Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood

Returning to the World of Eorzea | Expansion Review

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I am not a heavy or even mild online gamer. For many years now, I have struggled to commit to an online game for more than a few weeks – often sticking with a few free-to-play titles which I spend a few months playing every few months. Whether due to the time needed to invest in developing a character, monotonous gameplay, or a lack of things to keep my attention given my somewhat “lone wolf” style of gaming – I have generally found myself drawn back to single-player games.

I first entered the world of Eorzea with the release of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn – a rebuilt version of the original Final Fantasy XIV. It ended up being another game I could not commit to, although was something I thought worthwhile revisiting down the line. Fast-forward to 2017, and Square Enix provided me an opportunity to revisit Eorzea with their newest expansion pack – Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood. I didn’t expect to find myself resubscribing past the free 30 days, let alone become part of a Free Company (the in-game equivalent of Guilds) or drawn to the community content. My first 30 days in Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood have been some of the most memorable I have had in an online game some time.

Continuing to Build A Well-Developed Realm

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Central to every Final Fantasy game has been its storyline, often following a group of heroes who for one reason or another are leg on a pilgrimage to save their kingdom or world from an overpowered threat. Final Fantasy retains the series’ penchant for storytelling, with your custom adventurer undertaking a journey as the “Hero of Light” throughout the realm of Eorzea. With more hits than misses, the story across the base game and both expansions are good, combining the use of standard quest text-boxes and full in-game rendered cutscenes (meaning your character and the attire they are wearing appear within them), which as someone who does enjoy games for their narrative, I greatly appreciated.

The story of Stormblood follows on from that featured in Heavensward, following the Hero of Light and his/her group of (NPC) companions as they encounter trials within previously unexplored regions of Eorzea – including but not limited to the desert-based regions of Gyr Abania and the Eastern-inspired locales of Hingashi. There are many memorable moments for both new and returning players to enjoy, and overall could rival the memorability of some other single-player Final Fantasy games. Following the main story quests is required to unlock certain content found in the expansion, although if desired, cinematics can for the most part be skipped over.

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Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood also comes with the usual assortment of side-quests. Although there are a few highlights among them, including those associated with each character class and some creative writing, many others are forgettable 10-15 minute affairs often involving item collection, defeating X number of Y, or undertaking a chain of dialogue. This component of the MMO hasn’t been revolutionised, but as it is of the same standard as other games, Square Enix cannot be faulted for the sameness.

Coinciding with the launch of the Stormblood expansion, Square Enix have been offering both level and story skip books as optional standalone items through their MogStation online store. In terms of the story skip option, unless you have already played through both A Realm Reborn’s and Heavensward’s story previously, I strongly recommend against acquiring the item. Although you can re-watch cinematics, the narrative starts deep within an already developed story, and I feel it would be hard to jump in at this point and fully appreciate everything taking place.

What Eorzea Has Going for It

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Having just returned to Eorzea after a hiatus of many years, I enjoyed seeing where the game has gone since its launch as ARR. One thing I have noted over the past 30 days is that there was always something which kept me coming back daily, even if I only had 15 minutes free. I found it quite easy to while away an hour or two by tackling the 4-8 player instanced dungeons and trials (instanced challenging bosses), 24-player raids, trawling floors of The Palace of the Dead (A randomly generated dungeon with separate character/equipment levelling), enjoying a round of PvP and more.

While it is not possible to manually do so at will, many of the instanced dungeons and trials are accessible to all players through automatic level reductions. All classes, including those which begin at Level 30-50, have skills associated with Level 1 and onwards. Using my main class of Astrologian as an example, while my character can only “draw cards” at Level 30, they do have access to their more basic healing and resurrection spells at earlier levels. The dungeons themselves are often enjoyable to traverse through, and while the first few dungeons are simple jaunts from Point A to Point B, they quickly begin offering a number of tricks and challenges to keep players on their toes.

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As a returning player, one system I appreciated was the Hall of the Novice. Available to characters Level 15 and upwards, there is a multi-part training course for each type of character (healing, tank and dps). Not only do these provide some useful equipment upon completion, but they do genuinely help players learn the basics of their class prior to dungeons unlocking from Level 16. That said, the Hall of the Novice does not expand past Level 15, so some of the more complex techniques will still require players to learn on-the-move or read/watch a guide. If you to opt to purchase one of the Level-up Books for your chosen class, I would strongly recommend working your way up through the dungeons rather than immediately diving into the End-Heavensward / Stormblood dungeons.

Many MMOs on the market lock you into a single class, requiring you to create another character from scratch should you wish to try your hand at something new. Final Fantasy XIV uses an approach found in earlier games of the Final Fantasy franchise, where you are able to change your class once unlocking it. This means that you can invest your time and effort into one character, and be a lot more flexible when choosing to play with friends. For example, is there a strong demand for tanks? Provided you have levelled one up, you can easily change from a spongy Black Mage to a thick-skinned Paladin. Coupled with the number of unique crafting classes on offer, players have a lot of freedom on how they tackle each play session.

Outside of combat and crafting, there are still many things that Final Fantasy XIV has to offer. These include but are not limited to a Grand Company system which allows you to support one of three companies through (delivery) missions and eventually command a squadron of NPC adventurers, a fully-fledged housing system for those who have lots of Gil to throw around, and the Manderville Gold Saucer which provides chocobo racing and many other games.

New In Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood

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As is common with many MMO expansion packs, the level cap for every class has been raised from Level 60 to 70. This means that crafting classes have received new higher-level items to craft, which each class also receives a number of new skills for players to factor into their repertoire. On the flip side, the Cross-Skill system has been overhauled, giving players access to a pre-defined set of optional skills per class. Complementing this level increase are a handful of new dungeons, trials and raids, unlockable through quests, ranging from Levels 61-70. There were a good assortment of offerings in this expansion, providing ample challenges with many satisfying moments.

Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood brings two returning Final Fantasy DPS classes to Eorzea, each of which can be unlocked very quickly after you reach Level 50 and complete a particular main scenario quest. The Red Mage is a ranged DPS class which will see players wielding a rapier and crystal as their weapons, allowing them to perform both ranged magic and melee attacks. While the Red Mage does not have access to healing spells, most attacks are classed as either or both ‘Black Magic’ or ‘White Magic’. By performing a balance of both types until their Job Gauge for each fills to 100, players can perform more powerful weaponskills. While there was a small learning curve for the Red Mage, it proved to be an enjoyable magic DPS class to play as, and required a little more strategy than comparable classes in my opinion.

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The other new class is the Samurai, which despite being unlocked in the desert city of Ul’dah, fits in nicely with the Eastern setting of Hingashi in this expansion. It is once again clear that the development team spent quite some time in making this class different from the other melee DPS classes. Using a two-handed Katana, characters of this class use a combination of combos (which store three ‘Sen’ forces in your blade – Setsu, Getsu and Ka) to deliver powerful blows against your foes. This isn’t a class I found suited my personal playstyle so have limited experience with it, however, I found this to be the more popular of the two when doing dungeon runs.

While players have been able to take to the skies in Final Fantasy XIV for some time, what lies underneath the sea has remained inaccessible. Stormblood gives players the chance to swim underwater in select locations. Unfortunately like flying however, the novelty does wear off after some time, given that combat is currently restricted to the surface. It is a shame, since both air battles and underwater battles (atop of respective mounts) would make for some interesting dungeons in my opinion.

Final Words on Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood

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I have enjoyed my first thirty days re-exploring Eorzea, and definitely look forward to many more months of playtime going ahead. With Final Fantasy XIV offering a lot of PvE, PvP and Non-Combat opportunities, and less character restrictions than you may typically find in an online game – I never found myself without bored or without something to do.

In terms of Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood as an expansion, despite some gameplay overhauls available to all players regardless of if they own the expansion, it does more or less build upon what was clearly an already satisfying online world. Offering two new classes which distinct gameplay mechanics, additional landmasses (and watermasses) to explore, challenging dungeons and an enticing story which picks up where Heavensward left off – there is a lot to look forward to whether you are continuing your journey or a new adventurer.

9
out of 10
Sam
Sam
Founder of The Otaku's Study. I have been exploring this labyrinth of fandom these last fifteen years, and still nowhere close to the exit yet. Probably searching for a long time to come.

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