Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood

They just keep making the game better and better with each expansion, huh?

What really makes this games-- all the games, is the story. The gameplay is improved slightly. I got a couple more moves to use. Mostly it's noticeable in all the boss fights with have an interesting array of mechanics that have you dancing around the stage of battle. And I love that, don't get me wrong. In this area, I think this expansion is even better than the last and that itself was better than the original game. I was actually losing in numerous of the fights at normal difficulty in this one. Awesome!

But what makes these games is the story. It's such an epic tale being woven across each of the games. The first game is about fighting back against an empire. Some dark plot beneath the surface conspiring to resurrect "eikons". Heavensward continues the tale and adds in an ancient neighboring nation and it's millennia-long war with dragonkind. And all of the backstory that goes along with that. Truly epic. This one ups the ante by finally departing Eorzea. You finally venture out to new continents and new lands. Doma. Ala Mhigo, which is referenced all the time previously, is finely shown to us.

Beyond the lands, there are the characters that fill them. They outdo themselves here as well. The previous game had some excellent new characters introduced like Estinien and Aymeric along with dragons like Hraesvelgr and Nidhogg. This one has a whole host of characters from Doma as well as Ala Mhigo. Yda who is revealed to be Lyse her sister donning the identity of her sister to get on in the world is a real stand out with a ton of character development. Gosetsu and Lord Hien are also excellent.

And the villain. My word, the villain. Zenos is so COOL. He's probably one of my favorite villains in a very long time. Aesthetically he's this incredibly imposing yet strikingly handsome man. His penchant for carrying around a case of 3 separate katanas is a nice flourish. His monomaniacal obsession with having a glorious fight is fantastic in that the entire plot of the game is basically him trying to set up this fight. He subjugates entire nations with the sole purpose of training up people so he can fight them. Insane. Glorious.

It's truly an epic tale. And through it all so many cool scenes. Like the storming of Doma castle with the Azim Steppe tribes swooping in to destroy Magitek flying machines atop their giant birds. Or any scene involving Zenos and his ruthlessness.

Glad to have played it. And looking forward to the post-game story wrap up AND the next expansion. Always look forward!