This Novus Weapons Quest... Nnnnnhhh...

[otarolgam]

I've been out of the game for... a good year and I never realized how BAD the Relic Quest had gotten in terms of sheer... GRIND.

Atma was a Breeze, Animus was annoying but not that bad of a Grind.

But this... this is ridiculous.

Spiritbonding to MAYBE get Materia you need.

Farming the gear TO Spiritbond for Materia.

Farming FATES to try and get Alexandrite.

Farming Daily Quests to get Alexandrite.

And if you don't want to farm for freaking Materia, the stupid things cost way too much on the Marketplace boards!

To top it all off, I just watched a video about converting that happened BEFORE 2.35 and that you could get good Materia without much hassle, but now the pool to get Materia's has widened! I could get i90 armor, Spiritbond it and only get an Elemental Resistance Materia when I wanted Heaven's Eye Or Savage Might!

Why is the grind literally multiplied by 100 from Atma's!?

[Nuinn]

Why is the grind literally multiplied by 100 from Atma's!?

So we'd keep resubbing, as they know the majority will bother with grinding for that carrot on a stick.

[Saccharin]

meh, I'm still on scroll!

[Its_Elodie]

You are going to have SO much fun when you get to your zodiac drops. 40 runs of a few dungeons, and AV in itself will make you question your sanity xD

[kehn]

you can finish your relic with 1m gil or less... the stats you put if not totally useless for your class will make negligible difference

[Kanemano]

Because

1. Relic has always been an optional side quest
2. People asked for a grindy quest (start of 2.0 era)
3. Although it is now BiS, this period is always short lived, and always at the end of relevant content (ie; main coil iterations)
4. There are comparable alternatives readily and easily available

The relic quest is the one long term goal in the game that is solo oriented (ie; not requiring a static team to fulfill). Without it, I really wouldn't have much left to do in the game when my coil static is not meeting, that isn't leveling crafting/gathering.

[kyuven]

Also to stimulate the economy and give an actual use to it and motivation to SB the combat stuff.
But here's the thing about the animus->novus and nexus->zodiac stages: Many steps can be done in advance. You can start gathering materia pretty much from day 1.
The Alexandrite is a pain, yes, but there are no less than 4 ways to get it: Trading soldiery for maps, farming FATEs, doing hunts, and the daily quest.
It's actually the closest to epic weapons from other games that exists within this game.
Moreover, SBing is actually quite profitable as well. Since you don't need more than 3 types of materia for you relic (at least, you shouldn't) the rest are all gravy. Sure it sucks when an elemental materia pops out, but if you get a spell speed IV you didn't need, that's money in the bank.
The novus rewards steady progress and perseverance, setting forward what you need but not requiring any single route to do so.

[Magis]

I like it. 1.5 more mahatmas and I am done, woohooo!

Then there are some in my FC who have 3+ zetas.

[otarolgam]

People actually asked for something grindy...? Dammit, all...

[BreathlessTao]

...I have to agree, I'm still stuck somewhere halfway with my first Novus. Exactly because of materia. (Always surprised when people complain about Alexs, of all things. @.@) Spiritbonding is way too much RNG, and still costs quite a bit - if you want to craft everything yourself, especially if you wanna go with more certain i70 and i90 things, the way to be able to craft those is expensive. Buying? Can buy houses for the price of those materia needed to finish it, really. (Well, could, if there still were available plots.) Just... no. Hell, no.