|
Congratulations! I'm looking forward to your journey through Stormblood. I don't recall what my reaction to the Lyse reveal was, although I do remember being a bit sad about Papalymo, and mostly her reaction to him being gone. The Kaiju battle had me vibrating in excitement, waiting for SB to release. And, yes, Gosetsu is the best. as for Yugiri... I believe the reason for her absence for so long was due to a real life tragedy 
|
#
?
May 28, 2022 04:52
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 11, 2024 17:16 |
|
|
The whole real main reason it was a magic temporary tattoo on Lyse was so they could confirm that, Yes, Papalymo Actually Died Here, Even Though We Did Not Show You The Body. Glad you've finally Swarded all the Heaven, Sanguinia! It was a good LP and I'm looking forward to more adventure and short stories (time and creative well permitting)!
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2022 04:55
|
|
|
I wonder how far in advance they planned the Yda/Lyse thing.
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2022 05:04
|
|
|
Congratulations on finishing the free trial! It's still wild to me that so much is free to enjoy - Your writing was always most enjoyable, and looking forward to see how Kheris' adventures continue!
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2022 05:06
|
|
|
Craptacular! posted:Well, what better way to prevent a calamity than with an opposing calamity? There is "a reason" Shinryu isn't Neo-Bahamut. In that Shinryu in universe is sort of based on a different FFXIV dragon narratively. The body-shape is reminiscent of Midgardsormr's rideable form, instead of his children. At least, that's what I and a friend discussed when I first saw the Shinryu v Omega cutscene. The mouth beams are also very much a Midgardsormr thing, from the cutscene of Midgard destroying the original giant airship.
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2022 05:07
|
|
|
congrats on beating the free trial and unlocking NERO TIME. e: a nero time dilemma if you will
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2022 05:26
|
|
|
FuturePastNow posted:I wonder how far in advance they planned the Yda/Lyse thing. This is an interesting thing to speculate on. The devs mention time and again that the broad strokes of the story are planned out way in advance. But I suspect that the road to those broad story beats was and is very mutable. I feel this especially in some of the ShB patch MSQ, and in response to the fan popularity of certain characters elsewhere.
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2022 05:29
|
|
|
DoubleNegative posted:I got struck with sudden inspiration and felt the need to make something after seeing the "nextvillainsmirk" image. I had to color correct the image in question, so it doesn't look exactly the same, buuuut... 
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2022 06:06
|
|
|
This thread has been a real treat and I look forward to the next one. Wasshoi!
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2022 06:14
|
|
|
Another congratulations on reaching the end! Stormblood is… Definitely a mixed bag for a lot of folks, though on the whole, I enjoyed it, even if I was a bit annoyed with some elements of the story. Gosetsu is indeed the greatest of the new characters introduced, of course
|
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2022 06:14
|
|
|
All I can say about Stormblood is: It had to follow Heavensward. Which for quite some time, was the gold standard for how an MMO expansion should go. And that's a drat tough act to follow. As time has gone on, though, I think that what Stormblood did and what it plants in the plot has given us some extremely impressive plot.
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2022 06:17
|
|
|
Lord_Magmar posted:There is "a reason" Shinryu isn't Neo-Bahamut. In that Shinryu in universe is sort of based on a different FFXIV dragon narratively. The body-shape is reminiscent of Midgardsormr's rideable form, instead of his children. At least, that's what I and a friend discussed when I first saw the Shinryu v Omega cutscene. If you want a dragon and you want one that'll ruin Garlean poo poo, there's no one better than Midgardsormr. Bahamut is scary for sure but that's more for Eorzeans than Garleans.
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2022 06:40
|
|
|
Yeah I’ll admit I wonder if people wouldn’t be as hard on Stomblood if it didn’t have to shoulder coming between Heavensward and Shadowbringers. It’s kind of like an A- in between a solid A and an A++. Still pretty great, but the competition is steep as hell.
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2022 06:44
|
|
|
I'd call it a B+ overall myself but yeah I absolutely agree that it is very good and only looks bad in comparison to what it's bookended by
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2022 06:47
|
|
|
I still like it more than Heavensward, which is more like a high B to me.
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2022 06:47
|
|
|
Storywise STB is a bit behind Heavensward, but then you look at the gameplay improvements in STB and overall I consider both expansions very comparable in terms of overall quality.
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2022 06:56
|
|
|
It really is a case of how much you vibe to the two. I did not vibe as hard with HW's story as I did with SB, no matter how much people argue that HW is objectively better well put together or whatever, so I think that SB's story is better.
Ibblebibble fucked around with this message at 07:34 on May 28, 2022 |
|
#
?
May 28, 2022 06:56
|
|
|
You can see what we mean by StB being considered divisive.
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2022 07:03
|
|
|
The one very petty knock I have against Stormblood is that for me, it didn’t have an extremely memorable music cue moment in the main story that got burned into my memory, like Dragonsong playing as you go to confront Nidhogg.
|
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2022 07:04
|
|
|
wokow6 posted:You can see what we mean by StB being considered divisive.  No kidding.This should be fun.
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2022 07:12
|
|
|
Ran Rannerson posted:Yeah I’ll admit I wonder if people wouldn’t be as hard on Stomblood if it didn’t have to shoulder coming between Heavensward and Shadowbringers. It’s kind of like an A- in between a solid A and an A++. Still pretty great, but the competition is steep as hell.
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2022 07:12
|
|
|
Congrats on beating Heavensward and thanks for the LP so far! I can't wait to see what you make of Stormblood. I forgot how late they introduced Gosetsu (my man ) - in my head, I was sure it was earlier on in the patch content.
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2022 07:30
|
|
|
Nth’ing the good job here. I really love newb reactions to FXIV As for the Lyse reveal, it felt very nothing to me as someone who didn’t care one way or the other about Yda, but ultimately I see why they did it. But I’m also a lot more positive about Lyse than a lot of other people. As for Stormblood itself, I’ve had the feeling for a while that Sarg might actually like it quite a bit. Personally, it’s my least favorite expansion with my least favorite of all the “main” villains, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad per se. It’s better than ARR is at least. It just doesn’t rise to the heights of the other three expansions, mostly due to structural issues. The mechanic changes and the actually duties however are some of the best in the game. Also the patches introduce my favorite character and my favorite antagonist, but we’re a long, long way off from that.
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2022 07:34
|
|
|
It's not something you can get through just a screenshot LP, but Goesetsu's entrance also has the critically timed Kabuki yoo~ooh.
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2022 07:37
|
|
|
Since everyone is expressing their Stormblood Opinions: I think it's the worst of the expansions but still better than base game and it's not like being the worst expansion to a good game makes you bad or anything.
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2022 07:49
|
|
|
I quite like it, so I will just say enjoy it for what it is Sanguinia.
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2022 08:01
|
|
|
I can understand why Sanguinia is apprehensive about Shadowbringers after experiencing the hype and reality of Heavensward, although the more I learn about how they approach content in this game the more I think they'll prefer it. One of the things I noticed quickly is that "the critically acclaimed expansion Heavensward" did not often put much thought into it's sidequests. I did all the sidequests I could at the start of Sea of Clouds, being attacked by those rather strong monsters on the ground the whole way, and quickly I realized that the dialogue in the side quests was very filler. I remember one early sidequest was to deliver a message to a guy's childhood love, and when you find her she admits that she moved on and didn't think of him anymore. And then you go back and tell him that, and he's a little surprised. The end, no moral. After Sea of Clouds pt1 and then Coerthas Western, I stopped doing sidequests. Despite how much I love the story of two sides confronting their bigotries and internal turmoils, and the boldness to call out that non-involvement is tacit endorsement, I love HW's story but I also don't think the world feels as properly lived as it could. By contrast, many ShB sidequests carry the charm and humor of the core material, and generally do not have this problem. Regalingualius posted:The one very petty knock I have against Stormblood is that for me, it didn’t have an extremely memorable music cue moment in the main story that got burned into my memory, like Dragonsong playing as you go to confront Nidhogg. Stormblood's boss song (Triumph) is pretty great, even though it essentially is the two most overplayed leitmotifs stitched together. A vocal orchestra can do a lot to help. The problem for me anyway is that Soken made so many variations of two songs, and the anthem for Gyr Abania / Rhalgr's Reach is so short that it kind of feels like one of those Uematsu tracks that are 40 seconds long and endlessly looping. It's like hearing a dozen variations on the Fat Chocobo theme. I like the Fat Chocobo theme, but if you replaced a 20 hour game's entire soundtrack with different instruments and different mixes playing Fat Chocobo you would drive me insane.
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2022 08:04
|
|
|
There's a specific song in Stormblood I absolutely will never forget, but I'll mention it when we get to it. Also an absolutely lovely write-up of the award-winning Heavensward Expansion Sanguinia, thank you for all your hard work and effort, and for being happy to let people provide info where appropriate.
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2022 09:00
|
|
|
Excellent thread, Sanguinia! Looking forward to StB. I'm nowhere as down on it as some folks are, but it does stick out less in my mind and overall lasting impressions of FFXIV compared to the other three expansions. Except its music: it's stellar. Hope you enjoy it!
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2022 10:52
|
|
|
Also, a question for those who think that Papalymo's death lacks heft due to how undeveloped he was, and how redundant he was in the Scions. Sang feel free to reply to this as well if you wish: Would you have preferred Urianger had died there instead? And for those of you who have seen the story to come, pretend Papalymo slides into the spot Urianger occupies in future stories. Since Urianger already had a tragic loss in late ARR and came close to betraying the party in Heavensward, I could kind of see them writing him sacrificing himself in this chapter to atone. On the other hand, the guy's been through so much misery for a while now that I kind of understand them giving him a breather.
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2022 11:08
|
|
|
You can’t sacrifice Urianger so soon after it’s revealed that he’s hot as gently caress. Putting him back in the potato sack is bad enough.
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2022 11:10
|
|
|
Urianger is my second favorite Scion so I cannot abide by this thought experiment. Also Lyse and Papalymo’s bromance will never be as important to me as (ShB) bi dads Thancred and Urianger.
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2022 11:14
|
|
|
Stormblood is usually seen as the weakest expansion of FFXIV but it's still pretty good even with the flaws. That and being sandwiched between two expansions that are highly-regarded as the best probably didn't help it.
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2022 12:47
|
|
|
Yeah, just from the range of opinions I've seen on the thread, the StB controversy is between "It's great, actually!" and "It's not as good as the expansions it's between, but it's still pretty dang good" Which... I'm kinda in second camp, with the exception of gameplay. Whenever I go into Trial/Normal Raid/Alliance Raid roulette and get something before StB, I am very sad. Unless it's Alexander Prime/Brute Justice, in which case I am not. Also, I am very happy this LP exists. Just... Incredible writing and literary analysis, Sanguina. I'm always excited to read updates, even if they're not something that would usually interest me.
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2022 13:09
|
|
|
My opinions on StB are probably more severe than any expressed here, but we'll get to those in time. It's also an opinion isolated exclusively to the 4.0 story; the side content (raids, etc) and the patch stories are all fantastic.
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2022 14:06
|
|
|
The actual secret is that Stormblood's trailer is just less hype than the ones for Heavensward and Shadowbringers (which has one of the most hype video game trailers of all time imo). The Stormblood opening movie is still fun, don't get me wrong, and it was amazing to watch it for the first time as part of a crowd at fan fest. It's just not a fuckin journey like the ones for the expansions before and after it.
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2022 14:21
|
|
|
I actually never watched any of the trailers until I was through with Shadowbringers.  Also I just want to say this LP has been such a great journey. It was great to see a new player's in-depth reactions. As much as it is fun watching streamers react to all the big plot points, none of them seem to reflect on them in depth. Even the most in-depth streamer I've watched, Pyro, usually just goes into theories and predictions (which is annoying because he won't wait until a cutscene is over to start, he just sits there for 20 minutes wondering what the meaning of a line of text is when it's literally explained in the next dialog box) rather than doing actual analysis of it.
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2022 14:42
|
|
|
Craptacular! posted:Also, a question for those who think that Papalymo's death lacks heft due to how undeveloped he was, and how redundant he was in the Scions. Sang feel free to reply to this as well if you wish: Would you have preferred Urianger had died there instead? And for those of you who have seen the story to come, pretend Papalymo slides into the spot Urianger occupies in future stories. Since Urianger already had a tragic loss in late ARR and came close to betraying the party in Heavensward, I could kind of see them writing him sacrificing himself in this chapter to atone. On the other hand, the guy's been through so much misery for a while now that I kind of understand them giving him a breather. The issue is that Papalymo's death was required for Yda/Lyse to get the development that she does, so I don't think I would have preferred Urianger to have died there, at least from a practical perspective. What it boils down to is that Papalymo's death is simply timed in a way that doesn't leave him a lot of room to grow that attached to unless you knew him in ARR. Haurchefant gets an emotional reaction partially because he served a very critical emotional role in the final ARR patches as support/saviors after the Ul'dah incidents. And the main plot of HW had the entirety of it to get to know Ysayle and her struggles. If we consider the .5 stories to be part of the next expansion's story, then Haurchefant/Ysayle get full arcs within an entire expansion before dying. Whereas considering .5 HW patch as "part of Stormblood" essentially means the StB arc essentially starts with Papalymo's death. With some greater foresight by the writers, I'm sure there would be a smoother transition to allow Papalymo's death to carry more personal weight to the player, but I'm not sure the writers actually had decided the events leading to Stormblood until late into HW development and by then, it was probably difficult to pencil in new events for patches 3.1-3.3 (given how tight those patches needed to be in terms of content both from a writing perspective, but also from a development perspective since I'm sure the devs were still feeling residual pressure from the 1.0 catastrophe). Although nowadays, they're probably a lot better at that foresight, given that they mentioned that they're very far into writing out 7.0's scenario already. AncientSpark fucked around with this message at 15:09 on May 28, 2022 |
|
#
?
May 28, 2022 14:59
|
|
|
Personally I'm just very excited to see Sanguinia dissect the writing around Viceroy Smiley, because I do like him quite a lot even if I don't expect other people to. Incidentally once you finish 4.0 look for a short story titled The Hunt Begins, for reasons. (It was only published in a book I'm blanking on the title of so you'll probably need to find online transcripts, unfortunately.)
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2022 14:59
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 11, 2024 17:16 |
|
|
I think that she will vibe pretty well with Stormblood mostly because its themes are a lot more relevant nowadays than back when it first released with the Ukraine invasion and all.
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2022 15:33
|
|
