"In from the Cold" Scenario, any way to skip it?

[Doozer]

I don't think it was badly designed, and the reason I say this is because you have people who were able to finish it with out any issues. Thats why people who are defending it are saying it's not hard. I honestly think people rush too much and don't stop to actually think. Take your time and I promise that instance won't cause any headaches.

Exactly this. I had no trouble with it whatsoever because I read the instructions at the beginning and I understand how to navigate around enemies. I was already experienced with it, but playing through Eureka (and other similar content where overworld enemies actually matter) and knowing just how close I can get to an enemy without them seeing me made it extremely easy to get through the whole encounter with minimal trouble. Most of them you can walk so close behind them that you can step on their heels and they won't notice you. I think I had to fight like 4 enemies in the solo section and a lot of them just give up if you keep running while they chase you.

It may sound like crap but if you just pay attention to both what the game tells you and where the enemies are, it's a cakewalk.

[Rinhi]

I don't think it was badly designed, and the reason I say this is because you have people who were able to finish it with out any issues. Thats why people who are defending it are saying it's not hard. I honestly think people rush too much and don't stop to actually think. Take your time and I promise that instance won't cause any headaches.

I'm one of those people that finished it without issues on their first try, but that doesn't mean I didn't find it dreadfully boring and tedious
bad "stealth", repetitive, boring fights, finding resources and a QTE aren't exactly the pinnacle of game design, y'know
I personally feel like it added nothing to the game and could've been shown just as well in a cutscene or something

my post itself was about how some people try to paint everyone that didn't find this "amazing quest", well, amazing, as someone who's bad at the game for literally no reason*, when most of the people who didn't like it had no issues with it either, which you can check for yourself if you want

*I assume to feel superior, like a better FF fan or something, I don't know, I just find it really odd, not allowed to dislike it, I guess

[Yencat]

I liked it from a storytelling perspective but the duty itself wasn't that interesting so I don't really care that they nerfed the 'Easy' and 'Very Easy' modes.

Waiting for the mobs to turn around to then walk past them isn't exactly big brain tactics that's now somehow lost.

[Saraide]

I liked it from a storytelling perspective but the duty itself wasn't that interesting so I don't really care that they nerfed the 'Easy' and 'Very Easy' modes.

Waiting for the mobs to turn around to then walk past them isn't exactly big brain tactics that's now somehow lost.

I agree, I liked the previous duty with "this is thancred" a lot more because there were actual stealth mechanics. I know it makes sense for some random garlean soldier to not be an expert rogue or whatever but it also made the duty feel very shallow in terms of gameplay.

[Xaruko_Nexume]

Im shocked that they changed this. I am really bad at video games. I am really bad at this video game. There are many job duties that I have to do on very easy. I have never done an ex or savage. I did this duty on normal, first attempt. I literally failed more on the Thancred one. I dont get it.

That said I am not, never have been and never will be a fan of things in game where I play as anything other than my own character, including vehicle fights. I dont even like the raids where you have to use an extra item.

[Esper56]

Wait, is this the one where you play as Thancred?

[Xaruko_Nexume]

Wait, is this the one where you play as Thancred?

No the one after it...where you crawl in the snow.

[Esper56]

No the one after it...where you crawl in the snow.

Ah, ok. Guess people don't like having all their god-tier power taken away. (Had to look up the quest details because I don't remember them by name but by what you do in it xD)

[AnotherPerson]

Honestly, I loved the Duty. It was one of the first duties that you actually become aware of how powerful you are as a main character - healing out of combat, no need to avoid enemies, able to fight multiple enemies at a time. And at the very end of it, you don't need to kill them, only subduing them. That's much harder to do than outright killing someone.

In this duty, you have to avoid meeting enemies because it's a deadly encounter, and if you fight them, it's a fight to the death. It puts into perspective exactly how terrifying it is to get into combat it is as a regular soldier, how each wound becomes a permanent thing that doesn't just go away without treatment, and how the Final Days will seem even more daunting in perspective. Even worse for Garleans in particular - who lost their magitek, and thus their ability to fight back in a frozen wasteland.

I'm glad they kept the Normal mode duty the same difficulty. It's one of those rare duties that really get you thinking after you can look past the struggle and really hits you once you look back and in the whole journey of "Endwalker" theme. Plus, there's no problem to failure since we can always restart. I'm glad they also offered alternatives for easy and very easy mode for people still struggling though.

[Denji]

The solo instance was - at the very least - a visual mess. It was a mostly grey/black cityscape filled with grey-black rubble with mostly grey-black enemies with a dark sky and 500 clickable objects that you needed to click on in a particular order, with one of them being near the very edge of the duty that you had to weave around a dark building near the final objective.

I'm not sure about making it easier but I'm glad it's more clear on where one ought to go. If you have vision issues or even just happened to play in a room lit by bright sunlight (such as a living room if you were playing on a console) it could very quickly make the mission go from relatively easy to an incomprehensible disaster.