Our Final Fantasy 14 journey continues with a review of the Stormblood… after 1050 days subscribed.
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Welcome back to Tiny Blue Games! My name is Csaw or Chris, and today we are talking about Final Fantasy 14 in 2022. In today’s video we are reviewing the base Stormblood expansion. With 1050 days subscribed to FFXIV, this review has been a long time coming. I discuss my favourite characters, zones, and moments from the expansion. I also answer viewer questions in the second part of the video. Hopefully, you enjoy the review!
As a relatively new ffxiv player, I have enjoyed giving my first impressions of the many different pieces of content this game has to offer. If you are interested in exploring the game yourself I suggest you check out the Final Fantasy 14 free trial. This trial lets play all the way to level 60 (including both the base ARR and Heavensward expansion), with no time restrictions. It was ultimately the free trial that convinced me to dive into the full game and the new Shadowbringers expansion!
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
2:59 Review “Rant”
29:32 Viewer Qs
54:02 Outro
👀 What did you think of the base Stormblood expansion?
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🎧 Music:
Outro: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Kevin_MacLeod/Jazz_Sampler/AcidJazz_1430
Background Music: Flecks_of_light
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I'm really glad you enjoyed Stormblood. I think it's a largely underrated expansion, and I think many of people's criticisms are very valid, but too many people dismiss it because of its flaws instead of appreciating what it does well in spite of them. I think a big reason why you enjoyed it more than many players do is precisely because you took your time. I feel pretty confident in saying that by going at your own pace, and only playing when you felt like it helped you bypass the primary problem most people have with Stormblood, whether they know it or not, and that's the pacing. Playing through Stormblood "binge" style over a few days really makes the awkward pacing stand out, and makes it a lot harder to appreciate the things its does so extremely well; world building and character development. And I'm so glad that your play style has allowed you to see those aspects shine.
Though, I do worry that you may take what I'm saying about the pacing issues the wrong way. It's not so much an issue with the frequency or intensity of the narrative beats. I think for the most part the story is doled out at a very respectable clip, with the appropriate amount of downtime between the intense moments. I for one agree with you about the Azim Steppe, and I think the general consensus in the community is that it's one of the best zones in the expansion. It comes at just the right time to break the tension after what happens during your first trip to Yanxia. Some people do say it's too long, and they may have a point, but I think most people agree that it's a welcome breather.
No, Stormblood's pacing problems are related to its overall structure. It starts by introducing the conflict in Ala Mhigo, and just as that conflict feels like it's getting to full speed, they pause the movie, take the disc out of the player, and put in a brand new movie. The entire story basically hard resets, and we watch through a related but different movie, then only after we finish this second arc do we put the first disc back in and get to see how the first movie plays out. But by the time we get back to that original conflict we've had enough time to forget what was happening, so a non-trivial amount of time has to get spent reintroducing the original conflict, and making sure the player is up to speed. So Stormblood effectively has three different story introductions, and as a result the Ala Mhigan arc often feels very rushed, and fragmented compared to the Doman arc.
It's really just a shame that they couldn't find a better way to structure the two halves of the story.
Great video. And the answers you gave to my questions were satisfactory. I literally understood what you meant with each music track.
Unlike you I miss Yda and wanted to throw Lyse off the boat (still do sometimes). But like you I loved the Azim Steppe. Even with the three stooges there.
For those of us who love there, there is a long long fate chain (8 or 10 fates, I think) where you follow along one of the nomad Xaela tribes around the map helping them. Very cool.
Great video!
Names of the musical tracks you mentioned, in case you or anyone else wants to look them up to listen to them:
1. Music when you fight Titan: there are actually 5 different tracks that play during the Titan fight, but the one most people remember, and the one with the vocals is called "Under the Weight".
2. Calming piano music in the streets of Ul'dah: This is the night theme, and is called "Sultana Dreaming". If you're curious, the day theme is called "A New Hope".
3. Heavensward main theme: "Dragonsong" with vocals by the wonderful Susan Calloway.
4. The music in Ishgard: There are several tracks here. In Foundation the day theme is called "Solid" and the night theme is called "Night in the Brume". In the Pillars the day theme is called "Nobility Obliges" and the night theme is called "Nobility Sleeps".
5. The music in the Azim Steppe: The day theme is called "Drowning in the Horizon" (really good choice, btw) and the night theme is called "He Rises Above".
6. Kugane: Day theme is "Crimson Sunrise". Night theme is "Crimson Sunset".
How can you not do msq, and see what happens,. i mean its the only reason to play the game, to see the story, why else would you play a game. its the reason the rest of the mmos are so bad, there is no story in the game. why would you play a game if it doesn't have a story?
Thank you for answering my questions!
I did not want to give you new info until we got an answer about class quests. Now that you have answered, new jobs are all given class quests for at least 10 levels to give you some story and lore.
The new system is called role quests and you do them per role: tank, healer, magic dps, melee dps and phys range dps. If you complete them all they lock some additional lore behind it