My problem with HW is that it honestly felt like they were still operating with the same children's gloves they donned to pen 2.0 after edging away from what I've read about the 1.0 storyline. Not only does it hurt what should have been a gritty story about bloodlines and the sins of your fore-bearers - but it also makes most of what happened honestly inconsequential. You essentially scolded two entire populaces into 'playing nice' and any potential ramifications of changing a thousand year old societal system were swept under the rug whilst the developers focused on tying the story up with a neat and pristine little bow. It ruined all sense of pacing and tension for me once it became clear that the writers were only going to gloss over the surface of the treasure trove of complications their story could have introduced; and while playing the 60-70 MCH showed that they are at least somewhat sorry for the state they left Ishgard in, it's too little and far too late to address at this point.

With SB it feels as if they finally stopped caring about gameplay over story and decided to rush headlong into telling something gripping. Some of the same problems are still apparent and nowhere is that more obvious than with Lyse and how she was gifted the role of leader with absolutely no build up or pay off, but overall it does feel like the writing team learned from some of their mistakes. Not all of them, but I'll take a slow and steady uphill climb as opposed to a mad, bone breaking tumble down the same hill.

Quote Originally Posted by Thunda_Cat_SMASH View Post
Who? I watched every cutscene throughout the story and I can't remember a single important character dying. Maybe a couple of weak side characters but those characters are rarely memorable in the first place.
They're talking about Haurchefant.