Why shadowbringers is truely the best expansion in all of FFXIV

[Striker44]

ShB is widely viewed among players as the "best" expansion. The thing is - it was only able to be a real 10/10 because of the expansions that came before it. Two out of those three books of lore you could write were written in ARR, HW, and SB. The villains that became multi-faceted were introduced as one-dimensional back in ARR.

There's not really much "thought to evoke" in SE. It's already there. You just can't realistically expect the new equivalent of ARR (starting a new narrative) to reach as high as an expansion that had 3 prior installments to build on. Years from now, FFXIV will probably put out another 10/10 expansion - the only question will be whether those "hating" on DT will be willing to acknowledge that the new top-tier installment was able to reach those heights because of the foundation DT laid.

Me? I'm still having a ton of fun with the new stories and lore in DT. *shrugs*

[Supersnow845]

ShB is widely viewed among players as the "best" expansion. The thing is - it was only able to be a real 10/10 because of the expansions that came before it. Two out of those three books of lore you could write were written in ARR, HW, and SB. The villains that became multi-faceted were introduced as one-dimensional back in ARR.

There's not really much "thought to evoke" in SE. It's already there. You just can't realistically expect the new equivalent of ARR (starting a new narrative) to reach as high as an expansion that had 3 prior installments to build on. Years from now, FFXIV will probably put out another 10/10 expansion - the only question will be whether those "hating" on DT will be willing to acknowledge that the new top-tier installment was able to reach those heights because of the foundation DT laid.

Me? I'm still having a ton of fun with the new stories and lore in DT. *shrugs*

You can say that ARR released one dimensional villains that were expanded later but that specifically because they actually left open ends

DT didn’t, DT is such an enclosed story they had to rezz its main antagonist literally a patch after it finished just to have some kind of conflict

DT isn’t another “build up” expansion like ARR was because it closed off all its plot lines at the end of itself. I don’t get why people still pretend like it was a “prep” expansion

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

You can say that ARR released one dimensional villains that were expanded later but that specifically because they actually left open ends

DT didn’t, DT is such an enclosed story they had to rezz its main antagonist literally a patch after it finished just to have some kind of conflict

DT isn’t another “build up” expansion like ARR was because it closed off all its plot lines at the end of itself. I don’t get why people still pretend like it was a “prep” expansion

We definitely only fought lahabrea and zenos once.

[Supersnow845]

We definitely only fought lahabrea and zenos once.

Lahabrea has reasons for why our initial defeat of him because we specifically didn’t understand how ascians worked and so all we really did is purge him from thancred compared to sphene where we specifically completely shut down his he meso terminal. “Oh they had a backup” if that’s actually the reason is not remotely similar justification

Zenos’s revival in EW was stupid contrived nonsense I agree. But he was also basically an afterthought compared to the endsinger and the actual plot of EW

People would be more mad on Zenos if 4.1’s story was basically “somehow Zenos returned” especially since the other half of 7.1’s story is nuking the last bit of nuance from koana’s backstory

[Zakuyia]

We definitely only fought lahabrea and zenos once.

This right here is proof why I don't get why ppl act like dawntrail is literally on par with shadowbringers....its not and saying things like this means u either skipped the story or just ignored when ever zenos or lahabrea was on screen

[ArchlordPie]

ShB is widely viewed among players as the "best" expansion. The thing is - it was only able to be a real 10/10 because of the expansions that came before it. Two out of those three books of lore you could write were written in ARR, HW, and SB. The villains that became multi-faceted were introduced as one-dimensional back in ARR.

There's not really much "thought to evoke" in SE. It's already there. You just can't realistically expect the new equivalent of ARR (starting a new narrative) to reach as high as an expansion that had 3 prior installments to build on. Years from now, FFXIV will probably put out another 10/10 expansion - the only question will be whether those "hating" on DT will be willing to acknowledge that the new top-tier installment was able to reach those heights because of the foundation DT laid.

Me? I'm still having a ton of fun with the new stories and lore in DT. *shrugs*

The problem with saying DT laid any sort of foundation at all is that it introduced exactly one legitimately interesting concept: interdimensional fusion.

LITERALLY EVERYTHING ELSE about it was some combination of 1) cringe beyond belief, 2) hilariously undercooked, 3) convenient to the point of being nonsensical, and 4) wrapped up so thoroughly that it's not just a foundation, it's the whole freaking house.

At this point we're all best off just rolling our eyes and waiting for 7.4 to start setting up next expansion.

[EusisLandale]

The problem with saying DT laid any sort of foundation at all is that it introduced exactly one legitimately interesting concept: interdimensional fusion.

And even that's basically just "Ok what if we did a Rejoining, but slightly less catastrophic?"

[Zakuyia]

And even that's basically just "Ok what if we did a Rejoining, but slightly less catastrophic?"

Or i maybe crazy to say this but what if we actually had an adventure just did minor rhings helped here saw new sites there leading into a new mystery. It take us back to our roots and we be going where ever the wind takes us.

[Basteala]

Or i maybe crazy to say this but what if we actually had an adventure just did minor rhings helped here saw new sites there leading into a new mystery. It take us back to our roots and we be going where ever the wind takes us.

Which is fine, but the standard of writing needs to be better. An RPG lives or dies by its story and characters. Some hardcore raiders might disagree, but I don't think that's most of us.

[Basteala]

ShB is widely viewed among players as the "best" expansion. The thing is - it was only able to be a real 10/10 because of the expansions that came before it. Two out of those three books of lore you could write were written in ARR, HW, and SB. The villains that became multi-faceted were introduced as one-dimensional back in ARR.

There's not really much "thought to evoke" in SE. It's already there. You just can't realistically expect the new equivalent of ARR (starting a new narrative) to reach as high as an expansion that had 3 prior installments to build on. Years from now, FFXIV will probably put out another 10/10 expansion - the only question will be whether those "hating" on DT will be willing to acknowledge that the new top-tier installment was able to reach those heights because of the foundation DT laid.

Me? I'm still having a ton of fun with the new stories and lore in DT. *shrugs*

This is only partly true. SHB is the beneficiary of years upon years of build up--since HW post at *minimum*--that's absolutely correct. But all that build up still required a good performance for the payoff to be worth it. It required a sense of pacing, subtlety, and well crafted moments between deep characters to make the most of the phenomenal buildup SHB was given. Fortunately when set up for its grand slam, SHB knocked it out of the park.

DT's writing team in the same situation don't manage to do that, because DT suffers heavily from a shallowness to its characters and some of the worst sense of pacing in all of FF14's narrative.

To be fair, in a vacuum, Post was an improvement, so far. I'm hoping to continue to see improvement, but to say "DT isn't as good just because it's a new beginning" is laughably erroneous. It's in these smaller side stories or beginnings that it's imperative the characters are well fleshed out because you can't rely on the hype of a 10 year story to cover up your flaws. DT doesn't deliver there.

ShB is the most well made expansion but, for me, story wise and emotion wise, HW is the best.
On the emotion side i found ShB flat and generic.... the story wasn't bad, but not amazing either.

I don't know if I agree with that per se, but I will say that HW is somehow criminally underrated. It's probably the only "low power" FF14 story that had a clear direction for its narrative and written to a more modern standard of quality.