Unreal Trials

[Shurrikhan]

We literally just got a level 80 Shiva rehash; did we really need another one?

This. Having that as their first test subject seems a bit... odd.

Why not at least something more unique from our recent raid-trials, like Good King Moogle Mog or any of the Warring Triad?

[Hanayumi]

Its fine, EXs are the easiest of endgame fights, so its not that big of a deal really. And from what its sounds like you will have the entire patch complete, serious doubt they'll have an exclusive reward every week, very very likely rewards will be cycled like WT. I like the idea, breaths new life into old fights, people would otherwise burn through or even miss out on, cause of high level/gear or no need to do. Old days of primal fights where even titan was one hell of a wall to beat and was straight up a requirement for arr relic, lol.

[EaMett]

This. Having that as their first test subject seems a bit... odd.

Why not at least something more unique from our recent raid-trials, like Good King Moogle Mog or any of the Warring Triad?

There might be a big enough following of people that run ex but not savage to warrant this. Hard to tell without data (that I assume they have).

[Hanayumi]

This. Having that as their first test subject seems a bit... odd.

Why not at least something more unique from our recent raid-trials, like Good King Moogle Mog or any of the Warring Triad?

Yeah they mentioned people would prolly be less likely to do the content if it was something out of the blue, while shiva is fairly fresh in people minds cause of raid so they're starting off with that. Was also mentioned they'll add more every patch or so.

[Espritduo]

Extreme Trials are midcore difficulty and you only have to clear it once a week. If it takes you over a week to clear an ex trial then the FOMO is a perfect excuse to learn how to play better

It's not a matter of getting good. I used to clear ex primals with my static back in the day and we usually cleared them day one in one lockout before moving onto savage progging. I refuse to go through the insufferable experience of pugging them with strangers, though. That is the real reason most people don't bother with EX trials, not their difficulty per se. I believe the vast majority of the playerbase is technically capable of clearing an EX trial, in terms of skill alone. It's dealing with the human garbage that you tend to find in random groupings that makes it invariably not worth the effort until you can unsync them. I remember clearing Zurvan EX with my group, getting it on farm in a few hours, then trying to do it with pugs later on. Never again. And I've certainly served my time in Shiva EX at level enough that I never want to do that again either.

[Shurrikhan]

There might be a big enough following of people that run ex but not savage to warrant this. Hard to tell without data (that I assume they have).

But, we see Shiva, Ifruda, Ixamuh, Leviathan, and Titan 2.0 in Normal Raids before we're even allowed to attempt their Savage versions. It's not like they lack for exposure.

[Nestama]

From what I heard, they were originally gonna start with Titan, but then decided to go with Shiva. Shiva is a pretty easy EX Primal, whereas fights like Moggle Mog have a mechanic that I don't think has been done again since Moggle Mog EX.

[EaMett]

But, we see Shiva, Ifruda, Ixamuh, Leviathan, and Titan 2.0 in Normal Raids before we're even allowed to attempt their Savage versions. It's not like they lack for exposure.

Sure, but if you break it down into tiers of difficulty and/or playtime it makes a bit more sense. If all you've done is Shiva normal and you enjoy running ex content then normal was most likely not a challenge at all and your exposure to it was pretty limited (compared to progging a fight for instance). So having a more demanding shiva fight could be a logical decision.
Not saying they couldn't have come totally out of left field with something else like mog king, Odin, etc. But there are probably more reasons to it than just exposure. Shiva also seems like an easy fight to upscale and test the whole unreal thing with.

[Sylve]

I'm happy about that...

Except for the "limited" aspect.
I mean, once the trial has been developed why not letting it in the game?

They said that Shiva was just the first, and the other Primals would come.
Making it so only 1 Unreal Trial is available at a time forces people to do whichever one is up at the time rather than ignoring the harder ones and only doing the 'easiest' one, or the one that they can score best with.

Theres also an element of player retention. Rotating events mean you're always logging in rather than just doing 1 month at the start of a patch, then waiting for the next content drop.

However ... AFAIK, they didn't elaborate on what they meant by Limited.
It could even just mean that you have limited attempts to clear it each week, as opposed to limited time to play the content before it vanishes.

[Amnmaat]

What I do like about the limited aspect is that it adds dynamism to the game, if they would add some actual lore to it instead of an ugly fox face.
They should've baked it into the world lore as such:

1. While the Warrior of light has been away from the Source the Beast tribes have been once again fervently praying to their primals to come back. Thankfully this takes them a long time to summon them but this also means the danger they pose to the world is that much greater. Will the Warrior of light answer the call? This would have add dynamism to the game as opposed to: Fox here, fight level 80 Shiva. It's really weird how they approach the game sometimes, sometimes they approach it from an Arcade/Call of Duty sort of way. Other times when they bring in guests like Matsuno or the Yorha guy they work hard on the lore. The game could really use more world dynamic content, specially if it's limited time. Seasonal primal summonings.