At the start of this month FFXIV released its fifth expansion Dawntrail. The expansion comes with all the usual trimmings in same old FFXIV fashion: new classes, race adjustments or additions, new continents, +10 level cap, more dungeons and raids and of course the continuation of the famed storyline. Down the line, there will be lots and lots of tomes and tokens to grind in exchange for gear and more gear – a system that literally hasn’t changed in ten years and remains the repetetive endgame at the core of Eorzea.
Meanwhile SE have continuously increased the optional content (bloat) around it to a point where I have long lost sight of all the extra features and “games within the game” that make FFXIV rather overwhelming at times. Wanna dive into the various solo and deep dungeons of the game and relive some of that 8bit era nostalgia? Race chocobos and become lord of the Gold Saucer? Win every Triple Triad card game? Return to the old FFXI experience and grind your way through Eureka? Obtain a guild house and build a submarine? Level blue mage? Gain access to Diadem and become a master gatherer and crafter? Build up your personal island sanctuary? Obtain the different relic weapons? Pwn at PVP? The list goes on, completionists talk to your therapist first!
Why I’m not playing right now
To say that I’m not feeling the game right now would be an understatement. I haven’t bought the expansion as I’ve yet to finish the MSQ for Endwalker and I’m likely going to wait for a sale. Reading through the official expansion featurettte nothing strikes my fancy, it’s just a lot more of the same in abundance. Maybe my enthusiasm really ended with beating FFXIV’s unofficial endboss: the housing lottery.
For a moment I thought that leveling one of the new classes might bring me back; ranged magical DPS are usually my thing and the Pictomancer sounded fun in theory. But of course it isn’t – like everything in FFXIV nowadays, from three-page raid boss strategies to 100+ steps relic weapon guides, the newer the class the more nauseating the class mechanics and rotations. A quick look at a guide for dummies just told me two things: I don’t think I want to play a class with animations straight from Kingdom Hearts and I really cba to read 28-lines worth of infotext for a single spell. Much less do I care to commit all of it to memory. I am old – are you crazy?!
I really miss the days when MMOs were simpler. Maybe way down the line I can somehow rekindle my adventurer’s spirit and at least enjoy the new story quests and zone exploration in Dawntrail. Maybe the soundtrack is also worth listening to, that could be good.