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Stormblood
A Realm Reborn (Base Game) Release on PS3, PS4 and PC: August 27, 2013
Heavensward (First Expansion) Release on PS4 and PC: June 23, 2015
Stormblood (Second Expansion) Release on PS4 and PC: June 20, 2017
Developer and Publisher: Square Enix
Genre: MMORPG
The teams at Square Enix have always been some of the best storytellers in video games. That passion for narrative unsurprisingly reappeared in Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn and continued into the games two expansions: Heavensward and Stormblood. Many players would agree that FFXIV is one of the best, if not the best, MMO on the market, and its narrative focus is one of the biggest reasons for that.
The problem with being the best is a tendency to make a mold and stick to it. Stormblood is a wonderful addition the FFXIV universe, but it isn’t that much different from past expansions. When it rolled out in June, the only “new” feature it boasted was the ability to swim in select zones. Everything else was simply a new version of things players had seen before. The biggest example is the new primals (bosses). Every expansion has its primals and there is no denying how fun, or sometimes infuriating in a good way, those fights can be.
Susano
Lakshmi
These fights are something players have come to expect and will no doubt be in every expansion to come. The issue with the primals this time around is that they were poorly worked into the story. The main story focus of liberating Ala Mhigo and Doma felt like it took a short commercial break while the Warrior of Light was made to deal with yet another primal threat…twice. Lakshmi especially felt like the developers said, “Oh shoot we forgot to write in a second primal fight, lets throw one in randomly right before the end where it makes the least amount of sense.” At this point the Warrior of Light receives a crash course on the beast tribe called the Ananta before being thrown in head first to fight their “Lady of Bliss”.
The new zones of the Expansion are Gyr Abania and Othard. Othard is wonderfully rendered and contains areas that are clearly inspired by places like Japan, China, and Mongolia. The new main city, Kugane, while the most beautifully done thus far, is also the most loosely tied into the story. It is not part of Doma, the area of focus in the region, and it is not controlled by the games villains. Hopefully this issue with go away as the patches introduce more story into the game. Right now it feels like it was put into the game simply because the expansion needed a main city, even though all the necessary vendors for end game gearing and content are in Rhalgr’s Reach.
Kugane
Rhalgr’s Reach
While Othard was new and well done, Gyr Abania was not. The graphic detail and size of the zone were breathtaking, however, the scenery and aesthetic were far too similar to things the game has already done with Thanalan, a base game zone. It gave players another desert climate area with a lot of snake and bug themed monsters. It didn’t feel new or inspired.
The new classes, Red Mage and Samurai, were some of the best thus far. I personally have played mainly as a Bard thus far and am now considering switching my focus to the Red Mage class. Red mages are a hybrid mage class using both White and Black magics. They can be devastating attackers while also being excellent healers despite being classified as DPS. Samurai are a pure DPS class that truly pack a punch with their devastating combos.
Red Mage
Samurai
Both classes were well done and deserving of applause. The only issue they present is the fact that they are both DPS classes. Heavesward introduced a Tank, Healer, and DPS class while Stormblood only added to the already long list of DPS classes. This makes the long dungeon queue time for DPS even longer.
The developers made the decision to make Class Armor a class quest reward as they did in A Realm Reborn. In Heavensward it was changed to make the armor obtainable by purchase with hard to get tomestones (in game currency obtained through finishing dungeons). It is good to see that the team can admit a mistake and correct it.
For the most part class ability additions and changes were good, except the the removal of the Summoner ability Sustain, which allowed players to heal their pet. As a Summoner, I found my tank pet was constantly dying and once re-summoned would have a hard time regaining aggro. I worry that changes like this are going to become common as the class ability pools get too large and the devs have to start stripping away old abilities that may have been crucial to the way a class is played.
Finally, the expansion introduced a new mentor system that allowed long time players to help coach and mentor returning or new players. This system sounds wonderful in theory but was not in reality. Personally I have been in numerous dungeons with player who have the mentor icon but don’t know any of the mechanics and don’t speak at all in chat. They aren’t willing to communicate and isn’t that what being a mentor is? The selection process for mentors needs to be much more rigorous.
Mostly what I want from the next expansion is a break from the norm. Take risks, introduce things that are completely new. For example World of Warcraft introduced Garrisons in Warlord of Draenor and Artifact Weapons in Legion. Garrisons weren’t very successful but at least they took the risk. So my main feedback points are as follows:
- Put the Warrior of Light back in the spotlight. Side characters are more than welcome to share it, but Lyse just took it away completely.
- Stop relying so heavily on post-expansion patches for the bulk of new content and story. If that isn’t possible, the patches need to be closer together. Its almost October and we are still waiting on the first major patch.
- Stay true to the base classes, find a different way to add new things to them without taking the abilities away completely. Maybe try the subclass route the World of Warcraft took.
- Summoners need more egis! Or at the very least a much wider array of skins to choose from. Where is my Shiva, Rhamu, Leviathan, Ravana, Bismark, Sophia, Sephirot, Zurvan, Susano, and Lakshmi skins!
- Continue to be a great game that I will never get tired of.
This game is still the best MMO on the internet. I struggled to find fault with it, and that is a good thing. It has a rich story full of unique characters and I have been in love with it since day one. If this were a review of the entire game it would easily be ranked 4.8 or 4.9. But since this is just a rank for Stormblood, and the expansion itself didn’t introduce any game changers or break the mold in any way I give it the rank:
Destiny 2
Release on PS4 and Xbox One: September 6, 2017
Release one PC: October 24, 2017
Developer: Bungie
Publisher: Activision Blizzard
Genre: FPS and MMORPG
First person shooters are difficult to get used to. Personally I will always prefer a nice third person perspective to a first. That said, Bungie has done an excellent job keeping the balance between the two. While holding a gun, the camera is in the first person, but while holding a sword, riding a sparrow (a hover bike), or in a safe zone, the camera changes to third person. This allows you to see you character and choose from a wide variety of armors and shaders to get the perfect look for your guardian.
Destiny 1’s character creation was annoying in that it did not allow you to spin the character around and see the back of their head. The only way to see the back of the head was to pick the hair, play through the lengthy intro and get to the Tower, the first safe zone. Something this minor would have been easy to fix for Destiny 2 but the developers chose not to. The same problem sill remains and the intro is even longer this time around. The graphics on hair specifically also seem to have gotten slightly worse, though I don’t understand how that is possible.
In fact there was not a single change to the character creation whatsoever. No new hair, face, or color options were put into the game. I could have easily overlooked this if there had been at least one new playable race, or even a new class. Neither of these wishes came true.
In Destiny 1, a shader would change the color of your guardians entire outfit. In Destiny 2, changes were made to the shader system. Now, instead of changing the entire outfit, each shader changes only one piece of armor and is consumable, unlike in Destiny 1 where they could be infinitely reused. With the changes also came the ability to shade your weapons, sparrows, and ships, doubling the customization possibilities.
Shaders
Customizable Ship
Every planet in the game has an armor set for each class, and a specific shader that it puts on any armor that drops on that planet. There are also armor sets and shaders available for Crucible, Strikes, and Meditations. To get theses armor sets the player has to acquire Tokens for that planet (or game mode). About twenty tokens will earn you an engram which has a chance to give you anything from a number of planet/mode specific options. The grind for tokens isn’t hard, but the chance of actually getting the pieces of armor that you want are very slim. This system would work much better if players could simply turn in a specific number of tokens for a specific piece of gear. Relying on a random number generator isn’t good for game morale.
Tokens
Vanguard Engrams
Destiny 2 is supposed to be a sequel to Destiny 1, but it feels more like an expansion. The game has remained largely unchanged. It has new planetary bodies (two moons and a centaur) to explore but when on missions, you are taken to the same area of the map over and over again, just like in the first game. There are no new enemies to fight as The Kabal, the Fallen, the Vex, the Hive, and the Taken all make a reappearance on one or more of the new planets.
Destiny 1’s story-line was one of things it took a lot of criticism for. The way it was presented felt bland and generic, despite every race, playable or not, having a deep and rich backstory. The problem was that this story was never put in front of the players. To get into the story, players would have to spend hours on google rather than actually playing the game. In an interview with IGN, Cinematic Lead, Matthew Ward, said, “I hope people complain about how much story we have at the end of this.” It is admirable that the developers have listened to the fans and tried to put more story in the game, however, if you expect the narrative to live up to games like the Mass Effect Trilogy, you’re going to be sorely disappointed.
This is where I, as a creative writer, have to take a step back and say that the following is not objective at all. This is my personal, unfiltered, opinion of the “story-line” of Destiny 2. The change that bothered me the most was the decision to remove the voice acting for the guardian. I played a male Awoken Warlock in Destiny 1 and his voice fit him perfectly. In Destiny 2 you play as a mute who is constantly getting cut off by their ghost just in time to not have to speak. Besides this, your custom guardian appears in less than half of the cut scenes. It is even more rare for the guardian to have their helmet off. Most of the “story” revolves around the main villain, a Kabal named Dominus Ghaul. His cut scenes take up at least 60% of the story and they are all marked by the ominous red legion logo.
Dominus Ghaul
Legion Logo
To top it all off, what should have been the biggest moment for the player (a cut scene in which the plan to take down Ghaul is devised), your guardian isn’t even there. It is just Zavalla, Ikora, and Cayde. In an RPG, the goal is to involve the player character in as much as possible. It is very rare for a game that has customizable characters to sideline the player as much as Destiny 2 does. If most of the game takes place without the player present, it can no longer be considered an RPG.
To the developers of Destiny 2 I say we need more. Not more of the same, we the players need a completely new experience that sets itself apart from Destiny 1. New enemies, deep story that seeps into every corner of the game (which it does not do now). More importantly it must make the player feel like the hero, because lets face it, we won the day, everyone else just helped. My top requests are as follows:
- More REAL story, not the cookie cutter story-line happening now.
- Bring back permanent shaders. No matter what your reasoning was or what you thought it would achieve, it didn’t work. Don’t fix something that isn’t broken.
- No more random engrams. Being able to buy armor directly with tokens would make the game so much less stressful.
- Do not make the players spend money to put a shader on something. We should not have to spend 15,000 glimmer to shade a ship that only cost 5,000 glimmer to begin with.
- Get rid of Legendary Shards. Right now the only use for Glimmer is shading things. Give glimmer its value back and have us spend that to dismantle armor pieces for their power.
- Put a raid matchmaking in the game just like the strike matchmaking. Some of us are not hard core gamers who have a ton of people ready to raid with us. Add difficulties like World of Warcraft so that clans can still do the harder modes while casual players can use the matchmaking system.
- If the matchmaking isn’t possible, add chat to the game so players can communicate and organize themselves. (It’s possible for console, Final Fantasy XIV has it).
- If two players are in the same location and join each other’s fireteam, the one joining should not be flown into space to then come back down and be right where they were five minutes ago. It really shouldn’t even require a loading screen.
Overall Destiny 2 is still a great game that I enjoy playing. The biggest issue with it is that it is far too similar to the original. It doesn’t feel like a brand new game, and most of the problems with the first game are still problems now. If this were the first game in the series I would give it a 4.8 out of 5.
That said it isn’t the first game in the series and the faults far outweigh the positives. My rank for Destiny 2 is:
Silent Sovereign 