Quote Originally Posted by CrownySuccubus View Post
Hm. I started during Stormblood, which I think mostly got negative reception for its story. Heavensward and Shadowbringers were almost universally beloved.
Personally speaking, as always, I've been playing since ARR - and though I had my own list of criticisms about Stormblood, they were relatively "light" and mostly about craft and execution while recognizing there was mostly good intent, at least, behind the ideas. I'm projecting, maybe, but that was also generally the vibe I saw around most Stormblood criticism in general. Things like: Lyse as a character was developed clumsily, especially given all the focus on her - the pacing and focus were misaligned, too much repetition in the zone scenarios, so on and so forth. As far as "deeper" stuff, my main impression was, "this seems to be a well-intended expansion about colonialism written by people who don't actually know or have much experience with colonialism." Clearly trying to be thoughtful, but inevitably reductive and awkward regardless. Nothing really brain-breaking, at least.

Meanwhile, Endwalker criticism has a fundamentally different tenor that's more about "um, did the game I've loved for ten years suddenly swerve into basically doing a full-throated genocide apologism?"