Games Happy

It is time once more, of us – it is one more Last Fantasy XIV patch, and now that I’ve had the time to ruminate on it, I’ve obtained some ideas concerning the state of the sport, per common. The primary main patch of an growth will help set the tone going ahead; even when XIV’s patch cycle makes it robust to intuit how later updates would possibly influence issues.

Let’s begin with one thing easy; patch 7.1’s new story was a lot wanted after Dawntrail’s MSQ at launch. Whereas I did genuinely take pleasure in my time with it, I used to be removed from the one one with some lingering qualms. The patch’s storyline helped alleviate a few of these doubts, whereas additionally setting issues up for the following two patches – resulting in the conclusion of Dawntrail’s MSQ, correct. Not like Endwalker, this time across the recreation has returned to its common cadence of an growth’s story lasting by the x.3 patch, earlier than transitioning to and organising the following growth to return.

At any fee; I appreciated the moments that Gulool Ja and Koana obtained. Wuk Lamat wasn’t as heavy a spotlight this go round, however I do assume the way in which that the workforce dealt with her was in all probability extra even-handed than in Dawntrail itself; I will not say anymore than that, although, since I do typically take pleasure in her character, and discussing her has turn into one thing of a minefield for the reason that growth’s launch.

What I’ll say, nonetheless, is that it is good that patch 7.1 noticed some selection English voice traces from 7.0 redone. Whereas Wuk Lamat was the character which noticed probably the most scrutiny on this regard, she was removed from the one one who suffered some unlucky voice path. Hopefully this indicators that no matter led to those discrepancies have been sorted out; however it’s nonetheless fairly embarrassing that the workforce let one thing like this slip by the cracks, notably because it emboldened some fairly nasty harassment in direction of a trans voice actor.

Persevering with the development Dawntrail has set, battle content material for 7.1 (and seven.11) has been glorious. The brand new Excessive Trial is unimaginable, top-of-the-line the workforce has launched; a stark distinction to Endwalker’s x.1 trial, which was one of many worst. The brand new dungeon might be my favourite in Dawntrail to this point; The FFXI crossover, equally, is off to an explosive begin with an unimaginable Alliance Raid to start out off the brand new sequence. Whereas I loved Endwalker’s Alliance Raids greater than most, it is plain that the workforce flexed a few of their muscle groups to ship one thing a bit outdoors of the norm. Whether or not it is the knockback mechanics within the first encounter, the provides within the second, the sheer variety of bosses within the third – and so on, and so on.

Even past the raid itself, the rewards for doing it are price mentioning. Bolstered by the truth that FFXI has a soundtrack that’s solely dwarfed by XIV itself, there have been so many orchestrion rewards connected to the brand new Alliance Raid, that the workforce tried one thing completely different – as a substitute of getting all these songs in a pool for a small probability for them to drop, as a substitute gamers can roll for an merchandise that may then be exchanged for an orchestrion of their selecting. It makes going for all of those orchestrion’s far much less annoying, and extra doable – and presents one more reason for gamers to maintain working the raid, even outdoors of the weekly lockout.

One of many different, smaller updates that 7.1 introduced feels in an analogous vein – we as soon as once more had a wave of group designed weapons added to XIV, however in contrast to earlier inclusions which have been simply unlocked with some foreign money that many gamers have loads of, and will be grinded for fairly painlessly, the devteam took a devious strategy – by including them to Dawntrail’s Treasure Dungeon loot pool. In order for you, say, the unimaginable new Darkish Knight weapon – you higher be able to run Treasure Dungeons for hours on finish with your mates, otherwise you higher hope you’ve gotten the money readily available to pay the 12+ million gil that gamers are charging for a weapon coffer available on the market board.

To say that this has been met with some blended reception is a little bit of an understatement; however I truly just like the change. We all the time anticipated for Dawntrail’s Treasure Dungeon loot pool to be up to date after launch, however Inventive Studio 3 locking such extremely sought-after gadgets behind the function has led to a serious rebound in Treasure Maps exercise; glam is the actual endgame, and the double whammy of the unimaginable Wintertide glam set, and these new weapons, signifies that you would be hard-pressed to log into the sport and never see Social gathering Finder promoting a Treasure Map occasion or two. The value of maps themselves additionally noticed a short spike the place the maps themselves would go for 250k gil available on the market board; a far cry from the same old fare of maps costing 50k, to 70k. Even a number of weeks later they’re hovering above 100k on the weekends.

I will save dialogue of the latest Final Raid for later – particularly as I have been progging it myself – however Fates Rewritten (Final) has been an enormous success, and a fantastic reduction after The Omega Protocol burned many high-end raiders out. It is simpler than each of Endwalker’s Final Raids, however not egregiously so – and most significantly, it is a actually enjoyable battle with participating mechanics. With much more high-end battle content material coming in just some quick weeks with 7.15, it is truthful to say that raiders are consuming nicely early-on in Dawntrail’s patch cycle.

Which does, after all, go away a query; for those who’re not a raider, and you do not care to chase glams, what else has 7.1 delivered to the desk for the common XIV participant? Whereas 7.1 has been an unimaginable patch for raiders and glam lovers, for those who do not end up in both of these camps it has been a fairly boring and restrained replace – these gamers must wait till someday after March for the kind of content material that may attraction to their pursuits. Whereas there was the primary Allied Society quest added to Dawntrail with 7.1, that content material is simply ever good for spending 10 to fifteen minutes every day in your dailies; it’s miles from the kind of long-term engagement that I would wager these gamers are on the lookout for.

That being mentioned; one undersold aspect of seven.1 I ought to point out is the graphical updates to older zones. Loads of ARR and different zones have seen a graphical glow-up; most gamers that at the moment are solidly taking part in by later expansions will not discover, after all, however it’s nonetheless in the end good for the well being of the sport as an entire, and tremendously appreciated.

Past that, although – Endwalker introduced a brand new housing ward, the brand new PvP replace, and naturally Adventurer Plates; in the meantime Dawntrail principally appears like extra of the identical. In case you’re nonetheless hooked that will not be an issue, however I do fear that the sport would possibly want one thing actually recent within the close to future. To this point Dawntrail is not that; and I’m wondering how that may shake out long-term.

RPG Website obtained Last Fantasy XIV recreation time for the needs of this patch evaluation.