Time to get settled in to our new home.
Support us on Patreon! ► http://patreon.com/playframe
_______▼ PLAYLISTS ▼_______
SHADOWBRINGERS series playlist! ► https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvFQJa1XAXzy3c1tEecPlfLYC0gRwH8Xl
FULL SERIES playlist! ► https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvFQJa1XAXzzXrfl_cbsGvEl4AbTt5SMG
________▼ FREE COMPANY ▼_________
Want to join our Free Company? See the unofficial PlayFriends Discord for details! ► https://discord.gg/PlayFriends
________▼ TWITCH ▼_________
We’re also streaming on Twitch! ► https://twitch.tv/playframeplus
________▼ MERCH ▼_________
Check out the PlayFrame Store! ► https://store.dftba.com/collections/playframe
________▼ SOCIALS ▼_________
BlueSky:
https://bsky.app/profile/playframe.bsky.social
https://bsky.app/profile/danfloydplus.bsky.social
https://bsky.app/profile/carriefloyd.bsky.social
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/PlayFramePlus
https://twitter.com/DanFloydPlus
https://twitter.com/CarrieFloyd
To hear Dan talk MUCH more about game animation, check out New Frame Plus! ► http://www.youtube.com/c/newframeplus
_______▼ CREDITS ▼________
Edited by Daniel Floyd
Thumbnail art by Dan Jones
________▼ MUSIC ▼_________
♫ “Pray Return” by Chris Logsdon
https://lnkfi.re/pray-return
________▼ CHAPTERS ▼_________
0:00 – Introduction
0:34 – QUEST: “Travelers of Norvrandt”
#PlayFrame #FFXIV #FinalFantasyXIV #Shadowbringers
source
I adore the agessive accent of Feo Ul in the English VA, as well as just everything about them.
There's something oddly meta about the in-game environment always being bright as noon even when the clock says 5am
I always feel so sad for Ardbert and his team. They did everything right, and their only reward was to see their world devastated and were forever branded as villains.
Durmin is rocking that new do and look
It speaks to the quality of shb that even the obnoxious fairy companion is an absolutely beloved NPC whose introduction I celebrated with a gasp <3
Oh Ardbert. And here we see the beginning of him going from someone I want to smack to the only straight man I’d trust with my drink in a bar.
Alright we're finally getting into it. There are many things I absolutely love about shadow bringers, but I especially love that the msq regularly says "Hey, WoL you need a nap, go to the inn". Frequently we are told to sit and reflect on the state of things, good, bad, and strange. For now we have Ardbert, sad, and broken though he is, though it's hard to blame him. Things are fairly grim all around.
Also as a role player, the lack of easy access to the first is such a shame, since I'd love for the crystarium to be an RP hub.
Yay, Ardbert is here! my mvp of this expansion.
At first I wasn't that interested in the Warrior of Darkness. But I don't know what it was in this interaction, something with the desperation in his voice I think, but he felt more human to me. And now I'm more interested to see where they are going with his character.
Fun fact: Ardbert shares his English VA with Arenvald, something I never figured out until I was told.
I dunno, I just think it's neat.
12:31 The look of a man who has not forgotten the soul crushing grind of tomestones.
Durmin of the Dark Sword! Welcome to Big Sword Country!
Playfriends, this is going to be a lore heavy day. We've got a lot to cover in this spoiler free lore comment.
1:11 – Interestingly, this dialogue option wasn't present for all players. When Shadowbringers was released, the Crystal Tower Alliance Raids weren't mandatory, so mentioning characters from that story only shows up if you've completed those quests. Of course, now that content is mandatory, so these options show up for everyone. It makes sense to make it mandatory since the Crystal Tower's existence is the foundation of one of the major city states of this expansion. As for G'raha Tia's absence, The Exarch tore the Crystal Tower from the world we know and brought it here, but he admitted last episode that he didn't know where, or when, it came from. Given that the Crystal Tower disappeared beneath the earth during the 4th Umbral Calamity, there's a large portion of time of it being unaccounted for. Or possibly this Tower comes from the far flung future, well after G'raha Tia's guardianship. Whenever it's from, he isn't here now.
4:20 – While the Exarch talks about the other Scions, I need to clarify something that might confuse some folks. How does one count the days when the sky is always bright? How does one count the seasons? The simplest answer is that while the sky radiates light at all times with a constant intensity it doesn't seem to radiate a substantial amount of heat. You know the day/night cycles not by the lack of sun but a drop in temperature as the sun is no longer shining on the land. Similarly, the fact that nearly 90% of The First's surface has been flooded by light doesn't mean that the seasons have stopped. That's how the Exarch can count the winters since each Scion has arrived.
4:40 – The time shift between the Source and the First might also explain some of the discrepancies when pulling the Scions to this world. There may have been lag time between the casting of his spell and someone's arrival. It's entirely possible the Exarch casted all his attempts in quick succession, only to realize his errors later when the Scions began to arrive. We do know that The Exarch's gatcha luck is really bad. He nearly exhausted the roster of Scions before he got his SSR Warrior of Light.
4:52 – When you need a naked Scion, you've only got two choices. For comedic effect, we have Thancred, just like when he was in the Dravanian Forelands in Heavensward.
7:18 – Well, we've got a game plan. The Exarch wants us to save his world. For good fortune, Urianger and the others have determined that if we
save the cheerleadersave the First from the sin eaters, we save the Source. So Durmin is going to have to be pulling double duty now as the hero (and snack mage) of two worlds.11:30 Bad news, we're not going to be getting an entire quest dedicated to money changing, estimating the amount of precious metal in a coin, and conducting barter trade. Good news, if you want that kind of content, there's a new Spice and Wolf anime for all your medieval economic desires.
12:33 – You go to another world and the same old grind still comes with you. We're never getting away from tomestones.
15:10 – Feo Ul also serves as your messenger to your retainers. When you use a retainer bell here in The First, Feo Ul appears rather than your retainer, but all functions of sending them on ventures, selling your items, and generally using them as extra storage. A big note: Feo Ul, and all pixies, are genderless, and are localized with they/them pronouns.
18:00 – Shadowbringers adds something that I love to its story structure with the inn room: the passage of time. In ARR, your character functionally never stopped. You don't ever need to visit an inn, apartment, or house to sleep, you can just log off. But Shadowbringers introduces these moments to break up the story into more digestible segments by having your character go to an inn and have a cutscene. This allows for character beats, story moments, and downtime. It only ever lasts a cutscene but the implication is that your character rests. A day goes by for them. And I've found that players end up using these moments too. Whether it's a simple posture adjustment, grabbing some snacks and water, using the restroom, or just going right back into the inn and having their character crawl into bed to sleep and log out, the player base seems to appreciate these little breaks. And for my lore brain, it helps exemplify that all of this story isn't just happening in an afternoon. These expansions cover days, weeks, months. And all of that can take a toll on a little hero.
19:23 – Youtube says 541 days since we saw this fellow back in Heavensward, Episode 43. But time on the First flows differently.
26:08 – The Map of Norvrandt. Playfriends, have you noticed something? You've seen something very close to this map before. This is a map of Eorzea. Norvrandt's geography is almost a mirror of Eorzea, and it's easy to see that the locations the Scions have scattered to have analogues to Eorzea. The Crystal Tower sits near a lake in both worlds, with Lakeland being where Mor Dhona should be. In the alpine north, Il Mheg replaces Coerthas and Ishgard. To the east lies The Rak'tika Greatwood instead of the Twelveswood and Gridania. In the arid south, Amh Araeng is where Thanalan and Ul'Dah should be. And to the west lies the island of Kholusia, which replaces Vylbrand and Limsa Lominsa. When we call the shards "Reflections of the Source", this is one of the ways we mean it.
It's time for some extra lore! But first, a disclaimer. Since nearly the start of the lore comments, we've discussed the playable peoples of this game, with their cultures, differences, and names. But all of this lore only pertains to The Source. None of this is valid to The First. And honestly, much of the cultures that existed on The First are gone. The Flood of Light ensured that very few folks care what your family was doing or paid fealty to more than a century ago. That world is dust and bones, and people are living it its graveyard.
Let's introduce the last of the playable peoples in the game: The Hrothgar. Bragi is the first Hrothgar NPC Durmin has encountered. Well, technically, Bragi is a Ronso, since he hails from The First. Which is a big hint to the Hrothgar inspiration! The Ronso are from FFX and were similarly lionine, but some sported horns. One of your party members, Kimarhi. There they gathered at the base of their sacred Mt. Gagazet. In FFXIV, the Hrothgar primarily hail from Ilsabard, with their largest concentration being what was once the Kingdom of Bozja. Now ruled as the Imperial province of Bozja, some Hrothgar have escaped Garlean rule and made it to Eorzea. Masc Hrothgar (sometimes shortened to Hroths by the community) were added in Shadowbringers, as a counter to the femme Vieras. We'll mostly be discussing the guys here, since the Hroth-gals won't be playable for a few more months in Dawntrail. The male Hrothgar divide themselves culturally into two camps, the Hellions and the Lost. The Hellions hail from Bozja, where they revered their Queen. It is said that the Hellions, under the command of their first queen, Gunnhildr, were ferocious enough to pause the Allagan Empire's expansion. The 4th Umbral Calamity ended both states, but Bozja was rebuilt, albeit far from its former strength. The Hellions believed in strict social order, as set down by their Queen. Since the Bozja incident destroyed the citadel and many innocent lives, the Hellions have started to wander and slowly resemble their cousins, the Lost. The Lost state that they have no queen. Or rather, theirs was Lost, perhaps fallen, perhaps wandering. Their culture has become nomadic, plying their trades where they can, but frequently on the move. Some seem to be desperately seeking something, or someone, to devote their lives to. Visual distinctions between the Hellions and the Lost are slight, since the Bozja incident has rendered most Hrothgar as culturally "lost". Hellions tend to have darker coloration of fur while Lost tend to have paler colorations. Hellion surnames take the name of their Queen. The A- prefix in the Queen's name indicates they are still ruling, or living. Lost hellions discard such an A- prefix, as they have no queen. They instead add a -sch suffix, indicating that line has died.
One of the few things we know about the lady Hrothgar are that they are just as large and burly as the males (and perhaps are larger). They are noted for their leadership roles, and we are promised to see more of them in Dawntrail.
And as an aside, for some reason the Hroths of the Aether Data Center have picked out this one rock in the Limsa plaza to congregate on. They didn't even coordinate this, the Siren group found out others were doing it too. There's something about that Hroth rock.
Next time: do we take the red twin, or the blue twin?
Voice Actors:
Olivia Morgan, Mary Read in Assassin's Creed 4 and Sabine in Watch_Dogs: Legion, as Feo Ul
Joe Dempsie, Gendry Baratheon in Game of Thrones and also Arenvald in Stormblood, as Ardbert Hylfyst, the once Warrior of Darkness, and our narrator for this expansion.
Me: *watches blankly as the exarch wads it up in his fist and narratively punches it into my face about it—only then did I realize…
Oh, I can go back home.
2:03 It’s a big tower… maybe he’s hiding inside it somewhere?
Speaking about older FF Online stuff, you want to know the most Mandela Effect thing for me? Final Fantasy 11 Online launched 2 years before World of Warcraft! It's older than WoW, WTF, I coulda sworn it was the other way around!
Ah, I forgot our character's completely defeated look when they notice the tomestones in the market. That was hilarious. And Feo Ul! I love Feo Ul. They're great and I love every cutscene they're in. Their accent is delightful and they're just generally extremely fun. And Ardbert as well. I don't think I remembered Heavensward all that well when Shadowbringers launched, so I didn't have much a connection to his character, but the story here treats him well. This is also the first time I actually was aware of the early expansion MSQ split. I didn't realize until Dan started Story Mode that every expansion was doing it.
Love Durmin's new design. I did the same and changed up my character's appearance when Endwalker dropped to look slightly more experienced and world-weary.
There's some trivia I want to drop about this expansion. Not sure when a good time to drop it is to avoid spoilers. Maybe I'll just leave fun lore trivia to that Chan fella. …Yep, they mention it in their post: I find it interesting how The First has such a familiar landscape compared to Eorzea. Lots of landmasses such as lakes and mountain ranges that just happen to be in the same place.
25:41 'i… was not aware the room was haunted' this man cannot be fazed
Oh Feo Ul, you beautiful branch.
💙
One thing to note regarding time of day that you might not notice while playing (and probably not while watching), but will definitely feel after a while:
In all of XIV so far, when you are not in a dungeon or raid but out in the world, there is always a different music track for day and night. All the zones have different day/night music. All the major cities do. Heck, even some side areas.
The First locations only have one music track. Because its always as light as day.
Hearing these songs on loop constantly for unnaturally long periods of time, something you've unconsciously become accustomed to hearing change every half hour or so, gets really unsettling after a while. Especially if you're spending a lot of time gathering or crafting (where you're spending a long time in the same zone without the battle music popping in)