FFXIV: Third Time on the First

One of my goals for this month was to push Tai through Stormblood and get him to Shadowbringers. With a huge thanks to the help from Syn and my FC, I managed to get all that done over this past weekend. This was super unexpected, but I’m really glad that he’s finally in the First!

I haven’t made much progress with him yet, as I only just got him to the Crystarium. I’m happy that Tai is caught up, though, and on current content for the first time in two years.

A long while back, when Stormblood first released, I wrote about how I struggled to want to go through the expansion again because at the time, I thought it just felt overwhelming. My exact comments were:

However, something about the scope of the Stormblood storyline is stopping me from wanting to go through it a second time. I know this sounds strange… but the story is so vast that I don’t want to spoil the experience by committing it to memory just yet.

Now that I look back, I don’t think this was actually the case. The truth was, there just wasn’t enough of a hook to motivate me to push through that particular type of story and those dungeons all over again. Especially the dungeons.

I don’t feel that way at all about Shadowbringers, which I don’t mind running through a third time. It’s not just the story, but the zones and the world itself that appeals to me.

The Trust system is also the shining savior of this expansion for me. Knowing that I can move through Shadowbringers at my own pace when it comes to dungeons, aside from three trial fights, is wonderful. In fact, knowing that is enough for me to want to push all of my alts who are stagnating at the beginning of Stormblood through to the new content.

Stormblood is really not a terrible experience, though I know I make it sound that way. It’s just that it’s not appealing to repeat yet another time. And it’s rather hard to motivate myself when what I have ahead of me doesn’t feel fun.

That being said, my next alt, Zuri, is paused right outside of Sirensong Sea. I do want to get her through the content because it’s related to her RP story. So I have a bit more motivation to move her along than others. Now that Tai’s in the First, I can concentrate on progressing others, and just enjoy the ride for him going forward.

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