Just finished the story, overall:
7.5/10So here is my review, I'm not going to collapse it into a spoiler tag so I'll put a spoiler warning here, I'll only spoiler collapse images.
SPOILER WARNINGThings I liked: -Quality of Life changes.
Filtering PF to have things like removing new players and filter out lootmaster parties is going to make the end-game SO MUCH easier. Always having a notification for where the next MSQ is great for players who are new and wont remember where the quests will be when the patch cycles start or just bought an expansion and are ready to start the new MSQs. Also having at least one piece of loot drop for you in every new dungeon helps tremendously with both gearing and getting items to sell for seals.
-The zones.
Every zone in here actually feels different from one another. The problem with Heavensward is outside of certain landmarks like Zenith, Sohm Al and Idyllshire, all of Dravania looked exactly the same. I loved vast unexplored wilderness/grasslands in my Final Fantasy games, but other than the Chocobo Forest SE really dropped the ball there. Here in Stormblood every zone feels completely different from the last. Gyr Abania might share the same environment but they have more landmarks/enough differences in the zone itself to make them stand out as their own. And the Azim Steppe was really beautiful, I just never took screenshots while there (Unless they were of my boi Estinien!)
-The overall story.
MY OTHER BOI NERO AND HIS FUTURE WACKY HI-JINKS
I say "Overall" because there was many glaring flaws in the story (I'll explain later on) but it never managed to lose momentum and is arguably better than some of the other mainline titles (Looking at you II). The liberation of both nations were pretty grand and SE spared no expenditure to making it feel as such. I was severely disappointed in A Realm Reborn and even more so in Heavensward with how little the Empire was a part of the story, and seeing them at the forefront of this entire expansion was a huge plus for me.
-The Music
Holy Shit they outdid themselves with this expansion. Everything from the title menu to the final boss theme sounds amazing. The sanctuary cities in the over-world don't have annoying moments. Thr Garlean Anthem in particular is my overall favorite for being the most prideful and nationalistic piece of music I've ever heard (Fuck the Resistance for butchering it after their liberation). It really helped drive home the Garlean's sense of righteousness in their conquest.
THINGS I DIDN'T LIKE:-Rabaun EX
SE should've known better. And I don't buy their claims of a DDoS attack one bit. It just sounds like a convenient excuse to draw fire away from their ability to predict that there would be major server issues. Also solo-instances have been a lagging nightmare for me while the rest of the game including dungeons and trials are fine so I knows it's not my internet and it's a problem with their servers. I don't know how they managed to drop the ball this hard when Heavensward had such a smooth early access.
-Lyse and the characters
Lyse is straight up number one, the WORST thing about the expansion. She is such a horrible two-dimensional flat character that has no real redeeming qualities to her. Lyse when she was Yda throughout FFXIV before 4.0 was
FUN, she had funny moments and could be serious when she wanted to and was arguably a badass in her own rights. They threw ALL OF THAT away with her in 4.0. All she does is monologue and exposition when it's wholly unnecessary. Such as when we visited The Dawn Throne "Two banners? It's not just The Oniri we're dealing with?!" No shit, anyone could've figured that out. When she's not spouting useless exposition she's spouting some monologue that's no different from any other one she's made previously. You could literally take any of her speeches about herself and swap them with each other and be none the wiser because all she does is say the same thing from the moment she reveals herself to you at Baelsar's Wall to the moments you bombing the gates of Ala Mhigo. Normally I like to talk to all the other NPCs before finishing a quest to see what they have to say but I straight up skipped Lyse starting at around 63/64 cause I couldn't take it anymore.
Zenos: The Nihilistic Nazi
And also really hated what they did with the Garleans. You know why Gauis was such a good villain? Because you could actually SYMPATHIZE with him. He was realistic, he wasn't a nefarious Saturday morning cartoon that stroked his mustache going "How deliciously evil of me nyahahahah!" but that's exactly what they made the Garleans in this expansion be like. If they're not Nihilistic Nazis like Zenos they're sadistic cunts like Yotsuyu, or they're just straight up inept and stupid like Chainsaw Bane. Fordola was the only one who was somewhat likable and even then they just tuned up the bitch-nob until I couldn't sympathize with her either. I don't know if Yoshi-P either thinks this is good storytelling or is just tired of all the "Garlemald did nothing wrong" memes (thought I'm thinking it's the latter) but the more he tries to make the Empire seem more and more ridiculously evil, the more I'm going to ludicrously support them (Zenos was a good boy! HE DINDU NUFFIN!).
-The Primals
I understand the point of the primal threat throughout the patch series of A Realm Reborn, but in both Heavensward and now here with Stormblood they're so stubbornly shoehorned into the story. I'm still salty that King Thordan and the KOTR were a primal and now the final boss of Stormblood is, yup, you guessed it, a primal. Cause it's all Yoshi/SE can think of. While the story of liberating both Doma and Ala Mhigo never really lost momentum, it ALMOST did both with Susano'o and Lakshimi because they were so needlessly pushed into the story awkwardly. "We're about to invade the Peaks and push on wards to Ala Mhigo!" "Oh but would be rushing the story a bit so lets awkwardly go and kill this primal that conveniently showed up right here at lvl 67 so you don't liberate the city TOO QUICKLY!" I understand they're a great concept and good for making trials fit into the story but at this point they're becoming a major hindrance and liability to the FFXIV's lore.
-The Job gauges.
This is rather small one but I really wish we didn't have to use them. I like manually toggling off BoTD because having the constant blue aura around me when I'm not in combat is kind of annoying but I can't toggle it off anymore because it's tied completely to the job gauge so I have to wait for it to dissipate. It's not that big of deal but at the same time, with all of the QoL improvements we got, not being able to not have to work with the gauge would've seemed more preferable.
-Ala Mhigo and Doma not being actual city-states
So when you reach The Lochs, there's this HUGE MAJESTIC staircase/bridge that leads you up to these giant grand gates in front of this city that looks all sorts of badass....and you can't go in. Well that's not entirely true, the Alliance pokes a small hole at the bottom of it and you get a fucking 4-man dungeon but this was the biggest blue-ball problem with the expansion. I'm only mildly interested in Kugane (AKA Not-japan) but I sincerely doubt we're going to get an explore-able city-state with an Aethryte, market board, retainers, and other hub goodies in the patch series with the simple fact that we can teleport to the "Ala Mhigan Quarter" in The Lochs and that's TECHNICALLY part of the city, but we all know that doesn't count. I'm also pissed about Doma too but considering Doma occupied a majority of the story I was happy to finally leave Not-Asia behind. But yeah, this was a huge disappointment and has me worried for the state of the other locations on the world map in 5.0 and 6.0.
OVERALL:Just like FFXV back in November. I sincerely and tremendously enjoyed Stormblood and look forward to the future of this expansion. There's no sense of wonder removed from the world of Hydealyn and eagerly await where the patch series will bring us. Now with that being said, having TRIPLE the budget of Heavensward, some of these flaws simply are not justifiable and it can leave a really bad taste in the mouth of the players who expected something much greater than Heavensward which was also good in its own right, suffered from noticeable problems itself. It may seem like I had more negative to say than positive, but I am holding out for the patch series and what was fun and good outweighs the bad. FLAWED BUT FUN.
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