The ending to Stormblood...

[CaptnYesterday]

Late to the party. This was pretty underwhelming, but not surprisingly so. Kind of inline with off-paced expansion as a whole. Some great content and moments, but not satisfying like the HW or ARR final arcs. No one cares but I'll break down the comparisons as I see it.

::ARR left plot open but cleanly cut you (with jaw dropping finality) from that story to start anew in HW.

::HW gave you a deep sense of completion of its own arc at an early 3.3 (Nidhog/Estinian conclusion) and firmly setup our move into SB with 3.4, 3.5 and 3.56.

::SB neither cleanly cuts us from the current plot nor does it conclude anything. Much like the dual stories it attempted to tell with 4.0 MSQ, the conclusion was abrupt and unsatisfying with us knowing ShB will be on The First while the firmly established plot is pointing to Garlemald.


Switcharoos can be good, but they need to be cleverly executed. Or at least fully introduced our upcoming journey to The First. Rather than having the players knowing so much more than the WoL regarding where we are going, why, and much of what we are doing there. In an oddball turn of events, we now have to wait for the game story to catch up to us. Makes for an unsatisfying non-end feeling.

[splinter1545]

I was extremely disappointed with the epilogue. For starters...

The sequence with Hien was, personally pretty boring. I don't mind this type of content, but fleshing out their hotbar would be nice. I personally don't find it fun to press 1 button throughout the fight, with the occasional 2 and 3. Not saying to put the whole toolkit there, but at least something other than 1 attack button would be nice.

With that being said, the scenario is just pretty bad. An Ascian that could fight and defeat multiple people by himself, ready to land the finishing blow on us, was distracted by another person... who we haven't heard of in a long time, yet was conveniently there just to save us and nothing else. Cool.

We also learned nothing that we haven't already known, nor was anything even concluded. The only thing we got that is leading us toward the expansion is literally "Go to the Crystal Tower. I don't have time to explain why I don't have time to explain, just do it".

When the trailer gives you more information than the quests that are suppose to lead up to it, then that's honestly some pretty bad writing.

[Sassychan]

I loved the Hien phase of the Zenos fight where you have to stall Zenos long enough for your character to arrive to the battle.

Other than that, the cliffhanger makes me want the expansion right now. lol

[Hakuro89]

Very underwhelming ending to SB, in my opinion. ARR & HW both ended with a bang, but Stormblood ended with more of an exhausted sputter. Even factoring in the bits after the credits, it still left a lot to be desired.

Also I cannot get over how ungodly pixelated Varis' eyes look, what is happening there lol

[Levy9]

At least you're all invested enough in this game's overall story arc to be upset that you didn't get more questions answered in this patch. In a lot of MMO's I've played, people don't find the story engaging enough to really care one way or the other. I also thought it was a bit on the short side, but for the most part, I enjoyed what was there.

[Sesera]

My theory on the guy in the Ala Mhigan soldier gear:

He's the real Zenos and the Zenos you faced since the beginning of the expansion was fake.

The Zenos in Ala Mhigan gear is the real Zenos we fought until the MSQ quest Stormblood. Then Elidibus took his place as he was supposed to be dead but in the end Zenos survived and left his grave. There is a quest about people wandering near Zenos grave and when you investigate its empty.

At least that's how I see it.

[Beetle]

Was hoping for a bit more to be honest, especially in comparison to how 2.0 and 3.0 ended. This didn't need to be split into two patches

When 4.46 ended I was like meh... they're saving the stuff for 5.0.

Zeno's should of been a 8 man trial. Like the ARR one.

[Iscah]

The Zenos in Ala Mhigan gear is the real Zenos we fought until the MSQ quest Stormblood. Then Elidibus took his place as he was supposed to be dead but in the end Zenos survived and left his grave. There is a quest about people wandering near Zenos grave and when you investigate its empty.

At least that's how I see it.

Almost, but not quite.

The 'real' Zenos died - he killed himself at the end of Stormblood - and yet since then we have had "two Zenoses":

1. ELIDIBUS, who possessed Zenos's corpse and has been posing as him since he was shown to have "miraculously survived" in the patch stories.

2. The KATANA-WIELDING SOLDIER, the real Zenos's soul who - rather than doing whatever souls are supposed to do after the body's death - has somehow survived and transferred into the body of the Elezen soldier. It's likely related to Zenos's artificial Echo, which in the recent patch was confirmed to have transferred to his new body (indicated by the briefly glowing red eyes), but I've also see it suggested that it's something to do with the Ame-no-Habakiri katana which was suggested to have some kind of significance, but hasn't been elaborated on.

[craybest]

it's weird having all scions unconscious because i'm late in many sidequests and they magically appear in them, like if they had woken up XD
the ending wasn't good, but it wasn¿t as much of an ending as a prologue for 5.0. nothing really happened in the last story quest, we could have killed the ascian for instance, or even not us, our timely savior. we could have actually become the hero or darkness, or a big hint to it at least.

[Kazhim]

even aymeric feel like different from hw, i dont know i find him just boring, he was more alive in the hw extension,