FF14 Shadowbringers - My FAVOURITE RPG Story Ever!
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- Опубликовано: 11 июн 2022
- Well here it finally is! Mike's conclusion to Shadowbringers, an expansion which made him cry multiple times - something that only the game RiME managed to do in the past. In addition, it is official Shadowbringers has surpassed even Divinity Original Sin 2 to become Mike's favourite RPG Story ever, let's take a look why.
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Well the video is finally here - and as the sound absorbing portable walls are now all done, this should be the very last video we record on the greenscreen where the sound isn't great :D so Endwalker's video should sound a lot better fingers crossed.
Where does Shadowbringers rank among your favourite RPGs of all time?
Imo the Shadowbringers' story hits hard on it's own, but hits even harder when you consider the entirety of the MSQ. As a story, Final Fantasy 14 is the best one I've ever played.
Emet really is the best villain ever
It's right up there with Final Fantasy X
I've also played a ton of RPGs and Shadowbringers also is my #1
Can't decide. But it is up there with FFX and Endwalker. my top 3 of all time.
That "Shitty trash weeb game" comment after the Seto scene got me so good, I remember watching this live. That bit of levity is needed after a scene like that.
Don't know how many times I muttered that to myself... along with some tissues. LOL
Super Trash Weeby Game!! made me used 3 tissues!!! for ONE DAY more than my FUCKING PERSONAL USE!!!!!
I usually say "I hate this fucking game" as I sob at the excellent writing in certain scenes. Is it because you automatically want to lash out at something that makes you cry? 😂
That Aumarot theme always hits so hard, the ticking clock just hurts.
Seriously
like their time is running out..
Several times at the beginning of ShB, I would just go to the tempest, and sit there. Turned off my UI, zoomed in my camera a bit, and listened to the music. It's so good.
They’re all so moving, but To The Edge and the final fight against Elidibus hurts man. It’s so heartbreaking and incredible.
The fact it's also a set up musically for To the edge is phenomenal piece of story telling via music
Watching this, I teared up at "The rains have ceased", cried again at Seto's scene, god DAMN this game.
That Seto scene is so unfair!
Agreed!
Cried several times from the cutscenes. This game is a bully
It happens to me every single time
Having lost my brother 10 years ago to suicide and never really addressing it, this line hits me so god damn hard every time.
"The rains have ceased, and we are blessed with another beautiful day...but you are not here to see it."
That line makes me ache every time. Such loneliness....
It's probably one of the best read lines in the game imo, English atleast, I wouldn't know about jp
@@FalseGryphon Oh boy... Jp one destroyed me, Elidibus voiced by Akira Ishida and i can't imagine anyone better than him. For context he was the voice behind Gaara from Naruto, or Zeref from Fairy Tail if i do not mention his most famous acts at Gundam or Neon Genesis Evangelion will be rude. He's just the perfect guy for that line, that wretched line.
I have an inkling we will come back to this around 6.4. And it will destroy us
@@Honyakusha oh fuck, not zeref. I loved zeref 🥺
The vocal crack at the end is everything.
Ishikawa doesn't get all the blame.. The music in that expanion is incredible. I'm convinced that Soken and Ishikawa are both primals, sustained not only by our worship but also our tears.
And I'm perefcty fine with that.
It's to the point where I see sprouts and I'm like AH YES, MORE TEARS FOR OUR PRIMAL GODS
Also Keiko on the Keys... she can undo me with a single chord...
@@Hornswroggle yeah.. get the Scions and Sinners album.. 1st side is all Keiko and Amanda, 2nd side is Primals.
Listening to them do "What angel wakes me" (fa la la la la) is amazing. And A Long fall and Close in the Distance.
I love everything... except the normal battle music. I think it's the absolute contrast of it, it just doesn't work for me, even tho it's a good song as a standalone.
It does reminds me of Pavlov's dogs experiment as I hear a certain music bits i just start feeling uneasy, with it being always connected to emotional moments. (like Eternal Wind)
16:00 Elidibus' mind being so wrecked is not because he lived forever. Ancients were used to incredibly long lifespans (they could live forever, if they choose to). Both Lahabrea and Emet-Selch never lost their minds or memories. The reason Elidibus had a different experience is because he was actually "dead" unlike the other two unsundered. Elidibus was one of the people sacrificed to summon Zodiark and, actually, the main sacrifice, serving as Zodiark's heart. Being Zodiark's heart meant his mind became an amalgamation of all the countless sacrificed ancients whose souls ended up drowning Elidibus' sense of individuality.
To tell the truth, the three unsundered ascians "lost their minds", but each in a different way... Elidibus, as you said, got his mind corroded by the anguish of the souls trapped inside Zodiark, Lahabrea got insane, fully becaming the monster they only planned to act as to save their people and Emet just got tired, so tired that he gambled the fate of the ancients on a fight against the WoL when he could just had waited for the next chance after the WoL was gone.
Not quite. He was made into a Primal, one who bore the hopes of Salvation... which meant that parts of him got replaced as the aeons wore on by the hope for Salvation from the many, many different worlds he was operating in. Being a Primal, you don't have an identity of yourself... and so, he was like a hard drive getting overwritten, very slowly.
@@darkbass50 Don't forget the point he was the youngest of the Ascian, he is painted like a child who have to carry the burden of everyone.
That is the lore explanation, yes. But many things are intentionally written in a way that humans can relate to it. It is very easy to make parallels in our mind to themes possible in real life. "Well, actually, seto is not a chocob.. i mean dog! Really!". Obviously, but let's not be shallow.
@@TheOnfs The story in the 'Tales from Shadows' that tells a story from Emet-Selch's perspective.
I love how everyone starts this game like "yeah Horsefart whatever" and "He's the bad guy so who cares?" but the game says "Oh, you'll care, you'll f*cking care, don't you worry. Do you see random NPC #4 over there? He's going on your Displate. That villain you don't care about? Your salty tears are going to water the pages of your diary like a summer's downpour on a field of Forget-me-Nots."
I still remember when Nobble was making fun of a random SB NPC - a grandma sweeping the earthen floor with a broom and it was raining. But when he talked to her she basically said she was sweeping because her son was hopefully returning soon from the war and things had to be tidy then.
couldnt have worded it any better
"He's going on your Displate" has to be the biggest writer flex ever
Except Mike didn't care for Haurchefant lmao
@@MrLyramion For as much grief as Stormblood gets, it really does not pull any punches with just how horrible war and occupation are for the victims of it.
That's one thing people attack it for, the early Ala Mhigan sections, but they kinda need that + the early Doman pieces to just shove in the players face how cruel Garlean occupation has been for these people. They aren't able to just stand up and fight cause the hero is here, now it's time to go! Cause all the fight has been painfully ground out of them over years of brutal occupation.
"Remember... Remember us. Remember that we once lived."
That one line broke me.
Imagine losing everything. Your friends, your loved ones, your world. Only to have a broken facsimile substitute it. Being one of the only "real" people to have survived to tell the tale of what trully happened. Knowing that the things walking around are mere descendants of the things you helped create on a passion project. The insult of having they live their lives in blissful ignorance, when you have to carry the burden of ressurecting a whole civilization. The 'only' civilization.
Only to share an adventure with these very people, watching as they struggle against all the plots you have been concocting long before the start of their 'age'. Realizing that, in the end, they are just like you.
Fighting to protect their loved ones. Their worlds.
Realizing at last, that neither side can back down. That the real struggle is not one of might and power, but one of Will. Who will give up first.
I sincerely believe that Emmet-Selch did not lose the fight in the manner of power. He was defeated in a battle of wills. He realized that the age of the Ascians was gone. And in the end, he should just let go of his memories, and fade into oblivion.
When that sinked in, it broke me. It's amazing how much just a few words can convey, if you give enough meaning to your actions.
I broke down big time at that line too!!!
Yeah. His trial is named, "The Dying Gasp" we pit our ideals against him, so that he will allow the ascians to die. And the music track for it, Invincible, is something I love even more than the final Endwalker one. The leitmotif they use is the one that plays in the Crystarium, and during the most tender moments of the MSQ. "Yet stand tall me friend, our journey will never end." Something that's sung so tenderly, reassuringly, is now blasted out in stubborn defiance by a people who refuse to give up on their world in spite of all odds. Emet Selch's ideals are inviolable, invincible, but so are ours, and this final track is about both. It's just so perfectly crafted in every single way, it's amazing. Love it. Can't get enough of it.
Standing here, I realize, that you're just like me, trying to make history. But who is to judge what is right or wrong, but when our guard is down, we can both agree, that violence breeds violence, but in the end, it has to be this way
His speech before the fight actually ruined that moment for me. Right before the fight he's proudly proclaiming how he'll erase us from the history books. Then he loses and is immediately like "oh no, please remember me, don't do to me what I was going to do to you T_T" I was laughing at my screen as he said remember us and that's definitely not the reaction they were going for.
@@RowdySanta he said that because at that moment he still considered us not fit to carry on their legacy. After we defeated him we finally saw that even broken shards could surpass the ancients that were whole beings. That’s why he had no problem dying and even did so with a smile
I love the emphasis you put on finding Amaurot. It was such an amazing, otherworldly surprise as well as insanely emotional once you actually explore it. It's what fantasy should be.
I was so fucking happy to see him have that much of an emotional reaction to it. Got me tearing up as well.
Amourot was out of the blue. We'd just wrapped up the Vauthry arc, which meant the end of the MSQ... Or so me and my friend thought. Then we get a spectacular city underwater out of the blue. And then you realise it isn't just a background texture but you're actually going in there. And then you find out it's alive! And then you start to EXPERIENCE Amourot. And then you live through its destruction and then you simultaneously get hypes through the moon and get your heart ripped from your chest.
You had no idea any of this was coming. It is uncontested my best gaming experience ever.
Amaurot was my favorite moment in my first playthrough of XIV. But for different reasons… it didn’t remind me of rapture, it reminded me of my favorite game, FFX, and it’s city of Zanarkand.
Nothing could describe the feelings and emotions I felt seeing Amaurot for the first time. Truly a moment that is hard to replicate
Dang it making me cry all over again. You know when a story is so good that when others talk about it or share parts of it you remember exactly how you felt during the same points and it makes you have an emotional response because of it.
"The rains have ceased, and we have been graced with another beautiful day. But you are not here to see it."
Man this gets me even after seeing it a dozen times. This is probably my most favourite sentence in a game ever. I resonate with it on such a deep level.
I was wrapping up the Vauthry arc with a friend and was happily putting Shadowbringers at an 8 or 9 out of 10... Then I noticed that we still had a level or two to go on the quests and raised an eyebrow. Did they mess up? And then they throw you into a new zone. You explore for a bit and there is some interesting info developing but nothing earth-shatterning... Then, the game says "Buckle up, boys and girls.You're about to go on a journey. The second you walk around that corner (and see Amourot), we're taking this expansion to 13/10 and we're not letting up for the rest of the expansion... Or the next. If you reached this point late in the day, you're going to be pulling a sicky tomorrow because you're going to be too engrossed to stop and sleep!"
When I gave Shadowbringers 13/10, it wasn't hyperbole. That 10 was the very best I believed a game could possibly be at that point in time. Shadowbringers ploughed right past what I previously thought the pinnacle of storytelling was. It redefined stories in games for me. It invoked an avalanche of different emotions in a complicated mess. The buzz of "Holy F**k! That was amazing!" literally lasted a week.
I'm used to stories where you establish a bad guy by "Oh, humans killed his parents, so he wants revenge" or "He's bad because he enjoys abusing people weaker than him". Then, instead, we get Emet-Selch. A character who sees hope in you. Who wants you to understand his side and maybe find common ground. Who, in that genuine endeavor, goes out of his way to protect and rescue you with no expectation of reward. Who knows you will likely not come around. Who never once lies to you, either directly, through twisting context, by implication or by omission. And you relate to him. My friend asked me if we could switch sides and join him. I'd have to flip a coing to work out which side to be on.
Moving from WoW to FFXIV was one of the best decisions I have ever made. And not just because of the story.
I can't wait to see the next video for Endwalker!
I love that you enjoyed Shadowbringers! :)
I absolutely enjoyed FFXIV.
At the end of 5.0, it was so good, I stopped playing for 6 months. I was convinced that it should have ended there. It was so good in my mind, it couldn't get better and I wanted that to be the end for me, for it not to be ruined by then trying to continue that story.
"The rains have ceased, and we have been graced with another beautiful day... but you are not here to see it."
I wasn't hit as hard by the final moments of 5.0 with Emet, but just hearing Elidibus's farewell, reduced to effectively a powerless, grieving child, gets me every time. I started playing in 5.2, and made it to the end just in time for 5.3.
This is possibly one of my most memorable and favorite cutscenes in the game. After the epic rise, the defeat of the villain, you see the one who has been hounding you since the beginning, who has been actively manipulating everything... and you feel nothing but pity for him.
When Elidibus' face went slack and came to the realization that he can't even remember the person who he made a promise to, it broke my heart.
The voice acting in this game just elevates everything.
For me, the most powerful line of his is still the one at the very end of the phase transition in Seat of Sacrifice - "For victory, I render up my all!"
The sheer desperation with which he proclaims that, as well as that slight trembling in his voice is just too much. Especially when you remember that he's still a child deep inside, grown cold and catatonic over the millennia of loneliness. I absolutely have to give props to Matt Stokoe on this one - performances like his are what give the EN dub of this game an ever slight edge over JP.
I've seen that cutscene somewhere near 20 times, and I have yet to not tear up at that line. It just shows a pure sorrow that is hard to understand for those who haven't yet lost someone they're truly close to. I think of my little brother every time.
His voice actor did such an amazing Job, especially during that scene. I thought it was so powerful. I feel like 5.3 was the peak of shadowbringers
Shadowbringers is my favourite too now.
I've seen the light... er.. dark
I immediately started crying when I found out Elidibus's age (Parent in me, I guess)
I cried to all the small cutscenes in 5.3, however when Seto showed up... UGLY CRYING.
Seto fucked me up. Anything with animal companions and parent/child relationships make me cry every time.
The moment for me was going back to the inn and seeing the empty room. That was it! I was done!
@@sitnspin1819 it’s all so good. Cried so much in that expansion. I’ve never played anything like it that made me reflect, cry, laugh, just enjoy…. It’s a masterpiece
@@bemeas I knew someone would say this. Young adult is still a kid. They weren’t fully grown, they weren’t fully developed and didn’t have the full understanding of their sacrifice at the time of it
@@bemeas There's always that one 'UMMM AKSHUALLY' guy when this conversation gets brought up. 18 is a young adult. And most people consider them a kid still because they have no understanding of the world. Especially when you're immortal.
Elidibus was a child.
When it comes to Amaurot, it really speaks to everyone involved in the game that so many people have responded to it with: "Have you ever felt nostalgic for a place you've never been?"
The moment that broke me most was when Emet returned for the fight against Elidibus to save us. He appeared just in the unrecognizable cloak, but his snap and goodbye hand wave were so iconic - no words needed to know who it was. It was at that moment I started to cry like crazy and during the whole rest of the encounter. It was just so unexpected, brilliant and heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time.
broke down at the finger snap. they didn't have to do that
yeah...the second phase of that fight it hard to do while crying. Can't see and your hands are trembling. Yeah they knew what they were doing.
that scene has more meaning once you finished Endwalker.
THAT Emet-Selch is finally remember and he returned back to help us
(Endwalker spoiler) The Ascians regaining their lifelong memories upon being sent to the Aetherial Sea was one of the most beautiful concepts revealed in Endwalker in my opinion. Knowing that Emet returned to our aid during the Elidibus Trial was so much more understandable after playing through Endwalker, and it made the Elidibus encounter even better for me.
It is fascinating how Emeth Selch saying "look, lern and remember" is pretty similar yet different from Hydalins "Hear, feel, think".
I always lern.
Zodiark and Hydaelyn, two gods brought about for by the same means, for similar reasons, with different but similar mantras.
Hydaelyn's mantra encourages its listener to heed the present, while Emet's version encourages reflection of the past.
"Greetings... you who are my final encounter...
I wish to hear your words... Share your feelings... Know your thoughts.
May we please... be friends?"
@@TheFurrLord wow, impressive
i think what made it so impactful in the end was his last line making it incredibly obvious that you just destroyed everything that he and his people were after coming to understand his side a bit. you understood what winning meant from the losing side.
I remember standing outside the Bureau in Amaurot, just... listening and taking it all in and feeling more than a little overwhelmed - then I heard that ticking clock. Out of nowhere. It had been there all along but in that sudden moment it was all I could focus on, ringing louder and louder in my ears and I just... lost it. Those last seconds, preserved so carefully. And absolutely nothing could prevent that clock from ticking down to zero. I had to walk away for awhile to ground myself back to the reality I actually live in.
Shadowbringers just brought so much together in this incredibly hard hitting way - Emet-Selch and Elidibus, the Chai's, the horror of meol, Tesleen. I feel so bad for anybody that can get all the way through to 5.3 and not be emotionally impacted. Some of the streamers I watch occasionally are so focused on being entertaining, they're not engaged at all and that's honestly tragic. It should be bringing you to tears at some points. Stories are meant to be cathartic, a purge of emotions not yours but that could be in some other life.
I have a lot of feelings about ShB, like we all do :P
On the flip side some streamers were so caught up in the story that they just went silent for entire cutscenes and would add text on screen in their recaps about how they were so absorbed they forgot that people were watching them.
I agree 100% but my favorite moment when in the end Ardbert walk through the bridge and his friends waiting him.
That part got me so damn hard. Like it was already beautiful because it felt like Ardbert was finally getting his heroic praise and the it hits you with his comrades, and as someone who did all her class quests before Amaurot its so damn great seeing them all there.
i completed all 4 quests at the bar and was able to free all the souls prior to the bridge
With a clean axe, even. It's one of my "always makes me cry" parts along with Seto and Elidibus.
The thing that made me love emet more, was when I realised that I had almost took his stance during shadowbringers. Before Ryne truly became her own character, I really wanted minfillia to replace her, she wasn't "my" character and so I didn't care what happened to her if it meant getting my friend back. Just the same as emet not caring about the reflections and their people, as they were just inferior versions of his true friends and family
a villain you can understand and empathize with, and if you werent on the outside looking in, while seeing firsthand the destruction and lives lost, you may actually have stood at his side. though you do have a front row seat to his "rejoining", you see the lives torn asunder and know of the worlds destroyed to bring back a long dead race of peoples. you can understand his motives, but you cant forgive his actions in service to those motives.
It would be like if someone took your dearest friend, all of your friends even, and split them into 14 parts. Those 14 parts come nowhere close to the fullness and comfort of the friends you knew and loved. And by killing those parts, you can have your original friends back. But for another, those parts that your friend were split into are all they know. They are people in and of themselves, each deserving of life and love, and the death of each one is simple murder. The story can change so much by perspective. Such an incredible villain and story.
Its so so well written. There were so many instances where I just sat there thinking after a cutscene, going back and forward. Speechless. That heavy walk, carrying all that weight on his shoulders :(
yes "may", i totally wasn't rooting for emet to win going trough ShB, nope didn't happened.
The seto part broke me. It is impossible to not tear up during it. Also, the part where you walk back to the crystarium and it switches to ardbert (no blood on axe)walking to his friends is so damn powerful.
its not just the axe, his armor as well was very dark and muted when it came the colors, then at the end ShB and he is walking across the bridge to his friends, the axe is clean and his WAR armor is bright and vibrant.
I physically cannot watch that final Elidibus cutscene without feeling like I got hit by a bag of onions.
As someone who lost their grandfather to a similar kind of mental degradation, I can say watching elidibus feel so convicted but that little moment of genuine sadness and confusion as to who he made his promise to, genuinely hurt me it felt like I was right back where I was as a kid watching someone you love just fade away and honestly I can't commend them enough for how well implemented that scene was and how deeply it can get you on an emotional level
Shadowbringers was so absolutely incredible I purposely exclude it when I compare the xpac stories since its in a league of its own with how high it set the bar, made me feel, and all that it accomplished. The way it ripped the band aid off to fully open our understanding of the game's universe and set the stage for everything else was a masterpiece.
Even though Endwalker 6.0 was a fantastic (and in my opinion the best possible ending) to the Hydaelyn and Zodiark arc nothing can ever compare to Shadowbringers but I think that's fine since it just makes it even more special.
ye is hard to top shadowbringers and i didn't got in endwalker with the mind it has to which is why some people probably wasn't able to enjoy it when u go in Mind it has of course need to be better then shadowbringers.
Endwalker is undoubtedly amazing, and it's the story that left me a stunned and shambling mess for two days after I beat it... but I have to agree that Shadowbringers is the perfect combination of revelation, hype, and emotion. Nothing has outdone the climax of 5.3 for me, and if something ever does it might just be enough to knock me into a coma from the bliss of it.
Elidibus's final monologe kills me every time. sitting here with tears in my eyes already >.
The intros are getting better and better with each video 😂
The intros are the best, I hope we get a supercut of all of them a year from now.
I’ll never forget the night I finished 5.0. The final confrontation against Emet-Selch was _the most_ gripping, cinematic, and rewarding moment I’d ever had in gaming.
I can’t imagine that it’ll ever be topped. As much as I loved Endwalker, Shadowbringers was truly perfect.
for sheer adrenaline, the 5.0 finale certainly has anything in Endwalker beat. But overall I'd say I found Endwalker more powerful and moving. Before I picked up this game, I considered the suicide mission from Mass Effect 2 the best moment in gaming I'd ever experienced. I've lost count of how many times FFXIV has topped that for me now.
I think the greatest achievement of Endwalker was making Shadowbringers even better in retrospect. Didn't think that was even possible.
How so
@@Pikachu-qr4yb because of it showing you who Emet-Selch and Venat were before the final days- they're so fleshed out, and you can totally see how those events would shape them into the people they would become.
@@Keira_Blackstone not to mention, in retrospect you realize part of the reason he helps you during the Elidibus Trial is because he remembers you from Elpis, not just because he found you worthy.
What I love about Emet is, he never had a generic villain turn. There was no, "OMG EMET WAS CRAZY THIS WHOLE TIME!" He never denied his end goal. He just let you discover the motive as you traveled. In the end, even as you knew he had to be stopped, there was a level of regret in it--because Jesus, what would YOU become if you had to watch everyone you loved torn apart, only to live on as flawed mockeries of what they once were (until EW showed us the truth).
Imagine having the weird shambling remnant of your old friend trying to stop you on top of that. He did commit multiple planet wide genocides, but fuck if I can't at least feel a little bad for the man.
Vauthry is the physical embodiment of Blizzard, change my mind.
Vauthry evolved into something beautiful when faced with adversity
@@ivanfranebijelic7009 he may be pretty on the outside but he is still ugly on the inside.
Vauthry is literally a man child, no slur or insult. I mean that seriously.
@@siresorb1419 correct, but his final form transformation looks great, bold of you to assume that Blizz can even appear good on the surface
Cant cause damn
Elidibus was right up there with Emet in terms of depth and development. His story, down to its _heart_ ... is even more shockingly despairing and sad than Emet's, by leaps and miles. And his English voice actor was INCREDIBLE.
I rate him just a nudge higher than Emet (just a nudge) and I'll fight anyone over this!
I seriously thought that solo duty as Thancred was his last stand, it felt hopeless. Some foresight of Endwalker make me even sadder about the state of Elidibus, things he dont remember and he know he forgotten and hinted at it on Shadowbringers (in that he made a promised to someone he forgotten)
I have a feeling Endwalker is poised to make us a great deal sadder about Elidibus soon.
I feel genuine pangs of longing for Amaurot whenever I see it. They kind of trick you into remembering yourself as Azem, don't they? At some point in the story you just have that moment of 'remembering' yourself and the world of the past and now you're bearing the weight of TWO worlds on your shoulders.
Love this game.
Making Amaurot look so exotic and out of place for the characters yet so immediately recognizable as our modern world for the players was a very neat trick.
5.3 unlocks the info needed to understand/recognize a foreshadow the devs threw into the _very_ beginning of the game. The pre-fight cutscene for Seat of Sacrifice lets us know that we are Azem, "the traveler. Shepherd to the stars in the dark." When we first arrive in the First, we are deposited by the Crystal Exarch's imprecise aim in Lakeland, and specifically The Forest of the Lost Shepherd. Very well-played.
And the worst part is - you have to chose which of those two worlds will be allowed to survive.
This. The modern city aesthetic is by design, it awakens a feeling of familiarity in the player, so in the Wol as well. Our familiarity with this kind of place is the same as the Wol feels, because in another time, this was their city.
@@FranklinW It's so intensely Art Deco! It hits extra hard when you know that Art Deco, in the real world, was intended as a style completely accessible to the middle class.
I like how this game gets philosophical. The theme of becoming warrior of darkness symbolizes self acceptance and moving forward, it's represented with Ardbert in the final scene.
The best part of ShB is the thematic coherence of it all. Every single villain could not move forward. Every single protagonist learned to move forward. It extends even to role and side quests.
@@FranklinW and the very nature of the Astral and the Umbral themselves.
Really resonates with light representing Stasis/Stagnation and how Dark representing Change in the Shadowbringers story
Shoutout to Chris for being a legend.
Fucking hell! That Seto scene! Every goddamn time!
Seto seems to had consigned himself to live a life of regret, not eager to fly, no desire to move much less move forward or move on...until he got to talk to his friend one last time.
SMH EVERY SINGLE TIME!
That's the part that strikes me more with Seto - the way seeing Ardbert lifts him. For a lot of people the emotional aspect comes more from comparing it to relationships with pets, but for me it's almost more like those videos of older people in care homes who come to life when they're played music from their youth. It touches me how Ardbert's memory inspires him to fly again like he used to.
@@Chumbaniya i reminded me of the old folks in the old folks home I volunteered previously. Seeing the old folks lit up at someone accompanying them for a few good hours really reminded me the same how Seto lit up when he saw Ardbert again.
Just started watching the video and the wave of nostalgia hit me so hard it felt like a physical thing
Nothing in any piece of media I have ever encountered has ever made me so emotional as the moment when you and Ardbert confront Hades, and then you just sit there with the music swelling, 7 pillars of light inviting you to kick it up even more
I had to just sit there and soak it in for like 10 minutes, weeping softly at the sheer power of this moment. It's hard not to tear up just thinking about this moment, or listening to the Shadowbringers theme.
There has never been anything like Shadowbringers, and it's impossible to explain or understand, it can only be experienced.
Not only is SHB an immaculate expansion but all of the character arcs are so well deserving too
The Emet-Selch empathy, the Thancred and Minfilia and Ryne content (and further expanded in Eden), the Role Quests and how they're tying with the Void....even characters PARTICULAR to the expansion like the Chai's are fan favorites because how organic they felt. They've always lived there on the First and will always be, not just charcaters for the WoL to save
As serious as this expac was around the WoL's relationship with Ardbert, it's also amazing how much was derived from previous games like the The World That Never Was/Rapture vibes of Amaurot or the Final Fantasy 4 feelings in the Talos.
One of my favorite parts of Shadowbringers was whenever you head back to your room you'd have a conversation with Ardbert, basically having this constant companion beside you who resonated so well with your character (with good reason of course).
I love his change in demeanor over time. I can't believe they made me love the freaking Warrior of Darkness.
And the white auracite being his axe is just *chefs kiss*
It’s not only the storytelling, it’s the incredible music that compliments the storytelling as well.
Elidibus has one of the best lines Imo where he talks about how you killed his friends an family
I wish I could brainwash myself into forgetting everything about this expansion (and EW), just to experience it with a fresh mind again.
something i feel wholeheartedly... i am tempted to tell my family that if ever i become amnesic out of Gods knows what reason, to please tell me to sit my arse down and play this game!
This 100%
@@MaggieBer (In this theoretical scenario) Playing this game/these expansions could even be what helps you break out of the amnesia, in the end. It’d just feel like the poetic thing to occur.
The rains have ceased, and we have been graced with another beautiful video.
I just finished Shadowbringers 5.3 and my god, my heart. This expansion has been the wildest experience for me. I agree that one needs a small MSQ break after finishing 5.3. I feel like I'm walking around, hunched over like Emet-Selch with the weight of the world on my shoulders.
For me, Shadowbringers is the best "season" of the FFXIV story, but Endwalker is one of the best *finales* I've ever seen in any medium. So many otherwise good franchises have a good run, then utterly fail to stick to the landing. Or they land, with a stumble. Endwalker did a triple back flip on the dismount and landed like a cat, for me.
Not for me. Backtracked on everything that made Shadowbringers good. Moral complexity? Gone. Praise the genocide lady? Where it's at?!
@@azatheeverchosen7615 what?
@@azatheeverchosen7615 did we even play the same game
@@azatheeverchosen7615 Dude skipped the entire story lol
Shadowbringers is still the peak of FF14.
Endwalker was actually not that good. They really messed up.
Rewatching this totally makes me want to relvl through the story again :D. Such feels!
You mean NewGame+ ?
@@Miranox2 If I am going through the msq again...I want the gil and exp :P
@@Racerguardguy You can get more efficient gil and exp from other stuff. It's not really worth doing MSQ for that reason.
@@Miranox2 cool. I like the MSQ.
I leveled an alt just recently and meant to watch all the ShB stuff again, but knowing what's coming and remembering how hard it had hit I ended up skipping more than I thought I would. 🥺😭
I have been waiting for this video! Gah watching preach recount all his experience brings a tear to my eye, just reminds me of all my experiences. Elidibus' end makes me cry every time and the Seto scene will never not make me cry. I cried when I played it, I cried when Rich played it, I cried when Pyro played it, I cried when Preach went through it live and again just now in this video. Shadowbringers is the pinnacle of gaming
The massive jump in the writing quality from Stormblood to Shadowbringers was one of the most pleasant whiplashes I've ever felt
Extremely. Stormblood felt like a lot of political was in the works and I didn't care that much of it. Especially switching from alamigo and Doma areas.
I tear up every time I rewatch the Seto scene. Stupid weeb game. 😢
When Emet-Selch first got introduced in the post stormblood patches I literally rolled my eyes.
"Another new Ascian??? Is everything going to be an Ascian plot?"
And then I played Shadowbringers and definitely agree that Emet became my favorite villain ever. And more than that I became so invested in the entire Ascian storyline.
The rains have ceased line always makes me tear up. The moment, the character and the voice actor's delivery were just beautiful. It encapsulated a loss that was personal, quiet, and familiar. A loss not of his society, but of people, brothers, friends.
It doesn't matter how many times I watch ShB MSQ, THE FEELS
Let's hope that no one "Timeless Children" the MSQ. With the whole Seto thing, I never really had a pet and that part made me tear up as well, so I can only imagine the buckets of water coming from the eyes of those that did have a beloved animal.
My pet passed a few months before I played that MSQ and I was completely destroyed
@@seekittycat Same for me
if you find the clip of Rich Campbell playing through it, he literally bursts into a fit of sobbing, then has to walk away from his computer for a few minutes, then comes back and spends the next 15 minutes showing everyone pictures of his dog on his phone.
The final battle with Elidibus. a top the Crystal Tower with "To the Edge" rocking out, is probably the one of the best moments I've ever had in an MMO encounter. That felt like a final final battle for sure. The thing is, there was another part of ShB that was so good and I loved watching you playthrough, was the Weapon's storyline. Your voice acting for that entire segment was just so good. And that story was also very good, surprisingly so. ShB in my opinion, was the best overall expansion in pure storytelling. And yes, I do understand EW is technically not yet done, but hard to see anything surpass ShB.
Pretty much everything from Post-Stormblood to the end of ShB was electric. The story was so fucking good non-stop.
I went from wanting to gut Elidubus for using Ardberts body in 5.2 to being sorry for all the pain and torment he had gone through in 5.3.
Same. He got me worse than Emet did.
Was in tears from the start of the video to the end of it. So many great moments in this expansion and this brought all of that back. Along with remembering Mike's reactions to them as well. Now I really need to go back and play through Shadowbringers again.
The last few lines from Eledibus always kill me. "The rains have ceased, and we have been graced with another beautiful day...but you are not here to see it." The VA absolutely hit the nail on the head with the delivery. But that one line conveys so much pain, and loneliness and just raw, powerful hurt, and it always makes me tear up a bit. And I think it really speaks to how powerful the story of shadowbringers was as a whole when those small, short lines and make you so vividly relive the feelings you had your first time around just from hearing them.
As someone who has lost several dear pets, that Seto scene gets me every. single. time.
I played Elidibus patch the week and came out and honestly i cried so hard during his cutscene. SB’s antagonists were so tragic it hurts
Shadowbringers is my favorite video game "ending" ever. It's just so full of emotion, so much at stake, so epic. The Amaurot dungeon, followed by that crazy cutscene before the showdown with Hades. Throwing Ardbert's axe with all your might in the 11th hour. Fuck it, I'm doing New Game +.
I am also considering to play New Game+ after watching this video too. Lately I have been burned out from savage raiding, so looking back at the journey again, it hits me harder and I felt the urge to experience again the journey. Did you started your New Game+ journey so far, and if so, how was it?
It's been a pleasure to go on this journey with Mike and chat! Here's to many more in the future!
The seto scene and the piano when entering amoroth always get me, truly masterfully executed
@6:30 I've never even played Bioshock but by cultural osmosis, that was my reaction to Amaurot as well.
it gets even worse with Elidibus when you factor in his relative age.
He was just a child when he was pressed into service in the Convocation, and as Zodiark's heart.
and If you REALLY wanna be mean to Blizzard about the Jailer, forget Emet. Elidibus is an even bigger indictment against the 'well he didn't have enough time to develop'.
Elidibus had VERY little screen time, to the point of basically knowing nothing about him until 5.1, but in just 3 short patches we where able to understand, and empathize with this character, to the point where not one single person i know of was actually happy he was gone.
He was a the youngest out of the convocation, but he wasn’t a child. He was a young adult. This is a big misconception with the ffxiv player base. See it in streams all the time, “omg he’s a child /tear”
@@numenos3218 there’s nothing wrong with that, he was the youngest of the convocation so he was basically the baby.
Also, SPOILER ALERT
If you see him in EW, he looks VERY young like a teenager
Hell, if we're sticking with Shadowbringers villains, Vauthry got even less time and was still a vastly superior villain to the Jailer. Time to explore the character is a terrible excuse, and honestly putting so little time into developing the person you label as the mastermind behind all the evil in the entire setting was basically storytelling malpractice.
@@Keira_Blackstone I personally can't take Vauthry seriously, same Ranjit or Eulmore in general.
but also valid to bring up as a better villain
Something I'm just now thinking about with Elidibus is that him and Emet Selch mentioned that Lahabrea was so much weaker than them because he had jumped through so many bodies over the years that it decayed his ether. I wonder if Elidibus jumping out of Zodiark's body did a similar thing to him but for his mental faculties.
In the Tales short stories it's mentioned that their memories tend to get foggy after a while simply because of how long they live, so they periodically "remind" themselves using the stones. Elidibus refused to, saying what's the point if they're just going to forget again? It's partially why Emet knew that Elidibus wouldn't be able to continue if he was defeated, so gave us a means to defeat Elidibus.
It's more of that Elidibus was younger than the rest of the convocation and due to the mental strain of being the heart it just weighed on him even more.
Headcannon wise, I still view Lahabrea as the weakest of the convocation. He was a researcher first and lacked any secondary skills outside of being the chief warden from panda..i.e. he was a sealing mage not one fit for combat.
Another point to make is that the Amurotian body was dependent on the Aether density of Eythiris. When it became sundered and the Aether evenly distributed this caused Lahabrea and Emet to age, Elidibus didn't have this issue due to being the heart. Hence why Lahabrea probably experimented on soul jumping himself and taught the other two...its just Emet used clones of himself and Lahabrea couldn't be bothered and just gathered corrupt mental states of his victims that overall made him mad.
@@everyonethinksyoureadeathm5773 I’d say the convocation members involved in creation magic, like Lahabrea were the strongest. They wanted Hytlodaeus in the convocation! That tells you how weak some of them might have been, so long as they excelled in one particular thing, and as we’ve seen, Lahabrea’s creations are exceptionally powerful.
As for your second point, I have no idea how you’ve come up with that theory. Unless you’ve read something I haven’t that I’ve also never seen brought up in ascien lore discussions.
Elidibus was the youngest by far, but I always figured that his lack of memory was because he was the Heart of Zodiark. The 'tempering' effect absolutely scoured his mind of everything but their duty, hence Emet giving us the means to put him down: he couldn't bear the thought of Elidibus being condemned to try to restore a world he doesn't even remember.
As for Lahabrea, a lot will depend on Pandaemonium. I'm in the camp that thinks it will end with us fighting Hephaestus (because the other names given so far means that's the only possible name for that Lahabrea), meaning that the Lahabrea we know and laugh at was actually Ericthonios.
@@EmperorPylades There was no tempering effect for Zodiark. Tempering was a thing that the Ascians created to put the beast tribes in the cycle of summoning.
I miss Emet Selch. He absolutely made the expansion for me.
Omg, I completely didn’t see the Exarch being G’Raha. I was like “oh, they have a crystal tower too,” and completely dismissed the fact it could be OUR crystal tower. I sobbed when G’Raha was revealed. Omg I loved G’Raha during the Crystal Tower quests and to see him come back….I am sooooooo happy lol. And for him to be so pure, so loyal, how can you not love him!!
That will be amazing! And you're not alone with Elidibus. Elidibus in 5.3 hit most of people to tears. As much as Emet's "Remember us" in 5.0. BTW. Bismarck in the First isn't a Primal. He's a completely different being than the one we fought in the Sea of Clouds. This one's a fairy.
This was such a well made video. I can't wait for the pre-EW patches & Endwalker video too!
Emet's part didn't make me tear up because he just seemed like a defeated opponent saying "Good Game" (EW did a better job with him). Elidibus was a true believer and you can really feel the sadness in his heart losing his life and purpose.
@@Wastingsometimehere Not to me. For me, it felt entirely heartfelt, geniuine, sad & heartbreaking, knowing his whole story & his smile at the end proves it. It broke me & many others for a good reason. But I agree about Elidibus.
Thank you for this video, reminded me of all the reasons I was so blown away by Shadowbringers. Hands down my best game experience ever. Too many feels and at the same time exactly the right amount. This game has so much heart and soul.
He touches a really important point here, it's one of the few moments of the story that I would go back and play. In fact, I have watched no less than a dozen persons play through the entire story on youtube.
The acting in that scene after you defeat elidibus is honestly some of the best voice acting I think I've ever heard in a game. There's so much emotion in it, it makes me tear up nearly every time I see it
I have no knowledge of or even interest in Bio-Shock but I was moved seeing how much that meant to Mike reaching it, even not knowing wtf he was talking about
EDIT: I cried when the blade of light came in the form of Ardbert's axe, and I was so overwhelmed at Emet's last request that I had the most "in character" WoL moment ever - I couldn't have spoken if I'd wanted to, which is why I think that's the "Best Nodders Ever"
I love how we went from videos of Preach trying to figure out FF boss battles out of his WoW knowledge to him discovering his new favourite RPG story.
Hello Floor Inspector,
I had the honor of helping you through one of those beautiful trials via party finder, though I didn't know you were a streamer at the time.
I will say this: Shadowbringers was the best story I'd ever encountered in any media, and was the greatest RPG/Story ever!
Then I played Endwalker, and cried even more than during Shadowbringers. These stories are incredible. And I'll leave with a simple but beautiful quote: "Can we please be friends?"
videos like that remember why i love this game so much, i wanted forgotten all story and play again, like my first time
In regards to Blizzard, they piss away so much of the gaming experience with their poor leveling experience. You waste so much narrative time doing boring chores with very little time focusing on the main story. If they incorporated the main story from the first moment of the expansion to max level, you could flesh out your characters so much more. Instead you spend 10 levels doing boring, annoying questing that has little to nothing to do with the expansions story only for the last couple quests finally tie into the main story. though by that point you just stop caring about Baldy McVillain. Its not like Arthas in Northrend where everything was about the scourge, everything was about Arthas, you felt his presence in nearly every zone, even if it was a minor one. It all built up to Icecrown and the seat of his power. By the end of the leveling period, you were champing at the bit to storm the citadel to kill the Lich King. Then finally the last patch you got your chance, and it was glorious.
if the writing and doing those chores were meaningful with a point that adds to the experience, then it is fine... the problem with wow is that it deviated from its own lane of "fun" and tried to half ass a story telling experience, but doesn't really have any value to add to the overall experience. Also often plenty of times the quest and story sounds like it is written by elementary school kids for picture books, nothing you can truly able to be interested in or feeling invested. It's the dynamics of progress versus just wanting to feel busy, being busy doesn't mean you are making progress can sometimes exist to just satisfy vanity while mindlessly going through the motion and making no real progress.
A good example of quests and side stories done right is the Yakuza series, where the game is the side quests that explore different culture of different age of the same society, and many of them real and interesting and truly has no real tangible contribution to the main story but adds value to the narrative and context of the world.
I think Emet-Selch probably has more dialogue in a single cut scene than the Jailer had in like 2 years of expac + patch content. For a "main villain" he simply isn't present for 90% of the expansions story telling. We don't know anything about him, we don't know his motivations, his goals, ANYTHING, other than "I'm the bad guy, I want to destroy your universe, stop me if you want to live heroes!" And even with that, Blizzard does their extremely overused "But wait! This guy we self-proclaimed as the manipulator of all other main villains in the setting despite having no actual evidence of such because we literally just made it up! Theres ANOTHER evil above him! SHAMALAYAN TWIST!!!!!!!!!"
They really need to just let their fucking villains actually BE characters, and BE villains. They always cop out "Oh, they were corrupted/deceived/misled/trying to protect us from ANOTHER evil/etc". They never let a villain actually have their own character and motivations. The reason Emet-Selch works so well, is we spend so much screen time with him starting from post-Stormblood through the end of 5.0. If we scrapped all of that screen time, and he just shows up to snipe Catboy after we down Vauthry he'd be a laughing stock of a character and everything about Amaurot wouldn't land nearly as well, it'd just feel like the lazy cop outs that Blizzard pulls.
And most importantly of all, after his defeat? He actually fucking dies. Blizzard is fucking TERRIFIED of genuinely offing a character, Sylvanas should be dead and condemed to double hell for everything shes done. But they literally wrote the biggest ass pull in their history into their story to try and convolute a way to avoid punishing her with her deserved death.
All of this just adds together, into none of Blizzards writing has weight. None of it matters, because we all know they will just retcon it the next patch if they feel like they need to. XIV just simply doesn't do that, they commit to plot points, they obey the rules of their own universe.
"Shitty trash weeb game" is maybe my favourite moment in Mike's journey through ff14.
The whole Amaurot + Emet fight was the pinacle of storytelling in a mmo game for me.
Before we never had really understood the Ascians motivations, they were the generic bad ones who were evil, then you met Emet and slowly he unveils their story and finaly you get to view Amaurot and TALK to these ascian ghosts and learn about their society, their fears, their feelings... the catastrophe they faced...
Then just after that you get to see the apocalypse that they suffered and face Emet in a final showdown with the best transition call for lfg that i've ever seen in any MMO, G'raha Tia's "Champions from beyond the rift, HEED MY CALL!" with the summoning circles was beyond epic, and Emet's fight and the ending were just as good.
Love the intro and transitions! Keep up the good work!
Very happy you mentioned the Seto moment. Honestly the most tearful I've been in any game.
I can't watch these scenes without tearing up, no matter how many times I see them.
5.3 and the Elidibus story were the perfect compliment to the 5.0 story with Emet. It's not really about one being a better moment than the other, but rather how you can have something like Amaurot and the Dying Gasp be as fantastic of a moment as it was, and then follow it up with the Heroes' Gauntlet and the WoL and not have it fall flat.
Elidibus' death hit me harder than emet-selch's. Emet accepted the player to carry on the memory of his people while Elidibus died with so much regret. At the time of his death he was the last ascian, the final hope for his whole race to bring everyone back. He sacrificed every part of himself possible for the salvation of his people only to end up losing even more. He was then left alone in his final months after emet was killed to find his last desperate attempt to do anything.
His final goal wasn't the true salvation of his people through body or spirit it was just to see his family again. His brothers and sisters he had been without for millennia. In his final moments he had no idea if he would see them again after but he had to rely on hope for the first time in his life.
Emet-Selch died smiling, Elidibus died crying
damn seto cutscene gets me everytime
What gets me every time I see Emet Selch post 5.1, is that he's standing upright, no longer carrying the entire burden of the Ascians.
dang preach i feel like we waited so long for this video since you finished but man was it worth the wait.
Honestly, after playing Shadowbringers and Endwalker, it's hard to explain to the people in my life that everything is different now. The emotional weight that just bursts through your chest is so overwhelming to me.
Remember us... 2 words, bearing more weight than endings of many games that i played. Emet forever
I waited SOOOO long XD! Ty for this video!
the skits are honestly getting better with each new video. keep it up!
Really loved the video. About Ranjit, I'm gonna say that he is an ok character...until you realize his actual story:
he was the strongest general that trained generations of Minfilias, he lived long enough to see these little girls forced to learn to fight and then die in battles over and over and, while partly because Vauthry's orders, he sees a chance to end the cycle of his pupils going out into the world and dying. That's also why he's so focused on taking Ryne away from Thancred and why he really doesn't care about anybody else but "saving" (by keeping away from dangers) this last incarnation of Minfilia.
That's also why he hates Thancred so much because he sees in him the man who's throwing his child into danger but also because he sees a part of himself in him.
In a way, he's a reflection of how also Thancred could've become: the "over-protective to the point of being abusive" parent against the parent that (even begrudgingly) let's their child grow and eventually leaves them independent and free to live their own life.
Not only a reflection of what Thancred could've become but a reflection of the overall theme of ShB.
The one thing all the villains of ShB share, major and minor, is the refusal to move forward and accept the future. While the main thing the protagonists do, most obviously in Thancred's case, is learn to move on but not forgetting the past.
The problem with Ranjit in my eyes isn't who he is, but how he's used. There's material for an excellent antagonist, but it's mostly told rather than shown. In principle he's got depth, but in practice he's just Vauthry's attack dog. Perhaps if the 2nd half of the Nabaath Areng story had focused less on the trolley and more on fleshing out the pain and regret of losing the former Minfilias that led to Ranjit giving up hope and resorting to accepting Vauthry's vision and trapping Minfilia behind bars to protect her, rather than him popping up just before the solo duty as Thancred, he might not be regarded as one of the weaker links in the ShB cast. I'd like to have a more direct sense of how he faced the same choices as Thancred and chose a different path, rather than just knowing that he must have done so in the past.
@@Chumbaniya On that, I agree. It's unfortunate that so much of him is so easy to overlook and so it's easy to just think of him as some sort of terminator-like supervillain that for some reason is serving Vauthry while in reality it's really just both their interests (plus Emet-Selch's) aligning.
Shadowbringers was the best part of my FFXIV journey!
That was a fantastic intro and green screen effects. Thank you for the video!
Waited so long for this video and it did not disappoint! Would love a future video about all the ffxiv villains in depth, knowing everything after endwalker.
Best intro lmao!