Review Runs

Story Positives:

1. Voice acting quality is quite good, with very few exceptions
2. Voice acting quantity! There is a ton, and I mean a ton, of (good) voice acting
3. Korriban Sith Warrior was a good tutorial and intro, quickly and efficiently getting us into the times, the Sith in particular, the sith Empire in general, and introducing us to several good characters including the big one; Darth Baras
4. Darth Baras is one of my favorite Sith / Dark Side users in the entire setting. He’s pragmatic, smart, and a long-term planner who is still flawed and has his own issues
5. A second plus for Baras being easily the best villain of the original 8 stories, and a fantastic and believable character who had a logical, well-written descent into desperation as we slowly ripped his power base apart
6. The Black Talon instance is good stuff storywise, with decent branching narrative and generally good options and relevance, and is overall a good establisher for Malgus, Satile, and the cold war
7. Sith Warrior Intro is good. It does good establishment of characters, the Empire, the cold war, and our initial threat and arc of Jaesa
8. TOR in general has some of the best Jedi across the series, doing a great job of showcasing a good variety in Jedi as well as showing just how bad Jedi can get
9. TOR has, overall, what I consider the best dark side and Sith characters in… the whole of Star Wars, with a good variety and gradient between them
10. TOR has, overall, what I consider the best Republic people in the series (elite nobles, well meaning commanders, pompous jackasses, etc.)
11. Best Imperial Soldiers, with good gradient and I feel like I’m repeating myself here
12. Sith Warrior characters (as per the design; Sith Warrior gets an additional positive for quality and quantity of characters we meet throughout, including but not limited to Rylon, Rylon’s son, Rathari, Kendoh, Pierce, Timmns, Tremel)
13. Variety of perspective in Empire characters (as per the standard, an additional positive for excellent characters through the Imperial Planetary Primaries)
14. Quest follow-up mails is a great way to further flesh out characters and stories, and show a small bit of (optional) follow-up on arcs
15. Visual design of Nar Shaddaa is good stuff, also is a great showcasing of the tech, society, and that sort of grunge Vegas thing
16. Sith Warrior; confrontation with self doubts in Tatooine is just a great scene. It’s the first real time the game acknowledges your playstyle and choices, and it has several permutations (4 total) depending on what you are and what you choose during the conversation
17. Internal continuity is quite good. You have to be paying attention, but there are references to the stories of the other classes and factions all over the place
18. Alderaan Sith Warrior is enjoyable; there’s decent political intrigue in the background, they go out of their way to make a creepy scummy person and then give you the chance to constantly give them their comeuppance, and they allow the SW in particular to really flex in cutscenes
19. Nomen Karr is an engaging and interesting character, and a nice foil for Baras and yourself
20. Sith Warrior Act 1 conclusion is incredibly satisfying, even now having done it many times over many years
21. Vette is just kind of wholesome and cool
22. Voss planet, civilization, culture, and Planetary Primary are all good stuff
23. Vowrawn is just delightful, and easily one of the better Sith characters across the Imperial side in general and SW in particular
24. The finale conclusion with Darth Baras, the build up, the showcasing of your choices with other Sith along the way, and the confrontation itself is all epic and awesome
25. Aggregate: Droid language and its unique structure is neat // Rylon is actually pretty cool, especially for having only one scene to him // Visual design of Tatooine // Visual design of Hoth // Wylatt is really one of the best examples, ever, of Light Side corruption and it is beautifully horrifying
26. Aggregate: Timmns is one of the more interesting jedi we meet and, ultimately, I wish I saw more of him // Jaesa is enjoyable in her own right, hampered by her limited presence post-joining // Pierce is, despite his amoral stance, pretty easy to get along with and enjoyable to have along // Quinn grew on more than I thought he would, ultimately being an intriguing foil to Baras

Story Negatives:

1. Side quests are just… not interesting, even despite having cutscenes and dialogue, and are barebones X of Y style
2. Many of the instances are just… crap storywise and have the same quantity and quality as a single sidequest on some random planet
3. External continuity is frankly awful almost every time it comes up. TOR just does not fit with the rest of Star Wars’ continuity
4. The Revan instances are especially bad, with ridiculous presentation of HK-47, Revan, and Revan’s significance to the overall plot (which itself is… silly at best)
5. Limited party size which is an issue for the usual reasons, especially in a game that actually lets people not present join in conversations via holocomm
6. Draahg is just a piss poor Darth Scion and a very Kai Leng character who’s just there and irritating and your rival for no good reason
7. Aggregate: Hoth’s Planetary Primary is incredibly boring, to the point that it felt like pure filler // Taris’s Planetary Primary is… not good
8. Aggregate: Broonmark is a completely boring one-note character and a piss-poor attempt to recreate the fascinating character study of Hanharr // Directive 7 and its entire story arc is unnecessarily large scale and ridiculous regardless (we even arrive seconds before the galaxy would be destroyed) // TOR Syndrome
9. Second negative for the Absent Party problem

Gameplay Positives:

1. The ability to escape back out of cutscenes in the case of missing or misclicking or misunderstanding or whatever
2. Reasonably good interface customization options with positioning and scale
3. Party conversation mechanics are great
4. A second positive for the great conversation mechanics and the fact that there’s a back-luck-protection built in to help ensure everyone gets a say over time
5. General co-op friendly design (party size of 4–so 2 players plus 2 companions, the party conversation mechanics, social points for grouping, most encounters and quests designed around the small group, etc. etc.)
6. Fast travel is reasonably well designed, especially if you have a house; You can warp to spots at will
7. There’s a very good built-in system to allow for cosmetics, with dyes, lots and lots of equipment which can be mix and matched, as well as ‘synching’ dye colors if you so choose
8. Additional positive for the ‘permanent transmog’ appearance option, and the ability to have multiple cosmetic suits, visibility of pieces of armor, etc.
9. Finally there are a huge variety of cosmetic options across the board
10. Housing is sufficiently varied and enjoyable for a housing mechanic, and also allows for cross-character interaction, and improves fast travel
11. Aggregate: Character design has a decent amount of options // Clear indicator of Class and Planetary quests // Leveling is sufficiently fast to allow for picking and choosing of content
12. Aggregate: Directive 7’s boss fights were actually decent, and had actual mechanics // Darth Baras’s fight is thematically appropriate and suitably fun and epic, and even better for how he uses SW abilities throughout the fight

Gameplay Negatives:

1. Travel spacing padding; aka it takes a while to get from point A to point B, and there are long, long stretches in worlds, in between quests, and just traveling around town designed to stretch out gameplay to take as long as possible as part of the usual MMO treadmill
2. Side quests are just… not interesting, even despite having cutscenes and dialogue, and are barebones X of Y style
3. Combat isn’t bad in the strictest sense of the word, but ultimately is just a bit… lacking in depth and complexity, which wouldn’t be an issue if not for the sheer amount of combat the game has
4. Encounter design is not interesting in general, usually boiling down to ‘enemy’, ‘pack of enemies’, ‘summons adds’, or occasionally they have knockdowns or knockbacks
5. Cannot swap specs in instance, and requires going to a specific NPC to swap specs
6. Space combat is actively awful at almost every level. It does not have good variety in enemies, objectives, the controls are crap, the setup is all straight gear based, and there’s a hell of a stat wall
7. The early dungeons, aside from the first two on both sides, are lacking in every way. There’s no interesting visuals, encounters, bosses, or story
8. In game shop’s mere existence is not a good thing in a game that is a subscription game (or should be)
9. Usage of in game shop is aggressive and aggravating, and there is a lot of design trying to push the Cartel on players
10. Absolutely awful ‘free to play’ mode with horrible chopping of features and options
11. Inconsistent application of Light Side / Dark Side choices, combined with an absence of third options in many cases where there should be
12. Colicoid War Games is incredibly awful in a sea of otherwise bad instances, with buggy design, poorly set up mechanics, and a total lack of tuning
13. A final negative for the ‘vanilla’ dungeons just being… awful. The mechanics are almost not even there, the layout is too long, there’s too much trash with too much health, there’s no interesting points to them (one ‘good/bad’ decision per), and the whole thing is just… not worth doing
14. Gear treadmill as vertical leveling, and also boring disinteresting gear, which is irritating to keep up with and not fun or rewarding
15. Bad design in terrain and overworld flow (Taris, Quesh, Hoth, Belsavis)
16. Slog of Belsavis, Voss, Corellia
17. Additional negative for many hours of slog across the final planets
18. Font size issues (no option to alter font sizes except for chat, and the existing fonts are entirely too small)
19. TOR Syndrome (dialogue wheel options not lining up with what you think they mean)
20. Skill design issues (ultimately disinteresting playstyles and lack of complexity in skill design)
21. The non-main Companion ‘quests’ are just… disappointing and ridiculous in their fade to black nature
22. Aggregate: The game as a whole suffers from the format and structure of how it approaches Companions, both in terms of when they join you, how they are distributed across the planets // Unable to release while in combat // Rez has a 15 minute cooldown unless you’re a healer
23. Core Combat really deserves a second negative for being aggressively unfun
24. Second negative for absolutely awful, badly designed Encounter layout…
25. …and a third one for some of the worst Encounter designs in gaming
26. Speaking of which, that Enemy Variety is awful. You’ve got droids, beasts, gunslingers, and saberslingers…
27. …and that really is it for planet after planet after planet of content
28. Second negative for that awful Overworld design and planetary layout
29. A very wonky, downturning Power Progression Curve that just wigs out by the time you get to the final few planets
30. Trash design in dungeons is not good. It’s just more random encounters with too much health

Story Positives:

1. The storytelling tool of the Echo and what it allows us to see and perceive
2. 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
3. The Ul’dah city-state arc is easily the best of the three, with character introductions, ideas, and tons of world building…
4. …easily earning a second positive
5. Camerawork in cutscenes is actually quite good
6. The localization in the game is spot on…
7. …even with regards to adding in dialects and variances based on region
8. There is a fairly large amount of gameplay/story integration going on
9. The visual storytelling of the Noscea area
10. 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
11. The visual storytelling of 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
12. The core theme, even early on, of being the inspiration to help others find their better selves
13. The Unending Journey journal and the ability to rewatch essentially every cutscene in the game you’ve already seen is a great way to catch up on things
14. The ARR opening cinematic of the destruction at Cartenaux and the Calamity of Dalamud is a very, very well done cutscene
15. Tempering. We get our first insight into it with Ifrit, and it is exactly as horrible as it should be
16. World building exposition of the three Grand Companies
17. 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)
18. A second positive for the Coerthas arc. Tightly written, internally consistent, and well characterized
19. 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
20. 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
21. Visual storytelling of the third Coil of Bahamut
22. Tataru is a delight even in ARR
23. Thancred, for how relatively little screen time he gets, is pretty awesome…
24. …as is Y’Shtola
25. Acknowledging the support network under adventurers, aka consequence storytelling
26. Sylphs (and writing). They’re adorable, even outside of their daily
27. Foreshadowing (primals, ala mhigans, Garlean power struggle, Ishgard, etc.)
28. 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
29. A special positive for the final moments of Cartenaeu, awesomely presented and executed cutscene… and weirdly well earned, while simultaneously being a successful one-winged-angel moment
30. G’raha’s final farewell as the Eternal Wind plays really is just… feels
31. Periodic world building in the La Noscea side quests, and some cool individual side stories
32. The Thanalan quests were overall better story wise; while more contained, they were usually better focused on character moments or world building
33. The Coerthas side quests were really quite good…
34. …including several nice bits of world building and some great character arcs
35. The Hildibrand animation, storyboarding, and camerawork are astonishingly good, especially with regards to choreography…
36. …earning a second positive
37. The Botanist arc does a good job of showcasing a pacifist tormented by the ethics of civilian contribution to conflict
38. 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
39. 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
40. The Weaver 1-50 quest was surprisingly sentimental and personal, being almost entirely about the budding relationship between the miner and the princess
41. The Goldsmith 1-50 quest was surprisingly enjoyable given how obvious its plot was, but it had some nice moments and Rorotan was legit
42. The Leatherworker 1-50 quest had some hiccups but a rather memorable guildmaster, and a nice story arc about quality vs. speed
43. The Alchemist 1-50 quest was interesting in how it seemed terrifying at first and veered right into legitimately sweet and sentimental
44. Culinarian 1-50 is nicely constructed and has some good worldbuilding, but also some weirdly well done descriptions of the food
45. The Kobold beast tribe has a nice, surprisingly touching, and well told story arc
46. The Sahagin beast tribe has a surprisingly well written character in Novv
47. The conclusive Beast Tribe collective quest at the end of the dailies is quite well done, with good cutscenes and touching moments… and a few moments of awesome to boot…
48. …earning a second positive
49. The Gladiator 1-30 quest was… weirdly good. Enjoyable characters which complexities to them, a good structure, good cinematography, it was…
50. …worthy of a second positive
51. The dialogue and intrigue of the Rogue 1-30 quests are legit, despite how hard they are to read at times…
52. …and some really great storytelling and cutscenes
53. 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…
54. …earning a second positive for general quality and cutscenes (the youth as he punched!)
55. The Thaumaturge 1-30 story had some hiccups, but I enjoyed the world building and examination of voidsent, aether, and magedom in general
56. 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
57. DRG 30-50 is weirdly good, with lots of good world building (if bad exposition) and surprisingly good cutscenes…
58. …earning a second positive
59. WAR 30-50 is simple but effective, a nice zoomed in character piece with some neat worldbuilding about how Warriors function
60. Scholar 30-50 has some great world building and some neat, heart-warming scenes to it
61. Despite other issues, the Ninja 30-50 has some good camerawork, animation, and some good moments
62. The 2.1 and 2.2 Doman Refugee Crisis arc is great stuff
63. The initial developments of the new Grand Company is a great arc, with good cutscenes
64. A special continuity plus bonus for the 2.3 arc and how it acknowledges tons and tons of small but neat little points of continuity
65. Aymeric is awesome in literally his very first scene. He is smart, kind, pragmatic, and generally awesome
66. Consequence storytelling (especially with Garlemald)
67. Moenbryda is well voice acted and, honestly, a delight despite her relatively small amount of camera presence
68. Haurchefant is just kind of awesome.. Consistently, even in ARR…
69. …which is really saying something
70. Raubahn’s killing of Teledji is, honestly, the best part of the entire banquet
71. 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
72. Merlwyb is a weirdly good character across ARR
73. The Sultana only has a few scenes but they’re critical and she herself is a very sympathetic, interesting character
74. Riol is actually pretty legit, and honestly I wish he got more screen time
75. Ditto for Hoary Boulder and Coultinet
76. ARR does a decent job of remaining internally consistent and having good internal continuity
77. Aggregate: Visual storytelling of Sastasha // The overall story arc of Haukke Manor, the murder mystery, and the… attempt at tone // While not much, Brayflox Hard is a neat and amusing little excursion
78. Aggregate: The final cutscene in Wanderer’s Palace (hard) is hilarious // There is one, solitary good quest in the Gridanian areas, and it’s actually quite touching (about the young gentleman and his sister) // The Miner arc has some decent world building in the background
79. Aggregate: 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 BLM 30-50 quests
80. The Heavensward opening cinematic is, as usual, pretty good
81. 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
82. Hauchefant continues his awesome streak
83. Visual storytelling of Ishgard (the city)
84. Artoirel is an interesting, fleshed out character who has a quick and interesting arc even in his initial presentation
85. The initial introduction to Thordan and the trial by combat sequence
86. 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
87. 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
88. Visual storytelling of the Dravanian Forelands
89. The big reveal of the nature of Primals is a good scene in general, but even more so…
90. …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
91. The localization continues to be on point…
92. …even to the point of being better than before, especially with regards to…
93. …the dialogue being just fantastic across the board.
94. Dialogue mk. 2
95. Dialogue mk. 3
96. Lolorito’s plan (retcon or no) is a good one, neatly written, and ties up a lot of threads
97. Further, this entire arc (while badly positioned) is a great example of both external continuity and consequence storytelling and, despite the problems with its timing, deserves special mention for its quality
98. The overall plot has a wonderful layers upon layers of context style to it
99. The Echo remains a great storytelling tool…
100. …and speaking of which, the cutscene of the past shortly after the initial battle with Nidhogg is well directed, acted, and written
101. Honestly, Hauchefant’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)
102. Core theme of the cycle of vengeance
103. The ‘we’ve got Aymeric’s back’ scene is awesome
104. Well written Star Destroyer storytelling
105. 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
106. For all the nonsense about the event itself, Count Fortemp just breaking down at the loss of his son hits to this day
107. There is a lovely symmetry to Aymeric and his relationship to his father… and Hauchefant and his relationship to his. Both illegitimate children, both risen on their own two feet, and both dealt with in completely disparate ways
108. Alphinaud is wonderful as usual
109. Alphinaud’s voice actor is great
110. Alphinaud’s character arc is fantastic, and really shows his growth as a character
111. Tataru continues to be an excellent character despite her limited screen time
112. The visual storytelling and contrast of the Churning Mists as well as Hraesvalgr and Nidhogg’s lairs
113. Ysale is, as usual, awesome…
114. …with good voice acting…
115. …and a great character arc
116. Estinien, too, is a triple bonus for being a great, complex character..
117. …but also well acted…
118. …and well arced
119. The connecting character threads between Estinien and Alphinaud
120. Raubahn finally comes into his own as a character, helped by his actor
121. Haldrath (the first Azure Dragoon) has precious little screen time but is awesome for it
122. Hilda, too, steals the scene every time she’s in it
123. Visual storytelling of the Dravanian Hinterlands
124. Matoya! Cantankerous, helpful, and well acted
125. Ysayle’s sacrifice, by contrast to some earlier ones, is very well done. Good cinematography, good directing, and it sticks
126. Visual storytelling of Azys Lla
127. Earning Midgarsormr’s respect and being granted his mount is a pretty awesome moment
128. The world building of the Aetherochemical Research Facility and just how bleh the Allagans really were
129. 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
130. The Alexander 12 fight is awesome narratively, especially with the portals being how we survived the cutscene prior to the fight
131. The time travel of the entire Alexander chain is actually quite tightly written, well foreshadowed, and well executed
132. 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
133. Lucia remains awesome pretty much throughout HW
134. Krile has so much character in so little time, I love it
135. Yet more foreshadowing (especially in the Warring Triad)
136. They actually subvert the usual hostage crap in the Weeping City, and actually make a good scene of it regardless
137. Stone Vigil 2 (Dusk Vigil) has a wonderfully horrifying backstory to what happened in the wake of the Calamity
138. Leveva is just delightful all around
139. The Sharlayan worldbuilding and general intrigue of the AST 30-60 quests are pretty cool… with problems
140. MCH 30-50 has a good core theme, some decent characters, and a nice arc for multiple of them
141. MCH 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
142. A goodly amount of internal continuity with the three mage states across the expansion
143. The NIN 50-60 is weirdly competent and well directed, with amusing characters and a proper showcasing of ourself
144. DRG 50-60 has some issues, but is earnest enough and skips over most pitfalls of its arc to be engaging
145. The DRK 30-50 quests did a great job of acknowledging a lot of internal continuity…
146. …and are just, really great quests in general…
147. …earning a second (or third) positive
148. DRK 50-60 quests do some good stuff in general, with a nice if horrifying story…
149. …and general levity and excellence in scenes from the Moogles
150. WVR 50-60 was actually really sweet, down-to-earth, mundane, and wholesome
151. GSM 50-60 was surprisingly good, a heartwarming tale of two lovers and making them matching music boxes, well paced and well showcased
152. CUL 50-60 was mostly noise until the finale, when it was delightfully hysterical
153. LTW 50-60 is actually pretty well done, with solid character arcs, weaving through backstory of the setting, while advancing alongside the main quest
154. Aggregate: The Ascian lore of SUM 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
155. 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)
156. Azys Lla’s side quests are surprisingly amusing while remaining absolutely horrifying insights into Allagan society
157. Hildibrand, as usual, has some great animation and camerawork
158. Hildibrand also has some surprisingly good character beats with Vivi and Cyr
159. The Scholasticate’s early quests are very well written internal politics
160. The Scholasticate’s quests themes of the severe and terrible inequality Isghard has shown, done in true in-person detail, are just… wow
161. Scholasticate (again) has some good general story construction and characters
162. Fractal Continuum has some wonderful, horrible Allagan lore in the ‘museum’ format
163. Good structure of the MSQ, both in when the big events hit, and in how much time is attended to the consequences
164. The return of Thancred cutscene is well acted and very well choreographed, despite its issues
165. Aymeric really is one of my favorite characters in the entire game…
166. …not only for his solidarity and genuineness but also his intellect and leadership skill…
167. …and finally his fantastic presentation and voice actor
168. 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
169. Matoya is a delightfully presented and constructed character
170. 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
171. 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…
172. …but through it all, just us… walking….
173. …Star Destroyer
174. And yes, another positive for the outro, for being exactly as tear-jerking and powerful as it should be… with Ysayle and Hauchefaunt’s aid
175. 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
176. 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
177. 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
178. 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
179. Aggregate: An aggregate positive to Hildibrand for general humor and pacing // Honoroit is enjoyable, and pitiable, for the little screen time he gets // Emmanellain does get something of a story arc, brief though it may be
180. Ardbert’s voice actor is excellent even in this expansion
181. Count Edmont is a truly fantastic character, for much the same reasons Aymeric is…
182. …and stands as our adoptive father for good reason
183. The summoning, and Papalymo’s sacrifice
184. Thancred is, as usual, pretty legit
185. 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
186. The recurrent usage of the NPCs and party members adding extra dialogue at most quests in the MSQ is a good storytelling tool
187. No-drama, logical consequence storytelling in the initial resistance groups of Ala Mhigo
188. World building throughout the early quests of what it’s like in occupied Ala Mhigo
189. Zenos second establishing scene does much more, better, with him
190. Doodad utilization is, finally, in
191. Substantially better usage of music in cutscenes
192. Visual storytelling of the Fringe
193. Tataru beautifully blackmailing the Ishgardian captain into helping us get to Doma
194. Kugane in all its splendor
195. Lyse kicking Gyodo was just kind of generally awesome (and well animated and cameraworked)
196. 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
197. Visual storytelling and doodad utilization of Kugane
198. Yanxia’s thematic usage and portrayal of the consequence of the remainder oppressed is as gloomy and awful as it should be
199. 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
200. As much as I have severe issues with it, the scene where Zenos finally notices us is pretty legit
201. Isse is actually kind of awesome in general, a perfect personal viewpoint of oppression and a surprisingly human, well fleshed out person in general
202. 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)
203. Our little sidetrip to the Dotharl is nice in general, but what’s even better about it is how Gosetsu is fleshed out throughout
204. The entire Steppe arc is one of the better ones, despite being ‘side content’
205. Cirina is a delight for the presence she has
206. Tataru, similarly, is awesome up to and including the flight from Kugane
207. Hancock is weirdly engaging, moreso for his connection to Lolorito
208. Gosetsu continues his trend of excellence and general enjoyability
209. Yugiri is, in many ways, far more of a main character than Lyse is and does good stuff throughout
210. Alisaie gets some good character and screen time both
211. For all my complaints, I cannot dismiss Zenos’ voice actor
212. Alisaie’s voice actress
213. Gosetsu’s voice actor
214. Yugiri’s voice actress
215. Soroban is pretty awesome for how little screen time he has
216. Hien’s ponderings, and his conclusion; the flooding of Doma, says a lot about what kind of person (and leader) he really is
217. Gosetsu’s pre-battle scene and confession is a great character piece for him (helped by Alphinaud and Alisaie being adorable)
218. Good visual storytelling and significance of the Doma dungeon
219. 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
220. Kojin in general, especially culturally, are fascinating
221. The scene between Fordola and Zenos really is quite well constructed
222. As usual, Raubahn is excellent, arguably really coming into his own as both commander and leader of the Alliance
223. …and a second
224. Visual storytelling of The Lochs
225. Pipin remains an awesome character in general, and a good commander
226. The Ala Mhigo dungeon is a great capstone to the dungeon narratively
227. Zenos’ suicide and final cutscenes really do a great job of showcasing the character, and a surprisingly satisfying conclusion to his arc
228. Much as it pains me, Zenos does deserve a positive. The ruined, bored, genetically engineered freak
229. Omega is brilliantly horrifying in how detached and unconcerned it is about the horrifying things it does
230. Cid is pretty legit in the Omega line
231. The lonesome Omega logs segment before O12 is really just… awesome, and terrifying, and lends more ‘character’ to Omega, Midgarsormr, and the war than most anything else does
232. DRG 60-70 is nice but Orn Khai is just adorable
233. MCH 60-70 is a good tale of continuing to deal with the fallout of Heavensward, and some good character moments for Hilda
234. Four Lords, Soroban, Tataru… all good stuff…
235. …especially the flashback cutscenes
236. Fractal Continuum (Hard) continues the Allagan trend of expositing and background worldbuilding (the Ixal were built by Allagans!)
237. There is simple, wholesome, and down-to-earth storytelling in the Doman Reconstruction…
238. …wonderfully written and brilliantly human
239. 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
240. The WAR 60-70 quests are silly but… they’re legit charming, and got an actual laugh out of me
241. What can I say about the 60-70 DRK 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.
242. A second…
243. …and a third positive earned thusly
244. The WHM 60-70 quest was a nice little personal story, with some good touches and good continuity
245. MNK 60-70 has some nice character moments and good backstory about the Mad King
246. RDM 50-60 has some decent stuff. Magic history, Ala Mhigan history, some continuity, and Arya
247. RDM 60-70 has good continuity and Arya continues to be adorkable!
249. SAM 50-60 is a straightforward samurai tale, but it’s not bad, and in fact hits its beats quite well
250. ALC 60-70 had great external continuity as well as a touching arc and general goodness throughout
251. Steppe culture is fascinating and well fleshed out in general
252. 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
253. GSM 60-70 is a nice bit of worldbuilding and consequence storytelling, being about methods of economic restoration for newly freed Ala Mhigo
254. CUL 60-70 continues the Culinarian trend of excellence by having a nice simple story about feeding refugees, and cultural drift
255. Arenvald is honestly just sort of amazing. A poor background and a good presence
256. Generally clever animation in cutscenes
257. The confrontation of, Echo of, and pain of Fordola’s (cutscene)
258. The surprisingly mature, dark, proper discussion of financial aid for Ala Mhigo
259. The big scene between Nanamo and Raubahn is just… all kinds of awesome. A great continuation and, arguably, conclusion of both of their arcs
260. Much as I absolutely despise the character, Asahi’s voice actor is legit… lots of tiny details and subtle nuances
261. Tsukuyomi fight…
262. …and the tragedy of Yotsuyu, the life that could have been
263. The hinge-point of the plot of Alphinaud going to Garlemald, the implications and foreshadowing thereof
264. As per usual, the usage of the Roleplay system as a storytelling tool is excellent
265. 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
266. Fordola doesn’t get the screen time she deserves, for she is a fascinating and well done antagonist in her own right
267. The visual storytelling of The Burn (dungeon) is as fascinating and horrifying as it should be
268. Alphinaud continues his character arc and progression, and frankly just general character quality
269. Camerawork continues to be excellent throughout
270. The Burn (Savage)
271. The well-constructed political drama of the Alliance’s first true meeting as they discuss the Ascians and Garlemald…
272. …and the summoning of ‘the voice’ and the tension and suspense and mystery it adds to the proceedings
273. Alisae really has some good character moments in the final few patches
274. 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
275. The war council and parlay with Emperor Varis is interesting in hindsight, and surprisingly well presented (visual storytelling)
276. Foreshadowing! The front-loaded storytelling as of the 4.X patches is real
277. The Ghimlyt Dark and following conclusions are some awesome visual storytelling and war presentation
278. The down-to-earth personal stories of the Crystarium sidequests
279. 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
280. The intro cinematic is the best they’ve had to-date, with symbolism, brick-laying, great visual storytelling, and…
281. …is just generally awesome
282. The opening intro does so much so well so fast
283. The visual storytelling of the eternal bright sky
284. The Crystarium is brilliant in its overall design, visual layout, and general presentation
285. The initial story arc of the Crystarium does so much, and builds up the world, and establishes many tiny plot threads
286. Music utilization for tone and atmosphere
287. The worldbuilding of Mord Souq and the very idea of ‘cracking the coinpurse’ and its connotations for requirements of interaction and citizenry
288. The very nature of Sin Eaters and the horror and obstacle they present
289. The beautiful visual storytelling of the wall of light in Amh Araeng… the macro
290. Tesleen. The conversion, the horror… the micro
291. Kholusia continues the world building quest construction of having to earn your way and insight into local function
292. Aaaand finally, Eulmore and its horrifying perversion of the ‘earn your way’ cultural norm of the survivors, and the classim it engenders
293. 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
294. Kai-Shirr and his weekly arc of renovating the Beehive and trying to turn it into a legitimate establishment with his friends is both wholesome and logical
295. Eulmore’s visual storytelling
296. 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
297. 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
298. Holminster Switch… the creature from the desert, Tesleen, and the horror of the village over-run
299. And the first night sky in a century
300. General world building of the Fae segment of the story
301. Watching the fae just… body the Eulmorians is just as immensely satisfying as it always is
302. Emet-Selch’s animation and motion capture
303. The initial confrontation between Emet-Selch and the party is brilliantly portrayed. Camerawork, voice acting, dialogue, foreshadowing…
304. World building of the Night’s Blessed, up to and including the service
305. Ardbert’s cutscene discussing himself, Seto, and ourselves
306. Ardbert’s cutscene discussing being adventurers, the mural… and how it all went
307. The cutscene of Vauthry v. Exarch is a brilliant one, not just a clash of ideologies but of surface vs. depth
308. For the irritation of the fake-out, Y’shtola’s return gives us some great characterization and moments for both Emet-Selch and Runar
309. 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
310. Ardbert opening up to us about why he adventured, and us sharing our concerns with him, is as always a good scene
311. Ardbert’s torment at having to watch the suffering die…
312. …followed immediately by the power of seeing us walking with the victors
313. Lyna’s lament in the wake of the battle
314. Thancred opening up and (finally) having a character arc in Trolley is pretty legit
315. 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
316. 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
317. Ryne and Thancred’s interactions are good in general, but the dynamic between the two is something else
318. The Crystal Exarch remains a well constructed enigma; the shadow of a villain who never hesitates to aid and assist those in need
319. With precious few exceptions, the dialogue in Shadow in particular is exceptionally well constructed…
320. …easily earning…
321. …three positives
322. The incredible creepiness, build up to, and revelation… of Meol
323. The entire scene of Alphinaud speechifying to the Eulmorians, and their turnaround and assistance, is actually pretty awesome
324. 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
325. The overall cavalry moment of building the giant Talos is pretty wholesome and a good rejoinder of all the people you’ve aided thusfar
326. The final resting scene with the Crystal Exarch is brilliant in many ways
327. The brilliant visual storytelling of Mt. Gulg and the still-in-construction ‘new paradise’ he is building
328. The reveal of both G’raha Tia’s plan… and Emet-Selch’s interest in us
329. The entirety of Emet-Selch’s plan for cooperation, why, and wherefore
330. 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
331. Vauthry is a brilliantly constructed ‘villain’… a toddler that can speak, a base animal with precious little understanding of aught or all…
332. …helped by an absolutely fantastic voice actor…
333. …who, by himself, deserves a second positive
334. Surprise surprise, but Ardbert’s scene where he speaks of the past, the Warrior, and the people uniting
335. Let’s make this clear. Ardbert’s voice actor is absolutely phenomenal, doing nuance, layers, and gradients in spades…
336. …easily earning…
337. …a third positive
338. There’s a fantastic amount of Babylon 5 Effect going on with G’raha Tia throughout…
339. …second positive worthy
340. Feo Ul doesn’t have much screen time but they are quite awesome every time they grace the screen
341. Lyna is a weirdly good ‘guest character’, not a lot of screen time but good usage of most scenes, and good density of character
342. Alisae’s voice actress continues to kill it
343. There’s another great ‘connections between people’ scene as we are departing the Crystarium
344. Honestly the whole Bismark sequence was great
345. Lyna is an excellent supporting character, surprisingly multi-faceted
346. General voice acting positive
347. 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…
348. …second positive territory
349. And a positive for his voice actor nailing it
350. The build up to and reveal of Amaurot is not just fantastic…
351. …but is the best bit of ‘characterization’ we ever see for the mastery of power Emet-Selch really has
352. The final send-off of the party right before the final dungeon is poetry, really
353. And call me a sop, but I have to give a separate plus for the feels as we talk to Ryne
354. Emet-Selch’s final rant at the party is honestly incredible…
355. …made even better by virtue of his truly fantastic voice actor, for which…
356. …he earns a full two positives
357. The visual storytelling of the Amaurot city is fantastic
358. The side quests of Amaurot do so much to flesh out the people and culture of the ancients
359. The Ancients in general are fascinating on almost every level
360. The storytelling in general of the Amaurot dungeon is insane, between the voice over, the visuals, the progression of enemy times…
361. …even the very map itself? I’m not sure I’ve seen better storytelling in a dungeon before…
362. …earning a third positive
363. 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
364. 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)
365. The Dying Gasp… Hades.
366. 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…
367. …but somehow all of us, together, push back.
368. Remember us. Remember that we once lived.
369. The ending sequence in general is great. The swim, the people, Ardbert’s axe finally cleansed
370. Character positives for Ardbert
371. …x2
372. …x3
373. Character positives for Emet-Selch
374. …x2
375. …x3
376. The Bethric / Skip chain meanders a bit, but when it gets going it’s pretty heartwarming and has some good moments
377. The simple Lyna scene of her worrying about her ‘grandfather’ is lovely for many reasons
378. 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
379. Consequently, the cutscene revealing thusly is fantastic in its execution
380. Some good consequence storytelling in the restoration of Eulmore arc in 5.1
381. And it’s time to finally give the Chai’s their own positives, starting with Dulia…
382. …for general wholesomeness, complexity of character, and nuance
383. And of course two for Nuzz, for being a confident, competent, nervous, and suffering anxiety…
384. …and both being beautifully voice acted
385. The big speech scene in Eulmore is actually pretty legit, in framing, presentation, and the general moment of it
386. 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
387. 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’
388. 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…
389. …easily earning a second positive
390. The entire ‘crystals and echoes’ quest
391. The Heroes’ Gauntlet is a great storytelling dungeon…
392. …most especially in how it carries us throughout the zones ventured thusfar, aided by those we’ve aided thusfar
393. G’raha Tia’s voice actor is fantastic
394. The animation, cinematography, and camerawork are just noticeably higher quality in 5.3
395. The overall theme of idealism, and what it does to us… good, bad, and in between
396. The overall theme of legacy, and what and how we pass on
397. The pacing and execution of the ‘breather’ episode in early 5.3… before things get bad
398. Alisae continues to be a fantastic character
399. Alphinaud joins his sister in being generally awesome
400. G’raha Tia is just kind of awesome in general… the earnestness, the counterpart to our inspiration…
401. …earning him another positive
402. Elidibus’ pre-battle cutscene is powerful in its tragedy, in the broken doll Elidibus has descended to
403. The Seat of Sacrifice boss fight has some wonderful storytelling throughout the fight
404. Elidibus’ final send-off is exactly as powerful, morose, and tragic as it should be
405. 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
406. The final send-off quests in 5.3 are an excellent finale section in general but a few points particularly shine
407. …the Chais bidding farewell to Alphinaud and ourselves
408. …Seto getting to have his final moment with Ardbert
409. …and finally, the full Crystarium sending us off, with Lyna in tears at the ‘loss’ of her grandfather
410. 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…
411. …easily two positive range
412. “What’s the password?” (dramatic flourishing) PASSWORD!
413. The cure for Ga Bu scene is honestly heartwarming and smile inducing
414. 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
415. 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…
416. …earning a second positive
417. G’raha being adorably adorkable as he gets to be an ‘adventurer’ (read: kiddo) is just precious
418. 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
419. 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
420. The confrontation between Gaius and Valens is actually pretty legit…
421. …and a special bonus for Valens’ death
422. Gaius himself is actually really quite good in the entire arc, weirdly enough, and gets some much needed character development and backstory
423. 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
424. Eden terraforming
425. Thancred and Urianger being dads for Ryne
426. Ryne wanting to connect with Gaia
427. Gaia’s memory issues and the utilization thereof as a narrative tool
428. E12 bridge
429. E12 outro
430. Gaia
431. Ryne and Gaia
432. The story of the heretic returned home and the reception he received from family and former neighbors
433. Ehll Tou is just adorable, and the alien mentality of being fascinated by ‘crafting’ is a neat world building touch
434. The orphanage chain of the Firmament is a very good, very ground-floor story about the orphanage
435. The Restoration itself is just good stuff all around…
436. …with good Internal Continuity…
437. …and generally heartwarming, well constructed characters
438. 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
439. The fishing Mean quest is, similarly, pretty legit
440. The final Mean arc is simple, but a nice personal capstone to a series of nice, personal stories
441. The characterization and moments for Renda-Rae in the ranged physical quest are pretty nice
442. 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
443. The Bozja series giving us some good insight into Cid as well as the events surrounding Dalamud
444. And has some great cutscene construction regardless
445. Mikoto remains amusing and enjoyable
446. Misija has a weirdly large amount of characterization for someone they keep wanting to portray as ‘just evil’
447. 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
448. The healer’s role quest as usual has some good Warriors of Light build up and storytelling…
449. …and deserves a bonus positive for Giott being generally delightful
450. Lilja is, in general, generally awesome
451. The tragedy of the tank role quest in general is good stuff
452. Granson himself is also pretty enjoyable and has a decent arc to himself
453. 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
454. GNB 60-70 has some good character tidbits and background worldbuilding
455. RDM 80 is simple but nice, and a good capstone to Arya’s arc
456. PLD (GLD) 80 ties up the, uh, gladiator chain quite nicely and has some surprisingly good moments
457. WAR 80 was far more entertaining than it had any right to be
458. SCH 80 not only cured the Tonberries, but was adorable on several levels
459. SUM 80 has nothing to do with summoning, really, but has some good moments with Arenvald and Fordola
460. DRK 80 is the usual high quality stuff…
461. …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
462. Generally good level 80 quest continuity in WHM, NIN, MNK, DRG
463. The Void Quest is a good chunk of continuity, and lays some good bricks for future stories
464. The moment between Estinien, Alisae, and G’raha is just adorable
465. The entire arc of freeing Tiamat, and Estinian the dragon rider
466. Paglth’an really has some fantastic storytelling in its design and visuals, as the battle commences, aided by Estinien and Tiamat
467. The post-Paglth’an scene between Fordola, Alphinaud, and Estinien really bespeaks her broken idealism, and the wounded as they rail at one another
468. Fourchenault’s big jackass reveal scene, his disownment of his kids, is quite well acted and presented despite himself
469. Arenvald’s crippling, Alphinaud’s reaction, and the perfect capstone of legacy
470. Dialogue positive…
471. …mk 2…
472. …mk 3…
473. Persistent power progression in lore across the expansions
474. RPR 70-80 has some memorable characters and moments
475. RPR 70-80 worldbuilding, especially for Garlemald and Garleans in general
476. General fidelity quality of opening cinematic
477. Sharlayan (the city) is brilliantly laid out and indicative of the coastal town motiff
478. The Three Frogs of Light
479. 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
480. The initial sequence in Yedlihmad, with aether sickness and Estinien’s… unique mercantile sense
481. While… weird, the whole Great Work moment with Estinien was great
482. The simple yet effective continued development of Allag as horrible during Amon’s flashback
483. Thavnair is visually beautiful and perfectly encapsulates the island trade nation
484. 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
485. The ‘chilling with food and friends’ scene is really just fantastic. It’s light hearted, heartwarming, and a great breather moment…
486. …and very well voice acted, animated, and stylized
487. Montichaigne’s lesson and relevant info
488. The ‘everyone’s gathered’ scene is just kind of grin inducing
489. And frankly, the sheer cavalcade of continuity deserves a positive all in its own
490. The entire lead up to Garlemald’s battle is well constructed and has some good character moments
491. Cold of Garlemald and its usage as a constant threat in the zone
492. Garlemald zone is generally brilliant visually and in background storytelling
493. Garlean indoctrination and the tragedy of the sisters
494. Jullus arc is great in general
495. Jullus himself is astonishingly well constructed as a character, in a very short period of time
496. The interruption scene, which is structured as a build up for a fight… only to be interrupted by the WHM representative
497. Sense-make logic of the ‘hostage’ situation, and Thancred’s shadowing
498. Quintus’s suicide is actually quite well done
499. 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…
500. …and those ways are what really matter
501. 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?”
502. 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
503. Tower of Babil’s general visual storytelling and presentation
504. The initial journey to the moon is excellent in audio, visual, moments, and escalation
505. Hythlodeus and the echoes are a great additive
506. Tension of post-Zodiark… the axe has fallen, but yet to hit anything
507. Loporrit breather section is great in several ways
508. Livingway’s introduction scene is hysterical (and a necessary moment)
509. The ‘forest’ which is, honestly, just… heartwarming
510. Speaking of heartwarming, the Loporrits attempts at keeping us ‘away for our own good’ and how terrible they are at it…
511. …and Urianger’s moment of settling down with the crew, the significance of names
512. Alphinaud’s midnight scene is a perfect encapsulation of his idealism in positivity; the desire for the betterment
513. Alisaie’s midnight scene is a great example of her idealism in negativity; the fear of things going badly, pushing her to prevent
514. 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
515. 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
516. 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
517. 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
518. Vanaspati’s storytelling is exactly as horrifying as it should be. We see despair propagate…
519. …and the escalating nightmare of the backdrop visuals
520. The scene where Matsya unknowingly and unwillingly spreads the despair wave is brilliantly horrible
521. G’raha’s standing up seamlessly into the leadership role in the ‘satrap’s demise is brilliant, and good consequence storytelling
522. Estinien finding himself and demonstrating his growth from Heavensward to Vtra
523. 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…
524. …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…
525. …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
526. The Healer Role Quest in general is a great, well constructed look at the layered tragedy that is prison hierarchy
527. And the final moment with Fordola, the kid, and Arenvald is great
528. For all its dreck, the Tank Role quest does at least give us some good backstory for Kan-E
529. Ranged Role did several bits of good, mostly for the little moments and private stories…
530. …but also for the very triumphant return of Gosetsu (twice!) and Hien
531. Two positives for Mage Role, it’s the usual good Ishgardian well thought out storytelling…
532. …but also a good outro and ‘now what’ about the church and its role in Ishargian society
533. Ktisis Hyperboreia does some generally excellent visual storytelling
534. Ktisis Hyperboreia also has some great story tidbits, not the least of which being fighting alongside those whom we do
535. Cutscene incompetence aside, the big confrontation scene with Hermes is generally awesome…
536. …made further so by the natural teamwork of Venat, Emet-Selch, and Hythlodeus
537. Elpis is in general fascinating, with some great visual storytelling
538. The time travel twist is admittedly a good one
539. Meteion is just adorable…
540. …but even more interesting is her nature and how it affects her interactions
541. Emet-Selch as narrator was an inspired choice
542. Emet-Selch in past is given a great amount of additional characterization and moments…
543. …earning a second positive despite everything for the continued nuance and construction of his character, visually, audibly, and in writing
544. Hythlodeus was always a good character, but he is fleshed out even more in the past…
545. …earning him, his presentation, his purpose in the narrative a second positive
546. Hyth + Hades make for fantastic chemistry and are fantastic every moment they’re on screen together
547. The wonderfully uncanny valley of the ancient’s culture and the fascination therewith…
548. …as they perceive life, death, duty, other races… and their unique form of stagnation
549. Hermes is a very well constructed example of someone who simply doesn’t quite fit with his surroundings, and so clearly struggles with it
550. The brilliant external continuity of the chain of dominos that lead to time travel
551. Theme of accepting past and moving through it
552. Venat. Just… Venat….
553. …who is fantastic for her relatively short period of screen time
554. The first Despair Wave
555. And the Meteion Report
556. The ‘avengers assemble’ moment where Alphinaud calls on the connections we’ve made across the last 5 expansions…
557. …really did some great stuff overall, showing the dominos where they lay
558. 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…
559. …and finally allowing himself to accept and embrace in turn, not just them, but himself, and those lost
560. Erenville has only so much screen time, but is actually pretty awesome in every scene he’s in
561. Montichaigne is a great example of a good reasonable authority figure, who is helpful and enjoyable despite
562. Matsya has already had his moments to shine earlier but frankly deserves…
563. …two positives for how brilliantly they portray a simple fisher and the significance thereof
564. 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
565. Nidhana is just fantastic in general, and delightful as utilized
566. Lucia actually gets some good time to shine this time around
567. Alphinaud is, as usual, awesome
568. Alisae is… as usual… awesome
569. Urianger in general actually manages to be even better than normal, this being one of his better …
570. …earning a second positive
571. Let’s go ahead and get some voice acting points out of the way. Alphinaud…
572. …Alisae…
573. Urianger…
574. Emet-Selch…
575. Hermes…
576. Venat…
577. G’raha…
578. …and three…
579. …general…
580. …positives for NPCs and other characters
581. The very concept of the Despair Wave is a wonderfully horrific idea on every level…
582. …and the game uses it to very good effect across the game
583. The loporrits in general are just a delight
584. Tataru doesn’t get much screen time but she, similarly, shines each time she’s there
585. The terrible burden of Venat
586. Internal Continuity is fantastic in this one…
587. …easily earning a second positive
588. But it doesn’t end there, because it also acknowledges the previous expansions (and stuff you personally have done)…
589. …thus a second positive for external continuity
590. Wonderful visual storytelling in the Aitiascope…
591. …and little callbacks and continuity moments
592. The breaking of Venat cutscene is very well acted, presented, and showcased
593. 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’
594. The simplicity of sitting beside the sleeping G’raha and Alisae, and the friendly interactions with Krile
595. Estinien and Alphinaud’s moment is great (especially when Estinien admits, albeit briefly, that they are family)
596. Estinien being, as ever, the perfect person to cut through the crap and force the issue, to perfect musical cues
597. The G’raha Tia ‘goodbye’ scene is actually really cool, mostly because G’raha is really himself and dorks out beautifully
598. The Omicron quests about trying to understand connections between people are perfectly horrifying
599. Alisae and Alphinaud’s ‘goodbye’ is actually quite well done, especially on the voice acting axis
600. The End Walk
601. Calling back Emet and Hythlodeus, the blooming of the flowers, the recalling of Hermes’ words, and the crack in Meteion’s despair…
602. …is such a smile and tear inducing scene it deserves two positives
603. And one last positive for the final send off of Emet-Selch
604. Endsinger has great music, dialogue, visuals, presentation…
605. …and is made even better by the hyperbeam moment of phase 2
606. The Outro / Ending with the family rejoicing at our survival, and the ship journeying across the NPCs we’ve known and the places we’ve visited
607. The Stigma Dreamscape visuals and storytelling are very nice
608. And the quest chain surrounding the Stigma Dreamscape is further nice
609. The visual and background world building and storytelling of the Dead Ends…
610. …is really quite excellent, and gives us some great visual and audio flavor
611. The Studium Gatherer quests are actually quite sweet and heartwarming…
612. …but it gains a second positive for the world and culture building
613. Smileton is honestly one of the better visually designed dungeons in the game on sheer quality of brickwork and design
614. The Culinarian Studium quest is actually quite amusing in its absurdity
615. 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
616. 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
617. Elpis sidequests mk. 2
618. 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…
619. …earning a second positive
620. The dragon sidequests in Ultima Thule were legit, with good, personal stories and more background for the dragon people themselves
621. Similarly the Ea sidequests in Ultima Thule were fascinating and horrifying in equal measure
622. 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
623. As usual, the Ea regional quests are terrifying in their alien’ness
624. Aggregate: 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
625. The 6.1 Tataru cutscene is wholesome and adorable
626. 6.1; Estinian’s cutscene with the vendor, the kid, and us is great
627. Dammit 6.1! G’raha is just… the best, really
628. 6.1; Y’shtola waking up and being bonked isn’t just adorable and humorous, it’s also well directed and animated
629. 6.1; General consequence storytelling in the re-establishment of trade, orphanage construction, and distribution of hoarded wealth
630. 6.1; The simple yet powerful vows of support and encouragement for Vtra from his people
631. 6.1; the final Role Quest acknowledging the mess and recovery operations of Garlemald

Story Negatives:

1. Inconsistent / absent voice acting in main story stuff
2. Empty text is a bit of a problem in the initial city-state quests
3. Bad voice acting isn’t all over the place, but there are several performances in ARR which actively ruin their respective scenes
4. Music direction is pretty problematic in ARR, with the same songs being played entirely too often
5. …a common problem…
6. …across entirely too much time
7. The entire pre-Titan arc is honestly just… awful. It’s too long, it’s almost entirely filler, and its plot and pacing and story are just… bad
8. There’s a general presentation problem persistent in ARR, which deflates scenes that otherwise should have impact, and detracts from story beats throughout
9. The entire pre-Garuda arc is just straight up padding filler…
10. …and, worse, we’re actively in a hurry and the quests literally waste our time (in lore!) while rubbing our faces in that fact
11. Minfilia is a flat, bland, empty piece of cardboard…
12. …which is made even worse by just how much camera presence she has, despite her bad VA, bad character, and absence of relevance
13. This isn’t quite a negative for Minfilia so much as for her constant presence, which makes her worse
14. The ARR MSQ has a serious repetition problem of having a serious repetition problem
15. 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
16. Pacing has serious issues throughout the MSQ
17. The final escape sequence from the World of Darkness is silly on every level. Bad storyboarding and cutscene incompetence galore
18. A whole lot of boring nothing drivel in the La Noscea side quests
19. The Gridanian side quests are the worst of the lot by far…
20. …with so little meat to them and so much bleh nonsense
21. 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
22. Excessive amounts of cutscene incompetence…
23. …across all of the Beast Tribe quests, to the point where we quite literally might as well not have even been there
24. Ninja 30-50 honestly takes far too long and is a bit cliche’d, plus Karasu is just irritating
25. 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
26. 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
27. Aggregate: WHM 30-50 is, at best, boring // BRD 30-50 is… you guessed it… boring
28. 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
29. Ilberd is just the worst. Screw him
30. The absolutely ridiculous nonsense of us picking up and keeping the vial for evidence deserves
31. There is a truly aggressive amount of cutscene incompetence going on with the main character in the Banquet scene
32. 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!
33. 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
34. 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
35. There is an irritating amount of cutscene incompetence in the death of Hauchefant, which actively detracts from the entire sequence
36. Charibert and the Knights of the Round are just… cheats, honestly
37. Also there’s just general cutscene incompetence all around
38. 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
39. The undoing of Y’shtola’s ‘death’ for no real purpose or consequence
40. Some pretty bad cutscene incompetence in the Alexander raids
41. Honestly Mide’s ‘love story’ is honestly kind of… bad, and sort of ruins the overall arc
42. Popping in and out and in and out of Alexander for no good reason (often times minutes apart from each other) is just stupid
43. 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
44. The PLD arc is boring, actively nonsensical, and ignores its own continuity in favor of dull plot points that go no where and mean nothing…
45. …earning a second negative
46. WAR 50-60 is bad, boring, after-school-special…
47. …and, worse, is the same damn arc from the ARR one
48. General Empty Text issues
49. AST 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
50. MCH 50-60’s hatesink Dzamael character was… not well done. Too overt, too sudden a turnaround at the last minute
51. MIN 50-60 sucks. It’s dull as dishwater, predictable to its detriment, and doesn’t do anything with its cliches
52. The Western Coerthas quest chains honestly kinda suck
53. The majority of the Dravanian Hinterlands quests are boring to the point of detrimental, following hunters doing hunting things and also pluckiness woo
54. The moogle quests. Just… what a waste of everything
55. 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
56. Aggregate: Emmanellain. ‘Nuff said. // 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 // The way the Warriors of Darkness get portrayed early on is unnecessarily (and narratively cheating) evil muwa ha ha
57. Narrative cheating of the Griffin… again, sigh
58. Cutscene incompetence with the Griffin… again, sigh
59. The utter pointlessness of the reveal of Yda = Lyse and the total lack of follow through thereupon
60. The usual repetition problem
61. Zenos’ initial fight against us has him shrek us effortlessly which… I’m sorry, what?
62. So by the time we hit the Ruby Sea we start to run into ‘because plot’ reasons for cutscenes
63. The story sequencing of the early 4.0 arc is very, very disjointed
64. The pacing of the entire Ruby Sea arc really suffers
65. 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
66. External continuity with Ilberd being ‘right’ despite everything…
67. …and for the disjointed positioning of Stormblood relative to other expansions
68. 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
69. 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
70. Gosetsu and Yotsuyu’s death scene is honestly really, really bad on every level. Pacing, storyboarding, incompetence…
71. …a second negative for all of the above for three solid minutes
72. Lyse is not a bad character, but the narrative has no idea how to utilize her properly, and it actively hurts the overall story
73. The ‘ending’ to 4.0 is… weird. It’s misplaced, ignores consequence storytelling (we’re super free) and honestly just… tries too hard
74. I like him, and I like where it goes, but Gosetsu and Yotsuyu surviving is total bullcrap on every level
75. Ramza is an addlepated twit and literally called out in-universe for it
76. The entire wine self-insert chain is pointless drivel with very little to redeem it (Hancock was cool)
77. 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
78. PLD 60-70 continues the heady trend of PLD quests… sucking
79. SAM 60-70 was just straight up melodrama nonsense on top of cutscene incompetence
80. LTW 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)
81. ARM 60-70 is dull as dishwater
82. CRP 60-70 has problems with both of its ‘tones’ (silly vs. serious) and mishandles both
83. BSM 60-70 repeats the problems of ‘ha ha abusive dad is so silly’ and slants the whole story awfully
84. Cutscene incompetence with Lakshmi
85. 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
86. Aggregate: Grynewaht really has no place in the Gosetsu v. Yotsuyu scene // Grynewaht continues to ruin scenes as he just sort of ‘theres’ in the Yotsuyu v. Zenos scene
87. Aggregate: 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 // WVR 60-70 is… weird, tonally inconsistent, and leans a little too hard in its slanting towards tradition
88. In hindsight, Tsuyu’s tragedy is really quite unnecessary, over-the-top, and done for its own sake
89. Hien finally becomes the negative character I misfondly remember in the patch content
90. Zenos’ arc conclusion (fourth thing)… which is utterly ruined by him being brought back from the dead…
91. …and rather than doing anything good with it, they just repeat his stupid ‘hunt’ arc
92. This is further compounded by the fake-out death itself
93. And finally, the flandardization of what was, otherwise, a decent character
94. Music utilization problem continues
95. As much as I like what came of it, Gaius’ survival is, honestly, yet another fake-out undo death thing
96. 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
97. General repetition issues as per usual
98. The time dilation problem remains, as it always did
99. Time dilation reaction problem; Alisae edition
100. Time dilation reaction problem; Alphinaud edition
101. Time dilation reaction problem; Thancred edition
102. Time dilation reaction problem; Uriangier edition
103. 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
104. 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
105. 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
106. Cutscene incompetence returns!
107. Toupasa, Ran’jit, and the usual mary sue / incompetence issues
108. As usual, fake-out deaths (Y’shtola) are a negative
109. The Trolley sequence has some decent moments, but has some serious pacing and padding issues
110. Ran’jit’s survival is… absolutely awful. Never explained, terrible even if it was explained, and the usual awfulness
111. 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
112. …as usual, fake-out deaths (Thancred)
113. And finally, Ran’jit (sigh) fights us (sigh) again (sigh)
114. 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
115. The irritation and aggravation of Konogg and Anogg is way over the top
116. There is entirely too much padding and empty text in the initial Nier quest chain
117. Konogg’s 180 in character is the usual exaggerated nonsense
118. An utterly unsatisfying, ridiculous conclusion to the Nier Raids
119. 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
120. 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
121. Cutscene incompetence
122. 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
123. 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
124. A bonus negative for fake drama
125. A bonus for cutscene incompetence
126. And then there’s Creepface (bad hatesink? Get off my screen? Objectively badly written one dimensional character?)
127. There is such a cascade of idiocy in this entire chain it literally is idiot volleyball
128. This is in addition to the flubber-levels of bouncing around the tone of the entire chain has
129. The entire Emerald sequence of cutscenes… suck. Just… on every single level, across the board…
130. …earning a second negative
131. Creepface’s second cutscene is… entirely too creepy, uncomfortable, and arguably over-written
132. 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…
133. …up to and including Valens taking a Diamond Weapon beam to the face and surviving
134. 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
135. 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
136. 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
137. Cutscene incompetence in the tank role quest
138. 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 but isn’t, and retroactively adds something that’s always never been an issue
139. Gunbreaker quest chain cutscene incompetence ruins an otherwise good scene
140. Some generally dull, boring quests in BRD, BLM, MCH at 80
141. The repetition of the story is repetitively repetitive
142. The SGE 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
143. Breather episode of Sharlayan and subsequent pacing issues
144. Breather episode of the Burrows and subsequent pacing issues
145. Cutscene incompetence
146. …more cutscene incompetence
147. Weirdly unnecessary and lengthy repetition of all we already know with the Forum when many things could have accomplished it with far less waste
148. The tank role quest is… bad. It’s dumb, meanders, and manages to be completely disinteresting…
149. …which by itself is worthy of two negatives, but then it pushes into actual aggravation as it turns out to all be about…
150. …the elementals, and how (frankly) awful they are and how we owe them everything and all that blegh
151. The early Ranged Role quest honestly sucked, and was actively angrifying
152. 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)
153. The main theme of the game is… weak, as it is excessively repeated to the point of aggravation
154. And further hampered by several thematic weaknesses which pull the plot down
155. 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
156. The final Zenos fight is mis-placed and unnecessary
157. 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
158. The inconsistent time travel problems, especially given how it’s using the same method
159. The Studium Weaver chain is boring as sin…
160. …and compounded by actively being insulting towards just about everyone
161. The Studium Smithing/restoration chain is dull and is terribly paced
162. The Labryinthos side quests are honestly drivel…
163. …no world building, no fleshing out, no nothing
164. Similar problem with Thavnair

Gameplay Positives:

1. The ARR Miracle x1
2. The ARR Miracle x2
3. The ARR Miracle x3
4. Character creation has a decent number of options and generally well designed structure to it
5. The HUD customization allows for you to move just about any element to wherever, and scale them smaller or larger, which is awesome…
6. …earning a second HUD customization positive
7. MSQ and Class Quest indicators (always shows you what your next main quest or class quest is)
8. Macros and malleability thereof
9. Gameplay/Story Integration
10. Lots and lots of gameplay options in the menus
11. Autoloot on enemies
12. The auction house is a bit clunky and awkward but there are a lot of options for how to search for what
13. The player icons (idle, do not disturb, new player, returning player, in cutscene)
14. Guildhests serve as a good (if not great) way to tutorialize people who are new to MMOs the concepts therein
15. The city’s aethernet is a pretty well designed and helps to get around, with a surprisingly well done menu system
16. Generally good fast travel system (find, warp to from anywhere) …
17. …earning a second positive
18. Housing in general is a nice system. Limited, but there are some good cosmetics and some actual functionality to them
19. The gear set list and the ability to just hit a button and instantly swap classes and equipment on the fly is extraordinarily useful
20. Smith tutorial quests and how they get players into baseline mechanics
21. Chocobo bank storage (accessible on the fly) is a great QoL feature
22. The chocobo companion system, giving another (customizable) tool to help soloing players
23. Minions form a good type of personalization and customization…
24. …as do mounts
25. 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
26. The Duty Finder is a great way to just zip to any dungeon / raid, queue for specifics, and go in certain ways
27. 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…
28. …earning a second…
29. …and a third positive
30. 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
31. 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
32. Tam-Tara Hard is a reasonably well designed dungeon; nice minibosses, good trash layout, and reasonable boss design
33. The new Praetorium is a substantially better dungeon than it used to be, with much truncated pulls and much better bosses
34. Further, the Livia and Gaius fights are much improved
35. 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)
36. The ability to enjoy content at-level as an option is an awesome thing supported by in game systems and mechanics
37. Ifrit Hard is a pretty good fight. Consistent mechanic usage, fun gimmicks, and built in recovery periods
38. The Golden Saucer in general is surprisingly good fun, with lots of minigames and a good variety of rewards to them
39. Triple Triad itself is fairly well fleshed out, to the point of being its own decent minigame
40. 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
41. Lost City of Ampador is surprisingly good, since it actually uses some fun trash gimmicks and has unique (if simple) boss designs
42. 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.)
43. The Nael fight, as frustrating as it is, actually has some really cool, well-woven mechanics
44. The Bahamut fight is pretty legit, with good spacing and pacing of mechanics and variance, just… I can’t summarize it, it’s legit
45. It’s so legit it actually gets a second positive
46. Sastasha Hard has a couple issues (the first boss is just way too damage heavy) but the rest of it is a well designed, amusing, fun revamp of the dungeon
47. Music is… honestly not that great, but there are some legitimately fun songs
48. The Labryinth raid is actually quite well designed, with some fun fights and good trash layout
49. Similarly the World of Darkness is pretty legit across the board, even the fights people have issues with are still good ones
50. Wanderer’s Keep (hard) has some surprisingly well thought out trash design and some fun boss mechanics
51. Ampador Keep (hard) is honestly pretty fun, with good trash layout and some unique boss designs
52. The second Gilgamesh fight in Ampador is legit, with great layered mechanics and a lot of fun gimmicks to it
53. The Phoenix fight in Coils is a really fun, well constructed dps race fight
54. Crafting itself is a very well thought out, balanced, well designed, in-depth, fun system to craft things…
55. …earning it a second positive
56. 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…
57. …earning a second…
58. …and third positive
59. 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
60. 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…
61. …plus its smooth weaving in between its three core combos, with plenty of utility on top of it, is great fun
62. Warrior 1-50 is actually enjoyable to play, gets most of its core functionality, and has good utility
63. Scholar 1-50 is substantially superior to WHM, with more utility, more mobility, and more variety in its design
64. 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…
65. …earning a second positive
66. 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
67. 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
68. The Leviathan fight continues the trend of good Trial fights by having a reasonable number of mechanics that layer into each other nicely
69. Try to be surprised, but the Ramuh fight is similarly pretty fun and well designed
70. Shiva, naturally, is a good fight. Multiple phases with consistent layered mechanics
71. Keeper of the Lake is the best designed dungeon in ARR, with good trash design and good ‘barriers to progress’ while having some fun bosses…
72. …earning a second positive overall
73. 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
74. Aggregate: Melusine has some visibility and consistency issues (typical of early fights) but it’s some pretty cool ideas and function // Hullbreaker Isle has some issues, but it has some neat fights (especially the Kraken)
75. 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.)
76. The revamped Ultima fight is an actual friggin’ fight, and it’s got actual mechanics and presentation and markers…
77. …and has a phase 2 which is also an actual friggin’ fight
78. The Palace of the Dead is a reasonably good ‘trial’ system, letting players try out classes and mechanics, while also providing an alternate leveling system for progression
79. As with many other Trials before it, Ravana is pretty legit
80. Tioman is a pretty cool fight overall, with meteors, spread markers, etc.
81. The music is substantially better constructed and, frankly, better quality than ARR’s
82. The Vault is, blessedly, a well designed dungeon, with good escalation of trash and some fun boss encounters
83. A special bonus for the Ser Charibert boss fight
84. The Great Gubal Library in general is quite fun and well designed, with well placed and escalating trash…
85. …plus some very inventive and fun bosses
86. And a plus for the final boss of Gubal
87. The Ascian Primal fight at the end of the Aetherochemical Research Facility is legit
88. Alexander 5 is a pretty fun, complex fight with some neat gimmicks
89. Alexander 7 is actually pretty legit, good complexity and good variety
90. Alexander 8 is awesome. Lots of moves, tons of fun gimmicks, but best of all…
91. …no binary difficulty. Failure can be recovered from even despite the frenetic pace thereof
92. Despite requiring a dungeon journal to know what’s going on, Alexander 9 is a pretty cool fight
93. Alexander 10 is a good, properly tutorialized-within-the-fight boss, with good escalation of mechanics
94. With one notable exception, the music in Alexander rawks
95. Alexander 12 is legit, easily one of the best fights in the expansion…
96. …with lots of great, thematically appropriate, great mechanics and the awesome portals phase
97. Sophia is a legit fight, with some fun layering and escalation throughout
98. Zurvan, similarly, is a great fight, with only one niggling flaw in the whole bit
99. Arachne Eve is, as usual, a fun and good fight with good manual teamwork and nice ‘use detriments to benefits’ gameplay
100. Forgall is, surprisingly, another good example of a ‘use detriments to benefits’ concept with megadeath and the origination of the doritos
101. Ozma is a very fun fight, lots of moving pieces and nice big telegraphs (if you know what they’re doing)
102. WAR 50-60 is still a good tank (probably the best tank in the range), adding better spenders and self heals
103. WHM 50-60 officially ‘gets good’, with the core lily mechanic coming into its own, and even more ogcds to keep healing interesting
104. MNK 50-60 continues its excellence, adding Blitzes to the otherwise good combo loops
105. BRD 50-60 actually becomes rather fun, with the added dot refresher, new song and subsequent proc, and a few other tidbits
106. SUM 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
107. Fractal Continuum is a good dungeon with good visuals, good music, good trash design…
108. …and engaging and fun bosses
109. Saint Mocianne’s Arboretum is actually quite fun, with legitimately fun visuals and audio and some enjoyable bosses
110. Pharos Sirius (Hard) is actually pretty legit in its own right, with some fun mechanics and the music remains awesome
111. NIN 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
112. DRG 50-60 continues the trend of enjoyability, with a few extra extensions of combos and an additional ogcd
113. Amdapora Hard has some fun and unique visuals and presentation, but really comes into its own…
114. …in its boss design, with some fantastic and clever mechanics throughout
115. Hullbreaker Hard is reasonable enough. It’s essentially a series of trash fights, but there’s thought and care put into them
116. Gubal Library Hard has some fun stuff, but ultimately it’s the excellent boss design that really makes it work…
117. …earning a second positive
118. Sohm Al (Hard) continues the trend of decent HW dungeons
119. The Antitower has good visuals, good music, good trash…
120. …and good boss design throughout
121. Continuing the trend, Sohr Khai is a good dungeon with some fun boss mechanics
122. The final Nidhogg raid is probably one of the better fights in the expansion…
123. …with the usual fantastic interweaving of mechanics, and a wonderful escalation of all three phases
124. Baelsar’s Wall has fun (if simple) bosses, and good layered trash
125. Music is, as usual, pretty legit
126. A second music positive for general quality
127. Sirensong Sea begins Stormblood’s dungeon catalog on a good note, with good barrier trash and simple but fun boss fights
128. A weird but substantial positive for several QoL improvements added during Stormblood
129. Susano is, let’s be honest, a pretty enjoyable fight, and starts to really push the ideas of universal markers and positioning
130. Bardam’s Mettle is a good dungeon in general, with interesting trash and some very fun boss fights
131. The second boss of Bardam’s Mettle, Bardam himself, is good enough…
132. …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
133. The Doma dungeon is fun, interesting, engaging…
134. …but also has really fun, well tutorialized, properly complex boss design
135. Lakshmi is another good boss fight, introducing mechanics with longer timers and showcases so you can be tutorialized before escalating properly
136. Ala Mhigo is one of the best dungeons in the expansion, with great and proper trash design, bosses, and function…
137. …earning a second positive
138. Stormblood, finally, starts utilizing universal markers
139. The Shinryu fight is, surprise surprise, good… mean, but good
140. Alte Roite does the usual tutorialization, escalation, and is fun regardless
141. Catastrophe
142. Halicarnassus…
143. …part two
144. ExDeath is one of my favorite mage bosses ever…
145. …easily earning a second positive
146. Phantom Train is, similarly, a very fun fight
147. Kefka is a legitimately enjoyable fight, simple in concept but ultimately fun in execution
148. Kugane Castle is alright; simple, but fun, especially the Yojimbo fight at the end
149. Consequently, the second Jim fight is actually quite fun, with only a few issues here and there
150. Chaos 1
151. Chaos 2
152. Midgarsormr
153. Omega music… the whole kit, really
154. Much as I have issues with it, Omega 11 has a lot of nicely layered attacks and moves and is… well, Omega
155. And then there’s the beauty that is Omega 12
156. RDM at 70 is easily one of the better classes overall…
157. …with good viscerality, good kit, and a nice complex rotation…
158. …or two, which weaves nicely in and out of itself
159. NIN gets even better at 70, with two nice spenders and Ten Chi Jin
160. Byakko is a somewhat simple fight, but its big on spectacle and that it does well
161. 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
162. Suzaku has some really fun stuff in its design, especially the colored template thing
163. Seiryu has good layers and complexity, marred a little by some RNG and some camera issues, but still fun
164. AST at 70 has a huge variety of utility and nicely overlapping heals
165. 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
166. SCH 60-70 is only a little different than before, but different enough to add some variety and additional ‘battery’ utility to it
167. Fractal Continuum (Hard) has some fun trash but ultimately leans on its music, visuals, and bosses
168. Saint Mocianne’s Arboretum (Hard) is actually really fun, with multiple good trash tiering and fun and innovative bosses…
169. …leading to a second positive
170. Mateus is simple but fun
171. General quality to the Rabanastre raid (trash design, some fun bosses)
172. The Argath fight is legit, clever, and does some fun stuff with its lie/truth mechanics
173. Belias and its time fun mechanics are really cool, mostly about paying attention and knowing in advance where to be
174. Famfrit is a hectic fun fest of waaagh
175. Construct 7 is, memes and jokes aside, really awesome. It’s a lot of fun gimmicks and mechanics on top of…
176. …the math segment, which actually buffs you for doing it right
177. Yiazmet is a good ‘chaotic’ fight, lots going on and lots to keep track of but essentially all dodgeable
178. Mustadio is a very fun pay-attention-check fight, with lots of tracking
179. Agrias, too, is a great fight that uses the Duty ability to good effect
180. The Orlandeau fight is a bit much, but it’s quite well constructed, with a whole lot going on and nice layering thereto
181. And big surprise, Ultima is fantastic. Multi layered, lots of different types of mechanics, and…
182. …it’s effectively two fights in one, with a proper mid-mission checkpoint even
183. General additional positive for trash design and visual fidelity…
184. …of the two later Ivalice raids
185. DRK 70’s quest is fun, interesting, appropriate, and thematic
186. WAR continues its trend of excellence with several new useful moves to the kit and a great cooldown
187. SAM has a little bit of a button bloat issue, but otherwise is fun, engaging, rewarding…
188. …has great viscerality, and is a great build/spend class
189. Blue Mage’s may be limited, but the Carnivale is a nice lengthy amount of puzzle mini-game content for them to enjoy
190. And a plus for Blue Mages variety of spells and the uniqueness and fun thereof
191. The Drowned City of Skalla is another example of a series of fun boss fights
192. Tsukuyomi is a fantastic fight, with great mechanics and a great bridge and great layering and great everything…
193. …easily worth a second positive
194. As before, the Roleplay system is used and used well and is a good variant on Princess Peach segments
195. The Burn (minus the last boss) has some very fun mechanics and good construction
196. The Ghimlyt Dark continues the trend of excellent dungeons, some very fun boss fights…
197. …and actual well done terrain and trash design with environmental hazards
198. Aggregate: Chadarnook is simple but fun // Ditto for Guardian // Genbu is a pretty neat, fun fight // Great Hunt (monster hunter fight) is pretty fun overall, and unique besides
199. Ocean Fishing is a nice, rewarding, lucrative little side mini game that is reasonably well constructed and reasonably enjoyable
200. Trusts are a good method to ensure you can do the dungeons through the MSQ and…
201. …the scenario mode allows people to continue to use it as an additional leveling tool
202. Music! Music music music
203. Holminster Switch has some good trash design (and some bad) and starts leaning into the tutorialized boss construct
204. Dohn Mheg continues the trend of good dungeon design…
205. …and gets a bonus for the final boss being especially good
206. 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…
207. …earning a second positive
208. Have I mentioned the music? Even early on the music is legit in Shadow
209. Music point number two
210. 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…
211. …in addition to the generally good, if simple, boss designs
212. Malikah’s Well has a few issues, but it shines in its fun and layered boss designs
213. Mt. Gulg has a few issues in boss design, but is overall quite fun
214. 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
215. Amaurot dungeon is a very well executed dungeon, with tutorialization in trash design, fun and engaging bosses…
216. …and great music and visuals throughout
217. The Dying Gasp is probably in the running for the best raid in the game on several levels…
218. …not the least of which being how well constructed it is, how well it layers on itself…
219. …and how it progresses
220. Copied Factory has some issues with padding and telegraphs but is still fun at times and has some legit music
221. Puppet’s Bunker honestly has some of the best trash in the entire game, earning its own unique positive
222. A general Puppet’s Bunker positive
223. And a bonus one for really clever bosses (especially the first and the last ones)
224. General positive for quality of visuals, music, and encounters in Tower at Paradigm’s Breach
225. Red Girl is a very creative, very fun ‘players in control’ fight with a lot going on but all of it manageable…
226. …easily a two positive fight
227. 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…
228. …easily earning…
229. …three positives for being just that good of a boss fight
230. SCH at 80 has some great utility and a good spread of abilities…
231. …further, SCH at 80 also has a good general mentality and variance to its healing from all other healers
232. The Grand Cosmos languished a bit in several respects, but makes up for it with some creative and fun boss mechanics
233. Aggregate: 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
234. New Game + and the way it allows you to redo old content
235. The Roleplay fight as Estinien is pretty legit
236. BLM 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
237. A rare quest positive for the Elidibus ‘gauntlet’
238. 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
239. BRD 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…
240. …making it a pretty easy two positive class
241. AST at 80 continues to have lots it can do, and well
242. The Seat of Sacrifice is a fantastic fight, while not one of the best ever it’s definitely high tier…
243. …especially given how it actually has a mid mission checkpoint! Oh and lots of very cool, well constructed mechanics
244. DRK at 80 finally has a good overall rotation and presentation, with a decent amount of interweaving mechanics, making it a good… dps class
245. Matoya’s Relict is weirdly generic for how unique many of its boss mechanics are, and is buoyed up by said mechanics almost entirely
246. Music positive number three
247. The Ruby Weapon fight has a few decent mechanics to it
248. The Sapphire Weapon fight is a fun quest, with well designed mechanics and a fun fight with a neat song
249. Emerald Weapon is a good, well designed, well layered, well tutorialized fight with breather periods, good music, good visuals…
250. …earning a second positive
251. MCH is still good, but barely different, at 80
252. SAM really, truly comes into its own at 80, with the ‘follow ups’ to combos and more options and buttons to keep things interesting…
253. …easily earning a second positive
254. 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…
255. …earning a second positive
256. WHM 80 finally has a true loadout of both lily-using abilities and regulars, as well as really uping the viscerality of the class with Glare and Dia
257. E1 is, shocker, a good fight. Relatively simple yet enjoyably frantic, with lots of leeway time on top of the hits
258. 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…
259. …easily earning a second positive, especially for sound design
260. PLD 80 finally, finally became a full and complete tank class at 80, with good rotations and timing and utility
261. RDM continues to be a good class, with good utility, and good fun, only hampered by being barely changed at 80
262. E3 layers its mechanics very nicely, especially towards the latter half, though it fumbles a bit in several ways
263. Yet another music positive (this time for Eden stuff)
264. DRG 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…
265. …earning it a second positive
266. E4 has several issues with it, but where it shines (its frenetic pace and the layering of mechanics) it shines
267. E5 has a few problems but is, as per usual, a good fight
268. E6 does the usual good thing with layering and positioning, with only a few small issues
269. E7 is exceptionally well tutorialized within the fight, with introduction of mechanics in a vacuum and safety before escalating and layering…
270. …on top of being a very well constructed, unique fight to begin with
271. DNC 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…
272. …easily earning…
273. …three positives
274. NIN 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
275. E8 is one of the better Eden fights in general, having multiple phases and the great bridge phase, as well as great music…
276. …earning it a second positive
277. E9 is pretty simple, but keeps things nicely varied, especially with the platforms mechanic
278. GNB 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…
279. …easily…
280. …a three positive class
281. E11, once you figure it out, has some good music and some good presentation to a reasonably well done, if simple, fight
282. E12 first half…
283. …and second half
284. Akademia Anyder isn’t anything special, really, but it has some fun mechanics in its boss designs
285. WAR continues its trend of being good
286. Twinning has great visuals, great music, and fun bosses…
287. …earning a second positive
288. 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
289. Similarly the Diadems are a good, if brutally direct, way to level your mining and botany
290. The Varis fight is actually pretty legit
291. Bozja is lucrative for both cosmetics and leveling…
292. …and is a great way to ‘try out’ a class at 80 (provided you are already 71)
293. Brionac is an interesting and fun fight, made even more so…
294. …due to the other side of it, the lower Drill fight
295. Adrammelch is pretty legit too
296. 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
297. And finally, the last fight of beast plus Lyon is a neat little challenge
298. Delebrum generic quality boss positive
299. The Bozjan Phantom fight is actually really fun, despite its simplicity
300. The Trinity Avowed is, similarly, pretty awesome
301. Paglth’an has good trash fights, good viscerality, good boss fights…
302. …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
303. 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)
304. SGE tutorial quest actually properly tutorializes with an interesting and engaging mini dungeon
305. The RPR tutorial quest, once again, tutorializes both the class… and positionals!
306. The ‘party’ system and optional interactions system is a great way to add optional dialogue and flavor text
307. 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
308. Mindi boss has some great pay attention checks and layered mechanics
309. Sindi has some really cool fake out mechanics and nice layering as well (a berserk right before a big hitting telegraph)
310. And the final Magus Sister fight is fantastic, lots going on and great presentation and general fun
311. The ‘everyone’s gathered’ scene actually changing and acknowledging what you’ve done to-date
312. Metal Gear Thancred is rather basic at its core, but well executed and with gradient failstate
313. The recurrent usage of the NPCs and party members adding extra dialogue at most quests in the MSQ is a good storytelling tool
314. 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
315. Greater attempt and work to create actual variety to quests
316. Music
317. Music x2
318. The de-powered soldier stealth section is both brave and new, but more to the point is good when it’s good…
319. Tower of Babil gets a generic quality positive…
320. …on top of some fun and engaging bosses…
321. …and the final boss, Anima, getting his own
322. Zodiark is, surprise surprise, a rather fun boss, with fun ‘pay attention to changing scenario’ mechanics and excellent layering…
323. …leading to a second positive
324. Vanaspati isn’t super amazing, but still has some fun boss mechanics
325. The Melee DPS Role Quest boss fight was actually pretty fun
326. The Venat fight is surprisingly well constructed and mean
327. Ktisis Hyperboreia is a generally well done dungeon across the board, visually and audibly
328. Ktisis Hyperboreia’s bosses are great, some fantastic stuff, including the Hrothgar prototype…
329. …the snake… thing…
330. …and finally Hermes himself, all with some lovely and well done mechanics and gradient construction and tutorialization
331. The victory lap fight at Garlemald as Alphinaud, Alisae, and ourselves is pretty fun
332. The Livia boss in Aitiascope is a good’n
333. The rest of Aitiascope is quite enjoyable, with a fun (if simple) second boss and a fun (if too long) third boss
334. The Hydaelyn fight itself is a generally well constructed fight…
335. …but further credit must be given not just for the Trust system itself, but for the ‘lives’ system they implement via stacks of ReRaise
336. The ‘forced’ End Walk works exceptionally well
337. Caustic Grebuloff (first boss of The Dead Ends) does some fantastic ‘blown exaflare’ mechanics on top of good sound design and general quality
338. Peacekeeper (second boss of The Dead Ends) is an absolutely awesome fight, with tons of great mechanics that beautifully keep things frenetic
339. 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
340. Endsinger is honestly a fantastic fight, with great visual indicators (outside of telegraphs), wonderful mechanics, and awesome viscerality and music and everything…
341. …easily earning a full…
342. …three positives
343. Stigma Dreamscape has some very cool and fun stuff…
344. …earning two generic positives for general design…
345. …but a singular positive for the final boss of Stigma-4
346. Smileton has relatively simple boss fights, but all three are well executed and smooth…
347. …earning a second positive
348. Crystalline Conflict is frenetic, fast, fun, well interfaced…
349. …and so easily earns two positives for its overall mode
350. Alzadaal’s Legacy is in general good quality in music and design
351. Armored Chariot gets a bonus positive for the fun and gimmicky mirrors mechanic
352. The Looming Warden boss is similarly very cool and has a unique ‘driving’ mechanic on top of general fun factor
353. 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…
354. …a momentous feat which easily deserves…
355. …three positives just on the face of it
356. The final solo instance of the Tower of Babil as we deal with Nerva and crew

Gameplay Negatives:

1. The launch of ARR, while understandable, was honestly unacceptably bad
2. …good luck finding the option you want in the extensive, badly organized, sometimes badly labeled options menu
3. There is an obtuseness to the auction house menu which really has to be experienced to understand
4. Forced single player questing (especially MSQ)…
5. …which is easily the worst aspect of the entire game
6. Camera zoom out issue (especially on larger enemies and encounters)
7. ARR specifically has long, empty stretches of no music at night time out in the zones
8. …this is such a long term, irritating issue it gets a second negative
9. The costs for fast travel are, frankly, unnecessary and needlessly punishing on lower level players
10. 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
11. 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”)
12. The in game store is probably the most benign I’ve ever seen… but it’s still there, and it’s still microtransactions
13. 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. …easily making this a second negative worthy
15. The ARR Relic is so bad I literally cannot summarize it…
16. …so instead I will just give it a second negative and move on
17. …no, three negatives. Screw those quests
18. 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.)
19. 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
20. The padding of the interaction bar
21. 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
22. 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
23. In general, the actual gameplay of the MSQuests in ARR are bland at best and actively time wasting at worse
24. The Unending Journey is… really terribly laid out and actively aggravating to find the cutscenes you want
25. Unskippable cutscenes… in the MSQQ
26. Aurum Vale is visually disinteresting, has actively bad trash encounter design, and has boring (at best) bosses
27. 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
28. 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
29. The entire pre-Garuda quest arc has long, sloggy areas that are irritating to maneuver through with high level, difficult mobs to deal with
30. The Sunken Temple of Qarn has multiple actually unexplained mechanics (bees, bosses) and does nothing to mitigate these issues
31. Dzamael Darkhold… sucks. It has poorly explained mechanics, irritating trash and boss design, and actively trolling design (roaming eye, standing in crystal near aoe, etc.)
32. 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
33. 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…
34. 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
35. The Fifth Turn of First Coil of Bahamut can go to hell, between binary difficulty and bad callouts
36. The First Turn of Second Coil has a bit of mechanic bloat with some inconsistent indicators which just makes it all a big mess
37. As much as I enjoy it, the Nael fight has some very serious binary difficulty issues, and absolutely no margin for error
38. As with WoW, the Coils is a form of locking mandatory, main story behind what is effectively ‘hard mode’
39. Ampador Keep has several issues with it. Visually, lighting, boring bosses, knock-down-out-of-fight problem
40. The (mandatory) unlock quests to access CT can go to hell. Entirely too much backtracking and no real gameplay
41. 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
42. The La Noscea side quests are, at absolute best, boring wastes of time
43. The Thanalan side quests are no better
44. The fact that the quest tracker can only track 5 quests at a time sucks on several levels
45. The Gridanian quests just… suck, even more than the other zones…
46. …to the point of being a second negative
47. 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
48. 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
49. So while the inventory itself isn’t really that bad… the related itemization bloat problem is a serious problem
50. 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
51. The Ixal quests in particular deserve special mention for being just… bad daily quests…
52. …being irritating, long, boring, and cumbersome to do
53. There’s weird, awful, and awkward limitations with the 1-30 classes and doing NG+ with them and related issues
54. 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
55. 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)
56. Casting pushback just… sucks. It can go on too long but, most importantly, too much damage while casting can literally just interrupt your cast
57. The Archer 1-30… really sucks. Bad quest locations with irritating quest objectives making the whole thing awful to play through
58. WHM 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
59. MNK 30-50 has the same quest design problem WHM did (arguably worse)
60. BRD 30-50 has the same issues but even worse, doing the ‘put quest objects behind high level, dangerous areas because screw you’ problem
61. White Mage 1-50 starts bad and crawls its way up to mediocre
62. 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
63. Paladin 1-50 is serviceable, but suffers from two major flaws; It lacks viscerality and it is boooring
64. Black Mage 1-50 is just plain awful. It commits every sin of game design; it’s boring, it looks bad, it feels bad (immobile turret gameplay), and it lacks cool factor…
65. …equaling two negatives total
66. WAR 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…
67. …earning a second negative
68. Ninja 30-50 has some of the usual issues and some real padding problems
69. Snowcloak is not great dungeon. Simple mechanics with poor trash and irritating terrain problems with a bad, irritating, repetitive song
70. 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
71. The decision to lock substantial meat quests behind no marker or signifier whatsoever is honestly really bad design
72. One…
73. …two…
74. …and three negatives for general quest padding design
75. Aggregate: Aggregate negative for Pharos // Haukke Manor (hard) has a few issues, but it’s not super bad // Haltali Hard isn’t bad it’s just… kinda boring
76. 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)…
77. …and the interface and interactions therewith are clunky at best, especially with the nature of its ‘save’ system
78. 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
79. Coerthas West
80. Seconds in minutes quest design
81. Forced single player questing (especially MSQ)…
82. …which is easily the worst aspect of the entire game
83. The unlock problem continues (literally can’t go to certain zones, or find vendors…)
84. 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
85. 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
86. Alexander 2 isn’t a great fight. Neat idea, awful execution, and worst of all it ends up just being boring
87. 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
88. Alexander 9 is unfortunately another victim of the ‘needs a dungeon journal’ type of boss
89. 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
90. The camera issue continues to show up periodically
91. 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
92. 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
93. PLD 50-60 continues its trend of being the bland white bread of classes
94. 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)
95. 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)…
96. …earning a second negative
97. 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
98. 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
99. …a second negative for the Churning Mists endless chaining…
100. …and the nonsense pattern of quest distribution
101. 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…
102. …leading to…
103. …three negatives
104. The ARM 50-60 quest is easily the worst of the already-bad crafter chains
105. Crafter backtracking is ridiculous, and almost all of them do it…
106. …leading to a full…
107. …three negatives
108. The backtracking in the Dravanian Hinterlands is honestly some of the worst it’s been in the entire game…
109. …earning a second negative
110. Neverreap has some serious issues, with irritating trash and aggravating boss design (including wasps, too much HP)
111. The decision to lock substantial meat quests behind no marker or signifier whatsoever is honestly really bad design
112. One…
113. …two…
114. …and three negatives for general quest padding design
115. 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
116. Raubahn Extreme (bad launch issues)
117. 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
118. Aether Currents continue to be bad
119. Low level ability removal issue
120. 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)…
121. …earning a second negative
122. 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
123. Second negative for Ruby Sea backtracking
124. As usual, The Peaks sidequests have a truly egregious amount of backtracking (especially in the latter half)…
125. …second negative to The Peaks
126. The camera zoom out issue continues…
127. …and, honestly, is a more persistent issue than before
128. Aggregate: 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) // The ‘find the sheep’ quest, and ‘find in circle’ quests in general, can suck it
129. Unlock issue as usual
130. Forced single player questing (especially MSQ)…
131. …as usual
132. Padding issue of interaction bar
133. Seconds in minutes issues periodically
134. This is a weird one but locking the awesomeness and fun of the ExDeath and Kefka Savage fights behind… y’know, Savage difficulty
135. New Game + and only having one save slot
136. Larboard.
137. PLD at 70… CONTINUES to suck, with barely different rotations and STILL lacking basic utility
138. DRG 60-70 quests kinda… suck, lots of backtracking and little else across large swaths of irritation
139. The BLM 60-70 quests
140. BLM at 70 is noticeably absent several skills that it really should have and feels incomplete
141. Heaven On High’s interface and interactions therewith are clunky at best, especially with the nature of its ‘save’ system
142. AST at 70 really has too many buttons, and some… oddities to it
143. The Doma Reconstruction weekly gating content sucketh
144. The Ivalice quests’ needless, pointless backtracking for wine
145. One…
146. …two…
147. …and three negatives for general quest padding design
148. As per usual, the Steppes sidequests just kind of suck in backtracking and design
149. Acquisition of Blue Magic sucks. Forced synching and related problems for bosses, and low percentage chance of learning, plus you have to be alive
150. The MIN quests suck. Arduous and time sensitive
151. The BTN quests suck. Arduous and time elongated
152. The FIS quests suck! Gah!
153. 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
154. Several instances of problems with long solo sessions or lack of mid-mission checkpointing in solo instances
155. The Roulette Problem gets worse…
156. …and is actually probably one of the worst in the series…
157. …given both Ivalice and Omega raids being in the bundle
158. Only doing the MSQ will result in hitting level walls multiple times throughout the expansion
159. 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)
160. 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
161. The first Ran’jit fight is also a supposed-to-lose fight… where, if you lose… you have to start it over
162. Navigating the Crystarium honestly sucks with both verticality and the inability to jump off ledges at multiple points
163. 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)
164. New Game + has some… serious jank. Minimal save slots, a multitude of basic actions (like the Journal, or REPAIRING) that you can’t do while in it, and its… weird in how it’s implemented
165. One…
166. …two…
167. …and three negatives for general quest padding design
168. The Unlock Problem persists as usual
169. The Ronkan ruins is… awful. No mid mission checkpointing and binary failstate
170. The Trolley section is, being kind, boring padding quest design… some of the worst in Shadow
171. Forced single player questing (especially MSQ)…
172. …as usual
173. The sidequests in Rak’tika greatwoods are very frustrating in navigation and quest layout
174. 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
175. Screw weekly turn ins (as usual)
176. And finally, the final Ran’jit fight is pointless, dumb, padded, and boring
177. Camera zoom out issue continues its tyrannical reign
178. Low level ability removal issue
179. 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
180. …also they require you to walk through the entire area entirely too often, which is, yes, another backtracking issue
181. SCH at 80 is really hampered by a lot of little but multitudinous issues that feel like artifacts of older, more out-dated game design
182. Generic runback for bosses
183. AST at 80 continues to have a button bloat problem
184. The Roulette Problem gets worse with each expansion…
185. …earning a second negative at this range
186. The Ruby Weapon fight has a lot of issues. The tuning is a bit off, the visuals are actively detrimental, the music sucks
187. 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)
188. 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…
189. …earning a second negative
190. E11 has a bit too much trial and error with nothing really indicating what works how in… any of his mechanics really
191. The Firmament’s interface issues are honestly pretty bad
192. The Diadems, while useful, are dull as sin and exceptionally grindy
193. The FSH Mean quests, uh… suck
194. The physical dps role quest is literally bugged, the NPCs screwing up and failing the mission… more than once
195. CLL’s inconsistent scaling made worse by inconsistent timing
196. Dalriada’s inconsistent scaling made worse by inconsistent timing
197. Delebrum’s sloggy nature and inconsistent scaling
198. Unfortunately Bozja is still fairly limited, gives you hardly any Mettle (which is required to advance), and (like the Diadem) is grrrriiiiiindy
199. 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
200. While I’m at it, the health of the bosses is entirely too high, even accounting for lost actions and the echo buff
201. 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
202. Aggregate: The Thancred v. Ran’jit fight goes on just a little bit too long // E6 has a few minor issues which pull it a bit down // E7’s binary fail-state on several mechanics // Finally, E10 has a few issues which keep it from being… good, and not much to offset it
203. Even though there’s not much they could really do about it, honestly the launch status was unacceptably bad
204. The binary failstate of the ‘follow the girl’ quest along with other related padding issues
205. 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
206. Bestway Burrows is entirely too large with too few mechanisms in place to facilitate movement early on
207. The tail Urianger mission is actually worse than the earlier one in Garlemald
208. 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
209. Forced single player questing (especially MSQ)…
210. …as usual
211. Camera zoom out issue
212. Low level ability removal issue
213. 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
214. 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…
215. …and earns a second negative for sheer duration
216. The ‘Sage Council’ quest is actually terrible game design. Massive explorative area, vaguely labeled, with no pattern to layout, with fake-outs…
217. …earning it a second negative for pure unadulterated padding in the worst way
218. 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…
219. …Thavnair…
220. …Garlemald…
221. …Zone 4…
222. …and Zone 5 all share the same issue
223. 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
224. Zone 4 has some very bad pathing / terrain issues on foot
225. The Unlock Issue continues
226. Runback negative comes back
227. The final Zenos fight is entirely too padded given its placement and purpose
228. 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…
229. …earning it two negatives
230. 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
231. 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)…
232. …and frankly this is so aggravating that it puts me off doing them at all
233. Crystalline content interface issues including can’t queue in a group
234. Aggregate: Padding issues with the last SGE boss // Visibility issues with Ra-La in The Dead Ends