Good Morning Friends! This morning I thought I would rework something that I have threaded in a few different forms. Additionally, this is a great time for you to appreciate how adorable the next-door neighbors of our FC House are in their matching crafting smocks. One of the great things about having been afforded the ability to play content slowly in Final Fantasy XIV is that I have had time to sit down and sort out my feelings about what I just experienced. If you are brand new to the game, then you have been given the ability to binge the content in a very netflixian manner and it comes with positives and negatives. I personally think it might be a good thing to take some time after each major expansion and let what you just experienced soak in, before rushing headlong into the next expansion. This morning I am going to offer some distractions worth consuming after each expansion.
Please Note: Each block contains soilers for the expansion I am outlining.
A Realm Reborn
While this is technically not an expansion, it plays much the same role given that it is a direct continuation of the story found in 1.0. As such the first thing I think that is worth re-experiencing is the full trailer of the Battle of Carteneau. The game opened with this and at that time you didn’t fully understand everything that was happening. However, upon reaching the conclusion of A Realm Reborn it should have a lot more meaning. Below is the extended edit that includes the scenes you experience by completing Coil of Bahamut.
That is pretty heavy, and for a lighter palate cleanser then I would highly suggest watching Dance Eorzea Dance. This is ultimately the video that turned me into a Lalafell, so be wary of its power. Denmo McStronghuge has this wonderful way of condensing an entire expansion into a single music video.
Another thing if you are interested in it is that over the years we have done full spoiler shows of the AggroChat podcast, the first of these happening back in April of 2015. This predates me going through the process of uploading this to youtube and creating a showcard. Instead below is a link to the MP3 if you care to listen.
Heavensward
Oh lord, this expansion is an emotional rollercoaster, and I know I would have absolutely needed a break to let everything sink in after its conclusion. One of the first things that I think everyone needs to do is watch the “final” trailer for the expansion, because if you watched this prior to playing… there are a lot of elements that won’t really mean anything until you have played your way through at least some of the content. Looking back now, knowing what you now know… it will mean significantly more.
Once again we have the amazing work of Denmo to cheer us up after being confronted with all of those feels once more. This is the first video that I can remember watching of his, that he really started pushing the bounds of what you can reasonably do with filming inside of Final Fantasy XIV.
The AggroChat crew had so many feels about this expansion, and we recorded a full spoilers show in August of 2015. This would have only covered the main story, and I think we pushed it off as long as we did because we were wanting to make sure all of our regulars had made it through it. I think I started the video thing with episode 74, so this just came in a little too early for that so once again I am embedding the audio.
Stormblood
Stormblood is an odd place in the story because they tried so many new things and attempted to broaden the scope of the game significantly. As a result, it ended up feeling a bit more location-focused than having quite the strong story arc of the other expansions. I still love it so much, but rewatching the trailer doesn’t have quite the same impact as it does for other expansions. However I still think it is interesting to rewatching knowing what you will now know.
Now here is where things go a little off the rails. Denmo created what is quite possibly his greatest achievement with the original Stormblood “Find Your Dance, Eorzea” music video. The challenge however is that it ended up getting copyright claimed and effectively nuked from YouTube. He edits these videos so tightly that they are bound to the song, and you could never simply replace a track and make it work. The original video is available on Dailymotion however.
Denmo took the footage and then cut it into another video that is also excellent in its own right after the first was taken down.
By the time Stormblood rolled around, I had gotten my act together and was uploading our videos to YouTube and creating proper show cards. This is Episode #167 of AggroChat and was recorded on July 30th of 2017.
Shadowbringers
There is a bit of a misnomer that I keep seeing from the community. There will be people talking about Shadowbringers being when the story really gets good. That is true in one sense of the statement, but in truth, Shadowbringers would be largely meaningless nonsense were it not for all of the story that came before it. This is a culmination of so many plot points starting from your first minutes wandering in Eorzea and I am wondering if things would land quite so hard if you had not experienced all that came before. Because of the weight of this story, I feel like the final trailer means so much more in hindsight than any of those prior … with Heavensward being a close second.
Given the somber tone that follows most of Shadowbringers, it is only fitting the Denmo also shifts things up a bit and presents one of the most heart felt and thoughtful dance videos to date.
We had so much to say about this expansion that we ended up recording what ultimately was an almost four hour long mega show, and then divided it up into two parts. These were recorded on August 24th of 2019 and represent shows 265 and 266 of the podcast.
Finally if you really want to give yourself a sucker punch straight in the feels… then check out this video by Fluff Stuff called Remember Us. Oh lord… some eye dampness occurred when watching this yesterday.
This game has so many important moments that they get lost if you rush through them too quickly. I highly suggest you take some time after each major story block to reflect upon what just happened. There is no need to rush ahead and there is no real reason why you HAVE to be at the level cap in November when Endwalker releases. There will still be plenty of time to do all of the things, given that none of them ever really stop being relevant.
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