The first expansion of final fantasy XIV really changed my mind about this game. While the early parts of the story are a slog, my overall enjoyment improved dramatically over ARR. The main reason for the shift being the increased focus on the main characters and the story being actually interesting. It definitely benefits from the groundwork made by the base game, it goes well beyond what I expected. At this point, this is genuinely a good fantasy story.

The gameplay improves some from ARR, but it doesn't reach the height that later content does. In fact, I feel a bit biased in judging it now that I know how much better it can get, and am tempted to rate it lower as a result. There definitely are moments where it feels like they were experimenting with mechanics but hadn't really gotten it down that well yet. It does lay a good basis for some really good mechanics later on. All the new jobs are really fun to play, and the dark knight questline is simply amazing. This expansion really made me love this game.