Don't Get Discouraged (You Can Do This)

[Packetdancer]

So, I had originally posted this on a thread which seems to have since been consigned to the Land of Wind and Ghosts (along with main-stat materia and elementally-aspected combat abilities) after one poster expressed frustration that the Bozjan instances (Castrum Lacus Litore and Delubrum Reginae) were too difficult, and that 'only the best' were capable of finishing them.

And while the thread -- and the post within I was replying to -- are now gone, I tend to think this post may still be useful. Because a) I think understanding a little about how the fights in this game are set up is worthwhile, and b) while I get frustration and trepidation, especially having suffered from them myself for a long time when I was newly-returned to the game, I genuinely believe in you all.

---- Original Post Below ----

I almost guarantee you that you're capable of the content. And this is not me trying to be like "Pfft, high-end content is easy, anyone can do it." and dismissive of people genuinely feeling like it's beyond them because they've died a bunch in content like this.

It's 100% normal to have trouble and feel like a fight's beyond your abilities... but that's because content in this game is deliberately designed to make you think that.

Particularly from Stormblood on, this game has gotten very good at making flashy, complicated-looking mechanics designed to appear to be confusing... but which are actually dead simple, as long as you either spot the 'dead simple' pathway through it, or have someone tell you.

It's the equivalent of a stage magician doing something flashy with one hand to draw your attention, just so they can do something with the other hand while you aren't paying attention.

For instance, take the swords in Emerald Weapon's extreme fight; many people complain about how incredibly difficult those swords are, and how it's "seemingly random" where they are falling. But the truth is that there are only a handful of actual possible patterns, and one corner is pretty much always safe. (Illustrations!) People who look like wizards who can just skate through the sword mechanic are... mostly just watching the southeastern corner of things, at which point you only need to notice which of the two swords falls first.

There are also mechanics that will bait you into moving to the wrong spot -- again, like an illusionist tricking you into expecting one thing before showing another. Red Choctober is particularly egregious here, because it'll put a big puddle of Bad on the ground in two spots, then a big red X of bad crossing the arena; with the Puddles of Bad in two quadrants of the X, everyone is prone to going for the 'safe' quadrants... only to have the Puddles of Bad explode, rotate halfway to the next quadrant, explode, rotate again and land in the 'safe' spot where everyone gathered... and explode, killing them all right as the big red X goes off as well.

Meanwhile, the place where the rotating Puddles of Bad first appeared is the actual safe spot.

It takes no actual skill to survive that mechanic; it just takes knowing that they're trying to trick you. So all you do is wait outside the first Puddle of Bad (where it looks like it's going to be the absolute worst spot to stand) and waiting, then stepping into the safe spot where it was as soon as it explodes and moves. After that, you can just chill there through the rest of the mechanic... and potentially watch half of the Critical Engagement die in what looked like the safe spot, because the game baited them.

But to those who die when the puddle rotates into their 'safe zone' and haven't been shown that pattern, it sure can look like those who survived are some sort of gaming wizards to figure out ahead of time where was going to be safe and cheat death.

Because when you haven't seen behind the curtain for a fight, those big mechanics can seem like insurmountable obstacles -- and that's what they're designed to do. Because the tendency is to feel like you need to watch the entire arena and that's often meant to be overwhelming; there's flashy graphics everywhere, things are glowing or exploding or moving across the arena and you've never seen that particular marker before and there's a big red puddle of bad there but people seem to be standing in it deliberately and that's weird and aaaaaaaaaa what do you do?

It's no wonder so many people die during those sort of fights, and find them discouraging.

This doesn't mean you're obligated to do the content designed to look difficult, of course. Some people won't find it fun, even when they know how to do it, because it's just not what they're looking for in the game. Some people will find it stressful with that many people running around because they prefer smaller groups (whether due to chaos or genuine shyness), and the stress makes it difficult to remember what it is that's hidden behind the smoke and mirrors and easier to slip up.

Heck, some people just would prefer to fish, and that's okay too!

Nor is this to say there aren't folks who legitimately could not do the content either. I had a friend who had severe nerve damage sustained during his military service; he loved playing video games, he loved playing MMOs with his friends... and there is zero chance he would've been able to do Castrum Lacus Litore or Delubrum Reginae, because even if he could see through the smoke and mirrors he would likely not be able to react fast enough because his hands just didn't work. (Which is, yes, unfortunate; anyone who's in the position my friend was, you have my sympathy.)

But for the average player... if you want to do this content, I promise you, you probably are capable of it, even if you've already tried and had a disastrous run or two. The content's just very good at lying to you and trying to convince you that you aren't, because that's literally what it's designed to do.

And if you ask, I suspect many people will be willing to show 'how the trick is done' and ruin that stage-magic illusion.

[van_arn]

This. I’m terrible and I’ve cleared both. Stop whining and figure out what you need to improve to get the clear.

Or don’t and skip the relic.

Both options are perfectly fine. Standing around and blaming Square for not “clarifying” their clarification or not providing full details of the entire chain beforehand aren’t really productive outlets, though, and will only end in your disappointment and frustration.

That said, you do you. If you want misery, feel free to wallow in it as I goof off on blue mage.

[SohkyonAyhan]

I'm glad to see people offering some encouragement and advice about the new Bozjan content! I feel like it's easy for some to get caught in a spiral of frustration, which is perfectly understandable but unfortunately leads to other people becoming intimidated. Seeing posts like this that focus on getting pumped up to do your best always cheer me up. Thank you!

[LisSquid]

This! All of this! Love this positivity and can-do on the forum.

[Lynesse]

This is a really great post. A big fat +1 from me.

For all of the skills I've developed in this game, I still die a lot and do silly things.

Like, really silly things.

Like, "how could anyone possibly be that dumb?"

There's a lot of pressure on players to do more than clear -- they have to perform well, regardless of how much practice they have. But it's all designed to hide people's weaknesses, just as the game is designed to trick you into dying.

It's all a lie.

Blue mage will never lie to you.

One of us...

[Packetdancer]

For all of the skills I've developed in this game, I still die a lot and do silly things.

Like, really silly things.

Like, "how could anyone possibly be that dumb?"

Oh, good lord, yes. Even when you know the trick behind a mechanic, you can still certainly slip up; you can be distracted/stressed by RL things, you can get turned around and disoriented after a rez and head in the wrong direction, you can be focusing on DPS and not notice the mechanic until it's too late to resolve properly, you can just have a "How do I brain today?" moment that leaves you embarrassed and going "Apparently a cat walking on a keyboard could play my job better than I am tonight, and this is my freaking main."

Heck, I've seen Perfect Legends -- and I mean legitimately-earned ones, people I know, where I watched them stream their TEA prog over a long period of time -- get tunnel vision and die to freaking Amon in Syrcus Tower while distracted during Curtain Call, to say nothing of getting distracted during the Marching Orders chessboard game on the last boss of Delubrum Reginae.

Just knowing the tricks behind mechanics makes them accessible rather than intimidating; it doesn't mean you'll do them correctly ever single time, just that it puts them within your capability to do.

Because no one is perfect, not even Perfect Legends.

[Oichi]

Huge +1 from me too. Great insight

[Urthdigger]

This is so true. I'm a savage raider and have farmed plenty of extreme primal mounts when they were current content... and I'm trash. I can't keep oGCDs on cooldown and I know damn well there's plenty of areas where I play pretty inefficiently. However, I really feel that if you care about how you're doing, you'll be able to clear anything. The only things keeping someone from clearing are either literal disabilities or simply not having the desire to improve and learn a fight.

Ironically, I feel a lot of people who avoid hard content because "surely I'm not good enough" would actually make good raiders. It means you're humble enough to know you have room to improve and you wish to do the best you can for your party members. All that's left is to get past the smoke and mirrors.

[Shougun]

Knock it off, too happy - I can't farm despair with all this light. (/s, just in case it wasn't obvious xD - happy post is nice post).

On point though there is certainly a group of people who are just moments away from getting it and liking it, but they just need that push. Like some people who think about tanking or healing.

I also like that you admit though that there are just some people who wont like it, just doesn't matter, even if they can do it- like in another thread I mentioned I could do fairly well in ladder of RTS games (WC3 era, learned hotkeys for it and all- get those kpm to kps lol) but.. not enjoyable and drifted from the game shortly until I just dropped ladder and stuck with custom games. Some content just wont be the content you like no matter if you can do it or not, and it might be the challenge is not to the "enjoyable" factor.

I think a lot of more determined and or skilled players have difficulty understanding some people could be better, or are actually better in a sense of their full skills in action, they just literally don't want to be and the game for them is just a way to destress and be casual. Naturally some perspectives will actively interfere with others, make something too easy some people don't like it, too hard, again... Which is why SE will never have true peace, just hopefully a nice balance of peace lol. Personally I think if the content is a bit obtuse for that classic era vibe.. is fine, but that relic should be carefully managed so that it remains in the casual domain (given enough time, always the grindy item to make up for the fact that it's fairly powerful and special looking - as I think that is an important part of the balance). I think that's about where I was brining points on Bozja should be mindful that it contains relic and I think relic should be relatively casual (which honestly would be less of a problem if they could somehow make CLL less of a gate). Beyond that it could be as weird as it wants so long as people feel the balance of content is about right (which is still going to have some people complaining because we, people, are super coooool like that lol).

[Lynesse]

snip.

Edit: I had this long post, but the only valuable thing I had to say in it was: It's sometimes (a lot of the time) first-day-of-work simulator. When I take an objective look at my performance, my mistakes are really not all that bad. The same goes for everyone else in the end. There's a reason for everything.

Okay, I'm done editing.

I have to go do blue mage things. o/