If you never started (real) If you had found (unreal)

[Marika33]

I found this comment on YouTube and I think it has a grammatical error. Do you agree? Am I correct in my assumption?

(link - second from the top)

I believe the part "if you never started Yura's quest and found Shabriri first instead, and you killed Shabriri outright, you can still obtain ..." is absolutely grammatical. We do not need the past perfect form "If you had never started", because the condition is real, it's not hypothetical or unreal, but it's still about the past, so the past simple form (or the present perfect form) is needed: "If you never started..." or "If you've never started...".

While the last part "... where he would've been if you found him and started his quest" is grammatically flawed, because here the speaker is talking about an imaginary, unreal past, so that should've been "... where he would've been if you had found him and (had) started his quest" instead.

 

[jutfrank]

I believe the part "if you never started Yura's quest and found Shabriri first instead, and you killed Shabriri outright, you can still obtain ..." is absolutely grammatical. We do not need the past perfect form "If you had never started", because the condition is real, it's not hypothetical or unreal, but it's still about the past, so the past simple form (or the present perfect form) is needed: "If you never started..." or "If you've never started...".

Yes.

While the last part "... where he would've been if you found him and started his quest" is grammatically flawed, because here the speaker is talking about an imaginary, unreal past, so that should've been "... where he would've been if you had found him and (had) started his quest" instead.

Right. The sentence needs 'had', as you say.