Post-Honeymoon SHB thoughts?

My opinion hasn't really changed. It's still the best expansion they have released yet with almost no glaring errors.

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Originally Posted by Misutoraru

Music, was great but could we have a way to disable mount theme music? It is very annoying everything I mount and dismount the music change.

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Yea, it's under the sound settings tab. Should be something like "Disable music while mounted" or something like that.

SHB was storywise the best Exp I played in ages, kicked HW for me personally right down the throne.
Buut...

- I wished the MSQ was longer.
- I wished the Trust NPC system would include a whole lot more characters (Aymeric? Magnai? WHERE YOU GUYS AT MAN!)
- I wished I didn't had to stop the MSQ to run a lot of dungeons for getting the level up for being able to continue (Almost every single level and no, I don't want to be forced to do side quests, which I wanna keep for other classes to chill)

And, of course... the worst of 'em all -

- I wished I didn't have to say goodbye to Emet already


Q_Q

Among the best expansions in MMORPG history, IMO.

The story was engrossing, compelling and never once dull or predictable. Character interaction improved and new characters stole the show, looking at you Emet-Selch. The music is a whole new level, Soken is an absolute legend. The new jobs are fun and well designed. The new races add a welcome dose of variety to the glut of sun seekers and au ras. Most jobs feel better than ever, kudos to Yoshi P and the crew for balancing the tanks so well. The Extreme fights and Eden raid are fun and there's plenty to do.

All in all, Shadowbringers is the perfect storm. The universal critical acclaim is fully deserved and the game has literally never been better. Just think about how good it will be after 5.1.

The expansion was probably my favorite they've released so far overall, but it remains to be seen how things pan out in the future patches.

We'll almost certainly be getting some new form of content aside from the likely doomed-on-arrival Ishgard Restoration (Dev logic: add competitive rankings to the aspects of the game most heavily exploited by cheaters), but I'm hoping it's not like Eureka unless they seriously change things up.

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Originally Posted by Jimsvaliant

Obviously no one has the numbers but Square Enix; however, based on 3rd party sources and my personal experience, I would say it's too early to cry bleeding subs.

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Didn't Squenix state in the live letter before ShB launch that the active sub count was at an all-time high? Not to mention they just added two new servers to EU. Unless the sub numbers have done a total 180 I'd say we're not bleeding them. What little anecdotal evidence I can offer is that there seems to always be queue to my server regardless of the time.

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Originally Posted by IzVale

SHB was storywise the best Exp I played in ages, kicked HW for me personally right down the throne.
Buut...

- I wished the MSQ was longer.
- I wished the Trust NPC system would include a whole lot more characters (Aymeric? Magnai? WHERE YOU GUYS AT MAN!)
- I wished I didn't had to stop the MSQ to run a lot of dungeons for getting the level up for being able to continue (Almost every single level and no, I don't want to be forced to do side quests, which I wanna keep for other classes to chill)

And, of course... the worst of 'em all -

- I wished I didn't have to say goodbye to Emet already


Q_Q

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This

The side quests are really tedious, 9 out of 10 are not very meaningful side quests. Only very few give more input on the lore, and their reward in terms of EXP feel very like a waste of time

I do hope this tons of side quest throwing at you scenario get change in the furture

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Originally Posted by Ibkee

The story was engrossing, compelling and never once dull or predictable. Character interaction improved and new characters stole the show, looking at you Emet-Selch. The music is a whole new level, Soken is an absolute legend.

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I have to agree with this. As much as I was cursing out Emet at times for the stuff he said, I still loved his character. He was a well developed character in my opinion. There were times where I even agreed with him. Square Enix really hit the nail on the head with him, and I am sad to see him go. As for music though, like always, it's a bit hit and miss. But the hits seem to be better than ever this time. That level 80 trial theme. Thanks for send my hype up so much it broke my hype meter... And the fight itself was an absolute treat. Looking forward to the Ex version in 5.1

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Originally Posted by Misutoraru

Music, was great but could we have a way to disable mount theme music? It is very annoying everything I mount and dismount the music change.

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There is indeed a way! Not in game right now and I'm terrible at remembering but there is a way, I have my mount music turned off.

Still finding it to be excellent. Wishing there were some more dungeons to complete at 80, but three will suffice for the moment. Absolutely love The Twinning. Story really floored me in how much I felt sympathy for the antagonist. Normally by this time I fizzle out with an MMORPG after an xpac release, but this one has managed to have sticking power for me.

Overall, really good.

Story has always been one of the big components of FFXIV compared to other MMO's and I think they did a really good job. Added loads of lore in to flesh out the cosmological and metaphysics stuff which was really cool. Lots of interesting characters, good development of the Scions as well. And Emet. I have found my self in the past agreeing with the bad guys (As far as i'm concerned Gaius's speech back in Praetorium I 90% agreed with) and this expansion it happened again. Not all the time, but there were definitely times I felt for them.

Dungeons were good - i've accepted now they are always going to be pure linear runs, and within that I think they did a good job. Couple of nice variants on bosses as well.

Mechanics...eeeggh..... Once again they continue they're never ending quest to simplify combat and classes and par them down to the bone. A couple of people already mentioned, but any class that had buff/debuff stuff got battered hard to clear room for Dancer. I fundamentally disagree with Yoshi-P about class synergy. Optimized raid comps will always be a thing for world-firster's unless you make every class literally identical, so just suck it up and do interesting stuff, most players dont care if 1 class is mandatory for savage. Tanks I was narked at on first login but over time i'm happier, they seem to have just massively loaded all mitigation right at the top end for WAR...if fact most the tank classes dont feel right in some way now until high levels, GNB being the exception. I am still disappointed at the homogenization of tanks though, difference between them is ever shrinking.
Healers I am seriously pissed at. They destroyed AST. I actually swapped which character was my main so hate filled am I at what has happened to it. WHM is however awesome. I didnt mind old lillies, but the new way is good, blood lilly is nice extra DPS skill, but I mourn the loss of AOE Aero. And every dungeon I start with saying *Casts Protect* you will never be forgotten old friend.

Kinda long ramble this, but overall I wish they'd just bite the bullet, create a fourth role, support, and properly define it. And stop simplifying classes so support can do stuff. It also means we may get Blue Mage as a class rather than the joke it is now.

I have high hopes for the patch content, and overall I rate the expansion highly, probably 8.5 or 9/10 as combat in FFXIV has never been great and I play the game knowing that but expecting a good story, and ShB has delivered on that front

Want to replay SHB story again

Simply put. Loving it so far. Every single bit :)

I liked it,the story was better than Heavensward IMO and interacting with the Scions together throughout the story was awesome compared to how little it was previously,some cringe here and there but it was to be expected and did not bother me!
The Dungeons are fun and i dont mind redoing them to lvl classes unlike lvl 16-70[yikes] also the Twinning is amazing,sadly i hate Akadaemia as its the only dungeon i get in expert and its a remake of Saint Mocianes which i also highly disliked due to the enviroment, the only redeeming value Akadaemia has is the final boss~
The music was great and it keeps on improving but i hate it when the boss music is something from older expansions
The class balance atleast for the classes i play RDM/DRG/BLM were okay but RDM is boring sadly still a rez bot for progression
DRG and BLM aka my mains feel really good to play,i hope they wont nerf them~
DNC is fun but feels weak to me,GNB was ok but i hate the new sounds so i dont feel like lvling it to 80 anymore~
Sad about what they did to Scholars as i was interested to lvl it but not now~
Overall the delivery of 5.0 was great,sadly the re-adjustment of ARR story being 9-10 months away is a negative.
If it came with 5.0 it would have attracted even more people,but better late than never~

Overall ill give it my final judgement once the 5.x series is over but so far a 8.5/10~

I think it's to soon to tell. I think people are still making opinions on the new expac hype and it's easy to say SB sucked because we can include all of 4.1-4.5 into our opinions of it. I think we need to see how the content though 5.1-5.5 goes before we can really say which is better. Cause if the story takes a downhill slope til 6.0 like it did in SB I expect opinions to change. So for me, the honeymoon phase isn't over yet and most people that say SB sucked compared to Shb I honestly feel are making assumptions at this time. It's like comparing apples to oranges until all of Shb is over.

I say this because I feel people have forgotten how they thought SB destroyed HW when that expac was fresh and now people are saying HW was better than SB when it concluded it's full story.

Tbh, what disappoints me the most is the lack of sin eaters outside MSQ. For being a realm plagued with them to the point people are afraid of even going outside town, there's none on the overworld, and not a single fate or side quests that involves sin eaters (not that I recall at least). Makes it feel like they weren't really a threat to begin with.

The MSQ is better; crafting is worse; the overall design is a copy and paste of SB, which was a copy and paste of HW.

Having a lot of fun, overall really good expansion. I'm baffled WoW is still going when ShB exists, but different people have different preferences I guess.

Crafting is a bit lukewarm this time around, class design was hit and miss with some but I love WhM and I'm enjoying Sam. MSQ was brilliant, raids and trials are good fun and dungeons were all decent. Zones look great, music is top notch.

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Originally Posted by Allegor

Tbh, what disappoints me the most is the lack of sin eaters outside MSQ. For being a realm plagued with them to the point people are afraid of even going outside town, there's none on the overworld, and not a single fate or side quests that involves sin eaters (not that I recall at least). Makes it feel like they weren't really a threat to begin with.

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The same holds true for Voidsent on the Source.

Much better than WoW 8.2, non sense of the story, mindlesss grind or you’re are behind in raid dps

Story: Quite good; not quite great. About equal to former expansions in execution, but well ahead in terms of core concepts and novelty. ~87/100?
Dungeons: Mediocre. With few exceptions, the worst -- on average -- of the expansions thus far. ~72/100?
Gameplay: Hit and miss. Seems mostly to be a matter of which jobs were least harmed, rather than most improved. SB saw this already to a degree, but ShB makes this feeling almost a cornerstone of the experience. ~65/100.

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Originally Posted by Jimsvaliant

I wouldn't say it's a panicky move like offering a "limited time mount" for buying a 6-month sub after quarterly earnings report show huge loss of monthly activity. I think a month after an expansion release is too early to claim they're bleeding subs when their steam and twitch numbers are higher than they've ever been.

Personal anecdote: I was the only person on the personal discord I share with my friends that played Stormblood. I never push my friends to play FF:XIV because I know it doesn't appeal to everyone. We are all Vanilla WoW raiders and we all played WoW during Beta for Azeroth and quit two short months after. After the huge amount of hype ShB generated post-launch 6 of my friends have just started playing it again or for the first time. One of them only had to purchase ShB while three others have bought the complete editions after playing for 2 or 3 days. Just a few hours ago one more buddy and his roommate hopped on their inactive accounts because of the welcome back campaign. A less cynical person could look at the welcome back campaign as an interest bait rather than an emergency response.

Obviously no one has the numbers but Square Enix; however, based on 3rd party sources and my personal experience, I would say it's too early to cry bleeding subs.

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I'd also say it could be a final try to prevent some people from playing the new WoW Classic.

I liked the beginning and the end of the story, and some bits if the story in the middle.

There were some parts where I really couldn't wait until they were over.

I think – because I am not a Final Fantasy universe fan – I don't enjoy the story as much. It has good parts.

I have this problem with FFXIV in every single expansion. And I am never interested in anything Final Fantasy related beyond the MMO, although I tried a couple of other games.

However, the jobs are really fun to learn. The dungeons are fun to do. The trials are fun when they are new. I like the customisation options offered to characters, although I wish we did not have any gender locked races. I like the raids when they are new. I absolutely love the Amaurot instance.

Roulettes: I like some, couldn't care less for others, but I feel I have to do certain ones to get enough tomes with the limited play time I have. The MSQ roulette is particularly annoying. Don't care about Alliance raids, but at least they are relatively short and you are actually doing some playing.

The ShB world design is nice especially when compared to previous expansions. However, in general FF world design can feel bare for me at times, and seeing mobs that are absolutely still on the spot does feel a bit off-putting.

Okay so jobs. I find them really fun yet I also dislike the button bloat. That said, Yesterday, I resubbed to another game I play to find I was pushing two buttons and things died. So 5 minutes after that I came back to FF XIV. So I don't want something stupidly easy, but I would like at least a rotation that doesn't make me run out of key bindings something fierce.

TLDR: I like the gameplay in dungeons. I am not so taken with some of the fantasy elements of this game but I like others. I have never just liked any of the stories from start to finish, and Shb is no exception. Although I really liked the end and some bits in between. I find there is some button bloat, but otherwise the jobs are fun. Due to the fact that I am not as taken as others are, this expansion will probably fail to retain my subscription like the ones before did. But I have the bigger group of friends in this game so who knows?

TBH, because of how they did SCH this expac, I missed out on the honey moon phase, and that upsets me so much. I had to listen as everyone around me was going on and on about how good this expansion was, but I was too focused on how bad my class felt, and still feels, to have that same level of excitement. Now I'm less upset, because I've gotten more used to it, but I wouldn't say that it's a good thing. I'm sure overall the expac is great, and for the people that actually paid attention to the story, have heard it's great.

the chinese monk guy was pretty boring. i can't even remember his name in spite of the cool fight you have with thancred and later when you sieze eulmore. he was supposed to be vauthry's darth vader so to speak and he lacked any sort of presence beyond being strong and dedicated to vauthry

I loved this expac - SO FAR- Best plot in this game ever in my opinion. Sony got to matter for one, She actually went thur hardship as a character and that alone akes this story the best in XIV. One of my biggest complaints was how I as the WOL never seem to have a voice.... I got it this time. I'm withholding judgement overall cause we just STARTED tho. So while the beginning could've been aawesome the rest of the 5.0 series could suck... I mean already we still have to deal with - I'm lonely Zenos- so there's a point taken away there. So I'm waiting for a full review. Call me in 2 years.

Quite fun, it made me question myself a few times though which is something I thought that would never happen.

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Originally Posted by grinkdaboy

the chinese monk guy was pretty boring. i can't even remember his name in spite of the cool fight you have with thancred and later when you sieze eulmore. he was supposed to be vauthry's darth vader so to speak and he lacked any sort of presence beyond being strong and dedicated to vauthry

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Then you totaly miss how he was training precedent incarnation of Minfilia and how he succumb to despair seing them die again and again to the point he finaly joined forces with sin eater to protect them from any harm.

Ran'jit is the name, and he was a great character.

i really enjoyed this expac
the story was good though it had its downs too (mainly sylph 2.0 and trolley) it had some good charaters and then it had ranjit...

i like the class changes i like how alot of jobs got alot of qol changes and fragoon has quickly become my favorite dps in the game

the dungeons and trials were fun i liked all the dungeons except malikahs well since it was slow boring and dull for once i actually like all the expert roulette dungeons though i still find the twinning to be the weakest of the ones the music and final boss was good but the rest of the dungeon was just boring and the first 2 bosses were just boring aoe dodge akadaemia is really fun an no matter how much i run it ill never get tired of it (and its music) amaurot quickly became my favorite dungeon in the game the music visuals and fights just made it feel really satisfying (although the final boss was abit to the easy side compared to the other bosses this expac)

the music was amazing highlights being shadows withal and civilisations

the first tier of eden was ok the fights were fun but it didnt feel like it wrapped up enough like the od raids did

overall i really liked this expac and its propably my favorite yet (followed shortly by heavensward)

The story had me hooked, pacing was great, new zones varied and colorful, music incredible, twists and turns in the narrative still have me thinking about them. Overwhelmed by the amount of sidequests, but enjoyed them for giving further depth on how things worked on the First and the daily lives of those inhabiting the zones.

Only thing I didn't look forward to, was going into combat with my favorite job, Scholar. The even further removal of different damage, support and fairy skills since 4.0 and with the lost skills potencies baked into a couple instead of several. Having an disproportionate number of damge vs healing skills dampered the enjoyment for me in the parts where I'm having an exciting showdown and I'm just spamming Broil III. Had it not been for the great people I'm playing with I'm not sure I'd play much after the MSQ.

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Originally Posted by grinkdaboy

the chinese monk guy was pretty boring. i can't even remember his name in spite of the cool fight you have with thancred and later when you sieze eulmore. he was supposed to be vauthry's darth vader so to speak and he lacked any sort of presence beyond being strong and dedicated to vauthry

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he is disappointing, he could be a great villain in this expansion like Zenos, but we dont even get a Trial fight with him...Waste a great back story of that guy. However, I do get some inspiration from him, I could see SMN mechanics rework to more like him, that's another story thought

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Originally Posted by grinkdaboy

the chinese monk guy was pretty boring. i can't even remember his name in spite of the cool fight you have with thancred and later when you sieze eulmore. he was supposed to be vauthry's darth vader so to speak and he lacked any sort of presence beyond being strong and dedicated to vauthry

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Basically this.
The guy had stronger story than Zenos, he was fighting scary creatures for decades and trained and lead a whole freaking army to fight them.
He should be several times stronger than zenos, and his story should be prolonged, that was a shame.

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Originally Posted by Nedkel

Basically this.
The guy had stronger story than Zenos, he was fighting scary creatures for decades and trained and lead a whole freaking army to fight them.
He should be several times stronger than zenos, and his story should be prolonged, that was a shame.

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You mean, several time stronger than the dude strongharming an immortal being, comming back from death after merging with a world-ending tier primal, killing is own father the emperor of garlemald on a whim telling the whole empire reason to exist to f*ck off so he can do whatever he want. Yeah sure, its totaly less impressive than kicking a trolley and goind toe to toe with Thancred.

Story wise, Ran'jit job is done. Minfilia is no more, he had no more role to play in the story. He died a warrior, fighting to protect who he cherished even if it was the wrong way.

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Originally Posted by Nariel

You mean, several time stronger than the dude strongharming an immortal being, comming back from death after merging with a world-ending tier primal, killing is own father the emperor of garlemald on a whim telling the whole empire reason to exist to f*ck off so he can do whatever he want. Yeah sure, its totaly less impressive than kicking a trolley and goind toe to toe with Thancred.

Story wise, Ran'jit job is done. Minfilia is no more, he had no more role to play in the story. He died a warrior, fighting to protect who he cherished even if it was the wrong way.

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Zenos is not Ascian to be given so much power so early, he is strong because poor plot decisions allowed him to be so.
Ranjit had decades of fighting experience with terrying light creatures, zenos is spoiled brat in his late 20s with plot armour.

The common sense says Ranjit should be many levels above zenos.

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Originally Posted by Nedkel

Zenos is not Ascian to be given so much power so early, he is strong because poor plot decisions allowed him to be so.
Ranjit had decades of fighting experience with terrying light creatures, zenos is spoiled brat in his late 20s with plot armour.

The common sense says Ranjit should be many levels above zenos.

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Yeah Zenos totaly isn't a trained Garlemald General, son of the emperor of an empire created and lead by immortal being, using every scientific advancement and that are not afraid of exeprimenting the sh*t out of everybody to gain military might, he totaly didn't lead the Gyr abania invasion force, reign upon them and repress every single rebellion in bloodshed. He totaly isn't a fullblown psychopath willing to detroy every single thing in its path to confront us. He's not an ascien, he's not immortal and still he look right into the eyes of an ascien and tell to give him back is body or he'll take it himself, the immortal being probably as powerfull as Hades comply to its demand without an argument.

I don't even like Zenos, I find him overhyped and all, but it don't change fact he's an unstopable beast of military might and power.

And whatever if Ran'jit was stronger or anything. Its about what he can bring to the story and Ran'jit have told everything he had to, he would serve no purpose in the storytelling.

Ranjit is probably more like Estinien or Gaius, probably fell into despair after leading countless attempts to rebel against the light.

Estinien particulary, that loldrg is quite strong after taming the strenght of a first brood dragon. Probably the closest to us after Zenos. If Zenos isn't stronger than us already.

Still more fun than SB. I actually enjoy the endgame dungeons and raids, and I've clocked in more time in the first month of the game's release than I ever did during SB's. Only complaints I have are job related (who doesn't have these?) and that we don't have NG+ or relics for a while.

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Originally Posted by Nariel

Yeah Zenos totaly isn't a trained Garlemald General

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Being a General doesn't make one physically powerful.

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Originally Posted by Nariel

son of the emperor of an empire created and lead by immortal being

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Which doesn't make one physically powerful. Nepotism usually breeds weakness.

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Originally Posted by Nariel

using every scientific advancement and that are not afraid of exeprimenting the sh*t out of everybody to gain military might

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Unethical human experimentation usually makes someone weaker and sicker, not stronger.

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Originally Posted by Nariel

reign upon them and repress every single rebellion in bloodshed.

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Zenos did nearly everything he could to be overthrown by a revolt. That's the opposite of what you said.

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Originally Posted by Nariel

He totaly isn't a fullblown psychopath willing to detroy every single thing in its path to confront us.

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What you just described is a person who will not get very far in life.

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Originally Posted by Nariel

He's not an ascien, he's not immortal and still he look right into the eyes of an ascien and tell to give him back is body or he'll take it himself, the immortal being probably as powerfull as Hades comply to its demand without an argument.

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Convenient that a supposed sundered being is more physically powerful than anyone else include the Ancients whom are millenia old at this point.

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Originally Posted by Nariel

I don't even like Zenos, I find him overhyped and all, but it don't change fact he's an unstopable beast of military might and power.

And whatever if Ran'jit was stronger or anything. Its about what he can bring to the story and Ran'jit have told everything he had to, he would serve no purpose in the storytelling.

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Zenos is strong because the writers said so, but it's completely illogical how he became the most powerful person in the game.

What honeymoon?

It's just more of the same mediocre-decent.
Still a could-be-solo game that happens to connect thousand of players together.
(well, I do appreciate the idea of a solo/small-multiplayer game with an integrated chatroom. But calling it a mmo is a lie)
More forgettable quests, more generic lore, more useless areas, more shallow game systems.
Cut-scene quality is still very random, and just bad most of the time.
Old content is still left to rot, which makes the game, as a whole, worse.
No update to any foundations of the game, no try to breakthrough in anything, no new feature. The closest thing we got is the Trusts, but it's only for 5 dungeons (and because it wasn't bad enough, they added the grind to level them up)

And a lot of small details like how the last boss went from "could be interesting" to "just another angry antagonist" to "has to transform to a big monster because every last boss has to be a big monster".
And then transforms again into a bigger monster.
With a generic last boss theme.

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Originally Posted by Allegor

Tbh, what disappoints me the most is the lack of sin eaters outside MSQ. For being a realm plagued with them to the point people are afraid of even going outside town, there's none on the overworld, and not a single fate or side quests that involves sin eaters (not that I recall at least). Makes it feel like they weren't really a threat to begin with.

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It was the same with Stormblood areas lacking Garlean occupiers, and it's unfortunately for the same reason: after you complete the MSQ and boot out the Garleans/get rid of the light, the enemy spawns would have to change completely.

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Originally Posted by Edax

Being a General doesn't make one physically powerful.


Which doesn't make one physically powerful. Nepotism usually breeds weakness.


Unethical human experimentation usually makes someone weaker and sicker, not stronger.


Zenos did nearly everything he could to be overthrown by a revolt. That's the opposite of what you said.


What you just described is a person who will not get very far in life.


Convenient that a supposed sundered being is more physically powerful than anyone else include the Ancients whom are millenia old at this point.




Zenos is strong because the writers said so, but it's completely illogical how he became the most powerful person in the game.

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"Just because the writer said so" isn't an argument, of course it is, everything in a story is. Its not even about who is the stronger, its about what you can tell with it. For what it is Tataru could whoop their asses the only thing that matter is what it bring to the story.

What Ran'jit being alive could tell ? What an overpowered Zenos can tell ? Its all that matter, there is plenty of reason for Zenos to be that strong, just because you choose to ignore them out of no logical reason don't change the fact he is far stronger and resiliant than any vilain we face before and after. Ran'jit story have run its course and had a meaningfull conclusion.