FFXIV patch 6.25, day one thoughts

Woke up *in the morning* today so I could unlock the Omicron tribal quests and do my first three dailies before the daily reset. OMG, being awake this early is, uh, certainly a thing! (Written at 10:42 AM)

Preliminary thoughts

I’ve been re-doing ARR content recently to refresh my memory. While I quite like the content and story of later expansions, they feel... a bit emptier than the admittedly flawed ARR.

For example, there are so many more little settlements dotting the map in the three OG Eorzean nations. Places that aren’t plot-relevant (or are only plot-relevant for a few quests) but that make the region feel more *alive*. Red Rooster Stead, Buscarron’s Druthers, and the Silver Bazaar would never have existed if ARR had been made to the same standards as Endwalker.

The tribal quests are more engaging, too, I have to say. Compare the sylphs’ transportation quests and invisible pickpocketing quests to the Arkasodara’s “pick up this crate and move it like five yalms to a tent, through a region with no enemies or hazards whatsoever” quest. Gods, that one feels like such a waste of time every time I do it.

Omicron quests

I’m rather fond of the Karellians already, and I appreciate that Stigma-4 seems to be a shipper. A little disappointed we don’t get to see under their helmets. Presumably further ranks will introduce the residents of the other two regions of the Dead Ends, and unless they decide to toss in some other races we haven’t seen yet (which would be nice) we’ll recruit some dragons and Ea also?

This is just an idle fancy of mine, but it would be nice to have some kind of quest that’s like, “So are there any more replicated dead civilizations out there that we should know about?” leading to a detour into Amaurot to pick up some Weewoos.

Somehow Further Hildibrand Adventures

Hildibrand isn’t my favorite sidequest line (those “lol! it’s a guy in a dress!” gags stick in my craw, and I hope there aren’t any more), but they do have their moments.

Delion mentions that aetherytes are believed to be an Allagan invention. I can’t recall if that was mentioned at any point before. It certainly can’t be true, since there were aetherytes in Elpis and in Norvrandt. Maybe the Allagans dug up Weewoo aetheryte technology, and some other ancient civilization on the First did too?

The Watcher getting lazy now that his job is done — relatable. The Hildibrand clones reaction to meeting other Hildibrand clones — exactly how I would have expected. Parental abuse and trauma — still played for laughs. And... I’ve just noticed that for some reason everyone else’s shadows are kind of blurry, while the Warrior of Light’s is crisp and clean. At least on the moon. Weird.

My enjoyment of this quest was marred a bit by a member of my Free Company leaving without a word halfway through. Too busy being worried about them.

Still... I’m glad we got through all of this without any anal probing jokes.

Manderville Weapons

Firstly, I am firmly on side “Side content locks side content all the time, get over it”.

Secondly, the tonal shift from the Hildibrand quest to Godbert’s motivation was a little jarring, but I appreciate the characterization.

I’ll be doing a relic grind when it’s relevant content! I started the Bozja one for White Mage back before Endwalker launched, but noped out when I realized it wasn’t even BIS. This time I’ll start with Dragoon, since I’ve been wanting to try playing it some more and I still only have the Moonward Bident.

“These weapons were forged before but conveniently lost” — let me guess, they’ll just happen to turn up after I complete the final relic, so I can re-buy the earlier steps for glam purposes?

I’ll leave off for here so I can get other stuff done today. Probably come back later to do the new Criterion Dungeon.

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ffxiv