For a long time fighting game developers, and game developers in general have tried to reach out to a broader audience by simplifying core mechanics, on the surface this makes sense, a lot of really popular games are also really simple. But if you think about it for two seconds it's actually fucking stupid, because a lot of really popular games are also utterly byzantine to a normal person- DotA, LoL, the entire genre of MMOs, anything that Europeans push to the top of the steam best sellers, etc. And many more games pretend to be complex to cover their simplicity, such as every single game that is the subject of jokes like "increases semen retention by 2.5% on a Tuesday" or has a skill tree that unlocks basic abilities that should have been in the toolkit by default. Capcom decided to make SF6 an order of magnitude more complex than their last game, their accessibility tool is forcing you to choose between two radically different control schemes with far reaching gameplay implications, and a practice mode with a dozen pages worth of settings to tweak for every conceivable scenario so you can skip "training" and jump right into human growth hormones. Naturally they've been rewarded for this with a wildly successful game.

And thus did the Warrior of Light find themself transported to another realm, free of the baggage of a half decade of war and carnage ravaging Eorzia. Instead, with the Scions of the Seventh Dawn, she must save the realm of The First, which stands to lose everything to, amusingly, THE LIGHT.

Bringing two new classes to the table, a wealth of new dungeons, the single player oriented Trust system, and a brand new massive parallel universe to explore, Shadowbringers makes the correct decision of scaling sideways instead of upwards to continue the story of the player's Warrior of Light character. By setting the third expansion pack in a separate space, the stakes can continue to get higher without being forced into a space where they topple over in size like many long running stories do; its a decision that I found myself applauding after the conflict just continued to escalate throughout Stormblood.

It also allows the story writing team to do what it does best: world building. In crafting a completed alien setting for the player, they get to flex their muscles in a way that isn't hamstringed by a decade of development with Eorzia. The realm of The First feels genuinely foreign compared to previous expansions; you can tell that staff had a good time flexing themselves in creating a space that feels strange, yet familiar. A brand new cast of characters, spearheaded by the mysterious Crystal Exarch, get brought into the fold, as does a new villain, Emet-Selch, whose presence is both as interesting as it is unwanted throughout your quest. In soft rebooting the setting for Shadowbringers, the team was fully able to revitalize momentum with a new quest in a new land that didn't just feel like a further unraveling of Eorzia's map. Its incredibly effective.

Shadowbringers also continues to further the work that the XIV started in Stormblood with wonderful dungeon designs and beautiful 8 man trial events. The game really started to find its own footing with rich mechanics and layers being added in that game, and their work continues to get more and more engaging in Shadowbringers. As always, I cry out for more dungeons, trials, and duties during the main story quest, but that is because it continues to be so so good, and so much of the story telling through cutscenes and otherwise is so so dry. As XIV continues to flourish in the gameplay department, it also continues to become more and more burdened with the density of its storytelling. As much as I enjoyed the plot of Shadowbringers, I did also find myself waiting a bit more between gameplay events. Its not a terribly efficient or effective way of maintaining player interest in its increasing complex story.

Shadowbringers is a remarkable step forward from the messy politics and bland setting of Stormblood. It continues to progress is all areas of greatness that XIV possess, and all of the areas where it tends to fall behind. Its narrative isolation, and successful execution of that isolation means that its follow up, Endwalker, is going to have a much harder time bringing everything to a close as a result. I look forward to walking to end with great intrigue.

𝚃𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎'𝚜 𝚊𝚗 𝚎-𝚖𝚊𝚒𝚕 𝚖𝚎𝚜𝚜𝚊𝚐𝚎!

...

𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝟹 𝚕𝚎𝚐𝚎𝚗𝚍𝚊𝚛𝚢 𝙿𝙾𝙺é𝙼𝙾𝙽 𝙶𝙰𝙼𝙴𝚂
𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝙶𝚁𝙴𝙴𝙽, 𝚁𝙴𝙳, 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝙱𝙻𝚄𝙴.

𝚃𝚑𝚎𝚢 𝚠𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝚛𝚎𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚎𝚍
𝚊𝚕𝚖𝚘𝚜𝚝 𝟹𝟶 𝚢𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚜 𝚊𝚐𝚘.

𝚆𝚎 𝚙𝚕𝚊𝚗 𝚝𝚘 𝚎𝚡𝚙𝚕𝚘𝚛𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚖
𝚏𝚘𝚕𝚕𝚘𝚠𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚛𝚎𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚎 𝚘𝚏
𝙿𝙾𝙺é𝙼𝙾𝙽 𝚅𝙸𝙾𝙻𝙴𝚃 𝚊𝚗𝚍
𝙿𝙾𝙺é𝙼𝙾𝙽 𝚂𝙲𝙰𝚁𝙻𝙴𝚃.

𝙵𝚛𝚘𝚖:
𝙳𝙾𝙾𝙼 𝙳𝙰𝙳𝙳𝚈 𝙳𝙸𝙶𝙸𝚃𝙰𝙻
𝚁𝙴𝚂𝙴𝙰𝚁𝙲𝙷 𝚃𝙴𝙰𝙼

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𝙵𝙴𝙱. 𝟸
𝙶𝚕𝚊𝚜𝚐𝚘𝚠, 𝚂𝚌𝚘𝚝𝚕𝚊𝚗𝚍

𝙰 𝚗𝚎𝚠 𝙿𝙾𝙺é𝙼𝙾𝙽 𝚐𝚊𝚖𝚎 𝚠𝚊𝚜
𝚍𝚒𝚜𝚌𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚎𝚍 𝚍𝚎𝚎𝚙 𝚒𝚗
𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚖𝚒𝚗𝚍.

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𝙵𝙴𝙱. 𝟾

𝚆𝚎 𝚌𝚑𝚛𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚗𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚗𝚎𝚠𝚕𝚢
𝚍𝚒𝚜𝚌𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚎𝚍 𝙿𝙾𝙺é𝙼𝙾𝙽 𝚐𝚊𝚖𝚎,
𝙰𝙽𝙾𝚃𝙷𝙴𝚁 𝙿𝙾𝙺é𝙼𝙾𝙽 𝙶𝙰𝙼𝙴.

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𝙵𝙴𝙱. 𝟷𝟸

𝙰𝙽𝙾𝚃𝙷𝙴𝚁 𝙿𝙾𝙺é𝙼𝙾𝙽 𝙶𝙰𝙼𝙴 𝚐𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚋𝚒𝚛𝚝𝚑.
𝚆𝚎 𝚗𝚊𝚖𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚗𝚎𝚠 𝚐𝚊𝚖𝚎
𝙰𝙽𝙾𝚃𝙷𝙴𝚁 𝙿𝙾𝙺é𝙼𝙾𝙽 𝙶𝙰𝙼𝙴 𝚝𝚘𝚘.

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𝙵𝙴𝙱. 𝟷𝟻

𝙰𝙽𝙾𝚃𝙷𝙴𝚁 𝙿𝙾𝙺é𝙼𝙾𝙽 𝙶𝙰𝙼𝙴 𝚒𝚜 𝚏𝚊𝚛
𝚝𝚘𝚘 𝚙𝚘𝚠𝚎𝚛𝚏𝚞𝚕. 𝚆𝚎 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚏𝚊𝚒𝚕𝚎𝚍
𝚝𝚘 𝚌𝚞𝚛𝚋 𝚒𝚝𝚜 𝚟𝚒𝚌𝚒𝚘𝚞𝚜 𝚋𝚞𝚐𝚜
𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚎𝚛𝚛𝚘𝚛𝚜.

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#𝟷𝟶𝟶𝟿 𝙰𝙽𝙾𝚃𝙷𝙴𝚁 𝙿𝙾𝙺é𝙼𝙾𝙽 𝙶𝙰𝙼𝙴
𝙼𝙴𝙼𝙴𝚃𝙸𝙲
𝙷𝚃 𝟿𝟷𝟸𝚙𝚡
𝚆𝚃 𝟸𝟺𝙼𝙱

𝙸𝚝 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚌𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚍 𝚋𝚢 𝚊 𝚜𝚌𝚒𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚒𝚜𝚝
𝚊𝚏𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚢𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚜 𝚘𝚏 𝚑𝚘𝚛𝚛𝚒𝚏𝚒𝚌 𝚌𝚘𝚍𝚎
𝚜𝚙𝚕𝚒𝚌𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚜𝚘𝚏𝚝𝚠𝚊𝚛𝚎
𝚎𝚗𝚐𝚒𝚗𝚎𝚎𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚎𝚡𝚙𝚎𝚛𝚒𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚜.

𝙸𝚝𝚜 𝙳𝙽𝙰 𝚒𝚜 𝚊𝚕𝚖𝚘𝚜𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎
𝚜𝚊𝚖𝚎 𝚊𝚜 𝙿𝙾𝙺é𝙼𝙾𝙽 𝚁𝙴𝙳'𝚜.
𝙷𝚘𝚠𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛, 𝚒𝚝𝚜 𝚜𝚒𝚣𝚎 𝚊𝚗𝚍
𝚍𝚒𝚜𝚙𝚘𝚜𝚒𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚊𝚛𝚎
𝚟𝚊𝚜𝚝𝚕𝚢 𝚍𝚒𝚏𝚏𝚎𝚛𝚎𝚗𝚝.