It begins.
Support us on Patreon! ► http://patreon.com/playframe
___________
HEAVENSWARD series playlist! ► https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvFQJa1XAXzxn_u1C-6_3DX0yH-siBFoj
FULL SERIES playlist! ► https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvFQJa1XAXzzXrfl_cbsGvEl4AbTt5SMG
___________
0:00 – Introduction
0:31 – QUEST: “Griffin, Griffin on the Wall”
16:45 – Dungeon: Baelsar’s Wall
27:20 – QUEST: “Griffin, Griffin on the Wall” (continued)
44:10 – QUEST: “Louisoix’s Finest Student”
___________
Want to join our Free Company? See the unofficial PlayFriends Discord for details! ► https://discord.gg/PlayFriends
___________
Check out the PlayFrame Store! ► https://store.dftba.com/collections/playframe
Dan’s Twitter (@DanFloydPlus) ► https://twitter.com/DanFloydPlus
Carrie’s Twitter (@CarrieFloyd) ► https://twitter.com/CarrieFloyd
PlayFrame Twitter (@PlayFramePlus) ► https://twitter.com/PlayFramePlus
To hear Dan talk MUCH more about game animation, check out New Frame Plus! ► http://www.youtube.com/c/newframeplus
___________
Edited by Daniel Floyd
♫ “Pray Return” by Chris Logsdon
https://lnkfi.re/pray-return
#PlayFrame #FFXIV #FinalFantasyXIV #Heavensward
source
Durmin so adorable.
Oh no, first 10 seconds and it's already ominous foreshadowing x_x
Happy Final Fantasy Friday, everyone 🎉
Imma be completely honest: I'm beginning to scrape the bottom of the barrel with coming up these questions, given by lack of final fantasy knowledge and experience. So would y'all be mad if I changed it to Square Enix Friday?
Alphinaud is tactically always wondering into things…
Spoiler for this episode, just in case.
–
–
–
–
–
I think it's really a nice touch that every time an archon sacrifices themselves they always smile while fading into the light in a similar way.
After hearing the “Sloppeh” notification from chat notification of other streamers for so long, I can’t distinguish it from actually being a voice line.
Here are all the players on free trial. We're all here, at the foot of Baelsar's wall, staring at Stormblood and screaming "Let me in. LET ME IIIIIIIIIIIIN"
I had to stop and grieve for a moment here. I did not expect that.
Also, if you choose to stay, Papalimo blasts you into the airship.
oh so he was the actual Griffin, i thought it was going to be the other way around
18:55 It's the FF6 in-game (battle and map) version of the Magitek Armor, while the earlier versions you find in ARR are based on Yoshitaka Amano's artwork for FF6.
As Final Fantasy VI is one of my personal favorites and one that receives very little attention from Square Enix (aside from the occasional remaster), I am glad with the amount of little references it gets in FF14 =)
“Monk is fun, even when you’re doing it badly!” Can concur, did have fun leveling Monk for my Tifa retainer’s levels even tho I deserved like none of my commendations while playing it. :’D
At last, the confrontation with Sir Sloppy himself! This particular voice line became quite the meme for a very long while. To this day, there are adherents to the ways of the sloppy. Probably.
Laurentius and Yuyuhase continue to just be the fucking worst.
(spoilers for the episode below)
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
And then, there's the cashing in of Papalymo's very obvious by this point death flag. Two things to note about this: first, one of the housing items added in this patch was a painting of Yda and Papalymo called "Forever Friends" with the description "A commissioned oil painting of Papalymo and Yda─Archons, Scions, heroes…and friends. Original artist unknown." The description kinda makes the death flag even more glaringly obvious for anyone reading it prior to going through Baelsar's Wall. Secondly, the "School's Out Forever" achievement you get for doing the patch 3.5 quests gives you the title "Louisoix's Finest Student". For context, the achievement title you get for beating the Final Coil of Bahamut is "The Final Witness", so the English localization team payed tribute to that by originally giving you the title "Papalymo's Final Witness". The idea being, like master, like student. You probably see the issue here that caused them to change the title to "Louisoix's Finest Student" as soon as possible, right? It kind of ruins Baelsar's Wall a bit, going to unlock it and seeing a bunch of players standing around with a title that's essentially "Papalymo Dies In This Patch". Spoiler alert, anyone?
In case you're wondering about the other option: If you choose to stay at Papalymo's side, he turns to look at you gratefully…and blasts you with a spell to knock you backwards onto the ship as it flies off.
Well, F to pay respects to The Highest-Pitched Student (not so much in Heavensward, admittedly). It sucks to only get him back for one and a half patches, but it is what it is. For those of you reasonably miffed about Moenbryda getting fridged for Urianger's development or Ysayle getting uh…not so much fridged as freezered, I suppose, given how she went, and were worried that this would disproportionately happen to female characters, here's Papalymo getting fridged for Yda's development. Gender equality! Yay! …Yay…I already miss him.
What kind of Primal do you think will form once the cocoon breaks? I won't say whether I was right or wrong, but my guess was a primal version of Rhalgr, given that one dying soldier's last words. In any case, the saga of the Eyes that won't stop fucking up everything continues!
Holy shit Baelsar's Wall already?? I knew we were close but STILL!
And now Smol Talky Friend is gone too?!
Seeing this stuff in context makes playing Dissidia Opera Omnia, where I first met them, interesting. One of the plot points of that game is that characters are summoned from different points in their stories, so some characters know about things that will happen that others don't. Alisaie and Alphinaud are from Stormblood's timeline, while Y'shtola, Yda, Papalymo and Thancred are all from ARR, which is understandably painful for our twins.
Baelsar's Wall is a fun dungeon. The added voiceover for The Griffin really does help sell the fight. And the cutscene afterwards always gets me. And I'd be VERY surprised if there were three episodes remaining for Heavensward. I was originally thinking the next episode would be the finale, but 3.55 is probably still a couple hours' worth of story, so perhaps two long episodes will cap off this expansion
… okay, War Machines are just straight up The Spider Slayer from the Spider-Man comics/cartoon. That is all I see.
21:10 My strat for this miniboss mechanic is to sheathe my weapon and take my hands off my keyboard.
When you reach the very top of the wall just before the dungeon's boss, you can look to the East to see the places you'll explore in Stormblood! …Some of them, anyway. Most of it is obstructed by fog and shadow, so you can only make out the two tallest landmarks outlined on the horizon.
(Also, Dan, if you're reading this you should absolutely use Limit Break since you're a melee class. Not just for gameplay, it's also a cinematic as heck thing for Durmin to do! The Dantalis crew never seems to use it, so I'm guessing they're leaving it on the table for you to pick up if you want it!)
28:24 Recognize these two? The last of the traitorous Crystal Braves that were unaccounted for. They escaped with Ilberd after he failed to execute Raubahn.
36:08 Wow I did not realize until now the song that plays here is the same as the one before V1.0 was shut down and Bahamut appeared. This game is all about musical theming, isn't it?
Alisaie is definitely my 2nd favourite character now, right behind Y'shtola. We're cut from similar cloth.
13:19 Would you have preferred "hey, bitch"? Hilda is good.
23:29 Called it (it was gonna be this line, but when he obligingly took off his mask I deleted it). "no matter the cost", eh? Shame you didn't get to kill him the first time.
What a maniac…
At the rate we're burning through Scions, by Endwalker it'll just be Alphinaud, Alisaie, and the WoL.
Playfriends, contrary to Dan, I have a bad feeling about this. This is your spoiler free lore comment.
I had forgotten to note: Patch 3.5, The Far Edge of Fate, was released in January 2017.
Both Krile and Y'shtola are exemplary conjurers, but let's not forget that Clemence & Ocher are also conjurers as well. It feels apt that an organization that conducts quick response has so many healers.
Yda's confliction with the current situation is perfectly reasonable. Lots of folks in Eorzea would love to see Ala Mhigo liberated from Garlean occupation, but touching off open warfare before forces are ready is a recipe for disaster. You can appreciate the end goal while also finding the methods terrible.
11:45 – Alphinaud's concern about the Griffin's strategy was well founded. His threat of breaching Baelsar's Wall prompted a full Alliance deployment. An entire army has assembled. So now he sparks off the assault that he promised, while wearing the colors of the Alliance. From the Garlean view, Eorzea mustered their finest regiments, and then promptly launched an attack. War will be the response, and The Griffin has what he wanted. Alphinaud will try to halt the violence, but when all the chess pieces are arranged, it's hard to stop the wheels of war once the shooting starts.
23:26 – The Griffin is revealed! Honestly, I'm pretty sure just about everybody figured that out before this reveal. If you haven't noticed, his combat barks are a bit of a meme among the community, particularly "sloppeh". His ability, Lionshead/Corrosion, should look familiar to Durmin. He's seen a similar ability used by another Ala Mhigan: Flame General Raubahn Aldynn. The Bull of Ala Mhigo used a similar attack, Immortal Flame, during the Grand Melee. This explains how Durmin is able to deal with Ilberd's techniques so easily (that, and he has the echo, and is The Warrior of Light).
And now, Durmin bears witness to Ilberd's 3rd plan. He's honestly played this all quite well. Not even the Scions' intervention has stopped him. Laurentius is back (he was the double dealing wood wailer who Durmin recruited to the Crystal Braves, only to be betrayed again), and is willing to do whatever it takes to free Ala Mhigo. Step 1: Kill a bunch of Ala Mhigans. This display of power isn't just to show that Ilberd's plan is far more convoluted than we thought, but also to show that the magitek that Durmin has faced is just the tip of the iceberg of the Garlean war machine.
Nidhogg's Eyes return, the power of one of the First Brood. And as Thordan had shown, packed full of aether. Aether and belief. Belief can take many forms, and Ga Bu showed that desperation is sufficient. For Ilberd, the infinite destruction of a Primal, backed by the tempered army of the Alliance, was going to be his master stroke. And he didn't even have to be alive for it to work.
So passes Ilberd Feare, a man who would become a villain & a butcher all for a single dream. The dream that is the liberation of Ala Mhigo.
35:58 – "Answers" is a great song, but the point here is to remind you of the destruction Bahamut wrought. Durmin faced a dead version of the Primal last time. This invokes the destruction of the 7th Umbral Calamity. And this time, Papalymo has casted himself in the role of Louisoix, with full knowledge of what happened to his mentor.
39:02 – This is the illusion of choice. Should you try to stay with Papalymo, he will blast you back with wind magic, right onto the airship's boarding ramp.
Papalymo faces a being far lesser than the Elder Primal Bahamut, and even with a fraction of Tupsamati in his possession, his spell holds, unlike Louisoix's. As Dan shows, Papalymo's enchantment is visible above Baelsar's Wall, night and day. His enchantments are all that his friends have left of him. Enchantments and memories. But how long will his enchantments hold?
So passes Papalymo Totolymo, Archon of Sharlyan, Scion of the Seventh Dawn, The Finest Student of Louisoix Leveilleur.
This concludes patch 3.5. As these X.5 patches go, the second half of the patch story is contained in patch 3.55.
I don't remember if I noted this before, but:
Antony Byrne, who voices Biggs, as Ilberd
Oh. Damn. That in video spoiler is hitting way harder than my first time around. ;;
that griffin fight is legendary
During the cutscene I recognized the music from your 1.0 primer video. I Haven't even played FFXIV but that moment gave me chills
Wow, I've noticed that these patches aren't hesitant to kill off characters to emphasise narrative beats. I didn't see a body, so I remain convinced Papalymo somehow survived and will return with a big damn hero moment at some point in the future. Then I believe he is secretly Yda's father, and the Griffin was going to be revealed as the real Yda, our Yda's mother lost to reason by her desire for revenge, so I don't advise trusting my judgement.
The Griffon…He claimed his drive was for Al Amhigo, but in the end it was just for himself.
The ideal was nothing more than a front to mask his rage.
Terrible things happened to him, so he blamed the world around him for everything. And in so doing, he caused more pain to befall others. A sad irony at best, a monstrous hypocrisy at worst.
He aimed to burn down the world around him to get what he wanted. A dangerous and wretched man.
19:00 The first boss is indeed an alternate design of Magitek Armor from FF6. You can see it in the battle after your first visit to Figaro Castle and again in the Imperial Outpost around Doma. In addition, the Sky Armor it summons are part of the Imperial Air Force in FF6, seen during the battle above the Floating Continent.
The second boss at 21:00 ish is the Armored Weapon (or Lethal Weapon) from FF6, seen in the Ancient Castle during the latter half of the game. I believe it can also be fought in the Coliseum.
0:10 Dan, you know what you did there…
23:40 Yes, yes it is.
29:04 You know, out of these three traitors (Ilberd, Yuyuhase, and Laurentius) I don't exactly hate Laurentius. I feel more disappointed in him. The WoL knows how he betrayed the Wood Wailers but still gives him a second chance. And then the other two convince him that this is what's best for Eorzea. It's just… disappointing.
35:58 And that was possibly the most disturbing scene in FFXIV so far.
Griffin, Griffin, on the wall
He was prepared to fall
To end his life, give his all
To force Eorzea to answer his call
s l o o p e h
oof, just oof
Baelsar's Wall is a pain to heal, at-level and at- or under-geared. That said, at is end is one of the most emotional scenes in the game. I wasn't particularly close to either character, but I'm a sap for deliberate, purposeful self-sacrifice.
Spoilers:
Papalymo's moon works better than Louisoix's, but in-lore that might be more because of a power difference. The full Bahamut that ended 1.0 had the faith of an entire nation of dragonkin behind him, summoned by Tiamat and reinforced by their prayers for millennia. On the other hand, this new primal has two dragon eyes and band of Ala Mhigan rebels, a much smaller pool to use. Louisoix cast the spell boosted by Tupsimati and the aether gathered by the Archons of the Circle. Papalymo, on the other hand, cast from hit points- using everything he has. In a very real sense, he IS that moon. You can actually see it in the sky until future events render it moot.
7:57 Hyuran names strike again, I see. "Ah-mair-ee-say", I'd say.
Mr. Sloppehh was so annoying to fight
23:26 Me: "fucking called it."
Rest of the duty finder party: "LMAO"
43:42 A return of the "triumphant music after a very tragic quest completion" disconnect.
So, this is another excellent few story beats. The writing team once again shows that they can make a character many people found so-so, if not outright annoying, beloved in a single scene with some excellent voice work, writing, visual direction, and music.
My first time through this I was hit hard by their use of Answers there, for many people playing FFXIV this will be the first time they've heard it, so it won't have quite the same punch, but if you've watched the End of an Era trailer or played through the Binding Coils of Bahamut then you'll be able to see the parallels they're going for and that makes the scene hit all the harder, at least to me.
I forgot that the song kicked in. That gave me goosebumps….Amazing how the game works music and sound into events to set the mood