Remember when this game was good?

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

Every expansion has had issues.



Every. Single. One.



And we got doom posts. Every. Single. One.

[Renalt]

Every expansion has had issues.



Every. Single. One.



And we got doom posts. Every. Single. One.

https://youtu.be/QlsxUeOZRhE

[Atelier-Bagur]

You know what no! I still have something else to say about Shadowbringers. That whole Flood of Light being an overabundance of "good" in the world plot thing could've stilled worked if the story actually ran with the premise by forcing us to do atrocities in order to bring in darkness into the world and actually give a lot of the Scions some inner conflict and depth when they're put into the same situation that Ardbert and friends did at the Source of being antagonists for the greater good. It would've given Shadowbringers the morality edge it so tried to give off with the joke of a title of "Warrior of Darkness". Give me a break, we're just PRETENDING being an actual warrior of darkness.

You know whats even funnier? The Japanese title for Shadowbringers is "The Jet-Black Villains". Keyword on VILLIANS. YEAH REALLY NICE VILLIANS WE BECAME IN THE GAME HUH FELLAS.


Gosh screw Shadowbringers story. I seriously wished the plot didnt pull that Kingdom Hearts Light and Dark crud so hard.

[SannaR]

You know what no! I still have something else to say about Shadowbringers. That whole Flood of Light being an overabundance of "good" in the world plot thing could've stilled worked if the story actually ran with the premise by forcing us to do atrocities in order to bring in darkness into the world and actually give a lot of the Scions some inner conflict and depth when they're put into the same situation that Ardbert and friends did at the Source of being antagonists for the greater good. It would've given Shadowbringers the morality edge it so tried to give off with the joke of a title of "Warrior of Darkness". Give me a break, we're just PRETENDING being an actual warrior of darkness.

You know whats even funnier? The Japanese title for Shadowbringers is "The Jet-Black Villains". Keyword on VILLIANS. YEAH REALLY NICE VILLIANS WE BECAME IN THE GAME HUH FELLAS.


Gosh screw Shadowbringers story. I seriously wished the plot didnt pull that Kingdom Hearts Light and Dark crud so hard.

You do know that title wasn't about the WoL, but the Ascians right?

Anyway best patch was 2.55 and the months leading up to HW's release.

[Atelier-Bagur]

You do know that title wasn't about the WoL, but the Ascians right?

Anyway best patch was 2.55 and the months leading up to HW's release.

You do realize you're wrong right? The only ascian in Shb is Emet-Selch. The title is clearly referring to the WoL and the Scions being "warriors of darkness" or in essence being rebels against the Light.

Heck even Alisaie makes a passing nod of us playing as the world's "villains" at one point

[Eorzean_username]

You do realize you're wrong right? The only ascian in Shb is Emet-Selch. The title is clearly referring to the WoL and the Scions being "warriors of darkness" or in essence being rebels against the Light.

Emet-Selch is there as a representative / voice for the collective Ascians/Ancients, but they're "all" present, thematically. Also 5.10-5.40 occurred during Shadowbringers, and involved the extensive stories of Elidibus, Loghrif, and Mitron.

It was pretty much the "Farewell to Ascians" expansion.

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So yeah, "Shadowbringers" refers to the Scions/WOL (bringing Darkness back to the First) as well as the Ascians (the "Bringers of Shadow"), since the expansion reveals the Ascians's actual story, motivations, origins, and history, and decides the (ostensibly) final battle between Ancients and Mortals for control of the Star.

The whole point of the climax at Mount Gulg was to flip the plot's conceit on its head — from being a "Warrior of Darkness" fighting against the power of corrupted Light (Sin Eaters / Vauthry), back to having to scramble to become a "Warrior of Light" (ie, a corrupted borderline-Lightwarden) fighting against the power of pure Darkness again (Ascians / Hades).

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Likewise, "Jet-Black Villains" is deliberately hyperbolic, and refers to the Scions/WOL being "outlaws"/"sinners" on the First (from the perspective of the "dominant" Eulmoran society, and the moral extremist Vauthry) as well as the Ascians themselves (who are empowered by Zodiark/Darkness and, in fact, still trying to blow up the First, and everyone on the Source).

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Even the lyrics of Shadowbringers can be interpreted as being sung from the perspective of either the Ascians/Ancients or the Scions/Mortals.

I mean that's part of the core idea inside Shadowbringers's story — the ambiguity of who's the real "villain" in a story, how that can depend on perspective and who's writing history, whether "Light" or "Dark" is really the more "evil" force (in the Lore's context), etc.

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No argument that the marketing / Fan Fests cheekily hyped up the "BECOME THE WARRIOR OF DARKNESS!" aspect in a deliberately-coy way, but... that's marketing at work.

The internal story itself never tried to promise any sudden off-the-rails turns into becoming a Dark Side playthrough of a Bioware game, and considering the basic principles of FFXIV's design and storytelling, it was honestly just wishful(?) thinking to imagine that the WOL would be running around beheading orphans just to try to correct an environmental imbalance.