Final Fantasy 14 is over 10 years old and players are finishing up its newest expansion, Dawntrail. With six expansions, including A Realm Rebron, Final Fantasy 14 is one of gaming’s greatest comeback stories. From a critically-panned launch to becoming one of the biggest games of all time for Square Enix, all of it was thanks to the consistently excellent work from the developers.
But which expansion reigns supreme? With so many to choose from, and each expansion with its own unique characteristics, it’s hard to choose. But we’ve gotten together to rank every Final Fantasy 14 expansion to find out which one we loved most.
So hit the jump to see our favorite expansions in Final fantasy 14 below.
Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn
The story of Final Fantasy 14’s rise from the ashes is well-documented. Following a disastrous launch, producer Naoki Yoshida took reins on the project and rebooted the game with A Realm Reborn, which literally destroyed the world of the launch game, and built on top of it the beloved MMORPG we know and love today.
A Realm Reborn was a two-fold project that fixed the frustrating gameplay and RPG systems of the launch version while telling a story that literally incorporates the destruction of the launch version into the wider narrative. And while A Realm Reborn quite literally saved FF14, the need to reboot an entire MMO and reintroduce players to the game is its greatest weakness. Compared to later expansions, A Realm Reborn feels downright glacial when it comes to pacing, and the need to revamp the world means its story is far more bloated than it needs to be in later expansions. While A Realm Reborn will always be cherished for saving Square Enix’s MMORPG, you’ll be hard-pressed to say the later expansions aren’t better. – Matt Kim
Final Fantasy 14: Stormblood
Stormblood is often looked at as one of the lesser-liked expansions, which, to me, speaks to how strong the rest of them are. That’s because Stormblood is still a crucial piece to Final Fantasy 14 that worked to conclude long-standing conflicts and show you just how evil and destructive the Garlean Empire was. I vividly remember the feeling of taking back Ala Mhigo after all these years of them being under Garlean rule, and taking back Doma Castle after seeing how Domans had suffered from the occupation. There are moments in which Stormblood undercuts its own messaging and perhaps didn’t fully find the nuance necessary to elegantly tell a politically charged story. However, it gets the larger picture right, and the liberation of the peoples across the different regions was invigorating nonetheless.
Stormblood’s zones might not be the most exciting of the bunch, but there’s a tranquility I still feel when flying across the Ruby Sea, over the plains of Azim Steppe, and past the rice patties in Yangxia. I often reflect on the stories of oppression and rebellion in those moments because of the smaller stories told throughout the expansion. I also remember Yotsuyu as one of the most complex villains of FF14 – her heartbreaking story represents how sadistic and corrupting living under oppression can be, which culminated in one of the best boss fights to this day. Stormblood may not have been the best expansion, but it had peaks that make FF14 what it is today. – Michael Higham
Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail
With Dawntrail fresh in my memory, it’s a bit hard to gauge its place in the Final Fantasy 14 pantheon, but even with all its implications yet to be explored, it still stands as a worthy addition to the MMO’s long history. The land of Tural opens FF14 to so many different themes and cultural influences it wasn’t able to incorporate in the past, and although it does come with some mixed results, the vibrant foundation it lays leaves even more room for growth. Newcomer Wuk Lamat is a large focus and although she’s not the strongest character in FF14, she has the heart necessary to carry out Dawntrail’s message of finding peace through mutual respect and embracing our differences.
Dawntrail’s lasting legacy is in the second half of its story where things turn in unpredictable directions. Its fusion of references to ancient civilizations, its Latin American roots, and the old-timey American West somehow make sense when they clash with the cyberpunk-tinged sci-fi elements that eventually come to the forefront. It’s able to touch on classic Final Fantasy narrative themes from a fresh perspective. We explored the depths of the pain we feel from losing the things we love most during Shadowbringers and Endwalker, but the way Dawntrail contextualizes mortality is powerfully intimate. In its best moments, Dawntrail can be as impactful as anything else found in FF14, and for that alone, this expansion deserves its flowers. – MH
Final Fantasy 14: Endwalker
Endwalker is the culmination of a 10-year long story arc for Final Fantasy 14. From the days of A Realm Reborn, players became embroiled in a celestial battle between the gods Hydaelin and Zodiark. Beset in the real-world by a global pandemic that delayed the expansion by a year, Endwalker was a reward for players who stuck with the MMORPG from its earliest days who can now see the conclusion to a long-running storyline.
The stakes were high but Endwalker is FF14’s most emotional expansion to date, reinforcing Final Fantasy 14’s core themes of how friendship and courage can overcome even the greatest challenges. And with so much of Final Fantasy 14 now playable in single-player, a new player could play from A Realm Reborn through Endwalker and feel that they’ve finished one of the best Final Fantasy games of all time.
But thankfully, Endwalker is not the end of FF14, and the newest expansion, Dawntrail, is setting the stage for the next 10 years of Square Enix’s beloved MMORPG. – MK
Final Fantasy 14: Heavensward
What a difference an expansion makes. Free from the need to fix an entire MMORPG, Final Fantasy 14’s next expansion after A Realm Reborn, Heavensward, is able to jump right into the action. With the Warriors of Light on the run, they escape to the frozen, holy land of Ishgard which has been too busy embroiled in a war against dragons to do much in Eorzea.
What’s immediately apparent in Heavensward is that it quickly establishes the themes and storytelling the FF14 team seems to revel in: dramatic, high fantasy that harkens back to the old pixel games like Final Fantasy 6. Heavensward is such a throwback to the classic sword and sorcery fantasy of early Final Fantasy games, while also introducing the dark courtly politics that would make George R.R. Martin grin. If A Realm Reborn took a lot of time to get going, Heavensward is action-packed almost from the jump and from there sets the bar for all later FF14 expansions.
To quote FromSoftware, the real Final Fantasy 14 begins with Heavensward. – MK
Final Fantasy 14: Shadowbringers
Final Fantasy 14 truly found its voice in Shadowbringers. Lead writer Natsuko Ishikawa stepped into the role and her poetic storytelling style gave the expansion its identity, focusing on its characters with a level of depth and emotional sincerity never before seen in FF14. From the moment you step into The First, there’s an immediate sense of urgency that sets the tone for how dire the flood of light has been on the entire realm, flipping the script on typical light versus dark stories. And in horrifying ways, leaned on showing rather than telling.
Shadowbringers captured its grand moments with a weight and excitement that few RPGs are able to pull off. It earns those moments by building characters like the Crystal Exarch, Ardbert, and Emet Selch in a complex web of heroes and villains to carry its heavier themes, and contextualize despair and tragedy in a world separate from anything we’d known in Eorzea. FF14 began to ask the big questions about loss, grief, and the lengths people will go to preserve the things that matter most to them, and did so with nuance.
And if we want to count the post-launch content, Patch 5.3 capped off what was already one of the best stories in the series with another incredible conclusion, reaching a height that I don’t think FF14 will ever be able to top. My precious crystal cat boy gave his all to save a realm, and all of my Scion friends were there to witness his greatness as he immortalized his life’s work at the Seat of Sacrifice. From its writing and narrative themes to its music and visual storytelling, Shadowbringers not only proved itself as peak FF14, it’s arguably peak Final Fantasy. – MH
These are our rankings for our favorite Final Fantasy 14 expansions. Let us know below in the comments which expansions are your favorites.
Matt T.M. Kim is IGN’s Senior Features Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.
