Felt like a chore to get thru at the end
But at least the game is still fun beyond the story
But at least the game is still fun beyond the story
14 is the gift that keeps on giving at this point
This review contains spoilers
Stormblood is a solid expansion but not one that felt like it built upon the foundation of FFXIV as strongly as Heavensward, there's definitely a lot more chores and busywork to be done and the general tone, while I do like it a lot, does feel very steady and one-note in comparison to Heavensward's gripping story filled with twists and turns (at least up until the later patches, which usher in a dramatic jump in overall quality).
I think the biggest success of stormblood is its overall vibe and the beauty of its locales, taking inspiration from middle eastern and far eastern culture with some jaw dropping setpieces and outstanding music. By far my favourite area and my favourite portions of the expansion came in the form of the azim steppe and its native inhabitants with their mongolian influences. The music and tone of this area gets me going, its awesome. Those 'endless fields and boundless skies' as Hien puts it were beautiful and learning about the differences in its tribes and their gods was just really fun and interesting and a nice change of pace for a game very centred around one major theme. That theme is liberation and I think for the most part it handles it quite well. There is a lot of complexity in its different cultures and the nature of how they are surviving under colonial oppression and I was particularly fond of the dissonance between Lyse's headstrong determination to free her people and the reality of the local population's struggle to even survive, let alone fight back. Stormblood is constantly highlighting the different perspectives and ways that people survive and eventually reignite their resolve but also takes time to recognise the lasting damage and consequences of the Garleans' violent conquest. Notably there is a fascinating character study into the mind of Fordola, an incredible character and an Ala Mhigan native abused and spat upon by her comrades for her family's co-operation with their oppresors - labelled a traitor by her neighbours and a savage by the Garleans, Fordola vows to achieve freedom by any means and embraces her brand of 'savage', working with the Garleans in pursuit of both liberation and vengeance for her father who died at the hands of a furious Ala Mhigan mob. Fordola's story is that of the victim of circumstance (and it isn't the only time this comes up) and the question of if or how this could ever justify her actions is one the game isn't afraid to look into, but her story is also one of redemption and I just found it really compelling.
Stormblood is a story with a lot of tragedy and melancholy but there's also a lot of hope to be found and I think for the most part it is great stuff and I was thoroughly invested, but there are times where it falls off or otherwise becomes too unbelievable. For one, there are far too many fakeouts and deaths of main characters begin to feel of little consequence unless said character dies onscreen with absolute certainty. In the patches alone I counted 3 fakeouts where you think a character is straight up dead but then they come back for various reasons, if you're going to do that you had best have a very good reason or you risk playing down everything that came before and setting up a worryingly anticlimatic precedent. Also, I would note the handling of Yotsuyu's abuse and the nonchalant attitudes of those that are supposed to protect her as a negative, as it leads to a sadly predictable outcome that feels like it does Yotsuyu dirty and doesn't properly respect her as a victim of horrific abuse and neglect. It felt like it was at its lowest when Asahi, a very obvious bad guy, cruelly brings her parents back into her life with the sole intention of causing her untold pain and misery - to which the player and their allies do nothing except scowl and call it a 'dirty trick' when it felt like they could have and should have done more. Not to mention Yotsuyu is supposed to be under strict house arrest and yet escapes and puts herself in mortal danger twice, this whole section just felt quite rushed and lazy and like it didn't respect Yotsuyu as a character - the tragic outcome of her story seems only to serve to make Gosetsu sad and ponderous and set up the plot around the Ascians pulling all the strings, which could have been done without bringing back Yotsuyu and Gosetsu, I don't know it just felt inconsequential and I don't think the storyline justifies bringing the two back, it certainly could have done but I don't think it does. But saying this the tsukiyomi trial is absolutely hype and Gosetsu's spirit showing up to protect her was so awesome.
The new dungeons and trials in Stormblood carry on the marked improvments that came with Heavensward and the trials in particular, such as those of Susano and Byakko, go so insanely hard. Stormblood also quickly sheds its one-note and focused themes for extremely nuanced and exciting political turmoil and utter chaos in its final acts, introduced in the later patches. These patches are incredible and are filled with amazing monologues, exciting new mysteries that unfold, experly constructed and dramatic cutscenes and battle sequences and my favourite part by far - the relationship that grows between the warrior of light and alisaie, these final quests made me fall in love with alisaie as a character and I felt genuinely crushed when she succumbed to the same fate as her brother and the other scions. The music in this part of the game, the constantly moving and chaotic nature of the story, the character development, all fantastic and it makes me so excited for shadowbringers so bring it on. Captain has freed Doma and Ala Mhigo but the real battle has only just begun!
I think the biggest success of stormblood is its overall vibe and the beauty of its locales, taking inspiration from middle eastern and far eastern culture with some jaw dropping setpieces and outstanding music. By far my favourite area and my favourite portions of the expansion came in the form of the azim steppe and its native inhabitants with their mongolian influences. The music and tone of this area gets me going, its awesome. Those 'endless fields and boundless skies' as Hien puts it were beautiful and learning about the differences in its tribes and their gods was just really fun and interesting and a nice change of pace for a game very centred around one major theme. That theme is liberation and I think for the most part it handles it quite well. There is a lot of complexity in its different cultures and the nature of how they are surviving under colonial oppression and I was particularly fond of the dissonance between Lyse's headstrong determination to free her people and the reality of the local population's struggle to even survive, let alone fight back. Stormblood is constantly highlighting the different perspectives and ways that people survive and eventually reignite their resolve but also takes time to recognise the lasting damage and consequences of the Garleans' violent conquest. Notably there is a fascinating character study into the mind of Fordola, an incredible character and an Ala Mhigan native abused and spat upon by her comrades for her family's co-operation with their oppresors - labelled a traitor by her neighbours and a savage by the Garleans, Fordola vows to achieve freedom by any means and embraces her brand of 'savage', working with the Garleans in pursuit of both liberation and vengeance for her father who died at the hands of a furious Ala Mhigan mob. Fordola's story is that of the victim of circumstance (and it isn't the only time this comes up) and the question of if or how this could ever justify her actions is one the game isn't afraid to look into, but her story is also one of redemption and I just found it really compelling.
Stormblood is a story with a lot of tragedy and melancholy but there's also a lot of hope to be found and I think for the most part it is great stuff and I was thoroughly invested, but there are times where it falls off or otherwise becomes too unbelievable. For one, there are far too many fakeouts and deaths of main characters begin to feel of little consequence unless said character dies onscreen with absolute certainty. In the patches alone I counted 3 fakeouts where you think a character is straight up dead but then they come back for various reasons, if you're going to do that you had best have a very good reason or you risk playing down everything that came before and setting up a worryingly anticlimatic precedent. Also, I would note the handling of Yotsuyu's abuse and the nonchalant attitudes of those that are supposed to protect her as a negative, as it leads to a sadly predictable outcome that feels like it does Yotsuyu dirty and doesn't properly respect her as a victim of horrific abuse and neglect. It felt like it was at its lowest when Asahi, a very obvious bad guy, cruelly brings her parents back into her life with the sole intention of causing her untold pain and misery - to which the player and their allies do nothing except scowl and call it a 'dirty trick' when it felt like they could have and should have done more. Not to mention Yotsuyu is supposed to be under strict house arrest and yet escapes and puts herself in mortal danger twice, this whole section just felt quite rushed and lazy and like it didn't respect Yotsuyu as a character - the tragic outcome of her story seems only to serve to make Gosetsu sad and ponderous and set up the plot around the Ascians pulling all the strings, which could have been done without bringing back Yotsuyu and Gosetsu, I don't know it just felt inconsequential and I don't think the storyline justifies bringing the two back, it certainly could have done but I don't think it does. But saying this the tsukiyomi trial is absolutely hype and Gosetsu's spirit showing up to protect her was so awesome.
The new dungeons and trials in Stormblood carry on the marked improvments that came with Heavensward and the trials in particular, such as those of Susano and Byakko, go so insanely hard. Stormblood also quickly sheds its one-note and focused themes for extremely nuanced and exciting political turmoil and utter chaos in its final acts, introduced in the later patches. These patches are incredible and are filled with amazing monologues, exciting new mysteries that unfold, experly constructed and dramatic cutscenes and battle sequences and my favourite part by far - the relationship that grows between the warrior of light and alisaie, these final quests made me fall in love with alisaie as a character and I felt genuinely crushed when she succumbed to the same fate as her brother and the other scions. The music in this part of the game, the constantly moving and chaotic nature of the story, the character development, all fantastic and it makes me so excited for shadowbringers so bring it on. Captain has freed Doma and Ala Mhigo but the real battle has only just begun!
The story tried to do too much and was too unfocused for me, though Zeno was a fun villain. While it was a disappointing story followup to Heavensward for me, the raiding and gameplay, despite my contemporary complaints, was peak. The last gasp of unique classes and the RPG element of the game being really fun, in my opinion.
While this is the expansion where they figured out their systems' strengths, it's story is just so fucking awful. How do you make me dislike a girl that punches good!?
Also has Eureka, the worst content in the game.
Also has Eureka, the worst content in the game.
It's always a little weird to comeback to a Final Fantasy game and see how much they mirror historical real life events in their fantasy world without even trying to hide what is inspiring the story. Maybe it feels like a downside of the franchise (and specially XIV's Stormblood) but i honestly think it is very charming, and it never bothered me.
Stomblood seems like a depiction of WW2 with a little touch of modern problems, starting from some minor events like Fordola and her gang being a representation of the Jewish Group 13, and reaching all the way to Yotsuyu judment arch stepping in to a moraly subjective space of war crimes, punitivism, justice and so on and on, making a paralel with the obviously Nuremberg Trials, pretty bold if you ask me, but i can respect it.
Out of the historic reffernces, we can see Stormblood being a DLC much like ARR with the job of expand XIV's world and further develop our characters, but of curse, now it has the benefit of a well developed and liked roast that holds the players on the most mundane task and dialogues of the DLC.
But still, its funny to see that this style of DLC is only possible in a MMORPG, because the 200h of ARR + Heavensward we could see our beloved characters learning from their suffering and past experiences, we can see Alphinaud going from a shit ass Diplomat to one of the most political versed characters in the game, it amazing to watch the betrayal on ARR, the learning fase of the Heavensward and by the end of it, the aplication of Alphinauds experience in every little bit of the army and future alliances to be formed, and it's not something particular of him, because we can see the same happening with the Sultana, going from a political fantasy to a grounded strategy of negociation with the Ul'dah bourgeoisie, in a way that is a little sad to see her changing the "democratic dream" she had, but well fitting the FFXIV theme of being a universe forged and lived in political wars.
And on the topic of political wars, is cool to see such different cultures interacting in stormblood, specially between Gosetsu and the Au'ra people, it pretty to see an old samurai like Gosetsu contemplating the cultural differences between his own moral and ideology and the one's with the Immortal Au'ra, afterall there is no need to disrespect or invalidate others beliefs, the cultural shock is something that appears several times on the dlc and is balanced between humor and dramatic sessions.
During the war with the Empire. the bound between nations and the building of an Alliance, we watch and live among people that lost their will to fight and prefer to live in almost slave like state in the hands of the imperials, in a history that is told by the eyes of the Ala Mhigan party member Lysa, that guides and become the leader of the local revolution forcing the Imperial retreat.
And last but not least, FFXIV deserves A LOT of praise for how they use the WoL (our character) in the story, it's an extremely hard work to make a MMO character be not only a viewer of the events but an active element of the story where we directly interact with the main characters, make our own choices to give e little sense of personality building and also being consulted for every important decision making event, in a way we fell not like super protagonist that only smash and kills the problem, but a individual being, with our own share of problems, being doomed to fight a war that we didn't start, being not a "heroic tale" but in some way or another s tragic one, of just another person cursed to fight to survive like every other character of the story.
Stomblood seems like a depiction of WW2 with a little touch of modern problems, starting from some minor events like Fordola and her gang being a representation of the Jewish Group 13, and reaching all the way to Yotsuyu judment arch stepping in to a moraly subjective space of war crimes, punitivism, justice and so on and on, making a paralel with the obviously Nuremberg Trials, pretty bold if you ask me, but i can respect it.
Out of the historic reffernces, we can see Stormblood being a DLC much like ARR with the job of expand XIV's world and further develop our characters, but of curse, now it has the benefit of a well developed and liked roast that holds the players on the most mundane task and dialogues of the DLC.
But still, its funny to see that this style of DLC is only possible in a MMORPG, because the 200h of ARR + Heavensward we could see our beloved characters learning from their suffering and past experiences, we can see Alphinaud going from a shit ass Diplomat to one of the most political versed characters in the game, it amazing to watch the betrayal on ARR, the learning fase of the Heavensward and by the end of it, the aplication of Alphinauds experience in every little bit of the army and future alliances to be formed, and it's not something particular of him, because we can see the same happening with the Sultana, going from a political fantasy to a grounded strategy of negociation with the Ul'dah bourgeoisie, in a way that is a little sad to see her changing the "democratic dream" she had, but well fitting the FFXIV theme of being a universe forged and lived in political wars.
And on the topic of political wars, is cool to see such different cultures interacting in stormblood, specially between Gosetsu and the Au'ra people, it pretty to see an old samurai like Gosetsu contemplating the cultural differences between his own moral and ideology and the one's with the Immortal Au'ra, afterall there is no need to disrespect or invalidate others beliefs, the cultural shock is something that appears several times on the dlc and is balanced between humor and dramatic sessions.
During the war with the Empire. the bound between nations and the building of an Alliance, we watch and live among people that lost their will to fight and prefer to live in almost slave like state in the hands of the imperials, in a history that is told by the eyes of the Ala Mhigan party member Lysa, that guides and become the leader of the local revolution forcing the Imperial retreat.
And last but not least, FFXIV deserves A LOT of praise for how they use the WoL (our character) in the story, it's an extremely hard work to make a MMO character be not only a viewer of the events but an active element of the story where we directly interact with the main characters, make our own choices to give e little sense of personality building and also being consulted for every important decision making event, in a way we fell not like super protagonist that only smash and kills the problem, but a individual being, with our own share of problems, being doomed to fight a war that we didn't start, being not a "heroic tale" but in some way or another s tragic one, of just another person cursed to fight to survive like every other character of the story.
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
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
A Realm Reborn 2: Versão Oriente
FF14 is the best mmorpg at the moment.
It has an immense amount of good content, great lore, the most complex raids and the best soundtrack of any mmorpg.
The only downside I would put is that it can be overwhelming for newbies right now by the amount of things available to the game, but if you adapt is amazing.
It has an immense amount of good content, great lore, the most complex raids and the best soundtrack of any mmorpg.
The only downside I would put is that it can be overwhelming for newbies right now by the amount of things available to the game, but if you adapt is amazing.
Apesar de ser um arco mais político, consegue nos apresentar novos personagens e aprofundar outros existentes, que são aqui muito bem desenvolvidos. Toda a escrita evoluí em maturidade, apesar de existir uma queda brusca em um dos patchs.
Stormblood is a pretty interesting expansion, it had a lot of politics, which i enjoyed a lot, it also brought us a villain/antagonist and did set a lot of context for the next and best expansion.
It was also the best expansion when it came to content.
Nevertheless, the story had some weird decisions, stuff that totally felt like filler and especially an absolutely awful pacing.
It was also the best expansion when it came to content.
Nevertheless, the story had some weird decisions, stuff that totally felt like filler and especially an absolutely awful pacing.
Final Fantasy 14 continues to be a wonderful experience for me and my friends. While not as captivating as Heavensward, the story is still better than any MMO has any right to be. The gameplay is fun as always, and the ease of dropping in and out makes it so that we can come in and out of the game as we please. Looking forward to seeing how Shadowbringers continues where this plot leaves off. Alisae is best Scion, don't @ me.