While it doesn't feel completely far to compare yet, since a lot of Stormblood's worst parts were in patches and Dawntrail hasn't had any patches yet, I still say overall Stormblood is my least liked expansion. Just for a few points, because I have a migraine and don't want to sit here all day thinking about it:


The Yda/Lyse reveal has no impact, since there was never any hints about a sister in the first place, yet we're supposed to act shocked about it or hurt that she never told us. Why?

Zenos bores me. I've gone on and on about him before, so all I'm gonna say here is; I hate Zenos.

The Ala Mhigo arc, despite being where basically all of the buildup in 3.4-3.5 was aimed, gets stalled out after the first level so we can go off to the Far East for the next seven, then gets a rushed-feeling conclusion at the end. And since Lyse's arc is tied to Ala Mhigo.....

The first dungeon is entirely pointless, never explained (just what was that broadcast tower? Where are all these monsters and undead coming from? If it's right on the way between Limsa and Kugane, implied to be a route that Carvalein's crew knows well, how has no one dealt with it before?), and never relevant again. Even the achievement for clearing it lampshades the pointlessness of it.

The Ruby Sea feels mostly empty. Much ado is made of learning to breath underwater to swim, but not a whole lot is done with it to make it any different than moving around anywhere else.

Susano comes out of nowhere, has little impact on the story, and yet his defeat is the big signal that the Red Kojin are defeated.

Lakshmi is at least as pointless as Susano. She exists because they needed some time for Fordola to escape, so they needed a reason for us to not be right behind her.

We literally do nothing in the Lochs but move between solo duties and cut scenes, the entire zone could be dropped with little impact.

The Siege of Ala Mhigo is just a mess. Why would the Alliance conveniently forget that Garlemald uses airships when it's been one of their biggest advantages all along? How did Hien and his crew get there, crossing a hostile continent on birds, somehow knowing where to go in a land they'd never seen before?

For all his buildup, Shinryu ultimately amounts to nothing but Zenos Phase 2. He has no dialogue, takes no actions other than responding to being attacked, he's a floating decoy.

Somehow, Gosetsu and Yotsuyu returned. It gets a handwave later, but it still felt out of nowhere.

Lakshmi's return is even worse than her first appearance. We know tempering is (at this point in the story) incurable, so why would the Qalyana be invited at all? How did those Resistance soldiers get tempered when there was never any point they could've actually been around Lakshmi?

Somehow, Zenos returned. We still don't have an explanation for it, he can just body surf now.

Asahi is such a smug little shit that you'd have to be completely genre blind to not see that he's pulling a scheme.

How did Tsuyu get away? Why was no one guarding the most important prisoner in the entire nation? I can accept that Gosetsu is too wounded to keep up, but was no one else assigned to her? Especially knowing that Asahi was looking for her?

Somehow, Gaius returned.