I really personally fell in love with this part of Heavensward.
The warriors of darkness story really resonated with me. I saw a part of myself in The warrior of darkness because I personally felt like I had gone on adventures and met a lot of friends along the way in XIV. but instead of it being sunshine and rainbows it went all haywire and wildly out of his control and this made me feel super bad for him.
My only regret is that XIV didn't have a massive budget like it does now, so they sadly had to do a lot of telling instead of showing, Thankfully the Warrior of Darkness's voice actor did an amazing job at conveying the emotion of the character.

The ending to the patch with Minfilla is still one of my favorite cutscenes it felt like a lot to process.

6.2 was honestly really good for only being a .2 patch most of them have pacing issues to build up to the huge .3 patch, thankfully 6.2 was able to negate this by visiting the void, learning about it, and meeting Zero, It was a great MSQ patch with a lot of intrigue.

It really feels like they're showing off the new budget with how much effort they put into this patch with the MSQ, Panda series 2, and Island Sanctuary.

Panda 2 was really good.

5.2 got me personally invested in the Post-Shadowbringers shenanigans, and 5.3 was able to make me ugly cry.

I think Elidibus compliments the narratives of Shadowbringers so much. Instead of remaking his bland character they double down and humanize him, I found it really easy to get behind the struggle for the Ascians and I really got a sense that dealing with the final days was mystery but they really sold us on how tense and how much of a downward spiral the situation was and what really happened was the big question we were left with, it's a big reason why they are my favourite villain force in a piece of media, Elidibus losing himself and being portrayed as a younger child figure but , yet being put in a really important position really intensifies the morality of everything and the mystery. The seat of sacrifice is my favourite fight in the game because it's the Ascian's last stand and it feels so desperate. The first is my favourite video game world, In 5.0 I went in thinking this was so cool and epic but I left really attached to the characters of the zones. I really felt like the scions had made themselves a second home in the first so watching everyone say goodbye and travelling back to each zone might be one of my favourite moments in a video game period. Not many games can accomplish making me feel how I felt on this part. thinking about how Thancred has to say goodbye to Ryne started the waterworks, But the Ardbert and Seto cutscene is honestly probably my favourite conclusion to a character, When I originally beat 5.0 he was one of my favourite characters ever, so I really missed him going through 5.1, and 5.2 and I was genuinely mad that Elidibus was messing around with his reputation for his own gain because he had to go thru so much bullshit for accidentally causing the flood of light already. So, him getting this one last happy moment with Seto was really sweet I don’t think I’ve ever cried to a scene in a video game as much as that and it still chokes me up today.

TLDR: 5.3 reaches the exact heights as its base expansion story and adds the narrative of obsession on top of the diverse themes 5.0 covers and it fits perfectly. Because of this I can't help but give it 5 stars for perfectly complimenting one of my favourite games of all time.

3.0 is pretty good
Heavensward has a great well-written fantasy tale tackling corruption with a really amazing atmosphere.

I think 3.0 is an enjoyable experience because of the cast dynamic with Alphinaud, Ysayle, and Estinien. Coming off of the adrenaline from the 2.55 ending, the first half of the story is really interesting and the later half is more exciting. It's not all great to me however, 3.0 suffers from moments of side-tracking, especially with the primal trials or the Moogle part. This kind of doesn’t add anything to the narrative but one can argue that these are supposed to be lighthearted moments regardless the primal fights are always really cool to witness. Personally, I found the patches leading toward Stormblood the best part of heavensward as a whole especially 3.3 and 3.4

Alexandria is really fun and the alliance raid is really good sadly I skipped the story for these and plan on coming back later on.

5.0 - 5.55 spoilers
I finished Shadowbringers a year ago and wasn't too strong about it when I beat it but after having it not able to leave my mind and getting somewhat obsessed about it. I absolutely love it.

The beginning and setup of Shadowbringers is downright perfect, I really love apocalyptic settings and heavenly god worlds so when I got to the first for the first time XDDD I was so taken aback, there are so many things like this in Shadowbringers that feel really tailored towards me, The themes of a dying world, grieving and moving forward, loss, the line between heroism and villainy and in 5.1-5.3 obsession are honestly really human and they really got to me emotionally or are just things I saw in characters I loved before. Shadowbringers had a certain special sauce when it came to tackling its emotional huge moments that I don’t find in many games and genuinely made me cry most of the time and a few of them still get to me. I don’t find Shadowbringers to be as exciting has Heavensward or Endwalker but I think the story is really about the struggles of the first and its people. if you turn an eye only really pay attention to the premise and the really cool things its nothing special, it easily has some of my favorite payoffs and moments in a video game ever. I personally find most of FFXIV to really struggle with keeping me engaged because the story is told so slowly, but in Shadowbringers I think the slow pacing and filler was handled the best and in some regards worked really well in this expansion's favor because it focused on the world building and having moments of character development or just general fun moments.

I don't really wanna go in-depth but I really fell in love with Ardbert, Thancred, Emet-Selch and Elidibus. I also find with these 4 characters all in some form or fashion revolve around the narrative themes I spoke of before but in there own way and I really love this. The Elidibus boss fight is just one of, if not my favorite boss fight on a thematical level, I can’t really think of one that I like more.

I really loved the OST, I really love the First itself. It's super cool how it mirrors the source in an otherworldly way but it’s also drenched in this urgent and eerie atmosphere with the everlasting light honestly, This made me fall in love with Shadowbringers at first sight, I highly doubt I’ll ever experience something like this in a video game again. I love every zone in this expac and I think the First is one of my favorite worlds in a video game.

5.1 is super boring with the focus on getting the scions back to the source but the ending was good, 5.2 was actually really great when it focused on Elidibus and the Dungeon is sweet af, 5.3 made me cry like a baby 12/10.
5.4 was easily one of the worst patches post A realm reborn. It’s honestly skippable in some ways because it hardly adds to 5.5 or Endwalker, It just has a few moments of intrigue and a great dungeon. 5.5 was honestly not too amazing either and it was a let down in some ways, especially with the lunar primals being relegated to being a dungeon boss and being boring story bosses. but this patch certainly has its great moments in the story, especially with Aliphinaud and 5.55.

However, the weapons questline is genuinely my favorite piece of side content. The fights are awesome and the story is really good. Gaius moment. I wasn't too happy with the Eden raids but they were pretty cool but I really enjoyed the Nier content.

Speaking of Nier I think a lot a decent portion of this game is really inspired by Replicant and that's another game I really loved to death for similar reasons.

Shadowbringers feels so personal to me and I love it.