// PC GAMER — GAMING
Final Fantasy 14's funky new roguelike mode has me hyped for Evercold's combat revamp, which'll be a winner if it's even half as weird
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This is Terminally Online: PC Gamer's very own MMO column. Every other week, I'll be sharing my thoughts on the genre, interviewing fellow MMO-heads like me, taking a deep-dive into mechanics we've all taken for granted, and, occasionally, bringing in guest writers to talk about their MMO of choice.
I've had a little time to muck around with Final Fantasy 14's new Beastmaster limited job—for the uninitiated, a limited job is sort of like a minigame. Not an actual class you can take into current raids or dungeons, but a side-activity that uses the game's combat system to create something new.
The Beastmaster can tame and use creatures in combat. And for the first 30 levels, I was mostly just filling out my little book of monsters in a pleasant haze. I like the job's core combat mechanics, which involve pairing up axe strikes with specific monster abilities to form combos, but grinding in the overworld doesn't do much to show that off.
Where the Beastmaster really shines is in the Crucible of the Unbroken, the limited job's roguelike mode.
I was mostly expecting a straightforward list of bosses to push over via FF14 fun, but played-out combat mechanics, and there is some of that demand. But it's mixed with an overarching minigame of strategy and ability usage that has me watering at the mouth for whatever strange, eldritch things Evercold is cooking up.
For context, Evercold will be introducing "Evolved" jobs—a means to escape the game's rote, two-minute cooldown homogenization that's plagued it for years. During the look we've gotten at these, it seems Square Enix wants to reintroduce job identity to each of the existing jobs by giving them something weird.
For example, the Paladin gets defensive abilities they can essentially "parry" with, unlocking huge punishes if they time them moments before a powerful blow lands. The Dragoon will get an ultimate jump ability and, while it is still being deliberated, the developers have teased the idea of giving the Dragoon a 90% damage resistance buff while they're up in the air. The Dragoon is a DPS job. This'd be unprecedented.
But it's hard to tell, with any development studio, where the hype ends and the overpromising begins. Will Square Enix be brave enough to commit? The Crucible of the Unbroken tells me they very much might.
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