The Raid That Changed FFXIV History

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Watch this next: https://youtu.be/DO-Uh5AwLJU

Thank you so much for watching. I’m a little nervous as I write this, but I genuinely hope that there’s a place in FFXIV content for these longer form pieces telling stories from the game’s past, because it would be my absolute pleasure to make more like this. I’ve learnt a lot, even from starting this project til today, and I can promise you that if this video has the interest, I will make another, and it will be better than this one – I’ve learnt a lot to improve especially the visual even since finishing this video. Also I wish I could’ve found more of Kindred’s prog footage. Have a fantastic rest of your day, and if you haven’t already, give DSR a go.

0:00 Prelude
8:45 Knights
11:47 Thordan
18:04 Nidhogg
22:51 Eyes
28:25 Rewind
34:32 Thordan Reprise
43:43 Double Dragon
50:29 Dragon King

Songs Used:
FFXIV OST – The Heavens’ Ward, Heroes, Freefall, Contention, Hallowed Halls, Heavensward, Dragonsong, Revenge Twofold (Orchestral Version)
Price of Freedom – Daddys Music
Supernova – Serge Pavkin

Clip Credits:
https://www.youtube.com/@Dworim
https://www.youtube.com/@AnnieFuchsia
https://www.youtube.com/@ZionFGC
https://www.youtube.com/@FFXIVMomo
https://www.youtube.com/@woops
https://www.youtube.com/@XenosysVex
https://www.youtube.com/@ArtharsFF14
https://www.twitch.tv/kwinterstone
https://www.twitch.tv/stal
https://www.youtube.com/@Kooper.
https://www.twitch.tv/valorred
https://www.youtube.com/@RinKarigani
https://www.youtube.com/@Haru-mc7cl

#ffxiv #dawntrail #endwalker

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26 thoughts on “The Raid That Changed FFXIV History”

  2. My friends and I always dream of making a static with our Destiny 2 raid group, even planned on calling it our clan name (Vex Milkaholics, don't ask-) but we never got around to it due to real life things coming up.

    I feel like it'd be interesting to see a static comprised entirely of Destiny 2 veterans to see how they'd perform in this type of endgame. D2 endgame is…incredibly simple, with the last challenging raid being Last Wish.

    To put it simply, the day 1 completion of Last Wish was so challenging that only a small amount of the most hardcore endgame players got the emblem. It was a great raid that felt like you were on an epic quest to slay a dragon. I can't speak on Crown of Sorrow sadly but I did do Scourge of the Past which, while difficult, had easy mechanics in my opinion

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  4. the most incredible moment I've ever experienced in this fandom, was not any launch or ending patch, but watching with thousands of other ffxiv nerds as the clock turned back and the realization that we had a LB3 bar in phase one. Hearing the casters screaming, save him we can save him! I still watch the clip every now and then when the twitch casting team just lost their shit, because everyone watching was doing the same.

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  8. Realistically, this was only something XIV could pull off in an MMORPG space. Any game can potentially pull off a very difficult raid fight, but that wasn't the only reason why it went so well for XIV. The story is a core piece of why the draw was there. People knew what environment and setting they were looking at almost any given time. People knew the characters involved (bosses and otherwise). Every time someone showed up, it had some tie to the story AND the raid mechanic.

    Add to it, one of the most memorable characters in the game, who really didn't have a whole lot of screentime overall, became probably the most important element about what was happening within the raid. It fulfilled players' want for story while simultaneously making the player the catalyst of what transpires for their want through their actions to progress. It's nothing short of brilliant. Almost every aspect about DSR was important in some way to players. "Okay, so you want to save your boy despite the good that has been hard fought and won, only fueled by his tragic end? You won't like the consequences."

    There's no other MMORPG with a fan base so obsessed with the story of the game. This is a right place, right time occasion. Even people that don't obsess over the story still identify who characters are and where they're fighting.

    Games like WoW, for as lengthy as its story is, just isn't supported enough by the players to feel deeply connected to its NPCs. People like the story, absolutely. There's a huge amount of deep lore involved too. The problem is that it wasn't told through the game and what is told doesn't do enough to allow players to feel that same connection. The closest it's ever gotten was the Lich King fight, which was brilliant for similar reasons related to familiarity of the environment and characters. It just wasn't anywhere near as hard or emotional, a testament to XIV writing. It's unlikely anyone will ever see this level of brilliance again in an online games raid.

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  19. I'm not raider, and never will be. Never been a fan of even the mechanics of MMOs, I play XIV for everything else it does.

    But that…

    It isn't a joke to say every time Ser Zephirin spawned in regular Thordan, all the other mechanics stopped mattering. It was "That guy. END that guy" for every one of us. To do what the devs did here though, the kind of…I don't have the words. It's not just ludonarrative consonance, it's METANARRATIVE consonance.

    It's stepping outside just telling a story inside a game, or conveying an idea through the mechanics of a fight. It's taking everything players had wanted for seven years , mechanics and story together, and presenting them to the ones who were brave or mad or determined enough to try.

    "If you had the chance to make it different, could you?" But without any words.

    You couldn't do this in any other form of media. Even in a video game, you can't DO this effectively most times. A published short story wouldn't have done it. A simple 'what if' series of cutscenes and lesser fights wouldn't have done it.

    The devs said, in every mechanic and attack and demand for a button press, "You want to save him? Here is your chance. Here are the consequences. All the weight of history and the world is against you.

    Last time, he died and you could not do anything to stop it. This time, it's ALL on you.

    Now earn it."

    I will never be a raider. But that…that kind of experience steps past JUST FFXIV I think.

    You cannot have this kind of experience outside of a game. No other form of media could do this.

    And it would be a story about Haurchefant that moves me to tears over a part of this game I'd never have expected it to.

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  21. Only about halfway through the video, but one thing that is so damn cool about this is Thoughts Per Second posting seconds long clips with no context. It adds a mystique to the fight that has me on the edge of my seat even knowing pretty much all the mechanics in this fight. I have only heard about this ultimate from people looking back on the fight after they cleared it, so these little tidbits tend to be forgotten when doing retrospective videos, so I am glad you kept them in. You are quickly becoming my new favorite XIV youtuber 🙂

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