What was your favourite expansion stories, ranked in order?

[Slatersev]

Endwalker
Shadowbringers
Heavensward
Stormblood
Realm Reborn.

Funnily enough, matches the popularity poll Famitsu just released.
https://twitter.com/aitaikimochi/sta...47180307791874

[Kyohei]

1- Shadowbringers 5.0
1.5- Heavensward

2- Shadowbringers after base msq

3- Endwalker: Before last Elpis cs

4- A Realm Reborn

5- Stormblood




10- Endwalker: Starting last Elpis cs

[rxantos]

1. Heavensward. Solid from start from end.
2. Shadowbringer. Surprisingly Interesting story and world building. Bozja
3. Stormblood. War story. Good world building, HoT, eureka, etc. Good raids.
4. ARR Starts slow. But ends interesting.
5. EndWalker. Jumped the shark. Feels empty. Garlemaid was specially disappointing, given the Empire of previous expansions. Even the praetorian had more world building than the entire zone of Garlemaid. And that's just one base of the empire.

[dynus]

1. Shadowbringer - Loved the First and its lore and characters.
2. Endwalker - Had its moments I disliked, but overall it was fun.
3. Stormblood - it really reminded me of the Suikoden series for some reason.
4. A Realm Reborn - Slow, but it's loved
5. Heavensward - The idea is sound, the execution was kinda disconnected for me. The pacing was all over the place.

[Listrella]

1. Endwalker
2. Shadowbringers
3. Heavensward
4. Stormblood
5. A realm reborn

[Hurlstone]

My original attempt of this was 5221 character long so here is a abridged version!

Shadowbringer- I was kinda not looking forward to this expansion. I feared that it would feel like a sidetrack, when the story should have been focusing more on the Ascians etc. Oh, how wrong I was. Its the characters that really make this expansion shine. I really did not realise how much I had grown to love the Scions until this. Evey reunion felt special, and for the most part each character actually grew in unexpected ways. The most obvious for me was my former least favourite Scion Thancred. Here he has a wonderful arc that sees him finally let go of Minfilia and became a much better character because of it. And no, I have not forget about you Emet-Selch. What could have been a flat Kefka clone turned into one of the most fascinating, impactfull and well-written characters in the history of Final Fantasy. I cried several times during this expansion!

Endwalker: I was apprehensive when this was announced. With so much left to wrap up and put to rest, I feared we would have a rushed, unsatisfying ending… but I think they absolutely nailed it. Endwalker was an emotional, beautiful story that delivered an ending that had allot of heart and messages that we need in this world of ours. It could be said that aspects such as Dynamis and Meteion felt unevenly added into the games world, but I felt their meaning and overall impact more then made up for that.

Heavensward: There is a reason this expansion is so highly regarded, and that is because it knocks it out of the park on almost every level. From character writing, to the central story and a gorgeous setting in Ishgard, my favourite city in the game. My one complaint would be how it wraps up the events from ARR’s patch quests. The resolution to it all felt very disappointing, as if done in an afterthought which has little consequence to the main story.

Stormblood: Honestly? I do not see why it gets such a bad rep. I really enjoyed the main story of this expansion. It has a fantastic cast of characters, with Lord Hein became the husbando rival I never thought Aymeric would ever have. Also, the Azim Steppe quickly became one of my favourite zones. The Omega Raid too deserves credit for being the best raid story so far.

Post-ARR Patch Story: For me, this is where the games really began to shine in its storytelling. The familiar tropes that where embedded in ARR start to get played with, the stakes are higher and one of the best character arcs starts to develop with Alphinaud. We are left starting Heavensward broken and separated, and it was awesome.

ARR: I do not think ARR story is at all bad, its just very… basic compared to what came after. Its a much more traditional FF tale, that is unfortunately overlong and still trying to find its identity after the events of the vanilla game (Hay, that kinda fits the games theme…)

[Soge01]

1. Shadowbringers
2. Heavensward
3. Stormblood
4. Endwalker
5. A Realm Reborn

[AoifeAogane]

For starters, I love all of it!

1. ShadowBringers- I feel that Shadowbringers had the best plot. It changed my perspective on the story that had come before, expanded the lore in a fascinating way, and had an extremely unique aesthetic.
2. Endwalker- I feel that Endwalker had the best story of all of the expansions. The things they were trying to say, and the way they conveyed them were important and beautiful.
3. Heaven's ward- This is when the game stopped feeling like an MMO and started feeling like Final Fantasy.
4. Storm Blood- This might be the best expansion for any other mmo. It's only down here on the list because of the steep competition. Storm Blood is Gorgeous!
5. ARR- The base game feels like "eating your vegetables". You know it's good for you. The other expansions wouldn't be as amazing without that foundation. But at times it can be a chore.

[BokoToloko]

1. Heavensward. All of it. Great self-contained story that doesn't rely on overly dramatic scenes to impact the player and does a good job at portraying the villains and the heroes of the story without falling in cliches and does a good job at portraying morally grey characters (Ysayle, Hraesvelgr). The side story of the sultana sidetracks the MSQ a bit, though.
2. post-ARR. Vastly underestimated because of the fetch quests. The entirety of the storyline feels like a snap back to reality for the WoL, not only by exposing the notable flaws in Eorzean society and its policies we defend but also by questioning the worth of the champion (specially during the last patches MSQ).
3. post-Stormblood. Greatly picks up the pace from leveling MSQ and solidifies one of my favorite character storylines in FFXIV: Fordola's. I think Fordola got a really decent redemption arc, as it separates "redemption" from "absolution", and I'm happy how it ended in Healer's role quests. I also like Tsukuyomi descent into a self-destructive streak and how it turns into the opposite of Fordola and strenghtening a villain personality that started really bland.
4. Endwalker: Both EW and ShB are more or less tied for me. In both, there are frayed elements in the storyline and some excessive reliance on shock value to drive the plot and impress the player. I think I rank EW higher because of how it lives up to old school FF stories without falling too much on tropes and because, as a whole, it feels more cohesive and fluid.
5. Shadowbringer. One of my biggest grips is the sudden turns in the storyline that completely sidetrack it and the lack of a decent conexion to justify them. We go from involuntarily hastening the destruction of the First in our quest to save it (mirroring the OG Warriors of Darkness) to trying to argue with Emet-Selch completely sidelining the previous point, which "coincidentally" resolves along the end of Amurot storyline. And I don't like how Emet seemingly rational argument to justify his genocidal campaign is pretty much handwaived and the closest one to address it was Y'sthola after the dungeon. And the worst part is that both things were really easy to address, but they never get to.
6. Stormblood. The only part I liked was Zenos and how he perfectly embodies the cruelty of the Empire in a meaningful way by making it impersonal and impassionate. A pity he had to stay alive afterwards. The rest was pretty forgettable.
7. ARR. Boring story overall and the plot drags a lot at certain stages, specially in the quests leading to Titan and Garuda (why does the heretic even try to bar our way to the airship?)

[Lihluh]

Shadowbringers Endwalker
Heavensward
Stormblood
A Realm Reborn