larger-than-life stories demand larger-than-life stakes all the clock time : evils to face , worlds to bring through , the chance for you to be , or observe or read along with , a grinder who lease it all on and triumphs , only to be called into action time and time again . Final Fantasy XIVdoes exactly that , but in its late chapter , it also asks you to do something altogether different : be a Heron on their downtime .
This week , the beloved MMORPG release its first major content update since the release of itslatest expansion , Endwalker , in December 2021 . Patch 6.1 , titled Newfound Adventure , picks up where the story of that expansion left off — a climactic culminationof a story Final Fantasy XIV had been build itself towards since it relaunched in 2013 .
Endwalker carried the weightiness of eight years of storytelling on its shoulder , and for the most part pulled that off to tell a sweeping , epic tale of apocalypses long in the making , bold and daring plans of sacrifice hatch across generation of time , love , loss , and saving not just a world , but a universe from thoroughgoing destruction . It culminates with a fight between you , your good supporter , and the magical incarnation of the concept of existential desperation transform into an almighty being capable of drowning and dooming integral worlds with a song of dread . You know , big sometime fantasy material . You ’re the hero . promise and friendly relationship overreach wickedness . The day is salvage , you lash out , and you dethrone about as close to a capital - gramme - God as you might get , which is saying something because you vote down god every other week in Final Fantasy XIV .
Estinien offers you a map, and a chance for adventure.Screenshot: Square-Enix
Newfound Adventure is the lineal opposite of that . Your Cuban sandwich might be the ultimate submarine , a Warrior of Light now known as the savior of not just your home but your entire universe , but times have change for them . Their tightlipped allies , their duty fulfilled , have run into something of a retirement , disbanding their formation — the Scions of the Seventh Dawn — to go pursue their own interests . You have alter as well , your very relationship to the earth as the former fated guardian of its crystalline deity now upend and transformed with your duty done , pull up stakes you long for the simple-minded life of being a wandering adventurer , as you once were when your journey was just start .
You may have also stopped being a Bunny boy scythe - wielding Grim Reaper , and changed class and appearance alike to be a Lion man who summons primal deity for fun and tumid amounts of damage . But that might just be me .
new patch , new mepic.twitter.com/CDH0btsVcu
The official artwork for Newfound Adventure, showing a Warrior of Light walking back into the life of a wandering thrillseeker, leaving echoes of their prior jobs behind.Image: Square-Enix
— James Whitbrook ( @Jwhitbrook)April 13 , 2022
Lion world or otherwise , Newfound Adventure tees off a new chapter for Final Fantasy XIV — its developers tease that this is the commencement of another decade - tenacious saga blood-related to the escalation from A Realm Reborn , XIV ’s reboot , all the direction up to Endwalker . But it does so in a deeply charming manner : by not being the stage - typographer for some expectant , wholesale phantasy story about good and evil . Or at least , not yet . Instead it acknowledges that its world has just reckoned with an escape from calamity , that your character has just saved the existence as you know it , and instead asks : what if you just need to string up out and faff about with a few of your admirer ?
While there is some stage - setting here and there in Newfound Adventure ’s new account quest , its chief narrative thread is about your character reunite with a few of your fellow scion — Estinien , the brooding Dragoon , and Y’shtola , the powerful Mage in particular — as you endeavor to re - establish yourself as a rumor - chasing , coin - earning venturer for hire , and also see what they ’re up to now that they do n’t have to run and fight like the humans is literally at post every day of their life . Some of them are in use with rest period efforts in the wake of Endwalker ’s devastation of the world , some are , like you , chasing the life of an adventurer themselves . Some are following quondam by-line and studying ancient text and wizardly items , for research and perhaps preparation should they ever need to help save the universe again . And some of them are either dead glad to drop behind you into an adventure for that enquiry , like the aforesaid Y’shtola , or some are just eager to be dragged away from that enquiry and do something exciting again , like your fellow scholarly friend G’raha Tia .
Screenshot: Square-Enix
It ’s all very low interest . There ’s scarce any fighting within the story seeking of Newfound Adventure , save for a donjon you trek into , because , well , it ’s new content in an MMORPG and you have to have a new donjon to run around in . And while like I enjoin , some seeds are switch for threat down the line to make themselves known to you , that ’s moreso for the player rather than your character reference to bed . For the most part , they ’re just vibing : drumhead empty , have fun , lead on little risky venture for coin and conversation with erstwhile friend . That means you are as well .
Endwalker was an incredibly cathartic departure on Final Fantasy XIV ’s built - up narrative . The way XIV is structure around heavily gate , one-dimensional news report - drive substance , playing through this sweeping climax of C upon hundreds of hours of storytelling and character work is an emotional rollercoaster for even the least - interested player . switch you decently back into the deep end of things with big stake and prominent bads to go smack in the fount for loot and excited satisfaction would ’ve degrade both the dire stakes of that tale you just went through , and whatever new menace that could ’ve been thrown at you . last Fantasy XIV realize that you ca n’t just keep the dial always cranked up to 11 , and for those stakes to feel genuinely dire for you and your characters , there has to be this wax and wane in the sense of weighing machine .
That ’s often intemperate to get right in a world of seemingly endless franchises and sequelization , where the stakes always have to keep edifice and edifice and construction . And admittedly , “ hey , come back to play this secret plan and hang out ” may not be as big an immediate sell as “ you are the chosen hero who has to make unnecessary the whole world . ” But Final Fantasy XIV ’s position as an MMO , a support story that keeps on going as long as the game does , lets it do something that few larger-than-life adventure tales rarely can : sit and see what happen when a worldly concern has to go on , when characters have to go on , when the big earth - terminate threat is dealt with .
Screenshot: Square-Enix
mighty now , for Final Fantasy XIV , what happens is hanging with your former fellow and chill out a piece . There ’ll be battle to hail : powerful now you ’ve earned a rest , and that can be just as satisfying an experience as battling god and monster .
Wondering where our RSS provender went ? You canpick the unexampled up one here .
Final FantasysoftwareVideo gamesWindows game
Daily Newsletter
Get the good tech , science , and culture newsworthiness in your inbox daily .
News from the future , extradite to your nowadays .
Please choose your hope newssheet and submit your email to elevate your inbox .
You May Also Like
