Stormblood Appreciation thread (spoilers)

[Riardon]

Finishing the MSQ after the first troubled week I want to say some things to the Yoshi & Co dev team.
Thank you for this awesome expansion. You delivered quality on all fronts.
The story was very very good.
The voice acting was excellent and I was pleasantly surprised with this. Please keep those actors the longest you can.
Map design was on spot. Maps felt bigger and more detailed than HW. Of my personal favourite were Azim Steppe and The Lochs. The Lochs were amazing with all the scale and caves. I really liked the challenge to find the aether currents. I didn't use any 3rd party guide.
Ala Mhigo was exactly what I had imagined and close to the very old artwork. The scale of it was right and for once it felt like a real Kingdom and not just a village city state.
Gameplay the dungeons delivered with awesome design and mechanics.
Both Primal battle were very fun as well.
The two jobs I played till now (DRG and DRK) felt weird at first but the new rotations are fluid and nice once you get used to them thing which did take me few days.
OST oh man you nailed this one. The music is 11/10. Awesome battle themes, dungeon themes and day/night themes were awesome.
PvP Yes yes and yes. PvP exactly how it should be. FUN and rewarding. Please keep it like this PvP should be fun and inviting to everyone like it is now.
2 negatives I can think of at this moment are:
Scale. The Au Ra army was only 3-4 people on birds. Failed to deliver the sense of war in term of scale. We only see on screen very few people going to war. Please try to depict actual war with lots of people in cut scenes. If this is a graphic engine issue that you can't render a cutscene with lots of NPCs then find another way to make it so. Like a pre-rendered video or something else.
Please start rendering indoor environments once again. In ARR it was fun when we could find empty houses in maps.

Overall the expansion raised the bar once again. Keep it like this please and thanks for this awesome and fun expansion.

[DamianTenbe]

Yup. I really like it. Some positivity is nice.

[Niqote]

-The story was great with a finale trial that is both fun and thank goodness, NOT a faceroll.
-The voice acting has been improved considerably, I watched the cut scenes slower just to hear them finish their dialog.
-Primal fights are creative and both look and sound great, I like that there is an entire ACCs set for Lakshmi rather then just another weapon set.
-Dungeons and the new landscapes are created beautifully, they are full of diverse mechanics, interesting FATEs in some and sound amazing!
-The diversity in the tribes of the Steppe is really enjoyable. Not like the simple explanations of the other races clans. I really hope they expand on the the other races in other area. I loved the emotional shifts I had towards the main characters of the Au'Ra tribes. At first I wanted to kick 'The Sun' and his lackeys right in the downstairs sausage... but after spending time with them I just love the complexities behind their actions and feel they are very passionate characters.
-The side quests are interesting and are not a chore. I esp. enjoyed the Ruby Princess side quests continuing after the dungeon was complete/
-Animations for new battle abilities are very energetic and nicely made.
-Underwater swimming is quite serene, implementing mounts right away keep it speedy but its nice to just swim around slowly too. The transition between diving and breaching is fast and has a pleasant animation.
-New minions are all super cute, what little new housing items there are, are lovely as well! Warms my heart to see the care gone into crafting everything in this expansion.

Mild Complaints:
I wish our houses could be as beautiful as Kugane Castle, its stunning!
Can't swim in the housing districts.
I thought my retainers would have an inventory expansion, i'll have to look it up to see if I got a detail wrong.