An Epic Adventure in Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward

It’s been two years since I beat A Realm Reborn, and yesterday I also finished the first Final Fantasy XIV expansion, Heavensward (which is now included in the free trial).

Heavensward gets a lot of praise from fans, and the quests building up to it after A Realm Reborn started out slow but then reached levels of suspense where I couldn’t wait to see what would happen next.

(In between A Realm Reborn and Heavensward, I also met Hildibrand, a character at the center of the funniest quests I’ve seen in the game so far. That was definitely a highlight.)

And of course, Heavensward is set in Ishgard, the land of holy knights and dragons, so how could I not be interested?

I enjoyed the plot of Heavensward much more than the plot of A Realm Reborn, and it felt like there were less times where I had to run back and forth on busywork quests instead of actually advancing the story. It also gave me a new favorite Final Fantasy XIV character and some pretty exciting moments!

While I wouldn’t rank it up there with my favorite Final Fantasy games like some people do, it was still really good, and my enjoyment of the story might have been hindered slightly by how long it took me to complete.

(I’ll try not to drag out the other expansions quite as much.)

I’ve stuck with my same class through my entire playthrough so far, but in Heavensward I finally improved my own gameplay by switching over to gamepad controls, which I found to be more intuitive for combat. Making a few small changes like that also helped me enjoy the game much more.

Meanwhile, there have been plenty of entertaining seasonal events and other optional parts of the game that I enjoyed quite a bit. Most recently, I did a special event quest at the Gold Saucer that makes you investigate a crime without any quest markers, so you have to search for the information you need to piece together the correct answer.

I intended to take a break from serious Final Fantasy XIV playing after finishing Heavensward, but it ended on a note guaranteed to drive me forward to see what happens in the patches!

And so for the foreseeable future, it looks like my Final Fantasy XIV adventure will continue! Here’s hoping for exciting stories ahead!

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