Games Happy

With one exception, I have been typically happy with the slate of Excessive Trials that Ultimate Fantasy XIV: Endwalker has delivered to the desk; and a part of that was seeing how cool the Lynx motif was this time round. Earlier expansions have persistently had a theme which every set of Excessive Trial mounts would abide by; A Realm Reborn had gamers gathering horses, and the reward for gathering all of them was the Golden Kirin. Heavensward had gamers gathering birds, and the reward was a Phoenix. Stormblood had gamers gathering wolves, and the reward was a 9-tailed Fox. Lastly, Shadowbringers had gamers gathering Wyverns and the reward was a mechanical Dragon.

Whereas the last word reward was by no means a precise match for what the bottom Excessive Trial mounts had been, its all the time been straightforward to make the connection between what gamers might have been gathering for the final yr and a half to what the reward can be; so up till earlier this yr most, if not all, gamers anticipated some type of big cat for Endwalker’s reward for gathering the entire Excessive Trial Lynx mounts. Possibly we might get one thing like Couerlregina as a mount; or hopefully one thing new to suit the theme! Whereas different gamers had been upset with patch 6.4’s Savage Raid mount, I liked that it was each one thing totally different from different mounts out there within the sport, whereas nonetheless staying thematically applicable for the content material you acquired it from. So, I used to be personally wanting ahead to one thing alongside the identical strains with the fruits of Endwalker’s Trial mounts.

Nicely, that has not been the case, with gamers as an alternative receiving the “Aprocyphal Bahamut” mount referencing Bahamut from Ultimate Fantasy IV. As cool as I believe the reference is, I believe I can communicate for a lot of gamers once I say that I am greater than just a little confused – and maybe a bit upset. Whereas it is true that Endwalker’s patch quests have been primarily one big Ultimate Fantasy IV reference, and certainly 4 of the enlargement’s Trials have been lifted instantly from the SNES traditional, that also means 3 of the enlargement’s Trials have had nothing to do with Ultimate Fantasy IV; and certainly this nonetheless singles out Endwalker’s Trial reward because the odd one out so far as Ultimate Fantasy XIV is anxious.

Loads of gamers are pleased with the brand new mount, in fact, and I would not dare say that it should not be within the sport; however I do surprise if maybe it wasn’t misplaced. What if it was a reward elsewhere within the enlargement; as a reward for partaking with PvP, or the brand new Deep Dungeon, and even Island Sanctuary. Whereas I do not essentially condone the concept, why could not it have been launched as a part of a celebration for this yr’s Fanfest? One other Ultimate Fantasy IV reference, the Lunar Whale, was additionally tied to a Fanfest prior to now, in spite of everything. Although that, in fact, signifies that the mount that we received for this yr’s festivities would’ve probably needed to have been positioned elsewhere, too.

There’s additionally the chance that no matter sample gamers have noticed was by no means a deliberate intention by the Artistic Enterprise Unit 3, in fact. Simply because mounts prior to now have matched up, does not imply that the selections had been inherently tied to that aim; it is also eqaully probably that Aprocyphal Bahamut was all the time the intent, and there was merely no good strategy to tie the Excessive Trial mounts into it, and so they went with one thing else totally because of this. It is merely unimaginable to say with out asking the builders themselves what the thought course of was when delegating the mount that will be the reward.

Regardless of the purpose; I nonetheless want we might’ve gotten an enormous cat as an alternative, even when on the identical time I am pleased for gamers which can be excited to unlock Apocryphal Bahamut for themselves. It isn’t a nasty mount, however after a lot build-up it is arduous to not really feel that pang of disappointment that it did not reside as much as these expectations; misattributed or not. On the brilliant aspect, at the least I will not must grind out the remainder of the totems from EX3 anymore; so possibly it was for one of the best in spite of everything.