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

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

No time for self hatred, Cid has us go find Gav. We encounter a few nasty fights until we see Gav harried by Imperials. Rushing to his rescue we get into a good scrap with another dragoon. Finally saving the plucky spy, we learn there is in fact a second flame dominant and where we might find him. Cut to the dominant and it is Joshua all grown up! We stop off back at the Hideaway before the next step. 0:00 Intro 0:54 New sword 1:45 Charon's new swag 4:18 Chatting up the hideaway 11:20 The Kingsfall 15:00 Giant spiders 16:53 Minotaur 23:53 Spiders and hornets 25:27 Minotaur 2 28:25 Gav in trouble 30:01 Dragoon 33:30 Dragoon 2nd try 38:15 Saving Gav 42:36 Joshua revealed 45:04 Back at the Hideaway 47:35 Outro

We open with an emotional reunion with Jill. We decide to return to Rosaria but first we help out a few people in the Hideaway. Rosaria is now an imperial province and has fallen into disrepair. 0:00 Intro 0:36 Jill Awake 6:56 Sidequests 8:15 Serving meals 17:25 Getting soil 28:26 Farewell Gav 30:35 Three Reeds 34:30 Bighorn 39:30 Rude jerk 44:00 Gigas 49:12 Bighorn 2 51:55 Outro

We finish up exploring the wilds south of our destination with a couple of fights and a handful of crafting materials. We then deliver our package to the stable master and learn that everyone here is rude and speaks painfully slowly. After a quick scout of the town we introduce ourselves to the titular Martha and after mentioning Cid she agrees to help us. Unfortunately the bridge is out and I guess there is only one carpenter in town who can fix it but he is out in the wilds. In short order he is saved and returned. While we wait for him to ply his craft, Martha tasks us to make a delivery to the abbey and promises us a depressing revelation. Oh boy! I love emotional damage! Arriving at the abbey we learn the terrible cost of magic and why bearers are treated as slaves. The act of casting causes petrification and early death. 0:00 Intro 0:25 Exploring 12:15 Delivery 14:07 Scout the town 23:05 Martha 26:08 The unfortunate carpenter 29:44 Martha has a request 34:04 Exploring western wilds 34:59 Adamantoise 43:47 Chocobo not friendly 50:22 Abbey secrets 54:54 Outro

After the startling revelation at the Abbey we return to Martha and learn she is very sympathetic to Cid's cause. She does what she can for suffering bearers. Then we find out that being a dominant confers no immunity. Cid has already begun the petrification process and his days are numbered. The more he casts, the faster he dies. We split off from Cid and help out some townsfolk, then we journey to Eastpool. 0:00 Intro 1:22 Martha 4:25 Cid's petrification 9:05 Helping townies 18:48 Kill that mockingbird 22:24 Crytal returned 24:30 Heading east 34:26 Hunter in need 37:15 Town and commerce 49:33 Off the beaten track 52:40 Outro

We kick off this episode by heading into Eastpool where we are recognized by Murdock's wife Hannah. Apparently he is dead, burned by Clive's transformation into Ifrit. She gives us hospitality and even some of Elwin's old clothes and gear. In the night Clive lowers his stoic guard and shares his emotions with Jill. He wonders now what the point in his life is now that his quest for revenge is false. Jill shares her painful past as well. The next day the mayor tells us we are the rightful inheritors of our fathers bearers. Clive sets off to find an old kitchen man. Then we lie to a slave to make him feel better. As we approach the Phoenix Gate Clive is filled with trepidation. He does not want to confront his past, but he knows he must. 0:00 Intro 1:40 Wheat and mill 2:10 Eastpool 6:39 Clive and Jill share pain 10:14 New gear 13:46 Exploring Eastpool 17:05 Exit interrupted 21:01 Mayor's request 28:00 Old man in danger 29:23 A slaves desire 33:34 On the road again 35:46 Jill encourages Clive 38:38 Outro

We enter the Phoenix Gate and find a great dungeon underneath. These are pristine ruins of the Fallen civilization. There are magitek constructs awakening and trying to repel us, trespassers that we are. They increase in strength and complexity, culminating in an Iron Giant boss fight. We make it to the mural at the center and Clive has a vision. He realizes that he is Ifrit and he killed his brother and the masked man is just him disassociating his guilt. We have a couple of really awesome fights against Ifrit and Dark Clive. This whole sequence is a really great abstraction of Clive incorporating his shadow. In a very Jungian sense, Clive accepts the bestial part of his personality. What a banger of an episode. I absolutely love story telling like this. 0:00 Intro 1:14 The hooded man 5:10 Hall of the Ancestors 5:58 Magitek defense constructs 11:10 Fallen Guardian 14:02 Bombs! 15:44 Fallen Guardian and friends 20:17 Iron Giant 25:05 A goal appears 27:11 Lich 32:52 Jill is not amused 34:10 Mural and Clive's shadow 39:45 Ifrit fight 45:15 Dark Clive fight 48:14 Demi Primed Dark Clive 51:10 Incorporating the shadow 52:17 Demi Prime Clive 54:34 Ifrit vs Ifrit 56:41 A new determination 1:00:52 Cid's gift to Titan 1:03:31 Limit tutorial 1:08:05 Outro

Leaving Phoenix Gate we trek through Rosaria and we have a very dark surprise waiting for us in Eastpool. Clive's mother, now leading the province in the name of the empire, has ordered a purge of Eastpool. We arrive in time only to avenge the dead. There is a large contingent of imperials that need to be put down before we realize their grim work is already done. Hannah Murdoch and everyone else in town has been slaughtered all for the crime of sheltering undisclosed bearers. Gav and some cursebreakers show up to save the village, but like us too late. In the wake of this viscous mass murder Clive decides to join Cid's cause. No more convenient association, we are all in now. Gav and crew stay to bury the dead while we go back to the hideaway to pledge to Cid. He tells us his belief that the Mother Crystals are not the source of magic, but that they feed off the aether in the earth. They are parasitically causing the blight and must be destroyed. No we aren't just pledged to changing society, but saving the planet itself. Before we continue in the main, we see what's new in the hideaway and take on a couple side quests. We head to Lostwing to find a missing bearer and a lost letter. 0:00 Intro 1:02 Towards Eastpool 3:37 Murder most foul 8:20 Imperial Champion 11:14 Poor Lady Hannah 14:55 Back at the Hideaway 17:13 Pledging for the cause 20:04 Imperial Council of war 24:05 True nature of the crystals 27:48 My crystal theories 29:56 What's new in the Hideaway 31:33 Fallen speculation 39:54 Missing persons 41:47 Lost letter 45:43 New sword 47:05 Finding the letter 51:04 Randal's last known 53:08 Ambushed by goblins 57:12 Randal's fate 59:43 Pleased courier 1:01:36 Outro

Otto has a plan to smuggle us into the empire. We are to be escorted through by a madam cryptically called "The Dame". Then we are introduced to Alliant Reports, a message board where the cursebreakers of the hideaway post for help needed. We head out and fulfill all the quests currently available before coming back to the hideaway for a proper send off. We decide to split up, with Jill going with Cid. We head up to Northreach and are introduced to the Dame. The madam of the local brothel is a salacious flirt, but she does smuggle us through the checkpoint. The town of Northreach is a good size and we have a few more side quests to get to next time. 0:00 Intro 1:30 Otto's plan 3:50 Alliant Reports 6:46 Trouble at Martha's 11:30 Traumatized bearers 18:13 Pest control 24:25 Splitting up 27:14 Exploring Dragon's Aery 30:34 Northreach and the Dame 35:21 Filling out the map 44:30 The literal escort 46:50 Northreach perusing 49:01 The Veil 52:20 Outro

This time we do some work for the locals in this border town of Northreach while we do the bidding of the Dame. She wants us to find one of her courtesans that has gone missing in payment for smuggling us into the empire. Along the way we perform odd jobs for people and find out just how dark Imperial Culture is. They take cruelty to bearers way further than we have seen thus far. On the Tatienne front, her trail leads us to the town of Moore, where an overzealous customer of hers was seen to be heading. 0:00 Intro 1:05 Interviewing witnesses 4:31 Shady merchant 6:55 Teaching soldiery 12:27 Concerned priest 17:00 Feeding slaves 21:13 Updating Isobel 22:46 Shady business 30:00 Exploring the Empire 45:45 Bloody sport 54:54 Missing "pet" 1:00:30 Outro

We complete our investigation and learn the tragic fate of Tatienne and her suitor. After delivering the bad news we rendezvous with Cid and Jill in a nearby abandoned Chapel. Cid has a plan to get us in through the mines in Drakes Head. First we lay low in a fancy brothel and Cid delights in making Jill uncomfortable. Clive is not amused. When night falls we break into the mines underneath Drake's Head. They are lightly defended but we do encounter resistance. In the middle of a miniboss fight with an Imperial Cannoneer we learn the dangers of aether poisoning. He succumbs to the pollution and goes Akashic, which mutates people into berserk mana zombies. As dominants we are immune (Torgal?) and continue to fight our way through Akashic miners as a dangerous aether flood has erupted from the crystal. When we make it to the Mother Crystal itself we see where Cid fought Bahamut here years ago. Next time we will approach the crystal itself. 0:00 Intro 0:38 Bertrand 1:34 Musings on Imperial culture 3:50 Anorther witness 6:00 Exploring 7:05 Finding the ruins 8:40 Tatienne found 11:58 Delivering bad news 15:20 Cid and Jill 20:41 Further musings 22:35 Hideaway shopping 24:35 Drake's Head mines 30:15 Imperial Cannonier 32:44 Akashic Cannonier 38:00 Aether Flood 40:39 Broken bridge 42:40 More mana zombies 45:45 Akashic Champion 50:35 Coral Sword 52:33 The Mother Crystal 54:36 Outro

We head in to the Mother Crystal proper in our quest to destroy it. Along the way we fight more Magitek constructs like what we found in Phoenix Gate. After fighting our way to the Crystal we are confronted by an Akashic Dragon. It's a pretty awesome fight against a giant beastie. After putting down the guardian we find a giant crystal spike that tethers the Mother to the earth. Cid goes full prime to Ramuh and shatters the tether. Confirming my suspicion about a parasite, a dark god opens a portal and attacks us for shattering the link. Cid is mortally wounded and it falls to Clive to give in to Ifrit and fight off this Eldritch horror. We have a bunch of really cool fights with different phases of the monster. After defeating Typhon the Transgressor the real threat appears. A being named Ultima claims that Clive is a vessel for him and tries to posses us. Cid claims to know who Ultima is and saves us in the nick of time. His wounds are mortal and his last act is to bestow us with the gift of Ramuh. Not actually dead, Ultima comes back and attempts to kill us. Suddenly Joshua appears and confronts Ultima, seemingly absorbing him and saving us. Without his power keeping it up the Mother Crystal falls. Then we cut to the Hideaway where Titan and his troops are slaughtering our friends. Rather abruptly we cut to 5 years later. Clive and Jill are undercover in Dahlmekia. They have set a trap for us by abusing bearers. Trap or no, we are going to free those folks. After mopping the floor with some soldiers we fight a huge war panther. Freed, but not safe, the bearers curse us for putting them into danger in the first place. The bonds of slavery are just as strong in their minds. We end by returning to the Hideaway, which looks totally different. We will explore it next time! 0:00 Intro 0:56 Magitek contructs 2:48 Lich 5:42 Akashic Dragon 14:07 The inner sanctum 17:09 Breaking the crystal 19:20 Typhon emerges 22:28Typhon's minions 24:50 Typhon vs Ifrit 29:06 Typhon second form 36:05 Ultima Threatens 38:10 Cid's farewell gift 40:41 Joshua vs Ultima 46:10 Hideaway slaughter 49:00 5 years later 50:29 Dahlmekian underground 52:36 Springing the trap 54:14 Recap, my brain is smoking 55:29 Ramuh's powers 58:57 War panther 1:02:17 Ungrateful 1:05:10 New Hideaway 1:07:42 Outro

We are introduced to the new and improved Hideaway. Inside a derelict airship in a lake, we have an impressive place to call home. Clive is now "Cid" as the leader of the underground. 0:00 Intro 3:24 Otto 5:47 Vivian 13:08 State of the Realm tutorial 30:55 Exploring 40:37 Blakthorne 44:38 Goetz and Charon 52:34 Harpocretes 1:05:40 Outro

As the new "Cid" we have many responsibilities for the underground. One of those is maintaining the network of operatives. When we hear from Otto that Martha is in danger and he worries the cursebreakers will not arrive in time, we set out at once to help our conspirator. Our mother has sent imperial troops out on a purge of branded and slaughtered everyone at the Abbey. We do save Martha thankfully. While at the rest a porter asks us to help a local chocobo that has been know to fight bandits. She is being pursued by a hunting party and he feels they all owe her for her protection. We confront the hunters and save the chocobo. Low and behold, it is Ambrosia. Not dead and overjoyed to be reunited, we get a saddle from the porter and can now ride our feathered friend afield. 0:00 Intro 0:45 Gav's Letter 7:40 Otto 10:26 Leaky boats 14:18 Wax harvest 16:27 Crusty gratitude 22:09 Martha's missing 27:23 Martha! 30:14 Abbey slaughter 37:03 First hunt mark Ahriman 41:45 Dust to dust 42:59 Martha's future 46:11 Chocobo in need 52:04 Bandits and The Huntsman 55:38 Ambrosia! 1:01:02 Riding Chocobos 1:04:33 Outro