Next Exploration Area

[CuteBucket]

Man, y'all in here really hated Bozja that much? I was having a blast in there and really missed having an equivalent in Endwalker. Sure, I hope there's some new surprises, but I'm just glad there's going to be an exploratory zone AT ALL after the last two years lacking one + how bored I am with Dawntrail and wanting midcore content.

If you hated Bozja and Eureka, this content probably isn't for you. If you liked either of those, though, I'm hopeful that it will be iterating on the things I enjoyed about those zones.

[Valence]

If you hated Bozja and Eureka, this content probably isn't for you. If you liked either of those, though, I'm hopeful that it will be iterating on the things I enjoyed about those zones.

What did you enjoy?

[CuteBucket]

What did you enjoy?

For Bozja (as that's the one I played when it was current):

- I loved just how busy and alive the zones felt compared to the dead overworld zones of the MSQ. There was always chatter going on in Shout Chat--people making groups for different content all the time and just goofing off in chat together.
- I liked the theming. People complain about Bozja being ugly, and yes, I think it could have been spruced up and given some better lighting and a bigger variety of weather conditions, I enjoyed the the gritty Fantasy WWI style aesthetic they were going with.
- I liked the Critical Engagements. They popped very frequently, FAR more frequently than Notorious Monsters in Eureka did, so it didn't feel nearly as grindy and taxing to get one to spawn. Each fight had at least one core gimmick that separated it from the others. This was good midcore content that was challenging mechanically without being too punishing. So while it was easy to get killed in fights, it rarely doomed your party or the wider group as a whole to do so, it was just an individual mistake (contrast with something like Savage, where people are expected to learn together and one misstep from a single player or two can cause a wipe).
- The solo fights were also a nice touch--one had to get good enough at the CEs to take no damage the whole time and then would get the ability to challenge the solo fight. These were tough (though they can be cheesed easier now), and it was fun to gather around the arena and cheer the spotlighted player on.
- Castrum Lacus Litore and Dalriada are some of my all time favorite content in the game. The mechanics were new and unique to me (I especially liked coordinating teams to split up and try and rescue all of the prisoners before the Garleans executed them), but I can't think of a single fight I dislike in those raids. Both the chaos and the coordination of that many people in a single instance raid was so much fun and I have many fond memories of running it when it was current with my friends. Delubrum Reginae was also a lot of fun when it was current, though having to farm it constantly for each relic weapon made it get old faster than the others. I appreciate it for what it was, though.
- I liked playing around with the Lost Actions and the potions and all that stuff. You could play around with builds in a space where it wasn't like you were permanently altering anything, it was just goofing around with some silly abilities (the one that made you go zooming around at like 3x speed was my fave) that you could still stack into crazy powerful stuff if you wanted to (great for speed-running farms of DR)
- It's a great place to make some gil if you don't like crafting, and I don't like crafting.
- The story itself was kind of mid, but I enjoyed a lot of the characters and world building around it. I liked learning about one of the Garlean Legions that we hadn't seen in Eorzea, learning about the Hrothgar and their homeland, getting to go into Cid's psyche and beat up Evil Dream Varis, some of the downright zany enemies and their fashion choices and collecting notes about them, the beastmaster Highlander and the Legionary Elezen man being hella gay for each other... The actual plot may have been meh, but at least the characters and content around them were fun.