folly
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FFXIV: Heavensward wrestles effectively with things left underexplored in A Realm Reborn. Mechanically, Machinist and Dark Knight are both genuinely fun additions to the roster of jobs, and many of the new dungeon environments have an artistic flair of aesthetic design. The main characters have arcs that feel more real than just about any character in ARR, and even if you think Ishgard kind of sucks... the game also thinks Ishgard sucks for a lot of structural reasons, which the story does explore even if it does so with only a middling level of rigor. In the patches, the writing of the game starts to come alive for the first time, and a reckoning with what we've been doing this whole time begins to take place. Would recommend blitzing through ARR and trying to tackle HVW at a steady clip.
Haven't finished it yet but goodness gracious what a game. Has the real potential to be an all-timer, and I've encountered no downsides yet except "slight anxiety over how much my decisions have impact" and "want to give the game my 100% focus", which means I put off continuing my run.
As a different example from the usual case of playing through Twitch, we played this with a group of 7-10 friends weekly over the course of months. The effect was closer to a ttrpg where no one had to do prep/remember the rules than it was to jackbox, and for that I think the game is an all-timer. The rebalance to make it possible for monarchs to win, and for loyalist faction goals, made a huge difference to the experience. #NoFamines