Overview

Final Fantasy XIV or 14’s newest expansion came out officially 17 days ago, and while initially plagued by server congestion and DDOS attacks, which have been well documented and reported, we can finally see what was meant to be. After the dust had settled from a predictable rough start, what was left was a real masterpiece of what a social and modern MMO’s should be.

The newest expansion Stormblood promised so much, the addition of two new DPS classes which had long been clamored for since the relaunch of the game as A Realm Reborn, Samurai and Red Mage. A whole new chapter to the story, continuing the journey of the Warrior of Light (you) as they try to free occupied countries from the evil empire. New dungeons and trials for you to test your abilities on, all with a newly revamped battle system with significant changes to most of the current jobs.

With so much new content to explore I choose to break this review up into more manageable segments as to keep my thoughts as coherent as possible.

I think the best way to describe this game to any general Final Fantasy fan would be to compare it to a greatest hits of the series. I don’t mean in a negative light. Growing up we play these games, get wrapped into the story, as convoluted as they can be, love the characters from the different games, and just live out a fantasy experience all while learning to love the grindy machines of a JRPG. This game is no different, Whats your Fantasy of the FF world? Is it to be an overpowered Black Mage blowing things up with magic from afar, or maybe the shield of your party eating damage and being the defender of those magic users, maybe your thing is you want to be Kain or Freya and be a Dragoon dealing massive damage with a spear. Whatever your dream scenario is, you can almost do it, unless your dream is to be a blue mage then you are out of luck (hoping for 5.0 for that one).

 

Story

The story of this game is one of the biggest selling points. After the events of Heavensward, many saw what could happen in Stormblood, and for me, I wasn’t looking forward to the liberation of these two new areas, Ala Mhigo and Doma. But I will be more than willing to eat my words, this story hits a lot of tropes but has just enough surprises to make you want to do the next fetch quest.

With a cast of already beloved characters, I didn’t think any of these new ones would do much for me. Then with the addition of the character Lord Hien, the person I found most interesting in this entire expansion, was, to put it mildly, surprising. Leading up I thought I wouldn’t like anyone, but in the classic Final Fantasy form they figure out a way for you to connect and be surprised in moments. I won’t spoil any major points but don’t skip the cut scenes it makes doing these missions much more enjoyable when you have some connection to what’s going on.

Personal experience

I would describe myself as a mid-core player. I don’t raid at the savage level, (FF14 most difficult tier as of 4.0) my favorite content seems to be what most people hate the most the 24 man raids. I play almost all the content but never pushed to get to the top tier. But my personal experience in Stormblood started off with a hard realization. I needed to switch my main.

I’ve been for the most part the much maligned Paladin since the 2.x series of A Realm Reborn. Coming into Stormblood Paladins were promised the world. We were constantly talked about how they were focusing on us, and hearing this I couldn’t wait to see what they were doing. Maybe it was going to be the much requested AOE’s we needed or better rotations. Well, we finally found out during the battle changes section of the Live Letter, and afterwards I was left slightly empty. Earlier in this piece, I talked about living your fantasy, and for me, it was never a hard casting spell while in the middle of my rotation and coupled with a lackluster battle gauge, I was feeling disappointed. So I flirted with other classes and decided to try Dark Knight, I hate the aesthetic of the giant sword, but they had this new ability Bloodspiller which had a high potency, and you built up a gauge to use Bloodspiller and other abilities, something that seemed to click with me.

So now I’m running all the content with Dark Knight while my former lover, Paladin sits there waiting to hit 70. I owe it to the class that carried me through so much to get it there and I will, but getting a critical hit on Bloodspiller is a hell of a lot more fun then I had playing Paladin.

Working through the leveling dungeons was way more enjoyable then the dungeons in Heavensward they have found a way to streamline the dungeon process, so it doesn’t feel as tedious. They seemed to figure out the near-perfect balance of trash mobs to the next boss fight with these pulls.

Earlier this week they released the first tier of the new eight-man raid, titled Omega. I was able to run through it, and it might be the highlight of the expansion. The fights bring new elements and exciting mechanics. That being said none of the songs from Omega matched my love of the Alexander: Cruise Chaser’s Theme

Hits and misses

Hit– All the new content, 90% of the stuff I did was incredible and fun.
Miss– except the solo instances, I hate these and find them to be just plot dumps with annoying fights.
Hit-Hunts, they are back and a nice change of pace to mix up your end game.
Miss– The Ixion fate, basically a world boss which spawns every 36-72 hours-ish. I’ve been able to do one, and you need to get a gold medal during it six times to get the mount seems like way too much.
Hit– The action mechanic, adds a new wrinkle to boss fights and while the fights that use it now seem gimmicky, it’s another innovation that could lead to better mechanically driven raid tiers.
Miss– swimming, it was to be a huge addition to the game, but the underwater area seems to be full of negative space with not much going on. This could change as gathers in the game need to get materials out of the new areas but overall it feels lack luster.

Have to try to hit those Bloodspiller Crits

 

Wrapping up, now’s the perfect time to join FFXIV they have a free trial where you can take any job to level 30. After that, through the game’s store, you can buy a jump potion to take any job to level 60 ten levels short of the new cap, as well as a jump potion to skip all the story so you can jump right into Stormblood. This is the lowest the barrier of entry is going to be, jump in try it out and see what’s waiting in the land of Final Fantasy: Stormblood.