Final Fantasy XIV Stormblood ramble

Ásgeirr · May 07, 2019, 02:11:58 AM

Shadowbringers trailer

YouTube

end of an era and heavensward are better

The first expansion, Heavensward, is free until June 27th if anyone is interested.

Barely structured ramblings on Stormblood. I needed to vent lmao.

Spoiler

It was way worse than Heavensward but HW set the bar pretty fucking high so eh. Ala Mhigger shenanigans were dull but the Doma stuff was slightly better. The Azim Steppe portion of the story was easily the best along with the post SB questline

Spoiler

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Lyse can eat a fat one
Zenos yae Galvus single-handedly saved SB
Yotsuyu was tragic and deserved better ;__;
Asahi was wasted potential, go fuck yourself Yoshi and let me symphatize with Garleans
Maxima is pretty cool
Hien is the best of the allied characters but that doesnt take much
Estinien was present to expand my BotD if you know what i mean, god i fucking love Dragoons
The rest of the allied characters are nobodies except maybe Y'shtola

Stormblood locations are all worse than what Heavensward had to offer.
Gyr Abania is a slightly better Thanalan which has the dullest ARR locations. The Lochs has some interesting places like the underwater Loch Seld ruins

Spoiler

Yanxia is better but doesnt hold a candle to HW again. Setting foot in to the Azim Steppe the first time with a foggy weather was a high point.

-Thoughts on content of Stormblood

SB dungeons are such unbelievable garbage. Every single one of them. SB's leveling dungeons are a slog comparable to ARR dungeons. Expert SB dungeons are only slightly better if only due to having all your abilities.

Coming from Heavensward where even the leveling dungeons are good beyond the first one. Not to mention the expert dungeons, some of which ive queued into just because of the music.

So now that i had experienced the god awful dungeons of SB, i went into alliance raids with low expectations even though i was excited for them being Ivalice themed.

The Royal city of Rabanastre.
Mateus is still the same cool design but the fight is nothing special.
Hashmals control tower ability is a pretty neat brainlet filter but again the rest of the fight is nothing special.
Rofocale is nothing special.
Argath Thadalfus is one of the coolest designs in the game but the fight itself is lame. His Obey/Disobey ability is garbage trial and error design. Cool lines though YOU DO NOT BELONG IN MY WORLD, STEP INTO NOTHING

Moving onto The Ridorana Lighthouse which was one of the most interesting locations of Ivalice.
Famfrit is a pain in the ass to play with casters but its kinda fun to see everyone eat shit at Tsunami.
Belias is shitty for jobs with timed gauges and overall is nothing special.
Construct 7 is a special kind of fuck off with its math ability. With no explanation youre supposed to take into account your HP number when calculating the correct number. Fuck off. That aside its nothing special aside from watching people eat shit at Dispose.
YIAZMAT much like Argath is a cool design although not as good as the original from XII. His fight doesnt stand out much to my disappointment and i dont understand why they thought the voice lines were a good idea. Shouldve been a harder fight too honestly. Disappointed we didnt get anything in the Subterra parts.

The Orbonne Monastery
Mustadio sucks.
Agrias sucks and has THE WORST voice acting ive heard in the game.
The Thunder God is a pretty good fight and i enjoy optimizing it with BLM, VA is decent.
Ultima is a decent end to the Ivalice raids and has a sick design. Tera nut flare whenever i pull off Between the Lines and Onslaught when she does knockback into the maze.

Overall the Ivalice raids are worse than Mhach and Dun Scaith but better than ARR raids.

Onto normal 8 man Omegascape raids. Its story is miles better than the actual main SB story, Omega is cool as fuck. Unabashed fanservice but its the best kind of fanservice.

Deltascape is meh
Sigmascape fights are better

Alphascape ill get into more because it has some of the best gameplay XIV has to offer

1.0 is fun all around with a good variety of movement mixed with no movement

2.0 has THE Midgardsormr i mean fucking goddamn if that is not some goooooooooooood shit. I will eat Akh Morns for breakfast even if it kills me. Audio and visual design is top notch with gameplay to back it up.

3.0 is the first fight against Omega in its beetle form. The ornate design is 5/5

Spoiler

Actual fight taught me ship terminology and again i love watching others eat shit at wavecannons

4.0 is peak Final Fantasy and XIV tbh fams. Not only does it have Yoshitaka Amano designs come to life but it has the kind of place, music and importance i would expect from final bosses of previous FF's. Topped off with what is in my opinion the best fight in the game.

Spoiler

YouTube

As for the other 8 man trials

Susano is about as engaging as Ifrit from ARR. Only redeeming factor is Rules of Nature.
Lakshmi is hard for a normal trial and thats a good thing ™. Arena is too bright though.
Shinryu is another hard normal trial and a pretty great fight overall
Byakko is weird but fun, i wasnt expecting bullet hell in my XIV.
Tsukuyomi is up there with alpha 4.0 presentation wise. Bit of a bummer story wise.
The rest i havent unlocked yet.

Unfortunately i cant say anything about the Savage fights because i dont have a FC to play with and ive given up on pubs.

-Now for the jobs ive played

Starting off with the TRAGEDY that is level 70 Dragoon. What

. The fuck

. Is this

.
''Hey yoshida, Dragoon has an active opener but feels empty after and the BotD timer could use some touchup''
''Hello here's some more fucking buttons to bloat and extend your opener, here's an ability to use between animation locks, try not to eat shit cunt and finally take this extension to the worst Job timer with no way of holding it''
I am STILL SEETHING AFTER A MONTH SINCE I HIT 70. I LOVED DRAGOON. FUCK.

After literally quitting for a few days i picked up my secondary, Black Mage, and it became my new best friend.
BLM received nothing but improvements in SB like triple fucking cast for just that itty bitty extra overkill.
I wasnt sure how i felt about Foul first, it looked and sounded weak but ive grown to appreciate its less is more design. Now that quadruple Flares and Foul exist, there is no need for other DPS's to exist ;^)

That being said i still had an itch for support so i leveled Red Mage after.
Stylish kit visually and canceling Displacement backflip mid air with Corps-a-corps is SSS tier style. RDM's kit overall is way too simple for me so i didnt stick with it after capping it.

Decided on Samurai next after being too lazy to pick up Monk back at 60.
SAMs kit is stylish as well as relatively fun and engaging. Hitting 2 Midare Setsugekkas in a row is nearly as good as quad Flares. Even though i enjoyed SAM i dropped it before getting to learn its rotation at 70.

Went on to level Summoner after eyeing it for the longest time. An absolute nightmare slog to play below 50.
After 60 is where it quickly became my favorite Job second to BLM. Its ''2 minute rotation'' at 70 is incredibly satisfying to do with almost no downtime, keeping you engaged at all times. Akh Morns son.

But O'ssu how come you like SMN's long rotation and not DRG's!?!?!?!?!?!1?!?!? Fuck you

Oh and Bard continues to be fun but exhausting and Warrior Fell Cleaves put PLD and DRK in their sheds

Finally some of my favorite songs

Spoiler

SB boss theme is great but pales in comparison to HW's

YouTube

Yanxia daytime is my favorite SB location song

YouTube

Kugane is pleasant

YouTube

Azim Steppe and Loch are after Yanxia

YouTube

Fractal Continuum Hard builds on the already amazing normal variant

YouTube

Lakshmis theme is one of the best primal songs

YouTube

Byakkos theme is otherwise forgettable but the chorus is fucking amazing

YouTube

Omega M/F theme is one of the best songs in the game in conjunction with the fight

YouTube

Tsukuyomis theme is probably my favorite XIV song. Hits the same notes Nier:Automata did.

YouTube

Special mention to Omegas theme somehow being insufferable but also making the fight hectic

YouTube

This is why i dont do reviews.

MarKhan · May 07, 2019, 09:58:11 AM

Ah, FFXIV, one of the best MMOs out there that I probably never play. I know quite a bit of people who play it, it seems like a good game with a ton of stuff to do.

Ásgeirr · May 07, 2019, 04:52:51 PM

Quote from: MarKhan on May 07, 2019, 09:58:11 AM

Ah, FFXIV, one of the best MMOs out there that I probably never play. I know quite a bit of people who play it, it seems like a good game with a ton of stuff to do.

If performance is your concern you can try the free trial

Ian · May 09, 2019, 12:51:54 AM

I don't know if I have the attention span to make a opinion post as large as yours. Lord knows my thoughts on SB have changed from two years ago. Hard to believe we're only a month and a half away from Shadowbringers.

Story:

Spoiler

It's not as good as Heavensward. I had such high hopes before launch considering this was all new territory essentially. Heavensward had to be an Ishgardian expansion because it was Yoshi promising a city state that was intendid to be back in 1.0, being able to add Dravania as well was just icing on an already large cake. So it seemed like they were trying to outdo expectations again by not only giving us Gyr Abania/Ala Mhigo which was also lore established in 1.0, but give us something totally out of left field as well with Othard/Doma. The only problem is they completely half-assed it. We """liberated""" both city-states but we did so with one by sinking their city icon to the bottom of a river and the other wont let us in because "WE WUZ KANGZ" and then fucking Lyse takes all the God damn credit. I would've hoped we would eventually have gotten Ala Mhigo as an explorable city either at the end or in the patch series, but no. And with 4.5 I was hoping Ala Mhigo would get gassed by the Empire and I would've been so happy since they stubbornly refused to let us in, but that seems unlikely too. Ala Mhigo should've been one expansion and Othard itself have one on its own too.

And Empire is another thing. I'm extremely disappointed with Yoshi-P's stance on the Empire. Why was Gaius and
Pre-edgelord Asahi so likable? Because they showed the Empire were more than a bunch of cartoonishly evil Nazis. I was so hyped for Ala Mhigo story line with Fordola and the theme of whether or not Ala Mhigo even wants to be saved and seeing how an entire generation under Garlean rule might oppose liberation. Because Zenos was the Legatus of the XIIth, I was hoping for more gray morality to hearken back to FFXII like all the other numbered Legatuses did with their numbered FF title. But nope, while I love Zenos he's still essentially just a batshit insane nihilist; Yotsuyu could've been a hated viceroy who only wanted what was best for her birth nation, but no, she's a batshit insane literal whore who takes out her abuse on everyone; and the Empire is just a bunch of oppressive Nazis with no moral depth outside of being controlled by the moon-liches. I'm so sick of the absolute doubling down on trying to make the Empire more and more unlikable because it really hinders the story as a whole thematically.

And the Primal shit....it just needs to stop. Just like Heavensward, the leveling Primals were nothing more than filler that slowed down the story. "We're about to liberate the Ruby Sea! ....But first we gotta kill Susanoo....." & "We're about to siege the capital! ....But first we gotta kill Lakshmi....." the community has gotten so used to the writers relying on the Primal gimmick that they think that the Four Lords were "Far Eastern Primals" too. When the writers finally decide to not cop out a boss to being a Primal the community calls them that anyways because the writers abused the fuck out of it back in ARR and HW.

And the patch series leading up to Shadowbringers was such a wet noodle too. The trailer had you believe that some serious shit went down between 4.5 part 1 and the beginning of Shadowbringers and whatever it was is what causes you to become the Warrior of DDDAAARRRKKKNNNEEESSSSSS. But no, in part 2 you're saved from Moon-Zenos off screen by Dues Ex Estinien (who I also enjoy but that was an ass-pull if there ever was one) and face-timed by a guy from OPTIONAL SIDE CONTENT to tell you you have to go The First for....he doesn't say (we the player know why but the WoL still doesn't) and that this is a collect-call with your soul. We have no reason to become the WoD and no real reason to go to The First other than "I stole your friends lol".

Spoiler

Daddy Gaius returning was the best thing about the story.

And Shadowbringers is shaping up to be just as much "Meh" as Stormblood was. I was hoping for some actual depth to the story between Hydaelyn and Zodiark and the balance between Light and Dark. But no, we're essentially gonna just scream at the sky as a DRK until we bring back the night. No universe-altering chaos, just filler to keep us off Ilsabard this expansion and sacrificing a cool lore point (The Sundering) to do so.

Job Stuff:

Spoiler

I think Stormblood is in a mostly good spot with what they did as far as job adjustments. While some jobs are a bit tedious to play (DRK & WHM) and some are absolutely crippled (MCH & MNK), the original idea they sent out to create where we're pressing a decent number of buttons while not being overwhelming and create a unique gauge to help track your actions was a success. The only problem is what I fear they're going to do with Shadowbringers. It feels like they're just going to homogenize and simplify the game even further. The removal of TP really bothers me, I know we don't know anything yet and we wont until the 21st, but what we do already know really concerns me. I don't want the game to become braindead, it's what makes the game unique and satisfying. Imagine if playing BLM just required you to hit Fire 3, then spam Fire 4 until you run out of MP and then hit Blizzard 3, hit Thunder 3, hit Blizzard 4, and then hit Fire 3, to repeat? No Enochian, no Ley Lines, No Sharpcast, Fire 1 is only used in lower level dungeons. This is just is an extreme but it feels like something SE would prefer by the way Yoshi talks about makes the game easier. Difficulty-wise it's fine where it is. This is going to sounds incredibly elitist/obnoxious but there needs to be some level of competency as a requirement in order to play at the max level or we get shitters like the ones in the OF who complain about how The Royal Menagerie needs a nerf....two years later....

Spoiler

Oh and I fully expect my healers to contribute some kind of DPS. Throw something ANYTHING out when you're not healing. But if you just stand there and stare off into space until you need to cast another Cure 1, you can go fuck yourself.

Zones:

Spoiler

The Fringes is trash. I can't find much redeeming about it. It was cool being able to Castellum Velodyna from Baelsar's Wall back during Heavensward but the rest of the zone is just so shitty and unmemorable. I'd argue that Thanalan is better because at least Thanalan is a desert that looks pretty. The Peaks is alright and has better music that fits the idea of the Ala Mhigan culture. The Lochs is my favorite zone but it's also the one that upsets me the most because it represents the biggest failure of the expansion. You walk into The Lochs and go up the stairs and all you see infront of you is a giant staircase leading up to the grand bad-ass city....and you'll never be allowed in. No, the Ala Mhigan Quarter doesn't count and neither does The Royal Menagerie after you beat the main story. I want Ala Mhigo to be like the other city-states; there's no reason not to have it be visitable. Also, Rhalger's Reach is trash.

Spoiler

With Othard, things are a bit better. Even though Doma and Kugane are essentially Not-China and Not-Japan respectively, their zones are all at least memorable and unique. Yanxia feels just like rural China and Kugane with it's strict isolationist policy gives me that imperial Japan vibe they were clearly going for. I hope we get to see more of Bukyo/Daitenzen one day. I like The Azim Steppe cause it reminds me of the Archelyte Steppe from FFXIII, though I do wish they didn't advertise it as the game's first great plains region since that was essentially what 1.0 Coerthas was. Ruby Sea is the weakest but it's still memorable because of HoH.

Dungeons:

Spoiler

Leveling dungeons were great, but not as good as Heavensward (Also Asgeirr you take back what you said about The Dusk Vigil right now it's fucking KINO). Siren Song Sea is cool lore wise but it's also the biggest example of being one giant hallway since Xelphatol (I'll get back to Xelphatol in a bit). Shisui is alright but I almost never touch it. Bardam's Mettle I get way too much in leveling roulette and I'm sick of getting a tank that thinks they can pull big on this one, stop you can't, you're going to die, STOP TRYING. Doma Castle is pretty great, bitchin awesome music. Castrum Abania is okay but suffers from the same issue Gubal suffered from being the last dungeon before max level and having it right at level 69 so it hardly ever gets touched.

Ala Mhigo, the last city state we visit in Eorzea, the poster child of this expansion (other than ~~Not-Japan~~ Kugane), being relegated to a shitty four man dungeon is the biggest insult to me. It shows the SE learned nothing from the discussion the community had about Xelphatol, and they do it again with The Burn. Dedicating entire REGIONS to a 20 minute light party instance is very insulting to the lore/exploration crowd of MMO players. I want Ala Mhigo to be the proud and chad meme city everyone was hyping it up to be like we do with Ishgard, everyone LOVES Ishgard, it's a real city-state. I don't want fucking Rhalger's Reach, it's a literal shit hole in the middle of nowhere (The Fringes) and no improvements were even made to it like they did with Revenants Toll and Idyllshire. I get that the Doman Enclave is supposed to be a hands-on improvement progress the player can do and that serves as a similar hub, but the Doman Enclave also feels like the liberated aspect of Doma and a fully fledged city-state (the story being about Doma becoming a self-sufficient nation once again) and not being able to have a market board there makes it suffer from the same gripe I have with Ala Mhigo.

Getting back to dungeons, level 70 ones were extremely hit and miss. Temple of The Fist is just meh. Kugane Castle is great aesthetically but the final boss suffers from the same problem Heavsnward did with Shitterreap where the game actively punishes new level 70 players learning their jobs by spamming mechanics where the boss becomes untargetable and shutting down any real rotation. Drowned City is sucks until after the second boss, then it gets good. Hell's Lid is pretty decent. Swallow's Compass is by far the best of all of them, literally perfect. Fractal Hard is OKAY, same with The Burn (still pissed about the region/dungeon thing). Saint Whatever Hard is also pretty good, and Ghimlyt Dark just flat out sucks....it also appears way too much in Expert Roulette.

Heaven On High is a way better Deep Dungeon than PoTD. It's shorter, easier, less infuriating, and more rewarding. It's also more aesthetically pleasing. Not much else to say on it. Just lower the requirement for entry from level 61 to 60 and it'd be perfect.

8 Man Raids:

Spoiler

Omega is trash and how dare they kill off my husbando Midgardsormr.

24 Man Raids:

Spoiler

I love how Rabanastre was straight up FFXII Fan Service until the last two bosses, same with Ridorana. FFXII Ivalice fits better in the universe of XIV than Tactics Ivalice so having them focus geographically with XII is great. I don't have much to say about Return To Ivalice, it was very well done and it fit into the universe of XIV quite well. I wished we could've saw more of Gabranth but it seems like we're going to see more of him in Shadowbringers so meh.

Take back what you said about Mustadio right now. "MR. PRESIDENT GET DOWN!" The Boss is the best fight in the entirety of Orbonne.

Music:

Spoiler

It's perfect. Heavensward had a fantastic OST and Stormblood completely blows it out of the water. But for me it's still:

Answers = Dragonsong > Revolutions

TL;DR:

It's 5/10 blue-ball. Make Ala Mhigo an explorable city state and I'll change it to a 10/10 Kino. Here's hoping Mystery Niggas is a better expansion.

MarKhan · May 09, 2019, 03:22:13 AM

Quote from: Ásgeirr on May 07, 2019, 04:52:51 PM

Quote from: MarKhan on May 07, 2019, 09:58:11 AM
Ah, FFXIV, one of the best MMOs out there that I probably never play. I know quite a bit of people who play it, it seems like a good game with a ton of stuff to do.
If performance is your concern you can try the free trial

While perfomance is concerning me, it's more of a problem that I don't have time and have other games I want to try.

Ásgeirr · May 09, 2019, 07:50:55 AM

Quote from: Ian on May 09, 2019, 12:51:54 AM

Take back what you said about Mustadio right now. "MR. PRESIDENT GET DOWN!" The Boss is the best fight in the entirety of Orbonne.

If they make Manaward a 5 second CD (healers adjust eternally) or unfuck DRG i will

Good thoughts anyway, i agree with most of it. I just hope they would stop blue balling with Zodiark in ShB thats all i ask from it

Ian · May 09, 2019, 09:56:58 AM

>Farm some HQ Chysahl Greens to sell on the marketboard
>Match the person already selling them, never undercut
>Doesn't move for a few days
>Look back at the MB
>Person is now undercutting me by the city-state tax percentage and then a few gil afterward
>"Okay, I see how this is"
>Start camping the MB and undercutting back
>Drop the price of HQ Chysahl Greens from 33k to 16k and still lowering

You sell them in stacks of three because you need three to complete the level 60 BTN quest. Some dip shit then put two HQ on the board for like 5k and I bought those and went out and gathered one more to put another stack on the board. It's free gil to me so I don't care how low the price drops.

Ásgeirr · May 10, 2019, 10:54:21 AM

My disappointment is immeasurable and i continue to seethe

Spoiler

oh well, elezen soon

Ásgeirr · May 22, 2019, 11:06:13 AM

A week and 2 million gil later. What an awful grind compared to Lux weapons.

Ian · May 22, 2019, 10:05:21 PM

These """leaks""" on the job changes are getting out of hand. Can't wait for the rumor shit to finally die tomorrow.

Ásgeirr · May 23, 2019, 09:52:32 AM

id love some utility for BLM

embrace the mana battery so i can be best friends with healers

Ásgeirr · June 11, 2019, 08:43:57 AM

boutta bust a fucking nut

YouTube

Ian · June 12, 2019, 03:43:44 AM

Here are the trailers from several weeks ago for reference sake.

Job action trailer:

YouTube

Benchmark trailer:

YouTube

You can download the benchmark and test your computer here: https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/benchmark/

Ian · June 12, 2019, 03:44:47 AM

How does fucking Soken keep doing it?! Every expansion he tops his previous final boss theme; it's fucking surreal.

Quote from: Ásgeirr on June 11, 2019, 08:43:57 AM

boutta bust a fucking nut
YouTube

Ásgeirr · June 12, 2019, 06:48:35 AM

Quote from: Ian on June 12, 2019, 03:44:47 AM

How does fucking Soken keep doing it?! Every expansion he tops his previous final boss theme; it's fucking surreal.

Quote from: Ásgeirr on June 11, 2019, 08:43:57 AM
boutta bust a fucking nut
YouTube

When god himself passes away i want Soken to take the mantle. How did XIV, a MMO FF somehow produce the most competent people at SE

Ian · June 26, 2019, 06:44:22 PM

Make this the Shadowbringers General.

Preliminary Patch Notes:

https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/topics/detail/d65aa2c282957d3d0fde9e8979c62bcebe5aa9f5

Gatortag · June 26, 2019, 09:01:36 PM

Man I fell off this game awhile back. Just too busy to commit to it. I never made it past the end of Stormblood. I'm on the level 79 quests(I think) so I'm close to the end. Should be at least. Then I have all the patches to play through. I'm sure it will take a good while.

Ian · June 27, 2019, 08:42:00 AM

69*

Patch series for Stormblood is pretty quick actually, you can complete it in one day if you poopsock it.

Ásgeirr · June 27, 2019, 09:13:46 AM

My jobs are looking solid, losing sustain on WAR is lame but ill live.

Maybe ill even give DRG its chance

Ian · June 27, 2019, 06:42:55 PM

You guys DID log out in the Rising Stones with all your equipment removed before maintenance dropped right?

Ásgeirr · June 28, 2019, 12:22:29 AM

think im in rhalqrs reach, good luck logging into rising stones lol

Ásgeirr · June 28, 2019, 04:21:03 AM

i want erp shitters to leave my server

Ian · June 28, 2019, 04:29:34 AM

>1201 in queue

LET ME IN YOU FUCKERS!

THROW WIDE THE GATES!

Ásgeirr · June 28, 2019, 09:49:30 AM

i see how it is and how it ends

Ian · July 01, 2019, 04:46:59 AM

I fucking love this guy he's such a God damn lolcow.

Spoiler

Ásgeirr · July 01, 2019, 07:59:28 AM

im being fucked by my modem so im waiting to get a new one before i queue for Titania

Music in the early zones is miles better than SB already but the combat music is god awful

Ásgeirr · July 05, 2019, 04:20:32 PM

That cave sequence with Solus was fucking good

If he dies i riot

Ian · July 05, 2019, 04:33:51 PM

Quote from: Ásgeirr on July 05, 2019, 04:20:32 PM

If he dies i riot

Just remember that Yoshi wouldn't even let us side with Garlemald, so we'll always be enemies to the trans-dimensional space liches.

Major final boss spoiler

Ian · July 06, 2019, 07:45:02 PM

Asgeirr hurry up and finish the story so I can start Elidibus-posting because it's some of the funniest shit to grace this game since Asahi and Ilberd.

Ásgeirr · July 06, 2019, 11:19:07 PM

just need to disrespect vauthrys chunky ass with glossy xenos and then respect the last zone