https://www.patreon.com/Zuldim
YoRHa: Dark Apocalypse is a series of raids in Final Fantasy XIV, crossing over with the NieR franchise. These raids have a reputation for being incredibly confusing, and requiring an in-depth understanding of lore going back in a 20-year franchise. Is this raid series as hard to follow as its reputation suggest, and more to the point, is it good? Let’s find out.
Table of contents:
Intro – 0:00:00
Part One: A (Very) Brief History of Drakengard – 0:08:02
Part Two: What Happens in YoRHa: Dark Apocalypse? – 0:18:52
Part Three: Final Fantasy XIV’s Most Divisive Raid – 1:13:51
Conclusion – 1:58:21
References:
Tower at Paradigm’s Breach (With details about epilepsy warning):
https://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/The_Tower_at_Paradigm%27s_Breach
Dying Red Dragon
https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/dpjnou/51_spoiler_regarding_the_nier_raids_easter_egg/
https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/news/detail/afb80d50fe133271f310546fea3d9c842d6a7dd4
Portable Archive notes:
https://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/Portable_Archive
Seeds of Destruction:
https://drakengard.fandom.com/wiki/Seeds_of_Destruction
F66x:
https://nier.fandom.com/wiki/F66x
Drakengard 2 sources:
https://youtu.be/WEuCImLo8e8?si=pcOxLZTO36EZDcwY
https://drakengard.fandom.com/wiki/Nowe
NieR Re[in]carnation crossover:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-iHAjh68tQ
Thank you to @Pollymacho, check out his channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@Pollymacho
source
FFXIV is considering Extreme/Savage Alliance Raids, so maybe that would allow for a different result
A good and interesting follow up. Would be to compare/contrast the points and issues shown here with how the prior Expacs alliance raid series (ivalice) was handled
It also felt off because at the end of copied factory when you realize you are dealing with androids, machine lifeforms and they are potentially extraterrestrial….. the player character DID NOT contact their scholastic scion friends. Their presence wouldve provided a natural way to reveal the lore. And it does not need to be all of them, some of them can even be rotating about.
Aside from the threat level which the scions would see as reason to meddle, there is also how did the machines get to the first and thus can the scions use that to get from the first back to the source.
On 9S and the machine lifeforms being on the same side….
fake yorha is the seed's (red girl's) new toy; and kinda discarded the old (machines) so in his fight against fake yorha 9S took control of the machines
and we are for the first raid unknowningly aiding the bad guy/gal/it…
the only machines afterwards that we fight are the roshi copies….perhaps they were considered good enough that the seed/red-girl help onto control of them/their data
I didn't like the raids mainly because they made zero sense to me having never played the other games. So thank you for the video explaining the story.
I've heard that the machine lifeforms and the watchers are one and the same, specifically that in one timeline the ML evolved into a post-singularity hyper-intelligence, and are now bent on conquering all time and all space to acquire all knowledge, and that the watchers are just one tendril of this vast entity
I also heard this was revealed in a gacha/VN game, but this is possibly the best place to ask if that's actually correct
What a fkin trip lol
this was so so interesting to watch omg
Please do the videos about Drakengard series, i really want to know what happens but i don't want to play it xD
I think my favorite offhand observation made by people is that in any other reality, Her Inflorescence would have likely succeeded in creating another apocalypse, but due to the Warrior of Light being so goddamn OP (8/14th Ancient, most skilled harnesser of Dynamis, literally calling conveniently just as overpowered adventurer allies every time they need to get serious) that this one of the few realities where the ultimate big bad of a series as bleak as Drakengard could get their arse beat.
We literally smack apart the final boss thanks to Tone Armor.
Honestly, the glam and the fights are what redeem the raid series for me.
i had no idea nier raids ware hated. If i had to rank the 24 people raids it would be Ivalice>Nier>Void Ark>Twelve>Crystal Tower
I am so sorry, but this is painful to watch you play RPR, and I am not even maining the job :/
the story for the NieR series was weak, but the gameplay its one of, if not the, best in the game. Every day I pray for Ivalice or NieR in my alliance roulette
The B in 2B is Battle. Battle type android
I've been playing FFXIV since before Heavensward's launch, and given the whole covid situation I've always assumed the raid story had to be drastically cut back due to developers scrambling to adapt to working from home. This certainly affected the patch release schedule– major patches always dropped at every 3 months without fail, and the story was paced accordingly. The MSQ for patch 5.2 is still considered very weak, for all that it led to massive payoffs in patch 5.3, and it was the one being produced, delayed and then released during this fumbling period. They probably had to re-evaluate their options re: YorHa's second part given the new limitations, and that's why the plot and characterization became so unstable from the second raid on.
My personal belief, too, is that the whole "choose one sibling for the server" moment was also meant to affect which sibling would turn out to have been Dead All Along. But since, as proven by the Valentione event, most players simply choose the most conveniently clickable quest markers in these situations… it didn't pan out. Oops!
i cannot understate how narratively satisfying it is for the nier series and the constant references to mimicing humanity, for 9s to be the one inflicted with madness doing the same thing inuart did causing the entire raid series AND the true death of zero????
9s using the seed would have been completely in character for him in that point in the story, i almost feel cheated now
This feels very surface level, but by 1:33:40 I didn't remember it getting mentioned:
The Nier world being destroyed by the white dust and white symbolic of bad is also reflected in The First being bathed in Light ether.
Playing it through release I was definitely confused but it wasn't a bad experience overall. I have some surface level drakengard knowledge seeing some videos before talking about the story and my wife being a big fan showing me stuff especially like the ending of 3 and 1, so seeing stuff I recognised was really fun. But hearing more context makes me appriciate the raid series more honestly. When it comes to the alliance raids in general I appriciate more the context than the story itself.
I really didn't care that much for the crystal tower story, having played since ARR and only unlocking it when it became required, realising who the exarch was became a big surprise for me and a better way to reveale it and do the story than someone who'd done it in the past. Which is the only good thing I have to say about the story alone, together with some lore stuff pointing back to it.
The void arc is just kinda cool demon stuff, seeing people relate it to Mhach and just being a part of a bigger story is realistically all I got from it together with the world (Which is EXACTLY how I feel about the nier raids).
The stormblood one that I don't even know the name of and can only connect red chocobo and sniper dude to, not exactly groundbreaking story engagement, it's just fun fight stuff.
And the endwalker raid tier which is just fanservice but for ffxiv fans with a story I genuinely disliked the ending of. That green motherf*cker should either have moved on with the others or I should have been able to hang out with Halone, Nophica, and Azemya more, just like talk to them a bit, have a coffee with them. But nah mr green is the only one who gets to do that, like one or the other, make it make sense.
Alliance raid stories have never been good, passable and being able to point to other history at most. So as an alliance raid it's literally like all the other ones. If it wasn't crossover themed, the story would probably had been as underwhelming to people, but this time tangentually related to something in the ffxiv world. But instead acting like an final ending for Zero, ending her suffering, which might genuinely never have happened otherwise by how vague that franchise is. The raid series did it's job.
Really really enjoyed this, man. thank you!
Im gonna be real, i played the raid so much. So many times. I can't tell you how many people just screamed in chat at certain reveals lol. No idea what was going on but i was happy for them.
Yes, why is the orb both crunchy and sticky. Please tell us
all the talks of memories and advanced technology here sure does carry new meaning at the end of DT
I also love the little detail that the twins, where one falls down a spiral of despair when the other one is gone, are redheaded. We love some DevPopola references
its normal in live service games.
im glad i came across this. i have all the drakenguard games and neir 1. i was super confused with this story so i bought automata in hopes it would help, and finished it. super fantastic game, but did not help me understand anything lol. we're talking about games going back to PS2 that im not going to remember
i just played automata and so getting all of this info in reverse is very interesting lol. Now i understand. and i also understand how much i don't understand.
Great video on the subject matter but brother please I'm begging you hit Gluttony one time it's driving me insane.
The themes of Shadowbringers being that of grief and seeing the story of Anogg and Konogg… they’re much more closely aligned than people want to give credit to. There’s also a lot of themes and imagery in Shadowbringers (and Endwalker!) that are very similar to imagery in the Drakenier franchise. So thematically it definitely fits.
I dropped the raid halfway because it was dreadfully boring. While it seems interesting I really hate it when FF14 focuses the plot solely around a new NPC that will disappear after the storyline is finished and anyone I do care about is just along for the ride.
I was on the edge with Neir Automata, the raids made me tired of 2B and her shit. Thanks for explaining what was missed.
I really enjoyed this video! I'm glad you did play through the Drakengard games and I would love to hear your takes on the games and lore in a retrospective video like you asked at the end. As someone who hasn't read the mangas or anything a lot of the lore is still confusing to me and I think you'd do a good job at talking about it.
A FF14 player who never played Automata or any other relating games. After completing the whole quest chain I don't think I had any problems understanding the story or what was going on. Was it good? Not sure, its okay I gues. The Dwarves where a little funny, as per usual with quests they are involved in, though not quiet as funny as the Shadowbringers Healer role quest chain. As for the raids themselves I think they are great! Love the music, love the encounters and mechanics, though The Copied Factory is for sure the worst of them. Still a great analasys and video!
gotta be honest even as someone who is pretty well-versed in the Nier/drakengard lore, I still had barely any clue what the hell was going on with the story in the raids lmao with how Yoko Taro writes his stories Im not surprised that anyone who might only have a surface level understanding of the nier games or a 14 player who's only exposure to nier is through these raids that it would be impossible to understand what the hell is even going. Just as Yoko Taro intended, what an absolute mad lad.
The parts about the raid being divicisive are just so out of left field. Never heard this, it's made up. It's just pure fiction, or shit takes from bubbles like reddit.
Around 2.5%
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please use gibbet & gallows
Wow, the dedication here, playing drakengard 1? In 2024?!
Just started watching, but my prexisting opinion: As a huge drakengard/nier fan since drakengard, i was hyped for this raid series… and it delivered for me. But I do feel like it stumbled, one of the best parts about the NieR and Drakengard games is that they stand on their own very deliberately. I think this raid never managed that.
EDIT: Having watched, while I think it is bad that it doesn't stand on its own, it is worse that it isn't saying much even if you catch the references. It is sad that the games don't truely communicate in the raid. I would love to see your NieR retrospective. Subscribed.
With the key and the bunker, my assumption was that this is a reference to the events at the start of ending B of automata: 2P uses the key to gain access to the bunker's server. They used that access to crash the bunker, but also to infect all the yorha androids connected to the network. Since the units were not P alligned until just then, that is why 2P had no assistance and needed the key.
That is why I figured they turned from black to white… but my memory of this may be fuzzy. This doesn't make sense with the info from the post-raid quests either, but neither does a lot of the raid.
Amazing video. Claims to be about the raid, but does a better job describing drakenier than most videos claiming to describe that series. So many people get caught up on wacky details, edgelord stuff and interconnections, missing the larger reasons why the series made those decisions. This cuts to the essence of what the series does with each game and why, and it is just the background dressing.
I just realized how unrecognized your account is. The quality of your videos deserves so many more views and love. I’ve been watching your FFXIV content and it’s some of the highest quality I’ve found and I hope so many others find you! I’d love to see a video on Graha like you hinted at in your Emet video! Your detail in your investigations is absolutely wonderful and I wanted to leave some words of encouragement for you as a huge Nier and FFXIV fan
Thank you for the explaination of the Drakengard/Nier Story in FFXIV and with that as a resident of Etheirys. Fuck those gods in Drakengard for throwing their stupid toy into the first. glad we broke them.
I've always wanted to play Final Fantasy 14 but I can't afford yet another subscription. These videos are a pretty good compromise for me. I get to listen about the game, I get lore which I like regardless of the game or series, and I get a decent view into how the game plays. Fun! I'll be checking out the rest!
Best raid tier for driving interest, haters just have a skill issue.
I just… never got around to running the Tower at Paradigm's Breach for some reason until this morning. And as soon as I was done I went to look for someone trying to explain it in the broader context of drakenguard / Nier (none of which I have ever played, but have watched several hours of lore videos trying to explain them) I feel very lucky to find your video here doing exactly what I wanted to see.
3:30 skill issue
22:00 Main Character Syndrome bleeds over from DF. Illiterate self-inserters that have never played a single-player JRPG which emphasizes world-building over ego-stroking
26:00 again, completely illiterate cavemen & women dunderheads.
1:18:20 lame ass pussies. Shoulda just cheesed the roulette then if all you want out of your roulettes is a snoozefest. Or just manually q for it and suspend your disbelief. Or, either deal with it, or leave. So save alliance roulette for last. Honestly, as long as the cheeser in question doesn't make a vocal shitstorm, this opinion/outcome affects no one, but the moment they do, I'ma kick their toddler stool out from under.
Just got through the raids with a surface level understanding of the DrakeNier story and lore. I felt like it was weird the game kept focusing on Konogg and Anogg instead of tackling two universes colliding from a more cosmological narrative viewpoint, but ultimately I ended up appreciating the focus on how the "Nier writing" affected individuals from an ultimately more optimistic reality. The mob calling for the brothers' lynching, the P units raiding the village, Konogg ultimately ending his life in despair… It felt like DrakeNier writing was planting its Seeds inside of FFXIV, which is a terrifying statement when one really stops and thinks about it.
Dunno how many times I’ve asked if anyone in raid knew why everything looked like 2B and got an indifferent “I dunno” if I’d get an answer at all. Glad I found this video.
You made a small mistake, Dragons were either created by the last Replicants after NieR Replicant, but BEFORE NieR automata, or by Androids. They were then sent back in time and through a universe with cathedral city, and through that confusion the Dragons made humanity their enemy by mistake when they were supposed to be the ones to fight the Black Flower.
The Dragons were not created by God, the seeds, or the flower.