This review contains spoilers
This was the best... filler I've ever played.
No, filler is a bit harsh, it brings something to the main story, but...
It was the storyline I was least interested in: the Ascians. Finally, they're not just cackling madmen, yet... I didn't care too much. It's not that the backstory for them and Emet-Selch in particular was boring... It was just very removed from the stuff I actually care about. The political tensions, the awesome world building, global conflicts interspersed with a lot of little conflicts and a lot of grey even for the states and parties we are rooting for.
Now, one could say, that this stuff exists in Shadowbringers as well. And it definitely does, Rak'tika was one of my favourite places in the whole game. And Emet-Selch was a decent antagonist with a good backstory. There are two caveats to this however...
Emet-Selch wasn't nearly as interesting or good as previous FF antagonists like Kefka, Kuja or Caius, I would even say he was a "cheap" Ardyn... So that made him fall a little flat to me... (Besides I really liked the complex positions and pasts of Yotsuyu and Fordola within their colonial societies from the last expansion. How would anything top that?)
I'm also not the biggest fan of turning WoL into a former Ascians or whatever... I always cringe when the whole WoL stuff sounds too much like "choosen one" and this well, is like a sophisticated version of that.
There are lot of small things too: Eulmore started promising but was rather lacking in the end especially. The minor antagonists Vauthry and... his general...What was his name? Were super lame...
Nevertheless the stuff in between was pretty nice. The Scions really shine in this one and some of the places are awesome. The fights, trials etc are still really good. The Ruby/Sapphire etc Weapon storyline was excellent and I'm really enjoying Bozja so far (storywise, I'm not too sure on the mechanics of that place, though i like the pure chaos of it)
However in the end, a lot of the stuff in Shadowbringers feels really detached from the main story with it's conflicts and especially the rising tension between the Eorzean Alliance and the Empire. Maybe it will get more relevant in the future and I'll feel more positive about it, but for now I can't consider it "one of the best storylines in FF ever"
No, filler is a bit harsh, it brings something to the main story, but...
It was the storyline I was least interested in: the Ascians. Finally, they're not just cackling madmen, yet... I didn't care too much. It's not that the backstory for them and Emet-Selch in particular was boring... It was just very removed from the stuff I actually care about. The political tensions, the awesome world building, global conflicts interspersed with a lot of little conflicts and a lot of grey even for the states and parties we are rooting for.
Now, one could say, that this stuff exists in Shadowbringers as well. And it definitely does, Rak'tika was one of my favourite places in the whole game. And Emet-Selch was a decent antagonist with a good backstory. There are two caveats to this however...
Emet-Selch wasn't nearly as interesting or good as previous FF antagonists like Kefka, Kuja or Caius, I would even say he was a "cheap" Ardyn... So that made him fall a little flat to me... (Besides I really liked the complex positions and pasts of Yotsuyu and Fordola within their colonial societies from the last expansion. How would anything top that?)
I'm also not the biggest fan of turning WoL into a former Ascians or whatever... I always cringe when the whole WoL stuff sounds too much like "choosen one" and this well, is like a sophisticated version of that.
There are lot of small things too: Eulmore started promising but was rather lacking in the end especially. The minor antagonists Vauthry and... his general...What was his name? Were super lame...
Nevertheless the stuff in between was pretty nice. The Scions really shine in this one and some of the places are awesome. The fights, trials etc are still really good. The Ruby/Sapphire etc Weapon storyline was excellent and I'm really enjoying Bozja so far (storywise, I'm not too sure on the mechanics of that place, though i like the pure chaos of it)
However in the end, a lot of the stuff in Shadowbringers feels really detached from the main story with it's conflicts and especially the rising tension between the Eorzean Alliance and the Empire. Maybe it will get more relevant in the future and I'll feel more positive about it, but for now I can't consider it "one of the best storylines in FF ever"