Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker - Teaser Breakdown

 Sooooo here we are after the reveal of Not-Forspoken. I've spent the past few days binge watching reactions and breakdowns. I even attempted to make vlogs about it to branch out into more popular mediums, but alas it wasn't to be (or 2B rather). My recording software is pretty bad to say the least. Two videos ended up being useless garbage. But we are not here to lament half an hour of lost footage. We are here for Endwalker. There are several videos about the symbolism, the film making techniques and even the music. It's not even the final version, but we already have half a dozen remixes.

Anyroad let's jump into the video.

The very first thing we notice is the Moon. It is literally the first shot of the trailer. So apparently I was wrong and there is enough content on the Moon. In this case I am more than happy to be wrong. Now I want you to think back to the trailer of ARR. What was the first thing we saw in that video once the clouds parted?

Yep, the Moon. This was the red moon, Dalamud of course, but still the Moon. It is a nice bookend and supports the 24 hour cycle metaphor of the dev team. Began with the Moon, ends with the Moon. Also look at THIS shot of the Warrior of Light:

If this doesn't evoke the ascians, I don't know what does. And it does make sense to be honest. The last time we have seen somebody on the moon, it was Elidibus. And during Shadowbringers we learned so much about them an even started to sympathise with them. Not to mention that with Ardbert joining his soul with ours we are closer to Azem than before. And finally we are in the shoes of the ascians now. Our world is threatened by the final days. The same conflict and we are facing the same choices. See how much we have going on half a minute into the trailer?

By the by, while you are looking at these picture there is a song I would recommend. As others pointed it out the teaser BGM bears semblence to a french song titled I asked the moon.

Coincidence? I think not. So with all of this said and done are you ready to jump into the second minute of this teasert? Well get ready because things will be more talk as we go along.

First comes the map with good old Emet's narration. And it IS him. You might think it is a different character with the same voice actor, for some reason, but his line is almost word to word what he said during the final dungeon of 5.0, so it IS him. I'm not saying he returns, but it was a nice touch. Also the only trailer with a map before, was Stormblood. The expansion where we met Asahi, whose body Fandaniel is in, and had our official first meeting with Zenos. Players saw him before, but the characters didn't. More on that later. Oh and forgot to mention but the Square Enix logo is part of the environment in both trailers. Carving on the rock for Stormblood, footprint in Endwalker. Moving on:

See which cities have an icon for them? The ones we already have access to, Garlemald, wich will be a field zone and Sharlayan. Makes you think, doesn't it? After that we cut, quite literally to Alisaie fighting a dragon. Or at least something draconic. 1.0 had Midgarsormr, 2.0 had Bahamut, 3.0 had Hraesvelgr and 5.0 had flashbacks to the latter two. Dragons are and important recurring theme in trailers. The fight also includes parts that wouldn't make it into the Mass Effect Legendary edition.

But to be fair this is how a Red Mage fights. Fanservice aside casters are very much underrepresented in the cinematics. Also this is the first time Alisaie appears in the trailer. Each of the core Scions showed up, and aside from Papalymo and Urianger they did twice. Lyse in ARR and Stormblood, Thancred and Y'shtola in ARR and Shadowbringers. This is the first time for the twins however. Plus Alisaie fights with proper combat animations and the video about the film making techniques I have alluded to talks a lot about how amazing the compositions and the color scheme are. She also has a new outfit as the now deleted video of mine predicted, and she didn't job change as the now deleted video predicted. Of course I have no way of proving that, but the same is true for the things I  got wrong. And there are many I got wrong. At any rate since Alphie says they both have a chance to get new outfits later I figured he would be the much needed healer and since I am fairly certain necromancer is the other class I theorized that Zenos will get that. We'll see how that went. But first, WoL time.

And we have a new poster job. To the lament of all healers, it is not a healer it is a Paladin. Now why is that mega awesome? Well first because he used to be a Gladiator.

Yes we know him as an archer in 1.0 and that is what Shadowbringers called back to. But as the picture above proves, he began is adventure gladiating. And what is the job that Gladiator becomes? That's right, Paladin. Also he was a Dark Knight in Shadowbringers now he is a Paladin who travels to the Moon with the new Trust companion Estinien a Dragoon and beats Zenos. Well in Final Fantasy IV Cecil begins as a Dark Knight before switching to Paladin and traveling to the Moon with his dragoon friend Kain and beats Zemus. Who wants to bet this is all a weird coincidence?

And now comes the part that literally nobody got right. I mean who could have predicted that the new healer with wield laser shooting floating knives? Apparently Alphie got pissed his sister has the most stylish job in the game, so he invented a Sharlayan hint job for himself. Incidentally Sage only shows up in one mainline Final Fantasy game. Three guesses which, and the first two don't count.

Hey, Zenos my boy. Nice throne you have there. Like what you and Fandango have done with the place. Very ni....wait a sec. Is that a scythe I see there? Like the one Edda had when she started romancing necks?

Sure seems like it. Imagine poor Blizzard if FFXIV gets Tinker and Necromancer before WoW. Anyway back to Zenos. This is the first time we see him. Technically his body was in the Shadowbringers cinematics but that was Elidibus piloting it so this is his first legit show. And his great-grandfather talks about what's past the far edge of fate. Hmm, sounds familiar. Wasn't that a patch title? Yes it was. Good times. Ilberd betrayed us, Papalymo died, Yda turned out to be long dead with her sister Lyse in her place all along, the Calamity was recreated with huge dragon, summoning spell and a Dalamud replica. A fitting allusion for an expansion that tries to recreate the Final Days of Amaurot, Also the end of Far Edge of Fate gave us our first look at Zenos. He sat on his throne silently just like now.

And finally the title, A donut and a slice of pie. No I'm not hungry, why do you ask? Joking aside Endwalker is a fantastic title. Truly superb. Nice, short, rolls off the tongue neatly, and is very evocative. You can just picture this being the title given to the hero after Warrior of Light and Warrior of Darkness. Same as how SWTOR introduced the name Outlander for the player character in Knights of the Fallen Empire. The world is completely devastated, It is the end of the world. Who walks these ruined lands? The Endwalker. Or maybe it is a sign that we don't give up. We walk this road till the end. There are quitters and there are endwalkers. Also nobody predicted this title. There were several leaked trademarks, but this was not among them.

So this was my teaser and title breakdown blog. Enjoy it, spread it, check out the links and follow the channels they are on. They were all wonderful and this blog entry wouldn't have been possible without them inspiring me.