Review for Final Fantasy XIV Stormblood. Game for PC, Mac and PlayStation 4, the video game was released on 20/06/2017
Final Fantasy XIV Stormblood had a difficult task: the second expansion of Square Enix's MMORPG should have managed to maintain a high narrative profile, introduce two new damage dealer classes and simplify the system of classes and roles, all without unbalancing the title in one direction or another.
With the addition Red Mage and Samurai, both DPS, has created objective and predictable problems. The two Jobs are pleasantly technical and fun (we are talking about perhaps the first really effective Red Wizard of the saga) and perhaps too much, to the point that a good slice of users seem to have preferred to abandon armor and tunics to wear the cape and kimono. The inevitable result of these "conversions" was a serious one shortage of players in the role of tank and healer and an exponential increase in the duration of the DPS queues to access the various dungeons and raids.
The situation will stabilize over the months, but given how predictable such a problem was, it makes us turn up our noses as preventive measures have not been thought of, such as the increase of the (already present) small incentives and unique bonuses in case of participation in duties in roles other than the damage dealer.
At least the long queues to access the game, already discussed in the first impressions of Final Fantasy XIV Stormblood, seem to have finally been resolved, except for just a few particularly high-density legacy servers.
Although future patches will continue the narrative, at the moment which ended with a cliffhanger not just, Final Fantasy XIV Stormblood has already succeeded in theequal - when not even exceed - the emotional power of Heavensward's events, making a "banal" war of independence between empire and provinces as raw and engaging as a battle between knights and ancient entities like Hydaelyn itself. Same goes for the music sector, with one Revolutions by Nobuo Uematsu able to compete on equal terms with the epicness of the previous Dragonsong.
Even in the aesthetic realization, the team of Naoki Yoshida did a great job introducing the audience to a excellent combination of realism and fantasy, inside dungeons and maps inspired by oriental culture, extremely varied and also developed along the vertical axis. The underwater areas are currently few in number, but pleasant additions in the future are not to be excluded.
The most important and, at the same time, most criticized aspect was the revamp of the system of roles and classes. Regardless of the consequences on the waiting queues, Samurai and Red Mage were introduced as extra Jobs, not tied to a specific class, with level 50 (out of 70) starting and, as already mentioned, the two new DPSs proved to be fun and adaptable; a particular commendation goes to the Red Mage, a class as elegant as it is mistreated by the "experts" of the saga, but which in this chapter demonstrates that it knows its stuff and that it can turn the tide of many clashes thanks to the very useful skill of Dualcast… And a bit of luck.
The pre-existing jobs, however, had to cope with numerous changes, already discussed here; The abolition of many cross skills will certainly help players curious to experiment with new roles, but it has confused and often annoyed veterans, who have seen their build and skill rotations, perfected and learned over time, crumble before their eyes.
It goes without saying that every change inevitably leads to imbalances and disagreements, however temporary: only time will confirm whether or not the choice was the right one, but the first, big step towards the correction of all problems related to the Job System, sad legacy of the original, hapless Final Fantasy XIV.
Perhaps also to facilitate the adaptation to the new structure of classes and levels, the new skills obtainable between level 60 and 70 are, in general, less "incisive" than those of step 50 - 60 and are more a completion of the build and a slight modification to skill rotation, rather than creating an entirely new skill cycle.
This is probably intentional, since the developers have repeatedly reiterated their desire to make Final Fantasy XIV Stormblood more concrete and immediate, less convoluted and confused, therefore enjoyable even by those who are not used to being a "pianist" with keyboard or controller.
The direct consequence of this decision can be found in the new dungeons and raids available, to which others will obviously be added over time, but which already show the intention to focus more on the "game", rather than on the "numbers": one of the heaviest criticisms leveled at the previous expansion was precisely the general flattening of the gameplay, with a focus shifted more to the raw parametry and values on the screen. Many clashes, especially the more advanced ones, had given many the feeling of having been thought of with laziness and with too many DPS check situations, where the only talent required was knowing the keys by heart and having high-level equipment.
Final Fantasy XIV Stormblood has not yet shown its “Savage” level challenges and it is not excluded that the situation may repeat itself; however, the two Primals already present and the first four levels of Omega (which also overflow with citations to previous titles of the saga) present an incredible variety of situations and even some completely original mechanics, where you need to be "more players and fewer computers". Perfect knowledge of one's role remains an essential factor, but the phases of the various bosses are no longer marked as they used to be, some opponents are even without them and therefore require a greater alertness of spirit on the part of the users, knowledge of the mechanics and the correct positioning for each of them.
Hardcore gamers from the community didn't like it the change and on the net there are not few discussions about it: many believe that all this can sanction the death of any technicality within the title, already at the start frequented by mostly casual users; prime example is the little relevance of PvP, resurrected only in recent months thanks to the addition of online rankings and new modes (and with Stormblood modified to function as an independent reality also from the point of view of active and passive combat skills), but still seen today more as a way to obtain unique glamor for the armor, rather than as a competitive raison d'être.
Also in this case the only solution is to wait and find out what this new expansion will reserve in its most extreme challenges: in fact, it cannot be excluded that the right balance between "playfulness" and parametry may prove to be well more difficult, but also more rewarding, than the clashes seen in Heavensward.
Final Fantasy XIV Stormblood is a shower of blood, a torrent of emotions, a flood of content: it already cements the foundations of an increasingly intricate and exciting plot, expands the already considerable choice of activities available to players and is commendable demonstration of how a close-knit team that believes in its work can be able to face and solve every error and problem, listening to the feedback from the community without distorting the identity of the work.
► Final Fantasy XIV Stormblood is an MMORPG-type game developed by Square Enix and published by Koch Media Square Enix for PC, Mac and PlayStation 4, the video game was released on 20/06/2017
