ARR had a solid story too! Sure it has some filler but it does a good job introducing us to the world.
My unpopular ranking of the game is as follows.
SHB>ARR>SB>HW>EW
Maybe ew has some recency biased in it so it could change in the future.
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I enjoyed Endwalker. Is it perfect? No. There are areas in the story I felt could be improved, but no expansion or game is perfect. Plus when it comes to lore much of it is subjective. My personal ranking goes Shadowbringer, Endwalker, Stormblood, Heavensward and ARR. Enjoyed them all though.
It is interesting that haha. Especially considering I took a break from HW to SHB. I will say I kinda wanted to put ARR's 2.x patches as their own thing. It has some of my favourite quests (Outside the filler) and character beats, and one of the reasons I rank HW lower then most is because I dislike how it just throws away most of that in a very dissapointing and short manner.
I am in a very similar boat, even down to the played EXs. I think the job changes/direction have been dragging my experience down to a point that I only have fun if I'm working towards something, and since the content in EW that I do enjoy doesn't have much longevity, my activity's been sparse at best. Here's hoping that 7.0 (hell, even BLU in 6.45) reignites that interest I had.
Ill judge it more Critically, and Fairly once its 100% Finished and we get the Final Patch leading to 7.0.
Arr was a Rollercoster of Good and Bad
Heavensward: even If I dont love it like everyone else, is still mostly solid overall
Stormbloods 1st arc was pretty mid, but Post was amazing, story took abit to pick up, but awesome in the end
Shadowbringers is My Favorite that I will Simp for. Bozja disappointed me in some areas, otherwise peak FFXIV imo
Endwalker is a Rollercoaster like Arr, but for me has been "mostly" good. Story should have been split, but ah well.
But I dont feel I can fully Grade the Expansion until it is 100% done. I want to see EVERYTHING 1st.
Stormblood is an example of "Wait before you judge"
Notice how nearly everyone who praises Endwalker only does so for the story. What about content? You know, gameplay? Like, in a video game?
Final Fantasy XIV is not a Netflix show. It’s a video game. At this point I’m only subscribed to make adult content and annoy people. It’s not a good video game at this point. The story was pretty banger, but not worth a monthly sub after it’s done.