Bored waiting to be queued into a dungeon, lemme just check my phone- excuse me,
tomestone real quick:
I was wondering what those tomestones are that everyone is collecting to redeem for endgame shit. Apparently they're basically ancient Allagan smart phones.
Alright, so to summarize my experience with the finale:
Castrum Meridianum went fine with 7 randos. Bosses went down pretty quick as is expected because people bring their OP gear.
Then came the Praetorium.
First off, I like that the party is actually visible in the cutscenes. Before, it was the story treating it as if you beat a bunch of dungeons and primals by yourself, even when you had to have a party to do so. So this is pretty neat!
Of course, this final dungeon was where I got ditched as mentioned above. You needed to activate a thingy and then get on an elevator. The party didn't really wait to activate it and I and another person got left behind. I waited to recall the elevator while that other person just kind of went off to who knows where.
I was a little annoyed because there was an elevator prior and I was next to the switch and I made sure to wait for everyone to hop on before I pressed it, so uhm,
rude. 
Anyway, what follows is a section where the party gets into Magitek armors. Which is really cool in theory except because I was left behind all the corridors were already cleared, heh. I wanted to take in the epicness of the final dungeon so as I said, I considered my experience compromised and just quit
The party can do without one DPS anyway
More like Warriors of
Lame, am I right?
So I logged back in again a bit later. Lex and Roger came in for the rescue and did the dungeon with me instead. Much love and respect, guys <3
So this was done with just the three of us unsynced with Lex and Roger being level 60-ish (I think) so the dungeon wasn't exactly super challenging but also not a complete curbstomp battle, I suppose.
Enter the
true Warriors of Light:
And tbh, doesn't a party of three feel more like proper Final Fantasy?
We whoop Gaius' ass and he just...casually walks away to the Ultima Weapon.
Uhm, awkward, shouldn't anyone stop him? No? Okay we'll fight that giant robot then.
Sidenote: It took me until the credits to figure out why Gaius voice sounds familiar, he's the dude who also voices Ansem in Kingdom Hearts (except for 1 because Billy Zane, yo)
There's a bunch of stuff I didn't even notice until I rewatched that battle, like the absorbed Primals being released one by one during the battle. Mostly because that happened in the front and I stayed at Ultima's butt the entire time so my view of the Primals was blocked lol
The second phase had a whole bunch of lasers. Was kinda fun having do dodge all of them but only later did I notice they could be destroyed. Oops. Dodging them was probably more fun though...
Also, Ultima preparing to unleash...well, Ultima before it dies is something I didn't notice either, haha. I think we killed it pretty soon after that announcement was made.
The very definitely final battle against Lahabrea was over super fast. He went down like a chump.
Cue the celebration~
All in all those last bits were a decent spectacle imo. Wish there would've been more of that during the main story! The stage is set for more as the Ascians are still out and about and Bahamut roars from...somewhere. Heh, yeah, whatever did happen to Bahamut after he messed up Eorzea in the intro anyway? Guess that's a story for another time.
Ah, the Seventh Astral Era begins. Wait, can they really declare that already? The Seventh Umbral Era was really just five years long? Are you sure the world isn't still in deep enough shit to warrant this being called an Umbral Era? I mean, we literally just heard Bahamut and that's a chonky dragon. I feel like this is premature!
Anyway, my goal was to at least finish the main scenario in the 30 days of playtime I have, so that's done now. With only four more days left (less considering TLOU2 releases in two and I'll be playing that then
) I'm basically just faffing about now.
It took me this long to realize all the achievements you get throughout the game actually net you tokens which can be exchanged in Gridania. I wonder how much more basic stuff there is I managed to ignore after over 100 hours of playtime
Anyway, I got myself one of these dumb Behemoth mounts that give me a heart attack whenever I see someone riding these. Seriously, if you're new to the game and you see a huge-ass Behemoth rushing straight toward you like a fucking freight train and you need a second to realize that it's just some dude on a mount? Scary as hecc, don't do that to me
I also got 400 of those tomestones from the final dungeons so I went and got a chest piece of one those Magitek armors from Revenant's Toll. Might as well, I guess. Still glamoring my ninja outfit though, the Magitek stuff is a bit too over the top
So hm. "Final" thoughts, I guess?
Mixed feelings about the MMO aspects. I've always prefered doing things solo in real life as well as video games. Probably isn't gonna change. That's partially also because of my crippling social anxiety (
which I should totally get therapy for, which I'm not gonna do because of said anxiety preventing me from seeking help in the first place lol fml but that's a whole 'nother issue for a different thread I s'pose) so everytime a dungeon or whatever comes up I'm basically like "aw dangit" since this being an FF game and experiencing the story is basically the main reason I am here, not the multiplayer stuff. Having people I'm familiar with run them with me definitely makes the affair more fun and relaxed for me but at the same time I'm the type of person who hates having to ask other people for stuff because I keep thinking I'll just bother them and they probably have more important endgame shit to do than to deal with my newb runs :'D
So I don't know! I don't hate the dungeon and trial stuff but I always feel a bit anxious and uneasy about not knowing what's gonna happen and who the people are I'm gonna play with. That said, I also haven't come across any toxic people yet.
Funny to think I started out (unknowingly) as a tank. I don't think I could deal with essentially having to be the leader in a dungeon, lol. Switching to a DPS job first chance was the right choice for me, I think.
On the other hand, there is the part where this being an MMO makes it feel like this world is more...alive, I guess? It's not just static NPCs, there are people out and about doing their own thing. It's kinda fun sometimes seeing people's shenanigans at the Aetheryte plazas, whether it's people roleplaying, showing off outfits or bards playing for others' entertainment.
Or how when you're out adventuring you might see someone struggle and it feels good to help them out. And other times you might be the one who gets unexpected help, like that time I did that FFXI quest and that healer who was just passing by decided to throw a shitton of heals and buffs on me, making me temporarily invincible and all kinds of stuff. Those experiences are actually awesome and it's cool knowing this isn't some game mechanic, it's an actual human being somewhere who just decided to help you out for no reason. Makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside <3
It definitely makes you feel more like you're not just following the story of a character but you are a part of that world. TLS exists as part of a Final Fantasy game and that's kinda cool. There is a mansion that exists in the world of Eorzea with a guestbook that has people referencing the cookie monster emote and Yop doing his "it's Wednesday my dudes" meme (remember when that was a thing? =P). Can't find that in any other Final Fantasy game! :')
Or things like this:
That reference there to the "Great Goobbue Wall" was a thing from the final days of XIV 1.0. The GMs would spawn hordes of mobs inside cities and players decided to defend Ul'dah in this hilarious way, by all getting on Goobbue mounts and forming a blockade.
The fact that this event that was entirely player created is now a canon part of the Eorzean history is actually kind of amazing. Anyone who participated in that must've gotten such a kick out of reading that. I sure did, and I only know about it from my 1.0 research!
Gameplay:
Kinda like the story, this one remains kind of boring for a long time as you mostly do your basic 1 - 2 - 3 combo. Only towards the very end did it open up its potential with my job giving me access to more ninja hand seals that all need different combinations to memorize in order to activate techniques and the techniques themselves further opening up more possibilities to do more damage per second which is nice, seeing as y'know, that's my role description
The small delay between when you can use your next attack also felt a bit annoying to me so the ninja job having an ability to reduce the cooldown was a godsend. It's just a little bit but it helps making the whole thing feel much snappier.
As for the main reason I wanted to check this out in the first place, i.e. the world and story:
I do like Eorzea. I enjoy the look of the different regions and the art direction and the lore and the different races and peoples of this world. As for the actual story, well I have already complained about the slowburn that is A Realm Reborn.
And I do think I'm being a patient person as it took me at least 60 - 70 hours before I was like "alright, we gotta pick up the pace here folks."
I do think the ending was actually pretty good. At the very least they "finished" strong (quotation marks obviously because expansions and shit and A Realm Reborn isn't really self-contained after all with a few plot points left unresolved and the post-credits scene immediately throwing new stuff at you to worry about).
I feel like I do want to see the rest of the story for myself still. The amount of voices praising Heavensward and Shadowbringers in particular cannot be ignored. Most people seem to think of ARR as a bit of a hurdle to clear before you get to the good stuff and I got the majority of that out of the way now.
Now that I finished the base story I wanted to weigh the pros and cons of my experience and evaluate whether I enjoyed my time enough to warrant eventually continuing with the expansions and a subscription. I think I do? I think I do. At some point.
There's still more left to explore for me too. I only messed with the minigames in Gold Saucer for the first time today despite going there first chance I could, since I really wanted to focus on story quests first. This being an MMO obviously means there is an absolutely staggering amount of stuff to do and check out.
BUT.
...I really need a break from XIV for now. Going further would just risk burnout. That, and The Last of Us Part II beckons now.
So for now, the updates will come to an end. Thank you to everyone who had the patience to read all of this. I hope you enjoyed this thread somewhat. =)
Until next time, Eorzea.
Peace out, everyone~
