More Story like 7.2 Please!

[Cleretic]

The big patch reception thing that I remember was 5.2 to 5.3, but I would argue that was mostly circumstance; 5.2 was the patch that was live when the pandemic hit, so 5.2 was the patch we were left on for half a year when not just development slowed down, but the whole world did. And I genuinely think it kinda broke people: 5.2 was a pretty bad patch for an extended cliffhanger, people definitely overcomplicated the information we were given in that story because we had nothing better to do. And... broadly speaking it kinda wasn't a good patch; the dungeon was a bit meh, the relic step was just a limp tomestone handover (a really bad thing when we desperately need long-term stuff to do), the Savage tier was one of the more ill-received ones in recent years. Ishgardian Restoration was a highlight, but the actual progress and leaderboard stuff only held for a couple weeks. It would've been fine if it only stood for the expected period, but instead 5.2 had to be 'current content' for twice as long.

5.3 is by no means a slouch, and there's a lot positive to say about it: .3 patch MSQs almost always go pretty hard, the dungeon and trial were both strong (even if I still think the trial phase transition is an absolute debacle), the Puppets' Bunker is generally considered the best Nier raid (it's my personal favorite alliance raid in general), and the Bozjan Southern Front is pretty solid. But... I think it was more 'what people needed at the time' than anything. It's a good patch, but I don't think it'd be seen as the best patch if it released in more typical times and release windows.

[...]and Fandaniel was initially seen as a step back from the pathos provided by Emet-Selch and Elidibus.

This, though, I think is one of the more interesting things to look back on. Because yeah, at the time of the patches, Fandaniel wasn't looked on very fondly, whereas now he's considered maybe the breakout character of the Endwalker leadup and story arc. In the Shadowbringers patches, before he got his whole story, he was seen as a bit of a thinly-written clown. (Similar to some of the more dismissive comments you see around Calyx now, although Calyx definitely isn't comedic.) People kinda don't remember that.

...but here's the thing even less people remember: so was Emet-Selch during Stormblood's patches. He was really unpopular at the time, because he was kinda just seen as a distracting, scene-stealing scenery-chewer who was bringing back a storyline that wasn't all that popular; remember that all the reasons anybody likes the Ascians came during Shadowbringers. I want to say Elidibus had the same thing going, I think he was generally considered an 'I guess he's here again' sort of presence until 5.3 basically spent its whole story giving him an actual character, but I admit I can't really speak for audience response around him; he was around before I was playing, and was very much a background conversational detail for a decent period when I was. Like, nobody really talked about him on any level.