4.5/5 ★ – HayleeFISH's review of Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward.

Now that I've had a bit away from Heavensward I feel I can review this a bit better. The expansion to the critically-acclaimed Final Fantasy XIV and now included in the free trial! (Come on, I had to squeeze that meme in somewhere. Might as well get it out of my system now.) No but seriously, I think I took a good 2-3 months to get from the start of ARR to this expansion and I subscribed. People are literally getting 2-3 months of a whole game for free, and honestly, when you put it that way it's so, so worth a try. This is such a marked improvement on A Realm Reborn it's not even funny. ARR was good, don't get me wrong, but this is entirely something else. The plot, which revolves around your exile to a new city-state and the lies told about the history of an entire people, is a huge leap ahead of ARR, and definitely well worth the slog that was the terrible postgame patches. At the time of writing this review I've been subscribed to Final Fantasy XIV for 4 months. I'm still enjoying it and having a great time (just finished Stormblood - that review is coming eventually). This one just adds so much to the game that it's hard to believe it's an expansion - feels like a whole different game to ARR, in so many positive ways. Fantastic plot, memorable characters you truly care about (especially a certain someone veterans of this expansion will know about) AND there's dragons. Lots of dragons. This one also introduces the new flying mount system - it's pretty much a few quests and an "easter egg hunt" that has you exploring the whole map for "Aether currents". Once you have picked them all up, you unlock flying for that area. It's a nice little reward for your work, without being too grindy. The soundtrack is, as ever, excellent. I'm really liking Soken's work on the game so far, and he's an excellent successor to Uematsu. The best Final Fantasy game I have played since X. 9/10. If you're a fan of MMOs, or even a series veteran, I would highly recommend you at least give the free trial a go. And if my recommendation isn't enough - Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of the whole series gave it a go, and now he's completely sucked into Eorzea.