Good Morning Folks! Just a heads up ahead of time I am going to be talking about some things in the MSQ in loose terms, so if you want to know NOTHING about the post Endwalker content then this might be a post for you to skip. I am not going to drop major spoilers but I will be talking a bit about the sequence of items. I have to say I have officially reached the point in the story where things are starting to get good. One of the big problems that I had with Endwalker is that it wrapped up the 10-year story of Final Fantasy XIV so tightly in a bow… that I found I didn’t really “need” more story to keep me going. We had resolved all of the major plot points that I was interested in and was probably fine to just walk away from the game permanently at that point. This is in part why I have not really played the game since early 2022.
I left some things lying on the table, for example, I had not experienced all of the role quests. Last night I started the evening finishing up the DPS role quest and with it came some interesting revelations about Gosetsu. I remember doing the tanking quest but given that I did not make it to another level 90 before bailing from Endwalker, I was not eligible to do more of them. I think overall I probably liked the post Shadowbringers role quests a bit better, but these were fun and ended up taking you to various places around Eorzea to complete them. The DPS quest was a nice recap on the events of Stormblood or at least catching up with that cast of characters in the Doman Enclave.
Where the Post-Endwalker quests have gotten really good however is that we are now visiting the Thirteenth… aka the world that fell to void for “reasons” that I won’t elaborate upon. This means we have figured out a way to cross over into the void world with teleporting the aether or the person and separating it from the body like was done during Shadowbringers for everyone but our character. While I am not sure if this would work for the other reflections due to the sequence of events leading up to this… it is very interesting to be back in the World of Darkness on our own terms rather than simply to fight the Cloud of Darkness as we did in the Crystal Tower sequence. Right now the zone exists in a sort of extended quest area and I wish that we would have gotten a proper questing zone here instead.
The coolest part about all of this is that we are taking down the Arch Fiends from Final Fantasy IV and working our way towards what I assume is a Golbez fight. In the second post-Endwalker dungeon we fight Scarmiglione and then reprise that fight later in the quest content officially taking him down. That means that I am also fully expecting to see Cagnazzo, Rubicante, and of course Barbariccia. Final Fantasy IV or as I played it… Final Fantasy II… was a huge game for me. I obsessed over this game so much when it came out and have played through it several times over the years. So seeing this ground tread upon again is compelling for me at least.
When I finished for the night I had gotten up to the point where I was going to be entering the domain of wind, and ultimately fighting Barbariccia… which means we are taking them out of order from FFIV if I remember that correctly. In my mind I remember doing Scarmiglione, Rubicante, Cagnazzo, and then Barbariccia… but that could just be me misremembering things. We’ve already been to the moon in this expansion, so I guess it makes sense that we are taking things a bit out of order. Essentially I had to call it for the night because I assumed the next sequence would take a bit and it was already nearing 11 pm. I should pick up tonight and get through the wind domain.
In addition to MSQ progress, I knocked out another item from the Fall Guys promotion that I wanted. Yesterday I talked about getting the rather gaudy rhino mount, and yesterday I picked up the first of two minions. Next up I will grind out the currency needed to get the mechanical penguin minion, and then if I do nothing else from this event I will be happy. I might pick up some of the clothing items, but I’ve never really been a big fan of dressing in modern clothing styles in a fantasy game. I tend to prefer to look like I am ready to go off into battle, not that I am going to be hanging out at the mall. Granted it isn’t that malls exist anymore but that would have been the GenX equivalent. That I guess poses the question… where the hell do kids hang out these days?
Anyways… the only thing that concerns me a bit from this most recent foray into Final Fantasy XIV is that some of my old instincts are beginning to kick in. Naturally, I want to make all of the numbers turn orange… and I found myself updating my old spreadsheet plotting my progress on leveling up the jobs. In the months leading up to Endwalker, I went on this mission to get every FFXIV Job from 50ish to cap them out at 80 before the expansion hit. While interesting and something to draw my focus… it was very much not good for my long-term health with the game as a whole. When Endwalker landed I was so burnt out from seriously focused leveling that I just needed a break from the game. It has taken me some 22 months to get back into the mood to play some more Final Fantasy XIV apart from logging in to either attempt to buy a house, or more recently reset my demolition timer.
So when I found myself updating the spreadsheets yesterday… it gave me a bit of pause. I am not sure if this is the healthiest thing for me to do when it comes to the longevity of me playing this game. Sure I like tracking data… but I am not sure that it is wise to set some sort of goal this time around. Before Endwalker I was pushing myself to make sure that I could level everything to the cap before that expansion landed. This time around… I am not sure if I care that much about having everything at 90 before Dawntrail. There is still part of me that wants it… because I will always want to make all of the numbers go up. However, I think I have learned my lesson that I do not want to force myself into a funnel this time around or set some unrealistic expectations.
Anyways… I am back in FFXIV and enjoying myself but I fully expect to fade away from time to time. I care more about Path of Exile for example than I do about this game, so as the new pre-3.23 events start up this week and we move into Bel League at the start of 3.23… I will probably be hitting the pause button in FFXIV. I am very happy though to have the friendly chatter of the Mastodon-based Frendedex to keep me company as I get my feet under me again.
I’m at 6.3 in the MSQ, and my summation of the whole thing is “eh.”. I have no real affectation for FFIV, so between the Void/FFIV stuff falling flat, and me being sick to death of half the Scions after Endwalker, wading through the 6.x storyline is just an exercise in tedium for me.