FFXIV

Story Positives:

1. Architecture: So let’s start by mentioning that… honestly I was expecting better overall architecture design from FFXIV but with the advantage of hindsight I can see why I thought that. Spoilers, Dawntrail has the best architecture by far. So we’ll start off by mentioning Limsa Lominsa! Good sightline blockers, good visible cityscape nearby, and good scope
2. Character: Alphinaud has his irritations (many, in fact) but you can really see the surface-level boy who really does not understand what he’s doing and is in way over his head
3. Character: Aymeric is awesome in literally his very first scene. He is smart, kind, pragmatic, and generally awesome
4. Character: Ditto for Hoary Boulder and Coultinet
5. Character: Haurchefant is just kind of awesome. Consistently, even in ARR
6. Character: Merlwyb is a weirdly good character across ARR
7. Character: Moenbryda is well voice acted and, honestly, a delight despite her relatively small amount of camera presence
8. Character: Riol is actually pretty legit, and honestly I wish he got more screen time
9. Character: Tataru is a delight even in ARR
10. Character: The Sultana only has a few scenes but they’re critical and she herself is a very sympathetic, interesting character
11. Cutscene: The opening of ARR is, of course, an excellent cutscene (it better be, it’s like 8 minutes long). This is the cutscene which shows the previous Calamity, aka the destruction of 1.0 as it is converted into ARR. Dalamud descending, its mere passage causing damage to the nearby city-states, and then we see the Battle of Carteneau waging down below, with us at the forefront of course… until Bahamut finally manages to break out and starts really wreaking havok. It’s a solid cutscene don’t mistake me but it is WAY too much flash (this was when Square was all in on flashy cutscenes so it’s nice to see there’s at least some actual meat to this one). We see Louisoix channel the summoning of the city-states into the manifestations to contain Bahamut (which fails of course), and we see him sending US to the future as a ‘just in case’, and then he ends up fighting Bahamut directly, basically atomizing himself to wound the monster. Solid stuff…
12. Cutscene: …we’ll give it a double for spectacle and tone
13. Foreshadowing: Foreshadowing (primals, ala mhigans, Garlean power struggle, Ishgard, etc.)
14. Storytelling Mechanic: The storytelling tool of the Echo and what it allows us to see and perceive
15. Theme: The core theme, even early on, of being the inspiration to help others find their better selves
16. World Building: The Black Shroud, regarding the elementals, the tree, the people who maintain it, the casual anti-outsider mentality, and how precarious the area is to live in
17. World Building: Sylphs (and writing). They’re adorable, even outside of their daily
18. Brickwork: It’s pretty vanilla, especially by even the standards of the time, but the varying Gridania and Shroud forests are still nice for what they are
19. MSQ: The initial Limsa Lominsa arc stumbles a bit, but the down to earth storytelling, the gradual escalation from disgruntled to malicious to beast tribes, is quite well done
20. World Building: World building all over the place in Limsa, with the new civilization and attempts at reform and resistance thereto and the economics and structure of it
21. MSQ: The Ul’dah city-state arc is easily the best of the three, with character introductions, ideas, and tons of world building…
22. MSQ: …for two positives
23. Brickwork: The desert and badlands of the Ul’dah region really sell how this place is kind of a hellhole and only significant due to its positioning between everywhere else
24. Doodads: I know they did a doodad pass but I’m going to be honest, I did a bit of a tour and the only place that impressed me enough to warrant a new positive is the Ul’Dah region (I swear they always favor this area more). There’s STILL nice big swaths of nothing or repeated trees or cacti but there’s been some effort in the populated spots at least
25. Plot: Tempering. We get our first insight into it with Ifrit, and it is exactly as horrible as it should be
26. Secondary: Periodic world building in the La Noscea side quests, and some cool individual side stories, alongside the Thanalan quests
27. MSQ: The entire Coerthas arc is legit, noticeably better written and constructed narratively than every single quest before it (even having legitimate reasons to be embroiled in local affairs rather than excuses)
28. Secondary: The Coerthas side quests were really quite good…
29. Secondary: …including several nice bits of world building and some great character arcs
30. Cutscene: The big scene where the Ultima Weapon is unveiled after the battle with Garuda is, honestly, the first truly good in-game scene in the game
31. Brickwork: Brayflox’s Longstop is the first dungeon I would say is worthwhile of a positive. Consider this for the general greenery and overgrowth we see periodically in ARR as well
32. Moment: Raubahn’s killing of Teledji is, honestly, the best part of the entire banquet
33. Consequence Storytelling: Acknowledging the support network under adventurers, aka consequence storytelling
34. Internal Continuity: A special continuity plus bonus for the 2.3 arc and how it acknowledges several small but neat little points of continuity
35. MSQ: The 2.1 and 2.2 Doman Refugee Crisis arc is great stuff. It’s a shame it gets interrupted so often
36. Prime Opt: Culinarian 1-50 is nicely constructed and has some good worldbuilding, but also some weirdly well done descriptions of the food
37. Prime Opt: Despite other issues, the Ninja 30-50 has some good camerawork, animation, and some good moments
38. Prime Opt: Dragoon 30-50 is weirdly good, with lots of good world building (if bad exposition) and surprisingly good cutscenes
39. Prime Opt: Scholar 30-50 has some great world building and some neat, heart-warming scenes to it
40. Prime Opt: The Alchemist 1-50 quest was interesting in how it seemed terrifying at first and veered right into legitimately sweet and sentimental
41. Prime Opt: The Armorer 1-50 quest wasn’t super great, but it was an interesting contrast of two differing mentalities and a nice showcase of an Idiot Sith
42. Prime Opt: The Botanist arc does a good job of showcasing a pacifist tormented by the ethics of civilian contribution to conflict
43. Prime Opt: The Conjurer 1-30 quest wasn’t super amazing, but the story of Sylphie and her discovery of conjury, as well as the world building of the elements, is good stuff
44. Prime Opt: The dialogue and intrigue of the Rogue 1-30 quests are legit, despite how hard they are to read at times
45. Prime Opt: The entire Fishing arc is probably one of the funnier ones in ARR, but the quality of the dialogue is what really makes it shine
46. Prime Opt: The Gladiator 1-30 quest was… weirdly good. Enjoyable characters which complexities to them, a good structure, good cinematography
47. Prime Opt: The Goldsmith 1-50 quest was surprisingly enjoyable given how obvious its plot was, but it had some nice moments and Rorotan was legit
48. Prime Opt: The Leatherworker 1-50 quest had some hiccups but a rather memorable guildmaster, and a nice story arc about quality vs. speed
49. Prime Opt: The Pugilist 1-30 is way better than I remember, with good characters and it mostly being about us helping the guild lead be a better pugilist
50. Prime Opt: There’s a bit of decent world building in the Arcanist chain, and the main character is alright // The decent character bits and good scenes really helped with the Black Mage 30-50 quests
51. Prime Opt: The Thaumaturge 1-30 story had some hiccups, but I enjoyed the world building and examination of voidsent, aether, and magedom in general
52. Prime Opt: The Weaver 1-50 quest was surprisingly sentimental and personal, being almost entirely about the budding relationship between the miner and the princess
53. Prime Opt: Warrior 30-50 is simple but effective, a nice zoomed in character piece with some neat worldbuilding about how Warriors function
54. Secondary: Edda’s story is a bit too tragic… but it’s well told, and weaves in and out of our story periodically, and ultimately it’s better than it is not
55. Moment: G’raha’s final farewell as the Eternal Wind plays really is just… feels
56. Brickwork: The Crystal Tower and all its pieces. It’s so simple yet the gold inlays and deep blue crystal makes for a lovely aesthetic, as does the labryinth below and the World of Darkness above. Simple but solid
57. Visual Storytelling: So much of the Coils of Bahamut. There’s a lot of this place that conveys what Dalamud really was and how the Allagans really operated
58. Prime Opt: The Coils of Bahamut. It takes a while to get there (hence only one positive), but when it does it hits pretty well, and is arguably more MSQ than the MSQ was
59. Visual Storytelling: Almost all of the three major zone clusters of ARR have chunks in the distance you can see that are byproducts of the Calamity. This, more than anything else in the entire game, really sells to me the nature of what happened and its impact on the world
60. Cutscene: The Sultana, Raubahn’s arm, our quick slam of the wall, all good conveyance of the events of the banquet… and why we’re seeking the frozen north. And what do we see the moment we arrive? Dragons already attacking the gates of Ishgard. The quick transition to us clearly being at home here now (thanks Daddy Edmont), the long shot of the city and the surrounding flying islands (giving some decent visual continuity), the dragons clearly coming from the Churning Mists, and we see us actively abandon our Warrior gear in favor of Dragoon. All of this conveys a lot in a short period of time. The reason we’re here, where we are, the enemy we face, and of course the new class we’ll be focusing on…
61. Cutscene: …damned good cutscene…
62. Cutscene: …easy triple
63. Visual Storytelling: I also need to mention that a lot of this is just conveyed in visuals and animations. From how comfortable we appear in Ishgard, to the reactions of the people at the oncoming horde, to the frustration at being on the run
64. Character: Alphinaud’s character arc is fantastic, and really shows his growth as a character
65. Character: Artoirel is an interesting, fleshed out character who has a quick and interesting arc even in his initial presentation
66. Character: Aymeric really is one of my favorite characters in the entire game not only for his solidarity and genuineness but also his intellect and leadership skill…
67. Character: …for two positives
68. Character: Count Edmont de Fortemp is yet another example of a reasonable authority figure, who in his very first scene is awesome enough to warrant a positive. He stands as our adoptive father for good reason…
69. Character: …and gets two positives
70. Character: Estinien, too, is a triple bonus for being a great, complex character with a solid arc
71. Character: Ga Bu. He’s only there briefly, but he’s extraordinarily well utilized, and besides serves as a fantastic launchpoint for Alisae’s return to the party and the character arc she will have for some time
72. Character: Haldrath (the first Azure Dragoon) has precious little screen time but is awesome for it
73. Character: Haurchefant continues his awesome streak
74. Character: Hilda, too, steals the scene every time she’s in it
75. Character: Kal Myhk is adorable, and we learn a decent amount of dragon society (and biology!) while helping him, his brother, and his mother (Dragons follow the natural order)
76. Character: Krile has so much character in so little time, I love it
77. Character: Leveva is just delightful all around
78. Character: Lucia remains awesome pretty much throughout HW
79. Character: Matoya! Cantankerous, helpful, and well acted
80. Character: Raubahn finally comes into his own as a character, helped by his actor
81. Character: Tataru continues to be an excellent character despite her limited screen time
82. Character: The connecting character threads between Estinien and Alphinaud
83. Character: There is a lovely symmetry to Aymeric and his relationship to his father… and Haurchefant and his relationship to his. Both illegitimate children, both risen on their own two feet, and both dealt with in completely disparate ways
84. Character: Ysale is, as usual, awesome with a great character arc
85. Localization: The localization continues to be on point
86. External Continuity: Lolorito’s plan (retcon or no) is a good one, neatly written, and ties up a lot of threads
87. Internal Continuity: Excellent, really…
88. Internal Continuity: …for a full two positives
89. Dialogue: We finally start to see some really solid dialogue
90. Voice Acting: Alphinaud’s voice actor is great
91. Voice Acting: Aymeric
92. Voice Acting: Estinien
93. Voice Acting: Ysale
94. Voice Actor: Ardbert’s voice actor is excellent even in this expansion
95. Brickwork: I’ll be honest, Ishgard does not look as good in reality as it does in my memory. Drab textures and bad color choices hurt it (yes I realize it’s a stone castle in a blizzard that doesn’t make it look any better). But I HAVE to give credit to the Ishgardian architecture that’s across the whole expansion. Very french steepled castle style, lots of verticality and a reliance on towers instead of traditional walls, plenty of statues and fancy additions. Perhaps amusingly even a place like Idyllshire follows this architecture
96. Architecture: Ishgard is our next architecture positive. While it’s a bit too grey there’s still good layout and design, and you can see the rest of the city from most angles without being able to see the entire city at any given point in time
97. Brickwork: Consider this a general positive for the… let’s call it ‘cliff oriented’ terrain. The Hinterlands and Churning Mists, the Sea of Clouds… there’s a general emphasis on floating islands and exceptionally call cliff-faces in all directions and it emphasizes the harsh terrain and general challenges the Ishgardians face just existing. In fact if you’ve been paying attention, Ul’Dah is reliant on trade, Gridania is reliant on the blessings of the ever fickle elements, and Ishgard is basically a wasteland (directly thanks to the Calamity too) which leaves only La Noscea as a reliable food source. It’s a shame they never touch on this cuz the visual storytelling is right there
98. Moment: Earning Midgardsormr’s respect and being granted his mount is a pretty awesome moment
99. MSQ: The initial introduction to Thordan and the trial by combat sequence
100. MSQ: The plot-point of cold, efficient pragmatism of Estinien and us going out to try and treat with Iceheart and, should we fail, at least delay their attack on behalf of Ishgard
101. Visual Storytelling: The visual storytelling and contrast of the Churning Mists as well as Hraesvalgr and Nidhogg’s lairs
102. Cutscene: The ‘we’ve got Aymeric’s back’ scene is awesome
103. Moment: As much as I personally dislike the scene, the failed peace conference scene is well constructed and does a good job of showcasing the varying mentalities that lead to such terrorism and other such issues
104. Plot: The big reveal of the nature of Primals is a good scene in general, but even more so the very plot point of what a Primal actually is is a fascinating concept that makes for some great storytelling and will lead to great stuff down the line
105. Brickwork: We’ll call this a bit of an aggregate. There’s some decent snow-capped ruins of the Dusk Vigil, the misty mountain of Sohm Al, the magically charged hellscape of The Aery, the interiors of Ishgard in the Vault, it’s all good stuff
106. Brickwork: I do love me the Great Gubal Library. Row after row of magical books and shelves and weird random things
107. MSQ: The victory lap of the End of the Dragonsong War is pretty legit, with a lot of cool ‘what happened’ moments for a ton of characters
108. Outro: And yes, another positive for the outro, for being exactly as tear-jerking and powerful as it should be… with Ysayle and Haurchefaunt’s aid
109. Moment: The Final Steps of Faith cutscene is brilliant in so many ways I don’t know where to begin. The battle, the choreography and cinematography, the significance …but through it all, just us… walking. The Star Destroyer…
110. Moment: …for a full…
111. Moment: …three positives
112. MSQ: A rare story positive for the Nidhogg raid fight. It’s literally the thematic core of the entire expansion built into the fight; letting go of the past, moving forwards, cycles of vengeance
113. Cutscene: The Echo remains a great storytelling tool and speaking of which, the cutscene of the past shortly after the initial battle with Nidhogg is well directed, acted, and written
114. MSQ: The finale of 3.1 is convenient, but well constructed and very well serves the narrative, both in service of how Ishgard is dealing with things, Aymeric’s reactions thereto, and the impacts it will have furthermore
115. Plot: Thordan’s overall plan is actually pretty horrifying, but the way it’s set up and the way he out-plays the Ascians is delightful
116. Moment: Honestly, Haurchefant’s scene where he just sorta… goes along with it when he sees us, Estinien, aaand Ysayle is just kind of awesome (good animation, very in character for him)
117. MSQ: The Vault does some absolutely wonderful visual storytelling with its music, trash design, and visuals… and the fact that we’re fighting ‘bosses’ (aka primals) as regular bosses
118. Moment: For all the nonsense about the event itself, Count Fortemp just breaking down at the loss of his son hits to this day
119. Story Sequencing: The story sequencing of the early arc is well constructed. As we learn more, our plans shift, and as our plans shift, we go to new areas, learn new things, and plans shift again
120. Moment: Ysayle’s sacrifice, by contrast to some earlier ones, is very well done. Good cinematography, good directing, and it sticks
121. Brickwork: All of the Azys Lla dungeons work for their Allagan grotesqueries as well. Fractal Continuum, the Aetherochemical Research Facility, and Azys Lla itself
122. Visual Storytelling: The Thordan fight was pretty legit from a storytelling perspective. The attacks from the previous knight fights, the FFVII reference, but best of all the final phase after his ultimate attack where he can’t even bring himself to do anything but flail helplessly against the party
123. Cutscene: Ardbert’s big scene really does a lot in very little time, and the narrative beat of revealing his time right as the story has just followed a major arc about being willing to do anything for victory… and immediately before the Griffin’s foolish, foolish plan
124. Moment: The Omega vs. Shinryu fight is not just fun spectacle, there’s actual design to how each side fights and how they compare and contrast each other
125. Moment: The summoning, and Papalymo’s sacrifice
126. Prime Opt: Culinarian 50-60 was mostly noise until the finale, when it was delightfully hysterical
127. Prime Opt: Dragoon 50-60 has some issues, but is earnest enough and skips over most pitfalls of its arc to be engaging
128. Prime Opt: Dark Knight 50-60 quests do some good stuff in general, with a nice if horrifying story and general levity and excellence in scenes from the Moogles…
129. Prime Opt: …for two positives
130. Prime Opt: Fractal Continuum has some wonderful, horrible Allagan lore in the ‘museum’ format
131. Prime Opt: Goldsmith 50-60 was surprisingly good, a heartwarming tale of two lovers and making them matching music boxes, well paced and well showcased
132. Prime Opt: Hildibrand also has some surprisingly good character beats with Vivi and Cyr
133. Prime Opt: LTW 50-60 is actually pretty well done, with solid character arcs, weaving through backstory of the setting, while advancing alongside the main quest
134. Prime Opt: Machinist 30-50 has a good core theme, some decent characters, and a nice arc for multiple of them
135. Prime Opt: Machinist 50-60 continues the good trend of good characters, and really does its job in expounding on the problems facing Ishgard in the wake of the revolution
136. Prime Opt: Scholasticate (again) has some good general story construction and characters
137. Prime Opt: The Alexander 12 fight is awesome narratively, especially with the portals being how we survived the cutscene prior to the fight
138. Prime Opt: The Ascian lore of Summoner 50-60 was pretty neat // ALC 50-60 did some neat things with the Allagans and clones, and the whodunnit was a nice direction to take it // CRP 50-60 had some nice moments with the son and father
139. Prime Opt: The Dark Knight 30-50 quests did a great job of acknowledging a lot of internal continuity and are just, really great quests in general…
140. Prime Opt: …for a full…
141. Prime Opt: …three positives
142. Prime Opt: The Ninja 50-60 is weirdly competent and well directed, with amusing characters and a proper showcasing of ourself
143. Prime Opt: The Scholasticate’s early quests are very well written internal politics
144. Prime Opt: The Scholasticate’s quests themes of the severe and terrible inequality Isghard has shown, done in true in-person detail, are just… wow
145. Prime Opt: The Sharlayan worldbuilding and general intrigue of the Astrologian 30-60 quests are pretty cool… with problems
146. Prime Opt: The time travel of the entire Alexander chain is actually quite tightly written, well foreshadowed, and well executed
147. Prime Opt: WVR 50-60 was actually really sweet, down-to-earth, mundane, and wholesome
148. Secondary: Azys Lla’s side quests are surprisingly amusing while remaining absolutely horrifying insights into Allagan society
149. Brickwork: We’ll call this another aggregate. We have Neverreap, Saint Mocianne’s Arboretum, the Antitower, and (sigh) Baelsar’s Wall
150. Theme: Core theme of the cycle of vengeance
151. World Building: A goodly amount of internal continuity with the three mage states across the expansion
152. World Building: Stone Vigil 2 (Dusk Vigil) has a wonderfully horrifying backstory to what happened in the wake of the Calamity
153. World Building: The world building of the Aetherochemical Research Facility and just how bleh the Allagans really were
154. Writing: Well written Star Destroyer storytelling
155. Animation: Hildibrand, as usual, has some great animation and camerawork
156. Cutscene: So we start off with some technically impressive but otherwise somewhat vacuous fight between Lyse and us. I will give it one thing; It’s pretty obvious based on their body language and expressions that this is purely for fun. Far more interesting is when we zoom the camera out to the map to showcase the other half of Stormblood (and its relation to Ala Mhigo… with a brief pass at Garlemald, foreshadowing) where we see a few of the things we’ll be in for across the sea. The underwater settlements, the more eastern style Kugane, Garlean troops, and a quick showcasing of how by this point we are just colossally higher tier than these yahoos (I do like the touch of the one soldier shaking from fear even as HE has a gun pointed at US). Ultimately this trailer is more technically impressive than anything else, lacking the punch of Heavensward or even the storytelling of ARR
157. Character: Alisae really has some good character moments in the final few patches
158. Character: Alisaie gets some good character and screen time both
159. Character: Alphinaud continues his character arc and progression, and frankly just general character quality
160. Character: Arenvald is honestly just sort of amazing. A poor background and a good presence
161. Character: As usual, Raubahn is excellent, arguably really coming into his own as both commander and leader of the Alliance
162. Character: Cid is pretty legit in the Omega line
163. Character: Cirina is a delight for the presence she has
164. Character: Fordola doesn’t get the screen time she deserves, for she is a fascinating and well done antagonist in her own right
165. Character: Gosetsu continues his trend of excellence and general enjoyability
166. Character: Hancock is weirdly engaging, moreso for his connection to Lolorito
167. Character: Hien’s ponderings, and his conclusion; the flooding of Doma, says a lot about what kind of person (and leader) he really is
168. Character: Isse is actually kind of awesome in general, a perfect personal viewpoint of oppression and a surprisingly human, well fleshed out person in general
169. Character: Much as it pains me, Zenos does deserve a positive. The ruined, bored, genetically engineered freak
170. Character: Omega is brilliantly horrifying in how detached and unconcerned it is about the terrifying things it does
171. Character: Pipin remains an awesome character in general, and a good commander
172. Character: Soroban is pretty awesome for how little screen time he has
173. Character: Tataru, similarly, is awesome up to and including the flight from Kugane
174. Character: Yotsuyu is horrible and evil, make no mistake… but she’s well acted, and there are decent layers to her and her horrible, horrible backstory
175. Character: Yugiri is, in many ways, far more of a main character than Lyse is and does good stuff throughout
176. Voice Acting: Alisaie’s voice actress
177. Voice Acting: For all my complaints, I cannot dismiss Zenos’ voice actor
178. Voice Acting: Gosetsu’s voice actor
179. Voice Acting: Yugiri’s voice actress
180. Voice Acting: Much as I absolutely despise the character, Asahi’s voice actor is legit… lots of tiny details and subtle nuances
181. Animation: Generally clever animation in cutscenes
182. Camerawork: Camerawork continues to be excellent throughout
183. Localization: The usual standard for the game
184. Music Direction: Substantially better usage of music in cutscenes
185. Storytelling Mechanic: As per usual, the usage of the Roleplay system as a storytelling tool is excellent
186. Storytelling Mechanic: The recurrent usage of the NPCs and party members adding extra dialogue at most quests in the MSQ is a good storytelling tool
187. Visual Continuity: For the first time in the game, we have a degree of visual continuity between zones (helped by the MSQ’s frequent ‘trips’ to the map)
188. Brickwork: The Sirensong Sea. Nice trip on the ship, nice island we stop at
189. World Building: Kojin in general, especially culturally, are fascinating
190. World Building: Steppe culture is fascinating and well fleshed out in general
191. Brickwork: While we’re here let’s give another of those aggregates. Shisui of the Violet Tides (underwater), Bardam’s Mettle (the steppes), Doma Castle (obvious), and Castrum Abania (one of the better Garlean castrums we’ve seen so far)
192. World Building: World building throughout the early quests of what it’s like in occupied Ala Mhigo
193. MSQ: Tataru beautifully blackmailing the Ishgardian captain into helping us get to Doma
194. Brickwork: Kugane, full stop. Probably the best looking city to-date, with lots of effort put into color and architecture both, and the stylings of the far east
195. Architecture: Kugane is shockingly well designed. It’s probably the smallest of the towns mentioned so far, but does a lot with alleys and buildings to make it work
196. Moment: Lyse kicking Gyodo was just kind of generally awesome (and well animated and cameraworked)
197. Atmosphere: Yanxia’s thematic usage and portrayal of the consequence of the remainder oppressed is as gloomy and awful as it should be
198. Cutscene: The terrible, emotional, powerful scene where Yugiri and us successfully saving them only for the realization of how this doesn’t truly save them… is just as powerful as it should be
199. MSQ: Our little side trip to the Dotharl is nice in general, but what’s even better about it is how Gosetsu is fleshed out throughout
200. Brickwork: The Azim Steppes. While a bit plain (get it?!) the detailing on the camps and the grassy fields surrounding the giant half sphere surrounded by rocks that look suspiciously like fingers all makes the place memorable and unique
201. Moment: The Burn (Savage)
202. MSQ: The entire Steppe arc is one of the better ones, despite being ‘side content’
203. Cutscene: Gosetsu’s pre-battle scene and confession is a great character piece for him (helped by Alphinaud and Alisaie being adorable)
204. Cutscene: The verbal duel between Gosetsu and Yotsuyu is actually quite good, showing the depths of their familiarity with each other and using that to exposit
205. Visual Storytelling: Good visual storytelling and significance of the Doma dungeon
206. MSQ: Tsukuyomi fight and the tragedy of Yotsuyu, the life that could have been…
207. MSQ: …for two positives
208. Brickwork: We’re really starting to see the improved engine changes with Stormblood. More complex terrain, a nice shift from the greens of Gridania to the wastes of Gyr Abania (more wastes… is no where a food producing region in this spit of land?)…
209. Doodads: …and better doodads too. We see broken troops and mechs still leftover from the Garlean conquest, and plenty of ruins of the old Ala Mhigan kingdom
210. Brickwork: Special mention for the Lochs where we see the absolutely gargantuan city fort that was the Ala Mhigan capital feeding into what was once a vast lake
211. Consequence Storytelling: No-drama, logical consequence storytelling in the initial resistance groups of Ala Mhigo
212. Cutscene: The big scene between Nanamo and Raubahn is just… all kinds of awesome. A great continuation and, arguably, conclusion of both of their arcs
213. Cutscene: The surprisingly mature, dark, proper discussion of financial aid for Ala Mhigo
214. Plot: The hinge-point of the plot of Alphinaud going to Garlemald, the implications and foreshadowing thereof
215. Cutscene: The scene which introduces Solus does so much and says so much and reveals a great deal about the lore and backstory of the world
216. Cutscene: Zenos second establishing scene does much more, better, with him
217. Cutscene: The scene between Fordola and Zenos really is quite well constructed
218. Cutscene: The confrontation of, Echo of, and pain of Fordola’s
219. Cutscene: As much as I have severe issues with it, the scene where Zenos finally notices us is pretty legit
220. MSQ: The Ala Mhigo dungeon is a great capstone to the arc
221. Cutscene: Zenos’ suicide and final cutscenes really do a great job of showcasing the character, and a surprisingly satisfying conclusion to his arc
222. Foreshadowing: Foreshadowing! The front-loaded storytelling as of the 4.X patches is real
223. Visual Storytelling: The Burn is just a wonderfully terrifying concept, it really is… it’s the first time we’ve really seen the actual impact of aether bleed
224. Cutscene: The Echo of Delita, Orran, and Alma is actually really good. It says all it needs to, implies much more, and does a great amount in a short period of time
225. Prime Opt: Alchemist 60-70 had great external continuity as well as a touching arc and general goodness throughout
226. Prime Opt: Culinarian 60-70 continues the Culinarian trend of excellence by having a nice simple story about feeding refugees, and cultural drift
227. Prime Opt: Dragoon 60-70 is nice but Orn Khai is just adorable
228. Prime Opt: Four Lords, Soroban, Tataru… all good stuff, especially the flashback cutscenes…
229. Prime Opt: …for two positives
230. Prime Opt: Fractal Continuum (Hard) continues the Allagan trend of expositing and background worldbuilding (the Ixal were built by Allagans!)
231. Prime Opt: Goldsmith 60-70 is a nice bit of worldbuilding and consequence storytelling, being about methods of economic restoration for newly freed Ala Mhigo
232. Prime Opt: Machinist 60-70 is a good tale of continuing to deal with the fallout of Heavensward, and some good character moments for Hilda
233. Prime Opt: Monk 60-70 has some nice character moments and good backstory about the Mad King
234. Prime Opt: Red Mage 50-60 has some decent stuff. Magic history, Ala Mhigan history, some continuity, and Arya
235. Prime Opt: Red Mage 60-70 has good continuity and Arya continues to be adorkable!
236. Prime Opt: Samurai 50-60 is a straightforward samurai tale, but it’s not bad, and in fact hits its beats quite well
237. Prime Opt: The lonesome Omega logs segment before O12 is really just… awesome, and terrifying, and lends more ‘character’ to Omega, Midgardsormr, and the war than most anything else does
238. Prime Opt: The Warrior 60-70 quests are silly but… they’re legit charming, and got an actual laugh out of me
239. Prime Opt: The White Mage 60-70 quest was a nice little personal story, with some good touches and good continuity
240. Prime Opt: What can I say about the 60-70 Dark Knight quests? They’re real, raw, brutal, and beautiful. Continuity, connectivity, consequence, the story weaves through our own as we face all we’ve been and lost, and in the end we are who we are… because we are…
241. Prime Opt: …for a full…
242. Prime Opt: …three positives
243. Secondary: There is simple, wholesome, and down-to-earth storytelling in the Doman Reconstruction wonderfully written and brilliantly human…
244. Secondary: …for two positives
245. Secondary: There’s some nice tidbits in the Steppes sidequests where we help people find themselves, especially a Dotharl rebelling against his name and Esugan (a cook) rebelling against his warrior brethren
246. Cutscene: The war council and parlay with Emperor Varis is interesting in hindsight, and surprisingly well presented
247. Cutscene: The well-constructed political drama of the Alliance’s first true meeting as they discuss the Ascians and Garlemald and the summoning of ‘the voice’ and the tension and suspense and mystery it adds to the proceedings…
248. Cutscene: …for two positives
249. Brickwork: The Ghimlyt Dark and following conclusions are some awesome visual storytelling and war presentation
250. Cutscene: This cutscene is just… different the second time around, and that’s all I’ll say for now. But right up front we see a lot of storytelling rapid fire. The banners of the city states in opposition to Garlemald which sits alone. The damaged airship in the distance, the wreckage and ruins of the Ghimlyt Dark. We also see us fighting… ‘Zenos’.
251. Music Direction: We also have a song that is far more significant than most have been so far, one of those brilliant pieces of audible storytelling
252. Cutscene: We then follow with the gremlin saying some… VERY specific lines which totally have no significance cough cough, and then we have a quick pass of each character and their activities on the First (each of which is significant for their respective arcs, and contains a few teasers like , interspersed with shots of us changing jobs to each of the expansions in order (Warrior, Dragoon, Monk, Samurai) We also see a teaser of the Viera and the Dancer class, as well as the Crystal Tower (which is significant somehow), and culminating in us turning into a Dark Knight and slicing the sky open. This is some great stuff…
253. Visual Storytelling: …plenty of visual storytelling…
254. Theme: …and spot on for the theme of balance the entire expansion has
255. Character: Alisae continues to be a fantastic character
256. Character: Alphinaud joins his sister in being generally awesome
257. Character: And it’s time to finally give the Chai’s their own positives, starting with Dulia for general wholesomeness, complexity of character, and nuance…
258. Character: …for two positives
259. Character: And of course two for Nuzz, for being a confident, competent, nervous, and suffering anxiety
260. Character: Ardbert. The broken hero, the lengthy arc, the rise, fall, and rise again…
261. Character: …for a full…
262. Character: …three positives
263. Character: Cylva’s story is brief but powerful, a cute way to tie in 1.0 and a great cap to the Warriors of Light’s story
264. Character: Elidibus is a properly written, brilliantly tragic… robot. A mind incapable of perceiving past its mission, something so far gone and so far lost so as to be diminished and, worst of all, is entirely self-aware of it… and further incapable of course correcting…
265. Character: …for two positives
266. Character: Emet-Selch. The man burdened by an eternity of failure, bound by duty, unwilling to flinch or flex from his path, even acknowledging it in the process. I could type up an entire page about how amazing this character is, easily one of the best central FF Villains we have ever had…
267. Character: …for a full…
268. Character: …three positives
269. Animation: Special mention to Emet-Selch’s animation, which just really helps sell him as a character
270. Character: Feo Ul doesn’t have much screen time but they are quite awesome every time they grace the screen
271. Character: Gaia. She seems so one dimensional at first, but she quickly develops past that
272. Character: Gaius himself is actually really quite good in the entire arc, weirdly enough, and gets some much needed character development and backstory
273. Character: Granson himself is also pretty enjoyable and has a decent arc to himself
274. Character: G’raha being adorably adorkable as he gets to be an ‘adventurer’ (read: kiddo) is just precious
275. Character: G’raha Tia is just kind of awesome in general… the earnestness, the counterpart to our inspiration…
276. Character: …for two positives
277. Character: Lilja is, in general, generally awesome
278. Character: Lyna is a weirdly good ‘guest character’, not a lot of screen time but good usage of most scenes, and good density of character
279. Character: Mikoto remains amusing and enjoyable
280. Character: Misija has a weirdly large amount of characterization for someone they keep wanting to portray as ‘just evil’
281. Character: Ryne and Gaia have a great connection and chemistry between one another
282. Character: Ryne and Thancred’s interactions are good in general, but the dynamic between the two is something else
283. Character: Ryne is a delight throughout really, but serves a good purpose in the plot too; she’s the ‘outsider’ who can be and do what the others can’t
284. Character: The Crystal Exarch remains a well constructed enigma; the shadow of a villain who never hesitates to aid and assist those in need
285. Character: The Mikoto and Misija scene is a great example of Mikoto’s character and how she can out-think so much around her, while being a fascinating bit of world building
286. Character: This is further aided by both Severa and Valdeaulin, both victims of his, who share their stories as they take their positions as his allies
287. Character: Uriangier really shines in this one, getting to show off his nuance, his care with the pixies, his care for Ryne, and the burden he bore…
288. Character: …for two positives
289. Character: Vauthry is a brilliantly constructed ‘villain’… a toddler that can speak, a base animal with precious little understanding of aught or all…
290. Character: …for two positives
291. Voice Acting: Alisae’s voice actress continues to kill it
292. Voice Acting: Emet-Selch
293. Voice Acting: Emet-Selch! What do you want from me!
294. Voice Acting: General voice acting positive
295. Voice Acting: G’raha Tia’s voice actor is fantastic
296. Voice Acting: Let’s make this clear. Ardbert’s voice actor is absolutely phenomenal, doing nuance, layers, and gradients in spades…
297. Voice Acting: …for a full…
298. Voice Acting: …three positives
299. Voice Acting: The Chais, both of them
300. Voice Acting: Urianger
301. Voice Acting: Vauthry’s voice actor just sort of absolutely nails it…
302. Voice Acting: …for two positives
303. Dialogue: The dialogue really, really pops in Shadowbringers…
304. Dialogue: …for a full…
305. Dialogue: …three positives
306. Animation: The animation, cinematography, and camerawork are just noticeably higher quality in 5.3
307. Storyboarding: The animation, cinematography, and camerawork are just noticeably higher quality in 5.3…
308. Storyboarding: …for two positives
309. Camera: The animation, cinematography, and camerawork are just noticeably higher quality in 5.3…
310. Camera: …for two positives
311. External Continuity: Persistent power progression in lore across the expansions
312. Internal Continuity: The game really starts taking care of its own continuity at this point. The connecting points, threads, and characters across the First are very tightly woven…
313. Internal Continuity: …for a full…
314. Internal Continuity: …three positives
315. Localization: Really starting to see that localization shine…
316. Localization: …for two positives
317. Music Direction: Music utilization for tone and atmosphere
318. Music Direction: Really starting to use that music well for scenes…
319. Music Direction: …for two positives
320. Plot: The plot structure of the expansion is interesting and very video-gamey, but works quite well for many purposes; World building, characters, party members, and the conclusion
321. Story Sequencing: Really starting to line up the threads well and consistently, with logical reasons for us to go from Point A to Point B…
322. Story Sequencing: …for two positives
323. Intro: The opening intro does so much so well so fast
324. Atmosphere: Hard to describe. You’d think the First would be desperate and afraid but no, they’re just kind of soldiering on. And yet they’re managing it… and there’s this overwhelming feeling of endurance throughout…
325. Atmosphere: …for two positives
326. Visual Storytelling: The visual storytelling of the eternal bright sky
327. Babylon 5 Effect: There’s a fantastic amount of Babylon 5 Effect going on with G’raha Tia throughout…
328. Babylon 5 Effect: …for two positives
329. Cutscene: Tesleen. The conversion, the horror… the micro
330. Brickwork: The deserts of Amh Araeng, rocky and brutal, with what’s left of a civilization dotting the sandy dunes… although the real star of the show is…
331. Visual Storytelling: The beautiful visual storytelling of the wall of light in Amh Araeng… the macro
332. Plot: The very nature of Sin Eaters and the horror and obstacle they present
333. MSQ: The initial story arc of the Crystarium does so much, and builds up the world, and establishes many tiny plot threads
334. Cutscene: There’s another great ‘connections between people’ scene as we are departing the Crystarium
335. Brickwork: The Crystarium. For the second time in the game I feel a city deserves its own positive for visual style and set design. I’ll admit I ALMOST gave this a negative (no wait, hear me out) because it’s all REALLY well built… like, ‘height of society’ levels… not, y’know, ‘post apocalypse’. But it’s still brilliantly designed and deserves mention. The Crystal Tower being right there doesn’t hurt anything either
336. Doodads: Once again that doodad pass is starting to show, with stalls and goods and supplies and farms and other little details
337. World Building: The worldbuilding of Mord Souq and the very idea of ‘cracking the coinpurse’ and its connotations for requirements of interaction and citizenry
338. Cutscene: The confrontation between Vauthry and Alphinaud is brilliant for many reasons, but really firmly showcasing a light on what Eulmore is and why is the best part
339. Cutscene: The entire scene of Alphinaud speechifying to the Eulmorians, and their turnaround and assistance, is actually pretty awesome
340. Brickwork: Lakeland. Again you can tell the visual design keeps improving as we continue to increase in general visual styling positives. This place actually does a better job of conveying its set BEFORE you bring the night but you get the idea. This eternal, dull lavender with barely alive trees and a combination of ruins and partially built buildings all over
341. Brickwork: Holminster Switch… the creature from the desert, Tesleen, and the horror of the village over-run
342. Moment: And the first night sky in a century
343. Cutscene: Honestly the whole Bismark sequence was great
344. Cutscene: The simple Lyna scene of her worrying about her ‘grandfather’ is lovely for many reasons
345. Cutscene: The reveal of both G’raha Tia’s plan… and Emet-Selch’s interest in us
346. Moment: Thancred opening up and (finally) having a character arc in Trolley is pretty legit
347. MSQ: For all the many, many other issues, the ‘final’ confrontation between Thancred and Ran’jit is an excellent bit of storytelling, primarily for Thancred and his arc moving forwards
348. Cutscene: The cutscene of Vauthry v. Exarch is a brilliant one, not just a clash of ideologies but of surface vs. depth
349. Cutscene: The final send-off of the party right before the final dungeon is poetry, really
350. Moment: Lyna’s lament in the wake of the battle
351. MSQ: So this may sound weird but the Relict Matoya is actually really good storywise… the visuals, music, presentation, cuteness factor, all do a great job of making it more enjoyable than it would otherwise be…
352. MSQ: …for two positives
353. Cutscene: Watching the fae just… body the Eulmorians is just as immensely satisfying as it always is
354. Brickwork: Il Mheg. Lush rolling hills absolutely covered in pink flowers, a giant fantastical castle with frickin’ wings, unusual foliage… and of course what’s left of intruders
355. World Building: General world building of the Fae segment of the story
356. Plot: The incredible creepiness, build up to, and revelation… of Meol
357. World Building: Aaaand finally, Eulmore and its horrifying perversion of the ‘earn your way’ cultural norm of the survivors, and the classism it engenders
358. World Building: Eulmore deserves a second positive for the sheer nuance and layers that go into how messed up it is and how… resigned and despairing some of these people really are
359. Brickwork: Eulmore. The stark contrast between the haves and have-nots, the overly painted paradise (which looks so hideous from a distance, gah!), it’s all so horrible…
360. Doodads: …there’s even flowers in the fountain for God’s sakes! And don’t even get me started on the dining hall… or of course the far less well off lower reaches
361. MSQ: The overall cavalry moment of building the giant Talos is pretty wholesome and a good rejoinder of all the people you’ve aided thusfar
362. Visual Storytelling: The brilliant visual storytelling of Mt. Gulg and the still-in-construction ‘new paradise’ he is building
363. Cutscene: The initial confrontation between Emet-Selch and the party is brilliantly portrayed. Camerawork, voice acting, dialogue, foreshadowing
364. Cutscene: For the irritation of the fake-out, Y’shtola’s return gives us some great characterization and moments for both Emet-Selch and Runar
365. Brickwork: The Rak’tika Greatwood is a great contrast to Gridania in showing how far they’ve come. A deep, massive jungle with magic spikes and painted gnarled branches right next to the ruins of the ancient Ronkans
366. World Building: World building of the Night’s Blessed, up to and including the service
367. Cutscene: The post Qitana Ravel scene is a hell of an exposition dump, but more than that, it is yet another wonderful character point for him, beautifully voiced
368. Cutscene: Emet-Selch’s lowering of the mask as he speaks, for the first time, of Amaurot and the time of old to us… even mis-speaking for but a moment… as he lets his hope get the better of him
369. Moment: Emet-Selch’s final rant at the party is honestly incredible
370. Plot: The entirety of Emet-Selch’s plan for cooperation, why, and wherefore
371. Brickwork: The Tempest is fine, I guess, but Amaurot is the real star of the show. Our first real peak into the way the Ancients lived and worked and played, and of course seeing something so clearly closer to a modern day city (complete with skyscrapers) is a hell of a vibe
372. MSQ: The storytelling in general of the Amaurot dungeon is insane, between the voice over, the visuals, the progression of enemy times even the very map itself? I’m not sure I’ve seen better storytelling in a dungeon before…
373. MSQ: …for a full…
374. MSQ: …three positives
375. World Building: The Ancients in general are fascinating on almost every level
376. Visual Storytelling: The visual storytelling of the Amaurot city is fantastic
377. Cutscene: The pre-final battle scene is poetry. You can tell Emet-Selch is holding back, still toying with us, still holding out that faint hope
378. MSQ: The Dying Gasp… Hades.
379. Cutscene: Hades finally, finally no longer holding back, in his last desperate gasp that he just can’t help but hold onto, he unleashes his all against us but somehow all of us, together, push back…
380. Cutscene: …for two positives
381. Moment: Remember us…
382. Moment: …remember that we once lived
383. Cutscene: Ardbert opening up to us about why he adventured, and us sharing our concerns with him, is as always a good scene
384. Cutscene: Ardbert’s cutscene discussing being adventurers, the mural… and how it all went
385. Cutscene: Ardbert’s cutscene discussing himself, Seto, and ourselves
386. Cutscene: Surprise surprise, but Ardbert’s scene where he speaks of the past, the Warrior, and the people uniting
387. Cutscene: Ardbert’s torment at having to watch the suffering die followed immediately by the power of seeing us walking with the victors…
388. Cutscene: …for two positives
389. Moment: The moment between Estinien, Alisae, and G’raha is just adorable
390. Cutscene: G’raha’s ‘send off’ is interesting, since it’s not actually a send off (he’s leaving with us after all), but it is instead the end of the ‘Crystal Exarch’ and the culmination of his quest
391. Consequence Storytelling: Some good consequence storytelling in the restoration of Eulmore arc in 5.1
392. Prime Opt: Dark Knight 80 is the usual high quality stuff but gets a second positive for the sheer continuity cavalcade as well as the interpretive last moments of who (or what) was really going on…
393. Prime Opt: …for two positives
394. Prime Opt: Generally good level 80 quest continuity in White Mage, Ninja, Monk, Dragoon
395. Prime Opt: Gunbreaker 60-70 has some good character tidbits and background worldbuilding
396. Prime Opt: Paladin (Gladiator) 80 ties up the, uh, gladiator chain quite nicely and has some surprisingly good moments
397. Prime Opt: Red Mage 80 is simple but nice, and a good capstone to Arya’s arc
398. Prime Opt: Reaper 70-80 has some memorable characters and moments
399. Prime Opt: Reaper 70-80 worldbuilding, especially for Garlemald and Garleans in general
400. Prime Opt: Scholar 80 not only cured the Tonberries, but was adorable on several levels
401. Prime Opt: Summoner 80 has nothing to do with summoning, really, but has some good moments with Arenvald and Fordola
402. Prime Opt: The Bozja series giving us some good insight into Cid as well as the events surrounding Dalamud
403. Prime Opt: The characterization and moments for Renda-Rae in the ranged physical quest are pretty nice
404. Prime Opt: The final Mean arc is simple, but a nice personal capstone to a series of nice, personal stories
405. Prime Opt: The fishing Mean quest is, similarly, pretty legit
406. Prime Opt: The healer’s role quest as usual has some good Warriors of Light build up and storytelling and deserves a bonus positive for Giott being generally delightful…
407. Prime Opt: …for two positives
408. Prime Opt: The magical dps role quest is actually pretty legit. It takes a moment to get going, but once it does it turns into a surprisingly powerful tragedy, yet retains positivity as Taynor now gets a chance at a real life after the Flood
409. Prime Opt: The smithing Mean quest is actually quite nice, it’s got good tone, good light hearted bits, and a nice heartwarming thing at the end
410. Prime Opt: The tragedy of the tank role quest in general is good stuff
411. Prime Opt: The Void Quest is a good chunk of continuity, and lays some good bricks for future stories
412. Prime Opt: Warrior 80 was far more entertaining than it had any right to be
413. Secondary: Ehll Tou is just adorable, and the alien mentality of being fascinated by ‘crafting’ is a neat world building touch
414. Secondary: Kholusia’s side quests do a good job of following through on the consequences of Eulmore and how normal citizenry are dealing with the fallout
415. Secondary: The down-to-earth personal stories of the Crystarium sidequests
416. Secondary: The orphanage chain of the Firmament is a very good, very ground-floor story about the orphanage
417. Secondary: The Restoration itself is just good stuff all around. Good continuity, good characters, genuinely heartwarming…
418. Secondary: …for a full…
419. Secondary: …three positives
420. Secondary: The side quests of Amaurot do so much to flesh out the people and culture of the ancients
421. Secondary: The story of the heretic returned home and the reception he received from family and former neighbors
422. Moment: Merlwyb’s speech to the Executioners is pretty legit, a bit more flowery and a bit more charismatic, but it’s core concept remains true; Evolve or die
423. Consequence Storytelling: Bonus consequence storytelling positive for the cure being… exactly what it should be; A first step, moving from 0% curable up to 1% curable, which is both huge and minor at the same time
424. Cutscene: The cure for Ga Bu scene is honestly heartwarming and smile inducing
425. MSQ: The scenes establishing and developing Elidibus do a great job of making him an interesting character despite the revelations about him being so relatively recent
426. MSQ: The revelation that the vision of the Final Days is a trigger of awakening one’s Echo, as a resultant of how much the Final Days caused literal planetary-wide, dimension-spanning PTSD, is kind of awesomely horrifying
427. MSQ: While it does linger a bit, the Elidibus gauntlet quest is fantastic; It uses our journey, summarized, as a way to characterize him… or perhaps ‘it’
428. MSQ: The Heroes’ Gauntlet is a great storytelling dungeon most especially in how it carries us throughout the zones ventured thusfar, aided by those we’ve aided thusfar…
429. MSQ: …for two positives
430. Cutscene: Elidibus’ pre-battle cutscene is powerful in its tragedy, in the broken doll Elidibus has descended to
431. Cutscene: And the way we array ourselves around and against him is fantastic, culminating in G’raha Tia summoning the other us’s (or however you interpret it)
432. Moment: Elidibus’ final send-off is exactly as powerful, morose, and tragic as it should be
433. External Continuity: Bonus points for, in more ways than one, being the conclusion of FFXIV’s major arcs to date (the final deaths of all the Unsundered, among other things)
434. Outro: And finally, the full Crystarium sending us off, with Lyna in tears at the ‘loss’ of her grandfather
435. Outro: Seto getting to have his final moment with Ardbert
436. Outro: the Chais bidding farewell to Alphinaud and ourselves
437. Outro: The ending sequence in general is great. The swim, the people, Ardbert’s axe finally cleansed
438. Outro: The final send-off quests in 5.3 are an excellent finale section in general but a few points particularly shine
439. Pacing: The pacing and execution of the ‘breather’ episode in early 5.3… before things get bad
440. Outro: Big plus for the ‘ending’ scene at the end of 5.3. It is a WoW level cutscene, in terms of quality, custom animation, and production values, in addition to the amazingness of the characters and how they all play off each other, especially G’raha…
441. Outro: …for two positives
442. Moment: And call me a sop, but I have to give a separate plus for the feels as we talk to Ryne
443. Cutscene: The confrontation between Gaius and Valens is actually pretty legit
444. Moment: A special bonus positive for Valens’ death. Pop!
445. MSQ: The entire 5.4 arc does exactly what it needs to in terms of pacing; it’s a breather episode. The stakes aren’t gone, nor unimportant, but they are definitely lower, and that’s exactly what it should be in the wake of Hades and Elidibus
446. Humor: “What’s the password?” (dramatic flourishing) PASSWORD!
447. MSQ: The entire arc of freeing Tiamat, and Estinian the dragon rider
448. MSQ: Arenvald’s crippling, Alphinaud’s reaction, and the perfect capstone of legacy
449. MSQ: Paglth’an really has some fantastic storytelling in its design and visuals, as the battle commences, aided by Estinien and Tiamat
450. Cutscene: The post-Paglth’an scene between Fordola, Alphinaud, and Estinien really bespeaks her broken idealism, and the wounded as they rail at one another
451. Theme: I have to give a purely subjective plus to this game for so powerfully, emotionally impacting me with its core, central theme… of idealism, both fulfilled and crushed…
452. Theme: …good, bad, and in between
453. Theme: The overall theme of legacy, and what and how we pass on
454. Storytelling Mechanic: Gaia’s memory issues and the utilization thereof as a narrative tool
455. Prime Opt: Ryne wanting to connect with Gaia
456. Prime Opt: Thancred and Urianger being dads for Ryne
457. Visual Storytelling: Eden terraforming
458. Prime Opt: E12 bridge. The entire sequence as Gaia is battered
459. Prime Opt: E12 outro. The last gasp of yet another of the Ancients, and Gaia and Ryne being given the freedom to be themselves
460. Cutscene: So, our opening cinematic. The party fighting some monsters (we’re a Paladin this time around, to keep the lunar motif) and a brief showcasing of the new Sage healer class. We also see places being absolutely swarmed with enemies as the Ishgard theme soars and we see a dragon ridden by Estinien. Then we switch to a cross organic looking tower where Zenos (sigh) is watching the burning wreckage of his empire on a bone throne showcasing the Reaper class. A quick touch on the map to showcase some new zones. It certainly contains the overall vibe of ‘the end’ and the big dramatic finale but there’s no real meat on these bones. So enjoy a single positive for the cutscene…
461. Music Direction: …and one for the song
462. Character: Alisae is… as usual… awesome
463. Character: Alphinaud is, as usual, awesome
464. Character: Athena. She is legitimately, truly messed up, in an impressive way
465. Character: Dammit 6.1! G’raha is just… the best, really
466. Character: Emet-Selch in the past is given a great amount of additional characterization and moments…
467. Character: …earning a second positive despite everything for the continued nuance and construction of his character, visually, audibly, and in writing
468. Character: Erenville has only so much screen time, but is actually pretty awesome in every scene he’s in
469. Character: Estinien finding himself and demonstrating his growth from Heavensward to Vtra
470. Character: Golbez. The voice actor helps quite a bit, and it’s a good take on the character
471. Character: Hermes is a very well constructed example of someone who simply doesn’t quite fit with his surroundings, and so clearly struggles with it
472. Character: Hyth + Hades make for fantastic chemistry and are fantastic every moment they’re on screen together
473. Character: Hythlodeus was always a good character, but he is fleshed out even more in the past…
474. Character: …earning him, his presentation, his purpose in the narrative a second positive
475. Character: Jullus himself is astonishingly well constructed as a character, in a very short period of time…
476. Character: …for two positives
477. Character: Jullus’ arc is great in general
478. Character: Lahabrea. Somehow the Pandamonium arc actually grants him a character and a degree of depth he was sorely lacking
479. Character: Lucia actually gets some good time to shine this time around
480. Character: Matsya has already had his moments to shine earlier but frankly deserves…
481. Character: …two positives for how brilliantly they portray a simple fisher and the significance thereof
482. Character: Meteion is just adorable…
483. Character: …but even more interesting is her nature and how it affects her interactions
484. Character: Montichaigne is a great example of a good reasonable authority figure, who is helpful and enjoyable despite
485. Character: Nidhana is just fantastic in general, and delightful as utilized
486. Character: Tataru doesn’t get much screen time but she, similarly, shines each time she’s there
487. Character: The loporrits in general are just a delight
488. Character: Urianger in general actually manages to be even better than normal, this being one of his better…
489. Character: …earning a second positive
490. Character: Venat. Just… Venat….
491. Character: …who is fantastic for her relatively short period of screen time
492. Character: Vtra is yet another example of a reasonable authority figure who similarly manages to accomplish both being engaging and helpful, while still having his own concerns and worries to flesh him out
493. Character: Zero. She took a while to grow, and she’s cheesy as all get out, but she’s good when she gets there…
494. Character: …for two positives
495. Voice Acting: Let’s go ahead and get some voice acting points out of the way. Alphinaud
496. Voice Acting: Alisae
497. Voice Acting: Emet-Selch
498. Voice Acting: General high quality voice acting…
499. Voice Acting: …for a full…
500. Voice Acting: …three positives
501. Voice Acting: G’raha
502. Voice Acting: Hermes
503. Voice Acting: The Four Fiends and Golbez himself are well acted and varied
504. Voice Acting: Urianger
505. Voice Acting: Venat
506. Voice Direction: Emet-Selch as narrator was an inspired choice
507. Animation: Wonderful, wonderful animation in cutscenes this time around…
508. Animation: …for a full…
509. Animation: …three positives
510. Camerawork: Once again, much improved camerawork for cutscenes…
511. Camerawork: …for a full…
512. Camerawork: …three positives
513. Localization: As per usual, some excellent localization on display…
514. Localization: …for two positives
515. Dialogue: Voices. In addition to general quality dialogue, each character (within reason) speaks with a distinct ‘voice’, with different dialects, structure, and tone…
516. Dialogue: …for a full…
517. Dialogue: …three positives
518. Storytelling Mechanic: The inclusion of portraits alongside the in-dungeon text is a good tool to ensure story is not missed, and is easier (and quicker) to understand
519. Storytelling Mechanic: The recurrent usage of the NPCs and party members adding extra dialogue at most quests in the MSQ is a good storytelling tool
520. Storytelling Mechanic: The ‘party’ system and optional interactions system is a great way to add optional dialogue and flavor text
521. Internal Continuity: Internal Continuity is fantastic in this one…
522. Internal Continuity: …easily earning a second positive
523. Internal Continuity: And frankly, the sheer cavalcade of continuity deserves a positive all in its own
524. Music Direction: Lots of great usage of music throughout…
525. Music Direction: …for two positives
526. Storyboarding: Some really great usage in this one, best we’ve ever seen…
527. Storyboarding: …for a full…
528. Storyboarding: …three positives
529. Brickwork: Radz-at-Han is a weird one. On the one hand it’s a visually gorgeous city and maintains the aesthetic stylings of the region, on the other hand it’s… weirdly empty. It still gets the nod but I think they did a better job with a few other places
530. Brickwork: Thavnair and the lovely violet hues in the clay, with plenty of foliage and a weird cliff thing in the background, along with…
531. Doodads: …plenty of little details in the settlements
532. Cutscene: The initial sequence in Yedlihmad, with aether sickness and Estinien’s… unique mercantile sense
533. Moment: Estinien and Alphinaud’s moment is great (especially when Estinien admits, albeit briefly, that they are family)
534. MSQ: The build up and reveal of Vrtra is actually pretty well executed; Not dragged out for fake drama, but laid out and fulfilled in short order
535. Moment: Estinien being, as ever, the perfect person to cut through the crap and force the issue, to perfect musical cues
536. Moment: Dunking on Lugae
537. Moment: The scene where Matsya unknowingly and unwillingly spreads the despair wave is brilliantly horrible
538. Moment: The first Despair Wave
539. Moment: G’raha’s standing up seamlessly into the leadership role in the ‘satrap’s demise is brilliant, and good consequence storytelling
540. Moment: Matsya’s desperate, terrified flight, child in hand, hits me harder than most I imagine… but even ignoring my personal protective instincts towards the kid…
541. Moment: …the scene is a masterclass. It’s built up perfectly, the story hasn’t held any punches so you know it could have hit here… but even on top of that…
542. Moment: …Matsya never gave up. He held on, even as he began to turn, he didn’t cross that line. He did not give in. And in his defiance he saved that child’s life, as well as his own
543. Moment: Vanaspati’s storytelling is exactly as horrifying as it should be. We see despair propagate…
544. Moment: …and the escalating nightmare of the backdrop visuals
545. Plot: The very concept of the Despair Wave is a wonderfully horrific idea on every level…
546. Plot: …and the game uses it to very good effect across the game
547. Brickwork: Garlemald… what’s left of it. We see exactly how hostile this environment is, and the sheer level of technology they had to reach to survive and thrive (there’s railways, long ‘oil’ pipes, and a friggin’ highway). Of course then there’s the city… what’s left of it. This entire place is absolutely trashed, and the level of devastation is actually worse than we’ve seen anywhere else in the entire game which says something about how bad this civil war has been
548. Architecture: Garlemald. The conecentric roads, the skyscrapers, the highway path, all of it conveys how huge this city is supposed to be as well as how dense and developed
549. Atmosphere: Cold of Garlemald and its usage as a constant threat in the zone
550. Atmosphere: Garlean indoctrination and the tragedy of the sisters
551. Moment: Quintus’s suicide is actually quite well done
552. MSQ: The follow through with Garlemald and the Twins continuing to try and keep things fed and functional
553. Moment: The little things scene between the troops is exactly as powerful as it needs to be. Not because of defeating some great evil or stopping some horrible plot, but simply because things have gotten… better. In tiny, insignificant, microscopic ways…
554. Moment: …and those ways are what really matter
555. Moment: Honestly, a third positive for this scene. Dialogue, music, emotion, but most importantly of all… it is earned. Multiple expansions of build up are, honestly, rather well culminated in this moment. “It’s the little things, isn’t it?”
556. MSQ: As much as it causes me personal trauma, the de-powering and desperate race back to camp is a very powerful moment for very good reason
557. Brickwork: Old Sharlayan. This entire place screams ‘academy’. From the clean marble to the blues and whites to the greco architecture to the library to the residential section
558. Brickwork: Labyrinthos is crazy. A massive interior with an artificial sky and sun, with advanced technology and magic everywhere, and a very orderly set of fields serving as the depository and reliquary for all the items, foliage, and fauna they’ve been bringing here…
559. Brickwork: …great stuff
560. Doodads: And good doodading
561. Cutscene: The first Forum scene does a lot pretty quickly and efficiently; Introduces a new character, establishes the Forum’s method of operation, hints at several things, and changes the stakes into a more personal venue
562. Humor: The Three Frogs of Light
563. Moment: The ‘breather’ segment has some issues, but the payoff of the scene with Urianger is beyond words. He’s been legit this entire expansion, but the moment of his being embraced by Moenbryda’s parents…
564. Moment: …and finally allowing himself to accept and embrace in turn, not just them, but himself, and those lost
565. Moment: While… weird, the whole Great Work moment with Estinien was great
566. MSQ: Montichaigne’s lesson and relevant info
567. Cutscene: The ‘avengers assemble’ moment where Alphinaud calls on the connections we’ve made across the last 5 expansions…
568. Cutscene: …really did some great stuff overall, showing the dominos where they lay
569. MSQ: The entire lead up to Garlemald’s battle is well constructed and has some good character moments
570. Cutscene: The initial journey to the moon is excellent in audio, visual, moments, and escalation
571. Brickwork: Everything about the Mare Lamentorum. The stylized buildings (deliberately invoking visuals of Zemus’ prison back in FF4), the massive crater where Zodiark is held, the seal around Zodiark…
572. Brickwork: …the amazing skybox, with not only the planet in the distance but this wonderful orbiting asteroid field (and, after you defeat Zodiark, what was left of his seal drifting out into space)… And of course what’s left of an Allagan ship that actually made it up here. Friggin’ Allagans. Great stuff though
573. Brickwork: Absolutely everything about the Bestways Burrows. The tiny, whimsical roads, the fake trees, the rainbow aether crystals, the colossal scale (due to a mix up), the farms (ALL farming carrots of course), love it
574. MSQ: Loporrit breather section is great in several ways
575. Humor: Livingway’s introduction scene is hysterical (and a necessary moment)
576. Cutscene: Speaking of heartwarming, the Loporrits attempts at keeping us ‘away for our own good’ and how terrible they are at it…
577. Cutscene: …and Urianger’s moment of settling down with the crew, the significance of names
578. Storytelling Mechanic: Hythlodeus and the echoes are a great additive
579. World Building: The simple yet effective continued development of Allag as horrible during Amon’s flashback
580. MSQ: Tension of post-Zodiark… the axe has fallen, but yet to hit anything
581. Moment: Alisaie’s midnight scene is a great example of her idealism in negativity; the fear of things going badly, pushing her to prevent
582. Moment: Alphinaud’s midnight scene is a perfect encapsulation of his idealism in positivity; the desire for the betterment
583. Moment: Estinian’s midnight scene is very him. For all his layers and pretensions, the man cares deeply and, more to the point, very much wants all those things like friendship, happiness, and hope fulfilled
584. Moment: G’raha’s midnight scene is just so adorkable and so him. The elder mage who is still nervous at just the thought of talking to us, and really just wants to help
585. Moment: Thancred’s midnight scene is just so him. The pragmatist and realist who, ultimately, cannot detach himself from his personal connections that keep him going
586. Moment: Y’shtola’s midnight scene continues to be very her; snarking covering the concern and fear that drowns her, and her desire to make sure we’re recovered… always attending to reality
587. External Continuity: The brilliant external continuity of the chain of dominos that lead to time travel
588. MSQ: The time travel twist is admittedly a good one
589. Brickwork: Elpis. Here for the first and (so far) only time we see the ancient world of the Ascians as it was. Everything about the visuals here convey a concept I don’t see often in fiction; Environmental mastery. Unlike the industrial age (when you ravage the environment), or an advanced age (where you’re struggling to repair the damage you did and co-exist with the environment), the mastery age is when you have such control over the environment that it flourishes alongside you at your command. We see this everywhere in Elpis, from the trees to the waterfalls to the unique foliage, all growing happily and flourishing despite being on floating islands high above the clouds
590. World Building: The wonderfully uncanny valley of the ancient’s culture and the fascination therewith…
591. World Building: …as they perceive life, death, duty, other races… and their unique form of stagnation
592. MSQ: Ktisis Hyperboreia also has some great story tidbits, not the least of which being fighting alongside those whom we do
593. MSQ: Cutscene incompetence aside, the big confrontation scene with Hermes is generally awesome…
594. MSQ: …made further so by the natural teamwork of Venat, Emet-Selch, and Hythlodeus
595. Moment: The breaking of Venat cutscene is very well acted, presented, and showcased
596. Visual Storytelling: Wonderful visual storytelling in the Aitiascope…
597. Visual Storytelling: …and little callbacks and continuity moments
598. Cutscene: The ‘chilling with food and friends’ scene is really just fantastic. It’s light hearted, heartwarming, and a great breather moment…
599. Cutscene: …and very well voice acted, animated, and stylized
600. Moment: Alisae and Alphinaud’s ‘goodbye’ is actually quite well done, especially on the voice acting axis
601. Cutscene: The pre-final battle scene with Y’shtola, Urianger, and Thancred is exactly what it needs to be. Fond, melancholy, showcasing growth, and hints of the ‘after’
602. Moment: The G’raha Tia ‘goodbye’ scene is actually really cool, mostly because G’raha is really himself and dorks out beautifully
603. Brickwork: The visual and background world building and storytelling of the Dead Ends…
604. MSQ: …but it gains a second positive for the world and culture building
605. Brickwork: Ultima Thule is, ultimately, three zones smashed together. Reah Tahra is first, a blasted and caustic wasteland which represents the dragons’ homeworld, filled with alien shapes and and jets of bright flame
606. Brickwork: Abode of the Ea is next, once again suitably alien. Weird bulbous protrusions, structures seemingly crafted from the sand itself
607. Brickwork: Then we get the really fascinating one… Base Omicron. These are the people that birthed the infamous Omega, and we see in their stylings and designs exactly how messed up they had become. The emphasis on hexagons, and an almost 50s sci fi aesthetic all capstone it
608. Brickwork: I also have to mention the skybox which is doing a lot of heavy lifting for this zone. Below we see a pure font of dynamis (technically the only ‘real’ thing here, though where we’re at the word ‘real’ is getting less definitive by the second) and in the distance in all directions is just the energy flowing out into the cosmos, and above us is a giant pile of brackish rock which at one point in its existence still had molten life in it, but now sits as a dead husk for the Endsinger
609. Moment: The End Walk
610. Moment: Calling back Emet and Hythlodeus, the blooming of the flowers, the recalling of Hermes’ words, and the crack in Meteion’s despair…
611. Moment: …is such a smile and tear inducing scene it deserves two positives
612. Moment: And one last positive for the final send off of Emet-Selch
613. MSQ: Endsinger has great music, dialogue, visuals, presentation…
614. MSQ: …and is made even better by the hyperbeam moment of phase 2
615. Outro: The the family rejoicing at our survival, and the ship journeying across the NPCs we’ve known and the places we’ve visited
616. Theme: The little things. Just… the little things…
617. Theme: …for a full…
618. Theme: …three positives
619. Consequence Storytelling: A lot of logical consequences of the plot in the patch content
620. Atmosphere: The Thirteenth is a truly impressive hell. Eternal hunger, no death, no pause from awareness…
621. Atmosphere: …for a full…
622. Atmosphere: …three positives
623. Cutscene: 6.1; Estinian’s cutscene with the vendor, the kid, and us is great
624. Cutscene: 6.1; Y’shtola waking up and being bonked isn’t just adorable and humorous, it’s also well directed and animated
625. Cutscene: The 6.1 Tataru cutscene is wholesome and adorable
626. Moment: 6.1; The simple yet powerful vows of support and encouragement for Vtra from his people
627. MSQ: 6.1; General consequence storytelling in the re-establishment of trade, orphanage construction, and distribution of hoarded wealth
628. MSQ: General quality for the entire procession to the Thirteenth
629. Cutscene: Zero and Jullus are a delight in general, and I have to give special praise to the animation thereof
630. Moment: Zero, the nightmare edgelord, vs. the loporrits
631. Moment: Zero and Nidhana
632. MSQ: Some truly hilarious moments with Zero, spicy curry, and a certain shirtless dragoon
633. Prime Opt: 6.1; the final Role Quest acknowledging the mess and recovery operations of Garlemald
634. Visual Storytelling: The Lunar Subterrane. Not what I was expecting from it, but the built in backstory for Durante and Golbez and the fall of Baron was legit
635. MSQ: The entire arc around the summoning of Zeromus works surprisingly well. Zeromus is a threat, not by virtue of being a universe ender, but by virtue of the portals it seeks to open to the other worlds
636. Plot: A special bonus point for the added plot point that defeating Zeromus isn’t quite the problem, but saving Azdaja from within that truly tasks us
637. Visual Storytelling: Bonus points for the Zeromus fight. Lotta storytelling going on in that fight
638. External Continuity: Plenty in the final patch quests of Endwalker
639. External Continuity: But it doesn’t end there, because it also acknowledges the previous expansions (and stuff you personally have done)…
640. External Continuity: …thus a second positive for external continuity
641. External Continuity: The Tataru epilogues in general
642. Humor: Sigh… for the first time, I will give the Hildibrand chain a humor positive
643. Moment: Everything about playing as Godbert
644. Prime Opt: Hildibrand 2 got a legitimate laugh or two out of me, but more to the point is surprisingly well storyboarded and choreographed
645. Prime Opt: Hildibrand 3 got actual laughter out of me, which is rare for Hildibrand quests
646. Prime Opt: Hildibrand 4 and 5. Surprisingly for the chain, some actual lore and an actual character present
647. Prime Opt: And the quest chain surrounding the Stigma Dreamscape is further nice
648. Prime Opt: For all its dreck, the Tank Role quest does at least give us some good backstory for Kan-E
649. Prime Opt: And the final moment with Fordola, the kid, and Arenvald is great
650. Prime Opt: Ranged Role did several bits of good, mostly for the little moments and private stories…
651. Prime Opt: …but also for the very triumphant return of Gosetsu (twice!) and Hien
652. Brickwork: Smileton is honestly one of the better visually designed dungeons in the game on sheer quality of brickwork and design
653. Prime Opt: The Culinarian Studium quest is actually quite amusing in its absurdity
654. Prime Opt: The Healer Role Quest in general is a great, well constructed look at the layered tragedy that is prison hierarchy
655. Brickwork: The Stigma Dreamscape visuals and storytelling are very nice
656. Prime Opt: The Studium Gatherer quests are actually quite sweet and heartwarming…
657. Prime Opt: …is really quite excellent, and gives us some great visual and audio flavor
658. Prime Opt: Two positives for Mage Role, it’s the usual good Ishgardian well thought out storytelling…
659. Prime Opt: …but also a good outro and ‘now what’ about the church and its role in Ishargian society
660. Secondary: As usual, the Ea regional quests are terrifying in their alien’ness
661. Secondary: Elpis sidequests mk. 2
662. Secondary: Heartless Hypothesis, the Omega chain…
663. Secondary: …easily deserves…
664. Secondary: …a full triple positive. The feels, the ‘epilogue’ vibe, the touching of characters across the expansion, great stuff
665. Secondary: Similarly the Ea sidequests in Ultima Thule were fascinating and horrifying in equal measure
666. Secondary: Special mention to the WEAPON chain somehow turning something good out of that nonsense
667. Secondary: Tataru’s quests in general are good, solid wrap ups
668. Secondary: The dragon sidequests in Ultima Thule were legit, with good, personal stories and more background for the dragon people themselves
669. Secondary: The Elpis Regional chain is pretty cute, and horrible as we make our worst enemies in the past // The Garlemald Regional chain is a nice moment of positivity in the otherwise gloomy zone // Helping Dreamingway was just adorable, really
670. Secondary: The Garlemald sidequests don’t do much in general (a lot of fairly basic ones) but there are enough gems there to be worth notice, usually dealing with the aftermaths of the crisis or rogue 3rd Legion elements
671. Secondary: The Moon (yay!) has good side quests, mostly adorable stuff but also some good insights into how the loporrits function and are adapting to us…
672. Secondary: …earning a second positive
673. Secondary: The Omicron quests about trying to understand connections between people are perfectly horrifying
674. Secondary: There’s actually several consequence storytelling sidequests in Sharlayan proper, one about Papalymo, one about Moenbryda, one about the Levilleur family, one about Alisae in particular… it’s good stuff
675. Secondary: The second Four Fiends side quests fleshing out Cagnazzo and Rubicante
676. Secondary: The side quest with the hecteyes fleshing out Scarmiliogne and Barbariccia
677. Secondary: We finally (finally) have good side quests in Elpis, ranging from local flavor to world building to explanations of culture and species and discourses on how the ancients interact with each other
678. Moment: Giving Tataru her necklace
679. Prime Opt: Myths chain. A nice breather episode, no world ending threat, and some honest moments of levity and sincerity
680. Prime Opt: Pandamonium. It wasn’t catching me at first, because the ‘threat’ is… not interesting. But the character focused epilogue of Elidibus and Lahabrea… that works much better
681. Moment: Eric’s final moments with his father, and Eric’s final moment with his mother
682. Moment: And one final bonus for our final farewell, at long last, to Elidibus
683. Moment: And the Meteion Report
684. Theme: Theme of accepting past and moving through it
685. Cutscene: Of course there’s the usual quality of cutscene for the Dawntrial opening cinematic
686. Tone: The general vibe of the entire cutscene is exactly what we needed after Endwalker.
687. Storyboarding: Some really smart stuff here as we skip back and forth between us relaxing (with the new Viper class), Estinien having fun out in the wilds, the rest of the party chilling in the markets with tons of delicious looking food (the taco!), and…
688. Visual Storytelling: …you can tell SOMEthing is up because Yshtola and Thancred are clearly researching something. Oh and we see that Krile is FINALLY going to be a party member (spoilers: She is not) and we showcase the new Pictomancer class
689. Tone: And I just have to give another plus for that Tone, augmented by…
690. Music Direction: …that song. I’m going to be honest I’m not actually a fan of this song but it ABSOLUTELY fits the tone
691. Brickwork: Tuliyollal. Bright and vibrant colors, good mix of distinct architecture, foliage…
692. Brickwork: …an easy second positive
693. Architecture: Tuliyollal also does enough to qualify for the architecture design. The layers going up the hill, the usage of buildings as sight blockers, the layout
694. Doodads: A bit of repetition but still quite good doodad utilization in Tuliyollal. The docks look like docks, the market stalls are bustling and full of plenty of nice details…
695. Doodads: …for a double positive
696. Doodads: Special bonus for just the restaurant area. Love the usage of food, drinks, stock, utensils, everything
697. Visual Storytelling: Even before Wuk Lamat narrated it, I could tell Tuliyollal was a new port built on an old ruin, and it’s all down to that visual storytelling in the design
698. Character: Gulool Ja Ja joins the long list of reasonable authority figures FFXIV likes to utilize, and as usual, they tend to be legit characters. In this case it’s a battle hungry warrior, damned strong in his day, who nevertheless has a deep and abiding care for those around him, and a desire to help and do the best he can by his adopted family
699. Plot: Good setup and hook for the main thrust of things. There’s a succession, we are invested in helping someone win it, the person running the thing has arranged for a contest which involves visiting different areas and doing their chosen trials. So we have a reason to hit the zones, do the quests and bosses, and stay involved
700. Cutscene: The ‘introduce the claimants’ scene is as good as it is bad. It’s a good showcasing of the variety thereof (we see the warrior king barely speaks, lets his vizier pontificate and make promises for him and plays to the crowd. The progressive kid barely speaks, knowing nothing of politics. And the big guy talks instead of letting his wiser half do so, unintentionally threatening all around them)
701. Secondary: The corn loa in the Corn of Necessity quest chain
702. Brickwork: Kozama’uka is a wonderfully pretty water jungle. Wetlands, farms, waterfalls, wonderful foliage…
703. Brickwork: …easy double positive
704. MSQ: Kozama’uka. There’s been a drought lately, brought on because… they live in a magical setting! No seriously this makes perfect sense and I love how much this uses the fantastical setting properly. The water’s fine, the mud’s fine, the problem is the magic. So they perform a ritual on magically conductive materials (which nobody realized) to channel magic into a device (which represents bountiful harvest) which then redistributes the local aether into the wildlife and foliage, allowing for a literal better harvest. This is so wonderfully down to earth, logical, character focused, and still high importance despite low stakes…
705. MSQ: …that it earns an easy…
706. MSQ: …triple positive
707. World Building: Hanuhanu
708. Secondary: Kozama’uka side quests, general. Follow ups to the storm and our MSQ escapades, world building in their history and culture
709. Prime Opt: Kozama’uka, the Nahanshe chain. This is our regional chain for Kozama’uka, and in addition to just being a solid bit of world building (through the eyes of a local soldier assigned to defend the region) it’s also pretty damned funny
710. Brickwork: Urqopacha. Steppes, mountains, very Andes and properly rough terrain
711. Doodads: Urqopacha’s towns! Especially the merchant stalls, lord I love these merchant stalls
712. World Building: Pelupelu. The merchants with an emphasis on reliability and long term benefit, all for fascinating historical reasons that still benefit them to this day
713. Spritework: New costumes and flavorful local fashion. Good stuff that helps sell the areas, both culturally and environmentally
714. MSQ: The Urqopacha story arc worked way better for me than I thought it would. A down to earth quest chain dealing with understanding a people, focusing on individual characters, while involving economics and culture? Sign me the hell up. Also bonus points for how it further fleshed out another of our opponents…
715. MSQ: …earning itself a solid…
716. MSQ: …triple positive
717. Secondary: Urqopacha general. Lots of little details fleshing out the people and their mercantile ways, and also why they operate the way they do
718. Prime Opt: The Urqopacha regional quest about an Ul’danian coming to swindle the locals being shown how much more profit he could make long term if he focused differently is great stuff
719. Dialogue: I mean of course FFXIV has good dialogue, but it’s been pretty solid throughout this time around. It really came to mind when we were doing the aforementioned prime opt quest in Urqopacha and the lalafell was talking completely differently from the locals
720. Brickwork: Ihuykatumu. The rapids, the jungle, probably feels the most jungle-like of the areas so far honestly
721. Cutscene: Upon finally reaching the, uh, third zone (more like 2.5th zone…) there’s a scene with Wuk Lamat where she finally admits to what’s been obvious the whole time. And in so opening up we learn more about her, her father, her motives, as well as the other big three people
722. World Building: Potsworn is such a cool concept. The moblins supply and support, the crafters focus on their craft, both profit. It’s fascinating
723. Cutscene: Guhlool Ja Ja’s duel with us. Fun duel of course, but it shows several things. He’s a lot sharper than he lets on, the contest does not have a guaranteed winner, and he cares deeply for his family regardless
724. MSQ: The Moblin arc in Earthenshire. As usual this is solid gold. First we get the usual local culture and fleshing out of the Moblins and their potsworn concept, then we head back home to find a new applicant to help recover from the storm, see the aforementioned cutscene, and get some new insight into Zoraal Ja and his vizier. We also see how Koana and Zoraal interact (for the first time), and of course we’ve started actually reaching the point of Wuk Lamat almost becoming a character
725. Secondary: Moblin side quests, of course. They even further flesh out the potsworn concept by showcasing that there are other potsworn who aren’t… sworn but rather are like, off the grid sword, it’s fascinating
726. Cutscene: So the lead up to the Wuk Lamat kidnapping is facepalmingly stupid, but the scene we get characterizing Koana is definitely some good pay off
727. Moment: Us tanking (drawing his attention) while Thancred rescues Wuk Lamat was awesome
728. Brickwork: Worqor Zormor. Lightning enchanted rock and foliage in a giant storm that we slowly rise above
729. World Building: As usual, they develop the culture of the Yok Huy giants. Their past as conquerors, only to be defeated due to disease, makes a tremendous amount of sense. In addition, I love their way of handling death; While still alive, people carve stone sepulchers to honor themselves and their memories, and from their perspective they remain ‘alive’ until those stones and memories are lost
730. Theme: Ignorance begets strife, understanding begets fellowship
731. MSQ: The arc through Yak T’el (initial), the discussion of the two tribes, the war they waged, the way it ended, and our follow-through thereof
732. Cutscene: Another good Koana scene, this time with Thancred and Urianger going full dad mode and counseling him in how to express himself more, and why
733. Brickwork: Yak T’el… the lower region. This whole area looks wonderfully alien, with glowing blues and dull violets, and good usage of lighting to make us look underground despite just being under the canopy
734. Moment: Holy crap. So, Bakool Ja Ja comes home, a failure, and within seconds of excellent animation and voice acting we get across immediately just how terrible his parents (especially his father) are, and why he’s been such a damaged child this whole game. And in reaction to his failure to literally cheat, Bakool is frickin’ banished from his people
735. Cutscene: The revelation of what makes the two headed mamool is… appropriately horrible, but what really drives this home…
736. Cutscene: …is the substance this adds to what has, up to this point, been honestly a terrible character. All of the sudden Bakool Ja Ja’s actions and mentality and childish behavior all crystallize
737. MSQ: I should be mad at how relatively easily we convince the mamool to flip but, being honest? These are a desperate and afraid people, and we have demonstrable results almost immediately. Of course they’d listen to us, and it’s nice to see people being reasonable
738. Moment: Koana’s turn (and dramatics) and joining us for what is built up to be a functional final battle is a good damned moment
739. Integration: The big fight against Gulool Ja Ja is a good showcasing of how far Wuk’s come, and how Gulool was in his prime as compared to now
740. Visual Storytelling: Skydeep Cenote, and piles upon piles of corpse jars
741. Brickwork: Skydeep Cenote
742. Secondary: Yak T’el side quests. They left offerings of food… and then had to stop due to scarcity. They fight amongst themselves, despite sharing their plight. They have to not kill predators who endanger them because any animals are a precious resource. It really helps to emphasize how broken down these people really are and how eager they were for an answer to their plight…
743. Secondary: …for a solid double positive
744. Character: Koana. The dorky geek who grows to express himself more thoroughly
745. Character: Bakool Ja Ja. The frustrating bully who desperately wanted to help his people and prove his family proud
746. Character: Wuk Lamat’s arc across the first half of the game. She grows quite a bit and becomes a character I actually like by the end
747. Internal Continuity: Regional prime opt dovetails. At the end of each zone’s two regionals is a follow up quest that ties the two together, and it’s nice to see those consequences
748. Prime Opt: Mage role quest. Silly, ridiculous, and well aware of itself in a way sufficient to invoke humor
749. Prime Opt: Both Tank and ranged dps role quests are… honestly a bit vanilla, but combined probably equal out to a positive for sheer ridiculous cheese
750. Prime Opt: Healer’s role quest is the best one by a wide margin. It’s basically a straight up Adam West Batman episode, and is exactly as stupid as it should be. It got a laugh more than once, even during the actual boss battle…
751. Prime Opt: …for a solid double positive
752. Prime Opt: The ridiculous silliness of the melee role quest continues the trend of the group, which is a good time to mention…
753. Animation: …the animations are definitely taking advantage of that Hildibrand tech this time around. And it all feeds into…
754. Atmosphere: …the vacation. I’m typing this as of the halfway point in the story (after Wuk Lamat has won the contest), and the entire expansion has been overwhelmingly and consistently just a chill vacation. Oh sure, things are serious for the locals, and it’s not like there’s no stakes, but the game has wisely avoided trying to up things to try and one-up Endwalker, and it makes for a generally fantastic experience…
755. Atmosphere: …earning a full…
756. Atmosphere: …three positives
757. Moment: Seeing the Trolley Gang… or I guess, our versions of the Trolley Gang… again
758. Moment: Wuk Lamat on the beach. Desperately trying to heal a dead man, incapable of coping with the reality of the situation, struggling under the weight of her first real interaction with actually-bad. The actress, the specifics, the animation, the storyboarding…
759. Moment: …this is a great moment
760. Cutscene: Okay I’ll give you it game. The train action sequence was just the right amount of cheesy and fun
761. Brickwork: Vanguard. It was already abundantly clear that we were not in Kansas anymore, but the wonderful neon 80s aesthetic really works for what they’re going for
762. Brickwork: Heritage Found. A blasted hellscape of lightning and rock, scarred by brutalist structures that glow
763. Voice Direction: Sphene is weirdly well directed. She brings to mind a character in Starcraft 2; You can tell when she’s being straight and when she’s obfuscating
764. Character: Sphene, before the reveal. She’s just ‘off’ enough that it works, she’s so obviously suspicious but that’s not really the point, as it’s all about who and what she is and why
765. Character: Zoraal Ja, the pathetic and petty thug who makes a mess of things due to his own stupidity
766. MSQ: Horrible surreality of the normal everyday life under the hellish landscape of Heritage Found
767. Brickwork: So it does have a few issues, but the visuals of Solution 9 speak for themselves. The cyberpunk city, filled with cold imposing architecture, and of course…
768. Doodads: …plenty of nice details, particularly in the shopping districts
769. Architecture: Solution Nine, meanwhile, is weirdly good at architecture. You can see the facilities and residencies in almost all directions giving you a strong sense of the city you’re in the middle of, as well as using good sight blockers, decent NPC placement, and layout…
770. Architecture: …earns a solid double
771. Moment: Erinville realizing the reality of his mother’s fate… and denying it as hard as he can
772. Cutscene: The second attack on Tuliyollal is actually really awesome. Ignoring general fun and storyboarding, but it also serves narrative purpose. The only reason the first attack did anything was due to its surprise nature, now that they’re prepped they have no trouble holding back the clearly superior force… which further emphasizes just how pathetic of a leader Zoraal Ja actually is, that all he could manage with his insane advantages is to negligently A-Move his forces, then when he fails throw a tantrum and kill his own people in a poor man’s attempt to One Winged Angel. This scene is awesome…
773. Cutscene: …for an easy…
774. Cutscene: …triple positive
775. Moment: I have to give special mention to Vtra showing up. Not just because of the awesomeness of the moment (which it definitely is) but because it makes so much sense in lore to connect Tuliyollal to Radz-at-Han to help deal with this whole situation. And of course dragons have experience fighting airships
776. Character: Otis. We only had him briefly but he did a lot in that time
777. Visual Storytelling: Origenics. The endless rows of souls and regulators, the cold and impartial precision of their processing
778. Visual Storytelling: The Zoraal Ja fight. Dude has nice, big, obvious attacks that are relatively easy to dodge but hit like an absolute truck if they connect
779. Moment: Okay I’ll give you that one game. Gulool Ja meeting Koana and the people vouching for his innocence is both unexpected and heartwarming
780. Voice Acting: The usual generally high quality of voice acting…
781. Voice Acting: …earning an easy double positive
782. Voice Acting: Special mention for Erinville’s actor, who doesn’t get a lot of screen time, but does a good job with it
783. Voice Acting: Sphene’s a weird one. After she goes all muwa ha ha she gets a lot worse, but there’s a lot of quality voice acting early on that does a lot of heavy lifting of the nuances of her character
784. Brickwork: Living Memory, Daguerro. This place is crazy considering how late in the game it arrives. Everything here helps sell the plasticine, high advanced, illusory surface that looks pristine, but has little details that are off (the fountain, the clocktower), it’s amazing
785. Architecture: Living Memory in general is another of those weirdly well architectured areas. You can really see how the river forms a natural ‘road’, the public transit lines which lead around and through the areas, the squares with rest areas, and the rest of the city visible in the distance while sightline blockers ensure you can’t see everything from any given spot make for…
786. Architecture: …some of the best architecture design in the game
787. Doodads: Also the wonderful little details are all over the place and I love it. I mean the popcorn!
788. Moment: G’raha and the gondola. That tiny peek into the horrors he faced in the future, the fondness, the acting
789. MSQ: So this is sort of an aggregate but the entire Living Memory sequence is exactly as surreal, uncanny, and horrifying as it should be. Many smiling faces eating tasteless food, finding constructed happiness, dying over and over again to have a new version of themselves brought back. The ethics, the reality of it, the aether shortage, the whole thing is fantastic
790. Cutscene: Namikka’s actual, final goodbye to Wuk Lamat
791. Brickwork: Living Memory, Yesterland. The bright, chipper, happy playland filled… with children
792. MSQ: Living Memory’s second section, Yesterland. Having to talk to these kids, wondering if and how they died… there’s one child who actually stated he’s seen a play 50 times, which may or may not be an annual event. And even here they’re so short handed they’re barely keeping up the festivities
793. Cutscene: The play was silly, but the right kind of silly. And Wuk Lamat’s improv was legit
794. Moment: Otis is legit, no matter the incarnation
795. Moment: Robor, Alayla, and Krile’s reunion
796. Atmosphere: So this is a weird one but… there’s this continued atmosphere of us walking through a museum in the final zone. No, that’s not quite right… it’s more like visiting people on their deathbeds, except instead of being old and infirm these people are alive and well, but they KNOW they’re on their deathbeds. And so they all have a final moment, and a final goodbye, and the whole time we’re committing them to memory. Thus we are literally their living memory
797. Moment: Krile having the best ice cream of her life with her parents
798. Brickwork: Blooms of Discovery. Carefully regulated foliage and fauna, all perfectly preserved and lovingly maintained in a fully controlled environment
799. Visual Storytelling: The Living Memory zones becoming dead after we shut them down…
800. Music Direction: …and the silence that follows
801. Cutscene: Deprived seeing his mother off, Erinville finally gets a chance to say goodbye
802. Secondary: While excessively frustrating to actually do, the additional lore touches and fleshing out of Solution 9’s people and society via side quests is good
803. Outro: Brickwork: Alexandria, which looks great in general, but is made even better by…
804. Outro: Visual Storytelling: …the visual storytelling going on here. We see the world right before the battle, with generators and electricity lines, and then we see the aftermath of the attack, and finally the ruins thereafter
805. Outro: Voice Direction: I also have to give props to the usage of the severely glitching voice throughout the Alexandria dungeon
806. Brickwork: Strayborough Deadwalk. The haunted amusement park is a classic, but they also do some great stuff with it
807. Localization: The same FFXIV standard of quality to localization continues

Story Negatives:

1. Character: Minfilia is a flat, bland, empty piece of cardboard…
2. Character: …which is made even worse by just how much camera presence she has, despite her bad VA, bad character, and absence of relevance
3. Character: This isn’t quite a negative for Minfilia so much as for her constant presence, which makes her worse. She’s portrayed as the main character and, functionally, is (a slot she’ll hold until Alphinaud effectively takes it in Heavensward)
4. Voice Acting: Inconsistent / absent voice acting in main story stuff. This problem never really goes away by the way…
5. Voice Acting: …and is pretty bad in ARR in particular
6. Voice Direction: Bad voice acting isn’t all over the place, but there are several performances in ARR which actively ruin their respective scenes…
7. Voice Direction: …a constant issue
8. Architecture: So… Gridania is a pretty good example of what bad architecture looks like in game design. Giant cliff walls all around making you feel cloistered in and unable to see beyond the city, long empty lanes so you can see how small the spots are, and tiny areas
9. Music: Music direction is pretty problematic in ARR, with the same songs being played entirely too often…
10. Music: …a common problem…
11. Music: …across entirely too much time
12. Prime Opt: Bard 30-50 is… you guessed it… boring
13. Prime Opt: Ninja 30-50 honestly takes far too long and is a bit cliche’d, plus Karasu is just irritating
14. Prime Opt: The Lancer 1-30 quests are… not good. Excessive repetition and honestly mostly drivel, with a tiny bit of nice world building and character right at the end making it merely one negative
15. Prime Opt: White Mage 30-50 is, at best, boring
16. Secondary: A whole lot of boring nothing drivel in the La Noscea side quests…
17. Secondary: …for a double
18. Secondary: The Gridanian side quests are the worst of the lot by far with so little meat to them and so much bleh nonsense…
19. Secondary: …for a full…
20. Secondary: …three negatives
21. Storyboarding: There’s a general presentation problem persistent in ARR, which deflates scenes that otherwise should have impact, and detracts from story beats throughout. For those who’ve already seen our WoW review, this is the same general issue WoW had pre Pandaria…
22. Storyboarding: …so we’ll just…
23. Storyboarding: …triple this up and move on
24. Cutscene Incompetence: Excessive amounts of cutscene incompetence…
25. Cutscene Incompetence: …for a full…
26. Cutscene Incompetence: …three negatives
27. Empty Text: ARR MSQ has a serious Empty Text problem, easily the worst in the entire game, so we’re going to score this on a per category basis. First we have the initial quest chain leading up to the Castrum steps…
28. Empty Text: …for a full…
29. Empty Text: …three negatives
30. Pacing: Pacing has serious issues throughout the MSQ…
31. Pacing: …for a full…
32. Pacing: …three negatives
33. Padding: And THEN there’s the fact that every damned cutscene is about twice as long as it should be…
34. Padding: …for a full…
35. Padding: …three negatives
36. Padding: This is me being nice and only giving triple negatives for the MSQ padding…
37. Padding: …for a full…
38. Padding: …triple negative
39. Empty Text: ARR’s Primary Optionals don’t fare any better…
40. Empty Text: …for a full…
41. Empty Text: …three negatives
42. Empty Text: Nor do ARR’s Secondary quests…
43. Empty Text: …for a full…
44. Empty Text: …three negatives
45. MSQ: The entire pre-Titan arc is honestly just… awful
46. Padding: It’s too long
47. MSQ: It’s almost entirely filler
48. Plot: There’s no real narrative to speak of here
49. Pacing: Its pacing is absolutely all over the place (it even resolves inside of like 3 minutes once we get there)
50. Consequence Storytelling: Did I mention that this is an urgent situation in which we are in a hurry? Oh I will because…
51. Moment: I need to make special mention of the finale of the Titan chain. It was all for a feast, for us! Yaaay…
52. MSQ: The entire pre-Garuda arc is just straight up padding filler… again…and, worse, we’re actively in a hurry and the quests literally waste our time (in lore!) while rubbing our faces in that fact…
53. MSQ: …for a full…
54. MSQ: …three negatives. I should mention this is the IMPROVED version, it was worse before
55. Outro: The Castrum Praetorium has… several issues when it comes to the narrative axis. As an Outro it’s lacking at best, there’s several extended examples of cutscene incompetence, and the actual final thing is just… flat
56. Writing: The absolutely ridiculous nonsense of us picking up and keeping the vial for evidence deserves
57. MSQ: The Banquet. Good lord, everything about the banquet. I honestly consider it one of the worst sequences in the game, for far too many reasons to list here…
58. MSQ: …for a full…
59. MSQ: …three negatives
60. MSQ: A bonus negative for the Banquet. I’m sorry, I hate this sequence. Y’know what’s worse? This is barely going to matter in the long run. It’s literally Because Plot as an excuse to get to Ishgard which will then be resolved in a few bleh quests across Heavensward before we just forget this nonsense ever happened
61. Cutscene Incompetence: There is a truly aggressive amount of cutscene incompetence going on with the main character in the Banquet scene. This is going to be a trend for quite a while, where stuff happens and we’re functionally not even in the cutscene we’re just standing over there munching on popcorn
62. Moment: Yda and Paplymo staying behind is literally contrary to the entire point of us fleeing instead of fighting, AND the gate being closed behind them could have been done with them on the other side to the same effect!
63. MSQ: The entire Nabriales ‘chain’ is… weird. It’s critically important to the overall plot, with the White Auracite and the Ascians’ nature, and yet the scenes are just… badly done, and bad tempo, cutscene incompetence, and weird direction rob it of all significance
64. Padding: And then there’s the spinning wheels in the Crystal Tower. I need to mention just how bad this is because while I know the whole of ARR has this problem you have to understand that we’ll have like a TEN MINUTE cutscene which explains something that takes me one sentence to convey, and I don’t mean to summarize, to fully convey. This is SO bad that a friend of mine flat out quit the game over it because it was so frustrating to them…
65. Padding: …so let’s just…
66. Padding: …triple this up
67. Cutscene: The final escape sequence from the World of Darkness is silly on every level. Bad storyboarding and cutscene incompetence galore…
68. Cutscene Incompetence: …I’m gobsmacked at how dumb this is. Man ARR cutscenes were bad
69. Writing: There is an exceptional amount of narrative cheating with the entire build up for the Ivy and how it is designed to completely remove any semblance of foreshadowing from the circumstances
70. Character: Ilberd is just the worst. Screw him. He’s smug, he’s insane, he’s evil, and probably worst of all…
71. Character: …he’s ‘right’ and gets everything he wants
72. Character: Emmanellain. ‘Nuff said.
73. Voice Acting: Inconsistent voice acting problem arguably gets worse, as the raids and side quests get even better… and remain absent voice acting…
74. Voice Acting: …for two negatives
75. Empty Text: General Empty Text issues. It’s not as bad as ARR but it’s still bad, in the MSQ…
76. Empty Text: …for two negatives
77. Empty Text: General Empty Text issues. It’s not as bad as ARR but it’s still bad, in the Primary Optionals…
78. Empty Text: …for two negatives
79. Empty Text: General Empty Text issues. It’s not as bad as ARR but it’s still bad, in the Secondaries…
80. Empty Text: …for two negatives
81. Story Sequencing: The story sequencing of the main plot and the Ul’Dah plot has issues. The two plot threads are interesting in their own rights, but it’s awful in its placement
82. Writing: The undoing of Y’shtola’s ‘death’ for no real purpose or consequence
83. Cutscene: As much as I love the overall scenes, throwing the eyes over the bridge is not only stupid, but leads to a lot of bleh
84. Cutscene Incompetence: Also there’s just general cutscene incompetence all around
85. Writing: The way the Warriors of Darkness get portrayed early on is unnecessarily (and narratively cheating) evil muwa ha ha
86. Writing: While a minor point, being poisoned to set up the failed conference is totally unnecessary as we only had to be absent a few minutes at best. It could have been accomplished while we were out dealing with wolves
87. Cutscene Incompetence: There is an irritating amount of cutscene incompetence in the death of Haurchefant, which actively detracts from the entire sequence
88. Writing: Charibert and the Knights of the Round are just… cheats, honestly
89. Pacing: For the second time in in the HW MSQ, we have pacing and sequencing issues as we go right up to Azys La… and then, while we’re on an obvious time crunch… we go off and do side quests for a while
90. Writing: Narrative cheating of the Griffin… again, sigh
91. Cutscene Incompetence: Cutscene incompetence with the Griffin… again, sigh
92. Writing: The utter pointlessness of the reveal of Yda = Lyse and the total lack of follow through thereupon
93. Prime Opt: Astrologian 30-60 just takes too damned long. Between empty text and repeating itself its bloated past reasonability, easily being three times the length of the other class quests and not in a good way
94. Prime Opt: Machinist 50-60’s hatesink Dzamael character was… not well done. Too overt, too sudden a turnaround at the last minute
95. Prime Opt: Miner 50-60 sucks. It’s dull as dishwater, predictable to its detriment, and doesn’t do anything with its cliches
96. Prime Opt: The Paladin arc is boring, actively nonsensical, and ignores its own continuity in favor of dull plot points that go no where and mean nothing…
97. Prime Opt: …for two negatives
98. Prime Opt: There is no reason for us to be in the Mhach cutscenes half the time, and it leads to a lot of irritating cutscene incompetence as we literally stand there doing nothing in a scene that has nothing to do with us
99. Prime Opt: Warrior 50-60 is bad, boring, after-school-special and, worse, is the same damn arc from the ARR one…
100. Prime Opt: …for two negatives
101. Secondary: The majority of the Dravanian Hinterlands quests are boring to the point of detrimental, following hunters doing hunting things and also pluckiness woo
102. Secondary: The Western Coerthas quest chains honestly kinda suck
103. Cutscene Incompetence: Some pretty bad cutscene incompetence in the Alexander raids
104. Prime Opt: Honestly Mide’s ‘love story’ is honestly kind of… bad, and sort of ruins the overall arc
105. Story Sequencing: Popping in and out and in and out of Alexander for no good reason (often times minutes apart from each other) is just stupid
106. Secondary: The Moogle quests. Good lord, the Moogle quests. I hate the Churning Mists secondaries with a fiery passion. They’re spread out over huge swaths of terrain and require a metric ton of backtracking and EVERY SINGLE STEP involves crossing the map and everytime you think you’re down to the last quest a new one pops up. Screw these quests…
107. Secondary: …for a full…
108. Secondary: …three negatives
109. Secondary: The moogle sidequest is not great to begin with, but it’s made even worse because it’s a multi day delay when we’re in a hurry for no good reason…
110. Secondary: …for two negatives
111. Architecture: Stormblood in general has some bad architecture. Kugane is legit of course, but everything else fails pretty hard. Six tents making a town but you can see all six tents and there’s nothing to mitigate it, gigantic empty walls and buildings forming the capital, et cetera
112. Character: Grynewaht continues to ruin scenes as he just sort of ‘theres’ in the Yotsuyu v. Zenos scene
113. Character: Grynewaht really has no place in the Gosetsu v. Yotsuyu scene
114. Character: Grynewaht who is somehow as good as Raubahn in combat, who is misplaced in both tone and execution as a bad combination of comic relief and horrific nightmare
115. Character: Hien finally becomes the negative character I fondly remember in the patch content
116. Character: Lyse is not a bad character, but the narrative has no idea how to utilize her properly, and it actively hurts the overall story
117. Character: Magnai is an asshole, and that’s… ‘fine’ but the problem is despite repeated interactions he never truly gets his comeuppance nor does he get any better
118. Voice Acting: You guessed it. The absence of voice acting in Ivalice and class quests and the like continues to be a black mark…
119. Voice Acting: …for two negatives
120. Empty Text: Stormblood MSQ. It’s still an issue though thankfully it’s going away bit by bit. Maybe Square finally found their editing team?
121. Empty Text: Stormblood Prime Opt
122. Empty Text: Stormblood Secondaries
123. External Continuity: External continuity with Ilberd being ‘right’ despite everything
124. Cutscene: Gosetsu and Yotsuyu’s death scene is honestly really, really bad on every level. Pacing, storyboarding, incompetence, and lasts three friggin’ minutes. I know Talking Is A Free Action and all but this is silly…
125. Cutscene: …for a full…
126. Cutscene: …three negatives
127. Writing: I like him, and I like where it goes, but Gosetsu and Yotsuyu surviving is total bullcrap on every level
128. Fake Drama: In hindsight, Tsuyu’s tragedy is really quite unnecessary, over-the-top, and done for its own sake
129. Writing: There is an unacceptable amount of ‘because plot’ in the form of artificial drama, cutscene incompetence, and general lack of agency with regards to Tsuyu
130. Music Direction: Music utilization problem continues
131. Pacing: The pacing of the entire Ruby Sea arc really suffers
132. Writing: So by the time we hit the Ruby Sea we start to run into ‘because plot’ reasons for cutscenes
133. Internal Continuity: We… stopped being the Star Destroyer for some reason in Stormblood. We build back up to it, but it’s undeniable, unexplained, and actively hurts the narrative repeatedly. Like for absolutely no in-universe reason we get metaphorically reset back to level 1 and have to build up again. It’s worth noting that as of typing (Dawntrail is almost finished) this pattern has never been repeated, they just did this to establish Zenos. Speaking of…
134. Internal Continuity: Zenos’ initial fight against us has him shrek us effortlessly which… I’m sorry, what?
135. Story Sequencing: The disjointed positioning of Stormblood relative to other expansions
136. Story Sequencing: The story sequencing of the early 4.0 arc is very, very disjointed. There’s effectively two story arcs going on here and the two don’t really connect in any meaningful way and we bounce between them strangely…
137. Story Sequencing: …for two negatives
138. Moment: The insistence in Zenos not suiciding by Lyse is just… tonally out of place and, as usual, forces Lyse into a narrative position she should not be in
139. Moment: Zenos’ situation is further compounded by the fake-out death itself
140. Cutscene: The ‘ending’ to 4.0 is… weird. It’s misplaced, ignores consequence storytelling (Draenor is freee) and honestly just… tries too hard
141. Cutscene Incompetence: Cutscene incompetence with Lakshmi
142. Pacing: The pacing of the Ivalice arc is absolutely all over the place, rubber-banding between too-slow and too-fast with no rhyme or reason…
143. Pacing: …for two negatives
144. Character: Ramza is an addlepated twit and literally called out in-universe for it
145. Prime Opt: Armorer 60-70 is dull as dishwater
146. Prime Opt: Blacksmith 60-70 repeats the problems of ‘ha ha abusive dad is so silly’ and slants the whole story awfully
147. Prime Opt: Carpenter 60-70 has problems with both of its ‘tones’ (silly vs. serious) and mishandles both
148. Prime Opt: Leatherworker 60-70 iiiis dull as dishwater boring drivel, with the formulaic after-school-special approach without anything interesting or fun (with the sole exception of the OBJECTION! moment)
149. Prime Opt: Paladin 60-70 continues the heady trend of Paladin quests… sucking
150. Prime Opt: Samurai 60-70 was just straight up melodrama nonsense on top of cutscene incompetence
151. Prime Opt: The entire wine self-insert chain is pointless drivel with very little to redeem it (Hancock was cool)…
152. Prime Opt: …for two negatives
153. Prime Opt: Weaver 60-70 is… weird, tonally inconsistent, and leans a little too hard in its slanting towards tradition
154. Writing: As much as I like what came of it, Gaius’ survival is, honestly, yet another fake-out undo death thing
155. Character: Zenos. The flandardization of what was, otherwise, a decent character
156. Character: Zenos’ arc conclusion… which is utterly ruined by him being brought back from the dead and rather than doing anything good with it, they just repeat his stupid ‘hunt’ arc…
157. Character: …for two negatives
158. Cutscene: The war council and parlay with Emperor Varis’ first half honestly suffers some weird construction and content issues, with the leaders being (frankly) idiots in their moralizing and Varis barely even responding. The reason this is a negative, to be very clear cuz we talked about this for a hot minute, is while Varis is well written everyone else is NOT. They just put on their idiot hats for the duration. It’s even worse because the cutscene not to far after this they go back to being well written!
159. Writing: The time dilation problem remains, as it always did
160. Writing: Time dilation reaction problem; Alisae edition
161. Writing: Time dilation reaction problem; Alphinaud edition
162. Writing: Time dilation reaction problem; Thancred edition
163. Writing: Time dilation reaction problem; Uriangier edition
164. Empty Text: The repetition of the story is repetitively repetitive. But hey, only one Empty Text negative, that’s a record now!
165. Voice Acting: The voice acting inconsistency… has returned…
166. Voice Acting: …for two negatives
167. Character: And then there’s Ran’jit. Ran’jit, who is an asshole, who is a threat of the week, which is bad for all the reasons it usually is
168. Character: Ran’jit continues to be terrible. He has less character than Minfilia (the original) and despite having purpose in the story (as Thancred’s opposite) he is consistently mis-used
169. Cutscene Incompetence: Cutscene incompetence returns!
170. MSQ: Toupasa, Ran’jit, and the usual mary sue / incompetence issues
171. Fake Drama: A bonus negative for fake drama
172. Writing: Ran’jit’s survival is… absolutely awful. Never explained, terrible even if it was explained, and the usual awfulness
173. MSQ: And finally, Ran’jit (sigh) fights us (sigh) again (sigh)
174. MSQ: The Trolley sequence has some decent moments, but has some serious pacing and padding issues
175. Moment: Also I’m sorry but him kicking the cart aside is stupid for several reasons. Ignoring the obvious fact that it is a sudden power mary sue bullcrap, it also punches the player in the crotch after all the crap we just went through just to get the stupid trolley working again
176. MSQ: There is absolutely no good reason for the main character to participate in the rescue of Minfilia. The whole tonal, thematic point of this encounter is that the Crystarium is inspired by us to take action regardless of us… and then we go along to help them for some reason
177. Writing: As usual, fake-out deaths (Thancred)
178. Writing: As usual, fake-out deaths (Y’shtola) are a negative
179. Pacing: There are occasional pacing (and arguably padding) issues at a few points in Kholusia and the Tempest, when in both cases we’re in a bit of a hurry too
180. Padding: There are occasional pacing (and arguably padding) issues at a few points in Kholusia and the Tempest, when in both cases we’re in a bit of a hurry too
181. Moment: Zenos’ final scene in 5.3 is a little bit too much ‘and an even greater threat looms dun dun dun’ for me, and feels ill timed and worse applied
182. Padding: There’s… a little bit too much ‘get on with it’ while we’re under literally increasing ticking clock scenarios during the finale of 5.3
183. Cutscene Incompetence: Cutscene incompetence in the tank role quest
184. Prime Opt: Gunbreaker quest chain cutscene incompetence ruins an otherwise good scene
185. Prime Opt: Some generally dull, boring quests in Bard, Black Mage, Machinist at 80
186. Prime Opt: The Dancer quest isn’t just disinteresting, it’s actively de-investing to the point where I didn’t want to do the quests. This is on top of the fact that it should be a big change to the setting (though this pays off in Endwalker), and retroactively adds something that’s always never been an issue
187. Prime Opt: There’s just… meandering dishwater drivel in the physical dps chain, made worse by the literal ‘I hate you!’ (five seconds later) ‘please come back!’ bit
188. Prime Opt: The Sage 70-80 chain is honestly pretty bad. It tries to engage on an emotional level and fails, and tries to have several big moments and… fails
189. Character: The irritation and aggravation of Konogg and Anogg is way over the top
190. Empty Text: There is entirely too much padding and empty text in the initial Nier quest chain
191. Padding: There is entirely too much padding and empty text in the initial Nier quest chain
192. Prime Opt: Konogg’s 180 in character is the usual exaggerated nonsense
193. Prime Opt: An utterly unsatisfying, ridiculous conclusion to the Nier Raids
194. Character: And then there’s Creepface. He’s a badly designed hatesink, devolving into Get Off My Screen territory, and is objectively a one dimensional nobody
195. Prime Opt: The Weapons arc has so many issues for me. Ignoring the obvious weird discomfort of jackass, there’s also the fake drama and needlessly irritating stupidity of the kids
196. Prime Opt: This is in addition to the flubber-levels of bouncing around the tone of the entire chain has
197. Prime Opt: Creepface’s second cutscene is… entirely too creepy, uncomfortable, and arguably over-written
198. Prime Opt: The entire Emerald sequence of cutscenes… suck. Just… on every single level, across the board…
199. Prime Opt: …for two negatives
200. Prime Opt: There is such a cascade of idiocy in this entire chain it literally is idiot volleyball
201. Cutscene: The big dramatic cutscene of ‘we’ve got to earn it!’ before two idiot children go off to die horribly in service of hindering their own plans for no good reason. Screw that entire cutscene…
202. Cutscene: …for a double
203. Cutscene Incompetence: Cutscene incompetence abounds… mostly in the damned raids. Why are we even in these scenes?
204. Prime Opt: And then there’s Allie’s big ‘rebellion’ scene which, forgive me, I won’t go into detail on because quite literally everything is wrong with it up to and including Valens taking a Diamond Weapon beam to the face and surviving…
205. Prime Opt: …for a full…
206. Prime Opt: …three negatives
207. Prime Opt: The ending of the Weapon chain starts off at a firm ‘neutral’ and between repetition, un-earned crap, veneration of all the wrong things, and after-school special
208. Cutscene: There is an aggressive amount of cutscene incompetence during the end of CLL cutscene, with multiple points where multiple people could do something (indeed, the hostage-taker literally kicks away their hostage at a certain point) but we just kind of… go along with it Because Plot
209. Cutscene Incompetence: A bonus for cutscene incompetence
210. Pacing: Breather episode of Sharlayan and subsequent pacing issues
211. Pacing: Breather episode of the Burrows and subsequent pacing issues
212. Prime Opt: The early Ranged Role quest honestly sucked, and was actively angrifying
213. Prime Opt: The Studium Smithing/restoration chain is dull and is terribly paced
214. Prime Opt: The Studium Weaver chain is boring as sin and compounded by actively being insulting towards just about everyone…
215. Prime Opt: …for two negatives
216. Prime Opt: The tank role quest is… bad. It’s dumb, meanders, and manages to be completely disinteresting which by itself is worthy of two negatives, but then it pushes into actual aggravation as it turns out to all be about the elementals, and how (frankly) awful they are and how we owe them everything and all that blegh…
217. Prime Opt: …for a full…
218. Prime Opt: …three negatives
219. Secondary: The Labryinthos side quests are honestly drivel no world building, no fleshing out, no nothing…
220. Secondary: …for two negatives
221. Secondary: Similar problem with Thavnair
222. Writing: Weirdly unnecessary and lengthy repetition of all we already know with the Forum when many things could have accomplished it with far less waste
223. Cutscene Incompetence: Cutscene incompetence
224. Cutscene Incompetence: Okay I complain a lot about cutscene incompetence but we just stand there for literal minutes while Meteion (very slowly) recites her information (which we want to stop), allow her to turn (despite knowing what it is), and cause everything… all because we just stand there watching (all of us, even)
225. Cutscene Incompetence: …more cutscene incompetence
226. Empty Text: Better than it’s been the whole game, but still bad
227. Padding: Speaking of repetition, Meteion really does need to stop saying the same damn thing every time we talk to her, it starts to actually pull away from otherwise decent scenes
228. Empty Text: Okay I lied, it’s back… it’s back
229. Writing: The handwaviness of being able to casually travel back to the past and the edge of reality (regularly, for multiple quests) is a detriment to the story as a whole, especially given how difficult and costly it was for the initial transit
230. Writing: The inconsistent time travel problems, especially given how it’s using the same method
231. Writing: The End of Days issues. So the despair beam from space that killed a galaxy was slowly spreading across the continent of Eorzea and never had a chance to hit the outer continents because… well let’s be honest, because the writers probably didn’t want to acknowledge the apocalypse in the breather expansion. However after some further looking into it, it just… spreads slowly. Now here’s the thing, there are in universe reasons for this (like everything in this game), but it all still fails at the fundamental point; that they wanted the most horrible apocalypse imaginable without it being the most horrible apocalypse imaginable. Pick a lane people
232. Theme: The main theme of the game is… weak, as it is excessively repeated to the point of aggravation
233. Theme: And further hampered by several thematic weaknesses which pull the plot down
234. MSQ: The final Zenos fight is mis-placed and unnecessary
235. Writing: This is functionally an aggregate negative for the multitude of times where we arguably shouldn’t even be present in a moment or scene because we’re just there to do a boss battle, and then the situation actually gets resolved by the real characters after. Also known as WoW Syndrome
236. MSQ: The entire sequence of events around the Milon 2 fight is awful. So Zero shows up and establishes the nature of how voidsent cannot die normally, but immediately establishes there’s a way around this; consuming the creature in question. Zero then… sits back and does nothing while we kill voidsent in front of her over and over. Zero also talks repeatedly about refusing to do anything without payment. All of this neatly sets up the potential solution… which is then instantly thrown out the window in favor of what I can only call nonsense, as instead we insist Zero owes us for her name (of all things), and Zero promptly Worfs the crap out of us (and our entire team) by demonstrating hitherto unforeseen strength in literally one shotting the enemies. Later on Zero mentions her distaste for eating voidsent, but none of that helps the presentation of the entire sequence
237. Cutscene: This is mostly a pacing issue but there’s some weird meandering and thunder stealing in the post Zeromus cutscene
238. Character: Wuk Lamat. Early Wuk is… irritating. They try to make her a lovable idiot and lean into slapstick humor, and she got grating entirely too early
239. Cutscene: The ‘introduce the claimants’ scene also is a bit of a problem. Entirely too much dry exposition where it’s totally unnecessary, and entirely too long for what it is
240. MSQ: Okay so Wuk Lamat is kidnapped by bandits. They… could have made this work (we even talked it out on camera) but they super didn’t. It’s nonsensical cutscene incompetence and tries entirely too hard to play up the threat just to get us to interacting with Koana more
241. Moment: For the second time (almost in a row) we have some crude nonsense to get from point A to point B. Even if Point B is decent, the method is ridiculous. In this specific case there’s this bird that attacks after some giants attack so we can prove we’re not hostile to them
242. Cutscene: The Valigarmanda is loose cutscene has issues. It’s too long (remember there is a terrifying beast on the loose right now), it has empty text (lots of weird repetition), and it’s just awkwardly confirming things we already know
243. MSQ: So this is a weird one. Valigarmanda is built up across the first four zones (plus the trip over and the first city) as this super death doom and that’s… honestly the problem, I think. It’s TOO high tier for what they’re going for. This is still Wuk Lamat’s story and she’s just… not at the level to do much to something of this scale. And it’s ironically too SMALL tier for us. So it sits in this weird spot where it diminishes a lot of individual scenes and moments that lead up to the Valigarmanda fight. Bringing this thing lower tier would have made it more about her and learning how to work together, rather than trying to stop a runaway hurricane. This…
244. Consequence Storytelling: …bleeds over to the end of the chapter 1 sequence. In game we just took down a gigantic death doom that’s been a plague on these people for literal centuries, that the previous ruler and his party barely sealed away 80 years ago, and it has no real impact on anything. It’s just another day. And this once again is a consequence of Valigarmanda being built up to be too much of a threat. If it was a more regional issue or non problem or even just a regular migratory idea it’d be fine but as is I’m just sitting here going… what? This is especially odd in a game that goes out of its way to have internal consistency
245. Internal Continuity: Okay I’m sorry, I’m trying not to bang on about this point, but the Valigarmanda thing is the gift that keeps on giving. In this case it’s Bakool Ja Ja. This dude (these dudes?) went out of their way to unleash a goddamned kaiju without consequence or reason, admits to this openly, and there are multiple eye witnesses to this deed… and yet it has absolutely no impact on anything other than Wuk Lamat being mildly irritated at Bakool Ja Ja (repeatedly, I might add). And I really hate to keep banging on about this but if Valigarmanda wasn’t as big of a threat this wouldn’t be as big of a deal
246. Character: Bakool Ja Ja. He (they) is a one note, irritating, teenager, and simultaneously a violent murderer and a bumbling moron. They cannot pick a lane with him and regardless of my personal irritation, this alone drags him down
247. MSQ: The… shonen part of the story, for lack of a better word, just absolutely does not work for me. Going down the list would just involve reciting the events as they happen so I shall instead simply say what in the world is going on here with the tonal dissonance and emotional whiplash and then move on
248. Pacing: Okay for real, I like Bakool Ja Ja’s turn, I do. But MAN it happens fast. He goes two scenes from muwa ha ha I’ll murder your father to immediate compliance and cooperation
249. Empty Text: The Role Quests have entirely too much of this
250. Prime Opt: There’s an issue with the melee role quest; it tries a bit too hard to be serious multiple times in ways that honestly diminish the overall silly tone. And this is a problem three times; First for the whole expansion (light hearted vacation), second for the role questions in general (all pretty silly and low tiered), and third for THIS very quest chain, which itself includes frequent visual gags and slapstick
251. Cutscene: So, uh. The cutscenes around the attack on Tuliyolol are… really, really bad. What’s probably sad is this is a relatively easily fixable. I’d still have issues with it, truthfully, but as is this is… really bad. The cutscene incompetence is through the roof (we have several high powered people who just sit and watch, plus a healer, plus us) and the fact that we just sort of very, very slowly watch things progress makes the whole thing frustrating. But let’s ignore preference for a second, because there’s another thing I don’t like about this. In any game this would still be a negative, but it sticks in my craw especially here, in a game that absolutely nails emotional and tragedy beats. But instead this feels, frankly, cheap. As if they just wanted to dive for the tears in the crudest and quickest way possible. Thus a scene that should effect me doesn’t. Thus…
252. Cutscene: …this is an easy double negative, however I have one last thing to mention…
253. Cutscene Incompetence: …and that is how it only happened because everyone (including us) just stood there like a dead fish the entire time. This is aggravating as hell and completely ruins the scene, moment, and story shift…
254. Cutscene Incompetence: …for another negative
255. Secondary: I hate to do this but the Shaaloani quests are just… not good. No real meat to them in character or culture, just a lot of filler
256. Pacing: So, the second half of the game has the weirdest pacing. I had to take a minute to really process why this was bothering me; it’s too short. Events RACE past without giving any of them time to really breathe or develop. Think about it; We have about a dozen different plot threads all happening simultaneously and each one gets, maybe, two scenes to develop before we’re on to the next one. And then it’s all thrown away to get to the next plot point. It’s… aggravating…
257. Pacing: …and worthy of two negatives
258. Writing: Okay so I’ve been chewing on this for a couple of days at this point. There’s a time dilation thing (again) and while it’s no where near as bad as last time (since they actually use it to good effect this time), it’s still entirely too handwavey and plot convenient
259. Cutscene: Okay so after having the soul regulators explained to us (THREE TIMES, four if we count seeing it in action on Zoraal Ja) we go to have the soul regulators explained to us. Then, when we are explicitly there to see the effects in question, and then we act shocked for it. But on top of all of that…
260. Padding: …we’ve literally had all this on camera before. Four times
261. Cutscene: Okay so there’s arguments to be had here but… the long winding villain speech, the cutscene incompetence, the fact that we’re not a part of the cutscene at all, what in the world. This also leads into…
262. Writing: …this is an aggregate negative so bare with me. The insistence upon trying to humanize a one note monster, people feeling conflicted about killing a mass murderer, the game attempting to engender sympathy for people who have soul processing down to a clinical science, it’s just a bunch of ‘come on game, really?’ for me. None of it lands and between that and a few musical direction problems, it just leads to some bleh
263. Music Direction: A weird but consistent mismatch of music to scene…
264. Music Direction: …earning two negatives
265. Character: Krile. They bring her as a main, barely use her (already a sin), introduce the fact that she’s an alien, and STILL barely use her. I’m sorry, what?
266. Voice Direction: So, inconsistent voice acting is always a problem in this game, but even in the MSQ and launch content there’s entirely too few cutscenes that are voiced. Worse, the specific choice of which scenes are voiced is occasionally off (long dry exposition is voiced, but strong character beats aren’t kind of deal)…
267. Voice Direction: …for a double negative
268. Internal Continuity: I’ve been chewing on this for a while now. The two halves of this expansion do not fit together, at all, and it’s jarring
269. MSQ: Why are we taking our time when we have a ticking clock in Living Memory? This also has some tonal dissonance; this is a trip through memory lane, honoring and remembering those that we ourselves are executing. And we’re taking our sweet damned time with it
270. Plot: Okay so, walk with me on this one. The gut punches and tragedy moments in Zone 6 are very, very well done and absolutely hit. The positives each have gotten prove that. The thing is there’s a bit of… it being unearned. There’s too many holes and oddities in how things are progressing. We’re just supposed to accept that this is the only choice, just trust us, just go with it. It comes across as cheap (lazy, even) and it diminishes the impact of the aforementioned tragedy

Gameplay Positives:

1. Launch: The ARR Miracle. This is a very unique positive, and one I have never given before nor since. I played 1.0 and I’ve covered it in excruciating depth, it was BAD. It is unironically the worst video game I have ever played, and if you know me you know I have played thousands. The fact that they turned that into ARR is a straight up miracle that needs to be recognized for what it is. So to the team that sacrificed sanity and health to do so…
2. Launch: …consider this…
3. Launch: …acknowledgment. Hats off to you
4. Core Combat: The consistent usage of vuln stacks as a way to apply penalty for failure without being too harsh (can recover from it, drops after a minute if continue to not get hit) and a way to tutorialize which attacks should be dodged
5. Core Combat: The resurrection mechanic is a good system. It allows for gradient penalty for failure (you get a debuff, it’s expensive, and it’s time consuming, but you don’t have the snowball problem so many JRPGs have)
6. Core Mechanic: Macros and malleability thereof
7. Core Mechanic: The auction house is a bit clunky and awkward but there are a lot of options for how to search for what
8. Core Mechanic: The chocobo companion system, giving another (customizable) tool to help soloing players
9. Core Mechanic: The Duty Finder is a great way to just zip to any dungeon / raid, queue for specifics, and go in certain ways
10. Core Mechanic: The roulette system in general is brilliant. It keeps old content relevant, it helps new players, it rewards everyone doing it, it’s even more rewarding if someone’s doing something new, and it has a bunch of options to customize it…
11. Core Mechanic: …for three…
12. Core Mechanic: …three positives
13. Cosmetic: Housing in general is a nice system. Limited, but there are some good cosmetics and some actual functionality to them
14. Cosmetic: Minions form a good type of personalization and customization
15. Cosmetic: Mounts are a good type of personal customization
16. Cosmetic: The glamour system allows for a huge amount of customization in appearance, but limitations in what you can do and the workarounds on top of workarounds pull this back from being more positives
17. Fast Travel: Generally good fast travel system (find, warp to from anywhere)…
18. Fast Travel: …for two positives
19. HUD: The HUD customization allows for you to move just about any element to wherever, and scale them smaller or larger, which is awesome…
20. HUD: …for two positives
21. HUD: The player icons (idle, do not disturb, new player, returning player, in cutscene)
22. Info In Game: MSQ and Class Quest indicators (always shows you what your next main quest or class quest is)
23. Interface: The crafting interface is easily one of the best I’ve seen in gaming, with a ton of good interface design and lots of different ways to search for recipes, items, flowcharts, etc…
24. Interface: …for a full…
25. Interface: …three positives
26. Leveling: The Hunting Log isn’t great, and is abandoned too early, but it’s a neat additional way to reward players for seeking out specific mobs and hunting
27. Level Scaling: The ability to enjoy content at-level as an option is an awesome thing supported by in game systems and mechanics
28. Minigame: Crafting itself is a very well thought out, balanced, well designed, in-depth, fun system to craft things…
29. Minigame: …for two positives
30. Minigame: The Golden Saucer in general is surprisingly good fun, with lots of minigames and a good variety of rewards to them
31. Minigame: The Lords of Vermillion minigame is… really surprisingly well done, and is a neat little minigame way to use your minions in a non cosmetic fashion
32. Minigame: Triple Triad itself is fairly well fleshed out, to the point of being its own decent minigame…
33. Minigame: …for a full…
34. Minigame: …three positives
35. Music: Music is… honestly not that great, but there are some legitimately fun songs
36. QoL: Autoloot on enemies
37. QoL: Chocobo bank storage (accessible on the fly) is a great QoL feature
38. QoL: QoL Features (quest log and map to find locations and warp to them, joining other people’s warps for free, notifications of nice long cutscenes, etc.)
39. QoL: The gear set list and the ability to just hit a button and instantly swap classes and equipment on the fly is extraordinarily useful
40. Starting Options: Character creation has a decent number of options and generally well designed structure to it
41. Traversal: The city’s aethernet is a pretty well designed and helps to get around, with a surprisingly well done menu system
42. Kit: Monk at 1-50 is actually surprisingly well designed, gradually but surely adding portions of the core mechanics of the class so it actually feels fun to play while leveling and at 50…
43. Kit: …for two positives
44. Kit: Ninja 1-50 once again pushes most of its core mechanics (the mudras) forwards, and has most of its combos by then, but lacks some other things that help flesh it out later
45. Kit: Summoner 1-50 is just as well designed as Monk for different reasons, with all of its core mechanics frontloaded and an enjoyable and malleable rotation, while still looking cool…
46. Kit: …for two positives
47. Level: Tam-Tara Hard is a reasonably well designed dungeon; nice minibosses, good trash layout, and reasonable boss design
48. Level: The Stone Vigil isn’t much, but it’s probably the first actually designed dungeon in the game, with actual thought put into layout, encounter design, balancing, and bosses
49. Level: Wanderer’s Keep (hard) has some surprisingly well thought out trash design and some fun boss mechanics
50. Boss: Try to be surprised, but the Ramuh fight is similarly pretty fun and well designed
51. Boss: Good King Moogle Mog XII–may he sing his awesome song forever–is a decent enough council-style fight, with one of each class doing their own thing and having to balance that all at once
52. Boss: Garuda Hard adds some nice layers to the fight, and is generally well designed (gradient difficulty, recovery mechanics, lots to keep track of but not too much, etc.)
53. Boss: Ifrit Hard is a pretty good fight. Consistent mechanic usage, fun gimmicks, and built in recovery periods
54. MSQ: The new Praetorium is a substantially better dungeon than it used to be, with much truncated pulls and much better bosses
55. Boss: Further, the Livia and Gaius fights are much improved
56. Boss: The revamped Ultima fight is an actual friggin’ fight, and it’s got actual mechanics and presentation and markers
57. Boss: The Leviathan fight continues the trend of good Trial fights by having a reasonable number of mechanics that layer into each other nicely
58. Boss: Shiva, naturally, is a good fight. Multiple phases with consistent layered mechanics
59. Boss: The Vishap fight, in its nerfed form, is actually quite fun. Tanks have to keep the adds in check, the dps runs the cannons and burns down adds, the healers frantically keep everyone up, and the entire fight is on a short enrage
60. Boss: The second Gilgamesh fight in Ampador is legit, with great layered mechanics and a lot of fun gimmicks to it
61. Song: Eternal Wind (FFIII remix, functionally G’raha’s theme)
62. Music: The music is substantially better constructed and, frankly, better quality than ARR’s
63. Kit: Bard 50-60 actually becomes rather fun, with the added dot refresher, new song and subsequent proc, and a few other tidbits
64. Kit: Dragoon 50-60 continues the trend of enjoyability, with a few extra extensions of combos and an additional ogcd
65. Kit: Monk 50-60 continues its excellence, adding Blitzes to the otherwise good combo loops
66. Kit: Ninja 50-60 really comes into its own, having good viscerality and fun but let’s be honest, what really locks it in is its smart usage of cooldowns and charges
67. Kit: Summoner 50-60 really starts to come into its own, with the added mobility of the Bahamut-related spells and more options for keeping the dps rolling
68. Kit: Warrior 50-60 is still a good tank (probably the best tank in the range), adding better spenders and self heals
69. Kit: White Mage 50-60 officially ‘gets good’, with the core lily mechanic coming into its own, and even more ogcds to keep healing interesting
70. Song: Solid Ishgard (Ishgard city, day I do believe)
71. Boss: As with many other Trials before it, Ravana is pretty legit
72. Level: Amdapora Hard has some fun and unique visuals and presentation, but really comes into its own in its boss design, with some fantastic and clever mechanics throughout
73. Level: Continuing the trend, Sohr Khai is a good dungeon with some fun boss mechanics
74. Level: Gubal Library Hard has some fun stuff, but ultimately it’s the excellent boss design that really makes it work…
75. Level: …for two positives
76. Level: Hullbreaker Hard is reasonable enough. It’s essentially a series of trash fights, but there’s thought and care put into them
77. Level: Pharos Sirius (Hard) is actually pretty legit in its own right, with some fun mechanics and the music remains awesome
78. Level: Saint Mocianne’s Arboretum is actually quite fun, with legitimately fun visuals and audio and some enjoyable bosses
79. Level: Sohm Al (Hard) continues the trend of decent HW dungeons
80. Level: The Antitower has good visuals, good music, good trash and good boss design throughout…
81. Level: …for two positives
82. Level: The Great Gubal Library in general is quite fun and well designed, with well placed and escalating trash plus some very inventive and fun bosses…
83. Level: …for two positives
84. Level: The Vault is, blessedly, a well designed dungeon, with good escalation of trash and some fun boss encounters
85. Level: Fractal Continuum is a good dungeon with good visuals, good music, good trash design and engaging and fun bosses…
86. Level: …for two positives
87. Boss: The final Nidhogg raid is probably one of the better fights in the expansion with the usual fantastic interweaving of mechanics, and a wonderful escalation of all three phases…
88. Boss: …for two positives
89. Song: Revenge of the Horde (Nidhogg final fight)…
90. Song: …for two positives
91. Boss: The Ascian Primal fight at the end of the Aetherochemical Research Facility is legit
92. Level: Baelsar’s Wall has fun (if simple) bosses, and good layered trash
93. Boss: Alexander 5 is a pretty fun, complex fight with some neat gimmicks
94. Boss: Alexander 7 is actually pretty legit, good complexity and good variety
95. Boss: Alexander 8 is awesome. Lots of moves, tons of fun gimmicks, but best of all no binary difficulty. Failure can be recovered from even despite the frenetic pace thereof
96. Boss: Despite requiring a dungeon journal to know what’s going on, Alexander 9 is a pretty cool fight
97. Song: Brute Justice (the, uh, Brute Justice fight)
98. Boss: Alexander 10 is a good, properly tutorialized-within-the-fight boss, with good escalation of mechanics
99. Boss: Alexander 12 is legit, easily one of the best fights in the expansion with lots of great, thematically appropriate, great mechanics and the awesome portals phase
100. Boss: Arachne Eve is, as usual, a fun and good fight with good manual teamwork and nice ‘use detriments to benefits’ gameplay
101. Boss: Forgall is, surprisingly, another good example of a ‘use detriments to benefits’ concept with megadeath and the origination of the doritos
102. Boss: Ozma is a very fun fight, lots of moving pieces and nice big telegraphs (if you know what they’re doing)
103. Boss: Sophia is a legit fight, with some fun layering and escalation throughout
104. Boss: Zurvan, similarly, is a great fight, with only one niggling flaw in the whole bit
105. Music: A second music positive for general quality
106. Music: Music is, as usual, pretty legit
107. Music: Omega music… the whole kit, really
108. Minigame: And a plus for Blue Mages variety of spells and the uniqueness and fun thereof
109. Minigame: Blue Mage’s may be limited, but the Carnivale is a nice lengthy amount of puzzle mini-game content for them to enjoy
110. Minigame: Heaven On High continues to be a reasonably good ‘trial’ system, letting players try out classes and mechanics, while also providing an alternate leveling system for progression
111. Enemy Design: With the newly touched up dungeons, I think we can finally give FFXIV a trash positive
112. HUD: Stormblood, finally, starts utilizing universal markers
113. QoL: A weird but substantial positive for several QoL improvements added during Stormblood
114. Kit: Astrologian at 70 has a huge variety of utility and nicely overlapping heals
115. Kit: Ninja gets even better at 70, with two nice spenders and Ten Chi Jin
116. Kit: Red Mage at 70 is easily one of the better classes overall with good viscerality, good kit, and a nice complex rotation or two, which weaves nicely in and out of itself…
117. Kit: …for a full…
118. Kit: …three positives
119. Kit: Samurai has a little bit of a button bloat issue, but otherwise is fun, engaging, rewarding has great viscerality, and is a great build/spend class…
120. Kit: …for two positives
121. Kit: Scholar 60-70 is only a little different than before, but different enough to add some variety and additional ‘battery’ utility to it
122. Kit: Warrior continues its trend of excellence with several new useful moves to the kit and a great cooldown
123. Boss: Alte Roite does the usual tutorialization, escalation, and is fun regardless
124. Boss: And then there’s the beauty that is Omega 12
125. Boss: Belias and its time fun mechanics are really cool, mostly about paying attention and knowing in advance where to be
126. Boss: Byakko is a somewhat simple fight, but its big on spectacle and that it does well
127. Boss: Catastrophe
128. Boss: Chaos. Great player-controlled telegraphs, very tight and well used terrain, great escalation…
129. Boss: …for two positives
130. Boss: Consequently, the second Jim fight is actually quite fun, with only a few issues here and there
131. Boss: Construct 7 is, memes and jokes aside, really awesome. It’s a lot of fun gimmicks and mechanics on top of the math segment, which actually buffs you for doing it right…
132. Boss: …for two positives
133. Boss: ExDeath is one of my favorite mage bosses ever. The interplay between void and regular spells really makes the whole thing super fun…
134. Boss: …for two positives
135. Boss: Famfrit is a hectic fun fest of waaagh
136. Boss: Halicarnassus. Lots of fun, pseudo puzzle pay attention and reasoning checks…
137. Boss: …for two positives
138. Boss: Kefka is a legitimately enjoyable fight, simple in concept but ultimately fun in execution
139. Boss: Lakshmi is another good boss fight, introducing mechanics with longer timers and showcases so you can be tutorialized before escalating properly
140. Boss: Mateus is simple but fun
141. Boss: Midgardsormr
142. Boss: Much as I have issues with it, Omega 11 has a lot of nicely layered attacks and moves and is… well, Omega
143. Boss: Mustadio is a very fun pay-attention-check fight, with lots of tracking
144. Boss: Phantom Train is, similarly, a very fun fight
145. Boss: Seiryu has good layers and complexity, marred a little by some RNG and some camera issues, but still fun
146. Boss: Susano is, let’s be honest, a pretty enjoyable fight, and starts to really push the ideas of universal markers and positioning
147. Boss: Suzaku has some really fun stuff in its design, especially the colored template thing
148. Boss: The Argath fight is legit, clever, and does some fun stuff with its lie/truth mechanics
149. Boss: The Orlandeau fight is a bit much, but it’s quite well constructed, with a whole lot going on and nice layering thereto
150. Boss: The second boss of Bardam’s Mettle, Bardam himself, is good enough to warrant two positives. In addition to being unique and fun, it serves as a tutorial of sorts for the universal markers that have finally grown to be, and is a well designed gradient difficulty conflict which allows for individual and group recovery while remaining challenging…
151. Boss: …for two positives
152. Boss: The Shinryu fight is, surprise surprise, good… mean, but good
153. Song: The Worm’s Tail (Shinryu fight)
154. Boss: Tsukuyomi is a fantastic fight, with great mechanics and a great bridge and great layering and great everything…
155. Boss: …for two positives
156. Song: Tsukuyomi (her fight). A good song, but very narratively powerful beside…
157. Song: …for two positives
158. Boss: Yiazmet is a good ‘chaotic’ fight, lots going on and lots to keep track of but essentially all dodgeable
159. Level: The Drowned City of Skalla is another example of a series of fun boss fights
160. Level: Fractal Continuum (Hard) has some fun trash but ultimately leans on its music, visuals, and bosses
161. Level: General quality to the Rabanastre raid (trash design, some fun bosses)
162. Boss: Agrias, too, is a great fight that uses the Duty ability to good effect
163. Boss: And big surprise, Ultima is fantastic. Multi layered, lots of different types of mechanics, and it’s effectively two fights in one, with a proper mid-mission checkpoint even…
164. Boss: …for two positives
165. Level: Kugane Castle is alright; simple, but fun, especially the Yojimbo fight at the end
166. Level: Saint Mocianne’s Arboretum (Hard) is actually really fun, with multiple good trash tiering and fun and innovative bosses…
167. Level: …for two positives
168. Level: Sirensong Sea begins Stormblood’s dungeon catalog on a good note, with good barrier trash and simple but fun boss fights
169. Level: Swallow’s Compass is reasonably fun, good trash tiering and some fun encounters, on top of some legit boss design in the first and third bosses
170. Level: Bardam’s Mettle is a good dungeon in general, with interesting trash and some very fun boss fights
171. Level: The Burn (minus the last boss) has some very fun mechanics and good construction
172. Level: The Doma dungeon is fun, interesting, engaging but also has really fun, well tutorialized, properly complex boss design…
173. Level: …for two positives
174. Level: Ala Mhigo is one of the best dungeons in the expansion, with great and proper trash design, bosses, and function…
175. Level: …for a solid double
176. Level: The Ghimlyt Dark continues the trend of excellent dungeons, some very fun boss fights and actual well done terrain and trash design with environmental hazards…
177. Level: …for two positives
178. NG+: Exists, though with no rewards and some wonkiness and jankiness
179. Prime Opt: Dark Knight 70’s quest is fun, interesting, appropriate, and thematic
180. Princess Peach: As before, the Roleplay system is used and used well and is a good variant on Princess Peach segments
181. Music: Have I mentioned the music? Even early on the music is legit in Shadow
182. Music: Lovin’ those patch songs
183. Music: Music! Music music music
184. Music: Music point number two
185. QoL: Improved quality of life changes including but not limited to; The new interface for synthesizing, the quest altitude indicators, retrying on overmelds, linking party finder directly from chat, new hairstyle interface, expansion vendors in major cities…
186. QoL: …for two positives
187. Kit: Astrologian at 80 continues to have lots it can do, and well
188. Kit: Bard at 80 doesn’t just have lots of utility and a good setup, but actually leans on a fair few number of different types and varieties of mechanics, with lots of neat complexity and variety…
189. Kit: …for two positives
190. Kit: Black Mage is, at long last, a full class at 80. It has a full rotation, but what really makes it shine is the micro optimizations in which cooldowns you use where
191. Kit: Dancer is a fantastic fight in almost every respect. At first glance it’s simple, but picking it up is very smooth for new players, and it’s well constructed even at lower levels, plus there’s several bits of player control over the RNG of the procs of the class, and it all layers and flows onto itself beautifully, all while looking and sounding cool…
192. Kit: …for a full…
193. Kit: …three positives
194. Kit: Dark Knight at 80 finally has a good overall rotation and presentation, with a decent amount of interweaving mechanics, making it a good… dps class
195. Kit: Dragoon at 80 is, as with all classes, truly coming into its own, not just with combos that finally loop into themselves, but the additional Life of the Dragon ‘phase’ also adds a lot to the class…
196. Kit: …for two positives
197. Kit: Gunbreaker is really a fantastically designed class all around. It has everything other tanks do but just straight up feels better to play, designed around DPS mentality and structured to allow for layering OGCDs while staying mobile and fun…
198. Kit: …for a full…
199. Kit: …three positives
200. Kit: Machinist is still good, but barely different, at 80
201. Kit: Ninja continues being a well done class, with a few additional bells and whistles (Bunshin being a big one) that allow for greater control over stacking
202. Kit: Paladin 80 finally, finally became a full and complete tank class at 80, with good rotations and timing and utility
203. Kit: Red Mage continues to be a good class, with good utility, and good fun, only hampered by being barely changed at 80
204. Kit: Samurai really, truly comes into its own at 80, with the ‘follow ups’ to combos and more options and buttons to keep things interesting…
205. Kit: …for two positives
206. Kit: Scholar at 80 has some great utility and a good spread of abilities further, Scholar at 80 also has a good general mentality and variance to its healing from all other healers…
207. Kit: …for two positives
208. Kit: Warrior continues its trend of being good
209. Kit: White Mage 80 finally has a true loadout of both lily-using abilities and regulars, as well as really upping the viscerality of the class with Glare and Dia
210. Enemy Design: Back to some good trash design in Shadowbringers…
211. Enemy Design: …for two positives
212. Princess Peach: The Roleplay fight as Estinien is pretty legit
213. Minigame: Bozja is lucrative for both cosmetics and leveling and is a great way to ‘try out’ a class at 80 (provided you are already 71)…
214. Minigame: …for two positives
215. Minigame: Ocean Fishing is a nice, rewarding, lucrative little side mini game that is reasonably well constructed and reasonably enjoyable
216. Minigame: Similarly the Diadems are a good, if brutally direct, way to level your mining and botany
217. Minigame: The Firmament is, problems aside, a great way to level your crafters all the way up to 80 and manages to be rewarding at the same time
218. MSQ: The Second Battle of the Carteneau Flats is enjoyable for many of the usual reasons, and deserves special mention for actually adding mid-mission checkpoints to the game (finally)
219. Leveling: Trusts are a good method to ensure you can do the dungeons through the MSQ and the scenario mode allows people to continue to use it as an additional leveling tool…
220. Leveling: …for two positives
221. Level: Holminster Switch has some good trash design (and some bad) and starts leaning into the tutorialized boss construct
222. Boss: The Titania boss fight is exceptional, easily one of the best Trials to-date, and one of the better ones in Shadow… tons of layered mechanics and excellent build up throughout…
223. Boss: …for two positives
224. Boss: The Crown of the Immaculate fight isn’t really anything special… but it’s good stuff, good and fun and unique mechanics neatly and nicely layered upon each other
225. Level: Amaurot dungeon is a very well executed dungeon, with tutorialization in trash design, fun and engaging bosses
226. Boss: The Dying Gasp is probably in the running for the best raid in the game on several levels not the least of which being how well constructed it is, how well it layers on itself and how it progresses…
227. Boss: …for a full…
228. Boss: …three positives
229. Song: Who Brings Shadow (Hades fight)
230. MSQ: A rare quest positive for the Elidibus ‘gauntlet’
231. Level: Heroes Gauntlet has a bit of a health problem but otherwise is quite well constructed, as we fight our way through the (totally not FFV) classes from other shards
232. Boss: The Seat of Sacrifice is a fantastic fight, while not one of the best ever it’s definitely high tier especially given how it actually has a mid mission checkpoint! Oh and lots of very cool, well constructed mechanics…
233. Boss: …for a full…
234. Boss: …three positives
235. Boss: Adrammelch is pretty legit too
236. Boss: The Bozjan Phantom fight is actually really fun, despite its simplicity
237. Boss: Brionac is an interesting and fun fight, made even more so due to the other side of it, the lower Drill fight
238. Boss: And finally, the last fight of beast plus Lyon is a neat little challenge
239. Music: Yet another music positive (this time for Eden stuff)
240. Boss: E1 is, shocker, a good fight. Relatively simple yet enjoyably frantic, with lots of leeway time on top of the hits
241. Boss: E2 is awesome. It’s mostly the same types of mechanics we’ve faced, but with the added layer of the ‘clock’ which ‘delays’ them, forcing you to adapt and move rather quickly…
242. Boss: …for two positives
243. Boss: E3 layers its mechanics very nicely, especially towards the latter half, though it fumbles a bit in several ways
244. Boss: E4 has several issues with it, but where it shines (its frenetic pace and the layering of mechanics) it shines
245. Boss: E5 has a few problems but is, as per usual, a good fight
246. Boss: E6 does the usual good thing with layering and positioning, with only a few small issues
247. Boss: E7 is exceptionally well tutorialized within the fight, with introduction of mechanics in a vacuum and safety before escalating and layering on top of being a very well constructed, unique fight to begin with…
248. Boss: …for two positives
249. Boss: E8 is one of the better Eden fights in general, having multiple phases and the great bridge phase, as well as great music…
250. Boss: …for two positives
251. Boss: E9 is pretty simple, but keeps things nicely varied, especially with the platforms mechanic
252. Boss: E11, once you figure it out, has some good music and some good presentation to a reasonably well done, if simple, fight
253. Boss: E12 first half
254. Boss: E12 second half
255. Music: Nier and WEAPON raid music
256. Boss: The Sapphire Weapon fight is a fun quest, with well designed mechanics and a fun fight with a neat song
257. Boss: Emerald Weapon is a good, well designed, well layered, well tutorialized fight with breather periods, good music, good visuals…
258. Boss: …for two positives
259. Boss: Diamond Weapon, for all the flaws surrounding it, is an excellent fight, smartly keeping tanks relevant while removing ‘threat’ in the traditional sense, with lots of positional and ‘pay attention’ checks…
260. Boss: …for two positives
261. Level: Qitana Ravel is honestly one of the better dungeons so far in Shadow. It uses trash as tutorialization, and actually bothers with engaging miniboss encounters in addition to the generally good, if simple, boss designs…
262. Level: …for two positives
263. Song: Weight of the World (Nier raid 1)
264. Level: Puppet’s Bunker has some really clever bosses (especially the first and the last ones)
265. Level: Puppet’s Bunker honestly has some of the best trash in the entire game, earning its own unique positive
266. Boss: Red Girl is a very creative, very fun ‘players in control’ fight with a lot going on but all of it manageable…
267. Boss: …for two positives
268. Boss: Her Inflorescence is one of the best bosses I’ve seen in this game. Complexity without convolution, fully tutorialized in the fight, lots of varying and fun mechanics, very unique gimmicks that are explained in-fight, brilliant visuals and music…
269. Boss: …for a full…
270. Boss: …three positives
271. Level: Paglth’an has good trash fights, good viscerality, good boss fights and some truly excellent boss designs. Special bonus points for the second fight, the ‘magitek reactor’ fight, which is at its face a basic elevator boss but is very well constructed in how it progresses (trash to boss to trash to boss) and lots of variable mechanics that vary things up as you go through, with little repetition…
272. Level: …for two positives
273. Level: Akademia Anyder isn’t anything special, really, but it has some fun mechanics in its boss designs
274. Level: Dohn Mheg continues the trend of good dungeon design and gets a bonus for the final boss being especially good…
275. Level: …for two positives
276. Level: General positive for quality of visuals, music, and encounters in Tower at Paradigm’s Breach
277. Level: Malikah’s Well has a few issues, but it shines in its fun and layered boss designs
278. Level: Matoya’s Relict is weirdly generic for how unique many of its boss mechanics are, and is buoyed up by said mechanics almost entirely
279. Level: Mt. Gulg has a few issues in boss design, but is overall quite fun
280. Level: The Grand Cosmos languished a bit in several respects, but makes up for it with some creative and fun boss mechanics
281. Level: The prisoner section is a nice ‘breather’ section and a good way to do ‘trash’, by rewarding the players for saving the prisoners instead of just typical trash
282. Level: Twinning has great visuals, great music, and fun bosses…
283. Level: …for two positives
284. Song: A Long Fall (Twinning dungeon theme)
285. Choices: The very nature of the Variant dungeons and how branchy they are deserves its own recognition…
286. Choices: …for a full…
287. Choices: …three positives
288. Cosmetic: For all its issues, the Portraits system is yet another nice fun little way to customize one’s self
289. Cosmetic: For all its problems, the glamour system is nice, and a great way to vary up one’s appearance…
290. Cosmetic: …for two positives
291. Enemy Design: General quality, especially in the blasphemies
292. Hub: For one of the only times in the game, Sharlayan is actually well constructed from a gameplay perspective, with good layout and connections between vendors, warp points, and access to auction house
293. Minigame: Crystalline Conflict is frenetic, fast, fun, well interfaced and so easily earns two positives for its overall mode…
294. Minigame: …for two positives
295. Minigame: PvP distinct abilities and skills… essentially redesigning each class to be distinct and varied while also retaining some semblance of class identity in PvP is…
296. Minigame: …a momentous feat which easily deserves…
297. Minigame: …three positives just on the face of it
298. Music: General Endwalker music positive…
299. Music: …for a full…
300. Music: …three positives
301. Kit: Astralogian, level 90. Once again the bloat is real, but the additional buttons for additional situations are not just good, but layer nicely with existing cooldowns
302. Kit: Dancer, level 90. As per the norm, only a few minor alterations
303. Kit: Dancer. There’s a reason I consider this class one of the best designed ones in the game. The procs, the layered procs, the bad-luck protection abilities giving the player more control, the extreme mobility, the utility it offers…
304. Kit: …for two positives
305. Kit: Dark Knight, level 90. This sounds like I’m repeating myself but it’s mostly just a few minor alterations to an already solid kit, but the additional aoe potential really helps
306. Kit: Gunbreaker, level 90. It’s a minor change, but the addition of a 1m cooldown ability that burns more ammo rather changes the dynamic of resource management, and makes the dps windows very, very tight… but fun…
307. Kit: …for a full…
308. Kit: …three positives
309. Kit: Machinist, level 90. The addition of another Reassemble in addition to Chainsaw, plus reduction of cooldowns and a power bump, means the overall cycle of heating up / expenditure works a lot smoother and better
310. Kit: Machinist is one of the weirdest classes in the game. It’s seemingly simple, but has a lot of room for optimization. It’s very frenetic in its button usage, except when it isn’t. And it has massive mobility on top of a great range of attacks…
311. Kit: …for a full…
312. Kit: …three positives
313. Kit: Monk, level 90. Just a few additional blitz combos, but they (as usual) change up rotation priority going forwards
314. Kit: Monk. The revamp really did it wonders and pulled it up to truly high quality standards
315. Kit: Paladin, level 90. The additional completely detached ranged combo is a nice addition, and more control over live capacity (especially with Sheltron being made worthwhile) is nice
316. Kit: Reaper. Reaper is a very solidly designed class, it has its issues of course (as all classes do, they just aren’t themselves until a certain point in time) but the penalty/reward system of procs, properly looping combos, great attack range and general quality mandate quite a few positives…
317. Kit: …for a full…
318. Kit: …three positives
319. Kit: Reaper. We’ll call this the Pillars Of Snow positive
320. Kit: Red Mage, 90. The final few abilities perfectly space out the initial combo and the additional charges on key abilities really solidifies the class…
321. Kit: Sage, level 90. As per usual, a few modifications to existing spells helps the throughput, and adds even more tools to the kit
322. Kit: Sage. It’s a step in the right direction, though not quite there yet. It’s a wonderfully complex healer, equally capable of solid damage, bubbles, and healing. The addition of Eukrasia to vary up some of the kit on the fly is great, and even more puts more pressure on the player to anticipate in addition to react…
323. Kit: …for a full…
324. Kit: …three positives
325. Kit: Sage. The Pillars of Snow positive
326. Kit: Samurai, level 90. The addition of another ‘build to’ combo at the end of the existing combos are really nice, and lovingly visceral
327. Kit: A bonus point for Samurai just sort of being an amazingly complex, fluid class that folds into itself wonderfully
328. Kit: Summoner, level 90. The additional combos woven into each summon and the
329. Kit: Summoner similarly really works so much better after the revamps
330. Kit: Warrior, 90. Simple yet solid continues to be the trend, with continuations of combos, better cooldowns, and general fun
331. Kit: White Mage, level 90. The static ‘turret’ really helps, and the usual progression of existing heal combos (and of course, Holy flower of doom)
332. Kit: …for two positives
333. Pacing: Quest design centered around just friggin’ warping you to the spot instead of forcing you to walk manually
334. Prime Opt: Sage tutorial quest actually properly tutorializes with an interesting and engaging mini dungeon
335. Prime Opt: The Melee DPS Role Quest boss fight was actually pretty fun
336. Prime Opt: The Reaper tutorial quest, once again, tutorializes both the class… and positionals!
337. Prime Opt: The Lugae fight actually is, with inventive mechanics and usage of abilities
338. Prime Opt: The final solo instance of the Tower of Babil as we deal with Nerva and crew
339. Princess Peach: The victory lap fight at Garlemald as Alphinaud, Alisae, and ourselves is pretty fun
340. Secondary: Greater attempt and work to create actual variety to quests
341. MSQ: Metal Gear Thancred is rather basic at its core, but well executed and with gradient failstate
342. MSQ: The de-powered soldier stealth section is both brave and new, but more to the point is good when it’s good
343. Music: Pandamonium and Myths in general
344. Boss: Agdistis. Lots of layered, escalating mechanics and tons of positioning fun
345. Boss: And the final Magus Sister fight is fantastic, lots going on and great presentation and general fun
346. Boss: Anima, at the end of the Tower of Babil
347. Boss: Armored Chariot gets a bonus positive for the fun and gimmicky mirrors mechanic
348. Boss: Azeyma which, once again, leans pretty heavily on pay attention checks
349. Boss: Beatrice, simple but solid
350. Boss: Bonus points to the Durante fight at the end of the Lunar Subterrane
351. Boss: Byregot. Basic but good, moving terrain and several pay attention checks
352. Boss: Caustic Grebuloff (first boss of The Dead Ends) does some fantastic ‘blown exaflare’ mechanics on top of good sound design and general quality
353. Boss: Halone. Lots of memorization checks, but well staggered…
354. Boss: …for two positives
355. Boss: Hegemone. Great swap mechanics, great mechanics in player control, and great mobility…
356. Boss: …for two positives
357. Boss: Hepheistos. Fairly simple but solid pay attention checks, and good escalation throughout
358. Boss: Hermes, lovely and well done mechanics and gradient construction and tutorialization
359. Boss: Hesperos is great. Lots of pay attention checks, with clear indicators and markers, and a lot of variety in what he can do when…
360. Boss: …for two positives
361. Boss: Hippokampos. A very good simple but fun pay attention check, with good escalation of mechanics and layering thereof
362. Boss: Kokytos. Rotating between bosses (functionally) is quite fun
363. Boss: Ktisis Hyperboreia’s bosses are great, some fantastic stuff, including the Hrothgar prototype
364. Boss: Ktisis Hyperboreia’s snake thing boss
365. Boss: Llymlaen. Lovely arena of course, but the wonderful environmental fun made for some very awesome mechanics
366. Boss: Menphina. Another interesting fight, well constructed and with absolutely amazing layering and staggered mechanics, rewarding not just memorization but paying attention…
367. Boss: …for two positives
368. Boss: Mindi boss has some great pay attention checks and layered mechanics
369. Boss: Nald’thal is legit. First, the outside of the arena isn’t insta-kill which is always nice. Second, the twisted do/don’t do mechanics. And third, the constant dynamic between the two iterations
370. Boss: Nophica. Another simple yet basic positioning romp centered around paying attention to what attacks when and where, and your own movement adherence
371. Boss: Oschon. I loved how they did the ‘moving telegraph’ bit, and rewarded preparation in addition to paying attention
372. Boss: Pandamonium. Lots of moving pieces, but mostly the gears fit with each other…
373. Boss: …for two positives
374. Boss: Peacekeeper (second boss of The Dead Ends) is an absolutely awesome fight, with tons of great mechanics that beautifully keep things frenetic
375. Boss: Phionix. Good range of ability names, markers, and intuition mechanics
376. Boss: Proto Carbuncle. Generally good and good escalation, but the reflection / wall mechanic really makes it pop…
377. Boss: …for two positives
378. Boss: Ra-La (third boss of The Dead Ends) has some visibility issues but aside from that (minor) issue, it’s very well constructed and wonderfully layered
379. Boss: Rhalgr and the portal shenanigans
380. Boss: Sindi has some really cool fake out mechanics and nice layering as well (a berserk right before a big hitting telegraph)
381. Boss: Thaliak. A very fun variant fight on the norm, with patterns and triangles
382. Boss: Zodiark is, surprise surprise, a rather fun boss, with fun ‘pay attention to changing scenario’ mechanics and excellent layering…
383. Boss: …for two positives
384. Boss: The Hydaelyn fight itself is a generally well constructed fight but further credit must be given not just for the Trust system itself, but for the ‘lives’ system they implement via stacks of ReRaise…
385. Boss: …for two positives
386. Boss: Endsinger is honestly a fantastic fight, with great visual indicators (outside of telegraphs), wonderful mechanics, and awesome viscerality and music and everything…
387. Boss: …for a full…
388. Boss: …three positives
389. Song: The Final Day (Endsinger fight theme)
390. Boss: Athena. It could be a triple if not for some visibility issues, but the combination of platform breaking, staggered predictive telegraphs, multiple adds which vary in approach, it’s solid…
391. Boss: …for two positives
392. Boss: Scarmiliogne. A short and simple rotation, but solid and punishing
393. Boss: Special mention for the Cagnazzo fight. It doesn’t escalate much, but the loop is strong and filled with some good memorization checks
394. Boss: Barbarricia. The first phase is solid enough, but the second phase really shines. A properly frenetic, highly mobile fight, but never unfair or unkind…
395. Boss: …for two positives
396. Boss: Rubicante. Clever pay attention mechanics, great player-controlled telegraphs, and some memorization checks…
397. Boss: …for two positives
398. Boss: Golbez. Some very brutal pay attention checks, memorization checks, and absolutely brutal escalation…
399. Boss: …for two positives
400. Boss: Zeromus. It’s… weirdly unchallenging, but what it lacks in challenge it makes up for in fun. The viscerality of the fight, the music, the visuals of the barrier breaking attacks, and again… generally fun value…
401. Boss: …for a full…
402. Boss: …three positives
403. Music: The FFIV mixes in general. Troia, boss, fiends, fiends again, Zeromus, Red Wings, Baron…
404. Music: …for two positives
405. Boss: The Livia boss in Aitiascope is a good’n
406. Boss: The Looming Warden boss is similarly very cool and has a unique ‘driving’ mechanic on top of general fun factor
407. Boss: Themis. Light and dark motifs, changing patterns of avoidance, and layering balance mechanics on top of it are all great…
408. Boss: …for two positives
409. Boss: The Venat fight is surprisingly well constructed and mean
410. Boss: Twins. The hard enrage hurts it a little bit, as well as a few poorly laid out mechanics, but still very solid establishment
411. Level: Alzadaal’s Legacy is in general good quality in music and design
412. Level: And Aloalo does not disappoint as yet another good Variant dungeon…
413. Level: …for a full…
414. Level: …three positives
415. Level: Ktisis Hyperboreia is a generally well done dungeon across the board, visually and audibly
416. Level: Lapis Manalis. Some basic but fun boss fights, with good positioning and movement checks…
417. Level: …for two positives
418. Level: Lunar Subterrane. A few issues here and there, but definitely still a solid dungeon
419. Level: Mount Rokkon continues the Variant dungeon quality…
420. Level: …for a full…
421. Level: …three positives
422. Level: Sil’dihn Subterrane. The Variant dungeons in general are solid, but the varieties and variances therein are what really sell it…
423. Level: …for a full…
424. Level: …three positives
425. Level: Smileton has relatively simple boss fights, but all three are well executed and smooth…
426. Level: …for two positives
427. Level: Stigma Dreamscape has some very cool and fun stuff…
428. Level: …for a full…
429. Level: …three positives
430. Level: The Aetherfont. It’s a really chill, fun romp with some legitimately solid boss design…
431. Level: …for two positives
432. Level: The rest of Aitiascope is quite enjoyable, with a fun (if simple) second boss and a fun (if too long) third boss
433. Level: Tower of Babil gets a generic quality positive on top of some fun and engaging bosses…
434. Level: …for two positives
435. Level: Vanaspati isn’t super amazing, but still has some fun boss mechanics
436. MSQ: A brief Princess Peach segment with Zero followed by a solid Trust boss fight
437. Song: Close In The Distance (Ultima Thule theme)…
438. Song: …for a full…
439. Song: …three positives
440. Song: Dynamis (hopeful uplifting Endwalker theme)…
441. Song: …for two positives
442. Song: In The Balance (Nald’Thal’s theme)
443. Viscerality: Astrologian
444. Viscerality: Bard
445. Viscerality: Black Mage, sound
446. Viscerality: Black Mage, sound
447. Viscerality: Black Mage, visuals
448. Viscerality: Black Mage, visuals
449. Viscerality: Dancer, sound
450. Viscerality: Dancer, visuals
451. Viscerality: Dancer, visuals
452. Viscerality: Dancer, visuals
453. Viscerality: Dark Knight, sound
454. Viscerality: Dark Knight, visuals
455. Viscerality: Dark Knight, visuals
456. Viscerality: Dark Knight, visuals
457. Viscerality: Dragoon, Impact
458. Viscerality: Dragoon, Visuals
459. Viscerality: Dragoon, Visuals
460. Viscerality: Gunbreaker, impact
461. Viscerality: Gunbreaker, impact
462. Viscerality: Gunbreaker, sound
463. Viscerality: Gunbreaker, sound
464. Viscerality: Gunbreaker, visuals
465. Viscerality: Machinist, impact
466. Viscerality: Machinist, impact
467. Viscerality: Machinist, impact
468. Viscerality: Machinist, sound
469. Viscerality: Machinist, sound
470. Viscerality: Machinist, visuals
471. Viscerality: Machinist, visuals
472. Viscerality: Machinist, visuals
473. Viscerality: Monk
474. Viscerality: Monk
475. Viscerality: Ninja
476. Viscerality: Paladin, sound
477. Viscerality: Paladin, visuals
478. Viscerality: Paladin, visuals
479. Viscerality: Reaper, impact
480. Viscerality: Reaper, sound
481. Viscerality: Reaper, visuals
482. Viscerality: Reaper, visuals
483. Viscerality: Reaper, visuals
484. Viscerality: Red Mage, impact
485. Viscerality: Red Mage, impact
486. Viscerality: Red Mage, sound
487. Viscerality: Red Mage, sound
488. Viscerality: Red Mage, visuals
489. Viscerality: Red Mage, visuals
490. Viscerality: Red Mage, visuals
491. Viscerality: Sage
492. Viscerality: Samurai, impact
493. Viscerality: Samurai, sound
494. Viscerality: Samurai, Visuals
495. Viscerality: Samurai, Visuals
496. Viscerality: Samurai, Visuals
497. Viscerality: Summoner, impact
498. Viscerality: Summoner, sound
499. Viscerality: Summoner, visuals
500. Viscerality: Summoner, visuals
501. Viscerality: Summoner, visuals
502. Viscerality: Warrior, impact
503. Viscerality: Warrior, impact
504. Viscerality: Warrior, sound
505. Viscerality: Warrior, sound
506. Viscerality: Warrior, visuals
507. Viscerality: Warrior, visuals
508. Viscerality: White Mage, impact
509. Viscerality: White Mage, impact
510. Viscerality: White Mage, impact
511. Viscerality: White Mage, sound
512. Viscerality: White Mage, sound
513. Viscerality: White Mage, sound
514. Viscerality: White Mage, visuals
515. Viscerality: White Mage, visuals
516. Viscerality: White Mage, visuals
517. HUD: Nameplates and color options! Also class options and other similar visual distinction options
518. QoL: Quick and accessible sound toggles per channel and overall
519. Options: Additional customization options new to the expansion
520. Boss: Ihuykatumu, the 91 dungeon, boss 1; Prime Punutiy. A simple but fun fight, starts the players into the mentality of having more things to dodge and more moving parts to pay attention to
521. Boss: Ihuykatumu, 91 dungeon, boss 2; Drowsie. This fight barely even needs a tank, but it does do something I rather appreciate; it needs you to pay attention. There’s a lot of attacks coming in a lot of directions, and it rewards you for keeping up on all of it. And best of all, there is still a little leeway room if you make a mistake…
522. Boss: …thus earning two positives
523. Boss: Ihuykatumu, 91 dungeon, boss 3; Apollyon. A bit too much health for a fight with this repeatable of a loop, which drags it down to a single positive. Still some very cool and interesting attacks, as well as layering them as per the series’ norm
524. Boss: Gulool Ja Ja. It’s a typical FFXIV boss fight, but that means it’s good stuff. Good variety of mechanics, good staggering and layering of them, hampered a bit by being a wee bit too long and punishing on certain classes
525. Boss: Worqor Zormor, 93 dungeon, boss 1; Ryoqor Terteh. A mechanics and pay attention check, ultimately simple once you get past the mechanics, but still fun for what it is
526. Boss: Worqor Zormor, 93 dungeon, boss 2; Kahderyor. Some really good layering of mechanics and a lot of abilities that will completely screw over the rest of the party if you do them wrong, meaning it’s really good about coordination checking
527. Boss: Worqor Zormor, 93 dungeon, boss 3; Gurfurlur. Basic mechanics that then layer into each other, requiring a decent amount of reaction and adaptation
528. Boss: Valigarmanda. While I have substantial issues with it narratively, the fight itself is fantastic. Three distinct phases which vary based on its current head, which almost immediately transitions into layering these across each other. It also really plays with paying attention; the avalanches, the firestorms, the variable height during lightning storms, it’s fun stuff…
529. Boss: …and an easy double positive
530. Boss: Bakool Ja Ja. Essentially a bog standard FFXIV boss (introduce and escalate) but also designed around using the boss’s mechanics to avoid his other mechanics
531. Boss: The second Gulool Ja Ja fight follows through on the former’s mechanics but escalates them nicely, and serves as some nice integration too
532. Boss: Skydeep Cenote, 95 dungeon, boss 1; Feather Ray. Basic mechanics, but the fact that you control where they attack and how really adds to the flavor of it
533. Boss: Skydeep Cenote, general. The trash is decent and the other two bosses have issues that drag them down (second boss is just two mechanics, and Maulskull is too much spectacle we can’t really see) but they’re still fun
534. Boss: Most of the Prime Opt role quests are whatever, but the Healer boss is actually solid and really feels like a healer boss rather than just… another fight
535. Boss: Vanguard, 97 dungeon, first boss, Vanguard Commander R8. This is a very simple but fun fight. Some attacks hit nearby, some hit far, and his primary mechanic involves mapping out his movement in advance
536. Boss: Vanguard, 97 dungeon, second boss, Protector. This is an awesome fight, and deceptively well designed. It’s got a lot of telegraph spam, but it varies up the types that come, and the barriers aren’t insurmountable in terms of detriment for failure. Further, it likes to layer ‘move to dodge’ and ‘stay put’ mechanics nicely. This is…
537. Boss: …an easy double positive
538. Boss: Vanguard, 97 dungeon, third boss, Zander the Snakeskinner. Like the first boss this is a simple but well executed pay attention check, forcing you to check spell names as well as tutorializing its attack arcs early
539. Music: Okay so I know this is pretty far down to give, but honestly most of the expansion hasn’t been hitting for me… until we get to basically the halfway point, and all of the sudden the bangers start coming out of the woodwork
540. MSQ: The solo duty charge through Solution 9 is actually pretty appropriately fun (mostly us flat running over everything) and the boss at the end was reasonably enjoyable
541. Boss: Origenics, 99 dungeon, second boss, Deceiver. Though simple, the smart usage of illusions to either avoid or interact was a nice gimmick
542. Boss: Origenics, 99 dungeon, third boss, Ambrose. Another solid double layer boss, where you have to keep track of a couple of delayed attacks simultaneously
543. Boss: Zoraal Ja. He’s actually relatively simple (not at the level of, say, Valigarmanda) but there’s still some solid design on display here, with basic attacks that layer and hit like a truck if you don’t avoid
544. Boss: Alexandria, 100 dungeon, first boss, Antivirus X. Very simple, but with two attacks that layer each other and can very, greatly changing positioning and requiring you to stay on your toes constantly
545. Boss: Alexandria, 100 dungeon, second boss, Amalgam. Very complex fight, lots of moving parts, and lots of fair recovery periods in between bouts of insanity…
546. Boss: …for a double positive
547. Boss: Alexandria, 100 dungeon, third boss, Eliminator. This is also a fantastic fight, with two distinct phases, and some fantastic tutorialization and escalation…
548. Boss: …for another easy double positive fight
549. Boss: Interphos, Queen Eternal. This is a fantastic boss fight. Unique telegraphs, fantastic layering of mechanics, great escalation, none of that repetition looping that hampers other boss fights, a genuinely good amount of health, good spectacle, just general high quality across the board…
550. Boss: …earning a rare…
551. Boss: …triple positive
552. Boss: Strayborough Deadwalk, 100 dungeon, boss 3, Traumerei. I actually rather liked this fight; Clever usage of dead vs. living status and having to manage it constantly
553. Boss: Tender Valley, 100 dungeon, boss 2, Anthracite. The double bomb flinging and the usage of the arena are neat
554. Boss: Tender Valley, 100 dungeon, boss 3, the Greatest Serpent of Tural. Lots of good pay attention checks layered nicely on top of each other

Gameplay Negatives:

1. Launch: The launch of ARR, while understandable, was honestly unacceptably bad
2. Leveling: The game has a very inconsistent leveling curve for alt classes, with how many tools you have and the pace thereof varying wildly from level range to level range
3. Co-Op: Forced single player questing (especially MSQ)…
4. Co-Op: …for a full…
5. Co-Op: …three negatives
6. MTX: The in game store is probably the most benign I’ve ever seen… but it’s still there, and it’s still microtransactions. Okay so hey, 2026 me here, I take it back. This is pretty bad… not as bad as Guild Wars 2, or some truly terrible MMOs you’ve probably never heard of, but this is still…
7. MTX: …a triple…
8. MTX: …negative
9. QoL: The lack of proper trial or try-out of classes means you have no real way to know what you like before sinking arduously long periods of time into leveling first
10. Bug: There’s weird, awful, and awkward limitations with the 1-30 classes and doing NG+ with them and related issues
11. Camera: Camera zoom out issue (especially on larger enemies and encounters)
12. Core Combat: Casting pushback just… sucks. It can go on too long but, most importantly, too much damage while casting can literally just interrupt your cast
13. Core Combat: The game removes your abilities when synched down in level, which is honestly quite awful for so many reasons (lots of content is below max level, removing abilities changes how you play the class and in some cases actively removes mechanics, etc.)…
14. Core Combat: …for a full…
15. Core Combat: …three negatives
16. Core Mechanic: Let’s talk latency. FFXIV server ticks are notoriously bad, especially for a modern MMO, and this means that even with the absolute best connection in the world you’re always going to be stuck at a certain level of reaction time. This is why, if you’ve ever wondered, the ENTIRE game feels a bit like you’re sludging around in pudding. It’s not awful (some even older MMOs have it worse) but it is NOT good…
17. Core Mechanic: …and it…
18. Core Mechanic: …raises a stink on everything else in the game
19. Walkthroughitis: So this is for the game as a whole, but there’s just… a whole lot of ‘hit up the wiki’ things in this game…
20. Walkthroughitis: …for a full…
21. Walkthroughitis: …three negatives
22. Interface: Good luck finding the option you want in the extensive, badly organized, sometimes badly labeled options menu
23. Interface: The inventory system has several… several issues, but really the worst by far is how limited it is in terms of crafting and the ridiculous inventory problem
24. Interface: And the interface and interactions therewith are clunky at best, especially with the nature of its ‘save’ system
25. Interface: The jankiness of dungeons and how limited they are and function is kind of weird (no way to replace people easily, can’t swap roles in mid dungeon, can’t access certain functionality while in dungeon, etc.)
26. Interface: There is an obtuseness to the auction house menu which really has to be experienced to understand
27. Interface: The Unending Journey is… really terribly laid out and actively aggravating to find the cutscenes you want
28. Interface: Irritation and inaccuracy with showcasing party makeup
29. Inventory: So while the inventory itself isn’t really that bad… the related itemization bloat problem is a serious problem
30. Itemization: The costs for fast travel are, frankly, unnecessary and needlessly punishing on lower level players
31. No Music: ARR specifically has long, empty stretches of no music at night time out in the zones. This is such a long term, irritating issue it gets a second negative…
32. No Music: …for two negatives
33. Seconds In Minutes: There’s a bit of seconds in minutes problem in the overworld and travel design in ARR, with walking (and occasionally sprinting) just taking very long across big, empty tracks of nothing…
34. Seconds In Minutes: …for a full…
35. Seconds In Minutes: …three negatives
36. Core Mechanic: Squadrons… suck. The AI is pants-on-head stupid, it’s grindy as hell, even with full buffs dungeons just take too long, and the related mechanics are barely worth it. Honestly this would be many, many more negatives if not for how vestigal and optional this feature is
37. Kit: Black Mage 1-50. It’s a boring class, which is pretty normal for ARR honestly, but it’s also a Black Mage. The iconic FF class, and a mage to boot, which new layers absolutely will gravitate towards… and shouldn’t. The job is an optional hard-mode (which is fine) but it really should be labeled as such…
38. Kit: …it commits every sin of game design; it’s boring, it looks bad, it feels bad (immobile turret gameplay), and it lacks cool factor…
39. Kit: …for three negatives
40. Kit: Dragoon 1-50 has really bad ability placement (first AoE at 40… no second AoE at all), dull combos, and none of its core features outside of the jumps
41. Kit: Paladin 1-50 is serviceable, but suffers from two major flaws; It lacks viscerality and it is boooring
42. Kit: White Mage 1-50 starts bad and crawls its way up to mediocre
43. Padding: The padding of the interaction bar
44. Padding: The daily limitation of only being able to do 12 dailies is bad on several levels, literally artificially lengthening how long any given rep will be to raise
45. Prime Opt: Bard 30-50 has the same issues but even worse, doing the ‘put quest objects behind high level, dangerous areas because screw you’ problem
46. Prime Opt: Monk 30-50 has the same quest design problem White Mage did (arguably worse)
47. Prime Opt: Ninja 30-50 has some of the usual issues and some real padding problems
48. Prime Opt: The (mandatory) unlock quests to access CT can go to hell. Entirely too much backtracking and no real gameplay. No seriously, NO gameplay, it’s walk here, cutscene, repeat for what feels like hours
49. Prime Opt: The Archer 1-30… really sucks. Bad quest locations with irritating quest objectives making the whole thing awful to play through
50. Prime Opt: The Marauder 1-30 quest has some really boring quests to begin with, but is made much worse via some of the worst ‘go here go there’ padding I’ve seen in ARR…
51. Prime Opt: …for two negatives
52. Prime Opt: The Rogue 1-30 quests have a bit too much combat but, far worse, way way too much padding and backtracking (mandatory Hide quests, unclear objectives, and sending you all over the place)
53. Prime Opt: The Third Turn of First Coil of Bahamut is… not good. It’s trash, it’s easy trash, it’s mandatory, it offers literally nothing, it takes too long, and its layout is badly designed
54. Prime Opt: Warrior 30-50 is easily the worst of the job quests so far. Long trips to distant, irritating areas to reach with lots of enemies to avoid or fight through, forcing you to equip the items, having to warp around Costa Del Sol for half of it, just… bad…
55. Prime Opt: …for two negatives
56. Prime Opt: White Mage 30-50 is some legitimately bad quest design. Zoom around across the entire continent to go to one dangerous area or another to interact with one thing before moving on
57. QoL: The game forces you to unlock almost everything… which is essentially excessive handholding tutorialization, which even that would be fine if not for the total lack of option therein (no skipping, no choice to say “this isn’t my first MMO” or “this is an alt”) I mean for goodness sakes you can’t even travel to other city states until you’ve unlocked the ability to in the MSQ…
58. QoL: …for a full…
59. QoL: …three negatives
60. Secondary: The Gridanian quests just… suck, even more than the other zones…
61. Secondary: …to the point where all I can do…
62. Secondary: …is triple it up
63. Padding: And of course they’re all slogs
64. Secondary: The La Noscea side quests are, at absolute best, boring wastes of time. Oh I hope you like the /beckon quests because whoof…
65. Secondary: …those suck
66. Padding: And slogs
67. Secondary: The Mor Dhona side quests… suck. They’re already the usual not-good variety, but then you add in a stupid amount of back and forth backtracking and it’s even worse
68. Padding: More slogging
69. Secondary: The Thanalan side quests are no better than La Noscea. Oh there’s some better story, but gameplay? Honestly we should consider ourselves lucky there even IS gameplay here cuz good lord
70. Padding: They’re slogs, of course
71. Seconds in Minutes: Seconds in minutes quest design is absolutely everywhere…
72. Seconds In Minutes: …tiny little added irritations and waits…
73. Seconds In Minutes: …that you just cannot escape
74. MSQ: In general, the actual gameplay of the MSQuests in ARR are bland at best and actively time wasting at worse
75. MSQ: The pre-Titan quests have many issues. Massive pacing and difficult curve issues, entirely too much straight up walking across a huge swath of uninteresting terrain…
76. MSQ: …for a full…
77. MSQ: …three negatives
78. Padding: Whole thing takes up an asinine amount of the content of the ARR launch MSQ too. Like…
79. Padding: …way, way too much time
80. MSQ: The entire pre-Garuda quest arc has long, sloggy areas that are irritating to maneuver through with high level, difficult mobs to deal with…
81. MSQ: …for a full…
82. MSQ: …three negatives
83. Boss: The second boss of Stone Vigil (Hard) is bad in every way. It’s badly designed vehicle mechanics on top of janky controls and even if you do it all right it’s a bad combination of boring and incredibly easy to wipe on
84. Level: Ampador Keep has several issues with it. Visually, lighting, boring bosses, knock-down-out-of-fight problem
85. Level: Halatali is honestly not great. It has entirely too much trash in entirely too spread out areas and its bosses are not just boring, but have paling mechanics
86. Level: Pharos Sirius is probably the worst dungeon in ARR. A big, long, irritating slog through frustrating trash with too much health that hits too hard, first boss is one big irritation fest, second boss is entirely too obtuse, third boss is a speed bump, fourth boss is vanilla…
87. Level: …for a full…
88. Level: …three negatives
89. Level: Snowcloak is not great dungeon. Simple mechanics with poor trash and irritating terrain problems with a bad, irritating, repetitive song
90. Level: The Palace of the Dead has… issues. It’s entirely too sloggy, and the difficulty is very binary (you’re either fine or you’re dead)
91. Level: The Sunken Temple of Qarn has multiple actually unexplained mechanics (bees, bosses) and does nothing to mitigate these issues
92. Level: Wanderer’s Palace has several issues with not tutorializing trash mechanics or boss mechanics, but worse than that most of the bosses aren’t interesting or fun…
93. Level: …for two negatives
94. Traversal: Aether currents. They’re not the worst system, they’re not the best, but they make the critical flaw of locking behind the most useful traveling tool (flight) behind having effectively finished the zone
95. Unskippable Cutscenes: Unskippable cutscenes… in the MSQQ
96. Boss: The Nabriales fight is not a good fight. It has excessively simple mechanics that are still binary difficulty, and… that’s it. That’s all it’s got… except also being an HP Barrier boss
97. Overworld: Coerthas West
98. Difficulty: As with WoW, the Coils is a form of locking mandatory, main story behind what is effectively ‘hard mode’
99. Song: Machinations. The ‘big drum beat, mission’ song is overused to the point where I actively hate it when it shows up, and that’s in addition to its nature tends to hit the same frequencies and registers as dialogue, meaning when it plays over voice acting it causes issues
100. Co-Op: Cannot group… still…
101. Co-Op: …for a full…
102. Co-Op: …three negatives
103. QoL: The unlock problem continues (literally can’t go to certain zones, or find vendors…)
104. Song: That damned, mis-used song is back
105. Core Mechanic: The game removes your abilities when synched down in level, which is honestly quite awful for so many reasons (lots of content is below max level, removing abilities changes how you play the class and in some cases actively removes mechanics, etc.) (continued problem)
106. Grind/Leveling: The Roulette Problem begins. To explain in brief; The game rewards doing a roulette regardless of the roulette selected. This means people are de-invested as part of the mechanism of roulettes as a whole, and have a method to ensure they only get the lower level queues (by removing gear), and no built-in incentive not to. This problem only grows worse as expansions move on and later raids and dungeons become more complex, involved, and (most importantly) time consuming… for no additional benefit. Worst of all, this problem is easily solvable in a lot of different directions and no effort is being expended to do so
107. HUD: The decision to lock substantial meat quests behind no marker or signifier whatsoever is honestly really bad design
108. Camera: The camera issue continues to show up periodically
109. Traversal: Aether currents. They’re not the worst system, they’re not the best, but they make the critical flaw of locking behind the most useful traveling tool (flight) behind having effectively finished the zone
110. Backtracking: Crafter backtracking is ridiculous, and almost all of them do it…
111. Backtracking: …for a full…
112. Backtracking: …three negatives
113. Backtracking: The backtracking in the Dravanian Hinterlands is honestly some of the worst it’s been in the entire game…
114. Backtracking: …for two negatives
115. Kit: Paladin 50-60 continues its trend of being the bland white bread of classes
116. Level: Neverreap has some serious issues, with irritating trash and aggravating boss design (including wasps, too much HP)
117. Overworld: Heavensward’s overworld design is honestly terrible. The zones are far too spread out with far too much irritation in traversal (even with flying in some cases), and with far too little distribution of aether crystals…
118. Overworld: …for a full…
119. Overworld: …three negatives
120. Secondary: Churning Mists sidequests aren’t as tedious as some others, but they’re substantially more frustrating, with a lot of ‘hide and go seek’ in complex areas with lots of verticality and no real guidelines… and they pull this trick multiple times, and the nonsense pattern of quest distribution…
121. Secondary: …for a full…
122. Secondary: …three negatives
123. Backtracking: Did I mention this involves constantly traipsing back and forth across the same frickin’ swath of terrain over…
124. Backtracking: …and over…
125. Backtracking: …and over
126. Padding: Bonus for the Churning Mists. Seriously, screw this place
127. Secondary: Similarly, Dravanian Forelands side quests have the same general problem (less so), where they have a single quest chain of note which just involves an enormous amount of backtracking
128. Secondary: The Heavensward Relic quest is certainly better than the ARR one, but that doesn’t make it good, and it’s still a nice long slow boring grind
129. Secondary: The Western Coerthas sidequests… really, really suck. Far too much pointless backtracking across a huge, vast, irritating zone (especially if you don’t have flight)…
130. Secondary: …for two negatives
131. Padding: For general quest padding design…
132. Padding: …for a full…
133. Padding: …three negatives
134. Prime Opt: As expected, the Void Ark is not a good raid. It’s not that bad (not really) but it’s a lot of boring and a lot of not-good, with unengaging trash and boss encounters in a dull grey surrounding
135. Prime Opt: The Armorer 50-60 quest is easily the worst of the already-bad crafter chains…
136. Prime Opt: …for two negatives
137. Prime Opt: Weirdly, Dun Scaith wasn’t good either. Too long, too much HP on the last boss, and worst of all multiple examples of the dungeon journal problem
138. Boss: The Alexander 1 fight is just… you get what they were going for, but the fixate mechanic has issues and the massive delay between the add death and their puddle spawning is a bit eh, especially given how punishing it is to fail
139. Boss: Alexander 2 isn’t a great fight. Neat idea, awful execution, and worst of all it ends up just being boring
140. Boss: Alexander 4 is a good fight in mechanics but entirely too high in damage with way, way too much damage going out from everything… and thus is overtuned like much of Alexander
141. Boss: Alexander 9 is unfortunately another victim of the ‘needs a dungeon journal’ type of boss
142. Boss: Ultimately Alexander 11 just kind of sucks. It has lots of neat mechanics but several are badly explained (or not at all) and that song can suck it
143. Launch: Raubahn Extreme (bad launch issues)
144. Co-Op: Co-Op Problem, the Bloodening…
145. Co-Op: …for a full…
146. Co-Op: …three negatives
147. QoL: Unlock issue as usual
148. Core Mechanic: Low level ability removal issue, which will ever and always be an issue
149. Traversal: Aether Currents continue to be bad
150. Song: One of these days they’re going to get rid of that frickin’ song
151. Camera: The camera zoom out issue continues and, honestly, is a more persistent issue than before…
152. Camera: …for two negatives
153. Grind/Leveling: The Roulette Problem gets worse and is actually probably one of the worst in the series given both Ivalice and Omega raids being in the bundle…
154. Grind/Leveling: …for a full…
155. Grind/Leveling: …three negatives
156. Interface: Heaven On High’s interface and interactions therewith are clunky at best, especially with the nature of its ‘save’ system
157. Kit: Astrologian at 70 really has too many buttons, and some… oddities to it
158. Kit: Black Mage at 70 is noticeably absent several skills that it really should have and feels incomplete
159. Kit: Paladin at 70… CONTINUES to suck, with barely different rotations and STILL lacking basic utility
160. NG+: New Game + and only having one save slot
161. Overworld: Unfortunately, Stormblood zones suffer the same general problem from Heavensward; too big and too empty…
162. Overworld: …for two negatives
163. MSQ: The ‘stealth’ mission in Kugane has several issues (no real tools, no real indicators, no real destination, and entirely too easy to have to start over)
164. Backtracking: Second negative for Ruby Sea backtracking
165. Backtracking: The Peaks
166. Prime Opt: Dragoon 60-70 quests kinda… suck, lots of backtracking and little else across large swaths of irritation
167. Prime Opt: The Black Mage 60-70 quests
168. Prime Opt: The Botanist quests suck. Arduous and time elongated
169. Prime Opt: The Fisher quests suck! Gah!
170. Prime Opt: The Ivalice quests’ needless, pointless backtracking for wine
171. Prime Opt: The Miner quests suck. Arduous and time sensitive
172. Secondary: As per usual, the Steppes sidequests just kind of suck in backtracking and design
173. Secondary: As usual, The Peaks sidequests have a truly egregious amount of backtracking (especially in the latter half)
174. Secondary: The Ruby Sea sidequests have improved in some ways, but the zone’s design makes doing them a colossal chore, especially given the significant amount of backtracking involved in how they chain
175. Secondary: The ‘find the sheep’ quest, and ‘find in circle’ quests in general, can suck it
176. Padding: All quests in Stormblood are padded. All of them…
177. Padding: …for a full…
178. Padding: …three negatives
179. Padding: Padding issue of interaction bar
180. Padding: The Doma Reconstruction weekly gating content sucketh
181. Seconds In Minutes: Seconds in minutes issues periodically
182. MSQ: The solo Zenos fight in Rhalgr’s Reach has many gameplay issues with it, not the least of which being it’s a supposed-to-lose fight where (if you lose) you… fail and have to start the (lengthy) instance over again
183. MSQ: The second solo Zenos fight continues the trend of bad game design. It’s a supposed to lose fight where if you lose you start over, it’s a long fight (easily 5 minutes), it pulls a ‘gotcha’ second health bar, and finally and worst of all he pulls an ‘I win’ at the last minute (Beatrix Syndrome)…
184. MSQ: …for a second negative
185. Mid Mission Checkpoints: Several instances of problems with long solo sessions or lack of mid-mission checkpointing in solo instances
186. Boss: The Burn has some reasonable stuff to it, but the Mist Dragon fight can go to hell. It has some nice mechanics but the tuning on the final ‘mist’ phase is entirely too harsh, being very difficult (or impossible depending) to see where to avoid, no time to correct if you don’t see it coming, and the hit is way too punishing when it does
187. Difficulty: This is a weird one but locking the awesomeness and fun of the ExDeath and Kefka Savage fights behind… y’know, Savage difficulty
188. Boss: Larboard. That is all
189. Co-Op: Forced single player questing (especially MSQ)…
190. Co-Op: …for a full…
191. Co-Op: …three negatives
192. Core Mechanic: Low level ability removal issue, the return
193. Camera: Camera zoom out issue continues its tyrannical reign
194. Grind/Leveling: The Roulette Problem gets worse with each expansion…
195. Grind/Leveling: …for a full…
196. Grind/Leveling: …three negatives
197. QoL: The Unlock Problem persists as usual
198. Song: Y’know at some point they’re going to stop using that song
199. Traversal: Aether Currents, the return
200. Graphics: The bloom overglow of the initial Il Mheg is irritating and literally headache inducing, add onto that the frustration of navigating and questing in the literally-hard-to-see visuals
201. Grind: Unfortunately Bozja is still fairly limited, gives you hardly any Mettle (which is required to advance), and (like the Diadem) is grrrriiiiiindy…
202. Grind: …for two negatives
203. Grind/Leveling: Only doing the MSQ will result in hitting level walls multiple times throughout the expansion
204. Interface: The Firmament’s interface issues are honestly pretty bad
205. Kit: Astrologian at 80 continues to have a button bloat problem
206. Kit: Scholar at 80 is really hampered by a lot of little but multitudinous issues that feel like artifacts of older, more out-dated game design
207. Minigame: Ocean Fishing is entirely, entirely too dependant upon RNG to really go somewhere with it, to the point where it’s actively 4 layers deep of RNG (no exaggeration)
208. Minigame: The Diadems, while useful, are dull as sin and exceptionally grindy
209. Overworld: The overworld design is weirdly lacking in Shadowbringers…
210. Overworld: …for a full…
211. Overworld: …three negatives
212. Padding: Screw weekly turn ins (as usual)
213. Prime Opt: The Fisher Mean quests, uh… suck
214. Hub: Navigating the Crystarium honestly sucks with both verticality and the inability to jump off ledges at multiple points
215. MSQ: The first fight with Ran’jit is bad in every way. Too much HP, disinteresting mechanics, long and boring, and he pulls an I-win button at the end
216. MSQ: The first Ran’jit fight is also a supposed-to-lose fight… where, if you lose… you have to start it over
217. MSQ: The Ronkan ruins is… awful. No mid mission checkpointing and binary failstate
218. MSQ: The Trolley section is, being kind, boring padding quest design… some of the worst in Shadow…
219. MSQ: …for a full…
220. MSQ: …three negatives
221. Princess Peach: The Thancred v. Ran’jit fight goes on just a little bit too long
222. MSQ: And finally, the final Ran’jit fight is pointless, dumb, padded, and boring
223. Secondary: The sidequests in Rak’tika greatwoods are very frustrating in navigation and quest layout
224. Prime Opt: The physical dps role quest is literally bugged, the NPCs screwing up and failing the mission… more than once
225. Prime Opt: The in-between quests of the Nier raids are padding central, forcing you to go to Point B via 5 separate points, with entirely too much backtracking across areas without fast travel
226. Padding: The quest design, especially in secondaries, hasn’t gotten any better…
227. Padding: …for a full…
228. Padding: …three negatives
229. Padding: While I’m at it, the health of the bosses is entirely too high, even accounting for lost actions and the echo buff
230. Backtracking: The Nier raid quests require you to walk through the entire area entirely too often, which is, yes, another backtracking issue
231. Boss: E3 nevertheless has some problems with some of its attacks being difficult to see and very punishing (no less than 3 distinct attacks that instant-kill)
232. Boss: E4 is entirely too punishing, with potential issues with snapshotting, it being extraordinarily easy to die instantly in multiple ways, and a bit of a dungeon journal issue
233. Boss: E4 is entirely too punishing, with potential issues with snapshotting, it being extraordinarily easy to die instantly in multiple ways, and a bit of a dungeon journal issue
234. Boss: E6 has a few minor issues which pull it a bit down
235. Boss: E7’s binary fail-state on several mechanics
236. Boss: Finally, E10 has a few issues which keep it from being… good, and not much to offset it
237. Boss: E11 has a bit too much trial and error with nothing really indicating what works how in… any of his mechanics really
238. Mid Mission Checkpoints: Eden 12 is actually a great fight, except that you have to go through the same lengthy cutscene each time you fail and it’s right towards the beginning, after the easy stuff. No checkpoint, no skipping, and it absolutely destroys the tempo (story and game wise)
239. Boss: The Ruby Weapon fight has a lot of issues. The tuning is a bit off, the visuals are actively detrimental, the music sucks
240. Level: Dalriada’s inconsistent scaling made worse by inconsistent timing
241. Level: Delebrum’s sloggy nature and inconsistent scaling
242. Prime Opt: Castrum’s inconsistent scaling made worse by inconsistent timing
243. Padding: The Relic quest is badly designed at several levels, requiring either excessively grindy activities to have a chance at progression, or doing content that’s effectively abandoned…
244. Padding: …for a full…
245. Padding: …three negatives
246. Penalty For Failure: Twice Come Ruin honestly sucks so much and I hate absolutely everything about it… but… there are much, much worse mechanics, and ultimately my main issue with it is it’s too binary, when there’s so many ways to make it more gradient
247. Launch: Even though there’s not much they could really do about it, honestly the launch status was unacceptably bad
248. Co-Op: Forced single player questing (especially MSQ)…
249. Co-Op: …for a full…
250. Co-Op: …three negatives
251. Core Mechanic: Low level ability removal issue
252. QoL: The Unlock Issue continues
253. Camera: Camera zoom out issue
254. Song: You know the one. It’s back, again, and it’s over-used, again
255. Interface: Transmog. The way it only works in towns, the way it requires being in an inn to set it up to access the (multiple) banks you have which have
256. Interface: Usual issues with saves, interface, and grouping in Eureka Orthos
257. Minigame: Crystalline content interface issues including can’t queue in a group
258. Hub: Bestway Burrows is entirely too large with too few mechanisms in place to facilitate movement early on
259. Info In Game: The exceptionally bad indicators of which quests are which, especially on the map (sometimes it chains directly, sometimes it does not, you can talk to everyone or actually do every quest to see but otherwise there’s no real cohesive methodology) and frankly this is so aggravating that it puts me off doing them at all…
260. Info In Game: …for two negatives
261. Cosmetic: Portraits. They’re great and I love them but goddamn are they spaghetti coded. The wrangling you have to do with them is beyond aggravating. Thankfully it’s made a lot better in patch 7.1, but it’s still very spaghetti code
262. Grind: The Trust system is excessively grindy (having to do a minimum of 5 runs of just the first dungeon, at around 30-50 minutes each, just to be able to do a second dungeon) plus you can’t level them all at once, so you have to do even more runs to level everyone
263. Kit: Sadly Samurai, for all its awesomeness, really has some bad ability bloat issues
264. Level: Eureka Orthos. Enemies hit very, very hard, have lots of health, and the entire thing just takes so, so long
265. Overworld: It’s unfortunate but true that every zone shares the same problem; too large, too empty, too padding for not having fast movement and/or flying. Thus, Sharlayan
266. Overworld: Elpis
267. Overworld: Garlemald
268. Overworld: Thavnair
269. Overworld: Ultima Thule
270. Overworld: Zone 4 has some very bad pathing / terrain issues on foot
271. Prime Opt: The fishing Studium quests honestly suck. The RNG involved is silly, even when doing everything right and using the right abilities, and on top of that it takes way, way, way too long…
272. Prime Opt: …for two negatives
273. Seconds In Minutes: Some few, but consistent
274. Traversal: Aether currents. They’re not the worst system, they’re not the best, but they make the critical flaw of locking behind the most useful traveling tool (flight) behind having effectively finished the zone
275. Tutorialization: The game has an annoying tendency to repeat tutorial messages way, way past when it should… in short it does so every single time it pops up
276. Boss: Rhalgr and falling-off mechanics returns
277. Boss: The final Zenos fight is entirely too padded given its placement and purpose
278. Music: The terrible, terrible decision to replace the zone music with a short loop that grows old very fast over a long, long section of game is frankly awful and earns a second negative for sheer duration…
279. Music: …for two negatives
280. MSQ: The binary failstate of the ‘follow the girl’ quest along with other related padding issues
281. MSQ: There are several issues that drag down the de-powered segment; Lack of mid mission checkpoints, ease of failure (any magitek that spots you is essentially game over), and issues with navigation and stealth indicators
282. MSQ: The tail Urianger mission is actually worse than the earlier one in Garlemald
283. MSQ: The ‘Sage Council’ quest is actually terrible game design. Massive explorative area, vaguely labeled, with no pattern to layout, with fake-outs earning it a second negative for pure unadulterated padding in the worst way…
284. MSQ: …for two negatives
285. MSQ: The ‘tail the kid in Garlemald’ quest is the same problems with the other ‘tail’ quests but even worse as the kid ‘jukes’ you… more than once
286. Secondary: Quest design continues to not be FFXIV’s strong suit. It’s not actually bad, as per usual, but it does fulfill the category of ‘not fun gameplay’
287. MSQ: Speaking of which I have to comment on the over-emphasis on certain types of quests, namely escorts and tail missions. I’m glad they’re trying to have some gameplay but I’d sort of rather they not if this is the result
288. Overworld: Yak T’el. Huge swaths of empty terrain, and both warp spots are at opposite ends of each other leaving a large chunk of ‘welp, guess I’ll walk it’ in the middle
289. Overworld: Shaaloani. Sure, it’s got multiple warp points (which is nice), but there’s just… nothing here but empty swaths of land or, worse, irritating cliffs to go around immediately in your way
290. Hub: Tuliyollal is entirely too large and spread out for the usual ‘use stones, no mounts, sprint on cooldown’ approach to things
291. Traversal: The eternal bane of Aether Currents continues
292. Co-Op: Try to be shocked, but the forced single player questing hasn’t gone away or gotten better…
293. Co-Op: …as is the usual…
294. Co-Op: …for the usual negatives
295. Grind/Leveling: The Roulette Problem rears its ugly head one last time… for now
296. Core Mechanic: The low level ability removal issue returns once more
297. Song: So Machinations returns. Here’s the thing… they over-use it even more than before but, wildly, it’s not worse. It’s still bad don’t mistake me, but they clearly know what they’re doing and keep using it in jokey or silly sequences, which mitigates issues
298. Camera: Zoom out issues continue
299. Padding: Weekly turn ins, my favorite types of quests
300. Tutorialization: Game, I get it, you don’t have to repeat your tutorials a few billion times every single time it shows up
301. Hub: Solution 9. Big empty swaths of can’t mount and bad positioning of vendors
302. Overworld: Heritage Found. Lots of very irritating terrain to navigate without flying, and ‘peninsula’ approach to questing and FATE placement
303. Overworld: Living Memory is honestly one of the worst overworlds I’ve seen thusfar from a gameplay perspective. It’s designed solely from a storytelling perspective, meaning long frustrating trips around realistic terrain to get anywhere (without flying, of course) and a reliance on the teleporters to even get around, and that’s ignoring the backtracking issues with its quest design (such as it is)…
304. Overworld: …earning a solid…
305. Overworld: …triple negative
306. Secondary: Side quests aren’t this game’s strong suit (deja vu) but the Solution 9 ones are particularly bad. Lots and lots and lots of walking in an area with no mount…
307. Secondary: …and bad backtracking design to boot
308. Boss: Strayborough Deadwalk, 100 dungeon, boss 1, His Royal Headness Leonogg I. We have two major problems here. First, the netcode of this game isn’t great, and you created a boss all around precise maneuvering with that limitation…
309. Boss: …second, any failure is severely punished, with a combination of frustration and boredom in literally stunning you, slowing you, and preventing you from attacking
310. Boss: Strayborough Deadwalk, 100 dungeon, boss 2, Jack In The Pot. There’s a LOT going on and that’s fine… except you literally can’t see all of it. The fight fights the camera more than you