Many have already explained why Bozja, while having good ideas, ultimately was mediocre and unsatisfying content, which at times is even actively hostile to player enjoyment. It was truly not worth the wait nor was it worth trading a dungeon and the expansion's deep dungeon for this content. Unfortunately, Bozja is not an isolated failure. It is moreso a symptom of the state of FF14 overall.
Grindy, but for all the wrong reasons.
Bozja is actually pretty grindy content. In order to get a full set of upgrade to prepare for the next tier's Baldesion Aresnal-equivalent, you would need to run Castrum Lacus Litore for upwards of 100 times. Furthermore, the lost actions you get in CLL are probably going to be very useful next tier. The catch, however, is that you would need to wait for an instance or reinstance until you get it to pop. Even then, you would also need to hope that there are enough people who are interested in Castrum in order to run it. The grind therefore, lies in reinstancing and waiting. It should remind you of the days when you are progressing through Alexander but need to wait for the Paladin to get their Hallowed Ground back up. Or for the Astrologian to roll until they get double expanded Balance. You're not really doing anything other than waiting for 50% of the time you're grinding the upgrade or lost actions.
But this is a symptom of the game writ large. A lot of new side content are simply more grinds. Yoshi P stated that this game wants you to get to the fun part and not emulate the old days of FF11 where you sometimes go for hours before getting to anything interesting. Yet, most of the new content we got this expansion is just grinding given a fresh skin. Ishgardian Restoration, for example, is simply a collectable grind with 3 new procs thrown in, the difficulty actually easier than 4.1's Ala Mhigan tier. The developers now don't seem to know how to create side content that isn't simply an extended grind anymore.
FATEs forever
Bozja's skirmishes are FATEs, with the same symbols and even the same mechanics borrowed. The critical engagements are fun, but they are not much more than boss FATEs with a queue system. The claim that Bozja would be a mix between Diadem and Eureka seemed dubious at best. But even if we took the developers' claim at face value, that means Bozja still has not fundamentally shifted away from the same foundation since ARR, when relic side content relied on FATEs to drive the engagement. We've been doing FATEs for seven years, for every relic. What is even more ironic is that old-school HW FATEs are actually better for grinding the relics this time around.
When they mentioned that there will be directive based content for Bozja, much like the old Diadem missions, people expect something more than FATEs. Unfortunately, Bozja underdelivers and is a symptom of the developers' unwillingness to innovate beyond FATEs when it comes to open world or exploratory content.
RNG in the wrong places
Duels are frustrating for nearly everyone involved because of the huge RNG layer. To even get picked for a duel, you'd need to first actually find an instance where the pre-duel FATEs are up. Then you'd need to battle against a dozen people during the selection to even have a chance at doing the duel. For many players that means you'd be lucky to even do one duel per day you play.
However, if we looked at FF14's history, we see that many side content always seem to contain the worst aspects of RNG possible. In Diadem, the Coven weapons caused huge outrage as it relied on an emergency mission that was difficult to complete as it relied on you being lucky enough to be in an instance where people were willing to cooperate and knew what to do. On top of that, the Coven weapon substats were random and only a few people will ever acquire a Coven weapon at all. In Eureka, we have random substats again for the Pyros weapon if you intend to augment it. Bunny chests were also a frustrating enterprise for many involved, and you can go a day without seeing a single gold chest. With Bozja, it's now the duels. For whatever reason, FF14 cannot seem to design content without frustrating RNG.
Less content overall
If we look at Bozja in context, another issue is of course that Bozja was shifted further in time, even when we account for the effects of the pandemic. While Eureka was first launched in 4.25, the first Bozjan instance was launched in 5.35. Meanwhile, the first iteration of Diadem launched in 3.15, albeit being bad enough to be removed in a later patch. However, Bozja also replaces the deep dungeon and is possibly part of the reason why we are losing one dungeon every other patch too. At this point we have to wonder if the next relic content is going to be only fully fleshed out in 6.45, just eight months before the 7.0 expansion (if we even get there).
Bozja itself is also far shorter and less diverse than Anemos. The landscape is bland and the visual implementation seem almost rushed. Warzones don't need to look like a candy land, but it also does not have to be visually repetitive and dull. The busy pace of Bozja distracts you from how small and visually repetitive the map is. Two bright sides of Bozja are the design of CLL and the storyline. This has obviously been beefed up as compared to Stormblood. But for everything else, it just cannot be said that Bozja is meatier than Anemos. It felt cut down. Unfortunately, this also echoes the general vibe one gets from Shadowbringers. After the amazing story, there is just far less content to do as compared to Stormblood.
Continue reading...
Grindy, but for all the wrong reasons.
Bozja is actually pretty grindy content. In order to get a full set of upgrade to prepare for the next tier's Baldesion Aresnal-equivalent, you would need to run Castrum Lacus Litore for upwards of 100 times. Furthermore, the lost actions you get in CLL are probably going to be very useful next tier. The catch, however, is that you would need to wait for an instance or reinstance until you get it to pop. Even then, you would also need to hope that there are enough people who are interested in Castrum in order to run it. The grind therefore, lies in reinstancing and waiting. It should remind you of the days when you are progressing through Alexander but need to wait for the Paladin to get their Hallowed Ground back up. Or for the Astrologian to roll until they get double expanded Balance. You're not really doing anything other than waiting for 50% of the time you're grinding the upgrade or lost actions.
But this is a symptom of the game writ large. A lot of new side content are simply more grinds. Yoshi P stated that this game wants you to get to the fun part and not emulate the old days of FF11 where you sometimes go for hours before getting to anything interesting. Yet, most of the new content we got this expansion is just grinding given a fresh skin. Ishgardian Restoration, for example, is simply a collectable grind with 3 new procs thrown in, the difficulty actually easier than 4.1's Ala Mhigan tier. The developers now don't seem to know how to create side content that isn't simply an extended grind anymore.
FATEs forever
Bozja's skirmishes are FATEs, with the same symbols and even the same mechanics borrowed. The critical engagements are fun, but they are not much more than boss FATEs with a queue system. The claim that Bozja would be a mix between Diadem and Eureka seemed dubious at best. But even if we took the developers' claim at face value, that means Bozja still has not fundamentally shifted away from the same foundation since ARR, when relic side content relied on FATEs to drive the engagement. We've been doing FATEs for seven years, for every relic. What is even more ironic is that old-school HW FATEs are actually better for grinding the relics this time around.
When they mentioned that there will be directive based content for Bozja, much like the old Diadem missions, people expect something more than FATEs. Unfortunately, Bozja underdelivers and is a symptom of the developers' unwillingness to innovate beyond FATEs when it comes to open world or exploratory content.
RNG in the wrong places
Duels are frustrating for nearly everyone involved because of the huge RNG layer. To even get picked for a duel, you'd need to first actually find an instance where the pre-duel FATEs are up. Then you'd need to battle against a dozen people during the selection to even have a chance at doing the duel. For many players that means you'd be lucky to even do one duel per day you play.
However, if we looked at FF14's history, we see that many side content always seem to contain the worst aspects of RNG possible. In Diadem, the Coven weapons caused huge outrage as it relied on an emergency mission that was difficult to complete as it relied on you being lucky enough to be in an instance where people were willing to cooperate and knew what to do. On top of that, the Coven weapon substats were random and only a few people will ever acquire a Coven weapon at all. In Eureka, we have random substats again for the Pyros weapon if you intend to augment it. Bunny chests were also a frustrating enterprise for many involved, and you can go a day without seeing a single gold chest. With Bozja, it's now the duels. For whatever reason, FF14 cannot seem to design content without frustrating RNG.
Less content overall
If we look at Bozja in context, another issue is of course that Bozja was shifted further in time, even when we account for the effects of the pandemic. While Eureka was first launched in 4.25, the first Bozjan instance was launched in 5.35. Meanwhile, the first iteration of Diadem launched in 3.15, albeit being bad enough to be removed in a later patch. However, Bozja also replaces the deep dungeon and is possibly part of the reason why we are losing one dungeon every other patch too. At this point we have to wonder if the next relic content is going to be only fully fleshed out in 6.45, just eight months before the 7.0 expansion (if we even get there).
Bozja itself is also far shorter and less diverse than Anemos. The landscape is bland and the visual implementation seem almost rushed. Warzones don't need to look like a candy land, but it also does not have to be visually repetitive and dull. The busy pace of Bozja distracts you from how small and visually repetitive the map is. Two bright sides of Bozja are the design of CLL and the storyline. This has obviously been beefed up as compared to Stormblood. But for everything else, it just cannot be said that Bozja is meatier than Anemos. It felt cut down. Unfortunately, this also echoes the general vibe one gets from Shadowbringers. After the amazing story, there is just far less content to do as compared to Stormblood.
Continue reading...