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Smudge and I have now seen just about everything we’re concerned with for Final Fantasy XIV patch 7.4 (including 7.45).

To work backwards, we have gone through the new variant dungeon. The Merchant’s Tale is gorgeous, and they definitely did some important reworks to finding all the paths. Most important is that there are thirteen entries in the log. This means there are four per major path, plus the final ending, instead of one path only having three, and then you don’t know where you’re missing things.

Thanks to this, and perhaps slightly easier puzzles, we actually worked through everything on our own without any hints. We got through about ten paths without too much trouble, and were starting to get worried about the last couple paths. Our first thoughts (deemed unlikely) did not pan out, but just when we seemed to be stuck, our last double-checks paid off. We were still uncertain what to do for the final/secret ending, but had been seeing the shape of the solution for some time, and getting the first part right let us figure out the rest. Really nicely done.

This does mean we still need to do the Advanced version, which I’m looking forward to, but the more story-based version is the main attraction for us here.

The latest two rounds of Hildebrand have been good, and some of the stage direction has been brilliant. Most notably, we get black and white noir-style flashbacks, and this last time they had the background fall back like a giant facade to take us back to color regular world with brilliant timing. Hardiboiled is also being a good foil/central character for the investigations. Brandihild is a hard act to follow, but this story set is working. And the last reveal shows that maybe, just maybe, Brandihild will need to return. Certainly Pu needs to.

Also, the Akira references were unexpected and well handled.

And for the last few months, Smudge and I have been spending our Saturday nights with Pilgrim’s Traverse, the new deep dungeon introduced in 7.35. It, too, has been well done. First, there’s the new… ‘chaptering’ system, so you can do partial runs and get used to later bosses without having to do a full run every time.

More than that though, it’s just a lot better balanced than Eureka Orthos. It feels a lot like Heaven On High level of balance. However, there are plenty of the one hit and you’re dead abilities, but they’re largely at the higher levels, and I think used more judiciously than in EO. At any rate, we’ve beat the various pieces, and are now trying to get a single run all the way through. Our first attempt was stopped by Forgiven Zeal (sin-eater cyclops) because we didn’t remember enough of his fight. Personally, I’m amazed we got through the Ancestral Maliktender (“Mustache!”) the first time. I think we’ll get Zeal on the current run, and then we have a really good chance of beating it all.

Now, if they’d just take the darn Pulse tracks out of the playlist for the place.

More of a side note, this year’s Valentione’s Day celebration was also well done. I’m impressed by the all-new set they did for the mini-game. It seems to me like you could re-dress it slightly (take out the booth ropes, rope off the decorating tables) and do a completely different mini-game. I hope they’ll work on that flexibility. As it is, the one we got was fun mayhem.

Over on the crafting side of things… well, that’s where we struggle to keep up. There’s a lot to do, and that is closer to the bottom of the stack. We’ve done four out of the five Wachumeqimeqi chains and need to get to finishing that up soon. Similarly, we’ve gotten to Bloodsworn with two of the societies for Dawntrail, and need to finish up with the Yok Huy.

Meanwhile, Cosmic Exploration has been very good, but I do have some concerns. The new environments are amazing, but a new one every patch seems a bit much. The real problem is there’s not a lot of reason to go to the old locations once the new ones exist.

Each update introduces new levels of grind to go through for ever improved tools, but you can still grind through the old levels in the new places, but you can’t do the new ones in the old places (technically, it’s all generalized, but the later parts introduce even higher levels of ‘points’ that you can’t get in the earlier sections). And, once the new expansion comes out, this grind really becomes redundant (but useful for leveling). So, I’m really enjoying that SE is willing to go through all this effort, but I am worried about it. Of course, we also continuing a side-plot (signs that there is life somewhere else currently) which I’m also happy to see. I hope that part can escape from crafting content and influence events elsewhere.

And, we have the Arcadion. You know, I have some issues with tournament arcs, and all the wresting stuff, and I tend to like alliance raids better.

All that said, the Arcadion has had a solid story, some good characters, and the fights themselves have been solid. Metem’s various calls are obviously scripted around clear cut events, but they add a lot to the fights, and there’s good variety with fact that they are reactive keeping it fresh. (I have heard, “And the Unenhanced Warrior avoids another attack…. Why am I not surprised?” once.) Of course, I like some fights better than others, and the first two times there was generally two fights I liked and two I didn’t. This time, all four are more in the middle. There’s certainly some good ideas in all twelve.

The story wrapped up well. Given the happy endings SE consistently serves, certain things were fairly obvious. How we’d get there, less so. I had a number of guesses about the final four fights (mostly in jest), and none of them were even close. The final reveals were well handled and it was all well paced.

And now, as for that main story….

This time, we finally started moving towards the big story for the next expansion.

I figured we had to deal with the world around Living Memory at some point. I did not think SE would get to it this fast. I’m concerned that this means we won’t get anything more on the Ninth. Admittedly, there’s currently not a lot to see: The bulk of the world is a blasted landscape of constant electrical storms.

But, now we have found out that there are survivors. We’ve only seen one town (yes, Treno was a city, but I don’t think it’s that big anymore), but we do know there are other communities out there, down dangerous tunnels. As usual, we immediately meddled, saving Treno from various system failures. I have to assume that Alexandria will try to get somewhat regular contact with Treno, so we have a good “in” to further adventures there.

But at the moment, we just have a small area to move around Treno in. Past development says this won’t be turned into a larger quest hub, and if there is anything more in the world, having to go to Living Memory, then the landing area on the Ninth, then Treno will be really cumbersome, and they’ll presumably short circuit us to the new place, leaving this area a dead end, travel-wise.

On the other hand, it also helps with excuses for future breakthroughs in travel across the void, and I’m sure at the least, this will come back to provide a method to another shard in two expansions.

More immediately, and further out, we have a new villain, and the first hints of a new big problem. Smudge is worried that they’re pointing to a new calamity, that our new Ascian is working to complete the old job. The sense I’m getting out of it is the opposite. All the discussion is of how we are the problem, not because we’re standing in the way, but because of the nature of what we’re doing. I’m thinking now that Hydaelyn and Zodiark are no more, all the pressures on the source and shards has released, and from some of the oblique statements we’ve gotten, the aether in the source is beginning to drain out into the shards to a new equilibrium.

No matter what the exact answer is, it’s obvious that this is going to become the major problem that the current story started with Dawntrail is meant to deal with.

On the character side, we concentrate on Krile again, and her personal story picks up some important bits as she finds she still has living relatives. I think a lot of this would be better with a better look at ‘found family’, and better handling of her arc in much of Dawntrail. Given the minor troubles, it is still a good denouement to her arc.

I can’t say the main story was great for me, but I think it is good, and we have a lot of places to go from here. I’m happy.