A common refrain in recent months has been that the top dog on the MMO scene, Final Fantasy 14, currently lacks content not focused on endgame raiders. A favorite among detractors of the game, it poses the question of just what content is out there for more casual players. Like any game, Square Enix has room to improve the MMO magnum opus, but it seems that Final Fantasy 14 roleplayers may not agree with the sentiment.
Game Rant spoke with event organizer and roleplayer Doc Laladay and bard Penelope “Penny” Lane about their upcoming play, The Great Train Robbery. We also discussed the content in Final Fantasy 14 and if it leaves them wanting, where both agreed that there’s a wealth of things to do in the game.
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Making Your Own Fun in Final Fantasy 14
Far from being a high-end raider, Lane describes herself as “more casual than casual.” She admits she hasn’t even done much with story progression in years, let alone squaring off against Honey B. Lovely. What keeps the game exciting for her is creative expression. She’s one of the game’s many talented bards and helps foster growth in that community.
“My most treasured project is my band, The Drama Club (TDC). We have five active members that have become like a family. TDC hosts public “open mics” on the first and third Mondays of the month called Mellow Mondays Open Mic where multiple bands show up and have a great time sharing chill music. I am a founding member and the deputy director of Whisperleaf Record Company, an RP record company created to help the bards in the community learn how to edit their own music, make valuable connections, and support each other.”
The roleplayers of Final Fantasy 14 have said on many occasions that they feel their community helps the game feel alive during droughts in new content, but they aren’t the only group bringing creativity to the game. Bard performances can be found everywhere in Eorzea, filling the virtual streets with music. There are also many performers bringing plays to the world–including Lane and Laladay, but also including groups like Snowfall Theatre, Curtain Call, and Cirque. And the game also features macro dancers: people who synchronize dance numbers to popular music.
Players don’t need to be experts in things like roleplaying to get involved. Resources like The Kweh exist to help those interested get involved with the creative side of the Final Fantasy 14 community.
But that all falls into the broad category of making one’s own fun with the systems provided. That may not be what a gamer is looking for. Laladay highlighted some of how the current 7.1 patch and the upcoming 7.2 patch provide content outside the endgame raiding experience.
“As a casual player when it comes to content, I have been having a ball with the sidequests like the new Hildibrand Adventures–my favorite storyline in the game. I actually just finished Nitowikwe’s custom deliveries yesterday and love the final reward you get from it. A very yeehaw kind of reward. The new mounts are fun too, but I have an addiction to collecting minions and emotes and love the new ones from 7.1. Personally, I very much enjoyed the story of Dawntrail and plow through MSQ the second more of it comes out. I like what they seem to be setting up for future updates with the overall journey and adventure.”
The game is no stranger to collection challenges. Minions and mounts are favorites of Laladay, but another major system in Final Fantasy 14‘s rendition of Triple Triad, based on the popular minigame from Final Fantasy 8. The Triple Triad collect-a-thon is as widespread as minions or mounts, but many cards are won by playing the card game, making it an interesting and strategic challenge to collect all the cards–players can’t simply get everything they need from dungeons and trials.
Doc also highlighted Mogstock, the annual Woodstock-themed music festival that brings bards and roleplayers together–as well as fans of each–each summer, typically in July or August. Mogstock serves as one of the major tentpole events of the Final Fantasy 14 community, alongside A Feast Reborn and The Great Ishgardian Frostfaire.
The Last Place Uncorrupted by Zodiark: Space
But the content that Laladay may be most excited about comes from the upcoming FF14 7.2 patch: Cosmic Exploration. Imitating the Diadem and Ishgardian Restoration systems, Cosmic Exploration features players working with the moon-based Lopporits to colonize space on behalf of the magicpunk societies of Final Fantasy 14’s world.
“I have been looking forward to that for a while. I’m a huge sci-fi nerd and am excited to build a base in space! Cosmic Exploration will probably be where I spend most of my time when playing content in 7.2…Final Fantasy 14 has done so much to give players so many things to do, it’s staggering. Whether you are a casual content player, RPer, savage raider, et cetera, there is no shortage of things to do in FF14.”
In addition to Cosmic Exploration, the upcoming patch is also adding new Field Operations–content like Bozja or Eureka. This new operation introduces Phantom Jobs, which are jobs not currently in the game that players can essentially subclass into during their time in the Occult Crescent. This system may act as a testbed for potential new jobs to be added in future expansions, like the 8.0 release that is expected to be announced late this year.
Beyond just the content in the 7.x series thus far, there are also systems from previous patches that players may not have interacted with, like the aforementioned custom deliveries or Ishgardian Restoration. Systems like variant dungeons, sightseeing logs, and housing design can captivate players, to say nothing of slightly more grindy content like deep dungeons or relic weapons. Some streamers have even made a point of how much time can be invested in literally doing everything in the game.
Lane summed up the opinion of many players in the community: “There’s plenty to do if you find something you’re interested in.”
- Released
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August 27, 2013
- ESRB
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T for Teen – Language, Mild Blood, Sexual Themes, Use of Alcohol, Violence