LogFAQs > #960749173

Some various thoughts:

I feel like in this expansion I preferred the slower parts to the more action packed parts. I was more into the Loporrit stuff than Garlemald, for example, and Elpis was my favorite part of the whole thing. Just going around talking to people without pressure is nice.

Likewise, I want to say that I like FFXIV more when the MC's more isolated. Being with all the Scions for the whole expansion was a big negative, partly because they slow things down so much. It's much better when there's only one or two around at a time, or when they only come together for big moments. Having them separated at the start of Heavensward and Shadowbringers is a big part of what makes those expansions so great for me. Gives more of a sense of adventure and isolation. On the plus side, we get Estinien and G'raha with us most of the time, which is great, since I like them way more than the classic scions. On the negative side, Alphinaud is way more interesting when he's suffering than when he's succeeding, as with several of the others, and he has more successes here than in any other part of the game.

It's cool how varied the areas are. The six areas are all for totally different regions, which gives them a different feel than any other part of the game. Going around exploring them was almost always fun ,though Labyrinthos would've benefited from being smaller, and exploring the moon (outside of the Loporrit city) was a lot less interesting than I hoped. I know it's the moon, but I think there should've been more variety and interesting stuff to find. Elpis was the best, naturally.

I was kind of disappointed this expansion wasn't giving us any cool new important characters, since the previous expansions were good at that. But then we got Venat, who's awesome, and Hythlodaeus who isn't technically new, but is cool here in a different way than he was previously. I loved how they made Hydaelyn a good character since there wasn't much to her before.

Fandaniel was shit. All his scenes and boss fights were lame. Bringing back Asahi and not letting you punch him in the face was dumb. Zenos was boring early on, but all his scenes after beating Zodiark are pretty hilarious. I wish there was an option to just ignore him at the end - feels like that would've been more satisfying. Him showing up as a dragon to rescue you made me burst out laughing and was fabulous.

People seemed to like the themes of the later stuff, but I really wasn't into the "all civilizations other than humanity give up on life and desire death" thing. I wish they'd emphasized that those were only the ones Meteion ran into or that she misinterpreted somehow. Stuff like giving up on life because you know the universe is going to die feels bad since we in the real world already know the universe is going to die and no one really cares. I think this could've been executed a lot better. I liked the Omicrons and the Dragons, but the Ea weren't my thing. Meteion was a pretty good concept that I wish I'd liked better. The final dungeon and what came after were excellent, at least. Really great climactic scenes.

As soon as Estinien sacrificed himself it was pretty obvious they were all coming back, so those sacrifices didn't really hit me hard or anything. Still good scenes, and bringing back Emet+Hydrolathus at the end was a fantastic surprise since I thought the Scions were going to come back instead.

Finally, this is probably something that no one else cares about, but it bothers me a lot that traveling back to Elpis creates a stable time loop. We already know that G'raha created a new timeline when he traveled back, so why didn't that happen here? They could even have had a fun thing where WoL saves another world, but still has to go back and deal with their own because they won't abandon their original timeline. I would've liked that more, at least. The erasing memories stuff seems kinda contrived, and you'd think Venat would've been competent enough to stop the original Final Days early with all her foreknowledge...
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