Final Fantasy XIV Hot Takes

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

Stormblood is a better expansion than Heavensward in terms of both story and content.

I think Heavensward has a Better Story. Stormblood was ok, and it gets good in the 2nd and 3rd Arc.
But Stormblood definitely had Better Content. HW had Alexander & the Mhach Raids. But I think just about everything else was better in SB

[Turnintino]

Stormblood is a better expansion than Heavensward in terms of both story and content.

I know you aren't necessarily looking for input in a thread like this... but I'ma toss in my two gil anyway lol.

I do think that SB is a lot more consistent in quality than HW overall, and I think it's more successful at telling a nuanced story about war -- by a wide margin. But for me, I found characters like Ysayle, Estinien, and Aymeric more compelling than pretty much anyone in SB's cast (other than Yotsuyu), which made HW more compelling for me to follow in general. And, anecdotally at least, it seems like that's the consensus among players like me who favored it: they cared more about the characters, so they cared more about the story. SB's just seemed to struggle to hook some of us despite its relative compexity.

In terms of actual content, though, SB absolutely takes the cake, imo.

[Kyrj]

I don't need them all to die myself, but they need to stop faking us out. Y'shtola has more plot armor than we do at this point, so the next time she seems dead she should stay that way. Loses all impact and meaning otherwise.

I fully expect next expansion to be a copy cat of the new Puss in Boots movie where we follow Y'shtola on her quest to wish for more lives and we're being hounded by a Hrothgar Reaper.

[VeyaAkemi]

Being only able to have 3 Specialist Crafters is cringe when all 8 crafters operate exactly the same, just let us have all 8 at once, as it is it just causes me annoyance when setting up macros cuz I have 3 crafters that have higher stats than the rest, and I need to account for them.

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

I fully expect next expansion to be a copy cat of the new Puss in Boots movie where we follow Y'shtola on her quest to wish for more lives and we're being hounded by a Hrothgar Reaper.

.......dont joke. That sounds kinda fun
Especially if the Hrothgar takes the form of Runar.

[pikalovr]

zero would've been better if she stayed in her voidsent form both thematically and story wise at least until i'd say around rubicante fight where upon hearing her words about humanity hydaelyn's light finally allows her to transform to her human form aka current zero

[MatchaokaCha]

EW's story was worse than StB.

[Ranaku]

The biggest problem was that EW seems to be so rushed in my opinion, we had no time to see the zones and learn to like people. HW was so great cause it had the focus solely on Ishgard and that for the entirety of the expansion almost.

In Endwalker we go: Sharlayan -> Thavnair -> Sharlayan -> Garlemald -> Moon -> Thavnair -> INTO THE PAST CAUSE WHY NOT?! -> Garlemald -> Sharlayan -> TO THE EDGE OF THE UNIVERSE!

Stormblood suffered from the same, we saw Ala Mhigo, Doma, the people of the ruby sea, the Xaela, Hingashi and none of these groups of people got nearly enough time. After dealing with Nidhogg who got build up for an entire expansion...Yotsuyu was so underwhelming and not cinematic.

[hynaku]

The expansion I like the best was Heavensward next Stormblood. My guess 7.0 going to be about more space travel.

[Mimilu]

The biggest problem was that EW seems to be so rushed in my opinion, we had no time to see the zones and learn to like people. HW was so great cause it had the focus solely on Ishgard and that for the entirety of the expansion almost.

I think another problem with EW is that what they were selling us about it before it was released isn't what we actually got.
With how they were talking during fanfests and live letters, it sounded like we were finally going to Garlemald to bring the fight to Zenos and the Empire but I think they were trying too hard to one-up ShB with things like a bigger, metaphysical threat and Ancients fanservice. (*´﹃｀*)