New Final Fantasy XIV Variant Dungeon ‘The Merchant’s Tale’ Now Available – Is This A Wonderful World?
Final Fantasy XIV has offered a wealth of different content over the years, including raids, trials and open-world goodies – just as you’d expect from an MMORGP. One of the major highlights however was the inclusion of dungeons. The previous MMORPG, FFXI, really didn’t have anything they would call dungeon content. But with the launch of this game, the development team did add dungeons.
As time has moved on, some folk have become slightly less excited with the standard style of dungeons that we would get in each patch. This is where the unique take that variant dungeons, which first launched in patch 6.25, comes into play. The latest Variant Dungeon, The Merchant’s Tale, recently dropped in patch 7.45, and we’ve put it through its paces.
Wait, I Am In A Book?!
To unlock the new Variant Dungeon, you will need access to Old Sharalyan (X12.0 Y13.3). This quest can be accessed after completing Endwalker and after talking to another NPC at (X11.9 Y13.3). Though the quest is level 90, you will be scaled up to the required ilvl and be made level 100 while inside the dungeon. This is unique compared to previous variant dungeons, because here the developers have added the ability to level via the dungeon; plus, if you are on the current expansion Dawntrail relic quest, you can get crystal paste from doing this.
Travel Your Own Path
What makes variant dungeons unique is instead of following a set rule and path of a typical dungeon, the whole aspect is based on a story being told. You and an NPC will go through several different paths, based on your choices, to create the feel of a write-your-own-story experience. Each dungeon has 13 different paths and stories that you can go through. You can also experience this solo, or you can go with several friends as you decide together which path you might want to take. When experiencing this myself, I decided to do my runs solo, which means I was able to decide my own fate.
Loot and enemies are scaled based on the number of people however, so this makes them quite tough while still being manageable. I will say I didn’t really have that much fun with previous variant dungeons, but the newest one, Merchant’s Tale, has – in terms of story and design – been one of the best things the team have included in quite some time. I don’t know what they have done with the graphics and art style, but each area in the path feels unique and the colours really pop off the page or should we say screen, as you go through the dungeon.
It’s Not All Peaceful
The boss fights are quite challenging, with some of them taking me several attempts to do. I was doing this on stream, and well, viewers got to see me fail a lot on some specific mechanics. I never felt like the boss was cheating me, and though it took time, each mechanic was fun to learn. Like previous hard/challenging fights, they start with a few mechanics, then start to combo those mechanics together. For example, if one fight has a train go across, the train will be moved to a different line based on which switch the boss hits. The first time you see it, this is all it does. But later on in the fight, it merges an AoE fire attack with the train, so after you dodge the train, you need to stand in a safe spot. I am expecting some of these mechanics to eventually come out of this variant dungeon and be used for trials or even raid fights in the future.
One of the really unique and cool things about the battle system is why it becomes possible to solo. Is the inclusion of Variant Actions? 2 can be picked before entering; they are two extra buttons that have unique skills and effects. For example, as a White Mage, you can pick a tank ability to help survive the tank busters and, if need be, AoE damage. But you could also go with a DPS move to help deal some extra damage. Of course, as a DPS, you could go with the heal abilities plus maybe also the tank skill. This makes the combat slightly more varied than the traditional sense, giving a hybrid feel to the jobs. You also have the ability, unlike traditional content, to swap jobs while inside the dungeon, although you cannot swap your variant actions while inside the dungeon.
One More Bonus
Now, I have not experienced the other two versions of the Variant dungeon at the time of writing; there is now a new advanced mode which removes the story aspect and just has you fight the bosses. This gives its own set of rewards compared to the base dungeon. Plus, there is an even harder version called Another Merchant’s Tale; this is a savage version of the base dungeon, adding more mechanics and making the whole thing even more of a challenge. The other version will limit your variant actions to Raise II; this is the only action allowed, plus you can only use it once per party member (though there are ways to restore the charges for this skill).
Let’s Put This Book To A Close
Overall, the development team has done an amazing job with the storytelling; the dungeon itself is so pretty, and I hope we can see some of this splash over into other dungeons. But it’s not all positive; the lack of rewards means that after the first week or so people really aren’t running the advanced or even another dungeon as much. The good items that are from them are all cosmetic, which is fine, but they can also be sold on the market board, where casual players are more likely to just buy them rather than trying to learn and practise the hard fights. And for the hardcore raiders, there is no gear really; the only gear-related thing is an elixir that makes a previous weapon become shiny, and this item was also available in a previous variant dungeon.
It’s a shame really, because overall Square Enix has done such an amazing job with this dungeon, and the mode itself is a fresh coat of paint on previous content. I would love to see more variant dungeons in the future, though. But at the end of the day, if you want to just enjoy the story, and go through the different paths learning all the different secrets and possible clues for the next expansion or future expansions, this offers a fun time and I loved every minute of my experience.
Be sure to check out details on the latest Live Letter here for all the latest info on Update 7.5.
