I DID IT

I FINISHED A REALM REBORN!!! I did the big battles and got to the credits of Final Fantasy 14!

Which by no means is the same as finishing the game, I have a bunch of interstitial parts and then will begin the first of several expansions, each just as big as this first part. But I am done with the start! Which is from all accounts the most boring part of the story, and it's only up from here! I spoiled myself for the end of ARR ages ago but have only the vaguest sense of what happens next, it's exciting :D
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Oh no

So. As I have mentioned previously, the first section of Final Fantasy 14 is called A Realm Reborn. I was stuck on this until the game introduced "Duty Support" so didn't really look into what happens after ARR.

When I saw "As of Patch 6.1, instanced duties for A Realm Reborn, Shadowbringers, and Endwalker are supported. Duty Support for 2.x to Heavensward and beyond will be added in future patches." I read this as "ARR and the first few expansions have support, with later parts to follow".

However, having now finished ARR, I have learned better! It means "ARR has support, as does everything after the third expansion, with the parts between to follow". In my defence, Shadowbringers (expansion 3) and Stormblood (expansion 1) both start with an S, and the fact that 2.x means "everything between ARR and Stormblood" is Not Intuitive.

So now I either wait for a future patch, or have to play with actual people /o\ It's not quite as bad as it could be, I was thinking of trying a different class anyway, and using Duty Support to grind for better gear. And once I do all that I might be better enough at the game to not hate playing with others as much.

And I can always halt my subscription until the game gets patched again. SIGH. Still, I don't regret subscribing, I've had a lot of fun, and am sure I can find productive things to do until the end of the month I paid for. Waiting feels different to being unable to ever progress.

Don't let this put you off too much if you were thinking of trying the game: I was very close to the end, so the gap between the patch dropping and me finishing ARR was very short. A new player takes quite a while to finish ARR (which I'm pretty sure you can complete entirely for free), by which time the patches might have caught up to the next part.

Meme from tumblr

Tagged by elwing and also I think phlebasphoenician ages ago but I was really tired that day and forgot until now.

last song: The Devil's Part, All Our Exes Live In Texas. The problem with this band is I like their songs (so many weird breakup songs!) but I find Australians trying for a Folksy American Vibe annoying on principle (idk maybe this is unfair and that’s just what aussie folk sounds like). I have to admit this one is pretty good, though, with an enjoyably creepy, femslashy video.

last movie: Probably 'Seeing Red'. I liked it, for all the reasons mentioned previously!

currently reading: Devil Venerable Wants to Know by Cyan Wings, a Chinese m/m xianxia romcom. This question usually trips me up because I tend to either finish books in a day or so, or give up entirely. But I've been stalled halfway on this one for a while. It's a fun premise: the amoral immortal secondary romance lead of a cheesy romance novel comes across a copy before he meets and falls for the heroine, and is horrified. Both because his love leads to him dying at the hands of the heroine's dickish boyfriend and his second in command going mad with grief, and because becoming such a mushy pushover feels preposterous. He decides the best solution is to (a) get the heroine to find a different better boyfriend and/or self actualisation (b) get to know his second better and encourage his mental health. His idea of 'helping' involves a lot of like...pushing the heroine off a cliff to speed up her arc etc which is darkly funny, and there's some great amoral female characters who are enjoyably femslashy with the heroine (she just keeps being so NICE and they DON'T UNDERSTAND and also it's not like they care or anything but her boyfriend is a DICK and she can DO BETTER). And it has a lot of fun poking at genre conventions. But the romance between him and his second is VERY slow burn and the rest of the plot is a lot of amusing but repetitive silliness. It it was half as long I probably would have loved it, as it is...maybe I'll finish it one day.