Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood

 PC
User Score
9.1

Universal acclaim- based on 993 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 890 out of 993
  2. Mixed: 39 out of 993
  3. Negative: 64 out of 993
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  1. vizzi01
    Dec 4, 2018
    5
    After coming off Heavensward I can't help but say what an immense disappointment Stormblood ended up being. I kept hoping the storyline would pick up like in HW but ultimately it was a contrived mess of a story with an even more disappointing ending. I can but hope that Shadowbringers fixes this.
  2. smahlt
    Sep 21, 2017
    7
    After a few months, I can say it's pretty decent. The story is a significant step down from Heavensward's but it's at least on par with A Realm Reborn's. The changes to every job I've levelled to 70 have been at worst meh to me (I'm not a fan of Bard anymore, but it's fine) to great (Ninja is far less of a **** to play). Most of the new music tracks are amazing.

    Unfortunately, the zones    After a few months, I can say it's pretty decent. The story is a significant step down from Heavensward's but it's at least on par with A Realm Reborn's. The changes to every job I've levelled to 70 have been at worst meh to me (I'm not a fan of Bard anymore, but it's fine) to great (Ninja is far less of a **** to play). Most of the new music tracks are amazing.

    Unfortunately, the zones continued the downward spiral started in HW. Most of them are huge with very little interesting things happening. I blame flying. Also swimming was woefully underused. ARR still has the most interesting and unique zones. I was also not a fan of how parts of some zones were completely walled off by the story. Having high level areas be filled with high level aggressive monsters ala ARR is a much better way to go about it.

    Worth buying if you're already an active player. I wouldn't say it's good enough to change your mind if you didn't like it already.

    There's a lot of people **** about the price change. They are dumbasses. The only change was that Brazilian and Russian players on the Steam version are now paying the same monthly fee as Brazilian and Russian players who played the not-Steam version, which is also now on par with what the rest of the world is paying.    … Expand
  3. leviathonlx
    Oct 1, 2017
    5
    The story was good even if a bit cliche and tropey though the quests (gameplay wise) still were pretty inferior to what WoW does. Zone design was improved compared to HW but copying of assets is still pretty noticeable in areas like terrain doodads. I understand buildings having only 1 or 2 varieties but I shouldn’t see things like the same rock and tree over and over so easily which canThe story was good even if a bit cliche and tropey though the quests (gameplay wise) still were pretty inferior to what WoW does. Zone design was improved compared to HW but copying of assets is still pretty noticeable in areas like terrain doodads. I understand buildings having only 1 or 2 varieties but I shouldn’t see things like the same rock and tree over and over so easily which can usually be dealt with but just rotating an object. Ruby Sea feels like a huge empty zone given the water doesn’t add much actual gameplay either besides swimming. If you’re going to add a mostly water zone you should at the very least add some type of gimmick rather than having it be nothing more than a barren land of emptiness and copy pasted rocks and kelp that you swim through. In general some zones just didn’t feel like they reached their full potential such as the Lochs and Yanxia while others like Azim Steppe were really well done. The zones still feel dead in general when compared to WoW’s where you’ll see NPC’s actually doing things such as bears hunting fish or predators hunting prey and in general FF14 zone design seems to be nothing more than ‘this is the bear area and over there’s the wolf area and this final area is the bird area and the mobs are just all walking back and forth in their little zone’ and doodads just seem thrown into the game world and rarely are blended in.

    The main issue with SB right now is that once you hit 70 the game is the same exact game as HW. You do the same 3 dungeons over and over (with high DPS queues) to grind out tomes and in general are doing nothing at all actually new unlike how Legion added Mythic+, artifact weapons, and the world quest system (an improvement of the old dailies system). And of course with Omega they are continuing the convoluted gearing system from Alexander. Square is once again relegating any new systems to patches and we have to hope these new systems are well developed unlike Lord of Verminion and Diadem and even things like the eventual beast tribes may just be the same ol’ 3 daily quests. I’m iffy on this thing Square does where they release a ‘skeleton’ expansion and how they instead put new systems into patches I’m holding out hope that they surprise me with the upcoming patches though given Square has been nothing but predictable with FF14 so I’m not getting my hopes too high. It doesn't help that the one new system, Eureka, has already been delayed making the first patch pretty barren for a patch coming 4 months after release with some of the content not even being patched in till a month after that. So 5 months for everything while in that time Legion released 2 patches following a 77 day release schedule that added far more content than 4.1 is adding. Stormblood is a mediocre expansion and the playerbase should honestly expect so much better from a company like Square.    … Expand
  4. Renzokuken
    Jun 20, 2017
    6
    This expansion is a mixed bag but as a former White Mage, I logged in after a 3 hour queue to find they'd made my class completely worthless. The initial launch was even more of a shambles than usual, and considering Square-Enix have a history of shambolic launches they really should be stepping up to the plate for their paying customers by now. A 3 hour queue to log in, broken main storyThis expansion is a mixed bag but as a former White Mage, I logged in after a 3 hour queue to find they'd made my class completely worthless. The initial launch was even more of a shambles than usual, and considering Square-Enix have a history of shambolic launches they really should be stepping up to the plate for their paying customers by now. A 3 hour queue to log in, broken main story quests, and constant disconnections because Square-Enix refuse to reinforce their server infrastructure during major releases, are all unacceptable considering we pay to play this game.

    The content in the expansion is great the new area's, classes, quests, story and music are fantastic. If you played a White Mage or Dark Knight sorry, they've trashed your class, but other than that, the game is great and well worth jumping back in to once they get their act together and sort their servers out.

    As of right now I'm giving this 6 out of 10 because the issues are so bad.
    Consider this a 8 out of 10 once the issues are corrected.    … Expand
  5. HomeroomTeacher
    Jul 28, 2020
    6
    Final Fantasy XIV is my favorite PvE MMO, however I think this expansion was the worst. Story was boring, and I felt it a chore to play through. Towards the ending the quality shifted upwards, but this doesn't same my rating to go higher. Instances however were good, and I also liked the maps, and new classes.
  6. loliance
    Dec 11, 2021
    6
    Story was mediocre, too little voice acting to be immersive, lots of very "same-y" quests... walk to a place, talk to a person, walk back... occasionally kill a mob.

    Thankfully there was some excellent raids and dungeons which kept my interest and were thoroughly enjoyable. Unfortunately the savage raids are short and contain only a handful of bosses each time, so you run out of    Story was mediocre, too little voice acting to be immersive, lots of very "same-y" quests... walk to a place, talk to a person, walk back... occasionally kill a mob.

    Thankfully there was some excellent raids and dungeons which kept my interest and were thoroughly enjoyable.
    Unfortunately the savage raids are short and contain only a handful of bosses each time, so you run out of challenging content quickly. Ultimate's are ok, quite challenging but again so short.    … Expand
  7. KinimodYunmi
    Mar 3, 2023
    7
    Der Anfang war sehr langweilig und hat sich ewig gezogen, das Schleichen durch die große japanische Stadt war so schrecklich, das ganze rumgerenne wieder und wieder für eine weitere Szene mit der Frau mit den schwarzen Haaren, grauenvoll!
    Aber unter Wasser und vor allem der Unterwassertempel Dungeon und später das große Gefecht gegen den blonden in der vier Mal so großen Rüstung war schon    Der Anfang war sehr langweilig und hat sich ewig gezogen, das Schleichen durch die große japanische Stadt war so schrecklich, das ganze rumgerenne wieder und wieder für eine weitere Szene mit der Frau mit den schwarzen Haaren, grauenvoll!
    Aber unter Wasser und vor allem der Unterwassertempel Dungeon und später das große Gefecht gegen den blonden in der vier Mal so großen Rüstung war schon echt ganz gut, genrell alles was man mit anderen zusammen spielen kann, vor allem die 24-Mann Dinger!    … Expand
  8. Unoskd
    Sep 7, 2023
    7
    An expansion with a strong focus on war and its consequences. The story here becomes significantly darker, which is absolutely fine.
    However, Stormblood has a similar issue as ARR; it drags on at times and has many, many lengthy conversations about politics in Eorzea, which I found somewhat boring.
    Zenos, although we learn absolutely nothing about him, which I find quite odd in FF14,    An expansion with a strong focus on war and its consequences. The story here becomes significantly darker, which is absolutely fine.
    However, Stormblood has a similar issue as ARR; it drags on at times and has many, many lengthy conversations about politics in Eorzea, which I found somewhat boring.

    Zenos, although we learn absolutely nothing about him, which I find quite odd in FF14, still leaves an impressive impression. For the first time as a player, you encounter an enemy/friend, who is not only your equal but much stronger at the beginning. And this is despite him being a Garlean, who, unlike us, can't actually use magic. However, he finds other ways to continually increase his strength.

    As epic as Zenos may be, I find his story lacking. It's almost as if they only wanted to have a character who could match the Warrior of Light. Which is completely fine. But there's no explanation for why he is the way he is.
    For such an important character, that's completely unacceptable, especially if one has certain expectations for the quality of the story.

    7/10    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

11
#11 Best PC Game of 2017
54
#54 Most Discussed PC Game of 2017
55
#55 Most Shared PC Game of 2017

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
87

Generally favorable reviews - based on 21 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 21 out of 21
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 21
  3. Negative: 0 out of 21
  1. Cubed3
    Jan 2, 2018
    90
    Stormblood is simply amazing. Not much more can be said about it. With a very well-crafted story, some tense and epic battles, two new classes, and wonderful zones, saying anything else would ruin so much of the expansion and what makes it great.
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  2. Game Rant
    Aug 21, 2017
    90
    Do yourself a favor and lose yourself in the world of Hydaelyn for a good month at the very least. You won’t regret it.
    Read full review
  3. Everyeye.it
    Jul 25, 2017
    90
    Kugane's eastern atmospheres did a great job at Eorzea, which has never been so attractive.
    Read full review
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