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mirageofthecrystal · 2 years

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Okay, time for my impressions of what I consider the primary features of 6.1 and my experience with them. Below the cut, because obviously we have some spoily-boiz.

ADVENTURER PLATES

Adventurer plates have been, from what I've seen, a very positively received feature. And for good reason! They're incredibly fun, especially if you're a creative type, they allow you to display both useful information and your personality in a way for others to check out, and they really sit well as a new social feature. I'm really excited for the future potential of using elements for these plates as rewards for content and achievements (something we know is coming and already see in the form of the PVP series rewards plates, as well as the ones you can buy for crystals). I'm hoping for a very wide array of options in the future, not just new backgrounds or certain elements. I want new frames, new borders, new EVERYTHING. And I hope that in the future there is more content that allows for a display of your portrait or plate as an introduction (sort of like how it works for Crystalline Conflict). It was absurdly fun for my friend and I to run around Ul'dah for like an hour or two just looking at people's plates and seeing what sort of wackiness they come up with.

My only real problem with it is how few poses I feel like the portrait function supports. Obviously, they intend it to be a portrait of your character (a requirement for a face showing that some folks have actively got around), but I'd have liked it if more emotes and poses were incorporated, similar to G-Pose, where you could just pause the animation where you wanted it and get really outlandish with some of your portrait poses. I suppose there's also some issues with how gear sets, portraits, and all that work because I feel that it isn't really intuitive. I think a clearer way of assigning an entire plate to a gear set would be nice, unless I'm just too smooth-brained to utilize this function properly.

CRYSTALLINE CONFLICT AND PVP CHANGES

FF has never been a PvP game. I've played a lot of other MMOs that had more of a focus on it as a game mode, such as WoW, where the PvP was its own enriching, rewarding, and also toxic as hell experience. My only real experience in FF PvP before now was Frontlines, which I abhor for the most part, and one game of Rival Wings that I was meh about. And so to that end, I would like to say... I LOVE Crystalline Conflict. It is so fun and addictive, where I definitely got stuck doing it for the first two days of the patch in a 'one more game' mentality. I like the five minute matches, as even a grueling loss doesn't feel that bad when you've only spent a few minutes in the match and can move on to the next one. The maps have some fun dynamic bits to them, and there are some really niche bits of strategy that can be super important to winning or losing a match.

However, it is not perfect. Class balance needs another pass, as they cut down the amount of abilities (good move), but have definitely made some missteps with healers and some classes absolutely not being optimal for this type of play (my opinion, of course). There's also the lack of team balancing, where certain comps can crop up that will definitely stomp the other team because it's all basically random. This will probably be smoothed out with time, since this is the first big PvP shakeup there has been for this community and there are definitely growing pains.

I also don't like the fact that it's solo queue only. I get it, it means that we don't get premades stomping everyone, but I would hope for at least being able to duo queue in casual, because what's the point of adding an entire game mode into the game that I can't play with my friends? I don't even HAVE many friends that play, and the few I do have would love to have some intense PvP nights. I absolutely had another thought to put forth, but my ADHD devoured it when I got distracted for a single second. OH WAIT I REMEMBER NOW! The lack of chat is both a boon and a curse to the mode itself. Toxicity was obviously the thing they wanted to avoid, and I will admit that I've gotten a little tilted in a few games where I wished I could just scream 'FIGHT ON THE CRYSTAL'. But ultimately, a non-toxic experience is much more important than nice strategizing and chatter. I do wish the pre-built emote-like functions were a little more flexible though.

I think the pruned down abilities is a good start, especially with added anti-CC and self-healing for everyone. However, as I said earlier, it needs a hard balance pass, and maybe a few more abilities to give each class a more niche role that gives them a unique spin. Honestly, it sounds like healers are now just supposed to be little glass cannons in PvP, and I think that a refocus on what they bring to the table would be good.

Other than that... PVP series rewards are excellent. I love the system, I love the upscaled artifact armors that you can buy, the new plate stuff, all the other shenanigans. I even got the Fenrir pet that I believe was originally a random reward from participating in the Feast! And the rank 25 armor set for the Series 1 is just... incredible. HOWEVER, I hope they revisit the thought that rewards can only be bought for one additional series afterwards. FOMO is one of the worst parts of an MMORPGs design. Make them incredibly expensive if you have to, maybe raising the price by a little each additional Series to a reasonable cap, but let people go back and purchase any Series rewards no matter how long its been. It will encourage people to play more PvP if they can do a little extra work to go back for some rewards they may have missed.

MSQ AND ALZADAAL'S LEGACY

My first two reactions for the MSQ, in the first dialogue section and cutscene no less was simultaneously, "I am home" and "WTF IS HAPPENING?!?". It truly felt like coming home after a long time away to settle in for tea with an old friend, meeting back up with Tataru and catching up. And then all that foreshadowing of what comes next... hoo boy, we're probably in for quite a ride. I'm not gonna talk about length about every story element, but I will say that 6.1 continues to proud tradition that Endwalker practically perfected: taking its time with characters and character moments so that these characters are true to themselves and to all the development they've been given. The characters here, from G'raha's body-stiffening, ear wiggling amount of pent up excitement to all that froth and foam, were perfect. Estinien's new policy of financial efficacy with a side of seeing himself in every orphan and suffering child, frosting on an amazing cake. And the way that they continue to humanize the dragons and their struggles, really going to great lengths to making us realize that man really is always the greatest enemy, even of themselves. At least, that's my take away. Anyway, I think that the patch hit a perfect balance between cozy beats, sowing seeds of future story, giving use further character insights, and just getting us salivating for what's next.

The dungeon was also really cool. I loved the opening cutscene, I think the glyph of passage bit was awesome, the visuals and music are ALWAYS top notch. Of course, there is part of me that has gotten really used to FFXIV dungeons and felt that it was a bit TOO same-y in its approach. Being formulaic isn't a bad thing, per se, but my mind is always drawn back to standouts like Bardam's Mettle and Ghimlyt Dark. Things that somehow transcended the formula while also honoring it. FF dungeons are just mostly "oh kill a group of mobs, move up, kills a group, move up, kill a boss". They've drawn down into a more linear fashion than ever before. And the first two bosses didn't really do that much that was mechanically stunning. However, they were fun, and the mechanics were engaging and interesting, if still sort of iterations on mechanics we've already seen. I, however, really enjoyed the final boss' mechanic of spinning our characters and then forcing us to navigate the hazardous terrain for a pretty big chunk of time. I thought that was a fun use of the environment and the boss. All-in-all, Alzadaal's Legacy is as great dungeon... but only because pretty much all of FFXIV's dungeons are high quality. It just doesn't broach the quality of some of its best.

Honestly, looking at where we're going in the MSQ, I kinda hope that our entrance through the Voidgate is a dungeon. Imagine, if you will, something in the vein of Ghimlyt Dark. Because according to Vrtra, there is a veritable army of voidsent on the other side... so imagine the dungeon being us fighting for every inch of progress through a warzone of dark beings, clawing out something of a foothold in this entirely foreign and desolate territory, and then post-dungeon it's basically us doing our best to maintain our hold of our side of the gate so that nothing slips through, but also so the voidsent down reassert their dominance and make every passage a conflict.

MYTHS OF THE REALM

First up, I actually preferred less exposition and build up pre-raid. Some of the Alliance raids had so much grueling quest content beforehand, that while interesting, really made it a struggle to just get into the raid. I think putting the quest stuff AFTER the raid works much better, because you've done the piece of content that you need to queue for. You've gotten your weekly reward (possibly). And now you can settle in for the questline. I will say that I concur with a commentary by Zepla that Deryk is sus. I don't trust him. I don't trust the whole convenience of the situation.

I think what strikes me most, and repeatedly, about FFXIV is how new content CONSTANTLY uses old locations, calls back to or involves old characters, and just constantly pulls things together into a singular, cohesive world. The entrance to the raid is somewhere we've been many times. And the name of the bar in Mor Dhona, which I previously figured was just a FFVII reference, takes on a whole new meaning. That's great storytelling. Utilizing a familiar zone for a new purpose is such a nice touch that I can't get over how much I love it.

For the raid itself, the environments are 10/10. The music, especially the Nald'thal fight, absolutely stunning. The designs of the Twelve, at least the ones we've seen, are not only AMAZING, but even the elemental and visual similarity of say Rhalgr to Ramuh is brought up IN the questline. They nailed the balance between giving us information and having us begging to know more. What are the Twelve? How much as their existence influenced other peoples and events? What is the truth of Algaia? And why have we not seen the Twelve earlier? Why does their conduct preclude them from interfering? SO MANY QUESTIONS.

The fights were also incredible, and not SO ridiculously hard to figure out that you couldn't go into them blind and still make it out. I will admit that I thought the scale bit of Nald'thal required quick math, but apparently you just watch the scales and go from there, and I think that the mechanic is a perfect translation of intent and storytelling to mechanics, as they measure your worth in a way that is very synonymous with other underworld deities in real life mythology. My only regret is that I rolled on gauntlets dropped by Byregot and didn't get the chest piece at the end. Oh well, there's always next week!

CONCLUSION

And there we are. My thoughts, feelings, and opinions on this wave of 6.1 content. It isn't exhaustive, and I know I'm a bit ramble-y and unstructured, but Endwalker was my first expansion where I played it as current, and this patch is the first one in my FFXIV career where I can say the same, and I had very strong feelings about most of it. Whether or not you agree or disagree or whatever, I hope everyone is enjoying the new content and getting everything they want out of it. FFXIV continues to blow me away with every facet of it I see, and I'm so glad to be a part of this game and community.

#patch 6.1 #spoilers #newfound adventure #ramble #new patch who dis #ffxiv #ffxiv crystal #ffxiv blogging #ffxiv mateus

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