Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood is the expansion following Heavensward. This should be a lot briefer than my KOTOR post and have few, if any, spoilers.
Stormblood’s story is very uninteresting and nonsensical for most of the first half. It starts off well, but every single little thing drags on for what seems forever. It doesn’t help that the story is basically hours and hours and hours of just dialog, with very little gameplay when compared to the entire experience.
I ended up skipping most of the cutscenes until lv65, as they were just too uninteresting to read. Very, very few of these scenes were voice acted. This is in contrast to the game post lv66, where every other scene featured great voice acting.
As the story reached it’s climax, I was delighted to see a lot of twists and turns along the way, while also having a lot of the more obvious questions answered. This indicated that the writers actually somewhat care about the story they are crafting. A welcome sight in these times. When compared to the WoW: BFA story, Stormblood is gold.
Stormblood features quite a few hub areas, with no real one area being the primary hub. This reflects well with the story it is trying to tell of desperate and fractured peoples trying to rise up against a single, organized, and powerful foe.
The resolution was also very well done and is actually my favorite part. Characters acted in a manner consistent with their premise and experiences. Older plotlines became relevant again, even if only for a short time, instead of just being forgotten entirely. It made me feel like I was just witnessing one small part of an epic, well constructed world.
I use the word “witnessing” deliberately. While is is true that the PC, which I will call WoL (Warrior of Light) for all subsequent posts about FFXIV, is instrumental in the events of the game. I, as a player, am not. WoL triumphs over every single obstacle with ease. There is no chance at failure for WoL personally. I may as well be playing as One-Punch Man. I guess that is to be expected from (basically) an anime-MMO.
Overall, the story was pretty good, but I can’t actually recommend FFXIV as your MMO of choice based on 2 reasons.
- It takes too long and costs too much for what you get out of it. You can get your narrative kicks from a non subscription video game, audiobook, or movie for a much lower cost and time investment.
- It barely qualifies as a video game. There is so little to actually do. While there are dungeons and bosses to fight. Your chance at having any amount of difficulty (or thought) while completing them is zero.
Stormblood is not the latest expansion. I’m on the Shadowbringers storyline now. I have heard nothing but raving reviews for this latest expansion, so I’m willing to see this through despite what I have stated in this review about the game overall.
I have one final note about the game. There is a new “feature” called Active Time Maneuver. This is one of the worst additions to an MMORPG that I have seen in a long time. When it appears, you have to stop what you are doing and click a button 5-20 times, and wait for a timer to run out before the fight continues. It’s basically a QTE but worse, if that is possible. It adds nothing to the boss-fight experience, and actively detracts from the game. There is no challenge involved. It looks horrendous. This feature was approved. It was theorized by producers or designers. It was OK’ed by systems designers. It was OK’ed by the producer. It was iterated on (presumably). It went into production. It was built by engineers. It was tested by QA. It was experienced by players. Why the hell was this blight set upon so many people at so many levels of the pipeline? Why wasn’t it stopped? Who is ultimately responsible for this? Is it the person who came up with it? Is it the producer, Naoki Yoshida? Is it the Japanese culture? Is it the monster that came up with Quick time events? Is it me? Me, who continues to play this game and give money to Square Enix despite this catastrophe?
There are just some things I will never know the answer to. Anyways, that’s Stormblood. The story is Good. It’s hampered by the pacing and length. I wish there was more gameplay and fewer cutscenes. Maybe Shadowbringers will be better. With WoW classic around the corner, I’m not sure I will finish it in a timely manner, but that might be for the best…