After finishing Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn I said that Heavensward couldn’t possibly be better. Was I ever wrong about FF14!
Newest Patron: Malakai – Acco’s Coffee Club Member
Newest Member: Guy Gard – Warrior of the Beard
Newest YouTube Sub: Thorindir Naari
TipJar: https://mercury.streamelements.com/theaccolonn/tip
Subscriber Goal: ||||||||||||||| 94% ||||||||||||||. 47K/50K
Patreon Goal: ||||||||||||||| 66% |||||………. 99/150
YouTube Memberships: ||||||||||||||| 73% |||||||…….. 110/150
Live On Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/accolonn
Become a Patron: https://vod.run/p/4417583
Become a Member: https://vod.run/j/UCiYLmBHW28jyTt0vBUFuK5A
Join The Discord: https://discord.gg/FgCRKVRSYE
#ACCOLONN #FFXIV #FinalFantasy
source
If you want extra Hauchefant lore there is little bonus stories about him on the Lodestone website <3
(No spoilers here)
Believe it or not, FFXIV isn't nearly done getting better. I know I didn't believe it when I was finishing Heavensward but now I feel like I was being naive lol. I think most people agree Stormblood isn't quite as good as Heavensward (still really good though), but Shadowbringers made me rethink how I judge what even counts as a good videogame story. Or a good story period for that matter. And while for me personally Endwalker isn't quite as good as Shadowbringers judged individually, it's difficult to imagine a better way to close out the overall story and it really does close it out with a truly proper ending.
Accolonn: I was wrong thinking ARR is the best.
Me: I knew. I always knew. But I'm happy to hear it nonetheless
WHAT?? Not understanding Matoya is top tier waifu???? Yee of little taste u_u
For most the expansions the pattern has basically been this:
X.0 tells the base story to full typically leading to something that changes the state of the world
X.1, 2, 3 deal with events that are direct fall out of that world change, essentially a mini arc between the bigger X.0 arcs. These can touch on dangling plot thread left by the X.0 story.
X.4, 5 shift gears as a lead in to the next expansion, teasing story elements of such
X.5X final (be it whatever number they decide on) is a last minute full connection to the expansion.
Repeat
Buckle up coz it gets better and better! By the time you're caught up to current, you're gonna need therapy lol, but in a good way 😆
Hey Accolonn love watching your stuff, anyway you gave you're opinion of the game itself but I'd like to hear what classes/jobs you're playing and your opinion on them.
Acco you are gonna get flipped on your head. ARR and Stormblood are about on the same tier but Shadowbringers, Endwalker, and Heavensward are far beyond their reach.
Small correction: we actually frist meet Haurchefant in ARR itself around the lvl40 MSQ when we search for Cids airship – its almost right after the massaker at the Waking Sands. We save his friend, Francel Haillenarte, and is actually eager to repay us. Other than that, yes, he's just an amazing man who helps those in need, a Knight 🙂
Heavensward… it was just such an amazing story. And also one of personal growth for our character. In ARR we get to hear jokes about us being taciturn, a "nodder", but the reason seems to be quite simple, and on-point: we dont know s**t! Yes, we are good at fighting and killing stuff, and, oh yeah, we have this Echo-thingy, wheee!, but other than that, we dont anything about Eorzea, about the world. While our friends know a great deal about pretty much everything: they are scholars, from a nations that is founded by scholars. So there just isnt much for us to say. In HW this changes drastically: even though Alphinaud is with us (and he's not shy with words), we have to speak for ourselves, probably for the first time since our adventure started. We cant "hide" anymore behind our comrades to find the correct words. We have to do what we feel and think is right. And dont do too much of a shabby job at that 🙂
I can assure you: nothing that concernes world building, is ever without reason 🙂 Everything gets tied up with a neat little bow and put in its place. Nothing, literally nothing, ever gets forgotten here. And when I noticed that the first time… I was hooked – in the best possible way 🙂
PepeLaugh
I've had FFXIV since 1.0 but HW is why I permanently left WoW and never looked back. There was a huge content drought in Warlords and I decided to go back to FF for a visit, I mean you can only sit in your garrison with your thumb up your ass for so long. For me this is when FF really hit its stride for story telling and endgame raiding. The story gutted me in ways I never thought possible for an MMO, the gearing system wasn't as treadmilly, the raids were an absolute spectacle, the mechanics were fun and engaging. I was even lucky enough to get a house. Spoiler but not a spoiler: Remember Haurchefant's final words, you'll need them to help a new friend in Shadowbringers.
ARR and Storm blood regularly get dunked on as lows, but the truth is that they are being compared to juggernauts within the FF14 bubble.
Both are still pretty damn good in they own right.
Be prepared for a little bit of a return to the pacing issues in Stormblood but look forward to the incredible highs that are still there.
Also, to say they hit their stride with dungeons in HW is going to be another moment of "Ohhhh…". They've just started to jog. Storm blood is where they really start to codify the visual language of their fight mechanic design and start to full on sprint with dungeon and trial environmental design. Set pieces from here on out start getting KraaAZeeeEe.
Am I the only one who thinks homeboy shouldn’t have tried to block that energy blast with a level 1 shield?
hey dude 1st this i love ur content very fun so did wanna point out that the heavesward msq has been shorten by alot and honestly i find it better this way bc it makes the story that more beautiful
The MSQ major content patches can be described as: [X].1-[X].3 is a combination of Epilogue + short story (with its own climax), while [X].4 and [X].5 are the prologue for the next expansion. And I love that. Honestly, doing it that way means they don't have to hype up the next expansion much because the those last two patches are already doing it. After all, it's hard to resist not committing to a story when you've experienced the prologue.
No spoilers, but if you want to see how your WoL really feels about the events in the Vault, you need to do the Dark Knight Job quests. The Stormblood "era" DRK quests delve rather deeply on the subject.
EDIT: What are you talking about? Matoya is awesome! She's able to go toe-to-toe with Ms. Sassy Cat herself Y'shtola and bring her down (several) pegs with ease.
Final EDIT I swear: What did you think about the fact that Heavensward's dungeons guarantee you a piece of that dungeon's set when you finish it?
That's another one in the notch for twitch chat. Keep up the good work, we need more cape westwind and matoya for wow refugees.
This is how it works:
x.0 is a full story arch
x.1 – x.3 is the epilogue
x.4 – x.5 is the prologue for the next expansion
My friend, you're in for a treat when you continue the story. Stormblood is overall narratively less good than Heavensward, but has part that are really damn good (and is written by the person who wrote most of the best quests in the game, like the Dark Knight questline).
After that though, with Shadowbringers and Endwalker the story just gets better from there. If you think Heavensward gave you feels, better buy some tissues for what is to come.
You are right in saying that Heavensward is where the developers found their stride in how to do a lot of things. Not only main story, but also how to design the 8 man and 24 man raids. You'll often see them experimenting with some new things in a new expansion, and then evaluating how that went and take the lessons along to the next expansion.
Be sure to do the side content like the 8 and 24 man raids as well. While it is optional, some parts come back later as well, sometimes even multiple expansions later. If there is a hanging plot thread, expect it to be picked up at some point.
I loved ARR but saying that nothing can beat it feels a bit like bait haha!
"Nothing can beat ARR"
Me: oh sweet summer child.
Bruh I can't wait for you to finish endwalker. Expecting a long ass video about the whole story in completion.
At 7:00 you'd be totally right, as during ARR they were still carrying over the corpse of the 1.0 story, and it was only with the release of 3.0 that they fully set their sights and made up their mind on the story that ended in endwalker. Stated by yoship himself in an interview.
4:30 or so. Yeah, Alphinaud is feeling sorry for himself when it's his fault, which is annoying. But building from that, and a repeated theme throughout the storylines, is "So. You fucked up. Now…. what are you going to do about it?"
Heroes, or at least characters striving to be better, own up to it. They apologize, they acknowledge their own mistakes, and more importantly, they begin to actively make amends if they can. It's not enough to just say "OK, my bad, now what's for dinner?" Apology — and not the "I'm sorry you're upset" kind — is just the first step. Now, fix the mess you made!
Villains double down, blame someone else, and/or just walk away and avoid the issue.
The best real world example is ARR itself. SE didn't just say "Sorry you lame-ass gamers don't appreciate our perfect game." They apologized sincerely, then they spent ~18 months of development time, during which they made virtually no income from the game, to produce a new, much better, game. Naming no names, but certain other gaming companies seem to think the best response to criticism is to deflect, ignore, and then try to appease by dangling a shiny new mount, and calling it a day.
Wonderful review, but you're missing a critical strength of Heavensward. The music. A lot of players new to the franchise are missing this because they've been trained to see it as an afterthought, but it IS and ALWAYS WILL BE a supporting character in an FF game. 14 is no different.
Jealous of you.
You think ARR was good, & yes Heavensward is better, but you are about to continue on a journey what will stay with you the rest of your life.
Haurchefant's last words will always make me tear up, just like the last words from Cowboy Bebop.
I devoured most of the Aar in a month, HW in three weeks, Stormblood three weeks, Shadowbringers 1 month. Pretty much just couldn't put it down. I did the same thing when I found good books.
Heaven's Ward just takes you out back and emotionally beats you. While just telling an amazing story. It grows the world and you. Plus effing dragons son. Dragons done justice in a story.
Throughout the rest of Stormblood, Shadowbringers, and Endwalker there are just moments of brilliance in writing. You'll come to care for the people in the world. When Square comes close to teasing death scenes you'll cuss them for even considering it.
I can't wait til we can have a conversation about the overall narrative one day. That day you can explain to Alpoccolaypse how much he's missing if he enjoys a great story.
Heavensward is amazing. But I will say though for the expansion after HW, Stormblood is a hit or miss for a lot of people, and is one of the weaker story's telled, but the post msq for SB is pretty good. Some like it, others don't, I personally thought it was ok.
If you loved arr this game is going to be in your top 5 favorite games forever