When going on holiday, no matter how excited you are about reaching your picturesque destination, you first must go through all the stress and rigmarole of ensuring you have everything ready before you leave. You have to make sure your suitcase is packed, buy anything you’re missing, triple-check the kids are in the car, and ensure you’ve got your travel documents, insurance, and all that jazz.
I don’t need my passport to visit Final Fantasy 14’s forthcoming Dawntrail expansion, but there’s still so much left to sort between now and then. Dawntrail is still a year away, but time flies by quickly. One of my FF14 New Year’s resolutions was to catch up on the main scenario quest, and I can’t believe we’re in August and I’m still super behind on the story. If I’m being honest, I’m failing most of my goals.
As well as getting up to date with the main scenario quest, I’d like to get my Bard in better shape for the new content. She desperately needs some better gear and a shiny new bow. Then we all know that with each expansion, we’ll likely be spending a lot of gil as we flit about the place, burning through the story before it can be spoiled for us, and so understandably, we’ll have less time to craft or gather to earn money.
I need to sort my crafting and gathering roles out. There are still some I haven’t fully levelled yet, and those I do have at 90 also lack decent gear. If I can get them up to speed and start earning some proper gil, I can give myself a buffer to ensure I have enough spending money for a vacation. It’s likely to be spent on teleports and new minions, which isn’t far removed from the normal travel costs and keepsakes you’d spend your money on during any real-world holiday.
It’s not just prepping within the confines of the game itself, either. Undoubtedly, there will be a collector’s edition for Dawntrail and given that I’ve purchased each one up until now, I’ll want the next one, too. They always sell out so fast, and I’ll have to endure all the anxiety of waiting for the preorders to start and rushing to claim one. Not to mention the pain my wallet will inevitably feel.
I also want to book a week off for the Dawntrail launch. The downside to working in the video game industry is that you’re more susceptible to spoilers. I could set all the word filters I want on Twitter, but if some news breaks relating to the game, then I’m going to see it in the work chat. And that’s if I don’t have any friends or colleagues send me something, not realising I haven’t progressed that far yet.
Everything is so much better when it comes as a surprise. For Endwalker, going back to the past and seeing Hades and Hytholdaeus like that was unexpected. I can’t imagine experiencing that knowing it would happen, as it would lose a little of its shine.
I know I won’t get cracking with my Final Fantasy 14 to-do list soon. The next couple of months are busy with events and launches, and then before we know it, it’ll be Christmas, and I’ll be writing a new New Year’s resolution list. Or, at this rate, just slapping a new date on the last one. Somehow, I need to find the time to prep for Dawntrail because I don’t want to get stuck spending my time catching up on old content when the expansion launches.