I absolutely loathe this game.

Now that I've gotten that out of the way, I can explain. The first half was actually done well- it wasn't anything too deep, mind, but it was fun! It had a good combat system, a relatively decent story and overall good design. I enjoyed it, along with the skits adding in a lot of fun additions to the characters.

But when you hit the second half, it takes everything you loved and then attempts to ruin it to hell and beyond. You liked the combat? Too bad, here's a boss that'll be spammed as a regular mob with no real mechanics so it's just a HP spongefest. You liked the story? Too bad! Now we introduce shitty convoluted plotpoints to make everything needlessly worse. You liked the skits? Good! Because you'll hate them with how they'll spam multiple ones per single step with nothing in substance.

It had potential. Every bit I enjoyed from the first half left me with nothing but loathing for the entire game. I can't even recall my good memories of it because of how much I hated the second half. The reason it was reviewed so well by critics is because they didn't reach the second half at all.

Horrible game, save yourself the time.

Shadowbringers, my beloved. What a huge step-up in story. I loved Heavensward a lot, definitely, but Shadowbringers just brought forth so much love in me for its narrative.

The Scions of the Seventh Dawn didn't quite feel like an actual group- it mostly felt like Alphinaud, Warrior of Light and friends. But this expansion's greatest feat is making the Scions feel like a family- an actual group that truly understands each other. The setting, the buildup, the plot twists and the characters.. all done phenomenally. Not to mention, the absolutely well written antagonist.

I'd argue it's the one of the best stories Final Fantasy has ever told.

Nothing draws as much mixed emotions as Stormblood does, for me. The main scenario is absolutely abysmal, genuinely loathed most of it as it seems that every character in this expansion passively loses braincells. It had its moments, like the Azim Steppe arc but the rest? Absolutely abysmal.

But, the genuinely baffling state of the main scenario aside, level 70 was when I felt gameplay really start picking up and be incredibly fun. Not to mention the post-content! Besides Ivalice, the rest of it was incredibly fun- it gets a 4 star because of that and the fact that the post patches were done so incredibly well. The build up to Shadowbringers was immensely wonderful through it as well.

Ah, Heavensward. The critically acclaimed expansion, the crown jewel of Final Fantasy XIV storytelling for a long time given it got followed up with Stormblood.

Full disclosure, it's been a few years since I played it. But, from what I recall, it was a wonderful expansion. I enjoyed the writing a lot, especially with how attached it made me feel towards Ishgard as a whole and its characters. I'd review each individual post-patch but I don't recall it enough since it's been a while- maybe during a replay. Not to mention the Warriors of Darkness questline in post, which paid off tremendously. It was a good expansion, I truly enjoyed it.

It's been a good while since I played it, but I'm mostly recalling my thoughts- I didn't enjoy it much at all, honestly. It was serviceable! But the story itself felt so bloated and had so many fetch quests for no real reason (like Titan). Post ARR patches had a similar issue, at least you had flight. Before the Fall was when it actually got really good, I got hooked from there. I'll review it again if I ever do my replay of all the expansions of the Saga. I don't wanna individually review the patches since I don't recall them, so maybe during the eventual replay.

Fantastic game! Combat was relatively enjoyable, but the strength really is the story. Full experience to understand everyone's character requires all routes, which I did and it all pans together so incredibly well. Iori's probably one of my most favorite fate protagonists now. I really recommend people to play it. It's not just a licensed anime game, I really came out of it enjoying it and feeling positive about the franchise. It's a good game for anyone, a fantastic game for fans. I hope it's successful and we get more like this, with higher budget.