Regal + Defiant

6. Stormblood

Look... I started playing in HW, so SB is the first trailer I watched when it came out. And I remember being SO excited, but hype and aura alone do not a good trailer make. It shows us two locations we're visiting and one new class but gives zero context on what we're doing here or what we can expect. Yugiri and Gosetsu are... present. There are Places and you will go to them. The music is... musical.

When I watch a FFXIV trailer, I want a sense of where we are in the story, with a little grounding in the past MSQ and an idea of what we'll be dealing with next. I want to get excited for the new content, so I want to see new locations, new enemies or friends, and some job or race stuff. Finally, I want it to be cool: good music, awesome visuals, edited into a coherent package that someone can enjoy without necessarily playing the game.

Stormblood falls short in most of these ways. There's almost no story grounding, barely any new information, and the music is... god, the final bit is great but the instrumental in the Lyse and Doma fights are just not super interesting without the visuals!

If we'd gotten a brief glimpse of Yotsuyu in Doma Castle, perhaps, or a flashback to Shinryu appearing over Baelsar's wall or maybe a Hien cameo, it'd be a stronger package... But as it is, compared to everything else, it goes at the bottom.

5. Dawntrail

I have no way of knowing this, but I would bet there was no full trailer when the first teaser dropped. If you watch that initial video it works PERFECTLY! The music is fun, the scenes are lively, the line "take it slow and take a bite!" playing when G'raha digs in? It's fantastic!

Unfortunately, the final trailer is a bit of a mess? The scenes are weirdly disjointed with the singing interlude feeling completely out of place. I don't think this particular arrangement is used anywhere in game? Honestly, correct choice.

It does function pretty well as a trailer, though. Viper and Pictomancer! Bit of coming story in Y'shtola and Thancred investigating Tural! Reminding you where you're coming from with Wuk Lamat on the boat! The Gulool Ja Ja fight adds a bit of mystery to speculate about!

What ultimately gives it the edge over SB is that it's just really fun! Shots like Krile's magic, Urianger's tropical drink, the lively markets and the blue seas all come together to build a fantastic atmosphere. It could've been so much better but it still makes me smile and that counts for something.

4. Heavensward

I consider this the exact middle of the pack. It's a bit older and you can tell they developed a different style for trailers over time, but I'm not gonna hold that against it. It still works!

As a trailer, the story is conveyed broadly with the flashes to the end of ARR and Raubahn imprisoned. The lack of familiar faces and Meteor staggering in the snow helps reinforce an air of exile and you do get quite a lot of dragon menace, which is ultimately the point of the story! You can't say it doesn't tell you what you're getting into!

Luckily, what it lacks in information it makes up in being so fucking cool. Holy SHIT is it cool!! It's not surprising that the gif of the dragoon gauntlet sliding into place took off outside the fandom, have you seen that shit? Have you heard the operatic music, the draconic choir as the horde descends? Have you seen those dragoons!?

The mood it builds is strong enough that I ultimately think it trumps the previous two trailers. We could've gotten a little more relevant info (an Au-ra, perhaps? A tiny glimpse of one of the new jobs?) but that would've meant less time for sexy armor shots, so I understand.

3. Endwalker

Disclaimer: I own the EW OST. The disc is on my shelf right now and the digital version is on my phone. I have listened to Footfalls one million times on my commute. I fucking love this song.

That said, I think I'd like this trailer even if I wasn't obsessed with the music! The vignette style packs a lot of information into a short video but it serves its purpose well: showing you the breadth of the coming calamity and reminding you that this is the culmination of the story that came before. The visuals drive home the overwhelming danger, the narration makes the stakes clear.

As a game trailer... You get the Sage reveal, you see Thavnair, you get the stakes of the story and the general idea of what you're trying to do. You get your friends, you get your antagonists, both in the Sharlayan scene and Fandaniel and Zenos... you get The Moon. I also think the reaper reveal is a solid preview, despite having zero fighting! Seeing the scythe and having Zenos swing it is enough! Reaper is so inherently bitching that they can get away with just letting you know it exists.

I just like it! The whole package works to compliment to the expansion it's revealing and it did it's job and built hype before the game's release. Even now, the final scene with Meteor on the moon gives me goosebumps. Unforgettable.

2. A Realm Reborn

Answers, man... how can you compete with Answers? How can you compete with the first half of this trailer? I never played 1.0 but the way the devastation of the Calamity is presented is incredible to witness. It hammers in the despair of the situation with the valiant Warriors of Light helpless in the face of a creature that can effortlessly destroy their world. Louisoix's final stand and the way his ritual is shattered... His final act, and the look on his face at the end... Shivers.

As a trailer... look, this isn't about the story, this is about why you should come back to the game when it relaunches or give it a try even though you heard the game sucked. This is about showing you your good friends and a pretty world and some cool enemies! This is about how chocobos are great. This is about how you should try today! It does what it needs to do, it functions as it should.

If I'm being honest, I don't think ARR would rate as highly if not for the Calamity sequence. It's... Fine! It's nice! But the first part is so striking that I think it deserves accolades even years later. You don't need to watch every trailer before you play Final Fantasy 14, but you need to watch this one.

1. Shadowbringers

What can I say? Of course Shadowbringers is number one. What else would it be? Have you seen it? Do I even need to argue my point?

It meets every point of my criteria. It's near perfect; the only improvement I can think of is maybe a Hrothgar reveal? But no one was begging for Ronso and Viera have been at the top of the fandom's wishlist for ages, I can't blame the team for highlighting them instead.

As a trailer, it does EVERYTHING. We get flashes of our new setting! It highlights the new classes, though I think Thancred's Gunbreaker scene is the cooler one! It shows us new characters with Ryne and the Exarch, our new enemies in the Sin Eaters... It sets the tone of the story perfectly with the Gremlin's taunting and Meteor's seemingly hopeless battle.

I really love the scenes with the Scions, and while we get them again in EW and DT, I think they're used the best here. I like that we get flashes of what happened before we arrived and that you don't know this is the past until you play the game. I like the little glimpses of them without you, fighting in their own ways, having changed in the process!

I'll also say I feel ShB built the best hype leading into its expac by giving the most mystery to speculate on. If I recall correctly, the trailer dropped before we knew we were going to another shard and there was a lot of discussion in my FC about what on earth we could be seeing. Where was Thancred escaping from? How could that be Minfillia? What were those statue-like enemies? Why is Y'shtola going by Matoya? Why is the Crystal Tower here? What does that strange man mean about history being unwritten!? It was fun to theorize and made it more satisfying to uncover the answers in the narrative proper.

So as a trailer it knocks it out of the park, and then in terms of spectacle, surprise! It's just as good!

The music is insane, oh my god, it's so good. If you watch the trailers in order it jumps out immediately and the progression of the song with the visuals is pitch perfect. The sequence where Meteor changes through every job he's used before, getting struck down again and again, are you kidding me?? The feeling of helplessness that will turn out to be the hallmark of the First? The people of Kholusia lounging in excess? The shots of the Crystarium? The way the music builds and builds to the end??

The final moments, where Meteor splits the sky to reveal the stars and swings his giant sword over his shoulder... it's peak. What else can you say? What can top this? What could?

Shadowbringers is a good expansion, but that didn't guarantee it'd have a good trailer. It's a perfect showcase of the story it's going to tell and the world it'll tell it in. It makes you want to play FFXIV Shadowbringers. It makes you want to be the Warrior of Darkness.

It's the best trailer, hands down. I don't know if it'll ever be topped.

BONUS: Evercold

So as I type this, we don't have a full trailer for Evercold. It'll be a while til I can give it a proper ranking, but I think the expanded trailer has given me enough for preliminary thoughts!

First, the embroidery animation is FANTASTIC, love that. Great exploration of unique visuals, gives you a bit of distinction from the Source, where locations are highlighted with the imagery of the world map. Love the framing device of the old woman telling a story, love how her speaking in the past tense leads to some ambiguity about where your role in the story will actually land.

The Bastion reveal is... well, it's a FFXIV Job Action shot, same as Dancer and Sage and Pictomancer, so it's main function is hype and little else. BUT recognizing the job from an old enemy is cool and while Dancer was revealed with a nobody Viera, the Roegadyn we see looks unique enough that he could be an actual story character! I hope. I NEED a beefy man to hang around for an expac.

The location reveals are striking, the enemy shots using completely unfamiliar beings helps with the vibe of being in a foreign world... we've got some story grounding in where we've been and some hints at where we're going. The music and clips feel coherent in the extended trailer so it doesn't seem like we're heading for another Dawntrail? Hopefully?

Finally, in the nebulous areas of Vibe and Hype and Aura... Estinien's dropkick is fun characterization, the giant looming over the airship city is cool. And while I don't claim to be an expert in aura, Reaper Meteor absolutely has it, goddamn.

Everything is looking good in terms of my criteria. I expect we'll get our second job reveal, maybe another location, perhaps an Antagonist shot? Definitely expecting a few more NPC scenes, though I'm hoping we don't get a full Scion lineup--we could use a slate of fresh faces. Overall, I'm excited to see the full trailer and I feel like it'll be in the upper half of my rankings!