Stormblood is great, and here's why

[@cease_]

Rinoa is my favorite NPC in XIV.

[@redjoker365]

Stormblood is my favorite expansion because of all the nuances they captured with the national liberation movements. Motivations weren't purely black and white, you had well-intentioned collaborators, you had revolutionaries who were formerly human traffickers, you had sympathetic occupiers who did little things to reduce the abuses of the occupation, you had diaspora revolutionaries experiencing a kind of reverse-culture shock when encountering how despondent their people were when they "returned" to a homeland in which they had never set foot. All of these things happened in historical revolutions. I massively credited the writers for studying their history. The patches were great as well. I won't spoil the outcome, but the overall theme I encountered was, "After the revolution is won, what is the right thing to do with all the collaborators?" And that's an incredibly important question, because you can't just massacre a tenth of your population like that just on practical grounds alone. This is also touched on in some of the Endwalker and Dawntrail role quests. And the good thing is the story doesn't say that X or Y is the correct way, they say they're working with what they got to try and move forward in the moment If this was your first playthrough of Stormblood, I recommend you check out the original ending scene after defeating Zenos when they sing "The Measure of His Reach". They shortened it when Endwalker came out (as they do with most of the end cutscenes after 2 expansions). Made me cry

[@grimsalad]

Yes! you articulated everything that I love so well. I played the first patch last weekend and already love what they're doing with fordola too. lyse's commitment to non-retributive justice is great, and very much in line with her idealism, but the story doesn't moralize about how it's wrong to wish death upon someone like that either. so good. can't wait to play more

[@keeperbk5457]

The thing about an MMO like FFXIV is its most heightened moments-be they story, scenery reveal, music, or character beat-can feel disconnected within the game's necessarily vast and multifarious expanse. It takes an attentive, insightful, and impassioned player to process all of those parts; distill them; and express them as the greater whole they constitute. I am so grateful that Grim has done that, relating this art to urgent modern-day struggles (free, free Palestine!), and elucidating for all of us the relevance and beauty that lie within.

[@grimsalad]

Thank u roger ebert 💅

[@Lrbearclaw]

5:25 - If you are a Ninja you recognize Oboro with the Doman troops. He's the guy in unique purple armor.

[@Kiroy919]

I'm playing through FFXIV for the first time and I'm in Endwalker now. But I think Stormblood is still my favorite expansion so far, mainly because of Fordola. I don't recall experiencing a character in any other media that has depicted how occupation/colonialism can cause a child growing up in those circumstances can result in them internalizing self hatred. The idea that if we just work hard enough we'll finally be seen as equals in the eyes of their occupiers or a majority people is never true but also such a raw and real feeling in the real world.

[@majikalmcmuffin6258]

I didn’t like that yotsuyu survived but in the end i was glad she did. Take that as you will ;)

[@owa1985]

I'm still bummed I can't buy Yotsuyu's dress on the store due to technical difficulties, according to an old interview with a random developer.

[@owa1985]

Stormblood gave us Shiro, Crimson Sunset and Sunrise, Yotsuyu, KFC, Snekboi, Zeno, The Warden of Seven Hues, Omega, Hello World, Gazellskin maps, the Capybara and my favourite: the Golden Whisker. I feel odd for saying this, but as time went on, Stormblood aged a lot better than Heavensward.

[@tidewatcher9962]

It was definitely a controversial expansion for its day. Part of that is from Lyse herself. As until the end of Heavensward 3.X patches, people assumed 2.0 and 3.0 Yda was Yda from 1.0. It was a divisive change where you either liked the reveal of Lyse or you felt Yda was callously replaced. And since the player interacted quite a bit with Lyse in stormblood, this could and did sour players opinions who didn't like the Yda to Lyse plot point. EDIT: Its not say a person can't enjoy Lyse, just context is all.

[@grimsalad]

Totally valid. even without having played 1.0, it felt weird that they replaced an entire character like that. why couldn't they have made a new model? maybe the writers didn't think that a brand new character would be accepted as the "face" of stormblood?

[@tidewatcher9962]

@@grimsalad Might have been exactly what you were talking about. A minor way it could have been saved is if her actual name was Lyse and Yda was just a name she took on to hide from whatever threat at the time from Garlemald. It would at least explain why she liked to wear that hat that partially obscured her face.

[@arturoarturovich4773]

I love you for the support you showed for Palestine at the end of this video. Bless you. Awareness is the only tool we have as a peoples. Consciousness and freedom is everything. Thank you a lot! On a less serious note, good video. I hope you keep making more of these. FFXIV is a special video game and it deserves to be discussed about. Hope you have fun going on, the game's story keeps getting better and you have yet to live its peak, IMHO. Have fun! :)

[@grimsalad]

I will always speak out about palestine, even if I'm just talking about a silly video game 🥲 🍉 thank you so much for the comment. I'm really excited to keep playing MSQ!

[@aaronammann4236]

Honestly this expansion is actually well written, and has a FFIV of "Oh these people died l, but just kidding they're fine." which I find okay. I knew Gosetsu was a stronger guy than normal. Also I'm all for the harder content as long as I can look up how to beat it. (even if it takes longer than normal.)

[@gumi2521]

8:11 For the record, you're playing the modified version of this dungeon, where the last boss was made EXTREMELLY harder compared to it's original version, this was done in some of the Endwalker patches. (This also applies to all MSQ dungeons from ARR too, all of those got modified to be similar to later expansion dungeon design) If you notice a dip in quality in stormblood dungeons, it's cuz those weren't updated beyond adding the trust system, where as some of the ones in Heavensward were, the pre-endwalker counterparts of these bosses were pushovers, probably why you notice SB feels easier overall, when prior to the changes, it was the other way around. The HW dungeon you used as an example is one of the better examples, this fight was very easy but now it's a thrilling skill check for all new players where they need to put everything to the test, thankfully, if you want a challenge in Stormblood, the normal raids will absolutely be that for you.

[@mai88sara]

Wow, I've not expected this take back to a real-life issue, intrestingly enough, I had the same vibe when I played this expantion the first time. Everyone kept talking down about Stromblood story for its "so real and not much fantasy" side, which was the most appealing part for me in fact. This is my first time watching any of your contact, and I'm def following your channel, I loved your video through in through, and I appreciate every min of it! thank you!

[@grimsalad]

Thank you for the kind comment! 😊

[@zedorian6547]

The most appealing part of the fantasy game is the not fantasy part? Makes sense I guess

[@TheSpartanOne]

I've been replaying the MSQ on an alt recently, and I very much agree with the Israel-Palestine sentiment you came to. It's incredibly reminiscent of it. That especially since Gyr Abania is so heavily themed on Arabic culture and locations, specifically around Turkey and Syria. But so many times, I've read or heard something mentioned, and it's like 'I wish more people were listening/reading this too.' Granted, real life is far more complicated, and I could go on for hours about the conflict - if it can even be called that. But nonetheless, it very much makes me ponder on such.

[@grimsalad]

I'm glad that the story resonated with other people in a similar way. I didn't want to overdo the comparisons, because real life is far more complicated than a video game, as you say-- and this one was produced in a country with its own history of heinous war crimes and historical revisionism-- but it elevated the story so much to see the parallels with palestine and feel like maybe that suffering could end in my lifetime too.

[@shrimpskillet]

I love Stormblood!! It makes me so happy to see someone new to the game enjoy it too. I was so caught up in the general twitter community when I first played through it (which was about 6ish? months after Shadowbringers released) , I kept my opinions to myself because I thought I'd get trampled by people for saying how much I actually love it despite its flaws. Same with ARR, I'm actually replaying ARR right now and I just.....I love it!!! I love this whole game really! Its the best story of all the mmos I play, games like Mabinogi, WoW, or PSO2 don't compare in the SLIGHTEST when it comes to story to FFXIV. I will admit I had some issues with Dawntrail, but trust me when I say DONT LISTEN TO THE COMMUNITY!!! ITS GOOD TOO IT JUST HAS SOME FLAWS!!! You will (hopefully) enjoy it too when you get around to it! ^_^

[@grimsalad]

This is such a wholesome comment 🥹

[@TheeChaste]

Honestly I liked Stormblood More than HW, this is coming from someone who loves dragons, played a dragoon through all hw for the thematic, but STB just felt more real less fantasy? Grity in a real way, not to say HW was sunshine and rainbows lol plus once I started the patch quests...i couldn't put down the game down till the end of the MSQ of endwalker I also enjoyed ARR, didn't let the hate get to me best way to play this game is to ignore what everyone says and enjoy what you want to enjoy

[@zedorian6547]

So you prefer the less fantasy expansion of a fantasy game?

[@Sogeking420]

I just started playing love this game I’m playing on PS5, 190 hours in and I just got to stormblood I just realized there’s another 3 expansions 4 if you count stormblood cause I just started it, crazy how I have so much more left to do and there’s so much more to do besides the MSQ and the community it’s lovely I’m happy I found this game and sad that I didn’t played it sooner

[@grimsalad]

Yay! I hope that you have fun with stormblood. also, I love one piece 🙌

[@elrilmoonweaver4723]

I will say, Stormblood has issues, particularly when handling Yotsuyu and Lyse and how disjointed the pacing is sometimes. However, the patch story for Stormblood is hailed as one of the best parts of the SB story, it has my favorite build up to a future expansion to date (4.4 to 4.55) and has one of my favourite trials in the game - the music is spectacular and juxtoposition between music and story damn near made me cry (which has only ever happened one other time and it was in the last EW alliance raid).

[@michaels2077]

Stormblood is my second favorite expansion. I always get shit for saying that 😂

[@Tardisntimbits]

It's amazing how your char shares features of mine, and yet they're also nothing alike...

[@grimsalad]

I've tried to change my character's hair a couple times but she ends up looking way too different 😭 it's wild

[@Tardisntimbits]

@@grimsalad I toyed with making mine a mooncat, and it was a huge nope. It just wasn't her. So I've only made minor changes that applied to lore for her (after myself and a few other officers in our fc went lala for a couple months to mess with people, lol)

[@katmeerkats]

Nice to see you back. Zenos was always level 70 which was part of why he beat your ass early in the expac. Also unfortunately dungeons in previous expacs are victims of power creep and in general don't hurt or punish players for mistakes really. As you get closer to current content, dungeons will punish you more for mistakes. Additionally, the bosses were reworked so that NPCs could do their mechanics and most of the time this results in the mechanics becoming more boring and predictable. Your camera shots during the anthems were great. All of your thoughts are valid and I've seen enough playthroughs to hear all sides of the like it/don't like it. Pacing, exposition dumps and macguffins are all acknowledged to be weaknesses of the base Stormblood. Honestly the real struggle is that everyone wants to tell you what they think of stuff before you've had a chance to experience it. Many people will tell you that the patch content is what they mean by great, but I've also seen that not everyone likes the patch stories. I'm looking forward to your take on them as well as the raids and trial series. Watching other people play this game has shown me the value in parts that didn't originally resonate with me. That's my favorite part and why I'll never tell you what's good :) Only you can say.

[@grimsalad]

I knew that power creep was a huge factor in content like the crystal tower, but I was shocked when helping a friend with alexander earlier this week. I had somehow never done the A1 fight in a normal roulette (only as a duo) and was stunned that the mechanics simply don't exist. you don't even need an off-tank. both oppressors just get melted 😭

[@katmeerkats]

@@grimsalad yup the most rewarding way to do old dungeons is to get a couple friends and set the dungeon to min ilvl. Too bad you can't do that with NPCs but let's be honest, they already suck. I had all three die on the last boss once when I was running stone vigil. The good news is, as you get into the stormblood raids, the mechanics get a little more challenging and people die to dumb even when damage is not very high. The zenos fight in Ala Mhigo used to be very fun and challenging when it was current. He was reworked for NPCs and is the victim of power creep. It's very sad. You might try some of the optional dungeons in stormblood. Optionals don't get reworked for NPCs so their mechanics will be the same. They still won't be very punishing tho :/

[@grimsalad]

@@katmeerkats That's so disappointing to hear about the zenos fight. I've enjoyed using duty support since the beginning, and I still really appreciate that it exists, but it's really unfortunate that they couldn't preserve some of that fun when they went back to rework older dungeons.

[@LupusArcavius]

@@grimsaladon the subject of old content not aging well or being reworked, it’s interesting that you mention ARF. ARF was also reworked and the final encounter of the dungeon is actually way harder than it was originally. I’ve done new ARF maybe 3 times since the change and each time I had at least 3 wipes with random DF people

[@grimsalad]

​@@LupusArcavius Damn, really? thanks for sharing that. it's interesting to think about how much my experience as a new player differs from that of people who've been playing for years. this is the first that I've heard about reworked content being made more difficult, apart from the ending of ARR (solo rhitahtyn kicked my ass as a clueless baby sprout)

[@xyltk]

I love Stormblood, it’s my favorite expansion story. I really think HW is overhyped and SB is underrated. I did love both though PS: I would love to hear your thoughts after finishing the SB patch content!

[@Nodnarb59]

Well you're wrong so

[@grimsalad]

That's my feeling so far as well. There was too much hype surrounding heavensward ("omg now you're really playing ff14") but it's still an excellent story. People seem to prefer the patch content for stormblood over the base expansion, so I'm very curious to see how that plays out for me!

[@rfactor1502]

Not going to say Stormblood was a bad expansion, I never thought it was either. I could see how playing through when it was current might have felt like a bit of a slog, but honestly, that's MMOs sometimes. Stormblood was one of those expansions that wasn't afraid to really lean on the T rating in ways other than simple violence to say "Hey, look, this situation is FUCKED." It probably rates towards the top of my list of expansions, roughly tied with Dawntrail, and just a bit behind Shadowbringers. I couldn't say any of the parts of FFXIV are even bad, but once you stack rank favorite parts, you're going to have a bottom of the list somewhere. Personally I think one of the biggest flaws pacing wise is the first dungeon not being in the Gyr Abania region, and instead waiting for the jump to Doma. If we had been given just a little more time to get invested in the Ala Mhigan side of the story. Specifically having the raid on the bridge could have made for a good dungeon experience, having the Garlean counter-attack being the surprise waiting for you right after a nice triumph in the dungeon. Sure, it would have been a bit of a harsh whiplash in mood, but an intentional one, really driving home the need to get another front going to disrupt the status quo.

[@grimsalad]

That's a fair criticism. I was surprised to look back and see that my first stream was already in kugane. I loved the duty in rhalgr's reach, but a dungeon like you describe to deepen our investment beforehand would have been a nice touch. the writers may have been leaning a bit too much on lore from ARR/HW-- we know that raubahn and lyse are from ala mhigo, we meet meffrid really early on, we know that things are bad for them, but they don't give us enough to develop a true sense of connection to the place until much later, so I can understand struggling to feel invested.

[@KeatonKing]

I disagree on your takes regarding Palestine, though it IS an issue where both sides has committed many wrongs But I wholeheartedly agree with the rest Lyse was annoying to me as a character, but the patches fix that I didn’t like that Fordola and Yotsuyu was BASICALLY the same character, but once again the patches fixed that

[@grimsalad]

There can never be "both sides" in a conflict when one side is a military power funded by the west that utterly dominates the other; when the other side is a people who are regarded as "human animals" by israeli government officials and who are not even permitted to collect rain for drinking water. Get outta here with that.

[@zedorian6547]

Someone here is so passionate about their view that they immediately dismiss the perspective of the person who doesnt blindly agree with them like a drone while also completely ignoring the rest of the comment about the video topic as a whole.

[@Raven3557]

To me stormblood has great trials and raids, garbage msq. I hated the fact we started helping somewhere then we move to doma then come back for Ala mhigo. Also i dislike lise, papalymo didn't deserve to die Ps : fuk Zenos. The books help flush the character sure, but that's not fake content. Making a character interesting with outside media isn't a good thing

[@RatComedenti]

Personally i think the biggest problem with stormblood isn't the actual expansion itself but it's that usually the 2nd expansion of most MMO's are where the devs "understand" the flaws and strengths of the medium of a MMO. To me it felt like they just forgot why heavensward was great and as someone who's still not "up to date" with the story and binged the msq up to shadowbringers patches the story felt like "this random guy beats you lol". I personally felt like the liberation plot felt underbaked in some parts. Stormblood is a ok expansion between 2 real good expansions.

[@RatComedenti]

As examples of other MMO's understanding what the players want at least on a story level WoW 2nd expansion was The Wrath of the Lich king GW2 was Path of Fire I can personally attest that to me PoF in GW2 got me from liking the game to loving it and knowing every story beat and actually made me invested fully. Stormblood on the other hand made me have doubts, I felt throughout not only it but shadowbringers too that "I am wasting my money and time" as FF14 is the only sub MMO ive played. Shadowbringers was good but I am fully expecting a Destiny type deal where they make a good expansion then rush out a comparatively worse one so they have time for another good one. I do not trust existing player opinions on any live service game including games I like. (Warframe is my all time favourite game but I will forever say the new player expiriance is awful and the wool over the eyes plot it does for the first 200-ish hours can be exhausting when you know about it)

[@grimsalad]

Parts of the story were underbaked for sure. I just see heavensward as having similar flaws. I genuinely think that people forgive HW much more easily because it followed ARR and was such a drastic improvement. I do understand the "random guy beats you up" feeling though... zenos has no real depth as a villain, whereas the murder of ratatoskr, the cover-up and founding of ishgard, the fanaticism of the church, and nidhogg's hate all feel so real and heavy. the story makes it very clear why the dragonsong war has gone on so long and why and how it must end. heavensward definitely had some incredible storytelling. for me, stormblood just stripped away the dragons and high fantasy and hit much closer to home, while also being more fun to actually play. but I don't think that I could rate one expansion higher than the other right now

[@alpsi285]

What are you talking about? HW is mid AF. Cliched evil pope, cringey dragon romance, worst cop out in the whole series, the horrible pacing and back and forth between Ishgard and Uldah, etc. the only people who overglorify HW are the XIV boomers or the sheeple. There's a reason why SB has a higher metacritic score than HW by both critics AND players

[@zedorian6547]

@alpsi285 You are doing nothing but spouting bs and trying to back them up by claiming “critic scores” and yet have the NERVE to call people who prefer HW sheeple?! YOU CAN’T EVEN FORM YOUR OWN PERSONAL OPINION! And the use of boomer just tells me that you are a kid who has done nothing of worth in their entire existence and is upset by it.

[@alpsi285]

SB is phenomenal. SB>HW all day everyday. Higher metacritic score than HW in both critics score and players score. HW is the xpac for XIV boomers and sheeple

[@Nodnarb59]

And SB is for people with no tastes

[@alpsi285]

@@Nodnarb59 riiight because higher scores from fans and critics prove that. Go enjoy your cringey ass dragon romance, typical evil religion bs. HW is catered to neckbeards lmfao salty 🤡

[@VGPorage]

And critic score only reflects the launch of the expansion (since thats it's bieng reviewed) and not how the expansion was as a whole. So those reviews are really completely meaningless. Still SB is my favorite expansion to date so I am not gonna disagree regardless.

[@alpsi285]

@@VGPorage they are in now way "completely meaningless". That's such a hyperbole and completely false. They provide us with an aggregate score from both fans and critics alike. And that is better than no source of data

[@VGPorage]

​​​​@@alpsi285 I do exaggerate somewhat by saying completely but I think it's tricky as whats really gonna make or break an expansion to me is mostly not how it launch but how well it keeps you engaged during it's lifespan wich to me is where SB became the best expansion we have had. But that is something that can not be predicted at launch wich is why I don't really consider launch reviews when determining how good it actually was. But my logic also makes expansions unreviewable when they are relevant so there is a tricky dilemma there.

[@jerryjuutalainen1783]

damn was invested into this until you brought in unrelated world events. Meh to each their own.

[@keeperbk5457]

The video makes a compelling argument for why the liberation movement against violent colonizers in Stormblood is reminiscent of the analogous situation in Palestine. Flatly declaring the two to be "unrelated" doesn't make it so.

[@jerryjuutalainen1783]

@@keeperbk5457 cuz i've had to study that area throughout the period of modern history for my studies back in the day. There is basically no correlation between the real history of that are and the made up propaganda most media pushes. Palestine had multiple changes to exist throughout history and yet its leadership and arab neighbours squandered it.

[@keeperbk5457]

​@@jerryjuutalainen1783 It sounds like you've bought into some bigoted, baseless nonsense. Do us all a favor and take it elsewhere.