Welcome to Stormblood, Playfriends! This is your spoiler free, not necessary for the enjoyment of the story lore comment! First, let's got through some trailer lore! When this trailer was first released, no one knew who the mysterious blonde hyur at 1:30 was. We didn't know about Lyse, and some even speculated that this was a new character to introduce the Dancer class! Nope, it's just Lyse doing her self taught pugulist/monk stuff with the Warrior of Light. 3:10 - And here is is our confirmation that we will go to the Eastern lands at some point in this expansion, complete with a mysterious undersea kingdom at 3:25. 3:50 - This is our glimpse of Samurai, before Gosetsu showed us what he was capable of in the final Heavensward patch. Notably, this was the outfit Yoshi-P cosplayed as during FanFest 2017 5:14 - I love this logo, but if you get a chance to see Yoshitaka Amano's stunning artwork for Stormblood, it makes Lyse look like a fairytale princess, it's increcible. Stormblood released in June 2017, and is the first part of Dan's playthrough which requires a subscription to play! As of the release of this video Stomrblood is Free for a short time .... kinda. You are required to buy the base edition, and a subscription, so you're not really saving that much. The first meeting of the Scions for this expansion sets some of the main cast for our story. Thancred, Urianger, and Tataru will be staying behind; Yugiri and Gosetsu are returning East. Our crew accompanying Durmin into Ala Mhigo will be Alphinaud, Alisaie, Krile, Y'shtola, and, of course, Lyse. Also, we got a costume change! Fashion designer/omnicrafter Tataru has done it again! Except this isn't the outfit that Lyse is wearing in the trailer, but rather one that will give her the mobility of Tifa Lockhart. Just don't expect her to be summoning dolphins when executing Final Heaven (the official name for a Monk's LB3, a reference to FF7) 21:00 - This might be the first time we're showing the larger world outside of Eorzea, albeit in map view. Notably, this map is not the entire world, just the "explored world" they had designed and placed at the time of this expansion. Lyse is our narrator now, taking over from Papalymo after his demise. The liberated/occupied Castrum Oriens shows what we should expect going forward from the Alliance forces. Ishgardian Knights, Sepent Lancers, Storm Musketeers, and Flame Thaumaturges all serving under an Alliance commander. Fighting from this point on will be a joint operation. When Dan notes that vistas are larger and more detailed in Stormblood, he's not just talking art direction. The release of Stormblood ended PS3 support for the game, which allowed the developers to dramatically increase the processing and graphical requirements. As Durmin collects aether currents, I must note that the release of Endwalker reduced the number of aether currents needed for flight in older expansions, making flight much easier to obtain in past content. Rhalgr's Reach is a resistance stronghold, but it's first line of defense is stealth and secrecy. When your enemy has airships and war machina, sometimes the best way to stay alive is just to be unnoticed. I like that they didn't make a new magic for this defense, but scaled up an existing magic: glamour prisms. The Reach is the first of the instanced settlements in Stormblood, analogous to Ishgard or Idyllshire in Heavensward. I love that Dan & Carrie spliced in Meffrid's first appearance for the video, it really saves me a lot of work! The Ananta are one of three tribes that serve as the expansion's reputation grind, but we'll detail more about that faction later in the expansion. Lyse's history lesson on the founding of Gyr Abania serves as more than just a lore tidbit to fill the background of the game. It is their history, not a fable of years gone by. The events she talks about will be referenced multiple other places, even as recently as Endwalker! A "sutler" is a merchant who followed a military force and provided services/provisions. We'd call them military contractors. Or maybe war profiteers. Next time: We get to know the Ala Mhigan resistance, the Ala Mhigan people who were not displaced by the Empire, and I may add some lore from a side quest chain that Dan probably won't show. As a side note, for the first few weeks of this playthrough, lore comments will be late. As much as a whole day late. But I will endeavor to have one for each video! New cast members: Phillip Jackson, Inspector Japp from the BBC's Poirot radioplays and TV series, as Conrad Kemp
Glad to see the lore comments are still around! I might have to check in a couple days after upload to make sure I catch them all. Also, I didn't know the LB3's had names. I didn't even know the LBs varied by job, I just thought it varied by role.
@@hoodiesticks each job has its own LB3s, and each role shares LB1s/LB2s. For example, offensive casters would have Skyshard as their LB1, Starstorm as their LB2, and their LB3 would depend on the individual job. Note that each role also shares LB3s in a mechanical sense - the only difference between a Black Mage casting Meteor and a Summoner casting Teraflare is the LB name and associated animation, they both do the same damage in the same range with the same radius and they both have the same cast time. (As does the third caster LB3, the Red Mage's Vermillion Scourge. Though the animation of Vermillion Scourge is notable for being flashy enough to make it difficult for other players to see what else is going on in the fight, earning it the derogatory nickname Verblind.)
Yay! The return of lore comments. I’ve enjoyed these so much on the past vids and I’m so glad I’m finally watching current content (as opposed to months after release) and can say how much they’re appreciated without feeling like I’m necroposting.
With the return of the XIV series, and the lore comments, comes the return of us grateful non-players of XIV!! Thank you for clarifying that trailer girl really was Lyse, but in much flowey gear than what she's currently wearing.
I was right before Ifrit when he started doing this series. This was back Endwalker had just dropped and wait times to enter the game were crazy long which make keeping ahead of Dan tricky, but I managed it.
I am so happy this is back. My girlfriend and I are going to NA Fanfest and while she's vaguely familiar with the overall story from when I played, she has never experienced it personally in its entirety, so we have been using this series as both a refresher for me and a crash course for her to prepare.
Ahh he returns! I started this series having never played FF14, and with no intention of playing an MMO. Anyway I have now all but beaten Endwalker and can't wait to watch Durmin take the fight to the Empire!
53:00 As you may have guessed, "sutler" is a term for a merchant who follows an army around in order to sell provisions to them! They basically act as a military market, which Lyse alludes to. I am so happy to see Durmin back, and looking forward to seeing the rest of Stormblood. It's a heck of a ride, and though I think it's my least favourite expansion story wise, it's still great, and there's a ton of the visual and audio design that is some of my favourite in the game. In fact, this expansion also has some of my favourite boss fights, including one we won't see for a long while yet (not until the patch content!) which until Endwalker released was my favourite fight in the entire game (it's second place now)!
THE RETURN OF DURMIN!!! Oh I've been waiting for this one for a while; this series is what got me into ffxiv, and I just started patch 5.3 last night. Glad to see Durmin's adventures continue unto Stormblood!
This series helped me play the game into HW... and it was nice seeing my own WoL take it on themselves and experience it for myself... it's one hell of a journey and one I[m so glad to have been through
Durmin Returns!!! In the time that he's been busy resting... I made it to the end of Endwalker from ARR Praetorium... I can sit back and watch the cute Lalafell replay the story for me. It's a fun one!
It’s so good to see Durmin again! Actually, it’s great that you took a short break and it’s something Yoshida encourages for all the players. I look forward to the future adventures of Durmin
I'm so hyped for this! I've put over 1000 hours into the free trial over the past 4 years (I can't stand monthly subscriptions), and I've been deliberately keeping myself spoiler-free as much as possible so this series can be my first experience of Stormblood and beyond.
This is actually not the first time we've run into the Ananta, as they did appear in the Bahamut raid back in A Realm Reborn. This heavily implies that they were created by the Allagan's twisted eugenics research back in the Third Astral Era (which we saw even more of in Azys La in Heavensward). Despite that unfortunate origin, they seem to have grown in the eras since to become their own tribe of peoples with their own culture.
- Tataru's Fashion Fantasy just don't miss - wow good EYE Y'shtola surely no detail escapes your SIGHT - i love that the mission is "we know Ala-Migo is gonna join us, we just need the receipts for future rebelions" - sutler (sut′lər), noun a person who followed an army or maintained a store on an army post to sell provisions to the soldiers.
I love those quest jingles in Stormblood! The Quest Accepted one is a rendition of that veeeery last chorus cue from the "Storm of Blood" song, witch the lyrics "Loyalty Unity Liberty". (can be heard in this video at 5:09) And Quest Completed is obviously the final notes of the Ala Mhigan hymn.
So torn between watching when I myself am still in the beginning of Heavensward and waiting, but man, I've missed Durmin, and I know that the way I'm currently playing through it's still going to be a while for me to get to Stormblood. Besides, even already knowing the story, playing through myself gives me so much opportunity to analyze things and make observations I couldn't quite arrive at while just watching. Unfortunately it does mean my girlfriend has gotten me rambling about how good the bloodly banquet is twice, haha.
3 Cheers for the return of the Warrior of Snacks! And I also wanted to let Dan know that Durmin’s adventures have gotten me to start playing myself. I’d sworn to not touch MMOs, but I finally got around to watching the Heavensward playthrough in February and went from “this is good” to “this is really good” to “this story is exactly my jam” to “I need to play this” over the course of Heavensward. So, congrats, you’ve claimed another. And the DTC has been great, too. They helped me finish off the Crystal Tower raid series earlier this evening. So also a big shout out to my fellow geese. HONK!
i started playing because of this series. I just finished stormblood yesterday!! I really loved it! Looking forward to reliving it with you as i push into post-story content!
I am so glad for you to be in stormblood... and so ready for you to get through stormblood into it's patch content. Don't get me wrong storm blood may be the black sheep of xiv, but it's got my favorite normal raid series, second favorite trial series, and some of the best patch story in the game. Storm blood itself is... pretty. The new classes were great, the dungeons fun, some of the characters are great It's just... The pacing. Every friend I've gotten into ff has bitched but appreciated arr, loved heavansward, ran directly into storm blood aaand quit by zone three for at least a few months. We're not there yet, and I'm curious to how it plays out with dan doing the entertaining, but bear with this one.
If I recall right, 'sutler' refers to a sort of independent (i.e. civilian) camp-follower merchant - basically, where there's a base, there's a need to sell the people who live there everyday stuff, and sutlers were the folks who did it professionally. (These days I think it might be somewhat more formalized than that.)
He's back! After binging your playthrough leading up to Stormblood, I tried and tried to find someone else to watch play through it, but none were as good as you've been with the rest of this series, so I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of what is to offer! Huzzah!
I'm always impressed by the lifting the cinematic trailers do. They fill in slight gaps in between expansion story (Heavensward shows the hero arriving at Ishgard as an example), they hint at what we are going to be doing in the story, they show off and give us teases at the new jobs available, and tend to be interesting enough that even non-players can get interested in the game or just enjoy a very good trailer with hardly any context. They juggle a lot and in my opinion excel, whoever is directing those is doing a phenomenal job.
Woohooooo! Dan, you’ve made my week! I finished watching the Heavensward playlist a couple of weeks ago and was gutted there was no more FFXIV left to watch. Thaaaaaank yoooou! 🎉
Oh, didn't notice this! I'm gonna love this. Kinda. Edit: I also love the increase in presentation for the expansion. The unfurling maps and markers moving to new places always makes me happy, even on a third character. Unfortunately, The Fringes is my (second, forgot Coerthas Western Highlands) least favorite opening zone due to the drabness and all the spiders roaming around... Edit 2: Rhalgr's Reach Day is one of my favorite songs for a Settlement B theme, it's just wonderful. Freeing, friendly, optimistic. Plus the imposing statue of Rhalgr is a nice setpiece in the place it plays in.
There it is! I've been waiting for this series! ...Then five days ago I got tired of waiting and started my own replay of Stormblood. Heh. I'll decide later if I'll keep doing that run. For now it is Durmin Time.
Welcome back all to Final Fantasy XIV and welcome to Stormblood, which I love. While it is not the best expansion in the game, that is only through being exceeded by future releases. This is personally the expac I joined the game in as it was the first time I had the time and money to actually play it. Heading in I do want to preface the expac with the FF14 community's general vibe of Stormblood for those unprepared, this expac has some heated discussion in the community about a lot of aspects, not least of which was the launch state of Stormblood. Namely the community is polarized on it, many things some love others hate for the same reasons, so expect some of the most heated discussions surrounding aspects of the expac to come in quick. We can get into the particulars as they come up and encourage everyone to stay civil, there is a lot to discuss in the future.
Stormblood probably is a story you'll appreicate because of what it sets off coming up...I liked it including one section to come which i enjoyed doing it a little differently to the template. This is what drives the story to come.
What I like to say is that while Stormblood is the weakest of the expansions, that's really only because it's comparing to the sheer amazingness of Heavensward, Shadowbringers, and now Endwalker. It's a very solid expansion in its own right.
It's nice to watch this as it's coming out! I fell off pretty quickly in the very beginning, but later on I binged all of ARR and Heavensward and loved it. I can't wait to see what's next!
I had watched durmin up through HW before getting there myself, i played stormblood on my own without his influence... and it's an amazing story for many reasons and a few parts is why I love this story
I remember the last few episodes of 2.x and thinking I really should get on with finishing story or else Durmin would overtake me. Hahah. Clearly I underestimated how long of an odyssey this would be for him. Glad that he remains determined to do popoto-sized steps ahead in the journey all the same.
Actually, Stormblood is currently available for free if you’re on the free trial! I don’t remember when the deadline is, but better to get it sooner rather than later. /o/
I think I saw that, but I believe it's only if you bought the starter pack. But I'll check just in case. I'll take any opportunity to continue my Eorzia adventure.
Happy to see this finally back. I was just double checking the PlayFrame channel to make sure I hadn't actually missed anything the other day. While Stormblood isn't my favorite expansion, I do look back on it fondly as this was the current expansion when I started playing this game. I still very much enjoyed the story and the content to come.
Around 2:53 you can see Rhalgar's reach from above... and it looks a LOT like Byregot's symbol. Which may be intentional, given their nature as opposites.
Durmin is back :DDD While I probably won't be able to join in for this 'season' since I'm still in HW, I'm excited to see all that the little guy will get up to! And who knows, maybe my DTC character will have caught up when it's time for patch content...
It may be a while for me to catch up, so I'll just like and comment in advance so you know that I appreciate this series, even though I can't watch it right away.
man, i am glad that durmin is back! at the moment i am just about to be fully caught up with the story, so hopefully i will get to join in some dungeons or trials this expansion. (also 38:45 lines up with the quest complete music so well)
I have been waiting for this! I listen to your videos while I go to sleep basically every night. So happy you're back! I have pretty intense ADHD and these vids help my mind slow down and relax so I can actually sleeep.
Right after catching up, the man uploads the continuation! I'm listening to this while at work it's great (although i do catch myself wanting to look at the video from time to time haha)
2:10 I wish actual sparring looked half as cool. Also, pad-less sparring props. 4:38 6:02 Amazing timing, Dan. 19:16 Hey, we didn't end up in Elden Ring or some other Souls game, so I'd say it works. 28:35 Krile, why'd you have to remind me that the "far east" lies closer to the west of me, and "the west" is to my east? 47:49 I like the Ananta already. One thing this game does remind me of is how much of an anomaly SWTOR was with the sheer amount of voice acting. Outside very specific things (like dailies), I struggle to recall quests that weren't voiced...
I did actually notice the sparser vegetation, and I did in fact think it was cool, and a good idea of the devs to signify that this place is similar to Gridania, while also giving it a different feeling, so it doesn't REALLY feel like a part of the rest of Gridania, or any part of Eorzea for that matter. Like, it's not unlike anything in Eorzea, but if I had to pick the most similar place, it'd definitely be Gridania
It adds to how threatened Gridania was since the empire was on their doorstep (although for how much Kan-E-Senna actually thought about that leaves a lot to be answered!)
Not exactly for Durmin, but there's a quest chain in Castrum Oriens that is really interesting Starts with the Serpent Marshal, The Hidden Truth then Drawing a Blank Seeking Answers The Honest Truth The Rose Blooms Twice Spoilers for the content of these quests? It deals with a garlean poison that wiped an entire village
I have a ton of quests to catch up on, seeing stuff from ARR that I missed out on... but this plot is one that is more significant for events to come, StB is a load bearing expansion for where we go to the current content.
I remember particularly enjoying the way they handled zones in this expansion. The zones are quite large and most cannot be fully traversed until certain story points are reached. This also means that the Aether Currents cannot all be reached until certain story points, limiting flight till then as well.
Meffrid... Wait, from the Ala Mhigans in that Gridanian town - Quarrymill? Was he the captain that needed his dude's infected injury treated so that the group could move? If so, it sure has been a while. ...wait. Wasn't the dude in question the fake Griffin we met right before the great Ilberd trainwreck? Small world, I guess.
@@AuroDHikoshi Fair enough! Also, rewatching the intro cinematic, I now feel *really* dumb for only just now realizing the name 'the Griffin' was chosen as a reference to the regional flag of Ala Mhigo (being a griffin rampant/segreant, iirc, though I don't know enough about heraldry to give the rest), since I *think* we've seen the flag before.
Finally catching up on this portion of the playthrough, now that I’ve finished StB myself (and most of SHB) and need a refresher before Dan does the 4.x patches. Very excited to see a new chapter of Durmin’s adventure! 5:45 Ah, yes… the “fun story twists” of Stormblood, that definitely won’t get sad or heartbreaking ever 😅🙃
That FATE near the entrance to the wall drops a minion and is extremely hard to do solo on a normal job People get together to do stuff like that :3c It's a nice bit of as-casual-as-you-want content
The East End music that we heard through most of the episode really reminds me of music from FFXI. Specifically, it's a little reminiscent of the theme for Sanctuary of Zi'tah. Speaking of FFXI... Dan, do you have a plan for how you're tackling FFXI in the New Frame Plus series?
Welcome to Stormblood, Playfriends! This is your spoiler free, not necessary for the enjoyment of the story lore comment!
First, let's got through some trailer lore! When this trailer was first released, no one knew who the mysterious blonde hyur at 1:30 was. We didn't know about Lyse, and some even speculated that this was a new character to introduce the Dancer class! Nope, it's just Lyse doing her self taught pugulist/monk stuff with the Warrior of Light.
3:10 - And here is is our confirmation that we will go to the Eastern lands at some point in this expansion, complete with a mysterious undersea kingdom at 3:25.
3:50 - This is our glimpse of Samurai, before Gosetsu showed us what he was capable of in the final Heavensward patch. Notably, this was the outfit Yoshi-P cosplayed as during FanFest 2017
5:14 - I love this logo, but if you get a chance to see Yoshitaka Amano's stunning artwork for Stormblood, it makes Lyse look like a fairytale princess, it's increcible.
Stormblood released in June 2017, and is the first part of Dan's playthrough which requires a subscription to play! As of the release of this video Stomrblood is Free for a short time .... kinda. You are required to buy the base edition, and a subscription, so you're not really saving that much.
The first meeting of the Scions for this expansion sets some of the main cast for our story. Thancred, Urianger, and Tataru will be staying behind; Yugiri and Gosetsu are returning East. Our crew accompanying Durmin into Ala Mhigo will be Alphinaud, Alisaie, Krile, Y'shtola, and, of course, Lyse. Also, we got a costume change! Fashion designer/omnicrafter Tataru has done it again! Except this isn't the outfit that Lyse is wearing in the trailer, but rather one that will give her the mobility of Tifa Lockhart. Just don't expect her to be summoning dolphins when executing Final Heaven (the official name for a Monk's LB3, a reference to FF7)
21:00 - This might be the first time we're showing the larger world outside of Eorzea, albeit in map view. Notably, this map is not the entire world, just the "explored world" they had designed and placed at the time of this expansion. Lyse is our narrator now, taking over from Papalymo after his demise.
The liberated/occupied Castrum Oriens shows what we should expect going forward from the Alliance forces. Ishgardian Knights, Sepent Lancers, Storm Musketeers, and Flame Thaumaturges all serving under an Alliance commander. Fighting from this point on will be a joint operation.
When Dan notes that vistas are larger and more detailed in Stormblood, he's not just talking art direction. The release of Stormblood ended PS3 support for the game, which allowed the developers to dramatically increase the processing and graphical requirements.
As Durmin collects aether currents, I must note that the release of Endwalker reduced the number of aether currents needed for flight in older expansions, making flight much easier to obtain in past content.
Rhalgr's Reach is a resistance stronghold, but it's first line of defense is stealth and secrecy. When your enemy has airships and war machina, sometimes the best way to stay alive is just to be unnoticed. I like that they didn't make a new magic for this defense, but scaled up an existing magic: glamour prisms.
The Reach is the first of the instanced settlements in Stormblood, analogous to Ishgard or Idyllshire in Heavensward.
I love that Dan & Carrie spliced in Meffrid's first appearance for the video, it really saves me a lot of work!
The Ananta are one of three tribes that serve as the expansion's reputation grind, but we'll detail more about that faction later in the expansion.
Lyse's history lesson on the founding of Gyr Abania serves as more than just a lore tidbit to fill the background of the game. It is their history, not a fable of years gone by. The events she talks about will be referenced multiple other places, even as recently as Endwalker!
A "sutler" is a merchant who followed a military force and provided services/provisions. We'd call them military contractors. Or maybe war profiteers.
Next time: We get to know the Ala Mhigan resistance, the Ala Mhigan people who were not displaced by the Empire, and I may add some lore from a side quest chain that Dan probably won't show.
As a side note, for the first few weeks of this playthrough, lore comments will be late. As much as a whole day late. But I will endeavor to have one for each video!
New cast members:
Phillip Jackson, Inspector Japp from the BBC's Poirot radioplays and TV series, as Conrad Kemp
Glad to see the lore comments are still around! I might have to check in a couple days after upload to make sure I catch them all.
Also, I didn't know the LB3's had names. I didn't even know the LBs varied by job, I just thought it varied by role.
@@hoodiesticks each job has its own LB3s, and each role shares LB1s/LB2s. For example, offensive casters would have Skyshard as their LB1, Starstorm as their LB2, and their LB3 would depend on the individual job. Note that each role also shares LB3s in a mechanical sense - the only difference between a Black Mage casting Meteor and a Summoner casting Teraflare is the LB name and associated animation, they both do the same damage in the same range with the same radius and they both have the same cast time. (As does the third caster LB3, the Red Mage's Vermillion Scourge. Though the animation of Vermillion Scourge is notable for being flashy enough to make it difficult for other players to see what else is going on in the fight, earning it the derogatory nickname Verblind.)
Yay! The return of lore comments.
I’ve enjoyed these so much on the past vids and I’m so glad I’m finally watching current content (as opposed to months after release) and can say how much they’re appreciated without feeling like I’m necroposting.
Just want to say thanks so much for the lore comments, they’ve been a constant throughout the series and I’ve appreciated every one of them.
With the return of the XIV series, and the lore comments, comes the return of us grateful non-players of XIV!!
Thank you for clarifying that trailer girl really was Lyse, but in much flowey gear than what she's currently wearing.
"You experienced character growth! Here! Have a new outfit!" LORD I missed this series... :D
I may or may not have done a happy dance when I saw that Durmin is back!
Hard same. Manderville dance for me.
/mdance
The way the Quest complete fanfare lined up with the BGM at 38:50 was beautiful.
Heck yeah! Durmin's ARR adventure is what got me into FFXIV, and now that I'm caught up, I'm excited to see him again without spoiling myself!
I was at Praetorium when Durmin defeated Nidhogg... I did that section over Christmas/New Year.
I was right before Ifrit when he started doing this series. This was back Endwalker had just dropped and wait times to enter the game were crazy long which make keeping ahead of Dan tricky, but I managed it.
I am so happy this is back. My girlfriend and I are going to NA Fanfest and while she's vaguely familiar with the overall story from when I played, she has never experienced it personally in its entirety, so we have been using this series as both a refresher for me and a crash course for her to prepare.
As a Monk main the Stormblood trailer got me HYPED! Now I'm hyped all over again for Durmin's journey
"I am Alphinaud Leveileur, of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn, as are my comrades."
"Your comrades are also called Alphinaud?"
Red alphinuald, mummy alphinauld, Shakespeare alphinauld...
Ahh he returns!
I started this series having never played FF14, and with no intention of playing an MMO.
Anyway I have now all but beaten Endwalker and can't wait to watch Durmin take the fight to the Empire!
53:00 As you may have guessed, "sutler" is a term for a merchant who follows an army around in order to sell provisions to them! They basically act as a military market, which Lyse alludes to.
I am so happy to see Durmin back, and looking forward to seeing the rest of Stormblood. It's a heck of a ride, and though I think it's my least favourite expansion story wise, it's still great, and there's a ton of the visual and audio design that is some of my favourite in the game. In fact, this expansion also has some of my favourite boss fights, including one we won't see for a long while yet (not until the patch content!) which until Endwalker released was my favourite fight in the entire game (it's second place now)!
Yes! The Stormblood boss music is some of my all-time favorite music. I can't wait.
I haven't played StB, but if the mount music is any indication, the bosses are gonna be kickass. I'm hyped!
THE RETURN OF DURMIN!!! Oh I've been waiting for this one for a while; this series is what got me into ffxiv, and I just started patch 5.3 last night. Glad to see Durmin's adventures continue unto Stormblood!
This series helped me play the game into HW... and it was nice seeing my own WoL take it on themselves and experience it for myself... it's one hell of a journey and one I[m so glad to have been through
All I'll say...
Welcome to Shadowbringers.
5.3 is such a high point for the entire game.
Durmin Returns!!!
In the time that he's been busy resting... I made it to the end of Endwalker from ARR Praetorium... I can sit back and watch the cute Lalafell replay the story for me. It's a fun one!
It’s so good to see Durmin again!
Actually, it’s great that you took a short break and it’s something Yoshida encourages for all the players.
I look forward to the future adventures of Durmin
I missed Durmin so much! Glad to see you back at Story Mode! :D
It's great to see this series back, I've missed it and Durmin.
The forest leading into Gyr Abania is beautiful, love the soundtrack for it too.
What song is it?
I'm so hyped for this! I've put over 1000 hours into the free trial over the past 4 years (I can't stand monthly subscriptions), and I've been deliberately keeping myself spoiler-free as much as possible so this series can be my first experience of Stormblood and beyond.
This is actually not the first time we've run into the Ananta, as they did appear in the Bahamut raid back in A Realm Reborn.
This heavily implies that they were created by the Allagan's twisted eugenics research back in the Third Astral Era (which we saw even more of in Azys La in Heavensward). Despite that unfortunate origin, they seem to have grown in the eras since to become their own tribe of peoples with their own culture.
Ixal 🤝 Ananta
Being descended from fucked up Allagan-created monsters
Oh, I'm really happy to see this series resuming! Welcome back!
Ahh, the opening area of Stormblood. Brings back memories of Rauhbahn EX and Pippin Ultimate.
Those sure were some times.
Durmin's back, hooray! Its like all of our namedays have come at once!
- Tataru's Fashion Fantasy just don't miss
- wow good EYE Y'shtola surely no detail escapes your SIGHT
- i love that the mission is "we know Ala-Migo is gonna join us, we just need the receipts for future rebelions"
- sutler (sut′lər),
noun
a person who followed an army or maintained a store on an army post to sell provisions to the soldiers.
So happy to have Durmin back in action 🎉
I love those quest jingles in Stormblood!
The Quest Accepted one is a rendition of that veeeery last chorus cue from the "Storm of Blood" song, witch the lyrics "Loyalty Unity Liberty". (can be heard in this video at 5:09)
And Quest Completed is obviously the final notes of the Ala Mhigan hymn.
Aahhh I've missed this more than I had realized. It is good to be back watching Durmin's adventures.
Horray for Durmin!
As I'm still on Free Trial, I'm ready to get my mind blown by things I haven't seen!
So torn between watching when I myself am still in the beginning of Heavensward and waiting, but man, I've missed Durmin, and I know that the way I'm currently playing through it's still going to be a while for me to get to Stormblood. Besides, even already knowing the story, playing through myself gives me so much opportunity to analyze things and make observations I couldn't quite arrive at while just watching. Unfortunately it does mean my girlfriend has gotten me rambling about how good the bloodly banquet is twice, haha.
Understandable. The banquet was iconic.
3 Cheers for the return of the Warrior of Snacks!
And I also wanted to let Dan know that Durmin’s adventures have gotten me to start playing myself. I’d sworn to not touch MMOs, but I finally got around to watching the Heavensward playthrough in February and went from “this is good” to “this is really good” to “this story is exactly my jam” to “I need to play this” over the course of Heavensward. So, congrats, you’ve claimed another.
And the DTC has been great, too. They helped me finish off the Crystal Tower raid series earlier this evening. So also a big shout out to my fellow geese. HONK!
@41:11 I've heard "FFXIV uses the whole story buffalo", but i like that expression too 😂
Yes, yes, YES!
And I'm caught up! To the whole MSQ! I can watch it all with no fear :D
Yes! I have been looking forward to this for months! Welcome back Durmin!
i started playing because of this series. I just finished stormblood yesterday!! I really loved it! Looking forward to reliving it with you as i push into post-story content!
It's been a while, Durmin. Even if paper mario has been one of my favorite series in recent times.
I am so glad for you to be in stormblood... and so ready for you to get through stormblood into it's patch content. Don't get me wrong storm blood may be the black sheep of xiv, but it's got my favorite normal raid series, second favorite trial series, and some of the best patch story in the game.
Storm blood itself is... pretty. The new classes were great, the dungeons fun, some of the characters are great It's just... The pacing. Every friend I've gotten into ff has bitched but appreciated arr, loved heavansward, ran directly into storm blood aaand quit by zone three for at least a few months. We're not there yet, and I'm curious to how it plays out with dan doing the entertaining, but bear with this one.
If I recall right, 'sutler' refers to a sort of independent (i.e. civilian) camp-follower merchant - basically, where there's a base, there's a need to sell the people who live there everyday stuff, and sutlers were the folks who did it professionally. (These days I think it might be somewhat more formalized than that.)
I am both happy this is back and am doing a concern for Durmin.
A sutler was basically a merchant who followed an army selling general supplies to the soldiers and other camp followers.
He's back! After binging your playthrough leading up to Stormblood, I tried and tried to find someone else to watch play through it, but none were as good as you've been with the rest of this series, so I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of what is to offer! Huzzah!
With the bonus series wrapping up last week, I was 50/50 on whether or not this one would kick off today. Glad to be back into it!
I'm SO much more hype than I thought I'd be for a game I haven't played and don't plan on playing!
I'm always impressed by the lifting the cinematic trailers do. They fill in slight gaps in between expansion story (Heavensward shows the hero arriving at Ishgard as an example), they hint at what we are going to be doing in the story, they show off and give us teases at the new jobs available, and tend to be interesting enough that even non-players can get interested in the game or just enjoy a very good trailer with hardly any context. They juggle a lot and in my opinion excel, whoever is directing those is doing a phenomenal job.
Woohooooo! Dan, you’ve made my week! I finished watching the Heavensward playlist a couple of weeks ago and was gutted there was no more FFXIV left to watch. Thaaaaaank yoooou! 🎉
*The return of the King*
Can't wait to watch Durmin adventures again
Oh, didn't notice this! I'm gonna love this. Kinda.
Edit: I also love the increase in presentation for the expansion. The unfurling maps and markers moving to new places always makes me happy, even on a third character.
Unfortunately, The Fringes is my (second, forgot Coerthas Western Highlands) least favorite opening zone due to the drabness and all the spiders roaming around...
Edit 2: Rhalgr's Reach Day is one of my favorite songs for a Settlement B theme, it's just wonderful. Freeing, friendly, optimistic. Plus the imposing statue of Rhalgr is a nice setpiece in the place it plays in.
He's back! :D
We missed you Durmin!
Yeah! Stormblood! I'm almost done watching the Heaven's post expansion contents. I'll catch up to Stormblood soon enough. Thank you for the content.
our beloved Warrior of Snacks has returned!!
There it is! I've been waiting for this series!
...Then five days ago I got tired of waiting and started my own replay of Stormblood. Heh. I'll decide later if I'll keep doing that run. For now it is Durmin Time.
Welcome back all to Final Fantasy XIV and welcome to Stormblood, which I love. While it is not the best expansion in the game, that is only through being exceeded by future releases. This is personally the expac I joined the game in as it was the first time I had the time and money to actually play it. Heading in I do want to preface the expac with the FF14 community's general vibe of Stormblood for those unprepared, this expac has some heated discussion in the community about a lot of aspects, not least of which was the launch state of Stormblood. Namely the community is polarized on it, many things some love others hate for the same reasons, so expect some of the most heated discussions surrounding aspects of the expac to come in quick. We can get into the particulars as they come up and encourage everyone to stay civil, there is a lot to discuss in the future.
Stormblood probably is a story you'll appreicate because of what it sets off coming up...I liked it including one section to come which i enjoyed doing it a little differently to the template. This is what drives the story to come.
What I like to say is that while Stormblood is the weakest of the expansions, that's really only because it's comparing to the sheer amazingness of Heavensward, Shadowbringers, and now Endwalker. It's a very solid expansion in its own right.
I love the night theme for Rhargr's reach... even if it does have the section of "can't help falling in love with you" by Elvis.
At 38:50 you accept the quest at the exact right second musically and it's absurdly satisfying
It's nice to watch this as it's coming out! I fell off pretty quickly in the very beginning, but later on I binged all of ARR and Heavensward and loved it. I can't wait to see what's next!
I had watched durmin up through HW before getting there myself, i played stormblood on my own without his influence... and it's an amazing story for many reasons and a few parts is why I love this story
38:54 music aligned nicely w/ the Quest Completed right there o3o.
Hooray, he's back! :D Been looking forward to this for a long time. Thanks for picking it back up!
As a staunch Stormblood lover, I'm excited to re-experience stb through this.
I remember the last few episodes of 2.x and thinking I really should get on with finishing story or else Durmin would overtake me. Hahah. Clearly I underestimated how long of an odyssey this would be for him.
Glad that he remains determined to do popoto-sized steps ahead in the journey all the same.
Glad Durmin is back. As a Free Trial player, this is the only way I'll get to see Doma.
Actually, Stormblood is currently available for free if you’re on the free trial! I don’t remember when the deadline is, but better to get it sooner rather than later. /o/
I think I saw that, but I believe it's only if you bought the starter pack.
But I'll check just in case. I'll take any opportunity to continue my Eorzia adventure.
@@LateSleeper Always keep an eye on deals I got ARR-Shadowbringers for £16 on sale...
@@Caterfree10 Its free, but you have to upgrade your account. Which will make you have to pay sub.
38:46 the background music perfectly bled over into the Quest Complete jingle! :D
So excited that Durmin's back and now I'm finally caught up to watch as episodes release 😅
Happy to see this finally back. I was just double checking the PlayFrame channel to make sure I hadn't actually missed anything the other day. While Stormblood isn't my favorite expansion, I do look back on it fondly as this was the current expansion when I started playing this game. I still very much enjoyed the story and the content to come.
EEEKKK!!! Durmin!!! Welcome back!!! So excited for the Stormblood series with Durmin!! Let the Durami ventures begin again! ♡
So VERY glad to have this series, and Durman, back! I'm looking forward to seeing what Stormblood has in store.
38:51 woah that almost perfectly matched the background music!
Yes yes yes ! Welcome back Durmin ! I needed that tonight.
Around 2:53 you can see Rhalgar's reach from above... and it looks a LOT like Byregot's symbol. Which may be intentional, given their nature as opposites.
Durmin is back :DDD
While I probably won't be able to join in for this 'season' since I'm still in HW, I'm excited to see all that the little guy will get up to! And who knows, maybe my DTC character will have caught up when it's time for patch content...
It may be a while for me to catch up, so I'll just like and comment in advance so you know that I appreciate this series, even though I can't watch it right away.
man, i am glad that durmin is back! at the moment i am just about to be fully caught up with the story, so hopefully i will get to join in some dungeons or trials this expansion. (also 38:45 lines up with the quest complete music so well)
Love the cinematic switch of "oh, swords are no go, time for gun!"
Super glad you’re continuing onward! I just finished your Heavensward playlist
Happy to see this return, glad you took your time with it too
I have been waiting for this! I listen to your videos while I go to sleep basically every night. So happy you're back! I have pretty intense ADHD and these vids help my mind slow down and relax so I can actually sleeep.
jumping forward in time (I just finished playing Stormblood but I'm watching the Heavenswrd playthrough) just to say YAAAAAAAAAAS
Right after catching up, the man uploads the continuation!
I'm listening to this while at work it's great
(although i do catch myself wanting to look at the video from time to time haha)
Yay! Durmin is back! Saved to watch later, I’ll catch up soon. 😊
OMG YES ! The return of FF14, I was missing Durmin so much
Whooooooo! As awesome as Paper Mario was, praise be to the return of Durmin the Snackbringer!
2:10 I wish actual sparring looked half as cool. Also, pad-less sparring props.
4:38
6:02 Amazing timing, Dan.
19:16 Hey, we didn't end up in Elden Ring or some other Souls game, so I'd say it works.
28:35 Krile, why'd you have to remind me that the "far east" lies closer to the west of me, and "the west" is to my east?
47:49 I like the Ananta already.
One thing this game does remind me of is how much of an anomaly SWTOR was with the sheer amount of voice acting. Outside very specific things (like dailies), I struggle to recall quests that weren't voiced...
Also: Welcome to the post-PS3 era of FFXIV
No longer will 256 megs of working memory hold the entire game back.
I did actually notice the sparser vegetation, and I did in fact think it was cool, and a good idea of the devs to signify that this place is similar to Gridania, while also giving it a different feeling, so it doesn't REALLY feel like a part of the rest of Gridania, or any part of Eorzea for that matter.
Like, it's not unlike anything in Eorzea, but if I had to pick the most similar place, it'd definitely be Gridania
It adds to how threatened Gridania was since the empire was on their doorstep (although for how much Kan-E-Senna actually thought about that leaves a lot to be answered!)
Yay! Durmin is back! Unfortunately it will be a while until I can actually watch.
So excited for the return! And I finally signed up for the Patreon 🙂
Not exactly for Durmin, but there's a quest chain in Castrum Oriens that is really interesting
Starts with the Serpent Marshal, The Hidden Truth
then Drawing a Blank
Seeking Answers
The Honest Truth
The Rose Blooms Twice
Spoilers for the content of these quests?
It deals with a garlean poison that wiped an entire village
It's good complimentary knowledge
I have a ton of quests to catch up on, seeing stuff from ARR that I missed out on... but this plot is one that is more significant for events to come, StB is a load bearing expansion for where we go to the current content.
Huzzah Durmin returns!
Now goodbye while I rewatch the post-Heavensward stuff
The quality probably did go up because it was the era where they moved up towards the PS4
It has been far too long since we've seen the hero of Eorzia: Durmin is back baby 🤩
Oh the places, Durmin will go... it's going to be a journey!
@@AuroDHikoshi I can't wait to see
Durmin is back in action!
I remember particularly enjoying the way they handled zones in this expansion. The zones are quite large and most cannot be fully traversed until certain story points are reached. This also means that the Aether Currents cannot all be reached until certain story points, limiting flight till then as well.
The long slumbering Sultan of snacks has returned :)
wohoo glad to see the series continued :D
Meffrid... Wait, from the Ala Mhigans in that Gridanian town - Quarrymill? Was he the captain that needed his dude's infected injury treated so that the group could move? If so, it sure has been a while.
...wait. Wasn't the dude in question the fake Griffin we met right before the great Ilberd trainwreck? Small world, I guess.
...holy crap, I can't believe I actually remembered that. It's been, what, an actual year since then?
@@vdate There will be a lot of characters coming back around from minor interactions, its a sort of theme of the game from here on.
@@AuroDHikoshi Fair enough! Also, rewatching the intro cinematic, I now feel *really* dumb for only just now realizing the name 'the Griffin' was chosen as a reference to the regional flag of Ala Mhigo (being a griffin rampant/segreant, iirc, though I don't know enough about heraldry to give the rest), since I *think* we've seen the flag before.
Let's goooooo! Durmin's back 🎉🎉🎉
the snack deliverer of light has returned!
Yay! So glad to see you're back.
Yay, Durmin is back! I've been waiting impatiently for this
I'm late to the party, but YAY! Durmin and this series is back!
Finally catching up on this portion of the playthrough, now that I’ve finished StB myself (and most of SHB) and need a refresher before Dan does the 4.x patches. Very excited to see a new chapter of Durmin’s adventure!
5:45 Ah, yes… the “fun story twists” of Stormblood, that definitely won’t get sad or heartbreaking ever 😅🙃
DURMIN IS BACK! I have missed sweet Durmin so much!
That FATE near the entrance to the wall drops a minion and is extremely hard to do solo on a normal job
People get together to do stuff like that :3c
It's a nice bit of as-casual-as-you-want content
The East End music that we heard through most of the episode really reminds me of music from FFXI. Specifically, it's a little reminiscent of the theme for Sanctuary of Zi'tah.
Speaking of FFXI... Dan, do you have a plan for how you're tackling FFXI in the New Frame Plus series?
It's happening! I'm stoked to see this back!