I said in my first review-in-progress that I believe the quality of writing in Final Fantasy XIV has only gotten better since launch, and my time questing through the Heavensward content has only strengthened that conviction. This isn't just good writing for an MMORPG; it's good writing for a game, period, and I don't believe I'm exaggerating when I say that Heavensward in particular delivers the best Final Fantasy story since 2000's Final Fantasy IX. At the very least, it's a massive improvement over what Square Enix gave us when A Realm Reborn first came out.
Here, I've found a memorable tale of ancient dragons running parallel to stories of palace politics, which suggests a slight Game of Thrones influence (people are even caught up bickering about petty matters while the true threat waits in the north). Elsewhere, I've seen a young man wracked with guilt over his former arrogance, thus transforming from a fairly one-dimensional character into a complex one. I've even enjoyed the tiny little conversational choices Square Enix sneaks into many of the cutscenes, thus providing a degree of interactivity where there was largely none before. When I first found myself locked behind level requirements to advance the main story just shy of level 55, I wanted to learn what happened next badly enough that I didn’t mind grinding a dozen side quests to catch up. I’m still disappointed that access to the three new classes is gated behind a wall of content, but getting past it has been a pleasure thanks to the storytelling.
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