Stormblood ending was thoroughly disappointing

[Lium]

So, I just completed the main storyline for SB tonight. I killed Zenos. Except that I didn't. More on that in a moment.

Let's just say, as a whole, Heavensward was by far the better expansion. Ishgard, the story, the music, and the CHARACTERS. The characters in HW were memorable. From Aymeric, to Estinien, Ysale and the dragons, and of course Nidhogg. Every character had a fully developed backstory, and it made me invest in them a great deal. The Dragonsong War represents a high watermark point for this game, in my opinion.

Now remove all of that emotion in Stormblood. The only character with a real interesting backstory was Lyse. Yugiri, Hien, and Gosetsu were serviceable, and the whole Doma storyline wasn't bad at all. It was fun. But it didn't pull me in in the same way HW pulled me in.

Post continued below.

[Lium]

Stormblood also made the WoL just a glorified foot soldier for the most part. I never really felt like part of the story. Heavensward made me feel like I was just as important to the plot as everyone else. Stormblood tried, but it felt forced sometimes.

But all that could be forgiven if it wasn't for how it ended. I didn't even get to kill Zenos. After everything, the developers deprived the player of their one, big payoff. That moment of satisfaction where you see the hero defeat the main villain. Instead, Zenos just says, "Farewell my first friend. My enemy." then slits his own throat.

Unfreakingbelievable. I was so triggered by this. I mean, seriously, this is storytelling 101. Give the hero that cathartic heroic moment. Instead it was taken from us, and it underscored how the WoL was pretty much just a spectator throughout this entire expansion.

I'm really hoping the next chapter in FFXIV gets back to what made HW such a success.

[Iscah]

I agree - I absolutely loved Heavensward but didn't enjoy Stormblood that much. It felt like we were being dragged into something that shouldn't have been our fight, and I was never comfortable with it - doubly so with how we recruited the Xaela to our cause! ("Hi, we're here to invite ourselves into your ancient customs and get you to fight Round 2 of a war against a superior power that ended miserably for us last time.... oh good, you're happy to go along with that because you just like to fight anyway? Maybe we should have tried asking in the first place.")

And yes, the characters! Heavensward characters seem really memorable to me, and they have fairly well-defined personalities, while our companions in Stormblood don't feel like they do a lot except progress the plot. We just don't spend enough time with them where they're doing something other than telling us we need to go to X, or making plans for battles, or discussing the current situation.

(Meanwhile they just kept taunting us with Estinien hanging around in the distance, but never got the payoff of him actually joining us... I was so looking forward to that happening!)


On whether or not the Warrior of Light should have directly killed Zenos... that's tricky. Personally I feel like my character wouldn't do that - she's beaten him, he's weak, reinforcements will be arriving and will capture him. (But then I also tend to think we've been doing a lot less killing than the game-format portrays, anyway.) For me it would be jarring to see her kill him after the battle is already over.

Obviously you can't please everyone in a story format like this, but I think that's why they would tend towards taking a different option and not having your hero kill enemies outside of a direct battle.

[Wyssahtyn]

reinforcements will be arriving and will capture him.

I'd like to point out that there was never any intention of capturing Zenos alive, at least on the Alliance's part. Raubahn himself gives you a kill order just prior to the attack on the city proper. Literally says something along the lines of, "You run into him? Kill him. No exceptions." Allegedly because the guy's too dangerous to be left alive, which is probably true given that he's mentioned to have slaughtered his way through a Doman Liberation Front unit bare handed or something before he discovered his katana fetish.

[Iscah]

Okay, I was forgetting that part. But I think that comes back to one of the things I really didn't like about Stormblood. Our primary enemies aren't evil demigods or vengeful dragon spirits that are beyond reasoning - they're human, and particularly nasty ones at that, but Zenos is mad and (at that point) pitiable and horrifying all at once. I don't know, perhaps we thought it was better to let him have his one last rant and maybe find peace or something. I'd have to go rewatch the scene.

[Jellybums]

I'd be disappointed if the WOL or any single character was mainly responsible for the liberation of two states that do have resistance for the longest time. WOL and friends were catalysts, cogs in a wheel to a cause greater than themselves. And that's what heroes do is to serve such a cause. If you don't feel heroic 'cause you don't get to shine much, what kind of hero are you?

[Vidu]

But... we havent seen the Stormblood Ending yet.

If not getting to kill Zenos is your biggest offender here, let me remind you that you didnt finish off Nidhogg at the end of 3.0 either. Since you played through the full HW-story without being interrupted by having to wait for the next patch, I'm not sure if you've really noticed that, but 3.0 ended with Estienien turning into Nidhogg after you've defeated Thordan and he got a hold of the eyes. The main-villian of HW wasnt dead at the end of 3.0 - its pretty much the same with SB now. So thats something you need to keep in mind: We're not done yet. (I'm not sure how far into the patch-content you are, but lets just say: in one way or another we might not be done with Zenos either...)

Personally I prefered Stormblood over Heavensward - I was pretty much done with all those bloody dragons.
But also, on a more serious note: I'm completly fine with not being the shiny hero who saves the day all the time. And I didnt had to slaughter Zenos myself - I've defeated him. And apparently so "badly" that he didnt want to live anymore. I'm sorry, but to me it sounds almost a bit... tasteless to say "Hey, I wanted to chop off his head myself!" when you just witnessed someone taking their own life.
I also like how this whole expansion isnt about us being a shiny hero. How it actually shows the horror of those wars. And that the war isnt something we can magically fix by just walzing in.
Infact, the war is still going on - we're not at the finish line yet!

(Also, you can bypass the character limit by editing your post - post something short, edit, copy your novel)

[Remus]

I also prefer Heavensward over Stormblood so far. In Stormblood, I didn't really fell attached to any of the the characters really. It's hard to say but Heavensward to me felt more like "Final Fantasy" compared to Stormblood. It might be due to that fact the Heavensward felt more like a journey for our character while Stormblood felt like I was just...there for some reason. It might be due to the fact that ARR and HW put your character more in the spotlight basically saying "you are the MC and things happen around you" while SB was more felt more like "You are the MC but also not really the MC those other guys are and you are just along for the ride". That's just personally how I saw it.

Maybe I'm just not a fan of the type of story telling on Stormblood. Even with the recent story patches I still don't feel excited as I did when I was going through HW.

[Iscah]

The other (yet another) thing that troubled me with Stormblood was how easy it was to basically walk in and liberate two countries that have suffered for years, and we didn't even do that much. It feels a bit cheap, really.

[SannaR]

How is using glamour to trick the enemy who outnumbers you into a retreat cheap? I guess I'm one of the few who was fine with how we got the Xaela to help. We run across a tribe that says to us their gods say they'll win the ruler fight yet they know they're a weak tribe. Their rules said anyone who proved themselves as a warrior could participate in their next ruler fight. So even a moogle could have competed. The Au Ra have been mostly ignored by the outside world. To me I feel like us getting them to help in the freeing Doma was just putting a bigger challenge in front of people who haven't had to fight anyone else but themselves. Which makes two of the toughest tribes drool at the chance at showing who's better and maybe learn some new tricks. Sure the whole timing of we needing an army and oh look we can get one via this fight that we've been asked to take part in was probably a bit eye roll, but both sides needed each other.