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Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward

Developer / Publisher: Square Enix
23 June 2015
Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward - cover art
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279 Ratings / 2 Reviews
The Warrior of Light and their few allies take refuge in the isolated city of Ishgard, where a thousand-year war against dragonkind is coming to a head.
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I hate Estenien, wish he'd died.
I got about 3 hours into this expansion and literally said "my god it does get better after the 60 hour mark"

One of the best fantasy stories ive experienced in a video game hands down. Builds from the strong points of A Realm Reborn in a way that really shows that the dev team for FFXIV is not just competent but some of the best in the industry. Extremely strong not just as a standalone narrative but as the building blocks for the next several expansions and their narratives. This is your reward for getting through Realm Reborn.
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CypressPunk 2022-03-18T03:30:45Z
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This review is pretty loosely thrown together. But I do have plenty of thoughts about this story, which I quite like. So bear with me.

A lot of reasons that this is an improvement over A Realm Reborn, but the key is mainly that it's more focused. The great thing about the expansion model for this story is that they can devote an entire game's worth of content to a story that doesn't have a lot to do with the 'main' story of FFXIV while building out the world while still progressing the overarching story in small bits. The Dragonsong war does become the main story for a bit, but the overall battles with the Ascians and the Empire are not forgotten. (Actually, I think they're a lot scarier as side characters ready to be a dangerous nuisance at a moment's notice.) You can see this philosophy even carrying over to the post-game patches, where each patch has a clearer beginning and end that deals with its own story.

That focus clearly helps, and you can really tell how much it works by the moments where the story loses focus, namely the parts of the game that drag you back to deal with some loose end from the end of A Realm Reborn, like rescuing Raubahn or Y'Shtola. When those were happening (at least in the main story; the content with the Scions in the patches was fine), I just found myself wanting to get back to the events in Ishgard, and it honestly felt like the writers did, too; the resolution of the events in Ul'Dah felt hasty and cheap. By contrast, the story in Ishgard is quite good, if a little predictable; an endless war started by the colonizers and blamed on the indigenous race maintained by a ruling class that must be stopped by undermining the political powers. Framed like that, it's a convincing but oft-repeated story; it's within the specifics of the game's world, the actual fantasy stuff (much of which connects back to A Realm Reborn where the story manages to set itself apart.

The heart of it is with Estinien and Nidhogg, really, two players from either side of the war who are driven by nothing but pure hatred. But we gradually learn that they have very different ends in mind - Estinien wants the eradication of the dragons, but Nidhogg wants to torture mankind for centuries over their past wrongs. (Well, continuing wrongs - the Ishgardians might not be doing terrible things to dragons but they certainly are to themselves, and would to the dragons if they only had the might.) It's as Estinien begins to finally understand Nidhogg - whose power he has always drawn from - that he learns to become less like him, moved forward by Ysayle, who also has to reckon with her own failings. But ironically, the one moment where he finally lets go of his rage is where Nidhogg's - which has burned far more powerfully than Estinien's ever did - takes control of him, ending his life and resurrecting Nidhogg. That Nidhogg's rage continues to be a threat that fuels the story even after Nidhogg has been slain multiple times - threatening the burgeoning peace between the Ishgardians and the dragons, eventually fueling the coming story in Ala Mhigo through Ilberd's creation of a primal - speaks to his sheer power. I do kind of wish that Estinien hadn't been able to be saved afterwards, though; it puts a bit of a damper on what should be a tragic arc and only serves to further Alphinaud's character development.

Which, while we're here - the Scions in general were never very likeable or interesting, and you can see them making strides to try and make the characters more interesting. The level of success varies - I like the air of confidence (and competence!) that Y'Shtola projects, though her personality is still not strong; the self-hating Thancred who couldn't save his friends provides him so more definition; Yda/Lyse doesn't get to do much yet but shows promise for Stormblood; Papalymo made for a good sacrifice since he was probably the worst Scion anyway. Which leaves Alphinaud, and unfortunately, that guy still sucks; they try to give him an arc as he reckons with his obviously terrible Crystal Braves idea, eventually coming to reframe his idealism as away from the whole world (which he should not be in charge of) to the individual... But I'm never convinced that this amounts to a real change of heart. As your character's traveling companion, he's meant as sort of a proxy character and a face for the Scions, which means he needs to be left a little vague and undefined; but he also needs to be his own character at the risk of being boring. (And it doesn't help that the most logical path for his character is to be an annoying little shit.) As such, he's left as a kind of amorphous character.

But that's ultimately okay, because it also means that the story doesn't revolve around him. It becomes more about the key players in the Dragonsong war; not just Nidhogg and Estinien, but also Ysayle, who comes to term with her own life after learning that the goddess she revered, occasionally seemed to become, was nothing but an image within her mind brought to life by the magic of the world. (Which is the case for every primal, a terrifying yet comforting prospect when you consider how the beast tribes envision their gods.) She knows that she has been a false prophet, and laments the lives lost in the name of that. Yet at the same time she was chosen to bear the Echo, and she knows that her cause of uniting the Ishgardians and the dragons was just.

Her conversations with Hraesvalgr, Shiva's former lover who also gave Nidhogg the power to torment the Ishgardians for a millenia (and does not regret it), also informs much of the story. Actually, were it not for Hraesvalgr, the Ishgardians likely never would have had the information that led them to peace; and they certainly would not have been able to defeat Nidhogg. (The battle between the two dragons, done completely done through cutscenes, truly does deserve the word 'epic'.) Again, that he doesn't die is a bit of a cop out, but he proved to be an interesting character that had to balance his love and hatred - both of them tempered by time - to be convinced that change needed to be made. Well, that and a conversation with his daddy Midgardsormr, whose general absence through this story mostly confused me. But whatever.

Aymeric? Great guy, and I love listening to him talk. (Square Enix changed voice acting studios after A Realm Reborn, a change which most people seem to like that I'm not so certain about. But I was very glad that Aymeric's voice stuck around.) Once again, I really liked when this game got political, and he was a good character to have at the forefront of that; someone with connections to the history of nobility while still technically living and operating outside of it, who's able to lead the charge in trying to bring down the entire political system that Ishgard has operated under for a thousand years. Only after the dragons tell him the system is a fraud, granted - he never seems to have any true ideological commitments to helping the poor - but at least he stays steadfast in his mission. That means that the end result is still a little nonfunctional; there's a 'House of Lords' and a 'House of Commons' that merely gives both classes political power without actually making direct efforts to help those in need, and actually making it explicit that the 'commoners' never become anything but. (Perhaps that's why the lords were so quick to accept the system. I mean, the real reason is that the writers wanted to tie up the story already and move on to the next thing. But that's my headcanon.) But I suppose there is some true benefit to that system, because we see just how strong political power truly is in the attempts to make peace with the dragons.

After waging war with the dragons for generations - so far back that only the dragons themselves could possibly know a version of the truth with any accuracy - it's understandable that the people of Ishgard are wary about peace with the dragons. There's been no reason to trust them before, especially when they were dealing with the hateful minions of Nidhogg. But anyone on the forefront of the action, who's in possession of all the facts, can see that there's no reason to keep the war happening. But the only people who are afforded those facts are the ones in positions of political power, like the Scions and Aymeric - and the Archbishop, who strives to keep the war going for his own vain pursuits of power. (And for 'the culture'.) The people who this helps the most can't actually see why it helps them, especially when it seems like Aymeric has betrayed them by killing the archbishop; so they lash out, and those in power that don't deserve to be (because of the aristocracy) make things even worse. (Which is to say that Emmanuelain sucks and he never should have gotten a redemption arc.) In the new system, the 'commoners' are at least theoretically kept in the loop on these matters; though I would imagine they are still subservient to the lords on the whole. Anyway. Some work to be done that I'm sure won't actually be done.

Outside of the Dragonsong war? Well, there's all this stuff about the Warriors of Darkness who came from another dimension that had too much light and needed darkness to balance it out and then Minfilia is now a goddess or something and she rescues them and... I dunno, that stuff doesn't interest me as much, although if I'm being honest it still worked out better than I thought a story about some unnamed 'Warriors of Darkness' was going to. (And it wrapped up early, too, which was nice.) There's some stuff with the beast tribes and the Allagans which mostly gets told through side quests, and while I appreciate the world building, there's also just too many fucking side quests - most of them with fairly generic gameplay - to actually make learning about them worthwhile. I liked learning about the Chocobo hunters, the peaceful dragons, and the Geth Gnath, but by the time I'd finished rolling through all the sidequests there I was exhausted. I'd kept up with a lot of the sidequests until that point, but that was the point where I had to give up doing anything that wasn't leading to a duty or an Aether current.

Which I suppose brings me back to the gameplay... Which, I dunno, it's good. There are some very cool bosses and dungeons with some real spectacle and strategy, and the game only improves as your character learns more abilities. (Playing as a Ninja on a PS5 controller is becoming more and more challenging - there's a lot of commands and only so many buttons - but I welcome the difficulty.) Clearly it's good, because there are a ton of people still playing this game well after they've wrapped up the main story. But it is simply not the highlight for me, the reason why I come to this game. I am fully invested in the story at this point, and am continually surprised by how much I love the game's worldbuilding and politics - being able to build up the identities of each nation this thoroughly means that some events can trigger chain reactions that feel completely believable. (I can only imagines the ripples through Stormblood, which I have been assured is very political, which makes me happy.) But when the gameplay doesn't excite me as much, it can start to feel like a drag, especially when I've been playing this for months on end. (Although I think the developers realized that. There are long stretches of the game that are essentially just traveling to different places and watching cutscenes, instead of the random bullshit you were always doing in A Realm Reborn. I appreciated the change, personally - just means more of the good stuff.) Which is to say, it's time for a break - I won't finish in time for Endwalker's release, but I won't enjoy it if I'm burnt out. That's a me problem, though; they did a killer job on this one.
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(Review written right before the drop of patch 5.3, will be updated)

It comes as a great surprise to me, that an MMO I really didn't expect to enjoy that much over half a year ago now delivers me one of my favorite stories in video games. Heavensward immediately takes the lessons learned from A Realm Reborn and goes absolutely all-in, both the gameplay and the story reach new peaks that eclipse anything A Realm Reborn was able to put out in its patch content.

The story comes first, while certainly beholden to a lot of early first halfish pacing issues and trashy sideplots (especially a really disappointing end to a story started in Ul'Dah), once it hits it throws an absolute flurry of extremely quality punches. The themes of past conflicts, both in understanding that past and learning to move on, righting the wrongs and searching for a lasting peace, are front and center and explored gloriously. Even when the story continues to the patch content, it showcases genuine understanding in the difficult turmoil a nation faces when working through revolution that turns said nation on its head. Characters especially are fantastic, from Estinien's hatred that works in parallel to Nidhogg's own, to Alphinaud's gamewide character arc that stands resolute.

And the moments keep coming, up to the Final Steps of Faith the cutscenes proudly demonstrate excellent emotional moments and writing peaks as a whole. While it never actually reaches something of say, a "best work of all time" kind of status, its highs are still something I think about far after they've happened. Even the new Job quests benefit from a jump in writing quality, with especially the Dark Knight questline being an absolute treat.

The gameplay has improved too, with far more interesting rotations to juggle between all the new instances. Even the Main Questline combat is a bit more involved than it used to, although still not generally satisfying or fun to engage in (bar a couple exceptions). But dungeons are above decent on average now, with certain dungeon bosses being wipe-testers of sorts. Every single trial is a visual spectacle as well as an incredible fight on their own, including the MSQ trials and the Warring Triad. Again, I have to give props to Final Steps of Faith for being the culmination of everything that came before. The raid content this time around still ends up being half and half unfortunately, with item level creep and mechanical changes leaving the vast majority of said content pitifully easy (at least it's synced roulettes now though). The spectacle up till near the end isn't as special as Bahamut's either. That being said, the final turns of Alexander still ended up great with some genuine challenge.

The soundtrack and general aesthetic of Heavensward are also exemplary, with songs like Dragonsong being mainstays, and areas like the Sea of Clouds and Azys Lla especially being awe-strucking at points. Being able to fly around helps too, and getting said ability to fly isn't tedious at all in my experience, with every Aether Current you need to find to unlock flying in any particular area being literally right next to story objectives or side quest objectives.

Side stories this time around are kind of underwhelming unfortunately. Hildibrand is still funny here but not nearly as comical as ARR's did, and Scholasticate is neat but not something anyone should do at once without getting bored.

Even still, I left Heavensward giddy and having a tremendous time overall, and I wholeheartedly recommend playing FFXIV for it, especially now that it will be FREE with the next patch.

Also, Ser Aymeric is my husband and nobody else can have him. I will literally murder any nay-sayers.

(Ending disclaimer: I have yet to play all classes with their 50-60 rotations, and can only speak of a few. Review will update as needed when I go back to do that content.)
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SciCore Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward 2024-03-25T06:35:33Z
2024-03-25T06:35:33Z
3.5
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
glossolaliacoats Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward 2024-03-18T00:59:34Z
2024-03-18T00:59:34Z
3.0
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
Maliptail Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward 2024-03-09T17:05:36Z
2024-03-09T17:05:36Z
1
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satchelcharge Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward 2024-02-18T04:26:48Z
2024-02-18T04:26:48Z
4.0
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elonileaf Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward 2024-01-22T01:14:01Z
2024-01-22T01:14:01Z
4.0
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zooglezoogle Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward 2024-01-20T10:00:18Z
2024-01-20T10:00:18Z
8.8
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
cefu Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward 2024-01-20T09:59:09Z
2024-01-20T09:59:09Z
9.0
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ArcanaNoctis Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward 2024-01-19T21:27:10Z
2024-01-19T21:27:10Z
2.0
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Zorgly Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward 2024-01-19T18:42:26Z
2024-01-19T18:42:26Z
9.5
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Split_Infinitives Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward 2024-01-16T16:59:34Z
2024-01-16T16:59:34Z
4.5
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Encephalopathy Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward 2024-01-16T03:35:29Z
2024-01-16T03:35:29Z
4.5
1
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daedalCacoethes Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward 2024-01-11T06:27:08Z
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  • moonhalo 2021-11-02 07:58:55.070654+00
    The worldbuilding and aesthetic is among my most somber and bleak gaming experiences. Heavensward feels like the culmination to a thousand year war, and that's a triumph.
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  • Aurochz 2022-11-19 16:13:21.898713+00
    I wanted to hate this because Square broke my heart as a young lad, but I can't deny it. This is a close to a masterpiece MMO's have produced since World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade.
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  • IrlYuri 2022-12-28 08:44:53.233667+00
    i wanna hug alphinaud so bad
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  • dontwannaknow 2023-03-24 12:47:42.644872+00
    This gets so off the wall idk how they can possibly top this expansion
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  • breakdownbbe 2023-04-12 20:34:41.787846+00
    The level of improvement from the base game is mind boggling. Cat shit to cheesecake.
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