What happened to SB (story)?

[Kallera]

At this point I'm kinda hoping that Eldibus's goal really is making the last calamity occur on Garlean soil and leaving the WoL and their allies with the check in a brutal twist of "we couldn't have done this without you". Because the devs seem determined to keep the Garleans losing battles in the most ridiculous manner. The scientist's description of what the Garleans found when they first fled there makes it a good setup, and it offers the whammy of killing the reputation of the WoL and anyone blessed with the echo for causing the end of days.

[itti18]

SB story was perfect in my opinion , much better than HW which was good too

[LaylaTsarra]

SB story was perfect in my opinion , much better than HW which was good too

I enjoyed it tremendously too and even more than Heavensward. Interestingly enough people in my FC and friends circles seemed to enjoy the story more thinking it was more heroic than HW. One thing is for sure is you can't make everyone happy.

[bswpayton]

While I don't agree with all your points, I thought the SB story to be very lackluster as well. Granted I am not objective about this because Y'shtola is my waifu and I am utterly disgusted by the continued Shtola ryona the developers keep up, but trying to view it in an objective manner:

Lyse is bae

[Jandor]

Honestly, I think the fact they wanted to do a big reveal of the far east to build hype is a part of why the stories feel a bit disconnected.

If patch 3.4/3.5 had built up heading to the Far East and then after we'd gone Ilberd and Shinryu caused everything to kick off in Ala Mhigo early in the 4.0 story it would have felt more natural.
We'd have already gotten our-self wrapped up in Doma's cause, the Ala Mhigans fighting on the wall could have been portrayed as justifiably annoyed that the Scions are liberating eastern provinces while their Eorzean city stays under Garlean rule. There'd be tension, we can't just leave the Doman rebellion after helping kick it off but we also can't leave the Alliance and our homeland to fight without us.

[Dark-Saviour]

There'd be believable tension, we can't just leave the Doman rebellion after helping kick it off but we also can't leave the Alliance and our homeland to fight without us.

There's also the bit that we actually went to Ala Mhigo simply because we were certain that after the whole wall incident, Garlemald was going to prioritize reprisal against us... And... they didn't.
Which makes the whole "We'll liberate Ala Mhigo!" notion even more forced.

Rhalgr's Reach really should have been a prelude to the Empire Striking Back or something.

[Kallera]

There's also the bit that we actually went to Ala Mhigo simply because we were certain that after the whole wall incident, Garlemald was going to prioritize reprisal against us... And... they didn't.
Which makes the whole "We'll liberate Ala Mhigo!" notion even more forced.

Rhalgr's Reach really should have been a prelude to the Empire Striking Back or something.

Let's not forget, now that these area are now firmly out of imperial hands any introduction of force in 4.x is going to be resolved within the patch and not come across as an area being in danger of being retaken, because it was ALREADY messed up with imperial wreckage.

[Doki]

They were always going to hit a wall with how overpowered our characters are from a lore/storyline point. It definitely doesn't make sense that we lose to half the NPCs we lose to in order to move a narrative along. If FFXIV were a God of War game, every expansion would start with us falling down into the River Styx in Hades to lose all our progression.

Even looking past that, the overall storyline was all over the place in scale and direction. I also wondered why the Ascians took such a back seat. The build up from the NIN questline, and even before that, led me to believe that Doma would be this huge place overrun by the empire. It was just a small section of rubble? Okay...why are we making this side trip for like 15 farmers again?

The lack of underwater battles made the underwater portions confusing to me. It just meant additional areas to "fly" in with nothing really new to do other than a handful of clickable destinations. I was also expecting way more underwater life. Instead we get a couple mostly empty underwater zones with a few bubbles to swim into for MSQ and then never return to. I almost feel sorry for the people that had to work on these areas.

I'm trying to think hard about what I liked about the new expansion. Well, both new jobs are fun, especially for AoE spam. Kugane is pretty. The handful solo MSQ fights were all pretty fun.

[Selova]

Completely disagree. Stormbloods story and it's narrative is pretty strong. I think it's premature to judge the story that is spread throughout the entire expansion just from what we have so far. I'm enjoying it far more than HW's story.

[Mirateski]

WRT rhalgr's Reach, I was under the impression that they'd actually known for ages, but that the rebellion was too pathetic to bother sending an entire force to put down. As soon as they got some friends the Garleans went "hmm, this could be awkward" so Fordola's suggestion to utterly crush the resistance there was sensible.


I dislike the way Fordola is treated by the story. Her choices make sense. She was BORN in a garlean-conquered Ala Mhigo. To make a legitimate living, she had to serve. In order to win respect in the army, she had to be Good, and that translates to bloodthirstiness. Everything she did was far more sensible and forward-thinking - from the point of view of anyone that wasn't pointlessly patriotic for the good ol' days - and that everyone treats her like treacherous scum bothers me almost as much as the suggestion that we would've hit Emmannellain in 3.2

Either way, the vast majority of my issues with the story come from the way the Empire is handled. Given SE were constantly promising us "shades of grey", the way the Empire treats its conquered territories is utterly unsustainable. Rome didn't build a huge empire by trashing everywhere it conquered and laughing at the corpses. Zenos was a bloodthirsty hound, yes, but your average Garlean shouldn't be. They'd be more likely to PRETEND to be in the presence of Zenos, whom everyone is scared sh*tless of, but starving and beating the populace doesn't make for a prosperous or sustainable Empire. Cmon, SE. It's overly villainising of a people who, from all we've been presented with thus far, should know better.