FFXIV Patch 6.3.: My Impressions

*spoiler alert: the content is not that vast to divide it into non-spoiler and spoiler parts, so I’ll be discussing MSQ and raid questlines on the way. Approach with care!

Well, I think I’ve seen it all by now: the main story questline and the raid questline, with aftermaths. I think that Loporrit tribal crafting quests, Manderville weapons and epic tools are coming in 6.35, so it’s possible to review the main course and not leave anything out.

Overall, I can describe my impression from the patch as warm, sweet and nice. It’s not that the storytelling didn’t touch me – of course it did! – or didn’t have twists, turns and revelations (plenty!), but all in all, nothing too grave, too brutal or too heartripping happened. It’s been a calm, very heartwarming narrative, both in gods’ realm and in Garlemald, and maybe it’s just what I need today, after 2022 and just after winter holidays.

MSQ

It’s no wonder that we educated Zero throughout the patch – a crash course of How Not to Behave Like a Voidsent for Dummies was simply asking to be one of the major themes in 6.3. I just didn’t expect the whole story to be that Zero-centered (which is not a bad thing). There was no true emphasis on reapers’ legacy – we got the general casual info of how they trained, but all in all, even the dungeon served primarily as a means to get to the final boss (and I read all the clickable notes there). No, the whole thing was about Zero, every piece of the story was yet another step towards teaching her empathy, altruism and friendship (and buuz), and ended as such.

I liked the gambit of Cagnazzo/Rubicante. From the 6.2. post-credits cutscene I predicted that they’re likely gonna be a joint, council encounter – as they’re aligned with opposite elements of Fire and Water, that would have been pretty cool. Surprise number one: they worked in unison, pursued the same goal, and yet were independent encounters in different ends of Ilsabard. They followed the 6.2. pattern of placing the fiend bosses: a more beast-like (Scarmiglione/Cagnazzo) as a final dungeon boss, and a more human-like (Barbariccia/Rubicante) as a patch finale trial. I appreciated this mirrored approach – I like twists, but I also like when parts of a whole click into a system :)

The overall villain goal was revealed, and it was super cool – I mean, that’s how you write a villain motivation. Turns out, the voidsent mostly merely want to die, as their own void-engulfed planet does not allow it, and they’re trapped in an endless cycle of rebirths in a dog-eat-dog torturous environment. Coming to the Source allows them to properly die and dissolve their aether in the flow, granting release and peace. As catastrophic as the consequences would be for us, if they manage to find a way, you feel empathy for the cause.

It’s super interesting how the problem would be resolved: we have 13th emigrants in the 1st, the Chekhov guns that crave for rebirth of their home star and which are yet to arrive in the current questline, we can’t kill all the voidsent or seal the way forever. A minimum resolution: defeating Golbez and releasing Azdaja, to let the other voidsent scatter leaderless until we find a solution. A maximum resolution: finding an ultimate solution today, but it’s not some small endeavor to fit in a couple of patches. Anything is possible!

One more thing: both Golbez and Scions have reasons to have and NOT have a gateway to the Source opened :) A transfer between the Source and the Thirteenth is required by both to achieve their goals, and yet also poses a grave danger to both. Cool, right?

The final vignette was a side quest of the eye-shaped cute voidsents that told us the archfiends origin stories, this time embracing Cagnazzo and Rubicante. As with Barbariccia/Scarmiglione, the stories were grave and brutal, and now we know the original races and looks of all the fiends:

• Scarmiglione: male mi’qote (paladin)

• Barbariccia: female elezen (archer, was it?)

• Cagnazzo: male roegadyn (monk)

• Rubicante: male au ra (black mage)

I wish Golbez were a girl Lalafell before voidsent transformation :) I just got that thought, and I’ll think of that and chuckle everytime I see him from now on.

One thing that I don’t remember: why those uniformed soldiers in shining armors, in Cagnazzo and Zero flashbacks, behaved like cruel bandits? I don’t think I got a proper answer within the game, although I may go and read some 13th wiki page.

As for gameplay, the MSQ part was very smooth. Thank the Twelve, there were no annoying follow-a-character-and-don’t-let-him-notice-you quests, although they could have easily shoved it in (for example, “Zero wants to take a walk and think alone” in Tertium). Zero’s vehicle solo duty, followed by character duty were easy to walkthrough, I didn’t sweat at all and just did it.

I did the new dungeon with Scions (Varshahn, Alhinaud and Zero, myself a dragoon) for tutorial sakes, and it didn’t pose any trouble. Of course, I paid attention to where the Scions run during encounters and have to deduce several mechanics’ markers yet to solve all of them on my own, but all in all, the bosses seemed easy. I died and retried just once at Cagnazzo, caught in a NES-style, turtle carapace spinning dash, is all.

Rubicante’s trial also seemed easy – at least, easier than Barbariccia. The floor patterns followed by cone attack are a math mindfuck that I haven’t solved yet, but I noticed that some players did, so I just followed them during these parts, and died just once in the beginning.

Euphrosyne Raid

As for the story, it was in the vein of the patch – pretty cheerful, warm and nice. As long as we now know that the gods are benevolent, there was no pressure or tension, and I just followed the flow from the beginning till the end. The yet another travel with gods across the realm after raid was kind of meh, and I’ll skip it on alts, but Scions, Deryk and Snoegeim parts were hilarious, and I liked them a lot.

Needless to say, I was surprised with a raid boss order, lineup – and thus the story twist. I guessed correctly that Nophica, Halone, Althyk and Menphina will be our sparring partners for the wing, Ice and Nature themed deities. Yet I expected Nophica as Gridania patron, or at least SE-advertised Halone to be an endboss – aaaand that didn’t happen :) Turns out, the new hit song is about Menphina/Moonlight, and she’s the apex encounter.

What I and everybody else totally did not expect was a council fight, as they stole Nymeia from wing 3 to be coupled with her brother Althyk in a council, HP-sharing encounter (and with an enrage timer, no less). So here’s the twist: only Thaliak, Oschon and Llymlaen remain for the 6.5. patch raid, and a mysterious thirteenth deity as a final boss, which is not in pantheon. I can’t help admiring how elegantly they break all expectations and manage to surprise the players.

The encounters aren’t that bad for learning – even with my second run with lalafell alt I almost figured out most of the boss mechanics and tricks without addressing any guides or manuals. The hardest of them is exactly the council fight yet, a lot of super deadly stuff going on which is hard to figure out on spot – and I have many questions left about them.

Nophica’s got the only problem of remembering when you need to run away or in for circle AoE (I know it depends on whether the floor is covered in flowers or not, it’s just practice of which is which to do it without a second thought).

Halone is perfectly understandable, yet requires execution and practice: I’m whispering to myself the patterns where she’ll hit the floor in sequence and where to move, the raid has to move close to the edge for a certain cast, and failing to dps the spears in cages aka failing to divide players roughly equally among them will result in a wipe. Menphina’s very simple, all about the half-arena casts, you just need to define the proper halfs in time and move out.

The visuals are amazing, of course, and the music surprised me again. I knew I would be listening to this track since trailer, but I expected the song to be more like Broadway musical style by preview, yet it has a pop-song Christmas song arrangement, vibrant, folkish and happy. One more track to my playist!

FFXIV never ceases to hold up to expectations, maintain the highest level of content, interest and leave us with longing for more. It’s a nice raid tier which will be great to farm, and a nice new lore chapter – a warm and sweet aftertaste.

P.S. Oh, and the glam value? I got a pair of very interesting-looking pants from the dungeon, so I’ll explore it on other toons and see what they look like, maybe it’s worth revisiting. As for the raid, again it’s not my piece of cake :) It’s cool that you can recolor the new items, but the sets’ theme is icy chainmail, even for casters, so item level it is, most probably not keeping them for glams.

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