Our deep dive on the first dungeon of Shadowbringers. Art Major Garrett and Dungeon Master Kyle present: Holminster Switch.
Support Garrett & Kyle on Patreon!: https://supportourbromance.com/
Clips Channel: https://youtube.com/grindinggearclips
Full Stream Archive: https://www.youtube.com/garrettandkyle
Merch: https://garrettandkyle.myspreadshop.com/
#GrindingGear #FFXIV
Follow Garrett & Kyle!
https://twitter.com/garrettart
https://twitter.com/kylefergusson
source
The bear is a symbol of pride (conceit) in strength, I think you were spot on about the wolves, and the folly of the scorpion comes from the parable of the frog and the scorpion. Or not, I just made all that up.
This is why I love watching your vids: the bromance and the thorough discussions on aspects of the game I usually see many people brush off in favor of talking exclusively about MSQ.
I'd also like to more introspective discussion on other games, such as Kyle's thoughts on Persona 5 on both story and game design level
You can definitely tell that Garrett is more engaged or sold on the experience nowadays. He used to find lots of the lore forgettable and now he's looking at Triple Triad cards for it. I also really liked the mini presentation on the background depth!
And I agree that the Sin Eater naming convention has always left me wondering. Imagine some poet guy proclaiming that the big teeth monster is called Forgiven Desire and everyone is like "Yeah that sounds good, we'll definitely use that in emergency situations"
Loved this video! Potential contextual spoiler for EW coming below the fold
I hope thats enough…
Man these two are gonna love dungeon 3 of EW
Yes! This is what I wanted, and the fact that there is a longer unedited version on your Patreon REALLY is tempting as hell.
There is something special about people who are able to talk in depth, detail, and passionately about their expertise (in this case Garrett and his art knowledge), and have it be digestible and enjoyable. This is all that, and I hope we get to see this more regularly
This is just another layer of what it is you guys bring to the table in terms of the content you produce and how you produce it.
Bruh… You guys answered a question I've always had but never cared enough about to look up…. What does TP stand for lol. I always just referred to it as stamina. Now I know it meant tactical points. And it was answered in a 3 second popup
.
you're not wrong about atmospheric perspective; i think its why many use gshade.. and i get it, you shouldn't need external sources to fix a game; BUTT! i have my fingers crossed that the graphics overhaul being worked on will be enough to enhance/fix this issues, they're planning on starting the roll out with new graphics around 7.0? i'm not sure, i think i read it in a PLL.. lets hope lol.
I'm loving your commentary on this so far, and I'm not finished yet, but one interesting thing I had to note. When you mention the gremlins, something I always thought was interesting about them is that they're actually voidsent. One would think they would not get along with Sin Eaters, which are basically their opposite. Though really… they're two sides of the same coin. Just beings corrupted by darkness instead of light. But still… I would think they wouldn't get along.
Edit: As far as the complaint about the fire/smoke not affecting anything, I think you hit the nail on the head in two different ways. For one, I think it was probably a design choice to reduce lag, but also lore-wise, you mentioned "I guess it could just be there's no wind and it's going straight up", which would actually make sense, because the "everlasting light" is actually replacing all normal weather. Without getting into anything you haven't learned yet in-game, think back to Kholusia – the water everywhere was still. No waves to be seen. There's windmills, but if I remember correctly (and I will be kicking myself if I'm wrong here), none of them are turning. The other elements have all been drowned out by light.
Before starting Shadowbringers: Yep we’re crossing over to save a new world what could possibly go wrong?
After finishing Shadowbringers: I can’t believe literally everything went wrong, good thing we’re finally home…
30:00
On the subject of Holminster and other dungeon’s difficulty on release, it was hell.
Square Enix wanted to shake up how tanks and healers worked for the new expansion so they removed a chunk of other methods of damage mitigation as well as nerfed healers, especially Astrologian, into the dirt.
Yes, in Stormblood it was a bit unnecessary for your Scholar, as an example, to throw out a well-timed Eye for an Eye or well placed Shadow Flare to lower enemy attack or slow.
It was perhaps overkill for your Astrologian to Royal Road their Bole onto the tank and use Time Dilation to make it and any other regens last even longer.
It was truly overkill that a Dark Knight could Dark Arts their Abyssal Drain with Blood Price and Sole Survivor up and be unkillable with infinite life drain.
Yea we barely needed that in Stormblood but when they remove all that and also nerf the amount your heals do, well… my cheeks were sufficiently clenched throughout every dungeon while I was leveling every tank and healer in those first weeks of Shadowbringers’ release.
*sees their story takes
Just smile and boys, smile and wave.
Is there any wind in early Shadowbringers? Iirc the weather is stuck as Eternal Light and makes even the air stagnant.
Outstanding video!
Fun little tidbit about the forgiven emnity, a lot of bosses/minibosses that share its model, the sort of bipedal chimera/dragon aesthetic, share a mechanic where they basically just ignore emnity and do their own stuff. I beleive the final bosses of stone vigil (hard) are a good example of this, but there are others of the same model that have similar mechanics, like chimeras all having their rams/dragons voice stuff going for them.
Gonna be honest here, this is my least favorite dungeon in the game. There isn't a single thing I like about it.
I hope they do this with "That" dungeon in Shadowbringers
I wanted to throw my hat in the ring here and say this is a wonderful video full of great breakdowns and interesting takes on set dressing and artistic flair to include in other games, but I will say that the lack of wind and therefore the lack of movement in the smoke and embers is very close to deliberate. The Exarch goes over the reflections and how the calamity is an over-abundance of an element, so the First is literally so oppressively full of the Light element that Wind, Water, Fire, Earth, and Darkness are choked out and heavily diminished. You see that flair throughout all of Holminster Switch. What should be an inferno spitting embers and spreading across all those hay bales is relatively confined, the water in the square should be a fairly quick torrent given the slope of the hill it comes from, but is barely recognizable as a lazy river effect. The plants that would normally grow in the presence of Earth and Water elements are diminished and grow very small, while the wind, which should be accentuating the damage of the fire that was started in the town is barely moving. The only things in this world that seem to have a movement direction of their own, unless acted upon by people, are particles of light, just like Garret noticed in the forest before the fields. Both sides of the coin are represented in the first dungeon, with the abundance of light, and the severe lack of everything else. This is a world close to its end, and the stillness is meant to stand out as uncomfortable because this is what a world with nothing but light would look like.
The absorbing of the Light Warden aether always reminded me of Dragon Age. A Grey Warden has to be the one to get the killing blow on an Archedmon, otherwise it will just be reborn in a nearby darkspawn
You guys are in for the ride of your video game lives. Shadowbringers might be the greatest story ever told in a video game, period; much less in an MMO. I'm excited to watch as you go on this journey.
All of Forgiven Dissonance's attacks are torture/punishment methods employed by inquisitions: Pillory, Brazen Bull, Thumbscrew, Wooden Horse.
Tesleen's attacks are much the same, but more specifically they are devices/techniques used to "purify" the victim: The Tickler, Scold's Bridle, Flagellation, Exorcise.
What a nerdy video, I love it.
Oh, you will LOVE that one dungeon (much) later.
Be prepared to drop your jaw.
I'm excited to see what your thoughts will be on the Future Dungeons. Since with Shadowbringer did they remove Optional Dungeons before the Level Cap(Unlike in ARR, Heavensward and Stormblood).
An Analysis of all Lightwarden and the Lore from their Triple Triad Card(TT) at the End of it all would be cool.
My interpretation of the whole "Forgiven" naming structure is that it's a form of ongoing gaslighting of the characters. It's taking a person's greatest ability and renaming it as a flaw that needs to be "forgiven". "Forgiven cowardice" is just people who wanted to *live*, and they're being called "cowards" when it's just another virtue that runs counter to the will of the Sin-Eaters.
It's part of the pattern of fundamental abuse that's going on with the absolute, unattainable Purity of the Light.
In regards to the bodies on the ground. Any wound from a sin eater will cause the wounded person to become a sin eater regardless of the severity of said wound. Which means the dead bodies on the ground, were not killed by the sin eaters. And those bodies are women and children mostly.
Gremlins are basically the Light version of Imps, the weakest and smallest.
The "Art Takes" were really cool – it helped me appreciate the game in a way I hadn't considered before! I would definitely be interested in seeing an art analysis video or something like that!
You definately noticed this point with how hard everything hit in the dungeon, but Shadowbringers is a bit of a difficulty spike
…Watching this. I had to pause at 24:17. I just noticed the similarities to (redacted). Holy shit.
Edit: As for the fire not going anywhere, that, I think can be blamed on how pervading the light is. There is literally no wind to move the fire. You can call it a lore reason why the fire isn't spreading.
If you took Alisaie with you in the dungeon, Tesleen will actually never directly attack Alisaie except for when Tesleen does Fevered Flagellation. Alisaie will also try to kill Tesleen herself with the LB1.
A definate welcome to shadowbringers. The expansion that made me shed manly tears like no other. I can't wait to see where you guys go from here because it looks like you're having alot of fun. Whether it's being a Garret and dissecting the art and what it means. Or you're Kyle and have a notepad off to the side with "Put this in my D&D campaign!"
About all the bodies scattered across the farmland, I remember going in with the assumption that sineaters left no bodies behind when consuming their prey. I honestly thought most of the dead we saw there died by their own hand out of desperation.
I don't know if this is ever concretely said, but about how the sineaters are named. It's always Forgiven 'something'. A theory I heard once was that the name/creature that came out of the thing that was corrupted represented the strongest emotion/sin the creature or person was going through at point of turning. So, the fleeing people become weak little flighty things and 'Forgiven Cowardice'. People running screaming become mangy mutts, 'Forgiven Clamour'.
Tesleen is just Forgiven.
Tesleen had no sin.
Just a little extra salt to rub into that wound.
I don't think I've ever seen content creators break down a dungeon like this before, I very much enjoyed this and there are a ton of dungeons in the future that I would love to see you guys tackle
When I reached this dungeon and as I was playing through all the dungeons after for the first time with duty support I started to think they turned up the difficulty substantially, possibly because they knew first time players can mess around with it in duty support where mistakes don't hamper anyone else's duty roulette. There was one dungeon right at the end of the msq of shadowbringers (level 79 or 80) that I wasn'y able to heal wall to wall pulls on at all because the trash was tough and I hadn't been paying any real attention to gearing my main job as I went. Also, by this stage you've played through so much final fantasy that even the casual content should be complicated enough to be interesting.
Congratulations, you just found out what you will keep doing after finishing the MSQ. I can imagine a series going through every single dungeon with this level of scrutiny. Especially old dungeons with the full knowledge of the story "to come" and pinpoint all the foreshadowing.
For the fire not spreading in the town I think there is no breeze to move the fire because the weather conditions are "light".
My theory about the animal-type monsters turned into white versions of themselves is that, some people believe that animals don't have souls or can't be inherently evil, so animals by that definition don't sin and also can't really be corrupted the same way humans could.
Gremlins are voidsent, so I think that perhaps the reason they aren't attacked is that they're basically the equivalent to sin eaters on the opposite side of the aether spectrum.