My Take on Occult Crescent

Story:

• Actual mystery, I like it; nothing grand, but enjoyable
• No dumb comedic relief excess, I like it

Structure:

• The back and forth of "boss, explore, boss, explore" seems suitable as it directly focuses on FFXIV's one strength (bosses) and intersperses it with spurts of treasure scavenging to make sure it doesn't get exhausting
• Sadly, the treasure seems to be really worthless 90 % of the time, which sours the validity of the structure to a degree; I've also yet to find a new Phantom Job at all
• Leveling Phantom Jobs is enticing, but they seem to level very slowly, spreading experimentation with new skills / abilities out very sparsely
• Phantom Jobs themselves are fine; nothing special, an objective step down from older systems, but fine

Level/World Design:

• It's fine on average...
• ... because some areas are really interesting to look at and traverse
• ... because some areas are insanely boring flat plains with nothing enticing

FATEs:

• They're mini boss FATEs, simple as

Critical Encounters:

• All of them share the following traits: "Few mechanics", "same health ratio as usual FFXIV bosses", "extreme damage"
• Few mechanics: I think this is good, since many complex bosses would overburden this structure
• Same health ratio as usual FFXIV bosses: This is bad, as it overtaxes each boss having few mechanics
• Extreme damage: This is so-so on most, and bad on some for reasons following
• All bosses can be pretty evenly split into three categories: "Good / fun", "too hardcore", "too much trial and error style gotcha" (the latter two are where the extreme damage is an issue)

Overall:
It's fine. Like, I can play this now and then and have some fun, I suppose. It's nothing special, it has issues - it's overall... fine. A very textbook, very 6/10... fine.

Which is about two steps short of what I hoped for, but about one step ahead of what I expected.
So make of that what you will. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.

I was waiting for an honest feedback thread instead of all the whining here.

So here is my feedback after playing the field content for a while.


The positives:
- The atmosphere feels like a true adventure into the unknown and what I wanted DT to be.
- The story is really interesting and I like the old ARR and HW themes coming back.
- The music is great and shows that oldschool fantasy battle music (at least for me) has become quite rare in this game.
- The rewards seem good and it's great that the bunny fates are back, which should help with the longivity.
- I like that the fates don't spwan quite as fast as in Bozja, giving room to breath while being quicker than Eureka.
- The fates are also quite fun this time.
- Thank you for bringing old relic grinds back. I want to grind, to invest time instead of doing nothing all day.

The negatives:
- The phantom jobs are a bit lackluster. I haven't maxed them yet but right now the logos actions allowed for more room to make a fun build. Right now they are mostly an afterthought.
Some of those phantom jobs are also just plain better than others it seems. Phantom Knight has almost everything you need while Time mages abilities either don't work on bosses (the only thing that matters) or Occult comet is reall underwhelming for it's long cast times.
Granted this is just my first impression.
- The fates are fun but some of the critical engagements are a bit overdesigned (not overtuned but overdesigned). That Urn fight in the northweast is absolutely no fun on BLM even with it's new mobility and these fights at least for me sadly show that tanks are just... completely overpowered and can do everything on their own.
That turtle fight has also a bit of obscure mechanics for the first time (but they are really fun).
On the other hand that ghost Chocobo and the Berserker are really fun fights.


Has anyone found Phantom jobs on their own or are they truly just things you buy?

All in all I really like it but I hope the phantom jobs in the future get a bit more to them than they have now.
It's a good groundwork for field content and one I hope the devs build on.
Just... it's field content. Take more risks, especially with the Phantom jobs. It's closed of content so let us become overpowered and just go wild with those jobs please.
As they are now Phantom Jobs are sadly the weakest point of the whole thing for me which is sad because I was looking forward to them.

Granted these are just initial impressions and can change for me.

Only have experienced OC for 2 hours, so this is just my initial thought.
First, it's what I've expected of field operation. Maybe slightly less interesting than Bozja, which doesn't make it bad since I actually hold bozja in high regard.
(I didn't do eureka, so I can't really speak of it)

As someone who dislike DDR fights, for some reason I find some of the critical engagement mechanic to be chaotic fun and I enjoy most of them.

Unfortunately, I have to say that phantom job is a mild disappointment. Just like some of us here have predicted, it's basically just several flavour of class action. Really a step down compares to Bozja's lost action. Anyone remember how much fun we can get from combining the lost action and potion? Phantom jobs don't even feel like they are trying to experiment new ideas for next jobs :(

After a couple of hours, my main gripe is the fact that, like with Bozja/Zadnor, it's more efficient to do the relics outside of the zone made for it than inside of it. The game litterally scream "why do you bother doing that content, farming the same fates that have been there for a year is the best way to do it". I should not feel punished to do the new content.

And don't get me wrong, I'm all for having secondary way to get the items, but right now the main way feels like the secondary way.

i would imagine once there are several relic steps available at once its gonna be more efficient in the new content

I like the zone vibe, the exploration. There's light hearted adventure sense with the right amount of danger but still fun. This zone is more the summer vacation I was looking for. Lore gives it good bones and the music is great. I love wandering around and finding random loot, even if often it's random demimateria, I've also stumbled onto some good stuff. It's nice when you get some wins like that.

One thing that was odd about the personal coffers though, when I was riding on my friend's 2 person mount they saw coffers a bunch of times where I didn't, but soon as I started riding my own mount I started seeing coffers all over. Not sure if this was bad luck or something funky going on. Anyone else experience it? I was getting big time Fomo by the 4th coffer they got.

It's only been a few hours so not a lot to say on Phantom jobs yet. Level 2 skills giving group buffs is cool, I hope we see more of that stuff at higher levels inline with essences. I haven't unlocked any new ones but sounds like maybe you get some from CEs? They do seem to level slow.
Why is the DemiAtma drop rate so low in OC?

I wish Duals were a thing still. Maybe in a different form than tied directly to the CEs? I once saw someone who suggested something like 'the mage tower' where it's a place you go where you can do solo fights, but I like the Bozja interaction of a buff for those watching if you win. I hope this is something they consider reworking a bit and bringing back in later zones.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Voidmage

Has anyone found Phantom jobs on their own or are they truly just things you buy?

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I know two of them drop from Critical Engagement, namely Oracle and Ranger, Oracle has rapidly become my favorite Phantom Job by a wide margin.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by VeyaAkemi

I know two of them drop from Critical Engagement, namely Oracle and Ranger, Oracle has rapidly become my favorite Phantom Job by a wide margin.

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theres also berzerker and another one, but dropped none after hours so i just ignore the phantom stuff.

my main gripe is "go survey the land" with no real sense of direction, you don't really know how many things you have to pick up, ontop of that, the map is just unlocked, there's no gating system, so once you've surveyed the land, got to 20, it's just a crystal farm, not even a days worth of content unless you want to farm rng crystal drops.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CNitsah

After a couple of hours, my main gripe is the fact that, like with Bozja/Zadnor, it's more efficient to do the relics outside of the zone made for it than inside of it. The game litterally scream "why do you bother doing that content, farming the same fates that have been there for a year is the best way to do it". I should not feel punished to do the new content.

And don't get me wrong, I'm all for having secondary way to get the items, but right now the main way feels like the secondary way.

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Eh, I think it's fine. If they didn't provide alternative farms method, then it will be almost impossible to do it once OC die.
Also idk about you, I rather do fates farm in OC rather than outside of it, as you can level phantom jobs alongside it (plus you get currency to trade for gears etc.)

I've been doing OC for about a couple hours, honestly I think the only thing I've formed a strong opinion on thus far is every CE does not need a damn death wall. give it a heavy DoT or something, but all the damn death walls just makes for unfun design. Even the CEs in Bozja, I know some did have death walls, but most of them just gave a bleed or electric DoT.
If you're going to make every CE have a death wall, at least give one of the starter phantom jobs a rez or something, so you can actually recover from heavy losses rather than laying there watching a couple tanks solo the CE for 10+ minutes...

The exploration aspect would be more enjoyable if there weren't so many mobs. I actually like the look of the zone, but can't really soak it in because of all the enemies. I get it somewhat emulates FFXI in that regard, but in XI you could Sneak/Invis your way around an area.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Voidmage

- The fates are fun but some of the critical engagements are a bit overdesigned (not overtuned but overdesigned). That Urn fight in the northweast is absolutely no fun on BLM even with it's new mobility and these fights at least for me sadly show that tanks are just... completely overpowered and can do everything on their own.

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DRG main, I can only imagine how hard it is on BLM. I'm also wondering if it's hard for anyone else to really see the orbs that go out in that fight... Especially near the end where it seems so fast. It's hard for me to keep up with the mechanics and do damage at the same time. But I'm still somewhat on the fence about it because it's kinda fun...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Voidmage

That turtle fight has also a bit of obscure mechanics for the first time (but they are really fun).

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The turtle is the one that made me go "woah, do they always go this hard on field ops?" (--as someone who's ever only played up til Eureka Pagos and nothing else, lol.) It was really fun even if I didn't get it at all the first time. I wish the coins weren't right-click-to-pick-up with a few dozen other players standing right in the same spot, though. (I know about the ways to target them without clicking on people, but even with my time in cosmic to get used to it, I'm just not yet. Maybe I'll get there one day...!!!)

I think Occult waters down elements of both Bozja and Eureka and doesn't capture the best parts of either.

From Bozja:
No Castrum/Dalriada-esque operations? That's insane to me.
No more duel encounters? Absolutely ridiculous.
Massive, customizable lost action loadouts gone? Boring.

From Eureka:
Exploration just... isn't that dangerous. The aggro range is tiny and even if you do, just hold W on your mount.

It's fun, but I'm always VERY disappointed when developers (in any game) don't move forward with some of the most intriguing things they've done in the past in an effort to cater/play safe.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AniAG

[U]Story:[*]All of them share the following traits: "Few mechanics", "same health ratio as usual FFXIV bosses", "extreme damage"[*]Few mechanics: I think this is good, since many complex bosses would overburden this structure[*]Same health ratio as usual FFXIV bosses: This is bad, as it overtaxes each boss having few mechanics[*]Extreme damage: This is so-so on most, and bad on some for reasons following[*]All bosses can be pretty evenly split into three categories: "Good / fun", "too hardcore", "too much trial and error style gotcha" (the latter two are where the extreme damage is an issue)[/LIST]

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Really shock me given how high some CE boss damage.

Tanking on Tank with 1 defensive cool down still took half my HP bar without any invuln stack, can’t imagine if a group without a tank using only the 120s CD phantom knight…