Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers

 PC
User Score
9.1

Universal acclaim- based on 1547 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,419 out of 1547
  2. Mixed: 26 out of 1547
  3. Negative: 102 out of 1547

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  1. vahn
    Aug 11, 2019
    5
    I wasn't really going to come back here: FFXIV is a game with a lot of potential, but an infinite amount of issues that truly makes it hard for me to enjoy, however the reason I came back is only one: the story.
    But I'll talk about that later.
    Anyway, what to say about this expansion: It's the same exact game you played in the last years with almost the same exact way of playing, which    I wasn't really going to come back here: FFXIV is a game with a lot of potential, but an infinite amount of issues that truly makes it hard for me to enjoy, however the reason I came back is only one: the story.
    But I'll talk about that later.

    Anyway, what to say about this expansion: It's the same exact game you played in the last years with almost the same exact way of playing, which is grinding tomes every week to cap get loot then wait 4-5 months for next dungeon, upgrade it to raid level, rage about eureka 2.0 and so on for the next 2 years. It's practically been the same since 2.0 with utmost precision, with really few modifications here and there, like how leves are only for crafting now, fates give a currency and few other things.

    The major changes I did notice is in the classes, as in they removed what made them unique and homogenized them into basically one role but with fancy weapons: the 4 tanks are practically the same, and so are the melee and etc, gone all of their unique traits that made them unique and instead they're all exactly the same, with maybe one or less move in their arsenal. In a way, I applaud this idea because this means now that all classes can be used, especially when they kept saying they weren't able (or were incapable or too lazy?) to balance them out so this means now that all classes viable. But this is an online mmorpg and raiding is relegated to the usual 8 man content: eventually, a meta will come out and only 8 classes will be the winners, while the rest...well that's your problem!

    Another nice addition is the Trust System, which is another name for the Squadron but without the pain to actually levelling your team-up: it's a nice addition if only you could use it in older dungeons, instead it's going to be relegated to 5.0 dungeons and nothing else. Too bad but I guess "data limitations" and such.

    But game issues aside, my main issue and the one that first turned me away from continuing, is the horrid community that everyone keeps praising but I only see hypocrisy and spite.

    Don't get me wrong on this: I don't think ALL of the community is bad, of course I'm sure 1 out o 10 is good, however, we're talking of a community that is so blinded by this game that they will actively defend anything they do, even if it's a broken mess. I played this game since 2.0 but I was never able to say anything negative without receiving extremely harsh backlash, being called mentally disabled, a tasteless one and even death threatened because of my simple dislike of the raids (I did coil btw). I will never understand what people see of good in this community: it's the same the others. I came into this game years ago with the promise of a better community, but instead, I got so frustrated and stressed out that I actively stopped trying to be making friends and move on with my day, never saying my real opinions in fear of being backlashed.

    Which brings me to the point I missed: the story, the major selling of point of this expansion.
    I didn't follow the story until now besides some snippets but everyone kept praising it for how good it is, and how it's like the second coming of Christ or something.

    I took the challenge and spent the next 2 weeks watching long, long, LONG cutscenes and tried to see what's going on after finishing it yesterday - and waiting nearly half an hour for the queue as well, I could only say one thing: "This story is just average".
    Let me say this: I did like the setting, I liked how it's not the same world and how it has its own culture and difference. and I liked some of its secondary characters too. I also did like a couple of lines and overall, I did feel it had something in it.

    But honestly, I just felt it was average: its plot is your generic "go there, do chores, kill bad guy of the land, repeat" for each zone until the end where you get to beat the OBVIOUS bad guy of the game, so obvious that the game tries desperately to sway your attention from him, and failing.

    The cast is BORING, they only have one emotion throughout the entire game (Gotta love Minfilia's constant whining...NOT!) and the enemies you first meet are so one dimensional that I was glad they were gone because they were just not fun.

    And I just will not understand how the game still thinks to trick me into believing that my character will die: this is a mmorpg, of course, I'm not gonna die you idiots! How am I gonna do endgame?! For the main cast it's a different story since some did disappear.
    Maybe they'll get rid of the whiny blondie so there's hope!

    Bottom line, I don't hate it but I don't like it either: I just played tons of better jrpgs in my long gaming life and I was expecting something at least on par to some of my favorites, but if this is the best they could do then I think I'll just go back to the JRPGs I know and love.

    See for yourself and draw your own conclusion. For me, it's just average.    … Expand
  2. leviathonlx
    Aug 14, 2019
    7
    When it comes to Shadowbringers if story is all you're looking for then this game is great and far better than the disjointed story of Stormblood and if that's all you're looking for then sure this game is pretty high up there compared to other MMO's which cannot compare as you sure as hell won't be playing WoW for the story.

    Almost every so called 'critics' review I read focuses on how    When it comes to Shadowbringers if story is all you're looking for then this game is great and far better than the disjointed story of Stormblood and if that's all you're looking for then sure this game is pretty high up there compared to other MMO's which cannot compare as you sure as hell won't be playing WoW for the story.

    Almost every so called 'critics' review I read focuses on how the story was great. And the story is good but FF14 is an MMO and not a single player RPG and so the game should also be scored on things besides just the one time story. Though if you do that you realize that ShB is literally just HW 3.0. If Blizzard were to have released 3 expansions in a row that all did the same thing (only 3 max level dungeons, no new side content, no dailies/wq, and just a 4 boss raid) they'd be absolutely destroyed by said critic but WoW is apparently just held to higher standards than mediocrity. There is no new type of end-game content or systems similar to what you'll get with a WoW expansion (regardless of your feelings on artifacts or Azerite at least Blizzard tries new things). Dailies are, as per usual, going to be relegated to patch content and overall all you'll be doing at max level is grinding tomestones like we have been for the past 6 years. You can grind FATE's for a bit to get things like pets which at least may somewhat help keep the outside world from becoming the barren desert it tends to become due to a lack of things like WoW's world quests and world bosses.

    Class change wise it'll depend entirely on what you play. If you're a healer you most likely will be pissed with this expansion as Square has decided to give up on balancing healers by just making them all exactly the same. I personally play a DRG and I found the job enjoyable with it's changes and the removal of skills that existed just for the sake of having a button like Heavy Thrust and the excessive role action skills.

    The 2 new races are something that my opinion on will develop as the expansion progresses. Currently viera and hrothgar only have 1 gender which in itself doesn't necessarily bother me but most the helmets in the game do not work on these 2 new races (I could just imagine the pitchforks the WoW playerbase would have if Blizzard were to release even allied races like that). Allegedly more helmets will become usable in later patches so we'll have to wait and see but then again the 'more customization' the viera and hrothgar were supposed to have to make up for the lack of helmets is not there and even helmets that are NEW with this expansion don't even work on the new races which is just unacceptable. A big negative is that hrothgar hair is attached to their faces and the only way to change that is to pay Square 10 dollars for a fantasia which is pretty scummy.

    World design I feel the game has at least improved a bit when compared to Stormblood but besides the more 'realistic' textures of FF14 the zone detailing is still leagues behind what Blizzards world design team is capable of but given the typical problems of having little reason to go out in the game world I guess that's less an issue. I like a lot of the music for the zones and dungeons/trials though places like Rak'tika are a perfect example of my issues with FF14 music due to how zones have just 1 day and 1 night track that runs about ~4 minutes that plays over and over which causes the music to get repetitive very quickly compared to WoW's far more varied (and sometimes better in my view such as Zuldazar's 8.1.5 pieces) music.

    Overall the expansion is actually exactly what I expected from Square given their track record and that's just yet more of the same but in a different locale. Patch content will add the beast tribe dailies and the side content but given Squares track record I'm sure those things will just be Eureka 2.0 and Palace of the Dead 3.0. Maybe Eureka 2.0 will be less boring to complete this time but we'll have to wait and see and I can't score a game on something we have no information on.. There's no denying it's still one of the best MMO's on the market along with WoW but I feel they need to start innovating and trying new things and the lack of anything truly new to do that I wasn't already doing in Stormblood a month ago and Heavensward 3 years ago and A Realm Reborn before that is why I feel this expansion is worth the score I gave it. I'm sure I'll get 'reviews not helpful' from this but thankfully you can't hide opinions you don't like here like you can on reddit.    … Expand
  3. BryceSoker
    Aug 16, 2019
    7
    Ok, first of all Story is a goddamned gem, 11/10, beautiful, pulls all your heartstrings as long as you're already emotionally attached to the characters, one of the best Final Fantasy stories ever created, and by far the best MMO story I've ever experienced.

    Now that we got that out of the way let me tell you why this isn't a 10/10. Well for starters it's the formula. it is the same    Ok, first of all Story is a goddamned gem, 11/10, beautiful, pulls all your heartstrings as long as you're already emotionally attached to the characters, one of the best Final Fantasy stories ever created, and by far the best MMO story I've ever experienced.

    Now that we got that out of the way let me tell you why this isn't a 10/10. Well for starters it's the formula. it is the same formula that we already got used to over and over the years. The maps are still the same old, you do killing events for mediocre rewards that have no actual soul put into them, the maps feel static, dead.

    The classes got a bit of revamping but mechanical wise they are the same, except now they are normalized and each class does whatever te other class of the same type do for the sake of "balance". Well, it just made them boring. No, it did not make them faster to play as some in here might make you think, there are still GCDs and the rotations work the same way as before, the core class concept was not changed at all.

    The graphics, well, if you like the graphics from ARR, HW and Stormblood then you're gonna love the ones we have right now cause they are absolutely the same. MMOs nowadays upgrade their textures, meanwhile, FFXIV still is pixelated as crap. After 6 years they haven't updated their engine at all, they still have several limitations from FFXIV 1.0 and I doubt they are ever going to fix them until they make a new FF MMO. Seriously don't even get me started at looking at the game from above (flying) it looks like a game from 2008. Yes the art style is awesome, yes once you get used to it it gets a little better but whether you agree or not it doesn't matter, the textures are not in a place where a 2019 game should be.    … Expand
  4. Aokana
    Jun 22, 2020
    5
    I've been playing FFXIV since 2.3 and I'll go over some pros and cons.

    Pros - • Amazing story once you hit Heavensward, Stormblood dips a bit but I liked it more than most and then While I loved Shadowbringers I still put it below Heavensward. • Great Soundtrack • Nothing on the base level is overly difficult, some of the savage/extremes and Ultimate provide good difficulty for    I've been playing FFXIV since 2.3 and I'll go over some pros and cons.

    Pros -
    • Amazing story once you hit Heavensward, Stormblood dips a bit but I liked it more than most and then While I loved Shadowbringers I still put it below Heavensward.
    • Great Soundtrack
    • Nothing on the base level is overly difficult, some of the savage/extremes and Ultimate provide good difficulty for advanced players.
    • Raids are Fun, especially the new Eden Series
    • Glamours allow for a good amount of customization
    • There is a lot of callbacks and references to other Final Fantasy Games.
    • The world is amazing and there are plenty of hidden gems and beautiful landscapes to find.

    Cons
    • Pre Heavesnward the game can be boring, especially if you've already done it once due to the extreme skill pruning to make room for more skills at higher levels.
    • Classes have been homogenized, Every Class feels like another class of the same role. Similar to a Lincoln MKX and Ford Edge being essentially the same vehicle.
    • Endgame feels barren, once you complete the story your left running the same few dungeons over and over again for months on end to cap your weekly tome limits. They used to give you variety but everything has been segregated so now you run the same 2 dungeons for an entire patch cycle getting you up in this endless gear treadmill tome grind that you really don't need to be on. There is little to no variety for months on end between patches.No dailies, no bonus events, just the same things over and over again, this is compounded with people ilv cheating the system so you get stuck with the same lv50 dungeons on alliance roulette 90% of the time.
    • Their is over 40 different currencies and collectible trade for gear items in the game, everything you do requires some form of currency or collectible item (for example to get raid gear you will need a specific amount of item drops from the raid to trade for the gear you want). The presented reason is that everything is set to limit your access so you can't get items "too fast" and to level the playing field between hardcore and casual players all while combating RMT. The real reason though it's just a way to extend the grind and keep you subbed longer.
    • Gear is continually made useless, almost no gear outside of Collector edition xp boost gear items hold any long term value unless you want it for glamour.
    • "Great community BTW" is a farce. The community is extremely toxic in a round about way. The unwritten rule is you never say anything about anyone's game-play otherwise your are to be reported for harassment. Even it its asking the tank to please separate from the the party during a mechanic that requires them to separate from the party, in a party finder party explicitly stating to know this mechanic because "you don't pay muh sub". The subreddit even has a weekly "Rage" thread in which people sit around karma jerking while **** about other players.
    • There is also a continual housing problem. There is never enough houses to go around but because everyone is so crazy about them the devs stop the auto demo timer over every little event that happens so nobody will be mad that they lost their house. They also force you to wait for the auto demolish if you want to get rid of your house otherwise you don't get that portion of your funds back. However suggesting any changes like updating the apartment system into instance housing is going to get you slammed and harassed. Actually the same can happen if you suggest any changes to the game, as part of the community you are supposed to worship Yoshi P like a god or face the communities wrath, this is even evident here as anyone that didn't rate the game super high is getting their reviews bombed.
    • The cash shop is a double dip in your wallet with minor Pay to Win tendencies. While everyone pays a sub fee you can buy cash shop items to make cosmetic changes then there are level boosts and exp boosting gear for sale so those willing to drop some extra $$$ can level faster and receive in game cash and gear. It's also a cash crab as many of the in-game gear will use re-use assets with a slightly different colour and dye scheme but all the gear in the cash shop is new designs. They re-used the same gunblade base for 3 patch gears in a row. Everyone's sub fee pays into the design and development but only those willing to pay extra get access.

    Overall FFXIV is a solid MMO but once you get past the shiny story and soundtrack your left with a dull, repetitive so called endgame, grind that you will quickly realize you don't need to be on because they have made the game so easy to catch up. Probably the worst tragedy there is no use of the actual beautiful world that was created instead pigeonholes you into the base cities and endgame hubs.    … Expand
  5. zaftgun
    Jul 4, 2019
    6
    A review by a real player: (the positives are all bs or fake)

    Simplified skill system with minimal new content. To drag things along, 14 million exp is required to level. To attain this you will need to repeatedly grind a single instance over and over and over. Essentially time wasting. The quest system is more than 10 years old and incredibly clicky. The character motions are just    A review by a real player: (the positives are all bs or fake)

    Simplified skill system with minimal new content. To drag things along, 14 million exp is required to level. To attain this you will need to repeatedly grind a single instance over and over and over. Essentially time wasting.

    The quest system is more than 10 years old and incredibly clicky. The character motions are just there to waste time and have seen zero improvement from the very beginning of game release.

    The entire game is made to drag things out with extremely little actual content to enjoy. Not recommended for anyone old or new.

    Mostly reused music with very slight differences. New tracks mostly does not fit the scene and environment. The quest complete sound effect is horrifying.    … Expand
  6. TomasLacerda
    Aug 12, 2021
    5
    Played Lineage 2, World of Warcraft, was in need of a new MMORPG and tried FF.
    The walls of text, the bad UI and the super boring tutorial just didn't do for me.
  7. Kiseki
    Apr 25, 2020
    6
    An outdated game with little improvement. Almost the entire time is spent running back and forth between NPCs to complete the main story quest with boring dialogues and cut-scenes that feels like time wasting. Evening skipping is slow. You go through so many clicks and load even if you try to skip.

    The game world is colorful but pretty blend, mostly empty and little variety. Enemy    An outdated game with little improvement. Almost the entire time is spent running back and forth between NPCs to complete the main story quest with boring dialogues and cut-scenes that feels like time wasting. Evening skipping is slow. You go through so many clicks and load even if you try to skip.

    The game world is colorful but pretty blend, mostly empty and little variety. Enemy design is quite uninspired.

    It feels like paying a subscription to waste time and feel annoyed. The game's mainly about never ending gear grinds. The newest and highest level gears and items will always require an near infinite grind to achieve.

    The raid boss fights is like a staged show with 100% fix script fireworks and aoe markers. Feel like a game for bots. The difficulty lies in high damage, short response time, unpredictable mechanics that are unforgiving.

    Feels like most people play it for vanity and bragging rights. There is very very little actual gameplay content to justify the subscription. Its just not worth it.    … Expand
  8. candidKlutz
    Apr 30, 2022
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I'm honestly pretty disappointed in myself for not enjoying this expansion nearly as much as most FFXIV fans seem to.

    I'm going to go into a bit of spoilers to explain myself a bit on this one.

    The world of The First is very very interesting, and the story started off incredibly strongly by introducing the sin eaters and how they turn people into more sin eaters in a horrific manner shortly after reuniting with Alisae. It made me wonder how the other scions were dealing with it, or even if all of them were still okay. Seeing a world absolutely destroyed by the Light, which up to this point was only ever seen as the good side is so cool. I just wish it had better villains than Bad Kung Fu Movie Villain and Fat Power Hungry Baby Man. Ran'jit and Vauthry were so painfully boring as characters despite their voice actors doing fantastic jobs, that I just couldn't seem to get too attached to the story after their introduction, until after they're both finally dead. Thankfully, they're not the only villains of the story. Emet-Selch was much more interesting, but he barely did anything at all until the last few quests of the 5.0 MSQ. Ran'jit and Vauthry should have been dealt with much sooner, with Emet-Selch being more active and taking their place much sooner. It unfortunately dragged the entire story down for me, and I wish it didn't.    … Expand
  9. loliance
    Dec 11, 2021
    6
    MSQ very same-y, more voice acting and interesting cut scenes than previous expansions, still far too many unvoiced poorly animated cut scenes though.

    Some nice introductions, like the trust system which makes the MSQ dungeons much more engaging, lots of solo trials also as part of the MSQ... Overall the MSQ is still below par unfortunately but it's an improvement. Raids offer an    MSQ very same-y, more voice acting and interesting cut scenes than previous expansions, still far too many unvoiced poorly animated cut scenes though.

    Some nice introductions, like the trust system which makes the MSQ dungeons much more engaging, lots of solo trials also as part of the MSQ... Overall the MSQ is still below par unfortunately but it's an improvement.

    Raids offer an acceptable level of difficult which makes them accessible to the vast amount of players, but could do with a more difficult version of savages/ultimates to extend the amount of content in the game for PvM players.    … Expand
  10. MoofiaBossVal
    Dec 26, 2021
    7
    An MMO expansion is not just its story.

    Yes, the 5.0 MSQ storyline is great. Yes, the 5.1 through 5.3 storyline is overall good. However, the rest of the expansion was noticeably lacking compared to prior expansions. We've gone from getting 3 dungeons per patch, to 2, to just getting one. Instead of getting 4 grind zones, we instead only get 2. No Hildibrand questline. We went from    An MMO expansion is not just its story.

    Yes, the 5.0 MSQ storyline is great. Yes, the 5.1 through 5.3 storyline is overall good. However, the rest of the expansion was noticeably lacking compared to prior expansions. We've gone from getting 3 dungeons per patch, to 2, to just getting one. Instead of getting 4 grind zones, we instead only get 2. No Hildibrand questline. We went from getting dozens of job questlines, to only 4 role questlines and all of them are meh, not even scratching "decent". Instead of getting 3 jobs, we got 2. We get fewer new armor sets and more recolors of old stuff we already got.

    There is a noticeable lack in the amount of new music produced for ShB, with one trial boss reusing the generic dungeon boss theme, the 5.3 trial boss not even getting a second theme for his second phase, no new dungeon boss theme for 5.4 and 5.5 dungeons, and Bozja pretty much just reusing FF12's ost.    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

3
#3 Best PC Game of 2019
23
#23 Most Discussed PC Game of 2019
9
#9 Most Shared PC Game of 2019

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
90

Universal acclaim - based on 25 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 24 out of 25
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 25
  3. Negative: 0 out of 25
  1. Cubed3
    Mar 27, 2020
    70
    The active story events of ShadowBringers are good fun, but due to the grinding nature of the genre, it suffers from some terrible pacing issues. If you are invested in FFXIV, this DLC will probably excite and please you. It's a fun but forgettable romp that runs just the wrong side of boring during its hours-long retelling and bland A-B mission style. If this tickles your fancy, be sure to start and play with a team of friends - it will easily be 10 times more enjoyable, if infinitely longer.
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  2. Multiplayer.it
    Sep 15, 2019
    90
    Shadowbringers is not just a fun and juicy MMORPG thanks to some intuitive design choices and amazing dungeons and encounters, but also a different take on the overindulged "hero saves the world" story with lots of twists and turns.
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  3. Game Informer
    Aug 15, 2019
    90
    Shadowbringers is the best expansion yet for Square Enix’s MMORPG, a world that comes alive in the player’s hands, with weight and gravitas moving you through every whimsical corner. Old-fashioned quest design and color-dodging combat add a dull tinge to a truly magical landscape, but those imperfections can’t keep down the scale and scope of excellent environments, grandiose bosses, and majestic music.
    Read full review
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