When did this expansion get so good? My recent replay of Stormblood has made me appreciate far more than my original playthrough, from increasing my opinion on a variety of characters to realizing that this might be the best dungeon content in the game pre-Endwalker. The story itself, while a bit segmented, it still very good, and the general post-basegame content such as optional dungeons and raid series are also superb. I personally wasn't invested as much in the overarching narrative compared to Heavensward, but that's barely a dock against a story that's still really solid overall. It's not just the benchmark between Heavensward and Shadowbringers like some claim, and hey, you might even find it to be better than you remember if you stop and smell the roses. Did I mention this is free too? Go and play yourself some Stormblood.
Gameplay-wise, it's solid, it's FF14, the trials and raids and whatnot are always enjoyable.
Story-wise, it's exemplary whenever a villain is on screen, basically a snoozefest otherwise. FF14's story has so many great characters and stories and moments but it genuinely feels like its writers cannot tell the difference between the good characters with depth and the bland characters with one or fewer personality traits.
Story-wise, it's exemplary whenever a villain is on screen, basically a snoozefest otherwise. FF14's story has so many great characters and stories and moments but it genuinely feels like its writers cannot tell the difference between the good characters with depth and the bland characters with one or fewer personality traits.
This review contains spoilers
Pretty alright. Compared to Heavensward, it dragged a bit more, especially since this expac was split between two main casts in the same amount of time we spent with one whole cast in HW. Looking forward to ShB, since everyone I know says it's where things start to get really good.
This "nuanced racism" sucked. "i got mistreated growing up, and one day i saw someone from my race get abused in the street, and it made me horny. now i want to genocide my entire race. the writers want you to feel bad for me" SHUT UP! I cannot believe there are people out there who think this is a good story about racism... because it has the most unrealistic portrayals and reasons behind the character's racism.
Stormblood's story unfortunately doesn't live up to the high standard set by HW, that being said, end game content/set pieces and general trials in Stormblood are miles ahead of HW. It would have been nice to have a better balance between story and aesthetics but the expansion is not bad by any means.
I wrapped up FFXIV’s second expansion, Stormblood, right at the beginning of the year. While the main story can get a bit muddy in the middle I loved the liberation arc and eastern-inspired locales. The best part was honestly the post-game story content, delivering a heartbreaking character-driven finale and a ramp-up of incredible intrigue leading into the next expansion: Shadowbringers.
Full Review: https://neoncloudff.wordpress.com/2021/01/31/now-playing-january-2021-edition/
Full Review: https://neoncloudff.wordpress.com/2021/01/31/now-playing-january-2021-edition/