Two years ago, I beat Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward and found it to be an exciting, enjoyable adventure.
I mentioned at the end of my review that while I’d be taking a break, I was excited to keep playing to see what would happen in the post-Heavensward patches.
But you know what happened at the same time that I finished Heavensward? The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles came out and took over my thoughts forevermore. (NEO: The World Ends With You also came out at the same time, because that was a crazy period of time for great games.) I’d finished Heavensward intentionally to make sure it wasn’t competing with those, but little did I realize the resulting break and Ace Attorney obsession would lead to Final Fantasy XIV once again being relegated to weekly check-ins for the cactpot.
However, the winner of this year’s Celebrating All Things Mysterious contest back in May chose the second Final Fantasy XIV expansion, Stormblood, as the game for me to review, and so I resumed my progress.
The post-Heavensward patches were exciting and wrapped up the Heavensward storyline in a satisfactory way. Then I began Stormblood proper. This time, the story returns its focus to the Garlean Empire, as our characters spearhead a move to free Ala Mhigo from imperial control.
Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy Stormblood as much as I enjoyed Heavensward, and not just because I prefer Ishgard as a setting.
The biggest reason, which I realized near the end of the expansion, is that it largely focused on a supporting character whom I just didn’t find interesting. Her development throughout the story fell flat for me, which meant it had a lot of moments that were supposed to be epic or emotional that didn’t have much of an impact on me at all. And the second big reason is that the story felt disjointed at times.
Stormblood is supposed to be about the liberation of Ala Mhigo, but the characters eventually conclude that the best way to do that is to free the eastern country of Doma from imperial control first. There is a link there, but the Ala Mhigo and Doma plots felt too separate to me, which gave the overall plot an odd feel.
Now, despite these complaints, the final few parts of the story were actually pretty epic. They made it feel like it was worth going through the rest. I also found a greater appreciation for the villain when I realized there’s some oddball humor to his portrayal.
Click for Stormblood spoilers
For example, partway through the final encounter, Zenos basically tells the player character that he thinks they could be best friends, and if you reject the idea, he says wanting to fight him is just even more proof that you and he are similar. It’s the funniest take on the “we’re not so different” trope, because it comes across like he’s not trying to persuade you of anything, he’s just really happy to find a kindred spirit (even if you don’t see it that way at all).
Anyway, I didn’t enjoy Stormblood nearly as much as Heavensward, but it did have some good moments. I’ve also seen people say it picks up a lot in the post-Stormblood patches.
I do want to highlight one thing that isn’t about Stormblood specifically, but was added with more recent patches to the game – the ability to play through story dungeons with an NPC party. I love this addition. I used to dread dungeons, because the party would always rush through and leave me no time to enjoy the dungeon itself. Now I’m able to enter the dungeon with story-relevant characters, explore it at my own pace, and even get some banter between characters! It’s a wonderful addition that really made that aspect of the game much more enjoyable for me.
I’ll be taking a short break from such devoted Final Fantasy XIV playing to focus on some other games, but I’m looking forward to getting into the patches and eventually reaching the much-praised Shadowbringers.
Now, I noticed while writing this that my Heavensward review began with me mentioning that it had been two years since I beat A Realm Reborn, much like this one began with me pointing out that it had been two years since I beat Heavensward. So… see you in 2025 to discuss Shadowbringers!
Kidding, kidding. I’ll put in my best effort not to let that happen again. In the meantime, if you’ve played Stormblood, how did you feel about it?
Back in July, the most exciting announcement to come out of this year’s Limited Run Games showcase was that Shantae Advance was being revived as a new entry in the series.
