Never underestimate rabid fanfic enjoyers and their OTP.

Thanks for the translation, also I remember watching your videos back in the day Shadow!

Set to ClariS's Connect, aka the Madoka Magica OP, lmao.

Of course it was some gachimuchi memes crossover

unironically a banger ong

When I played 14 with my wife. We didn’t understand the references. But after playing Strangers of Paradise, it led to playing ff1 and started going up. Currently on five. Going back to 14 it was more appreciated.

Even the OG creator Sakaguchi loves 14

Isn’t stranger of paradise also a love letter to the series?

which makes it kingdom hearts.

@@JB6GD684 not really. Strangers was just a prequel to final fantasy 1. It kinda explains what happens before the Warrior of light existed and how he became to be. Ff14 has a bunch of references to all the other final fantasy games through stories and raids. When you know where the references came from, it kinda brightens the experience a bit. At least it did for me.

I was like them for the longest time. Then I tried ffxiv, now I know I was wrong. People, play ffxiv!!

I used be one of those people who thought it was dumb to pay attention to MMO stories. Not anymore.

I love FF14 to death, but lets not pretend that isn't't exactly how it looks in ARR. No one is going to believe what the game becomes after this if they don't experience it for themselves. And for that, you have the chance of people hating the first 30 hours and never coming back. Which is completely fair, idc what anyone says. 30 hours is more than enough time to decide if a game is for you.

If it wasn't for COVID I don't think I'd have invested the time (2100 hours and counting Hydaelyn help me). Before I dipped my toes in I watched a fair amount about it and w/o context it looked strange, hard, and not fun. Some of these peeps just need some reassurance, lol.

@@Princessk8 I play ff XIV and it's only mmo

If you wanna blow their fucking minds you should say that the GCD is like an ATB meter

what i really like about ff14 is how it has strong elements of all types of fantasy styles in all of its zones and expansions. there's scifi, high fantasy, dark fantasy, steampunk etc. you can make your OC adhere to any style realistically. idk how anybody could say it doesn't feel like a fantasy game.

@@KohenChia That is actually exactly how I viewed it when I started playing.

FF9 was the "reset" button after 7 and 8 went too modern for their settings

@@KohenChia you just inadvertently explained to me how the older games worked

Meh not a fan of character design, just want nomura to design the characters for 7.0

​@@Iwatchdemvideosss This is why I dipped out of the FF train after 10. Lenox W's comment is so on point. and its why I think 14 atm is what my old ass considers to be the closest we will ever get to a modern FF that holds onto the themes that make the world of FF actually feel unique and, well.... FANTASY. like I get enjoying modern themed FF like 15 for example. But I like FF the best when it can take me to a world that is NOT like my own, or at least can strike up a balance. Instead of, yknow. Having a modern city and world with similar tech and advancements like Irl, then the only "fantasy" part about it, being that magic and monsters exist and everything is powered by like crystals and king and queens are a thing.

@@kite172000 that’s great but Normura is peak character designer sooo 🤷‍♂️

@@Iwatchdemvideosss lol ok, that's a bait and a half xD you do you boo

You even played XI?

I do like Kefka -- he's a fun and charismatic villain -- but he isn't as like, mindblowingly good as hardcore FF6 fans insist. He's basically just Final Fantasy Joker, and what backstory is there is incredibly thinly sketched. And again, that's fine -- he's a fun villain. And back in the SNES days, the competition was less intense. But Emet-Selch is orders of magnitude more compelling as a character. I even prefer Sephiroth (less because I think he's a super deep character and more because the horror movie pacing of his gradual reveal in the original FF7 was amazing, and it did a great job of building him up as this incredibly intimidating presence in the story).

What I think is fascinating about Emet winning is that Japanese Audiences don't normally care too much about the villains of a story. Its the Heroes journey, the focus should be the Hero and all that. So the idea that VILLAIN from 14 managed to top the lists of a Japanese poll is downright staggering. The dude earned that spot.

Yes, interesting how FFXIV went from last place to first

"It's a little unfair because most games don't get the chance of reboot itself and then doing five story expansions in order to get a shot at a solid and compelling story, but FFXIV did do just that." The closer we will ever get of that, in a solo FF game, is the FFVII remake trilogy. A single story, in multiple games.

@@cardbutton892 Honestly when I got to the trial fight against him I just didn't want to fight the guy, he was a lovable jerk the entire expansion and I wish I could had just slapped Thancred around again instead.

or "Game can't be good because I didn't play it"

*Free time can't be good since I don't have any*

@@grumpydomppa8666 "Yeah well I-I don't have subscription!"

@@Xeire I used to be someone really against subs, but then I realized I could spend $13 a month on a game I play all the time, or I can spend $60 every week or two for a game I'll play a bit and then just drop when I get bored, or rarely finish it and then never touch it again.

@@redbananaboomerang3278 This is so true and you know content that will come anyways and you do have an option unsub for awhile

the poster probably meant that FF14 has a huge crowd currently playing. While solo-entry fans usually play one of those games, shed some tears and then move on to whatever other games they have. So the playerbase for each solo entry is much more volatile. Such votes will always be more into MMO favour, since there will always be more recency bias towards them.

"it only won the popularity contest because its popular"

As if FF7 didn't have literal tens of millions of people who played it lol

@@DawnAfternoon But FF7 also doesn't continue to pump out brand new content several times a year like clockwork nor does it provide the capability to host an online, in game community with a thriving economic system. It also doesn't offer the same amount of interactivity as FFXIV or, hell, any MMO in general. FFXIV does a lot of great things that fans of the series really enjoy. I myself have been a fan of the series for 30+ years. I played the crap out of the original Final Fantasy on the old NES system when I was a kid and have been hooked on the series sense. FFXIV just scratches all the right spots for fans.

That was definitely a weird point to try arguing, as if being an appealing game somehow was argument against it lol. I do think he was close, but not quite on, to a valid point though. While all game's are designed to attract players, not all games are designed to keep players repetitively playing the same game for 10 years or better. MMO's like FF14 and WoW have been adding onto the same story for years, making thousands upon thousands of changes, and there's certainly some questionable story moments and weak characters to show for it. I'd put 14 in my top five if I absolutely had to compare it with single player FF titles because of the incredible gameplay, the beautiful world they've built, and all the social aspects of it; but I definitely think there's stronger stories in other FF games, and I would never personally compare MMOs to single player games. They're almost entirely different experiences to me.

I tried for years to get my friend to play.. But my friend simps for a Twitch streamer who started playing recently, and now hes on daily.

too real

my friends did and they both quit because they couldn't even follow quest markers

friend of mine fell to the hype and bought the whole game up to the preorder of endwalker, he couldn't even pass level 20....

@@lebron73 I had some issues early on just figuring out how the map and quest markers and everything worked, but once I got it, the entire game opened up. My other friend is struggling cause he rufuses to take the time to set up his hotbar, playing on PS4.

Hope you could find new friends there. They're all chill players 🗿

Welcome and have a wonderful journey Me: knowing another person will be subjected to tears alone in their chair 😭 but at the same time happy for them to meet amazing people and make a story for themselves

what race do you play

my level of racism will depend on your choice

Honestly, that 3.3 Nidhogg cutscene and fight hits hard.

I don't think 14 is an "easy gateway" at all into Final Fantasy for several reasons. 1) Unless you're already used to MMO's, you have to learn an entire new control scheme and style of gameplay. Compare that to easy to understand turn-based or ATB gameplay that most people can easily handle, even if it's not everyone's cup of tea. 2) Even if you rush MSQ you're still looking at about 200-300 hours to go from ARR to Endwalker (Which I would considered an actually finished story). Compare that to early FFs that are around 20 hours long, or even the newest ones which are longer but are still 50-70 hours. It's a smaller commitment. 3) You have to go through ARR story, which even if it can be enjoyable, most people would agree it's more of a filter than a gateway. And if you want to "get into final fantasy" you probably don't want to skip the story. 4) A lot of people don't like the idea of having to play with others, so even if 14 can be played mostly solo, having to queue for dungeons with others is a downside (yes, duty support now exists, but Trials are still multiplayer and if you want to fly, you'll still need to queue to other dungeons) 5) There's a free trial, yes. One in which you can play all the way up to the award-winning expassion Heavensward until level 60 for free without any restrictions on playtime. But after that... monthly subscription. Another downside to start it.

@@simoncerda9267 My bad, my target for the “gateway” Final Fantasy comment was mostly aimed at MMO players, and that is the viewpoint I was coming from. From the standpoint of someone who does not play MMOs or does not like the commitment or subscription fee, then yes, you are right.

@@simoncerda9267 believe it or not, as someone who doesn't play video games much and didn't used to feel confident doing so at all, XIV was actually the perfect gateway for me because I only ever played multiplayer games unless it's something like Minecraft or Stardew Valley. A beautiful open world that I can explore at my own pace, plus playing with other people who are helpful, kind, and happy to help me learn. If I hadn't played this first I never would have been interested in playing the other games

@@simoncerda9267 I've seen some streamers start with FFXIV and then later try other the Pixel Remasters of I - VI and then going through the others including VII:Remake, it's been a lot of "oh wait, this is where FFXIV got that from?!" In my case though, I grew up on FFIV and VI for SNES then VII through XII on PS1/2 so fighting the Garleans in FFXIV felt like being in the Returners against the Gestahl Empire, hearing Terra's theme while riding your own magitek armor, Doma with Cyan's theme, going to the freaking moon and all the other references just hit harder. so in one way, it is a gateway FF, and in another, it's a theme park that still manages to tell it's own story.

An easy gateway? idk about that, some of the hate for the game is that it takes 100+ hours to get good, and they're not wrong. ARR does a lot of footwork to set up the world and it's kind of meh at the beginning.

It was literally because he became a meme like at the end of the video.

Japanese Wakka memes too strong

I know wakka is #2 is because of a meme but unironically he is one of my fav written characters in FF games

I immediately knew why Wakka was #2 when I saw the poll results. I was surprised that apparently a lot of FF fans missed out on the Oto-Wakka memes.

Besides ARR is still getting updates to help smooth out the journey so you can more quickly reach Heavensward. It has removed many filler quests and the dungeons were revamped to be like the newer dungeons

Honestly here's my hot take - ARR is _good._ Yes haha pray return to the raking stonds, I get it. But it builds up a villain well, it successfully introduces a wide cast of characters and factions that would later be fleshed out individually, and it has one of the best _endings_ of any expansion in the game. After the Bloody Banquet I wanted to play _more,_ I wanted to know where the story was heading, how characters would change, etc. The only other expansion ending to drive my interest like that was the bridge from Stormblood into Shadowbringers, if ya know why you know why.

@@DuskEalain also, pray return was necessary because linkpearls were hacked. One of the earliest cutscenes with Nero shows him finding the resistance spy Hemingway, then using his wrist device after Garuda iirc. The Scions and Alliance kept sending emissaries because they couldn't be intercepted as easily as linkpearls were. It was way to subtle in the end I feel, and even after Nero hacks in during Prae it didn't fully hit me until an ARR replay years ago.

@@no.xivxion4352 Exactly, like even the most tedious part of ARR makes sense within the confines of the story.

WARNING! MINOR SPOILERS! Emet is one of the most interesting, well written characters in the entire entertainment industry in my opinion as are the Ascian's in general. They are written in such a way that they were able to actually make me go from hating (like pure, absolute disgust) Emet and the Ascian's to actually sympathizing with them and feeling sad for them. It takes a hell of a writer(s) to build up an enemy to be so evil, so villainous only to then make you see that they aren't evil at all, just highly misguided and what they do isn't out of maliciousness but a desire to restore what they lost. I did a complete 180 on the Ascian's which I never saw coming. *chef's kiss*

Yep

They're literally trashing the CORE FF fan base in Japan, calling them, the people who have lived and breathed FF for literal multiple generations at this point and made sure it reached us, "not real fans". Thats ironically sign enough of what they themselves are.

every ranking gets taken to seriously

"prejudiced people" lol. It's just that hard to accept that some people just don't fucking like MMO combat and gameplay loop?

@@42Caio And yet some people make the claim that they don't "like MMO combat and gameplay loop" and have never tried an MMO before, that is the very definition of prejudice so El Duardo isn't wrong with that particular word choice.

@@jasonwright2665 Nice of you to assume. Yes, people have never played an MMORPG in the 25+ years the genre has existed. Because of course there can't be people who tried it and didn't like it right???

@@42Caio I literally never said any of that nor did I assume anything. I stated a fact. There literally are people who have never played an mmo and assume automatically that they are crap with crap mechanics, hell, I PERSONALLY know several people like that. I never said that YOU were one of those people though, I imagine that is why your comment makes you sound like you are butthurt over what I said.

@@jasonwright2665 I misread your previous comment. Sorry. Yeah there's always people who haven't played some genre and still keep saying they don't like it. It's not a phenomenon exclusive to MMOs or online games. I know lots of people who refuse to play RPGs based on random bullshit they made up about it.

man... the FF14 WoL has more personality than most video game protags and is silent 98% of the time lol

@@Eversoul12 "I'll kill your god if I have to. Maybe even if I don't."

I just didn’t know about the memes. Now that I do Im surprised Emet was able to beat Wskka

If you like ffxi you should look into the horizonxi private server. It’s been a nice nostalgia trip so far.

Ikr lol like how XD

I mean... he's not all that interesting. His entire story is "I found out I'm an experiment so I'm gonna destroy the world." Crisis core did a good job exploring that break down do he gets extra points but the first impression is weak

Not really. The more FFs that come out, more interesting characters will appear. If the series keeps going for a few decades more, sooner or later we will have a FF game more popular than FFVII or FFXIV. That's just the way things work.

@@jingo4754 crisis core TOTALLY ruined how sephiroth finds out what he is. Genesis and Angeal are horrible additions to the FF7 story. the wing crap is so fucking cringe too.

I mean... Sephiroth is iconic, but not necessarily a deep character.

I could go on a lengthy ramble, but the tl;dr it's the effect of the elegant and sassy as fuck combo as the biggest portion, at least for me. perhaps unsurprisingly given that, my other top two favs are Sadu and Alisaie.

@Remi Miqo Madness If you're up for it, I'll take the lengthy ramble. If not, that's okay too and thanks for the response!

@@MakeSureYouCleanUp caught me on the way to bed, but I'll drop the ramble in when I wake up

Cause she's hot thats it. She has not character development throughout all these expansions compared to other Scions. All she does is say smart shit when she's needed, tells us go to Matoya, or kill herself and come back because the writers have no balls.

I like the cool and collected scholarly mage characters. It helps that shes hot too, but thats secondary.

same Auron doesn't get enough credit he was a great mentor character and a true friend to his allies. even when kinoc his close friend from yevon religion went corrupt he still forgave him and felt sad about the way he died. plus his design was super cool!

Auron stotic dad > Wakka racist himbo

He's really good. I really love his cameo in Kingdom Hearts 2, it felt faithful enough for it to be a short continuation of his story, but I understand FF fans are quite hostile twords anything KH haha

Play more crpgs instead of jrpgs then

@@MILDMONSTER1234 which ones do you recommend?

@@jgrif7891 kotor2 and plane scape torment for story

@@MILDMONSTER1234 I'm not really a fan of "choose your path" style of story telling, but I may give them a shot.

FFXI is still active. You can play it if you want.

@@Ukaran nah too busy with work, I can barely play 2hrs of ff14 in a day

@@redozmasoma I recently played FF11 for the first time. i think it was pretty fantastic. if anything you should watch the cutscenes. there are some pretty cool stories.

Sakaguchi was retired from squarenix in 2003 and has been running his own game company since then. He couldn't have pushed back for this game in particular because he wasn't involved in its development (as far as i have found).

@@jrtime228 The info I spoke about was shared in the recent We are Vanade'el interviews with some of the Developers who were there from the start of XI's development for XI's 20th anniversary. All the interviews can be found on the We are Vanad'iel website so it looks pretty open and shut to me. Given that this is SE on thre record about the development of XI. It's not outside the realm of possibility that he was heavily involved in its pre-production, Sakaguchi got addicted to Everquest and that was the impetus for Square to make their first MMO, one focusing on encouraging cross cultural exchange and cooperation which is why Memoro de la Stono was written by Uematsu in Esperanto. And he was apparently involved with the production enough to side with Tanaka against management about the numbering hence the compromise that still shows up in XIV's branding to this day: Final Fantasy XI Online and Final Fantasy XIV Online. Even XVI's Director who cut his teeth on the Mana series (XI was made up of Chrono Cross and Mana Devs as well from various other projects) was working on XI and he added in FFXI's Skillchain system to push more cooperation and synchronization from all the different supported Regions (NA/EU/JP) whose player-bases all shared the same servers. Which is also what lead them to implement and maintain cross platform play between PS2 Xbox 360 and PC; with only the PC version remaining due to the closure of the overseas console versions when the final paid expansion Seekers of Adoulin released (PS2 support was kept for the JP region and Adoulin was also the very last PS2 disc to be printed for the system, efore SE ultimately closed the PS2 version in JP a few years after Adoulin. In fact they're using the last remaining PS2 Dev kits to still produce content for it to this daybut they won't last forever which is why Yoshida has been trying to get the game running on the cloud. So yea I do think Sakaguchi had much involvement with XI, especially given the interviews and their sources on the We Are Vanadiel website, and to say nothing of how heavily skewed it's content was to cooperating with other players even if they didn't speak your same language, hence they invented the Auto Translation system to facilitate that. Even Yoshida called out Masato Kato (I think that's his name?, the writer for Chrono Cross) who wrote the base game and first expansion storylines , as his, (Yoshida's) inspiration for making XIV story focused, b/c of the success XI had in doing so and thus defined what a FF MMO should look like in terms of priorities and structure. Edit: In closing, I would humbly recommend anyone who is interested in XI's Dev to check out the We Are Vanadiel website as it has not only interviews with original Devs (even those who have left SE) as well as a really cool intereactive timeline of the game's milestones as well as behind the scenes milestones that the Devs shared (like how they had to emergency nerf stuff or otherwise giving a window to what they were contending with while developing the game. There's even a interview where Yoshida shares how he first met Tanaka and what possessed him to ARR'ify XIV 1.0.

@@zypherwolfe88 Well, you live and you learn. Thanks for the current info!

when blitzball comes to ff14