#i literally only put ivalice over myths bc i thought the story was very slightly better told and i like the visuals a little more

[thungerstorm]

i have to go with the mhach series from hw, personally. leofard, cait sith, radlia, the dread and wonder that seeing the void ark floating in the sea of clouds for the first time...damn. nothing since has surpassed that level of adventure and awe for me. i LOVED the storyline and all of the fights were fun if not also challenging (at the time. diabolos especially could be very demanding). void ark's pacing and fights are good. weeping city's boss fights are literally all bangers. ozma! calofistieri!! OZMA!!!! dun scaith is an absolute fucking delight visually. the eyeball roses just before scathach's room, and that room itself...holy fuck dude. and then diab's room and all the cool shit that goes along w that fight. and then you got to go to the redbills' floating base and walk around and talk to some of the crew! it's the best. did i mention caith sith is there.

2. ivalice probs. great fights, fun visuals, engaging. i did not know much abt ff tactics before entering but war of the lion is literally kyojin's/my partner's favourite ff property so i got the full rundown as we went through and i am so, so grateful for that. knowing who ramza and delita were made that whole raid so much more special for me. also thunder god cid's fight is fucking awesome. and agrias. and mustadio. and fran is there!! i need to finish ff12.

3. myths of the realm, i think. beautiful raid, fights were (for the most part) a lot of fun and engaging but approachable, but mostly tbh? the fucking music. in that raid. i'm obsessed w llymlaen's and nophica's songs, the most. also the plot is really fucking cool when you sit down and think abt what really happened and what that means for eorzea down the road.

4. crystal tower :P it's age shows so badly, which is a shame, because i still think the story holds up so well. it's still a visual treat- every wing in that raid is so colourful and has such a classic video game vibe. the fights are very meh, again owing to it's age. you can definitely tell it was their first raid series. still fun. i love angra mainyu and amon especially.

5. yorha, just because i don't know much about the nier story and it wasn't any kind of meaningful to me as a result. i know some basics because i have played a bit of automata and friends have given me the coles notes version of the narrative and themes, but wasn't enough to make me care. i enjoyed some of the visuals (running around in the space station was cool) and some of the fights are fun, but it's an easy last place for me so far

i have no idea what echoes of vana'diel will be like, but the first wing has been fun so far. i love the first fight. i hate the other two. (2nd boss is A Lot of movement as a melee who has some kind of interest in hitting positionals and 3rd boss is just. annoying. the floor aoes confuse and irritate me.) the story, for now, is a nothingburger because i did not play much of any of ff11 and have no emotional ties to any of it. none of this means anything to me. maybe if we go to bastok? idk. at least bakool ja ja is there :)

sorry for long post!