I need to vent about my disappointment in Bozja. What even happened here?

[NefarioCall]

Just to start, if you love this content, then power to you. I'm glad you enjoyed it. Maybe I'll enjoy it more too one day... just, off the top, my first impressions are shock at how bad it is?

Like ... the zone is by far the worst zone I've ever seen in the game. It's no where near Eureka or any expansion zone. It's just a muddy flat field. Literally it looks like it could run on the PS2 except it looks no where near as pretty as anything in FFXI, so maybe it's like an upscaled PS1 game from a long since defunct company that tried 3D or something. How did this even begin to pass quality checks?

And the whole thing is just FATE grinding ... which ok, fine, but we have that in the open world. What exactly does this add? And the boss fights are just big blob fests with one hit kills. It feels like lazy design. And the story quests are barely anything other than drab still scene dialogue. The opening quests with Cid set such a high bar and now it's all such an afterthought.

Maybe there's a great payoff at some point. Maybe it gets better. I love this game overall, and I'm not trying to say otherwise. In fact, I'm only so shocked at how bad this content is because this game usually sets the bar so much higher. It feels like it's from a different game because of how shockingly poor the quality is by comparison to everything around it ... like .. what even happened here?

Second Thoughts Edit: Now that I've spent some time on this, well, I still think Bozja is an ugly zone lol. ...but once I hit Rank 10 I went into the Castrum and very much enjoyed that. I was then able to go straight into the follow up quests and the next alliance area and that was awesome too. I also rank anything Ivalice related as a plus. More of this, please. Heck, I'll take an entire Ivalice expansion lol. I think the real issue here is the FATE grinding in Bozja. I don't mind it being there as a means to level up. An option. Just not a forced grind. It's a simple fix really...

Patch Bozja after Endwalker releases so that the main story quests give enough mettle to automatically level your rank up. That way a player can literally just go through the main story without pointless grind. The relics, well that may be a different thing, but just to at least be able to enjoy the content for the story it has to tell. That won't fix the Bozja zone from being boring, but it significantly reduces the issue.

[DrWho2010]

the aesthetic excuse is very subjective. sure it's not as "flashy" or "pretty" as other zones were like Eureka. storywise this is supposed to be a battlefield zone. Think like WWI/II trenches in no man's land type thing. Zadnor is different because it wasn't an area that was as contested. The CE's have more mechanics than the zerg fests of NM's from Eureka. If you're not a fan of Matsuno's style of story then you're not going to like the story. If you didn't like this odds are you probably didn't like the Ivalice stuff either?

[TaleraRistain]

I have to agree on some things. I got to 20 recently and I'm dragging my heels going back. I'm not the biggest fan of FATE grinding at the best of times, but at least outside Bozja you can FATE grind while queueing for something or run your Hunts or beast tribes along with hitting FATEs. But with Bozja you're closeted away from the entire rest of the game. All you can do is sit and wait for Skirmishes or CEs and go do them when they pop up. It's just endlessly running around the zone from FATE to FATE to FATE and it is incredibly boring. I wasn't a fan of the FATE train in Eureka but at least we all moved as a unit and we chatted and were silly a lot. At this point with Bozja, I'm not seeing much of that.

Even if I joined a party, which it's nice that you don't necessarily have to so I could hit things solo, it never really felt that cohesive. And when I was like 18(?) in Zadnor, the leader of a party I was in summarily announced they had to drop the lowbies and just booted me and two others without any further explanation. So that's kind of soured me entirely on grouping there after that.

The endless FATE grinding could be alleviated by having some interesting scenery, but as you mentioned, it's incredibly dull and boring and rather ugly. CEs are...okay? Some pretty fun mechs in them and it's nice to see old mechanics used in new ways, like the Hashmal one. I only ran CLL and DR once and even then people were harassing people about what actions and essences they had. I used what had come my way up to that point just being there getting mettle and doing the storyline. I'm glad for the alternate routes to get relic drops because I'm pretty sure I'd give up on things entirely if I had to deal with that BS constantly.

I disagree on the story. I have enjoyed that part and wanting to get that next story quest is one of the only things that has kept me going sometimes. I think it's a shame they tied the relic storyline to such a lackluster experience otherwise.

I really hope they reconsider this approach in Endwalker.

[VirusOnline]

the aesthetic excuse is very subjective. sure it's not as "flashy" or "pretty" as other zones were like Eureka. storywise this is supposed to be a battlefield zone. Think like WWI/II trenches in no man's land type thing. Zadnor is different because it wasn't an area that was as contested. The CE's have more mechanics than the zerg fests of NM's from Eureka. If you're not a fan of Matsuno's style of story then you're not going to like the story. If you didn't like this odds are you probably didn't like the Ivalice stuff either?

I do agree that it doesn't need to be flashy or pretty - but it was too bland and too generic. It almost felt like I was replaying Mass Effect 1 and driving around in a Mako with PS2 terrain lol.

I think the biggest issue is there is nothing memorable about it.
In example Eureka had huge land markers (there's a word for this and my brain cannot). The lands were diverse and you could easily tell at any moment exactly where you were just by looking at your surroundings because each area of the map has its own distinctive style.
Bozja ? I have not been in Eureka for well over two years now. I can locate certain bosses and mobs in Eureka regardless. But Bozja ? I could not tell you where most anything is at that is how plain the environment is Dx

[Momo_Kozuki]

Aesthetically-wise, Eureka beats Bojza in every single malm.


Mechanically-wise, I prefer Bojza over the cluster mess named Eureka. Grinding monsters like old games don't feel particularly appealing, and I used to play older Lineage 2 which was a much worse mob-grinding MMO.



Monster train triggers my Fear-of-Missing-Out cuz if you don't do it during prime time, whatever relic your are progressing will come to a crawl, and you have zero alternative like Resistance Weapons.



And I hate the stupid spawn timers that pile up with weather conditions. BA is also a notorious example of how to make an annoying raid design. Having everyone coming into the same instance is a challenge; contest with portal snipers; gating story behind a raid that is designed to make life hard for no particular reason. Players go around this by using Discords, but relying a 3rd-party effort just shows how sloppy the content is.


I'm glad that even though Bojza is dull as freak, at least they learn every mistake from Eureka and make it better.


Now I just hope Eureka has a Diadem treatment in future, but I guess I dream too much.

[Sclair0]

I prefer the mechanics of the save the queen zones, but yeah aesthetically they are lacking. I know they were going for a dark and drab "War on a ruined nation" thing, but some additional variety and structure would have been great.

[LaylaTsarra]

The raids in Bozja including savage are pretty special. Sorry although I like Eureka zones a lot better I enjoy both relic areas immensely.

[Shironeko_Narunyan]

FATEs spread out on a depressing wasteland map, fast mobs chasing you to the end of the world, oneshot mechanics in CEs.. I left that zone very early, at lvl 8 or so.

[Ranaku]

the aesthetic excuse is very subjective. sure it's not as "flashy" or "pretty" as other zones were like Eureka. storywise this is supposed to be a battlefield zone. Think like WWI/II trenches in no man's land type thing. Zadnor is different because it wasn't an area that was as contested. The CE's have more mechanics than the zerg fests of NM's from Eureka. If you're not a fan of Matsuno's style of story then you're not going to like the story. If you didn't like this odds are you probably didn't like the Ivalice stuff either?

It didn't even felt like a battlefield. Just a barren wasteland where all the fighting was already done and we are just there to clean up quick. You know what looks like a true battlefield? The last stormblood dungeon, that would been the right aesthetic to go for not this patch of always looking the same mud.

[GrizzlyTank]

If they do something like Bozja/Eureka again they should learn from GW2. In their first expansion Heart of Thorns one map had players cooperate doing fates spread all over the map during the day, then defend those points during the night followed but multiple distinct bosses and another where you got to escort/defend 3 caravans while doing fates on the sides to bolster them while you march to deal with the boss.

The maps are colorful and dense with a good variation of enemies and the "fates" feel significantly more dynamic unlike with Bozja and the barren wasteland.

Though at least the bosses in Bozja feels fun but that's all it has going for it.