What was your favourite expansion stories, ranked in order?

[Haventale]

A lot of people have had time to finish EW and settle in on their thoughts on the story. I’m curious what people’s favourite expansion stories were from most to least favourite and why? For me it’s:

1. Heavensward
Dragons plus castles plus snow equaled my perfect story! It’s really that simple.

2. Endwalker
It had the least filler/down time in storytelling, so it was like, the most story-action packed, if that makes sense?

3. A Realm Reborn
I actually prefer down to earth, small scale fantasy stories. You start off as a simple adventurer, help people and become a hero to fight back the empire. It’s a classic fantasy story, but it’s still the kind I personally like.

4. Shadowbringers
Too edgy… and the sin eaters are soooo creepy I hate them so much. :’(

5. Stormblood
There was so much of a triggering subject with no warning. I’m playing a game rated Teen for gods sake, I hated how it was so frequent. You can have fantasy stories about empires/colonization without bringing that specific subject up. I’m very glad it hasn’t come up since.

What about you? What was your most/least favourite and why?

[Beytran70]

1. Heavensward
Expert character writing, a mature story that deals with things like the ups and downs of monarchy, organized religion, and strangely enough even the concept of a military-industrial complex in some regards. Builds upon the foundations of ARR and forms the bedrock of the story going forward. Incredible dungeons and raids, solid jobs, many game improvements, etc. Really good.

2. Shadowbringers
A much different story but one that allowed for a lot of new lore and information in regards to concepts we already knew. A new cast of interesting characters, moral dilemmas, and even new BFFs as well as growth for a lot of the old cast. Apart from one particular plot beat and section of the story, I thought it was great, and is very close to HW in my heart.

3. A Realm Reborn
Lets be honest, the first bits of ARR are crap, but once you beat Garuda and head into the primary plot with the Ultima Weapon and everything after it is pretty awesome. Definite jank though with bad VA, limited cutscenes, etc. but still good and necessary for what came after.

4. Stormblood
I probably rank it higher than some others but not too high. The general plot is cool enough, but honestly the best parts story-wise are the side stories and things that are explored in the patches. Seeing more Garlean stuff is always a plus for me, and it did have some neat areas. Shinryu is one of my favorite bosses ever, and Stormblood in general had some excellent content.

5. Endwalker
Too edgy… and the Final Days were soooo disappointing I hate them so much. I think they blew their load way too early with this one and the pacing was all over the place. The Sharlayan saving the world plotline was easily predictable, Garlemald was filled with interesting ideas but bad execution only saved by it being Garlemald (and that awesome music track on the radio), there were way too many sections of boring running around especially on the moon. The only things that made it enjoyable for me were the characters, the environments (Thavnair in particular), and the fact that toward the end they hint at far more interesting things to come. For the final installment, I found it incredibly lacking.

[Brightamethyst]

1 - Shadowbringers
2 - Heavensward
3 - Endwalker (up through Elpis)
4 - Stormblood
5 - ARR
6 - Endwalker (the ending)

5. Stormblood
There was so much of a triggering subject with no warning. I’m playing a game rated Teen for gods sake, I hated how it was so frequent. You can have fantasy stories about empires/colonization without bringing that specific subject up. I’m very glad it hasn’t come up since.

I get not wanting to bring up whatever it is that triggers you, but with no context we can't even guess at what you're talking about here.

[kaynide]

1- Shadowbringers, mostly for the lore.
2- HW, solid story, flying zones felt kinda copy-pasta tho…
3- EW, pre Moon
4- ARR
5- Stormblood, my least favorite story, but some of the better zones.
6- EW, moon onwards. Jumped the shark for me.

If they reworked ARR to actually utilize the Scions better… it would likely go up further. I felt a better connection with Cid’s team than the Scions.

[Vencio]

1. Heavensward
Expert character writing, a mature story that deals with things like the ups and downs of monarchy, organized religion, and strangely enough even the concept of a military-industrial complex in some regards. Builds upon the foundations of ARR and forms the bedrock of the story going forward. Incredible dungeons and raids, solid jobs, many game improvements, etc. Really good.

2. Shadowbringers
A much different story but one that allowed for a lot of new lore and information in regards to concepts we already knew. A new cast of interesting characters, moral dilemmas, and even new BFFs as well as growth for a lot of the old cast. Apart from one particular plot beat and section of the story, I thought it was great, and is very close to HW in my heart.

3. A Realm Reborn
Lets be honest, the first bits of ARR are crap, but once you beat Garuda and head into the primary plot with the Ultima Weapon and everything after it is pretty awesome. Definite jank though with bad VA, limited cutscenes, etc. but still good and necessary for what came after.

4. Stormblood
I probably rank it higher than some others but not too high. The general plot is cool enough, but honestly the best parts story-wise are the side stories and things that are explored in the patches. Seeing more Garlean stuff is always a plus for me, and it did have some neat areas. Shinryu is one of my favorite bosses ever, and Stormblood in general had some excellent content.

5. Endwalker
Too edgy… and the Final Days were soooo disappointing I hate them so much. I think they blew their load way too early with this one and the pacing was all over the place. The Sharlayan saving the world plotline was easily predictable, Garlemald was filled with interesting ideas but bad execution only saved by it being Garlemald (and that awesome music track on the radio), there were way too many sections of boring running around especially on the moon. The only things that made it enjoyable for me were the characters, the environments (Thavnair in particular), and the fact that toward the end they hint at far more interesting things to come. For the final installment, I found it incredibly lacking.

Honestly just exactly how this good soul put it together it’s exactly how I can relate!

Need I say anything further?

EW in my opinion was far disappointing than Stormblood…i mean….a friggin bird threatened the very fabrics of reality nihilism sorts….a bird really!!?

[Rulakir]

1. Heavensward. Total package. Ishgard is a powerful nation on its own, they don't really need the WoL and are doing them a favor taking them in as a refugee. The origins of the war are complex on both sides. The antagonists are characters you can understand without being so sympathetic you hate to defeat them. The protagonists actually suffer losses(!).

2. Shadowbringers. Interesting lore with a sense of impending doom. One of my all time favorite antagonists (in any game). Ascians and world history fleshed out more. (Trying to remain spoiler free here. :P)

3. Endwalker. Elpis. :P While there was a lot I disliked about EW, not enough to put it below SB. It also made me like Zenos, which was quite the feat.

4. Stormblood. I liked the Eastern half of it. I didn't like being a war mascot, in contrast to HW neither Doma or Ala Mhigo seem to be capable of doing anything without the WoL/Scions. Yotsuyu was a refreshing antagonist.

5. ARR. Honestly, one of if not the worst gaming experience I've ever had. I don't have much of anything positive to say about it.

[Naria]

1) Shadowbringers –There were a few pacing issues but the character work, lore and atmosphere were all amazing. The team nailed the beginning, and both the main and the 5.3 end.

2) Endwalker – There are so many things I love about Endwalker and up until Ultima Thule it was shaping up to easily displace ShB for me. I can really feel the effort and care that went into this expansion. Unfortunately, the ending fell flat since I never felt any tension over the scions’ fate and Zenos’s place in the finale felt incredibly unearned.

3) Heavensward – Starting around 2.3 is when I really started getting attached to characters and not just the world in FFXIV, and HW dialed that up to eleven. I loved the more self-contained story of HW and I hope with the new arc starting we get another HW style expansion again.

4) Seventh Calamity/Legacy –This is the story that really made me love this game, and I still have fond memories of it (and many not so fond memories of almost everything else in 1.0).

5) Stormblood – I really liked the world building in Stormblood, however, the story itself was inconsistent. Lyse, Fordola and Zenos were all characters that I didn’t enjoy, and they were a big part of StB. Still there are a lot of bits and pieces that I did like. Gameplay-wise Stormblood was really good.

6) A Realm Reborn – Coming from Legacy which was a much shorter and tightly plotted story, ARR felt too meandering. That said, so much of the elements I loved in later expansions start in ARR, and by no means do I consider it a bad game.

[Cleretic]

I actually wrote this one up on Reddit recently, so I'm gonna dig that up. I choose to split up 'MSQ only' and 'plus side content', because side content does factor in heavily for me, and since Endwalker has so little of it right now that'd be unfair to it.

MSQ-only:

1. Endwalker. It gets really far out of just not really having any low points; the biggest negative I can raise is that the first half of Elpis drags pretty hard if you're like me and don't like Emet-Selch. Other than that, it's basically all bangers and great payoffs.
   
2. Heavensward. Similar level of 'no misses', although with less high points. Still top-notch.
   
3. Shadowbringers. Mostly let down by me really hating the Tempest, and 'right at the end' is the worst possible time to hit a wrong note.
   
4. ARR, but I should note I count 2.x here, which I love. There's just some really good story moments here, and the pruning of the filler really helped.
   
5. Stormblood. Just... oof. Several zones empty of interesting hooks, one uninteresting villain and one squandered villain. Stormblood's capable of being good, but it gets good so rarely. Parts of later side content actually do Stormblood's good points better than Stormblood does, which is saying something.

With side content:

1. Shadowbringers. It's almost unfair, every bit of side content Shadowbringers had it knocks out of the park. The existence of a postgame also really alleviates that 'wrong final note' problem.
   
2. Heavensward. Mostly by strength of Alexander, but the Mhach raids hold up their end of the bargain plenty, and the Warring Triad are wonderful.
   
3. Stormblood. It's mostly Omega leading the charge here, but being a fan of Eureka helps. Not enough to make up for the bad MSQ, but it's helping by giving SB a bright spot it didn't otherwise have.
   
4. ARR. Definitely unfair here, because the main problems with the Crystal Tower aren't its fault, it's that it gets overplayed to hell and has lost its spectacle. Coils' story is good, but not good enough to make up for its gameplay.

[einschwartz]

1. Shadowbringers. It's the expansion where I feel the focus is entirely on my WoL. I also love stories with despair, gloom, dark and depressing themes. Seeing my character in pain and struggling gave me a lot of satisfaction and immersion. I already love my character but ShB makes me love him EVEN MORE. Additionally, I've always been a huge fan of Emet's Japanese VA so it was a cherry on top!

2. Heavensward. Very close to first honestly. The story is as great at ShB for me. Made me cry. Even when I watch other people's playthrough I would still cry. It's just that good!

3. Stormblood. For MSQ, I enjoyed the second half of it. The omega and ivalice are definitely the more fun 8-man and 24-main raids among what we have currently. Also, the best iteration of AST (RIP).

4. Endwalker. I would have like it more if not for the pacing issue. I feel like they want to balance out despair and hope in this expansion, which is fine. I'm mostly disappointed the sense of urgency and dread from the Final Days are almost non-existent compared to ShB. They improved / got creative on solo duties (including the stealth and escort tasks). Not everyone a fan but I honestly like roleplay sections a lot!

5. ARR. Well, rank it last because I didn't play consistently at this time (tried, quit, came back, went on hiatus). So I do not have any attachment to this expansion.

[ArcaviusGreyashe]

I might get a bit of heat for this, but...

1. Endwalker. I honestly feel like the balance between drama and comedy is most well achieved in EW. Nothing felt rushed to me, nothing was too much or too little. Plus, we got Hermes. And I honestly don't know what you would have liked that would have felt more urgent and dreadful than babies turning into monsters in the arms of a poor dude that cries and prays in hopes somebody would help him. The pacing issue, I think, reside in the fact that they wanted to give us breathers, loporrites namely, to deal with the traumatic experience of it. And honestly, apart from the final part in Labyrinthos, I was never bored. And Julius. Nah, the more I think about it, the more I like EW. And yeah, a bird almost destroyed everything, but that's both a metaphor, and an excuse to have a Yoshitaka Amano final boss. It's the most subtle and elaborate story so far.

2. Shadowbringers. Proto-endwalker. I love the first and the universe that came with it, I will forever hate Yoshida for not giving us more historical context, political quests and so on in this world, but I still love it. My primary grudge with it, though, is that I didn't feel any hype for most of the dungeons, and, as always, NPCs were just so lackluster. Ran'jit and the two clown girls are just underused and that's a shame. I never felt any love towards the two miqo'te in Eulmore that everyone seems to love, and I feel like the WOL's struggles were highly over-rated.

3. Heavensward. That's where I think I'll get some heat. Heavensward is so disappointing. The WoL gets poisoned because he's seen as an enemy despite actually saving Ishgard ? Oh well, never gonna mention it again. Children getting kidnapped by fanatics ? Nah, they'll get saved by a deus ex machina. A political revolution that aims to give the power to the people ? Oops, golden boy military leader and actual son of the damn pope and king is gonna lead both the people's parliament and the noble's one. Everything could have been wonderful, but they either didn't want to go too far and came back to safety every time, either they just didn't know enough to write proper political fiction. I still like it for the whole adventure with Alphinaud, Estinien and Ysayle that felt the most FF out of every expansion so far. If only the 3.1 to 3.3 weren't that disappointing, and Aymeric actually had some defining traits beside "be a good leader", that would have been the best story.

4. Stormblood. Tbh, I just couldn't rank it under ARR, but there is not much to save from this mess. I liked the ideas of some points, but as Heavensward, it was poorly carried out, except that this time, it had much less inspiration and was more of a mess. Of course, because Doma AND Mhigo was too much, but also because neither of those stories were that good. I loved the Azim Steppe. That's it.

5. ARR. Well... It's not that I hate anything here, much more that I just don't feel anything toward it. I remember everything that happened in it, but just... don't care. Most of my hype during those days was about PvE, my FC, and friends I made those years, the story itself didn't interest me that much back then.