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.
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.