belleshade
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1 day
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August 18, 2020
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Heavensward does a lot better job of following character stories and creating a cohesive theme than ARR. The theme of Heavensward is vengeance, specifically, how does vengeance and animosity take different shapes. Then, how do we adapt to those different shapes of animosity, if we do at all? Its a bit trite for a video game narrative, but with the charisma of the cast it distinguishes itself enough. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean it necessarily succeeds in saying anything interesting about its themes despite having entertaining characters.
Vengeance is fought between the dragons and Ishgardians after a war lasting a hundred years. Through the protagonist's journey to end the way, they find that it was the Ishgardians who betrayed the dragon's trust and violently pillaged their corpses for power. This leads to a long narrative of one of the main characters committing patricide in order to work towards a new order in Ishgard. Here, Heavensward wants to believe that a nation can change despite its history of blood and hate. However, Heavensward believes that nobles will always be first to make that change, and it only takes friends...and a change of heart.
The lower class people of Ishgard are never given a proper amount of time for the Ishgardian revolution to become truly meaningful. There is a moment where a small group is given a story which feels ignored by the nobles of the nation. However, this is only quelled by a fun tournament battle and a single sentence recognizing their pain. The equivalent of populist political leaders who only speak to the pain of its majority population, but does nothing to heal or help it.
This is my biggest problem with Heavensward, and it doesn't take away from how fun so much of the expansion is. This is especially true because Final Fantasy XIV has always glorified the bourgeoisie and empire . Why would an expansion suddenly change that?
There are some boss fights where my jaw was dropped because of the maximalism of the setpieces. And in typical FFXIV fashion, a lot of the story is agonizingly stretched out with quests. Nevertheless, its still the most fun I have had playing an MMO. I just hope it gets better!
Vengeance is fought between the dragons and Ishgardians after a war lasting a hundred years. Through the protagonist's journey to end the way, they find that it was the Ishgardians who betrayed the dragon's trust and violently pillaged their corpses for power. This leads to a long narrative of one of the main characters committing patricide in order to work towards a new order in Ishgard. Here, Heavensward wants to believe that a nation can change despite its history of blood and hate. However, Heavensward believes that nobles will always be first to make that change, and it only takes friends...and a change of heart.
The lower class people of Ishgard are never given a proper amount of time for the Ishgardian revolution to become truly meaningful. There is a moment where a small group is given a story which feels ignored by the nobles of the nation. However, this is only quelled by a fun tournament battle and a single sentence recognizing their pain. The equivalent of populist political leaders who only speak to the pain of its majority population, but does nothing to heal or help it.
This is my biggest problem with Heavensward, and it doesn't take away from how fun so much of the expansion is. This is especially true because Final Fantasy XIV has always glorified the bourgeoisie and empire . Why would an expansion suddenly change that?
There are some boss fights where my jaw was dropped because of the maximalism of the setpieces. And in typical FFXIV fashion, a lot of the story is agonizingly stretched out with quests. Nevertheless, its still the most fun I have had playing an MMO. I just hope it gets better!