I did not enjoy Shadowbringer (SPOILERS)

[ProstheticSoul]

Shadowbringer is a poorly thought-out and messily-written hodgepodge of contrived plot devices and and plot elements.

It strings the player along in ways Stormblood never did. It poorly explains developments in obtuse ways using overly-verbose dialogue, long-winded and convoluted monologues that Stormblood never did either. There is more busy-work and errands for the WoL to undertake than in any portion of Stormblood or Heavensward, and it shows in every facet of the expansion. The only high point of this add-on is the very climax, the culmination and the points leading up to the confrontation with "Hades." Even then I would scarcely exclaim it was worth it.

In revealing the Crystal Exarch to be Graha Tia, Square-Enix expects the player to retrieve a character from memory that appeared maybe once or twice about 70-80 hours previously in the MSQ--and that's only assuming that was done relatively recently--dropped monthly subscription renewals would most certainly be needed to be taken into account here. Many returning players would be absolutely up **** creek without a paddle here.

And while I cannot speak for anyone apart from myself when making such an assertion I can easily say that such was the case for me. When his hood got blown off during that cut scene this was my reaction:

-_- "Uh....Ok?"

No, I wish I was making that up. I am returning to this game after a seven-year hiatus. I was just about done with Heavensward when I came back and was about two months in when I beat Shadowbringer. So Yoshi P. has a lot to mull over here, because I have discussed this on other message boards, and I know I am not the only one whose head this whole "big reveal" completely flew over.

My other big criticism concerns Urianger and Square-Enix's insistence on designating him as the go-to "exposition character." It is bad enough that merely listening to him speak impels me to break out a thesaurus, but the issues compound on one another when his explanations don't make a lick of sense concerning the Scion's difficulties in returning to their own bodies across worlds.

I didn't understand one iota of why Auricite wouldn't work in transporting their souls and their "psyches" back to the source. I saw this word "silcarum" or some such, and it came completely out of left field. Now, normally, this plot complication wouldn't necessitate such a grievance out of me. I would just chalk it up to a bunch of jargon and technical speak and try to paraphrase it in my mind thusly:

"Auricite won't work because it's not a stable enough of a crystal or something, whatever, time to move on."

But when you dedicate an entire arc to this nonsense and numerous cutscenes trying to explain to this to the player, as well as send the WoL on a bunch of fetch quests to solve said conundrum, that is when I begin to take umbrage. And this is exacerbated by the fact that Shadowbringer on the whole made very little sense to me.

[SannaR]

You weren't the only person who did it after not having done the CT storyline in years and yet many remembered who the Exarch was. Course there are many who like you who didn't. I'm sorry you didn't enjoy the 2nd most highly praised by fans and critics alike expansion. I'm a little baffled that you got confused about the auracite part in that it's too porous of a thing that it would be like a water balloon with a very small hole. Where over a small amount of time one's aether would just leak out which isn't what you'd want when traveling the rift. Instead of bringing up the whole oh crap we labeled Umbral and Astral wrong bit.

[Chyro]

Bait? Yeah, probably bait.

[ProstheticSoul]

Actually, it's an opinion piece/review of Shadowbringer. Not bait.

[HyoMinPark]

To be entirely fair, Yoshida did tell players prior to the Shadowbringers release to revisit the story of Crystal Tower, since it would play an important part in the narrative. You likely missed this, since you mentioned a seven-year hiatus, but it was expressly stated multiple times throughout ShB’s fanfests. That said, for new players, Crystal Tower is now required to finish the 2.x storyline and go into Heavensward—so it seems the issue with that and G’raha have been relatively rectified.



Everyone can like what they like, but I personally loved Shadowbringers as an expansion. Easily the best in terms of writing. It drew me in emotionally, and I tend to consider stories that can do that successes in my book. Even if there are issues like plot holes and continuity errors. I tend to not overly analyze writings when I’m reading because I read for enjoyment—so that might be why I’m a bit more willing to overlook things that others critique. Again, to each their own.

I agree with the above poster. If you don’t like ShB, you probably won’t like Endwalker either.

[Cleretic]

This is more an observation than a complaint or criticism, but I feel like your stated complaints are actually fairly minor things. Borderline nitpicks, in some places. That's totally fair, sometimes that genuinely is the stuff that bothers people--I stopped watching some TV shows not because of any one great issue but because of a dozen smaller ones. That's fine, and it's not like Shadowbringers is a government-mandated Favorite Thing. There's plenty of people who dislike Shadowbringers, they just didn't usually stick around or talk too prominently after Shadowbringers because ShB was, for better or worse, very loud in its themes and discussion. ShB at the time wasn't something you could just dislike and move on from if you wanted to stay with the game, Shadowbringers Talk was inescapable.

Although it does make me wonder, do you dislike it not because of those minor issues, or because of an indistinct something greater which was harder to say but put you in a mood to dislike smaller stuff that you can actually explain. Were there parts of Shadowbringers you liked, even minor things?

I'm going to disagree with the two above me and say that you won't by default hate Endwalker. Sure, you might, everyone has their own tastes and I only have a very narrow perspective of yours. But the strength of Endwalker is that, as a sendoff to the game as it's stood thus far, it's kind of a mix of everything that's come before it, and so if you've liked something that's come before it then it's going to be catered to in some way. I wasn't the world's biggest fan of Shadowbringers, especially not the parts a lot of other people adore, but I loved Endwalker because it opened with a lot of notes that I liked from Stormblood, Heavensward, and even ARR.

[redheadturk]

To be entirely fair, Yoshida did tell players prior to the Shadowbringers release to revisit the story of Crystal Tower, since it would play an important part in the narrative. You likely missed this, since you mentioned a seven-year hiatus, but it was expressly stated multiple times throughout ShB’s fanfests. That said, for new players, Crystal Tower is now required to finish the 2.x storyline and go into Heavensward—so it seems the issue with that and G’raha have been relatively rectified.



Everyone can like what they like, but I personally loved Shadowbringers as an expansion. Easily the best in terms of writing. It drew me in emotionally, and I tend to consider stories that can do that successes in my book. Even if there are issues like plot holes and continuity errors. I tend to not overly analyze writings when I’m reading because I read for enjoyment—so that might be why I’m a bit more willing to overlook things that others critique. Again, to each their own.

I agree with the above poster. If you don’t like ShB, you probably won’t like Endwalker either.

I loved shb, but everything post Elpis aside from Ultima Thule left a bit of a sour taste for me. I had gone into Elpis hoping to be able to split the timeline like G'raha did. Closed time loops is not a form of time travel I have ever been truly fond of.

[SannaR]

Snips

If the Op thinks Shadowbringers was a messily written hodgepodge of contrived plot devices and elements then I doubt he's going to feel differently about Endwalker's story. Especially since we have people still complaining about an 11th hour new end boss. Which isn't as bad as what they did in IX where you killed the final boss only to have some thing come out and basically say "oh thanks for getting rid of every "seal" of my prison. Also don't um wonder why or how there was no hint I even existed." Along with whatever they feel was the poorly explained development, overly-verbose dialogue, monologues and busy work in a story that's to be a book end of a 10yr story arc. Which I'm sure you can agree from certain perspectives or views Endwalker has a lot of.

[Cleretic]

Uhm... nnnnno, I actually feel like Endwalker was pretty well explained and paced. Could it be better, sure, and there were places I personally wish they'd have focused more (I literally just wanted a full-on Thavnair expansion), but I never felt like it was spending too much or too little time in an area that it ultimately needed. Again, I don't have enough of a feel for the OP's tastes to say they won't like Endwalker, because Endwalker does so much that it's hard to not like some of it.

Also, I am going to defend Necron, because while a fairly abrupt presence in the pure event-by-event story, he's a completely reasonable end state in terms of the themes and conceptual throughline of the game. FFIX is ultimately a game about how people deal with death; what better final boss than the embodiment of death itself? Admittedly, Necron was squaring a difficult circle in terms of embodying death itself without also embodying some other part of death; it makes a lot of sense to learn that the originally planned final boss was Hades, who would've very clearly represented death to everyone... but also would've given the wrong tonal implications, basically declaring the thematic enemy to be 'someday you will die and go to hell' rather than the more general 'someday you will die'.

Similar thing going with Endwalker's main enemy, actually. Speaking in terms of pure plot, sure, they're a relatively late arrival (although nowhere near as late as Necron was). But they're speaking to the closest thing FFXIV's got to an emotional throughline, so when you're thinking about it less as a pure 'events happen' story and more as a story that expresses emotions, ideals and concepts as well as events then they feel right at home, even if they turn up later.

...granted, I suppose from their largely detail-focused complaints I don't expect the OP to be someone with feelings that deep on Necron, so that character might be a miss for them, too. But again, a lot of stuff to like in Endwalker, I can't say they won't find something they'll enjoy. Maybe they were a big fan of the sort of stories that the Garlean Empire brought, which would naturally put them a bit off in Shadowbringers where they're practically the D-plot, but those guys come back in an interesting way in Endwalker.

[Carin-Eri]

Can't really comment on Endwalker yet as haven't finished it yet, but I thought Shadowbringers was great and the battle against Hades (and the cutscenes either side) blew me away - "This is our future. Our Story" still gives me goosebumps!