Happy New Years Everybody!

Post Shadowbringers

I'd be remiss to ignore the somewhat awkward placement of these at the start of the review for every expansion, however these segments are always the odd ones to try and explain. The easy way is to just leave it as it blending the finale of the prior expansion to the opening of the next one- although the 'finale' section would make it seem like the first chunk of the post-expansion patches are some sort of giant denouement. Rather, and especially in the case of Shadowbringers, it feels much more like the post-game to an RPG. Prior expansions do have this 'post-gamey' feel to them once you beat the main questline, however they usually take on some kind of 'tying up loose ends' or 'what if' plot beat that's usually interesting but might bring about weird setups or a mission that prolly could have occurred during the main questline.
I'm not sure how best to explain it, trying to compare the different feelings/conflicts between: Heavenswards' Nidhogg fight and the climax of Estinien's struggle/hubris
Stormbloods' Tsuyu arc- including the attempt to rehabilitate a now amnesiac tyrant and the introduction of her step-brother (and soon to be ascian host) Asahi
and finally, Shadowbringers' Warrior of Light arc.

This arc is initially kind of head tilting, mostly dry as you attempt to figure out how to send your fellow Scions back to the main world- things only start to ramp up when the familiar face of Ardbert reappears and voices support to the masses of the First, that anyone can be just like us and be a 'Warrior of Darkness'. I'm so thankful that -almost immediately- most of your comrades decide not only is something off, but that this is probably the work of an Ascian. This would have gotten incredibly corny if Ardbert's sudden resurrection just went ignored or handwaved for even a second.
Soon enough, this is revealed to be the work of Elidibus- an Ascian introduced way earlier in A Realm Reborn, culminating in maybe one of the best boss fights in the game and an excellent conclusion to the Shadowbringers’ content. In retrospect this post-Shadowbringers segment in combination with the expansion itself is some of the best in the franchise. Coming off the initial expansion I certainly thought it was a strong improvement and turn from the prior expansions but this post-game of sorts only nailed it harder how excellent Shadowbringers is as both a revelation and a departure of much of what the prior expansions have been building upon.
Last thing I’ll mention about this segment but, man. Why the hell is ‘The Twinning’ cordoned off to some side quest? This is one of the coolest dungeons in the game, it's got a legendary song and some nutty lore to sort through- you can just straight up miss it by sticking to the main questline which is a complete shame.
However, the journey needs to set its curtain eventually.




Endwalker


Finally I get to see what the big hubbub was- the conclusion to a 10+ year long saga. It's weird to compare, as someone who condensed 7 years of content down into a playthrough lasting over 7 months instead. I kinda figured I’d get around to this sooner or later but it is strange to finally have started and finished this throughout the year. I guess similarly this would have been the year I would have read through a majority of One Piece as well- a lot of grinding through long standing things this year it seems (what lies in 2024…?). Endwalker is a really unfair expansion to talk about and I don’t know if I can really do it justice because I’ll just lay it out.

tl;dr I think it's an incredible finale and maybe my favorite FF thus far

It’s the coldest take I could give but genuinely I can’t fault Endwalker’s main questline too much, its ‘conclusion’ to the numerous plotlines that have continued since A Realm Reborn and even prior was extraordinarily satisfying. It’s a bit easy to feel this way as I’ve enjoyed most of my ride since the beginning, but I wasn’t sure how heavy it would get considering this was still an mmo of sorts. Perhaps the weirdest thing going through Endwalker was the cognitive dissonance of knowing this wasn’t truly the finale, and knowing that in the end everything would be alright. Even so, it impressed me how fulfilling most everything in this expansion was.


Continuing off the threads of Shadowbringers we have the establishment of our main party with a new, more permanent addition of Estinien. Previously we had seen Estinien in his miniature arc infiltrating through Empire facilities, however here is when he starts to really interact as a party member alongside the other scions. He's a lot of fun! Kind of a dipshit, but we roll with it, and he gets a lot of nice interactions with a certain wyvern.
Everyone gets a good amount of time to shine throughout the expansion. The twins get a lot of screen time as they have to contend with their father and his disapproval of the Scions’ actions. Urianger gets some good moments befriending and understanding the loporrits, culminating in a wonderful moment reconciling with the parents of a certain friend of his. Yshtola and Graha, while not having any major throughline are pretty consistent in helping out and giving support towards the main character. Honestly the only Scion here I'm not all that impressed by here is Thancred- you make a quick pit stop back to the First and have a heart to heart with Ryne however it's just you two. Otherwise Thancred doesn't do a whole lot here which is a shame but he was already batting kinda low in my personal character ranking, sorry bud.

With the establishment of our team we set out onto the new expansion and new areas to wander around in and learn about. Shadowbringers was already carrying a strong batting average in terms of interesting areas, however Endwalker might just rival that. The overall 'alien' atmosphere and the bizarre parallels might make the overall lore of Shadowbringer a bit more interesting to think about, however the variety in Endwalker is a bit more appreciated. Further helping these new areas is their introductory cutscenes being narrated by a familiar voice.
I'm just gonna need Emet Selch to voice over parts of the game going forward. Not actually, but anytime he narrates over a scene throughout the expansion it just strikes a lot harder, especially with the areas presented in EW.
Old Sharlayan as the central hub is pretty lovely and I'm glad there’s another coastal hub aside from Limsa Lominsa- wonderful music as well. Connected to it is Labyrinthos, a big favorite of mine. I don't know why but I've always had a fondness for these sort of nature preserve facilities, I can only assume it stemmed from a lot of Pokemon and interests in Zoos/Parks as a kid. Thavnair and Radz-at-Han are pretty strong, bringing a vibrant color palette and a strong reference to Indian culture into FF14. Edging closer into Ilsabard you reach Garlemald- the home of the Empire but maybe my least favorite area in the expansion. It still houses a strong arc in which you have to contend with the holdouts of a Garlean empire, stuck between the destruction of their lands by their own Emperor (Zenos teehee) and the introduction of your forces onto their land. Very funny conclusion to this arc and also an incredible duty here, but very slow at first. The moon. You actually arrive here a bit earlier than I thought you would. The moon…
I won’t talk about Elpis and the final area as much, but bar some of my favorite areas in the expansion as well, not as lively per se but they just hit so hard going through them.

Lotta areas to go through in Endwalker, except its not actually that much more than earlier expansions- they're just a lot stronger this time around. Heavensward and Stormblood each had some standouts but certain areas got to be pretty alike. Shadowbringers brings a much more interesting lore to weave into each area, although it paralleling many of ARR's major hubs means you see the same biomes thematically- deserts, coasts, (pink!) forests, etc. I appreciate Endwalker so much more for having areas that feel just a bit more vibrant and interesting to explore, especially as later events shift the overall tone and nature some of these places bring.
Also major props to @Zapken for gifting me the artbook for Endwalker- lot of wonderful art and illustrations to skim through while going through the expansion (although I had to be wary of spoilers).

Peppering through these areas are many of the expansions' dungeons/instances and to be honest I think if anything is a bit more up and down than the prior expansion its these. Some are just okay, especially the earlier dungeons in the Tower of Babil/Zot but thankfully things ramp up as you go further into the expansion. Prior to starting the expansion there’s a lot of things to assume about where the plot goes but I'm glad that they managed to subvert where exactly I thought they were going with (especially in regards to primary antagonists). Lot of the later dungeons and bosses are incredible, and there’s a lot of super fun duties interspersed throughout- especially the ‘final’ duty of the expansion, woof. I wish I could be a bit more specific, but again super spoilery- I apologize for my very broad raving here.

I pointed out prior in my Shadowbringers review the stronger lean into what feels like a typical RPG format or structure. Obviously the strongest focus on a main party helps but even just the scope of the events feels more tailored towards the usual RPG ‘worldly calamity’ type beat, one that helps refocus and pit the casts against themselves. I guess what I mean to say is previous expansions felt like they leaned much more into the 'MMO'-esque pattern of storytelling, with maybe some different flavorings/through-lines for Heavensward and Stormblood. Of course these build more upon the kind of world that Etheirys is and that’s greatly appreciated but rather than exploring the greater narrative they feel much more like extensions of A Realm Reborn. It isn’t until Shadowbringers that a lot more ‘progress’ gets made with regards to major antagonists goals, wishes and meddling. Here in Endwalker we get to the 'third act' of a vast and, bluntly, bloated narrative and it just feels....strange that it's finally here. Strange that I've gotten to this point finally, and also that I'm here at this point so...early?
There is a weird disconnect to be had going through the MSQ so fast and hitting a final act in several months that others had been waiting years for. Certainly there are other games and media in which this kinda situation occurs, maybe you decided to watch the entirety of the Lord of the Rings movies in one sitting, maybe you played through the entirety of a long running game series, maybe you read the entirety of a long ass shonen manga in a year! Certain things just hit differently when you just accelerate through the years of anticipation and maybe that lessens certain beats but once you’ve hit a finale as jam packed as this it still rocks. Even if I haven’t been playing for 10 years I put a shit ton of time into this goddamn game, of course I’d be a little shook seeing Zenos and my WoL there. You’d have to be heartless not to feel a little excitement. (I still don't know how some people dont like Zenos, jesus christ.)
Footfalls, the trailer theme and major motif thrown throughout the expansion is a great example of this. Already on its own an incredible song to accompany the final expansion for this saga, but in addition incorporating motifs of the previous expansions throughout the game. Several minor characters rally behind your cause- sadly a lack of Shadowbringers screen time due to being literally another realm but even so, you return to see Ryne, Lyna, Feo and some others which is nice.


Going through the expansion itself was the relatively easy part of it all. It has its emotional climaxes and some intense moments throughout the spectrum, but I've gone through worse. Its only now upon typing out this passage and finally putting my thoughts to it that I find myself verily challenged. What did I not like about the expansion? Well I guess there’s some hiccups privy to FF14 and somewhat on and off for each expansion. Still not a fan of needing to finish certain side quests as a prerequisite for the final stretch, especially since I'm not a big fan of Gridania (curse my decision to be a tank). I mentioned earlier the Garlemald stretch being the slowest but even so it climaxes on several really good instances.
…
Genuinely, I'm having a hard time formulating an instance of disappointment or shortcoming with regard to the main expansion. Shadowbringers, similarly, I ended on a strong beat but I did recall some moments of downtime and maybe some areas feeling somewhat bland in places (I love the music Amh Araeng but…). Even though some of the early dungeons are pretty weak compared to the later chunks I would scarcely call them rough, mostly just tricky to wrangle with at first. The biggest struggle with Final Fantasy 14 has been and will continue to be understanding certain boss mechanics on the fly. Sorry! This will continue to be the case.

I will continue to play this game on and off until Dawntrail drops as there’s still plenty of content I haven't done and there’s a lot of classes I wanted to try out, maybe hit cap with. Obviously I still need to do the other patches leading up to Dawntrail as well, and there's a lot of features I haven’t touched yet but it still feels so surreal I guess. I’m glad that I didn’t go through this entirely alone, as I’ve kinda thought I was going to several times prior but having a partner show me/help me out since the beginning certainly elevated both my interest, as well as my ‘involvement’ in understanding the game. I think if I had gone through this on my own it all would have hit similarly, but having someone to share thoughts and reactions with made the journey that much more exhilarating, more engaging -more fun. I’m glad that this long ass journey wasn’t started just on my own whims or some sense of obligation (way back I thought it would have been funny to do all the mainline games in order then hit this eventually), but with someone to share a connection with. Regardless, I had an incredible time throughout the expansion and I’m glad to have beaten it the way I was able to. The journey continues… (eventually)


Final Playtime: 14 days, 22 hours, 35 minutes (358 hours)