Patch 7.3: The Promise of Tomorrow (August 5th, 2025)

[Anoat]

[brozy]

Spoilered for huge but that North San d'Oria glow up tho, and is the 2nd image Fei'Yin/Beaucedine Glacier? cause gawd damn

Spoiler: show

[Gokulo]

We're getting XI's Dancer AF, heck yeah, one of my top armors from the game

[Ragns]

We're getting XI's Dancer AF, heck yeah, one of my top armors from the game

They showed Prishe, Shantotto, and Lilisette armors (which happens to be Dancer's AF) back to back, so maybe we'll see them in the story?

[Madeline]

we know they've modeled part of the salvage armor already because the NPCs in jeuno are using it

that shit better be in the third release or i'm gonna pout profusely

[Karbuncle]

My brother played the first dungeon, I watched since I havent touched XIV since the super early days of the flying expansion. It was a nice tribute I think, we were speculating on where they would go next after the initial battles, I figured RoTZ and maybe Early CoP and it looks like they're doing RoTZ and maybe some COP based on whats previewed lol. Was wondering how much story ground they'd cover with this one, kind of expected them to get to the end of CoP figuring the next(final?) dungeon would cover ToAU/WOTG memorable fights. Might still do that.

I kind of figured they'd take you through Sea in this one... they showed the Airship fight, maybe you do end up in a stroll through Sea.

Eld'narche from that first image seems to be in the Celestial Nexus, Kam'Lanaut just looks like a generic Zilart room, which is strange because his battlefield in XI at the top of Delkfutt is a pretty nice place.

[Lucavi]

Mithraslaver Debhabob or we riot.

Charm all those fools! Total alliance wipe!

[arus2001]

The raid has done some weird placement/pacing in general. Based on the last live letter, you're fighting Kirin in Horlais Peak. The trailer would go on to indicate U/O and the Princes, so that probably covers all the bosses unless they squeak Promathia in at the end. Relative to the first raid, I guess I could see going up the Tree and then to Sky, then to La'loff to fight the AAs, but rubbernecking back to Zvahl for the Shadow Lord was a bit of a head scratcher. Second one has us starting in San d'Oria, making a short jaunt through Ronf, and then to the Peak for the Kirin fight.

Aside from, "Ooo, pretty~" seeing stuff with a glow up, I kinda have to say this homage has felt pretty shitty. Especially with XIV being the most story-focused MMO out there. But I guess this is just another notch in the critique of their formulaic yet stale content development.

[Anoat]

Aight so I resubbed specifically to do the XI raid, spent most of today catching up on the 7.2 MSQ and next Arcadian tier. I gotta say the 7.2 MSQ is probably their best story of the 7.X series thus far. The 7.2 dungeon and trial were really fun, the Arcadian raids were really good too. I think the dancer and picto raids were very unique and seriously the highlights of the raid tier. Turn 4 was okay, Turn 3 was a neat set piece but I didn’t care for the battle at all. I’m kinda hesitant to do any of the Occult Crescent stuff though until they patch it because I’ve heard it’s pretty bad.

[Gokulo]

Afair the only thing they're patching in Occult Crescent is how the raid works? The zone itself is fine I think

[Anoat]

There is a bug in the alliance raid. If you wipe on the third boss, there is a chance it will not respawn leading to a failed run.

[Anoat]

End of 7.3 MSQ

Spoiler: show

For the most part I'm happy with how 7.3 shook out, but the one thing that bothers me is how they backpedaled on Living Memory and made it pretty again. Feels like a real cop out because of players complaining and completely missing the point of the story they were trying to tell about death, grief, and moving on. Maybe my perception is just extra heightened on this because I just finished Expedition 33 though.

[Gokulo]

Also end of MSQ spoilers

Spoiler: show

Ugh, I'm so annoyed the little fucker got away. Hopefully he won't have more than a background role in the future

[Anoat]

24 man raid fights were really good, though I thought the final boss might be a smidge overtuned for normal content. Felt like a LOT of mechanics for normal mode.

Fun Easter egg post 24 man raid quest

Spoiler: show

If you wear Kirin’s Osode when talking to the FFXI NPCs in Jeuno they will comment on it. Not sure if they do the same for the optical hat or cloak but I imagine so.

[Athas]

Kind of disappointed the first raid boss didn't just have 4 summon mechanics instead of the generic arm things.

[Anoat]

Reading the XIV Reddit and OF it’s hilarious how many people are complaining about the 2nd boss fight in the dungeon being too hard because you have the solo fight. Motherfuckers being like “it took me two days and 20+ tries!!!!” and I’m like damn those easy Endwalker dungeons really made some crybaby bitches lol

[arus2001]

It's a safe bet those are just people deliberately trolling. Probably applies to any OF thread that goes over 30 posts, really. The amount of people who allegedly hate the game for <insert flavor gripe of the month> yet still keep subbing is wild.

Which I guess is no different than the random guy the YT algorithm shat at me who said anyone who didn't have as many achievement points as him had no right to criticize the game and I just commented, "Your addiction doesn't justify trash takes." Of course, angry ragebait vids are where the money is at these days.

[Anoat]

New FFXIV and Monster Hunter collab dropping this October. Monster Hunter players will face an encounter with Omega Weapon, while XIV players will face an encounter with Arkveld.

[Anoat]

The Rising runs from August 27th to September 11th and the reward is a Gulool Ja Ja minion.

[Anoat]

Free login campaign for returning players up to 96 hours, running August 21st thru September 23rd