The penultimate update for the outstanding Endwalker expansion from 2021 offers plenty to enjoy. Compelling twists to the main story continue to occur, a satisfying host of raids wrap up the end-game series of 8-man battles, and several expansions of chill end-game content further add the suite of things to do and places to see.
Full Review: https://neoncloudff.wordpress.com/2023/08/02/now-playing-july-2023-edition/
Full Review: https://neoncloudff.wordpress.com/2023/08/02/now-playing-july-2023-edition/
At this point the story starts to go on for a bit too long. I'm happy I played this after the release of 6.5, as by itself I do think it would have been very, very disappointing. It teases all the goals of the Scions and the WoL are at reach, only to pull off a JoJo-style "you've pushed me to my limits and forced me to use my secret forbidden technique" and leave the story hanging for months.
Coincidentally, this is also the point when I start to feel burned out on the game again. Although I was initially having fun in my return to FFXIV, its gameplay once again has become aggravating. Playing it with random strangers takes its toll—though the majority of players are not overtly mean or hostile, they can still be petty and passive-aggressive. This increases the further one is close to the endgame, with this palpable vibe of "ugh, everyone should be at top of their game by now." I say this as more of an observer than a target—neither terribly bad, nor particularly good, I mostly fly under the radar.
Coincidentally, this is also the point when I start to feel burned out on the game again. Although I was initially having fun in my return to FFXIV, its gameplay once again has become aggravating. Playing it with random strangers takes its toll—though the majority of players are not overtly mean or hostile, they can still be petty and passive-aggressive. This increases the further one is close to the endgame, with this palpable vibe of "ugh, everyone should be at top of their game by now." I say this as more of an observer than a target—neither terribly bad, nor particularly good, I mostly fly under the radar.
I can't really say I'm having quite the same Lack of Content Malaise as a lot of people seem to, although as someone who tends to Generally Like Things I can... sort of see the problem? I feel like there's a lot of doomsaying about ah it's FF16's fault, it's Dawntrail's fault, the game is just on a general downward spiral... and I don't really think that at all, man. I think they're mostly doing a little experimentation that might not actually be working out 100% of the time and also unfucking the onboarding process so new players have more Options and an ARR experience that isn't quite as messy and also Covid happened. Ishikawa's mentioned they're trying to mentor new writing talent so this is probably where the jank is going to be.
Unfortunately this means that the endgame multiplayer experience isn't as good. I'm having fun because I mostly play solo, but people actually looking for a MMO are, perhaps, not enjoying things as much. I really love Variant Dungeons for their own sake but idk the rewards aren't the greatest maybe?? I still have minions to get and friends to help through...
Patch length also fucks with my perception of time. What do you mean Pandaemonium and the actual MSQ story were back in May... Pandaemonium was good as fuck, by the way. What an ending. I support women's wrongs. I had some extreme feelings about P11. I marked out at The Line. It's good stuff, is what I'm saying. I'm not sure where people are getting it but there's some scuttlebutt that the writer for Pandaemonium is writing for Dawntrail and man, I love his stuff, though? He's not all killer no filler (DNC's storyline had okay characters but otherwise sucked) but he's written enough top tier stuff (with Panda being the most recent) that I feel like he's gonna do Great, especially working with Ishikawa.
MSQ is a little weirder because it genuinely kind of feels like. A trial series that had too many important aspects to it that it had to be upgraded to MSQ. It feels both a little too ponderous and a little too rushed. There are, of course, things I am marking out over as a long time Final Fantasy fan but I feel like it genuinely would've worked out a little better as a trial series? Zero's great though. I appreciate that she gets to be goofy and I really hope she's being set up to be a more permanent cast member. It feels like her being in trusts suggests that but I still kind of have to worry...
As for the other stuff, Rokkon was great. I love Hancock. He sucks so bad. The fights were really fun and I love solving puzzles! Perhaps someday I will do Criterion as well (hahahaha I'm a filthy casual). Tataru's Grand Endeavor was the big disappointment which, like, I should've expected because it's Werlyt. But it was a disappointment in a completely bizarre way, which I also should've expected because whoever wrote Werlyt has the strangest priorities ever. I cannot believe Tataru wasn't even in her own questline??? Was she too hard to shoehorn into some kind of tortured mecha anime reference??????
I did not touch BLU yet because it's the one class I haven't gotten to max level because getting spells while being a primarily solo player is a real pain in the ass. I want to do it but they didn't even add duty support as a feature??? What on earth. Why would you do it like that...
Anyway, I'm still excited for 6.5 even if I'm not super excited for the giga lull between 6.55 and Dawntrail. It's gonna be... something, huh... well, there's always big fish and Eureka.
Unfortunately this means that the endgame multiplayer experience isn't as good. I'm having fun because I mostly play solo, but people actually looking for a MMO are, perhaps, not enjoying things as much. I really love Variant Dungeons for their own sake but idk the rewards aren't the greatest maybe?? I still have minions to get and friends to help through...
Patch length also fucks with my perception of time. What do you mean Pandaemonium and the actual MSQ story were back in May... Pandaemonium was good as fuck, by the way. What an ending. I support women's wrongs. I had some extreme feelings about P11. I marked out at The Line. It's good stuff, is what I'm saying. I'm not sure where people are getting it but there's some scuttlebutt that the writer for Pandaemonium is writing for Dawntrail and man, I love his stuff, though? He's not all killer no filler (DNC's storyline had okay characters but otherwise sucked) but he's written enough top tier stuff (with Panda being the most recent) that I feel like he's gonna do Great, especially working with Ishikawa.
MSQ is a little weirder because it genuinely kind of feels like. A trial series that had too many important aspects to it that it had to be upgraded to MSQ. It feels both a little too ponderous and a little too rushed. There are, of course, things I am marking out over as a long time Final Fantasy fan but I feel like it genuinely would've worked out a little better as a trial series? Zero's great though. I appreciate that she gets to be goofy and I really hope she's being set up to be a more permanent cast member. It feels like her being in trusts suggests that but I still kind of have to worry...
As for the other stuff, Rokkon was great. I love Hancock. He sucks so bad. The fights were really fun and I love solving puzzles! Perhaps someday I will do Criterion as well (hahahaha I'm a filthy casual). Tataru's Grand Endeavor was the big disappointment which, like, I should've expected because it's Werlyt. But it was a disappointment in a completely bizarre way, which I also should've expected because whoever wrote Werlyt has the strangest priorities ever. I cannot believe Tataru wasn't even in her own questline??? Was she too hard to shoehorn into some kind of tortured mecha anime reference??????
I did not touch BLU yet because it's the one class I haven't gotten to max level because getting spells while being a primarily solo player is a real pain in the ass. I want to do it but they didn't even add duty support as a feature??? What on earth. Why would you do it like that...
Anyway, I'm still excited for 6.5 even if I'm not super excited for the giga lull between 6.55 and Dawntrail. It's gonna be... something, huh... well, there's always big fish and Eureka.
I liked this patch, The raid series although a bit weird with how the story was told kinda had a great payoff in the ending. The fights themselves are good, the current raid series for pandemonium is much better than the controversial last series of raids. It was nice to see the politics of Garlemald come back into play.
The trial was so skuffed and chaotic and fun at the same time. A huge upgrade from 6.3 which I felt like was a letdown content-wise in every way. looking forward to the next patch and Dawntrail!!!
The trial was so skuffed and chaotic and fun at the same time. A huge upgrade from 6.3 which I felt like was a letdown content-wise in every way. looking forward to the next patch and Dawntrail!!!
MMO fans are the most ungrateful blind idiot benefactors to their own genre. The amount of times I see people blame literally every flaw of this game on some aspect that has, in reality, little to no actual impact is genuinely infuriating.
We're really out here saying that a whole other video game that has been developed for YEARS is somehow at fault for Endwalker and it's patch notes being a little lighter on amount of content.
We're really out here saying that the development of the next expansion is somehow at fault for what's wrong with this game DESPITE having the same developement cycle as every other previous expansion.
Final Fantasy 14 fans would crumble and whither away if they were able to read but if this raid tier has shown me anything it's that the comprehension for simple language and understanding is now at subterranean levels
Anywho the patch itself is nice even if small since the quality of encounters has literally done nothing but go up since 6.0 dropping
We're really out here saying that a whole other video game that has been developed for YEARS is somehow at fault for Endwalker and it's patch notes being a little lighter on amount of content.
We're really out here saying that the development of the next expansion is somehow at fault for what's wrong with this game DESPITE having the same developement cycle as every other previous expansion.
Final Fantasy 14 fans would crumble and whither away if they were able to read but if this raid tier has shown me anything it's that the comprehension for simple language and understanding is now at subterranean levels
Anywho the patch itself is nice even if small since the quality of encounters has literally done nothing but go up since 6.0 dropping
im so fucking lonely
This review contains spoilers
I really enjoyed the music and aesthetics of the four new normal raid fights. The story was ok, with a nice conclusion. It's nice to see some more development on the Ancients, particularly Lahabrea. It was also interesting that they gave me the choice to say that I wasn't sure whether it was really him who was the villain in the earlier iterations of the game, as if the Sundering maybe had an impact.
The MSQ story was better. I really enjoy what they are doing with Zero. She is perhaps the best character they have introduced since they launched the game 13 years ago. Her dynamic reminds me a lot of Data from Star Trek, where she is in this new setting learning what it means to be human. She also has a big impact on the people she is trying to learn from as well, which I enjoy. The new four-person dungeon is fun. I like the remix Sharlayan music. It gives me Breath of Fire III vibes.
The new trial was fine. My duty finder party had DPS who kept dying (18 times in one effort, one of them), so it took us forever to kill. We wiped three times, and the final kill took like ten minutes. As a tank, I had third highest DPS. Anyway, it's probably better with a more experienced group. I picked up the mechanics pretty quickly, having it mostly nailed down before we wiped the first time. It was a little annoying to beat Golbez and then have him turn around and be like "muahaha" and do his thing against the sister. Kind of took the wind out of the victory (especially after struggling for almost an hour with the low DPS).
Overall I think it's a good update. I'm looking forward to exploring the new ocean fishing route and expanding out my island sanctuary over the coming weeks.
The MSQ story was better. I really enjoy what they are doing with Zero. She is perhaps the best character they have introduced since they launched the game 13 years ago. Her dynamic reminds me a lot of Data from Star Trek, where she is in this new setting learning what it means to be human. She also has a big impact on the people she is trying to learn from as well, which I enjoy. The new four-person dungeon is fun. I like the remix Sharlayan music. It gives me Breath of Fire III vibes.
The new trial was fine. My duty finder party had DPS who kept dying (18 times in one effort, one of them), so it took us forever to kill. We wiped three times, and the final kill took like ten minutes. As a tank, I had third highest DPS. Anyway, it's probably better with a more experienced group. I picked up the mechanics pretty quickly, having it mostly nailed down before we wiped the first time. It was a little annoying to beat Golbez and then have him turn around and be like "muahaha" and do his thing against the sister. Kind of took the wind out of the victory (especially after struggling for almost an hour with the low DPS).
Overall I think it's a good update. I'm looking forward to exploring the new ocean fishing route and expanding out my island sanctuary over the coming weeks.
Great trial, and environments, but the story is not sticking with me the way I hoped it would.
On the other hand, WOW what a final raid tier that was. That might be my favorite music in any raid tier.
On the other hand, WOW what a final raid tier that was. That might be my favorite music in any raid tier.
Trial bastante guapo y muy loco
Pretty fucking horrible patch. Endwalker has been one lackluster or bad update after another but this is the first to make me unsub in two years. Awful story direction and nothing to do outside of raiding have plagued this expansion since 6.1 and this might be the worst example of it. At least the Pandaemonium finale was pretty good?
Another good bit of patch content for FFXIV. A very fun and gorgeous dungeon and a fun, but challenging trial!
zero my beloved...
Final Fantasy XIV: The Dark Throne (6.4)
Muy bueno el parche, la historia y el Trial como fan de FFIV me han encantado. En cuanto a pandaemonium me han parecido los mejores pisos pero debería verme otra vez la historia porque no la he entendido muy bien.
(8/10)
Se raidea.
Muy bueno el parche, la historia y el Trial como fan de FFIV me han encantado. En cuanto a pandaemonium me han parecido los mejores pisos pero debería verme otra vez la historia porque no la he entendido muy bien.
(8/10)
Se raidea.