The following are my opinions (yes, these are indeed opinions) of most of the things released in 6.4.
The MSQ Story
The MSQ story was honestly pretty lackluster as too much of it was boring filler. I literally could not care less whether Zero likes spicy food. We have been waiting for about a year for the scions to even catch a glimpse of Golbez himself, let alone talk to him or fight him, so just get to it already.
Even as someone who likes Garlemald, that portion really should have been cut out or along with the parts in Radz and Bestways if we were only getting the amount of story we were getting. The patch should have opened the voidgate earlier and spent more time on the red moon as that's the part that matters the most. What do we really even do on the void's moon? We interact with a couple of glowing lights on the ground, talk to Zero, talk to Azdaja, and then fight Golbez. We don't even get to walk around Golbez's sanctum in the crater, it's only ever in a cutscene. There needed to be something more there, and it feels like not enough time was given to allow for that.
EDIT: I forgot to mention my thoughts on Zeromus. I really don't like Zeromus' addition. Its starting to feel less like the writers are making references to the older games and are now just ripping things directly from them. Anyone who knew anything about FFIV saw this coming a mile away, and several of my friends who love FFIV dreaded Zeromus' inevitable addition, and for good reason. I really just wish they let Golbez exist on his own without having to also add Zeromus. It honestly feels like the only reasoning for adding Zeromus in the first place was because "it's in FFIV".
Aetherfont/Voidcast Dais
Honestly the dungeon was pretty good. The first boss was pretty mid, and it seemed like most of its mechanics that weren’t braindead easy (relative to dungeon bosses, obviously it could be said that all dungeons are braindead easy) were towards the very end of the fight. The second boss was the best, and the lightning rampage mechanic where it jumps four times in a row was actually really fun for a dungeon mechanic. The Octomammoth was pretty good too and used the arena in interesting ways, which is almost always a plus.
As for the trial, it’s also pretty good. Normal mode wasn’t a complete pushover like normal trials usually tend to be. It felt like the game actually expected some semblance of skill from me for once. I usually zone out during normal trials as they’re quite boring, but this one managed to keep me entertained and focused on what was going on.
The extreme version had to have been my favorite extreme trial this expansion, and unless the 6.5 is equally good, this will be Endwalker’s Thordan or Warrior of Light. Most of the mechanics felt really good to execute, especially Double Meteor and Gales 2. Void Stardust, the exaflare mechanic, was a little iffy, but the rest of the fight was really good.
Anabaseios Story
I honestly expected something offensively bad going into this patch, and feared that it would devolve into “Ancients bad, Venat good”. Thankfully, those fears were misplaced. But, while the writers did exceed my admittedly low expectations, the story wasn’t anything amazing to write home about. Its biggest flaw is that it feels like there’s a missing chapter in the story between Abyssos and Anabaseios. Things just kinda pick up out of nowhere and it feels like there was something that was meant to be set up, but it wasn’t and now it’s just here. I wouldn’t say I hated the story or anything, it just felt a little too rushed. Abyssos had that same feeling, where the story didn’t take the time to really explore anything.
Athena was a breath of fresh air for me when it comes to the game’s villains. I’m all for complex and/or sympathetic antagonists, but it’s nice to have one who is just an evil person, and we haven’t really gotten one like that since Valens back in SHB. She reminds me a lot of Venat, and I consider her to be the better version of her. Both are characters who are willing to commit horrific acts to ‘improve’ humanity in a way that would accomplish their goals. Athena is Venat if she is allowed to be the villain, and that might be why I like her character so much.
Anabaseios Raids
Kokytos was probably the weakest of the four, with only his Mage phase being a lot of fun. The Martialist phase was ok, but only the explosions from the cracks was really that interesting. The Beast phase was pretty boring. I didn’t really feel like anything from that phase was interesting or fun.
Pandaemonium was a step up from the previous raid. The web bridges were interesting, and I’m hoping they expand upon that in savage, perhaps maybe even adding additional platforms you can build bridges to. If I could tweak one thing, I think the donut/dynamo cages’ AOE should have been bigger. As they are, it’s practically just a bigger AOE than the actual normal AOE one.
Themis was really fun, even if he drew a lot of things from E11. P11 had the best music, and by far the best arena. I can see this one being really fun in savage if he uses different attacks with different elements at the same time, kinda like he does in normal with the clones.
Athena was the best for mechanics and she has one of the best boss models in the game. I love when fights introduce mechanics one at a time and then put them together and force you to resolve them together, which is what they did with the chains, the adds, and the disappearing floor tiles. The add phase is also really fun as it requires a lot of movement. The only thing I’d change here is making her line attack’s telegraph show up earlier. It wouldn’t be as big of an issue if the attack only did damage, but it also usually knocks people off the edge of the arena, leading to multiple instant kills which made clearing it frustating if I wasn't playing as a job capable of reviving teammates.
Balance Changes
Honestly, this patch was an absolute failure for game balance. It really does feel like the dev team has a blindfold on and is spinning around shooting wildly with a shotgun. Why is Samurai getting buffed? Samurai was already one of, if not the strongest DPS in the game. It’s low pick-rate in TOP wasn’t because it had low damage, so why buff it when that not only doesn’t solve the issues it has in TOP, but also makes it completely broken in savage? Why is BLM getting buffed when RDM has already been behind for so long? And don’t get me started on the nonsense going on with WAR. DRK is now a pointless job. WAR literally does everything DRK does but better. Even my co-tank who mains WAR thinks the WAR changes are ridiculous and that SE went too far in buffing WAR. WAR needed a small buff, but this was far too much.
TLDR: The gameplay of the Dungeon/Trials/Raids is good, the story's mid at best, and the balance changes are terrible.
I could probably go into greater detail than I did here on some aspects and I might end up editing in a few more additional things if I feel like it, but I mainly made this thread because I promised someone I would make a post sharing some of my general thoughts on the patch. I'm not sure how much I'll be returning to interact with this thread as I'm generally unhappy with the current state of the forums (as well as with FFXIV social media in general) and don't have as much of a desire to post here as I used to, but we'll see if I can think of anything I'd want to add.
A Review of 6.4
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05-27-2023, 11:56 AMAwesomeJr44A Review of 6.4
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05-27-2023, 01:11 PMZanarkand-Ronsohttps://gifdb.com/images/thumbnail/s...mml78ru2je.gifQuote:
Originally Posted by AwesomeJr44
That joke aside, Bravo. Not bad.
Level-headed Analysis and Pretty Fair, at least to my standards.
Honestly, yes.Quote:
Originally Posted by AwesomeJr44
Im personally sick of Sympathetic Villains...not that we can't or should never have them, but I prefer and Miss a Good Old Fashion Villain, or a PURE Villain.
Someone who I want to hate and defeat. -
05-27-2023, 01:13 PMVelKallorSo you are Aveyond's secretary now?Quote:
I mainly made this thread because I promised someone I would make a post sharing some of my general thoughts on the patch.
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05-27-2023, 01:35 PMAmenara
Pretty fair takes, though I am still muddling through the MSQ. I do agree about enjoying the new raids, though I will always hate wall bosses as a tank because it takes away one of the two responsibilities I have as a tank, though boss positioning has been less of a responsibility lately. The mechanics overall have been pretty fun and I like that I could run in blind and more or less get what was going on, something that FF14 has generally been pretty good at. I will probably try out the dungeon and trial next week when I am off from work.
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05-27-2023, 01:46 PMBoblawblahI thought I was as well, but what I am more tired of is sadistic mustache twirling villains that turn sympathetic in a single cutscene. The Warriors of Darkness were a perfect example. They were just straight up psychotic killers and then started crying and somehow we were supposed to care about them suddenly. Gaius/Nero/Fordola/Yotsuyu all have similar issues, hell, they're even trying to make ZENOS of all people sympathetic now. Seriously? WoL thinking about 'friends' and they picture Zenos??Quote:
Originally Posted by Zanarkand-Ronso
They could show us a more balanced look at villains, but it's always just evil, evil, evil, evil, GOOD! It's like playing duck duck goose or something, it gets old.
What I'd love to see is the WoL in a fish out of water, behind enemy lines sort of situation where they're forced to experience what the enemy is actually like, and starts to emphasize with them. THAT would make a more compelling sympathetic villain imo. -
05-27-2023, 03:00 PMAwesomeJr44No, it was actually you. I told you I would make a post that gave my thoughts on it, and I have.Quote:
Originally Posted by VelKallor
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05-27-2023, 03:09 PMR041Quote:
Originally Posted by VelKallor
https://media1.giphy.com/media/unFLK...giphy.gif&ct=gQuote:
Originally Posted by AwesomeJr44
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05-27-2023, 03:34 PMVelKallorVenat was faced with a horrible, almost soul shattering choice.Quote:
Both are characters who are willing to commit horrific acts to ‘improve’ humanity in a way that would accomplish their goals.
She had to make changes, she had to prepare us. A sword, if it was sentient, would not enjoy being heated, beaten, drawn, quenched, forged, yet all of that is necessary to create a weapon. Faced with the Final Days, faced with what massive threat Meteion represented, she made the only choice she could make. Yes, we as a people faced unimaginable tragedy as a result..but it was a necessary, unavoidable decision.
I guess you've never been in a situation like that, where its down to you alone. Years ago, I was in a small team faced with a choice like that ( I was a student nurse and wasnt involved in making that call directly, but I was an observer ). Save the mother...or save the child.
One or the other...not both. Wasnt possible. No I didnt make that final decision ( thank GOD ), but it taught me that there sometimes is not a good outcome, no matter what we do, we still lose.
I was also trained in triage, Awesome, and even in a simulation, the responsibility of what i was doing hammered down on me when I was told "You cant save that one, leave them". It wasnt a real situation, true , but in real world terms? id have to make the call to leave someone to die.
If you think for one moment THAT wouldnt come back to haunt you later......
Ive seen the "genocide" meme thrown around, but looking back..ask yourself...what choice would YOU make?
She did what she had to. -
05-27-2023, 05:11 PMKageTokage
People have already gone on at length about how the "necessary and unavoidable" part feels extremely dubious when considering the fundamental fact that the third sacrifice was not some critical event that would've led to mankind's immediate downfall if it wasn't prevented, but this isn't really the place to be repeating that argument again.
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05-27-2023, 05:51 PMJeeqbit
The story was ok. Like a lot of these patches, it was predictable but I think the point is to restore normality (as normal as it gets for the Warrior of Light) by getting them to do something relatively simple and routine for them (casually saving the world) without any significant hiccups, so when the expansion releases, the hiccup will feel more unusual.
The dungeon is alright, yes. With the mechanics, they have been willing not to just use orange telegraphs always this expansion and let us observe our environment to do mechanics, which are useful skills for doing extreme and savage. Same with the raids.
Raid stories are always quite dragged out with lots of discussion and complex stuff happening when you just want to fight things, but for a raid story it was fine and the bit at the end unexpected but satisfying. -
05-27-2023, 06:40 PMThemarvin
Not going to base a single view of whatever you put as a review of this, the story was good and the Trial and Dungeon IS A PART OF THAT, so you failed horrible to combine the things that is supposed to stick together in the entire thing.
Also I make my own review, and saw nothing bad in the current patch, actually got quite the amounts of stuff to do... and yes mayeb criterian dungeons is not so much to my taste, however I had a blast with Bozja and Eureka back in the day, which others do not like.
Can't have it all, stop making stupid self centered reviews. -
05-28-2023, 03:06 AMZebraoracle
My biggest issue with the story was the WoL just stands there and lets Golbez pick up the dragon and feed her to the void energy or whatever it was. I'm so freaking sick of forced incompetence (in this game, other games, other media, whatever). It'd be one thing if the darkness itself reached up out of the pit and yoinked her away, but as it was? We literally just kicked his ass, STOP HIM FROM DOING THAT WHAT THE HELL?
I understand it's a "writing technique" to make drama, without which there would be no story, but if you have to force the character to be uncharacteristically inept and just stand there like an idiot while the villain monologues and goes "Ha HA! Watch as I activate my trap card anyways!", it's bad writing. I will die on this hill, there are other ways around that. -
05-28-2023, 03:48 AMAvorie
I think its due to the limitations of the game, or due to the laziness of the devs not wanting to anime your specific class doing something.
Which I was fine with in ARR, but then we get the Reaper Cutscenes where the WoL is literally slamming the scythe into the ground and throwing it around.
So I think its a matter of not wanting to anime specific class attack into cutscenes. tl:dr devs are too lazy to anime class attacks into cutscenes. -
05-28-2023, 11:48 AMAmenaraI just did the Garlean stuff in the 6.4 MSQ and when we got to the part where they were like, "No you can't use the tower it's ours", all I could think was "I wasn't asking". There are a lot of times where the WoL is dumb and unresponsive for the story and it kills me on the inside knowing we literally have defeated everything ever and here we are, still standing around like a buffoon.Quote:
Originally Posted by Zebraoracle
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05-28-2023, 04:18 PMZaniel
I liked pretty much everything about the patch except Zeromus, that just felt shoe-horned in "because homage" rather than having any rationale within FF14's lore. Golbez was fine by himself. Raids & dungeon were AAA.
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05-28-2023, 06:13 PMGeminaI think they did that with Golbez. I was full on expecting that either in his defeat he makes us sympathize with his motives, or he was being controlled by Zeromus the entire time. What they did instead was double down on his villainy when he revealed his master plan. And while I wouldn't say Golbez is pure evil, he is beyond redemption now after his atrocities in this patch. He joins a rather small ensemble of FFXIV villains that includes Teledji Adeledji, Ilberd, Asahi, and Fandaniel. These are all FFXIV villains who take no rest in making you hate their guts.Quote:
Originally Posted by Boblawblah
What did you expect the WoL to do? He/she already bested Golbez in combat, and spent a great deal of their own aether in doing so. This is confirmed in the MSQ log after the conclusion of the cutscenes when it is stated that Golbez puts up one hell of a fight, but the WoL ultimately wins the clash. Besides, anything the WoL could have done might have risked inadvertently killing Azdaja in the process. If there is a forced incompetence, it's that the WoL didn't kill/finish off Golbez in the first place. That was the condition set by Azdaja when we talk to her above the Dark Throne. The mission objective was the extraction of the great Wyrm, and it resulted in failure. In order for this part of the story to take place, incompetence was key. IOW, we can't win them all.Quote:
Originally Posted by Zebraoracle
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05-28-2023, 07:51 PMAbsurdityIf this were the first instance of us doing that it may be excusable but I stopped counting how often this has happened at this point. Almost every single antagonist only gets away with whatever they're doing because we turn from immortal god slayer into utter dunce with the reflexes of a dead horse as soon as a cutscene happens.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gemina
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05-28-2023, 10:28 PMGeminaThe same can be said for many tales in fiction. Sometimes it is even acknowledged by the villain like when Thanos tells Thor in Infinity war, "You should have went for the head." Hell, even if not the head, he could have just lobbed the guy's arm off. The point being is there isn't much point monday morning quarterbacking these things. The WoL has a pretty impressive kill count as well. It's done when it serves the story being told. Maybe the WoL will be less of a dunce next patch. We'll see.Quote:
Originally Posted by Absurdity
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05-28-2023, 10:52 PMMasekase_Hurricane
For me the filler was annoying and really dragging. What I found more annoying was the smell the fart acting, long stares and long pauses while it shows something.
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05-28-2023, 11:07 PMNekoMataMataThis has to be trolling or bad acting right?Quote:
Originally Posted by Themarvin
You can't seriously be outright stating that your own review is more important than anyone else's and stating that other people's reviews are self centered at the same time? Please tell me that's not what I'm reading. -
05-28-2023, 11:19 PMZephyrMenodora
All reviews of entertainment products are personal opinion-based and “self-centered” to some extent. But the point is to share those decisions and open discussion.
No one’s review is innately more or less important than anyone else’s. If a review is organized an actually has content and isn’t just “hur hur Devs on drugs” of course.
Not agreeing with certain points doesn’t make a review stupid either. Ops review was organized and thoughtful. -
05-28-2023, 11:19 PMVencio
Off topic,
I truly like your signature drawing of that faerie or whichever it is! Awesome! -
05-28-2023, 11:28 PMZephyrMenodoraCompared to the Golbez scenes in FF4 which were utterly ridiculous, this one played out in a defensible way. The battle narratively was extremely challenging, and you are separated from Golbez when the elevated platform dissipates. Your friends who were all overwhelmed by voidsent rush to you to see if you are okay as their priority and in those few moments Golbez acts. Within a very brief time Golbez already has re-control over the dragon and once ensnared they have no way of breaking the seal.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gemina
I don’t think any of them would have predicted what he then did with it. -
05-29-2023, 12:44 AMThemarvinNot at all, I just don't gree to the same, sorry that I am not like the other pawns that need influencers to tell them what to do and what to like.Quote:
Originally Posted by NekoMataMata
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05-29-2023, 01:05 AMNekoMataMataIt has nothing to do with being a pawn that needs influencers to tell them what to do and everything to do with you being exactly what you're preaching against.Quote:
Originally Posted by Themarvin
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05-29-2023, 06:37 PMWantlessYoYoFunny because 2 min ago Golbez was just summoning minions to distract the party...Quote:
Originally Posted by Zebraoracle
Just do it again lol
For us surround us with like 3 or 4 and that's about it -
05-29-2023, 07:00 PMKitingGenbu
Ngl, I still feel like this expansion's story should've just been about Hydalean and Zodiark coming to a close around 6.3 and then do the whole dynamis arc lead up to 7.0 (maybe conclude in 7.3). It just all feels so compacted with 'big' parts feeling less impactful because of it.
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05-29-2023, 10:46 PMGeminaThank you! The artwork isn't mine, but the poem is.Quote:
Originally Posted by Vencio
I agree, though I think that those who object can't be persuaded to think differently about the matter. I was really young when I played FFIV, but I remember being disappointed that Golbez was being controlled much like how he was controlling Kain. It's a very dissociative property to give a villain or hero. It leaves me thinking, "Ok so I'm not supposed to hate this guy, but instead the puppeteer?" It's even worse when the later is introduced into the story through these means, much like how Zeromus was. I like this version of Golbez and his archfiends much more. The archfiends themselves in IV were also forgettable. I remember fighting them in IV, and that's about it. Fleshing them out in this story really allows them to hold their own. Especially Barbariccia and Rubicante.Quote:
Originally Posted by ZephyrMenodora