Heavensward was sublime... I miss it already! Give me hope for Stormblood please!

[LaylaTsarra]

Personally I enjoyed Stormblood quite a bit. I guess that's what makes the world go around. Shadowbringers was the best of the lot in my opinion and I think they'll be hard pressed to make 6.0 better.

[Halivel]

Now I'm greatly looking forward to shadowbringers, but man... can someone (without spoilers) please give me some hope that Stormblood isn't all "fantasy jewish people hiding in the desert fighting fantasy nazis?"

Well... hm... Stormblood is about politics, let's say it like this. Unlike Heavensward, Shadowbringers, and even A Realm Reborn, this expansion isn't really about fantasy, it's about people. It's not bad and I personally love this expansion a lot because it touched some... sensitive topics, but if you prefer avoid politic issues in games, you probably will not be much into Stormblood. There will be Doman/Kugane part tho, quite major line in story and very dramatic in fact. Azim Steppes are good as well.

[Avidria]

...

Weirdly, about your spoiler...

The only thing that seems to be expanding on it further is the L80 Summoner job quest. :///

So yeah, lot of wasted potential. And weirdly jammed together plots.

And, for the record, I actually did enjoy most of Stormblood, even some parts others (from what I've seen) generally didn't. It just definitely fell behind HW for me, and far behind ShB for me. ARR was... a sea of meh, for a good chunk of it, and one of my favorite stories from it is shoved in a raid I'm sure quite a few people have never even gone all the way through (Coils). It'd be easy for a new player to miss - I didn't know what it was until my FC asked if I wanted to run it with them. :P I'd maybe rank SB slightly above ARR, if only because of how irritating that giant wall of MSQ at L50 was when I played through it. And...

because I liked Lyse as Lyse far more than Yda, and couldn't stand Minfilia by the end of ARR

[Silverquick]

Well... hm... Stormblood is about politics, let's say it like this. Unlike Heavensward, Shadowbringers, and even A Realm Reborn, this expansion isn't really about fantasy, it's about people. It's not bad and I personally love this expansion a lot because it touched some... sensitive topics, but if you prefer avoid politic issues in games, you probably will not be much into Stormblood. There will be Doman/Kugane part tho, quite major line in story and very dramatic in fact. Azim Steppes are good as well.

Well it is... but Heavenward was too, and deeply into politics just a different kind.

Where Stormblood fell flat was in this assumption everyone was going to just forget all these Al Mhigans they'd met up to that point in both ARR and HW. SE must have made some serious misjudgements about how they were viewed by others in the actual storyline.

As a whole they come across as a bunch of selfish, self centered people obsessed and thinking they are "owed" something. And almost every one of them you meet as you go through the story in both ARR and HW is either an overly emotional fanatic, or a total sleezebag, or knifes you in the back the first chance they get. Or they think Uldah "owes" them their country back and they're being "exploited". When in reality no one does, and they don't "deserve" anything. While I am not the biggest fan of Uldah either... they do not deserve the things being slung at them from the Al Mhigans at all.

it was the Al Mhigans that were always running around "exploiting" people... not the reverse.

So that was the biggest strike against them from the beginning. I dare say a lot of people actually felt like the Al Mhigans got what they deserved.

But beyond that, while its true that ARR was very simplistic and naive (good guys vs bad guys) compared to say HW and SB, and even disjointed at times, at least there was a strong sense and driving force behind it that the people and cause you were fighting for was legit and worthwhile... not so in Stormblood.

They were trying to paint up a good guys vs bad guys scenario when most people were actually wondering who the real bad guys were.

And the actual SB questlines and story characters were completely uninvolving as well. Lyse does not even remotely compare to any character in HW let alone a Ysayle type character. She comes across as shallow and naive, and not in a good way.

[KatieConnr]

I have felt like Stormblood was "supposed" to be two separate things. Expantion/big patch...

Seems like they just squashed it all together and made it one instead..

If I had to guess, The AlaMhigo part is to blame.............Doma could have easily been stretched a bit more, but they just didnt have enough content drawn up for the second, and just slapped it all together

[Lauront]

*snip*

I can only agree. I never liked them or their attitude, their expectation that Ul'dah owed them something and belief it was "exploiting" them, and did not find them sympathetic. I just see it as a case of being outplayed by a superior rival. Garlemald had become much better at conquest and political subterfuge given its own history with its neighbours, who had sought to conquer it only to be out-maneuvered in the process, and given it plenty of practice. Part of the reason Ala Mhigo was a black sheep of the Eorzean Alliance was that it had tried in the past to conquer Gridania.

As for Lyse, she has about as much charisma as dried wallpaper. I'm no fan of Raubahn, either, but at least you can't say that of him.

[Palibun]

If you can power through Stormblood, Shadowbringers is one of the best stories in the entire Final Fantasy series, and just a fantasic story on its own.

I will admit, i liked Stormblood's story much less, but if you're worried about Ala Mhigo you'll be happy to know most of it takes place around Doma, even the post game is a lot of Doma. Stormblood did have some great moments and i do reccomend playing it, but imo it's not quite on Heavensward's level.

I will say the gameplay gets so much better in it as well, i loved trials in SB where as i dreaded them in HW.

[Omedon]

Too-modern setting, war theme, grim stories about how much the people have suffered and how cruel their rulers can be... the Doman half of the story turns into more of a quest and less of a war, but still doesn't let up on the 'human suffering inflicted by other humans' theme for a while yet.

Man I could make a whole post/thread about some of the quotes in response to my OP, but I wanted to point out that Iscah NAILED exactly what I dislike about the idea of an Ala Mhigan focus in the story, THIS right here!

To more broadly address some things you all have said, and thank you for being so spoiler-respectful and also insightful along the way:

-I fully intend to form my own impressions and report back. The main point of my OP was to say "oh man... it's this... it's this isn't it... is it all this? Please tell me it isn't all this." And you were all honest and braced me for what to expect. Thank you for that.

-I absolutely feel you all on the "filler expansion" vibe. That's... exactly what I'm escaping in WoW at the moment actually hahaha! I know the feeling all too well! However, unlike WoW, your amazing follow-up is out now, and it's called Shadowbringers, so I'm actually looking at staying for a while here in XIV!

-So glad to hear that Doma gets some serious love in Stormblood! I love Yugiri so much and the new introductory samurai character is a lot of fun!

-To be clear, I made this post after the intro quests to stormblood, so I did wait to make sure "oh man... this IS the alamhigan expansion isn't it?" Thus my first point and asking you guys "it's not all this, is it?" Thankfully it seems not to be!

All in all, I'd say that comparing the concepts that made HW to Stormblood work like this: HIgh fantasy Vs low, and... well "fantasy" is in the name, and I'm reluctant to go low... because WoW just spent the last year in "gritty people problems with complex and morally ambiguous war crimes and you're not necessarily the good guy" crap. Gods I just get angry thinking about it.

Right, time for another re-listening to dragonsong, and a good cry.

Seriously though, thank you all for your responses. I will indeed report back, but it could be a while. I've parked by RDM (MSQ-focused class since 50) to catch up my DRK (future MSQ class because YAY trusts!) while I still have the road to 70 buff!

Also... thank you so much for being an objectively and subjectively better community than WoW. <3

[Halivel]

you're not necessarily the good guy

... Honestly speaking, FF14 does touch this topic. Not openly, but does, and not once. And there will be a moment in Stormblood when you probably will be like "Oh God I don't want to do it, can't I somehow avoid it, please?", depending on your feelings about the situation. Storywriter of the game doesn't hesitate to leave you with bitter taste in your mouth in deep reflection about what you're doing. You will also have such moments in Shadowbringers, too.

And I mean... games aside, at the war there are no good and bad guys. There are people, desperate, tired and wanting to go home but instead in need to kill each other because Big Boss said so. WoL isn't some pure all kind guy, sadly or not. Yes, he's a hero for people he saved, but he's also a devil for those he killed. And he killed not only bugs and wolfs, but people, too. Keep this in mind. It's not the last thing in the story, and will be mentioned at least few times in different forms both in MSQ and not (there is a certain job that forces you reflect a lot with its storyline).

[Enla]

-snip-

Honestly I was looking forward to Stormblood because of how self-centered the Ala Mhigan's come off as during the bulk of ARR. It'd have been an interesting take on liberation where you'd have to grapple with the fact that you're repelling the Garleans, but many of the people you're helping don't see much better. Instead they seem to have forgotten how Ala Mhigan's are presented in their own lore and in the story leading up to that point? Either that or more likely they just didn't care. It's really no secret that the Ala Mhigo portion of the storyline is basically the red-headed step child of the expansion and thus nuance wasn't even remotely important for that section of the story. Just MAH PATRIOTISM.