Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers, this is how an extraordinary expansion ends

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Reflections in Crystal Beyond the ending What does Final Fantasy XVI have to do with it? We could say that time is a gentleman, who laughs well who laughs last and many other platitudes, but who would have thought, after ten years, that today we would be here to incense another expansion of Final Fantasy XIV? When it hit the market in 2010, the Square Enix title was simply embarrassing: only the most obtuse could defend an abomination like that, which made a company lose credibility that, aware of the disaster it was facing, played the most unthinkable of cards, replacing director Nobuaki Komoto with a certain Naoki Yoshida, one who until then had worked mainly on another much less popular MMO, Dragon Quest X. Yoshida, avid online player with a passion for World of Warcraft and role-playing games Among other things, he literally risked his career with an unprecedented move: he convinced Square Enix to close Final Fantasy XIV and do it all over again, at full speed, debuting with a so-called version 2.0 in the summer of 2012.

Just to stay on the subject of banal jokes, the rest is history. As the MMO market slowly sank, leaving a trail of dead and wounded who had tried to repeat Blizzard's success without succeeding, Final Fantasy XIV continued its run with a subscription model that no one believed in anymore, except the boys. multimillionaires of Irvine. Today Final Fantasy XIV is the only monthly subscription MMO still standing alongside World of Warcraft, where most of the competition has simply closed their doors or adopted the more affordable free-to-play model. That version 2.0 was followed by three expansions - Heavensward, Stormblood and Shadowbringers - and Yoshida, who in the meantime has surrounded himself with a highly acclaimed staff and an esteem bordering on messianic veneration, has become the producer of Final Fantasy XVI. Not bad for an ordinary guy who was put in to repair the damage to one of the worst games ever, huh?

Reflections in Crystal

Final Fantasy XIV Client Update 5.3 It is called "Reflections in Crystal" and concludes the Main Scenario Quest of the Shadowbringers expansion, closing the circle on the adventures of the Warrior of Light in the First, the parallel world into which we were drawn at the beginning of the expansion. In this dimension - a reflection, in fact, of the world of Hydaelin, the mother Crystal - the Warriors of Light had caused an imbalance in the primordial forces that we players had to balance, assuming an ideally opposite role: that of Warriors of Darkness. After restoring the night in the Norvrandt region, the only one not to have been consumed by the catastrophic flood of light, we had to foil the plans of the Ascians, the survivors of an ancient species who intended to destroy the reflections of the Crystal to unify all dimensions in the presence of their divinity, Zodiark. Defeated Emet-Selch, we spent the latest updates to find a way to beat even the last Ascian, Elidibus, whose fate is fulfilled in the very last storyline of this expansion.

Obviously we will not reveal what happens in the grand finale, but we will tell you this: in the many years of playing MMORPGs, we rarely had to close an expansion with such a sense of completeness and satisfaction. The Main Scenario Quest of Update 5.3 passes through a discreet dungeon (The Heroes' Gauntlet) and a barrage of missions that are almost the victory lap of all of Final Fantasy XIV, making us relive the highlights of our career as chosen ones. The latest Trial, The Seat of Sacrifice, is a bit of the representation of the brilliant Naoki Yoshida who, in a rush of metanarrative, pits us as the final boss the most iconic and representative figure of the entire franchise in a clash full of fanservice. The story then concludes with the return of the Scions to Eorzea, not before having closed virtually every subplot left open: a golden opportunity to show us the evolution of the characters who accompanied us during the adventure and move us in an epilogue that opens the doors to the next adventure with the usual teaser skit.

The showdown with the Garlemald Empire is practically around the corner and Zenos has surrounded himself with terrifying allies. Shadowbringers has played a lot of hand on the characterization of the villains, so much so that it seems a bit cloying with the hasty revelations on Elidibus of this update, especially when compared to the slow, precise and methodical work on the extraordinary character of Emet-Selch. The music seems destined to change because the new villains don't seem particularly ambiguous, but simply crazy to be tied. The Scions, in short, will have new things to fry, but their adventure in the First has changed them profoundly: the last lines of the Main Scenario Quest have moved us a bit, we admit it, because over the years we have seen these heroes grow, face pitfalls. and tragedies, coming out stronger than before. The writing of Natsuko Ishikawa reconfirms all his skill and demonstrates, once again, the strength of Final Fantasy XIV: the characterization. Instead of focusing on the misadventures of the players, the narrative focuses above all on the supporting actors, leaving very little to chance.

Beyond the ending

Update 5.3 not only closes the circle on the expansion story and introduces the new problems for the heroes of Eorzea, but also continues two parallel storylines started in the last months. The first focuses on Cid and Gaius, grappling with the new weapons of the Empire: Yoshida has taken the iconic Weapons of the previous Final Fantasy and transformed them into real combat mechs. The sources of inspiration are evident, and the storyline cites several times the robotic animation of the last twenty years, but not only: from the various Gundams to Neon Genesis Evangelion, passing through a wink to Xenogears, the legendary JRPG released under the Square label long before Monolith Soft and its Xenoblade Chronicles. It's a very short storyline that saw us face an inspired boss some time ago and that now literally puts us at the controls of our own mech in the fight with the Sapphire Weapon. The themes are a bit bizarre for a Final Fantasy, but those who grew up on bread and robots will have a lot of fun.

The Puppet's Bunker is instead the second part of YoRHa: Dark Apocalypse, the extravagant crossover with NieR : Automata which boasts two exceptional guest stars, Yoko Taro and Yosuke Saito. Still struggling with the automaton factory discovered by the dwarves in the bowels of the earth, we will find ourselves in this new raid by twenty-four players to face a handful of mechanized bosses in meetings of a certain complexity, but designed to be approached even by less experienced players who , with a little effort and patience, they will be able to get their hands on rewards of level 490. Even better, in these encounters the fans of NieR and Drakengard will recognize many more or less hidden quotes, but all the others could conclude that the atmospheres of this raid clashes not a little with the setting of Final Fantasy XIV. However, the twenty-four raids remain the moment of "release" for Yoshida and his team, who can indulge themselves in inventing the most bizarre crossovers, like when they gave a sort of sequel to none other than Final Fantasy Tactics.

In content terms, patch 5.3 - composed of a series of micro updates that Square will publish over the weeks - also offers a new Extreme category Trial (The Seat of Sacrifice) and the unprecedented Unreal mode for Akh Afah Amphitheater, i.e. the clash with Shiva: this new, very high difficulty level features a kind of minigame that grants special rewards to the best players. The patch also adds a new tribe to the ream of daily missions, that of the dwarves, while lovers of craftsmanship and collecting can indulge themselves with the third phase of the restoration of Ishgard, and use the new Trial Synthesis mechanic to experiment in the creation of objects without consuming the precious materials needed.

A new step for the Save the Queen: Blades of Gunnhildr questline related to late expansion upgradeable weapons is also on the way, taking place in a new area called The Bozjan Southern Front. The most striking novelty, however, is aimed at old and new players: the former will finally be able to fly with their mounts also in the maps of A Realm Reborn, while the latter, who are facing for the first time on the MMO Square Enix, will face a experience of smoother growth thanks to a reduction of the missions in the Main Scenario Quest up to level 50. Recognizing the heaviness of some segments of the adventure, Yoshida and his team have decided to lighten the load of missions, cutting some of them and resizing others : by now it is clear that the MMORPG genre has changed compared to eight years ago, users have become more uncompromising towards the so-called "time sink" and many players could have turned up their noses at the slowness of the original progression. This should make Final Fantasy XIV more appealing especially for those who are starting to play it as a trial version.

What does Final Fantasy XVI have to do with it?

You should know by now and you are probably reading this study also out of curiosity: Naoki Yoshida is the producer of Final Fantasy XVI, the new Square Enix role-playing game that will be released soon and which was unveiled with a trailer during the PlayStation 5 Showcase on September 16. In our preview we analyzed the trailer and made some conjectures about what we can expect, but it all comes down to Final Fantasy XIV in the end. Yoshida has in fact moved from the direction of the Creative Business Unit II of the MMORPG to Business Division 5 to work hand in hand with director Hiroshi Takai: the latter, who has worked on titles such as SaGa Frontier, The Last Remnant and Final Fantasy XI, acted as Assistant Director in the development of Final Fantasy XIV's award-winning Heavensward expansion. Mitsutoshi Gondai, who walked away from Final Fantasy XIV along with Takai shortly before Stormblood to work on another project, presumably this one, should also be part of the team.

Meanwhile, Square Enix has taken on another name important, that of Ryota Suzuki, who worked on the combat system of Devil May Cry 5 and directed another famous title, Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen, and who seems to be the mastermind behind the blatantly action battles of Final Fantasy XVI. The soundtrack heard in the Final Fantasy XVI trailer sounds like the work of Masayoshi Soken, the extraordinary composer of Final Fantasy XIV and all its expansions. In other words, it seems that Yoshida has moved his trusted collaborators to the new project, and although he is not the director, as a producer it is normal that he has deployed the men and women who have guaranteed him the success and fame of the last years. Yoshida may have resurrected Final Fantasy XIV as well, but he still came at a later time to put a patch on it. The sixteenth chapter will be the key moment that will deliver Yoshida and his team to the history of Square Enix, or the disastrous turning point that could indelibly stain his career. Can't go wrong.

And considering what Final Fantasy XIV has become over the years, we're feeling particularly optimistic, and a little excited too. Ten years ago, it would have been hard to imagine that Final Fantasy XIV could compete with World of Warcraft, but today we can say with some confidence that, yes, Shadowbringers has outclassed the latest blockbuster Blizzard expansion, and the guys from Irvine will really have to go all out. to regain the podium in the coming months, when the two games will compete again with the new expansions. Now we need to understand what will happen to Final Fantasy XIV. Who is working on the new expansion, which has not yet been announced but which we will probably see in the course of 2021? Will Yoshida be able to follow both projects with the same care? And if the next expansion of Final Fantasy XIV is truly the last, will Square Enix be able to close the life cycle of its MMO with all the honors it deserves?