Starting The Horrible Hundred
Eeesh. So not too long ago I finished Final Fantasy XIV’s ‘A Realm Reborn’ (or 2.0) main story. I discovered that there were a hundred quests standing between me and the next expansion — Heavensward. Each of those quests can have multiple parts, too.
Since then I learnt this stretch has a name. ‘The Horrible Hundred’ is what the community lovingly refers to the ARR post-game content as. It’s a rite of passage. A trial to be passed to earn your way into the much nicer content that follows. *sigh* Yep. I recognise the sentiment. Right now in the thick of it, it’s enough to at least make me rethink the position. How I’ll feel on the other side of it with some time gone by? Hard to say. The rose-tinted glasses may come into full swing. ;)
Although if I’m being honest, I’ve been in a sort of middle space between pushing on and procrastinating. I’ve absolutely been playing more Final Fantasy, I didn’t go back to avoiding logging in. But I started working on unlocking a bunch of the level 50 dungeons and collecting a full set of Bard Ironworks gear (including the bow! Woo.)
The gear is significantly higher ilvl than what even the post-game quests are providing (ilvl 120 on the Ironworks, I’m being offered ilvl 70 otherwise). It makes the content amusingly easy for the time being and this does at least help speed it up.
Learnt to Love the Journey Yet?
Thinking on it, and the experiment I set myself to try appreciate more of the MMO experience — the low and mid-game experience in particular — instead of just pushing hard for the endgame I wouldn’t say has been a failure per se.
But I wouldn’t say it has been a resounding success yet either. I think the mere fact I was able to step off the train for a while to get gear and unlocks that I know to be completely unnecessary and serve no purpose toward the current endgame to be a positive indicator.
At the same time the drive to simply get through it all and reach the end hasn’t gone away. If anything it is increasing as that point gets closer. To be fair it’s not 100% about getting to the very end, a large part of it is also a drive to reach the new (and new to me) content… Still.
I guess it would be fair to say it’s still a work in progress. I’ve completed 20 / 100 of this quest chain, so another 80 in which to practice! (And of course the expansions to follow.)
