Shadowbringers Feature Lists 9 New Dungeons... I count Eight?

[Destati]

Not gonna lie, I loved this expansion, but I was really hoping to be Zodiark's new chosen for a bit and learn both sides of this story ourselves.

Okay now that you mention it that might have been awesome. Especially since this expansion made me sympathize with the Ascians/Zodiark a lot more. Would have loved to get some interaction with him.

[Iscah]

I think some of you are placing a lot more weight on the light/dark thing than was "advertised"

Have you ever played FF3? The Warriors of Darkness in that game never opposed the Warriors of Light, and even helped you out against the final boss. Yet when some people heard about the whole WoD thing for FF14 it had them wondering if we would become the outright evil villains of the story. Uhh, no?

Anyone who was expecting a huge WoL characterization shakeup hasn't been paying attention, IMO.

I wasn't expecting a "characterisation shakeup" exactly - which is why I was incredibly puzzled by the direction the advertising was taking.

- emphasis on "Warrior of Darkness"
- If our powers as the "Warrior of Light" are given to us by Hydaelyn, what does it mean to become the "Warrior of Darkness"? Logically that means aligning with the opposite of our Light-power-giver, ie. Zodiark.
- Japanese sub-title "Jet-Black Villains" - if we're the Shadowbringer(s), are we also the "villain"?
- all prior examples of Darkness in the story being aspected to Ascians/Zodiark/chaos and the opposite of our heroic efforts
- trailer scene with taunting gremlin implying we were all alone in a desolate Light-soaked wasteland (didn't happen)
- pre-existing implications from the Warriors of Darkness arc that Ardbert's group caused the Calamity by being too good at being Warriors of Light and defeating the Ascians on their world, triggering the Flood.
- combining those two points, the implication that we triggered a similar flood because we defeated Zenos/Elidibus.
- a following conclusion (now known to be based on incomplete information) that Hydaelyn's command for us to fight the Darkness and spread Light might be anything from 'a bad idea' to deliberately evil, causing us to turn against Her.
- the ominous command to "become what you must", ie. something you maybe don't want to do, but have to. I think this was from the first trailer, long before we knew the identity of the mysterious voice and had reason to trust him.
- Dark Knight, the story that puts a darker-and-edgier spin on your characterisation, as the "poster job" for the expansion.


I didn't want it to happen - if you browse back through the Lore forum at that point you'll probably find a lot of me saying "but we can't go that direction! It doesn't work with the rest of the story!" - but it sure looked like it was the direction they were going, and I was expecting to be dragged unwillingly down that path and hoping there'd be a good explanation at the end.

As it turns out, the explanation seems to be "we wanted the trailer to look impressive".


(See also: the "just there to send us into theory meltdown" scene of Y'shtola being addressed as Master Matoya. The actual explanation for that felt so weak that I would not be surprised if they invented the entire plot point just for trailer shock value.)

[Valic]

I think some of you are placing a lot more weight on the light/dark thing than was "advertised"

Have you ever played FF3? The Warriors of Darkness in that game never opposed the Warriors of Light, and even helped you out against the final boss. Yet when some people heard about the whole WoD thing for FF14 it had them wondering if we would become the outright evil villains of the story. Uhh, no?

Anyone who was expecting a huge WoL characterization shakeup hasn't been paying attention, IMO.

I think it's more like... they talk about us being the warrior of darkness, they show WoL shrouded and covered in darkness, becoming a dark knight, and every trailer teased the idea of us embracing the darkness or changing from being a warrior of light to a warrior of darkness. "Become what you must".. well I didn't become anything, I just kept taking light and then using it to open the sky's darkness again. Not to mention the american commercial they played as if it was to imply we're ya know... gonna relate to DARKNESS.

I don't think we wanted to become a villain, I think we just wanted to see us not be more "oh glorious warrior of light" and use light every dang instance. We did get the type of feel we needed this expansion with light wardens and sin eaters being creations of beings that were once people, which set the right tone of us being the warrior of darkness putting down souls who didn't have a choice in their fate since it was changed.... But as far as the darkness aspect, I can't say I saw much "darkness" going for us in any of it other than us changing the sky back to night.

Okay now that you mention it that might have been awesome. Especially since this expansion made me sympathize with the Ascians/Zodiark a lot more. Would have loved to get some interaction with him.

For all we know, it still may go in that direction. We still don't truly know the story from Zodiark himself and we still haven't really dealt with the idea that our "mother" is a primal and we're possibly tempered ourselves. There's a lot still to be dealt with and honestly, I could see them having us delve more into the other half of things now that we have some more to the whole story.

[swiss_Momo]

...did people really think us becoming the WoD would mean setting puppies on fire and other edgy stuff?
As we learned after rejoining with Urianger, light actually stands for order and stability in its positive aspects, while darkness stands for change. So as the WoL we were fighting to preserve order on the source, while as the WoD we kickstarted change on the first shard.

[Berteaux_Braumegain]

Not gonna lie, I loved this expansion, but I was really hoping to be Zodiark's new chosen for a bit and learn both sides of this story ourselves.

This is also what I was expecting. Not necessarily becoming the bad guy, but attuning to darkness for a bit to combat a world overflowing with Light. Instead it was more like Light vs. Brighter Light.

[Mistyregions]

This is also what I was expecting. Not necessarily becoming the bad guy, but attuning to darkness for a bit to combat a world overflowing with Light. Instead it was more like Light vs. Brighter Light.

This, I expected a mix if both..but ugh just more anime hero infallible goody goody.

[Eloah]

I'm not sure how to even reply to these responses, and I don't have time to give any torough explanations, since I have to head out. But the short of it is, people are either looking too deeply into things or not deep enough.

On one quick note though, the title, Shadowbringers/Jet-Black Villians, while it can refer to us, it's also an allusion to the Ascians. Think about it, we are returning darkness to a realm of perpetual light; you cant cast a shadow in the dark. But, also remember a Villian is usually determined by the victors, the hero of one tale could be the villian of another. That was the goal, for us to realize that the Ascians weren't as "evil" as we might have first perceived.

Not gonna lie, I loved this expansion, but I was really hoping to be Zodiark's new chosen for a bit and learn both sides of this story ourselves.

But we did. Or did what happen between us and Emet-Selch not count as aligning ourselves with those we perceive as Villian aligned to the darkness.

[Jybril]

We also don't know if there's more to it.
It's just the first patch lol but I do find it funny
how we basically are light, fighting light with light
just to make the light into night.

[Kohdo]

I think some of you are placing a lot more weight on the light/dark thing than was "advertised"

Have you ever played FF3? The Warriors of Darkness in that game never opposed the Warriors of Light, and even helped you out against the final boss. Yet when some people heard about the whole WoD thing for FF14 it had them wondering if we would become the outright evil villains of the story. Uhh, no?

Anyone who was expecting a huge WoL characterization shakeup hasn't been paying attention, IMO.

"No guys really, you're clearly not paying attention, to truly understand this expansion's marketing you should've gone and played through a thirty-year-old FF title that released before most of you were born. You can only truly understand the advertising if you play through the advertising's source material."

[Fynlar]

Light Is Not Good has been an aspect of several FF titles by now; 3 was just the first to really throw it into the spotlight and make it a plot point. If you don't keep up with the series, don't be surprised when stuff about one of its latest entries throws you for a loop.