Since the release of Dawntrail, many Final Fantasy 14 players have felt that the game’s story has a lot of catching up to do in quality. Now, in patch 7.2, known as “Seekers of Eternity,” that might very well be the case.
At face value, given what we were left with in 7.1, it feels like we’re looping around to old plot points with the storyline we were left with, but is it really just a rehash of old ideas and conundrums? Or is there an exciting new direction they’re taking with it?
And meanwhile, content-wise, a lot’s been promised down the line for the 7.2 series, but for now, we have some of our patch basics: an MSQ, accompanying duties, and some quality of life changes, plus the next floor of the beloved Arcadion raid series. Are all the development teams actually keeping the momentum we got last patch, and some even years before?
In short: Are the plots worth the time, and the fights still worth battling? The patch is out, and now we can see for ourselves how things are faring in FFXIV. After diving into Seekers of Eternity, I’m shocked at how optimistic I am about things.
LIGHT 7.2 BASIC SPOILERS WITHIN
(Sorry, they really made it hard to not immediately spoil what’s happening, even in the advertising.)
A Story Focusing On What Matters
Seekers of Eternity focuses on the rise of two Sphenes: the return of what appears to be the Endless one, who promises many people an Endless life after the traumas of the recent war, and the literal flesh and blood of Sphene that’s been awakened from a 400-year sleep. We also learn about another Endless who’s been awakened, who, for reasons unknown—probably because he’s a tech bro—wants to take the key that unlocks the links between worlds.
It’s driven by dialogue, sympathy, and a deeper cut into the technological ethical dilemmas that we’ve already been presented with, giving us a more brutal and classic science fiction story than even the original Dawntrail presented. Already, Dawntrail and FFXIV as a whole does a good job with asking questions about why and how we act in the face of dire circumstances, and Seekers of Eternity grounds itself back here again, taking a frankly empathetic approach to the new Endless dilemma.
What would we do to maintain our happiness and avoid sadness? What are the risks? Would we really give it to a deathly-looking young man? Are cars bad, actually?
It’s hard to say that this was a particularly bad MSQ story this time. The story scope is narrower this time, letting us take time with the real Sphene as she tries to explore her revitalized world and the world itself as it reels from trauma and new revelations.
FFXIV’s here-and-there focus on character returns as well for obvious reasons. There’s really not much we learn about the returning Sphene, but it answers the questions many had about what the real Sphene would truly do and feel about the modern Alexandria unaugmented by others’ needs. If anyone has the complaint that there’s too much of one character yet again, I wouldn’t blame them, but at least there’s new intrigue here, and she shows some strong moments that make her hard to truly hate.
As a whole, it feels like the decisions and developments are so razor-focused by sheer necessity because otherwise, the storyline would start spinning out of control very fast. It does feel slightly short this time as a result, but it’s hard to imagine what else could happen without the patch taking up far too much time. Padded by two atmospheric duties, though, it goes by in a reasonable manner.
There is the worry, though, that the developers have fully turned away from the rest of the Tural continents, including with the upcoming content—one is literally on the moon, and one is a riff on the Bermuda Triangle’s myths. To be fair, we entered Tural in a time of genuine (relative) peace, and they’re doing plenty of worldbuilding through the Allied Society Quests. But the 7.1 MSQ storyline did a good job tying the ongoing needs of Yok Tural and Alexandria together, and at least I’d love to see more of that.
The Combat Hits Keep Coming
I’m going to sound like a broken record about it at this point in the Dawntrail cycle, because I’ve been saying this since the post-Endwalker patch cycle, but FFXIV’s combat design team has been absolutely nailing things. Patch 7.0 is no exception.
The MSQ duties aren’t terribly complex nor off the beaten path, but they don’t really need to, especially in a midpoint of a story. The dungeon delivers exactly what it needs to, with some mild progress in the storyline, approachable mobs, and boss fights with quirks to keep players on their toes without being overly frustrating. None of this is to say it’s “easy;” you need just a few brain cells whirring to get through everything. (But let’s be honest, from how many people use combat mods just because they can, that bar’s higher than it should be.)
The trial is a lot of fun, though there’s one or two mechanics I do take issue with, especially with the lack of clarity on how and when certain tiles are triggered, especially in sidestep mechanics. I also share some complaints others had with the tiles themselves being extremely lightly-colored, and what contrast exists for the distinguishing marks isn’t really good enough. Still, I sadly am not as deep into Final Fantasy 9 as many are, but it appears they remixed a certain theme in a way that sounds beautiful even to my relatively-uninitiated ears.
The Extreme version, as far as I’ve seen it, also adds a touch of proper challenge that a lot of middle-of-the-road players have desperately needed. Much like the other duties, it requires some attention paid, but as usual, clears happened quickly, so there’s hope.
As for the raids—as they kids say, they really cooked with this one. The fighters of Arcadion are as stylish as the world’s established them to be, and so are the fights. Plus, a little bit of emotionally compelling story doesn’t hurt.
The mechanics are mostly sensible, with only one in the third fight of this tier being a little bizarre (with the kinda-raidwide early on if you know), mixing up familiar choreography with new sights and forcing players to turn on one more brain cell than before. The first fight, Dancing Green, forces you to understand when things are arriving on-beat relative to the attack, which was a pleasant bit of fun. One boss fight’s mechanics are tuned up by simply speeding up prior attacks—but it proves enough that these really are just choreography.
And I think I mentioned this before, but actually, I like the Black Mage changes. It’s nice to be back on top of the non-tank enmity list again. (And I’m sorry, but I didn’t get to try the new PvP changes, but they seem nifty.)
(Quality of) Life Just Gets Better
Truth be told, Final Fantasy 14’s quality of life has actually been getting better since 5.3—yes, I do mean Shadowbringers, which maybe one day I’ll go out of my way to defend as a game-changing patch.
As discussed here on MMORPG before, movement changes are substantial, with “Jog” added after Sprint expires, as promised, and the mounts being mountable while moving. Worth noting as well is that all dungeons have the ability now to jump from the starting point’s teleporter to the boss, killing a lot of running time, and players can now actually queue “pots,” meals and Sprints mid-battle, shaving valuable split seconds off rotations.
Some duties and roulettes have gotten some changes, too, that I’m fairly pleased with. Instead of just “Level 100” and “Level 50/60/70/80/90 Dungeons,” as we’ve gotten in the past, they’re “High-Level Dungeons” and “Level Cap Dungeons,” on top of the Expert Roulettes that include the Alexandria and initial Expert ones. Plus, they added some EXP gains for most of the Alliance Raids and drops for the Endwalker ones, making a bit more of an equitable situation.
More good news: They added new focus settings to the GPoses. Yay for more subtle background blurring. You can also sort your Crafting and Gathering abilities by which outcome they affect! (Bad news: They haven’t fixed the Blacklist thing entirely. I guess it’s probably too much to ask for an engine overhaul at this point, though.)
In short, the little things continue to add up. Genuinely, in a game that’s over ten years old, it’s nice to feel like they can make things even more efficient.
Is It Really Time To Return To FFXIV?
You know what? Sure, actually. Finally.
If you’ve followed my past patch impressions from FFXIV, I’ve been very much of the devs’ opinion that you should really just come back when you’re ready. But I’m going to keep it real—this is a great time to start onboarding yourself again, if you haven’t come back since Dawntrail.
As it stands, the story is a lot tighter, and they’ve focused more on what works: the impact and meaning of certain characters’ presence in a turbulent world that asks bigger questions, which makes both more intriguing. The fights are fun, and I had a great time with the first floor of Savage after the expansion dropped, which I pray means good tidings for the upcoming Savage floor.
That’s barely getting into the fact that we’re still getting more in the 7.2X patch life. The content we know we’re getting this patch cycle are enough to say “yes,” between the crafting-gathering Cosmic Exploration in April and the “phantom jobs” we get to mess around with in Crescent Isle, which comes in May. There are teases of things here and there, too, with interior house sizing changes, text bubbles above players’ heads, the raid map we were promised nearly two years ago now, and more—and while they might not make it for 7.2, what we have for this patch is already substantial.
It feels more and more like the Dawntrail core story was a fresh team biting off a lot more than they could chew, while the other teams around them made serious moves on their own. Crafting and Gathering are fun, fighting is fun, even Black Mage is fun. And even while these continue to build a solid foundation, the story team is coming back swinging, catching up with everyone else.
It’ll be hard to reach the heights of Shadowbringers plot-wise for many, but with 7.2, FFXIV as a whole is really solid again, and it’s exciting.
