Your thoughts on the Stormblood Extreme trials and how they compare to previous ones

[RokkuEkkusu]

How do you feel on the Stormblood Extreme trials this time around? And how would you compare them with the Extreme trials from previous expansions?

For me most of the trials are pretty fun, but some were relatively simple compared to the likes of Heavensward.

Though I do get kind of lost in thought when I see people struggle on mechanics in the easier Extreme trials (Lakshmi and Seiryu EX come to mind.)

[KinzolaiVeras]

Most were a bit simple for my taste, Shinryu EX was a rough one though when it dropped with how tedious it could be.
Suzaku EX was genuinely the most enjoyable Trial I had this whole expac, definitely enjoyed the difficulty it gave, not brutal but not walk in the park. Absolutely loved the DDR mechanic though in intermission.
Byakko EX I'm sort of in the middle, I guess the only part I really like is the whole falling through the sky ordeal.
As for Seiryu, yeah, agreeable that Seiryu is arguably one of the easiest fights this expac.
While nothing was really new in Susano EX, I loved just listening to his voice.

My 2 cents.

Edit: Totally forgot to mention that to me and my opinion, they don't come close to how difficult some of Heavensward Trials were. As for enjoyment, I can find enjoyment in aesthetics rather than mechanics, so both SB and HW Trials do well in the enjoyment factor for me.

[Coupain]

For me the trials of Stormblood are the result of the evolution of the politic of SE to give a midcore content to players and at the beginning it was a good intention ^^

I only speak of the difficulty of the trials at the release ( not with echo and better stuff).

Laksmi was an enter to Stormblood (like bismark for HS and Garuda for ARR) and this time a good idea to give 320 rings who were usefull for a long time ( better than the 310 rings of the 2000 lore at release and of course better idea than the 175 bismark weapon already uselless on Heavensward release). Susano was midcore content, pugable in raid finder, give a weapon to do the 2 first midcore savage floor so good idea too

Shinryu is for me the best trial of SB : difficult, aesthetic, mehanics, interesting heal check

Tsukuyomi i didnt like her, i found that her mechanics of the fight was « strange » for me, of course different but strange (maybe i m too old now lol)

Suzaku i really liked her, music, the color mechanic was really nice ( often frustrating when you are hit and lose the tide of battle but really nice) and new.

Seiryu yes i like him but i will not keep him on my memories for a long time, a lot of beautiful weapons yes ( hope that the crafted one will be better on 5.5) but too much easier for an end game primal ( Titan HM ilevel mini is harder)

SE made a good effort in aesthetics for the trials of Stormblood but in my heart it will never be like Titan extreme lol, the only best trial in this game, when you fall you can't be rez

Sorry for my english ^^

[CorbinDallas]

Shinryu was the only remotely challenging trial on release, but it was also ridiculously boring due to how long the first phase lasted. The rest don't hold up compared to HW extremes, even release Ravana at i170 was harder than most of SBs extremes.

However, difficulty aside, the fights and mechanics themselves in SB have generally been fun and absolutely gorgeous in the aesthetics and music department. Suzaku and Seiryu were fast paced with their music themes being absolute bangers.

My only major critique, which they seemed to have fixed already with Seiryu, is the ridiculously long phase transitions which really kill the pace and mood, and they need to tone them down significantly. They're fun the first time, but when farming they're tedious, and the likes of Byakko and Tsukuyomi should have their transition phases removed completely from extreme mode in my opinion.

[Nyxn607]

Compared to HW, the SB primal EX fights were meh aside from Shinryu and Suzaku imo. Those are the only two fights that was actually challenging to learn. Honestly though, Titan Ex was the last "Hard" Primal they made. The rest have been relatively easy if you went through that in ARR at release.

[Jandor]

Lakshmi was ok, pretty simple and, at least in my opinion, nothing special aesthetically.

Susano was awesome, he's just such a happy guy it's infectious. Still love the sword gimmick.

Shinryu was cool, enjoyable fight, looked great and felt pretty difficult on release.

Tsukuyomi, I wasn't a fan, never did feel like I fully grasped the mechanics for some reason.

Firebird was fun, interesting to play, didn't find it visually very interesting though.

Snakey boi was fine, although possibly a tad on the simple side, had cleared it (admittedly, rather messily) within a few tries.

I can't really give a comparison with HW unfortunately, I quit for a long time in the middle and never did clear them when they were relevant.

[Sujo]

Lakshmi is my personal least favourite, as I farmed her 99 times and her add phase is such a slog.

Susano is really catchy theme wise as well as voice wise whether or not you're playing in Japanese or English, and his fight is quite fun and relatively simple with a fun sword transition between phases.

Shinryu is my personal favourite EX fight. Really difficult, but so rewarding once you clear it, and it's so damn badass when it goes smoothly. Plus, that music... easily the best one in my opinion.

Byakko was a blast. I LOVE his fight apart from the phase transition bit in the sky. Also, call me a sadist but I find it terribly amusing watching people die to sweep the leg.

Tsukuyomi made me tear my hair out in frustration because of the sheer amount of incompetent players I had to deal with when trying to farm her (99+ times) but she's still fun when things go well. Her dog is also my favourite appearance wise next to Seiryu's and Shinryu's. Not the biggest fan of her music, but I do like her design a lot.

Suzaku was... I don't really know. I feel weirdly toward that fight. I feel like it didn't grasp me the way some of the others did, but I still liked it, and I absolutely adore her theme.

Seiryu was another I totem farmed 99+ times, but I usually always had fun with it unless people were dying constantly to mechanics. But because he is the latest and last EX for SB I was a lot more patient and willing to teach other people. I find him super fun, love his theme, love his design and I found him a lot easier than any of the other EX trials except Susano, Byakko and Lakshmi.

I can't compare with HW when they were relevant, but I think SB's fights edge out as a bit better and more interesting than HW's, purely due to music more than anything else. That being said, my favourite EX primal in HW is Nidhogg with Ravana a close second.

[KDSilver]

My only "problem" with SB Trials is...

Some transition are too long that it makes farming really annoying just for that aspect.

[Mansion]

I'm not sure we can say they traded off some gameplay for cinematic quality to the Stormblood fights, but that's the main difference for me. Individually (or the first time if you prefer), the SB fights have a nice pacing and some of them even use those cinematic transitions very well in terms of lore (Tsukuyomi) or tension build up (Susano, Shinryu).
The main problem being that this makes the fights pointlessly longer with those awkward transition phases (Byakko, Tsukuyomi and Suzaku being the worst ones). So I think those fights lack a bit of balance, because we know the EXT versions are meant to be farmed, they could have scraped off those transitions or add a real extreme mechanic (not just trash pulls).

In terms of difficulty I could not say, isn't it easier because we are getting better at the game two expansions in? Our tool kits are much more developed than they were, we come from a serie of QoL tweaks that did make a huge difference (resetting CDs, more party buffs in SB, cuts on animation clipping, and the major changes they provided on jobs like WAR, AST and SMN).

I loved Shinryu and Tsukuyomi for Extreme, because their phases are different and not just an overlap of preexisting mechanics.
Seiryu's copy paste design of Suzaku's towers left me puzzled.

[Crushnight]

Lakshmi: Too easy the fact you could just jump in and 1 shot it spoke volumes i understand the devs wanted to ease difficulty after the ability pruning but they went overboard here Bismark was harder on release. Was good giving accessories here though gave her more purpose than Bismark

Susano: Fun fight straightforward but still fun still quote him to this day XD "How our hearts sing in the Chaos"

Shinyru: Good challenging 1st part but after adds it slows down so much it felt like there was 2 different designers between them. I find it fun but it felt a little unfinished towards the end

Byakko: Interesting mechanics especially allowing tank lb3 for 2nd tiger but it's biggest problem is something i never want to see again 2-3m transition farming this dog was absolutely horrible

Tsyukiyomi: Beautiful fight, love the mechanics involved but add phase was a bit too long great for story not so great for farming

Suzaku: Again the fight is interesting and fun transition was still on the long side but way more bearable but it was very buggy at start and lag affects this very badly

Seiryu: A lot of good things here the toning down of transition phase is appreciated mechanics despite the repeats were fun to deal with farming wasn't bad i wasn't bored by 99 kills suprisingly my friends who did the same also weren't bored other than his big attack he isn't that memorable