I Replayed Final Fantasy XIV 1.0 For This Review

[@projared]

►► Thank you so much for watching the video! As per usual I'll be live over on Twitch so I'd love for you to swing by and say hi! twitch.tv/projared ► Thank you so much for your patience on this one. I started working on this video in May of 2023. There were SO many technical headaches with it, which I'm sure you'll see and understand once you get to that part in the video. ►► It would mean a lot to me if you could subscribe, like, and share the video around! Show your friends, show your enemies, post on Twitter/discord/reddit/wherever! ► Speaking of, I have my own discord if you'd like to join for more consistent announcements so you don't miss anything! discord.gg/projared ►► Thanks again, I missed you too

[@db_524]

I missed you here Jerd. I’m happy you’re back.

[@sanekibeko]

13

[@novatarzone113]

​@@sanekibeko what do you mean cant you count? Anyone knows 14 comes after 12.

[@pricdd67]

Play 13

[@TheCommentaification]

I'm sorry to tell you this, but grinding and mmo has and will always go hand in hand. There's actual people who enjoy that for some reason. I don't like grinding but I also don't speak for everyone.

[@Sketchguy1248]

You can't escape 13 forever Jared...

[@moosecat00]

Yes he can, surely he can stall indefinitely.

[@brandonsclips7741]

I'd rather he NOT talk about it since he acts like it killed his family lol

[@electricindigoball1244]

It's like Valve and the number 3.

[@Jay__B1990]

He did say once that he would review it at 1 000 000 subscribers and the furious fury ironically made sure that the promise could be kept.

[@Charizard100000357]

I know 13 is an unlucky number but you can’t escape it forever

[@Nyx685]

13: "What about me?" Jared: "No, don't think I will."

[@dixonjt89]

It's kind of wild. The criticsms for that game, outside of the Paradigm Shift mechanics, are mostly overblown. It was during the huge open world boom, so everyone was pissed that FF didn't follow suit and was still a hallway/corridor simulator. Now, with people getting burnt out with open world and preferring more "open zone" type games, 13 is a great game!!

[@marshmallowdoomsquad]

​@@dixonjt89shit take tbh. Open world boom regardless, I played thru 13 last year for the first time and after 20 or so hours in, there is very little variety in gameplay from that point onwards, and the character progression systems and combat have lost all their novelty, fights just take longer. It was a chore to finish. Bad game cuz not fun, unlikable cast, nonsense plot. You can't explain away these things.

[@lordblazer]

@@dixonjt89 yea that was the main complaint, but the first installation of 13 was just not as engaging story-wise.. By the 2nd installation the sequel. It got significantly better and the gameplay was enjoyable.. GOing a non-linear story route was the best decision SE made on that project. The 3rd sequel was interesting story wise.

[@reloadpsi]

​​​​​​​@@dixonjt89 The party AI is atrocious and you are almost completely unable to influence it despite the very previous entry having a gambit system, the story is told in such a random order that the emotional impact of some key revelations can't be felt because you don't know what they mean yet until you're prompted to consult the datalog an hour later for the background on what the character said and THEN watch a flashback cutscene the datalog already spoiled, most of the boss fights don't feel any more difficult than regular encounters and they themselves can get quite tedious after a while, Masashi Hamauzu's music is really boring, the encounters all feel like a carefully curated grind to make sure you're exactly the right level for each boss, and the voice acting is painfully average because you can practically hear the actors' frustration with having to record the script five times over. I guess you run in a straight line a lot too, but there is far more valid stuff to complain about. The "IT'S TOO LINEAR SO IT'S BAD" strawman is just a convenient way to deflect criticism from far worse aspects of the game.

[@BrendanJSmith]

Jared is just like a skyscraper: pretending the number 13 doesn't exist.

[@JohnSmith-ox3gy]

XIII is fake news. You are fake news, I am fake news.

[@SparkShadow212]

It doesn't exist

[@lifeloverNorris]

I love that comment section is all about 13.

[@JohnSmith-ox3gy]

@@SparkShadow212 You mean [Error: 404]

[@FF-tp7qs]

In China, South Korea and Japan they skip the number 4 as it sounds like the word for death in those languages

[@JrystalTyaeli]

If you want a simple answer about why the fatigue system exists I can tell you. XIV 1.0 had no endgame content at launch so the fatigue system, combined with how far apart the story quests were spread by level, helped delay players progression until they could patch an endgame in.

[@allko614]

Now I could have sworn it was because of what he said. I recall it was an idea that was relevant to students doing overnight study parties due to the outrageous requierments/competition to get in to top universities that got so bad some were breaking into univerisities libraries just to study....and yes some died. I could not believe that students were being arrested for....studying...

[@backtoklondike]

@@allko614 I do think part of what you are saying is true. But it wouldn't surprise me if another part was that SE used the whole thing of trying to prevent addiction as an excuse on the game not having an endpoint.

[@Akaitoism]

WoW actually originally thought to have a similar, yet not quite as limiting, system. It was the exact system they have today, except your normal xp rate was said to be 'cut in half' while rested xp was 'normal'. They didn't change xp values at all, just changed 'halved and normal' to 'normal and rested' and people liked the system much better.

[@jonathangille8643]

@@allko614 Was a mix of both, once players reached end game they realized there was nothing to do. Its why they rushed out the first "End game" dungeon that people grinded for weeks. I did hear that the students thing was also an issue they wanted to try to fix to keep people from falling so far behind.

[@stoicraziel6272]

Fun fact: Y'shtola's voice actress sings the Titania boss music

[@AngelMeteor]

I don't wanna be that guy but she didn't. Yshtola's VA is Robyn Addison, the woman who sang What Angel Wakes Me (and Bee My Honey!) is Paula Kaye Gerhold Unless that's her alias and they're indeed the same person?

[@JoshStrifeHayes]

LOL THOSE HOTBARS

[@projared]

HOW DARE YOU

[@TheDapperDragon]

@@projared The cross-over I never expected.

[@HikariVictor]

Sorry projared... If HE said that... I cannot defend you in any Lalafell way.

[@firefoxx2]

My man is just out here clicking spells hurting my soul

[@henryhunter9643]

Oh hey it's the MMO guy.

[@MagicSpartan1992]

For all those that are saying he skipped 13, I think he played through the whole game and then all that footage he used was lost, so he had to restart.

[@MarxMayhem]

Right... "Lost"... XD

[@BrendanJSmith]

That sounds like a modern method of torture. Playing all the way through FF XIII only to lose ALL the footage and having to play it again! I can't imagine anything worse for Jared!

[@reloadpsi]

I am trying to think of worse things.

[@ninjafrog6966]

a fate worse than death

[@MistyKathrine]

That's what happened with his playthrough of 12.

[@The_RetroDude]

13 will haunt you, you must confront your fears Jared.

[@NonEmployee]

Part of me wonders if it'll be the finale of this retrospective. Sure it wouldn't make sense chronologically, but as far as 13's reputation on this channel goes, it would make sense.

[@Beerpowered]

13 going back to it now isn't as bad. Especially after playing through the whole FF series recently and realizing story telling was pretty meh in most of them. Which made me realize 13 has one of the better stories being told as a trilogy. 13 is the only game I can stand the English dub. Rest I mod in Japanese. The combat is still atrocious and the crystarium is super linear. Which is a buzzkill till you get to XIII-2 and Lightning Returns.

[@okagron]

@@Beerpowered It's complete insanity to claim 13 has "one of the better stories in the series" when the older games had much better stories.

[@Beerpowered]

@@okagron As a trilogy it does. It's sheer ignorance from never having beaten the trilogy to think otherwise.

[@kleberson777]

@@Beerpowered so you have to play trilogy for the story to get good? I finished base game and I have no interest on continue the XIII-2 I mean, even though XIII-2 and Lightning Return is good, doesn't mean XIII base game is good. I played whole FF series too including FF Tactic. FF13 base game is among the worst in storytelling.

[@slerplederp6655]

Awesome video, thanks for the shout out!! I do feel like I just need to clarify for your audience that the server was developed by Project Meteor (which I'm not part of their dev team) and I've only worked on some quests and other things! Regardless I'm glad to see this video up! Awesome work! :D

[@projared]

Thank you again Slerp!

[@lizardizzle]

I shouted out loud when I saw it, Slerp! I obviously fell out of the work, and I hope you've been well.

[@slerplederp6655]

@@lizardizzle Nice haha, I've been great! Hope you've been well! Believe or not I got the entire 1.0 world inside of Unreal 5 and have been experimenting with it! I should be releasing a video soon, and should be coming back to youtube more! :D

[@reso7675]

Jared: Don't judge my hotbars. Me: oh ho ho, this is going to be gold now

[@Folami-Marijani]

Dude has max level jobs and clicks his abilities. Clicking mudras all the time seems awful.

[@DLMoridin]

The community "The dungeons are all boring corridors" The Devs "We tried making dungeons with branching paths and dead ends, after a couple runs everyone just did the fastest way through, so we made them corridors".

[@haloeightYT]

Yeah that's the thing about dungeons is that they're meant to be repeated a lot so making them complex is one of those "you think you want that but you don't" type deals... Though I think there's room for a little more than what they are presently cuz like Jared said they're streamlined to the point that there's barely even a point at all

[@MakeSureYouCleanUp]

Yea I honestly did not like the dungeons in ARR. Like, doing them the first time was great. You actually had tasks to do in order to clear them instead of just running through and killing enemies. But when I started doing the relic quests which make you grind through those dungeons 50+ times over and over, running back and forth to pull levers, do X so Y happens, etc. Got annoying. I just wanted to speed through it. Then they actually DID change them into speed through and it makes sense why.

[@sessy01]

- laughs in variant dungeon-

[@devingunnels3251]

Dungeons can't be fun because they made everything a grind

[@Takenja]

@@devingunnels3251honestly though, I feel that Dungeon variety would be much more appreciated if they just started using Variant dungeons as a bases for their regular dungeons. It’d still be a straight line, but you’d actually have agency in your decision making.

[@domidoodleYT]

An hour long video about a game I’ve never played is exactly what I needed to help me get through Saturday chores

[@EvanTheNinjaog]

u should play it

[@Road_to_Dawn]

[insert Heavensward and Stormblood copypasta here]

[@TwistedGooner]

Dread it, Run from it, Final Fantasy 13 still arrives

[@HydraSpectre1138]

Personally, I loved XIII

[@PhantasmHCS]

I'm playing through OG 13 on Normal right now, I'm near the end of Chapter 5/13, and... I soooo want his review to come out because I do not like this game.... and I have to get through it and the other 2 games of the trilogy.

[@marine76a]

Personally, I hated XIII

[@slenderminion2229]

"There's a saying in the Final Fantasy 14 community: The true endgame is glamour." As a veteran Warframe player, I know how true that statement rings. Fashionframe triumphs over all gear.

[@shiro3146]

phantasy star online 2 player here! and as we also always saying, Phasion is the true endgame

[@LunaticThinker]

Glamour has nothing on Housing (Ultimate)

[@AZodiacCancer]

The reel endgame is fishing.

[@ericbarlow6772]

As a former WoW player who did end game content many expansions ago, the real end game is fighting the PRNG.

[@luheartswarm4573]

We are all brothers and sisters in fashion different game, same goal, look cool

[@clydethehobo2687]

43:18 Out of every line in this review/retrospective, this is my favorite one. The smile on Jared's face cracks me up every time.

[@AnnaBananya]

I can't help but notice there's a gap in your Final Fantasy playlist, Jared. A void, if you will.

[@sabrakt]

Makes sense. "A void" is a pretty fair description of FFXIII.

[@redbaron9420]

The Thirteenth. Nobody dares to go to that place, if they value their lives.

[@maxspecs]

Nothing awaits you but a world of darkness. Even FFXIV looks at you and says, "you wanted Thirteen? No, you really just want Four."

[@xehaexox]

13 cannot be skipped

[@ShermTank7272]

It can and it will

[@Pendarr]

Puberty be like

[@thrillhouse4151]

Sure it can.

[@meapickle]

But it shouldn't ​@thrillhouse4151

[@anthonydelfino6171]

if you're not careful she'll ruin your franchis.... french fries.

[@RexERohan]

You can run, Jared. But no matter how fast or how far, 13 will always be right behind you ⚡️

[@chrisdaughen5257]

There's nowhere to hide when everything is a corridor.

[@scourgeneo7834]

Almost like a bolt of "Lightning"

[@ryujin8754]

O- oh my god! He praised Stormblood without much complaint?! What out of season Christmas miracle is this?! I love it!

[@MapleLunii]

I don't really get the hate for Stormblood. I personally prefer it over ARR and Heavensward. Maybe it's nostalgia? Despite playing since 2014 (I think ARR 2.3 or something like that, it was around the time the Lightning Strikes event first came out, and Rogue's release too) it wasn't til Stormblood that I was totally sucked into the game. Even to this day, it still has some of the best content in the entire game. I can concede on the story a little, but it still has great moments like the Naadam in the Azim Steppe. For the most part I feel like a lot of the SB hate is just parroting things other people have said.

[@ryujin8754]

@@MapleLunii I personally like that unlike Heavensward, in Stormblood the main Trials are tied to the main story and serve some purpose: with Susano being part of the main plot and Lakshmi serving as a part of Lyse character development. Ravana was a cool fight but served only as a introduction for tribe quests and Bismark is a bore and also just "here's tribe quests!" Okay, maybe also some story progression but nowhere near as entertaining.

[@AaronW0885]

Stormblood was the weakest expansion but its still like an 8 overall

[@TankyCrobat]

I can't hate storm blood, as it got me into raids. On top of that, white mage spell effects were still cool back then. Aka stone 4 instead of glare :(

[@gratuitouslurking8610]

My view on Stormblood is that it's certainly ok, but it's hard to top Heavensward and the Shadowbringer + Endwalker two-hit combo right after REALLY does not help it. While still heavily a war story like Heavensward it doesn't feel as tightly defined like the Dragonsong War, and it's endgame is both blissfully and criminally shorter in comparison to ARR and Heavensward which makes it not stick around as well either, with much of the fallout of our actions in Stormblood only happening after our trip to the First in Shadowbringers. Stormblood post-game quests however rule and I'll hear no slander on it anymore after witnessing it.

[@RTheStoryteller7]

the fact that he just jumped over 13 is hilarious but hey, i'm glad that he returns to make a Final Fantasy content again, and i'm always curious his take on 15 and 16

[@FOOD2o]

tis official. jared doesn’t know how to count to 14

[@adamboyd1132]

Well, he's better than Valve, who can't count to 3.

[@outcastedOpal]

He learned to count by being an american FF fan

[@shino4242]

WDYM, he totally does. Everyone knows Square Enix skipped the number 13 for some reason. Super Weird. Maybe their board of directors is superstitious.

[@PhoenixLnk]

it's like u2, uno dos tres, catorce!

[@Schrodinger_]

He counts to 14 exactly like my condo elevator

[@Kay_Sea251]

I see Jared is going the 80s and 90s route of counting Final Fantasy...

[@ThermalShadow]

I love how he mentions the dungeons have *become* trivial. Monsters USED to have exp values, dungeons USED to have complex mechanics - before they were overhauled. Pretty much everything up through Heavensward was altered to be linear hallways :T

[@skylarsimes8]

Cause to quote yoshi P "Players would optimize and take only 1 route so we made all the dungeons that." Paraphrased

[@Loli-Knight]

That explanation never made sense. Players optimize EVERYTHING, but most things aren't designed with that in mind. Heck, many players optimize subsequent play throughs of single player games, yet those aren't designed with that in mind. Instead of doing the right thing and go ing players reasons to go down other paths, they just took it all away. Personally, I think the only reason they changed them was because they wanted to be lazy and put in less work.

[@christianpeavey8262]

No even new players would just find the quick route through. They have a new dungeon type where you can find different routes and explore a bit in variant dungeons. So it's not laziness for sure. I completely understand why they wouldn't build elaborate paths after I played WoW Classic which did have that and any time you tried a dungeon people rushed through it anyways taking away and of the discovery anyways.

[@Raganui]

@@skylarsimes8 Yea, people will optimize the fun out of anything. I liked exploring dungeons and having more mechanics to do during them. But these people are so vocal and pushy, that they get catered to to shut em up and the rest of us suffer.

[@VtAneila]

​@Loli-Knight Everything regarding the devs streamlining is out of laziness. It's not the midcore, hardcore or casuals that have caused the game to become more watered down every expansion. Just lazy devs who seem to have contempt for the fans

[@maxheidegger51]

"Don't make fun of my hotbars" I make no promise

[@zacherydyer8365]

Not only do you still have to review 13. But I honestly want to see a review of X-2

[@marcanthonybattenberg7636]

I would've genuinely enjoyed a video about Final Fantasy XIII from you

[@for_the_lore5567]

The reason that dungeons have the Point A to Point B lay out is due to players not wanting to trek through a convoluted dungeon. To prove my point run Satasha or Haukke Manor with random parties twenty times, and see how many people will go into the side rooms in the pirate hideout, or go down the side corridor of the mansion's second floor at the end. Unless you are running tank to drag the party to these area, players will ignore those areas if favor of getting through the dungeon and fighting the final boss.

[@LordofWolves]

THE SERIES IS BACK BABBBYYYYYY

[@AionShanks]

Kinda, where the hell is 13. Jared can't count confirmed

[@SmugLilBugger]

9:50 Honestly? I disagree. Those freakin 'trash mobs' usually hurt way more than the bosses do! As a healer my blood gets pumping far more on a wall to wall pull than any boss.

[@MapleLunii]

True and real. Trash packs are what your tank should be using their mitigations on, not bosses

[@gratuitouslurking8610]

Accurate. Having played tank and healer, W2Ws tend to be where casual tanking goes to die, though there's a few select dungeon bosses who are clearly meant to be bigger pains than others. Lookin' at you Phaeros Sirius and your high concentration of em...

[@starlightroc399]

Every healer knows the pain of a tank ambitiously pulling in stone vigil, and then expecting you to heal 3 times their hp bar every second, while forgetting their mitigarions exist. Its the one dungeon i always do half pulls in as a tank, unless i know the healer can handle it.

[@GamerFromJump]

No way am I going to try watching a 66-minute-long video when KZbin is going to hit me in the face with an unskippable ad every five minutes, so here’s an amount equal to iTunes’ episode price while I plug it into 4K Downloader. Glad to see new content on the review channel, Jared.

[@GingaRunner]

A ProJared video??? We're so back!!!

[@JIreland1992]

You can’t ignore it Jared, it’s waiting in the dark.

[@paulfraley9767]

11:46 THE BOUNCER

[@usernamepassword4517]

THE BOUNCER

[@Bassi3D]

THE BOUNCER

[@squishsquishimafish6348]

THE 🅱OUNCER

[@Tortilladude333]

It’s awesome to have you back on your main channel! Just hearing that outro theme made me so happy!❤

[@Massivecow1337]

Ah 1.0. A few things I wanted to clear up about 1.0, from someone who played since the 1.0 beta: -"EXP" is a bit of a mischaracterization. They did have EXP, but that only affected your Physical Level, which allowed you to allocate your base stats (most of which was pointless, since the bonuses were so insanely small.) The main level up mechanic was Skill Points (SP), which affected your Class Level. -EXP was consistent for kills, but SP was based off your contribution to the kill, with a random element. You had a chance on any (effective) action to accrue SP, which would only be awarded when the monster died, and capped at 200 points. Some fights you'd do only a couple attacks and get max SP, and others you'd do a ton of actions and do top DPS and get 0. This also meant healers leveled up way quicker because all spells were AOE by default, and you had a high chance per person hit, assuming they were missing HP. Which in turn meant your healers would quickly outlevel the party, imposing a SP and EXP penalty on everyone in it. Oh, and Provoke (the taunt) had a high chance of giving SP, so everyone was constantly taunting the enemies off the tank, while standing in front of them if they had any sort of AOE so your healers could get more... it was like taking every single good RPG combat idea and completely flipping it on its head. -EXP Fatigue (proper name: Surplus SP and EXP) didn't decay down to 0%, I don't recall, but it could go down to 10%. It also went down in stages (90%, 80%, etc.) and you got to the first couple stages very, VERY fast. I think my record was 30 minutes or so to hit the first level of it on Marauder when I started that class. -The main idea behind the Surplus system was to encourage you to level other classes; the physical Surplus EXP still applied but also didn't matter, but each class had its own Surplus SP, so if you played as an Archer for a few hours and got to -30% SP, you could switch to Marauder and still have full, though it didn't take long to hit -30 or -40 on every class if you were playing a lot. -The reason they wanted you to play other classes was because the classes were all extremely barebones on their own, but you could fill in any spell or weapon skill and almost any passive trait from any class to any other. Which sounds cool but functionally every WS (except Feint) did the same as any other for its cost, so it ended up with this awkward situation where you had all these skills, but the animations and damage were the same so... who cares? Oh and offensive spells were god-awful and mages did way more damage wanding enemies down with basic attacks. -Gear broke shockingly fast, and repairs were insanely expensive. NPC repairs for a level 20ish item cost over 40k (to be fair, gil was more abundant in 1.0, but it'd be like 4k in modern FFXIV, which at low levels is kind of a lot), and only got the item back to 50% durability. And it didn't matter because that was, at best, about 3 fights before it broke; if it was something like a Pugilist weapon, since Pugilists did more hits, that 50% weapon could be broken within one enemy. So everyone just ran around with broken gear, which meant you did less damage but it was still better than trying to keep your stuff in top-shape. Players could repair gear, but you needed a specific item to repair it, unique to each piece; for example, a pair of Dodoskin Cesti needed a Spetch of Dodoskin Leather, which meant you needed to go to the god-awful market wards and try to find one, or go out and farm dodos, then mine up some alumen, then find someone to turn it into leather and then have them repair your weapon... oh god all this to do like 20% more damage for 2 minutes or so until it breaks again. -Your miss chance in combat was shockingly high. Like in DnD a 30% miss chance is actually not terrible against a higher level foe, but in FFXIV1.0 you'd wish you had a 30% miss chance. It was so bad that the entire meta at launch was centered on a Lancer weapon skill called Feint, which was cheap and only available after missing but couldn't miss itself. -The numbers Jared gave for Anima were a little off for launch; those were the post-buff numbers. It used to be 1 anima every 8 (EIGHT!) real life hours. So if you wanted to teleport from one city to another, it was a solid two real life day's worth of Anima. People paid real life money to make alts to offer teleportation services, and they'd just delete the alts and make new ones, it was so bad. This was one of the first things fixed though. Well, "fixed." Ah there's so much more about ye olde 1.0... and I don't think Jared did enough to describe just how frustratingly slow the UI was.

[@mistmonster]

Wow you seem like the perfect person to ask this question. I think I reached the XP limit (whatever you called it) and I'm like what else is there to do? I started wondering and got into what I think would be Coerhas? Was is there? The only reason I remember this is because I finally came across something interesting to look at. it was blocked off but I think it was the bridge to Ishgard? Did that even exist? It looked like a bridge to a really cool place. I don't remember the snow but I think that is part of the story. Again stands out to me because I had been wondering the shroud for so long in the copy/paste map that getting out of the Shroud finally and then seeing that really stood out. Oh and there were very high level mobs around me. But being from ff11 I would have been a ninja in avoiding them.

[@Massivecow1337]

@@mistmonster Yeah Coerthas was in the game. It wasn't all frozen over yet, it was nice and green still, and the bridge to Ishgard was indeed there. I remember people saying they thought it was going to be the XIV version of Jeuno but that didn't manifest. Probably the coolest thing in Coerthas was one of the little hamlets, can't recall the name, had a very interesting little building. It had a guild sign like they have for miner or botanist, but was a sheep icon instead. Some people did datamining and discovered there was a Shepherd class under Disciple of the Land listed in the files, so that was possibly one of the guild locations for that.

[@mistmonster]

@@Massivecow1337 Thank you so much for solving this mystery for me. I didn't stay in 1.0 long as at the time I had a very successful FFXI LS (played for 18 years) I just checked, and my 1.0 character is still there and level 5. I did make it to another area too. was Mor donuts in that game too? I think I was trying to walk to another major city but took the worst path possible LOL. At some point on that venture I came to a very narrow area with level 45-50 mobs that I just could not get around and gave up. Sometimes I wish I would have stuck with 1.0, again coming from XI the slow pacing would have been normal. But my computer hated that game.

[@CGUWarlord]

I remember I got the collectors edition at launch. The start of the game was just so bad. My most hated thing was no AH and having to sift through thousands of retainers to find something. Later they obviously added an AH and then I think a way you could at least tell what ward or whatever a retainer holding an item was in. Essentially after maybe like a year or so i came back and man just in that amount of time it was almost a different game. I played it till near the end of service and for the most part I would say near the end the game was actually not bad. I think it was pretty insane the amount of changes the game went through and if 1.0 released like it was at the end, i think it would have def played out a lot different.

[@boobah5643]

I'd gotten into one of the betas, and I assumed the slow UI was because my rig was a little under the suggested minimums. I'm sure that didn't help, but that beta certainly convinced me I didn't want to pay money for that game.

[@lucasflores8095]

I legit thought it was going to be 13, I guess we ll have to wait 10 more years for that.

[@The.Culture.Consultant]

Job well done on this hour-long interesting video, Jared! Together with all of the great streams you're uploading on the VODs-channel, you seem to be in a great place. What better starting point than, say... tackle 13?

[@Dharengo]

You have no idea how long I've waited for this. And the 13 one.

[@namebn]

Having a minimum IL for story dungeons is a good thing. I still remember when heavens ward was new and getting a tank that was still using IL50 gear from the level 50 job quest in the dusk vigil, dusk vigil now has a minimum IL100 to enter. Don't need players bringing their alt jobs into dungeons when they don't even meet the previous expansions IL requirements for entry.

[@AtlasBlizzard]

Excellent video, you haven't lost your touch. I was enthralled from beginning to end!

[@RPGOmen]

A note about end game gearing up. I've been playing since 1.18 and I've never had to do any type of grinding to get gear to play any type of content. The crafting sets alone give you enough ilvl and stats to take on savage -- in fact, if you penta meld (put 5x materia in each piece of equipment), they're considered pre-savage BiS in a lot of situations. Their costs may be extravagant for the first couple of days due to it being the easiest way to get equipment (and crafters learning the recipes and getting the resources), but they soon go down to very affordable prices after a few weeks. So there's no real long-lasting gate regarding accessing any type of content. In fact, the hardest content (Ultimates) ilvl sync you down in a lot of circumstances.

[@Tython82]

The issue though would be getting the Materia for Penta melding since due to the RNG you could have a stack of 50 materia and burn the whole stack without melding a single piece.

[@RPGOmen]

@@Tython82 You'd be surprise at how cheap it is to actually penta meld. In total I rarely spend more than 1-1.5 million or so getting it all done. Then again I pre-emptively buy materia ahead of time and not when everyone is trying to mass buy it for their melds. Plus you get a lot of materia credit over time in the form of dailies that you just save up if you don't want to spend anything (since the most expensive materia are free melds due to the open slots). Though the cost of doing such is either more than or equal to the entire set when prices go down. So if you're strapped for gil, you might just settle with the item itself... which is still quite good and gets you past any Ilvl hurdles.

[@gratuitouslurking8610]

Meanwhile as a modern player, if I'm not using the current expansion Class gear I'm using the previous expansion Tomestone gear, which is enough to get you through the storylines.

[@cynicalmanatee]

​@@Tython82 Also that is only required for savage. Normal raids and alliance raids need gear from roughly 3 patches back, which is the pre-bis of the previous tier. If you do care about savage, every piece of current tomestone gear invalidates a pentamelded piece, so depending on when you start progressing through savage, it's not even required to pentameld everything.

[@jazz_hams]

No Jared you missed one JARED YOU MISSED ONE

[@projared]

Ummmm no I'm pretty sure I can count

[@MacNava]

@@projaredwhat comes after 12 and is before 14 then, Jared?

[@mosesborras3221]

No you missed counted

[@Elros04]

there is nothing playable between 12 and 14, so there is nothing to review, so nothing missed here XD

[@MoonlapseOpethian]

​@@MacNava12.5

[@NotAnotherEsper]

I was just recently binging your Final Fantasy reviews. You can't escape 13. Don't leave us hanging like this, sir--

[@Abishokaya]

This is by far the best summary of the game with the most on point perspectives in relation to the whole of what it has to offer in the present and past. Fantastic presentation as well. Bravo my man!

[@citizenniri2191]

That’s actually 2.0. (a realm reborn) 1.0 is the game before it was remade. The clips are also from later addons. 2.0 is level 50 max level.

[@grimms1916]

Its here! A video literally a year in the making

[@aedangraves]

We just going to gloss over the effort man put in to give us an hour long runtime?

[@cac1700]

And the effort really shows. 14 is a monster and this is really comprehensive imo.

[@GrayD_Fox]

Yes people are like that, and I respect Jared for doing it.

[@GarredHATES]

I’ve been a fan for a decade, I’m just glad this channel is uploading again

[@TonyTama]

43:17 I was not ready to swallow my drink. XD I nearly died laughing.

[@MayfWasHere]

Im going to be real, FFXIV is the only game to actually bring me to tears...there is a moment during the Shadowbringers patch quests during the villain's death monologue that hit me so close to home I had to legit walk away from my computer and cry my eyes out for 10 minutes

[@tyrusdalet]

“The rains have ceased, and we have been graced with another beautiful day. But you are not here to see it.” - I was BAWLING

[@BloodVixen]

Had my first moment after the Schala monologue at the end of Chrono Cross. "Remember us. Remember, that we once lived," Was the second.

[@BlaizeTheDragon]

Never forget the vault incident in Heavensward... Never forget

[@MisterXZen]

I sobbed during Endwalker. FFXIV definitely brings the feels.

[@solidskullz5736]

I started playing final fantasy 14 in June of 2023 and In already have over 1144 hours in it. Genuinely one of the most fun and engaging games I’ve ever played. The story, the characters, and all the stuff you can do just makes it a joy to experience. I can’t wait for the next expansion

[@carlosgomez-yi5lz]

"whatever the hell you call this" *Plays the titania theme* I call it art

[@TankyCrobat]

Best part about that comment is you knew what was coming before you heard it in the video

[@hasherayaz4160]

You truly deserve more subs and views... great channel and the ff videos are amazing

[@CrooningWolfEntertainment]

This was absolutely worth the wait! I know you struggled a lot with it, but it's a hell of a video. I've never been one for MMOs, but damn if this doesn't make me want to try it.

[@Goosaphone]

I appreciate you recreating 1.0 - never seen a video breaking it down, or so much footage of it before.

[@StarLightNow]

New ProJared! This video is also a log of the different eras of ProJared.

[@nyminenemine]

OH MY GOD THANK YOU FOR BRINGING UP THE NO RECIPE LIST IN 1.0. True story I bought the original deluxe edition FF14 that came with a little leather bound adventuring journal. I thought it would be fun to doodle my adventure as I went along. What I ACTUALLY filled it with was desperate documentation of every recipe I managed to stumble across. 1.0 was absolutely wild.

[@zeterzero4356]

34:05 Music so good it had Jared's "good music stank face" effecting his entire being.

[@TheManiacZone]

Long awaited and well worth it too! Amazing video Jared, so happy to have your videos back in my life, heres to many more! :D

[@miro5052]

XI and XIV are the only mmos where I don't mute the music even after hundreds of hours of playing. I can't remember a single other mmo I didn't mute the music a minute into launching.

[@takkiemon]

YES, I've been waiting for your return!

[@cyphi474]

Honestly, most fun XIV has is those first few days when new raid content comes out, as there are no guides to follow and you have to figure it out on your own with party. It can be chaotic as different groups can tackle mechanic different way, but you feel engaged in this community puzzle solving. Its just very short, as when guides come out, you are not solving puzzle anymore, but following manual.

[@lynzylu5]

There is no one in my house with me, I watched this video alone. But the very end not only made me laugh my ass off, but also had me physically applaud. Well played, sir. Well played. I'm positive this comments section is filled with people sharing their XIV experiences. That's wonderful. I'd like to share a little bit of mine: I am not a Final Fantasy veteran. I played Tactics Advance as a kid and I played like the first 2 hours of XIII. And then I had some friends push me to pick up XIV. And, when COVID hit, I said yes. I'm a Savage- and Ultimate-level healer now, the game totally absorbed my whole life in 2020 and 2021, and I still love it so, so much. My friend, however, IS an FF veteran. He's been playing the games since he was very young, and always keeps up with the new entries. When we play together (and we have for every new story patch since 5.3), it's this wonderful mix of me going into the new stuff with totally fresh eyes, and him being filled with excitement and nostalgia as he sees all of the references to the old games. It's such a wonderful experience, and I hope many others can experience the game too. Thank you for making this video

[@i8dacookies890]

43:58 What kind of lighting settup automatically turns you red when you show a laptop screen at the camera?

[@paulfraley9767]

Probably a warm filter that is normally balanced for his skin tone, sees the cool white of the laptop screen, and tries to make everything warmer to compensate. His face turns red because the screen is waaaaaaaay too white.

[@projared]

Camera's white balance went wild with that laptop screen

[@hayatojin2886]

I wish you would review more, you are so damn good at it, a really good talker. I have been bingning your old stuff which is all amazing!

[@Dragoonnight]

I’ve been looking forward to this video for a while, amazing work as always!

[@brycevo]

I was just rewatching your D&D vids. Perfect timing

[@beardedretroguy6428]

I built a new gaming PC for Final Fantasy 14 1.0 back in 2010. Windows 7, Core i7-860, 16GB DDR3, and dual GTX 480s. I still have that PC. Ran circles around everything else for years.

[@donglecity.1521]

This is the episode i have been waiting on for years 😭 loved it, thank you!

[@Ilnori]

As soon as he said don't make fun of my hotbars I was like, "I bet I'm making fun of his hotbars aren't I"

[@thelaughingrouge]

Back on the main channel at last!

[@manyppI2]

"Don't make fun of my hot bars" EVERY TIME, lol, always comes up

[@Henrodsantos]

13: The one trilogy in the series. Seriously, though, Lightning is living her best ficcional life in Europe as a supermodel after killing the one true God in FF Fabula Nova Christallis, not some demiurge, paradoxes, wanna be divinity or void creature of the week. Ardyn is cool, though. (I am joking; I couldn’t care less about Lightning, but she got kinda overpowered)

[@destinedmars6378]

Oh hey, das me, at 19:59, lol you just randomly selected me. That was back when I was lvling reaper judging by the weapon being the lvl 70 tomestone weapon.

[@MrJjjakey]

I love Ultimate raids because they integrate a very powerful narrative inside a 16-22 minute boss fight. In the Dragonsong's Reprise, you recount the ending of Heavensward starting from fighting the Heavenward knights in the Vault (watching Haurchefant die to save you mid battle), to duking it out withThordan in Azys Lla after catching up with him, beating Nidhogg on the bridge during his siege, and then finishing it out with defeating the eyes that possessed Estinien using a buff you get from the ghosts of Haurchefant and Ysayle. The Ultimate are ballads sung by the Wandering Minstrel, a bard that looks like the game's director YoshiP. Once you free Estinien and conclude the events as they happened, the Minstrel says basically "hey guys, I know you're not happy with losing Haurchefant. Let's go back and try that again". You're sent back to the first phase, this time you're able to carry over a full Limit Break 3 (Dynamis being a big focus in Endwalker, the expansion this fight was released in) which wasn't obtainable originally. With it you can save Haurchefant's life, changing the events of the story entirely. Thordan makes it to Azys Lla unchallenged and gains the technology to control dragons. He enslaves the dragons at the Churning Mist that you met at the MSQ and uses them to fight you. At the end of the phase he literally begs you to spare his life which you can actually do. The party can stop hitting him entirely in the last 1-3% of his HP to spare him and let him leave combat. Next phase you find out he had enslaved both Nidhogg and Hraesvelgr and is using them as weapons against his political opponents in Ishgard. Hraesvelgr mid combat begs for you to kill him "I swore to Shiva - swore that I would not take the lives of men... Stop me, I prithee!". This ends up being a mechanic, if anybody is killed by Hraesvelgr he enrages and wipes the whole raid. Beat both of them and now four dragon eyes have been dropped on the field. Haurchefant and Ysayle never died in this timeline so you don't get the buff like last time. If you killed Thordan, the eyes explode and you wipe. If Thordan was spared he drops down to absorb all four of them. With four whole dragon eyes he becomes Dragon King Thordan for the final phase. Look up what he looks like, I can't do it justice with words it's a really crazy and cool design. Beating him plays a cutscene where the souls of Nidhogg and Hraesvelgr's are finally released. The Wandering Minstrel in this cutscene assures us, it's understandable to be sad having lost friends but we should never lose sight of what we managed to protect. And remember, this is all conveyed in a roughly 22 minute boss fight where most mistakes will put the entire team back at the start.

[@52icon]

Jared will see how much his views go up when he finally does 13.

[@Cebreuss]

Holy hell, its here!!!!!

[@sleepingkirby]

55:21 "You're only allowed to change class in a safe zone..." That wasn't true either. I was frequently going out as lancer, seeing a mining or wood cutting point, changing to that and just gathered stuff. There was a cooldown like a 10 second that prevented you from attacking a mob after changing classes. This was done to prevent someone doing something like fighting as lancer, then changing to conjurer in the middle of a fight to heal up, then going back to lancer.

[@bloodbought6809]

The ending was chef's kiss lol :- P

[@natebroadus8474]

Game: "Several cutscenes will play in sequence..." FFXIV player: "Oh Jesus...." *RUNS to GRAB a beverage and tissues*

[@Yaiba4869]

or you know? you can just skip all the cutszenes in FF14 and ignore the story to enjoy the gameplay

[@natebroadus8474]

@@Yaiba4869 I grab a beverage because I want to see the scene.🙂

[@Yaiba4869]

@@natebroadus8474i tried to watch them ^^ but in MMOs my monkey brain turns on and i can not watch cutszenes anymore XD

[@zera666]

​@@Yaiba4869jokes on you there are some they make you watch in ARR even if youve seen them before

[@MisterPuggles]

@@natebroadus8474 And the tissues because they might make me fucking cry

[@mortalexo103]

Playing Terra's theme on a magitech mount is the part where I actually considered playing this

[@Kobolobob]

I've been playing the game for about 3 or 4 years and i never knew this, i turned off the mount music for the longest time, i might turn it back on again now xD

[@sessy01]

For me, it was Hildibrand Battle theme because of nostalgia then Shinryu theme to keep me subbed.

[@boobah5643]

@@Kobolobob A lot of mounts do, the most obvious being that trial boss mounts play that boss's battle music.

[@wezzco_br8169]

I love Final Fantasy 14! The immersion, story, all the things you can do that aren't raiding, but also the puzzles you solve during raids and ultimates. You can enjoy the game in several ways

[@TrTai]

It's kind of funny how you can see how much of this was developed over time right off the rip with the mix of information from different eras. The best and worst thing about XIV as a forever addict, is the potential. I'm at least glad the scope of content to grind at has widened, I just wish more of it was actively engaging. Thankfully I still love the story and the world, I just wish they'd do more with what they have while they're expanding it, there's still so many nooks and crannies in the old world that aren't really there in the new zones, at least to the same degree. EW was a fantastic end to the story as someone who played from the beginning that really made me have to put down the game to process. (Which ended up being a good thing with the content being kinda wide, but not really deep) I also love the call backs (and insanely looking forward to DTs IX and XI fan service) but I really hope it takes some time to live in its own world a bit more and continue fleshing itself out. It's cool seeing 1.0 again and project meteor, Man it's so weird thinking about how close yet so insanely far it was from being good (in parts at least) I actually liked the deliberate combat and really liked the cross class options even if it fell in the same trap as ARR's cross class to a degree also you could change outside of safe zones, including in dugeons iirc, it was part of speed running that you'd swap to BLM and BRD to mass clear mobs. and never forget the grapes they have taken from us.

[@at0micl0bster]

6:58 they really should use that hard knock back from the rathalos fight more often

[@adashi2407]

Dang! I really wanted to hear him rage over ff13!

[@reloadpsi]

It was hard enough hearing him tear into FF8 :P

[@Soniman001]

Who still rages over 13 in 2024?

[@okagron]

@@reloadpsi That review was on point, that game sucks.

[@reloadpsi]

​​​@@okagron Oh yeah it absolutely does. I still like it better than 13 though. Thing is, people who like FF8 completely unironically and think it's a really good game are in a vocal minority, compared to people like me who like the game but admit it's a vapid power trip that's just fun to break. FF13 is _way_ more divisive.

[@DanVzare]

​@@reloadpsi I personally like FF8. But I'll be the first to admit that it's a broken mess. I thought his review was spot on. I honestly want to see him cover FF13. That game was apparently so bad, that everyone was calling the JRPG genre dead following it's release (and that isn't hyperbole, that is genuinely what people believed, look up the youtube videos and game magazines that came out around that time if you don't believe me). The thing is though, FF13 isn't that bad. It more or less plays like Miitopia. Except, Miitopia is more fun. The problem with FF13, is that it's just so... very... boring. I've heard it opens up at the end, but none of the KZbinrs I watch will cover the game and I personally can't stomach it long enough to find out. So other than looking up a biased review of someone who loves it, I honestly don't know if it's true.

[@vellayiikintherealworld]

The legend is back

[@wilsonjoshwilson]

I speak for everyone when I say we want the Final Fantasy 13 video.

[@azmakikian5400]

13:18 - Not everytime you log in, but once every reset (a 24 hour time frame). 15:15 - You can get attached to any piece of armour or clothing using the "Glamour" system. Which allows you to look however you wish (in terms of attire) while still wearing whatever the highest you own is.

[@Mankey619]

Jared really shows his love of Final Fantasy, and this game is one of them. A whole one hour of this game's features and mechanics. Amazing that how it's still being played by today.

[@ScarletMagus]

Nobody ever talks about it, but isn't it super weird Square Enix never made a Final Fantasy XIII? Like, I get that there's a superstition around it (hotel chains around the world will skip the 13th floor entirely), but I never would've expected Squenix to do that for their flagship game series. Oh well! I feel like there's a very natural progression from the characters of FF XII to FF XIV, so I barely even notice the missing FF XIII

[@LuriTV]

Yea that's weird since Squenix is a japanese company and the usual bad luck number that got often skipped in japan is the 4 since its Kanji also can be translated to death.

[@jrloulanza6534]

​@@LuriTV In China 4 is THE lucky number and Square Enix uses it for the elements.

[@brunomatias4336]

Finally! Good to see you back

[@loganbelcher6385]

You don't know how long I've been waiting for this!

[@pharmcat8484]

I’d say about 10 months 😁

[@UnidentifiedRob]

Fun fact, you released a video on 14 a long time ago and its what made me give the game a try. Been playing it for years now. By far my favorite game I've ever played.

[@Wren042]

I've never seen one of your videos but you're actually really good at speaking and organizing your reviews, but like you know that

[@projared]

I appreciate the compliment! Thank you for watching

[@kyaban5192]

1:04:00 Wait... THAT'S WHERE THIS GIF COMES FROM?!?!?

[@mariogirl8100]

I remember, I saw that as part of the opening to Realm Reborn. (And a video with the end of the OG 14)

[@sabrakt]

Have you played 14? It's in the ending of 1.0, but it's also in the opening video of A Realm Reborn.

[@AdjectiveOtter]

My favorite Final Fantasy’s are 6 and 7! Funny numbers 6 and 7! If you combine them they make the number 13… Wouldn’t it be great if there were a Final Fantasy that had that number as well? 13? That’d be great.

[@Zakharon]

Sadly the canceled Versus 13 and made it into 15

[@sebastiancintron29]

Yeah that'd be great. It would also be great If that game was good too

[@AionShanks]

​@@sebastiancintron29it is good

[@douglasthequilava]

Did Jerd skip 13

[@okagron]

Yes, and 13-2 and Lightning Returns.

[@Elros04]

@okagron @douglasthequilava well, he can't review unplayable garbage XD if you want a review of those you can just go to any pet store dumpster

[@douglasthequilava]

@@Elros04 i only really think the original XIII is unplayable garbage. Lightning Returns was closer to below mid but slightly above F tier for me. Aka very, very low D tier

[@TheRadiaforce]

Jared skipped XIII, so you can too.

[@VenomtheOne]

@@Elros04 he reviewed FF 2 and FF 8....

[@mimikyoo]

12:26 Correction on tomestones. Tomestones are a reward for completing any max level content. there are three types: 1) limited tomestones that can be exchanged for close-to-max item lvl gear. (the amount you can earn of this type is capped per week) 2) unlimited tomestones that can be exchanged for lower item level gear. 3) unlimited tomestones of poetics that can be exchanged for gear from older expansions. none of these are only attainable from the 8 and 24 man raids and come from basically doing anything that is (or was) max level. in the current expansion, you can only earn the first two as a level 90 player.

[@maharaja101]

I'm not too into XIV's combat because each fight is basically just a set dance with almost zero reactivity that you need to learn, which gets a bit dull over time. The story and especially the world are absolutely fantastic though. There's just something magical about Eorzea and I'd really love to try it out in VR some day.

[@louismessina9163]

THANK YOU I've been scouring the comments to find just one person that thinks the combat is largely dull