FFXIV is an amazing game

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxDXOWwNGHU

Shadowbringers manages to take FFXIV from "Great MMO" to plain "Great Game" in general. And it does so while building on, but not fundamentally changing what was already great about it.

People lavish praise on series like the Trails series for building characters and having a continuing story game after game. I think lots of these people have been overlooking FFXIV, even though it excels in these same areas, while having more gameplay systems and even more content in general.

I think people are put off from the "MMO" part of FFXIV, but I think you could completely get your money's worth if you played it entirely as a single player game. Granted, it's definitely more fun to embrace the MMO part of it, but just the single player story, soundtrack, and setting make it well worth recommending.

Shadowbringers takes all the good things about it and cranks them up to 12. Here's some highlights before we get into spoilers.

* One of the best soundtracks in all of videogames. Every track is a mastapiece, special shoutouts to the final zone's theme not just being a big generic action track. I don't want to link any spoilers, and titania was revealed pre-expac so here's her theme to show just the musical variety we get:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saYCZ9jzLEA

* Scions get tons of great character work
 * It continues in the trend of Heavensward in showing Alphinaud's development, who is a character archetype that would be boring and generic (and was in 2.0) and making him grow and mature
 * Alisaie gets more development here, going from a adventurous fangirl of the WoL to having more clear, personal motivations for wanting to stop the flood
 * Urianger goes from being a lore dump exposition-nerd to a wordy nerd of a mentor figure to the other scions. By the end, his verbosity becomes endearing, too bad he died on the swim back from the city (RIP C A R D N E R D)
 * Y'shtola got a chance to be more than generic waifubait, she had some nice snappy dialog, if not all that much change. But that's fine, not everyone needs to change to be well-written.
 * Thancred got a personality beside edgy spy man, his complex relationship with Minifilia was great, definitely a highlight of the expac
 * I was worried that the Crystal Exarch was going to be who he actually was. I thought it would be a bad non-reveal, but in the end they managed to make me care about what he had been through and what he accomplished.
 * They managed to turn Ardbert from an edgy afterthought from a 3.X quest series into a full fledged character, and gave him one of the biggest Big Dang Hero moments that he deserved by the end

* Minor characters are used to great effect
 * Rich Cats, Dorfs, The Inn in Ahn Ameng, Fairies, General Bunny, they're all great and add flavor to the world

* A sense of deserved melancholy hangs over the entire expansion. Their world isn't just dying, it's already dead. They're like survivors in a lifeboat with no sight of land, it makes it all the more satisfying when you manage to make any sort of progress.

* THEY MAKE AN ASCIAN INTERESTING!!! I was terrified that Emet-Selch would be a huge drag, but he completely steals every scene he's present in. I don't see how they could possibly top a character like this. Complex and different and fun but tragic, just the full gamut of emotions.

* It doesn't feel like every zone progresses in the exact same way. Sometimes an MMO can feel like go to zone, accomplish thing, repeat 5 times. The story has enough turns waiting for you that it never feels this way. ESPECIALLY the final zone.

* The post-game dungeons actually have LORE? The Twinning tells a FULL story with just its soundtrack, and it makes the premise of the expansion make perfect sense in retrospect.
"...wtf Cid you absolute madman"
-quote by my tank seeing the final boss for the first time, just SEEING the model and hearing the music

Go play it ok!? Seriously, just make it to 2.2 and the story gets amazing, tons of callbacks and consequences from what comes before. Even Stormblood isn't *bad*, it just doesn't compare to HW / ShB. Also Zenos is the most boring character. I hope he gets just owned by his pursuit of powers greater than himself.

OK SPOILERS PART AKA ME JUST GUSHING




First off, I can't talk about anything before touching on the masterpiece that is the Tempest. You go into the zone, it's just a generic underwater zone with some ruins. You help some fish people, sure. They mention "the ancients". Now I'm interested. You go through a twisting turning set of tunnels, down, down, down...
And you appear in this pristine cityscape. Amaurot.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iW7b8Mo_SFU
Suddenly, you want to talk to ever NPC, you want to figure out why this is here, how did they live. Emet-Selch was telling the truth about EVERYTHING! A collective utopia where everyone can give form to their thoughts with a little effort. Some vaguely concerning elements of conformity, but a society built around open discourse and sharing everything. And then the 80 dungeon is watching it all burn down, seeing how it fell apart, a doom not even of their own making!
Now Emet-Selch becomes completely sympathetic, nearly even justified. You're leeches stopping him from bringing it all back.

"For those we have lost. For those who we can yet save." That's what you and the scions keep saying this expansion. Emet-Selch is completely opposed to this. He believes he can save those who he has lost, sacrificing those who exist now. In his mind, the lives of the unshattered are worth more than all of the shards.

And then after all is said and done, the fog is the Tempest recedes. Now anywhere in the zone you can see that empty city. A beacon of what used to be.

"Remember that we lived."

IT'S BRILLIANT!

This isn't even mentioning Ardbert finally getting to step into the spotlight.

"If you had the strength to take another step, could you do it?"
"You know I could!"
"Heh. Take it. We fight as one!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxDXOWwNGHU#t=1m10s

"This is our future. Our story!"

And then even the crystal exarch gets in on the action!!!

"Let expanse contract. Eon become instant!"

WONDERFUL!

The final dungeon even pulls some undertale crap. THE LOCATION NAMES THEMSELVES TELL THE STORY OF AMAUROT'S DEMISE! I love every bit of iiiiit!

Ok now that I've gushed about the entire final zone, let's move backwards.

The feeling when you finally lay Vaulthry low only to start lightsploding is great. It seems so hopeless. The scene where your player character just vomits out light-aether blood is terrifying. GAT DANG EMET-SELCH SHOOTS THE EXARCH WITH A FLINTLOCKE?! I love it. He can create anything he can imagine, but he just blats him with his fancy firearm. What a showman.

Then when you're just trying to barely keep it together and the eternal light is back in every zone, feels awful but wonderful.

Ok let's go back some more.

I love how Eulmore is almost understated? Even before the meol scene you can kiiiind of guess what was happening? The earlier parts with the singer who is chosen to ascend...it never really specifies what "ascending" means. But by that point, you know. It doesn't need to spell it out.

The giant talos scene is almost cheesy but it avoids being overly sappy. It's the FINAL culmination of all the unity you've brought to this dead world. It was never dead at all, people surrended. They just needed a shadow to show them the way. It's the high fantasy 'conclusion' you need. And the way it results in you even more broken and about to shatter is the damper the story needed to avoid being pure camp. Of course it wouldn't be *that* clean.

Ok further back!

I loved Ryne, I was terrified that they were going to pull a Roxas or something and have her just sacrifice herself to bring OG minfilia back. But no, that would go against the themes! That's something Emet-Selch might do, but Hydelyn is about protecting this fragile, shattered new life. Ryne deserves to live her own life. I love these sorts of stories.

OK BACK SOME MORE

Ranjit is probably the weakest part of the expansion. They felt like they needed a new Zenos, but they really didn't. If they had spent more time developing his overprotective reaction to the Minfilias and how he kind of broke when they stopped fighting Sin Eaters together, maybe that would have been better. It feels like some Square Enix bigwig was like "YOU HAVE TO HAVE AN EXPANSION WIDE VILLAIN, PEOPLE LIKED ZENOS!!!"

FUUUURTHER BACK I SAY

I loved everything about the faerie zone. Everyone was the right amount of threatening and whimsical. Everything could kill you or play a harmless prank, flip a coin to decide which.

JUST A FEW MORE NOW

The Inn was the saddest gat dang thing, and seeing the lady turn into a sin eater was some body horror nonsense. I loved it.

LET EXPANSE CONTRACT

Alphinaud going to Eulmore was the perfect place for him. It showed how much he's matured since making the Crystal Braves.

EON BECOME INSTANT

I love the Crystalarium. It's music owns, the crystal tower owns, THE TWINNING SUPER OWNS. Future Ironworks unlocked the secrets of both machina raids and the CT. An artificial Alexander to reach back in time, an artificial omega to traverse the void, and the giant battery of the crystal tower to glue it all together. It all makes perfect in-universe sense.

Where can they even go from here? Garlemald seems positively mundane in comparison.
Lahabrea(D) has a long way to go before he's a compelling villain.

I'm a little nervous that this is the high point. But they have my attention.