Bought Stormblood and Now Patching Again

Rising of a New Sun

The Final Fantasy 14 team has ane hell of a way of dropping a patch on its playerbase. The notes for 4.2 basically contain a curt story, detailing myriad quality-of-life improvements similar more pocketbook space, equally well equally ancillary content like more costumes and mounts.

But 4.2 (titled "Rise of a New Sun") is a lot more than than but a cosmetic update — information technology'south one of the biggest content drops in the history of the game now that Square Enix is giving us the Savage (hard) version of the raid on twenty-four hours one.

Last Fantasy Fourteen: Stormblood(PC, PS4 [reviewed])
Developer: Foursquare Enix
Publisher: Square Enix
MSRP: $39.99 ($12.99 per month)
Released: June twenty, 2017

Rise of a New Sunday uses the aforementioned "new tomestone (endgame currency), set for Savage (endgame raiding)" principle as past patches. For some that's tiring. I'yard of the frame of mind that 14 is a themepark MMO, and that as long equally what nosotros're given is fun and engaging to play, I'll keep subscribing to information technology. Over time my interest in FFXIV waxes and wanes depending on the patch (Square Enix yet hasn't figured out how to deal with content droughts at the end of each expansion), but 4.two has re-invigorated the already impressive world of Stormblood.

It'south all about how they arroyo the formula. I don't need every MMO to be groundbreaking, and in 14'due south case, it's only a beautiful, relaxing, and often challenging game I tin go dorsum to almost every mean solar day if I feel like it. Frequent major content drops and an ongoing storyline help, and although I typically become through that transitional campaign content in a matter of days, I appreciate the level of worldbuilding that's going on through loftier-quality cutscenes. Information technology feels similar a existent mainline Concluding Fantasy that's fun to play solo, or with a party of your choice just like whatsoever other.

Over again, near of those story $.25 transition into what you're going to be doing long term, otherwise known every bit endgame. 4.2's dungeons (Hell's Hat and The Fractal Continuum hard) are par for the course, which is both a good and bad matter. They're atmospheric as hell and pretty to look at but are still incredibly linear. Kugane Castle is pretty much the merely one I can stand playing over and over, mostly considering the royal Japanese palace motif is staggeringly beautiful. This new pair is wondrous in its ain way, just not something I want to run into every week for a few months on end.

While information technology's truthful that Concluding Fantasy Fourteen's progression system is formulaic, its encounters are annihilation only. The bodily boss fights in the new dungeons are fantastic, as are the main events — the new trial and the raid, Sigmascape. Byakko the white tiger is another success in the trial loonshit (read: directly boss fights), both in terms of its design and its balancing for the extreme difficulty setting. It'due south role bullet hell dodging, incredibly thematic, and in that location'due south voice interim — which should be standard in trials at this point because it elevates them to a completely higher plane. The fact that the secondary theme (yes, boss fights in Terminal Fantasy Fourteen often have multiple songs accompanying them) reminds me of CKY is as well a keen thing.

Sigmascape is but a win in every category. The unabridged raid is an homage to Last Fantasy 6, and not in a cloying "remember this!" kind of way. The battles, including the high octane Phantom Train, are some of the finest work of any MMO to engagement. They take such fantastic production values that are not but worthy of the legacy of the original series, but likewise stand up on their own. I won't spoil the rest of the encounters here but suffice to say there'due south a clever mix of reverence and originality — one time again the raid team knocked information technology out of the park.

Having played the savage encounters for the start two fights, I'yard already happier than I was with the initial two bouts in the previous raid, Deltascape, and my group shares the same sentiment. In a bold movement of sorts Square Enix dropped both the normal and hard (Savage) versions on united states in the same day, so you lot don't have to wait to start raiding. I'm kind of torn as it just spurred a lot of stream talk and a rush for earth start on day 1 when I was trying to savour the content, merely that dust has settled and now I'1000 costless to take everything in on my ain time. I'm not certain if the team will implement this strategy for the next patch only it'south an experiment for sure, as most developers don't drop everything on us at one time.

As usual the quality-of-life additions knock it out of the park. More than inventory infinite from the get-go is splendid after all this fourth dimension, and I promise Square Enix continues to experiment with features like in-game video recording and editing (only bachelor for the aforementioned trial at the moment) and the attempt at an overarching glamour arrangement. Naoki Yoshida and his team have made incredible strides with A Realm Reborn these past few years, and I don't see myself stopping someday before long with what we've seen so far fromStormblood.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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Source: https://www.destructoid.com/reviews/review-final-fantasy-xiv-stormblood-patch-4-2/

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