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It's probably no small surprise that I enjoy MMORPGs seeing as they've taken up a disproportionally large amount of discussion related to video games on this capsule. Depending on the game, they can have a pretty decent mix of exploration, story, bopping things in dungeons, enjoyable things to do that don't involve dungeons, and if we're really lucky it might even have a very nice / kind community. Of all the games that I've played in the genre, Elder Scrolls Online, Guild Wars 2, and Final Fantasy XIV have checked the most boxes on that list. Well, they check all of those boxes to be honest.
Of late, the latter has been gobbling up the majority of my time. I've played consistently since about 2014 but when the game's most recent expansion came out a year ago, I was pretty burned out on the whole thing and took a break. Eventually the desire to return welled up in me and for the last month I've been getting my character up to max level as a warrior, enjoying the story, and checking out all of the non-raiding content (I have very little interest in MMO raids).
It took a while to get into the story, as I was getting pretty tired of the antagonist present during the first third of the expansion. He'd been around in the story for a while and was very one note. I get that his whole thing is that he's obsessed with players' character, but I just found him boring. Once he was largely dealt with and pushed to the side, things started to get a bit more interesting as the real big bad was revealed and remaining strings in FFXIV's story that had been around for ages got tied up finally. From here on out, it looks like we're on to entirely new stories for wherever the game goes from here. That being said, looking at what's going on with the story in 6.1 and 6.2 patches, I do wonder if Golbez is going to turn out to be another ascian. At least the call backs to Final Fantasy IV have been nice, though.
Story aside, there's plenty of the usual things to do in the game. Dungeons are fine, though I did find the bosses a bit inconsistent in how much stuff they do. As I've mentioned, I haven't touched the raids yet. I'll do the normal mode ones at some point because they're pretty casual affairs and have stories attached to them, but the more difficult ones will get a pass. Outside of that, it looks like the developers are trying to add some new things to do for people that aren't necessarily into raiding, or dungeons, or much of anything else (or at least want a break from the usual FFXIV rigmarole).
First, there are Sanctuary Islands. They're kind of like player housing, but much more simplified. Players don't need to have leveled their crafting or gathering jobs in order to make things here. In some ways it's like a very basic version of Minecraft in that players run around gathering crafting materials and can use them to make simple tools and what not. More complex structures are made by mammets (tiny robots in the FFXIV universe), but players still need to gather the materials in order for these to be made. Eventually players will have little mammet workshops going, making items to sell for the Sanctuary's currency on Eorzea's global markets. From there said currency can be used to buy all sorts of goodies like pets, music scrolls, materia, and so forth. It's all very relaxing, casual, and probably not for everyone. At first, I wondered if these islands might become like the garrisons from World of Warcraft where players just stayed there and almost never interacted with anyone else. Thankfully, this hasn't happened here, but FFXIV's community tends to be a lot more social / friendly than WoW's, so that probably explains things a bit in that regard.
Second, a new type of dungeon has been added to the game. Instead of being something strictly for 4 players, this one allows 1-4, and player(s) accompany an NPC while exploring them. There's more story to thing, and they have branching pathways that make for a bit of replay value. There isn't much to say about them as they are still very dungeon-y at their core, but they do accommodate solo players pretty well.
It looks like the game is also experimenting with an answer to WoW's Mythic dungeons. They aren't as involved as Blizzard's offerings, and it doesn't sound like they're anywhere near as toxic. A lot of this drifts into try-hard territory that I'm just not interested in doing. That isn't to say I don't like hard games, but I really don't like hard group content in online games because it usually requires coordinating with others and basically playing the game on a schedule. It makes the game feel like a job. I already have one of those, and don't want my online games to start feeling like another one.
Anyway, getting back into FFXIV has been pretty enjoyable. The story is what kept me going and the casual content has been pretty enjoyable. All of the other stuff has been more of the same that has existed in the game for years now. For now, I'll continue to enjoy things at my own pace, leveling up other roles, fiddling around on my island, and poking around in dungeons. When I inevitably get burned out again, then it's off to play other games for a bit until the urge to play more FFXIV returns.
Pennywhether
pennywhether@posteo.net
December 26, 2022
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