Final Fantasy XIV just released Patch 6.1, and with it a whole host of new content. The most drastic addition to the game is the complete overhaul of PvP combat and the replacement of The Feast with a new 5v5 PvP mode called Crystalline Conflict.
Let my character, Rabrandt Razorclaw, and I take you through a few matches to get a feel for it.
For those of you who, like me, really enjoyed Overwatch for about 4-6 months before you dropped it like a lead weight, this setup might look familiar to you. There’s a crystal payload that needs to be delivered to the other side of the map, and our goal is to fight through the enemy team in order to guide it to their side of the map before they can do the same for us. The team that makes it farthest in 5 minutes is the winner, with some overtime allotment if the payload is still being contested when time is up.
The greatest strength of Crystalline Conflict is how short each individual match is. It doesn’t feel anywhere near as bad to lose a 5-minute game as it does to lose a 20-minute (like FF XIV’s own Frontlines) or, gods forbid, a 40-minute match (like you’d have in League of Legends). And because they’re so bite-sized, it’s reasonable to spend an hour or two jamming matches one after the other. I know in the past few days, I’ve spent far more time than I expected too trying to capture the crystal for my team.
Something also needs to be said about how successful the overhaul for PvP has been. A lot of my time playing Frontlines involved fumbling with my hotbar, getting killed before I could pop the ability that would have saved me. This new system simplifies every job into a kit that can be put succinctly into about 8 buttons or less while giving each of them a flavor and identity uniquely their own. The flavor is still contained in that tiny package.
Overall, the team responsible for this should feel very proud of themselves. PvP has always been a dicey aspect of FF XIV. While Frontlines still sucks, this new Crystalline Conflict is perfect for what I want out of the game’s PvP.
(PS: Rewatching this just prior to posting, it’s amusing watching my Dancer play since I’ve switched to playing Warrior since it has far better Crowd Control abilities.)
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