While the launch of a new Final Fantasy 14 expansion typically kicks up a lot of familiar talking points, it's the random and unexpected stuff that I enjoy the most. Sitting around in a queue for Endwalker and seeing people lose it over some audacious low-poly grapes made me all the keener to see them for myself.
This time around, the star of the show is a 10-year-old raid that Dawntrail broke. Not that it matters to the scores of players who have collectively gone, 'I reckon I could still take Amon, bug buffed or not.' And so they did!
Back in the old days of A Realm Reborn, Square Enix introduced a then-optional trio of raids known as the Crystal Tower series. The second of those, Syrcus Tower, ends with a boss called Amon, who has seemingly decided they've had enough of being bullied over the past 10 years. Once a relatively easy encounter, the raid boss is now a menace.
Typically, when you fight Amon, he casts a spell called 'Curtain Call' that is an instant knockout if you don't hide behind three players who become frozen into ice cubes. Now, players are still frozen, but no ice blocks are appearing, leaving everyone forced to take a big ol' L.
amon after dying over 32 million times become enlightened and came to a realization that he can just stop making ice boulders blocking his curtain calls #ffxiv pic.twitter.com/RaoJF7QODpJune 28, 2024
Square Enix has since acknowledged and fixed the error, but only after many Final Fantasy 14 fans managed to find a way to beat Amon despite his buggy state. One popular method involved having a healer fall before the big moment – you have to accept a resurrection from another player so it can be timed to avoid the Curtain Call. Naturally, one healer can't do the work of 24 players, so the next step is using a level three Limit Break to revive the entire party. It's fidgety, but it can work.
Other popular strategies involve using food buffs to simply bully Amon into the dirt before he can cast Curtain Call or simply just avoiding the raid altogether if you're doing an Alliance Raid as part of your daily roulettes. Both are effective options, to be fair.
Much like Endwalker's low-poly grapes, buff Amon is also gone but was enjoyed for the brief stint he played in the MMO all the same. Final Fantasy 14 is designed to give fans plenty to enjoy, though I always enjoy the community's ability to make something memorable out of the unintended.
