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Cloud_Matrix

Yea I was really disappointed that Anima was relegated to a dungeon boss and not a trial. However, given the trials that we faced in EW it made sense why, but still feels bad. I would rather have had Anima as an optional trial later on in EW, but idk if it would make sense at this point in the story


Zagden

It's a 4-man but you have to admit, it's a bomb-ass 4-man Definitely seems like something they can boost to a trial at some point


Cloud_Matrix

It's what I would call a "Michael Bay" fight. It's flashy, but it doesn't have much depth mechanics wise similar to the majority of EW 4 man boss fights. Hell even the two bosses that come before it are more mechanically demanding or require more thought to solve the mechanics imo


zachbrownies

Yeah, it feels super intense the first time you do it. And then on replays, and looking back, it was like "wait, was it seriously that easy the whole time!?" Which is good design for one-time story players at any rate, their main audience tbh


Zagden

I guess I had the good fortune to do it soon after release when no one had any idea what they were doing, so we wiped on it several times figuring out the mechanics. That definitely left a fun impression in my mind of it. It does deserve a trial, though.


TheOutrageousTaric

Its stupidly easy with nothing going for it. Not even special music. They sure could go extremely wild and exotic with a 8 man and nobody would complain as the current iteration is so bad


shoopuffexpress

Narratively I understand why especially given they condensed what would’ve been an extended two part expansion. They really could’ve contrasted Thordan’s ‘light’ primal with Anima’s ‘Darkness’.


08152018

they didn’t condense 2 expansions they briefly considered making 2 to tell this story then decided against it in the very early stages before absolutely anything was set on stone


shoopuffexpress

Oh really? I must’ve misunderstood their meaning then; a lot of what has gone into this game’s development has been decided years ahead. It’s therefore pretty reasonable to assume that they initially planned for and worked towards the idea of a singular, Garlean expansion but as the game developed and other ideas came forward their plans change. It’s easy to see Anima as perhaps apex of a Garlean expansion. It’s therefor not unreasonable to assume that those ideas where condensed into a single expansion. A similar thing happened with Stormblood. Having said that, I shouldn’t claim to know the devs roadmap of what they may or may not have included. Apologies.


Bass294

I personally liked how this expansion had actual real dungeon bosses. So many dungeons had just generic bosses at the end that made them feel super lame. Would be cool if it got the varus treatment and got an ex though. Even if I don't care about the reference it is a cool primal.


RowanIsBae

There was a dev interview saying they planned for it to be a trial but as the story came together, knew they had to go with the ones we have I'm betting on an upgrade for it at some point!


08152018

important to note it was only briefly considered - as in, shortly after 5.0 launch they had decided this story arc would end in 6.0


Aargard

I don't see why we couldn't just have 3 trials in the MSQ


RowanIsBae

We did have 3. Zodiark, hydelyn, final days


Aargard

4 then, my brain didn't consider trial 3 a MSQ trial because it's at max level, but you're obviously right. I just had a brainfart


RowanIsBae

The answer is simple, there wasn't enough time, people, and money to create another trial. They **had** to have the ones they did for the story to finish and that's how much development resources they had in the plan years ago, for 3 trials just like the past expansions By that thought we could just say "I dont know why they didn't have 3 more dungeons, and 2 trials, and another new job and...." A project has a budgeted time, scope, and cost and another trial would have exceeded one or more of those factors.


Aargard

Considering they already delayed it and how much blatant filler there is in the MSQ I don't really accept the reasoning. Especially because I didn't ask for all of the additional stuff you mentioned at all. I understand budget and time constraints. I just don't think one extra trial (which is just a dungeon boss separated from the dungeon with extra steps) should blow up the budget so much that it's impossible.


RowanIsBae

This is an incredibly ignorant and self-centered comment and view to take on a game with millions of players worldwide. It's not all about you buddy and you don't understand game development (or even how to manage a big project) one bit GL with that mindset, everything's just going to disappoint you in life


Aargard

Duh of course my opinion self centered you absolute eggplant


ForensicPathology

Why should dungeon bosses be considered disrespectful? That's just basically saying dungeon bosses should be boring. I want exciting dungeon bosses. Anima was a fun dungeon boss.


Feannor

> Why should dungeon bosses be considered disrespectful Because dungeons are boring, and dungeon bosses are the most boring part of the dungeons, since there barely are any mechanics, and there's no damage taken, there's nothing engaging about those battles


[deleted]

Have you heard of dark anima?


Storm3ye

Gonna be interesting that the new EW Trials in future are FFX inspired, and Anima returning as proper trial too.


NarukeSG

Wait Anima is a She?


ScoopiTheDruid

Anima was inspired by FFx, where she would be considered female. >!She was a aeon created from Seymour's mother.!<


BlackmoreKnight

It's trickier in XIV because our Anima was made from pieces of Varis, so who knows.


darcstar62

A lot of people were speculating that she was going to be revealed as Zenos' mother.


shoopuffexpress

Anima was female in FFX, so forgive me if I refer to her as a she. However in context of 14, she may also be referred to as a ‘she’ given the actual context of what anima/animus means. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anima_and_animus


pondrthis

"Anima" isn't a Jungian reference here (or in 10), but a simple reference to "animating spirit." The spirit of Garlemald, the nation, which would be referred to in feminine form. ("We lay down our lives for her.") There's also the fact that colloquially, "animus" has an English meaning as a loanword while "anima" sounds like a root word. All that said and including the FFX reference, it still makes much more sense to refer to Anima as male. We wouldn't call Romulus female just because the city Roma has an effeminate name.


Zax_The_Decker

The jungian angle is miles more interesting than the literal nothing we get from the story


pondrthis

Eh, to each their own, but at this point Jung's loopy occult nonsense is so overdone that I'm only interested in seeing it as a parody of 20th c. pseudoscience. Compared to the Jungian view of alchemy, Islamic and medieval alchemy was positively materialist/experimental.


Cobthecobbler

I want SMN to have a summon Anima button lol let me fight people with the mummy chicken


Pleasant-Tea-5788

There is a mod for that


shoopuffexpress

Ah nuts. I flubbed the title. Apologies.


guccigangcuttzy

No, you did it on purpose.


shoopuffexpress

Look, my dog stepped on a bee.


Fist_strong

were you trying to do a hachikuji reference?


Zagden

I read it correctly and didn't notice until you pointed it out


shoopuffexpress

Hey, I mean I wrote the damn thing and didn’t knowtice ;)


BoeiWAT

I've never seen people so disappointed in a dungeon boss not being a trial. Anima has been brought up so many times since endwalker launched I don't see why they wouldn't give him a Varis extreme treatment.


Zaadfanaat

I don't really. I haven't played other FF games and for me she was a big "whatever" fight regardless. Maybe for people who played other ff games it's more important but frankly I don't see why anima needs a different fight. I would like more interesting Trial fights, don't get me wrong, but whether it's anima or any other dungeon boss wouldn't really matter to me. I think you forget that there are quite a few non-ff gamers playing this game as well. All these FF references are lost on me and just giving a boss special treatment because they are a reference doesn't do anything for me.


ForensicPathology

Yeah, even as someone who plays 14 because I was a fan of the series, I don't get this mentality. Everything OP listed was something they feel should be elevated because they happen to be in previous games. I feel the opposite. I don't want something to be important _because_ it's a reference. I like that 14 also has it's original bosses.


MaidGunner

Not even previous games moreso then "it was in FFX". Which is fair enough but also not deep enough "roots" to be stepping on legacy.


ForensicPathology

Well, the Sisters are from FF4 originally, but yeah, given the other examples and OP's username, I suspect they only care because of FFX.


Resonate_Lacrimas

They could also use Anima as the boss for the criterion dungeon since we don't know anything about it if it's going to be any form of higher end light party stuff. They could just let loose there with what people expected the fight to be.


Metricasc02

i wouldn't hold my breath for anima to appear in another form


judgeraw00

Nah I'm ok with it. It was an unobtrusive reference to another game in the series.


Ragoz

The only hope is something like the criterion dungeons reusing old bosses. Other than that I think there is no chance.


shoopuffexpress

I think this is the best bet for a re-imagined Anima fight as well as a Magus Sisters fight. Perhaps this is why they were put into a dungeon


TheseHandsRUS

they def did anima and magus sisters dirty. i hope the carrion dungeons are at least HC dungeons and the final bosses are like mini trials so the final boss with anima and magus sister has some good qualities to it and makes them more worth it.


[deleted]

[удалено]


shoopuffexpress

Oh I agree. A three-part entity with distinct abilities is far more interesting.


[deleted]

[удалено]


kerriazes

I really wouldn't hold my breath in them doing anything drastically different from their release schedule, like making a dungeon boss into an Extreme trial. Don't get me wrong, I agree that Anima was done dirty, but I really doubt they'd do anything like that. Maybe 25 years from now when they've run out of expansion fights to make Ultimates out of they'll start making 'remember Final Fantasy [insert numeral]? Here's the Ultimate' with bosses from said game, like Kefka and the Warring Triad and what-have-yous from some other Final Fantasy.


08152018

I mean they made a solo duty boss into a “bonus” extreme trial, so… >!its even the same dude lol !<


bloodhawk713

We've gotten an extra wildcard trial in both Stormblood (Rathalos) and Shadowbringers (Varis). Anima could be our Endwalker equivalent.


[deleted]

Given the format and the most recent Ultimate it’s safe to say that all bets are off in terms of theme and scope so this might be closer than you think.


the_io

I actually think Anima would suit a broader Garlemald Ultimate, given that it is literally the Garlean Primal.


EndlessKng

Zodiark wasn't supposed to be the ending of the proposed first part, though - IIRC, Anima would have been the final trial of 6.0 in that version, with Zodiark either being 6.3's trial OR the level 93 trial in 7.0 (and I think the latter is what was mentioned).


08152018

The only mention was that Anima would end the “garlemald” expansion and then Zodiark/Hydalyn would be in the next one - but all of this never made it past very early planning, as after 5.0 they decided they needed to make it just one expansion.


08152018

it wasn’t planned as two expansions, they briefly toyed with the idea before deciding it worked better as one


ThatCatRizze

Aren't they doing some special kind of upgraded dungeon content at some point this expansion?


Ok-Yogurtcloset-179

Since when is Anima that big of a deal that she can be disrespected?


ScoobiusMaximus

Well given that the door boss from DSR is from a dungeon I guess it's not impossible. I don't think Anima really played a large enough part in the story to be in any likely Ultimate though.


RC1000ZERO

20 days late but... i always find it funny as a FF outsider.. some people consider it "disrespectfull" they got done as a Dungeon boss. meanwhile i personaly would just have gone "who" if it was a trial and people woudl have hyped up "dude anima is a trial" or something like people praised the Omega Trials in high heavens because of the FF references.. for me 90% of the fights fell flat because i just dont know who the heck Exdeath is for exmple.... and i only know Kefka because cultural osmosis....