I’ve been trying to figure out how to even begin to talk about Shadowbringers, especially with the limitation of not wanting to spoil anything for anyone who isn’t joining until Tuesday. I have to think at this point that is probably a very small group, given that if you are going to play a MMORPG expansion there really is no reason not to pre-order it. Regardless Shadowbringers head start began on Friday and I didn’t get in to play at all until that evening. I am woefully behind the pack in leveling because life happened this weekend in a way that pulled me off the computer.
For lack of a better term… Shadowbringers is to Final Fantasy XIV what The Burning Crusade was to World of Warcraft. This is the first time we are leaving the normal flow of the game and going somewhere that exists on another world. Both are games about broken worlds and a populace that is hanging on by a thread. However Burning Crusade represented a bombastic and comic book style version of that setting with literal fields of Hellscape or entire zones turned green from Fel energies. Instead Shadowbringers represents a much more subtle and adult version of peril… where the thing we all thought was a good thing ran amok and swept away most of the planet in a giant flood of flight energies… plunging the world into eternal daylight.
The story weaves around attempting to save this shard known as the first so it doesn’t end up triggering a cataclysm on our world known as the source. What you see is a world gone wrong… with lots of areas that will remind you so much of areas in Eorzea. Amh Araeng for example reminds me of the deserts of Southern Thanalan and parts of Ala Mhigo, just with the races and their characteristics all jumbled. Similarly Kholusia feels very much like La Noscea and with that Eulmore like a twisted version of Limsa Lominsa. I make the reference in the title but in many ways it reminds me of the subtle changes that were made to the world in Final Fantasy VI as you roam the World of Ruin.
On the Source we are well known as the Warrior of Light, and there is rarely a situation we are going into where the other party does not recognize us. In the First we are a stranger in a strange land and learn early on that we should not go about talking about our powers. This is a realm that had its own Warriors of Light, that ultimately unleashed the flood. As such it is a world that is resigned to its calamities and untrusting of any would be heroes that happen across their path wanting to lend a hand. Essentially this is the perfect version of the Outland… and the one that only Final Fantasy XIV could deliver to us. It is a setting rich in its own lore that is curiously divergent from our own, but also a setting that is going to feel eerily familiar at every turn.
As far as the class changes… I am loving Warrior and I have apparently abandoned all sense of trying to level in a measured manor. It took me some time to figure out some of the changes and I had to lean on Ashgar to tell me where my active mitigation went. Now that I am used to it however I am really enjoying myself, and loving the absence of TP. I’ve also spent some time playing Samurai and Bard but they both seem to largely be unchanged in real meaningful ways. On the other side I have heard of lots of classes that got massive reworks, and so far people seem to be enjoying them. I’ve spent some time playing as a Gunblade, which is a really weird tank but Tam seems to love it. I am sure I will play more of it as time goes on. Right now there is so much I want to do… but I am largely trying to keep myself focused on leveling and moving the MSQ forward so I don’t get left completely behind.
I am greatly enjoying myself and wish I could take the entire week to sit at home and play. I didn’t really get anywhere near as much time as I would have liked to play this weekend. Saturday was taken up by a string of horrible things going wrong… that started with an outdoor wedding on an Oklahoma summer day with a heat index of 111 degrees. I’m a little sun burned after that and the rest of the day sorta went downhill. On Sunday I had to catch up on all of the things that didn’t happen Saturday which put me feeling like I am 2 to 3 levels behind the pack. Thankfully Grace has been willing to healbutts whenever I finally unlock a dungeon, so I am at least able to progress through. However once again we are suffering from the too many tanks problem, but unfortunately… I just don’t feel comfortable playing any other role.
Also another reminder. There is a contest going on where I am giving away a 60 day time card. You can view the full contest rules over on this post, but essentially go there and leave a comment of at least two sentences telling me what you are looking forward to the most in the game. Tuesday morning I will collect the comments and decide a winner, since the cut off for the contest is the official launch day. Hopefully you too are enjoying Shadowbringers, and I was super careful not to give too much of the plot away for those who might not yet be to that point in the story.
