HW v SW - [and of course this will contain Massive SPOILERS]

Repeat - this will contain a massive amount of SPOILERS for both Heavensward and Stormblood.

So, which expansion was better for the following, HW or SB? (plus my opinions and feel free to add yours).
Topics may be quite varied.

Music:
Both expansions have great soundtracks. For me it's a draw. Loved the Kugane music, but the Thordan battle music will take some beating.

Villains:
Another close call, but I'm going for HW on this one. SB's lesser villains where good, but I thought Zenos was a bit one dimensional

Deaths:
Oh dear, is it tissue time? Personally I'm still in therapy for the loss of Haurchefant. Sometimes I just wander along to the headstone to pay respects - and there's always that npc there. It doesn't get any easier does it.

Final boss battle - MSQ:
Techincally HW had two, as there was Thordan and Nidhogg, but let's stick to Thordan for this. And of course SB had Zenos - followed by Shinryu
Again, I'm going for the Thordan battle here. For me the battle truly felt like a culmination of effort on both sides - mine and theirs.
The Zenos battle didn't really have the same impact, and what really let it down was the subsequent and overlong rambling bit by Zenos after you had completed the fight - or had you?
As then we had the seemingly tacked on bit which led to the Shinryu raid, which also served as a block to any gear progression.

Overall Story:
Another close call.
Each expansion had it's own strength and weaknesses. I'm leaning ever so slightly in the SB direction for this

Overall Content:
I'm going for HW - BUT please note: this does not include subsequent raid tier progression content - as SB is not finished in this area.

Well that's it. Welcome your thoughts on the Expansion v Expansion.

Heavensward vs...Storm...wind?

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Originally Posted by Penthea

vs...Storm...wind?

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Star Wars, obviously.

You're both wrong.

Stormwlood

In before the wall of text! \o/

Not sure what you have against Southwest Airlines, OP, but they don't really have anything to do with Heavensward.

I didn't like either, bring back the continuing of binding coil of bahmut T14-19. Coil was epic, I feel like they actually put more effort during arr than HW or SB. And I'm done cus this is hw Vs SB lol. And oh bring back 1.0 jk.

It was being edited to get past the character limit - but if you want Southwest Airlines v Garlond Ironworks - ok by me.

HW.
I think the whole Alexander thing (and the Sharlayan Ruins in general) had a lot of missed potential, and I didn't like how quickly/easily certain things seemed to get resolved, but in general, I found HW to be pretty good, while SB is a mess, IMO.

Gyr Abania is dull and unpleasant outside of the forest part of the Fringes and the Azim Steppe is the only really interesting part of Othard (Doma should have been far more than 1 zone, and honestly, Doma and Hingashi should have switched places).
Thordan honestly didn't have enough build-up, so his arc kind of felt crammed in there, but Zenos reeked of power-creep, and nothing ever really paid off enough with him to justify those encounters.
Shinryuu was wrapped up way too fast, just to lead into the Omega story which isn't especially engaging to me (and just feels like the easiest way to include fanservice encounters they could come up with).

Lyse... sucks... And I actually liked her previous simplicity/optimism. It felt like they wanted her to grow as a character, but didn't actually want to do anything with her at the same time. So she either grimaces at injustices people stop her from interfering with or goes somewhere in the background while we progress the actual story.
And then there's the mess of the split campaign which just feels both forced and rushed in an attempt to add diversity (since Gyr Abania alone ain't impressing anyone), and which ultimately caused Doma/Othard to feel less grandiose than it should have.

Areas:
I like the zones in Stormblood much more. They feel better thought out, and I don't feel like I'm going through malms of the same thing, even after flying is unlocked.

Deaths:
Oh yeah, this obviously goes to Heavensward. It's doubtful that anything will beat Haurchefant. Gosetsu's would have been more meaningful than Ysayle's, if it hadn't been a fakeout.

Villains:
This is a tougher call. Thordan was pretty bland, and Nidhogg was more of a force of nature. He was an undeniable threat, but I never connected with him, as a character. The Warriors of Darkness were alright.
While Zenos was a bit one note, I found him more interesting than anyone in Heavensward, and Yotsuyu was more interesting still. She chewed up the scenery whenever she was on screen. Fordola brings the SB score down, though. They tried to make her a complex and interesting character, but fell flat on their faces. Every time Fordola is on screen I have to fight from hitting Skip Cutscene.

Final Boss:
I actually didn't much care for the original Thordan fight. I thought it was all flash and no substance. Yeah, it was a neat light show, but it felt more like doing a quicktime event than a meaningful fight.
Shinryu is less visually impressive, but the fact that I had to pay even a little bit of attention to mechanics, or wipe, made it much more intense and notable to me.

3.0 vs 4.0 story:
I've got to give it to Stormblood. The heroes journey made more sense to me in 4.0. It felt less like I was being led on a tour through the new zones, and more like there was a logical reason to be doing whatever I was doing. The only major issue I have with the SB story is Hein and the Domans flying their birds halfway across the world to join the attack on Ala Mhigo.

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Originally Posted by Dark-Saviour

HW.
Lyse... sucks... And I actually liked her previous simplicity/optimism. It felt like they wanted her to grow as a character, but didn't actually want to do anything with her at the same time. So she either grimaces at injustices people stop her from interfering with or goes somewhere in the background while we progress the actual story.
And then there's the mess of the split campaign which just feels both forced and rushed in an attempt to add diversity (since Gyr Abania alone ain't impressing anyone), and which ultimately caused Doma/Othard to feel less grandiose than it should have.

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That's my issue with her as well. She had a lot of potential to be frankly amazing given how she was barely even half of a proper character in previous iterations. Yet not only does she suffer in the shadows whilst other characters are given time to shine, what time she does have to shine honestly doesn't feel rightly earned. Oh, we're told she's earned every accolade and the right to our respect. Yet we're shown nothing of the sort, and in fact her characterization during the expansion directly contradicts the narrative the writers were trying to push.

I saw no reason for anyone in the Resistance to allow her to lead, neither before Conrad's death or until the end credits finally rolled across the screen. She was a follower throughout the expansion and she remained a follower at the end; with the pay-off of her emotional growth never actually being written. It feels like up through Othard she had a decent character arc, slowly learning and evolving into someone who could eventually lead the rebellion as we all knew she was going to do. Yet then it feels like they skipped Steps 4-8 out of 10 on how to actually GET her to be that leader, ultimately ending it with 'well Conrad says so because of some contrived reason that makes absolutely no sense. Instead of actually earning the position.'

It also didn't help that portions of her arc were given to Raubahn and Pippin, leaving her with table scraps during the climax. Lyse should have been the one assaulting the city, not Pippin. Lyse should have been the one suggesting the invasion of the civilian quarters, not blinding following Raubahn when they're supposed to be equals. It just left a very sour taste in my mouth. Especially when Zenos was defeated and Lyse strutted across the battlements as if she had /any/ part in what just happened aside from a few minor entanglements. Fighting Fordola does not count, she did that with the WoL. Raiding the civilian quarter does not count, Thancred was arguably more useful in GETTING them through that than anyone else. In the end she was a bit player in her own story when she should have had center stage, and /that's/ what makes me annoyed about the whole situation.

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Originally Posted by Enla

That's my issue with her as well. She had a lot of potential to be frankly amazing given how she was barely even half of a proper character in previous iterations. Yet not only does she suffer in the shadows whilst other characters are given time to shine, what time she does have to shine honestly doesn't feel rightly earned. Oh, we're told she's earned every accolade and the right to our respect. Yet we're shown nothing of the sort, and in fact her characterization during the expansion directly contradicts the narrative the writers were trying to push.

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& To Dark Saviour.
The problem of the whole thing is that they rushed the story wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy too quick. You can't tell me we unified TWO places in 1 patch?
As I said a few weeks ago on a topic, Doma should of been one arc, and Ala Mhigo another.
We could of focused Doma while getting more info, and character progression up until the big battle of Ala Mhigo with the help of Azim Stepe and Doma friends.
Nope, instead we do everything in like a 7 hour time span lol. There was no character progression to be had. Now I liked this story WAY more than HW
but HW didn't have terrible pacing, the only nip in the story was how WoD came and ended. Was pretty bad imo.

We will see what's next as the Expac goes but still, felt like everything was done and over with it before it began.