did some grinding for the ARR Extreme trial my little pony mounts, so i could unlock the ultimate my bigger pony mount. used to be a status symbol, now merely an "i had a couple hours to spare" symbol. i've never been caught up on this game so i still haven't experienced what it's like for there to be a Big Strong Reward people are currently going for that's actually attainable for me. anyway back to my playing through base game content in 2023

ok i'm doing one Heavensward thing. i get six "delivery allowances" a week, which takes me a few minutes to fulfill. yet i come here to deliver collectable rocks and plants and this girl and her orphans are like "wow thank you now we can afford to eat a bread every other day!" i'm sorry this game only lets me give you six things a week. truly it would not be a problem for me to get more. i have 2 million gil also

actually all ARR job stories done now! most of them were kinda nothing story-wise but at least had cool cutscenes at the end. Alchemist had a very slightly heartwrenching ending, after doing which i learned that particular questline was written by the famously "very slightly heartwrenching" writer on the team

if i had to once again put two minutes of thought into another ranking (based solely on story this time and not gameplay because every class is the same) i would say: Goldsmith > Alchemist > Weaver > Armorer > Carpenter > Blacksmith > Botaist > Leatherworker > Culinarian > Fisher, and Miner i don't remember because i did it years ago but i will replay soon

i'm gonna poison this girl's meal if she really doesn't know my name after all i've done for her

this is when i have to decide how far i'm taking this Chronology Quest. if i'm just doing story then all i have to focus on is a few raids, then Hildibrand then i can carry on with the main story up to Heavensward. buuut i just started working toward my relic weapon again which is a ridiculous grind of a million hells, just for one of the weapons. there's content i still have left to see through, like dungeons, and then there are grinds

i did consider including the ARR-specific grinds, until about a couple hours into one of them, at which point i realized i would actually like to be caught up in time for Dawntrail. i do not need to go for rewards like these

i never did the Coil of Bahamut raids because they're hard to find a party for, and i remembered even the first one being too difficult when i tried it solo. that must have been around Heavensward or something because i ripped hell through it on my own at level 80. normal raids are weird, they don't feel like something that should be called "raids" - they're split up into a dozen mini-duties of which most are like 3-5 minutes long. some are just a boss fight

i go through phases with my overall opinion on this game, and a lot of that has to do with how many bosses i've been fighting. i imagined as an endgame challenge from the game's early days these bosses would have a lot of stupid, but i could just bypass most of them because i'm so overleveled for it. not so fast! how quick i am to forget this game's affinity for instant-death mechanics; punishment for not looking up outside information beforehand (seriously i would forgive a lot of this stuff if the information was actually available in-game in any capacity). the amount of times i said aloud while reading guides, "and i was meant to figure this out how"

i don't look up guides on optimal strategies, i look up literally what i'm supposed to do in the fight. it says a lot that when a new top-tier raid comes out, the "world first" race amongst guilds is simply to see who can be first to figure out what mechanics do. anyway there was one boss in these raids that even after looking at guides i could not make sense of the mechanics, so i put out a Party Finder listing, and a level 90 joined who helped decimate it in literally three seconds

whoops probably shoulda dealt with that eight years ago

i have no idea why this wasn't part of the main story. i did always wonder, "dealing with Bahamut? like the whole reason for the Calamity you hear about in every other line of dialogue that was the reason the game shut down? and possibly having to prevent that from happening again? seems like a big deal but if it's relegated to side content then i guess not." it is!! it's super a big deal!!! and it's so important for Alisaie and Alphinaud's characters that it makes me a little sad that the fact that it's side content will probably make them de-emphasize that development for them in the main story

video files in-game won't play on my computer for some reason so i had to look this up

i don't know dude finding out Louisoix wasn't actually dead all this time kinda annoyed me a little, because it felt like it was hidden from me by what was originally challenge content. that and this big cinematic i didn't know existed. but the story does end by explaining why it's important that people don't learn the truth of what really happened, so i guess it was for the best i didn't know.... regardless Encyclopedia Eorzea still states from an in-universe perspective what happened. whoops!

i gottt my new favorite mount i got my funny transforming rabbit carrier robot!! this was the final seasonal reward on the PvP battle pass so now i never have to play it again. actually i've been logging on sometimes just to do PvP because the Frontline mode is fun, and i'm getting good at maxing out my epic killstreak running riot killtacular gauge..

i get crazy assists as a Bard. i like to shoot my big bow beam into a line of enemies, which buffs teammates around me who then go off to finish off those kills for me. i do this until i get my robot bunny and then i win in final fantasy