Last week, I covered the new dungeons, the Weeping City, and the MSQ in short order. It’s kind of astonishing how much stuff gets packed into these patches even before you consider the incremental elements that come in the smaller in-between updates. So let’s dive right in and talk about one of the most adored features of the patch that I am… not unhappy with, but not at all compelled by.
Aquapolis
I can understand why people like the Aquapolis, and I don’t think it’s bad. But on my run with it, I mostly got a sense that it was exactly like what I had expected from my initial read on the feature, which means it’s the sort of thing that I have little to no interest in playing with consistently. It’s a dungeon without anything I’d consider the best part of a dungeon.
For those who haven’t tried the dungeon out, just know that there’s supposedly a random chance to get a portal to the Aquapolis following any Dragonskin map (in practice, that chance seems to be 100%). Once you get in there, you fight a wave of enemies, open another chest, then pick between two doors. Pick the right door and you move into the next chamber, which follows the same pattern. It’s easily cleared with four people rather than the recommended full party, the enemies are not terribly difficult, and if you can manage at least one tank, one healer, and some assortment of other people, you should find it easy.
And here’s where I kind of find myself breaking with tradition because I definitely find it easy. I find it so easy that it winds up averaging out to just plain boring for me.
The fact that so much of the dungeon is random helps contribute to this; it’s all built to be drag-and-drop, and thus progress and success are determined more by dedication than by any particular skill at dealing with challenges. But a big part of it, for me, is that it gives you a chance to plow through enemies who are just there to serve as things to kill. They don’t have any tricks to them; they’re just… there. You could, theoretically, die to them, certainly if you were solo. Then you get loot, and then randomly you keep going.
The boss fights, for my money, are the best part of FFXIV‘s dungeons. Not the only part, obviously, and a dungeon with nothing but boss fights would get tedious in short order. But the dance of mechanics and preparation is interesting. It demands attention to rotation at the same time that it demands flexibility and the skill to adapt to new situations. When things go wrong in a fight – and they can – the fight kicks into overdrive, with people struggling to still win even then the odds are against that.
Aquapolis lacks that. It’s just a pattern of chewing through enemies, looting a chest, and hoping you get to move forward. Maybe a goblin spawns, maybe a cyclops does, but neither one adds new mechanics, just “probably kill this first for more rewards” to keep you motivated.
That’s not to say that it’s bad, mind you; it’s just targeted entirely to people other than me. If you like map groups, then this is going to definitely do great things for you and you will likely love the heck out of it. I had my sojourn inside, and I don’t imagine I’ll be going back unless a friend asks me. Not every bit of content needs to be for me, after all, and this is a great form of super-casual content. I’m just not sold myself.
Good Craft Moogle Mog
I was admittedly not one of the people entirely sold on the idea of moogles as a beast tribe questline for various reasons, but all of those reasons were thematic rather than content-based. Now that I can act play the quests, I’m happy to ignore the thematic issues in favor of making a bunch of exploding kupo nuts. Stupid moogles.
The story behind the quests isn’t bad, but it does have the problem of covering ground that’s been pretty well-worn by the existing content. Sure, we’re seeing a side of the moogles we’ve not been previously acquainted with, but at the end of the day it’s still skimming over the same relationship with Hraesvelgr. There’s no new insights contained herein and little to suggest a relationship with the larger world.
This, however, does not altogether bother me because the actual moment-to-moment progression is interesting, and the moogles pull off a certain style of humor better than any other race. There’s also an interesting side to the idea of a race that’s fully capable but wholly disinclined to use that capacity in a constructive fashion; you’re not helping them do something so much as giving them motivation to try again. Turns out that near-total protection from a dragon ill-inclined to do anything but turn a huge chunk of land into a decaying tribute to loss doesn’t produce much cultural incentive to improve!
The quests also make it easy to speed through craft leveling, which is something I have sorely neglected in Heavensward just due to an increased difficulty in most of the crafting recipes. There’s a whole lot of interconnection right off of the bat for crafting that sort of turned me off; it’s not a part of the game that I consider one of my main priorities, but it is something I like to indulge in. Bringing this along with the changes to blue and red scrips means that decent crafting is more attainable for everyone, which I see as a uniformly positive improvement.
Also, that fluffball mount looks so comfortable.
Ancillary elements
The improvements to Ninja AoE are largely irrelevant; as a Ninja, it just turns Death Blossom into a marginally useful trick on larger pulls rather than almost always being wholly useless. So that’s fine, but it’s not a big sea change. Bards are quite happy, but then, I don’t play Bard beyond leveling it to cap and then abandoning it forever, so be that as it may.
Also, the housing changes will require me to completely redo my extenral housing decorations. Again. But at least we can play the Mushroomery on the orchestrion now!
Feedback, as always, is welcome in the comments below or via mail to eliot@massivelyop.com. Next time around, I want to talk about all of that E3 information and anything else that’s managed to trickle out because there’s a lot to unpack there. And just enough time to do so, even.
The Nymian civilization hosted an immense amount of knowledge and learning, but so much of it has been lost to the people of Eorzea. That doesn’t stop Eliot Lefebvre from scrutinizing Final Fantasy XIV each week in Wisdom of Nym, hosting guides, discussion, and opinions without so much as a trace of rancor.
