The Praetorium is the one ending everybody who performs Last Fantasy 14 is most probably to see. It is the climax to the bottom questline of a linear, story-focussed MMO, the one dungeon that helps gamers resolve whether or not they proceed on by Heavensward and the remainder of the expansions—the capstone that hopefully makes them fall totally in love with an unbelievable recreation. Now the arrival of Last Fantasy 14’s 6.1 patch has introduced with it a radical rework of this key location, halving the variety of occasion members and eradicating some once-essential duties.
To somebody like me, a crusty old-timer who’s been with the sport lengthy sufficient to recollect the catastrophe that was FF14 1.0 first-hand, this dungeon means lots: The Praetorium was a promise that issues can be totally different any more, that no story can be began with out an ending already deliberate, that I may belief the brand new staff with my money and time. A number of cutscenes constructed up the drama and weight of the second. It was an exhilarating conclusion to a recreation that had burst into fiery success from the ashes of its personal earlier public failure. I cherished it.
And this patch took a chainsaw to all of it.
It is now a mere 4 particular person dungeon similar to Sastasha, the very first one you run by as a nervous newcomer. There is no want to go to the Identification Key Reader earlier than activating your magitek armour, as a result of the Identification Key Reader would not exist anymore. Chests? Gone. Size? Noticeably shortened. After which the dungeon abruptly stops after the boss struggle that when served as its mid-point. “Effectively achieved: now return to the obligation finder if you wish to see how this all ends,” says patch 6.1.
This isn’t the Praetorium I cherished working by. But it surely’s truly been years for the reason that Praetorium I cherished might be performed precisely as I remembered it.
What actually occurred when this dungeon got here up within the obligation roulette previous to the newest patch? After years of expansions it was much less the thrilling denouement to a story of oppressive empires and mechanically reclaimed gods, extra simply… a bunch of overpowered gamers who’re used to crushing deities earlier than breakfast silently steamrolling a path they’d walked a whole bunch of occasions earlier than. That wasn’t the expertise I adored and I am certain it is not one any new gamers appreciated both. It is not so dramatic when the towering baddies are ploughed by with little effort, and possibly tanked by a man carrying a comedy Moogle outfit named, like, Buff Dude, in addition. That is not the way it was imagined to go.
On this context—in immediately’s Last Fantasy 14, 9 years on—patch 6.1’s unflinchingly unsentimental redesign makes excellent sense.
A smaller occasion immediately means everybody, no matter their private talent stage or the showy sparkle of their finish endgame gear, has to pay shut consideration to each assault and ensure they’re contributing and cooperating to the staff as totally as they need to. The eliminated content material is, if I put my smart hat on, irrelevant to the enjoyable elements of the run I used to look ahead to. The patch additionally parcels off the Praetorium’s closing two fights in opposition to Ultima Weapon to a separate trial, and that was the appropriate transfer—you need gamers to be excited, not exhausted, by the point they arrive face-to-face with these imposing devices of struggle.
Due to this pragmatic overhaul, bosses large and small are capable of unleash assaults I might gotten used to not even seeing, not to mention having to dodge, as a result of this time round they did not drop lifeless earlier than they acquired round to triggering them. The stakes really feel actual once more, hewing extra intently to the stress and hazard expressed within the cinematic cutscenes that body the complete expertise.
This redesign, extra involved with capturing the spirit than the letter of these early adventures, is Last Fantasy 14’s design philosophy in a nutshell. That is an MMO pleased to continually reexamine itself, at all times aware of what gamers in any respect ranges want immediately, not what labored for them years in the past. It is an MMO that by no means dares to imagine folks will keep simply because they’re already right here, or that new or lapsed gamers will hold signing up for some fancy new gear.
It is also an MMO that considers its story to be as very important as any raid or endgame problem; every little thing we hear, really feel, and assume between A Realm Reborn and Endwalker is a private journey to be walked at our personal tempo reasonably than a roadblock retaining us from the endgame weekly grind. Everytime you select to struggle your method by The Praetorium—whether or not that is immediately, subsequent month, or perhaps a yr from now—it will at all times really feel like your victory in an Eorzea that is without end rising alongside you; each footstep made to really feel prefer it’s being laid recent in uncharted soil..
I will by no means play The Praetorium as I first encountered it ever once more. It is gone without end, consigned to outdated YouTube movies and dusty screenshot folders. Good. If there’s one factor I hope at all times stays the identical, it is Last Fantasy 14’s willingness to embrace change.
