Recordkeeping: FFXIV Heavensward COMPLETE

So that's Final Fantasy XIV Heavensward down. I wanted to delay this post until I'd at least finished up the Warring Triad boss fight mini-arc, and I did!

Heavensward is... okay, look. Right now the Fandom Consensus is that Final Fantasy XIV's first arc, "A Realm Reborn", is a bloated over-wordy piece of shit with terrible writing and way too much filler and there's no reason to actually play it except that you have to, so skip those cutscenes.

I view it as an introduction: Here are the people you'll be spending the game with, here's the plot notes of importance, here's ... okay the Titan arc is really hardcore filler but it's amusing to me anyway... etc. It's about introductions and learning.

Now that you've Introduced and Learned, though-- Heavensward is where the plot really takes off and Goes Places. I started it early last year, played to the conclusion of the expansion pack and took a break, and now I've finished the expansion content and broken into Stormblood stuff. I can judge it as a whole, and while there were some stutter-start plot threads that are obviously dangling for later...

Wow this was a piece of work. This gives me optimism for Stormblood's plotting. Things they WOULD'VE handled awkwardly are handled with some nuance, and the voice acting even improved a little. It's also still got the best music in the business, I've been wandering around singing bits of Sophia's theme to myself since I first heard it.

A heartbeat without harmony
is moonlight without dark.
The heart seeketh equilibrium,
with balance will your worry part.

So I'm... eager to see what happens next, I suppose.

I also resubbed to Final Fantasy XI because I'm a dipshit, by the way.

ANYWAY... This will be the cutoff point for this year of games. You know what that means.

See you next post!