Yes but most people recommend you at least play ARR for a basic understanding of the game. Buying your way to a level 70 character with no idea how to use them won't get you anywhere.
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Do you consider Shadowbringers a game in its own right?
- Thread starter tsampikos
- Start date
I refer to each of the FFXIV expansions as seasons of a TV show or novels in a serialized fiction series.
On their own, they're fine, but their real power comes from how they build on each other and contribute to the larger whole that is the story of Eorzea and (to a slighly lesser degree) my stupid, stupid Resting Villain Face cat man with a habit of dressing up like an idiot and casually killing gods.
On their own, they're fine, but their real power comes from how they build on each other and contribute to the larger whole that is the story of Eorzea and (to a slighly lesser degree) my stupid, stupid Resting Villain Face cat man with a habit of dressing up like an idiot and casually killing gods.
It boggles my mind that there's no way to play it standalone. Seems pretty basic to have a catch-up to get to the required level.
Even single player RPGs are doing this now, not just MMOs.
Even single player RPGs are doing this now, not just MMOs.
You can learn a character at 70. That's a challenge, but a surmountable one. Just join a free company and ask questions while running dungeons with them.
Real problem is all the story you miss. Would be like jumping into Game of Thrones S4 and hoping to understand what's going on.
No. If I were to buy Shadowbringers without owning FF14 I wouldn't be able to play it. Therefore it's not a standalone game, it requires the base game to be playable.
I think over 400. If you play the game with the sole thought of getting to Shadowbringers you are missing out on the incredible journey getting there.
It's an expansion. What's wrong with that?
Nobody argued that The Witcher Blood and Wine was anything but an expansion
Nobody argued that The Witcher Blood and Wine was anything but an expansion
Like DNAbro said - Shadowbringers is special because of what it does to XIV's lore and story and characters. If you're rushing through everything and skipping cutscenes just to get to it, you're missing the point. Heavensward is a phenomenal story arc and in my opinion just as good as Shadowbringers in a lot of ways. Stormblood sags a bit but it also has some incredible moments.
XIV's story is a massive epic and you really won't get much out if it if you're rushing through it just to see what's essentially Season 5 of a TV show. You have to care about the setting and the world and the characters or you won't really feel much.
This is also easily addressable if the dev team sees it as a problem. No reason a story so far video couldn't be created when you're selling skip potions for $25.
3 expansions in, XIV has severe bloat problems and out of control pacing issues. It's a daunting task to start it in 2019. The journey isn't worth it anymore imo. It actively wastes your time in the lead up to ShadowBringers.
So FFXIV is offering 5 days of free playtime right now. Cool! I jumped in to an old level 47 character that I started when people were hyped about the previous expansion. All the expansions are great!! Okay. Go to the next story quest but I'm told I need a disguise. Check inventory... no disguise. The quest giver says to check with someone at a local town for a new disguise. That person can't be found...
A shame, I want to enjoy this game... but between the slog to get there and the poor art style on architecture and player models I just can't do it.
A shame, I want to enjoy this game... but between the slog to get there and the poor art style on architecture and player models I just can't do it.
Heavensward is not a waste of time. Shadowbringers isn't that good on its own, it's good because of how it contributes to and twists the existing lore and story beats we're already familiar with.
Yes, the ARR storyline is an infinite slog and they're redoing that right now to cut back on wasted time, but nobody should be going "I JUST WANT TO PLAY THE NEW EXPANSION AND NOTHING ELSE", that's not the point of the game.
I don't agree. It continues the story and it will be better if you played TLOU first, but no developer makes a sequel thinking only the people who played the first game will play it. There are a few exceptions (Digital Devil Saga comes to mind), but for the most part every developer wants the sequel to attract new fans, otherwise what's the point.
Imagine CD Projekt Red thinking "well, console players didn't get to play the first game, so there's no point releasing the sequels on consoles". That would be dumb.
After hearing how good it is, I bought Shadowbringers and started FFXIV fresh. I couldn't stomach the base game (I'm not an MMO guy, it turns out), so I never got to the Shadowbringers content - the whole reason I bought this thing in the first place. For that reason alone it has to be considered an expansion and not a separate game.
I didn't say the story is a waste of time, the content around it is a waste of time. Because of a friend I bought the level 70 skip and just flew through Stormblood's story. I was absolutely done being gated off by level restrictions to progress the story and being forced to go play some of the shittiest side content I've ever experienced. Endless bullshit fetch quests and area clearing just to get paltry xp to experience the next like 3 or so story missions only to do it again. I'm sick of that shit. Tons of people are. It's a problem all MMO's have.
You can get through most of the expansions with only touching a fraction of the side content. My one friend reached level 70 long before he ever beat Stormblood cause doing roulette's makes leveling super fast. If your on one of those servers with faster exp, doubly so.
The only time there was ever a slump was the late 40s and even then just doing the daily roulette made that easy to get through.
I literally did the whole thing this year my dude, it was beyond 1000% worth it.
I voted yes because I don't think of it as a 'content update', but really I do think of it as an expansion.
The amount of contents it provides are equal or may be more than most standalone games, but it requires base game to access Shadowbringers so I don't count it as standalone game.
It still my GOTY and I'm so happy to be invested in the story and got the amazing payoff in Shadowbringers ^^
It still my GOTY and I'm so happy to be invested in the story and got the amazing payoff in Shadowbringers ^^
I mean the fact that the game is still in its growth phase with more active subs than ever in its history kinda contradicts you here. If the game wasn't worth playing anymore, it would be bleeding subs like every other MMO on the market.
Maybe my time has come then. Maybe MMO's just aren't for me anymore. I have so many friends that play XIV and I'm trying but I just can't anymore. It's so fucking boring. Yeah the story stuff is good but the dungeons I don't care for and then the single player stuff is abysmal.
You're doing something very wrong if you're being gated that hard in sub-70 content these days. The XP boost is unreal. Like even just doing main story quests, story dungeons, and daily leveling roulette should be more than enough to stay well ahead of content with your jobs levels.
I'm working my way through ARR again right now. Going at a slower pace since it's an alt, but I'm at Lv28 in the main story quests. Meanwhile I have Black Mage, White Mage, Bard, and Warrior all at Lv50 with Summoner/Scholar and Monk at Lv30. It rains XP.
True, then I suppose the main difference would be that the rest of XIV's MSQ content gates you from starting Shadowbringers.
A game is only as good as the sum of its parts and shadowbringers alone cant carry ff14 alone as much as stormblood and heavensward can. 3.4 Soul Surrender is essential to understanding the story too.
I don't like dungeons. Full stop. Got my fill of that during WoW. So without that and the roulette what do you have left? Abysmal content.
Nope, it is a expansion. Try playing it without any context and it would be shit. What makes it so awesome is because we've been following the story ages and the cast etc. It just all comes together so damn good.
Big spoilers FOR END OF SHADOWBRINGERS STORY.
Big spoilers FOR END OF SHADOWBRINGERS STORY.
like imagine just playing it on your own and finding out WoL is an Ascian
Its a expansion, it also doesnt tell a complete story as you obviously need the background. Heck stormblood is almost more standalone than shadowbringer, despite the latter being a isekai
I say this without any rancor whatsoever - the game might not be for you anymore, if the story isn't enough to override your dislike of the gameplay that's used to deliver it.
Nah, you need previous knowledge to fully enjoy it.
Hell, if you play Shadowbringers without completing Crystal Tower from ARR, you're playing Shadowbringers the wrong way.
Hell, if you play Shadowbringers without completing Crystal Tower from ARR, you're playing Shadowbringers the wrong way.
OP
I feel ya since Iceborne also didnt get the recognition it deserves however i feel like community praise should be enough
Its just the name of the game that persistently expanded titles get technically excluded during the end of the year tallies
I feel ya since Iceborne also didnt get the recognition it deserves however i feel like community praise should be enough
Its just the name of the game that persistently expanded titles get technically excluded during the end of the year tallies
It's an expansion that is just as good as a standalone game. But it does require knowledge of the previous expansions - whenever I hear new players getting ready to get the level skip I just go "oh nooo" inside.
I'm someone who doesn't really follow too many GotY discussions though so I generally don't get affected by randos dismissing my fave games.
I'm someone who doesn't really follow too many GotY discussions though so I generally don't get affected by randos dismissing my fave games.
MMO's have been getting beefy expansions for years and aren't considered GOTY.
Maybe it will get one of those on going game awards or something
Maybe it will get one of those on going game awards or something
Then can we not say Sequels are much of the same then?
"The only reason I care about God of War 2018 is because of the hours with the characters in previous titles and getting to know them over the course of that. If I remove all context from the sequel it loses 99% of what made it great."
The whole discussion is kinda pointless but when we argue semantics like this it makes it difficult to really discuss.
EDIT: I see you've engaged in this conversation already, but I still disagree because of the justifications you've mustered. There are very few sequel games that "work" entirely in a vacuum on their own. Things like DMC5 build on what came before and don't explain their plot lines or character titles much either, so the arbitrary examples of "the writing is different if it's played alone" still doesn't really hold up to me, and anything that's a sequel or part of a "series" is always built on what came before, making that argument still really weak to me.
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I think the cooldown based gameplay is great but majority of people hate cooldown combat and turn based so I accept that I'm in the minority. I think Shadowbringers has some of the greatest fights in the series (titania is one of the best designed fights in the entire series of expacs to me, and Hades Ultimate was great as well) and great use of the mechanics it lays before you, but it is ultimately still mmo gameplay.
You will still do fetch quests, characters will joke about fetch quests, and you will still do some dumb tasks, but the game ultimately holds it up with its story framework to make the payoffs worth it. The story is great as Ishikawa made things that were pretty surface level/shit before better by retconning/fixing a lot of the writing that came when the game launched, and the class design minus about 4 classes is as good as its been since HW.
Story-wise, there's no point to Shadowbringers without the previous content. As others have said it's like starting Game of Thrones in S7.
In that sense, FFXI was different. After CoP (2° expansion out of 5) every one that came after was a self-contained story with new characters with their respective story arcs, and that was it, they didn't appear again until the final patch in 2015 which was a send-off of the game, mixing everyone for the nostalgic feeling. XIV sticks with the same cast (with some dying, newcomers and the like, but there's a feeling of continuity)
In that sense, FFXI was different. After CoP (2° expansion out of 5) every one that came after was a self-contained story with new characters with their respective story arcs, and that was it, they didn't appear again until the final patch in 2015 which was a send-off of the game, mixing everyone for the nostalgic feeling. XIV sticks with the same cast (with some dying, newcomers and the like, but there's a feeling of continuity)
As discussed, too many of the major reveals and plot strands are baked into many years of buildup regarding the Ascians and the Empire, Hydaelyn, the world state, etc... divorced from that, the major reveals wouldn't quite land.
That said, the adventure itself is quite enjoyable and a very strong expansion...to an extent. I still preferred Heavensward overall myself, but this comes close. The zones are some of the best in the game, but the dungeons were...a bit lacking comparatively. A lot to like for sure though, but it is very much a strong chapter in a long running narrative, not something I could at all recommend on its own.
That said, the adventure itself is quite enjoyable and a very strong expansion...to an extent. I still preferred Heavensward overall myself, but this comes close. The zones are some of the best in the game, but the dungeons were...a bit lacking comparatively. A lot to like for sure though, but it is very much a strong chapter in a long running narrative, not something I could at all recommend on its own.