A retrospective and recap of Final Fantasy XIV Shadowbringers’s main story. It’s every bit as good as everyone who’s ever pestered you to get into FFXIV has told you, and in this 2-hour video, we’ll talk about why!
Check out the full series here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQXfu05eoFMhwGwU1mGs6fv3GxawMe_g2
This whole thing came about as I wanted to go back through the story in the run up to Dawntrail’s release. FFXIV’s entire 10-year long story arc surrounding Hydaelyn and Zodiark came to an end with the fourth expansion, Endwalker, and I wanted to take a look back and see what it did well, and where it could be improved. This retrospective series is based on a more casual perspective of someone playing the game as a (mostly) single-player JRPG, as opposed to going over every aspect of the MMO (which would take SIGNIFICANTLY longer!). So get ready to visit a whole new world, as we revisit Shadowbringers in 2024!
These videos will be released weekly until we’re all caught up with the current pre-Dawntrail storyline. Afterwards, I’m undecided. I’ve got a few plans – either more Final Fantasy retrospective content (and probably other games as well!), or I might look at making a series where I take on the obscenely time-consuming task of getting every achievement in Final Fantasy XIV – it takes several YEARS to finish!
Either way, I hope you enjoy these videos and consider subscribing to the channel, and don’t forget to turn notifications on so you don’t miss any future uploads and posts!
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Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
01:07 Journey to the First
17:07 The Warrior of Darkness
25:24 The Fae Folk
31:51 Emet-Selch and Ancient Ruins
41:47 The Oracle of Light
49:01 Lord Vauthry
01:03:26 Shadowbringers Endgame
01:17:20 Post-Shadowbringers Quests
01:46:58 Pre-Endwalker Quests
02:00:20 Final Thoughts and Outro
#FinalFantasyXIV #FFXIV #Shadowbringers
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Hey everyone!
I just got done watching the Xbox Showcase, came back here and was greeted with a bunch of super nice comments from everyone excited for this video, so all I can say is THANK YOU! It's such a nice feeling, knowing people are enjoying and looking forward to my content!
This is a long one and I'm really happy with how it turned out (apart from my voice getting a bit worn out towards the end)!
I was kicking myself a little bit about not including the role quests, raids, and trials, but I'm not ruling out revisiting those for a future video.
Look out for a post on the community tab about when the Endwalker video will be ready – I'm aiming for this time next week, but it might take a few days longer.
Thanks again, and I look forward to reading all your comments!
It wasnt obvious for me who the exarch was. and it wasnt to a lot of ppl that played that game when it was current cointent. back then the crystal tower raid series was optional, a lot of ppl didnt even do that.
You know, I jsut realised… isn’t light Esther jsut… aether??? Itsnt 1: the Cristal tower meant to absorb Esther from the SUN??? And doesn’t it have a gateway to the dank dimension??? Who need a glow up anyways?
I wanted to add something small to your opening. I think it was maybe an unintentional stroke of genius to have Biggs and Wedge open the expansion, since they and their bloodlines were responsible for stopping the calamity this time. If I remember right, Cid was not alive to help.
I also heavily disagree with skipping or that it should be free. One, lets put it into perspective. How many months does a newbie take to go from ARR to Shadowbringers, even with dilligent play? If you are really desperate to just skip to that part of the story, then you are actively choosing to have less new game to play and moving forward several months of progress. Furthermore, if skips were free, people would miss out on background details which actually make the story more rewarding. A prime example is how Jessie Cox correctly guessed back in ARR that the Crystal Tower could be used like Auricite. That didnt happen until Shadowbringers, but he is pretty friggin proud of guessing that. Without context, of what you're protecting or just who certain characters like G'raha are, I think you lose a lot.
Fandanial was incredible I loved him it was a nice change of pace for FF14 we needed him he was the perfect mirror for Zenos
Wonderful video as always. Currently working on the post msq for endwalker just for DT's launch so I'll have to skip the next video til I'm done with it. Always tear up when it comes to the post msq quest with seto and ardbert due to losing my dog around the same time. Makes me think of him as not being gone but on a new adventure himself, miss ya Frankie, you were the best.
I’d love to hear you make a retrospective of the raid series’ stories, or eureka/bozja
Shadowbringers:
Decent story, but the expansion killed the gameplay.
I will never forget the moment when Vauthry transformed into the innocence.. The really "Oh no he is hot moment"
The "more" to Ranjit is learning he has been essentially the head of the secret service that has always "protected and guided" and trained all of the Minfilias since his father's death, his father having filled that roll before him. I thought that was super cool. It also highlights how old Ranjit actually is, considering he is essentially "just" human. He has to be nearly 100 years old, and still matches the young buck Thancred blow for blow every time.
wait what? No cerveza cristal add during Ardbert's speech?
44:02 I think i got lucky with this segment of the story. From the start of post SB til right before this, id super-binged the MSQ before burning out and taking a break for like 2 weeks, came back right into this part fresh <3
I made shadowbringers so much harder on myself during my playthrough. I kept referring to Ardbert as my ghost boyfriend and… i cried. A lot.
I think it was either three or four month until Shadowbringers was when I join but the mean reason I had join was a friend told me they where removing the GARO event. So after that long PVP event grind by the time I got all the gears and mounts my paladin job was lvl 75. then I when back to the MQS so when coming to Shadowbringers so everything was still fresh for me and ya this expansion deserve the hype it get's.
In order for Zenos to be compelling, there has to be an equally compelling explanation for how he ended up becoming the irredeemable villain he is. There isn’t one. I challenge you to come up with one. This is my biggest critique with stormblood and also your otherwise excellent video analyzing it. I challenge you: change my mind about the dollar tree Arthas character that is Zenos
Wait, your Shadowbringers video is up!? Dude, amazing work.
omg ! The Exarch saw Alisaie and Y'shtola naked !!
For the story of the echo was not retconned btw, the WoL is special.
My friend watched me play through all of FF. She had completed Endwalker basically as I was partway through Heavansward.
APPARENTLY my penchant for legitimately calling a few plot points in advance got to her. She also was surprised that I even remembered Graha's name before "The reveal"
When I pointed out that the Crystal Tower being there made it fairly obvious it was him,, it kind of floored her. The time-travel and alternate reality stuff in Final Fantasy XIV is kind of… I don't wanna say basic, because Ocarina of Time exists, but after doing all of Warframes story quests and literally being tested on the concept of somethig called Eternalism in a classroom setting really does change a few things.
I'm greatly looking forward to when Endwalkers' drops, and I'd love to see you do a video like this for each of the Raid series or alliance raids, or both. As well as possibly the Field Duties, because people sleep real hard on Eureka.
Fun Fact the Warriors Elidbus summons in the seat of sacrifice are the party members or at least some of them from Final Fantasy 4.
The Lala's that he summons use twincast and the only characters to ever use twincast was Palom and Porom, since we don't have children in the game they must of used them as their models for it, both were a white mage and a black mage.
There is a Dark Knight that is clearly Cecil, if you look closely it's very similar to his actual dark knight gear.
The Bard can Cast holy just like Rosa, and used a bow, and plays a white mage in 4, The Bard and the Dark Knight actually come out togethor which I believe was to symbolize the two being together.
and when the Wyrm is summoned it looks like FF4's version of Bahamut that Rydia summons. but has the color of DArk Bahamut from 4.
The Ninja is very clearly Edge because it uses Water and Fire.
the Warrior there is likely Cid, he mainly used hammers, but could wield axes as well.
Shadowbringers feels like a big nod to Cecils story but flipped.
I personally still think that Base Shadowbringers was by a cery tiny touch worse than base Endwalker.
But that was it.
The patch quests of ShB continued to shine while EW patch quests had somewhat awfull pacing.
Not to mention the rest where ShB did an amazing job from the Eden and the optional trails as well as Bozja.