Can I set this to ramble instead of review.

First of all the area design of Heavensward doesn’t really work for me, they are way too bloated in verticality and expansiveness, that is definitely to showcase flying mounts, but you don’t get to the flying until much later into each area, so the walking is pretty excruciating at times, especially given the placement of aether currents, which is the collectible needed for both flying and a faster speed mount, since your compass for them doesn’t take in account the verticality of the areas, and the fact that when the world doesn’t have FATEs going on or maybe you ignored the sidequests because the extrinsic rewards are pretty poor, it means there isn’t much to do in these super huge areas, so the size of them can be painful to go through. The saving grace of it all is supposed to be the first big journey you take to meet Hraesvelgr, and for the duration of it, it kind of works, yes I’m not having as much fun going through these areas but the promise of that meeting with an ancient dragon is enough of a motivator, going through the Dravanian Forelands, Somh Al, and the like, it all has a great mystical feel to it, even the annoying venture with the Moggles I can brush off for that build up, climbing the Zenith backed up with the beautiful melody of the Dragonsong it all works super well, but then the meeting is somewhat anti-climactic for the general story progression, there was some character development in between the journey, which is nice, but the pay-off of the whole ordeal falls a bit flat at the moment it matters the most, the story revelations you would get from the same character doesn’t even happen until subsequent visits, where you have fast travel and the whole aspect of the journey build up and adventure is already done away it, and the proper pay-off to the character doesn’t happen until the post patch quests, which has the actual ending of Heavensward, that is really the most disappointing aspect of the story pacing, even if it all gets resolved well at one point or another.

Now the main story itself, is quite good, really the best of the entire game, you have a typical set up of a war between “humans” and dragons, some classism, church bad, people bad, but is all executed really well, our main hub is Ishgard, which Coerthas is part of, so from A Realm Reborn you already have a good connection with one of the best portions of the game, is definitely the smartest choice to follow up on for the expansion. Aymeric, Estinien, Ysayle, and Haurchefant, are pretty good characters, Nidhogg is a pretty good antagonist, something I appreciate from XIV is that, while it tries to paint some of the villains in a nicer, more sympathetic light, it gives you enough reason to just wanting to beat the shit out of them, like I’m supposed to feel a bit bad for Nidhogg, doesn’t really work for me, but he does enough awful things in the game for it to please any camp when it comes to the character, which is awesome, and the moment you do get to fight him is among the finest moments in the game, one that I’ll admit gave me chills playing it.

Heavensward has the best post patch quests, because it kind of cheats, honestly if I played the game back when it was brand new, I would have probably sat there questioning what the fuck do I do now, because the cliffhanger is kind of cruel right at the end of it, is like “guys, I’m sure is cool to celebrate and all, but you know we still have to deal with Nidhogg who just stole Estinien’s body right? Guys? GUYS?”, this is the only expansion that robs that finality from you right at the end, like I know more things will happen, but it can at least resolve what it needs to in the main story before moving on to the patches. And as much as I love the Final Steps of Faith and the resolution of it all, again, massive chills, couldn’t help but groan at the fact that they threw away the eyes at the abyss rather than destroy them for good, like that is the moment where your RPG brain goes “that will come back” and it takes some wind out of how beautiful the end of the dragonsong war is, and it won’t be the last time XIV brings back stuff like that, is ironic that the Ascians, the characters that can just jump into other bodies and live eternally, when they are finally confronted, that is actually the end of their story (which I appreciate, cause they are always well built up and executed) but the more normal villains can just pop up again for the lulz. Apart from the ending, it sets up Shadowbringers and Stormblood, idk why Shadowbringers now but it was a cool questline, Fate Surrender is definitely a peak in the game, the Warriors of Darkness being an awesome bunch, and the Stormblood stuff is just pretty cool.

Big side stories, I like Alexander because I like those kind of causal time loops stories, even if I don’t find the combat scenarios themselves that interesting, Void Ark is fantastic, the atmosphere and vibe to each of the 3 raids are incredible, with some very interesting fights, Warring Triad is ok, decent fights, ok story, an FFVI remix that is not as good as the original.

If it wasn't for some gameplay problems, this would probably be my favorite.