1531: Zodiac Brave

Final Fantasy XIV’s second major patch is brilliant stuff, bringing with it an absolute shit-ton of things to do for those who have reached the level cap.

I used to be a little disappointed to hear that MMO expansions and major patches tended to favour endgame players over those working their way up through the levels, but now that I am an endgame player, I completely understand the logic. There’s already a bunch of stuff there designed to get people from level 1 to level 50; but the people who have reached level 50 need a constant, continual stream of New Things to Do otherwise they’ll simply jump ship and go off to play something else. In a subscription-based game such as Final Fantasy XIV, this is exactly what Square Enix does not want to happen.

Patch 2.1 added a decent amount of new content for endgame players to work through, primarily in the form of new dungeons and Trials (complex boss battles) to play through. Patch 2.2, the most recent one, initially appears to be somewhat similar, but there’s a bunch of more subtle tweaks here and there that are designed to keep people invested in the game in the long term rather than simply racing through the new content as quickly as possible, then taking to the forums to whinge that there’s not enough to do.

Chief among this time-consuming stuff is the Zodiac Weapons quest. One of the first things you’ll want to do upon reaching the level cap in Final Fantasy XIV is complete the “A Relic Reborn” quest, which outfits you with a good weapon for your class that can subsequently be upgraded. The quest is a lengthy affair that demands you work through some of the toughest battles in the game and then participate in enough endgame content to earn the special currency required to purchase some items. Once it’s done, it’s done, though, and for each class there was previously only really one weapon better than the Relic available, and that was extremely difficult to obtain due to it being secreted in what was formerly the hardest dungeon in the whole game.

Now, though, your Relic can be upgraded further through the new Zodiac Weapons quest. After maxing out your relic, you’re then tasked with going on the hunt for twelve “Atmas” — mysterious items that are required to buff up your Relic weapon into something new and shiny. In order to obtain the Atmas, you have to participate in the “FATE” events around Eorzea — little mini-quests that pop up around the world map that anyone in the area can jump in and help out with. For each FATE that you attain a gold medal in, there’s about a 5% chance that the Atma for that area will drop, and you need to obtain twelve Atmas in total, so I’m sure you can see how this will take a while.

A grind it may be, but it’s had the side-effect of making FATEs relevant again, which is a good thing, since they’re a lot of fun and had fallen somewhat into disuse after the rewards from dungeon-crawling became significantly better. Now, though, there’s always bands of wandering adventurers crawling around the various areas and stomping through the FATEs, and due to the game’s level-sync mechanic, no-one will ever come along and simply overpower them, making it no fun.

Once you’ve obtained the twelve Atmas, there’s then a selection of books to work through, each of which have their own challenges to complete and each of which buff up the Zodiac weapon’s stats by a particular amount when you complete them. And then you can do this for each class.

In other words, it’s going to take a while to accomplish. Despite the fact it’s a fairly unsubtle move to keep endgame players invested in the game in the long-term, having a long-term goal like this is actually rather enjoyable because it brings a wonderful sense of achievement when you do finally accomplish it. I have no doubt that I’ll put in the hours required to get a Zodiac weapon for my Black Mage class, and I will probably do it for the other classes I get to 50, too. I’m in this game for the long run, and I’m really enjoying the flow of new challenges that appear every few months.