Uncanny Valley

Having put an unceremonious end to Komra’s carnival with their incomprehensibly advanced weaponry, 2P’s cohort of white-garbed androids retreats into the crater from whence they came. Though they are certain to have the tactical advantage should you pursue them into the installation, such a threat cannot go unchecked, and you and your newfound ally 2B are quick to give chase─Anogg and Konogg hot on your heels.
Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers – Reflections in Crystal

With a new patch comes a new raid and this time we are helping Anogg and Konogg once again with Androids. I will be honest and say I have little clue what is happening in the story right now beyond 2P (or 2B) has turned against us and a bunch of Androids has changed their clothing colour. I imagine if you know the Nier story you will be enjoying it so far but right now I don’t know what is happening.

The music for the raid itself is amazing and I found the fights overall were designed very well but sadly far to easy to do and it is quite sad to see as the first stage of this raid tier was quite interesting with how hard it could be at points.

Not going to comment on the vanity as it is mostly the same as The Copied Factory and once again I have little interest in it. That is not saying it is bad just not my style.

813P-operated Aegis Unit

In a weird way, it is a shame I haven’t played Nier ahead of time to understand these bosses but the first boss involves having to watch the boss and notice what moves it is using rather than relying purely on the focus target.

An example of this is at certain parts of the fights you have to look at the AoEs and notice where to dodge based on hints on the attacks themselves. I am not going to discuss the standard tank busters and such but overall I felt this fight was more engaging than a lot of fights I have seen so far as I was watching the fight more than just focus target and that’s always a good thing in my books.

Superior Flight Unit

The second fight in this raid is your classic three-way bosses where you have to kill them close enough together but the twist in this fight (and seemingly the whole raid) is you have to watch out for the others to make sure you dodge everything that is being tossed your way.

I found this fight was the were interesting in the overall raid but I did enjoy having to keep a watchful eye on everywhere but repeat runs of this fight show there is an easy to spot pattern which kinda ruins this fight.

905P-operated Heavy Artillery Unit

This fight was interesting as it involved having to watch not only the boss, where it currently is but also looking around at the walls and the middle to know what mech is going to happen next and having to work out where you need to dodge.

The boss itself however is not that hard and you can eat quite a few mechs while you learn it but to me this is an example of good raid design as rather than watching a focus target bar you look at you have to keep an eye on the environment and figure out yourself what it is telling you to do.

The best part of this fight wasn’t the boss itself but the phase right before it – I would love to see much more of that in this game at least mostly for solo instances.

The Compound

The last fight of this raid shows an issue Final Fantasy XIV has which is a lot of the mechs you see in fights are simply weakened versions from extreme trials or savage raids but beyond the amazing comments on Discord with one of our tanks – this fight was a simple one where you need to watch the boss itself know if you need to stand in, go out, go to a “clone” and so on.

Overall I found this fight being weird. The first being I have no clue what is going on with the boss itself story-wise and I hope that the follow-up quests go into more detail but the mechs itself were simple and if you have done any form of raiding you know what to do.

I found overall the fights were fun but sadly easier compared to The Copied Factory and including the fact I dislike the vanity, there is not much replayability for myself with this tier.