Post-Honeymoon SHB thoughts?

[Kling-Klang]

I liked the story and all the new areas, music was good as well and the dungeons are nice. Some glamour options are good too.
I dislike the new races, they feel very unfinished and not at all what I imagined viera to be. Eden story was a bit lazy(?), it was too fast to unlock stuff and kinda weird how suddenly we can just fix everything with that thing, which they dont even explain what it is.
Excited for more story in the next patches!

[Edax]

Story was good, it got me interested in the lore. Admittedly I'm not that interest in the First, can't say any of the outfits, culture or architecture caught my eye apart from Amaurot. I actively avoid the gear treadmill so when I finish leveling up Gunbreaker I suspect my interest in the game is going to severely diminish.

For all the talk about becoming the Warrior of Darkness and that photo competition showing us embracing the darkness in 2 screenshots, the new gear sets don't reflect that at all. Since I don't see any gear sets that catch my eye, I'm not sure what's going to keep my interest apart from the story. That's my perspective at least. I'm not that interested in item lvls.

[Reeereee]

SHB has the best story telling I've ever seen in an MMO format. Unfortunately I realized I just don't care for the combat elements of the game and that's never going to change. FFXIV is a game I stop in to catch up on the story and collect some glamour, it's never really going to be my main MMO.

[Cidel]

Shadowbringers is certainly an improvement over Stormblood in pretty much every regard, but that doesn't say much either; Stormblood was a low bar.

The story is by far one of the better ones in the series, but once it's over, it's... just over. I guess you could say it's relatively memorable... But I've watched/read stories that do timetravel/utopia-justifies-the-means/etc. tropes better, so it's not a huge selling-point for me. Not to say I'm not interested in what's coming next, but story has never been a centerpiece in MMOs for me.

I'm pleased that they left their apparent "comfort" zone with Hrothgar, but unfortunately the inclusion of the Elezen-Hyur hybrid with rabbit ears pasted on top of their heads "just because" still reeks of lazy pandering to me. Though customization-wise, they bungled both with Horthgar getting the shorter end of the stick because their limited hair choices are tied to Fantasias.

Content-wise, I am not surprised that so far this is essentially the third launch of Heavensward. Sure, nothing wrong with tomestone gear and weapons and Savage gear and weapons on a practical level, and the two starter EX trials so people get the hang of things, but the one-trick-ponying is getting fairly apparent. Thank goodness they say updates and changes are coming to crafting and gathering, because aside from the new quest turn-in formats they're still as boring underwhelming as ever. They re-tweaked PvP a bit and gave everyone a little more to work with, which is nice, but still fumble with potencies and designs on a basic level (Like, really? SCHs must stop healing to DPS just to get Aetherstacks, too bad though if no enemies are around to prepare).

I feel like this expansion was lacking in some new QoL areas, especially in customization, but I do appreciate the expanded Dresser to 400 slots; I managed to clean-out and lose 1 retainer (hears corporate SE groaning) and the small bonus to our plate limit. The free extras and crafting mats from those new inventory-free FATE tokens. And the small changes to crafting (DoL is still as dull as ever). Probably forgot a few more, but they're relatively forgettable.

Not too crazy about GNB or DNC (though I did level DNC because I love its weapon and like that it's a mobile ranged DPS). I also feel like their inclusion of DNC and its abilities is at odds with the identity of BRD, and it shows. I think you could argue they felt the need to strip BRD and AST of some things just to create a niche for DNC. Never been a tank person, so no comment on GNB aside from its aesthetics looking like a MCH in heavy armor.

Having said all that, I need to wait for 5.1 (when there supposedly is going to be a whole bunch of stuff releasing) before I can form a better opinion.

[AnimaAnimus]

Story is the best it has ever been even if we were roundabout lied to about the whole warrior of darkness thing, for a major selling point that was a huge disappointment. But sadly once its done, its the same ol same ol. Tomes, mounts, and a new 8 man. Hunts, maps and yada yada. Nothing new to see or do, just the same thing with a different veneer.

What I would give for them to shake things up a little with some really well made content spanning multiple avenues that could get us out of this rut.

[Alexandre_Noireau]

Story Presentation: Well narrated, brilliantly directed (very cinematic takes to have actual impact, my film addict was kinda pleased) and finally very well paced in general.
Story Narrative: A stupid multidimensional travel that is already done to ad nausseum and back, everything in this storyline i've seen in all other forms of media already, ShB was to me, a pretty long and not that interesting anime chapter of a not so interesting anime chapter. Something ill hold forever. Multiversal storylines are just BAD. Ex Machina all over all the time at will. Then again seems to be the trendy topic for our generation, hopefully it will be overcome in a few years. Everything well sour since Nanamo Ul Namo was retconned. Really. All these reflection and shard jumping and stuff is just bad. Hydaelyn was good enough.

Graphics: Bad, as usually, and aging terrible. At least for PC standars. Textures and Shaders are a mess. This should be number 1 top priority. In fact is affecting the very narrative by now, cause is really easy to break suspension of disbelief if you start noticing how block characters textures and shadows are in cutscenes, they actually hurting the directing effort on the narrative.

Enviroments and Designs: Beautiful as usual. Hindered by poor graphics.

Design Mechanics: Same old. Hey, do something diferent for once maybe? Oh right, the diadem happens. Wonder what does it feel for the team to not have a single good original idea since 2012 when they decided on making ARR. Everything has been constant copypasting of content, models and designs. And no, changing colors and names do not make things "new". Neither does rising "iLvLs". Tomestones are not "content".

Sound Design: Brilliant.
Music: Masterfull. Soken just keeps going beyond and beyond.

Gameplay (New-Player): Boring ass slow still. Really dragging and unnecesarily tutorialish in general.
Gameplay (Old-Player): Boring. 6 years of the same. Seriously. SPEED THE GAME UP. REWORK THE FIRST 50 LEVELS, UPDATE THE SKILL SYSTEM TO NOT BE LINKED TO LEVELS SO WE DON'T LOSE ALL OURS SKILLS IN A BORING 1 SKILL PRESS DUNGEON.
Gameplay General: Lacking a proper learning curve, leading to difficulty spikes that just segregate the playerbase. Early game needs more bite, end game needs a LOT more bite.

Class Design: Pretty good with such an strict trinity system.
Class Variety: Not too good, every class is looking pretty similar in function time and time, adding a repetitive slow combat, yeah, is aging.

Player Customization: Nonexistent outside cosmetics. Play right or play wrong, no custom builds.

Social Aspects: Just release a single player mode already. Literally no reason to have any social interaction at all.

Overall: Pretty amazing expansion, pretty good MMORPG. Once you stop holding it to dirt low MMORPG design standars. It just an awful non-reactive, boringly repetitive and poorly paced way too streamlined and way too slow of a gaming experience.
MMORPG: 8/10. Videogame: 6/10.

Hopefully one day they release a "single player" mode where you actually play an interesting storyline (like going into garlemald with Estinien and Gaius, im pretty sure that MSQ was AMAZING) instead of constantly being deviated from any significant development by some bad attempt at totally tiring and totally overdone "multiversal narratives".

So in general i give the game 7 ardbert axes with cool main theme sounding on the background out of 10. One day we would be part of something interesting. Meanwhile, we are just the shonen manga protagonist going into endless filler episodes cause no one has bothered to write the actual storyline for the conflict presented at the beginning of this story. I beat Garlemald must be really cool this time of the year, with high chances of black rose. Oh that was solved, off camera, cool.

I guess ill just go back to play XII and Tactics and Vagrant Story for a proper dark and intriguing storyline.

PS: Get over it. I should too. But i cant. Riding home, finding hope. For some stupid reason, i still have hope this game will one day have a proper storyline with a proper resolution. And again, Nanamo should be dead. Reflections shouldn't exist. All of Shadowbringers could have done by visiting Meracydia, New World, Thavnair, Ilsabard. Screw multiversal narratives, they are stupid. Emet-Selch is nothing but a cheap rip off of the Han-Rasen from Tengen Toppa. I already saw this storyline a few hundred times.

[Xatsh]

Same old same old with a much better story and solid world design. Best way I can describe it atm.

[Niyuka]

Great story, good music, good world design.

Bad dungeon gameplay, EX primals were solid, Raid is too simplistic, Savage barely better. Lack of challenge overall is a real problem, lack of any new game system AT ALL, while leaving past game systems behind without updates for years at a time.

Catering to the conservative playerbase with repeating the known and expected formula is also a bad design decision. WoW was at its most successful when it challenged the playerbase, and people expected more of that (end of BC, start of WotLK).

I think the panicky moves like fantasia to a 60 days sub, and the welcome back campaign already, show people are done with 5.0 and they are bleeding subs badly.

[Jimsvaliant]

Great story, good music, good world design.

Bad dungeon gameplay, EX primals were solid, Raid is too simplistic, Savage barely better. Lack of challenge overall is a real problem, lack of any new game system AT ALL, while leaving past game systems behind without updates for years at a time.

Catering to the conservative playerbase with repeating the known and expected formula is also a bad design decision. WoW was at its most successful when it challenged the playerbase, and people expected more of that (end of BC, start of WotLK).

I think the panicky moves like fantasia to a 60 days sub, and the welcome back campaign already, show people are done with 5.0 and they are bleeding subs badly.

I wouldn't say it's a panicky move like offering a "limited time mount" for buying a 6-month sub after quarterly earnings report show huge loss of monthly activity. I think a month after an expansion release is too early to claim they're bleeding subs when their steam and twitch numbers are higher than they've ever been.

Personal anecdote: I was the only person on the personal discord I share with my friends that played Stormblood. I never push my friends to play FF:XIV because I know it doesn't appeal to everyone. We are all Vanilla WoW raiders and we all played WoW during Beta for Azeroth and quit two short months after. After the huge amount of hype ShB generated post-launch 6 of my friends have just started playing it again or for the first time. One of them only had to purchase ShB while three others have bought the complete editions after playing for 2 or 3 days. Just a few hours ago one more buddy and his roommate hopped on their inactive accounts because of the welcome back campaign. A less cynical person could look at the welcome back campaign as an interest bait rather than an emergency response.

Obviously no one has the numbers but Square Enix; however, based on 3rd party sources and my personal experience, I would say it's too early to cry bleeding subs.

[Ranhansha]

I wouldn't say it's a panicky move like offering a "limited time mount" for buying a 6-month sub after quarterly earnings report show huge loss of monthly activity. I think a month after an expansion release is too early to claim they're bleeding subs when their steam and twitch numbers are higher than they've ever been.

Personal anecdote: I was the only person on the personal discord I share with my friends that played Stormblood. I never push my friends to play FF:XIV because I know it doesn't appeal to everyone. We are all Vanilla WoW raiders and we all played WoW during Beta for Azeroth and quit two short months after. After the huge amount of hype ShB generated post-launch 6 of my friends have just started playing it again or for the first time. One of them only had to purchase ShB while three others have bought the complete editions after playing for 2 or 3 days. Just a few hours ago one more buddy and his roommate hopped on their inactive accounts because of the welcome back campaign. A less cynical person could look at the welcome back campaign as an interest bait rather than an emergency response.

Obviously no one has the numbers but Square Enix; however, based on 3rd party sources and my personal experience, I would say it's too early to cry bleeding subs.

I'd also say it could be a final try to prevent some people from playing the new WoW Classic.