FFXIV: Sticking it to shrews

I kicked off this week by doing my level 40 Dragoon job questline. She’s coming along, my little jumper, although it hasn’t stopped me from thinking about some other jobs on the side. I wouldn’t mind having a healer on hand — I flirt with White Mage and Scholar at times — and I’m almost definitely going to get Machinist in the first expansion. Dancer is another must-have, but that’ll have to wait until I pony up and pay for future expansions.

Even though I wasn’t able to do quite as much questing last week, it was enough to put me over the halfway mark in ARR — only 150 quests to go! Don’t despair, Syp!

Yup, I feel like a true man now, killing some cute little innocent fat animal thing that certainly doesn’t look like a stuffed animal my kids have in their beds. DIE MONSTER! I SEND YOU BACK TO THE PIT OF SUFFERING!

I paused in the MSQ for a day or two to get a Scholar up to snuff. I have so much XP coming in that it feels like a waste not to be pouring it into at least two classes, and I do kind of miss my fairy familiar.

Come, Tinkerbell, we have worlds to conquer! I hope you’re packing more than magic dust in those hotpants. Also, I need pants. Can’t I be a Dragoon with a fairy?

While I generally like snowy/winter zones in MMOs, there’s something about Coerthas that makes me want to be far from it. Perhaps it’s the over-abundance of elves and general haughty storylines, or perhaps that it’s simply frigid landscape with no real beauty to it. Well, back to stabbing things with my fireworks spear here!

FFXIV: Descending into Lalahell

There’s nothing quite so FFXIV than to log on and immediately be subject to a bunch of potatoes playing in a rock-and-roll band. I have to admit, they weren’t that shabby!

Progress, even at a pretty chill rate, is going well. I’m almost halfway through A Realm Reborn’s marathon length and 15% of the way through everything in the MSQ. That’s 47 main quests (plus plenty of side ones) over last week.

Unfortunately, halfway through still means halfway to go through a base game story that is (a) pretty dull and (b) I’ve done a couple times before. So I’m trying not to tune it out too much while also not getting antsy to speed through it. Chill, Syp. Relaxed. Take it at pace.

Ha, Final Fantasy X joke still makes me crack up. I never did like that game too much.

Man, between this and LOTRO, I feel like I’m getting some sort of unexpected January tropical beach vacation this year. And I am not complaining.

I took a full week off of gaming to go on vacation with my family — no regrets there! — but when I came back, it took me a little bit to slip into the routine of MMO questing again. Happily, FFXIV never really loses you with its MSQ prompts. And I didn’t overcompensate with questing to make up for lost time, as the serene desert night sky called for some reflection.

It was also nice to ding level 40 on my Dragoon — a good milestone, and nearly 10 levels above where I’m questing. As long as I’m not below, I don’t much care.

No Dune knock-off can withstand my amazing ability to jump all over the place with a sharp, pointy stick! This is definitely an approved fighting style!

FFXIV: The claw! The claw!

Week two of my FFXIV return sees me still going pretty strong at my fledgling Lancer hit level 30 and transitioned into a Dragoon. But what’s hitting me different this time around versus previous attempts?

I traced my history in this game all the way back to my first time playing it in 2015 through a rough patch in 2019, then 2019 through 2021 when I left it for a long time. I’m having a pretty good time right now and wanted to identify why I have burned out in the past — and I think I see it. A lot has to do with trying to rush up through the story and try to catch up with everyone else, which is a fool’s errand in a game this big. I think the only way to do it, at least for me (and what I hear, from many others) is to ease and nibble one’s way through the game rather than try to binge it. So I’m setting no goals, other than to take my time, clear out the quests and unlocks as I find them, and see where it all takes me.

It’s also helped to settle on a Dragoon early as a main class rather than keep hopping around. So far, I’m pretty satisfied with the playstyle and look, and I hear it gets better from here.

For fun and self-encouragement, I’m going to include a screenshot from MSQTracker marking where I am at the beginning of this week. So hey, I’m almost 10% the way through the entire MSQ, that’s not terrible for a single week’s play. Just don’t look at the scary big numbers, Syp.

After 30-odd levels of running around, it was a relief to get my initial mount. I am saving up achievement points for some other options, but I don’t mind riding a big chicken too much. They’re an iconic part of Final Fantasy that I do like. And shortly after that, I was able to unlock the Dragoon and jobs as a whole, which was another great milestone.

Fooled around with leveling up a second profession for a bit, but this giant crab convinced me to stay the course with a single job for now. For now. At least through ARR.

I hear the Dragoon gets some of the best armor designs in the game, and this facial plate is the first bit that’s convinced me this could be true. At least I won’t get Cho-COVID.

I saved up my achievement points to buy an alternate mount, in this case a… er… “death claw.” It looks like a robot is picking me up like a kitten, and I approve. THE CLAW! THE CLAW!

Heading back to Waking Sands one night — PRAY RETURN — I found myself engulfed in this insane party with beds, mechs, cute fat animals, and everything else in between. It was like Japan vomited culture onto this patio. Someone said a vtuber was streaming, so maybe this was all the groupies showing off.

Free agent game: FFXIV reels me back in with a fresh start

This week’s roulette landed me back in the realm of Eorzea — somewhere I haven’t been in a few years, barring a couple of brief abortive attempts. But this time I’m coming back in a different fashion, as I started a new trial account and began anew. This was for a few reasons, mostly because it’ll give me financial flexibility to dip in and out for now without a sub price and because I felt like a fresh start. I think the trial extends all the way through level 70 and Stormblood, so that’ll be a good long while before I’d have to consider re/buying expansions.

This is my new character, another confused adventurer named Yeti Yesterday. I sort of had an image in my mind of how I wanted her to look and got about 70% of the way there with the options that the character creator had. I rolled up on the Siren server and began my journey.

After that long, long, long initial cutscene, I was back in Gridania, which was the first place I ever really saw in this game back when I first started. That, plus the “FINAL FANTASY XIV” title screen and the music jolted me with a warm sense of nostalgia. Time to settle in and get comfy as I retread this lengthy road.

This time around, I’m approaching the game a little differently than in the past. Rather than gunning the MSQ in hopes of catching up, I’m taking a much more laid-back, completionist route with sidequests and everything. I’ve also pinpointed which jobs I want to gain, starting with the Dragoon. When I first played FFXIV, I had a great time with this class until online commenters and in-game jokes made me feel like it was an undesirable job that got a lot of flak. This time, I don’t care. I’ll play what I want to play, and a melee spear-user is a good time for me. And so far it’s been very relaxing and engaging, perfect for what I’m looking for these days.

I’m also doing a bit more research into the different aspects of the game, settings, etc. For example, I didn’t know you could go to a vendor to turn in achievements for currency that could be spent on some cosmetics, pets, and mounts. New to me, even though I’d spent hundreds of hours on this game before.

The trial account seems almost perfect for my situation with no time pressure and tons and tons of content. Assuming that one day I get through Stormblood, then I can make the call to buy the newer expansions and sub up. But that’s many months away. The only restrictions that currently chafe are not being able to send tells, not being able to join a free company, and not being able to trade. The guild thing is partially solved by jumping into the Novice Network channel and chatting with those friendly folks.

Within two days, I was already level 15 on my Lancer and running through all of the Smiths quests for the gear and ring. I don’t think XP is going to be any sort of problem with the way I’m approaching this, but it’s still nice to have for future alt jobs.

And I know that it logically makes sense to level up two jobs in tandem with all of the XP rolling in, but there aren’t any other pre-expansion jobs I really want at the moment — and it’ll be lower stress on me right now to focus on this single class. It’s not like I can’t change my mind in the future. Plus, it does simplify gear acquisition and storage, which is important since I can’t use retainers anyway.

After a few days, I dinged level 20 and got the starter city MSQ done, moving on to the 200-or-so Realm Reborn MSQ series. I got a bit bogged down in clearing out piddly quests in Uldah and Limsa Lominsa, but it really wasn’t too bad — and I got a new dance move and three vanity pets out of my bother.

Oh, and I unlocked the Golden Saucer, so I need to remember to do the daily and weekly lotto. Can’t hurt to start saving up points here!

This is a new (to me) feature for FFXIV dungeons — they put up this screen of faceplates for you to check out when you jump into an instance. I think it’s kind of brilliant. It makes you consider your teammates as more than just a name or role.

Facing the headwinds of MMO FOMO in late 2022

Maybe the worst part about online games, other than the fact that they can disappear forever, is that they continue to operate even when you’re not playing them. The fact is that there are often more games than time allows, yet there’s no way to freeze an MMO until you’re ready for it. You have to make those decisions to do Thing A while Thing B proceeds without you.

This is made especially difficult when there’s a wave of FOMO blowing through the air. I’m feeling a lot of that lately, and it’s mildly frustrating as I barely have time these days to play two games, nevermind the six or seven that I’d want to. So instead of playing, I’ll grouse about them here and feel a bit better at having aired my first world gamer problem.

So what’s FOMOing lately? Well, there’s FFXIV’s latest patch, which seems to be a hit with the community thanks to the new island sanctuaries. They seem neat, although perhaps they’re not for people on tight time budgets. More like, they’re great for dedicated FFXIV players who need to kill some time when they’re not doing MSQ and dungeons. I wouldn’t mind seeing them, though. And it’s always in the back of my head that I have my character right at the start of Shadowbringers.

Following the FOMO breeze takes us through Guild Wars 2, which is enjoying its 10th anniversary this season. This is not so much the case of “new content that looks awesome” so much as “stop reminding me that I used to have a very good time in this game way back when.” The game seems to have more of its act together this year than in the previous few, so there’s this palpable sense of hope for the future.

And then there’s World of Warcraft, which rented as many FOMO machines as the marketing team could get its hands on. The Wrath Classic pre-patch, Wrath Classic launch, Dragonflight testing, Dragonflight pre-patch, and Dragonflight launch will be yelling at me for the rest of the year to, y’know, come back and play already. Already I’m doubting my decision to walk away instead of doubling down with Wrath prep. And while I still don’t hold a lot of hope for Dragonflight being a smash hit, if word-of-mouth is good, then that might be a holiday excursion.

It’s just how it goes in MMO circles. It can be fun to be inspired and excited by community interest in titles, but I never want to let FOMO call the shots in my gaming life.

Battle Bards Episode 216: FFXIV Before Meteor

Episode 232: Wayfinder – Battle Bards

A small online RPG proves to have a big musical heart with Wayfinder, as Syp, Steff, and Syl discover! These consummate professionals chew through this soundtrack and ask for seconds, only to be denied because they made such a mess along the way. Also, we are the only people in the world who dislike Baldur's Gate 3. Episode 232 show notes Intro (feat. "Call of the Void," "Echoes of the Fallen," and "Skylight") "Awakening" "Wayfinder" "Deepwood Holt" "In the Beacon's Light" "Kragan Highlands" "Blood in the Wood" Which one did we like best? Jukebox Picks: "Fillmore" from ActRaiser, "The Apostle Myrkul" from Baldur's Gate 3, and "Death's Door" from Death's Door Outro (feat. "Raven's Shadow") Talk to the Battle Bards on Twitter! Follow Battle Bards on iTunes, Stitcher, Player.FM, Google Play, iHeartRadio, and Pocket Casts! This podcast is produced using copyrighted material according to Fair Use practices as stated under Section 107 of the 1976 Copyright Act.

1. Episode 232: Wayfinder 52:27
2. Episode 231: Caravan Stories 2 54:28
3. Episode 230: Palia 51:37

While Final Fantasy XIV players won’t shut up about A Realm Reborn, it’s not often you hear people speaking fondly of the original 1.0 edition. Yet in this episode of Battle Bards, Syp and Syl find something to praise from this era: the Before Meteor soundtrack. Let’s rewind the clock and hear the O.G. Eorzea tunes!

Episode 216 show notes (show page, direct download)

• Intro (feat. “Canticle,” “Promise of Plunder,” and “The Rider’s Boon”)

• “When a Tree Falls”

• “Navigator’s Glory”

• “Born of the Boughs”

• “Desert Moon Defied”

• “Eorzea de Chocobo”

• “Dreams Aloft”

• Which one did we like best?
• Jukebox Picks: “Stage 2” from TMNT 2 and “The Fallen Kingdom” from Blue Fire
• Outro (feat. “To the Fore”)

• Talk to the Battle Bards on Twitter!
• Follow Battle Bards on iTunes, Stitcher, Player.FM, Google Play, iHeartRadio, and Pocket Casts!
• This podcast is produced using copyrighted material according to Fair Use practices as stated under Section 107 of the 1976 Copyright Act.

In which I gripe about FFXIV’s MSQ delivery system for a bit

Have you ever experienced that feeling when you’re not THAT into the whole experience of something — a book, game, movie, etc. — but you press on because you want to see how it all turns out? That’s kind of me and FFXIV these days. That’s me and FFXIV most days, to be honest.

I know everyone and their game-playing grandma praises the Shadowbringers expansion as, like, the Best Final Fantasy Story Ever, but boy am I getting so tired of how honestly lame the MSQ is. I’m not feeling that charitable toward it, right now. Oh, the story is fine. Sometimes the story is very, very good. But how it’s told has me waving my arms and shouting, “This? This is what you all have been praising as the best narrative delivery system ever? I don’t get it. I don’t think I ever will!”

I guess I’m tired of the slow-as-molasses pacing, the Scions who are by and large nice, bland people without much in the way of depth, the fact that my character always comes off as a clueless Straight-A student being dragged around by this cast’s C-students, absolutely no real agency in dialogue choices, vile heroes that reveal tragic backstories and now we’re supposed to root for them, and the lack of explanation about how Lord Hien has TWO sets of X scars.

Again, it’s not all bad. But it’s not, say, SWTOR or Secret World by any stretch of the imagination. What probably bugs me the most is how little you actually *do* in any of the MSQ. I’m too lazy to make a pie chart to represent this, but about 40% of your average MSQ is “go to this place,” 35% is “watch this cutscene where your character does nothing other than nod,” 15% is “find the one glowy thing on the landscape to click on,” and 10% is battling a couple of landscape mobs, doing a duty, or running a dungeon.

That’s it. Rinse and repeat for hundreds of hours.

Yet I do want to see Shadowbringers. There are characters, just a few of them, I honestly like a whole lot. But I don’t have a lot of hope that the MSQ is going to become any more interesting in how it functions.

FFXIV: Treasure hunting and flamethrowers

Once I finished up with Stormblood 4.0 in FFXIV, I made sure to catch up on my class quests. It only gradually dawned on me, playing through this game, that FFXIV is really invested in continuing this idea of class quests. They don’t stop coming, and I love that. Sure, sometimes I just want the new skill without the fuss, but I do feel more connected with my Machinist thanks to the class-specific stories.

And hey, I got a flamethrower! If you know me and MMOs, you know that I am always and forever a sucker for a good flamethrower. I had fun pulling this out in a dungeon run, since we’re always burning down packs of mobs. Pro tip: You do extra damage if you laugh maniacally while using a flamethrower.

 

Sigh. Remember when Simpsons used to be good? I barely do any more.

My guild told me that while Stormblood wasn’t that great of an expansion, the patch quests were far better. And I have to say that the first batch — which include a treasure hunting expedition and some insight into one of the villains of the expansion — were far, far more interesting than what I had been slogging through.

I feel that this is further evidence that shorter story arcs in MMOs always have the potential for being better because they’re not as drawn out. Just give me a good three, four, or five-quest chain that tells a self-contained gripping story, and I’m in paradise.

FFXIV dialogue choices be like…

• Sure, I’ll help you!
• I’ll help you, sure!

Or

• I totally want to go with you on this mission!
• I don’t want to go at all… but you’re going to make me anyway, so what does saying this even matter?

Or

• Alphinaud, you’re the most amazingly brilliant leader ever!
• Also, you wear the dickins out of that baby white tie!

FFXIV: Stormblood finished!

My ongoing goal for FFXIV this year has been to finish one significant section of the main story quest every month — either the core expansion quests or the collective patch quests. July was all of Heavensward patches while August was all of Stormblood 4.0. And with over a week before the end of the month, I finished that latest milestone. There’s still a good long way to go before I’m caught up with the front-runners, but I’m on track to do so by the time Endwalker releases.

I was hoping that by the time I wrote my final thoughts on Stormblood 4.0, I would have to eat my former words of being somewhat underwhelmed with the storyline, but… nope. It was ultimately fine. Honestly, kind of tedious in parts as you slogged through liberating two separate countries. I just wanted it over, if nothing else than I never wanted to see Zenos again. He made my skin crawl, not as a character but as an existence. I know that we should hate bosses and all that, but this was hate coming from outside of the story itself and more from how the artists portrayed this sleazy uncanny valley weirdo.

One bright spot of Stormblood was Lyse, who really developed well as a character. You see her going from headstrong impulsive fighter to wise leader in a measured journey that felt believable. I ended up liking her a lot as a leader, far more than I ever did Minfilia, and her voice work was rather well-done.

And I’ll give FFXIV this: When you finish an expansion, the game makes a big, big deal out of it. The above screencap crammed almost every single character together for one big selfie, and while it was eyerollingly overdone, it was also kind of a fun moment of celebration as well.

I did like the final scenes that teased further development. It made me look forward to the future storyline rather than dread it.