Heavy spoilers for the alliance raid beneath the read more
(also i'm so sorry i wrote so much here without meaning to woops)
tl;dr of this post:
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Very good end to the EW Alliance raid series, Incredibly fun mechanics!
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Was left incredibly underwhelmed by the story
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Why are some of these mechanics so hard to see through aaaa
The Good
So, the mechanics for the newest alliance raid were really good/fun! (though there do seem to be more visual mess than usual?? Not sure if that was my computer or not but even with all the effects turned down for myself there was a Lot going on. I'm not sure if that was intentional or not but some of the fights got a little hard to see.)
None of the individual mechanics here are new. They're all usual mechanics (stacks, knock backs, etc.) mashed together with some of the more unique EW mechanics. Nothing is necessarily difficult but it's engaging enough that you're actually thinking of where to go and what to do.
This endwalker alliance raid series as a whole has been a delight when it comes to fun fights, i'm glad this last leg of the raids was just as fun.
The last boss in particular was incredibly fun for this though I will say again, there was a little more visual mess than I was expecting and, while not impossible to parse through (given that our group didn't wipe once to this boss) it made it a little more annoying than it should have been I think? But this is probably just subjective.
In terms of how fun each of the raids have been, I have my own personal list of:
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Aglaia
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Thaleia
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Euphrosyne
The music for this raid is also incredible! But at this point it's expected from Soken to put out something that fits thematically without feeling like it's more of the same.
Each section of the raids has it's own feel, but appearance wise and with it's music. Thaleia is no different. You immediately get a sense of finality when entering this raid like, hey we're almost there! The sudden pause of the music before the last boss after hearing the grandeur of the music for the raid makes you suspenseful and excited for what comes next.
I think a lot of people get a little sad when the last boss doesn't have a vocal track but in this case I think it works Just Fine. Having that grand theme play from across all of the myths of the realm alliance raid series really just hammers in that feeling of "oh my god, we're fighting the gods" and I think it works perfectly. Fitting the FF theme in there just makes it all the more exciting and I know it hits that nostalgia just right for most people.
The Underwhelming (in other words, the bulk of this post lol)
As for the story hmmm
It's exactly what I was expecting out of this raid series and that disappoints me a little bit.
There was something I had been fearing since Aglaia, and that was that, once again, everything in the world is explained because "it's an Ancients thing".
And don't get me wrong, I love the ancients (though I'm a little sick of Emet-Selch in EW even though he was one of my favorite characters in ShB) I think they're really cool and nothing will beat how awed and overwhelmed I was when first walking into Amaurot.
However, I feel like XIV kind of fell into this trap of every single important event has been directly or indirectly guided by the ancients/ascians.
I know it's because the ancients are such an easy thing to slot into anything that hasn't been explained, including the Twelve. Which I was really really hoping they wouldn't do but they did and i'm left disappointed because like, they don't have to explain everything away. Honestly, sometimes XIV has this bad habit of wanting to explain EVERYTHING in the world (including game mechanics sometimes) and while it does work sometimes, I've found that it's starting to take the mystery out of so much in the game.
Now every time something is explained i'm just expecting them to pull out the "ancients did it" card and have it end at that. Where's the spice? Can the people of Etheirys not have any type of civilization that was all secretly orchestrated by the Ancients? That sucks dude!!
When I saw Amaurot and learning that Emet-Selch had manipulated both the Allagan and Garlean empires for the ascians I was like "ok cool, so they can have some sway over things that have happened in our civilization and history." But I feel like now it's turning into a way to explain away anything they don't want to remain a mystery. I don't know if this is a reaction to people complaining about plot holes or something but it just makes things feel lame if the answer each time is "the ancients did it!"
And having the Twelve also directly be tied to the ancients (they're all ancients who were friends with Venat) just kind of took the wind out of the sails for me for the Alliance Raid.
I don't know what more they could have done to explain The Twelve, but I also feel like they didn't need to explain so much about them either. A romp with the gods of the world isn't unusual, It's a final fantasy game after all. But they made this out to e some sort of Big Reveal about them only to be told "yeah they're ancients." And even when they mentioned being shaped and influenced by mortals I was still hoping "maybe they won't be ancients or ancient creations, maybe they'll just be something like elementals or something given form and sentience by the people of the world." Like, I was just hoping for anything but ancients, but there's nothing really more I can say about this. I just hope this is the last Big Cool Mystery that is explained away by the ancients.
It just made the Twelve feel so dull by the end of it all. Which sucks because they're so cool! I really like the gods in FFXIV's world!
Also, I think we were meant to be more attached to Deryk than I thought, given the last few cutscenes of the raid quest. He's not a bad character but I didn't really feel much for him and didn't feel as invested about him as a character by the end of the quests. Though this could just 100% be me not remembering any of his dialogue at all, other than he was feeling lonely.
One last piece of criticism
I love having Twelve gods that are worshiped in some way shape or form by the many cultures of Eorzea but none of them are browner than a tan.
I would say square enix i'm begging you but I know they don't care. It's just one more little thing that made me a little sad knowing where we're going next orz.
I also would have more to say about this but it's kind of feels useless when most people who play this game take any criticism about this personally so I think I'll just leave it at that.
Final Thoughts
That last point aside for now, It's a fun Alliance raid.
It has amazing music, very fun fights, and a clever way of putting together different mechanics we've seen throughout the game and Endwalker specifically.
If they plan on making future Alliance raids engaging in this way, I'm excited to see what more they can do. I think with the level of mechanics being added to the raids the seem to be aware that the playerbase in general is getting better and better at the game and having engaging fights make for a much more fun time while doing them. (Though I really want them to fix the scaling on Aglaia, it's a shame most people can fight Nald'thal and never see the balancing mechanic and cutscene.) Engaging fights like this tickle my brain without feeling too difficult for most players, especially after conditioning to recognize the previous mechanics from the other gods and the trials of this expansion.
(though please for the love of god ease up on the particle effects, I have a good computer and everyone else's effects turned off and it was still hard to see oh god)
