4.1 Positive Points

[loreleidiangelo]

Additions to Lost Canals are great but also kinda disappointing - did like 10 maps yesterday that procced Canals, only got one thief map and it booted us out on the first floor. Still, I'm always heartened by updates to old features instead of introducing them then forgetting about them, and maps are a pleasant diversion from primals and raiding.

Story was good but not a fan of the redemption arcs for the attractive women with tragic backstories, if I'm allowed to be so blunt. Hoping the story has a bit more nuance than that in future developments, most notably with Yotsuyu. Also hoping some serious attempt at reconciliation with the beast tribes is attempted at some point, since we haven't had much in that area since...3.4, I think, and the theme of coexistence with indigenous peoples with different belief systems is kind of compelling from a narrative viewpoint. Still, overall I liked it and am as usual looking forward to more.

24-man raid is excellent, though a little on the easy side for me. Still, Void Ark was also easy and later on Mhach/Scaith were some of the best fun I've ever had in XIV, so I'm not letting the difficulty color my enjoyment just yet. The last boss in particular introduced a few new mechanics that, while in need of tweaking, are syicide refreshing and fun.

Shinryu EX I think is lackluster. More pushback mechanics on narrow platforms and only the healable head adds are a relatively unique mechanic. I can appreciate that the fight is visually impressive and satisfies on the immersion front, but in terms of gameplay I think it's a somewhat weak entry to the EX primal library. I actually think the 24-man raid had more unique mechanics than ShinEX, and it'd be great if one day we got harder 8-man versions of those or something in the future.

Beast tribes are beast tribes, not much to say there. Do enjoy that the scaling exp is continuing from HW, making it easy to do multiple tasks like farm rep and level alt jobs at the same time.

New dungeon was meh, but most of them are to me these days. Standard speed pull n AOE fare here. I doubt they'll ever be interesting mechanically with the way gearing is structured in this game.

Just my quick thoughts on stuff popped off while bored at work.

[BillyKaplan]

Also hoping some serious attempt at reconciliation with the beast tribes is attempted at some point, since we haven't had much in that area since...3.4, I think, and the theme of coexistence with indigenous peoples with different belief systems is kind of compelling from a narrative viewpoint.

That sort of thing is more prominent in the Beast Tribes' own story lines. Amalj'aa shows a faction that couldn't care less about fighting you; Sahagin shows a faction actively interested in co-existence. Sylphs elaborates on what was already established in the MSQ, etc. And as someone who's completed all the Beast Tribes at the time, I was pleased to see Minfillia comment about that on more than one occassion, how on top of everything I was working to help bring humans and Beastmen together.
The content is there, it's just optional.

[loreleidiangelo]

That sort of thing is more prominent in the Beast Tribes' own story lines. Amalj'aa shows a faction that couldn't care less about fighting you; Sahagin shows a faction actively interested in co-existence. Sylphs elaborates on what was already established in the MSQ, etc. And as someone who's completed all the Beast Tribes at the time, I was pleased to see Minfillia comment about that on more than one occassion, how on top of everything I was working to help bring humans and Beastmen together.
The content is there, it's just optional.

I've done all the beast tribes to completion save Moogles. That still doesn't mean I can't want the MSQ to have a broader focus on inter species harmony, since it's a theme I'd personally like to see brought to the forefront.