Quote Originally Posted by Seraph522 View Post
We've had one MSQ trial per expansion cycle since Heavensward launched: Nidhogg in 3.3, and Tsukuyomi in 4.3. The Hildibrand trials and the exception of 2.5/2.55 having one trial each are the main reasons there seemed to be more trials per patch in ARR, as otherwise it was one trial per patch as well, just integrated into the MSQ rather than relegated to a sidequest like the Warring Triad and the Auspices (I'm also not counting EX trials separately). Technically, you could also count the Relic trials from 2.16, but they're effectively glorified dungeon bosses. I also seem to remember Yoshida mentioning at some point that they didn't want to lock trials behind the Hildibrand sidequests again, though I can't remember where or why, so don't quote me on that.
Yeap, this is it. Weren't the relic chimera and hydra just open world bosses at first that were turned into trials since they were almost impossible to complete the original way? That's the impression I've gotten anyway, I never made it to 50 at 2.0 launch. I wonder how they're going to implement the Yojimbo trial from the fanfest if it's not part of Hildibrand, Yojimbo is a key part of the Stormblood Hildibrand story and I can't really see them not tie the trial into that considering Yojimbo's position in it. I mean they could just randomly throw him into Orbonne in the place of that living armor trash miniboss but you'd think they'd have learned their lesson from the Proto-Ultima backlash.