A good story that’s, in my opinion, really being brought down by being in a MMO. Shadowbringers starts off really strong, by introducing you to a brand new post apocalyptic world that looks really cool, and I’d say that up to Il Mheg, almost everything with the expansion is really good: the setting is good, both of the twins quests make you discover some really cool locations with interesting storylines, the exarch/crystarium are shrouded in mystery, you even get to talk to John ‘Ardbert’ Shadowbringers once again! The only thing i found kinda silly was Ranjit who’s like way too strong to be credible imo (like no character should be able to overpower the entire scions with no exposure about them to explain how come they’re so strong imo, and even by the end of the expansion him being so strong isn’t explained). But then, once you get to Il Mheg, I think the story starts to take a dive. Because the game falls back into the same old boring loop it uses for most of its runtime: go into a new locale, help the people there, get exposed to their lore, you can now progress to the new locale. Rinse and repeat. I get it, you’re in a new world, nobody knows you and everyone needs help because the apocalypse literally happened, plus you’re retracing the step of Ardbert, so it’s normal to just play the beginner adventurer, but i still think it’s boring and drags on way too much. The settings are interesting, yes, but it takes so long for the story to progress that it killed a lot of my enjoyment for it overall, and a lot of time i was just wishing this entire story would be in another game because I think shadowbringers really highlights how the MMO structure is draining away all the fun i could have with the game’s story, by making it so slow to progress. Which is a shame, because i liked the story! I don’t think it’s as good as the best games of the series, but still pretty good overall, and Emet-Selch is definitely one the coolest villains of the series. The scions are finally starting to feel like they’re actual characters and actually are a band of friends, since for the first time ever they’re all here instead of the expansion only focusing on one or two of them. The crystal exarch is also a really cool character, and even side characters like the Chai couples are pretty cool instead of just being kinda there like most side characters in previous expansions. I do have some complaints about the fact that it really feels like the end of 5.0 feels more like it’s the actual midpoint of the story rather than the end of it, which imo should be the case since you get literal credits rolling etc after it, however. And like i said, the pacing of everything in between Il Mheg and Amaurot is horrendous and really made me not enjoy this as much as i could have. That coupled to how everyone sells this as one of the greatest game of the serie really made the expansion feel underwhelming because while it wasn’t bad, it wasn’t as good as i expected it to be. Maybe if i cared about the MMO aspects of it, it’d be better, but I still don’t, and at this point i’m fully convinced i would have probably have enjoyed this game’s storyline/lore better if i had watched it instead of playing it.