Live Letter Thoughts

[aveyond-dreams]

Despite the controversies of 6.1, there were several steps taken that have since restored some of my confidence in the recent Live Letter. For the time being I lean slightly more towards excited, though there are still a few things which give me pause. However, to begin with the positives:

I thoroughly enjoyed seeing this new reaper character and look forward to her involvement in the main story. With Alisae left behind, she could easily fill the role of DPS in our party and with Vrtra’s new adult body, he can take on the vacancy left by G’raha Tia. It appears that Y’shtola will be able to act as a healer in the upcoming dungeon, but overall our new smaller party feels a lot more balanced now. Our dragoon, sorceress, Au Ra lancer/swordsman, and new dark heroine is a good change from the previous party of Sharlayan Scholars, which are now down to just 1. For the time being this will serve to balance out Y’shtola and has struck a happy medium between old and new characters. Thank you for fulfilling this promise. Troia and the other locations previewed in the Void look excellent and deliver on the sort of dark fantasy environments I was hoping to see together with Pandaemonium.

Overall, new gear from battle content/crafting/tomes looks excellent and very high quality. I look forward to pursuing them once the patch drops though I was disappointed to see even more modern glamours added, despite us having so many of them already. I think it would have been a better opportunity to add something more in the way of tropical fantasy for island sanctuary as opposed to the two sets that were previewed today. Rewards for Variant/Criterion dungeons also seem to be rather unclear aside from the mount, which is not really what I was expecting from a dungeon that was associated in the lore with necromancy, etc. Hopefully we can get some more clarification on them later on. I was hoping for a different travelling companion for that content...but Nanamo is not the worst option and at least is different from the scions.

As for my concerns, I still believe that exploring the option to add exterior furnishings to Island Sanctuary would be a worthwhile endeavour due to the ongoing housing scarcity. While this island is located is a warmer region of the world, I do hope that someday in the future islands in other biomes are added such as a more artic island, spring-themed island, and so on. In terms of the story, I found it quite out of place to be including mentions of Meteion’s crystal, whose relevance to the patch MSQ is difficult to see from my perspective. Lahabrea’s apparent shattering of his sigil also raised some red flags, as it would have serious implications and potential lore contradictions of the Shadowbringers short stories if Eric turned out to be our Lahabrea. Given Endwalker’s previous handling of the theme of grief and loss, there are many who would like to see a different perspective approached when it comes to Lahabrea’s emotional state as opposed to a repetition of the “forge ahead” message, which isn’t how a lot of people approach these situations. Not subscribing to that message does not necessarily make one an antagonistic figure, so it remains to be seen how the story approaches Lahabrea and whether it portrays him in a nuanced and mature way.

On a closing note, it did not escape my attention that Hrothgar ears have been restored for the Snow hair at least, and although there was no extended update regarding their situation I hope that more is touched on and previewed in the upcoming patch notes. I will also lend my voice to calls for making Proto-Carbuncle available as a summon for players, and look forward to the mechanics in the fight against it. It is difficult to comment on job changes until we see what they entail, but I am largely in favor of leaving more major changes on a per-expansion basis except in the case of more prominent issues.

[Lustre]

There was quite a lot in there that I liked, but my chief complaint is Hydaelyn's "remnant" still being around somehow despite Yoshi P saying that she was literally destroyed. I thought this was a new thing, forge ahead blah blah. But I guess not... or at least not yet. :^)

I love the look of most of the armour introduced but I am slightly puzzled by the decision to make the raid sets so glowy and over the top when traditionally that's always been a relic/ultimate weapon thing. Maybe they foresaw lower savage participation this time around and needed to add extra incentive, who knows?

I also think that the rat mount for the Variant dungeon is a bit of an odd choice considering the backstory of Sildih and how dark it is. But, I'm also well aware there's a significant % of the community that probably had no intention to touch this content (enter dark souls strawman take), unless a new fat ca- uh, I mean, elongated rat was added. So eh. I can see why they did even if I don't like it.

Soundtrack was a1 as usual, soken knocked it out of the park with that classical/harpsichord song, and I am very much looking forward to Panda pt2. The carbuncle fight looks like it'll have some cool mechanics. Hopefully the plot there will have some semblance of nuance, because that's been sorely lacking in 6.0-.1.

[Tetsujin]

Well, I think I'm quitting indefinitely once this sub is up. I can't play an MMO with ass gameplay, sorry. Honestly can't believe there was even a mention of anything about SAM changes in the live letter. It's been a cool ride, at least Endwalker gave me a sense of finality.

[Nav_Fae]

That remix of the FF4 boss theme single handily made me excited for this patch. I was gushing so hard when that music came on!

[Sotaris]

Well, I think I'm quitting indefinitely once this sub is up. I can't play an MMO with ass gameplay, sorry. Honestly can't believe there was even a mention of anything about SAM changes in the live letter. It's been a cool ride, at least Endwalker gave me a sense of finality.

If you think gameplay is ass, why played that long to endwalker and all?

[Rayne6665]

Well, I think I'm quitting indefinitely once this sub is up. I can't play an MMO with ass gameplay, sorry. Honestly can't believe there was even a mention of anything about SAM changes in the live letter. It's been a cool ride, at least Endwalker gave me a sense of finality.

Like op say, why played that long if the gameplay is ass? Nobody’s forcing you to stay and play the entire endwalker expansion but you chose to lmfao bye o/ May you find other games that is worth it for you loooool

[AnnRam]

If you think gameplay is ass, why played that long to endwalker and all?

Gameplay was better and had their unique stuff but patch after patch SE have been turning all the jobs almost irrelevant in terms of choices.

[Sotaris]

Gameplay was better and had their unique stuff but patch after patch SE have been turning all the jobs almost irrelevant in terms of choices.

Gameplay haven’t changed though. Your job may had undergone some change and you dislike that, which is fine but the core gameplay been similar since 2013.

Personally I haven’t been turned off by any job except summoner, which I enjoyed pre EW but most people seem to enjoy it.

What makes you think all jobs become irrelevant? Cause you’d be incorrect.

[Tetsujin]

If you think gameplay is ass, why played that long to endwalker and all?

Like op say, why played that long if the gameplay is ass? Nobody’s forcing you to stay and play the entire endwalker expansion but you chose to lmfao bye o/ May you find other games that is worth it for you loooool

I accidentally posted this in the wrong thread, but you gotta be blind if you can't see the gradual degradation of job design. They are nowhere near as engaging. You're right though, nobody forced me to play. The gameplay, believe it or not, was not always ass. I switched from MNK to DRG to DRK to SAM as they got knocked down a peg one by one. SAM was the last job I really enjoyed and as you may have heard, it's been gutted as of 6.1.


I liked the MSQ, I enjoyed my time with EW, but I literally cannot stick around for the MSQ alone as it is. It's a game at the end of the day, not a movie.

[Sotaris]

I accidentally posted this in the wrong thread, but you gotta be blind if you can't see the gradual degradation of job design. They are nowhere near as engaging.

You’re mixing things then. Job design is not equal gameplay.