[SHB SPOILERS] Your most meaningful moment of Shadowbringers

[DBriggs304]

Seeing the connection between the trader we meet when we first arrived in Eorzea vs the one in ShB...to see what happens to him.

Certainly what happens to Tesleen. Just the visuals made me sit there for a sec after the CS going...holy moley.

When we finally call G'Tia's name and he cries brought the feels

[Frizze]

Ill name one. Its in the cutscenes after the last lightwarden. Exarch has decided to sacrifice himself, and is in the process of telling us a convenient lie. Urianger knows its a lie, and tells us to just let him go(while crying if im remembering the scene right). Then suddenly the Exarch gets shot, and Emet Selch who has been following us around for ages and filling us in with bits and pieces of his story steps into the spotlight. We questioned his motives all along, and now he lays bare his plan. He takes the Exarch away and invites us to come find him when we're ready to give up the fight. Meanwhile, we're succumbing to light sickness and losing ourself. We pass out. Waking up to find that the night sky has been taken again(by us this time) is the final gut punch in a set of scenes that hits fairly hard. We have now lived long enough to become the monster we set out to vanquish at the start.

[Ceridwenae]

There were so many points in the ShB story that literally had me open mouthed. But nothing really hit quite like walking up to that cliff in Tempest and seeing the city. Seeing the work Emet has done. It was a "wow" moment.

This got me as well. It was my "Elizabeth Bennet seeing Pemberley for the first time" moment. There were other moments too (the same as lots of you have mentioned: destruction of Amaurot, the Exarch on the cliff in Kholusia, the Exarch when you use his name, when he cries and I'm like "no, don't cry! Because I'll cry too!" but too late, because I'd already dissolved into a puddle at that point because of... well, everything that had happened in the last hour or so. And it still does it to me, on a second playthrough or just watching the cutscenes again.

Feh. Am too old for all of this.

*sniff*

(It was all worth it, I regret nothing.)

[Fenral]

"Elizabeth Bennet seeing Pemberley for the first time"

I think that may actually be the perfect description for that feeling.

[Enkidoh]

Certainly what happens to Tesleen. Just the visuals made me sit there for a sec after the CS going...holy moley.

Very much this. The sheer horror of what happens during the sineater transformation left me utterly speechless, because it shows pretty much every horrific detail of a mortal turning into an angelic abomination (save for what happens when they are encased in that coccoon of feathers, probably a good thing, given the horrifying sounds of what appears to be bones cracking and crunching that come from within).

I imagined Enki would have been standing there with open jaw frozen in terror, before finally stammering to Alisaie after Tesleen flies off; "WHAT.. JUST.. HAPPENED?!" Especially the last lingering seconds of her sentinence when now fully transformed into a angelic mockery of her mortal self, she spent her last moments of consciousness vainly croaking out to Alisaie for forgiveness (complete with horrifyingly distorted voice that sounded like the sounds of a broken drive-through speaker buried under six metres of mud), and you then see her gradually whitening out viewpoint in first-person perspective as she lingers before flying away with the sineater that transformed her.

It made finally putting her out of her misery during Holminster Switch fitting... but it was a victory Enki did not gloat over or feel satisfied for. Just grim acceptence and sympathy, and determination to save the First and try to spare anyone else such a horrific fate (of course, cue irony, Enki very much nearly ended up with the same fate doing so, only saved thanks to a deus ex machina). It drived home just how utterly broken the First was, and the utter hopelessness the inhabitants of Norvrandt suffered for a century.

It's scenes like that that made ShB the best FFXIV expansion so far (as I mentioned in my earlier post).

[Vyrerus]

"Just a little further... and you will see the end of a world!" - Emet Selch narrating the end of the Ancient World.

For me it was the voice acting and the intimate interaction with the villain along with parallels at the start of the expansion maintaining a constant theme till the end of the expansion. Holminster Switch and Amaurot are my favorite dungeons of the expansion for this reason. Though I like Hominster Switch a little more for its music, as well as the fact that every boss had narrative impact as opposed to the previous two expansion's dungeons, where one was a sidequest, and the others lacked any real integration into the story itself beyond maybe the final boss. Having the Sin Eater that turned Tesleen as the first boss, its damaged wing still broken quickened my pulse. "So is the next boss that poor girl?" I wondered, as my thrill had me hurdle headlong into the scores of animals turned Sin Eater, most of which kept their shape but turned that sickly white with the sticky web like gunk oozing out of their orifices. Then, there she was, and I brought her mercy.

As for Amaurot, the visuals and the voice acting were staggering. The music was appropriate, but the bosses were one half awe and one half awwww man really? Emet Selch sold it though, and what was even better about it was, from my perspective, the railings of our compatriots against him, seemed to be utterly devoid of impact against his position. Any time the emotions, feelings, thoughts, and perspectives of an immortal are put into play, those of other people, half of which are teenagers, always rings hollow. How could I believe they possess the conviction he has? How could I take them seriously compared to this husk of a man who's trudged on bereaved from his home and hearth? His loves all dead and gone. Especially when we even admitted we'd likely do exactly the same thing. Then we killed him. Gonna carry that weight. Course, I choose to believe it was a mercy, that deep down he wanted to die.

[Rosenstrauch]

It's hard to pick any one thing—the 5.0 campaign at the very least is a rollercoaster of powerful and meaningful moments. But I think my favorite of them all is just the Crossroads quest in Amh Araeng. It firmly cemented Ryne as my favorite character out of the entirety of Shadowbringers' cast, and made me realize just how much I missed Minfilia during Heavensward (the patch content barely counts) and Stormblood, and how much I'm going to miss her going forward.

[Ramesses]

Read title. I've been playing through ShB on my alt and I'm surprised at how much of the story still hits pretty hard and so good the second time, especially now that I have the new perspective of what happens further in the story. So I ask: What was the most meaningful or impactful moment in the game for you?

It is indeed quite difficult to select a specific meaningful moment from any of the truly spectacular memories in Shadowbringers-- likewise, I took my second main character through 5.0 late last year (or so) and it's amazing how some of the poignant scenes still hit you. I personally felt that the entire storytelling as a whole was highly impactful because of the way the various critical points were all woven into one another-- nonetheless, I'll try to consolidate mine into a list in the order of which I encountered them and number one is:

The Crystarium.

I believe the hype surrounding the Crystarium was mentioned on the first page and of course I definitely remember that tech video-- I've been obsessed with it since 2005. Here's why...

• I reckon you may or not have been aware of the massive excitement that SE stirred back in 2005 with that Rapture video. To be able to finally access that city was very special to those of us who remember that period. That the Devs also linked it to Gra'ha Tia and the Crystal Tower story arc was just brilliance personified.
• Allow me to also put a few things into context for you... The PS3 was still 17 months from release, FFXI's TOAU expansion was also 10 to 12 months from launch and WoW was only 7 to 8 months old with its cartoonish graphics (I always hated that game-- never bothered with it).
• And then SE unleashed this video with insane graphics (for it's time) which made everyone from players to the press go insane with speculations... because the city itself became a symbol of how a Final Fantasy MMO town should and could look like. Most of us playing FFXI at the time thought it was FFXI-2 (yes, please laugh) and that video was of the new Jeuno... (you may now guffaw at will).

That said, there are some of us who happily re-surged the discussion back in 2009 once FFXIV was announced and we realized Rapture was the original codename for FFXIV 1.0. Back then, the few speculations thrown about were that it was the original version for Limsa, or it was the capital of the Garlean empire or that it was the sixth city state (amoungst many other wonderful declarations). Thus, for me to finally set foot in it for the first time in Shadowbringers -- and hearing that grand BGM "The Dark Which Illuminates the World" -- I got the most wonderful case of the goosies.



The scene with Tesleen -- enough said. Within the first hour of playing and reaching that cutscene, I remember thinking about how the Devs quickly wanted to show players the very harsh reality of this world without holding back. They pulled it off brilliantly-- I can't get that scene out of my head.

The murals on the wall chat-- Emet effectively crushed several years of players' speculation in that scene reveal.

The Oracle vs "Oracle" chat-- Very pivotal scene for me as it occurs shortly after Ryne had been feeling utter self-loathing and had a chat with Urianger. I liked how the Oracle gave her comfort (the lighting here was fantastic as well) plus it made me understand Minfilia a little better-- she always did test my patience since 1.0.

The Exarch and Warrior of Darkness chat -- this was very well done and I really loved the atmosphere-- just sitting together in the dirt enjoying the other's company. Brilliant touch that struck a chord in me.

The battle with Ran'jit -- I genuinely liked his charcater and for me, this battle was pivotal in establishing a new socio-political culture in Eulmore. I remember right after this scene, we also watch Vauthry turn his neck around 180 degrees-- creepy.

Vauthry's transformation to Innocence-- I won't lie, this was impressive to me and since then, I've been clamouring to my mates that I'd really like his gear to pop up at the Mog Station.

What the heck are you doing Exarch??? -- Yeah, that was my initial thought when Gra'ha started his little sacrificial stunt. For a moment, I actually thought (with deep sadness) he was betraying me until I realized he was in cahoot with Urianger. Afterwards, I was really touched by the incredible depth of selflessness exhibited by Graha.

Our wonderful in-house psychotic Prince Zenos commits regicide -- Memorable for me because around the period of the Tokyo Fanfest in March 2019, I freaking called this happening eventually yet I simply didn't expect it to happen within the first major arc of this expansion. Watching Estinien team up with Gaius was also excellent.

Emet opening the gates to Amarout-- I absolutely LOVED Emet's speech here. That particular scene also made me realize how insignificant the battles with the Lightwardens had been-- and how truly terrifying Emet was about to become; like he was saying "...Oh? You think you're epic? Right... step this way, mate". Something about those doors opening made you as the player feel powerless. Must be the flames.

Emet showing us how his world burned -- This was phenomenally stunning and I got the goosies here too. Made me really appreciate the BGM (Mortal Instants) even more-- sounded like the tragic yet wondrous swan song to the end of a glorious pinnacle civilization. The song still plays on loop in my Shirogane residence.



Emet goes super crazy dark Saiyan -- His voice when he says "I am Hades..." and then goes Final form. The visuals here are worthy of a ten minute applause and was memorable for me because one could feel the intense dark pressure of Emet unleashing his burden in full.



Tis good to see you awake Gra'ha -- This scene (video) almost moved me to tears and all I wanted to do was hug him. I'm usually too stoic for my own good but this scene was enough to make me remember how it felt to let my eyes moist up.



This was the other scene that almost moved me to tears -- Ardbert's spirit reuniting with his crew. It was particularly memorable because I have watched them evolve since the 1.0 commercial cutscenes (video) --click link to see them in their spiffy level 5 gear -- well, it's not exactly them per se but more of a representation of their Source counterparts. But still, it was always great to envision their early times as such --and that in the end they deserved to be remembered as true legends.

[Khalithar]

When that sweet girl in Ahm Araeng goes full on body horror and mutates in to a Sin Eater while the boy she was trying to save stares at her when all she wanted him to do was smile and be comforted by her.

When I saw that, I realized they weren't messing around with this expansion.

[Morningstar1337]

Currently progging though the MSQ, but one moment sticks out to me in particular, when the Scions reunite with Y'stola, she mistook the WoL for a Sin Eater. It sticks out because, apart form her seemingly not noticing the Ascian in the Living Room, it's out first of many hints that something is very very wrong with us.