The Rising And The Power Of Friendship

I completed The Rising event in Final Fantasy XIV on Sunday. For the second year in a row I helped Kipih Jakkya's little brother Nhagi'a become an adventurer. Or at least, a better adventurer. But the story also addressed the desire of some players to want to do everything themselves. No, no help needed for them. Part of the story revolves around Nhagi'a's desire to be strong and independent and never needing help, just like the player. 

The Warrior of Light doesn't need any help? Ha! Sometimes I think FFXIV is build around the power of friendship. The trope was described last year on GameRant:

Primarily featured in the shōnen genre, the power of friendship trope allows characters to exceed their limits and defeat their enemies no matter how unbeatable they are set up in a series to be. This gift of invincibility is given mostly to the main characters of a series and progresses the plot in a fashion favorable to the good guys in the story. Whether it be Naruto in the Naruto franchise, Tanjiro in the Demon Slayer franchise, or Natsu in the Fairy Tail franchise, these shōnen protagonists are a head above the rest and rely on the power of friendship to save the day.

Perhaps a newer player might believe the Warrior of Light is a one-man (or one-woman) wrecking machine, and by the end of each expansion they are. But to accomplish anything great, the player relies on their friends in the Scions of the Seventh Dawn plus some additional friends made along the way. In my opinion, the game reaches peak friendship at the end of Shadowbringers 5.0 and the defeat of FFXIV's greatest villian, Emet-Selch. The Warrior of Light still needs friends to save the universe in Endwalker, but the meme is most powerful in the final trial of the base Shadowbringers expansion.

Without trying to spoil the story of the event, I think Yoshi-P was trying to portray another message as well. As much as Creative Business Unit 3 has tried to make the game as solo friendly as possible, players still need to group up to complete the 8-character trials (and the Crystal Tower raid series) in order to reach the end of the story. Don't give up just because playing with others is necessary; the journey is worth doing so. And that's about as far as I can go without absolutely spoiling the story of the event.