A Realm Reborn - complete!! I just finished The Praetorium last night. Took around...70 hours, I think, from start to finish. I started my adventure a few months ago, went on and off, dabbled in some side content here and there, but mainly just steam rolled the story.
A little bummed about the last few missions - I read up on some strategies before hand as I was a bit nervous for the 8 man teams, but uh...looks like that content did not exactly age well, lol. I'm guessing because item levels aren't synced? We freakin' plowed through literally EVERYTHING. Bosses went down in like, 15 seconds lol. I was so worried about tanking responsibilities but I didn't even have to worry about it. Bummed I didn't get the "full" experience and worried when the time comes I won't know what I'm doing, but I'm glad to be done with the ARR stuff.
Story wasn't as bad as I thought - it got interesting near the end, and I thought the villains had some decent motivations, all thing considered. I think the problem with the story was the storytelling itself - not so much the plot. Poor voice acting, bad pacing, iffy dialogue. I've heard they get some new voice actors in the expansions so I'm excited to see some of these characters "re-imagined" a bit, as I think the framework is definitely there.
Anyway - next up are the 2.x quests, which I hear is a major slog. I'm ready for it - I find those quests super relaxing to get through. I'll usually put on some Giant Bomb content and blast through it.
At some point I'll attempt the Crystal Tower raids before Heavensward as well as the Coil of Bahamut. I'm a little worried about Coil because it seems like you have to pre-make a group for that, as it doesn't really connect you with others during the Duty Finder. Hoping I can find 7 others to carry me through it and won't mind me watching the cutscenes (though I suppose I can watch them later at an inn).
Onwards to Heavensward!
