I'm going to do my best to avoid spoilers, thought I suppose it's always possible to gleam information from comments, so consider this a possible SPOILER warning!
Honestly, this expansion COMPLETELY blew me away! Even though the environments weren't quite as "alien" as I had come to expect (Lakeland was the only one that stood out as truly otherworldly), the music once again delivered in a big, big way! I'm terrible with names, but the desert zone's music was unexpected but definitely my favorite track of this expansion!
The story goes exactly the directions I was hoping it would, while still throwing in some cool twists.
That said, I definitely had a few points that stood out to me:
- Minfilia has been gone for a while now, but never has her absence felt more poignant than here. When all the Scions gather, I really missed her bubbly, friendly personality. Shadowbringers is obviously a very serious expansion, but the Scions felt a little overbearing in that regard.
- Thancred, in particular, felt totally devoid of his usual charm and humor. Understandable, but I found it kind of a problem all the same. Without his constant flirtiness or ego, I honestly just kind of found him a bit annoying.
- Ran'jit suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucks. I think I'm in the minority, but I actually really enjoyed Zenos as a villain, and he felt worthy of being a "rival". Ran'jit, by contrast, completely sucked the excitement out of the game whenever he showed up. Nothing about him was interesting, and I honestly took some minor offense that HE, of all people, was able to defeat my character with such ease. If anything, he should have been STRICTLY a tactician, but making him some God-like combatant felt really out-of-place and unwelcome.
- In addition to wanting someone with a more upbeat personality, I also feel like the Scions could use a little VISUAL disparity, too. Way too many tall, thin, white-haired folks. I would LOVE a burly Roegadyn who is a more jolly, abrasive type. I feel like that would just really round out the team, even though no one specific really springs to mind. I wouldn't mind Eynzahr Slafyrsyn (aka. "Merlvyb's second-in-command over the Maelstrom) join the Scions in some capacity.
- I'm not quite sure what to think of Runas. The implied romance between him and Y'shtola seems sort of weird to me? If anything, I'd almost thought the Exarch would be a pretty fitting coupling. Something about full-on cat-people romancing part-cat-people seems strange.
- All of the Ascian stuff was AMAZING. I already praised the game up above, but this just REALLY needed to be said!
- The dungeons in Shadowbringers felt RIDICULOUSLY hard. Like... not even enjoyably so. The last dungeon, in particular, my group literally almost timed-out because we kept wiping on that last boss. Conversely, most of the Trials were fun, although I found the first one to also have been overly difficult.
- I will say that Dohn Mheg is hands-down, without contest, my favorite "zone" in the game. I *LOVE* the whole vibe of that place, particularly the first area. Creepy context aside, I would adore a Housing area with that sort of "Alice in Wonderland" vibe, wherever it might be.
- Despite being the "Warrior of Darkness", I'll say that I'm a little bummed that my character never felt truly worthy of the title. In fact, I'd say as much as I loved this expansion, it's also the first one my character never felt like a "badass". And certainly no "darker" than he was in previous adventures. Before Shadowbringers' end, I'd like to see my character actually live up to the title, a Warrior of Darkness to actually inspire fear in his enemies.
I'm honestly pretty excited to see where the story continues to go. I've been on a rampage trying to complete 5.0 before 5.3 launched, and while I missed my mark by a day, it was still an amazing ride! I'm definitely in need of a small break now, though.
Anyways, just my personal take on the story thus far for Shadowbringers' core MSQ!
Continue reading...
Honestly, this expansion COMPLETELY blew me away! Even though the environments weren't quite as "alien" as I had come to expect (Lakeland was the only one that stood out as truly otherworldly), the music once again delivered in a big, big way! I'm terrible with names, but the desert zone's music was unexpected but definitely my favorite track of this expansion!
The story goes exactly the directions I was hoping it would, while still throwing in some cool twists.
That said, I definitely had a few points that stood out to me:
- Minfilia has been gone for a while now, but never has her absence felt more poignant than here. When all the Scions gather, I really missed her bubbly, friendly personality. Shadowbringers is obviously a very serious expansion, but the Scions felt a little overbearing in that regard.
- Thancred, in particular, felt totally devoid of his usual charm and humor. Understandable, but I found it kind of a problem all the same. Without his constant flirtiness or ego, I honestly just kind of found him a bit annoying.
- Ran'jit suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucks. I think I'm in the minority, but I actually really enjoyed Zenos as a villain, and he felt worthy of being a "rival". Ran'jit, by contrast, completely sucked the excitement out of the game whenever he showed up. Nothing about him was interesting, and I honestly took some minor offense that HE, of all people, was able to defeat my character with such ease. If anything, he should have been STRICTLY a tactician, but making him some God-like combatant felt really out-of-place and unwelcome.
- In addition to wanting someone with a more upbeat personality, I also feel like the Scions could use a little VISUAL disparity, too. Way too many tall, thin, white-haired folks. I would LOVE a burly Roegadyn who is a more jolly, abrasive type. I feel like that would just really round out the team, even though no one specific really springs to mind. I wouldn't mind Eynzahr Slafyrsyn (aka. "Merlvyb's second-in-command over the Maelstrom) join the Scions in some capacity.
- I'm not quite sure what to think of Runas. The implied romance between him and Y'shtola seems sort of weird to me? If anything, I'd almost thought the Exarch would be a pretty fitting coupling. Something about full-on cat-people romancing part-cat-people seems strange.
- All of the Ascian stuff was AMAZING. I already praised the game up above, but this just REALLY needed to be said!
- The dungeons in Shadowbringers felt RIDICULOUSLY hard. Like... not even enjoyably so. The last dungeon, in particular, my group literally almost timed-out because we kept wiping on that last boss. Conversely, most of the Trials were fun, although I found the first one to also have been overly difficult.
- I will say that Dohn Mheg is hands-down, without contest, my favorite "zone" in the game. I *LOVE* the whole vibe of that place, particularly the first area. Creepy context aside, I would adore a Housing area with that sort of "Alice in Wonderland" vibe, wherever it might be.
- Despite being the "Warrior of Darkness", I'll say that I'm a little bummed that my character never felt truly worthy of the title. In fact, I'd say as much as I loved this expansion, it's also the first one my character never felt like a "badass". And certainly no "darker" than he was in previous adventures. Before Shadowbringers' end, I'd like to see my character actually live up to the title, a Warrior of Darkness to actually inspire fear in his enemies.
I'm honestly pretty excited to see where the story continues to go. I've been on a rampage trying to complete 5.0 before 5.3 launched, and while I missed my mark by a day, it was still an amazing ride! I'm definitely in need of a small break now, though.
Anyways, just my personal take on the story thus far for Shadowbringers' core MSQ!
Continue reading...