A Review of 6.4

[AwesomeJr44]

The following are my opinions (yes, these are indeed opinions) of most of the things released in 6.4.

The MSQ Story

The MSQ story was honestly pretty lackluster as too much of it was boring filler. I literally could not care less whether Zero likes spicy food. We have been waiting for about a year for the scions to even catch a glimpse of Golbez himself, let alone talk to him or fight him, so just get to it already.

Even as someone who likes Garlemald, that portion really should have been cut out or along with the parts in Radz and Bestways if we were only getting the amount of story we were getting. The patch should have opened the voidgate earlier and spent more time on the red moon as that's the part that matters the most. What do we really even do on the void's moon? We interact with a couple of glowing lights on the ground, talk to Zero, talk to Azdaja, and then fight Golbez. We don't even get to walk around Golbez's sanctum in the crater, it's only ever in a cutscene. There needed to be something more there, and it feels like not enough time was given to allow for that.

EDIT: I forgot to mention my thoughts on Zeromus. I really don't like Zeromus' addition. Its starting to feel less like the writers are making references to the older games and are now just ripping things directly from them. Anyone who knew anything about FFIV saw this coming a mile away, and several of my friends who love FFIV dreaded Zeromus' inevitable addition, and for good reason. I really just wish they let Golbez exist on his own without having to also add Zeromus. It honestly feels like the only reasoning for adding Zeromus in the first place was because "it's in FFIV".

Aetherfont/Voidcast Dais

Honestly the dungeon was pretty good. The first boss was pretty mid, and it seemed like most of its mechanics that weren’t braindead easy (relative to dungeon bosses, obviously it could be said that all dungeons are braindead easy) were towards the very end of the fight. The second boss was the best, and the lightning rampage mechanic where it jumps four times in a row was actually really fun for a dungeon mechanic. The Octomammoth was pretty good too and used the arena in interesting ways, which is almost always a plus.

As for the trial, it’s also pretty good. Normal mode wasn’t a complete pushover like normal trials usually tend to be. It felt like the game actually expected some semblance of skill from me for once. I usually zone out during normal trials as they’re quite boring, but this one managed to keep me entertained and focused on what was going on.

The extreme version had to have been my favorite extreme trial this expansion, and unless the 6.5 is equally good, this will be Endwalker’s Thordan or Warrior of Light. Most of the mechanics felt really good to execute, especially Double Meteor and Gales 2. Void Stardust, the exaflare mechanic, was a little iffy, but the rest of the fight was really good.

Anabaseios Story

I honestly expected something offensively bad going into this patch, and feared that it would devolve into “Ancients bad, Venat good”. Thankfully, those fears were misplaced. But, while the writers did exceed my admittedly low expectations, the story wasn’t anything amazing to write home about. Its biggest flaw is that it feels like there’s a missing chapter in the story between Abyssos and Anabaseios. Things just kinda pick up out of nowhere and it feels like there was something that was meant to be set up, but it wasn’t and now it’s just here. I wouldn’t say I hated the story or anything, it just felt a little too rushed. Abyssos had that same feeling, where the story didn’t take the time to really explore anything.

Athena was a breath of fresh air for me when it comes to the game’s villains. I’m all for complex and/or sympathetic antagonists, but it’s nice to have one who is just an evil person, and we haven’t really gotten one like that since Valens back in SHB. She reminds me a lot of Venat, and I consider her to be the better version of her. Both are characters who are willing to commit horrific acts to ‘improve’ humanity in a way that would accomplish their goals. Athena is Venat if she is allowed to be the villain, and that might be why I like her character so much.

Anabaseios Raids

Kokytos was probably the weakest of the four, with only his Mage phase being a lot of fun. The Martialist phase was ok, but only the explosions from the cracks was really that interesting. The Beast phase was pretty boring. I didn’t really feel like anything from that phase was interesting or fun.

Pandaemonium was a step up from the previous raid. The web bridges were interesting, and I’m hoping they expand upon that in savage, perhaps maybe even adding additional platforms you can build bridges to. If I could tweak one thing, I think the donut/dynamo cages’ AOE should have been bigger. As they are, it’s practically just a bigger AOE than the actual normal AOE one.

Themis was really fun, even if he drew a lot of things from E11. P11 had the best music, and by far the best arena. I can see this one being really fun in savage if he uses different attacks with different elements at the same time, kinda like he does in normal with the clones.

Athena was the best for mechanics and she has one of the best boss models in the game. I love when fights introduce mechanics one at a time and then put them together and force you to resolve them together, which is what they did with the chains, the adds, and the disappearing floor tiles. The add phase is also really fun as it requires a lot of movement. The only thing I’d change here is making her line attack’s telegraph show up earlier. It wouldn’t be as big of an issue if the attack only did damage, but it also usually knocks people off the edge of the arena, leading to multiple instant kills which made clearing it frustating if I wasn't playing as a job capable of reviving teammates.

Balance Changes

Honestly, this patch was an absolute failure for game balance. It really does feel like the dev team has a blindfold on and is spinning around shooting wildly with a shotgun. Why is Samurai getting buffed? Samurai was already one of, if not the strongest DPS in the game. It’s low pick-rate in TOP wasn’t because it had low damage, so why buff it when that not only doesn’t solve the issues it has in TOP, but also makes it completely broken in savage? Why is BLM getting buffed when RDM has already been behind for so long? And don’t get me started on the nonsense going on with WAR. DRK is now a pointless job. WAR literally does everything DRK does but better. Even my co-tank who mains WAR thinks the WAR changes are ridiculous and that SE went too far in buffing WAR. WAR needed a small buff, but this was far too much.

TLDR: The gameplay of the Dungeon/Trials/Raids is good, the story's mid at best, and the balance changes are terrible.

I could probably go into greater detail than I did here on some aspects and I might end up editing in a few more additional things if I feel like it, but I mainly made this thread because I promised someone I would make a post sharing some of my general thoughts on the patch. I'm not sure how much I'll be returning to interact with this thread as I'm generally unhappy with the current state of the forums (as well as with FFXIV social media in general) and don't have as much of a desire to post here as I used to, but we'll see if I can think of anything I'd want to add.

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

--I mainly made this thread because I promised someone I would make a post sharing some of my general thoughts on the patch.
--I'm generally unhappy with the current state of the forums (as well as with FFXIV social media in general) and don't have as much of a desire to post here as I used to,

That joke aside, Bravo. Not bad.
Level-headed Analysis and Pretty Fair, at least to my standards.

I’m all for complex and/or sympathetic antagonists, but it’s nice to have one who is just an evil person

Honestly, yes.
Im personally sick of Sympathetic Villains...not that we can't or should never have them, but I prefer and Miss a Good Old Fashion Villain, or a PURE Villain.
Someone who I want to hate and defeat.

[VelKallor]

I mainly made this thread because I promised someone I would make a post sharing some of my general thoughts on the patch.

So you are Aveyond's secretary now?

[Amenara]

Pretty fair takes, though I am still muddling through the MSQ. I do agree about enjoying the new raids, though I will always hate wall bosses as a tank because it takes away one of the two responsibilities I have as a tank, though boss positioning has been less of a responsibility lately. The mechanics overall have been pretty fun and I like that I could run in blind and more or less get what was going on, something that FF14 has generally been pretty good at. I will probably try out the dungeon and trial next week when I am off from work.

[Boblawblah]

Honestly, yes.
Im personally sick of Sympathetic Villains...not that we can't or should never have them, but I prefer and Miss a Good Old Fashion Villain, or a PURE Villain.
Someone who I want to hate and defeat.

I thought I was as well, but what I am more tired of is sadistic mustache twirling villains that turn sympathetic in a single cutscene. The Warriors of Darkness were a perfect example. They were just straight up psychotic killers and then started crying and somehow we were supposed to care about them suddenly. Gaius/Nero/Fordola/Yotsuyu all have similar issues, hell, they're even trying to make ZENOS of all people sympathetic now. Seriously? WoL thinking about 'friends' and they picture Zenos??

They could show us a more balanced look at villains, but it's always just evil, evil, evil, evil, GOOD! It's like playing duck duck goose or something, it gets old.

What I'd love to see is the WoL in a fish out of water, behind enemy lines sort of situation where they're forced to experience what the enemy is actually like, and starts to emphasize with them. THAT would make a more compelling sympathetic villain imo.

[AwesomeJr44]

So you are Aveyond's secretary now?

No, it was actually you. I told you I would make a post that gave my thoughts on it, and I have.

[R041]

So you are Aveyond's secretary now?

No, it was actually you. I told you I would make a post that gave my thoughts on it, and I have.

[VelKallor]

Both are characters who are willing to commit horrific acts to ‘improve’ humanity in a way that would accomplish their goals.

Venat was faced with a horrible, almost soul shattering choice.

She had to make changes, she had to prepare us. A sword, if it was sentient, would not enjoy being heated, beaten, drawn, quenched, forged, yet all of that is necessary to create a weapon. Faced with the Final Days, faced with what massive threat Meteion represented, she made the only choice she could make. Yes, we as a people faced unimaginable tragedy as a result..but it was a necessary, unavoidable decision.

I guess you've never been in a situation like that, where its down to you alone. Years ago, I was in a small team faced with a choice like that ( I was a student nurse and wasnt involved in making that call directly, but I was an observer ). Save the mother...or save the child.

One or the other...not both. Wasnt possible. No I didnt make that final decision ( thank GOD ), but it taught me that there sometimes is not a good outcome, no matter what we do, we still lose.

I was also trained in triage, Awesome, and even in a simulation, the responsibility of what i was doing hammered down on me when I was told "You cant save that one, leave them". It wasnt a real situation, true , but in real world terms? id have to make the call to leave someone to die.

If you think for one moment THAT wouldnt come back to haunt you later......

Ive seen the "genocide" meme thrown around, but looking back..ask yourself...what choice would YOU make?

She did what she had to.

[KageTokage]

People have already gone on at length about how the "necessary and unavoidable" part feels extremely dubious when considering the fundamental fact that the third sacrifice was not some critical event that would've led to mankind's immediate downfall if it wasn't prevented, but this isn't really the place to be repeating that argument again.

[Jeeqbit]

The story was ok. Like a lot of these patches, it was predictable but I think the point is to restore normality (as normal as it gets for the Warrior of Light) by getting them to do something relatively simple and routine for them (casually saving the world) without any significant hiccups, so when the expansion releases, the hiccup will feel more unusual.

The dungeon is alright, yes. With the mechanics, they have been willing not to just use orange telegraphs always this expansion and let us observe our environment to do mechanics, which are useful skills for doing extreme and savage. Same with the raids.

Raid stories are always quite dragged out with lots of discussion and complex stuff happening when you just want to fight things, but for a raid story it was fine and the bit at the end unexpected but satisfying.