Welp. To war!
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0:00 – Introduction
0:27 – QUEST: “Parley on the Front Lines” (continued)
3:45 – QUEST: “The Face of War”
10:43 – DUNGEON: The Ghimlyt Dark
30:04 – QUEST: “The Face of War” (continued)
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Edited by Daniel Floyd
♫ “Pray Return” by Chris Logsdon
https://lnkfi.re/pray-return
#PlayFrame #FFXIV #FinalFantasyXIV #Stormblood
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Dang, this series is better than 90% of what's on TV right now 📺
Rule of thumb, nothing important to know about Gridania is in the MsQ. Also: Really really getting sick of this crap, mysterious voice! First thing when I hunt you down, bam! In the snoz.
Oof, the ghymlit Dark.
I had my worst tank run here
1:50 It's a small detail easily missed, but the cannons off Merlwyb's own ship were actually brought to Gyr Abania during the siege of Ala Mhigo against the Garleans. Considering the vast distance they travelled to get there, it comparitively would have been easy to bring to this battlefield.
Boss 2 in the dungeon reminds me of a mix of the X-2 airship and Cloud’s motorcycle in Advent Children tbh. If there’s a more accurate reference, I’m sure someone will point it out though, lol.
2:30, I barely noticed it with Merlwyb; I love your subtle intonations of their Voice Actors >D.
30:46 so yeah. First time seeing this scene my stomach dropped.
And so it goes. I loved this dungeon- it was really the first time it felt like we were fighting alongside the Scions and the leaders of Eorzea, and believe it or not if you went through with a party of players you might see several different limit breaks depending on who shows up. Sure, there was the one instance in Heavensward, but this is a dungeon- and you can, and DID, do it again and again and again… Plus, as a healer, the sheer size of the pulls meant that the tanks were taking huge amounts of damage even if they were only rarely taking huge individual hits. Keeping them alive through that felt AMAZING.
As I write this, there's only three large-scale battle dungeons that I can think of… Ala Mhigo, Ghimlyt, and one other that I won't name for spoiler reasons- and part of a fourth that will go similarly unnamed. These things always make an amazing spectacle, and there's so much STORY off to the side as they happen.
I'm glad that Dan's leaving the next bit to the next episode, though…
A quick rundow of a few side characters talked to at the beginning that you may have forgotten a bit about since they appeared.
Lucia is the second in command to Aymeric, obviously, but she is also, if you remember back to the last bit of Heavenward 3.0 MSQ before the floating Allagan research centre Azys La, a former Garlean spy who defected to Ishgard. This will not be the first time she has battled her own people, as she saved Durmin and co from Garlean soldiers in The Sea of Clouds with her Magitek armor.
Keeper of the Entwined Serpent (yes that is his name as he forsook his actual name when he defected) fought and was gravely wounded in the Battle of Carteneau, the battle between Eorzeans and Garleans at the end of 1.0 (and in the ARR intro). Just… he was fighting for the Garleans. Yet, after Dalamud fell, Bahamut was slain, and the Garleans sounded the retreat, the wounded among their number were left for dead. But the Seedseer ordered those wounded Garleans be treated and healed as if they were her own soldiers. Many of these Garlean soldiers, owing their lives to The Seedseer, defected and now serve in Gridania's Grand Company. Keeper, meanwhile, pledged a life debt to the Seedseer and has been her personal guard ever since.
Medieval Knights and Samurai fighting Mecha in World War I. This dungeon is one of my favorites.
I am so excited for the finale!
THROW WIDE THE GATES
Pretty sure that "fire-breathing mole" is another FF6 Magitek design. The boss of Locke's scenario, if I'm not mistaken.
11:15 Damn, that BGM IS good! Don't know why I didn't notice before, but it's as you say- a ton of recurring leitmotifs used to great effect. This is a tremendous Duty!
… there is no way to say that without sounding ridiculous, is there?
24:18 Ah, the twins. We've seen them before, but this is the first time Durmine has fought them. There are a couple of characters these might be referencing, and usually with a red and blue motif.
30:43 This is NOT THE TIME, mysterious voice!
35:06 And another one down… this really isn't funny anymore. I'm glad they still remember the other Scion NPCs who do not merit voice acting, like Hoary.
I can't wait for the finale, though I expect I won't catch it "live". I have no idea if this is right or not as this LP is my first experience with FF14, but despite all the trouble the voice is causing us I suspect it's genuinely trying to help, misguided as it is.
I also had the "I feel like I've seen this somewhere before" with Prometheus, and at least one place was in 'Final Fantasy VI'. The version fought here is a really accurate 3d recreation of that classic design. Fitting since so much of Garlimald's machina seem to pull inspiration from that game.
I'm curious if there are other similar designs that we could be thinking of, though.
Seeing your teammates get smacked by the ceruleum tank mechanic during the boss here brought back some painful memories, I tell you what.
So most of this dungeon is well preserved through the Duty Support update, the only major change is Hien and Yugiri used to act similarly to the other dungeon NPCs, appearing briefly to assist with a set of enemies then coming back in the final wave. This also contributes to the other change in the dungeon, Lyse did not have the exclusive right to do the big hit on the that final enemy, it used to randomly choose between her Yugiri and Hien. It was always a fun little gamble to see who would win that roll of the dice.
I absolutely love seeing Lyse punch a mech so hard it causes miniature nuclear explosion. I also do love that they make sure to give the other Scions and supporting characters a moment to shine. The WoL is awesome, but being surrounded by equally awesome companions just makes everything that much more enjoyable.
4:00 It took me a bit to realize that the 2nd character on the left wasn't a person with very short legs standing on the table XD
Dan keeps opining how poorly he plays due to needing to keep up commentary and reading, but he's doing better than me on White Mage. I keep forgetting Assize exists. (It's a wide-area heal and damage, so you want to be hitting it whenever it's off cooldown)
The order in that Julia and Annia are fought is not random; the first that is attacked will start the fight, the other goes second.
Stormblood has a lot of really great dungeons, including the gorgeous (but optional) Shisui of the Violet Tides but this one is probably my favorite. It's chaotic, there's a ton of enemies to tank, the bosses are fun, and it was a good challenge when it was new. At the very least this is my favorite finale dungeon. We'd never gotten any dungeon like this before: full scale war with all it entails.
This is still one of my favourite dungeons in the game, and I'm very pleased to see that the changes made when they added Duty Support were minimal (the main change is that in the old version, Hien and Yugiri would appear in the dungeon alongside characters like Lyse, Aymeric, and Pipin). I feel like this is a good time to look back on a particular pair of dungeons from ARR: Castrum Meridianum and The Praetorium. The difference between them is HUGE. I feel like the Ghimlyt Dark is the first time they really got how to sell atmosphere and narrative in a dungeon space, and we'll see that enhanced further in Shadowbringers. It really is a fantastic dungeon, and I'm looking forward to the conclusion of Stormblood, and the long awaited Shadowbringers!
5:30 Oh, don't act like you wouldn't want to get stuck in anyway.
6:06 I mean, he's wearing the right armor for it.
13:00 The battlefield feels kind of WW2.-adjacent. Just… bigger. Wider trenches, etc.
20:59 Imo, "battlefield dungeons" are hard to make work and feel right. This one has been a solid showing. It feels like you're moving along the front.
23:25 You just had that in your back pocket?!
30:54 Wait… is this guy a bloody Ascian?
The Prometheus boss was a red version of the Tunnel Armor boss from FF6. It showed up at the end of the Locke side mission when he met and rescued Celes.
Man, I barely remembered how tense the plot was at this point in the game! They really do an excellent job ratcheting it up, while still making it believable. After all, the Ghimlyt Dark is a real choke point that gives the Eorzeans, as the defenders, a hefty advantage. Also, I believe Varis' monologue in our last episode was the first time we've gotten more detail on what the Ascians plans are, beyond vague stuff about their god. This is definitely an excellent capstone dungeon for the expansion. Oh, and the title of the music for this dungeon is "A Pall Most Murderous."
– yeah is wild how much spectacle they managed to cram on an MMO dungeon
– that drill boss reminds me of one of the FF6 bosses from the Omega raids, & now im mad I can't think of the thingy's name
– i love Garlean's love for making their high ranks look the the Psycho Rangers from In Space
– I'm starting to believe this mysterious voice is picking the worst possible time on purpose
– oh no, he's got the Caddy bag of Golf Swords… hopefully being an Ascian means he doesn't have all the sword mastery
Fun fact: When Castrum Meridianum (and all of base ARR's finale) was reworked for patch 6.1, Livia's new boss fight was based on the last boss of this dungeon.