Final Fantasy XIV 7.2 Seekers of Eternity impressions — The burden of legacy

I’ve been playing Final Fantasy XIV for a long time. On and off since the launch of 1.0, with me only becoming a regular player after the launch of Heavensward. Since then I’ve taken breaks, but I’ve always been excited to come back for the next patch or expansion launch. This is the first time I’ve really, truly felt burnt out on the game. 7.1 felt meandering and often pointless, and didn’t add much content I was excited about. I’ve been in a raid group for a while, and even with them I just haven’t been enjoying playing the game lately. So I took a break, but I still wanted to cover patch 7.2. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much, but I think this patch reignited some of my excitement for the game. It’s far from perfect, with some uneven narrative beats and seemingly random gear roadblocks, but I feel like I can see where they’re going now. 

7.2 Seekers of Eternity begins where 7.1 left off, obviously. There’s a new Sphene in town, and she’s much more evil than the last one. Luckily, there’s also an old Sphene in town: the original queen of Alexandria. (If you’re keeping track, that’s now three total Sphenes so far. So the game decides to call the original Sphene just Sphene; the Queen of Reason we met in Dawntrail Endless Sphene; and the new, evil Sphene is the Simulant.) The patch story starts off slow, with the Warrior of Light, Wuk Lamat, and Galool Ja showing Sphene around Solution 9, but eventually picks up with a new dungeon and subsequent trial. 

While base Dawntrail had a fair number of Final Fantasy IX references, Seekers of Eternity kicks it up to 11. Sphene dons an outfit similar to Garnet’s disguise, the interior of the castle you visit is almost the spitting image of FF9’s Alexandria, and the trial even pits you against a simulacrum of a major character from 9. I’ve been replaying 9 recently, in anticipation of the rumored remake as well as it just being one of my favorite FFs, and this patch was an absolute treat in that regard.

In terms of actually playing Final Fantasy XIV, however, I’m a bit more mixed. Specifically on the encounter design and their visuals. I died at least once on every single boss in the new dungeon, and my party wiped once on the trial as well. I can live with that at face value; XIV is often a bit too easy and I like needing to actually learn and try with bosses. However, there were multiple times where those deaths didn’t feel like my fault. In fact, G’Raha Tia and Krile got me killed at least twice each because I was doing the mechanics correctly but their AI had no wiggle room on positioning. Similarly, the trial boss will summon a deadly pink circle at the center of the arena she’ll stand in at times. Unfortunately, the rest of the arena shares a similar pink-ish hue, so it’s very hard to notice when it’s there or not. Stepping into the circle applied a debuff that is basically guaranteed to kill you, but only after a few seconds, making it harder to tell what you did wrong when it feels like you just dropped dead from nothing. 

I like difficult fights, but I also like being able to clearly and easily tell what I’m doing wrong and how I can fix it next time. With these, I wouldn’t be surprised if most players just didn’t bother to learn at all because it comes across as random. It’s not random, but the game needs to do a better job of communicating that to the player and making hazards clearly visible. Something akin to a death replay, or just showing what attack/debuff killed you, would go a long way towards encouraging people to want to improve at the game and understanding how new fights work faster. 

In going through the MSQ, I was blocked by iLevel progress both at the start of the dungeon and again at the start of the trial. I can understand the first one to an extent, they can’t make the gear grind between patches totally pointless, but the second just feels like a slap in the face the moment the story finally gets going. I feel like one run through the dungeon I just did should have been enough to gear me up for the trial, but instead I needed to go grind a few more tomes and buy some new gear off the market board. These roadblocks are usually tolerable, if frustrating, but this one just felt stupid. 

Even so, I enjoyed the story presented here and am interested in seeing where it’s going, especially if there are more FF9 references because that is one title where I am not immune to Square Enix jangling the shiny keys in front of my face. It definitely feels like its retreading ground at points and I’m still not convinced any of the scions are necessary here (except to finally give Krile the spotlight she STILL needs and deserves), but it’s all in good fun. 

Black Mage was the job to receive major changes this time around and, as someone who often struggled to correctly play the job, I find it a lot more manageable now. The full changes can be found in the patch notes, but essentially the timer on fire and ice phases has been removed, allowing you to stay in either indefinitely. While I can see some missing that element of planning and mastery it added to each fight, these changes simply make it easier to execute mechanics properly instead of getting greedy with your ley lines. It gives you more wiggle room, lowering the skill floor while only lowering the skill ceiling a bit. 

Still, I do find the job lacks a little something now. Just doing my rotation, it feels like I’m forgetting something even though I’m not, which brings me to the conclusion that it’s not really fulfilling the Black Mage job fantasy, a problem most jobs in the game now share (see my opinion on the early Viper changes). Black Mage is supposed to be a true master of the destructive arts, shaping them to their will while also not letting them go out of control. Right now, it just feels like the most stationary mage even if it has more opportunities to move than ever. I think this lack of job fantasy fulfillment for basically every job but Summoner (and even Summoner is pushing it now with the bland as unsalted chips Solar Bahamut) is a big part of what’s turning me off of the game right now. As a whole, Endwalker and Dawntrail have made Final Fantasy XIV feel less like a Final Fantasy game and more like a standard MMO. Being a Final Fantasy first is what got me into the game in the first place, so hopefully Square Enix can bring it back around sooner rather than later.