It's worth noting that every start has a travelling merchant, in the same carriage for Gridana and Ul'dah, and on the same boat for Limsa. All three canonically exist and are brothers who meet up in the Waking Sands at a point before Titan. The one you're familiar with is also the same one who saves you at the end of ARR. The fact they all look and sound the same and are distinguished by the colour of their outfits is something of a joke. So of course you would meet a 4th who is yet another colour when you arrived in a new world.
He claims they are tripplets, but i dont believe it. I think his appearance in the First wasnt just coincidence, since its not copy of the Source.. could have something to do with past EW story...who knows.
This merchant was interesting, because you notice all the others are actively traveling when you encounter them. So I kinda think this one being in one place was another way the game was trying to show how wrong the first is; this dude is usually moving, but he isn't. _Despite_ the fact that he really ought to be in this world specifically. For him to have stopped so close to the crystarium to get drunk... Personally, I'm thinking he was suicidal as well.
I thought the starting Merchant in the three ARR beginnings were the same guy, just traveling between the three zones. I think there's enough vagueness in the timeline that you could argue that he just traveled to each zone in sequence and meets three different versions of the PC. And yes, the merchant you first meet on the First is probably the parallel universe counterpart to that first merchant you meet in the Source.
@@noppornwongrassamee8941 There's actually no need to make the argument; when you finish ARR 2.0 and you go down the hall in the Waking Sands and everyone's applauding you, all three of them are there together, near Cid and Iliud, clapping, wearing their differently-colored outfits. Their names are Bremondt (yellow), Brendt (red) and Brennan (black). Editing to add, here's a streamer doing it, timestamp: czcams.com/video/2Ll3J1rEXwI/video.html
@@RenAsterion There's a fun little bit of special-case text with that NPC, too. If you're not a Lalafell, or you ARE a Lala but you're wearing a particular piece of equipment that isn't available much later in the story, the NPC is just like "hi there, haven't seen you around before." But if you're a Lala talking to them before you've gotten The Thing, they bitch you out. Suffice to say, I was like "wtf is your problem bro" when I got that special dialogue.
@@rajabuta When it comes to ShB, someone the boys haven't met is best girl in my mind - and I'm not someone who says "x is best girl". But Tataru's a close contender.
They were talking about how they think Alise has more confidence but if you pay close attention to the dialog during the Tesleen escort quest and choose the more teasing option when talking to Alise it hints that she is feeling inferior because she has been comparing herself to you the entire time.
Urianger as an astrologian is a perfect fit imo, no complaints from me-- but it is still very funny how he shows up in this world of eternal daylight, and immediately decides this is the perfect opportunity to roll a class entirely centred on stargazing and the power of constellations.
Apparently planets count as stars. If so, Urianger will have no problems even in eternal daylight using astrologian powers, but predictions will be beyond him.
My daughter and i felt the same way. Knowing that Halric was a child basically trapped inside a statue was horrifying. The concept that the afflicted would slowly lose agency of their own body and self is frightening, and no less so for having real world analogies such as dementia or Lou Gehrig's disease. Although the idea of Halric being able to shed a tear from an otherwise emotionally void face would have still worked for us, the utter blankness inspired a surety of hopelessness that really hit the both of us also. (Also, absolutely love the portrait you made for Tuna and Val, the detail in it is just wonderful !)
Halric is in some ways a parallel to Ga Bu, locked within himself and mute. But while we were able to at least protect Ga Bu and get him evacuated safely to Limsa under the protective custody of the Maelstrom, Halric is in a hospice camp and the best defense he had was a woman with a sword. And, of course, Alisae in this exact context is a parallel for Tesleen... only the First is much more brutal and unkind. It really drives home how much of a fallen world the First is compared to the relative stability we've known on the Source.
The Ul'dah merchant is actually not just one person. They're a set of triplets: you meet one of the brothers at every starting cutscene. They even have a triple triad card with all 3 of them on it.
@@tibowmew I only noticed it on a new character play through, after my main had passed 5.3. There are so many details seeded through ARR which we just ignore on the first play-through, especially in the Waking Sands.
@@RothAnim ARR did amazing with setting up the world and planting the seeds for them to use in the future expansions. I still rank ARR higher up there.
@@jmstover Even if they weren't thinking that far ahead at the time, at least they were smart enough to go through and look seriously at the characters they planted, and be willing to revisit them later.
I chose Alisae first because under all my real life bs going on, I had been low-key fretting about the battlefield collapse for *months*. And I wasn't the only one. There was about four or five other people with me. Talking in /say. Laughing about the gigantaurs. Commenting on how our models seemed more animated in the cutscenes. Gushing over the music. And then the dinner happened. We had to find Halric. We few strangers. All nervous, running from one spot to the other, trying to reassure each other. We knew how these things went. Two whole expansions and a game reset. They had a story telling formula. It would be fine. They never started off with the horrible stuff. It was too early. It would be fine. Right? And then it happened. When we all spawned back at Alisae, one after another, I had to /sit. And then, one of the others shuffled up to Alisae and /hugged her and said 'Oh god I'm shaking and crying.' And then another person /hugged her. Then I stood and /hugged them and we just stood there and /hugged each other, commenting on holy crap. I was not expecting this. We just all stood there comforting each other. It sticks with me. This is a very good game. Welcome to Shadowbringers indeed.
I thought during my initial playthrough that the warrior of darkness was effectively a folk hero. People wished for a hero so they made one up Until you stepped into the position
Yeah, the reason they did that is to set up a reason to give the player the moniker "Warrior of Darkness." They did the same for "Warrior of Light," if you remember. You're originally called that bc when everybody tried to remember the faces of the adventurers who helped save Eorzea in 1.X, they only saw silhouettes standing before a blinding light, and they were called Warriors of Light for that reason. When you start stepping up to help people, they're reminded of those adventurers and so they call you a Warrior of Light. It's throughout your adventurers that you take that name and turn it into something truly special. It's the same for Warrior of Darkness. Originally just a tale, later a title given to you because of your deeds, and then you end up giving the name real meaning.
Ishgard froze during previous umbral calamity, because of corrupted eather. So in the world where Bahamut never wreaked havok that place wouldn't be frozen.
Yeah, you can find videos of 1.0 Ishgard and see that's it's all grasslands and rolling hills. Which matched the "knights and castles" theme that Ishgard has going on. That's why current Ishgard has so many starving refugees. Lots of people were displaced and farmland blighted by the sudden eternal winter that hits large parts of the country.
The Crystal Exarch said he summoned the crystal tower and noted that as to where and when he doesn't know. The Warrior of Darkness is a fable the surviving people of the 1st made up to inspire hope.
Ahm Araeng showed the Environmental Horror that the people of the First have to deal with in a daily basis. That being the Sin Eaters. However, Kholusia showed the Societal Horror that every person is subjected to thanks to Lord Vauthry of Eulmore. These two places really showcased that the First is a horrific star to live on. That the Crystal Exarch was understandably desperate to call for the Warrior of Light.
@@rajabuta Indeed. The society functions based upon the environment. However, I feel it's more of a correlation. The presence of the Sin Eaters or not, Vauthry's rule is through his own twisted agency that others choose to follow for security. Or the veneer of one. Shows that people can and will turn a blind eye to the less fortunate, if it means they can live more comfortable lives in ignorance.
@@rajabuta Yeah. Horrible ain't it? Lol. Edit: Also, by the Sin Eaters being involved with Environmental Horror, they're comparable to a force of destructive nature. Which is also something involving real life.
@@tyty8484 Might I ask if you'd perhaps state that you're providing spoilers? Considering that I've only revealed information that Garret and Kyle currently know at this point in time, in that they've only just finished bringing night back to Lakeland.
@@tyty8484 In regards to Eulmore being exclusionary towards those that live in Gate Town, I find comparable to hanging a juicy piece of steak to a hungry dog. Providing "enough" food to not starve via Meol, so then they'd continue to hope for more or something better. Making them *just* desperate enough be subservient to the whims of those within Eulmore, but not too desperate to where the populace would potentially grow chaotic. The people in Gate Town are however aware of what they're getting themselves into, by being slaves. In that they don't care as long as they have a better life than what they had before. Also by being exclusionary, Vauthry basically separates the haves with the have-nots, and thus encourages ignorance, and therefore added obedience through the preservation of the status quo. Whilst also making Eulmore sustainable by only having a certain population within its walls.
Here's a tidbit alot of folk miss. The sin eater Tesleen performed a wing-ectomy on is still missing that wing when you fight it. It means absolutely nothing in the grand scheme of the ShB story, but I love that the devs kept it like that. I'm a sucker for attention to detail.
When you do it with Trust it's a lot more evident because of the dialogue. I recommend everyone do the trusts at least once because it's just so good on a story front.
@@jaesten I like the additional dialogue, but I always feel that the trust npc's aren't pulling their weight with the trash mobs and the dungeons take much longer than needed :/
@@ExileTwilight Their damage actually fluctuates depending on how well you're doing. It takes around an average of 30-40 minutes for a run with them even if you don't do any damage at all as a dps.
@@ExileTwilight That is intentional so that running with a trust doesn't become faster than with players, in most circumstances at least. I always do my first run as a trust to get the dialogue and interactions while learning the mechanics.
I thought the introduction to the twins was amazing for both of their growth and character development. Alisae who never wanted to rely on any one else learned on the first how to ask the WoL for help, she was able to be open and honest about her feelings and emotions. On the other hand, Alphinaud who never wanted to do things on his own, found his ability to NOT rely on the WoL and stand firm for others in his own way! Amazing writing!
I think it also shows how well the writers of FFXIV can put things together. As they said about using classic tropes but in a "fresh way" such that you expect certain things to happen but how it is resolved or concluded is different than the expectation.
It's the best part. Watching lore hounds chew on what's given and come to conclusions. Many of these are similar to the conclusions we came to along the way ourselves. Knowing whether they're right or wrong after the fact makes it even more fun.
I also love how 14 can spoil things for you and you not recognize that it’s a spoiler yet. Shadowbringers and Endwalker absolutely warrant at least second play-throughs.
@@adamslosslessmusiccollection And not just "People doing an Icelandic accent". Squeenix went to downtown Reykjavik and said "YOU! YES YOU! YOU'RE A BUNNY BOY/GAL NOW!" to ensure it was authentic.
I always felt like Tesleen's Warrior of Darkness legend was more of a grim-reaper fable, with the whole "servant of death, take care of our souls, and bring us all to a better place" vibe, instead of referring to an actual living hero.
YoshiP is a huge mystery book buff, so it should be no surprise that (generally speaking) all the answers are right in front of you from the beginning, even though you can't recognize it at the time. That's part of what's making your play through so fascinating because you're doing the lore deep dive into FFXIV with a bit of highly entertaining theorycrafting (especially when it's just off the rails), that it's providing a lot of value and a different lore perspective even for someone that's at 6.2 awaiting the next story installment in 6.3. In a way, you're kinda becoming the FFXIV version of Nobbel.
I've vowed never to play any MMO by principle so I haven't played FF14, but the whole Wow exodus to FF14 thing has fascinated me since it happened last year and I've been following anyone who's talking about it. Its an interesting thing to observe from a complete outsider.
FFXIV is interesting. Jesse Cox described it best, it's a JRPG first and an MMO second. Especially now with ARR and HW being free trial and solo'able for every dungeon and 4 man trial (single boss "raid"). Combined with Naoki Yoshida's design philosophy of players subscribing for 1 month for the new story/content patch and cancelling to go play other games, be with family, or go outside being a valid play style he embraces and thus ensuring it's approachable with such little time devotion, it's definitely one of the more unique MMO designs.
@@ninjafoxgamesgeekery Yes it's sneaky that way, once you get through A Realm Reborn it really starts tightening up into a single-player JRPG with your character as the protagonist, wrapped in multiplayer functionality. When people say "I don't want to play FFXIV because it's an MMO" my response is "Well yes, but actually no".
OP needs to try FFXIV. I’ve never played WoW, just FFXI and FFXIV, because I don’t play games that look and play like cartoonish garbage. WoW is just immensely cringe to me. After watching a lot of videos on how WoW is as a game, I’m sincerely thankful that I never touched that game because FFXIV is just a better overall game.
@@adamslosslessmusiccollection In WoW's defense, once upon a time it was amazing. I came into it back in the day from Warcraft 2 and Warcraft 3, so I was already interested in the world and used to the aesthetic. But WoW has been systematically ruined as the old good Blizzard was destroyed and now Activision-Blizzard dances around wearing its skin. WoW has been cartoonish garbage for years, but it was once worthy. Never forgive Acti-Bliz's many, many sins.
It's fun hearing you call them lightsent here and there throughout the video. Before they were ever revealed as being called 'sin eaters' in one of the fan fests that's exactly what we were all calling them. I think I might even remember the name coming up as early as Heavensward when they were more of fan speculation than something that existed in game. (Like 'oh well if there's voidsent from over-abundant darkness, then can there be lightsent?' kind of a thing.)
Everyone in Norvrandt uses the term "sinner" to refer to regular people, so a "sineater" is something that eats people. I always figured that this was part of the theming for the First, where light is bad, dark is good, and angels are demons. It's opposite land.
Said it before, I'll say it again. It's not that Stormblood was bad by any means, It's just Shadowbringers starts with SUCH a bang and just gets better as you go. In fairness this is also about the time of the game where I started paying a little attention to the story but I liked the whole expansion as a whole more than anything.
Yeah. When people say stormblood is the worst expansion, you really got understand that they're saying it's the worst _ff14_ expansion. That very much changes the definition of "worst".
@@AStrangeWindmill They tend to not even say it's the worst. Usually rankings go ARR - Stormblood - Heavensward/Shadowbringers/Endwalker (those three tend to complete so they get that treatment).
I honestly think Heavensward is the "worst" expansion. Has similar pacing issues as Stormblood in the beginning, the Ul'dah wrap uo was such a let down, and, in my opinion, a much weaker villain.
1. Love the spiciness of today's video. The Lalafell joke, the quick intro that stunlocked Kyle, all gold. 2. The speed with which this game makes you care about someone is one of their BEST weapons and they wield it well. 3. I deeply love the attention you guys gave Roz on your promo this week. Most people would just say, cool print, buy our merch, but you guys gave her a huge spotlight and as someone with many artist friends, that was a wonderful touch and deeply appreciated.
So glad to hear about no.3. As someone who has also lived the art grind life, I have a lot of respect for freelance artists and I want to make sure I give enough credit. -Garrett
And remember, you're only at the start here. I saw your streams: Holminster Switch is only level 71. There's 9 more full levels of pure, unadulterated Shadowbringers glory.
@@renegademercury443 They did, and after Alphy they did Holminster and a link since they tend to unlist them: czcams.com/video/kOGLtbqkFnU/video.html&ab_channel=GrindingGear
the editing was absolutely phenomenal in this video, loved how you did the title cards of each section! the way the text was revealed behind tuna was so cool, and the thumbnail is so well made too! i appreciate that you guys take the time for unique photos for each of your videos so much. you guys are literally the best FF14 creators rn. i remember last year before 6.0 came out i was just vicariously watching streamers and youtubers left and right playing through FF14, and none did their content as fun to watch and listen as you guys. i know i keep repeating myself but it's been fantastic so far, and you're only getting through the introduction of shb! can't wait for tonight's stream!
I think part of the point of Halric's creepiness is it shows the extraordinary compassion of Tesleen and Alisaie. They care about him and his fate even though he is completely unsympathetic.
Thematically, he's the Ga Bu of the First. If Alphi had taken the hospice camp route and Alisaie went to Eulmore, it wouldn't have clicked nearly as hard.
you can't imagine what TORTURE watching this was. To know, in the next 3 months, there will be SO MUCH to share, and to have to WAIT. xD I sincerely wish you a joyous, unforgettable Shadowbringers.
On the topic of the Warrior of Darkness, they are not referring to Ardbert. This is more a hopeful prophecy of a savior they hope will come to help them. Ardbert and his friends only referred to themselves as warriors of darkness when they were in the source.
I really appreciate the two of you going through this together. The perfect teeth. The quaffed hair. The back and forth. This has been more like watching a reality TV show than a typical streamer playthrough, and I'm 100% here for it.
I always look forward to wednesdays now because of you guys and your walk through the MSQ. Seeing you guys theorize and hypothesize aboiut the story as you go along and your initial experience has always been a treat to see.
As much as I'm a huge FFXIV fanboy, I honestly think they could teach a class on game narrative with the opener to Shadowbringers. It's masterful. You get the dimension travel setting up that eerie, melancholy intro section. All the colors are different, the dad joke from the merchant, seeing the Crystal Tower but it's not the same... or is it? You get a bunch of answers and a bunch of questions all at once. And then leading into your intro to the city and branching out to the two different sides of their apocalypse: the threat and the reaction. Existential and body horror on one side, and apathy on the other. So many things happen and you're left with so many more things to look forward to. It's just so so so good. Glad you two seem to have enjoyed it as much as I did!
something fun to do on the regional map (the one that is artistic without any waypoints on it), is there is a button to switch between the first and the Eorzea map. It adds some nice reference as to where Norvrandt is. Also, the route choice is more of a game mechanics decision than a story decision. They split the players between two different zones to ease the zone stress on patch day. Similar to the reason they have 3 starting zones :) Lastly, Ishgard wasn't snowy until bahamut messed things up after 1.0.
The only possible thing I could say in response to all of your theorizing and guessing is this: you're so close, yet so far away. Watching you guys play your way through Shadowbringers is top tier content! Can't wait to see the reactions when you guys actually get to the answers to the questions you're asking!
I'm happy you two are enjoying ShB so far! In regards to Tesleen and the WoD poem without spoilers, Ardbert and gang are known as warriors of light on the First, those responsible for the Flood via picture book in the beginning. They only called themselves the warriors of darkness on Source in opposition to us, the Warrior of Light.
It's easy to forget but one thing to remember about Ishgard is that it wasn't nigh perpetually a snowy region, that only happened after the 7th Umbral Calamity messed up Coerthas' climate to be like always (or at least the majority) winter. Originally Coerthas had a more standard temperate Western-European-esque climate. Also if you want to look up a little more lore about the The Lost City of Amdapor (Hard) dungeon bosses, you can read their Triple Triad card entries without being spoiled about anything in ShB.
I believe they've already revealed it at this point through optional dialogue from the random NPCs around the camp, but Halric's face is completely frozen due to the light's corruption. I believe the constant cuts to his blank expressions were partly meant to show that it doesn't matter how much pain or sorrow he's in seeing someone get impaled and turned right in front of him, he's completely incapable of emoting.
The sheer will power needed to keep my mouth shut. I can't wait to see your thoughts and theories develop more as you play through more of the story. I'm loving the streams!
Garrett, your hair becomes more and more fabulous by the day ! Also wax looks good on your eyes ! Also that proud look on Kyle when Garrett gets lost in the lore is priceless !
I feel the same about Halric-or rather, I did. When we first meet him, he's the freaking omen creepy child. Its hard to remember that he's a late stage terminal patient on the brink-so much so that he can hear and obeys the call of the sin eaters when they came calling. Its easy to hate Halric because we're not seeing him as he really is-we're seeing WHATS LEFT of him. It was also really cool to see how Alisaie sees you cuz fuck no would she have told you any of the things Tesleen spilt the beans on herself! You were always in her thoughts, and you became of source of inspiration and strength during what probably felt like the longest year of her life.
You see the memes about people saying "Welcome to Shadowbringers", and I'm sure it flooded your stream's chat when the Tesleen scene came around. But as someone who experienced it on launch, it wasn't just personally experienced; it was experienced socially. As soon as you got into that zone, map chat would have discussions whenever someone would vaguely say something like, "holy crap, I wasn't expecting that" or "fuck me that was awful" or something. And the response that always came up was, "welcome to Shadowbringers" and that's as far as it would go beyond very vague discussion about it. You, as someone arriving in the zone, would be curious but wouldn't think about it too much. And then you would see the scene. And in map chat, because you just HAD to let the horror, excitement, shock, etc. out somehow to someone, you would say something. And someone would tell you "welcome to Shadowbringers". It was an experience socially, the collective shock of the entire community realizing that the direction the story was taking had suddenly become much darker, and the stakes made much more clear. It was a sign of a shift in the writing that people were excited for, since they knew the lead writer was the person who had been in charge of the DRK storyline. People were expectant but hesitant, coming off the mixed quality of Stormblood, and this experience rippled through the community as both a "if you've seen it, you know" sort of in joke as well as an exciting confirmation of people's expectations for the expansion.
If one thing stands out the most in the First, it is how they've designed, from the looks to the music, to feel like you are in a completely different world. Everything from the people, the name of the races being different, the style of music that each area has as well as the dungeons make you feel like "Hey, I'm playing a different world, it just happens to have my FFXIV character and systems". Heck, the first time you visit the Crystarium, the music swells in a way and with an instrumentation that would feel at complete odd with any other place you'd have visited in the Source. Same when you leave it the first time and go into the field or one of the two available destinations : it sounds like you've landed on an alien world and are trying to find your way, all the while with that oppressive sky that just won't ever darken.
i'm maybe 17 minutes in and i have to leave a comment because watching the discourse between you two is just delightful. Here's a poke for the algorithm!
Fun fact: the Alphinaud and Alisaie split scenario was intentional game design from the very beginning to prevent another Raubahn extreme issue like we experienced when Stormblood launched as there was an instance very early in the game that EVERYONE had to go through in order to push the story forward and so it completely overloaded the instance servers and it took a couple days for it to kinda sorta resolve before occurring again later in the expansion with Pipin. WIth Shadowbringers, by giving players a choice between visiting Alisaie or Alphinaud AND by not having an instance early in the game it gives splits the player base somewhat between the zones early on AND doesn't overtax the instance server which had also been upgraded with a queue system by this point anyway.
That's actually a good point about the contrast between Shadowbringers and Stormblood with regards to Hub Cities. Stormblood didn't really HAVE one. You started in Castrum Oriens, then moved to Rahlgr's Reach, then get bounced over to Kugane, then move on to Namai and the House of the Fierce for a while, then off to Reunion, then BACK to the House of the Fierce, then back to Rahlgr's Reach, then on to Ala Ghiri, then to Port Praetoria. There's never anything that really serves as a 'home base', unlike Heavensward which was bookended by Ishguard and Idyllshire. It's just a series of quest hubs that you complete and move on from. So as cool as Kugane is, you never spend enough time there to really develop any sort of attachment, since it's plunked right in the middle of the story and they really don't give you any compelling reasons to go back there or make you feel like you're operating from there. You're transient for the entirety of Stormblood.
The doodad that you find in the trench that gets you to the First gets explained later on, so... trust in the process, so to speak. This is something that I love about this game -- there is no handwaving and retconning lore like in WoW.
Notice how the first experience in coming to the First is a reflection of first starting out in ARR. Like how when we get to our starting city, we’re stopped by the guards, experience danger, meet the merchant, but changed on its head with more dire stakes than when we first started. We’re not playing hero or war hero this time, we’re meant to play savior.
5:04 I just wanna call out this wonderful little edit. That is all. (That's not actually all at all, but all the little details like that really show the work that goes into these videos. Glad you guys are having so much fun, and I look forward to seeing more!)
The Scene where she tells you it is not your time is actually you seeing her speak to Ardbert. Before she and his companions gave all to stop the light but left him for as yet unknown reasons.
ok the thumbnail spooked me out Edit: also about name Sin Eater A sin-eater is a person who consumes a ritual meal (named Corpse Cake) in order to spiritually take on the sins of a deceased person. The food was believed to absorb the sins of a recently dead person, thus absolving the soul of the person. Sin-eaters, as a consequence, carried the sins of all people whose sins they had eaten; they were usually feared and shunned.
"Sands of Amber" is a banger. I could listen to that shit for hours. And it amazingly set the ominous feeling of the world. SHB music was just in a class of it's own. 11/10
The transformation HEAVILY reminded me that Square was once into horror games with Parasite Eve series. To be exact in second game the first boss cutscene transformation. The design is VERY similar. Kinda cool that they didn't forget their roots, at least I think so.
Shadowbringers does have proxies of characters and places. You hit on the marks, but gonna confirm it for others. The merchants on the Source = Merchant on the First Crystarium = Mor Dhona Amh Araeng = Ul'dah ??? = The Shroud / Gridania ??? = Limsa Lominsa And among others. If I can remember, I'll keep adding to this list on future videos as you discover.
They've been to Eulmore on stream. Halric is thematically the Ga Bu of the First, which in that specific context means Tesleen is the Alisaie parallel, in that she's devoted to protecting a child whose aether has been imbalanced so hard he's in a functionally-vegetative state. But Tesleen's fate isn't nearly as kind as Alisaie's...
@@cobbil The stream VODs are on this channel but they're unlisted and in a playlist because if they were listed it'd mess with the analytics. But that's fair, it's also a time commitment.
Regarding the ardbert - WoD stuff: in the end of HW it is explained that all the warriors of darkness had to sacrifice themselves, so they were just chunks of aether being "summoned" on the source via their crystals of light. So all of them were already dead, but the oracle merely transferred their spirits to the first, they were dead already even before that.
ShB does such a good job with immersion. Right from the beginning youre on the edge of your seat and that tension is never released becuase you literally feel like youre trapped in another world cursed to die from light and light zombies.
The thing about Halric is that he is almost completely gone, but he still could see and hear everything around him. While he was outwardly stiff and unemotional, you can be sure he was anything but inwardly. He was literally a prisoner inside his own body. A body that was being taken away from him.
I'd like to remember you guys that the snow in Ishgard came from the 7th Calamity with Bahamut, because the weather got effed up really bad over there, at that point the first and the source where long seperated. So if there is an Ishgard equivalent, it might not necessarly have snow... *Know-it-all glasses off*
Shadowbringers is the expansion I remember the start of the most of any expansion . The next expansion I remember the most is being in the Howling Fjord and getting popped by the Lich King for grins. Other expansions were good, but those two really did do the best job of setting what the stakes are for whet you're going against. I am very excited for you to see all of Shadowbringers.
Garrett, you aren't the only one thinking of him as an omen child. Honestly when I first played through and they mentioned final meal and such I was wondering if they were going to have him turn mid-camp when you got back before they then went onto this story beat.
at ShB launch, i wasn't able to take off from work for the early access . so seeing all my friends burned through the msq all the way to endgame and i was still pacing along the msq just a few hrs each day after work. i was glad that it gave me a chance to take time playing through it and i enjoyed the expansion very much.
I picked Alisae first, because she was out on the frontline ground zero, and it made sense to gather information on your enemy first. Great vid as always!
In regards to the candles and campfires, Day and night still happens on the first so it does get cold during night time. The light that constantly covers the first is just light aether. It does not give of heat like light from the Sun.
When you get bitten by a Sin Eater, you weep ranch dressing and vomit up the stuff they use in glowsticks. The Sin Eaters are mayonnaise-aspected elementals.
They really hit the ground running with that first Shadowbringers cutscene. It was also that moment when the NA servers crashed AND a local thunderstorm that cut my power off twice. It took me 3 times to finally get through that cutscene (once with a queue of 850ish) and having my power knocked out after. But I made it and wow, I was blown away out the gate! I chose Alisaie first, because that's my girl and I was glad, since I got to experience the Welcome To Shadowbringers moment quickly. I'm already in the middle of Endwalker and it's just enriching the Shadowbringers story. More tears. But wow, ShB... that's an experience I wish I could erase my mind, just to relive it anew. 10/10
The warriors of darkness of the source, Ardbert and his friends, are the warriors of light there talking about. They called themselves warriors of darkness when on the source because light was the enemy now. This was all explained both at Xelphatol, elaborated on during our battle with them, then reiterated in our meeting with Ghost Ardbert. So not a spoiler.😅 I’ll assume you were trying to be funny there.
I just love when Kyle and Garrett do this banter and discussion in regards to their journey while those watching who finished this expansion already just smiles or snickers silently :D Love your journey! Wait until you reach EW :)
Hearing the speculation in these videos is always so interesting. It seems like everyone who has a chance to mull it over finds some new detail that I never considered when I did my playthrough, and there are details I noticed that other people don't. Not to say any of those details were even relevant, but the crackpot theories are always entertaining. You probably already feel this at this point, but there's a good deal of satisfaction that comes from even just knowing that the writers are aware of your questions and willing to take them on. I was shocked at the amount of small questions I had throughout FFXIV that were answered in some way or another, either through MSQ, side quests, or even FATE descriptions. And even the questions that I never got answered in Shadowbringers or Endwalker (so far) were at least acknowledged directly by the characters! It's so refreshing that the writers so rarely sweep stuff under the rug to be ignored and forgotten.
Ahh!! So much good questions, and there's a reason for why they did it the way they did... keep going :D It's going to be fun coming back to this video later to see the early theories lol
"there would be something wonderfully thematic to walking around Ul'dah and seeing a bunch of sleeping bodies near the Aetherite. 'oh, shadowbringers huh?'" omfg i never thought about that idea but i want it now
23:00 this can be said without spoiling anything, it bears keeping in mind, that people who played Shadowbringers on release, did not have to have done the Crystal Tower yet. the requirement to complete Crystal Tower in order to progress out of ARR, was added in a later ShB patch, and those who had already passed the first point, were/still will be met with another cutoff to do it significantly later even than the minfillia stuff that you mention, I won't say exactly when this other cutoff is, as that would be venturing into spoilers.
One of the most amazing things to me, when playing this on launch weekend, was just how "physically" captivating the story was. While they did all that with Feo Ul to explain how you could still use your retainers, and how you yourself could still port back and forth; as a player and in character, I felt no desire (or even an anti-desire) to go back to the Source. I felt "trapped" in a good way. I avoided roulettes, etc. The First became my home, in a very different way than "new hub city" type feel for other expansions. This stood in contrast to SB/HW where as soon as you touch the new atheryte it felt fine to jump around the world. I'm curious to hear/watch if you get any of those feelings too, while playing through at a very different (non-binge) pace, interspersed with community events/etc.
I'd recommend doing the role quests. They - mostly - replace job quests in ShB and offer some interesting bits of story. There's one for casters, healers, tanks and physical DPS with a bit added at the end if you do them all.
The Crystal Exarch was basically doing gacha pulls over and over until he got his SSR Warrior of Light.
And given that he needed the thingy to get you, one could argue he needed his pity pull.
Love this explaination
The beacon was the “pull enough times to reach pity” token
I hate this is accurate
There's a great comic to that effect that shows the Exarch with a maxed out credit card by the end of ShB final fight.
It's worth noting that every start has a travelling merchant, in the same carriage for Gridana and Ul'dah, and on the same boat for Limsa. All three canonically exist and are brothers who meet up in the Waking Sands at a point before Titan. The one you're familiar with is also the same one who saves you at the end of ARR. The fact they all look and sound the same and are distinguished by the colour of their outfits is something of a joke.
So of course you would meet a 4th who is yet another colour when you arrived in a new world.
He claims they are tripplets, but i dont believe it. I think his appearance in the First wasnt just coincidence, since its not copy of the Source.. could have something to do with past EW story...who knows.
This merchant was interesting, because you notice all the others are actively traveling when you encounter them. So I kinda think this one being in one place was another way the game was trying to show how wrong the first is; this dude is usually moving, but he isn't.
_Despite_ the fact that he really ought to be in this world specifically. For him to have stopped so close to the crystarium to get drunk... Personally, I'm thinking he was suicidal as well.
I thought the starting Merchant in the three ARR beginnings were the same guy, just traveling between the three zones. I think there's enough vagueness in the timeline that you could argue that he just traveled to each zone in sequence and meets three different versions of the PC.
And yes, the merchant you first meet on the First is probably the parallel universe counterpart to that first merchant you meet in the Source.
@@noppornwongrassamee8941 There's actually no need to make the argument; when you finish ARR 2.0 and you go down the hall in the Waking Sands and everyone's applauding you, all three of them are there together, near Cid and Iliud, clapping, wearing their differently-colored outfits. Their names are Bremondt (yellow), Brendt (red) and Brennan (black).
Editing to add, here's a streamer doing it, timestamp: czcams.com/video/2Ll3J1rEXwI/video.html
@@evrfreez Well darn you just beat me to it, thanks Meer!
@11:30 “We haven’t seen Lalafels yet”…”they couldn’t outrun the wave” lol. That was creatively funny!
That is a good one made me laugh
But we /do/ know that there are Lalafels in the first. Or at least there was one, a member of the Warriors of Darkness.
That was amazing 😂
There's one hanging out in the Crystarium right from the get-go. They are by the bar. lol
@@RenAsterion There's a fun little bit of special-case text with that NPC, too. If you're not a Lalafell, or you ARE a Lala but you're wearing a particular piece of equipment that isn't available much later in the story, the NPC is just like "hi there, haven't seen you around before." But if you're a Lala talking to them before you've gotten The Thing, they bitch you out. Suffice to say, I was like "wtf is your problem bro" when I got that special dialogue.
my favorite part of the opening for Shadowbringers is how the WoL if phasing out of reality and Tataru is like "bye! be safe!!"
Tataru's a real one
Tataru always has our back and we've always come home before. But I think she probably doesn't want to consider that we might not.
@@rajabuta When it comes to ShB, someone the boys haven't met is best girl in my mind - and I'm not someone who says "x is best girl". But Tataru's a close contender.
"I did not think we would be fighting murderous angels while we euthanized the children!"
Oh, they've definitely reached Shadowbringers!
“My hands find no purchase. My gestures catch no eye, and my cries, be they whispered or screamed reach not a single ear. I am a shade.” 😭
Garrett/Tuna: Accept every weird thing that happened so far like a Wednesday.
Also Garrett/Tuna: *others copying his haircut is unacceptable*
I LOVE how the Alphi stream totally broke every expectation they laid out in this vid
Vauthry can not be confined by expectations lol
@@CorranH99 Vauthry cannot be confined by anything except the king size blankets he likely calls robes.
The dig at Lalafels was pure gold lol
I just think that the Lalas are too busy to notice
I see what you did there, and I appreciate it. 😉
ha! good one lol
They were talking about how they think Alise has more confidence but if you pay close attention to the dialog during the Tesleen escort quest and choose the more teasing option when talking to Alise it hints that she is feeling inferior because she has been comparing herself to you the entire time.
Urianger as an astrologian is a perfect fit imo, no complaints from me-- but it is still very funny how he shows up in this world of eternal daylight, and immediately decides this is the perfect opportunity to roll a class entirely centred on stargazing and the power of constellations.
Apparently planets count as stars. If so, Urianger will have no problems even in eternal daylight using astrologian powers, but predictions will be beyond him.
First of all, thank you for the kind words
Hello there. Beautiful work.
yeah. the horror with Halric is that he used to be a normal kid and that has been taken away from him. had a pretty strong impact for me.
My daughter and i felt the same way. Knowing that Halric was a child basically trapped inside a statue was horrifying. The concept that the afflicted would slowly lose agency of their own body and self is frightening, and no less so for having real world analogies such as dementia or Lou Gehrig's disease. Although the idea of Halric being able to shed a tear from an otherwise emotionally void face would have still worked for us, the utter blankness inspired a surety of hopelessness that really hit the both of us also.
(Also, absolutely love the portrait you made for Tuna and Val, the detail in it is just wonderful !)
Halric is in some ways a parallel to Ga Bu, locked within himself and mute. But while we were able to at least protect Ga Bu and get him evacuated safely to Limsa under the protective custody of the Maelstrom, Halric is in a hospice camp and the best defense he had was a woman with a sword. And, of course, Alisae in this exact context is a parallel for Tesleen... only the First is much more brutal and unkind. It really drives home how much of a fallen world the First is compared to the relative stability we've known on the Source.
As a proud owner of the poster sized art. I am pleased with it. Just need to get frames and learn how to effectively hang things…
The Ul'dah merchant is actually not just one person. They're a set of triplets: you meet one of the brothers at every starting cutscene. They even have a triple triad card with all 3 of them on it.
All three of them show up in the big applause scene at the Waking Sands after defeating Ultima in 2.0 MSQ.
I totally didn't know this!
@@tibowmew I only noticed it on a new character play through, after my main had passed 5.3.
There are so many details seeded through ARR which we just ignore on the first play-through, especially in the Waking Sands.
@@RothAnim
ARR did amazing with setting up the world and planting the seeds for them to use in the future expansions. I still rank ARR higher up there.
@@jmstover Even if they weren't thinking that far ahead at the time, at least they were smart enough to go through and look seriously at the characters they planted, and be willing to revisit them later.
I chose Alisae first because under all my real life bs going on, I had been low-key fretting about the battlefield collapse for *months*. And I wasn't the only one. There was about four or five other people with me. Talking in /say. Laughing about the gigantaurs. Commenting on how our models seemed more animated in the cutscenes. Gushing over the music. And then the dinner happened.
We had to find Halric.
We few strangers. All nervous, running from one spot to the other, trying to reassure each other. We knew how these things went. Two whole expansions and a game reset. They had a story telling formula. It would be fine. They never started off with the horrible stuff. It was too early. It would be fine. Right?
And then it happened.
When we all spawned back at Alisae, one after another, I had to /sit. And then, one of the others shuffled up to Alisae and /hugged her and said 'Oh god I'm shaking and crying.' And then another person /hugged her. Then I stood and /hugged them and we just stood there and /hugged each other, commenting on holy crap. I was not expecting this. We just all stood there comforting each other. It sticks with me. This is a very good game. Welcome to Shadowbringers indeed.
I thought during my initial playthrough that the warrior of darkness was effectively a folk hero. People wished for a hero so they made one up
Until you stepped into the position
That is exactly what it was.
Yeah, the reason they did that is to set up a reason to give the player the moniker "Warrior of Darkness." They did the same for "Warrior of Light," if you remember. You're originally called that bc when everybody tried to remember the faces of the adventurers who helped save Eorzea in 1.X, they only saw silhouettes standing before a blinding light, and they were called Warriors of Light for that reason. When you start stepping up to help people, they're reminded of those adventurers and so they call you a Warrior of Light. It's throughout your adventurers that you take that name and turn it into something truly special.
It's the same for Warrior of Darkness. Originally just a tale, later a title given to you because of your deeds, and then you end up giving the name real meaning.
Ishgard froze during previous umbral calamity, because of corrupted eather. So in the world where Bahamut never wreaked havok that place wouldn't be frozen.
Yeah, you can find videos of 1.0 Ishgard and see that's it's all grasslands and rolling hills. Which matched the "knights and castles" theme that Ishgard has going on. That's why current Ishgard has so many starving refugees. Lots of people were displaced and farmland blighted by the sudden eternal winter that hits large parts of the country.
The Crystal Exarch said he summoned the crystal tower and noted that as to where and when he doesn't know.
The Warrior of Darkness is a fable the surviving people of the 1st made up to inspire hope.
Ahm Araeng showed the Environmental Horror that the people of the First have to deal with in a daily basis. That being the Sin Eaters.
However, Kholusia showed the Societal Horror that every person is subjected to thanks to Lord Vauthry of Eulmore.
These two places really showcased that the First is a horrific star to live on. That the Crystal Exarch was understandably desperate to call for the Warrior of Light.
and also the comparison of the Crystarium being the last bastion of freedom and actual safety.
@@rajabuta Indeed. The society functions based upon the environment.
However, I feel it's more of a correlation. The presence of the Sin Eaters or not, Vauthry's rule is through his own twisted agency that others choose to follow for security. Or the veneer of one.
Shows that people can and will turn a blind eye to the less fortunate, if it means they can live more comfortable lives in ignorance.
@@rajabuta Yeah. Horrible ain't it? Lol.
Edit: Also, by the Sin Eaters being involved with Environmental Horror, they're comparable to a force of destructive nature. Which is also something involving real life.
@@tyty8484 Might I ask if you'd perhaps state that you're providing spoilers?
Considering that I've only revealed information that Garret and Kyle currently know at this point in time, in that they've only just finished bringing night back to Lakeland.
@@tyty8484 In regards to Eulmore being exclusionary towards those that live in Gate Town, I find comparable to hanging a juicy piece of steak to a hungry dog. Providing "enough" food to not starve via Meol, so then they'd continue to hope for more or something better.
Making them *just* desperate enough be subservient to the whims of those within Eulmore, but not too desperate to where the populace would potentially grow chaotic.
The people in Gate Town are however aware of what they're getting themselves into, by being slaves. In that they don't care as long as they have a better life than what they had before.
Also by being exclusionary, Vauthry basically separates the haves with the have-nots, and thus encourages ignorance, and therefore added obedience through the preservation of the status quo. Whilst also making Eulmore sustainable by only having a certain population within its walls.
Here's a tidbit alot of folk miss. The sin eater Tesleen performed a wing-ectomy on is still missing that wing when you fight it. It means absolutely nothing in the grand scheme of the ShB story, but I love that the devs kept it like that. I'm a sucker for attention to detail.
Not the only one-winged thing they've seen, too, but they were distracted by a more prominent sight when that one was put in front of them...
When you do it with Trust it's a lot more evident because of the dialogue. I recommend everyone do the trusts at least once because it's just so good on a story front.
@@jaesten I like the additional dialogue, but I always feel that the trust npc's aren't pulling their weight with the trash mobs and the dungeons take much longer than needed :/
@@ExileTwilight Their damage actually fluctuates depending on how well you're doing. It takes around an average of 30-40 minutes for a run with them even if you don't do any damage at all as a dps.
@@ExileTwilight That is intentional so that running with a trust doesn't become faster than with players, in most circumstances at least. I always do my first run as a trust to get the dialogue and interactions while learning the mechanics.
I thought the introduction to the twins was amazing for both of their growth and character development. Alisae who never wanted to rely on any one else learned on the first how to ask the WoL for help, she was able to be open and honest about her feelings and emotions. On the other hand, Alphinaud who never wanted to do things on his own, found his ability to NOT rely on the WoL and stand firm for others in his own way! Amazing writing!
I like it how their theories can be kinda right and wrong at the same time
I think it also shows how well the writers of FFXIV can put things together. As they said about using classic tropes but in a "fresh way" such that you expect certain things to happen but how it is resolved or concluded is different than the expectation.
It's the best part. Watching lore hounds chew on what's given and come to conclusions. Many of these are similar to the conclusions we came to along the way ourselves. Knowing whether they're right or wrong after the fact makes it even more fun.
I also love how 14 can spoil things for you and you not recognize that it’s a spoiler yet. Shadowbringers and Endwalker absolutely warrant at least second play-throughs.
Lyna's voice actor gives some of the best performances of the entire expansion.
Fun fact, Viera voice actors (even in FFXII) are Icelandic. You’ll notice it in EW, too.
@@adamslosslessmusiccollection And not just "People doing an Icelandic accent". Squeenix went to downtown Reykjavik and said "YOU! YES YOU! YOU'RE A BUNNY BOY/GAL NOW!" to ensure it was authentic.
Seriously! I can't wait til they get to a couple certain points
God I hope her VA knows how beloved Lyna became!
@@robikkupegasus7039 She was the emotional heart of every thing she was in.
I always felt like Tesleen's Warrior of Darkness legend was more of a grim-reaper fable, with the whole "servant of death, take care of our souls, and bring us all to a better place" vibe, instead of referring to an actual living hero.
YoshiP is a huge mystery book buff, so it should be no surprise that (generally speaking) all the answers are right in front of you from the beginning, even though you can't recognize it at the time. That's part of what's making your play through so fascinating because you're doing the lore deep dive into FFXIV with a bit of highly entertaining theorycrafting (especially when it's just off the rails), that it's providing a lot of value and a different lore perspective even for someone that's at 6.2 awaiting the next story installment in 6.3. In a way, you're kinda becoming the FFXIV version of Nobbel.
Every time Garrett does one of his promos, he looks more and more like a Florida game show host.
it's the florida man vibes
Yay! Buy the bromance!
I've vowed never to play any MMO by principle so I haven't played FF14, but the whole Wow exodus to FF14 thing has fascinated me since it happened last year and I've been following anyone who's talking about it. Its an interesting thing to observe from a complete outsider.
FFXIV is interesting. Jesse Cox described it best, it's a JRPG first and an MMO second. Especially now with ARR and HW being free trial and solo'able for every dungeon and 4 man trial (single boss "raid"). Combined with Naoki Yoshida's design philosophy of players subscribing for 1 month for the new story/content patch and cancelling to go play other games, be with family, or go outside being a valid play style he embraces and thus ensuring it's approachable with such little time devotion, it's definitely one of the more unique MMO designs.
@@ninjafoxgamesgeekery Yes it's sneaky that way, once you get through A Realm Reborn it really starts tightening up into a single-player JRPG with your character as the protagonist, wrapped in multiplayer functionality. When people say "I don't want to play FFXIV because it's an MMO" my response is "Well yes, but actually no".
OP needs to try FFXIV. I’ve never played WoW, just FFXI and FFXIV, because I don’t play games that look and play like cartoonish garbage. WoW is just immensely cringe to me. After watching a lot of videos on how WoW is as a game, I’m sincerely thankful that I never touched that game because FFXIV is just a better overall game.
@@adamslosslessmusiccollection In WoW's defense, once upon a time it was amazing. I came into it back in the day from Warcraft 2 and Warcraft 3, so I was already interested in the world and used to the aesthetic. But WoW has been systematically ruined as the old good Blizzard was destroyed and now Activision-Blizzard dances around wearing its skin. WoW has been cartoonish garbage for years, but it was once worthy. Never forgive Acti-Bliz's many, many sins.
@@cnkclark "Well yes, but actually no" is a phrase I'm going to use more often now.
It's fun hearing you call them lightsent here and there throughout the video. Before they were ever revealed as being called 'sin eaters' in one of the fan fests that's exactly what we were all calling them. I think I might even remember the name coming up as early as Heavensward when they were more of fan speculation than something that existed in game. (Like 'oh well if there's voidsent from over-abundant darkness, then can there be lightsent?' kind of a thing.)
Everyone in Norvrandt uses the term "sinner" to refer to regular people, so a "sineater" is something that eats people. I always figured that this was part of the theming for the First, where light is bad, dark is good, and angels are demons. It's opposite land.
Said it before, I'll say it again. It's not that Stormblood was bad by any means, It's just Shadowbringers starts with SUCH a bang and just gets better as you go. In fairness this is also about the time of the game where I started paying a little attention to the story but I liked the whole expansion as a whole more than anything.
Yeah. When people say stormblood is the worst expansion, you really got understand that they're saying it's the worst _ff14_ expansion.
That very much changes the definition of "worst".
@@AStrangeWindmill 100%
@@AStrangeWindmill They tend to not even say it's the worst. Usually rankings go ARR - Stormblood - Heavensward/Shadowbringers/Endwalker (those three tend to complete so they get that treatment).
I honestly think Heavensward is the "worst" expansion. Has similar pacing issues as Stormblood in the beginning, the Ul'dah wrap uo was such a let down, and, in my opinion, a much weaker villain.
Stormblood was a good expansion sandwiched between two EXCELLENT expansions. So it's easier to say it was forgettable or bad in comparison.
1. Love the spiciness of today's video. The Lalafell joke, the quick intro that stunlocked Kyle, all gold.
2. The speed with which this game makes you care about someone is one of their BEST weapons and they wield it well.
3. I deeply love the attention you guys gave Roz on your promo this week. Most people would just say, cool print, buy our merch, but you guys gave her a huge spotlight and as someone with many artist friends, that was a wonderful touch and deeply appreciated.
Yes THIS! I am still stunned by the kind words and the amount of credit ; _ ;
So glad to hear about no.3. As someone who has also lived the art grind life, I have a lot of respect for freelance artists and I want to make sure I give enough credit. -Garrett
And remember, you're only at the start here. I saw your streams: Holminster Switch is only level 71. There's 9 more full levels of pure, unadulterated Shadowbringers glory.
Wait have they done Switch already?
I thought they'd just brought the twins back to Crystarium
@@renegademercury443 They did, and after Alphy they did Holminster and a link since they tend to unlist them: czcams.com/video/kOGLtbqkFnU/video.html&ab_channel=GrindingGear
@@renegademercury443 Yeah they ended just after bringing the night back to Lakeland.
@@DameonStarflame which stream is it
I think I missed on xD
Tragic I know
@@renegademercury443 Last Thursday. Called "The Other Path" or something close to that.
the editing was absolutely phenomenal in this video, loved how you did the title cards of each section! the way the text was revealed behind tuna was so cool, and the thumbnail is so well made too! i appreciate that you guys take the time for unique photos for each of your videos so much.
you guys are literally the best FF14 creators rn. i remember last year before 6.0 came out i was just vicariously watching streamers and youtubers left and right playing through FF14, and none did their content as fun to watch and listen as you guys. i know i keep repeating myself but it's been fantastic so far, and you're only getting through the introduction of shb! can't wait for tonight's stream!
I think part of the point of Halric's creepiness is it shows the extraordinary compassion of Tesleen and Alisaie. They care about him and his fate even though he is completely unsympathetic.
Thematically, he's the Ga Bu of the First. If Alphi had taken the hospice camp route and Alisaie went to Eulmore, it wouldn't have clicked nearly as hard.
Lmaooooooo Garret broke Kyle a min in
The doggos in the art is an amasingly sweet touch.
you can't imagine what TORTURE watching this was.
To know, in the next 3 months, there will be SO MUCH to share, and to have to WAIT.
xD
I sincerely wish you a joyous, unforgettable Shadowbringers.
On the topic of the Warrior of Darkness, they are not referring to Ardbert. This is more a hopeful prophecy of a savior they hope will come to help them. Ardbert and his friends only referred to themselves as warriors of darkness when they were in the source.
I really appreciate the two of you going through this together. The perfect teeth. The quaffed hair. The back and forth. This has been more like watching a reality TV show than a typical streamer playthrough, and I'm 100% here for it.
Such a disarming set of compliments and things to notice 😊
I always look forward to wednesdays now because of you guys and your walk through the MSQ. Seeing you guys theorize and hypothesize aboiut the story as you go along and your initial experience has always been a treat to see.
"Beautiful emotional torture" is a perfect way to sum up the experience that is Shadowbringers.
As much as I'm a huge FFXIV fanboy, I honestly think they could teach a class on game narrative with the opener to Shadowbringers. It's masterful. You get the dimension travel setting up that eerie, melancholy intro section. All the colors are different, the dad joke from the merchant, seeing the Crystal Tower but it's not the same... or is it? You get a bunch of answers and a bunch of questions all at once. And then leading into your intro to the city and branching out to the two different sides of their apocalypse: the threat and the reaction. Existential and body horror on one side, and apathy on the other. So many things happen and you're left with so many more things to look forward to.
It's just so so so good. Glad you two seem to have enjoyed it as much as I did!
I didn't play FFXIV, but I quite familiar with FF series in general so watching your journey though FFXIV is quite interesting.
something fun to do on the regional map (the one that is artistic without any waypoints on it), is there is a button to switch between the first and the Eorzea map. It adds some nice reference as to where Norvrandt is.
Also, the route choice is more of a game mechanics decision than a story decision. They split the players between two different zones to ease the zone stress on patch day. Similar to the reason they have 3 starting zones :)
Lastly, Ishgard wasn't snowy until bahamut messed things up after 1.0.
It's even more fun for the people who got to find that out on their own, instead of being told about it.
The only possible thing I could say in response to all of your theorizing and guessing is this: you're so close, yet so far away. Watching you guys play your way through Shadowbringers is top tier content! Can't wait to see the reactions when you guys actually get to the answers to the questions you're asking!
Oh boy it has started. 1h video just for the beginning zones alone *chefkiss*
I'm happy you two are enjoying ShB so far! In regards to Tesleen and the WoD poem without spoilers, Ardbert and gang are known as warriors of light on the First, those responsible for the Flood via picture book in the beginning. They only called themselves the warriors of darkness on Source in opposition to us, the Warrior of Light.
I am here for these recaps... love you guys. Can't wait to see you react to the rest!!!
It's easy to forget but one thing to remember about Ishgard is that it wasn't nigh perpetually a snowy region, that only happened after the 7th Umbral Calamity messed up Coerthas' climate to be like always (or at least the majority) winter. Originally Coerthas had a more standard temperate Western-European-esque climate.
Also if you want to look up a little more lore about the The Lost City of Amdapor (Hard) dungeon bosses, you can read their Triple Triad card entries without being spoiled about anything in ShB.
Checked to see if this comment existed. They can get videos of original Coerthas by looking up 1.0 stuff.
I believe they've already revealed it at this point through optional dialogue from the random NPCs around the camp, but Halric's face is completely frozen due to the light's corruption. I believe the constant cuts to his blank expressions were partly meant to show that it doesn't matter how much pain or sorrow he's in seeing someone get impaled and turned right in front of him, he's completely incapable of emoting.
The sheer will power needed to keep my mouth shut. I can't wait to see your thoughts and theories develop more as you play through more of the story. I'm loving the streams!
I just... say my thoughts out loud and don't type them. That way, I don't need to fight the urge to speak, but I'm not spoiling things for them. lol
Garrett, your hair becomes more and more fabulous by the day ! Also wax looks good on your eyes ! Also that proud look on Kyle when Garrett gets lost in the lore is priceless !
I feel the same about Halric-or rather, I did. When we first meet him, he's the freaking omen creepy child. Its hard to remember that he's a late stage terminal patient on the brink-so much so that he can hear and obeys the call of the sin eaters when they came calling. Its easy to hate Halric because we're not seeing him as he really is-we're seeing WHATS LEFT of him.
It was also really cool to see how Alisaie sees you cuz fuck no would she have told you any of the things Tesleen spilt the beans on herself! You were always in her thoughts, and you became of source of inspiration and strength during what probably felt like the longest year of her life.
Shorter Tesleen cutscene: "Welcome to Shadowbringers! Fuck you!" :D
You see the memes about people saying "Welcome to Shadowbringers", and I'm sure it flooded your stream's chat when the Tesleen scene came around. But as someone who experienced it on launch, it wasn't just personally experienced; it was experienced socially. As soon as you got into that zone, map chat would have discussions whenever someone would vaguely say something like, "holy crap, I wasn't expecting that" or "fuck me that was awful" or something. And the response that always came up was, "welcome to Shadowbringers" and that's as far as it would go beyond very vague discussion about it. You, as someone arriving in the zone, would be curious but wouldn't think about it too much. And then you would see the scene. And in map chat, because you just HAD to let the horror, excitement, shock, etc. out somehow to someone, you would say something. And someone would tell you "welcome to Shadowbringers".
It was an experience socially, the collective shock of the entire community realizing that the direction the story was taking had suddenly become much darker, and the stakes made much more clear. It was a sign of a shift in the writing that people were excited for, since they knew the lead writer was the person who had been in charge of the DRK storyline. People were expectant but hesitant, coming off the mixed quality of Stormblood, and this experience rippled through the community as both a "if you've seen it, you know" sort of in joke as well as an exciting confirmation of people's expectations for the expansion.
I see Grinding Gear. I smash like.
If one thing stands out the most in the First, it is how they've designed, from the looks to the music, to feel like you are in a completely different world. Everything from the people, the name of the races being different, the style of music that each area has as well as the dungeons make you feel like "Hey, I'm playing a different world, it just happens to have my FFXIV character and systems".
Heck, the first time you visit the Crystarium, the music swells in a way and with an instrumentation that would feel at complete odd with any other place you'd have visited in the Source. Same when you leave it the first time and go into the field or one of the two available destinations : it sounds like you've landed on an alien world and are trying to find your way, all the while with that oppressive sky that just won't ever darken.
Compare Tesleen's death with that of Manfred in Stormblood, you know Shadowbringers ain't pulling any punches.
RIP Tesleen 😭
"Forgive me, Alisaie..."
Now THAT'S how you set up a mercy kill. 😭
i'm maybe 17 minutes in and i have to leave a comment because watching the discourse between you two is just delightful. Here's a poke for the algorithm!
Fun fact: the Alphinaud and Alisaie split scenario was intentional game design from the very beginning to prevent another Raubahn extreme issue like we experienced when Stormblood launched as there was an instance very early in the game that EVERYONE had to go through in order to push the story forward and so it completely overloaded the instance servers and it took a couple days for it to kinda sorta resolve before occurring again later in the expansion with Pipin. WIth Shadowbringers, by giving players a choice between visiting Alisaie or Alphinaud AND by not having an instance early in the game it gives splits the player base somewhat between the zones early on AND doesn't overtax the instance server which had also been upgraded with a queue system by this point anyway.
Ah tesleen. What an angel
The theory discussion train is picking up some serious speed 😂 This upload is a feast for us FFXIV fans. Bless you, Val & Tuna 🎉
That's actually a good point about the contrast between Shadowbringers and Stormblood with regards to Hub Cities.
Stormblood didn't really HAVE one. You started in Castrum Oriens, then moved to Rahlgr's Reach, then get bounced over to Kugane, then move on to Namai and the House of the Fierce for a while, then off to Reunion, then BACK to the House of the Fierce, then back to Rahlgr's Reach, then on to Ala Ghiri, then to Port Praetoria. There's never anything that really serves as a 'home base', unlike Heavensward which was bookended by Ishguard and Idyllshire. It's just a series of quest hubs that you complete and move on from. So as cool as Kugane is, you never spend enough time there to really develop any sort of attachment, since it's plunked right in the middle of the story and they really don't give you any compelling reasons to go back there or make you feel like you're operating from there. You're transient for the entirety of Stormblood.
Ishgarde was not always snowy. It became that way with the 7th calamity. It just had real rough winters instead of constant winter.
The doodad that you find in the trench that gets you to the First gets explained later on, so... trust in the process, so to speak. This is something that I love about this game -- there is no handwaving and retconning lore like in WoW.
Notice how the first experience in coming to the First is a reflection of first starting out in ARR. Like how when we get to our starting city, we’re stopped by the guards, experience danger, meet the merchant, but changed on its head with more dire stakes than when we first started. We’re not playing hero or war hero this time, we’re meant to play savior.
5:04 I just wanna call out this wonderful little edit. That is all.
(That's not actually all at all, but all the little details like that really show the work that goes into these videos. Glad you guys are having so much fun, and I look forward to seeing more!)
The Scene where she tells you it is not your time is actually you seeing her speak to Ardbert. Before she and his companions gave all to stop the light but left him for as yet unknown reasons.
ok the thumbnail spooked me out
Edit: also about name Sin Eater
A sin-eater is a person who consumes a ritual meal (named Corpse Cake) in order to spiritually take on the sins of a deceased person. The food was believed to absorb the sins of a recently dead person, thus absolving the soul of the person. Sin-eaters, as a consequence, carried the sins of all people whose sins they had eaten; they were usually feared and shunned.
This channel is the best. Shadowbringers is going to be such a trip for you guys and I am so here for it. God I love this so much.
Glad you enjoy it!
"Sands of Amber" is a banger. I could listen to that shit for hours. And it amazingly set the ominous feeling of the world. SHB music was just in a class of it's own. 11/10
The transformation HEAVILY reminded me that Square was once into horror games with Parasite Eve series.
To be exact in second game the first boss cutscene transformation. The design is VERY similar. Kinda cool that they didn't forget their roots, at least I think so.
This raid tier's savage transformation definitely proved that!
Shadowbringers does have proxies of characters and places. You hit on the marks, but gonna confirm it for others.
The merchants on the Source = Merchant on the First
Crystarium = Mor Dhona
Amh Araeng = Ul'dah
??? = The Shroud / Gridania
??? = Limsa Lominsa
And among others. If I can remember, I'll keep adding to this list on future videos as you discover.
They've been to Eulmore on stream.
Halric is thematically the Ga Bu of the First, which in that specific context means Tesleen is the Alisaie parallel, in that she's devoted to protecting a child whose aether has been imbalanced so hard he's in a functionally-vegetative state. But Tesleen's fate isn't nearly as kind as Alisaie's...
@@elixwhitetail Ah! Sadly, I can't make most their streams so I was going on their videos. But thank you.
@@cobbil The stream VODs are on this channel but they're unlisted and in a playlist because if they were listed it'd mess with the analytics. But that's fair, it's also a time commitment.
Regarding the ardbert - WoD stuff: in the end of HW it is explained that all the warriors of darkness had to sacrifice themselves, so they were just chunks of aether being "summoned" on the source via their crystals of light. So all of them were already dead, but the oracle merely transferred their spirits to the first, they were dead already even before that.
ShB does such a good job with immersion. Right from the beginning youre on the edge of your seat and that tension is never released becuase you literally feel like youre trapped in another world cursed to die from light and light zombies.
The thing about Halric is that he is almost completely gone, but he still could see and hear everything around him. While he was outwardly stiff and unemotional, you can be sure he was anything but inwardly. He was literally a prisoner inside his own body. A body that was being taken away from him.
I'd like to remember you guys that the snow in Ishgard came from the 7th Calamity with Bahamut, because the weather got effed up really bad over there, at that point the first and the source where long seperated.
So if there is an Ishgard equivalent, it might not necessarly have snow...
*Know-it-all glasses off*
Shadowbringers is the expansion I remember the start of the most of any expansion .
The next expansion I remember the most is being in the Howling Fjord and getting popped by the Lich King for grins. Other expansions were good, but those two really did do the best job of setting what the stakes are for whet you're going against. I am very excited for you to see all of Shadowbringers.
Garrett, you aren't the only one thinking of him as an omen child. Honestly when I first played through and they mentioned final meal and such I was wondering if they were going to have him turn mid-camp when you got back before they then went onto this story beat.
Ah yes. This moment was crazy. Always good to see more people enjoying the game. Shadowbringers was an amazing expansion.
at ShB launch, i wasn't able to take off from work for the early access . so seeing all my friends burned through the msq all the way to endgame and i was still pacing along the msq just a few hrs each day after work. i was glad that it gave me a chance to take time playing through it and i enjoyed the expansion very much.
Remember that back when the Warriors of Darkness left us, it was Minfilia, as the Oracle of Light, who ferried those souls back to the first.
I picked Alisae first, because she was out on the frontline ground zero, and it made sense to gather information on your enemy first. Great vid as always!
AND HOUR!? Let's gooooooo. We eating good this Wednesday
In regards to the candles and campfires, Day and night still happens on the first so it does get cold during night time. The light that constantly covers the first is just light aether. It does not give of heat like light from the Sun.
When you get bitten by a Sin Eater, you weep ranch dressing and vomit up the stuff they use in glowsticks.
The Sin Eaters are mayonnaise-aspected elementals.
Forbidden mayonnaise, that is.
@@Bongaboi151 Tell that to Vauthry.
@@rajabuta Heavenmann's Mayonnaise
Yes.
Welcome to Shadowbringers. Enjoy the ride. And it's going to be a hell of a ride.
They really hit the ground running with that first Shadowbringers cutscene. It was also that moment when the NA servers crashed AND a local thunderstorm that cut my power off twice. It took me 3 times to finally get through that cutscene (once with a queue of 850ish) and having my power knocked out after. But I made it and wow, I was blown away out the gate! I chose Alisaie first, because that's my girl and I was glad, since I got to experience the Welcome To Shadowbringers moment quickly.
I'm already in the middle of Endwalker and it's just enriching the Shadowbringers story. More tears. But wow, ShB... that's an experience I wish I could erase my mind, just to relive it anew. 10/10
Great job on the thumbnail, i can definitely see these videos hitting the 1hr and a half mark by the end of ShB leveling
The warriors of darkness of the source, Ardbert and his friends, are the warriors of light there talking about.
They called themselves warriors of darkness when on the source because light was the enemy now.
This was all explained both at Xelphatol, elaborated on during our battle with them, then reiterated in our meeting with Ghost Ardbert.
So not a spoiler.😅 I’ll assume you were trying to be funny there.
Great video as always. Looking forward to the video for Alphys route now.
I'm sorry, this just makes me picture Alphys from Undertale in Alphinaud's clothes/role. 🤣🤣
I think it will be a merry good time :)
The dog scene from The Thing is the perfect way to describe the transformation.
I just love when Kyle and Garrett do this banter and discussion in regards to their journey while those watching who finished this expansion already just smiles or snickers silently :D Love your journey! Wait until you reach EW :)
Hearing the speculation in these videos is always so interesting. It seems like everyone who has a chance to mull it over finds some new detail that I never considered when I did my playthrough, and there are details I noticed that other people don't. Not to say any of those details were even relevant, but the crackpot theories are always entertaining.
You probably already feel this at this point, but there's a good deal of satisfaction that comes from even just knowing that the writers are aware of your questions and willing to take them on. I was shocked at the amount of small questions I had throughout FFXIV that were answered in some way or another, either through MSQ, side quests, or even FATE descriptions. And even the questions that I never got answered in Shadowbringers or Endwalker (so far) were at least acknowledged directly by the characters! It's so refreshing that the writers so rarely sweep stuff under the rug to be ignored and forgotten.
Ahh!! So much good questions, and there's a reason for why they did it the way they did... keep going :D It's going to be fun coming back to this video later to see the early theories lol
The beginning of Shadowbringers at launch... it was magical 😁
"there would be something wonderfully thematic to walking around Ul'dah and seeing a bunch of sleeping bodies near the Aetherite. 'oh, shadowbringers huh?'" omfg i never thought about that idea but i want it now
23:00 this can be said without spoiling anything, it bears keeping in mind, that people who played Shadowbringers on release, did not have to have done the Crystal Tower yet. the requirement to complete Crystal Tower in order to progress out of ARR, was added in a later ShB patch, and those who had already passed the first point, were/still will be met with another cutoff to do it significantly later even than the minfillia stuff that you mention, I won't say exactly when this other cutoff is, as that would be venturing into spoilers.
One of the most amazing things to me, when playing this on launch weekend, was just how "physically" captivating the story was. While they did all that with Feo Ul to explain how you could still use your retainers, and how you yourself could still port back and forth; as a player and in character, I felt no desire (or even an anti-desire) to go back to the Source. I felt "trapped" in a good way. I avoided roulettes, etc. The First became my home, in a very different way than "new hub city" type feel for other expansions. This stood in contrast to SB/HW where as soon as you touch the new atheryte it felt fine to jump around the world.
I'm curious to hear/watch if you get any of those feelings too, while playing through at a very different (non-binge) pace, interspersed with community events/etc.
I'd recommend doing the role quests. They - mostly - replace job quests in ShB and offer some interesting bits of story. There's one for casters, healers, tanks and physical DPS with a bit added at the end if you do them all.
Great video yet again! After watching the search for Alphi stream, I can’t wait for your take on that twin!