i'm hyped to see you play it :D especially stuff like sephirot with the music :D

[@JustRuss]

Love to hear it! can't wait!

[@TheFrantic5]

I enjoyed base ARR myself. The patch content did drag on for me, but only because I was really excited to get to Ishgard in order to unlock the 3 jobs there. (This was before SB came free for the free trial peeps giving you access to jobs that unlocked in the major cities.) I may make a new character who purely tanks to play the story again and practice tanking, which is easily my least favorite role. I'm betting I glossed over some important lore in my haste.

[@kakashiroks]

All perfectly valid points. I personally love heavensward, and I remember it being the area of the story that really got me hooked (I had finished 2.0 a few years prior and then stopped.) While watching this I was trying to reflect on what exactly I liked about it and I remember thinking at the time “yeah that was good, I liked that, what else does the game have?”. I think to me, The lengths they took to make the narrative a bit more cohesive was what got me really interested in the game. But I can’t put my finger on if I really loved 3.0 at that point, or that was just what got me invested in the game. To me, WoW still had far superior gameplay to 2.0, so it wasn’t until mid-way through 3.0 that I really decided “ok I definitely want more of this” Regardless, people are bound to have different opinions on any given content, and I think that’s a good thing. And I’m really glad that you feel comfortable sharing your thoughts on 3.0, whether people will agree or disagree. Because of the point you made about expectations, I don’t want to say anything about the later 3.X stuff, or anything beyond. But hopefully you’ll continue enjoying the game, and you’ll kick butt at Alexander, and hopefully they will make tab targeting work if the boss is more than 4 feet tall…

[@JustRuss]

Thanks for this comment and sharing your experience. It gave me a video idea actually :D

[@Nutrafin-3D]

10:40 The whole MINE system needs an overhaul for the more outdated content. It just doesn't make much of a difference anymore with each expansion power creep and job adjustments. Thordan was definitely more engaging, even on normal

[@Vanishou]

I really like this format of video 👌 It’s interesting how you talk about the honeymoon period, I always thought the honeymoon period was until the end of the MSQ. I guess it’s because you take the time to branch out onto other things and you go more into a daily routine.

[@JustRuss]

Glad you enjoyed it! Yep I suppose for a lot of players who run through the MSQ more quickly, they will probably feel that honeymoon period end afterwards. I suppose I think of it like a time period, which we will all hit eventually. Some may finish the MSQ within 6 months, but I've been playing about 20-30 hours a week so I'm starting to learn a lot about the game over time from my chat or videos I watch, to the point that everything isn't feeling as new and sparkly now. Not to say it's less fun or enjoyable though!

[@holo_val]

Pretty cool to hear a more reserved take on base Heavensward story, and they echo a lot of the feelings I had as a sprout. I think now that I have played full MSQ I am a bit more forgiving in hindsight, but even still I had far more moments in heavensward story that made me frustrated than ARR. Where ARR follows a simple but consistent plot, HSW cannot stop interupting the main plot with side plots at the most jarring moments. Overall I would rate my HSW experience higher than ARR, but I enjoyed base 2.0 more than base 3.0 when I was playing it.

[@Pyretech]

Re: Enjoying A Realm Reborn over Heavensward, this was a pretty common opinion back in the day. I remember getting hyped for Heavensward but being relatively disappointed for a long period of time. The general sentiment with a lot of friends and myself is that we missed our normal cast of characters, the dungeons felt less inspired (felt like every dungeon was just hallways to a boss), and the zones were both annoyingly difficult and too large. I didn't think about it much because it picked up and became enjoyable throughout the expansion but looking back on it with the first WoW Exodus, it felt funny hearing the idea of "it gets good in Heavensward" I do really miss the remixed dungeons that ARR did, though.

[@JustRuss]

Yeah those ARR hard mode dungeons (reworked) were some of my best memories so far

[@MelodicEmpathy]

I look forward to your enjoyment of Stormblood since most people dunk on it haha. I liked it just fine, it just has a lot to set up to start with. The Aetherochemical boss fight was actually reworked to be even HARDER pretty recently. I joined in 6.0 when things were first redone and the Aetherochemical fight was updated after I'd cleared it in MSQ. So, rest assured it's got even more of a difficulty gap between that and Thordan than the original. Glad you're enjoying the journey so far!

[@YouTube-Administrator]

I am glad you are enjoying the game!

[@skooterboyle1991]

If you have enjoyed all the lore about the Dragonsong War and everything that led up to it, then you should do the Scholasticate quest line if you haven't already. I also have to wonder when you mentioned how you like the zone music, how many people out there thought "Do you know Lahee?" ... wait until ShB, you'll know it and love it.

[@JustRuss]

I have heard about that but I will wait to find out in ShB!

[@thunder9236]

I've played WoW forever and still do. I stopped during shadowlands along with everyone else and played FF14. I loved it. The classes feel great, the story was amazing, and your character IS a protagonist. In WoW you are "hero" but one of millions. In FF14 you are the warrior of light, a scion, and the driving force of the story. You know there are others, but you make your choice (despite it not being impactful) and it felt good. In WoW, the main characters talk at you, but FF the main characters have to talk WITH you. The vibe of players in FF is far better than most players bases. WoW does a few things I like, multi spec classes, choices in style of gameplay, and personally I like m+. The combat feels way better in WoW. I love them both so much and they have what the other misses

[@JustRuss]

Great explanation on the FF14 differences! And fair points about WoW too!

[@GreenTeaLover12]

I was playing pvp the other day and was trying to tab target an Astro that was the second closest enemy to me. after 10 tabs i gave up and manually clicked on them...the tab targeting really is atrocious in FF14

[@shd_samurai9676]

Good video, bro. Interesting insights.

[@JustRuss]

Thank you, glad you enjoyed!

[@llamatoddtv]

Been enjoying your journey bro!

[@JustRuss]

Love to hear it!

[@RabidJohn]

You can't expect a MSQ trial to be overly challenging; all players need to be able to clear it; not just the raiders. I believe you'll be much happier when you get to the extreme version of Thordan, especially if you do it blind and min I-level.

[@JustRuss]

Yep Thordan extreme is the one!

[@EclipseBlade1871]

I’ve been told to say ALOO, so I am here to say ALOO.

[@CrisperPoet]

Oh man I hope the character tier list becomes a recurring thing, I'd love to see how your opinions of the characters evolve after each expac and/or the patch content

[@JustRuss]

That’s my plan yep!

[@Fantasygod930]

I think Switching from wow to ffxiv Might have been the best decision you ever made I sort of like to think of your journey in ffxiv As a therapy session kind of but a very epic one Somebody who is in a toxic relationship with wow broke up Went to ffxiv therapy And now starting A blossoming relationship With ffxiv It may be silly but Hey that's my best Description of your journey through ffxiv

[@JustRuss]

Honestly, I feel the same haha. These sit down videos where I kinda just say my thoughts are similar to the more intense therapy session too. I think you descrived it perfectly though. Getting out of the toxic WoW releationship and finally seeing how it should be

[@SilverMoonling]

A Realm Reborn isn't bad, its just the first book in a seven book long series(ARR is like The Way of Kings to the Stormlight Archives if you want an actual book comparison, though lol) Its the set up for the rest of the game, and yea it can be a drag to get through sometimes but a good story itself needs a good foundation to get going. Both ARR and Heavensward were expansions where the dev team were still trying to get their feet under them and you can really see that, especially playing later expansions. In Heavensward you can definitely see this within the savage raids, they were 100% trying to figure themselves out and the first tier nearly killed savage raiding for the rest of the game. (Living Liquid misses you) Stormblood is also a bit controversial because its not a bad expansion, its just not my favorite, and tends to be ehh to a number of people as well. It has some incredibly good parts to the main MSQ, the dungeons are also pretty good and IMO some of the best PATCH content in the game, but there are definitely sections that drag(really hard depending on if you like certain characters or not) and the BBEG of Stormblood is incredibly polarizing. You either like 'em or hate 'em and there's no real in between. Either way its been entertaining to watch your journey and hear your thoughts! Its always fun for us veterans to watch our little sprouts grow and journey through the game we all fell in love with so long ago. -And sometimes we just want to share the pain- (:

[@entclimber]

People put down Stormblood too, but it sets up so much. Don’t let people darken your opinion on the content. Best to ignore all that and decide for yourself.

[@DCDCWizard]

Been playing WoW from Vanilla to BFA. Switched to FF14 with me and my best friends and it is amazing. So far loving FF14 and excited for the new expansion! Thanks for the content!

[@JustRuss]

Thanks for watching! Glad you enjoyed

[@zeroblade9800]

Just before shadowrbringers in 2019 I decided to bring down my trashing of ARR. I'm 1.0 player and at this point they changed so much plus other first timer streamers didn't find ARR as bad as you say and community makes it to be. Shortly afterwards though yeah community needs to pull back with their expectations and hype. I salute you with dealing with chat's "hold hold hold!" as part of what making this playthrough great is less hints of big moments. You only experience this stuff for first time once and I really hope chat can chill out a bit.

[@mrlion8834]

There should be some things you can try to improve the tab targeting by shifting a few settings. Maybe you've tried already but if you haven't there are some guides that go through some ways you can tweak it.

[@JustRuss]

I've definitely tried a few things! There might be a couple more sneaky changes I can make though :D

[@yoitesuoh6157]

The whole Thordan getting killed too easily is a really valid comment. Unfortunately I don't think the devs can ever really do much to fix that kind of thing simply due to the vast difference in skills that jobs have nowadays including new jobs being added etc. It is honestly an amazing fight and I assume you might have tried the ex version blind at some point? First video I've watched of yours (but have subscribed and would love to check your stream out if I catch it at some point). I think that version of the fight might be able to give you a better 'epic' feeling. I think a combination of the new skills and the stat squish that the game got semi recently has probably impacted the old content a lot in general and unfortunately that might even carry over to some of the stormblood trials / raids in the future when you get to that part of the MSQ. I am genuinely glad you are loving the game though and I wish you the best in your journey through the MSQ and raids ^^

[@christinebryant5807]

I also don't think k he realizes that King Thordan is a reconstruction of the Final Fantasy summing Knights of the Round Table and that's why there isn't that feel of revenge.

[@Raika63]

Might want to do the extreme version of Thordan if you are itching for something a bit more involved

[@blueshift502]

Regarding blind raiding, it's absolutely a thing at endgame. There's no PTR for this game, so nobody can test or figure out strats before the content gets released, so everyone is doing it blind for the first weeks anyway. My FC had a few people who wanted to get into high end raiding, but were nervous about jumping in. So we formed a group of 8 and decided to try the newest extreme, which was the 6.4 one (no spoilers for Russ). Little did we know it turned out to be the hardest extreme in years... but we kept at it, only able to raid once a week, and after a couple of months we finally got it down. It was a great experience for us all and led to us dipping our toes into savage as well. I'd definitely recommend giving blind prog a try!

[@SirMoribund]

It is always good to get an update. Do this at the end of each expansion.

[@cryo34]

thanks for sharing your experience! As someone who went into the game with zero expectations as well, I enjoyed ARR! Really not as bad as people say it is, and I played it when they didn't cut quests out. 😆

[@JustRuss]

Glad to hear this !

[@fknkashi]

Ff14 my first mmo and kb/mouse experience as a console fighting/sport genre is ff14. 1.community is the best I’ve ever experienced. The vets in Novice Network are amazing. 2.closest thing I have to living out my SAO fantasy lol. 3.realm reborn WAS great lol. 4. Never been so invested into a game, love it

[@JustRuss]

love to hear all this! glad you are loving the game!

[@TS-uc4hi]

At 9:50 you mention Thordan falling over even at min-ilvl, That will stay prevalent throughout the MSQ - the EX Trials, Raids, etc will provide a fun challenge, but anything tied to the story they want to be experienced by even the worst of gamers, and as such they make the MSQ incredibly, dumbfoundingly easy.

[@WarlordPayne]

They all end up that easy, none of them started out that easy.

[@marcusspade8223]

as someone who played ARR on release and have played thru the story again on xbox, i have to say the story still holds up. its a slow start with a lot of world building and character development but like a good book it gets better the more you read and the gameplay is the same... they have extremely tuned up the early game with changes to quests ang dungeons that were previously problematic for new players and there are reviewable tutorial pop ups for everything. this game is an experience worth having

[@JustRuss]

Absolutely agree with everything you said, And I'm only in chapter 2 of the book!