It’s no huge shock that I’ve been thrilled with Final Fantasy XIV’s newest growth. Not solely did it launch in a wonderful state, however the regular stream of updates has already cemented Endwalker as a fan-favorite growth – and assuming issues shake out as anticipated for the remainder of the patch cycle, it looks like a shoo-in for the sport’s greatest growth total. It simply so occurs that Patch 6.25’s new Variant & Criterion Dungeons is the very best content material that Final Fantasy XIV has obtained in years.

Over the years, gamers have change into spoiled for selection with choices for what content material they wish to have interaction with on the endgame. Obviously, gamers can run common dungeons with mates or strangers, or they’ll select to raid, however even past that techniques like Deep Dungeons and Eureka/Bozja have continued to supply totally different gameplay kinds for capping your weekly tomestones, whereas together with distinctive rewards that gamers would have a cause to wish to have interaction with.

One factor that’s maybe been missing, nevertheless, is a type of higher-tier problem content material designed round gentle events; if in case you have a gaggle of 8 gamers, you may run Extreme Trials or Savage Raids. If you wish to really feel like an ant, a bigger a part of a swarm, you had Eureka and Bozja. While Deep Dungeons have existed since Heavensward – and imagine me, I really like myself an excellent few runs of Palace of the Dead or Heaven-on-High – it’s a little bit bit too esoteric in comparison with different actions in XIV.

Variant & Criterion Dungeons really feel like a pure development for XIV. Earlier dungeons from the sport’s life featured exploration, however there was by no means actually a lot cause for gamers to have interaction with it – leaving it a little bit of a missed alternative. So whereas dungeons have continued to change into increasingly more linear, providing dungeons with true puzzles and branching paths felt like a simple match for “higher tier” content material concentrating on smaller teams of gamers. In follow, the primary iteration of the idea has been an on the spot success.

The Sil’dinne Subterrane duties gamers with exploring ruins beneath Ul’dah, and presents 12 totally different routes for gamers to find. While the primary boss encounter of each run would be the similar with solely minor variations relying on the sector, the ultimate engagement is dependent upon the route a participant or group has explored. As you progress alongside 3 most important routes, you’ll run into quite a few puzzles – whether or not instantly apparent or not – which finishing will unlock further hidden routes that not solely uncover extra lore about Ul’dah’s historical past, but additionally will in the end fill out a checkmark for mentioned route within the dungeon’s ending information. 

The total pacing of every run is about the identical as a daily dungeon, whereas providing you 30 weekly tomes per clear. Completing each route within the dungeon will unlock a brand new mount, and gamers have an opportunity of discovering quite a few different distinctive rewards each time they clear the Variant Dungeon. Players who wish to actually problem themselves can check out the Criterion Dungeon variant, which acts like a “greatest hits” of the entire Variant Dungeon mechanics and managers, whereas additionally rising the issue to one thing on-par with Extreme and Savage Difficulty 8-player content material. If even that isn’t sufficient for you, there’s even a “Savage” model of the Criterion Dungeon that buffs encounters much more and presents quite a few restrictions.

Variant & Criterion Dungeons, even with simply our first instance of them, seems like one thing that at all times had a spot in XIV’s design – meshing gameplay with story and lore in a means that it feels odd it’s taken so lengthy for it to manifest. Regardless, the dev crew’s newest experiment has been a powerful success, and with the affirmation that much more of those dungeons are on the best way, it’s exhausting to comprise the hope that these may change into a brand new staple of XIV’s content material pipeline. For my cash, this has been probably the most thrilling piece of content material Endwalker has added to the sport, and I’d solely welcome extra of the identical concept elsewhere.