We Completed ARR

[@Reldan]

It's so rare to see people taking advantage of all the extra dialogue you get from talking to characters other than the questgivers. I'm blown away that nearly everybody has something new to say at every state of the story, and not just meaningless filler lines.

[@Keira_Blackstone]

"I would love if Ishgard becomes a buddy cop movie."- You have no idea how true this is.

[@trifontrifonov4297]

Minfilia is a Miner, so it makes sense that she sucks in a fight. But I am ok with that. Most fantasy has the most powerful and battle capable character in charge. And that points to a world that is a bit too might makes right for my taste. Minfilia does not have to be powerful to give orders. The other Scions follow her due to who she is as a person, not because her numbers are biggest.

[@jedahaw]

They probably made her too 'perfect'. There was nothing about her that we could relate. Maybe if we stumbled on her dozing off during one of her paperwork and then she starts being 'perfect' would have been better. I still like Minfillia the way she is though.

[@Eiensakura]

Like to be very honest, without Tataru, the entire Scion operation would've collapsed upon itself lol.

[@lethargicwizard]

Minfilia was running logistics for a massive organization. I feel like too many people get lost in the cults of personality that are the other, more experienced adventurer Scions, and forget the fact that all of them are completely lost on their own without someone to coordinate them (all the way up to the events of SB pretty much).

[@hellzoneUK1991]

@@lethargicwizard The game doesn't do the best job at conveying how good she is at that even. The Sot7D was founded when she rolled Louisoix's Circle of Knowing into her existing organisation that she founded when she was about 21 or so - The Path of the Twelve. The Scions might actually be smaller than the Path going by the number of adventurers at Cartenaeu, and the Path was supposedly much more secretive and yet even so she's shown to be able to manage both quite well. She had her flaws as a leader; but when she's not around it takes everyone pitching in to make up for her absence, and it really shows...

[@roastpork5437]

@@Eiensakura lol, gil runs Eorzea. She aims to be the next Elon Musk of Eorzea.

[@AoiKaze2000]

I hear that Teledji was quite beside himself with Raubahn's reaction to his remarks.

[@redgeoblaze3752]

well, to be fair, Raubahn was mostly just there to give Ilberd a helping hand.

[@WijaVT]

Honestly, it wasn't hard to be suspicious of Ilberd...coz EVERY SINGLE TIME there's a cutscene with him alone with you, the 'something-suspicious-is-happening' BGM plays LOL I was just like 'hmmmm something doesn't feel right' 🤔so the fact he does end up betraying you all was not very surprising LMFAO Also that part where Raubahn cuts Teledji in half is honestly such a wonderful use of camera work since you see his bottom half knee-drop to the ground whilst his upper half falls backwards. You don't really think about it until you watch it again and again and it's genius lmao

[@highbrow-stonebender]

Garret after the last month: "I've been on a journey, man..." Garret after Shadowbringers: **sobbing uncontrollably** What the hell is life? I KNOW NOTHING!" After Endwalker: (Garret and Kyle pass a joint back and forth in contemplative silence) Seriously, though, for a lot of us FFXIV vets, the latest addiction is watching folks like yourselves fall in love with the game we love for all the reasons. Really looking forward to seeing you guys go deeper down the rabbit hole.

[@john_7000]

U can't control people's opinions just because u cried at a certain part of the story it doesn't have to be anyone I actually didn't cry at all in shadowbringers it just nothing special on my opinion, it my least favorite expansion I love Endwalker and other two expansions way more

[@damiester1]

@@john_7000 Okay, but you're doing the exact same thing lol.

[@WhnNinjasAttack]

@@john_7000 Ok

[@Kozmokast]

@@john_7000 hello year old contrarian, hope you've found your soul!

[@gerikhan1]

RE: the Tataru sidequest, one of the unfortunate casualties of the ARR quest cleanup was a few sidequests for her where she tried out other jobs to shore up the Scions' straining finances, most notably being a miner. Unfortunately it ended up with her getting chased around by morbols and needing rescuing. The Arcanist training that's still in the game was kinda the wrap up for her arc. The cleanup was justified and much needed, but I do kinda miss little things like that. It turned a character I was determined to resent into a fave.

[@Kasaaz]

Most people discount how much adding flying to the ARR zones like half-way through Shadowbringers' life-cycle made the post-ARR stuff more bearable. They did a trimming and whatnot of the MSQ in the ARR and post-ARR stuff, but I think flying one you hit 50 made way more of a difference. Imagine having to ride around to all those quest objectives, etc.

[@Mokai]

In regards to entering Ul'dah immediately after "That cutscene": Talk with the townsfolk, especially your class trainers! An underappreciated touch in FF14 is that NPC dialogue will update from time to time after major events that they would have reasonably heard murmurings about, and discuss it with you. =)

[@LarsisLP]

I love how all the guards are either "well, I don't believe you are guilty" or "well, i do believe you are guilty but also you are fucking terrifying and will annihalate me so let's just pretend we didn't see each other"

[@duncanmacleod6274]

Different people have different problem areas with ARR. Some people like the patch quests because more primals to fight & they like Moogle Mog, some have a lot of issues around pre-Titan fetch quests, and people like Asmon who don't get easily bogged down with the grind don't have issues with any of it. Long time players almost all have at least some friends who have tried and dropped the game in ARR before what we consider to be FFXIV's real good story; hence trying to preface talking about ARR to new people. If you get to the end of ARR patch quests, you're headed to Heavensward and we don't need to worry about it any more.

[@Amovetv]

This feels like a solid round up of the many different reasons folks warn new players about ARR.

[@Marekthejester]

@Александр Костров ARR is bad in retrospective thanks to the expansion that followed. But if you look at it for what it was when it released, not only was it a huge improvement over 1.0, it was also fairly good for an MMO of this year. There really wasn't that much of a competition back then and most of the MMO of that era have closed.

[@bighatastrea]

Moogle Mog and Kuplo Kop were super funny and cool! But that was only like 30 or 60 minutes of the story. :( The whole Leviathan preparation stuff etc. felt a lot longer in comparison, I even remember Mog being an optional quest because it was so short

[@specialnewb9821]

@@Marekthejester ARR is honestly probably a 7/10 which isn't a bad game especially in the 2013 mmo environment

[@Marekthejester]

@@specialnewb9821 I like ARR too. My personal stance is that it's clearly inferior to the expansion but it's still a very good story. I was already an MMO player when i did it so i wasn't too bothered by the grind and fetch quest, in fact i thought it was pretty normal (I played before the 2020 cut) x)

[@ovan1148]

Trivia time! Q: Do you know what class Minfilia is? A: Miner I'm serious. She's a gathering class.

[@trekkiezero]

That and back in 1.x her class was minor... since she was a kid. Having not had the opportunity to play 1.x I'm also pretty sure she had a Tataru-esque character arc where she became a miner. Fun fact during the anniversary event they hold every year the vendor for the event is actually 1.0 Minfillia.

[@fartimusmaximus8710]

@@trekkiezero she's not a minor...

[@UmatsuObossa]

@@trekkiezero It's actually a retcon that Ascillia is Minfilia. The two of them appear even in the same cutscene at one point. I've debated some people who cope HARD on trying to make it not a retcon, but it definitely was. A good retcon since Ascillia's story hit a dead end and Minfilia's backstory was a boring generic "people with the echo be descriminated, so i help by gathering up all echo peeps". They also retconned how the echo works, and retconned who has it. Used to be literally all scions have it because that was how you got into the scions. And used to be you were literally placed into the echo scenes and could interact with people there.

[@cairill]

The goggles allow you to see the movement of aether, you can see it working in the Alexander raid. The scions have them because they are archons, not because they are scions. (Archons are just people who have just done their degree(maybe the equivalent is higher) in Sharlayan)

[@nahuel3433]

They help to see the environmental effects of Primal summoning, for a more practical application.

[@Jake9066]

The goggles are used be any Sharlayan aether researchers, not just archons (the twins aren't archons, btw). The tattoos are how you tell archons.

[@solusgamer164]

I think it was something like Archon is simply the name of those that belong to the Circle of Knowing, which is the group that Louisoix founded. That's why only certain members of the scions have them and no other Sharlyan. So far the Archons we've met are members of the scions except Alphinaud and Alisaie (and Krile later on). Matoya is an Archon, and so was Moenbryda. Neither were scions, but they both were part of the Circle of Knowing.

[@Jake9066]

@@solusgamer164 not quite. Archon is an academic title in Sharlayan, awarded to anyone who has contributed significantly to their field. I know Y'shtola's and Matoya's are in the study of aether, and Thancred's is literally in being sneaky better than anybody else. And there are a bunch of Archons outside the circle of knowing, like Krile and others in the sons of baldesion.

[@cairill]

The aesthetician has an archon tatoo, I doubt he is in the circle of knowing.

[@KalarMeadia]

Something to know about Minfilia especially from 1.0. While she has no qualms sending others to fight, she herself cannot fight. She has zero combat power and she doesn't have much drive to learn, as she has more administrative and survival skills. Good leadership skills, zero combat experience.

[@Arrek8585]

She's also in charge because can you see any of the other scions actually wanting to be in charge?

[@Amovetv]

Good to know. I was definitely in the dark about this. -Garrett

[@sleepysera]

Yeah but the issue is that we don't ever SEE her be good at that. Even before she's gone, but especially after, we see so much of the behind the scenes work that Tataru does as an also non-combatant, so Tataru never feels useless in the same way Minfilia did, because we don't ever really see her do anything useful and her only actual plot relevance is when she's captured (again), to the point where it feels like her ONLY talent is being a damsel in distress. Spoiler for later expansions: It doesn't help that the Scions become incredibly more important and influental in late HW, SB and EW, making her look even worse at her job in retrospect because the Scions basically only begin to thrive and gain a lot more influence once she's gone xD She has her moments in HW and ShB and I think they work in her favour specifically _because_ they change her role and capabilities.

[@omegaxtrigun]

@@sleepysera Yes you do see her be good at that. All the direction she gives you and the help with things like the grand companies and such. That's her job. She's a manager. You don't see it directly just like how you don't see Tataru doing her secretary work but they're both important. They take care of all the planning and red tape so you and the other scions can get to doing things. Spoiler: Also, the scions didn't become more influential BECAUSE she was gone lol. They became more influential because you continued to do more and more heroic deeds. That would have happened if she was still around.

[@continuallyblessed44]

I’m loving your weekly FF updates!

[@Amovetv]

Glad to hear! Thanks for letting the two of us know.

[@erickelley1680]

Way I look at minphilia, is she is the admistrator who makes sure that the rest of the scions don't really have paperwork to worry about and spend their time in the field.

[@BlumenCT]

The story goes that during the writing of Heavensward, the localization team introduced the writers to Game of Thrones. So you have a heavy western influence during the buildup and into the expansion itself. For all the hit or miss stuff in the patch quests it is far more coherent in HW. And not only does animation improve from here on out, but details like blocking and framing and overall cinematography start to pull their weight as the dialogue gets tighter.

[@Amovetv]

I noticed the better virtual camera work! It's great. The first damn cinematic going into HW looked immediately more polished and it's a pretty simple interior scene with Alph.

[@inoob26]

One thing I really love about the game is that it rewards you for paying attention to what the characters are doing or saying as they often reference it later down the line in future MSQ in later expansions too for some callback gags that is definitely funnier if you paid attention

[@christopherclayton5500]

Tataru feels like Minfilia done right. Most of the Scions are capable combatants, and most that aren't (and some that are) have PhDs. Tataru and Minfilia are neither, but I feel FFXIV spends more time making you see why Tataru is still an asset to the team despite this.

[@thedragon133]

Tataru will be the final end boss of FFXIV if it ever ends.

[@Amovetv]

If this happens I will refuse to fight her.

[@bighatastrea]

I never understood why some people hated Tataru, at least that's what I see on reddit and hear from friends pretty often. I liked her, she didn't have that much screentime and even got her little "I want to help everyone in combat but can't, so I have to learn to accept myself and realize that everyone appreciates the support I can give" arc

[@tjongdavid1921]

Yepp. But Tataru is more like a butler than a leader. An assassin-trained butler if I may quote a certain NPC 😁

[@christopherclayton5500]

@@tjongdavid1921 Administrative assistant, not butler.

[@Tsuna_SoulSilver]

Oh yeah also I recommend watch the cinematic trailers of the expansions when you are about to start it. Also I would not worry about spoilers on trailers since they do a good job generalized it. Also I think you will like the Heavensward trailer.

[@thest0mpa]

this but don't (as much as it might seem cool) look ahead too far because they do spoil the previous expansion Shadowbringers in particular does massivly spoil the end of the stormblood patch stuff

[@NeoZhinzo]

@@thest0mpa "massively" is a bit overblown.

[@jmstover]

@@NeoZhinzo Well, they showed it before the patch that introduced that dungeon. I have a bigger issue with the Heavensward trailer.... it basically shows the major points of "The Parting Glass" quest. *All* the major points.

[@NeoZhinzo]

@@jmstover You realize that to people without the context of being up to date that part of the trailer doesn't mean what you and I see, right? That's why I think "massive spoiler" is a bit much. It's only a spoiler if you are aware of it being a spoiler.

[@NeoZhinzo]

Just as a PSA, warning people that something is a spoiler, also takes away any ambiguity of symbolism that it might have had. Just because you know it's a spoiler, doesn't mean everyone will see it as a spoiler.

[@Theheadless1858]

The ARR post-patches lay the groundwork for a lot of what comes after. As the team transitions from telling the story through questing to telling the story through scenarios/trials/dungeons/relic weapons etc they become better story-tellers but this is the story. These patches introduce the Doman conflict, the Dragonsong War, the Weapons series, the Aetherial sea, Ala Mhigo, Ascians, White Aurecite, the primal rules, like if you did not like the story-telling it does get better but if you aren't into the story... this is the story. Also, the game has cutscenes in the first few levels where a scion (who specifically changes depending on your starting city) uses and loudly explains the purpose of the goggles -- and it's comedically clear.

[@ngwoo]

They keep Minfilia around because she's the only one who knows how to use the photocopier at the Waking Sands

[@Theshwab127]

You made it to the turning point now! The setup is complete and its time for the story to turn up to 11 for the rest of the journey

[@Rakka5]

Congrats, you have finished the tutorial of FF14. No, I'm not even joking. Now heed my words: Do NOT rush the MSQ. Each expansion has a whole new set of normal raids, alliance raids, trials and dungeons. Do them. ALL of them. (Preferrably during their own expansion) Aside from being excellent gameplay content they are all deeply tied into the lore of the game, and without spoiling everything, the more time you spend investing into side-content like these, the more the game will reward you with extra dialogue, cutscenes and lore. This is even true for the more "grindy" side-content like Relic weapons, Eureka and Bozja (ESPECIALLY the latter). Take your time and enjoy everything the game has to offer. You can only play through the story for the first time once.

[@smilerat8070]

Okay. This is the third channel I have now hit the bell on.

[@slingerland3g]

I just finished ARR as well. I was not expecting that cut scene! Wow!

[@karelposedi]

Congratz on finishing prolonged tutorial💖 Intro:14/10

[@Ravio.Helianthus]

Garrett picked up Dark Knight? Good choice! It has my favorite job questline and I hope we get to hear your thoughts on it.

[@Amovetv]

Tanked my first dungeon last night. It was low level so my already limited abilities were even more limited, but I had a blast! The first time I used the starter AOE I was sold. Looks so cool!

[@Dyneamaeus]

I can't express how annoyed I was by my impotence in the big palace wrap up. I was a lvl 75 Scholar at the time, and I was _invested._ "Oh, is there poison in that wine? Let me just esuna that real quick. No? Ok, I mean story's gotta story, I get it, I'll let that one go. Rhabahn's throwing down? How 'bout I get my fairy to untie me and pitch in. No again? Sure, sure, it's his moment, wouldn't wanna intrude. Ah~ I see, now that I'm free I can start crushing heads and work off some of this fury I'm sitting on, great plan. What? Running? Why?! I'm begging here *let me kill something!"*

[@ArakDBlade]

The animations do get better over time. Much like everything else.

[@ngwoo]

The biggest improvement is in Stormblood since that's when they finally dropped PS3 support.

[@PokeBattlerJaze]

20:00 Spoilers not spoilers kind of, Tataru continues to be the GOAT and never stops being the GOAT

[@hudsey78]

Just finished the msq for ARR, now onto the path content.

[@sonjareitter1887]

Aw, sweet summer children! Remember your own words, this game rewards and rewards more when you pay attention. Yes, I was also initially disappointed that Minfillia has no combat class, like legit ever. Looking back, I like that her job is literally management and not fighting.

[@dragonmanj]

Great job you two on completing ARR! Have fun in the next expansion!

[@Dav_Plays]

Congratulations, you surivived the purgatory.

[@elaine_of_shalott6587]

I loved seeing this. You are on the roller coaster now. No getting off now. But take your time and enjoy the ride. I have just made it to Toto-Rak in my replay and I am spotting all sorts of things I missed in ARR the first time around. It's like re-reading your favorite book and spotting all the forshadowing.

[@shadowfire015]

I’ve been really enjoying the evolution of your videos as you delve further into story and content. I think the approach of not rushing, of experiencing the side stories and trying new jobs, of visiting pas NPCs and chatting with them, will be a boon to you as you progress and continue to flesh out the world. I also think people (me included) are interested in streams regardless of timetables because we want to see how others react to things we love/loathe. FF is special to a lot of people because in some capacity everyone plays the story and it pulls us together with the shared community experience; we can’t help but want to watch others experience it too.

[@BazzFreeman]

The post ARR Quests are MUCH better than they used to be. The build up to what is one of the best expansions ever released. Persevere. Hear, feel, think and your reward will be fabulous.

[@cthulu29]

Not sure if anyone else mentioned this, but Tataru in her Arcanist gear was popular enough that Taito made a figure of her, complete with misbehaving Carbuncle, as a crane game prize.

[@cordeliacentauri1737]

I love how here I am watching this video with a smile on my face knowing this 2 will eat their words after completing endwalker.

[@ajuna]

they won't even need to get to EW to do that xD

[@daasnahk5058]

So fun fact the post patches used to be much worse but was reduced by 20 quests. Another thing is that after ARR almost all the voice actors are changed so be prepared for that.

[@Amovetv]

Noticed it right away with Alph. Really like his new voice (though, for all my complaints about the character I do kind of miss his old voice as well).

[@Mhantrax]

@@Amovetv without spoilers, generally most characters go through some very personal experiences that change them. These scions may start as archetypes, but over time and expansions, they show themselves as loving, breathing, conflicted and imperfect human beings.

[@evilsteve8915]

Minfilia isnt a combat character. She's a miner by trade. To keep the team together through the power of personality. He is the definition of being the leader without being the most badass.

[@rogthepirate4593]

"I'm not into anime aesthetic" Yup. Me neither, I aabsolutely know what you mean. It's just that this game doesn't really have that (unless you want to, I guess). I still don't care for anime even a bit, but this game has become one of my all-time favorite games. Of all time. Ever. If you enjoyed ARR (for the most part), I'm very much looking foward on your take on the expansions.

[@gyderian9435]

Same here. Actually the first time I heard about this game was from a friend who is a huge anime fan and for some reason tried to present the game to me as a "anime game" and to play with him. I refused then, which was a mistake, bcs I didn't look it up myself. When I finally did much later I was like where is all the anime stuff I was warned about. Now my favorite game.

[@Marekthejester]

The term "anime aestethic" always annoy me. As someone who watched a lot of anime, i know what most people see when they say that is one of the most popular anime, maybe One Piece or Naruto, or maybe even Attack on Titan. But anime being an art there is a lot of different aesthetic and some anime have some more realistic/grounded style compared to other. It's like saying something has a "painting aesthetic" when painting goes all the way from Van Gogh to Picasso and even include some art piece you would have hard time distinguishing from a photo.

[@rogthepirate4593]

@@Marekthejester Nobody implies that all anime looks the same, but the style IS distinctive enough in 95% of cases to be labeled thus without any problems (the range of "painting", as per your example, is MUCH more varied and broad, by comparison). That said, I do believe that it's more than just the pure visuals to people who use that term. Personally, for example, I include the typical tropes and whatnot as well, and in combination create this instant "turn-off" effect for me.

[@papapaulrocks]

Grats boys! Youre now in for the juicy stuff.

[@oberoneledthar3782]

funny is, that either Raubahn or Ilbert says "I'd rather cut my arm off than betray a friend" when they search for the traitor

[@drakedge2000]

It warms my heart that you guys are enjoying this game so much.

[@SeaborneWhale]

I’m so glad you’re back! This series is my favourite one on KZbin right now

[@marginalmeaning]

The best part is that things only get better from here on. One of the biggest things I appreciate about this game is that there’s a real connection between future story beats and characters from earlier content. There were characters in ARR that seemed like barely a foot note to me that get brought up or in the story in future expansions. Like “wait, that’s that one character from that series of side quests I did!” And although a lot of them don’t have huge implications in plot or anything, it’s just nice to see some cohesion in the story telling.

[@rexex345]

So fun fact: if you go to mor dhona rn, there's a crystal brave you can talk to that basically explains why noone is trying to arrest you... They're too damned scared of you.

[@cparle87]

17:00 Reason that Coils confuses you in the timeline is it came out in the 3 bunches. Binding was right after Praetorium with that roar you heard at the peace celebration. Second was in 2.2, and Final was in 2.4. So all of it happened way before the subject matter of this video so it makes sense for him to be there.

[@crimsonpotemkin]

The last 3rd of ARR is actually where I finally got interested in the story. It happened the moment Ilberd started acting very dodgy. I think it was when we were at the scene of a crime and what I was seeing wasn't congruent with what he was telling me. That peaked my interest, because I never considered him to be a traitor before, but now more and more piece started falling into place and forming a picture. The GoT cutscene was a great pay off for something that I was expecting and that made it very enjoyable.

[@tougenm-2550]

Every expansion improves the quality of animation in the ingame cinematics, and the ammount of lines your WoL get to say in those "dialogue choice" window, while the choices dont affect the outcome of the story in any way, you do get a bit of diferent dialogue from npcs depending on what you say. I think the two biggest jumps the game makes in quality regarding just animations is from RR to HW and from HW to SB.

[@johnpodobnik5756]

I'm a 9 year player myself started when arr was just that. Hard and extreme modes didn't exist. You couldn't fly after completing the story. Had to dismount to teleport. Stoneskin and protect were healer abilities applied before raids or dungeons started. It's been quite a journey since then. I'm in Endwalker and can't wait to see you guys progress.

[@ishtarrak13]

Love your journey and appreciate you letting us see it unfold! Quick note on animation quality - ARR and Heavensward had to support the PS3 thus the graphics quality was not on par with its competition at the time (though HW was still stunning). You notice a significant increase in animation quality during Stormblood when they dropped PS3 support.

[@IronSalamander8]

I played SWTOR as well, after CoH shut down it was my main MMO from early access to 2016. We used to raid every Sunday and I enjoyed my Chiss Sith Juggernaut after finishing up on my Chiss Sniper first to open up the very ability to make a Chiss SIth! I did play WoW on and off since beta, but never got into it much. Wrath was the only time I really enjoyed it. No spoilers but Endwalker was so good that FF14 has become my favorite MMO, finally pushing City of Heroes off the throne its held for me since 04! It's really cool watching you guys play through the game with an attitude not too different from mine. Edit: Alphinaud gets much better after ARR, that's for sure! Edit 2: Dark Knight is still my favorite job, and the story is interesting too. Edit 3: That final comment! So good! XD

[@WoWRefugee]

Im adding this comment so long after this video is posted, but I dont know if anyone has told you... Minfilia has no Combat Job... Canon, she is a Miner. The reason she is the leader, is she has the strongest connection to Hydalyn. And so like with Tataru, who cannot handle a Combat Job, she has to find other ways to contribute to the team. You will love the direction Tataru's arc goes from here. Some people even love Tataru as the most important Scion by the end, even though she is technically just the bookkeeper for the group.

[@Bongaboi151]

My favorite NPC Lala is Krile, then Tataru, then Nanamo.

[@MarvinMonroe]

You two are honestly probably the most handsome podcasting duo around.

[@Amovetv]

Well I'm going to go blush now.

[@MarvinMonroe]

@@Amovetv lol

[@Glim92]

I dare you guys to try golden saucer if you have not tried it. Love your content

[@andrecello]

Yaaaay!!!! Y’all made it. Glad you guys are enjoying it. No reason to rush as I enjoy hearing about your journey. Can’t wait for next week.

[@adamosborne9440]

They've passed the filter.

[@aechean]

I'm so looking forward to watching more of this as you progress.

[@heylookitsnana]

Your understanding of the Scion Goggles is correct. They're of Sharlyan design. Sharlyan is the island country to the far North, off the western coast. It's modeled after Greece, but snowy. I like to call it the country of Super Nerds. (Ha!) Great job on yoru predictions. In many ways, the story is predictable if you pay attention. Maybe you only get a few quests headsup, but you can predict it. It's great, though, because the story will still surprise you in execution or in spectacle. It's satisfying to see a story played our properly, too. If you don't pay attention, you simply get more surprises! Which is also great.

[@hyrule89]

So I never had the opportunity to see if it was still in the game when I played during 4.1 or so being the live patch, but word is that if you went around the cities after the end-of-ARR cutscene and talked to NPC's, the regular folks are all 'we don't believe you did it' and the police/military folks are 'you would tear me apart if I tried to take you in', which I thought was a neat way of addressing your status as an accused of regicide.

[@SonicSwifter]

I'm glad yous are keeping an open mind about alphinaud. He's a very easy character to hate going into HW but he starts pulling his weight a lot after the series of events in 2.X.

[@UltaFlame]

I didn't pop my Wind-up Alphinaud until I beat Endwalker

[@cgeist]

Enjoy hearing your perspectives, and happy you are enjoying the game! A side quest chain to try out at some point is the hildebrand quests. Can't remember where they start( i think uldah), but it's a treat for sure :)

[@arathain2]

They included a scene from the Hildebrand quests near the start of the video. They haven't missed them.

[@cgeist]

@@arathain2 ah sweet. I was mainly listening while working, so makes sense I'd miss that.

[@arathain2]

@@cgeist If they hadn't played that clip I'd have shown up with quest name and grid reference. You want to talk about facial animation...

[@chloesa4487]

Can't wait for next week's video to drop when I'm in the middle of watching this video already lol. It feels SO exciting to look forward to logging into a mmo. I love that feeling too. And yeah, about our Alphi boy? I was chatting with my husband the other day before Endwalker (who also plays 14) and we were shocked to realise that we see Alphi as our BFF amongst the scions already. Lol

[@dustinmiller6364]

My playthrough of ARR was very similar so im excited to see yall experience the next step! You're in for a good one :)

[@valkyriebait136]

*vibrates with excitement for ya'll.* Can't wait for you to experience more of the game. You're gonna love it. And I too miss SWTOR. Even when I go back and play it.

[@hkoizumi3134]

Having finished Endwalker and looking back at ARR, it seems like a whole another game to me lol. How innocent we were.

[@Ajguy]

Now THAT'S an intro!

[@brandonn161]

Look forward to hearing more about your journey in FF14! Please continue making these kind of discussion videos talking about your thoughts at the end of each expansion!

[@Omega068]

Congrats! Yeah no one really mentions the slog of ARR patch content because by that point people usually power through it. (And I suspect, most people block it from memory.) In my case, I actually didn't know about the crystal tower raids being required until the game forced me to stop with the MSQ to do them. This was very frustrating, but ended up being worth it as you can guess. Also welcome to poker-face land. The further you go the less you can talk about in the presence of new players. Soon you will know the horrors of hearing someone say, "I really like Moenbryda! She's really cool!" and having to keep a straight face.

[@Poldovico]

they did do something for there being an arrest warrant on you. When you speak to certain guards who would be likely to recognize you, such as the Braves in Revenant's Toll, they have some flavour about liking their continued survival a bit too much to try and apprehend you.

[@adamslosslessmusiccollection]

I’m a Ninja main myself. I had relied on stealth to get through areas with risky creatures. You guys would have suffered waiting through Patches 2.1 to 2.55 when it was released. It was nerve racking because you were just on the edge of your seat back then waiting for new content. When playing as a Ninja, stealth was your friend in Heavensward. At least for me.

[@osoevil9153]

Nice, ARR took me over 100 hours to get through, due to leveling different jobs, exploring and such. Now I'm in the limbo quests between arr and heavensward, but I haven't been able to log in to get there. Good luck on your journey.

[@TowelRanger]

If you go to Ul'dah post ARR/beginning of HW and talk to some of the guards they are either scared to do anything about you or don't care enough to do anything iirc. Also, the animations do significantly improve around the time they dropped PS3 support.

[@xenomemphate]

Make sure you speak to NPCs gathered around the quest NPC. They often have interesting things to say, especially the other "main characters" journeying with you. Also, you mentioned that after the ending, you went back to Ul'dah to see if you could still access the shops and things - speaking to NPCs there, you can get an idea for why you are allowed to freely walk around - you can even speak to the Crystal Braves stationed in Mor Dhona.

[@AgentRedShirt]

Grats on finishing ARR. Now you get to start having fun with the good part of the game. Not that ARR was horrible. But everything from now on is just so much better. And I know there’s a lot of quests in the patch content. But, at least you can take comfort to know that it was recently toned down and a lot of the stuff was cut out. So it’s not as much of a slog as it used to be. And you mentioned an increase in quality once you get into the first expansion. That’s definitely true. I’m sure it’s been said countless times but ARR was done very quickly with a limited budget while they were still supporting the original game. Then for the first expansion they had a more focused team, definitely a bigger budget. They were able to secure better voice acting. It’s almost like a RR kind of really sets the stage for what the rest of the game is in terms of the story but if you ever go back and play through the original ARR after you get done doing the expansions the difference is like night and day. Also keep in mind that the original game and heavensward were designed around the limitations of the PS3 hardware. Once you start getting into 4.0 and beyond, the PS3 is no longer in it so you’ll definitely notice differences. It’s gonna be fun to watch as you progress. I’m looking forward to seeing your thoughts on things.

[@Sawolf151]

Now it's where the rollercoaster goes wild!

[@arnoldgaarde7066]

I think the reason for the Red light on Raubahn during Taledji's death is warrior rage, if you do the marauder/warrior quest line you get to know it

[@BaithNa]

When I beat ARR, I went back to Ul Dah in a cloak then realized that the free fantasia may be so you can change your appearance to go back to the three city-states. That's when I went from Hyur to catboy and never looked back.

[@erockbaby3000]

About the cities not doing anything to you if you show up they actually give you an explanation in Heavensward, also talk to any of the guild masters for the base classes you did & talk to some people in Mor Dhona it’s actually hilarious to see their reactions to you being there

[@brawndottm]

Did you guys know that about a year ago they actually removed about 30 quests from the post arr content? Before there was 100 quests. Now iirc there is around 70. My discord affectionately call the post arr patch part of the game the "Mor Dhona Pack mule arc"

[@Koibito247]

I’m glad you guys are excited to play XIV and your upcoming journey through HW. Plenty of things for you guys to do! X

[@alexandregiaccheri]

Yep, post ARR patches contains quite a bit of cool bits here and there, specifically the ending, but maaaaaaaaaaan most of it is pure HELL lmao. But hey, it only gets better from here! p.s. about the facial animation, it does improve, massively even. BUT the *dramatic* changes occur on Stormblood I think.

[@ansalem12]

I kinda feel like the part where you go stand around in the desert works better as gameplay than it would as a cinematic because you turn your brain off from the dullness so the twist is more likely to surprise you. At least for me I think that's what happened, anyway. If I'd been watching it happen instead of doing it I'm pretty confident I would've seen where it was headed but I didn't see it coming at all.

[@HeyHeyNeon]

I recommend going back to Ul'dah and Mor Dhona and talking with some NPCs, particularly the ones in the markets and adventurer's guild. They explain the aftermath of your escape. 👍

[@knightdrako]

Lmao love the outro cut out in the end

[@cd9048]

If you actually look there are syndicate guys strolling the streets of ul'dah between the last ARR quest and the first HSW quest

[@WyattDavis]

Really been enjoying listening to y'all's adventure thru the game. I think there's only 1 more instance in the entire game where I was as bored as I was in the 2.X patches and it's in mid-3.0. Hope y'all enjoy your time thru HW!

[@weertangel7231]

I hope u guys have an even greater time with the rest! One thing though, right before Shadowbringers they removed around 100 quests from the post content and made flying possible in the first regions, so u can imagine how it was for me and others who went through it before said change. Still, now comes the great part, so enjoy, try the new jobs and have a blast!

[@pollenus5796]

Heavenward genuinely elevates this narrative so much. It's a new league from here on out.

[@dmen0563]

That was the rough spot for me also I don't blame you at all for feeling how you did

[@Fumaru]

My sweet summer child, you are in for a the journey of your life time. From there on is when the roller coaster starts its first descend.

[@mister-x2]

What was the meme? "you either quit at ARR or you become a walking advertisement for the game". Also, lava hot take: It's okay to have damsels.

[@specialnewb9821]

Animation improves significantly, especially facial expressions in late SB.

[@orsonsnow1228]

I enjoyed Kyle's references to Alphinaud. I suspect he'll be temped to clip portions of his comments in future videos.

[@josewhiteheart1614]

Welcome to Final Fantasy XIV!

[@ponderingForever]

Glad you're enjoying it without it becoming just a Stream/job. Enjoy HW!

[@petersilktube]

I think that most people find that ARR up to Praetorium is 'fine' or even 'good' until they start getting into the expansions and understand what was missing from them. I still think ARR is fine, it's just that I'll tell people it's 'fine, but...'. The show season analogy really is perfect because it really does feel like the first season of a show which sets a lot of important stuff up and is probably worth watching for that reason, but isn't the reason everyone is telling you to play the game. The game hasn't really found its voice yet, but it will.

[@Steveoreo]

Hella excited to follow your progress through this point on! Beware the Moogles…