Rise of a New Sun
The Final Fantasy XIV team has one hell of a way of dropping a mend on its playerbase. The notes for 4.2 basically comprise a short floor, detailing myriad quality-of-life improvements like more base space, adenine well as accessory content like more costumes and mounts .
But 4.2 ( titled “ Rise of a New Sun ” ) is a lot more than precisely a cosmetic update — it ’ s one of the biggest content drops in the history of the bet on immediately that Square Enix is giving us the Savage ( hard ) version of the raid on day one .
Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood (PC, PS4 [reviewed])
Developer: Square Enix
Publisher: Square Enix
MSRP: $39.99 ($12.99 per month)
Released: June 20, 2017
ascend of a New Sun uses the lapp “ new tomestone ( endgame currency ), gear up for Savage ( endgame raiding ) ” rationale as past patches. For some that ’ sulfur exhausting. I ’ megabyte of the frame of mind that XIV is a themepark MMO, and that adenine long as what we ’ rhenium given is playfulness and engaging to play, I ’ ll keep subscribing to it. Over clock time my interest in FFXIV waxes and wanes depending on the bandage ( Square Enix placid hasn ’ t figured out how to deal with content droughts at the end of each expansion ), but 4.2 has re-invigorated the already impressive global of Stormblood .
It ’ s all about how they approach the formula. I don ’ t need every MMO to be groundbreaking, and in XIV ‘ sulfur font, it ’ s just a beautiful, relax, and frequently challenging game I can go back to about every day if I feel like it. patronize major capacity drops and an ongoing storyline aid, and although I typically go through that transitional campaign content in a matter of days, I appreciate the degree of worldbuilding that ’ s going on through high-quality cutscenes. It feels like a substantial mainline Final Fantasy that ’ s playfulness to play solo, or with a party of your choice barely like any early .
again, most of those report bits transition into what you ’ re going to be doing long terminus, otherwise known as endgame. 4.2 ’ randomness dungeons ( Hell ’ s Lid and The Fractal Continuum heavily ) are equality for the run, which is both a dependable and bad thing. They ’ re atmospheric as hell and pretty to look at but are still incredibly linear. Kugane Castle is pretty much the only one I can stand play over and over, by and large because the royal japanese palace theme is enormously beautiful. This raw copulate is fantastic in its own means, but not something I want to see every workweek for a few months on end.
While it ’ second on-key that Final Fantasy XIV ‘ s progress system is formulaic, its encounters are anything but. The actual boss fights in the modern dungeons are fantastic, as are the main events — the new trial and the foray into, Sigmascape. Byakko the white tiger is another achiever in the trial arena ( read : true boss fights ), both in terms of its design and its reconciliation for the extreme difficulty setting. It ’ south separate fastball hell evasion, fabulously thematic, and there ’ south voice acting — which should be standard in trials at this bespeak because it elevates them to a wholly higher plane. The fact that the secondary theme ( yes, foreman fights in Final Fantasy XIV frequently have multiple songs accompanying them ) reminds me of CKY is besides a capital thing .
Sigmascape is just a win in every category. The integral raid is an court to Final Fantasy VI, 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 date. They have such antic production values that are not only worthy of the bequest of the original series, but besides stand on their own. I won ’ thymine spoil the rest of the encounters hera but suffice to say there ’ s a apt mix of reverence and originality — once again the raid team knocked it out of the park.
Having played the ferocious encounters for the beginning two fights, I ’ meter already happier than I was with the initial two bouts in the previous raid, Deltascape, and my group shares the same opinion. In a bluff move of sorts Square Enix dropped both the normal and hard ( Savage ) versions on us in the like day, so you don ’ t have to wait to start raiding. I ’ thousand kind of tear as it merely spurred a lot of current talk and a rush for populace first on day one when I was trying to enjoy the content, but that dust has settled and now I ’ thousand absolve to take everything in on my own time. I ’ m not sure if the team will implement this strategy for the adjacent plot but it ’ s an experiment for certain, as most developers don ’ t drop everything on us at once .
As usual the quality-of-life additions knock it out of the park. More inventory space from the beginning is excellent after all this time, and I hope Square Enix continues to experiment with features like in-game video record and editing ( merely available for the aforesaid trial at the moment ) and the try at an overarching hex system. Naoki Yoshida and his team have made incredible strides with A Realm Reborn these past few years, and I don ’ thymine see myself stopping anytime soon with what we ’ ve seen so far from Stormblood .
[ This review is based on a retail build of the bet on provided by the publisher. ]
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