She was walking with us the whole way to the present...our biggest ally, our truest friend. Venat never forgot us...she believed IN us more than anyone else.
@@jonathandrouin8717 Emet-Selch can see the color of souls and would recognize the WoL as Azem the moment he laid eyes on them. The difference is that ShB Emet-Selch is so damaged after literally 12k years of loneliness and duty that he can no longer see the WoL for who they truly are. EW Emet-Selch did not share the same trait -- he understands who you are and he would trust you with anything.
@@LazzyVamples That's not quite correct; ShB Emet-Selch recognized exactly who you were too. That's why he spent the first half of the expac explaining exactly how everything went wrong and what he's doing, to try to persuade you to join him. When that fails, he spends the next quarter desperately hoping that you'll prove him wrong, that you'll be strong enough to contain the overflowing light, and promises that if you can, then he'll delay their plans by another hundred years or so, to spend that time being your friend. And that's why, at the end of Mt. Gulg, when you defeat Innocence and the light begins to overwhelm you, he's so very angry. Because for one fleeting moment he allowed himself to hope his friend was back... only to have that hope dashed. Even then, he still shows how much he cares about Azem by asking you to join him in his undersea lair, where you can transform into a monster in peace, without fear of tearing your friends apart while you're still conscious. All of it comes from a place of desperate loneliness, hope, and love. That's one of the reasons ShB remains the best stand-alone expac out of the series.
@@ragnerangel194 lol :D... though tbh idk what story they could've written after EW that could stand a chance at even comparing with ShB/EW's story (i see them as 2 parts of the same story). like you can't top that in any way that doesn't feel forced and fake. for me, that's why post 6.0 MSQ felt a bit... meh. but i guess you gotta go back to the bottom if you want to (hopefully) ascend again.
it is a very powerfull message of hope not painted in sunny and happy feelings. It's to remember us to stay strong even in the darkest times of our lives.
I do like the story and Venat's words doesn't gloss over despair and all emotions surrounding it with "lets fix it with happy thoughts!" and rather the grim acceptance of it. It's same with Matsya and the quote from the teachings he repeats. It's not colored in happy thoughts, it's actually fairly grim and dark, but if you're a person who's ever been through deep depression you know that the cure isn't a better happier life but learning to cope and manage it, and to do that you gotta face it head on and learn to control it. Cause no matter what, it'll always exist and return, just like every emotion you have. And oftentimes life just isn't fair and some have it way rougher than others and can't manage it.
@@prinstyrio0 I suspect that Hydalyn and a past incarnation of the WoL must have been there in the past. The dancer class was developed to combat the Totentaz, which seems to be a weaker version of the song's transformations. Zodiark's shield is weakest in Thavnair. The dancer class originates from Thavnair. The dancer martial arts skill is one of Venat's self developed combat styles.
@@KZoranderThat does not mean it is the same for everyone else. Yes, this section still makes me cry. But just as that, there are sections in Dawntrail, particularly towards the end, that hit me hard as they touched on deep family trauma I am suffering from. Everyone is not the same, and neither is the evaluation of Dawntrail. Endwalker is my favourite expansion, but in no way falls Dawntrail much short of that. For me. Your experience may differ, and that's OK. Buy don't claim that would be an objective measure. It's not.
@@kinolyen I never made any claims like that, if you'd reread my comment. "this cutscene makes ME cry, nothing in DT made ME feel that way." I stated an opinion as it related to me. I didn't make any objective claims about anybody else's experience, or about any facts. Chill.
Ive watched this scene 30+ times, seeing others reactions, and i still ugly cry, knowing she bared it all, the entirety of the burden, and the weight of those decisions. Also, retconning Answers in such a way, and having Venat answer Answers, was one of the most brilliant writing moves ever.
Idk if she realized this but, memories returning when the soul is cleansed in the Underworld, means that after we kill Emet in Shadowbringers, he remembers everything and that's why he comes back to help when we face Elidibus. The Hythlodaeus shade we meet at Amaurot knows about all this and says nothing about it, but still calls us his "New old friend" which seems strange in the moment but makes sense now. It's so well woven together, I love it.
Probably shouldn't have posted this on a video done by somebody who hasn't gotten there yet. Also, the shade of Hythlo we meet isn't Hythlo's sould it's a memory of him from Emet. He calls us "new old friend" because he recognizes we are a shard of Azem and he was friends with Azem. We don't actually meet the "ghost" of Hythlo until we go to the moon as he's part of Zodiark being in the group of ancients that were first sacrificed to create the primal.
Actually, the Shade in Amaurot would NOT have known this. The Shade was created by Emet while he was still alive and missing his memories. He couldn't have given the Shade memories of things he himself didn't even remember. He calls us "New Old Friend" because we look like Azem to him. Fact is, the shade you meet in the Moon didn't know prior to destroying Zodiark because the memories are only restored once they rejoin the lifestream.
The way I see it is it comes down to one stray thought while Emet-Selch was creating the image of Hyth in Amaurot... "Hyth would know the truth" With that stray thought, the shade of Hyth knew all the truth. That he was a shade. That the real Hyth was on the moon in Zodiak. That he can't really do anything to break or of the mold that ES had created for him. That we were absolutely his friend Azem in another form. And maybe, just maybe, that we meet once before, and he couldn't tell us because it was too early.
When Venat's unwillingness to give up walking forward was juxtaposed with ours as we approached Hades at the end of Shadowbringers, I let out a very quiet gasp. When the cutscene ended I got up and took a little walk for about fifteen minutes. It still hits hard enough, more than two and a half years later, to get me choked up. "As fragmented, imperfect beings, yours is a never-ending quest." That line still comes for me and does not hold back. Thank you for sharing this walk with us.
That moment when we were approaching Hades, Venat was also keeping the corrupted light at bay. When I saw this cutscene, I sobbed because I realized she never abandoned us and her message was a powerful one, one I would never forget.
This scene hit so hard. I was still in the process of overcoming depression when I played Endwalker and I cried so much because I could apply it all to my situation. Forge ahead
Soken is a mad genius to not only bring back such a great song, but give it a new much deeper second meaning. I love watching people see the arr trailer as a sprout and be like 'aw that's an amazing song' and the vets are there sobbing quietly telling them 'just wait'
@@Kat-queenofnerds I disagree with this statement, been sobbing pretty much the whole time I've played this game. Answers was already a very meaningful song with all the backstory between 1.0 and 2.0 and it keeps resonating with the post ARR patches if you combine how you end up thinking Minfilia is dead, Alphinaud's character growth or how you tag up with Alisaie to discover about her grandfather and how he was still struggling with Bahamut.
Purest reaction ive seen so far. And ive watched pretty much every reaction to this part of MSQ cause im sucker for reactions to story i love. There is no reason to hold back tears, this game has done it several times to me and made me love the story even more every time it happens. Lots of love from Finland!
Literally my entire being was screaming out to save them but if you had altered history and stopped Meteion then and there. You and the entire world you knew would cease to exist. Just like G'raha when he went into the past to pull you to the first to prevent the 8th umbral calamity. Time travel is wild.
@@iconius2000this or I wonder if Azem also had the echo. If so, couldn't they have discovered the truth coincidentally on their own? Either way they more than likely knew the truth one way or the other.
You also gotta consider that Venat didn't have to do any of this. She had already finished her duty as the previous Azem as her white clothes demonstrate, in her own culture she was supposed to be already dead yet kept going far longer than any of the other Ancients out of love for the people. Little stuff like that makes Ishikawa one of the greatest writers of our time. Hope she decides to keep writing more stories for the game.
Its my understanding the white robe isn't a mark of an ancient who refused death. But of an ancient recognized as one old enough, wise enough, and trusted enough to act as an arbiter, a solver of disputes, an investigator and judge. The only ones to stand out in a society of indistinct people are those you go to when there is trouble, a problem that needs solved, or an argument mediated.
The entirety of Elpis shook me on a level I hadn't felt since exploring the ciry of Amaurot. The story of Meteion, Hermes, Venat, Hythlodaeus and Emet really brought everything together, and the final cutscene of Venat embracing all the pain and suffering over the millenia waiting for us is truly heartbreaking. Enjoy the rest of the Journey, and embrace every moment of the walk towards the End!
OK to explain the first bit about the confluence: Hythlodaeus knew where the confluence was, and knew he could not destroy it. Emet-Selch was needed to destroy it, but he was busy keeping Hermes locked down (notice, he was flinging magic at Hermes' shield). If Emet-Selch had dropped his attacks to destroy the confluence, it would have given Hermes a chance to retaliate. So, Hythlodaeus comes up with the idea to distract Hermes by threatening to break the confluence open (something he wasn't even capable of doing, but Hermes didn't know that). He fakes making towards the confluence (which is on the opposite side of the platform from where it really is) knowing that Venat has Argos and is no longer chasing Meteion. Hermes takes the bait, and tries to throw Hythlodaeus off the platform but instead the WoL jumps in front of him and takes the hit which only makes it easier to Venat to grab em. This leaves Emet free to destroy the confluence. And as Emet notes, just the kind of trickery and improvisation that they are used to seeing Azem (and Venat) doing, which is how they got the idea for that in the first place.. "It's something Azem would have done" or somesuch.
This cutscene is so heavy & real... Made me question my own life. I feel so bad for the Ancients. In my opinion the best in all of gaming. Don't feel bad for crying. You're not alone. We're all in this together! 💜
Also, the use of music in this game as a storytelling tool. I feel like every time answers shows up, I cry over something. Amanda Achen has made me cry more times than my exes have.
@@fionamb83 Love the music as well, but I believe Answers was pre-Amanda (or at least the original one was, idk if Amanda did a new rendition for Endwalker)
"We can not keep flying back to the past to only keep making the same mistakes, we must walk forward through pain and suffering to learn from our mistakes and put them behind us and grow stronger from them."
Always hit me even harder after thinking back to Shadowbringers and his declaration, "You cannot be entrusted with our legacy." The stark contrast between the two quotes...
And worse is that Emet Selch will remember that when he dies in ShB. He will remember the entirety of those few days at Elpis. That shit hurt man when I realized that.
Well Venat does remember you, thats why you are picked as main hero at the beginning of ARR and get that blessing and guidance :D . She probably did not tell you to prevent any changes to who you are before your yourney to Elpis (and also writers had no idea back then :D ).
Just imagine Hydaelyn keeping an eye on the lifestream and seeing your soul return time and time again and hoping that this time, perhaps, the one you she made that promise with will surface.
@@TarossBlackburn And that it's Azem's fragmented soul. Azem, Venat's protoge, who disagreed with the Hydaelyn plan and walked away, hoping to find another way. It must have been hard for Venat to let them walk away without telling them the truth, knowing that Azem would fail and be sundered along with the rest of the world. Though perhaps, if they had known that their soul would be scattered among the worlds, and would return again and again to help others, Azem would have been ok with that? One hopes so.
@@smartalec2001 There are theories due to later events that actually make people think Azem chose to be scattered, predicting the future and knowing the path would lead to the WoL coming to Elpis. Don't really want to spoil anything beyond the point of the story in the video though.
13,000 years. Think about that. 13,000 years she walked, pained by every attempted rejoining by the Ascians. She zipped us instantly back to our time, but she walked for 13,000 years waiting for us to create our Warrior of Light in the ARR character creator. Her walk in this cutscene is a stylized representation of her enduring each attempted rejoining and calamity. Powerful stuff.
The game contradicts itself in this.. but also relies on NPCs who actually might not really know the truth. If Emet-Selch is to be believed he said he was alive for more than 100000 years.. which would a a much more realistic number for all of this having taken place. Lots of fantasies do get timeframes really really wrong… and our sense of timeframes really is scuffed cause we live such short lives and had such extreme development in the last 200 years but ESPECIALLY in the last 50ish years.. like remember watching Back to the Future? Flying cars by like 2015 or 2018.. hah. We could very easy still be in the Middle Ages if it wasn’t for plague and need for invention.
@@ViewTube_Emperor_of_Mankind To put things into perspective: irl humanity is barely 7000 thousand generations old. And by that i mean the human species as we know it. That's a crazy number for anyone here, but as a species we REALLY speedrun our development.
@@ViewTube_Emperor_of_Mankind To be fair, if you consider the incredible variance of time passing between each shard, which is always in flux, he could have lived a lot more than just the 13,000 years that passed on the Source.
I was sad when you had to stop your playthroughs in the past. I'm not a Twitch watcher, and happy to see you post reactions to TH-cam! Thanks!! Enjoy your walk to The End & beyond to Dawntrail ❤️❤️❤️
That writing, making people feel that things are real, in a very strange fictional universe, is pure and utter genius, the messages, the parallel with real life that people can't help but make in their heads and for anyone that has lost someone significant or even just thought about death and the meaning of life, this hits HARD
"You cannot change the past to undo the tragedies of the present". Venat didn't tell you anything because you weren't ready and there was nothing you could do to stop it.
If there is any kind of "message" to be gained from the FF14 story, it is summed up in this cutscene. The importance of having hope no matter how bad things get.
There is nothing but respect for Venat. Everything she did was to protect her people. "They are my meaning and my purpose. My love." And yet, she had to destroy them. She killed/sundered everyone, she created a world where the shades of her loved ones were exposed to sickness, death, pain and suffering. "I breathe fire and torment." She has become the greatest and cruelest of villains. All in the name of MAYBE securing a way forward for mankind. She loved her people with everything she had, and yet she became Hydaelyn and sundered the world. There was no kindness in that act. It was an act of pure necessity. She had to endure a thousand thousand lives worth of years, looking at the suffering she has created. She endeavoured all those years with a heavy conscience and guilt immeasurable. And we didn't know until we met her in Elpis. At the beginning of the expansion, we told her that we can't trust her anymore, we told that to the woman who has given everything in her life to make sure that we survived until we could make it to Elpis. Her blessing saved us over and over again. She revived us after fighting Lahabrea. And she couldn't make us trust her. Venat is probably one of my favourite characters of all time. And this cutscene is probably the best cutscene I have ever watched in any game. This scene even recontextualises the track "Answers" for us. "Thou must live, die and know." You cannot move forwards without taking on suffering as our constant companion... I still can't help myself from tearing up whenever I see this cutscene. It's a masterpiece.
I never doubted her. Been playing since 2015. I considered everything she had done as Hydaelyn and there was simply no conclusion that I could draw, that said anything BUT she was our greatest ally. It's fine if other people doubted her. But they weren't really thinking everything through methodically.
The sheer arrogance of her to act as judge jury and executioner makes her despicable to me. I don't care for her reasoning as when put under any kind of scrutiny it's lacking.
@@Beathemighty All life was going to be sacrificed out. The ancients weren't capable of adapting to loss and devastation. They also had no way of dealing with what was actually causing the final days.
@JustinStrife Except we forget that thousands of civilizations DID die due to Meteion running amok unchecked. And Hydaelyn effectively killed the same life she claimed to want to protect so that whole scarficed thing falls flat on its ass. Omega EW quests tells us accepting loss does jackshit for Dynamis corruption and to add insult to injury sundered races are MORE vulnerable to Dynamis. And ah yes the ancients who provided us both the Ragnarok engine Tech and primal summoning to travel to ultima thule to which two Ancients (Hades and Hythlo) would save our sorry asses to reach the dead ends to which Zenos an ATHER based primal literally burst into the endsingers egg would absolutely be unable to fight Meteion. Yes they absolutely wouldn't have been able to do that.
@@BeathemightyThey were preparing to start creating life for the sole purpose of sacrificing it to Zodiark in order to bring back what they lost, so Venat and HALF of the remaining people who didn't agree made Hydaelyn. Yes Meteion caused a lot of suffering, but that was also, completely Hermes fault by utilizing the poorly understood Dynamis mixed with his own, very evident, confusion on what life was meant for. They couldn't chase down Meteion because 1) they didn't know where she went until far later and they didn't even KNOW about her due to their memories being gone 2) they had no way of getting to her yet 3) they were dealing with the final days, with again, no idea to the cause of it. Dynamis is only offset by aether and vice versa, aether is one of the few things Primals are chock full of, so a mother crystal gorged Zenos Primal could in theory break into a Dynamis shell and in practice did. You may not like how they decided to do things, but from Venats perspective, she alone knew what was going on, she knew the WOL was important and from the future, a future that had to come to pass in order for the events to happen as they did. She was fated to be Hydaelyn and fracture the world in order to someday, avert the final days.
That scene messed me up too. It got to me on personal level because I am a raider. And what that scene told me that Hydaelyn was always there to help me go on. And there I am at the beginning of Endwalker doubting her words. I felt like a fool.
Crazy that this song came out 12 years ago after the failed launch of the game. You can basically feel the pain of the FFXIV 1.0 release and it's effect on dev team. Then to near perfectly integrate it into FFXIV's story; the lyrics resonate and is more impactful today than when it originally came out. The way the cutscene ends while syncing up to these lyrics is so powerful and will be in my mind forever: *_Thy Life is a riddle, to bear rapture and sorrow_* *_To listen, to suffer, to entrust unto tomorrow_* *_In one fleeting moment, from the Land doth life flow_* *_Yet in one fleeting moment, for anew it doth grow_* *_In the same fleeting moment thou must live, die and know..._*
The fact that our story is where we become conscious and whole enough to take on the ultimate despair and we get to see where it all started and why we are the always we are is so spiritually and mentally healing. Thank you so much for sharing your reaction. This is literally my favorite moment and cutscene of all time.
This game is a masterpiece. The level of story telling and relatability is just overwhelming sometimes. Such a genuine experience of the game. Thank you for sharing such a vulnerable moment so others can share their experience and understand they aren't alone.
I will always be emotional when I see this. Having watched Everything, Everywhere, All At Once and then experiencing this truly amazing in game moment, made me realize how important these messages are. Messages that need to be heard, remembered and understood. Hear it, Feel it, & Think it one could say.
I'm gonna say, consider this expansion came out while Covid still was very powerfully affecting life, Ishikawa saved probably a number of lives that is not zero. Suicide rates were going up, and a blue bird of despair was poisoning the entire world. ( Then that blue bird turned full black and now called X, but another topic) I've seen a lot of people react to this and say they decided to keep going on. If even %1 of them actually was going to kill themselves, that's something.
YEAH!!!!! this is absolutely one of the best cutscenes in the game, bar none i still get chills every time i go back and see it, and I love seeing other people have the same heartfelt genuine reaction I did-- immediate, crushing, empathetic tears. there really aren't enough words to properly convey just how incredible Venat's journey and this scene really is. it truly was a privilege to get to know our dear beloved goddess-- and to see just how human she truly was.
I really enjoyed watching this, I cried all over again haha. Also, my orange kitty came to my rescue around the same time yours did in the first part of the video. They know when we need them.
Depends on the person. Emet-Selch turned into a tired old wretch incapable of empathy, it turned Elidibus into a single-minded fanatic who doesn't even remember what he's fighting for, and Venat, well... she had Hope to cling onto, and a "light of the future". Oh, and Hermes turned into a self-loathing psychopath who wanted to end everything for everybody.
That's essentially what I said to my wife after finishing that cutscene. I don't even know what to call that emotion, but I'm going to keep it with me for the rest of my life.
I feel you girl. I had massive headaches while playing this expansion because of the amount of time I spent crying (I had either covid or the flu which didnt help) and trying to keep my composure through it all haha. 10/10 story!
I love how your WoL is a mini version of you. She looks so cute. Also i have to say that i teared up each and every single time i watched this and I had my friends call me sentimental or a softie, as if they didnt play the same game and they didnt realise the meaning of Venat's sacrifice. Or why she had to do what she did . And why Hades/emet selch goes from being the WoL's nemesis, to place all his hopes for the future into them and abandoning his purpose. This is some next level writing there, that unfortunately other video games cant quite hope to reach. And not only the animation, but the voice acting as well, are doing it great justice
This game took me through the deepest anxiety episodes in my life when I felt I wasn't worthy of the people around me and of the space and resources my life required. It helped me just distract, step away from my problems and taught me about just having hope that everything will work out in the end. That I just had to keep standing up and trying again. A couple years later they deliver this scene, which perfectly represents what I felt and what my time with the game helped me regain by just allowing me to distract my mind and heal. I found the strenght to continue amidst despair. And the will to stand up when I fall.
When I heard the comments about how different the tone of Dawntrail is to Endwalker, I remembered moments like this in the game. We were put through some of the heaviest real world themes in a game I've ever experienced. I loved and hated those moments. Yoshi-P wanted to give us a chance to stop and breath with Dawntrail which I 100% appreciate.
Just realized the irony of Emet-Selch telling Meteion, "Who are you to decide our fate? To decree whether we live or die?" Since in Shadowbringers we told him the same thing
@@Orphim Especially Meteion in the final areas of the game. Like literally ANY line she says in the final areas is just top notch VA. Delivered with absolute perfection. Whoever her VA was, wow, they are quite good at what they do.
Her eyes wide open, shining bright, even when in excruciating pain, with the quote "amidst deepest despair, light everlasting" is such a great and true lifestyle to assume for your real and whole life. This game is a life lesson.
(End of Endwalker MSQ Spoiler) Somehow my most emotional scene was when Graha sacrificed himself for the pathway in ultima thule, I even knew there was a good chance that he was coming back, but just his words he always asks for the simplest things to go on trips with the WoL, and yet you can just tell by the way he speaks that even if he knows he might not come back he was happy for anytime he spent with us. It gets me everytime.
Love how that one cutscene breaks everyone over the knee. You go in already nicked, things are too real, too important... and then Answers plays while Venat explains to you the purpose of life itself. Brutal perfection of storytelling.
It's a beautiful thing, to see the relativity, the raw emotion. The depth of understanding, and just the general appreciation of how the story, voices, music and atmosphere blended into this divine moment. And yes, Answers - finally makes sense with this cutscene, it was powerful indeed. Damn, imma miss Endwalker xD
Every blow we see in that cutscene with Venat is a dramatisation of what she experienced with each Rejoining, each Calamity. Immeasurable pain, each time taking a portion of her power, her strength, her ability to hold Zodiark back. And it's the stories we told her in that bygone age that allowed her to keep going. It's why whenever I come upon that cutscene, either here on TH-cam, on Twitch, or playing the game, I never skip it. I watch, and witness, and yes, still I weep even at the seventh, tenth, fifteenth time watching - because I love and respect her too much to gloss over her sacrifice even once.
I'm a glutton for punishment. I remember watching as many reactions as I could to people experiencing the cutscenes of this expansion. Twas a beautiful experience.
Endwalker is such an amazingly well-written end to the story. Looking back at it, it's actually amazing that the entire universe almost got wiped out because of one man's untreated severe depression. We got this 10-year long epic story and at the end of the day, this apocalyptic chain reaction was just caused by human error.
Reaching this point along the MSQ is worth playing the game on its own. It is such a unique experience as it completely demolishes the fourth wall (and yet without doing so in any obvious manner!) and real life and the game become pretty muhc one at this cutscene.
I think its even better when we defeat her, she looks at us like a proud mother knowing we finally dont need to rely on her anymore. She can finally rest knowing her children will not be extinguished, that they will fight and find true happiness despite their trials and tribulations.
just gonna say on the whole 'this is our fault' thing- the Meteia were already sent out into space before we got there. things were already set in motion. all we changed is that we and Hydaelyn remember and can do something about it.
I love watching people react, i get to live vicariously and experience it almost for the first time again. "If what you say is true, do not squander it, the legacy i leave you!" Emet is the best!
I felt like the entire Endwalker expansion was a metaphor for depression. Maybe I'm reading into it something that wasn't supposed to be there, but that's what I felt. The conflict between despair and hope.
I remember not understanding most of the Venat scene the first time I saw it, and just thought she was the true big bad. It wasn’t until I read up afterward that I understood the reason for the scene and the power behind it. Our world is the way it is because she wanted to destroy the complacency of paradise, so that we as mankind would not lose direction
I really wish I cared this much about the story in Final Fantasy 14, I love the feeling of being this invested into something it's been a long time since I felt this way about a game sadly, probably since the original Mass Effect trilogy came out.
To be fair, the writers did not have this ending in mind when they penned that song. However, as the game went forward, and sometime around Stormblood they came up with the idea for ShB and Endwalker, and they found a way to repurpose the song and write the new expansions in such a way that the song ends up fitting perfectly. This speaks to the masterpiece the song itself really is, that they were able to do that.
A little music bonus: After witnessing the big cutscene, you wake up in the Ocular, all alone. The Ocular's theme is a Shadowbringers re-recording of Unei and Doga's theme from FF3 as used in the Crystal Tower raids back in ARR. The name of the ARR track is "Now I Know The Truth". And after you go through that and wake up in the Ocular, you sure do.
It's not just my favourite cutscene in FFXIV, it's one of my favourites in any game I have ever played over the last 40ish years. It's a gut punch. Completely unforgettable.
I like how each of the doomed worlds she brings up relates heavily to one of the people there, their present and their future. Renounced relationships and brought collapse - Hermes. A race which won after devastating loss but could never regain its former heights - Emet. A world which abhors finite time but discovers forever doesnt exist, losing all hope. - hythlodaeus, a font of hope who thought he would have forever with his closest friends, even in the afterlife. A people who lost their meaning and will to live without sorrow to remind them of its value - Venat, who would see the same in her people chasing the past instead of standing strong in the face of loss and sorrow, to create and discover new joy. She who would undertake a 10,000 year task based on this principle so man would be strong enough to face despair. And finally. All the races as a whole believed they did their best but still failed and fell to despair - The WoL, who remembers Ardberts words "We did everything right, everything asked of us and still, still it came to this!". The WoL who is all too aware that despite all their strength and power and successes, that they can do everything right and still fail their duty, their worlds and their friends.
Hydealyn did remember, she however knows that as an ekon she will temper you, she commands in her temper for you to "hear, feel and think" to ensure that you remain of free will she CANNOT tell you of her past lest she ruins your proper role in the stream of time. By waiting to talk to you after your trip to the past she ensures that you are informed, that you have taken your place in history to influence her properly, and that you are doing what you do by your own will rather than some obligation or compulsion of her "blessing" (temper). I was ugly crying when I realized that she knew what she would create yet she forced herself to turn her hand to her beloved world and sundered it, shattered the souls of every living thing in 14 and marched through the endless eons alone in her suffering to create the opportunity for you to exist and eventually rise to your calling. the endless suffering she must have endured to reach that point is inconceivable. forever calling out her temering voice to anyone who awakened "Hear Feel Think" in order to drown the song of oblivion. I could barely see the cutscene through my tears.
@@keithfilibeck2390 that is a theory that the laporett posed however the Ascians made Zodiark in an identical fashion that they made Hydealyn and Emett-Selch said himself that they were tempered by zodiarch in the moment of his creation.
This is about my 15th time watching The Cutscene and it still makes me weep every time... except a couple times I tried to weep but couldn't and had to stop and drink water
This the most powerful set of cutscenes in the game. They very well may never top it. Glad to see Annie back in FFXIV and seemingly enjoying (tears not withstanding) the journey.
Venat's words are..true and hit the hardest we are imperfect creatures and our struggles are all too real say EVERYDAY we asking the unanswerable question Why pain why suffering why death...and it can never be truly answered
To name this quest "Thou must Live Die and Know" was a great choice. Add to it Answers playing in the background, like a summary of our journey from ARR to the very Endwalker, through all the challenges, with Venat sharing in our burden on every step of the way. Had me ugly crying when I first saw it and still makes my throat all spiky with choked crying
The Endwalker quest line hit me as well so freaking hard. The story was well written, well maintained through out the whole MSQ. As a Finnish man, we usually do not cry or weep, but I balled my eyes out when I was playing through the MSQ.
![FILMMAKER REACTS: FINAL FANTASY XIV | [ALL TRAILERS!!] + [BREAKDOWN]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/hPfkWGeyJ78/mqdefault.jpg)
watching people react genuinely to these cutscenes, and not be bothered with trying to entertain stream chat, is truly one of my favorite pasttimes.
legit this
Indeed, us vampires are addicts to it.
this is why i dont like it when for some reasons, there are streamers who think they should TURN OFF their cam during cutscenes.
Emotional vampirism is a well known side effect of playing FFXIV.
you're weird..
She was walking with us the whole way to the present...our biggest ally, our truest friend.
Venat never forgot us...she believed IN us more than anyone else.
Lamatyi believed in me more!
But she had to wait for the time loop to be fulfilled.
@@kiretan8599 LMAOOOO
@@kiretan8599
May she have a similar fate.
She also got alot of people killed. Personally it's like thanks for believing in us but I gotta put you down lady
Emet-Selch in Shadowbringers: "You are not worthy of our legacy."
Emet-Selch in Endwalkers: "Do not squander it! The legacy, I leave you."
in Shadowbringer he wasn't aware of our connection. in Endwalker he rediscover the bond we have had all along.
Also his arguement against hermes amounts to the same an alternate version that the scions had with him.
@@jonathandrouin8717 Emet-Selch can see the color of souls and would recognize the WoL as Azem the moment he laid eyes on them. The difference is that ShB Emet-Selch is so damaged after literally 12k years of loneliness and duty that he can no longer see the WoL for who they truly are. EW Emet-Selch did not share the same trait -- he understands who you are and he would trust you with anything.
@@LazzyVamples That's not quite correct; ShB Emet-Selch recognized exactly who you were too. That's why he spent the first half of the expac explaining exactly how everything went wrong and what he's doing, to try to persuade you to join him. When that fails, he spends the next quarter desperately hoping that you'll prove him wrong, that you'll be strong enough to contain the overflowing light, and promises that if you can, then he'll delay their plans by another hundred years or so, to spend that time being your friend.
And that's why, at the end of Mt. Gulg, when you defeat Innocence and the light begins to overwhelm you, he's so very angry. Because for one fleeting moment he allowed himself to hope his friend was back... only to have that hope dashed. Even then, he still shows how much he cares about Azem by asking you to join him in his undersea lair, where you can transform into a monster in peace, without fear of tearing your friends apart while you're still conscious.
All of it comes from a place of desperate loneliness, hope, and love. That's one of the reasons ShB remains the best stand-alone expac out of the series.
@jonathandrouin8717 no he was somewhat aware he flat out was denying it tho
Over 2 years later since ive seen that cutscene and i still tear up
same..
Same..
Endwalker is a masterpiece
Same. "Zodiark we offer up these lives, please undo Dawntrail."
@@ragnerangel194 lol :D... though tbh idk what story they could've written after EW that could stand a chance at even comparing with ShB/EW's story (i see them as 2 parts of the same story). like you can't top that in any way that doesn't feel forced and fake. for me, that's why post 6.0 MSQ felt a bit... meh. but i guess you gotta go back to the bottom if you want to (hopefully) ascend again.
It hits really hard when you realize every blow she takes as she walks through the eons is whenever a calamity occurs to rebuild Zodiark
By the guys she spared.
That and the other times she took for WoL
She really gave her entire being and soul to ensure you as Azem succeeded and that mankind was spared it's fate. A true queen
@@kyeda clown level post
@@Beathemightyyou mean the guys that survived the sundering, not because she spared them…
it is a very powerfull message of hope not painted in sunny and happy feelings. It's to remember us to stay strong even in the darkest times of our lives.
I do like the story and Venat's words doesn't gloss over despair and all emotions surrounding it with "lets fix it with happy thoughts!" and rather the grim acceptance of it. It's same with Matsya and the quote from the teachings he repeats.
It's not colored in happy thoughts, it's actually fairly grim and dark, but if you're a person who's ever been through deep depression you know that the cure isn't a better happier life but learning to cope and manage it, and to do that you gotta face it head on and learn to control it. Cause no matter what, it'll always exist and return, just like every emotion you have. And oftentimes life just isn't fair and some have it way rougher than others and can't manage it.
@@prinstyrio0 I suspect that Hydalyn and a past incarnation of the WoL must have been there in the past. The dancer class was developed to combat the Totentaz, which seems to be a weaker version of the song's transformations. Zodiark's shield is weakest in Thavnair. The dancer class originates from Thavnair. The dancer martial arts skill is one of Venat's self developed combat styles.
Seeing you tear up to the point of almost ugly crying was something else. That's how good the reactions can be when people don't expect anything
i got a tingle
I still can't get through this section without ugly crying. NOTHING in Dawntrail made me feel that way.
@@KZoranderThat does not mean it is the same for everyone else. Yes, this section still makes me cry. But just as that, there are sections in Dawntrail, particularly towards the end, that hit me hard as they touched on deep family trauma I am suffering from. Everyone is not the same, and neither is the evaluation of Dawntrail. Endwalker is my favourite expansion, but in no way falls Dawntrail much short of that. For me. Your experience may differ, and that's OK. Buy don't claim that would be an objective measure. It's not.
@@kinolyen I never made any claims like that, if you'd reread my comment. "this cutscene makes ME cry, nothing in DT made ME feel that way." I stated an opinion as it related to me. I didn't make any objective claims about anybody else's experience, or about any facts. Chill.
@@kinolyen and here we see what the reading comprehension of a 6 year old looks like
Ive watched this scene 30+ times, seeing others reactions, and i still ugly cry, knowing she bared it all, the entirety of the burden, and the weight of those decisions. Also, retconning Answers in such a way, and having Venat answer Answers, was one of the most brilliant writing moves ever.
Not really retconning more like re-contextualizing. The song wasn't changed, just in the context of its meaning.
Idk if she realized this but, memories returning when the soul is cleansed in the Underworld, means that after we kill Emet in Shadowbringers, he remembers everything and that's why he comes back to help when we face Elidibus. The Hythlodaeus shade we meet at Amaurot knows about all this and says nothing about it, but still calls us his "New old friend" which seems strange in the moment but makes sense now. It's so well woven together, I love it.
Probably shouldn't have posted this on a video done by somebody who hasn't gotten there yet. Also, the shade of Hythlo we meet isn't Hythlo's sould it's a memory of him from Emet. He calls us "new old friend" because he recognizes we are a shard of Azem and he was friends with Azem. We don't actually meet the "ghost" of Hythlo until we go to the moon as he's part of Zodiark being in the group of ancients that were first sacrificed to create the primal.
@@katnerd-Glen I'm only talking about the events of Shadowbringers what are you on about
We discussed this on stream, it's such a powerful realisation, especially cuz I love Emet 😭
Actually, the Shade in Amaurot would NOT have known this. The Shade was created by Emet while he was still alive and missing his memories. He couldn't have given the Shade memories of things he himself didn't even remember. He calls us "New Old Friend" because we look like Azem to him. Fact is, the shade you meet in the Moon didn't know prior to destroying Zodiark because the memories are only restored once they rejoin the lifestream.
The way I see it is it comes down to one stray thought while Emet-Selch was creating the image of Hyth in Amaurot...
"Hyth would know the truth"
With that stray thought, the shade of Hyth knew all the truth. That he was a shade. That the real Hyth was on the moon in Zodiak. That he can't really do anything to break or of the mold that ES had created for him. That we were absolutely his friend Azem in another form.
And maybe, just maybe, that we meet once before, and he couldn't tell us because it was too early.
When Venat's unwillingness to give up walking forward was juxtaposed with ours as we approached Hades at the end of Shadowbringers, I let out a very quiet gasp. When the cutscene ended I got up and took a little walk for about fifteen minutes. It still hits hard enough, more than two and a half years later, to get me choked up. "As fragmented, imperfect beings, yours is a never-ending quest." That line still comes for me and does not hold back.
Thank you for sharing this walk with us.
That moment when we were approaching Hades, Venat was also keeping the corrupted light at bay.
When I saw this cutscene, I sobbed because I realized she never abandoned us and her message was a powerful one, one I would never forget.
This scene hit so hard. I was still in the process of overcoming depression when I played Endwalker and I cried so much because I could apply it all to my situation. Forge ahead
Yes! I felt like the whole expansion was a metaphor for depression (in a greater sense, life) but it got me in the feels too.
Answers hit's diffrent after this part of the game
I went back and farmed coils for the orchestrion after this cutscene. I had to have it. It's on repeat in my room in my FC house now.
Soken is a mad genius to not only bring back such a great song, but give it a new much deeper second meaning.
I love watching people see the arr trailer as a sprout and be like 'aw that's an amazing song' and the vets are there sobbing quietly telling them 'just wait'
OMG IT SO DOES
I dunno, it has always been a soulful song to me ever since I finished ARR.
@@Kat-queenofnerds I disagree with this statement, been sobbing pretty much the whole time I've played this game. Answers was already a very meaningful song with all the backstory between 1.0 and 2.0 and it keeps resonating with the post ARR patches if you combine how you end up thinking Minfilia is dead, Alphinaud's character growth or how you tag up with Alisaie to discover about her grandfather and how he was still struggling with Bahamut.
It was realizing that she was with us the whole time. That's what got me. She was taking the hits for us so we could keep going.
The realization of how much Venat planned and painstakingly did to get to this point is insane.
Purest reaction ive seen so far. And ive watched pretty much every reaction to this part of MSQ cause im sucker for reactions to story i love.
There is no reason to hold back tears, this game has done it several times to me and made me love the story even more every time it happens. Lots of love from Finland!
Venat does remember but she couldn't tell us because she know on when in our journey we meet her in the past and it could change many of our choices.
She didn't tell Azem either, seemingly - perhaps for the same reason.
Or maybe she confided in Azem, and they realized in order for WoL to exist, Azem had to be sundered.
@@iconius2000 This has always been my theory.. and in my mind, explains why Azem took neither side.. in a manner of speaking.
Literally my entire being was screaming out to save them but if you had altered history and stopped Meteion then and there. You and the entire world you knew would cease to exist. Just like G'raha when he went into the past to pull you to the first to prevent the 8th umbral calamity. Time travel is wild.
@@iconius2000this or I wonder if Azem also had the echo. If so, couldn't they have discovered the truth coincidentally on their own? Either way they more than likely knew the truth one way or the other.
You also gotta consider that Venat didn't have to do any of this. She had already finished her duty as the previous Azem as her white clothes demonstrate, in her own culture she was supposed to be already dead yet kept going far longer than any of the other Ancients out of love for the people. Little stuff like that makes Ishikawa one of the greatest writers of our time. Hope she decides to keep writing more stories for the game.
yea she was OLD even by her people's standards of age by the time you meet her in the past, and likely, is the single strongest Ancient to ever live.
I'm all for promoting talented people and letting them move up in the company, but MAN I wish Ishikawa would have been more hands-on with the DT MSQ.
Its my understanding the white robe isn't a mark of an ancient who refused death. But of an ancient recognized as one old enough, wise enough, and trusted enough to act as an arbiter, a solver of disputes, an investigator and judge. The only ones to stand out in a society of indistinct people are those you go to when there is trouble, a problem that needs solved, or an argument mediated.
@@robertmarsh5322 you are correct, this is also why Elidibus wears white robes.
The entirety of Elpis shook me on a level I hadn't felt since exploring the ciry of Amaurot.
The story of Meteion, Hermes, Venat, Hythlodaeus and Emet really brought everything together, and the final cutscene of Venat embracing all the pain and suffering over the millenia waiting for us is truly heartbreaking.
Enjoy the rest of the Journey, and embrace every moment of the walk towards the End!
OK to explain the first bit about the confluence:
Hythlodaeus knew where the confluence was, and knew he could not destroy it. Emet-Selch was needed to destroy it, but he was busy keeping Hermes locked down (notice, he was flinging magic at Hermes' shield). If Emet-Selch had dropped his attacks to destroy the confluence, it would have given Hermes a chance to retaliate. So, Hythlodaeus comes up with the idea to distract Hermes by threatening to break the confluence open (something he wasn't even capable of doing, but Hermes didn't know that). He fakes making towards the confluence (which is on the opposite side of the platform from where it really is) knowing that Venat has Argos and is no longer chasing Meteion. Hermes takes the bait, and tries to throw Hythlodaeus off the platform but instead the WoL jumps in front of him and takes the hit which only makes it easier to Venat to grab em. This leaves Emet free to destroy the confluence. And as Emet notes, just the kind of trickery and improvisation that they are used to seeing Azem (and Venat) doing, which is how they got the idea for that in the first place.. "It's something Azem would have done" or somesuch.
That cutscene basically made the FFXIV story part of my personal religion :')
This cutscene is so heavy & real... Made me question my own life. I feel so bad for the Ancients. In my opinion the best in all of gaming. Don't feel bad for crying. You're not alone. We're all in this together! 💜
Also, the use of music in this game as a storytelling tool. I feel like every time answers shows up, I cry over something. Amanda Achen has made me cry more times than my exes have.
@@fionamb83 Love the music as well, but I believe Answers was pre-Amanda (or at least the original one was, idk if Amanda did a new rendition for Endwalker)
@@cheetoritosThe singer for Answers is Susan Calloway. Amanda was not on until Stormblood.
"We can not keep flying back to the past to only keep making the same mistakes, we must walk forward through pain and suffering to learn from our mistakes and put them behind us and grow stronger from them."
DO NOT SQUANDER IT, the legacy he leaves you!
Fuck, that line hits so hard now. *tears
Always hit me even harder after thinking back to Shadowbringers and his declaration, "You cannot be entrusted with our legacy." The stark contrast between the two quotes...
And worse is that Emet Selch will remember that when he dies in ShB. He will remember the entirety of those few days at Elpis. That shit hurt man when I realized that.
Well Venat does remember you, thats why you are picked as main hero at the beginning of ARR and get that blessing and guidance :D . She probably did not tell you to prevent any changes to who you are before your yourney to Elpis (and also writers had no idea back then :D ).
Just imagine Hydaelyn keeping an eye on the lifestream and seeing your soul return time and time again and hoping that this time, perhaps, the one you she made that promise with will surface.
She even prepared like, six crystals of light for you. Most of Hydaelyn's chosen back in ARR only had one at most.
@@TarossBlackburn And that it's Azem's fragmented soul. Azem, Venat's protoge, who disagreed with the Hydaelyn plan and walked away, hoping to find another way. It must have been hard for Venat to let them walk away without telling them the truth, knowing that Azem would fail and be sundered along with the rest of the world.
Though perhaps, if they had known that their soul would be scattered among the worlds, and would return again and again to help others, Azem would have been ok with that? One hopes so.
She probably wanted you to go through all the hardships you go through so you would be prepared to take on Metion.
@@smartalec2001 There are theories due to later events that actually make people think Azem chose to be scattered, predicting the future and knowing the path would lead to the WoL coming to Elpis.
Don't really want to spoil anything beyond the point of the story in the video though.
13,000 years. Think about that. 13,000 years she walked, pained by every attempted rejoining by the Ascians. She zipped us instantly back to our time, but she walked for 13,000 years waiting for us to create our Warrior of Light in the ARR character creator. Her walk in this cutscene is a stylized representation of her enduring each attempted rejoining and calamity. Powerful stuff.
It was only 13000 years? I had the impression it was longer.
@@philbourque9337 surprisingly nope that's the timeframe.
The game contradicts itself in this.. but also relies on NPCs who actually might not really know the truth. If Emet-Selch is to be believed he said he was alive for more than 100000 years.. which would a a much more realistic number for all of this having taken place. Lots of fantasies do get timeframes really really wrong… and our sense of timeframes really is scuffed cause we live such short lives and had such extreme development in the last 200 years but ESPECIALLY in the last 50ish years.. like remember watching Back to the Future? Flying cars by like 2015 or 2018.. hah. We could very easy still be in the Middle Ages if it wasn’t for plague and need for invention.
@@ViewTube_Emperor_of_Mankind To put things into perspective: irl humanity is barely 7000 thousand generations old. And by that i mean the human species as we know it. That's a crazy number for anyone here, but as a species we REALLY speedrun our development.
@@ViewTube_Emperor_of_Mankind To be fair, if you consider the incredible variance of time passing between each shard, which is always in flux, he could have lived a lot more than just the 13,000 years that passed on the Source.
I was sad when you had to stop your playthroughs in the past. I'm not a Twitch watcher, and happy to see you post reactions to TH-cam!
Thanks!! Enjoy your walk to The End & beyond to Dawntrail ❤️❤️❤️
That writing, making people feel that things are real, in a very strange fictional universe, is pure and utter genius, the messages, the parallel with real life that people can't help but make in their heads and for anyone that has lost someone significant or even just thought about death and the meaning of life, this hits HARD
"You cannot change the past to undo the tragedies of the present". Venat didn't tell you anything because you weren't ready and there was nothing you could do to stop it.
If there is any kind of "message" to be gained from the FF14 story, it is summed up in this cutscene. The importance of having hope no matter how bad things get.
There is nothing but respect for Venat. Everything she did was to protect her people. "They are my meaning and my purpose. My love." And yet, she had to destroy them. She killed/sundered everyone, she created a world where the shades of her loved ones were exposed to sickness, death, pain and suffering. "I breathe fire and torment." She has become the greatest and cruelest of villains. All in the name of MAYBE securing a way forward for mankind. She loved her people with everything she had, and yet she became Hydaelyn and sundered the world. There was no kindness in that act. It was an act of pure necessity.
She had to endure a thousand thousand lives worth of years, looking at the suffering she has created. She endeavoured all those years with a heavy conscience and guilt immeasurable. And we didn't know until we met her in Elpis. At the beginning of the expansion, we told her that we can't trust her anymore, we told that to the woman who has given everything in her life to make sure that we survived until we could make it to Elpis. Her blessing saved us over and over again. She revived us after fighting Lahabrea. And she couldn't make us trust her.
Venat is probably one of my favourite characters of all time. And this cutscene is probably the best cutscene I have ever watched in any game. This scene even recontextualises the track "Answers" for us. "Thou must live, die and know." You cannot move forwards without taking on suffering as our constant companion... I still can't help myself from tearing up whenever I see this cutscene. It's a masterpiece.
I never doubted her. Been playing since 2015. I considered everything she had done as Hydaelyn and there was simply no conclusion that I could draw, that said anything BUT she was our greatest ally. It's fine if other people doubted her. But they weren't really thinking everything through methodically.
The sheer arrogance of her to act as judge jury and executioner makes her despicable to me. I don't care for her reasoning as when put under any kind of scrutiny it's lacking.
@@Beathemighty All life was going to be sacrificed out. The ancients weren't capable of adapting to loss and devastation. They also had no way of dealing with what was actually causing the final days.
@JustinStrife
Except we forget that thousands of civilizations DID die due to Meteion running amok unchecked. And Hydaelyn effectively killed the same life she claimed to want to protect so that whole scarficed thing falls flat on its ass.
Omega EW quests tells us accepting loss does jackshit for Dynamis corruption and to add insult to injury sundered races are MORE vulnerable to Dynamis.
And ah yes the ancients who provided us both the Ragnarok engine Tech and primal summoning to travel to ultima thule to which two Ancients (Hades and Hythlo) would save our sorry asses to reach the dead ends to which Zenos an ATHER based primal literally burst into the endsingers egg would absolutely be unable to fight Meteion. Yes they absolutely wouldn't have been able to do that.
@@BeathemightyThey were preparing to start creating life for the sole purpose of sacrificing it to Zodiark in order to bring back what they lost, so Venat and HALF of the remaining people who didn't agree made Hydaelyn. Yes Meteion caused a lot of suffering, but that was also, completely Hermes fault by utilizing the poorly understood Dynamis mixed with his own, very evident, confusion on what life was meant for. They couldn't chase down Meteion because 1) they didn't know where she went until far later and they didn't even KNOW about her due to their memories being gone 2) they had no way of getting to her yet 3) they were dealing with the final days, with again, no idea to the cause of it.
Dynamis is only offset by aether and vice versa, aether is one of the few things Primals are chock full of, so a mother crystal gorged Zenos Primal could in theory break into a Dynamis shell and in practice did.
You may not like how they decided to do things, but from Venats perspective, she alone knew what was going on, she knew the WOL was important and from the future, a future that had to come to pass in order for the events to happen as they did. She was fated to be Hydaelyn and fracture the world in order to someday, avert the final days.
That scene messed me up too. It got to me on personal level because I am a raider. And what that scene told me that Hydaelyn was always there to help me go on. And there I am at the beginning of Endwalker doubting her words. I felt like a fool.
You and me both, I doubted her until I realized she never abandoned us but she also wanted us to overcome despair and walk with our heads held high.
Crazy that this song came out 12 years ago after the failed launch of the game. You can basically feel the pain of the FFXIV 1.0 release and it's effect on dev team. Then to near perfectly integrate it into FFXIV's story; the lyrics resonate and is more impactful today than when it originally came out. The way the cutscene ends while syncing up to these lyrics is so powerful and will be in my mind forever:
*_Thy Life is a riddle, to bear rapture and sorrow_*
*_To listen, to suffer, to entrust unto tomorrow_*
*_In one fleeting moment, from the Land doth life flow_*
*_Yet in one fleeting moment, for anew it doth grow_*
*_In the same fleeting moment thou must live, die and know..._*
The feels😢such a powerful cutscene
The fact that our story is where we become conscious and whole enough to take on the ultimate despair and we get to see where it all started and why we are the always we are is so spiritually and mentally healing. Thank you so much for sharing your reaction. This is literally my favorite moment and cutscene of all time.
I've seen that scene so many times, and it never, never gets any less powerful.
This game is a masterpiece. The level of story telling and relatability is just overwhelming sometimes. Such a genuine experience of the game. Thank you for sharing such a vulnerable moment so others can share their experience and understand they aren't alone.
I wish you luck Annie! The future is filled with such great, yet sorrowful tears. Please continue to post these moments. ♥
The cutscenes near the end are very dark.
Great reaction btw. Whole thing is a tear jerker.
I will always be emotional when I see this. Having watched Everything, Everywhere, All At Once and then experiencing this truly amazing in game moment, made me realize how important these messages are. Messages that need to be heard, remembered and understood.
Hear it, Feel it, & Think it one could say.
I'm gonna say, consider this expansion came out while Covid still was very powerfully affecting life, Ishikawa saved probably a number of lives that is not zero.
Suicide rates were going up, and a blue bird of despair was poisoning the entire world. ( Then that blue bird turned full black and now called X, but another topic)
I've seen a lot of people react to this and say they decided to keep going on. If even %1 of them actually was going to kill themselves, that's something.
She saved mine
YEAH!!!!!
this is absolutely one of the best cutscenes in the game, bar none
i still get chills every time i go back and see it, and I love seeing other people have the same heartfelt genuine reaction I did-- immediate, crushing, empathetic tears.
there really aren't enough words to properly convey just how incredible Venat's journey and this scene really is. it truly was a privilege to get to know our dear beloved goddess-- and to see just how human she truly was.
Emotional Damage: The Expansion
I really enjoyed watching this, I cried all over again haha.
Also, my orange kitty came to my rescue around the same time yours did in the first part of the video. They know when we need them.
Just found your VoD channel!! Yea!!! 😸
Ten thousand years of suffering alone, bearing the memory and the torch of humanity's hope. I can't even begin to imagine what that does to a person.
Depends on the person. Emet-Selch turned into a tired old wretch incapable of empathy, it turned Elidibus into a single-minded fanatic who doesn't even remember what he's fighting for, and Venat, well... she had Hope to cling onto, and a "light of the future". Oh, and Hermes turned into a self-loathing psychopath who wanted to end everything for everybody.
i legit was stunlocked after that cs. i discovered a whole new emotion
That's essentially what I said to my wife after finishing that cutscene. I don't even know what to call that emotion, but I'm going to keep it with me for the rest of my life.
I feel you girl. I had massive headaches while playing this expansion because of the amount of time I spent crying (I had either covid or the flu which didnt help) and trying to keep my composure through it all haha. 10/10 story!
i cant believe how quickly you went through endwalker annie!! but so glad you're enjoying my fav game. this scene always makes me sob
I love how your WoL is a mini version of you. She looks so cute. Also i have to say that i teared up each and every single time i watched this and I had my friends call me sentimental or a softie, as if they didnt play the same game and they didnt realise the meaning of Venat's sacrifice. Or why she had to do what she did . And why Hades/emet selch goes from being the WoL's nemesis, to place all his hopes for the future into them and abandoning his purpose. This is some next level writing there, that unfortunately other video games cant quite hope to reach. And not only the animation, but the voice acting as well, are doing it great justice
This game took me through the deepest anxiety episodes in my life when I felt I wasn't worthy of the people around me and of the space and resources my life required.
It helped me just distract, step away from my problems and taught me about just having hope that everything will work out in the end. That I just had to keep standing up and trying again.
A couple years later they deliver this scene, which perfectly represents what I felt and what my time with the game helped me regain by just allowing me to distract my mind and heal.
I found the strenght to continue amidst despair. And the will to stand up when I fall.
Every time I watch these playthroughs I cry, too. Such an amazing story.
When I heard the comments about how different the tone of Dawntrail is to Endwalker, I remembered moments like this in the game. We were put through some of the heaviest real world themes in a game I've ever experienced. I loved and hated those moments. Yoshi-P wanted to give us a chance to stop and breath with Dawntrail which I 100% appreciate.
A chance to breathe, at least, until near the end of Zone 5 into Zone 6 of DT, then it's like "welp, vacation's over...."
@@Dhalin end of zone 4 more like....
@@knuckles543 Well, stuff starts warming up around then, but doesn't get into the "oh crap..." territory until 5.
@@Dhalin well ya gotta set up the new conflicts somehow
Just realized the irony of Emet-Selch telling Meteion, "Who are you to decide our fate? To decree whether we live or die?" Since in Shadowbringers we told him the same thing
I've only ever played one game in my life that actually brought me to tears and thats lost odyssey but even that made me chill up a bit. Wow.
Has anyone else noticed how meteion changes the pitch in her voice half way through her monologue?
you mean how she goes from sweet and innocent to maniacal and psychotic?
@@1jidion yup
Yeah, the voice actors in Endwalker were top tier in their performances.
@@Orphim Especially Meteion in the final areas of the game. Like literally ANY line she says in the final areas is just top notch VA. Delivered with absolute perfection. Whoever her VA was, wow, they are quite good at what they do.
"And amongst deepest despair, light everlasting"
Forge ahead!
The delivery for an ending for a ten year long story arc as artistic and poetic as ever could be
The end scene with Venat still gets me, everytime I see it.
Her eyes wide open, shining bright, even when in excruciating pain, with the quote "amidst deepest despair, light everlasting" is such a great and true lifestyle to assume for your real and whole life. This game is a life lesson.
(End of Endwalker MSQ Spoiler) Somehow my most emotional scene was when Graha sacrificed himself for the pathway in ultima thule, I even knew there was a good chance that he was coming back, but just his words he always asks for the simplest things to go on trips with the WoL, and yet you can just tell by the way he speaks that even if he knows he might not come back he was happy for anytime he spent with us. It gets me everytime.
Love how that one cutscene breaks everyone over the knee. You go in already nicked, things are too real, too important... and then Answers plays while Venat explains to you the purpose of life itself. Brutal perfection of storytelling.
It's a beautiful thing, to see the relativity, the raw emotion. The depth of understanding, and just the general appreciation of how the story, voices, music and atmosphere blended into this divine moment. And yes, Answers - finally makes sense with this cutscene, it was powerful indeed. Damn, imma miss Endwalker xD
I needed to watch this again to remind me that this is the best story that I have ever seen in a video game.
These 2 cutscenes are SO good, best written story I have ever experienced in a videogame.
Totally worth the journey.
Every blow we see in that cutscene with Venat is a dramatisation of what she experienced with each Rejoining, each Calamity. Immeasurable pain, each time taking a portion of her power, her strength, her ability to hold Zodiark back. And it's the stories we told her in that bygone age that allowed her to keep going. It's why whenever I come upon that cutscene, either here on TH-cam, on Twitch, or playing the game, I never skip it. I watch, and witness, and yes, still I weep even at the seventh, tenth, fifteenth time watching - because I love and respect her too much to gloss over her sacrifice even once.
I'm a glutton for punishment. I remember watching as many reactions as I could to people experiencing the cutscenes of this expansion. Twas a beautiful experience.
Still remains one of the most impactful scenes in gaming.
Endwalker is such an amazingly well-written end to the story. Looking back at it, it's actually amazing that the entire universe almost got wiped out because of one man's untreated severe depression. We got this 10-year long epic story and at the end of the day, this apocalyptic chain reaction was just caused by human error.
I still think it's so wild that we get two of the best cutscenes in the game in the exact same hour
Reaching this point along the MSQ is worth playing the game on its own. It is such a unique experience as it completely demolishes the fourth wall (and yet without doing so in any obvious manner!) and real life and the game become pretty muhc one at this cutscene.
I think its even better when we defeat her, she looks at us like a proud mother knowing we finally dont need to rely on her anymore. She can finally rest knowing her children will not be extinguished, that they will fight and find true happiness despite their trials and tribulations.
just gonna say on the whole 'this is our fault' thing- the Meteia were already sent out into space before we got there. things were already set in motion. all we changed is that we and Hydaelyn remember and can do something about it.
I love watching people react, i get to live vicariously and experience it almost for the first time again. "If what you say is true, do not squander it, the legacy i leave you!" Emet is the best!
I felt like the entire Endwalker expansion was a metaphor for depression. Maybe I'm reading into it something that wasn't supposed to be there, but that's what I felt. The conflict between despair and hope.
I remember not understanding most of the Venat scene the first time I saw it, and just thought she was the true big bad. It wasn’t until I read up afterward that I understood the reason for the scene and the power behind it. Our world is the way it is because she wanted to destroy the complacency of paradise, so that we as mankind would not lose direction
I really wish I cared this much about the story in Final Fantasy 14, I love the feeling of being this invested into something it's been a long time since I felt this way about a game sadly, probably since the original Mass Effect trilogy came out.
Mommy venat T.T she suffer soo much... Best story ever!
Imagine the long game Yoshi P played, this song debuted at the end ov 1.0, all the way back in 2012. And it came full circle.
To be fair, the writers did not have this ending in mind when they penned that song. However, as the game went forward, and sometime around Stormblood they came up with the idea for ShB and Endwalker, and they found a way to repurpose the song and write the new expansions in such a way that the song ends up fitting perfectly. This speaks to the masterpiece the song itself really is, that they were able to do that.
I've watched this scene many times... it's still so powerful and hard hitting
A little music bonus: After witnessing the big cutscene, you wake up in the Ocular, all alone. The Ocular's theme is a Shadowbringers re-recording of Unei and Doga's theme from FF3 as used in the Crystal Tower raids back in ARR. The name of the ARR track is "Now I Know The Truth". And after you go through that and wake up in the Ocular, you sure do.
It's not just my favourite cutscene in FFXIV, it's one of my favourites in any game I have ever played over the last 40ish years. It's a gut punch. Completely unforgettable.
The cheerful little "Ding!" when you complete a quest objective has never been more tonally inconsistent.
I like how each of the doomed worlds she brings up relates heavily to one of the people there, their present and their future.
Renounced relationships and brought collapse - Hermes.
A race which won after devastating loss but could never regain its former heights - Emet.
A world which abhors finite time but discovers forever doesnt exist, losing all hope. - hythlodaeus, a font of hope who thought he would have forever with his closest friends, even in the afterlife.
A people who lost their meaning and will to live without sorrow to remind them of its value - Venat, who would see the same in her people chasing the past instead of standing strong in the face of loss and sorrow, to create and discover new joy. She who would undertake a 10,000 year task based on this principle so man would be strong enough to face despair.
And finally. All the races as a whole believed they did their best but still failed and fell to despair - The WoL, who remembers Ardberts words "We did everything right, everything asked of us and still, still it came to this!". The WoL who is all too aware that despite all their strength and power and successes, that they can do everything right and still fail their duty, their worlds and their friends.
Hydealyn did remember, she however knows that as an ekon she will temper you, she commands in her temper for you to "hear, feel and think" to ensure that you remain of free will she CANNOT tell you of her past lest she ruins your proper role in the stream of time. By waiting to talk to you after your trip to the past she ensures that you are informed, that you have taken your place in history to influence her properly, and that you are doing what you do by your own will rather than some obligation or compulsion of her "blessing" (temper).
I was ugly crying when I realized that she knew what she would create yet she forced herself to turn her hand to her beloved world and sundered it, shattered the souls of every living thing in 14 and marched through the endless eons alone in her suffering to create the opportunity for you to exist and eventually rise to your calling. the endless suffering she must have endured to reach that point is inconceivable. forever calling out her temering voice to anyone who awakened "Hear Feel Think" in order to drown the song of oblivion. I could barely see the cutscene through my tears.
Tempering is an intentional flaw put into the way people summon taught by the Ascians, Hydaelyn would be free of this sort of tempering.
@@keithfilibeck2390 that is a theory that the laporett posed however the Ascians made Zodiark in an identical fashion that they made Hydealyn and Emett-Selch said himself that they were tempered by zodiarch in the moment of his creation.
She is my queen in all of gaming.
Answers is one of my favorite songs from this game. It's so powerful.
I feel this. I had to end my stream after I was done with Endwalker so I could go cry. God this game is so good. 😭❤
This is about my 15th time watching The Cutscene and it still makes me weep every time... except a couple times I tried to weep but couldn't and had to stop and drink water
the single greatest cutscene in that expansion. This hit me more than even the ending did.
This the most powerful set of cutscenes in the game. They very well may never top it. Glad to see Annie back in FFXIV and seemingly enjoying (tears not withstanding) the journey.
Venat's words are..true and hit the hardest we are imperfect creatures and our struggles are all too real say EVERYDAY we asking the unanswerable question Why pain why suffering why death...and it can never be truly answered
I cried so much too at that point. Endwalker was just a constant need for boxes of tissues.
Light, everlasting.
“No more shall man have wings to carry him unto paradise”
“Henceforth, he shall walk”
Literal chills every single time I hear those lines
Man why did I watch this at work break. I cried again as always.
Lala players rise up, love that you’re experiencing this fantastic content. Can’t wait for you to get fully caught up!
"Who are you to decide our fate?" said the ancients who decided the fate of all the creatures that were discarded.
To name this quest "Thou must Live Die and Know" was a great choice. Add to it Answers playing in the background, like a summary of our journey from ARR to the very Endwalker, through all the challenges, with Venat sharing in our burden on every step of the way. Had me ugly crying when I first saw it and still makes my throat all spiky with choked crying
The Endwalker quest line hit me as well so freaking hard.
The story was well written, well maintained through out the whole MSQ.
As a Finnish man, we usually do not cry or weep, but I balled my eyes out
when I was playing through the MSQ.
Welcome back Annie!
"In the dark times, should the stars also go out?"