The hotly anticipated Shadowbringers finally dropped worldwide on Tuesday 02 July 2019. I finally finished the main story, levelled up a few jobs and had a taste of the newly dropped Savage mode for the new Eden raid. I think it is time to share some of my thoughts on this latest expansion of Final Fantasy XIV.
The Story
So far I personally feel that the story got me more hooked than Stormblood. Heavensward for me was a benchmark so Stormblood coming right after it was a hard job to beat. However for me there just aren’t enough characters that I could seriously care about in Stormblood. Lyse as a protagonist was quite bland and I personally prefer a myriad of lesser characters than her doing the Cloud like sulking all day long. Without Papalymo on her side to feed on each other’s cynicism Lyse became quite one dimensional.
However with Shadowbringers, I was drawn into the story quickly. Even for really small characters they left an impression on you and whatever happened to them you would have an ‘Oh Shit’ moment. I felt that character development was a lot better in Shadowbringers so they actually came to life in the cut scenes (and as per usual lots of them). The fact that through the story we are actually delving deeper into the relationships between the Scions and the Ascians was refreshing. There was period I thought how long do we need to deal with this nuisance called the Ascians? At that time they were getting old for me. However, Square Enix managed to refresh the storyline and presented a completely new angle to it was extremely impressive.
The Artwork and Design
For me one of the downfall of Stormblood as it soldiers on was the need to stick to its Eastern roots. This has gravely shackled the creativity of its artistic direction.
I am not saying they are not good, but because of the need to stay true to the Eastern theme, it became extremely homogenous as time passed. Heavensward has a strong gothic theme but then the opening up of flying and the vertical dimension put a twist to the environment. Also the Dravanian territory provided a creative canvas to further build on without the need to stay true to any style. However for Stormblood, everything was just so...Eastern. The introduction of swimming was good but the novelty wore off after we all discovered there is not much you could do apart from spear fishing. If you are not into fishing then really they are just wasted polygons. Pretty sure they are but wasted they were too. And to be honest with you I am still waiting for a 20 minutes Emerald Weapon Savage raid to happen here.
But with The First in Shadowbringers, it is a completely new world they are not bound to any aesthetics. As a result really the world is their canvas. From desolated towns to desert ruins to the great woods and swamps or even fairy lands, Shadowbringers offered a greatly varied and beautifully crafted world to its players again. The change of the world as the story progressed kept the environment fresh and for the better of it.
Music
I love the music in Shadowbringers. Again without the need to stay true to the Eastern theme Shadowbringers brought back the great diversity in the musical style that we once came to know and love in FF XIV. From the dungeons of Holminster Switch to the fight with Titania and the tranquilising chants of the Greatwoods, Shadowbringers skilfully brought different musical styles back together under one roof. Also we can have more variety of instruments to tell the story instead of keep up with those Eastern strings and winds. The Stormblood tunes grew on you and then grew out of you, but Shadowbringers’ music made an impression on you and then stays there. From first time we heard the new music in the trailer we knew we are in a treat but at a stage I did worry whether it would just go full one dimensional metal and electric. I was pleasantly surprised when it was not the case as I entered The First for the first time when early access was opened. And the surprises just keep coming.
Game Mechanics
Square Enix has revamped all the classes and jobs in the game to streamline the gameplay in Shadowbringers. Stormblood was the first major attempt to do so, with mixed results but building on the experience from Stormblood, Shadowbringers took the change to the next level.
I am a healer at heart, and trying to take advantage of all the healer bonuses because of everyone flocking to the new Gunbreaker tank and Dancer dps, I have had all the healers levelled up to 80 now. Since then, Square Enix had introduced minor adjustments that I personally think should be there in the first place, so I think the healer jobs are quite solid now. The shift to healers as healers in the gameplay could make them a bit less interesting when assisting with dps in Savage and Extreme raids, but I can see where they came from. As a White Mage main, I did like the changes although I wish they didn’t take away the AEO Damage over Time (DoTs) skill as it really feels the dps is lacking any punches now. Also the shift to pure healing for the healer jobs means all the healers have almost identical dps skill sets that only differ in name and aesthetics. For me that’s kind of a letdown as there is really no maximising skills and utility that can speak of now in the dps space for healers.
I only have one dps levelled up thanks to the share base class between Scholar and Summoner. So far I think Summoner is more intuitive and streamline to manage, though I am still sceptical about the Aetherflow change that only allows you to use the skill as you engaged. For me the experience is that a lot of time the skills is not available until you actually participate in an action instead of as soon as the fight starts. But that’s minor. Red Mage is still a great fun to play but that’s all about battle jobs for me at this point.
Nonetheless I think the changes have mostly become better but I just hope there is no more watering down of mechanics as if they started to make everything feel homogeneous, then the fun of the game will be greatly impacted.
Overall Impression
All in all I do think this is the most solid content package Final Fantasy XIV had offered thus far. I do think the game is heading in a correct direction so far. This can be reflected in the fact that more than a month after early access, I still needed to queue to get into the server (grant you Tonberry is one of the most popular servers). Also I really like how all the mentors in the Novice Network are actively helping newbies (sprouts) and returners (flowers) to get up to speed and catch up with the contents. This kind of supportive environment and player base is what really separate Final Fantasy XIV form a lot of other MMOs. I just hope that Square Enix could keep up with the momentum and hopefully avoid another convoluted but uninteresting plot line like Stormblood did.
