I cannot believe that this is the one people have said is the "worst expansion" for years while saying how amazing Heavensward is. Heavensward isn't bad but I feel like people who say this don't remember how fucking badly paced that expansion is while saying this one has tons of filler. I played through both back to back in the span of 2 months so Heavensward and Stormblood are fresh in my mind.

They are structured the exact same but at least in Stormblood it has the narrative context of "we have to convince these oppressed, defensive people who don't want anything to do with us to join our rebellion war effort." So spending your time in the Ruby Sea or The Azimm Steppe don't feel as pointless even if their stories are easily the weakest part. In Heavensward the interesting main story gets completely sidetracked to spend hours on moogle mountain to help them find their sandwich they left on a rock a few miles away and other stupid bullshit like that. While the cataclysm is about to happen. Sorry Estinien, Aymric and everyone else in the ishgard I gotta go fuck around with goblins for 8 hours I can't possibly go fight nidhogg or talk to hysvelgr the moogles NEED ME.

Stormbloods biggest pace breaker is when Krile gets captured and it seems like we are going to save her but then you have to go fight the snake people's primal for some reason. Thankfully this only take 30 minutes but still very odd that they keep strcuturing their stories like this. I wish they would stop its very annoying. But seeing how ff16 does the same thing i guess i should just accept this is their writing style and that the next 3 expansions will be like that too

Stormblood really pisses me off. It's not like it's one of the most frustrating games or anything, or even that it's bad. It's just that it does so much to destroy any ounce of its potential and the interesting themes it brings up to the story, drowning its legitimately engaging writing of how rebellion divides and changes the common folk in a sea of garbage filler, uninteresting characters, and continuous fucking about.

In short, Stormblood is basically A Realm Reborn 2 in all its flaws reincarnated, but now more infuriating from a critical lens because there's wayyyyy more interesting potential beneath. There was so much that Stormblood could've been that I went to practically fanfiction levels of script doctoring, seeing how its themes could've been made interesting with characters that were actually developed.

Granted, the majority of these issues do go away in the patch content, just like ARR's Before the Fall. But it's still at the forefront of my mind that the quest design for Stormblood base generally ends up having a lot of FIVE BACK TO BACK FETCH QUESTS THAT DEVELOP NOTHING even as I finish up the last couple quests in 4.x. Whoever was in charge of making the design for quests I hope never gets put in that position again.

This sounds excessively negative, but I wanted to get that vent out primarily to refocus then on why I think stormblood, at the least, is still good and a solid worthy time investment. Kind of a weird sell after all that crap, but there is a slew of amazing stuff especially in the patch content. For one, rotations for your job classes are extensively interesting now, and solo duties now start to get downright challenging if at the least requiring your attention. Dungeons and raids are the best they've ever been too, with especially the Omega raid questline being absolute nonstop raw energy.

One of my favorite instances is Alphascape 3.0, where the boss tested crazy spatial awareness by having a difficult to read attack that depended on its position right before it turns around and does another 50/50 read you have to be on high alert for. The alliance raid also again has no shortage of spectacle, especially with the FFT/XII fanservice. The story of it is absolute trash though idk what happened there. And while I haven't been able to do them, just from what I've researched and the hours I've spent watching them, the Ultimate raids are absolute peak mmo gameplay. Incredible tests of rotational skill, mechanic knowledge, and potentially some of the best team gameplay I've ever seen.

The music and aesthetic is also still incredible, although they kill the motif to death more than they ever have before to where I don't want to ever hear the regular battle theme or stick around in rhalgr's reach. But holy hell is the Steppe and Doma just wonderful places to explore. There's also a good amount of worldbuilding in certain areas that really engage me in (you know, when they're not making you do a bunch of dumb filler).

One last thing that needs to be said is how strong the patch content story gets, with solid characterization and emotional moments that now I'm extensively excited for Shadowbringers. Just thinking about the amazing cutscenes in 4.5 really have my blood running. Hopefully that faith isn't destroyed, but I'm led to believe it won't be.

Overall, Stormblood definitely is a hill to climb up to to a large extent, but thanks to the best gameplay in the mmo so far, and a patch content story that saves it, plus its general aesthetical leanings, it became a solid game to play through.

Fuck Zenos though. Why the hell do people like Zenos, he's worse than Gaius, hell maybe one of the worst FF villains in general.

Really good, most peoples issues with this expansion is from not having the reading comprehension or attention span of an adult. like idk man expansions about poltical drama, rebellion, imperialism, how a systems flaws may not get better before or after occupation, and how broken systems raise broken families and broken people, and how evil is not born, but made as a product of its surroundings. All wrapped up in the tale of a man who lives for the thrill of facing someone who could give him a worthy fight, a fight for reclaiming ones homeland from occupation and raising a nation from slavery to freedom. To find ones culture and ways of life when its been removed from those people during occupation, and also to go fight an ancient superweapon and a powerful primal. Shits good!

Hm! That was something!

Some interesting dynamics about revolutions, but because of the pacing, the actual momentum of the revolution fumbles and never grounds itself, the buildup is rushed and the emotional cores are not develop in an exciting way.

But fuck if the dungeons and bosses weren't cool and dynamic and fun as hell; playing as a dancer is also great.

10+ points for Zenos' hair.

The second massive expansion of this game.

It’s an interesting one considering that unlike Heavensward which had a clear singular storyline, stormblood is divided into the ala mhigo revolution and the doma conflitc.

The former overall was really fun and engaging, while the latter at moments felt like the pacing was dragging for far too long.

Im not sure how the upcoming expansions will compare but I also found that the map and locations for this expansion were confusing. Very often I found myself having difficulties navigating.

Once I got past the main storyline, came the patch quest for this expansion. 4.1 and 4.2 were alright but 4.3 was fantastic and definitely the highlight of Stormblood for me.

one of the most frustrating video game experiences i've ever had. the dungeons and trials were good, in fact probably the best so far, but the main story was so agonizingly bad that i knocked it out in one week just to get it over with. I thoroughly believe that xiv's story quality depends on how far away from the empire plotline it is, and unfortunately this is the closest its ever been. Its honestly offensive at best in its storytelling. The later patches (4.4 and 4.5) were brilliant, but that's only because they're setting up for a far better expansion, Shadowbringers.

Here's my breakdown as to why I'm giving it this score:

-1/2 of a star is entirely for alisaie. This is her first expansion in the spotlight and the times she's on screen are /delightful/. she's a fun quest companion, she has good dialogue and overall I spent most of this expac waiting to hang out with her more. The character development she gets in the later patches is some of the best character writing I've seen in this game so far, and I love the relationship she has with the WOL

-1 star is for the brilliant storytelling that is the later patches. Now I'm gonna credit this to shadowbringers primarily since its setup for that, but the tension horror and confusion of that later content was brilliant.

- 1 star is for the gameplay, mainly the dungeons and trials, which i found SUPER fun. Susano was probably my favorite primal fight in the series so far. The mechanics they add in as things get more difficult are really engaging and enjoyable. I also /loved/ the new dive ability. It was such a treat. I also wanna say that this star counts for sadu because shes everything to me <3

Stormblood is by far the most fun that I have had with Final Fantasy 14 so far. I found myself particularly engaged with the story this time - I like stories about revolution, and I found this one particularly compelling in it's portrayal. Doing a cool pincer attack by doing a double revolution is really fuckin' cool and I like the way the characters discuss nationhood, revolution, how it relates to identity and what leads people to act contrary to their own interests, et cetera. I really like it! I even liked Lyse. By the end, it felt like she had been through a lot and her revolution had really been earnt. The gameplay is also a MASSIVE improvement - I feel like there are less dungeons this time, but I feel like each and every single one of them makes an impact. The first and last trials especially are really something else. Some of the most exciting content in the game. I ended up binging the game all the way through to 4am today, just because I had become that invested in the direction of the story - which made me happy. Music is fantastic, too. Big step up from Heavensward. I look forward to what comes next, and I know Shadowbringers is going to be really impressive! This is a huge success story after the forgettable Realm Reborn and the stronger yet still lacking Heavensward.

You know I kept hearing Stormblood's kind of the unfortunate middle child in between Heavensward and Shadowbringers and man, it's not THAT unfortunate. There are some pacing issues relating to perhaps an abundance of ambition and the perhaps questionable early handling of Lyse (who I liked a lot despite that and some Other Presentation Problems that boil down to that one Mean Girls joke), but overall I think it was fun to have a more grounded conflict exploring imperialism and whatnot! It was nice to have a cast that felt like a team and slower character moments with them instead of mostly just plot, and I thought all the antagonists were really fun. Zenos kind of merrily waltzes along that line between menacing and camp, and Fordola and Yotsuyu provide interesting reflections on a similar concept. Where things really shine is the patch content, though, where the plot goes nuts and the raid storylines are the perfect mix of fanservice and good stuff!

Speaking of the gameplay, god! The dungeons are so fun! The trials are so wild! The environments are super pretty and fun to explore! The OST is full of bangers! When I hit Yanxia I just had to stop and admire the completely immaculate vibes of the place, and it's not the only time that happened.

This expac also has a special place in my heart for being the first one I played almost entirely alongside friends, and that definitely contributed to my good feelings about it all! It's really fun to keep pace with others and do dungeons together so you can react to the plot points. I'm a little more spoiled than they are, but I still had my fair share of surprises. Like swimming. I had no idea swimming was a thing! How did I miss that!

Anyway I should probably be more critical but I don't know, I'm coming in off the wave of being super excited to start Shadowbringers after all the good stuff that happened in patch content. Good stuff! I love this game a whole lot!

I could sit here and write out a long, nuanced review expositing why I hated almost every second of this expansion, but instead I will effortlessly and precisely explain the issues with Stormblood using but a single sentence: Lyse fucking sucks.

The decision to split this expansion evenly between two regions was a mistake and both sides suffered for it. While I love the Othard sections and the characters within (the Azim Steppe gets special mention here, being penned by the ever-winning Natsuko Ishikawa) in the end they felt a bit rushed and half-baked despite having taken up a solid half of the expansion – pacing is the name of the game, folks. It's an issue FFXIV has always had, though Heavensward was a great deal better about it for the most part. Ala Mhigo as a whole is just a mess of poor writing, insensitive at best and outright offensive at worst. I'm not going to get into it in any great degree of detail but again, Lyse is the corporeal embodiment of everything wrong with Stormblood. It's hilarious to me that they drop her like a bad habit the second the post-Stormblood patch content starts rolling out.

2.5 stars for the Othard sections, 0 stars for the Ala Mhigo section – but a consolation half-star on account of the dungeons and (most of the) trials being the best that FFXIV has had to offer up to this point. Seriously, they're incredibly fun and quite visually striking (not to mention full of love for Final Fantasy VI, one of my favorite Final Fantasy titles) in a way that I almost forgot about my issues with the story and non-party duties while playing through them.

Yotsuyu had girl power when she made that dude kill his own parents.

ZENOS

DUDE

WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT

Stormblood
(Finished on October 5th)

(Note half of this review is just me ranting about Monks off the playstyle of two games I just so happened to be playing at the same time feel free to skip that)

Post-Heavensward
I forgot if I already brought this up.
Anyway, what if Estinien went joker mode. Pretty cool follow up to the events of Heavensward, although these kind of quests do kinda make me think "some of this feels like it shoulda been in the main expansion?" but I understand why this is the case, I guess.
Like post-ARR there's some rando missions laid throughout that are supposed to be like "hey! here's the stuff that's leaning into Stormblood get excited!" but it still felt very weird leading up to it. I never really know how to judge these quests/patches as they mostly act as a medley of prepping for the next expansion, of course but then it flip flops to wrapping up a lot of loose ends from the prior expansion. (also this expansion took a bit longer than the other two so much of this honestly left my brain).

STORMBLOOD (Proper)

Leading up to this expansion, I had heard all sorts of opinions regarding this section of FF14. I wasn't entirely sure how to tackle it at first other than to have an open mind and just go through the motions as I went from quest to quest. While I think I understand the hangups a lot of other people had with Stormblood, I still enjoyed it most of the way through. It just has a few sections of GLACIAL pacing, and some really rough character writing depending on where you're coming in from. It's a divisive expansion, but overall I enjoyed it, if only a couple of steps behind Heavensward.


I think one of the more standout points about Stormblood is just how damn good the instances are in this expansion. Heavensward was definitely a step above A Realm Reborn in terms of scenario and the required dungeons, but Stormblood has maybe 1 or 2 dungeons that feel 'mid'. I really enjoyed just about every dungeon or trial that the expansion had, from the Susanoo giant sword blocking QTE to the Mario Party-esque trials of Bardam’s Mettle. The only dungeon I don't think I cared about was the grave shipyard but it was kinda neat as what I think is a FFV callback?

I also really liked most of the areas throughout the middle chunk of the expansion. I'll get to the first and last chunk later, but from the sprawling streets of Kugane to the rolling plains of the Azim Steppe, to the overwhelming Dairyu Moon Gates from the bottom of the Yanxia basin
there was a lot of really nice locales throughout the expansion. You get this weird diving mechanic also which gets shoehorned into a lot of places throughout the expansion, but your first use of this is in this huge ocean map with a bunch of underwater locales throughout.

The main issue regarding Stormblood is that it does have some really slow parts in its plot. It reminds me of Fire Emblem! No but actually, the whole 'we need to gather and unite the oppressed masses to rebel over their imperialist overlords", the arid environments of Gyr Abania, the nomadic tribes... it felt like I was getting a fusion of Thracia, Blazing Blade and Fates Birthright all in one! I mean, if you squint, Yotsuyu is basically like Aversa. I’m not crazy. Regardless, I did enjoy the new rotation of the cast for this expansion, as I appreciated the return of Alisaie into the main lineup for this expansion and in always happy whenever Raubahn is present. On the other hand, Lyse is so milquetoast. I had heard whining and complaining about some of the characters in this being really rought and while I don't think its all that bad -sometimes you like a toxic bitch, who doesn't?- but Lyse really is just way more pushed than she really needs to be. To give her some credit, she's mostly just mid, but she's got so little sauce for who's supposed to be the central character for this expansion. I don't know, I was kind of waiting for her to commit some atrocity- hell if she did do that at least she'd be somewhat more interesting. Nearing the end of the expansion I was wondering if she was gonna do something into post-Stormblood, but nah she ends up leaving the Scions to help rebuild Ala Mhigo.

The two main villains this time around are really fun though, I was really shocked when I heard people were on the fence with Zenos. I guess I can kinda understand with how simple his motives are, but Zenos is so delightfully hammy I can't help but love whenever he's on screen. Hell, if I had one problem with Zenos it'd be that he didn't have enough screentime, he shows up every now and then but it's divvied up between the two main villains, who already take a bit of a break for a 1/3rd of the expansion.

I did wanna get cocky this expansion and see if I could manage two jobs at the same time throughout the expansion but it got to the point where I was underlevelled for pretty simple missions so I decided to hang up the MNK clothes and go full time as a Dark Knight. This felt like a fine decision to me, although I was still left grumbling to myself that I wish levelling was significantly easier in general.
Dark Knight continues to be probably one of the more interesting classes on the docket, continuing the Sidurgu and Rielle sidequest with a new addition in Myste- a young boy who’s stolen a portion of your aether for the purpose harnessing it and of finding some closure for those that have died. The end of this questline was really cool so I'm excited to see what the next expansions have in store, since they brought the writer for the DRK questline onto shadowbringers.

I did decide to try a bit of Samurai as well, considering its one of the new additions in this expansion. It's a little overwhelming at first as its a class that starts out at level 50, using a lot of skills that weave in and out of similar combos. Once I got the hang of it though it felt...okay. I'll probably load into leveling for it every now and then but don't think I'll be wanting it to become a mainstay in my arsenal. Part of me wanted to get back into MNK-ing after a small break throughout the post-HW questline, however with how bad DPS wait times are and how same-y MNK can get I just wasn't feeling up to switching over to that job to level it up.

I had planned an entire rant in my Baldurs Gate review where I wanted to talk about how much I wish Monk was a cooler class but I figured I'd cut that out since it was already a lengthy review, so I'll just graft it into here- man I wish Monk was so much cooler (BG3's version of monks are fine, they're just weird and require a bit of tooling- it just took me 9 levels to get an ability I thought was cool enough). Part of that desire to rant was predicated on going through MNK in FF14 around the same time, though. I always liked classes and weapons that utilized martial arts or bare-handed fighting in their gameplan. It's a unique way of handling the traditional swords and magic (or guns, Fallout has unarmed skills too) you come to find in these types of games by kind of tossing both out the window. No swords, just your bare strength- no magic, but the Ki in your soul. But in reality, what you get is a really boring questline and some okay feeling combat.
It did kinda worry me that Dark Knight was considered the best job sidequest by a wide margin when looking into it- mostly because I wasn't sure if this meant there'd be this wide gap in quality between that and the rest of the jobs. Not sure how consistent of a given that is just yet, but as it stands for Monk, I never really wanted to know what the Monk dude was up to or what's up with the rivalling tribes or whatever.
Also while I do like the new mechanics introduced for Monk in Stormblood, there was a part of me that just wants Monks to have a more interesting energy to them- Lyse being the closest thing to a Monk in the main cast is maybe the worst example you could produce. I dug the pugilist storyline enough, and at first I kinda understood what the ARR Monk arc was going for- I just wish it went more into a spiritual or a more personal direction.
Or you could just make your martial artist class storyline just be Kengan Ashura, that'd be sick. I don't care how involved and bizarre it'd be make the Monk storyline turn into a damn tournament arc with corrupt-business-conspiracy-superhuman-experimenting-nonsense and lemme learn moves that look like they'd break my bones just as much as they break my opponents'. They should give me a suplex like Sabin's- it doesn't need to take the enemy model off screen or anything- but I'd like some allusion that my Monk could just be like Sabin. Some Monk combos should almost look like Bogartian power geysers- Monk abilties that almost feel as good as God Hand roulette attacks- maybe even just give me a BM 'Taunt' ability like im Kiryu.
Hell, give me Asura's 6 arms- why not!
I don't literally need Star Platinum behind my back, but if I had an attack where the animation were my PC holding a stance and an outburst of flying fists came from the side, creating an illusion that I'm just rapidly firing blows from nowhere, I'd think "Monks're really cool!"- instead its some neat acrobatics and whatnot but, not really what I had in mind. You get some neat supermoves in the new 'Master Gauge’ mechanic in Stormblood, it just requires a lot more I guess I wouldn't mind so much but I do like a lot of the Monks that appear in the standard FF games up to the point that I've played. Sabin, Tifa, Yang- hell I think the FFT Monks have more carnal moves early on- they get a damn Ki blast! (Looking over this before I post the review, forgot to mention how much I liked Matthew's playstyle in the most recent XB3 expansion. You can make non-action brawlers feel good!!)
I just wish Monks had a lot more going for them is all. It feels like the class should be flashier and more 'unga' -and maybe by the endgame of FF14 it gets neater moves, I don't know- but I was getting really bored playing Monk by this point (also Baldurs Gate 3s' monk up until Level 9), in terms of questline, moveset and . I could go further into how even non-action game move animations can go a long way, however I started talking about Pokemon and I felt like I should save that for later.

Sorry for the tangent I needed some outlet in which to spew this out, its been stuck in my head for a few weeks.

For what its worth I think this isn't a huge step down from Heavensward, and its just about as good on a lot of fronts, its just sandwiched between an incredibly slow beginning and parts of the end of the scenario. Much of what lies in between I think is a lot neater but anytime you have to traverse back to the Gry Abania map, it always feels a lot more monotonous of a task getting much of anything done. Glad that it's getting added along with HW in being free for new players, as I think this being the first paid content users had to go through for a while there might have been a bit of a mean joke.

“It feels like an amusement park in that you are carted around separate points of interest and come out of it feeling entertained, but you don't get any deeper enjoyment out of it.”
- Synthcrow

“When u need to hit a word limit on your essay so u rephrase yourself in 11 different ways”
- UnfathomedForce

“white women ballin in this expansion, if ur a white woman you gotta hop on this is your people”
- Owentypebeat

Synthcrow and UnfathomedForce describe most of my issues with this expansion in their reviews (and Owentypebeat’s review is incredibly funny so I wanted to include it). The story of Stormblood has many good elements.
You’ll experience a great story moment but before you can think about it too much you get dragged off to the next place where, after a dozen or so boring quests that are just walking around and getting exposition for the new place, you get to experience another great story moment, probably with a very similar theme. The difference between having a coherent theme and feeling repetitive is a fine line to walk and Stormblood too frequently leans towards being repetitive.
The hook for this expansion was the liberation of Ala Mhigo. When the first credits roll, you’ll have spent less than half your time actually in Ala Mhigo. I don’t have an issue with the Doma stuff being in this as well, but I feel like it shouldn’t take up as much space as it does.

The patch stories start out being boring enough that I had to force myself to keep playing, but at some point during 4.3 the story picks up and gets much more interesting and by the time the credits rolled a second time I was as invested as during Heavensward again.

The major side content (i.e. optional dungeons, trials, and raids) also don’t really provide any interesting storytelling. The alliance raid story actually was uninteresting enough to have me skipping dialogue. I know that it’s full of references that fans of FFXII and tactics will enjoy, but I have yet to play either of these games and just got overwhelmed with all of these proper nouns. Leaning too much on references to older Final Fantasy games is actually a common problem the storytelling in this expansion has. The normal raids barely have any story, it’s mostly just a “hey remember FFV/VI/I?” thing. The final boss of the MSQ (excluding patches) has basically no connection to anything going on in the story and is just a reference to FFV.

But aside from all of this, the game is actually really great!

The job quests are, with the exception of Dragoon, all at least good, many of them even being great, at least the ones I played (Dark Knight, Bard, Red Mage, and Gladiator Paladin)
The new Red Mage job is mechanically incredibly satisfying and also has very pretty animations and particle effects, it’s one of my favourite jobs. The other jobs also all got mechanically much more interesting, with the exception of Bard, which already got as interesting as the other jobs are now during Heavensward and mostly got damage upgrades during this one, and Dragoon, which crossed the line from engaging to overwhelming for me. The Blue Mage job is also incredibly cool, but I have yet to spend much time with it.
The game got a lot more mechanically fun to play in general. As boring as the story of the side content was, it was mechanically excellent, and the dungeon and trial design of this expansion is top notch. In my Heavensward review I said, “The gameplay still isn’t good enough that I’d play this game just for the gameplay, but it’s getting better”. I think it has now gotten good enough.

Eureka is there for everyone who wants to engage with it and everyone else just doesn’t have to bother. It was a bit unfortunate that shortly after I decided to try it out, the 6.2 patch was released so no one else was actually doing Eureka and it’s the sort of content that gets easier and more fun the more people are doing it. Guess I had really bad luck.

I usually close out these reviews with a joke about how the music is obviously good. This time I actually have a bit more to say about the music though.
The music is, once again, incredible. Triumph is by far my favourite piece of “generic boss mucis” so far. However, remember how I said that “The difference between having a coherent theme and feeling repetitive is a fine line to walk and Stormblood too frequently leans towards being repetitive”?
I think this applies to the music as well. The two main leitmotifs (the Rhalger’s Reach and the Storm of Blood one) are a bit too common. At some point the music just starts to blend together a bit. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still good individual pieces of music, but I wouldn’t listen to the album on shuffle.

By far the weakest out of the Final Fantasy XIV expansions. With more quests than it's predecessor "Heavensward" you would think there would be a lot to unpack, however I found this expansion to be way less impactful or interesting than the previous one. The story suffers from the sheer length of the quests, unable to fill them with enough interesting bits to justify their length. The beginning and post-game drag on for way too long with nothing really happening and expecting you to care. The story does pick up at around the middle to end of the main expansion with some good and memorable characters and great bosses to match. Makes me wish it was like this throughout the entire expansion but I digress. I definitely prefer Stormblood over A Realm Reborn for the side content, dungeons and bosses alone. Definitely not the worst, but could definitely be better.

PROS
+ Varied themed dungeons with fashionable loot & sweet collectibles
+ Challenging trials with amazing setpieces and great soundtracks
+ Cool beast tribes with worthwhile and cool rewards
+ Samurai and Red Mage as new classes
+ The Far East offers a beautiful new big city and great areas: fun to traverse, explore & look at (A step up from HW!)
+ Sadu & Cirina

TO BE EXPLORED (Will be updated at a later date)
+ Raids & alliance raids
+ Eureka

CONS
+ Quick time events: When they first appeared in a trial (!), I was pretty shook. I find them annoying and repetitive. Nevermind the accessibility issues they are connected to. Wish they'd just add a button to click and fill those gauges as an option.
+ Its politics: I'm not even gonna start. This wouldn't even be such a big deal if the game wasn't perpetually trying to make itself look smart when it presents you with the most terrible political opinions. Like when it keeps on trying to sit down and compromise with fascists. You're better off skipping every singular political talk cutscene in this game. There's one good moment when you're in Gyr Abania for the 2nd time, but it is only a moment
+ MSQ: The more-cohesive and focused approach of HW is gone. In SB we're presented with 2 different big places for the story and it makes sure to start you off with the worse one: Gyr Abania. If you remember the Camp Drybone/Ala Mhigo arcs on ARR it should give you an idea, just imagine a big focus on overlong instances as the cherry on top. I genuinely shelved the MSQ multiple times before I made it over this hump because not only was it annoying, it was incredibly boring. The big villain we're presented with here is probably one of the most laughable and worst villains in fiction: Zenos. He's the one you're gonna encounter multiple times, and everytime it's a completely ridiculous, overlong instance where you're trapped in a state of extreme boredom as all you have to do is dodge his spells in a circle for what feels like eternity. Ugh. I've seen people defend this as a build-up with future pay-off, but especially since having finished the expansion... No. To me, this reads as cheap playtime-padding when you consider how unclear duties can be with direction, points of failure, how you can't start them in 'Very Easy' (only if you've died in them once) and and how long they generally take in SB. And the worst part is: even when you've finished those, Zenos will pull something out of his magician's hat and keep on living and haunting you in future instances. It's incredibly annoying, unrewarding, boring and even worse for a game that already struggles at achieving a modicum of decent pacing with it's MSQ. If that wasn't enough, the Gyr Abania/Ala Mhigo is one of the worst written stories you can find here, too. And the maps are a pain to maneuver and dull to look at. An all-around awful time.
On the flipside, we have The Far East where we have a way more engaging and decently-paced story. It still suffers from overall instance overuse (seriously, who's idea was it to put MORE solo instances into an MMORPG?) and not every red thread leads to a satisfying end, but it's overall a good time. The environments are pretty to look at and fresh, we get chances to play with the new diving ability and it definitely has not only way more breathing room between instances, but they're also not drawn-out ridiculous and pointless instances like the ones vs. Zenos. We learn more about the Far East, the tribes who inhabit it and the conflicts while spending a lot of time with certain Scions and if you like them, you're pretty safely going to have a decent time. When we hit the post-SB content, we get to where the story really shines, with the Asahi arc being one of my favourites in the entire game!!! Here, we have interesting villains, actual stakes and turns at play and a satisfying conclusion to round it all off.

All in all, Stormblood, whilst not as overall lackluster and unengaging as ARR in terms of the MSQ and pacing, has some really rough and terrible spots (namely pretty much all of Gyr Abania, which you'll visit twice). If you can make it through the bad parts and reach the Far East areas, it should give you enough engaging and interesting scenery and challenges to rejuvenate your interest in the expansion and make you able to power through the rest. Some of the things you have to look forward to: Kugane is a blast to hang out in and traverse. The Namazu are hilarious and the Kojin are cool as heck. The Anantas are badass. The trials really push you and contain the most amazing setpieces and fights the game has offered yet and I can't wait to play them on Extreme. The story has some really sweet highlights and a satisfying ending. All I wish is that the good stuff wasn't so wrapped up and gated by some of the worst pacing, blatant playtime-padding and unengaging writing in video games I've ever witnessed.