I remember going to Tam-Tara Deepcroft during the MSQ once to stop some cultists, but if I remember correctly you don't actually see what happens to Edda's party lead in the MSQ - you just hear about what happened when you see their group argue and disband. It's sad to learn their leader died and that she was blamed for it, but the darker part of her story is in side content (Tam-Tara Deepcroft Hard, Palace of the Dead). As for me, I *completely* lost interest in all of ARR's side content and small details because of the quests leading up to Titan. The former heroes making me waste time running all over the country for *days* to gather ingredients for a feast before telling me how to stop Titan (which was in the process of being summoned to lay waste to La Noscea) was absolutely infuriating. At that point I decided that the small details and side content of ARR were no longer worth my attention. From then on until I got to Heavensward, blue quests I had collected were just sped through whenever they came up in roulettes (skipped cutscenes and mashed through dialogue).
It's interesting because my friends and I just get irritated by that world. We believe the idea you can't appreciate happiness without suffering is a fallacy spread by people trying to sell you stuff. Not that I think eliminating suffering is realistic but the idea that if you hypothetically could get rid of suffering but then you'd lose motivation to live isn't inherently true.
@@MaryAlice08I largely feel the same. You likely can't fully grasp the meaning of happiness without suffering of some kind, but the idea nothing but happiness would drive you to suicide is ridiculous to the point I don't actually think that's what they truely did. Unfortunately there are people who genuinely feel happy hurting or upsetting others...so to create a paradise for everyone would be difficult to the point of impossibility... unless you remove happiness as well. This would leave nothing but numbness they mistake for happiness.
@@MaryAlice08it’s definitely a think piece but idk if I agree. There’s no true way to test this just cause how we are humans are wired. But it’s true that you can’t always appreciate something if you don’t understand its contrast.
@@spectreshadow I mean, its not only society, in the end I think its heavily implied that Meteion accidentally caused the destruction and devastation that destroyed all these worlds, due to already being full of negative dynamis at this point that enforced itself further by becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy in which her presence causes the people to jump over the edge and destroy themselves.
I have cronic depression and anxiety and it was actually very liberating to play The Dead Ends in a way. Especially the last world because thats kind of how it feels. I have stuff. I have family. I know I can do things. But I also feel empty and like whats the point because the chemicals in my brain is not behaving as they should. Seeing depression represented in so many ways all through EW was kinda like therapy for me. I cried so much and this expansion will hold a special place in my heart for the rest of my life.
Cold is the kind of thing a lot of media gets wrong. I'd gladly run around Coerthes in nothing more than a t-shirt and shorts, if it were a matter of going out to get my mail, but Garlamald is different. They manage to show off bitter and deep cold, the kind that even built structures have difficulty shaking off. And when we're there we meet Jullus, a boy who's grown up in that cold, and knows how to handle it, it's shaped him, and allowed him to justify terrible things to survive that cold. His family died in that cold. His home was destroyed, his superior officer killed himself because he could not save them. It's a grim fate for the poor kid, but we tell him there will be a spring coming after that long winter. We hand him a warm cup, and for the first time in a long time, there is a warmth that flows through him. He can't help but cry into his drink as the weight he's been carrying starts to melt. A voice rings out over the radio, and suddenly that peace, that warmth, that comfort is gone. A country he has sacrificed everything for is asking for more, and he is unable to say no. moments later the warrior of light is put in the body of a half dead garlean shmuck, and told that Zenos is going to kill all of their friends. Over the course of a single zone, without even using the dungeon, Endwalker had made me go to the depths of despair, tore hope from my fingers, punched me in the gut and kicked me while I was down, before telling me to get back up, or I would be there forever. Spring will come, but there is a long winter. Survive, and you will see it. Help your fellow man, and you wont have to be alone when you get there.
the song that plays on the radio always brings that haunting emptiness to mind for me. the scattered survivors hiding in the metro tunnel, while their city is devastated around them, and the radio is playing some looping barely working automatic tune
@@HoneyDoll894I always think of the sisters and their little group you try to save. In the end though magic is so alien and caused so much historical pain...they flee and die over taking help freely offered. How I hate that tune in that moment.
There are a lot of moments that aren't immediately disturbing until you take it all in with hindsight. The totality of Elidibus's story hit me hard. Seeing Amaurot for the first time and realizing what it truly represents. A sum total of crushing loss. Arenvald comes to mind as well. The child of... forced procreation... when he reached puberty his garlean third eye emerged so his mother cut it out with a knife so no one could see it. More immediately dark moments come in the form of a story from the new Encyclopedia Eorzea. The Minfilia before Ryne was also kept in Eulmore. One night Vauthry had a nightmare that she killed him so he ran down to her room in the middle of the night and beat her to death. He was already taking control of the city so no one did anything about it. Honorable mention should also go to the totality of the Shadowbringers role quests. Another thing. There is a ghostly "blink and you'll miss it" in werlyt that most people don't see. When you first arrive there is a kid running around and as you progress through the story, more and more au ra children join in. At the end before you leave you can find them playing hide and seek and if you follow them they stop and have a conversation. It's right about that moment, as they talk about needing to stay around to watch over their father and Allie that you realize that they are the younger versions of Milisandia, Alfonse, Ricon, and Rex.
you talking to the soul of elidibus at the end of seat of sacrifice after everything you've gone through and heard from him and emet and the echos in amaurot before. and he says a continuation of the line from before. where before the final days and the sundering they said to him that one day the rains would stop, he now continues that by saying "the rains have stopped, but you are not here to see it". and it just hits home how truly alone the last ascians were, and at least to me it really made me feel like we need to carry azem's legacy
While not as devastating as your examples, I am reminded of Stormblood, Yotsuyu's Story. Pretty much every Civilian you meet in Doma is so good and virtuous, only refusing you at first because they fear for the safety of their own friends and families. Everything Gosetsu, Yugiri or Hien tell you only backs that up even more. Then you find out about Yotsuyu's Past and doman Society gets a Mirror held up to their faces, and it's not pretty. For all their good sides, there's also a bad side that ignores the suffering of others. She had been abused all her life, first by her own family, later by random people who paid to use her, even after admitting she seemed like nothing more but a doll. You would expect at least someone finally taking pity on her (well technically some rich guy married her as a trophy if you count that) with all those caring and virtuous people around, but no, their culture and society does not allow them to get involved it seems. They created the Monster that would eventually turn on them with boundless suffering and hate and we can only guess how many similar cases might exist. Of course that makes the whole post MSQ with Gosetsu and her dying words so much more impactful and bittersweet
And that is why I think that the entire Eorzean Alliance, who painted the Garleans as monsters are nothing more then a collection of hypocrites, all nations have skeletons in their closets and some of them worse then whatever the Empire did, Gridanians imprisoned and executed people for minor infractions simply because the douchebag spirits of the Twelvewood told them to do so. The Lominsans stole Kobold land and broke the peace treaty, when the kobolds fought back, they demonized them and hunted them like animals. Don't get me started on Ala Mhigo and Ul'dah. So yeah, if given half the chance, I would have sided with the Garlean Empire.
A part of me wishes they used that regarding Fordola. Granted, the WoL is silent, but they did see her past and saw how she was mistreated. The people of Ala Mhigo basically made their own monster.
@@SaiyanGamer95 To be fair, she was mistreated for her family collaborating with the Garleans, not just for being around. Her greater tragedy imo stems from her deciding to do terrible things with honestly good intentions, FOR the people that mistreated her. Man I am glad we got to see more of her since then, her EW Questline was great
@vincentbeton Her parents wanted to live in peace under Garlean rule. And because they chose to NOT become terrorists like the rest of the Ala Mhigans, said Ala Mhigans stoned Fordola's father to death I front of his wife and kid. Ala Mhigans deserved way worse and are massive flaming hypocrites is what I am saying, but then, so we're all the city-states, and Gaius was right when he told us the first time that the world needs one strong leader to guide the rest of the morons through history, because if it weren't for the Warrior of Light, the Allied Tribes would still be the Beast Tribes and would still be treated like monsters, Gridania would still be a bunch of eco-terrorists and Limsa would still be oppressing the Kobolds. I could go on on why the Garlean Empire had things right, but I think the points have been made.
I will honestly think that the original Sastasha will be my most messed up dungeon. Edda's stuff was bad, but people forget, their first group expedition was in Sastasha, the original. A haven of pirates who were kidnapping, torturing, raping, and selling women of all ages to the point they became Stockholm Syndromed. They severely nerfed the heinous shit that dungeon had going on in the low-level dungeon revamps. An NPC stated to the heroes, "You can use my body, just don't hurt me!" That always got me. Dead Ends is a great dungeon that fits so well with the feel of the expac, but Sastasha just hits different as it was the first dungeon every player experienced.
There are less NPCs in the main rooms and some of their dialogue was removed. It was listed in the patch notes when they changed the dungeon (not extensive notations but the usual single line of the notes.)
Still has 'The Hole', the NPCs are all 'I am not one of them, I swear on what is left of my virtue!' or 'What will it be tonight?'. They also had a retelling by a benefactor of your operation against the Garleans, recounting what happened in his village. Very carefully phrased implications that his underaged sister and mother got raped on the regular.
The genius of the storytelling in this game is their ability take the story to places no other game is willing to go, and in doing so, they are able to make you care about (or hate) the people in the story. The Ascian story is the perfect example. They created villains for the players to hate, but then threw a wrench into the works by having us explore their past and their motivation. Genius storytelling.
Endwalker actually made me rationalize through a very dark and depressing moment in time for me that I broke down crying when I heard the song in it's entirety before the end. The last one though, that one was the most emotional for me. I placed Gaius' family photo front and center in my home :( God that questline hurt.
Whole Fordola's story arc - I don't know how to describe levels of how messed up her story was. And the punishment she forced on herself after end of Stormblood patches. Think about it - suicide missions are basically only moments when you are free from seeing people's suffering from your actions and reliving that suffering over and over again and not being able to do anything with it. If that's not messed up, remembering her whole reason of collaborating with Empire, then I don't know what is. Or overall imperial propaganda - when sick children would prefer death to wild beasts in a cold wastes to help from Warrior of Light. Or the fact that even death is not given to the victims of the Empire - Arch-Ultima is prime example of that - pilot was literally melded with the machine. I am not even starting on the fact that in Copperbell mines we are literally killing slaves who been locked in the depths for centuries for trying to revolt... We are good guys, yes.
Most people might miss this, because it's from 2.0, but one of the highlander NPCs in Little Ala mihgo mentions that the local bandits captured her and "passed her around", until she could escape.
Nah for some reason, this one stuck with me more than any others. It's not a big scene and her part was short in that cutscene but I think it was the first time in this game where I was like "Oh, this game is gonna talk about stuff like this". Even though Sastasha had already happened by this point, I never really explored the dungeon until later and that's when I realized "Oh that sorta topic was always there".
Not "depressing" per say, but a really unconfortable moment for me, is during the warriorS of darkness ark. You end up learning that they were warriors of light who got manipulated by the asciens to doom the first. And yet, when you learn "how" they were manipulated... There was a big evil bad dark guy of darkness in their world and they punched his face. That's it. That's what we would've done as well. At that stage (during Heavensward I think?), we are absolutely pursuing punching evil darkness guys and big aether eikons as well. And Ardberd drops something like "Why did it end up like this?! We did EVERYTHING RIGHT and it still lead us to doom." And... well he's right. Since that moment, I've always felt a looming over every one of our deeds. After all, since ARR, we wooping the primals is "according to plan" for Lahabrea. We fell for Adeleji's plan, and for multiple of Lolorito's. We handled the eyes of Nidhogg how so poorly. We kept pushing for light so much that we became an accidental vessel for it, which was really convenient in Shadowbringer but nearly caused many more catastrophes there. And the answer we brought to the Endsinger was basically "we don't care if there is no meaning, we simply decided to enjoy life with as little good reason we can." And, if you look at it like that... We are prone to being manipulated. We are prone to punch the big target sign (that we didn't attack Emet-Selch on his first arrival was a miracle of convincing on his part). And if you want proof of how useless we are at thinking... just get back to the negociation scene with Emperor Varis. At that point, all Eorzean leaders have baggage that Varis uses against them (poorly, but hey, they didn't think of a comeback) and ALL Scions are gone... but Alisaie and us. The two "no talk, just fight" guys of the bunch. The two "useless at politics, good at following". What I mean is... if but a single trap of "punch this evil bad guy and it triggers the end of the world" is layed before us, we are destined to jump in it. Eagerly. We are better than Ardberd for one single reason: this trap has not yet been layed before us. We are luckier than he was. For now. We do everything right, *as did he* .
The WoL honestly has stepped on that trap, many times. We just have protagonist syndrome, we step on that trap, trigger doom, and then just break the trap. The warring triad, red mage quest, nier raid, zodiark, the crystal tower, alexander, omega, ultima, and even Eden. All of those were traps of kill the target to trigger world ending events that we just powered through.
@@mellentlevianth1705 Most weren't traps. None had the same urgency. None had close to the same obstacles either. And most had an easy solution when "punching things up" wasn't available. (Well, maybe not red mage, I still haven't done that so I can't say). When Ardberd and co realised what Eden truly was, the thing was destroying whole regions each and every day. And, to be able to reach it in order to fix the situation, you had to go through a *literal everspawning army of light demons and miles/kilometers of light radioactive land* while not having any support since everybody hated them. The deus ex machina that was Minfillia came when the world was already nearly all destroyed and that they had resorted to suicide as their last resort. Compared to that... - Ultima Arma was destructive, but not actively so (yet). It was garded by military, but we had three armies to support us. Punching Ultima Arma didn't trigger the end of the world. - Bahamut was still broken and recovering. We could've waited years before tackeling the problem. Punching Bahamut didn't trigger the end of the world. - The Crystal Tower was one of the closest to be such a trap but... when Xande was punched, the solution against the end of the world was simply for the scientist to push the button to close the gate. The whole World of Darkness mess was only relevant because we cared about a few people. One button push! (that our allagan allies made way easier to develop, let's be honest there is still scientific work here) - The Pope was a totaliatrian, not an ender of world. - Quickthinks let us have weeks to counter what was simply a strong primal. This could be considered us falling for his trap, but the supposed "end of the world" that Alexander could've been was literally on our side. I fail to see how the world was in any real danger. - The Triad was also basically strong primals. We had time to go discuss with Unulakai and scold him between each excursion. Very little urgency. And, when all were punched, no trap trigger. - Shinryu's potential is unknown but it was a trap triggered when we punched Ildberd... that was immediately defused by people shackeling the beast. No urgency or difficulty in sight. - Omega had the potential to destroy the world. But it was NOT a trap. When we punched it, it didn't bring the end of the world. - Ultima had the potential to end the world. But everybody on our way to her became an ally to help bring her down or part of the solution. Punched her without triggering anything either. No trap. - The trap of the Exarch that Emet "swiftly repurposed" should've doomed Norvrandt. But the problem wasn't a surprise since allies were thinking about handeling the core of the issue weeks before the facts. Also, "Minfillia" temporarily fixed our light problems immediatly and not days/weeks after we transformed into a world destroying Great Sineater. Way easier to handle. - Eden was asleep while we barged through its doors and went at it at our own pace. We literaly were *choosing* when and what to fight, baring a few surprises at the end. Where is the trap? - NieR was a trap. It was triggered long before our arrival and counter-triggered as early. We were mini-trapped ourselves at the beginning but we still had time for weeks of dwarven politics, so it's not like punching 9S tiggered the end of the world. And after that, it was but a few tough punches for our guided WoL. The closest we have come to the same situation as Ardberd was indeed with Zodiark. The difference being... Well everything after the trap. While the First was erased on a daily basis by literal tsunamis of light and sin eaters, we had to manage a few crises of people monster-panicking and, when that was handled, had days to do a deep research about what those Elpis flowers are about, and weeks to organize an exodus and the shared work of three whole continents on a spaceship. Not an easy task for sure. But Ardberd would've saved his world twice with as much leniance on time and ressources. What if, when we beat Omega, it had only been an actual simulation? That, when we finally thought we emerged victorious, it was revealed to us that we simply were tricked into beating its internal limitating software? Without which it could destroy whole planets in hours and rightfully decided to start doing it immediatly? That's a trap that triggers the end of the world. What if, when we beat the Endsinger, its essence was so propagated throughout the dynamis of the whole universe that it caused a collapse of spacetime itself? Not even a trap, simply us punching because we think we are doing the right thing without full knowledge of what we are dealing with. Which, by the way, is what we did. We went there without understanding everything by far. What if Alexander didn't have its own will and we simply fell for Quickthinks antics as we did without safeguard? What if Papalymo and the Garleans didn't catch Shinryu? (I think we would've had time to get to it to be fair.^^) What if Xande's death was the planned trigger to unleash the whole Crystal Tower energy into opening a rift miles/kilometers wide instead of a teeny tiny door? With the Cloud of Darkness immediatly getting out and starting to suck the aether of creatures by the thousands. What if, like Ardberd, we couldn't simply take a stroll through the Empty with antiradiation suits and instead had to fight our way to Eden while our bases are annihilated daily? In all those scenarii (besides Shinryu), we are fucked. That's what. We did everything right and it spelt doom for all. Now, obviously, they won't do that because it's weird to destroy the universe/kill the protagonist of your story-heavy MMO. But they can totally make such a scenario with lesser consequences: we arrive somewhere, we see a big bad guy, we pursue them for some time and, when we punch them, it goes right into said bad guy (or a secret bigger bad guy)'s intent: it triggers the death of a whole tiny population, or the destruction of invaluable libraries, artefacts, historic building and resources, or the death of a main character. And, if that was the end goal of the bad guy, then there is no stopping them now. The evil plan was already conducted through to its end. We participated in something horrible. And arresting the bad guy doesn't satisfy us because we are not stopping the bad anymore. The bad has already happened and there is no way to reclaim what was lost for good. Even with how FFXIV has to be made, there is still room for us to be Ardberded hard if the devs want to. They already tinkered with that with Moenbryda.
@@augustinandre14 that's exactly what I meant by protagonist syndrome. Zodiark would be the closest comparison. Time is weird in game but the concept is the same if not worse since the wave source isn't even on the same planet. Both are waves that are destroying reality, unfortunately the dynamis wave can't be translated well due to game mechanics. As for the solutions to both, you have eden, a hidden boss but physically on location that Ardbert had to summon singular outside help to stop but required a one-way trip to get. Endsinger was a hidden boss that was essentially on the edge of the galaxy. To even find it required a possibly one way trip through time. Reaching it took the combined effort of almost every single nation in the known world to work toward a singular goal. Arguably this solution could have worked for Eden as well. A lot of hopeless fighting was happening in the background of both events. As for the others you're right, the scale, urgency, and obstacles were lesser. But I say again, protagonist syndrome, the solutions often came from nowhere or the events had seemingly arbitrary limitations. Omega for example just didn't become a world ending event because it felt it wasn't worth it compared to data collection. And shinryu's summoning was stopped only because papalymo, someone I don't think we ever saw any level of power from, decided to use a spell we'd only ever seen once before. Never mind that it shouldn't have actually worked at all lore wise. Shinryu's summoning should have drained a lot of aether from the area even using the eyes as a base. So where did tupsimati get the aether to seal shinryu from? Went on a bit of a tangent there but I think my point still stands. The Wol has absolutely triggered plenty of doomsday traps while "doing everything right" that were resolved with outside help. And to be fair I think I lost the point that started this conversation a while ago while typing this all out.
@@mellentlevianth1705 My point was that a bunch of what we did didn't turn out bad not because we did good, but because we were lucky enough for an external source to save the day. And that luck can't/shouldn't always be on our side when we go in willy-nilly. I think I can gather from your arguments that what I call "luck" is simply "protagonist syndrom" tho, as I'm unfamiliar with the concept and may not recognize it as a trope.^^ While I'm conceeding things: I truly glossed over how complex "reaching the Endsinger" was a bit too much. Speaks volume of how the WoL doesn't really do the heavy lifting in that task (feels good to have useful allies tho).
Nobody talks about the first dungeon sastasha. There are female lalafel amongst the women that the pirates had kidnapped and raped, but there are no lalafel pirates. Dark. Real dark.
I like how the VERY FIRST DUNGEON is a casual smuggling base, one that has plenty of people. That would usually be mid-adventure. But no, here it is as the very first thing you do.
Not to mention there used to be, and might still be, a throw away line one of the pirates will say in a chat bubble when you start combat with them. "Try to take the women alive." Of course... you know what their intentions are for you (if you play as a female).
@@cparty7790 Its kinda fucked up, and beckons back to the old mentality of JP games before western influence took over. There was no such thing as 'too dark'. Rape, Murder, incest, pedophilia.. it was all just part of the norm, go back and look at JRPG masterpieces like Drakengard and how fucked up nearly every character in the series is. And that is what made those games good, there was actual backstory and the characters were designed to be ACTUAL PEOPLE, with both good and bad sides to their personality.
Looks like some of the pirates have shortstack fetishes. That being said, lore wise inter-race relations like Lalafell and Hyur for example are completely normal.
Additionally, if you want some uplifting hope for the people of the planets of the dead ends dungeon as well as the ones of the final Endwalkers zone, I HIGHLY suggest playing through the Omnicron Tribe Quests. ^^
I was in a party finder group for Shrinryu EX mount farming. This one person in the party started freaking out about body horror, shocked, in a good way, that they would add such a disturbing scene to an MMO. Without missing a beat or getting any clarification, I and the other people in the party replied with just 3 words. "Welcome to Shadowbringers!"
Hahaha that scene where Tesleen meets her end.. My FC had been waiting for me to get there and when I expressed my surprise and horror they just chuckled and said that exact same thing. “Welcome to Shadowbringers.” I admit that I found ShB quite a jarring change of pace and it took me far too long to adjust to it.
There's the Amalj'aa tribe quest line, with Loonh Gah, the Miqo'te woman woman the untempered Brotherhood of Ash has taken in. Turns out her mother ha been captured by the tempered Amalj'aa when Loonh Gah was a child, and she's determined to save her. Only to find her so heavily tempered that she thinks a rock is her baby who she is looking forward to sacrificing to Ifrit. Loonh Gah takes it upon herself to kill her own mother, as no cure for tempering existed yet.
At the end of the Diamond weapon fight, the cutscene where Valens gets squished like a grape was very satisfying. I even gad a dream about what I’d do to him if I had the chance, but it’s better that we leave the catharsis to the victim…
I'm a weirdo but the one that sticks out for me is Laurentius. Hear me out. I'm sure most people don't remember him. He's the crooked Wood Wailer you root out in the beginning of your WoL journey in ARR in Gridania. He's sold out his country to the Imperials because the money they offered him is far better than what he's getting for protecting Gridania. But instead of killing him, at the end of his arc, he has a crisis of conscience and turns himself in. Towards the end of ARR, he's out of jail and trying to figure out how to put his life back together, and joins the Crystal Braves. In the Crystal Braves, he sides with Ilberd, sells out the Scions(he's the one who pulls the planted poison bottle off of you at the dinner), and helps Ilberd commit the mass murder that spurs the creation of the Shinryu primal. Even if he shows some remorse, he gives the command that slaughters the Ala Mhigan radicals that dress up like the nations to instigate Garlean retaliation. And when everything goes sideways, he runs with Yuyuhase. At the very end of Stormblood, in a blink and you miss it line of dialogue from Rabauhn, he tells you Laurentius and Yuyuhase have been finally captured. He asks you your opinion on their fate, and you have two options: trial or immediate execution. Either way, Rabauhn says that he considers your opinion, and that is the last you hear of him. In a game that again and again gives the message that redemption is not impossible, Laurentius consistantly choosing not to be redeemed hurts. There are points in his story where you can see he knows what he's doing is wrong, but again and again, he doubles down, and that hurts. The fact that more than likely even with trial, his story ended with his death, it hurts. It's a story told over three acts with barely any read lines, and at some points entirely off screen, but it sticks with me.
If it’s any comfort I knew immediately who Laurentius was. I actually wondered about him and Yuyuhase at the start of Stormblood and was pleased to hear that they were captured. I wish we could have seen and/or influenced the trial and punishment.
My first gut punch was pretty early in the game, during the Arcanist questline. Your mentor is a bright and bubbly Mi'qote girl who has an honest to Gods PTSD induced breakdown when the bad guy is introduced. You then learn in short order that he's a slaver and she was one of his victims, and it's heavily implied that it was sexual slavery. I was levelling DRG at the time and wished i could switch jobs and skewer him
Sorrows of Welryt is definitely a gut punch, but it also has one of the most unintentionally funny moments in the game, when you first learn about the Oversoul mode and what it's done to the first pilot. Gaius: It's a shame that she died. I pray her death was quick and painless. Cid: HEY GUYS I JUST FINISHED ANALYZING THE PILOT, HER DEATH WAS SLOW AND HER SUFFERING WAS IMMEASURABLE, Y'ALL
It gets less funny when you realize that Cid did that deliberately. He is still monumentally angry at Gaius and wants him to suffer the consequences of his actions to the fullest extent. Is it cruel of him? Yes. Does Gaius deserve it? Yes.
Sorrow of Werlyt storyline was just... a big mega punch in the heart. I hope the writters don't cook up something stronger *has 1 fear* *is comically very disappointed that Edda's whole storyline was not mentioned* What? Was that not messed up enough?
@@BubbinsThe even more tragic thing? It could have happened to anyone. It’s actually common among early adventurer parties. Not the necromancy thing, the breakdown in a party and friendships and people dying.
yeah my friend who knows I'm sensitive to this kinda stuff told me to consider not doing sorrow of werlyt because of how dark it is, and while i don't regret doing it, it is so dark. i definitely looked away from the screen, and skipped some dialogue because it felt too much for me. and after all that, i feel sorrow of werlyt is probably one of the strongest stories they told. i love how many gundam and evangelion references there are in it, and how.. devastating it is. but its definitely some of the darkest stuff in the game
The writer who did Sorrow of Werlyt is gonna part if Dawntrail's main writing team. So we will probably get more.. besides, Valens was a 10/10 villain.
These moments can be found in even the smallest cracks of the game. I just wrapped up a side quest over in the steppe. I had randomly picked it up expecting a cute little story and some exp on the side for my efforts... instead I assisted somebody in bringing their personal cycle of rencarnation to a complete and bittersweet end. Been playing this game for 8-9 years now and it still somehow manages to surprise me in totally unexpected ways.
i sat through every cutscene, no matter how depressing and how painful, but i could not bring myself to continue watching the werlyt ones. when this game is heartbreaking, it makes sure to do it in the most devastating ways. gotta give them kudos for that.
I'm reminded of a very small story that plays out across the first couple of dungeons in A Realm Reborn. There's a group of new adventurers that you meet as you're coming out of Sastasha, they say their goal is to become adventurers that the bards will sing songs about, and with slightly less experience than the Warrior of Light at this point. They inquire about the Sastasha job, and are told that we had just completed it. Then, if you talk to the NPCs around the entrance to the Copperbell Mines, you learn from two adventurers, a young Elezen woman and her grandfather that their entire party was wiped out. It stands out because it was the first truly dark moment that the game hits you with. As depressing as the dark moments in this game can be, they're the reason FF14 is my favourite game of all time
This whole storyline, and Garlemald was incredibly dark.... One of the very darkest parts of the game. I was pretty shocked at the graphicness of this scene. The only thing it didn't show was the actual death, but did show the blood spatter. Very dark stuff.
This was an excellent video. And yeah - the Dead Ends dungeon was something else again. That entire final zone in EW..... Yotsuyu. Ysale's story. Haurhefant are the three that come to my mind that you didn't cover.
I'm a little surprised, since you cited Werylt, that you didn't mention that the story includes Gaius having to effectively euthanize his own foster son....
True - and I cannot say that I didn't want to slap him any number of times.... but I tend to see the situation as "people are complicated and neither all good nor all bad. @@Sivrn-Val
Endwalker arouses a lot of emotions, I cried many times during this expansion both from joy and sadness. But there is two moments I litteraly had to stop playing, take a break which had never happened in any game. First after Quintus last appearance. Second after the events at Palaka's Stand with Matsya and the baby. This was just too much for my poor heart. Indeed, FFXIV can be tough emotionally but hopefully Dawntrail should be lighter.
Dead Ends... god yes. The first time I did it and got hit with the Cough Up attack and heard my Warrior's own heart beat....oh my gosh I swear I went cold. Such wonderful foreboding they set up with that first part alone.
Yotsuyu's story is 100% dark and effed up. The whole reason she was a hell-bent-on-revenge psychopath is because she was an orphan who was adopted and abused by her aunt and uncle before being forced to marry a nobleman as a *young* teenager*. And THEN was sold off to a brothel to be a courtesan (old-world term for pr*stitute) to pay off his debts.
Also, the amnesia bit was done in a very unique way. They could have gone with the old “oh, she has amnesia and now she’s good” trope, but they took a more unconventional approach. It’s more of a “this is what she might have been if her life was different….maybe”. The story never says outright that she definitely would have been different if she had a better childhood but it doesn’t dismiss the possibility either. It makes you realize that the concept of “evil” is not as black and white as one sometimes thinks it is.
Honestly? sorrow of werlyt is my favourite side story. It’s the only side story I’ve cried to, both times I’ve gone through it. I remember playing through it a second time so my friend could experience it the first time and I sat there, sobbing uncontrollably with my mic muted because I felt so bad for the au ras in the story…
yeah honestly endwalker broke me, i could not talk about what happens in/after elpis without crying for literal days, it took me like a week to actually be able to talk, cuz i would cry any time i tried thinking about it and other moments like sorrow of werlyt or shadowbeingers still brings me to tears honestly
For me the darkest moment in the entire game was the Vanaspati Dungeon in Endwalker. This one moment where you encounter the Arkasodara mother with her 3 kids....she transforms into a monster while her children are crying for her mother that they are afraid before they are turning into beats aswell. Everytime I see this it feels like a punch to the guts.....
The Karellians from star 2 in "The Dead Ends" showed the Garlean Empire's fate if they won the game, a reminder that their approach doesn't work (though the Karellians don't have the excuse of being deliberately set up to fail). Meanwhile, the Nibirun of the final world were exactly what the Ancients of the unsundered world could have become if they achieved a perfect paradise (and were already on their way to becoming).
I can think of a few uncomfortable moments throughout the whole story but I'll only focus on one of them because it seems to be overlooked by alot of people. This would be the very first dungeon in the game, Sastasha. The story unfolding around it eventually reveals people were being kidnapped by pirates and taken to their den here. Once you get there, you see those that were captured had become servants to the pirates, and that the pirates themselves are in league with the Sahagin. But let's focus on the servants here. It's pretty obvious they're all women, and initially it seems almost comical how they're supposedly treated. Dressed up in maid outfits and their initial reaction to you barging in is rather PG. But then you take a moment to actually listen to what these women say if you stand around them long enough. While they never outright state what they've had to endure, it's not hard to read between the lines. One of them straight up mentions she has little dignity left. Not only that, at one point while you're fighting the pirates, there's a chance one of them will yell something like "Kill the men, take the women!" (I THINK this may have been patched out. I remember trying to see this line pop up again but it never seems to do so anymore. Could just be bad RNG) If you do a little exploring as well, you'll find a spot called "The Hole". It's way off the beaten path. Nothing there to fight, no treasure, not even a lore book. But there are women in this area; some looking injured. Yeah - I can safely say horrible things have happened to these poor women, and any men that were captured with them are long gone. Very "uncomfortable" indeed. And to make matters worse? Sastasha Hard. The whole cavern is transformed and the place is far more waterlogged than before. You fight creatures called "Drowned Wench" and "Drowned Courtesan". Doesn't take a rocket scientist to put two and two together. I like to think most of the women escaped since you don't fight alot of these "Drowned" enemies, but yeah... Bravo to the dev team for being able to put stuff so incredibly "adult" and distressing while keeping the rating T. The only way they could do that is by letting the environment and the creatures tell the story they aren't able to.
Agreed. I had friends grab me in vc and warn me to not watch that scene because of trauma in my own past. They gave me just enough detail that I would know for story’s sake but saved me from being possibly harmed mentally by watching it without warning
Sorrow of Werlyt was the first time I was angry with SquareEnix, the game writers and the game. The tragedy of what became of Gaius’ children was bad enough, but the sight of a child participating in the torturing of one of them was the final drop for me. I was genuinely disgusted and upset. I still haven’t recovered from that storyline. This video was tough to watch but I’m glad you made it. For myself I’d rather the dark moments were toned down but this is a Final Fantasy game so… I’ll be celebrating all the joyful bits. PS: Recently I completed the Reaper job quest line. Not the brightest of stories either. 😳
A lot of the job questline can be very dark. Take alchemist-the head alchemist is an arrogant prick who is annoying and self centered, then you find out it’s because he’s singularly focused on trying to resurrect the love of his life. Not everyone can come back from the dead and the WoL often finds out the hard way.
The thing I love so much about this game is the reflection of our own societies that it shows. The dangers of power, privilege, and excess. The evils of colonization, and subjugation. The whole Dark Knight job quests which make you confront your own doubts and fears. The power of propaganda with the two sisters in Garlemald hit so hard because of the setting for me. I live in North Central Canada and I swear that zone looked like it could have been transplanted from any city around my home. I love that this game doesnt pull its punches and it makes you think and reflect on the nature of the world we live in. Our motivations and our reasons for doing what we do are questioned and reflected. The writing is brilliant and even most of the villians have, unfortunately, understandable reasons for doing what they are doing. They are not just bad guys to be bad guys.
There was a suicide in Endwalker that also messed with me even more than the shock of Teledji got cut in half just before the waking of the arm. Hell, there a number of things
For the second star there's also the fact that once the button is pressed and the bombs are launched, the person realises that they are *the* last person alive in the world.
I think one of the things about all these uncomfortable dark moments in the story is that it makes the most hopeful moments so very sharp and poignant and fragile. And Soken captures these so beautifully in music. All I need to hear is the first note of Hopeful Dynamis -- Meteion's theme based on Flow -- to get my heart wrenched harder than any of the darker moments ever did. Another song that bowls me over is Hearthward, the current theme in the Firmament in Ishgard. People who weren't around for the Ishgard Restoration may not know that song was not always the Firmament's theme. We crafters and gatherers got to take one of the most war-ravaged sections of Ishgard and over the course of several months rebuild it to what it is today -- the model for Ishgard's housing area. The whole story was about how now that 1000 years of war were over, we were going to restore life back to that ruin. When the final update kicked in and the work was complete, that's when they changed the song there. It's based on the same theme used in Foundation's and the Pillars' day and night themes but is so much more uplifting and hopeful, and the way Hearthward just builds and soars to me feels like it captures the rebirth of hope for that nation.
Honestly the whole of Ultima Thual got to me. Watching your friends one by one sacrificing themselves to pave the way for you. When you reach the final world with what looks like no other way to create a path Alisaie and Alphinaud agree to sacrifice themselves as well to take on Metion despite you begging them not to. When they're all gone and you're finally left alone the game forces you to walk the path by yourself to Metion's nest all while the voices of the past ring out as haunting shadows. Its really the first time in the whole game where it really makes you feel you really are on your own at this point everyones gone and its all up to you and you alone. But seeings how your character doesn't burst into flames in this world saturated in Dynamis shows your resolve to see it through till the very end. Honestly that whole part it hit me some kind of way
Imagine being gauis during the sorrow of werlyt asking someone who was once your enemy to stop a bunch of war that you created essentially in the process of killing your own children that pretty much quest line just running off and killing his kid
The whole situation with Ishgard was messed up! A war started by treachery, an act motivated by greed and envy. Culminating in creating living weapon to spread the Faith of Ishgard by _any_ and _all_ means _necessary_ (where do we hear that in real life?). And of course the dragons being aok with punishing the descendants of the traitors in perpetuity no less, just to watch them suffer for what 12 of their ancestors did.
@@Sivrn-ValI don’t know. I kind of feel that as the older and “wiser” race, the dragons should have understood the importance of the differences between people and dragons. They kinda should have been smart and wise enough to realise there is no justice in tormenting and unaliving generations and generations of innocent people who had nothing to do with Ratatoskyr. At the same time I understand that the grief drove Nidhogg insane and he couldn’t help himself but that’s where Hraesvelgyr and Midgardsormr should have stepped in. But no, these immortal and “wise” beings let their emotions rule their actions.
Me: /doing a post moogle sidequest kupo The side quest: A big sister joined a gang to send money to her sick mom and little sister. Now that mom died lil sis wants big sis to leave the gang. Turns out big sis only joined becsuse she was a literal child and it was all she could do. She was pretty, she was scrappy but this wasn't the life she wants, she wants to be with her family. They started to run away together only to get stopped by cops at the border who revealed they're pretty much rapist. Its pretty much implied big sis was raped by cops as a kid. The pimp steps in (sus timing IMO) and says he "forgive" the big sis and will take her back under his protection. Big sis goes back with her pimp to the gang/smex cult. The quest ends.
This video and the comments that come with it have been a philosophical jewel. Thank you for bringing this together. Darkness brings lessons and lights up our creativity to help us train on problem solving.
NGL... The Dusk Vigil is a dungeon that still haunts me to this day since I first played it in Heavensward thanks to the story that you can discover as you with the torn journal pages which tells a tale of abandonment, desperation, and utter madness which unsettled me as it just felt like a retelling of so many different survivor stories folks have had when trapped in the snow. But what really gets me is that really seems to be reflected by the atmosphere of the dungeon itself. The Ruins of the Vigil just FEEL like something bad happened there once and the stone walls remember. And when the soundtrack cuts and all you have is the sound effects of cold wind whistling through the empty ruins it's rather eerie and but you run it unsynced... The last time I felt that unsettled was I playing Silent Hill 2 with that feeling of utter isolation.
I just got to Endwalker and the journey has been a delight so far. I really was not expecting such an emotional experience, I am very pleasantly surprised!
It ended up positive but the moment that made my heart break into a million pieces was when Mastya (the Arksodara fisherman character you befriend) was trying to get that infant away from the battlefield, and as he was running away the black despair squiggles started happening around both of them. I was glued to the screen, screaming in my head "SQUARE DON'T YOU FUCKING DARE", ready to throw in the towel and quit the game until it ended up the way that it did.
Endwalker was one long depressing/uncomfortable/shocking xpac, but it was so good. Only 1 other game has ever gotten me to cry as much as I did in Endwalker. One moment that probably stuck out the most for me was the questline of Jullus' commanding officer Quintus van Cinna, or more accurately the ending. Where he couldn't bear the thought that the Empire had been wiped out and filled with shame at the thought of bowing down to his "enemies" that he took his own life. That was such a shock when they showed the after scene of his command room and the flag now splattered in blood. The realization of what he had actually done.
It was interesting to hear that people found Endwalker to be depressing. As a long-term sufferer of severe depression, I actually found it to be joyful, and I'll explain my thoughts after the jump to spare any precious Sprouts the spoilers. Meteion was right when she said "In nihility awaits salvation", but probably not in the way she intended. We have no purpose. We have no grand design. We weren't created by a loving God in His own image, we clawed and scratched and tore ourselves to pieces to become what we are. There is literally no POINT in being born. But that's the beauty of it. As creatures devoid of purpose, we have the supreme privilege of making our own. One person's life could be about art. Another's, saving lives. And still another, music. We are creatures of infinite potential and no true limits. And I think that's beautiful.
Mild spoilers ahead: Yoshi-P has stated in interviews that the Nibirun, the race you encounter in the third star of the Dead Ends, is exactly what the ancients of Etheirys would have become had Meteion not happened and had Venat as Hydaelyn not intervened. The ancients would have continued their pursuit of perfection and "shepharding the star" to the detriment of their creations, achieved perfection, found it hollow, and became nihilistic/suicidal. It's possible they still would have summoned Zodiark, but instead of saving the star, they would have summoned him to wipe them all out as a mercy.
The fight with Hades always gets me because you realise he is fighting to restore the ones he loved and you get an idea of the scope of how long he has been coping with loss. It makes me feel like the villain. Especially when you hear “In Zodiark’s name, I beseech you!”
The dead ends was a big one for me. Especially after literally losing my brother months before that. Heck, my daughter cried as she watched me play it. Sad stuff.
SHB was my favourite cos of how openly dark it got in a messed up way rather than crushing despair of EW way (plus I just loved the whole concept of light being the bad thing). Whilst I suspected it due to the meol being a mystery food they had a constant supply of the revelation that the ascended were being turned into sin eaters then fed to the populace was messed up and I loved it. Even knowing everything we know now of Hades makes that fight even more tragic when its implied the Azem was one of his dearest friends and its you who have to be the one to stop him.
While Endwalker was incredibly depressing - I recall when they talked about the Heat Death of the Universe, which is a REAL thing scientists are strongly considering... Shadowbringers hits in a different way. How Emet-Selch dies, wanting you to remember them, that's all he wants in the end. It makes one consider, all those who have passed before us, who so few remember. So many of them were likely worth being remembered, like Emet-Selch and his kin, but it's so hard to remember, especially when thousands of years have passed. And then, as if everything with Emet and his depression at lost loved ones wasn't bad enough, we go through it again in a slightly different way with Elidibus. "My friends..." Sigh. Endwalker was really a wonderful thing. But... Shadowbringers was a masterpiece.
The Dark Knight Job Quests, especially the first one... The power of the DRK Soul Crystal we picked off "some dead guy" made WoL's quiet part loud, and we aren't happy... The WoL's inner Darkness externalizes itself, and proceeds to "Weekend at Bernie's" said corpse to teach ourselves how to Dark Knight... Eventually, we fight our Darkness... If we lost, here, we would've ACTUALLY become an Edgelord! Canon particularly after the Ul'Dah Incident, this hits hard; Scion friends gone, blamed for the murder of friendo-1/waifu Nanamo (if you started in Ul'dah), all after the grueling trials of fighting gods, an army, a gundam that ATE those aforementioned gods, an evil shadow wizard what was posessing friendo-2/husbando Thancred, and saving a nation... Dark Knight is the solution! Big problems need Big Swords **Berserk CLANG**
This one part of Endwalker literally broke me. The one with the baby who got thrown into the water and almost turned into a blasphemy. I've never cried for a moment in a game but this was too much.
The eden's promise normal mode fight where you fly around as Gaia slowly forgets Ryne and all her memories hit me really hard as my grandfather was dying and had severe altzheimer's at the time.
On Star #2, after you defeated the Peacekeeper and before you enters the portal for Star #3, the lone freedom fighter who you sort of followed to the end activated the switch. At first he was happily said "I KILL THEM ALL" as everything exploded. Then he spoke " I... kill them all...." that's when he realized everything for a naught n fallen to despair. These little things makes the game more powerful in their storytelling.
If you played ARR early on, before I want to say Shadowbringers or Stormblood, its worth mentioning all of the enthralled to Efrit and other Primals included, all tempered people were originally executed, they toned it down later on to say "treated" or looked after till they can be saved or what have you. There are also all sorts of shady situations happening in nearly every single ARR zone, or rather nearly every single zone. It was always dark, its just most people don't look for that, or pay attention to the npc's or some of the lore. Endwalker however dialed it to 11, Shadowbringers even has dark origins with most of its hunt mobs, some fates also have dark tales in the mission text.
I absolutely love Dead Ends, it reflects so beautifully the horrors that can await life and a whole planet. I like how the first two, but even the third, are kinda drawn from doomsday scenarios in our world as well as reflecting on the hubris of sentient beings who still don't know any better. From ruining the ecology of the planet leading to plagues and sickness to "we vs them" and still clinging to divine favor (Meteion reaching to one side) for an answer to their ideology which then leads to artificial intelligence backfiring. I feel it's a fantastic culmination of seeking "more", seeking perfection in their life and for their species. The first two fail in that, but it's clear it's their goal as it is for us, and then there's the third one that actually achieves it. It's a beautiful philosophical view of "What then? What if we achieve all our goals?", which is a great reflection not only to the Ancients and how reducing themselves may have saved them from such a fate, but also the question of perfection itself and striving for it, building a society around it, and what would we do if everything had been done. Every form of entertainment done, every form of experience experienced, every form of suffering removed and so on. What then, what happens next? It's hard to imagine given how much of that we don't have, but it's an intriguing question given perfection is the ultimate goal and unless something destroys us on the way or resets us then it's a goal that will either be achieved or answered "Cannot" and whatever those events are could be the end.
I wasnt in a good headspace during endwalker. I needed 3 months to heal from shadowbringers until i could bring myself to start endwalker and it f'ed me up even more than shadowbringers. Its day 3 since i finished and i keep struggling to keep it together every few hours and just start crying. I cant talk about it without choking up. I have depression because the concept of living to die, not existing anymore one day scares me to absolute hell. I can relate incredibly well to how hermes and meteion feel. Also the world, character and friendship building in this game makes me feel closer to some of the scions than to my actual friends.
A couple of keynotes from Endwalker are the entire story from when you visit Garlemald. The once-proud nation brought to the brink of destruction. Its people so blinded by their superiority complex that they refuse the help of “savages” even when faced with annihilation. So much so that commanding officers commit suicide, sick children will run from help into the freezing cold and get attacked by monsters. This was also a critical moment where we, in all of our power and might, feel true vulnerability. The Garleans put cuffs on our friends, but not us, in case we do something against their wishes. We’re put in a situation where we have to watch those closest to us suffer for our sake. We also get thrown out of our own bodies, lose our power, and are almost forced to watch Zenos attack our camp in our own body. Another critical area of this is the Vanaspati dungeon, when the Final Days begins and we see just how truly disastrous it is. Vrytra, the leader of Radz-at-Han, is so distraught that he cannot find the will to defend himself. He refuses to fight the blasphemies, because they were once his people. We see just how terrifying the event is, as a mother cannot find the strength to move on, and becomes a blasphemy. Her own children witness this, and also succumb to despair, becoming blasphemies as well
Side quest in Ishgard about an orphan girl that pickpockets you - you find her and get your money back - then later you found out that she froze to death in the streets or something cuz she didnt have a home or money for food
I just want to say....Omicron beat tribe quests (gatherers). Endwalker. Do it. It REALLY rounds out the Dead Ends dungeon experience. And honestly, took me way too long to connect the two.
My real "wtf" moment was when i first arrived to Ultima Thule. That distorted quest text and music was something really new and unconfortable. Also, the world of Plenty would echo the fate of our own Etherys and Ancient Ones, if they achived their goal of perfect world as well. Thus, they were always ment to be gone. To meet their dead end.
There was that Auri girl in Eulmore, the Songbird, who was losing her voice, so she was set to be Ascended... and later we find out what that means and what happened to her... The Vault's final cutscene. If you know, you know. The slow realization as you progress through the Dark Knight quest JUST WHO FRAY IS. Just to name a few. No spoilers in case people haven't reached those points.
Alexander's raid is a pretty harrowing concept when you think about it, time travel in FFXIV is a closed loop so nobody involved learned a thing and only had a hand in their future miseries.
You mentioned you were glad that you were in a good headspace for Endwalker. I was not in a good headspace during the final zone of Endwalker and I really hated that last stretch. The baby dragons hit me very hard especially and the Ea gave me nausea. I felt utterly miserable by the end and no amount of "hope" or "forging ahead" meant anything when it was just our stupid video game character doing the actual healing. Irl I was struggling and the game did not help. I'm a bit better now but I don't think I'll new game+ that part for a long time.
I don't think people ever realize there's a questline at the very beginning of Shadowbringers. You're basically helping out an older Miqo'te dude who's basically gone senile from depression. His best friend hangs himself because He was sick of it all and you're asked to grab a "Sharp Tool". I had a lot of real life problems going on at the time and it still sticks with me even a couple years later.
In the Werlyt quest, I'm surprised this part wasn't mentioned, but it makes you witness a scene where Valens has his adopted children (certainly not in the same sense that Gaius raised his, of course.) torture one of Gaius' Au Ra kids. And he does it in some sort of cheery evil way and that was one of the most disturbing parts of the Sorrow of Werlyt quests for me.
Well heres more uncomfy things for you. In Satasha the end is called " Sultanas lap" . In a side quest ita mentioned that Mistbeard kidnapped Nanamos mother and violated her. Make sense doesn't it? 2. The whole Edda arc and the fact you can have a rare encounter with her ghost in Gridania 3. Theres many instances of violations , druggings, kidnappings that occurs
I was livechatting my journey through Shadowbringers to my FC going through the expansion the first time, and I remember screenshotting our girl and I was like, "I DID NOT ORDER A SIDE OF SILENT HILL IN MY FINAL FANTASY" My FC broke down laughing at the revelation and like...yeah, there's messed up stuff, but Shadowbringers ripped that bandaid so quickly and so viscerally.
When the final days strike both times. On Elpis we see what happens there is this dread where If we lose our memory that's it. So Emet Selch and Hythlodaeus helped us the player and Venat Escape. This is after we get hit with the final days and we are investigating HOW do we solve this.
I don’t know if it would compare to the ones you listed, but Pandaemonium’s storyline is somewhat messed up too. I love it so much but watching this video reminded me of the scenes in it. It made me really sad at the end too :(
I'll be honest I was a player that when I originally went through the game I skipped a lot of cutscenes up until Shadowbringers. I would only watch the scenes that had voice acting because in my mind as a teen if it was important then they would have recorded voice over for it. I have since gone back and started leveling another character to fully read the entire story as well as side quest lines. I know I can rewatch a lot of the cutscenes on my main character, but I'd rather have the gameplay breaks between exposition and character development text walls. I don't really have any shocking/disturbing moments that stick out to me much. The moments that always stick with me are the triumphant ones where we take down the big bad through sheer will, determination, and the power of friendship. Haha.
There are 2 ways to interpret the ending.. yes there is a lot of hopelessness, sadness.. and hardship… but against all these odds.. again the fate of the universe itself.. we go on.. make the best of it.. from the moment we are born life is just a temporary little flicker in the great scheme of the universe.. what little we have we should enjoy.. together.. with each other.. making our time here better for each other.. cause that is all we have.. and all we will get.. NOBODY knows what comes after.. no matter their claims.. so all we should do is live a good life to the best of our abilities and enrich the life of others.. at least that is what I got out of it.. Tho I might just see validation in a path I already chose.
There is one Alchemist job questline that made me incredibly uncomfortable and completely changed my view of F'lahaminn. Learning about the merchant that would basically enslave young women to work at his shop, proposition them, and then murdered one for refusing his advances was deeply messed up. Learning in that same questline that Minfilia was taken in by one of the people responsible for her having no blood relatives anymore, and having to wonder if F'lahaminn ever actually told Minfilia the truth about all that, hurt my heart.
I was very suprised you didn't mention the suicide scene in Endwalker due to a person not being able to cope with the loss of the empire and unable to move forward with life in a time where the enemy is now the hand that can give succor and relief. The fact that Alisaie is the one saying she cant wait to see him right after it happens broke me... poor Alisaie and Alphinaud... they are just kids... they shouldnt have to see that.
Sastasha, Edda and finding out the temper had to be put down after fighting Ifrit let me know that the game was gonna hit me at unexpected moments and to keep the tissues handy
Been going through the msq on an alt to share this games story with a friend who can't jive with mmos. We were around some point during the post Stormblood msq when i turned to her and said: "By the way this game's rated T" 'What?'
I think the first *Real* shocker for me was the Bloody Banquet cutscene... The Lord Quintis death in Endwalker and most of the whole storyline around Garlemald. Which area storyline is that regarding the AuRa pilots? I don't remember seeing that one before... Overall despite how dark Endwalker was, my least favourite part (of that expansion) was the "levity/lighter" stuff after Garlemald, the Loloprit stuff... I know levity is needed with so many dark stories, but that whole area for me was just dull and boring...
I'm surprised no one brought up Anima yet. The MSQ is kind of stealthy about this, probably due to age rating, but Anima was summoned from Varis' dismembered corpse that was scattered across Eorzea to form the Towers. That's why their aesthetic appears like something out of an H.R. Giger work - the Towers are living, breathing parts of Anima.
@@Sivrn-Val I had friends going through MSQ straight up not understand how Fandaniel made the towers despite watching the cutscenes lol The answer is really simple but it can go through some peoeple's heads. Despite that I love the idea of the towers as both a living, eldritch being and something born from a dismembered corpse. It's the first think that appears in my head when people talk about the darker side to FF14 storytelling. I wish they could lean into it a bit more though but I understand why they can't.
Endwalker could have been a good expansion if they spread it out and made meteion something more than a last-second patch-on "twist" ...there were good concepts throughout, but it was marred with so little time to develop such wide-reaching villains, even packing the strongest being in the universe (presented so far anyway) into a little trial where he is somehow taken over by a villain nobody likes...and of course there was the worst villain in the game, xenon, a fine "bad guy" with no depth, no background, no development, who for some reason was brought back and allowed to have more nonsense moments with power that he should not have by any stretch of any bit of lore. A pity. Now we go on summer vacation instead of expanding what could have been good story.
I feel like if you were worried about the length of the video, you should have made it a multi-part series. You did so well with Dead Ends, but its length forced you to rush the other stories. Such as the scenes in Holminster Switch with the Sin Eater that killed Tesleen as well as the fight with the abomination she became. You bring Alisae to the fight, and the dialogue is even more meaningful.
When they took his arm I wanted to stay and fight… of course we could have oh so easily dealt with the entirety of the Brass Blades, the traitorous Crystal Braves, Lolorito and anyone else who opposed us… but we are heroes, and heroes don’t cause massacres worse than Cartenau… so we were resigned to flee…
Kind of surprised no one has brought up Edda yet. It's like the original wtf dark moment in ffxiv.
I remember going to Tam-Tara Deepcroft during the MSQ once to stop some cultists, but if I remember correctly you don't actually see what happens to Edda's party lead in the MSQ - you just hear about what happened when you see their group argue and disband. It's sad to learn their leader died and that she was blamed for it, but the darker part of her story is in side content (Tam-Tara Deepcroft Hard, Palace of the Dead).
As for me, I *completely* lost interest in all of ARR's side content and small details because of the quests leading up to Titan. The former heroes making me waste time running all over the country for *days* to gather ingredients for a feast before telling me how to stop Titan (which was in the process of being summoned to lay waste to La Noscea) was absolutely infuriating. At that point I decided that the small details and side content of ARR were no longer worth my attention. From then on until I got to Heavensward, blue quests I had collected were just sped through whenever they came up in roulettes (skipped cutscenes and mashed through dialogue).
Im always surprised how few people look down in the golden world of the Dead Ends. The paradise is buikt over the fragments of their destroyed world
The Plenty was my favorite part of the dungeon. Imagine society reaching the point where mass suicide is all it wants.
It's interesting because my friends and I just get irritated by that world. We believe the idea you can't appreciate happiness without suffering is a fallacy spread by people trying to sell you stuff.
Not that I think eliminating suffering is realistic but the idea that if you hypothetically could get rid of suffering but then you'd lose motivation to live isn't inherently true.
@@MaryAlice08I largely feel the same. You likely can't fully grasp the meaning of happiness without suffering of some kind, but the idea nothing but happiness would drive you to suicide is ridiculous to the point I don't actually think that's what they truely did. Unfortunately there are people who genuinely feel happy hurting or upsetting others...so to create a paradise for everyone would be difficult to the point of impossibility... unless you remove happiness as well. This would leave nothing but numbness they mistake for happiness.
@@MaryAlice08it’s definitely a think piece but idk if I agree. There’s no true way to test this just cause how we are humans are wired. But it’s true that you can’t always appreciate something if you don’t understand its contrast.
@@spectreshadow I mean, its not only society, in the end I think its heavily implied that Meteion accidentally caused the destruction and devastation that destroyed all these worlds, due to already being full of negative dynamis at this point that enforced itself further by becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy in which her presence causes the people to jump over the edge and destroy themselves.
I have cronic depression and anxiety and it was actually very liberating to play The Dead Ends in a way. Especially the last world because thats kind of how it feels. I have stuff. I have family. I know I can do things. But I also feel empty and like whats the point because the chemicals in my brain is not behaving as they should. Seeing depression represented in so many ways all through EW was kinda like therapy for me. I cried so much and this expansion will hold a special place in my heart for the rest of my life.
Cold is the kind of thing a lot of media gets wrong. I'd gladly run around Coerthes in nothing more than a t-shirt and shorts, if it were a matter of going out to get my mail, but Garlamald is different. They manage to show off bitter and deep cold, the kind that even built structures have difficulty shaking off. And when we're there we meet Jullus, a boy who's grown up in that cold, and knows how to handle it, it's shaped him, and allowed him to justify terrible things to survive that cold. His family died in that cold. His home was destroyed, his superior officer killed himself because he could not save them. It's a grim fate for the poor kid, but we tell him there will be a spring coming after that long winter. We hand him a warm cup, and for the first time in a long time, there is a warmth that flows through him. He can't help but cry into his drink as the weight he's been carrying starts to melt. A voice rings out over the radio, and suddenly that peace, that warmth, that comfort is gone. A country he has sacrificed everything for is asking for more, and he is unable to say no.
moments later the warrior of light is put in the body of a half dead garlean shmuck, and told that Zenos is going to kill all of their friends. Over the course of a single zone, without even using the dungeon, Endwalker had made me go to the depths of despair, tore hope from my fingers, punched me in the gut and kicked me while I was down, before telling me to get back up, or I would be there forever.
Spring will come, but there is a long winter. Survive, and you will see it. Help your fellow man, and you wont have to be alone when you get there.
the song that plays on the radio always brings that haunting emptiness to mind for me. the scattered survivors hiding in the metro tunnel, while their city is devastated around them, and the radio is playing some looping barely working automatic tune
@@HoneyDoll894I always think of the sisters and their little group you try to save. In the end though magic is so alien and caused so much historical pain...they flee and die over taking help freely offered. How I hate that tune in that moment.
There are a lot of moments that aren't immediately disturbing until you take it all in with hindsight. The totality of Elidibus's story hit me hard. Seeing Amaurot for the first time and realizing what it truly represents. A sum total of crushing loss.
Arenvald comes to mind as well. The child of... forced procreation... when he reached puberty his garlean third eye emerged so his mother cut it out with a knife so no one could see it.
More immediately dark moments come in the form of a story from the new Encyclopedia Eorzea. The Minfilia before Ryne was also kept in Eulmore. One night Vauthry had a nightmare that she killed him so he ran down to her room in the middle of the night and beat her to death. He was already taking control of the city so no one did anything about it.
Honorable mention should also go to the totality of the Shadowbringers role quests.
Another thing. There is a ghostly "blink and you'll miss it" in werlyt that most people don't see. When you first arrive there is a kid running around and as you progress through the story, more and more au ra children join in. At the end before you leave you can find them playing hide and seek and if you follow them they stop and have a conversation. It's right about that moment, as they talk about needing to stay around to watch over their father and Allie that you realize that they are the younger versions of Milisandia, Alfonse, Ricon, and Rex.
He didn’t have a third eye. That was a paranoid delusion his mother had.
you talking to the soul of elidibus at the end of seat of sacrifice after everything you've gone through and heard from him and emet and the echos in amaurot before. and he says a continuation of the line from before.
where before the final days and the sundering they said to him that one day the rains would stop, he now continues that by saying "the rains have stopped, but you are not here to see it". and it just hits home how truly alone the last ascians were, and at least to me it really made me feel like we need to carry azem's legacy
My man Arvenvald deserved so much more. Wish we got to see him more in the story tbh. But yeah, a tragic character to be sure.
While not as devastating as your examples, I am reminded of Stormblood, Yotsuyu's Story.
Pretty much every Civilian you meet in Doma is so good and virtuous, only refusing you at first because they fear for the safety of their own friends and families. Everything Gosetsu, Yugiri or Hien tell you only backs that up even more.
Then you find out about Yotsuyu's Past and doman Society gets a Mirror held up to their faces, and it's not pretty. For all their good sides, there's also a bad side that ignores the suffering of others. She had been abused all her life, first by her own family, later by random people who paid to use her, even after admitting she seemed like nothing more but a doll. You would expect at least someone finally taking pity on her (well technically some rich guy married her as a trophy if you count that) with all those caring and virtuous people around, but no, their culture and society does not allow them to get involved it seems. They created the Monster that would eventually turn on them with boundless suffering and hate and we can only guess how many similar cases might exist.
Of course that makes the whole post MSQ with Gosetsu and her dying words so much more impactful and bittersweet
And that is why I think that the entire Eorzean Alliance, who painted the Garleans as monsters are nothing more then a collection of hypocrites, all nations have skeletons in their closets and some of them worse then whatever the Empire did, Gridanians imprisoned and executed people for minor infractions simply because the douchebag spirits of the Twelvewood told them to do so. The Lominsans stole Kobold land and broke the peace treaty, when the kobolds fought back, they demonized them and hunted them like animals. Don't get me started on Ala Mhigo and Ul'dah. So yeah, if given half the chance, I would have sided with the Garlean Empire.
Except her "husband" sold her to the brothel for his debts
A part of me wishes they used that regarding Fordola. Granted, the WoL is silent, but they did see her past and saw how she was mistreated. The people of Ala Mhigo basically made their own monster.
@@SaiyanGamer95 To be fair, she was mistreated for her family collaborating with the Garleans, not just for being around.
Her greater tragedy imo stems from her deciding to do terrible things with honestly good intentions, FOR the people that mistreated her.
Man I am glad we got to see more of her since then, her EW Questline was great
@vincentbeton Her parents wanted to live in peace under Garlean rule. And because they chose to NOT become terrorists like the rest of the Ala Mhigans, said Ala Mhigans stoned Fordola's father to death I front of his wife and kid.
Ala Mhigans deserved way worse and are massive flaming hypocrites is what I am saying, but then, so we're all the city-states, and Gaius was right when he told us the first time that the world needs one strong leader to guide the rest of the morons through history, because if it weren't for the Warrior of Light, the Allied Tribes would still be the Beast Tribes and would still be treated like monsters, Gridania would still be a bunch of eco-terrorists and Limsa would still be oppressing the Kobolds.
I could go on on why the Garlean Empire had things right, but I think the points have been made.
The Walk broke me, I sobbed, it was just too much. Even just thinking of it chokes me up..
"Try Not To Cry Challenge: The Walk Edition" Difficulty: IMPOSSIBLE
I will honestly think that the original Sastasha will be my most messed up dungeon. Edda's stuff was bad, but people forget, their first group expedition was in Sastasha, the original. A haven of pirates who were kidnapping, torturing, raping, and selling women of all ages to the point they became Stockholm Syndromed. They severely nerfed the heinous shit that dungeon had going on in the low-level dungeon revamps. An NPC stated to the heroes, "You can use my body, just don't hurt me!" That always got me. Dead Ends is a great dungeon that fits so well with the feel of the expac, but Sastasha just hits different as it was the first dungeon every player experienced.
Sastasha is still horrifying; I don't really want to know what it was supposedly like before changes.
The didn’t change anything in Sastasha as far as I recall, just fewer people go into the optional rooms.
There are less NPCs in the main rooms and some of their dialogue was removed. It was listed in the patch notes when they changed the dungeon (not extensive notations but the usual single line of the notes.)
Still has 'The Hole', the NPCs are all 'I am not one of them, I swear on what is left of my virtue!' or 'What will it be tonight?'.
They also had a retelling by a benefactor of your operation against the Garleans, recounting what happened in his village. Very carefully phrased implications that his underaged sister and mother got raped on the regular.
Yea the Miquote woman when you walked into that room used to say "Please sir, no more. I'm sore". I was like WHAT THE FUCK?!?!?!
The genius of the storytelling in this game is their ability take the story to places no other game is willing to go, and in doing so, they are able to make you care about (or hate) the people in the story. The Ascian story is the perfect example. They created villains for the players to hate, but then threw a wrench into the works by having us explore their past and their motivation. Genius storytelling.
Similarly with the Garleans when you work with them to basically unlearn fascism
Endwalker actually made me rationalize through a very dark and depressing moment in time for me that I broke down crying when I heard the song in it's entirety before the end.
The last one though, that one was the most emotional for me. I placed Gaius' family photo front and center in my home :( God that questline hurt.
No… I couldn’t do that… I just stashed that stuff in the deepest hell of my house storage… I didn’t want to ever see it..
Whole Fordola's story arc - I don't know how to describe levels of how messed up her story was. And the punishment she forced on herself after end of Stormblood patches. Think about it - suicide missions are basically only moments when you are free from seeing people's suffering from your actions and reliving that suffering over and over again and not being able to do anything with it.
If that's not messed up, remembering her whole reason of collaborating with Empire, then I don't know what is.
Or overall imperial propaganda - when sick children would prefer death to wild beasts in a cold wastes to help from Warrior of Light.
Or the fact that even death is not given to the victims of the Empire - Arch-Ultima is prime example of that - pilot was literally melded with the machine.
I am not even starting on the fact that in Copperbell mines we are literally killing slaves who been locked in the depths for centuries for trying to revolt... We are good guys, yes.
Most people might miss this, because it's from 2.0, but one of the highlander NPCs in Little Ala mihgo mentions that the local bandits captured her and "passed her around", until she could escape.
I didn’t. It was one of several dark points in ARR. The lore of Satasha and Coperbell were two more.
Nah for some reason, this one stuck with me more than any others. It's not a big scene and her part was short in that cutscene but I think it was the first time in this game where I was like "Oh, this game is gonna talk about stuff like this". Even though Sastasha had already happened by this point, I never really explored the dungeon until later and that's when I realized "Oh that sorta topic was always there".
Not "depressing" per say, but a really unconfortable moment for me, is during the warriorS of darkness ark. You end up learning that they were warriors of light who got manipulated by the asciens to doom the first. And yet, when you learn "how" they were manipulated... There was a big evil bad dark guy of darkness in their world and they punched his face. That's it. That's what we would've done as well. At that stage (during Heavensward I think?), we are absolutely pursuing punching evil darkness guys and big aether eikons as well.
And Ardberd drops something like "Why did it end up like this?! We did EVERYTHING RIGHT and it still lead us to doom." And... well he's right. Since that moment, I've always felt a looming over every one of our deeds. After all, since ARR, we wooping the primals is "according to plan" for Lahabrea. We fell for Adeleji's plan, and for multiple of Lolorito's. We handled the eyes of Nidhogg how so poorly. We kept pushing for light so much that we became an accidental vessel for it, which was really convenient in Shadowbringer but nearly caused many more catastrophes there. And the answer we brought to the Endsinger was basically "we don't care if there is no meaning, we simply decided to enjoy life with as little good reason we can."
And, if you look at it like that... We are prone to being manipulated. We are prone to punch the big target sign (that we didn't attack Emet-Selch on his first arrival was a miracle of convincing on his part). And if you want proof of how useless we are at thinking... just get back to the negociation scene with Emperor Varis. At that point, all Eorzean leaders have baggage that Varis uses against them (poorly, but hey, they didn't think of a comeback) and ALL Scions are gone... but Alisaie and us. The two "no talk, just fight" guys of the bunch. The two "useless at politics, good at following".
What I mean is... if but a single trap of "punch this evil bad guy and it triggers the end of the world" is layed before us, we are destined to jump in it. Eagerly. We are better than Ardberd for one single reason: this trap has not yet been layed before us. We are luckier than he was. For now. We do everything right, *as did he* .
What's even sadder is that to travel to the Source, the WoD had to die. Ardbert is the one who had to kill his own allies before claiming his life.
The WoL honestly has stepped on that trap, many times. We just have protagonist syndrome, we step on that trap, trigger doom, and then just break the trap. The warring triad, red mage quest, nier raid, zodiark, the crystal tower, alexander, omega, ultima, and even Eden. All of those were traps of kill the target to trigger world ending events that we just powered through.
@@mellentlevianth1705
Most weren't traps. None had the same urgency. None had close to the same obstacles either. And most had an easy solution when "punching things up" wasn't available. (Well, maybe not red mage, I still haven't done that so I can't say).
When Ardberd and co realised what Eden truly was, the thing was destroying whole regions each and every day. And, to be able to reach it in order to fix the situation, you had to go through a *literal everspawning army of light demons and miles/kilometers of light radioactive land* while not having any support since everybody hated them. The deus ex machina that was Minfillia came when the world was already nearly all destroyed and that they had resorted to suicide as their last resort. Compared to that...
- Ultima Arma was destructive, but not actively so (yet). It was garded by military, but we had three armies to support us. Punching Ultima Arma didn't trigger the end of the world.
- Bahamut was still broken and recovering. We could've waited years before tackeling the problem. Punching Bahamut didn't trigger the end of the world.
- The Crystal Tower was one of the closest to be such a trap but... when Xande was punched, the solution against the end of the world was simply for the scientist to push the button to close the gate. The whole World of Darkness mess was only relevant because we cared about a few people. One button push! (that our allagan allies made way easier to develop, let's be honest there is still scientific work here)
- The Pope was a totaliatrian, not an ender of world.
- Quickthinks let us have weeks to counter what was simply a strong primal. This could be considered us falling for his trap, but the supposed "end of the world" that Alexander could've been was literally on our side. I fail to see how the world was in any real danger.
- The Triad was also basically strong primals. We had time to go discuss with Unulakai and scold him between each excursion. Very little urgency. And, when all were punched, no trap trigger.
- Shinryu's potential is unknown but it was a trap triggered when we punched Ildberd... that was immediately defused by people shackeling the beast. No urgency or difficulty in sight.
- Omega had the potential to destroy the world. But it was NOT a trap. When we punched it, it didn't bring the end of the world.
- Ultima had the potential to end the world. But everybody on our way to her became an ally to help bring her down or part of the solution. Punched her without triggering anything either. No trap.
- The trap of the Exarch that Emet "swiftly repurposed" should've doomed Norvrandt. But the problem wasn't a surprise since allies were thinking about handeling the core of the issue weeks before the facts. Also, "Minfillia" temporarily fixed our light problems immediatly and not days/weeks after we transformed into a world destroying Great Sineater. Way easier to handle.
- Eden was asleep while we barged through its doors and went at it at our own pace. We literaly were *choosing* when and what to fight, baring a few surprises at the end. Where is the trap?
- NieR was a trap. It was triggered long before our arrival and counter-triggered as early. We were mini-trapped ourselves at the beginning but we still had time for weeks of dwarven politics, so it's not like punching 9S tiggered the end of the world. And after that, it was but a few tough punches for our guided WoL.
The closest we have come to the same situation as Ardberd was indeed with Zodiark. The difference being... Well everything after the trap. While the First was erased on a daily basis by literal tsunamis of light and sin eaters, we had to manage a few crises of people monster-panicking and, when that was handled, had days to do a deep research about what those Elpis flowers are about, and weeks to organize an exodus and the shared work of three whole continents on a spaceship. Not an easy task for sure. But Ardberd would've saved his world twice with as much leniance on time and ressources.
What if, when we beat Omega, it had only been an actual simulation? That, when we finally thought we emerged victorious, it was revealed to us that we simply were tricked into beating its internal limitating software? Without which it could destroy whole planets in hours and rightfully decided to start doing it immediatly? That's a trap that triggers the end of the world.
What if, when we beat the Endsinger, its essence was so propagated throughout the dynamis of the whole universe that it caused a collapse of spacetime itself? Not even a trap, simply us punching because we think we are doing the right thing without full knowledge of what we are dealing with. Which, by the way, is what we did. We went there without understanding everything by far.
What if Alexander didn't have its own will and we simply fell for Quickthinks antics as we did without safeguard?
What if Papalymo and the Garleans didn't catch Shinryu? (I think we would've had time to get to it to be fair.^^)
What if Xande's death was the planned trigger to unleash the whole Crystal Tower energy into opening a rift miles/kilometers wide instead of a teeny tiny door? With the Cloud of Darkness immediatly getting out and starting to suck the aether of creatures by the thousands.
What if, like Ardberd, we couldn't simply take a stroll through the Empty with antiradiation suits and instead had to fight our way to Eden while our bases are annihilated daily?
In all those scenarii (besides Shinryu), we are fucked. That's what. We did everything right and it spelt doom for all.
Now, obviously, they won't do that because it's weird to destroy the universe/kill the protagonist of your story-heavy MMO. But they can totally make such a scenario with lesser consequences: we arrive somewhere, we see a big bad guy, we pursue them for some time and, when we punch them, it goes right into said bad guy (or a secret bigger bad guy)'s intent: it triggers the death of a whole tiny population, or the destruction of invaluable libraries, artefacts, historic building and resources, or the death of a main character. And, if that was the end goal of the bad guy, then there is no stopping them now. The evil plan was already conducted through to its end. We participated in something horrible. And arresting the bad guy doesn't satisfy us because we are not stopping the bad anymore. The bad has already happened and there is no way to reclaim what was lost for good. Even with how FFXIV has to be made, there is still room for us to be Ardberded hard if the devs want to. They already tinkered with that with Moenbryda.
@@augustinandre14 that's exactly what I meant by protagonist syndrome. Zodiark would be the closest comparison. Time is weird in game but the concept is the same if not worse since the wave source isn't even on the same planet. Both are waves that are destroying reality, unfortunately the dynamis wave can't be translated well due to game mechanics. As for the solutions to both, you have eden, a hidden boss but physically on location that Ardbert had to summon singular outside help to stop but required a one-way trip to get. Endsinger was a hidden boss that was essentially on the edge of the galaxy. To even find it required a possibly one way trip through time. Reaching it took the combined effort of almost every single nation in the known world to work toward a singular goal. Arguably this solution could have worked for Eden as well. A lot of hopeless fighting was happening in the background of both events. As for the others you're right, the scale, urgency, and obstacles were lesser. But I say again, protagonist syndrome, the solutions often came from nowhere or the events had seemingly arbitrary limitations. Omega for example just didn't become a world ending event because it felt it wasn't worth it compared to data collection. And shinryu's summoning was stopped only because papalymo, someone I don't think we ever saw any level of power from, decided to use a spell we'd only ever seen once before. Never mind that it shouldn't have actually worked at all lore wise. Shinryu's summoning should have drained a lot of aether from the area even using the eyes as a base. So where did tupsimati get the aether to seal shinryu from?
Went on a bit of a tangent there but I think my point still stands. The Wol has absolutely triggered plenty of doomsday traps while "doing everything right" that were resolved with outside help. And to be fair I think I lost the point that started this conversation a while ago while typing this all out.
@@mellentlevianth1705 My point was that a bunch of what we did didn't turn out bad not because we did good, but because we were lucky enough for an external source to save the day. And that luck can't/shouldn't always be on our side when we go in willy-nilly.
I think I can gather from your arguments that what I call "luck" is simply "protagonist syndrom" tho, as I'm unfamiliar with the concept and may not recognize it as a trope.^^
While I'm conceeding things: I truly glossed over how complex "reaching the Endsinger" was a bit too much. Speaks volume of how the WoL doesn't really do the heavy lifting in that task (feels good to have useful allies tho).
Nobody talks about the first dungeon sastasha.
There are female lalafel amongst the women that the pirates had kidnapped and raped, but there are no lalafel pirates.
Dark. Real dark.
I like how the VERY FIRST DUNGEON is a casual smuggling base, one that has plenty of people. That would usually be mid-adventure. But no, here it is as the very first thing you do.
Not to mention there used to be, and might still be, a throw away line one of the pirates will say in a chat bubble when you start combat with them. "Try to take the women alive." Of course... you know what their intentions are for you (if you play as a female).
@@cparty7790 Its kinda fucked up, and beckons back to the old mentality of JP games before western influence took over.
There was no such thing as 'too dark'. Rape, Murder, incest, pedophilia.. it was all just part of the norm, go back and look at JRPG masterpieces like Drakengard and how fucked up nearly every character in the series is. And that is what made those games good, there was actual backstory and the characters were designed to be ACTUAL PEOPLE, with both good and bad sides to their personality.
Looks like some of the pirates have shortstack fetishes.
That being said, lore wise inter-race relations like Lalafell and Hyur for example are completely normal.
@@sadmiqoxivOK but there was never anything normal about Drakengard. That entire franchise is exceptional.
Additionally, if you want some uplifting hope for the people of the planets of the dead ends dungeon as well as the ones of the final Endwalkers zone, I HIGHLY suggest playing through the Omnicron Tribe Quests. ^^
That quest chain made me tear up. Even though their civilizations are still dead, we somehow help them find peace in this re-invented afterlife.
I was in a party finder group for Shrinryu EX mount farming. This one person in the party started freaking out about body horror, shocked, in a good way, that they would add such a disturbing scene to an MMO. Without missing a beat or getting any clarification, I and the other people in the party replied with just 3 words. "Welcome to Shadowbringers!"
Hahaha that scene where Tesleen meets her end.. My FC had been waiting for me to get there and when I expressed my surprise and horror they just chuckled and said that exact same thing. “Welcome to Shadowbringers.”
I admit that I found ShB quite a jarring change of pace and it took me far too long to adjust to it.
There's the Amalj'aa tribe quest line, with Loonh Gah, the Miqo'te woman woman the untempered Brotherhood of Ash has taken in. Turns out her mother ha been captured by the tempered Amalj'aa when Loonh Gah was a child, and she's determined to save her. Only to find her so heavily tempered that she thinks a rock is her baby who she is looking forward to sacrificing to Ifrit. Loonh Gah takes it upon herself to kill her own mother, as no cure for tempering existed yet.
Her mom is alive
She didn’t kill her though.
"And in deepest despair, Light everlasting."
At the end of the Diamond weapon fight, the cutscene where Valens gets squished like a grape was very satisfying. I even gad a dream about what I’d do to him if I had the chance, but it’s better that we leave the catharsis to the victim…
I'm a weirdo but the one that sticks out for me is Laurentius. Hear me out.
I'm sure most people don't remember him. He's the crooked Wood Wailer you root out in the beginning of your WoL journey in ARR in Gridania. He's sold out his country to the Imperials because the money they offered him is far better than what he's getting for protecting Gridania. But instead of killing him, at the end of his arc, he has a crisis of conscience and turns himself in. Towards the end of ARR, he's out of jail and trying to figure out how to put his life back together, and joins the Crystal Braves.
In the Crystal Braves, he sides with Ilberd, sells out the Scions(he's the one who pulls the planted poison bottle off of you at the dinner), and helps Ilberd commit the mass murder that spurs the creation of the Shinryu primal. Even if he shows some remorse, he gives the command that slaughters the Ala Mhigan radicals that dress up like the nations to instigate Garlean retaliation. And when everything goes sideways, he runs with Yuyuhase. At the very end of Stormblood, in a blink and you miss it line of dialogue from Rabauhn, he tells you Laurentius and Yuyuhase have been finally captured. He asks you your opinion on their fate, and you have two options: trial or immediate execution. Either way, Rabauhn says that he considers your opinion, and that is the last you hear of him.
In a game that again and again gives the message that redemption is not impossible, Laurentius consistantly choosing not to be redeemed hurts. There are points in his story where you can see he knows what he's doing is wrong, but again and again, he doubles down, and that hurts. The fact that more than likely even with trial, his story ended with his death, it hurts. It's a story told over three acts with barely any read lines, and at some points entirely off screen, but it sticks with me.
If it’s any comfort I knew immediately who Laurentius was. I actually wondered about him and Yuyuhase at the start of Stormblood and was pleased to hear that they were captured.
I wish we could have seen and/or influenced the trial and punishment.
My first gut punch was pretty early in the game, during the Arcanist questline. Your mentor is a bright and bubbly Mi'qote girl who has an honest to Gods PTSD induced breakdown when the bad guy is introduced. You then learn in short order that he's a slaver and she was one of his victims, and it's heavily implied that it was sexual slavery. I was levelling DRG at the time and wished i could switch jobs and skewer him
Sorrows of Welryt is definitely a gut punch, but it also has one of the most unintentionally funny moments in the game, when you first learn about the Oversoul mode and what it's done to the first pilot.
Gaius: It's a shame that she died. I pray her death was quick and painless.
Cid: HEY GUYS I JUST FINISHED ANALYZING THE PILOT, HER DEATH WAS SLOW AND HER SUFFERING WAS IMMEASURABLE, Y'ALL
It gets less funny when you realize that Cid did that deliberately. He is still monumentally angry at Gaius and wants him to suffer the consequences of his actions to the fullest extent. Is it cruel of him? Yes. Does Gaius deserve it? Yes.
To me that wasn’t funny, that was incredibly sad….
Sorrow of Werlyt storyline was just... a big mega punch in the heart. I hope the writters don't cook up something stronger *has 1 fear*
*is comically very disappointed that Edda's whole storyline was not mentioned* What? Was that not messed up enough?
Edda's is super messed up too and the wild thing is that it happens almost entirely in the background so you can 100% just miss it.
@@BubbinsThe even more tragic thing? It could have happened to anyone. It’s actually common among early adventurer parties. Not the necromancy thing, the breakdown in a party and friendships and people dying.
yeah my friend who knows I'm sensitive to this kinda stuff told me to consider not doing sorrow of werlyt because of how dark it is, and while i don't regret doing it, it is so dark. i definitely looked away from the screen, and skipped some dialogue because it felt too much for me. and after all that, i feel sorrow of werlyt is probably one of the strongest stories they told. i love how many gundam and evangelion references there are in it, and how.. devastating it is. but its definitely some of the darkest stuff in the game
The writer who did Sorrow of Werlyt is gonna part if Dawntrail's main writing team.
So we will probably get more.. besides, Valens was a 10/10 villain.
@@Sivrn-Val While I hated Valens to the moon and back I absolutely agree. He was amazing as a villain.
These moments can be found in even the smallest cracks of the game. I just wrapped up a side quest over in the steppe. I had randomly picked it up expecting a cute little story and some exp on the side for my efforts... instead I assisted somebody in bringing their personal cycle of rencarnation to a complete and bittersweet end. Been playing this game for 8-9 years now and it still somehow manages to surprise me in totally unexpected ways.
i sat through every cutscene, no matter how depressing and how painful, but i could not bring myself to continue watching the werlyt ones. when this game is heartbreaking, it makes sure to do it in the most devastating ways. gotta give them kudos for that.
yeah i had to step away from some of those werlyt cutscenes, it was too much
I must have missed these somehow... Which part of the game were they in?
@@leonbraun3778 the shadowbringers trials series. its called the Sorrow of Werlyt
I'm reminded of a very small story that plays out across the first couple of dungeons in A Realm Reborn. There's a group of new adventurers that you meet as you're coming out of Sastasha, they say their goal is to become adventurers that the bards will sing songs about, and with slightly less experience than the Warrior of Light at this point. They inquire about the Sastasha job, and are told that we had just completed it. Then, if you talk to the NPCs around the entrance to the Copperbell Mines, you learn from two adventurers, a young Elezen woman and her grandfather that their entire party was wiped out. It stands out because it was the first truly dark moment that the game hits you with. As depressing as the dark moments in this game can be, they're the reason FF14 is my favourite game of all time
I’m surprised you didn’t add Lord Quintis shooting himself out of shame, that he’d rather kill himself than bowing down to the enemy.
This whole storyline, and Garlemald was incredibly dark.... One of the very darkest parts of the game. I was pretty shocked at the graphicness of this scene. The only thing it didn't show was the actual death, but did show the blood spatter. Very dark stuff.
This was an excellent video. And yeah - the Dead Ends dungeon was something else again. That entire final zone in EW..... Yotsuyu. Ysale's story. Haurhefant are the three that come to my mind that you didn't cover.
I'm a little surprised, since you cited Werylt, that you didn't mention that the story includes Gaius having to effectively euthanize his own foster son....
Because most people who did the Quest line still think Gaius = Bad therefore he deserves it
True - and I cannot say that I didn't want to slap him any number of times.... but I tend to see the situation as "people are complicated and neither all good nor all bad. @@Sivrn-Val
solid vid, you choose the REALLY good ones. Sure there are others but you did a wonderful job highlighting these. Wonderful writing by the dev team!
Endwalker arouses a lot of emotions, I cried many times during this expansion both from joy and sadness. But there is two moments I litteraly had to stop playing, take a break which had never happened in any game.
First after Quintus last appearance. Second after the events at Palaka's Stand with Matsya and the baby. This was just too much for my poor heart.
Indeed, FFXIV can be tough emotionally but hopefully Dawntrail should be lighter.
Dead Ends... god yes. The first time I did it and got hit with the Cough Up attack and heard my Warrior's own heart beat....oh my gosh I swear I went cold. Such wonderful foreboding they set up with that first part alone.
Yotsuyu's story is 100% dark and effed up. The whole reason she was a hell-bent-on-revenge psychopath is because she was an orphan who was adopted and abused by her aunt and uncle before being forced to marry a nobleman as a *young* teenager*. And THEN was sold off to a brothel to be a courtesan (old-world term for pr*stitute) to pay off his debts.
Also, the amnesia bit was done in a very unique way. They could have gone with the old “oh, she has amnesia and now she’s good” trope, but they took a more unconventional approach. It’s more of a “this is what she might have been if her life was different….maybe”. The story never says outright that she definitely would have been different if she had a better childhood but it doesn’t dismiss the possibility either. It makes you realize that the concept of “evil” is not as black and white as one sometimes thinks it is.
Honestly? sorrow of werlyt is my favourite side story. It’s the only side story I’ve cried to, both times I’ve gone through it. I remember playing through it a second time so my friend could experience it the first time and I sat there, sobbing uncontrollably with my mic muted because I felt so bad for the au ras in the story…
The whole backstory of Edda and her group and everything that transpired around them in beginning of your adventure.
yeah honestly endwalker broke me, i could not talk about what happens in/after elpis without crying for literal days, it took me like a week to actually be able to talk, cuz i would cry any time i tried
thinking about it and other moments like sorrow of werlyt or shadowbeingers still brings me to tears honestly
For me the darkest moment in the entire game was the Vanaspati Dungeon in Endwalker. This one moment where you encounter the Arkasodara mother with her 3 kids....she transforms into a monster while her children are crying for her mother that they are afraid before they are turning into beats aswell. Everytime I see this it feels like a punch to the guts.....
The Karellians from star 2 in "The Dead Ends" showed the Garlean Empire's fate if they won the game, a reminder that their approach doesn't work (though the Karellians don't have the excuse of being deliberately set up to fail).
Meanwhile, the Nibirun of the final world were exactly what the Ancients of the unsundered world could have become if they achieved a perfect paradise (and were already on their way to becoming).
I can think of a few uncomfortable moments throughout the whole story but I'll only focus on one of them because it seems to be overlooked by alot of people. This would be the very first dungeon in the game, Sastasha. The story unfolding around it eventually reveals people were being kidnapped by pirates and taken to their den here. Once you get there, you see those that were captured had become servants to the pirates, and that the pirates themselves are in league with the Sahagin. But let's focus on the servants here. It's pretty obvious they're all women, and initially it seems almost comical how they're supposedly treated. Dressed up in maid outfits and their initial reaction to you barging in is rather PG. But then you take a moment to actually listen to what these women say if you stand around them long enough. While they never outright state what they've had to endure, it's not hard to read between the lines. One of them straight up mentions she has little dignity left. Not only that, at one point while you're fighting the pirates, there's a chance one of them will yell something like "Kill the men, take the women!" (I THINK this may have been patched out. I remember trying to see this line pop up again but it never seems to do so anymore. Could just be bad RNG)
If you do a little exploring as well, you'll find a spot called "The Hole". It's way off the beaten path. Nothing there to fight, no treasure, not even a lore book. But there are women in this area; some looking injured. Yeah - I can safely say horrible things have happened to these poor women, and any men that were captured with them are long gone. Very "uncomfortable" indeed.
And to make matters worse? Sastasha Hard. The whole cavern is transformed and the place is far more waterlogged than before. You fight creatures called "Drowned Wench" and "Drowned Courtesan". Doesn't take a rocket scientist to put two and two together. I like to think most of the women escaped since you don't fight alot of these "Drowned" enemies, but yeah...
Bravo to the dev team for being able to put stuff so incredibly "adult" and distressing while keeping the rating T. The only way they could do that is by letting the environment and the creatures tell the story they aren't able to.
Valens "Burn out the bad" van Varro is the most hateable, punchable villain in all of gaming
Agreed. I had friends grab me in vc and warn me to not watch that scene because of trauma in my own past. They gave me just enough detail that I would know for story’s sake but saved me from being possibly harmed mentally by watching it without warning
@@StarseekerYuliYou missed out. Best scene in the quest line, right next to Valens laughing like a schizo
Sorrow of Werlyt was the first time I was angry with SquareEnix, the game writers and the game. The tragedy of what became of Gaius’ children was bad enough, but the sight of a child participating in the torturing of one of them was the final drop for me. I was genuinely disgusted and upset. I still haven’t recovered from that storyline. This video was tough to watch but I’m glad you made it. For myself I’d rather the dark moments were toned down but this is a Final Fantasy game so… I’ll be celebrating all the joyful bits.
PS: Recently I completed the Reaper job quest line. Not the brightest of stories either. 😳
A lot of the job questline can be very dark. Take alchemist-the head alchemist is an arrogant prick who is annoying and self centered, then you find out it’s because he’s singularly focused on trying to resurrect the love of his life. Not everyone can come back from the dead and the WoL often finds out the hard way.
The thing I love so much about this game is the reflection of our own societies that it shows. The dangers of power, privilege, and excess. The evils of colonization, and subjugation. The whole Dark Knight job quests which make you confront your own doubts and fears. The power of propaganda with the two sisters in Garlemald hit so hard because of the setting for me. I live in North Central Canada and I swear that zone looked like it could have been transplanted from any city around my home. I love that this game doesnt pull its punches and it makes you think and reflect on the nature of the world we live in. Our motivations and our reasons for doing what we do are questioned and reflected. The writing is brilliant and even most of the villians have, unfortunately, understandable reasons for doing what they are doing. They are not just bad guys to be bad guys.
There was a suicide in Endwalker that also messed with me even more than the shock of Teledji got cut in half just before the waking of the arm. Hell, there a number of things
For the second star there's also the fact that once the button is pressed and the bombs are launched, the person realises that they are *the* last person alive in the world.
I think one of the things about all these uncomfortable dark moments in the story is that it makes the most hopeful moments so very sharp and poignant and fragile. And Soken captures these so beautifully in music. All I need to hear is the first note of Hopeful Dynamis -- Meteion's theme based on Flow -- to get my heart wrenched harder than any of the darker moments ever did. Another song that bowls me over is Hearthward, the current theme in the Firmament in Ishgard. People who weren't around for the Ishgard Restoration may not know that song was not always the Firmament's theme. We crafters and gatherers got to take one of the most war-ravaged sections of Ishgard and over the course of several months rebuild it to what it is today -- the model for Ishgard's housing area. The whole story was about how now that 1000 years of war were over, we were going to restore life back to that ruin. When the final update kicked in and the work was complete, that's when they changed the song there. It's based on the same theme used in Foundation's and the Pillars' day and night themes but is so much more uplifting and hopeful, and the way Hearthward just builds and soars to me feels like it captures the rebirth of hope for that nation.
Honestly the whole of Ultima Thual got to me. Watching your friends one by one sacrificing themselves to pave the way for you. When you reach the final world with what looks like no other way to create a path Alisaie and Alphinaud agree to sacrifice themselves as well to take on Metion despite you begging them not to. When they're all gone and you're finally left alone the game forces you to walk the path by yourself to Metion's nest all while the voices of the past ring out as haunting shadows. Its really the first time in the whole game where it really makes you feel you really are on your own at this point everyones gone and its all up to you and you alone. But seeings how your character doesn't burst into flames in this world saturated in Dynamis shows your resolve to see it through till the very end.
Honestly that whole part it hit me some kind of way
Imagine being gauis during the sorrow of werlyt asking someone who was once your enemy to stop a bunch of war that you created essentially in the process of killing your own children that pretty much quest line just running off and killing his kid
The whole situation with Ishgard was messed up! A war started by treachery, an act motivated by greed and envy. Culminating in creating living weapon to spread the Faith of Ishgard by _any_ and _all_ means _necessary_ (where do we hear that in real life?). And of course the dragons being aok with punishing the descendants of the traitors in perpetuity no less, just to watch them suffer for what 12 of their ancestors did.
Remember, due to Dragons living extremely long. 2000 years is only a few weeks/months to them.
@@Sivrn-ValI don’t know. I kind of feel that as the older and “wiser” race, the dragons should have understood the importance of the differences between people and dragons. They kinda should have been smart and wise enough to realise there is no justice in tormenting and unaliving generations and generations of innocent people who had nothing to do with Ratatoskyr.
At the same time I understand that the grief drove Nidhogg insane and he couldn’t help himself but that’s where Hraesvelgyr and Midgardsormr should have stepped in. But no, these immortal and “wise” beings let their emotions rule their actions.
Me: /doing a post moogle sidequest kupo
The side quest: A big sister joined a gang to send money to her sick mom and little sister. Now that mom died lil sis wants big sis to leave the gang. Turns out big sis only joined becsuse she was a literal child and it was all she could do. She was pretty, she was scrappy but this wasn't the life she wants, she wants to be with her family. They started to run away together only to get stopped by cops at the border who revealed they're pretty much rapist. Its pretty much implied big sis was raped by cops as a kid. The pimp steps in (sus timing IMO) and says he "forgive" the big sis and will take her back under his protection. Big sis goes back with her pimp to the gang/smex cult. The quest ends.
The lil sis also said she vowed to free her big sis, but sadly with how long it's been, we most likely will never get resolution for it.
One dark moment happened in the Waking Sands, when our fellow scions were murdered, along with some Sylphs.
This is an excellent list, Bubbins! All of these hit so hard for me when I encountered them in the game.
This video and the comments that come with it have been a philosophical jewel. Thank you for bringing this together. Darkness brings lessons and lights up our creativity to help us train on problem solving.
NGL... The Dusk Vigil is a dungeon that still haunts me to this day since I first played it in Heavensward thanks to the story that you can discover as you with the torn journal pages which tells a tale of abandonment, desperation, and utter madness which unsettled me as it just felt like a retelling of so many different survivor stories folks have had when trapped in the snow. But what really gets me is that really seems to be reflected by the atmosphere of the dungeon itself. The Ruins of the Vigil just FEEL like something bad happened there once and the stone walls remember. And when the soundtrack cuts and all you have is the sound effects of cold wind whistling through the empty ruins it's rather eerie and but you run it unsynced... The last time I felt that unsettled was I playing Silent Hill 2 with that feeling of utter isolation.
I just got to Endwalker and the journey has been a delight so far.
I really was not expecting such an emotional experience, I am very pleasantly surprised!
It ended up positive but the moment that made my heart break into a million pieces was when Mastya (the Arksodara fisherman character you befriend) was trying to get that infant away from the battlefield, and as he was running away the black despair squiggles started happening around both of them. I was glued to the screen, screaming in my head "SQUARE DON'T YOU FUCKING DARE", ready to throw in the towel and quit the game until it ended up the way that it did.
Endwalker was one long depressing/uncomfortable/shocking xpac, but it was so good. Only 1 other game has ever gotten me to cry as much as I did in Endwalker. One moment that probably stuck out the most for me was the questline of Jullus' commanding officer Quintus van Cinna, or more accurately the ending. Where he couldn't bear the thought that the Empire had been wiped out and filled with shame at the thought of bowing down to his "enemies" that he took his own life. That was such a shock when they showed the after scene of his command room and the flag now splattered in blood. The realization of what he had actually done.
It was interesting to hear that people found Endwalker to be depressing. As a long-term sufferer of severe depression, I actually found it to be joyful, and I'll explain my thoughts after the jump to spare any precious Sprouts the spoilers.
Meteion was right when she said "In nihility awaits salvation", but probably not in the way she intended. We have no purpose. We have no grand design. We weren't created by a loving God in His own image, we clawed and scratched and tore ourselves to pieces to become what we are. There is literally no POINT in being born. But that's the beauty of it. As creatures devoid of purpose, we have the supreme privilege of making our own. One person's life could be about art. Another's, saving lives. And still another, music. We are creatures of infinite potential and no true limits.
And I think that's beautiful.
Mild spoilers ahead:
Yoshi-P has stated in interviews that the Nibirun, the race you encounter in the third star of the Dead Ends, is exactly what the ancients of Etheirys would have become had Meteion not happened and had Venat as Hydaelyn not intervened. The ancients would have continued their pursuit of perfection and "shepharding the star" to the detriment of their creations, achieved perfection, found it hollow, and became nihilistic/suicidal. It's possible they still would have summoned Zodiark, but instead of saving the star, they would have summoned him to wipe them all out as a mercy.
The fight with Hades always gets me because you realise he is fighting to restore the ones he loved and you get an idea of the scope of how long he has been coping with loss. It makes me feel like the villain. Especially when you hear “In Zodiark’s name, I beseech you!”
That shadowbringers opening was so haunting that I almost quit the game! Thankfully, there hasn’t been anything so visually disturbing since then
The dead ends was a big one for me. Especially after literally losing my brother months before that. Heck, my daughter cried as she watched me play it. Sad stuff.
SHB was my favourite cos of how openly dark it got in a messed up way rather than crushing despair of EW way (plus I just loved the whole concept of light being the bad thing). Whilst I suspected it due to the meol being a mystery food they had a constant supply of the revelation that the ascended were being turned into sin eaters then fed to the populace was messed up and I loved it. Even knowing everything we know now of Hades makes that fight even more tragic when its implied the Azem was one of his dearest friends and its you who have to be the one to stop him.
While Endwalker was incredibly depressing - I recall when they talked about the Heat Death of the Universe, which is a REAL thing scientists are strongly considering... Shadowbringers hits in a different way. How Emet-Selch dies, wanting you to remember them, that's all he wants in the end. It makes one consider, all those who have passed before us, who so few remember. So many of them were likely worth being remembered, like Emet-Selch and his kin, but it's so hard to remember, especially when thousands of years have passed.
And then, as if everything with Emet and his depression at lost loved ones wasn't bad enough, we go through it again in a slightly different way with Elidibus. "My friends..."
Sigh. Endwalker was really a wonderful thing. But... Shadowbringers was a masterpiece.
The Dark Knight Job Quests, especially the first one...
The power of the DRK Soul Crystal we picked off "some dead guy" made WoL's quiet part loud, and we aren't happy... The WoL's inner Darkness externalizes itself, and proceeds to "Weekend at Bernie's" said corpse to teach ourselves how to Dark Knight...
Eventually, we fight our Darkness... If we lost, here, we would've ACTUALLY become an Edgelord!
Canon particularly after the Ul'Dah Incident, this hits hard; Scion friends gone, blamed for the murder of friendo-1/waifu Nanamo (if you started in Ul'dah), all after the grueling trials of fighting gods, an army, a gundam that ATE those aforementioned gods, an evil shadow wizard what was posessing friendo-2/husbando Thancred, and saving a nation... Dark Knight is the solution! Big problems need Big Swords **Berserk CLANG**
This one part of Endwalker literally broke me. The one with the baby who got thrown into the water and almost turned into a blasphemy. I've never cried for a moment in a game but this was too much.
The eden's promise normal mode fight where you fly around as Gaia slowly forgets Ryne and all her memories hit me really hard as my grandfather was dying and had severe altzheimer's at the time.
This was a wonderful video :3 Thank you
On Star #2, after you defeated the Peacekeeper and before you enters the portal for Star #3, the lone freedom fighter who you sort of followed to the end activated the switch. At first he was happily said "I KILL THEM ALL" as everything exploded. Then he spoke " I... kill them all...." that's when he realized everything for a naught n fallen to despair. These little things makes the game more powerful in their storytelling.
If you played ARR early on, before I want to say Shadowbringers or Stormblood, its worth mentioning all of the enthralled to Efrit and other Primals included, all tempered people were originally executed, they toned it down later on to say "treated" or looked after till they can be saved or what have you. There are also all sorts of shady situations happening in nearly every single ARR zone, or rather nearly every single zone. It was always dark, its just most people don't look for that, or pay attention to the npc's or some of the lore. Endwalker however dialed it to 11, Shadowbringers even has dark origins with most of its hunt mobs, some fates also have dark tales in the mission text.
I absolutely love Dead Ends, it reflects so beautifully the horrors that can await life and a whole planet. I like how the first two, but even the third, are kinda drawn from doomsday scenarios in our world as well as reflecting on the hubris of sentient beings who still don't know any better. From ruining the ecology of the planet leading to plagues and sickness to "we vs them" and still clinging to divine favor (Meteion reaching to one side) for an answer to their ideology which then leads to artificial intelligence backfiring.
I feel it's a fantastic culmination of seeking "more", seeking perfection in their life and for their species. The first two fail in that, but it's clear it's their goal as it is for us, and then there's the third one that actually achieves it.
It's a beautiful philosophical view of "What then? What if we achieve all our goals?", which is a great reflection not only to the Ancients and how reducing themselves may have saved them from such a fate, but also the question of perfection itself and striving for it, building a society around it, and what would we do if everything had been done. Every form of entertainment done, every form of experience experienced, every form of suffering removed and so on. What then, what happens next?
It's hard to imagine given how much of that we don't have, but it's an intriguing question given perfection is the ultimate goal and unless something destroys us on the way or resets us then it's a goal that will either be achieved or answered "Cannot" and whatever those events are could be the end.
I wasnt in a good headspace during endwalker. I needed 3 months to heal from shadowbringers until i could bring myself to start endwalker and it f'ed me up even more than shadowbringers. Its day 3 since i finished and i keep struggling to keep it together every few hours and just start crying. I cant talk about it without choking up.
I have depression because the concept of living to die, not existing anymore one day scares me to absolute hell. I can relate incredibly well to how hermes and meteion feel.
Also the world, character and friendship building in this game makes me feel closer to some of the scions than to my actual friends.
A couple of keynotes from Endwalker are the entire story from when you visit Garlemald. The once-proud nation brought to the brink of destruction. Its people so blinded by their superiority complex that they refuse the help of “savages” even when faced with annihilation. So much so that commanding officers commit suicide, sick children will run from help into the freezing cold and get attacked by monsters.
This was also a critical moment where we, in all of our power and might, feel true vulnerability. The Garleans put cuffs on our friends, but not us, in case we do something against their wishes. We’re put in a situation where we have to watch those closest to us suffer for our sake. We also get thrown out of our own bodies, lose our power, and are almost forced to watch Zenos attack our camp in our own body.
Another critical area of this is the Vanaspati dungeon, when the Final Days begins and we see just how truly disastrous it is. Vrytra, the leader of Radz-at-Han, is so distraught that he cannot find the will to defend himself. He refuses to fight the blasphemies, because they were once his people. We see just how terrifying the event is, as a mother cannot find the strength to move on, and becomes a blasphemy. Her own children witness this, and also succumb to despair, becoming blasphemies as well
Side quest in Ishgard about an orphan girl that pickpockets you - you find her and get your money back - then later you found out that she froze to death in the streets or something cuz she didnt have a home or money for food
I just want to say....Omicron beat tribe quests (gatherers). Endwalker. Do it. It REALLY rounds out the Dead Ends dungeon experience. And honestly, took me way too long to connect the two.
You can disable the sound effects while still being able to hear the dialogue. (Sound options, disable effects and keep voice on)
My real "wtf" moment was when i first arrived to Ultima Thule. That distorted quest text and music was something really new and unconfortable.
Also, the world of Plenty would echo the fate of our own Etherys and Ancient Ones, if they achived their goal of perfect world as well. Thus, they were always ment to be gone. To meet their dead end.
There was that Auri girl in Eulmore, the Songbird, who was losing her voice, so she was set to be Ascended... and later we find out what that means and what happened to her...
The Vault's final cutscene. If you know, you know.
The slow realization as you progress through the Dark Knight quest JUST WHO FRAY IS.
Just to name a few. No spoilers in case people haven't reached those points.
Tesleen literally took me by surprise and absolutely shocked me
Alexander's raid is a pretty harrowing concept when you think about it, time travel in FFXIV is a closed loop so nobody involved learned a thing and only had a hand in their future miseries.
Well, closed loop 2/3 times.
You mentioned you were glad that you were in a good headspace for Endwalker. I was not in a good headspace during the final zone of Endwalker and I really hated that last stretch. The baby dragons hit me very hard especially and the Ea gave me nausea.
I felt utterly miserable by the end and no amount of "hope" or "forging ahead" meant anything when it was just our stupid video game character doing the actual healing.
Irl I was struggling and the game did not help.
I'm a bit better now but I don't think I'll new game+ that part for a long time.
Edda carrying the head of her dead boyfriend and tank was the OG of dark from ARR.
I don't think people ever realize there's a questline at the very beginning of Shadowbringers. You're basically helping out an older Miqo'te dude who's basically gone senile from depression.
His best friend hangs himself because He was sick of it all and you're asked to grab a "Sharp Tool". I had a lot of real life problems going on at the time and it still sticks with me even a couple years later.
In the Werlyt quest, I'm surprised this part wasn't mentioned, but it makes you witness a scene where Valens has his adopted children (certainly not in the same sense that Gaius raised his, of course.) torture one of Gaius' Au Ra kids. And he does it in some sort of cheery evil way and that was one of the most disturbing parts of the Sorrow of Werlyt quests for me.
Well heres more uncomfy things for you.
In Satasha the end is called " Sultanas lap" . In a side quest ita mentioned that Mistbeard kidnapped Nanamos mother and violated her. Make sense doesn't it?
2. The whole Edda arc and the fact you can have a rare encounter with her ghost in Gridania
3. Theres many instances of violations , druggings, kidnappings that occurs
I was livechatting my journey through Shadowbringers to my FC going through the expansion the first time, and I remember screenshotting our girl and I was like, "I DID NOT ORDER A SIDE OF SILENT HILL IN MY FINAL FANTASY" My FC broke down laughing at the revelation and like...yeah, there's messed up stuff, but Shadowbringers ripped that bandaid so quickly and so viscerally.
When the final days strike both times.
On Elpis we see what happens there is this dread where If we lose our memory that's it. So Emet Selch and Hythlodaeus helped us the player and Venat Escape.
This is after we get hit with the final days and we are investigating HOW do we solve this.
I don’t know if it would compare to the ones you listed, but Pandaemonium’s storyline is somewhat messed up too. I love it so much but watching this video reminded me of the scenes in it. It made me really sad at the end too :(
I like how Athena is 100% buttfuck insane and completely irredeemable.
I'll be honest I was a player that when I originally went through the game I skipped a lot of cutscenes up until Shadowbringers. I would only watch the scenes that had voice acting because in my mind as a teen if it was important then they would have recorded voice over for it. I have since gone back and started leveling another character to fully read the entire story as well as side quest lines. I know I can rewatch a lot of the cutscenes on my main character, but I'd rather have the gameplay breaks between exposition and character development text walls. I don't really have any shocking/disturbing moments that stick out to me much. The moments that always stick with me are the triumphant ones where we take down the big bad through sheer will, determination, and the power of friendship. Haha.
There are 2 ways to interpret the ending.. yes there is a lot of hopelessness, sadness.. and hardship… but against all these odds.. again the fate of the universe itself.. we go on.. make the best of it.. from the moment we are born life is just a temporary little flicker in the great scheme of the universe.. what little we have we should enjoy.. together.. with each other.. making our time here better for each other.. cause that is all we have.. and all we will get.. NOBODY knows what comes after.. no matter their claims.. so all we should do is live a good life to the best of our abilities and enrich the life of others.. at least that is what I got out of it.. Tho I might just see validation in a path I already chose.
There is one Alchemist job questline that made me incredibly uncomfortable and completely changed my view of F'lahaminn. Learning about the merchant that would basically enslave young women to work at his shop, proposition them, and then murdered one for refusing his advances was deeply messed up. Learning in that same questline that Minfilia was taken in by one of the people responsible for her having no blood relatives anymore, and having to wonder if F'lahaminn ever actually told Minfilia the truth about all that, hurt my heart.
IIRC the merchant didn't just murder the woman whose death you're investigating, he forced himself on her before killing her.
@@rebellyanmagic6409 I am very aware that he did that.
I'm surprised it's only 4. I could name 4 screwed up brutal things from Shadowbringers alone. This game is brutally heavy storywise.
I was very suprised you didn't mention the suicide scene in Endwalker due to a person not being able to cope with the loss of the empire and unable to move forward with life in a time where the enemy is now the hand that can give succor and relief. The fact that Alisaie is the one saying she cant wait to see him right after it happens broke me... poor Alisaie and Alphinaud... they are just kids... they shouldnt have to see that.
Sastasha, Edda and finding out the temper had to be put down after fighting Ifrit let me know that the game was gonna hit me at unexpected moments and to keep the tissues handy
Been going through the msq on an alt to share this games story with a friend who can't jive with mmos. We were around some point during the post Stormblood msq when i turned to her and said:
"By the way this game's rated T"
'What?'
I think the first *Real* shocker for me was the Bloody Banquet cutscene... The Lord Quintis death in Endwalker and most of the whole storyline around Garlemald. Which area storyline is that regarding the AuRa pilots? I don't remember seeing that one before... Overall despite how dark Endwalker was, my least favourite part (of that expansion) was the "levity/lighter" stuff after Garlemald, the Loloprit stuff... I know levity is needed with so many dark stories, but that whole area for me was just dull and boring...
I'm surprised no one brought up Anima yet. The MSQ is kind of stealthy about this, probably due to age rating, but Anima was summoned from Varis' dismembered corpse that was scattered across Eorzea to form the Towers. That's why their aesthetic appears like something out of an H.R. Giger work - the Towers are living, breathing parts of Anima.
Stealthy around it? It straight up says it.
@sivrnval2534 yeah, but I've seen people miss this completely lmao
@@Wilczyca27Those people skip cutscenes
@@Sivrn-Val I had friends going through MSQ straight up not understand how Fandaniel made the towers despite watching the cutscenes lol The answer is really simple but it can go through some peoeple's heads. Despite that I love the idea of the towers as both a living, eldritch being and something born from a dismembered corpse. It's the first think that appears in my head when people talk about the darker side to FF14 storytelling. I wish they could lean into it a bit more though but I understand why they can't.
Endwalker could have been a good expansion if they spread it out and made meteion something more than a last-second patch-on "twist" ...there were good concepts throughout, but it was marred with so little time to develop such wide-reaching villains, even packing the strongest being in the universe (presented so far anyway) into a little trial where he is somehow taken over by a villain nobody likes...and of course there was the worst villain in the game, xenon, a fine "bad guy" with no depth, no background, no development, who for some reason was brought back and allowed to have more nonsense moments with power that he should not have by any stretch of any bit of lore. A pity. Now we go on summer vacation instead of expanding what could have been good story.
I feel like if you were worried about the length of the video, you should have made it a multi-part series. You did so well with Dead Ends, but its length forced you to rush the other stories. Such as the scenes in Holminster Switch with the Sin Eater that killed Tesleen as well as the fight with the abomination she became. You bring Alisae to the fight, and the dialogue is even more meaningful.
When they took his arm I wanted to stay and fight… of course we could have oh so easily dealt with the entirety of the Brass Blades, the traitorous Crystal Braves, Lolorito and anyone else who opposed us… but we are heroes, and heroes don’t cause massacres worse than Cartenau… so we were resigned to flee…
The sorrow of Wright really is sad. It doesn’t take much for me to feel for a story so this game destroyed my emotions.