What's your favorite storyline so far? ARR, HW, Dragonsong, Stormblood?

[Fredco191]

I don’t have a preference.

[Naunet]

That death wasn't pointless. also I thought this was a no spoilers thread?

I don't think you're thinking of the death I was thinking of.

[LastFireAce]

Isn't Heavenward ABOUT the Dragonsong War? I assumed they were the same thing

Yes, you ain't wrong.

[Chiramu]

ARR because that was when the game was new, interesting and different to the competitors.

[Enkidoh]

To be honest, all three main scenarios have their strong points and negative aspects, so I can't really say which is my favourite (not to mention all three serve as different stops along the same continuous overarching storyline).

So I am going to instead mention what part of the main scenario I like the most, which to me is still the end of 2.55 Before the Fall.

It was such a massive kick in the feels, having our character's clay feet shown in the worst possible way, with Teledji and Lolorito's duplicitous scheming and the player the innocent dupe in it all, and then having their allies sacrifice themselves in order to escape to an uncertain asylum in Camp Dragonhead, and Hauchy's touching attempt at keeping up morale. (and no, that cannot be counted as a spoiler anymore given it's shown in the opening movie to Heavensward after all. ).

It all left me eagerly awaiting Heavensward to continue it and vowing revenge against both Lolorito and Illberd for the frame up job. It's still my favourite part of the entire storyline.

Sadly the resolution to that in Heavensward felt.. underwhelming to me, although it was only to be expected given that the whole Ul'dah arc had kind of been pushed aside during HW in favour of the more pressing and urgent matter of the Dragonsong War and the Warrior of Light's appearance and meddling upsetting that thousand-year running apple cart.

And ironically, the Ul'dah arc looked like it was going to be settled differently how all the pieces were in play to set it up as a long term detective story where we track down the conspirators with lots of legwork and investigation,

we instead having finally cornered Nanamo's handmaiden and finally look like making her confess, SE drops Lolorito in as a huge deus ex machina that brings Nanamo out of her stupor, exonerates the Scions and the Warrior of Light completely and then everything is back to normal. I mean, what? Seriously? It was all so.. anticlimatic.

I know the Lore and Writing teams were under the pump trying to get the story sorted out with no plot holes or contradictions as the deadline for HW approached (and it tears me to mention it, given the huge respect I have for the development team), but still it was such a let down, that the cliffhanger ending to ARR.... was resolved with a deus ex machina.

Which does Heavensward a great disservice as the rest of the story was so very good, the right emotional balance between menace, pathos and even comedy.

From what I've seen of Stormblood's storyline so far (about halfway through, although I kind of had have the story spoiled for me - it's kind of hard not to have it spoiled when you're a lore fan ), SB's story is a mixed bag.

My high point is dealing finally with the Ala Mhigan revolution... but Zenos's status as a hate-sink for the player

(plus his whole reason for existence in the story seemed to be simply to give an implacable enemy for the player to face who simply could not be defeated so as to try and prevent the Warrior of Light from turning into a God-Mode Sue), plus the Far East being kind of uncomfortably shoehorned into the story for the most trivial of reasons (or at least Hinagashi and Kugane were, Doma at least had real story connection, Kugane didn't) and stole Ala Mhigo's thunder as the 'setting' of the expansion kind of put a real dampener on it for me.

I still love Stormblood, I was just disappointed a little with how the story for it played out.

So again, for me the best part of FFXIV's story is still the end to ARR, patch 2.55 Before the Fall. I think that is now going to be a hard act to follow.

[Mocita]

Heavensward is about The Dragonsong War, and I think it's the best dang story told by Square in a very long time. I do not recommend people to use a jump potion to get past it, for I believe the story is that good. A Realm Reborn story was good, enough to pick up after what the team did to 1.0. And the story for Stormblood is good, also. But both pale in comparison to the Heavensward story.

[Fredco191]

I don't think you're thinking of the death I was thinking of.

Which one were you thinking of?

[Naunet]

Which one were you thinking of?

No spoilers, right? :P

Ysayle. Of all the characters to give a nonsensical sacrificial death, her's made very little sense. She and Midgardsormr appeared from no where with little explanation except a half-hearted fumble. On top of that shenanigan, I find the cliche of anti-hero-turned-martyr to be far too played out, especially when it killed one of the few characters with any actual depth and intensity in motivation. SE has a bad habit of killing off female characters it puts effort into making more than one-dimensional. All in all, I found that her death contributed nothing to to the story. It was hands down my least favorite moment in the HW story - and not because it made me feel grief but because the entire time, I had this massive "what the hell?" face and burst out laughing at the absurdity of the situation.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

Heavensward by and large. Although, I did have both it and Stormblood jockeying for position when I initially planned the latter. Now that I've had a chance to let it marinade, it's Heavensward I remember more fondly. I particularly loved how they drew out the resolution. People wouldn't simply accept the religious they served for a thousand years was built on lies, and the narrative does a fantastic job portraying that. Perhaps the one blemish is how Before the Fall resolved. Ultimately, I knew how certain character may play out, but it felt just a bit too "neat" for lack of a better word.

Stormblood, comparable, lacked the same overarching feel. I did thoroughly enjoy it, but pacing issues were definitely apparent; specifically on just how rushed the closing chapters felt. Lakshmi's presence is probably the most obvious offender; where it comes out of absolutely nowhere. Like the devs forgot about her until the last minute. Still, a solid expansion I'll happily play through a second or third time.

Unfortunately, ARR does not evoke similar sentiments. Plagued by an over reliance on fetch quests and agonizingly long, drawn out segments (Company of Heroes says hi), I recall far more about what I disliked than liked. Not without its high point, ARR definitely feels like the writing team hadn't quite found their voice yet.

[Xerek]

Heavensward for me. It had it's flaws, but it captured that epic feel a touch better then Stormblood. HW actually felt epic, while SB seemed a bit grittier and realistic. My jaw dropped the first time I entered HW's final zone. SB I think had better overall pacing, but it just lacked the "wow" factor HW brought.

Side note, as was mentioned earlier, the "...and now for something completely different" award goes to the DRK 30-50 questline. They could have taken the easy road, but instead delivered a powerful story giving a very human side to the WoL. Easily something to be experienced. That moment when "Breaking Boundries" begins to play during the L50 quest is truly memorable.