The wall returns and it gets REAL!
The Tower of Zot, The Tower of Babil, Vanaspati, Ktisis Hyperboreia, The Aitiascope and The Dead Ends.
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My thoughts on The Dead Ends are tainted because during 6.0 I had so many Expert Roulette runs where my group struggled mightily with the second and third bosses. I've probably seen more deaths/wipes in The Dead Ends than every other dungeon in the entire game COMBINED.
First off Great video!
Second I think the first 2 post msq dungeons should be on the list. They came out on 6.0 too. Smileton is kinda meh to me but Stigma Deltascape is great! Omicron history dungeon!
Variant Dungeons and the Island Sanctuary are both awesome and I think they just left a sour taste because Endwalker had no field operations zone. If it did people would have been much more accepting of that kind of experimental content.
Missed seeing one of these!
Not much to disagree with here, I'd maybe move Vanaspati up as I think that dungeon absolutely nails what its going for (unlike Aitiascope) but otherwise pretty good!
Got to say though it's hard to judge the bosses after playing Dawntrail because mechanically these new dungeons absolutely destroy Endwalker's.
Was hard thinking which dungeon could be the C tier one seen on the promo, and when you reached Aitiascope I realized I totally forgot it exists, so yeah, def agree there. The bosses were soooooo lame, that the only thing going for the dungeon is the callbacks to the story (which you can miss while paying attention to your gameplay).
THE PHYSICAL WALL!🎉🎉
Aitiascope likely has more meaning when you had the real years between some of those names/events. One challenge I think new players have with the story is the compression of everything into such a short time span that it didn't have time to sit there.
Still better than Zot which is worse than most AAR dungeons.
I ran Dead Ends SOOOO many times to get Starbird. I never got bored of that dungeon. Also helps that the dungeon is actually more difficult that your average dungeon. I have soloed every boss as Warrior because my party wiped. Multiple times. Absolutely top tier.
I will eventually get my cute danger noodle with a scarf minion for Ktisis, and that will be cool.
I am DREADING having to do Aitiascope for the troll minion. The dungeon is a good story dungeon, but it's FEELS SOO SLOW as a farm/roulette dungeon.
I perspanlly think Vanispati is one of the best dungeons in this game. Easily S-tier. Its impossible for me to think of it in a vacuum because of the time that Endwalker came out, and how the trauma happening to the characters was soo deeply reflective of the trauma many were facing. As a parent, watching the mother Matanga and her kids give in to despair and then have to kill them was heart wrenching for me. FFXIV pften pulled its punches, we hadnt even lost a true Scion since Papalymo.
And now, were watching thousands of people transform and need to die. It was heart wrenching for me.
I like the motif, so the music creates a feeling of both urgency and depression (perfect in that moment) the bosses were visually wonderful for the vibe, and the mechanics were strong.
One voice cant change the board, but Vani is S tier to me, and i would argue it is my favorite thematic dungeon even though i know im going to be sad through the entire run of it.
If we only guage Ktisis on boss fights, its easily B tier for me. Ktesis is my least memorable dungeon. The MSQ stakes were very high, and the music is great, but im pretty meh for every part pf the dungeon before the final transition post boss 2. I think the Vibe of Iota it better, the msuic is just as good, and the bosses are equally good (meaning not very good, but Aemon and Hermes are close enough to call it a draw for me).
For me, Vanaspati is at least close to S-tier, Ktisis and Aitiascope are both meh, and I'd swap Babil and Zot. Zot probably landed better for me because ff14 is the only ff game I know, so the retread bosses whooshed over my ignorant head. I also like the music and the fights better in Zot than Babil.
“I can’t wait to meet Asahi” That WAS actually my thought because he’s my favorite character lol
I LOVED Asahi showing up to be a huge bitch, personally. It was entirely unexpected and I loved that he was only pissed because Amon betrayed Asahi's #1 crush, and was SO mad he was going to drag Amon down to superhell with him. Written for me, personally, apparently.
Man all this FF4 slander makes it so I can't wait for Garrett encounters and then gets bodied by the Magus Sisters.
Criterian was so fun, granted i think they should of tuned them down. Still should be harder, but it should be more Ex hard and letting Savage being there to have Criterian how it was.
My favorite takeaway from Vanaspati was the name of the first boss's moves. Its super simple: "What is Right?" and "What is Left?" – for Right/Left half-room attacks. Simple. But contextualized: This was a Radz-at-Han guard who has turned. To protect the villagers he is forced to slay the villagers who have already succumbed to grief and turned into monsters. His own grief is manifested into two questions: "What is Right?" <Is it truly right to slay these things? They were my countryman once! There might be a way to turn them back.. but I have to protect those not already affected.> And "What is Left?" <The villagers are dead, the monsters are everywhere. I can see only fire. If this is happening everywhere, then there is truly no home to return to. Nothing left.>
Ktisis’s theme, “Miracle Works,” always gives me Sky Sanctuary Zone from Sonic & Knuckles-vibes. Especially when the “chorus” comes in with the high-pitched lead.
FF IV was my first Final Fantasy game. I guess that is why I love Zot.
Show you how short my attention span is: Is that a complete copy of Escaflowne!?!! GIMME!!! I loved that show!!! The music was great! And the twist of the missing sister?! LE GASP
Well, to be fair, they'd already stopped doing bonus dungeons beyond the first 2 at ShB.
Idk if I'd put The Magus Sisters as my favorite boss, but they're definitely up there for me. Surprising engaging (for the time) and potentially lethal. And the mobs, like Garrett said, hit like trains.
"Could have been a trial"? Bro I totally thought Anima was gonna be the first trial. Fighting Zodiark really threw me for a loop.
If you listen for it, most if not all zone themes reference the main theme for the expansion they come from.
Yay! The wall of dungeons is back! o/
If aitiascope is mid, then vanasphati is trash lol
I find it really hard to seperate the story from the dungeons so kudos to you for sticking to your criteria this long. With that in mind I have to say Aitiascope is probably my favourite dungeon in Endwalker because of the restraint the team showed when making a dungeon that was essentially "callbacks: the dungeon". Yes they could have gone larger in scope for who shows up and how, but I love that they focused in on ARR specifically. Back before all the expansions came along to "expand" the world and lore all we had were Hydaelyn, Garleans and the Ascians. The Aitiascope is the road to Hydaelyn, with our path blocked by the Garleans we defeated, and with the Ascian who started this whole mess to round it up. Even the callbacks in between were all characters from ARR, either base game or patches. It was the perfect send off to the world and characters that started the 10 year journey and I'm personally very happy they didn't try to represent everything that came after. After all we wouldn't have all this if it wasn't for ARR's success.
I levelled Trusts through Endwalker and Zot's first and 3rd bosses were the most annoying out of any dungeon boss for trying to do with trusts.
GG really need to do the Omicron beast tribe quests
I don't really have any complaints about these rankings. I think you're being pretty harsh on Aitiascope, but that's because I (like Kyle) LOVE me some Wiz Biz, and Aitiascope is full of that. I also love the meaning of "aitiascope": "aitia" is the Greek root of things like the modern word "etiology," which means the "cause" of something. These days, it usually means the cause of disease, but in antiquity and medieval philosophy, etiology was the study of why things are, of what caused the world to be. So "the Aitiascope" is literally the Lense of Creation.
Such disrespect for the ‘Scope! But I guess I am being influenced by things outside of your criteria. Especially when I consider the music. Still, I love hugging Minfilia and saluting Hairchefant on every run. (Also, physical Wall is well done!!)
27:27 – That "sad music with an undercurrent of hope" is beautifully illustrated by the harp rising in the following musical phrase.
Anima WAS originally meant to be a trial in the rough draft for 6.0. In fact it was even under consideration to be the final one. 6.0 would have been the "Garlean Empire" expansion, 7.0 would have been the rest of Endwalker, but the team decided that about 75% of the mystery around the Ascians had already been uncovered in Shadowbringers, so there wasn't so much of a need (I do think liberating an extra province or two would have been neat if possible)
Also Stormblood already went through the liberation of two different Garlean territories, so it could have gotten repetitive, so they just blended the story to include both things.
In the end, Anima was just a dungeon boss that FELT like a 4-man trial. They probably could have broken precedent and given us a 4th trial in Endwalker, but Anima trial leading almost directly into Zodiark would have badly undermined Anima.
Re: Aitiascope: I can never dislike it because it references Ysayle. She comes in and gives you an opening to survive the final boss with her iceberg shield. She is my possibly my favorite character, and this is the first time she was referenced since like 3.3, whereas some of the other deceased get referenced repeatedly. Also it's generally beautiful. And as far Rhytahn being the second boss, Yoshi-P had said he wanted to give that character a makeover since he was a running joke with Cape Westwind. If you recall, he was a general who Gaius appointed to be his Field Marshall on merit. He was actually supposed to be an example of Gaius being a pragmatist who went against the grain of Garlean racism, so there was an extra need to rehab the character. Since most veteran players will never be able to do the heavy hitting solo duty that replaced Cape Westwind, putting him in Aitiascope as a boss fight made a degree of sense. I agree they could have gone a lot harder with references, but a 'C' is really harsh to me.
Also Dead Ends is my favorite dungeon in the whole game, and I've done all of them at this point. Would have been furious if that wasn't S-Tier.
The final boss fight in Zot used to be harder. It was crazy and sucked for someone like me, who never played video games before ffxiv. Yet when I made it thru and didn't die, I was elated. I was disappointed when they made it easier.
I'ts BACK
How do you rank FFXIV dungeons when they're all the same dungeon with a different coat of paint?
that moment when Garrett mistype his own name
back to the land of confusion again is it a T or a TT
The Atiascope is the Shadowlands of ffxiv.
…bad. I’m saying it’s bad.
Still mad “all my birthdays” guy wasn’t a boss. He hates us, and Ilbert? Why did he hate us? We walked right into his hands and gave him exactly what he wanted.
I really hate this dungeon
EY yo! Casper is a treasure! Get outta here!
I rate Babil music higher, but that's because of story. You've been drenched in the national anthem for hours in the smouldering ruins of the nation, and then you're fighting desperately with the techno remix of it in the background. It's despair with an undercurrent of heroic hope.
To some extent, I find the FF4 references fall apart because they didn't modernize them well. Sure, the Fiends go some pre-calamity background and they did what they did to Golbez, but practically ripping some of the music verbatim or just some cheeky callbacks does reek of that low effort feel when you know the game could've done better. IMO divorcing the 3 sisters from Barbariccia and just sort of being elephant goddesses we're vaguely informed of was a mistake even if among the last of primals encountered. Sadly, I think they could too connected to the idea of the Tower and them having to be there instead as continued links. Lugae and Barnabus are technically something I think we should've encountered in Stormblood in terms of introducing us to the Garleans' more inhumane experiment practices. Though much like the sisters, it's just kinda like, "Oh yeah, have some nostalgia."
Speaking of things done in Stormblood, the Mist Dragon in The Burn was also a 4 reference, but collectively just sort of "worked" better as a final boss and along with the environmental narrative being spun at the time. The giant squid in a later 6.x dungeon also winds up being in 4, objectively being an improvement in vibe because SE did modernize it to both fit in with XIV and better the sense of scale that 4 lacked in its pixelyness. Akin to the thoughts that Anima fight might have initially been a trial, it does play into the notion of callback reverence and not all being treated equally. Or perhaps in EW's case as a whole being subject to pandemic development, a victim of scraps and rewrites. For as much of a curveball as fighting Zodiark at 83 was, it potentially had a cost.
Thinking back to the Omega series, there was a lot of 6 and some 5 going on there, too. It may have technically worked in the narrative sense, but a relative lack of salient game lore behind Kefka, Exdeath, or what the Phantom Train was about does ring them more on the hollow side. Which is a shame. Though I can see some thinking it for the better because didn't get bastardized like parts of 4 were. Can't please everyone, I suppose.
Tower of Zot music was pulled from the same tower in FFIV.
Great video guys loved it!
moo deng mentioned!
Garrett inexplicably boggled over the Sisters being multicolored when none of the other lunar primals we saw at that point were actually wearing clothes.
OK for my base complaint that you would expect is that you should have add the 2 side dungeons since it does come packaged with the 6.0 patch and should be thought of in merit for base dungeon discussions. It would be a great discussion of what the 14 team thought of when designing end game content that would be repeated in the base expansion.
Glad to see the return of the Wall! And I personally agree with your Aitianalysis.
I fully agree with this list.