Closing Fantasy 14: Endwalker will lastly name curtains subsequent yr as we head into Dawntrail, and I’ve by no means had so many combined emotions about an MMO I completely love.
Endwalker had loads driving on the again of it. It was the fruits of a 10-year storyline, saddled with huge expectations from Shadowbringers. It was additionally coping with an enormous inflow of gamers, migrating from the Shadowlandsapocalypse of WoW.
Impossibly, Endwalker caught the touchdown—but it surely type of drifted off the runway afterwards. Not sufficient to hurt my emotions towards my favorite MMO, however sufficient to make me take extra breaks than I ever have. Let’s speak about why. Spoilers forward.
Endwalker made me cry 18 occasions
I will not ever shed as many tears over a recreation as I’ve Closing Fantasy 14. I truly counted what number of occasions the waterworks have been turned on by drive—and I had a little weep no less than 18 different times.
Whereas I’m a sentimental sap, I believe what FF14 achieves is fairly monumental and uncommon in the case of gaming (the truth is, I am undecided we’ll ever have one thing prefer it once more). It is not simply an RPG, it is 5 huge RPG tales that inform one steady story with no breaks. Different video games do this—Mass Impact, for instance—however the solid, mechanics, and even storytelling kinds change sufficient to make them really feel disjointed.
Endwalker someway managed to tie up 10 years of story in a satisfying bow and land on a resonant theme that felt true to life: struggling isn’t mandatory, however it’s inevitable, and you’ll push by it. The fan response was fairly unified, too. Whereas some discovered its reluctance to axe fundamental characters a contact too toothless, it was thought of a masterful bookend general. When WoW convert Preach Gaming rolled credit on Twitch, he simply mentioned: “Nicely, that is the very best RPG I’ve ever performed in my life.”
Sadly, Endwalker’s post-patch story hasn’t shared the identical destiny. I do not assume it is unhealthy, essentially—I had a grand previous time attending to know Zero, knocking over the fiends, and getting Golbez on-side with the ability of friendship. However in comparison with the heights of Endwalker? It was simply… high-quality.
A part of that is simply how tales work. The bottom recreation, A Realm Reborn, did not blow anybody’s socks off—however lots of it paid off later. Endwalker’s 6.1-6.5 storyline equally feels prefer it’s establishing future dominoes. In Heavensward, the Warrior of Darkness storyline gave gamers related emotions of filler, however its plots factors would later gas a complete growth. I’ve religion.
But I can not shake off this sense of malaise, significantly in patch 6.3. Perhaps that is as a result of, for each different growth, the third patch is a finale to the story arrange in the principle marketing campaign. Shadowbringers 5.3 patch, for instance, is taken into account to be a peak in FF14’s story—seeing us ferrying G’raha Tia (my digital husband) again to his residence. It was cathartic and gorgeously written.
However 6.3 wasn’t an end-point, it was a midpoint. We went again to Ishgard, Zero realized some stuff about friendship, she ate some actually well-animated bread, after which we bullied a few fiends into submission. I am being reductive, however in comparison with the heights of another growth, it felt like a drained sigh at a time the place the FF14 group must be shedding their collective gourds—like lacking your birthday for a yr. It does not assist that Endwalker felt quieter to your common participant, anyway.
The lacking midcore and MMO loneliness
MMOs now have a substantial variety of gamers who wish to really feel like they have been taken to process by content material, however who haven’t got the time to get a bunch collectively and raid. As an MMORPG’s core base of gamers begins to age, they could even turn out to be the bulk. These midcore/solo gamers want one thing to latch on to. For WoW, Mythic+ dungeons truly fill this position fairly nicely. You will get three pals (and even PuG) and go tear by some keys that do not take too lengthy to finish. In FF14’s Shadowbringers, this hole was stuffed by Bozja.
Bozja (and its follow-up, Zadnor) was an exploration zone, a big, open discipline crammed with bosses and a handful of raids that popped up on timers. You might log in, teleport to a zone, and knock over some unhealthy guys as a part of a roiling mass of gamers. Crucially, these bosses might truly kill you fairly simply, it is simply that dying wasn’t an enormous deal for the remainder of the raid. This was nice meals for the midcore/solo participant as a result of they may deal with their very own efficiency. It additionally did one other vital factor—it made strangers play collectively.
FF14 because it stands feels extremely lonely as a midcore/solo participant. It is a recreation that both caters to an off-the-cuff viewers—individuals who wish to simply zone out and blast by some dungeons—or raiders with statics to occasion with. The lion’s share of difficult content material (Eureka Orthos, Criterion Savage, Savage raids, Ultimates) want a coordinated group.
You are able to do some of these items with the general public—I did the primary Savage raid tier with out a devoted staff—it simply takes manner longer. And if you’d like one thing that is fast to hop into? You are out of luck, there’s principally nothing that is value doing greater than as soon as. All the things is both extraordinarily simple or onerous sufficient to require coordination with no inbetween.
Relic weapons: a swing and a miss
FF14 has relic weapons, which are supposed to be the sport’s non-raider grind. In principle, a relic weapon forces you to have interaction with sure options (like Bozja in Shadowbringers), or it makes you do stuff you would not often do. Previous raids, public occasions, that type of factor.
In Endwalker, you simply pay tomestones. For each step of the grind. Tomestones may be gained by any piece of content material—which, in principle, loosens the requirement proper up. As a participant, although, I really feel like this determination has utterly backfired.
In apply, I’ve already been doing the entire issues that give me tomestones—I have been doing them for weeks. By making these relic weapons much less annoying to get, they commit a far larger sin—they turn out to be a chore. They feed into the vicious circle of logging on and doing the identical dungeons on a loop.
Which is a disgrace, as a result of when it comes to the precise content material—issue issues apart—Endwalker’s been banger after banger. The alliance raids are enjoyable, the variant dungeons are a blast, and this raid tier has had a few of the finest story and combat design out of any growth. However except you are apprehensive about gear? There is not any level in doing any of it greater than as soon as.
And but, I am nonetheless hyped past perception for Dawntrail. Perhaps it is only a sunk value fallacy, or perhaps it is as a result of I do know that Sq. Enix responds to suggestions on an Ent-like timescale—the issues I had in Endwalker are unlikely to dominate the following growth. Heck, we have even had whispers {that a} Bozja-like zone shall be making a comeback. These frustrations are solely right here as a result of FF14 is so expensive to my coronary heart. Additionally, my Warrior of Mild deserves a seashore episode—and judging by the trailer, that is the entire pitch.