Ui

This expansion has great content but the story suffers due to 'cramming' that FFXIV seems to have suffered from since Endwalker. Spoilers ahead. In my opinion, the story would have benefitted greatly if the latter half was split into its own expansion, leaving the main narrative as the singular focus without interruptions. In Endwalker the post Main Game Storyline suffered greatly simply due to being crammed into the tail end of the expansion's lifetime. I'm not entirely sure why this has become the second instance in what seems to be a trend, but it does not bode well for future expansions. Dawntrail suffers immensely from the sudden introduction of the Alexandrians. At that point of the story, we are just beginning to have Wuk Lamat (the main protagonist of this expansion and companion of our playable character) grow on us as an ally. She had just advanced from a naive fledgling princess to soon to be (1st in line) ruler of a peace centered unified nation, only to have our attention wretched to a brand new and arguably far more interesting people: The Alexandrians, who are on the brink of annihilation which is later revealed to be of their own undoing. Both Heavensward and Shadowbringers are the two golden expansions in terms of story. They each carry a singular and weighty narrative that players love to the point of tears when they are eventually forced to part ways with. The newest expansion deviates in what feels like trying to tell two separate stories in the timespan that could only meaningfully bare one (MSQ + Post game).