good overall story and even better gameplay mechanics introduced that makes the game feel even better to play. My only cons with it are the amount of quest that felt like it didn't need to be done and was drawn out. The characters were great, but nothing to make you too attached. The music as always was spectacular, but I felt that the areas were lacking, but I realize that it takes place in a desert/beach so their is not much you can do with it. The villains had to be my favorite part of stormblood and just from that it made me bump up the score, I thought it was very good, but nothing crazy.
This review contains spoilers
My personal favorite! I started my character as an Au'ra and entered this expansion super excited to continue the Ala Mhigo and Doman storylines from ARR
This review contains spoilers
I believe I am far enough into Final Fantasy XIV where reviewing the game without spoiling the game is ultimately uninteresting at this point. So from here on out, I am reviewing the XIV expansions with that mindset, and what a game to start that trend with because Stormblood is a bit of a strange one.
To put it bluntly, Stormblood is very uneven in terms of its main plot progression. After the excellence of Heavensward’s plot progression, the split between the perfectly paced and constantly engaging Doma section and the messy albeit ultimately still pretty good Ala Mhigo section is very noticeable. Lyse as a character of major focus really feels like it wasn’t as fleshed out as I think everyone was hoping she’d be. A character who’s progression seems promising at the end of the previous expansion, only to be sort of landlocked into that new personality with almost no development was really sad to see. I don’t even dislike her character necessarily, but her more hamfisted tendencies combined with a surprising lack of real agency in her place of the story, makes her eventual turn as a leader feel a little hollow, which is a huge shame. I also am not really the person to say this eloquently, especially not in a silly Backloggd review, but the sidelining of Raubahn, who a lot of the Ala Mhigo story feels like it should center on to focus on the whitest of the Ala Mhigans is, at least noticeable. Worth pointing out if nothing else. And all of this is a shame, because the rest of the cast of Stormblood otherwise is fantastic.
Alisaie finally getting some time to shine was so welcome, and what they’ve done with her character is so fun. You basically have her at your side for the entire expansion, and she is such an engaging companion, you get a lot of that snarky older sister dynamic with her, and it is such a perfect juxtaposition to Alphinaud, with her more cynical nature. The Doma crew of Hien, Gosetsu, and Yugiri are all excellent too, very electric energy especially coming from Gosetsu that made him such a fun companion. And of course that is to say nothing of Zenos, who after the previous two expansions, really feels like a true proper Final Fantasy-esque villain. And with an all timer performance courtesy of Luke Allen-Gale who has such a throaty snarl to his words that give them this truly ravenous bite. It will be fun to see more of him later on.
And the side characters of this expansion, are true stars in their own right. Yotsuyu is such a shitter of a villain, constantly chewing up every scene she is in. And her getting an ultimately tragic attempt at redemption in the post game that ends in one of the best fights in the game was an all timer moment of the game so far. Hancock is another true shitter, but in a very endearing way, just a real slappable man. And just about everything involving the Azim Steppe’s denizens was some of my favourite world building in a game with loads of it. Just a constantly engaging group of tribes, with their own beliefs, cultures, and rituals all on display in a truly incredible stretch of game.
A lot of my analysis of the cast is, again, sort of emblematic of the fact that the Doma side of game is a lot more fleshed out than Ala Mhigo. I guess it didn’t really matter in the end because I finished the main game of Stormblood in like ten days in a frankly insane binge in retrospect, so the game did keep me constantly engaged, but the Doma side felt like a constant escalation leading to the inevitable revolution in a way that felt satisfying. Ala Mhigo starts the expansion off very promising, leading to a genuinely devastating scene of defeat, before returning to it and fighting a random summon from the snake people. It just feels very uneven, although it ultimately sticks the landing with an incredible ending, and more importantly. An incredible post game, where the plot really feels like it finds its proper footing again, and from this point on, I can feel that XIV is really confident in its own shoes as a really great story. The lead up for this game into Shadowbringers is jaw dropping, and knowing that expansion is considered the best one has me so pumped.
If there is one thing Stormblood certainly has over Heavensward for sure though, it is the dungeons and trials. They have really nailed what makes good MMO gameplay during Stormblood, and at this point, they’re just flexing their skills. You get some incredible visual spectacles from dungeons like Doma Castle’s constant warfare and crumbling architecture or the sheer beauty of Shisui’s underwater castle. Bosses are even bigger flexes with camera shifts, size changes, action sequences, complex backgrounds, all while being really engaging, often very challenging, and some of the most fun I’ve had in a game, maybe ever? You can really tell just how far the team has come in such a short time from fighting a boss like Byakko, which has an entire section of free fall where the visual spectacle and gameplay really find a marriage into something truly special. Or the loving homages to bosses of Final Fantasy 5 or 6, where you get to see Neo-Exdeath crack through reality and wriggle his way into fighting you again, or seeing the entire statue from the Kefka fight slowly rise as you whittle his health down. Rathalos is just in this game, and you can’t tank it. And Soken and the rest of the sound team is once again, popping the fuck off in the studio, making the most insane music in any video game, let alone for Final Fantasy.
So yeah, at this point, XIV has unfortunately taken over my life. I have become one of those Final Fantasy XIV fans you hear so much about. The other day I bought a bottle of Mountain Dew, a drink I don’t even particularly like, and have spent like fifteen hours or so grinding for a flying Jibanyan from Yokai Watch couch. I know I’m cooked. Stormblood is not a masterpiece by any means, but the lows are really never that low, and the highs are literally victory laps of confidence. I truly am loving this game, and the thought its going to get better from here? Oh. Oh it gets me too excited for words. I’m hoping at some point I’ll play another game that isn’t Final Fantasy XIV in the near future, but for the time being, I got some big pulls I gotta do.
To put it bluntly, Stormblood is very uneven in terms of its main plot progression. After the excellence of Heavensward’s plot progression, the split between the perfectly paced and constantly engaging Doma section and the messy albeit ultimately still pretty good Ala Mhigo section is very noticeable. Lyse as a character of major focus really feels like it wasn’t as fleshed out as I think everyone was hoping she’d be. A character who’s progression seems promising at the end of the previous expansion, only to be sort of landlocked into that new personality with almost no development was really sad to see. I don’t even dislike her character necessarily, but her more hamfisted tendencies combined with a surprising lack of real agency in her place of the story, makes her eventual turn as a leader feel a little hollow, which is a huge shame. I also am not really the person to say this eloquently, especially not in a silly Backloggd review, but the sidelining of Raubahn, who a lot of the Ala Mhigo story feels like it should center on to focus on the whitest of the Ala Mhigans is, at least noticeable. Worth pointing out if nothing else. And all of this is a shame, because the rest of the cast of Stormblood otherwise is fantastic.
Alisaie finally getting some time to shine was so welcome, and what they’ve done with her character is so fun. You basically have her at your side for the entire expansion, and she is such an engaging companion, you get a lot of that snarky older sister dynamic with her, and it is such a perfect juxtaposition to Alphinaud, with her more cynical nature. The Doma crew of Hien, Gosetsu, and Yugiri are all excellent too, very electric energy especially coming from Gosetsu that made him such a fun companion. And of course that is to say nothing of Zenos, who after the previous two expansions, really feels like a true proper Final Fantasy-esque villain. And with an all timer performance courtesy of Luke Allen-Gale who has such a throaty snarl to his words that give them this truly ravenous bite. It will be fun to see more of him later on.
And the side characters of this expansion, are true stars in their own right. Yotsuyu is such a shitter of a villain, constantly chewing up every scene she is in. And her getting an ultimately tragic attempt at redemption in the post game that ends in one of the best fights in the game was an all timer moment of the game so far. Hancock is another true shitter, but in a very endearing way, just a real slappable man. And just about everything involving the Azim Steppe’s denizens was some of my favourite world building in a game with loads of it. Just a constantly engaging group of tribes, with their own beliefs, cultures, and rituals all on display in a truly incredible stretch of game.
A lot of my analysis of the cast is, again, sort of emblematic of the fact that the Doma side of game is a lot more fleshed out than Ala Mhigo. I guess it didn’t really matter in the end because I finished the main game of Stormblood in like ten days in a frankly insane binge in retrospect, so the game did keep me constantly engaged, but the Doma side felt like a constant escalation leading to the inevitable revolution in a way that felt satisfying. Ala Mhigo starts the expansion off very promising, leading to a genuinely devastating scene of defeat, before returning to it and fighting a random summon from the snake people. It just feels very uneven, although it ultimately sticks the landing with an incredible ending, and more importantly. An incredible post game, where the plot really feels like it finds its proper footing again, and from this point on, I can feel that XIV is really confident in its own shoes as a really great story. The lead up for this game into Shadowbringers is jaw dropping, and knowing that expansion is considered the best one has me so pumped.
If there is one thing Stormblood certainly has over Heavensward for sure though, it is the dungeons and trials. They have really nailed what makes good MMO gameplay during Stormblood, and at this point, they’re just flexing their skills. You get some incredible visual spectacles from dungeons like Doma Castle’s constant warfare and crumbling architecture or the sheer beauty of Shisui’s underwater castle. Bosses are even bigger flexes with camera shifts, size changes, action sequences, complex backgrounds, all while being really engaging, often very challenging, and some of the most fun I’ve had in a game, maybe ever? You can really tell just how far the team has come in such a short time from fighting a boss like Byakko, which has an entire section of free fall where the visual spectacle and gameplay really find a marriage into something truly special. Or the loving homages to bosses of Final Fantasy 5 or 6, where you get to see Neo-Exdeath crack through reality and wriggle his way into fighting you again, or seeing the entire statue from the Kefka fight slowly rise as you whittle his health down. Rathalos is just in this game, and you can’t tank it. And Soken and the rest of the sound team is once again, popping the fuck off in the studio, making the most insane music in any video game, let alone for Final Fantasy.
So yeah, at this point, XIV has unfortunately taken over my life. I have become one of those Final Fantasy XIV fans you hear so much about. The other day I bought a bottle of Mountain Dew, a drink I don’t even particularly like, and have spent like fifteen hours or so grinding for a flying Jibanyan from Yokai Watch couch. I know I’m cooked. Stormblood is not a masterpiece by any means, but the lows are really never that low, and the highs are literally victory laps of confidence. I truly am loving this game, and the thought its going to get better from here? Oh. Oh it gets me too excited for words. I’m hoping at some point I’ll play another game that isn’t Final Fantasy XIV in the near future, but for the time being, I got some big pulls I gotta do.
Stormblood's narrative is overhated in the extreme. Its story is - intentionally - less immediate; less personal; less focused on tugging the player's heartstrings. But in the grand scheme of Final Fantasy XIV, its function is obvious. Stormblood is a way station. It's a moment to breathe and get out of your head, and to turn outward. Stormblood lays heady topics like the burden of history and the slow buildup of trauma to rest for a moment, and instead shows curiosity toward the world around your player character - friends they've really barely known, struggling with invisible burdens; allies from across the world, fighting a battle you can't really understand. It's a story as much about road trips and side adventures as it is about war and strife. It may be The War Expansion, but equally is it The Vacation Expansion. It's loose and full of ideas, and willing to be goofy. It has the player fighting ghosts in haunted islands and diving into undersea bubble-cities and mediating romantic spats, just as much as it has them leading armies and witnessing other people's trauma. It manages those two conflicting emotional tones perfectly, and the resulting story is a wonderful breath of fresh air between the weight and self-seriousness of both Heavensward and Shadowbringers.
And it was probably the peak of FFXIV in its gameplay. Its job design was streamlined and toned down from the beautiful insanity of Heavensward, but it maintained depth and interesting ideas at every single level for every single job, striking a really effective midpoint between complexity and accessibility. I love Heavensward, but understand that aspects of its gameplay were too much for people - Stormblood is the answer to that; the ideal midpoint. Where Stormblood really superseded its predecessor, though, was in the breadth and variety of content. Stormblood saw FFXIV's designers really come into their own in terms of fight design; Trials, Alliance Raids, Savage, and even dungeons were all consistently well-conceived, and again hit a really engaging midpoint between consistency and complexity. And it was the expansion where FFXIV really figured out how to design outward from its core content - it gave us Ultimates to inject new life into the hardcore raiding scene; Eureka to give casuals hours upon hours of passive content; little side stories like Doma Restoration to keep the narrative lush.
Stormblood was the best version of FFXIV as an ecosystem. It had its flaws, and represented a shift away from FFXIV's peak form, but it also represented the most sustainable vision for FFXIV's future. In an ideal world, every expansion after Stormblood was like Stormblood.
And it was probably the peak of FFXIV in its gameplay. Its job design was streamlined and toned down from the beautiful insanity of Heavensward, but it maintained depth and interesting ideas at every single level for every single job, striking a really effective midpoint between complexity and accessibility. I love Heavensward, but understand that aspects of its gameplay were too much for people - Stormblood is the answer to that; the ideal midpoint. Where Stormblood really superseded its predecessor, though, was in the breadth and variety of content. Stormblood saw FFXIV's designers really come into their own in terms of fight design; Trials, Alliance Raids, Savage, and even dungeons were all consistently well-conceived, and again hit a really engaging midpoint between consistency and complexity. And it was the expansion where FFXIV really figured out how to design outward from its core content - it gave us Ultimates to inject new life into the hardcore raiding scene; Eureka to give casuals hours upon hours of passive content; little side stories like Doma Restoration to keep the narrative lush.
Stormblood was the best version of FFXIV as an ecosystem. It had its flaws, and represented a shift away from FFXIV's peak form, but it also represented the most sustainable vision for FFXIV's future. In an ideal world, every expansion after Stormblood was like Stormblood.
FINALLY ALA MIGHAN AND DOMAN LIBERATION? Music is insane. Superior, even.
A super powerful story and an improvement over Heavensward even if I don't like the characters quite as much. Love all the worldbuilding and the cool new locations constantly being introduced. Don't think the MMO style gameplay will ever fully click with me but I appreciate the quest variety this time.
my love
"Lyse, this war... it really is a Stormblood..."
From a story perspective I'm not the biggest fan of some aspects of it, but it's this expansion where I think FFXIV begins to come into its own gameplay-wise.
I believe this is where my FFXIV journey began, years ago - when I came up with the name Raelyn Luna for my character. My oldest sibling bought me the level skip so I started as a low level archer and they switched me to summoner, and instantly to level 60. Tons of new abilities and buttons to press! This was back before they simplified SMN, there were so many buttons and a very specific order of actions to get the best damage. It was a lot to get used to, but I did and it was fun playing together. Having no background on the story, I had no idea what was going on but I rolled with it.