Summary of Final Fantasy XIV's Story Up To Dawntrail (2.0 to 6.0)

[@Tickie82]

Bro..your channel has been a blessing for a returning player who haven't played since stormblood. Keep up the quality content.

[@abdullatifalsaleh2201]

+1

[@rnjesus8454]

+1

[@themaynetitan]

and me, a newer player who didn't pay enough attention during ARR and heavenward but about to move on to stormblood

[@jarlhenrik]

Elidibus' eulogy for his friends as he fades away STILL brings tears to my eyes, having seen it umpteen amount of times. Him and Emet's VAs made Shadowbringers the greatest expansion of the lot D:

[@40sUphillBothWays]

I needed this. I'm coming back after 30 month absence. I originally began at Gordias. Thank you-- and thank you to your Mother.

[@Jolsn]

Thank you, I'm glad it's helpful!

[@q1joe]

And this is why Shadowbringers into Endwalker will be the best pair of expansions ever.

[@ludnqka]

i played all of DT and are coming back to shb videos and its insane to me how different they are , how icredibly good shb is and how dull dt is. the caharaters the story the villains its insanity, they should have let the woman who wrote shb and ew continue forever dt is bulcrap

[@maybeitsyou1317]

@@ludnqka The ending portion of DT wasn't as bad. But wow like 75% of the MSQ was cringe and sleep inducing. Even the ending portion was very predictable and meh. The dungeons and content are good so far as well as the music. But yeah the DT MSQ was a huge step down in quality compared to what came before. I know people where worried about "Lower stakes" but it's not that. Bring back the godlike writer. Im quite sure they poached her for FF 16 and that's why she wasn't on DT.

[@dogsbecute]

@@maybeitsyou1317 bro dawn trail was supposed to be us enjoying the star we saved. we already defeated zodiark and the endsinger. we were given the mantle to protect the star from the gods themselves. Our ideology conquered the ascians. Dawntrail was supposed to be us exploring the new world to the west, as well as all the other things emet selch said when he returned to the aetherial sea. im of the camp that absolutely enjoyed dawn trail, and being able to relax and helping wuk lamat collect her gym badges. and then the second half actually pissed me off, cuz it was more of the same. i was enjoying the new world, eating tacos and not having to stress about the star falling. Plus a lot of the npc's were memorable to me. Not to mention, it somehow still made me cry like every god damned expansion in this series. i think yall are just too "hurr durr gimme 15 dungeons to run back to back hurr durr* and dont really get to enjoy the game. Im not taking away from shadowbringers, but i truly feel like yall are just hating on it for not being as heavy stakes and depressing as shadowbringers. the story at that time was absolutely wild, and dark. we conquered it. dawntrail is literally the warrior of light taking a vacation.

[@ggFinch]

@@maybeitsyou1317you do realize that DT is like ARR, its the start of a new story. You find ShB and Endwalker good because its the culmination of the story itself which wouldn’t have made sense if you didn’t play the first few expansions. A good story always needs a good foundation and narrative. DT is setting the tone of future expansions. As other people have mentioned we are not the main characters of the new story, for once the WoL is the one peeking in the events of DT like how FFXI was made.

[@maybeitsyou1317]

@@ggFinch I realize I paid 40 bucks for a boring story with mostly skippable cutscenes. Like all big MMO's FF 14 has simply started to drop off. The normal writer didn't write this expansion. But sure it's just like a new story. With totally uninteresting plotlines and characters. Between the hardcore nanny state type rules FF 14 enforces and the straight up degen community the game is simply losing popularity and therefore square is sending the talent to more profitable ventures.

[@FlowKage]

You fricking crushed this video mate. 100! and as someone who avoided doh/dol for 20 years (counting ffxi) your tutorials were clutch in my pre-dawn trail catch up,a and getting the lop hop emote. have super come to enjoy your work. mad respect.

[@Jolsn]

Glad it helped!

[@nomiracles]

Im so sorry for your loss Jolsn, big hugs. I can understand now why you don't want to release another video as long as this one, such a big project! Good job and thank you for the video ❤

[@Jolsn]

Thanks!

[@aalleen675]

Thank you so much for such a heavenly-sent work!! I rushed and skipped everything before level 70, your video filled all the gaps. Even I'm slowly replaying from start, to know the general story from your video is still soothing. Bravo!

[@Jolsn]

I'm glad you enjoyed it!

[@conroconro]

This is exactly what I needed without having to redo all the story. Great summary, and great commentary!

[@raerae3682]

Expertly done! I have always came to this channel for answers! thank you so much for your hard work!

[@Myonster]

As a returning player, and recently purchasing Dawntrail, this video was incredible. It answered all of my story questions that I could not remember or follow along with due to taking long breaks (and I do like to skip cutscenes lol) Thank you!

[@firewoodloki]

Found the evil cutscenes skipper!

[@Myonster]

@@firewoodloki Guilty as charged 😆

[@breakthecode4634]

​@firewoodloki most are boring which makes people accidently skip the good and important bits

[@z32o]

Was waiting for this before I started Dawntrail MSQ. Thanks, Jolsn

[@lexand_ecarg]

I'm notorious for just skipping cut scenes and then I'm confused on story line, so this really helped fill in some of those gaps. greatly done and appreciated :)

[@vinniedeluca5120]

Excellent overview, thank you for putting in so much work to make this. It is very much appreciated!

[@tontj]

As someone who stops playing at ARR but wished to know the story of 14, this summary is perfect. Thanks for making this video

[@Legendduzit]

Thank you for dedicating yourself to this video. It sure helped me A lot. I’m glad the re play for you will always be a special memory in your heart! Thank you so much and condolences to you! ❤

[@SNC_otr]

Quick apprechiation for your work. This video and generally your content is absolutely amazing, for new players especially. I skipped through most of the cutscenes until shadowbringers which I'm currently at, so I was looking for a video like this. I'm gonna leave it half watched until I hit dawntrail since shadowbringers & endwalker seem to be amazing by the word of the community but I will revisit the second half before playing dawntrail for sure!

[@shigure27]

Thanks bro. I've played on and off so I forgot a lot of stuff. I just finished dawntrail and felt like I needed a refresher to get a better idea of where we are in the story.

[@hamakakun]

Thanks for this. I was looking for a refresher before starting Dawntrail.

[@Ryotaiku]

I have a passive interest in FFXIV's writing but cannot stress enough how much I hate the way it gets presented in-game. Videos like this are an absolute godsend.

[@Jinxyoutoheaven]

The way questing is don’t is boring but they did a great job in endwalker. Shafowbringers was great too. Except Dawntrail which not good at all in presentation.

[@brainworm205]

Right there with you usually. I get a little tired of the needlessly long-winded dialogue and cutscenes

[@eise.]

Thank you for this. I've been playing for a long time but skipped a TON of cutscenes. Now I know what's up!

[@Jolsn]

Glad it helped!

[@loganx6703]

Thanks man I just came back to the game after 4 years this was very helpful

[@phantasydragon696]

For anyone wondering if the moon bunnies became useful in a later story, they havent. They are still useless and we havent been back to the moon.

[@TomTheOwl68]

That's true but it's worth doing all the allied tribe deliveries because you can then participate in the space race which is quite fun, plus the things you can buy that are exclusive plus you can get the Loporrit junkmonger permit etc.

[@TomTheOwl68]

Oops, i watched 20 minutes a while ago and saved it to watch later then forgot. Thank you for this, despite doing all the game and expansions, its nice going over everything. The video is extremely well put together. When I first started playing 14, I honestly wasn't that interested in the story and lore but 2.5 years later, Im watching a lot of content especially in regards to the lore. I have not played any other games since, including ff16 which is still sitting waiting to be played. I'm not gonna gush, but I do love 14.

[@Jolsn]

Thank you! Glad it helped

[@TheChristofear]

Loved the video! Thank you for putting this together for us.

[@Matuno89]

Holy crap Jolsn, you've been cooking. Congratulations on such a big project, I'm thoroughly enjoying it!

[@ragnarok400]

Apparently they didnt know what to do with the ascians until shadowbrings. They were just bad guys doing bad guy things.

[@freqcity]

Harchefont scene hit just as hard as the first time

[@nefariouspersephone9447]

dang u summed up the story in less than 2 hours!? my biggest gripe is how they changed msq for hydaelyn to fit endwalker

[@Godonstilts]

This. This is exactly what i was looking for! Thanks

[@GymLeaderGeo]

Really great, thank you for making this! I played FF14 casually for a few months and ultimately couldn’t keep up but really enjoyed the grandeur of the story so I love being able to watch videos like this and get my fix for the game :) May I ask: at 1:23:00, which solo duty is this, and why is it the most hated??

[@Jolsn]

It's In From The Cold: ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/In_from_the_Cold You're sneaking around as a Garlean Soldier on a timer to reach your allies before Zenos gets to them. I think many people might not have enjoyed the idea of being on a time limit for it.

[@hockey1973]

I'm convinced that long form videos like these are just excuses by the creator to show off their glams 😉

[@Jolsn]

Fun fact, I didn't unlock the glamour system all the way through the game. These are all the items I picked up as I played!

[@hockey1973]

@@Jolsn Suuuuuure creator. . . Suuuuure 😉🤣

[@winkf1ma]

Phenomenal narration!!!

[@Sin606]

This was an enjoyable catch up, but it feels like something is missing. What happened after WoL went home?

[@keiyangoshin3650]

I got so emotional from that intro alone. 🥹 Thank you for this useful and nostalgic video! 👍❤️ Over the years I’ve been playing this game (since 1.0), I’ve managed to forget a few tidbits here and there, and listening to the story in its chronological order along with its lore feels like hearing my FFXIV biography. 😂 Great job! See you in Dawntrail! ❤️

[@BeeferSutherland603]

I will never have time for MMO’s so thanks for this.

[@MetalMaidenDeth]

I'm sorry to hear about your mother, its a few months late but my condolences. I'm curious if you've beaten dawntrail yet?

[@Jolsn]

Thanks. Yes, I beat it a week ago or so. I thought the story itself was fine, but the pacing wasn't great this time around. What about you?

[@MetalMaidenDeth]

@@Jolsn I enjoyed the worldbuilding and setting and everything of the first arc. Cannot stand Wuk, I loved being in the mentor role this expansion that was really cool take. The story over all and sadly a number of the characters just don't have a justifiable payoff even though I did enjoy the journey for the most part. I personally think the transition scene in the final trial is the biggest slap in the face WTF moment the game has though. I'd agree heavily on the pacing too. Without getting spoilery and given your event I wonder how you approached the last zone. I greatly enjoyed it as someone who does not cope well with the subject matter so it hit quite close to me.

[@baggyman2652]

Amazing work !

[@UnavoidableFate]

Absolutely fantastic video.

[@Jurotheturtle]

Missed opportunitty to use Meteor as the WoL. Still very good video loved how you narrated it.

[@jamie4099]

You fit this into 2 hours fare play you deffo got a ff fan subscribed I own them all apart from ff13 and ff11 because I'm a playstation gamer I'm hoping they give ff13 soon I'm begging

[@MrDemonKitty666]

Kinda forgot how attached I was to the story after being gone for almost 3 years.

[@Hayssss]

I have played since shadowbringers. that one was a damn banger

[@nad0w]

Danke für die Zusammenfassung ;)

[@thompson6223]

thanks joseph

[@Jolsn]

Thanks Thompson

[@MastiffHQ]

Haurchefant sacrificing himself had me tear up doing HW.

[@KelvinYong77]

Thank you for the ARR-EW recap.

[@B1aQQ]

I wish you didn't skip over that it was implied that Ascians were tempered by Zodiark, but to a lesser degree.

[@JustRuss]

I'm not allowed to watch this yet but I know it's going to be a banger when I'm caught up in 2030 !

[@ayohollaatyaboy]

sat and watched theee whoooole videooooo - thank you so much for this ! I started ff14 in 2023, and skipped the story to be current with a buddy of mine who had way more time invested in the game than i did. I missed a ton of the story and this was super helpful in bringing me up to speed on events ive missed. Recently decided to renew my sub and finish out the last few levels to 90.

[@ashwean]

You all have to remember Bahaumut was only free for 30 seconds and did all the damage to the world between original ffxiv and A.R.R and if anyone remembers what happened when Deathwing was released on wow that damage took days and was no where as wide spread as Bahaumuts damage in 30 second

[@Ducethedragon]

You are amazing! Thank you so very much for this video!

[@ViewTube_Emperor_of_Mankind]

Etheirys. The original name is what counts. (in my opinion at least)

[@shinobiXX1]

Good freakin job bro!

[@Jolsn]

Thanks!

[@ChrisThibedeau]

Just as an FYI the calamities did not wipe out the entirety of the people on the source. The calamities caused alot of issue's on the source, and were caused by the other stars being destroyed that were mirrors of the source. As the the Alageon (Forgot how it's spelled) were not from the source. They were from the original, and they are what lead to the source and the mirror split. With remnants of their society on all of the stars. They were affected by a different issue then the calamities.

[@Jolsn]

You are confusing the Allagans with the Ancients, I think. The Allagans came way after the Ancients, who were indeed the "original" inhabitants on the planet. What lead the reflections to be split from the source was Hydaelyn.

[@DagazGriff]

The rains have ceased, and we have been graced with another beautiful day. But you are not here to see it. 😭

[@lorddeus805]

That was a banger video.

[@starprime5586]

ah yes, "the 100% cooler warrior of light" absolutely made me laugh! XD

[@xanhtra4146]

Thanks for this, can you give transcript for in Lore video so that I can understand clearly about the name

[@Seth6097]

Bro amazing

[@djlancer88]

Thank you

[@Draugheim]

Man, i already "miss this story" after having finished dawntrail. Its just not on the same level of quality. Hopefully it will be when this new saga develops further but... ugh, i just cant see it. We dont even have a red thread yet. Not even a big mystery/mysterious characters.

[@Jolsn]

I totally get that, but I do think they set up travel to other reflections. I think we'll deal with the restoration of the First, the Void and perhaps another place altogether, because it wouldn't be necessary for them to introduce the portal if we as the Warrior of Light can already travel to both of those places, right? I do wish they gave us more to work with, but my guess is that they want to use the 7.1 to 7.5 arc for that.

[@Draugheim]

@@Jolsn Yeah i think so to, but that's not really enough. We need something on the level of what we had. Reflections was just a product of one part of the previous story. We need a world/universe ending threat again, something on the same line. Something really threatening for one who can deal with ancients/gods/original primals etc. You probably know what i mean :) None of the dawntrail protagonists or events felt threatening at all. Almost like our characters went "Ok bro, you try that, see how it goes, lol" to a certain bad guy during DT. It also needs to be personal for both the WoL and the scions again. I dont even know why they were there this time, other than trust support and our personal cheer squad. Krile was the only one with a purpose.

[@gavingriffith4956]

Did it ever get explained how the teleporter randomly appeared next to the WOL at the very end?

[@Jolsn]

There is an optional dialogue with Urianger when you click on him after all this. "I understand that, following thy clash with Zenos, the teleportation device thou had discarded fell to thee from on high. To return to thee in such a manner...I did confer with Wilfsunn and Bloewyda, yet they insist the device was possessed of no such capability. Twas a miracle befitting the nature of that place, where emotion becometh tangible reality. Whence, then, arose this timely wonder? Thine ardent wish...or another's fervent prayer?" Ultimately it's not explained more, and it's up to interpretation. Could be Zenos who dropped it before the fight. Could be a final goodbye from Hydaelyn. The fellow Scions seemed surprised and didn't know about the device, so I'd rule them out. Your guess is as good as mine.

[@CRiSiS_iNFiNiTE]

thordan didn’t eat ratatoskr’s eyes? he killed ratatoskr and stole nidhogg’s eyes

[@Jolsn]

Not only did Thordan consume Ratatoskrs Eyes, his entire gang of Knights Twelve did too and then ALSO stole Nidhoggs eyes. There's an entire flashback cutscene dedicated to it. After this, Haldrath, the first Azure Dragoon, took one eye (the one that Thordan takes from his grave in HW) and the other one stays with Thordan I and the Knights Twelve.

[@ChocoCheetah]

The Echo. The Ex-Machinas of all Ex-Machinas

[@BenSmith_144]

What about post endwalker?

[@kimaclaret]

Whoa what a video!

[@CafeCreativeYT]

GOAT status

[@Goshak5]

So 3 days ago i get a bird and later today i will get a space ship? Thats some fast forward

[@Raoul9753]

Hold on... the "In from the Cold" Solo Duty is "most hated"? What is wrong with this community? This was one of the most interesting and challenging solo duties in the game... what is it hated for? THat you actually had to try and could brain AFK your standard rotation through it?

[@junglejayps7532]

In front the Cold was genuinely some of the best storytelling in the game imo

[@missteriouskitty]

I wasn't around when Endwalker first came out, but I hear that on first release, "In From the Cold" was much more difficult than it is now, and a lot of people were struggling to complete it. I've only experienced it after it got toned down a bit, but I agree that it's one of the most impactful solo duties in the game. Really enjoyed the stress/stakes.

[@LilyMrrgglton]

Wait so the story picks up straight from the spaceship landing? Returning player here, left right around the time of all the jail-type instanced content being added, so thats not required content to Dawntrail? edit: everywhere i look, guides and even the official patch notes point to requiring post-ew 6.1-6.5 all completed. Why you claiming Dawntrail picks up at 6.0 End?

[@Jolsn]

It's in the description, the 6.1 to 6.5 arc is so removed from the story of both Dawntrail and everything up to Endwalker, that it didn't work with the rest of the video. There's a satisfying conclusion to the story, and the entire story from 6.1 to 6.5 is irrelevant to 7.0 from both a lore and storytelling perspective.

[@DemocracySpreader]

Man I’ve been playing this game for like 9 days and was kinda enjoying it in the extremely early days But yesterday I got curious and started looking up videos and now I’m not even sure I wanna continue playing it. I appreciate the deep lore video, although it didn’t help me understand much as I’m still only lv 32 and only just got whm, but it’s the community videos that have me scratching my head. I just wanna play a MMO. I miss games like Lineage and FF11. Sucks. Some of the late game boss videos look like synchronized DDR online

[@absolutefolly2011]

The end game raids are indeed like coordinated dances, and it is very fun and very rewarding to do well. You can buy a skip of the majority of the story if its not your thing. I do like it personally as a whole, and think it is worthwhile - but it is a slow building grand story and it's one you get out what you put in. If you want to fully appreciate the story, you need to read and watch everything and think of it like reading an interactive book. Its not for everyone, but for those who enjoy it...its one of the best mmo storylines there is.

[@DemocracySpreader]

@@absolutefolly2011 I definitely won’t be buying a skip. That sounds ridiculous to me, to pay for a game then to pay to skip parts of it while paying a monthly and paying a monthly for my PlayStation plus. It’s all bad enough lol I stuck with it anyway. I just started Stormblood… literally about 20 mins ago. I got whm to 70 and now I’m doing the msq with Sam… until I get that to FT cap and then I’ll use something else… maybe drk unless I get Nin

[@Tohlemiach]

Man, this video simultaneously improved yet also solidified my current opinion on this game's story as being pretty aggressively mediocre. It's taken me 650 hours of getting distracted leveling alt jobs and pvping just to finally being Endwalker a few days ago, and in the 3 years since I started playing, I have forgotten a LOT of details (like Minfilia taking Ardbert to the 1st and reincarnating for the next 100 years after freezing the light waves). So this definitely helped me iron out some of the missing pieces that had been bothering me. However it also solidified a lot of my same opinions I've held this whole time on why I think, despite some great moments, this game's story sits as my least favorite FF story. Things that were awesome: - The final ARR MSQ dungeon/trial with the series of fights leading up to fighting Ultima Weapon. It really felt like a powerful climax. - The last ARR post-patch MSQ with the Ul'Dah conspiracy. The scene with Raubahn still lives rent free in my head today. BAD. ASS. - The journey through Dravania with Alphi, Estinien, and Isayle felt like a classic FF adventure while it lasted. - Dragon lore with Hraesvelgr was really cool. - The post-Stormblood MSQ where Yotsuyu loses her memories was fascinating to me. I really enjoyed the moral conundrum and trying to figure out the politics of such a situation. - Sitting down with the Emperor to discuss the war and getting a big info dump on the 14 shards was really mind-blowing. - Getting isekai'd into a world where light is the bad guy was a really neat twist. - Seeing Thancred and Ryne's relationship develop was really great, and seeing her get to have her own life was a satisfying development. - Emet-Selch really was interesting with how he was clearly the villain, yet I was also convinced he genuinely wanted to work together with us. All of the lore he gave us about the Ascians was really interesting too. - Eulmore was a neat concept, could have been pulled off better, but I liked the whole soylent green, two-tiered society, infiltration mission vibe. - Amaurot and the Tempest are peak world design. Breathtaking. KZbin wont let me post my full comment so I'm going to try splitting it up

[@Tohlemiach]

Things that were NOT awesome: - The Ul'Dah arc getting wrapped up by that one dude saying "oh she's not dead, here's a pardon, and I convinced everyone back home that we're all chill. You're welcome." So much buildup for the conclusion to be "we ran out of ideas, forget this ever happened, we've got dragons to fight." So far the biggest disappointment in the entire game. - "Guys, look out, it's the bad guy, he's right behind you!" "What's that? I can't hear you over this loud wind!" "Oh no, the bad guy sneaked up behind us and stole the key we just worked so hard for! Now we can't follow him to the ancient city in the sky! Grrrrr!!!" "Oh well, let's go explore another entire region looking for a way to just break through the shield anyway. Hopefully while we're spending this enormous amount of time here the bad guy won't be sitting in the ancient city in the sky accomplishing all sorts of nefarious things and thus rendering our efforts here fruitless! Surely it couldn't take him THAT long to enact his plan, right? We have to be out of time now, right guys? No way we still get there in time to stop him, right? Right?" - Yes, let's throw the Eyes of Nidhogg off a bridge into a really deep canyon. That will be enough so no one will ever get their hands on them again. I mean we're only up against teleporting, body-hacking, million year-old demi-gods, how could they possibly find a way to get past a really large amount of aether? That should be impossible for them! - Not one but TWO scenes in post HW MSQ where someone is dramatically struck down and collapses with a fade to black only for the next scene to establish that they were mildly wounded and would recover swiftly from their injuries. Bad directing. - Everything involving Urianger's quadruple agent shenanigans went completely over my head. Too many moving parts, and all to find out Minfilia has become the "word of the mother" since she disappeared? And that means, what exactly? Why does Hydaelyn need such a thing when she just talks directly to us? Why aren't *we* the Word of the Mother? We had to convince her to go to the 1st with Ardbert, so what was she doing in the meantime? What words was she giving and to who? It was all so needlessly complicated and not clear on the significance of any of it. - There is nothing you can say to convince me that Shinryuu was so powerful that Papalymo just HAD to blow himself up to save everyone. Every single primal we have encountered thus far has been completely beatable given we do a bunch of shenanigans and then queue up for a trial. Why was this one so different? This is an issue of game design coinciding with story. It's never really clear when a situation is something we can fight our way out of or not and it feels like it's up to the whim of the writer for which things we have to lose in a cutscene vs ones where we just dps in a trial. This entire event seemed completely contrived, like the result of a dice roll basically. "Hey, we need a dramatic moment to bring us into the new expansion." "Oh, I gotchu. We'll take the least interesting, least developed cast member and decide that he has to blow up in order for us to win. This'll get the waterworks flowing. Genius *high fives self*." HW post-launch patches are easily the worst part of the entire story, bar none. - Zenos "cheating death" with his artificial echo is more made up BS because it would add more dimensions to the story. Of all people to bring back for a future expansion, too, it just had to be the least interesting villain so far, huh? It's evil One-Punch Man, whoo. Please shoot me now. - Y'shtola once again "dying". Yeah okay bud. - Graha trying to pull his uno reverse card at the end made me immediately fall out of love with Shadowbringers. I can't believe Urianger was aware of this plan the entire time and still thought it was a good idea. If everyone had just sat down and talked like adults they could have just all agreed to let him do his whole sacrifice thing, or hell, maybe they pull an anime move and say "No! I won't let you sacrifice yourself! We'll just a find a way where we beat the bad guy and no one gets hurt and the entire world is saved all at the same time! It's totally possible!" Even that would have been better than Graha--*reads notes*--pretending...to be evil...??? Like...what???? I can't spare any more brain power thinking about how dumb this is. - But wait, there's more! The fact that this whoooooole time, throughout ALL their time fighting the ascians, the people that *literally* teleport at will and take over peoples' bodies, it seems that not a single person has EVER come up with a contingency plan to deal with this fact. So Emet-Selch shows up and pops Graha in the back, wow, crazy, how did he get here, oh no, and then he just teleports the both of them into his evil lair and invites us to come challenge him??? I thought this guy was smart? Since when did he turn into a treasure-hoarding dragon from my middle-school literature class? "Come challenge me, oh brave hero! If thou darest!!! Muahahahaha!" They could have done literally anything else and it would have been better than "villain disappears to his lair and invites us in." Immediately becomes a mediocre villain because of this. He had SO much potential and they ruined every single bit of it. - One of the big things I never understand about a lot of fantasy stories involving very complex super powers is why the villains do certain things at certain times. Why is it only now that Elidibus decides to awaken the echo in everyone? I just don't get it. I shotgunned that whole questline in a single day, I'm not sure what I'm missing. - Hey Graha, looks like you're dying, better give a several minute long emotional speech. Btw we're reviving you in about 5 seconds. "Bet". - Fandaniel sucks. "I'm a nihilist, teehee!" Wow, what a great way to follow up Emet-Selch. When the whole Random Tower Event happened, I thought for sure that was going to be another B-plot for the inbetween MSQ and then we'd get the REAL set up for how we move into Endwalker, so the fact that I just landed in Garlemald and the towers are STILL a part of the plot is genuinely baffling. It's on the level of "somehow Palpatine returned" for me. We did all this work, solved all these problems, and what brilliant curveball did the developers come up with to keep the ball rolling? "Right, so these big towers are just gonna pop up all over the world and enslave everyone to make them summon a bunch of primals that the MC is gonna cut down effortlessly. Also the guy who's doing it just wants to kill everything including himself. Really compelling plot, right?" Also this guy, one of those guys who can teleport and body-hack? Yeah he's gonna show up from time to time to taunt the MC but otherwise do literally nothing to try to stop us. But I'm sure it's all part of his "plan", guys. He's just so conniving, that rascal! - Oh no, all of these innocent people have been melded with this tower and removing them will kill them! What do we do? Oh I know! Smash the core and hope the tower disappears! What about the people? Don't care! *Smashes core* Hey the tower's disappearing! Oh no, what's going to happen to the people? And us for that matter! Hey Graha, use every last ounce of your being to make everyone completely safe while this tower explodes. Don't worry, you'll just need to take a nap after and you'll be fine. That's as far as I've gotten in the story thus far. All in all, it has some really great moments, but rating the quality of a story inherently must take into consideration the entirety of the thing, and there are SO many moments in this story that just absolutely drag it through the mud. I'd give it a 6/10, easily the worst FF game I have ever played. Can't wait to play more.

[@jadestar4]

The planet is called Etheirys not Hydalyn.

[@Jolsn]

The name Etheirys is not known to the characters until much later. The planet is called Hydaelyn throughout all of the game until Endwalker.

[@Rob_Thorsman]

You forgot the 6.x content.

[@Jolsn]

I mention in the description that it's not included. It was actually already voiced and edited and included with the video, but I decided to cut it out because the entire arc is so removed from the previous plot which ended neatly with 6.0. I'd rather summarize 6.1-6.5 in an extra video

[@Rob_Thorsman]

@@Jolsn Oh, okay. I never read the descriptions, lol.

[@sailor_anna9924]

Man I forgot about papalymo

[@HOLOHOAXTND]

Story is so generic and boring...

[@lengskeng3831]

u gotta work on your voice man

[@callmelazy2836]

Many hugs for your loss, I know the pain all too well myself. Thank you for bringing this lovely summary to us