![]() Which is all the better to motivate you through Stormblood‘s 129 new main story quests, as well as accompanying dungeons and bosses. Zenos, on the other hand, is so flamboyantly wicked and all-powerful that he doesn’t really need the extra layers to be FFXIV‘s best villain yet. The other new villains each have their own sympathetic wrinkles. Picture an armored, soft-spoken version of One-Punch Man’s Saitama with a “The Most Dangerous Game” streak. The principle baddie, Viceroy Zenos yae Galvus, is especially noteworthy. As does the new and most love-to-hate-worthy deck of villains yet. The ever-evolving cast of regular NPCs, which take the place of a “normal” Final Fantasy game’s playable party, have their own stakes in Ala Mhigo and Doma and get scads of screen time. It doesn’t hurt that Stormblood has the best and most intricate cast of FFXIV so far. But FFXIV‘s heavy and mandatory focus on story makes this more than just a nod to the dedicated. Other MMOs obliquely reference and reveal new or “fan favorite” lands of expansions, sure. After seeing characters kill, die, and betray one another for the off-screen areas’ freedom, I was ready and raring to kick the technocratic empire out of these new lands once and for all. The literal years of buildup made my eventual journey to the new regions exceptionally potent. Stormblood, however, finally sends players to the once-inaccessible regions (split into six-or-so new playable zones) with the goal of liberating their oppressed peoples. The two city-states, and their annexations by FFXIV‘s omnipresent evil empire, have been referenced in the game ad nauseam by NPC allies and enemies alike. Speaking of slow burns, the add-on’s A-plot picks up a thread that’s been running since 2010’s original FFXIV, prior to its A Realm Reborn relaunch: the plights of Doma and Ala Mhigo. That’s largely because of the dozens, if not hundreds of hours the plotline uses to slow-burn its way through crisscrossing conspiracies, heroes, villains, political schemes, tales of economic unrest, and old-fashioned adventures- rather than in spite of them. It’s also totally worth it.įinal Fantasy XIV has my favorite main story of any game in the series. All of which makes Stormblood just about the least accessible expansion to any game I can think of. That’s hundreds of quests and cutscenes, plus the side content you’ll need to churn through to reach XIV’s previous level caps, which wall off said missions even further. In order to even see 99 percent of the update’s content, you’ll need to have at least beaten the base game’s main story quests, its post-launch plotlines, the first expansion’s campaign, and that add-on’s post-release story. Look no further than Stormblood, the game’s newest and second expansion, for proof. You might say the same of most MMOs- designed as they are to drink up hours of free time with crafting, grinding, and dungeoneering- but Square Enix’s absurd online epic is an outlier. ![]() Final Fantasy XIV : A Realm Reborn is a commitment.
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