Let the quest for dragon befriend-ening begin.
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0:00 – Introduction
0:30 – QUEST: “Alphinaud’s Way” (continued)
6:32 – QUEST: “In Search of Iceheart”
15:37 – QUEST: “From One Heretic to Another”
18:08 – QUEST: “Sounding Out the Amphitheatre”
28:29 – QUEST: “Camp of the Convictors”
32:08 – QUEST: “Purple Flame, Purple Flame”
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Edited by Daniel Floyd
♫ “Pray Return” by Chris Logsdon
https://lnkfi.re/pray-return
#PlayFrame #FFXIV #FinalFantasyXIV #Heavensward
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I love Ishgard's stupidly long names. There is also "The Supreme Sacred Tribunal of Halonic Inquisitory Doctrine"
And my other favorite "The Saint Endalim Scholasticate" because this last word is fun to say
I love how efficient Heavensward can be with it's storytelling within that 1 minute cutscene at the start of the episode it establishes that there are different factions within Ishgard's military and that some among them don't give a crap about civilian or soldier lives, and more importantly how much Aymeric trusts and values Estinien. On one word from him he backs our plan
The number of aether currents in these older expansions was reduced and their locations were adjusted in a recent patch to make them less obtuse. So the ones in these zones may be a lot more obvious than you remember. There was one particularly infamous one in stormblood that was visible from the nearby aerheryte. But to get to the ledge it was on without assistance, you had to take a route half way around the zone.
And so we learn the true moral of Heavensward "Vore not War"
I love what a big softie Estinien is. Just five minutes ago he was warning us not to tell Aymeric what the plan actually involves, or it might get him accused of heresy. And now he's letting Aymeric use the Azure Dragoon's name to advertise the plan, so Estinien can take the fall if it all goes wrong.
Tbf, the aether currents’ placements were changed up through Shadowbringers specifically to make the ones you need to find easier to acquire. Endwalker’s are still very much on the trolling side tho sob. (There were two zones I needed someone to mount carry to get to the missing currents I needed. <<)
Am i… GORGANTE?
YAY TRAVEL TIME WITH THE WIFE HAS COMMENCED. 8D
32:18 Honestly I like the extra bits of information you give us, even if you don't do them in the playthrough. I'm not playing the game myself, so it's nice to hear about those details
I love that Alphinaud has to do more of the chores himself in these missions. We see him fight, get to know the land and even learn how to make a campfire!
Ah! The weirdest love story in gaming since Sonic '06! (That I'm aware of).
Durmin seeks to entreaty with the dragons, and your spoiler free lore comment is here to fill in details!
Tataru has found a job that she does without issue, and Alphinaud is warmer and more fashionable all for it!
Dan's initial confusion about the aether compass is that it used to be a key item in the inventory. It's now in the new "collections" section. You may notice that 5 aether currents seem low. That's because older content had their flying requirements reduced recently, to allow folks like Durmin an easier time to get flying. There are still the 5 quest aether currents, one of which is behind an optional dungeon in the Western Highlands.
The game shows two things that are important in the amphitheater fight. First, that the heretics have a ritual entailing the consumption of dragon blood, which results in a draconic transformation. The second is that if a nation deems its enemies traitors of mankind, and are to be killed on site, and you are peace envoy from this nation, maybe bringing a renowned soldier with you doesn't indicate your intentions well. Ishgard would subject its own citizens to trial by witchdrop, why should the heretics believe any parlay from Estinien?
Iceheart paints a very different history of Coerthas and Drivania. The legends that all of Ishgard knows may be half of a story, but what assurance do we have that the tale of Shiva is true either? Over 1000 years has passed since the start of the Dragonsong War. Who has the knowledge of the past?
Voice actors!
Nicholas Boulton, who also voices Raubahn,
as Zephirin
7:27 New clothes provided by Tataru! I love it when she aids the group. She got into weaving for a reason, and she is indeed the best. (I also now have the headcanon that in-universe, any further Durmin glamours are provided by Tataru, even if it's actually an anonymous player.)
11:20 On aether currents, there actually used to be 8 currents to find in 3.0, 4.0, and presumably 5.0 areas prior to Endwalker (I was stuck on the Free Trial prior to December, so I am not exactly sure.) While there's still 8 in current areas, they trimmed the search when the current expansion launched by half so you can now find them in places where you would normally travel. The aether compass also used to be a key item instead of a collectible.
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Given the small focus on Zephirin, I can finally touch up on him. He showed up last episode, but covering three Knights in detail would have made the wall of text much longer so I opted to exclude him.
Ser Zephirin de Valhourdin is a great admirer of the Archbishop, having dreamed of serving as one of his Knights, but he also desired to follow in the footsteps of his father. His true claim to fame was entering a Temple Knights' grand tourney at the age of 15, where his victory won the applause of the crowd. He was the favored candidate for the position of Lord Commander of the Temple Knights, but obviously that did not go to pass. His integrity and skill, however, allowed him an invitation to the Heavens' Ward by one of its Knights, which he gladly accepted.
Zephirin fights with a great sword, a stigmatized weapon wielded by dark knights, to compensate for his small stature even by Elezen standards. This concern did not sway him off of using it.
I just want to say that I LOVE Alphinaud's new drip: he actually looks like a protagonist now 😎
I don't mind the extra details on game mechanics, like the Aetheryte stuff. I'm here for the story first and foremost but I will never say no to seeing and learning about examples of game design.
This is such an interesting series I know some of it is voice acting and just polish time but the scripting quality feels so dramatically improved in this update.
When there is a blizzard in the Western Highlands, like the one that has plagued Durmin through most of this episode, you can still make out the flaming beacon atop Falcon's Nest through the wall of snow. I like to imagine that is why it exists: to help wayward travelers find their way home in a storm. (Especially ones that don't have magical GPS-accurate maps like Players do.)
Just another charming detail I've noticed in my wanders.
A shame you won't be doing the sidequest chains for each area, but there's at least a few areas I would love to see you do at least some of them. The first Stormblood zone, for example, since that deals with a thing that's a big plot point in the post-Stormblood patches. And a certain Shadowbringers questchain involving a certain lil fella would be nice too. (scree!)
As a fellow Lala player: The camera struggles in these scenes with Estinien are real x'DD
Dan, is it safe to assume that your "One… Two… Three" while retrieving the heretical documents was a deliberate reference to the 70s Tootsie Pop commercial with the owl? Because your particular intonation felt like a deliberate reference to the 70s Tootsie Pop commercial with the owl in it
One of the Aether Current quests in Stormblood is actually super important cause it sets up stuff for Shadowbringers.
It’s so funny sometimes seeing the camera struggle to cope with the different heights – I play a 7 foot tall roegadyn, so scenes between my character and Alphinaud, let alone the various lalafel, can be… entertaining. It does a surprisingly good job, honestly.
0:25 Convoluted names are kind of an Ishgard thing. I'm not sure if that's the Church influence, the elf one, or the French. I give it even odds, personally.
7:37 Tataru's ultimate attack: makeover assault! I swear, Alphie has more wardrobe changes than any of the other Scions than possibly the WoL. And Y'shtola, though in her case there's one that keeps coming up…
31:03 And there's our reminder of Ishgard's issues.
37:09 Yes, that literally happened, and the vore is canonical.
Something I always find delightful about Estinien – in many ways, he’s such an idiot (I say with great affection), but he’s actually remarkably emotionally intelligent and perceptive – if he has an opinion on another character, he’s more often than not right. He’s like a dnd character with terrible wisdom and worse charisma, but somehow a +15 to insight, it’s great.
One wonders if carting that eye around is such a solid idea given the circumstances – not just for the obvious reason that the value in keeping it out of Ishgard is gone, but also because the empathic connection suggests One Ring style drawbacks to continued possession (in the sense of 'it starts warping its holder psychologically', not the whole 'turning into Gollum' thing. Not physically at any rate).
Couldn't you just call it operation friending the dragons? Shorter and more to the point, like durmin his size ^_^
If you worried so much about alphinaud, why not just make him some comfy and warm clothing yourself? Your friends are capable enough after all 😀
….I never knew about that aether current button. I always just checked it from the menus at the bottom of the screen. Also, yay, Alphinaud's new outfit! Love this look for him. It's really what I associate with the change in VA and subsequent character growth. His old outfit is for how he acted and sounded in ARR, and this new one is like for a totally different person
8:07 Oh, Tataru, you're going to be terrifying later, aren't you? I'm kinda into it, ngl.
"Goor-GAN-yuh." Although "Goor-Gain" is a suitable enough anglicization, I suppose.
16:08 You have an excellent vocabulary, Ser Knight.
You actually had Pierriquet 90% right, I'd say: "PYERR-ih-KAY."
Bwahaha! There it is! Gathering Firewood Part One: The Prologue!