Final Fantasy XVI (ongoing)

My sound levels seem a little off, pardon my boomer. FF16 just released on PC and it's my first time playing this game. I know almost nothing about it other than it having been received very well. So far so good! We kick off with battle between Phoenix and Ifrit (called Eichons). Then we meet the player character named Wyvern and learn that we are part of an assassin group sent to disrupt the power balance in an ongoing war. We get a lot of names of groups and people thrown at us but so far it isn't obvious what the stakes are or even who the teams are. A fight breaks out between the Eichons Titan and Shiva on the battlefield and we are injured in the chaos. Next we go into a memory from 13 years ago and learn that Wyvern is actually a lord or Rosaria named Clive. He has a little brother who is magically adept and favored over him by their mother. 0:00 Intro 1:27 Opening cinematic 3:00 Phoenix vs Ifrit 4:17 Meet Wyvern 6:30 Tutorials 7:50 A war appears 9:34 A dysfunctional council 12:15 Odd time for a tryst 14:41 Titan vs Shiva 17:19 Parkour earthquake 19:48 Flashback! Haircut! 20:58 Combat tutorial 29:56 Familial tensions 32:51 Duke nice guy 35:27 Exploring with Jill 37:48 Menu tutorial 47:24 The rest of the courtyard 48:35 Slavery tutorial 52:37 Outro

We pick up in the Ducal garden and see more casual use of magic by gardening slaves. The Duchess dresses down her handmaids and cold shoulders us. Then we confer with Pops and Murdoch. The duchy marches to war with the Ironblood for control of the Mothercrystal. We are to clear out an infestation of goblins in the swamp that were driven south either by the Blight or they are part of the Blight, I can't tell which. After that we are to meet up at a fortress monastery and Joshua is to use his connection to Phoenix to bless our war effort. 0:00 Intro 0:37 Exploring the garden 2:34 A brother's fears 4:15 Conferring with the Duke 8:13 Codex reading 12:26 Geopolitical speculation 16:03 Nocturnal intrigue 22:00 Setting out in the morning 25:54 Swamp town 28:56 Ability showcase 36:38 Meet the goblins 42:18 Magic goblins 44:12 Boss fight Gigas 51:26 Outro

We kick off with a boss fight this time. A giant Morbol appears and it's a fun fight. Then we head off to Phoenix Gate to meet up with Pops and Joshua. After a little family drama the real trouble starts. Betrayals and stabbings abound. The Duke is murdered and Joshua turns into the Phoenix to get revenge. It seems like Clive then turns into Ifrit and we play through a longer version of their opening brawl. Having killed his little brother Clive blacks out. Now evil Mom comes on the scene and isn't sad that her husband and son are dead. She sells you into Imperial slavery. What a nice lady! 0:00 Intro 1:12 Morbol boss 8:48 post fight chat 10:37 Phoenix gate 14:20 Brother chat 18:00 Bad guards 19:48 Joshua wakes 21:17 Princeling escape 26:10 Tyler in trouble 30:10 Clive guards the rear 32:20 No prisoners 33:36 Dragoon boos 37:29 Betrayal and visions 39:14 Many stabbings 43:10 Ifrit vs Phoenix 53:08 Mother of the year 55:48 Present day 58:25 Outro

This time we kick off with exploring all our new menu options, map locations, and abilities as we enter the game proper. Back in the present day, our mission to assassinate the Dominant of Ice is still a go despite the loss of Biast. We catch up with her and of all people it is Jill! Clive of course won't kill his childhood friend and link to his brother so he must kill Tiamat to save her. We are overtaken by more Ironblood and saved by a new incarnation of Cid! He takes us to his hideout. This place is a safe haven for escaped slaves carved out of the blight. He asks us to join his cause and we agree to help in his next mission but refuse to join his faction. 0:00 Intro 1:03 New ability showcase 3:20 New map 6:30 Pursuing the army 8:35 The Dominant is enslaved? 10:20 Shiva's Dominant boss 16:00 Jill? 17:52 Saving Jill 18:31 Clive quits his job 22:23 Saved by Cid 29:20 The hideaway 32:38 Exploring the hideaway 43:01 Cid's pitch 47:50 Smithing tutorial 54:40 Rescued strays 55:37 Outro

This is a sharp downturn in action. Now that we are hooked after the high stakes, high drama opening we are introduced to some side quests and given the opportunity to read all the codex entries. (Yes, I know it isn't called that in game and I don't care.) So I take a stab at it. The sidequests are kind of shockingly bad. I know it's supposed to tutorialize it but this is the writing quality of filler quests from FFXIV. The rewards are good at least. Then it's story time with Raz as I read as much of the codex as I can. We learn a little more about the world and have some of my questions answered. Next time we will finish up the codex and get back into the action. 0:00 Intro 0:19 Fetch the doc 3:58 Salty merchant 8:14 Practice arena 12:40 Cid is a flirt 15:07 Wood fetching 20:41 Waiting tables 26:43 The Thousand Tomes 29:15 Bestiary 34:30 Lay of the Land 47:52 Mysteries of the Realm 58:29 Outro

This time we finish up the Thousand tomes readings with notable people. Then we head on out finally to Lostwing with Cid. We pass through the Greatwood along the way and get into a few scraps with the local fauna. This time Torgal joins the action! We get to brawl with a Dragon Aevis mini boss and the Fafnir boss fight. Pretty good action this time around. 0:00 Intro 0:26 People of Interest 21:23 Greatwood 23:07 Torgal tutorial and gear 26:00 Worgen attack 27:24 Big lizard! 28:55 Carnivorous plants 29:50 Bones of the past 33:50 Dragon Aevis 37:38 Mixed brawl 40:00 Fafnir fight 45:00 Thunder Cid 48:08 Outro

We finish up the Greatwood with a confrontation Royal Waloed troops and a boss fight with a rouge type called Midnight Raven. I get my butt kicked but still emerge victorious. Hot in pursuit of Benedikta, we infiltrate the seemingly abandoned Lostwing town. We find the citizens locked up, free them, alert the royals, fail the chase, and confront Benedikta. She summons a monster called Chirada to kill us, which we dispatch fairly easily. Benedikta taunts Cid before disappearing in a burst of magic. 0:00 Intro 0:47 Ability points 2:31 Item claim 7:40 Hornet fight 13:27 Another Aevis 16:14 Benedikta! 18:36 Midnight Raven fight 24:25 Cid is glib 26:36 Orabelle Downs 29:50 Vineyard exploration 34:23 Royal rearguard 35:45 Lostwing vacant 38:08 Hiding child 39:40 Freeing the citizens 41:34 Chase 44:21 Chirada fight 47:08 Benedikta flees 49:32 Partying peasants 52:02 Benedikta confronts Ifrit's dominant 54:09 Our next moves 56:53 Outro

I sound kinda weird, I just woke up. This time we do a bit of investigation then get treated like garbage and told to sleep on a floor. I'd rather sleep on the ground personally but here we are. The next evening we plan to infiltrate Caer Norvent in pursuit of the flame dominant. 0:00 Intro 0:15 Quick lore read 2:17 Lostwing shop 3:57 Lostwing exploration 11:19 Quintin is a jerk 14:19 Asking questions 18:31 Bad hospitality 22:45 Road to Norvent 27:40 Sneaky time 30:30 Hideaway shopping 34:09 Benidikta muses 37:55 Pffft, torch, ha! 40:20 Exploring the Caer 45:40 Royal Tognvaldr fight 48:19 Outro

This time we finish up our pursuit of Benedikta through Caer Norvent. We catch her in the chapel where she and Cid both unleash the power of their Eichons. As usual, two dominants fighting doesn't go super well for Clive. Cid is bested and crushed (not fatally) by a statue. Benedikta summons two harpies to kill us. Kinda neat mini boss, if a little slowly paced. Then we have a run up some stairs, fighting soldiers along the way, and we finally confront the Waloeder spymaster. This fight is actually challenging and I suffer my first defeat. She is quickly dispatched however and Clive somehow absorbs the Garuda Eichon from her. Now we have wind powers as well as fire! We see the flame dominant that murdered Joshua escape in some explosions, and his friend calls him "your grace". Who is this guy? 0:00 Intro 0:30 Wreckage 2:12 Brawl in front of church 5:33 Benedikta vs Cid 10:00 Harpies 17:05 Pursuit 23:15 Magic Rogue 28:22 Benedikta fight 39:15 Dead! 42:13 Garuda is mine! 47:31 New Eichonic powers 54:37 Outro

We continue our escape from Caer Norvent with slim hope of catching the flame dominant and avenging Joshua. A short way ahead of us Benedikta is being dragged towards safety when they are ambushed by axe throwing north men. Killing her team and threatening her, she gives in completely to Garuda. She summons a massive tornado and starts just destroying the land. We see glimpses of the fire dominant and Clive chases him right into the storm. We have an epic fight with Garuda and in desperation Clive turns into the Ifrit. I knew he was the second fire dominant! The eichons clash and Clive of course emerges the victor. His personality is subsumed in the Ifrit and Cid has to transform in Ramuh to shock Clive back into docility. 0:00 Intro 1:00 Exploring 3:33 War Aevis fight 8:39 Gav! 10:25 Benedikta's trouble 13:00 Garuda unleashed 14:43 Tornado chasing 17:40 Field of elementals 30:40 Hideaway shopping 34:57 Eye of the Tempest 36:54 Hunting Ifrit 39:09 Clive vs Garuda 45:14 Ifrit awakes 48:19 Ifrit vs Garuda 54:25 Cid contains Ifrit 59:00 Odin vs Bahamut 1:02:26 Clive's despair 1:05:14 Outro