So What do you guys think of this expansion so far?

[KaldeaSahaline]

SB created 2 very solid jobs, both thematically and mechanically (regardless of tuning). They did a pretty good job with some job design, and pretty bad with a few others.

The story is ok, but I care for it less than I did HW, despite it being better presented.

Their content development has gotten worse though, maybe not worse, but it hasn't improved or innovated at all, which is not a good thing. I'd really expect this far in they'd start developing better content, but it seems they are satisfied repeatedly designing dead on arrival derivative content.

I really hope 5.0 takes lessons learned to heart.

[Solarra]

The best way to sum up my feelings about SB is to quote Bilbo Baggins: '...thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread.'

The good:

The story I wasn't really looking forward to a political/war story and I've been pleasantly surprised. It's been very engaging on the whole with some great villains though I do have some reservations (see below). It was nice to see Alisae and Alphinaud getting more development, Alisae in particular.

RDM Huge amount of fun (have not played SAM so can't comment)

Lots of QoL improvements which I really do appreciate (faster mounts, saddlebag etc), though the glamour system still feels unfinished

More Housing & Apartments again, not perfect but much improved and Shirogane is beautiful

Dungeons I've enjoyed these a lot but wish there was more reason to run them

Primals and Ex Primals these have been consistently enjoyable

Rabanastre & Ridorana both highly enjoyable

A few Gimicks like the blow darts, RPG, Special Action Buttons etc. have been fun.

Doman Reconstruction has been fun, though a little thin since it's single-player and there isn't much to it. I'm hoping they might expand on this idea later.

Crafting is much more accessible than HW but things like the beast tribes are still too easy for my tastes. I enjoyed the challenge of crafting for the Ixali quests, I just didn't appreciate the combat element at level or having to gather 'hidden items', those made getting the materials to craft painful. Overall though, I'd say crafting is better.

Gathering I loved spear fishing and the new abilities have helped with big fishing and timed nodes in previous expansions.

Music the soundtrack has been excellent

Eureka, despite having strongly criticised it at release (I still think it's too hard at the start), I have really enjoyed this, much more than the fate-grind we had for the HW relic.


The Not So Good:

The slow drip-feed of content has been painful and meant a lot of my friends and FC members moved on at various times, not all came back for new content.

Too much playing it safe and too much reskinned content
I loved Aquapolis and enjoyed PotD but the new versions of both are so similar that they don't feel new. I can understand why the devs don't want to fix stuff that isn't broken but I feel both the Lost Canals and HoH are playing it too safe.
Submarines are definitely reskinned content and almost pointless if you have levelled Airships left over from HW since most of the loot-table so far, is low grade materia and items from ARR and HW.
Not having an area to explore like the Diadem is a definite minus (I know versions 1 & 2 both flopped but I was hoping they'd have learnt from that and included some exploration element).
I feel keeping the workshops tied to housing is a mistake; they can't make meaningful content for FCs when so many players would be excluded.

Button-Bloat is back. The start of SB felt a little thin, around 65 was comfortable, but now we are back where we started. Some classes are worse (SMN) than others but I had hoped for an overall reduction. Now we are getting all the role actions, it's probably going to feel worse.
While the gutting hasn't had much effect at level 70, it has made many classes not much fun to play at lower levels or synched.

Devs don't seem to plan for any content to last. It's all 'once and done' and onto the next shiny thing. I'd like some content to have a bit more depth and longevity.

Fates still pitiful in terms of rewards and very hard for players to get the rewards from now we are so far into the expansion. I liked the xp bonuses but they still don't feel worth it for the effort, especially for small groups or solo players.

Sidequests again, pitiful xp (I believe that is being fixed) and variable quality. The Azim Steppe was brilliant on the whole and there were some really interesting quests in other areas (Fringes with the abandoned village for example) but there was an awful lot of dross.

Some story elements have been jarring
(Spoilers Ahead!)

Ok, it's mainly Lyse I have issues with. I have huge problems with this character. I liked Yda; I loved the way she never knew what was going on.
No matter how confused I got by things like the Ascians, she was always there to ask dumb questions, say something idiotic and make me feel smart. I enjoyed the way her character interacted with Papalymo, too.
Lyse just feels like a different character now, she's more ordinary; she can't be really slow-witted because she has to be a leader.
Her big reveal meant nothing to me apart from making me aware that both she and Papalymo lied. I never met her sister, there were no hints this was coming in previous expansions and it was clear this was just a lazy way of reinventing her character. From being a slightly interesting twist on the 'not very bright but can punch things into next week' character-type, she's become a cardboard cut out.
Please Square: Nice hair and a slightly revealing dress do not a leader make!
She's turned into Minfilia mark 2. Nothing she has done in-game merits making her the leader of the Resistance and I was upset that some interesting characters that I actually cared about were killed off to make way for her.
If she had been used a figurehead with the real decisions made by more experienced people, then we could have had some character development as she realised her position. It would have made the Resistance more real and would have been much more interesting than simply having everyone say how great Lyse is when all she has done is stand around and look pretty.
So far, the only development Lyse has had is that her bust looks bigger in the cutscenes. /rant

I also think using this plot device:' A major character is dead... wait for it.... Surprise! ...Oh no they're not!' in two consecutive expansions was lazy.

Yugiri minor issue: She seemed to have swallowed the 'stupid pills' when it came to attempting to assassinate Zenos and I really would have liked to have had the dialogue option of telling her that before I had to run after her and save her behind (I know the WoL had to save her, but don't see why I had to believe in her ridiculous plan. It was idiotic)

The story for both Eureka (so far) and HoH has been lacklustre

I agree with other posters that splitting the story between two large areas and two different conflicts was probably a mistake. I enjoyed Doma and the Azim Steppe much more than the other areas, I liked Hien and felt involved with the story, probably because there is so much more to do in Othard and the housing is located there.
I am hoping I get to care even slightly about Ala Mhigo and it's people, but so far I don't feel any connection to them at all.

(Wow! that was slightly longer than I planned. Oh well OP, you did ask :P )

[Soraki-Muppe]

I would say less of the same. The content is rather similar to what we had before, there is just less of it.
They talked about how they would add content never before seen in an mmorpg, my question to this is now: Where is that content?
The dungeons are different textures but otherwise the same as we have seen the last couple of years, straight corridor with mobs, boss 1, straight corridor with mobs, boss 2, straight corridor with mobs, final boss. This here has to change.
Raids are easier then ever before or well they are less raids and more 4 trials that has to be completed in the correct order.

One of the biggest problem with the devs is that if people complain about some new content they completely drop it instead of trying to fix it. Another big problem is what at this point I can only describe as a complete lack of willingness to innovate or change how content is made.
And then we have things like a better character creator where the answer is "to difficult" which more sounds to me like "don't want to", not sure if he has blamed the ps4 for any tech problems yet but ya when they really don't want to do something they instead blame it on the servers, difficulty, or sometimes even that it can't be done. Oh and these things that for some reason can't be done are things that other mmorpg are doing even if they happen to have a version on the ps4.

So my final words on this expansion (even though I have a lot of opinions on other things) is: In this expansion, more then ever before, it feels like the devs are content with doing the bare minimum while slowly watching the cash roll in. I can be wrong but it sure feels this way.

[SendohJin]

I would say less of the same. The content is rather similar to what we had before, there is just less of it.
They talked about how they would add content never before seen in an mmorpg, my question to this is now: Where is that content?

There was a topic for this:
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...e-seen-content

[Liam_Harper]

Crafting is too easy and accessible.

It really is.

QoL is much better from HW and the Ala Mhigan set was reasonably challenging, but it's fallen to pieces now. The new crafting set is a joke, I haven't seen a post discussing rotations on the DoH board in weeks, the markets are spammed with the new gear for next to nothing and crafters have nothing to keep them engaged. For those of us who crafting is a big part of the game, we suddenly find ourselves bored after a week.

The Namazu are a joke regarding difficulty. Why does everything need to be catch-up? What are new players catching up to? Making Onishi within a week of hitting 70 and afk'ing? I'd love to see a crafting beast tribe aimed at end game too for once.

[Ayer2015]

MSQ has been good. Everything else has become mind numbingly stale and boring.