Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers (2019)

The story of Shadowbringers blows all else that Final Fantasy XIV offers up till its release out of the water and it's not even really close. With how much I'd heard about Heavensward being amazing I expected the best moments in the game to reside in that expansion, but I think Shadowbringers tells a significantly more compelling story that makes a far better use of XIV's main cast.

I titled this review the way I did because this expansion is the first one that really felt like it built directly off of the plot of the base game. Heavensward and Stormblood both feel kind of like side stories that are mostly unrelated to the base game, save for a few key plot points and some recurring characters. In fact, the further away I get from the conclusion of Stormblood, the more I question what its story even meant for the overall plot of the game. Most of the fallout from its conclusion feels hollow and impactless, which may be part of why this follow-up expansion feels like such a triumph in comparison.

I never expected the Crystal Tower questline to play such a pivotal role in the main story of XIV, and the way this expansion builds off of it as well as the Ascian/Primal storyline established in the base game felt so well written and deeply satisfying for me as someone who already greatly enjoyed the world this game takes place in. This is also pretty much the first time that nearly all of the Scions (sorry Lyse) have been relevant to the main plot since the end of the base game. It felt like they were constantly being written out of the last two expansions and having the group mostly back together was a great feeling. I also absolutely loved how they brought back G'raha Tia. I had my suspicions that he might be the Exarch, because there honestly weren't too many others it could be, but his reveal still hit me right in the feels. His storyline is one of my favorites in the entire game, maybe tied with Ardbert's. I'm looking forward to seeing more of him in the future for sure.

Emet-Selch works well as the villain here. Around the halfway point of the expansion you finally get a good understanding of his motivations and while he's kind of an ass it's hard not to empathize with what he's attempting to do at least a little bit. Elidibus is great as well, though to a lesser extent because the game didn't seem to do a good job of explaining what exactly he was trying to do. Even after finishing 5.3 I'm left just kind of confused about how he planned to move forward after creating dozens of Warriors of Light early on in the post-expansion patch content. Like I had my own theories that he was trying to bring about another calamity in doing so but the game never really followed up on that and now he's dead so uh... oh well I guess. I can kind of ignore some of the muddiness of his plans because I had so much fun with the relevant dungeons and boss fight but it's still a bit odd when the main story did such a great job with Emet. I still have to play 5.4 and 5.5 I guess. Maybe the answer lies there.

The story does definitely have its slow moments here and there, such as the second half of Il Mheg (I loathe the Nu Mou tribe) and the second visit to Kholusia, which brought all the momentum of the story to a grinding halt for a while. I've mostly seen complaints about the trolley segment in Amh Araeng but I didn't find it tedious, personally. Maybe the chill music constantly playing there just created such a vibe that I didn't mind.

This expansion also marked some small new quest mechanics that add some flavor to the typical RPG fare. Nothing mind blowing, mind you, but playing as other characters on occasion is a nice change of pace. That said, if you didn't enjoy the gameplay of the game up till now, this expansion won't change your mind. The dungeons and bosses are a lot of fun, but mostly follow the same design as everything up till this point. This was perfectly fine with me.

While I had a fantastic time with Shadowbringers, I'm a little bit concerned for what's to come. It feels like we're kind of lacking a strong villain or really any significant goal at all at this point, despite the setup that has been slowly happening in the background via cutscenes. Hopefully they'll ramp it up some so Endwalker can get off on the right foot.

Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers is a masterpiece of an RPG that manages to tell an emotional & heartfelt story and has some great gameplay & encounter design along the way. It still bears a few of FFXIV's pacing problems, but it's still come a long way since A Realm Reborn. The music of this expansion is also superb! As for whether this is my favourite expansion... it depends on the day. Today I would say it is, but tomorrow I might give the nod to Endwalker. Both are outstanding masterpieces though.

10/10.

“Remember… Remember us… Remember that we once lived.”

Playtime at review write: >1000 hours

Reasons to play: Rich and engaging story and lore, interesting class and boss mechanics (close to high level), the most strong social aspect among all MMOs.

Story 5/5: Main game and expansions has a single main story arc which should conclude in Edgewalker. And I should say that the story is probably one of the best I played in any game so far. At the beginning (up to level 50) it is rather slow, but even this part is later on plays the important role in overall story. Additionally, the main characters are significantly developing over the course of story and you could change how you perceive them and opinions about them. Overall, you always feel that you are a central part of the world and story and this creates a deep sense of immersion into the game. Also there are plenty of good side quests and each raid or dungeon has its own story.

Gameplay 4.5/5: The classes and boss mechanics are really slow and simple at the beginning (hence 4.5 out of 5), but extremely fun on max level. Maintaining the rotation and making fast decisions on how to alter it based on boss mechanics is very interesting. And boss mechanics themselves are overall top notch (really liked Nier Automata raids). Also this game has a gameplay across all levels - from level 1 to 80 and in end-game - you always feel that you play an interesting engagement game and enjoy the journey.

Social aspect 5/5 This game has the most developed social aspect of all MMOs I tried. Player create their own events, such as in-game conferences, organize hunts on bosses, create night-clubs and hire personnel to engage and serve to customers there. I was just mindblown on how much player-driven activities there are. Oh, and also players are overall very friendly and helpful in all dungeons, raids and trials, which was a breath of fresh air for me after WoW.

3/5

I think setting this story in a sort of parallel / self-contained world was genius because it gave us new stakes to get invested in, and a chance to shake things up. Story wise this was definitely the most engaging expansion yet for me, followed by Stormblood. The pacing is the best it's every been, but that doesn't mean it doesn't meander and stagnate at points (trolleys). It's still an MMO at the end of the day. The characters are great and the villain(s) compelling. While some characters achieve a great deal of nuance this expansion, I noticed that others are still one dimensional, and this became more noticeable by comparison. Overall a great story with solid Final Fantasy vibes.

Gameplay wise the combat has really clicked with me this expansion. The classes I play all became really interesting and had loads of tools available. I can see myself wanting to dip my toes into some of the harder content available for sure. The questing structure was pretty much unchanged, and still isn't my cup of tea completely. Lots of run here, do this, blah blah, but that's to be expected.

The music is top tier and elevates the story heaps. Presentation is improved but still held back by the age of the game. I don't think it detracts from the game at all, it's just noticeabley aged. Overall a great expansion, I'm looking forward to Endwalker. Ultimately though this is an MMO and the pacing of this story suffers hugely because of it. As I'm playing this mostly for the story, this is a bit of an issue...

I don't know what to say that hasn't been said before by others: this game survives mainly on sheer nostalgia and "I have nowhere else to go" feeling alone.

Community does most of the job making you regret purchasing or even keeping on with the game. Basic mechanics are often ignored. ERP is more important than actually being a decent player.

Do yourself a favor and buy Honey Select instead of festering in the Quicksands.

ffxiv can't seem to keep my attention these days, but the weeks following the shadowbringers release were some of the most fun i've had with a game, and that's without counting the social factor which enhances any mmo experience (and i have a lot of friends i'm very fond of who play this game, so that's saying something).

the story alone is worth the price tag if you ask me. if you like classic final fantasy stories with a few twists here and there, you'll be more than satisfied with this one. the characters are likable, the villain is likable, the new areas are varied, and the last area will make you cry for a while whenever you need to go grab a fucking piece of rock or something. it was absolutely useless, thanks emet

it's even better than heavensward, which is high praise indeed. when much of this mmo is hit or miss when it comes to storylines (hi stormblood, good riddance stormblood), i think it's important to acknowledge the things they do right, when they do them.

gameplay-wise it's mostly more of the same, which is to say fun for most, potentially mind-numbingly boring for some due to the infamously long (2.5s) gcd. to be fair, though, this really only affects the beginning to intermediate stages of gameplay — once you're at endgame you'll be performing more actions per second than alphinaud can say words. if you're any good, that is (which i never quite was, tbh, and i'm fine with that, but it does detract from enjoying endgame quite a bit and is probably why i grew bored with it).

extra activities include gathering, crafting and fishing, all of which are more complex than most mmos i've played. crafting in itself is an entire four-headed monster, with enough rotations and macros to satisfy the most hardcore of lifeskillers. there's also a casino with plenty of minigames to pass the time if that's your thing. given that each of these have their own set of achievements and prizes, like most mmos, you'll be getting something out of them even for the parts you don't find quite as fun.

in the end, i think i can safely say ffxiv is still my favorite mmo out of the ones i've tried. there's something for everyone in it, and heavensward/shadowhunters are the only mmo stories that can truly stand up to scrutiny under a single-player game lens. i wouldn't recommend it for a newcomer to mmos, maybe, especially if they want quick gratification, but for anyone else, it's a gift that keeps on giving, and very obviously lovingly crafted.

At this point I think that there's a Star Trek-style curse on FFXIV, where only the even numbered content is good. Shadowbringers brings with it another high water mark.

The dungeons continue to be interesting, varied, and fun, the rotations hit their final point and are interesting across every class now, the music is better than even Heavensward's, and the villain is one of my favorites across any media I've ever encountered.

My biggest issue with it is that in the final quarter it makes two noticeable low points where the pacing is destroyed and it laser-focuses on something completely uninteresting, the trolley and the not!Sahagin, but A, it only gets as bad as Stormblood's norm, and B, its finale more than makes up for it with the most incredible moments of the entire MMO by a fairly sizable margin. They managed to top the Dragonsong wait in the 3.3 storyline, and that's a pretty mean feat.

When 50% of this MMO is borderline or flat-out bad like it is with Stormblood and ARR, I struggle to recommend this to people, but if you can wait it out, this and Heavensward are quality enough that it just might be worth playing overall.