I am so freaking bored of Shadowbringer's story

[Naryoril]

That's the basic formula of the Hero's Journey, though.

It's predictable because there's only so many ways you can tell this particular tale. Don't @ me, that's a cold fact.

HW and SB did a much better job of that. They both had variation and the groups plan had to be adapted on the fly all the time. In ShB you set your goal at the beginning, and it never changes or gets really expanded. "Kill all the lightwarden" and that's almost all of it.

We can't pretend that what happened after the Lightwardens didn't make up for further character development.
**Spoilers below**

Finding out that the WoL is Amaurotine and 9/14ths a "complete" being was a major bombshell. While I can't objectively say it was a twist that absolutely none of us saw coming, I can say that it has serious implications for the WoL, the Source, and the two deities. There is a massive problem with Hydaelyn being a Primal and calls into question whether or not we've been Tempered by her, which was something that was asked by Ifrit back in ARR. Bookends abound.

Emet-Selch and/or Edlibus already made earlier comments that made it quite clear that the Warrior of Light has a split up Ascian's soul, one that is dear to Emet-Selch. So that was no relevation from after killing all the lightwardens, it was telegraphed long ahead. And i didn't get the impression that the WoW is now "complete", they are just more complete than before, complete enough to not succumb to the light. Hydaelyn being a primal wasn't a bombshell either in the game, it was a (potential, some people also figured it out before due to Ifrit's comments) bombshell in the trailer where it was revealed.
Nevertheless, this is all interesting for the overarching story, the knowledge we gained will lead to interesting developments, but that's what i already said in my first post. The expansion's story is very interesting for the greater storyline, but just taken for itself, the stuff that makes up the actual story of this expansion, saving the first by killing the lightwarden, is pretty bland and boring when compared to HW and SB.

[LittleArrow]

I definitely agree with the criticisms you're getting (well on the front page at least /blush - I don't want to read all responses >.>. I personally, -despise- urianger's dialogue. I honestly think... that's one of these reasons why I quit 1.x frustrated <.<. I seriously would just skip EVERYTHING he's ever said with a rage-filled button-smash. However, I made a point in this expansion to read 99.9% of every piece of text that comes on screen - even key items.

Urianger has gotten... better, but it's still painful. Still, I can say, the text is important. I"m also used to the text filled antics from older FF games. I think nostolgia has erased that from a lot of our memories, but I actually enjoy it. It takes me back. I personally didn't feel the padding as bad as you did, because the padding happened at appropriate times in the story. The pacing was done SUPER well in this expansion. When I wanted a break from the hardcore depressing loneliness of the first I'd have some world building quests.

I wouldn't write off the game just yet though. I honestly felt the same way you did with Stormblood. I despised that first group of expansion. I thought it was cringey and slowed me down right when I was building up steam. However, the patches totally saved that entire expansion's story imo, and I was able to really enjoy the lovingly crafted detail you could tell the dev team took pride in.

So tldr, I disagree, but maybe the patches will help

[Leathium]

1- You were skipping, you lost the argue.
2- You should of added [Spoiler] to the title just in case people didn't want to be spoiled.

[Voltron_HD]

Beating a dead horse at this point: READ THE TEXT BOXES***** literally so much of the story is in those txt boxes and the Side quests fill out the voids. MSQ + Sidequests = Some goosebump inducing story telling. Do yourself a solid and go back and redo

[Feron]

I thought the story was great.

That said, there IS SO MUCH FILLER. So many quests that didn't need to be MSQs. Or quests where you are just shuttling back and forth between NPCs playing telephone.

As a person who had to catch up from ARR, the simple fact is that probably half of the MSQs could be cut out without any loss to the Main Story Plot.

[KadaRemnant]

I've been reading how amazing it was and how it rivals single player RPGs... and here I am, bored out of my mind, just skipping through textbox after textbox. And it doesn't even feel like I'm missing anything. It's just that boring and pointless.

The first few hours were amazing. I liked everything until the Greatwood. And since then it went downhill so hard that I can barely bring myself to continue. The entire Greatwood felt like filler to me - from start to finish. The only relevant parts were the very beginning and the very end. Everything in between had so much padding and felt like dozens of sidequests rather than the main story. And then I got to the desert... and it's the same thing again.

I'm about to start the golem duty, and everything that happened in this zone so far felt like 100% filler. I don't even understand how you can write a 'story' filled with so much trivial, menial and pointless crap. It honestly feels like they are trying to pad the hell out of this zone, as nobody can tell me that getting this golem was the best way to reach that area I'm supposed to go to. Every explanation for why I can't just go the simple route is idiotic and unsatisfactory to me. I just destroyed an entire army of sin eaters. Just let me go to my destination directly and find a more interesting way to extend game time, please.

I can honestly say that I'm just completely disappointed with the story so far. The main beats are there, and they are better than anything before, but the everything in between is so utterly pointless that I can't wait to get to the end of it. And I can say with 100% certainty that I could've skipped every single cutscene from the Greatwood until now and I wouldn't have missed anything substantial. I have absolutely no idea what you guys are seeing here, but to me this has the exact same problems every other expansion had as well.

O.o The story is the best ever. I don't know why you play ffxiv then... The story is really not boring. It gave me smile, tears and laugh.

[Floortank]

Loved the Shadowbringers story from beginning to end, and I'm one of the most critical readers out there.

OP is just thirsty.

[JohnSpawnVFX]

Yet Heavensward accomplishes the same things without a slew of pointless tasks.

Of course you place things in between. But you make them interesting and relevant.

Churning Mists (Moogles) and Hinterlands (Idylshire and doing some chores for Matoya) say hi. Vundu in the Sea of Clouds. Tailfeather and the dragons in Forelands. The formula was exactly the same back then. Why does it get a pass?

Hint: they're pink and you wear them on your face.

[ScarletDawn]

I loved the story and well if the story is not for everyone then that is up to them. Skipping the story then calling it boring is a bit of a silly argument as i feel Shadowbringers really dives further into detail about our character and it kinda brings out more character in the other Thancred being the 2nd(maybe 3rd?) biggest star in the story a lot of the expansion is about him and how his character evolves considering we hardly ever see him around before, we get to know him better and honestly I at times felt sorry for him.



Ok spoiler section

So the story if followed closely and Emet-Selc is a key character despite being the bad guy to us at least he holds most of the important information like for example telling us about the different reflections as they are called, his grand plan and revels who we truly are. Its not until the last seen we finally understand who the warrior of light and dark is truly. An Ascian! Yes we are an Ascian if you watched the scene at the end of the dungeon before the last trial we see Emet-selcs point of view and he sees a dark figure that we see in Amaourot. So we are on the side of Hydalyn but since the reflections split our soul into 14 bits including the source. We all ready merged 7 times all ready meaning 7 of our reflections have merged into us and Ardbert at the end is merely a reflection of our soul and when he hands us the Axe he binds with us increasing our power! Its a bit weird to follow at first but a wonderful story.

[Rivxkobe]

Yet Heavensward accomplishes the same things without a slew of pointless tasks.

Of course you place things in between. But you make them interesting and relevant.

Lol ok.

You keep believing that. /pets

Also just because you didn't find something "interesting" doesn't mean it wasn't.