This patch gives me the feeling I won't enjoy Endwalker that much. FFXIV villains work best when they have some degree of grey to them: from the first time Elidibus came into play he was interesting because he seemed mostly reasonable; Emet-Selch was brilliant because he was not laughing maniacally sitting on his throne made out of dead babies. Zenos' "hunt" is wholly unconvincing and Fandaniel's evil psychopathic jester shtick is frankly exhausting and overplayed.

The towers are sort of visually interesting in their fleshy design, but the fact they spit out discount bin primals is narratively difficult. They go from world-changing creatures to…trash mobs, basically—the supposedly giga-powerful Lunar Bahamut barely qualifies as a dungeon boss now. After years of worldbuilding around the awesome power of primals, this leaves a vacuum that will be very hard to fill.