Stormblood ending was thoroughly disappointing

[Remedi]

Well religious figurehead or oppresive beliefs have always been depitched in an antagonistic matter in the series. I mean nidhogg was shown to be antagonistic against ishhard and his ppl, but once you defeat him you see that it's not exactly that black and white, while I would agree that he is a villain his reasoning were not so unreasonable since dragons were attacked first.

As for what they could've done, well showing the interaction between Aymeric and Thordan when they talked about the revelations, would've been better as so would've been better if they builded up all of the heaven's ward knights too.
I mean besides Charibert and Zephirin we got pretty much nothing on them in-game.
Probably my problem goes to the fact that it was too much predictable or clichè, but maybe it was what they wanted, that said I still believe it could've been handed better
In short: they set him up to be : I am bad because I'm the church, while I would have preferred I'm bad because I'm thordan

[SannaR]

@ Iscah- You see how Magnai treats us before the Naadham he's a jerk who forces us to do tasks and asks us to change sides. Heck he even tries to stop us from doing our trial. I doubt we would have been allowed to get near him if we had tried to go to him first. Even though we have the title they have enough respect for us to listen to Hien as our 2nd.

For Zenos he was trained for battle. Yes the emperor calls him a monster but also a tool that worked. Zenos also has two fake echo eyes. We don't know how long he's had those. With what we learn from an Echo flash back the man seems to have been a one man army for some time. True most of his rank seem to be that way, but to me it's implied that even back then his fighting abilities seemed otherworldly. He then tells his own people to allow us to do what we do so we can grow more.

[Sinh119]

Hmm did not see us surviving that Thordan attack as the blessing but it could be. Still it seems to only act as a shield and we were still able to defeat primals without it (it was completely sealed in HW) so I am not sure if we can say that it would boost us (as in raising our attack power). Seeing how Hydaelyn was weakened from just Ultima and how she needed Minfilia to even talk to us, I have a problem to see how we were constantly helped by the blessing.

Well, the blessing isn't something that Hydaelyn must directly interact with in order to shield us. In ARR, Niabrales mentions that the blessing acted as a kind of ward that prevented Ascians from entering The Waking Sands. This points to the blessing being a passive shield rather than an active one that Hydaelyn must interact with. The reason why Hydaelyn had to directly intervene in the Praetorium was because of how ludicrously powerful Ultima actually was. Without her intervention, it would have overpowered our blessing and toasted us.

I have a problem to see how we were constantly helped by the blessing. So maybe we got some shields but those only help us survive some big attacks. We would still need to be quite powerful to defeat the primal itself. I also cant see how we would get help with Ravana.

The blessing of light is something that was granted to us at the start of ARR. You could compare it to the Protect role action, except granted by Hydaelyn herself. However, unlike Protect, the blessing can be empowered using Crystals of Light. We gathered Crystals of Light throughout ARR (Also keep in mind we gathered far more Crystals than most people, such as Tenzen and the Warriors of Darkness) and those Crystals empowered the blessing and made it incredibly powerful. Think of it kind of like us boosting Protect's mitigation to 60%. Midgardsormr saw it as a weakness and stripped away the Crystals, but we never truly lost the blessing. He just put our Protect back to its base mitigation. Ravana isn't exactly that strong a Primal. He's more on the level of Ifrit or Titan; powerful, but not even close to the likes of the Warring Triad or Thordan. He can be beat, especially by someone as skilled as the Warrior of Light. At the end of Heavensward, our "Protect", reached something ludicrous like 90% damage reduction, which is why we facerolled the Ascians and Thordan.

However, as far as I am aware, the blessing of light only protects against beings primarily composed of Aether rather than normal people (Beings like Ascians, Primals, or Eikons). As a result, the blessing does not protect us against the likes of Zenos.

But we did fought him with like 2 or 3 level difference in Doma and still did not really stand a chance. We also did mostly fight against fodder and humans after that fight so I cant see how we suddenly got a better skill. (Thordan and Nidhogg did not raise our levels for example, the same with the fight against the WoD)

2 or 3 levels is a big deal. To put it in perspective, 3 levels is the difference between a Summoner learning both Dreadwyrm Trance and Deathflare. But from a lore perspective, we were holding our own fairly well against him for a little bit while he was testing us. However, he crushed due to one of the Kojin's sacred treasures, Ame-no-Habakiri. Judging from how it was used, it seems to be a sword that contains a lot of gathered Aether, and as a result it greatly empowers his combat capabilities. Essentially during that encounter he was testing two things: Our progress and his new blade. However, judging from how we did before he drew Ame-no-Habakiri, it's safe to assume that we made substantial progress in the time between Rhalgr's Reach and Doma.

As for what we fought to gain more power, that would be the dungeons, Zenos himself, and the Garleans in general. Lorewise, Bardem's Mettle was probably the thing that really accelerated our growth. Bardem's Mettle is a place that rigorously tests those who enter it. Going through the trials, besting them, and taming our Yol probably strengthened us by quite a bit. This is also discounting Shisui of the Violet Tides and Sirensong Sea, all of which had incredibly formidable opponents, and by the end of the MSQ we get Castrum Abania and Doma Castle, as well as the job ability from our job quests.

Also, the use of level to represent us and Zenos was just to give us an in-game indication of our power differential. In canon, levels don't exist. It's just something that makes it easier to visualize our progress at various points in the MSQ (After all, a level 80 miner would still get wrecked hard by Zenos).

[ObsidianFire]

Us recruiting the Xalea to our side wouldn't have worked if Hian hadn't already been living with them for the better part of a year (ever since the Doman Rebelion failed). It wasn't some hastily thought-out ally grab, but the fruit of Hian learning what drives the Xalea and appealing to that. Hian was planning to take part in the Naddam anyway even if we hadn't shown up. The reason why the Xalea follow us is because they worship a Battle Goddess and we demonstrated in the Naddam that she favors us when we won. And then we give them an even greater foe to fight against which is exactly what they want to do anyway.

Part of me really wants to know what would have happened if Alphinaud had gone with us to the Steppes as he would try (like he always does) to get them to join our cause peacefully and that totally would have crashed and burned.

[Frizze]

But we did fought him with like 2 or 3 level difference in Doma and still did not really stand a chance.

I might be remembering this wrong, so disregard all of this if i am. The first fight with Zenos is at the beginning part of the level 61 section of the MSQ. We hold our own for a bit while he plays with us, then he uses more of his power and overwhelms us. At the end of this fight, we have broken his sword which he discards. Breaking the sword shows we have promise. The second fight is the end of the level 64 section of the MSQ. In second fight we plays with us to see how we've grown, then he unsheaths a powerful new sword he's gotten and overwhelms us. We manage to break part of his armor. He sees this as a sign that he was right about us - and he doesnt want to end this fight until we're at our full potential. Afterwards we pass the trials at Bardam, win the Naadam(isnt this supposed to represent being chosen by the au ra gods?), and perform several other feats(doma, abania) that help us to grow stronger. We confront him at the end of Ala Mhigo, and he mostly plays with us. But he is satisfied that we've grown enough, and invites us outside for the true fight. We havent seriously injured him at any point, but we've given him a good workout. Then he melds with Shinryu, and our blessing of light(which wouldnt have mattered against a mortal, but does against a primal) helps us best him. We showed incrimental growth along the way, and had plenty of chances to get stronger and prove our skill. And the biggest gap being between the fight where we knicked him and the final confrontation makes it a bit more believable that we've grown enough.

[Delily]

I just want to point out a plot hole the developers haven't resolved yet, and that's the point that people are saying the Blessing of Light is what let us defeat Shinryu without much trouble. The strength of the Blessing of Light is dependent on our connection to Hydaelyn. That was shown near the end of 2.0 when Midgardsomr sealed it and gave us his protection instead. He said something to the effect that he was taking over for Hydaelyn because she's weak. The storyline with the Warriors of Darkness further emphasizes how weak the mother crystal has grown from the Ascians' efforts. I'm not fully satisfied the Blessing alone was is responsible for our victory over Shinryu. As far as I can tell, it's the strongest primal in game considering it gave Omega a run for its money.

Personally, I think the SB storyline was far too jammed. In the course of 10 levels we liberated 2 city states, defeated 3 primals, and brought probably the most powerful villain we've faced down. I also think the personality differences between Lyse and Lyse-as-Yda was really vast, and Lyse doesn't come off that great of an actress. Now, I get the sense the storyline has slowed down significantly. We're focusing a lot on Doma, Ala Mhigo, and the Empire, and it leaves me wondering what the Ascians are doing in this lull.

[ObsidianFire]

It wasn't the Blessing of Light that let us defeat Shinryu. That would be the Echo. And our considerable combat prowess.

That said, it seems that there is two parts of the Blessing of Light. The passive part which just depends whether we have it or not. And the Active part which is Hydalyen intervening. The passive part can never be turned off once we get it. The closest we ever get to this is when Midgarsomr blocks it, but even he can't get rid of it. The Active part is things like Hydalyen Shielding us from Ultima. It costs her energy and can lead to her going catatonic if overused.

[Eloah]

I agree that the characters on Stormblood aren't as memorable, yet. But you have to remember a lot of the main characters in Heavensward we already established in the ARR storylines. And the only characters to get some spotlight were Lyse and Alisaie. Though, thre of the other main players are gaining some traction now.

[Biridan]

Stormblood felt off to me. Particularly the first and last bits in ala mhigo. It felt very rushed and the areas of ala mhigo felt partly unused. The lochs especially felt tacked on. Even the Doma stuff felt a bit long winded for me. I didn't feel a connection to the doma of ff14. I was fighting for the doma of ff6.

[Jandor]

Stormblood felt off to me. Particularly the first and last bits in ala mhigo. It felt very rushed and the areas of ala mhigo felt partly unused. The lochs especially felt tacked on. Even the Doma stuff felt a bit long winded for me. I didn't feel a connection to the doma of ff14. I was fighting for the doma of ff6.

I feel like the Far East arc was the best bit, but it also felt pretty disconnected from stuff going on in Gyr Abania. The reason for going at all felt incredibly flimsy to me as well, after suffering a serious setback at the Reach our response was to... go to the other side of the world.

It doesn't help that literally nothing changes on the western front when you're gone for however long that whole arc takes, like both the Alliance and the Garleans agreed to a ceasefire until their respective champions got back from their holiday together in Doma.