A MMORPG veteran of over 20 years writes on reddit about his current run in Final Fantasy XIV. Of all things, this game, which is now over 10 years old, managed to surprise him with a hidden dungeon – in the best sense of the word.
Who is the player? The player in question goes by the name soviman1 on reddit. According to him, he has been playing MMORPGs for over 20 years. He also writes: I had the (admittedly bitter) impression that I had seen everything. I am pleasantly surprised that I was wrong.
Currently, soviman1 is giving the Japanese game Final Fantasy XIV a second chance. He had tried the 1.0 version shortly after its release, which was live between 2010 and 2012. He is now experiencing the content since the relaunch in 2013 with Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn for the first time. One type of content has particularly surprised him.
What content has excited the player so much? The content that reddit user soviman1 was completely caught off guard by are the treasure maps in Final Fantasy XIV. In his post, he writes that he received the first ones during the leveling phase in A Realm Reborn. However, these small combat scenarios with minor rewards did not particularly stick in his memory.
Together with his wife, he ventured a few days later to a map with the safety note that the content is suitable for an 8-man group at level 60. With some effort, they defeated the spawning mobs. Here came the first surprise – A portal appeared and launched an entirely new dungeon.
soviman1 was not familiar with the content and was completely blown away by the mechanics: As a pair, they fought through several rooms with treasure chests in the center. Every time all opponents were defeated, they received valuable items and had to choose between two doors to progress. Once, they chose incorrectly and almost got thrown out.
In their first run, they made it to the fifth room before it was finally over. soviman1’s conclusion:
I felt like the guy from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, who is the first to try to find the right Grail and I had … made a poor choice. […] This game is really something special.
What are the treasure maps about? The dungeon that excited soviman1 belongs to the treasure map dungeons in Final Fantasy XIV. When you open them, you get a snippet of an area from the base game or one of the expansions. If you find the location, you can activate the map there. Enemies appropriate to the current level will then spawn. If you defeat them, you receive loot.
The maps at levels 60, 70, 80, and 90, on the other hand, are special: Here there is a chance to spawn a portal, behind which lies a kind of gambling dungeon. The higher the level of the map, the more colorful and complex the dungeons become. Later, you sometimes no longer choose doors, but literally spin the roulette or play cards to increase the loot.
The loot itself consists of mounts, companions, and resources that can only be obtained in these dungeons, which can be used to craft nice clothing items or furniture for player housing. All items from these dungeons are highly sought after among players and fetch a lot of in-game money.
Final Fantasy XIV is a sandbox MMORPG and thus brings not only the genre’s usual content like raids and dungeons but also fun group content like the treasure maps. There is basically content for everyone and always something to do. However, in Dawntrail, a specific thing is supposed to be different: The director regrets a development in the MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail is supposed to do it better
