TYFP

Although we’re now getting near the release of Bozja’s second zone and raid, one of the biggest fan takeaways was the return of the Warrior of Light’s one true enemy; The Red Chocobo.

At any time during the battle for the Southern Front, he can appear. He is heralded by lesser reds. But soon enough, all will come face to face with Red Comet.

This battle is one of the harder battles in the Southern Front, until you have access to better spells like Lost Reflect, which most people now use to cheese the Chocobo battle. Red Comet stands calmly across the battlefield from you, and as soon as someone deigns disrupt him, all hell breaks loose. He immediately begins kicking and slashing his main target, all while dropping a multitude of varied meteor attacks on the area. These are signaled by various markers, of various sizes, and various strike patterns.

Your first couple fights with him will be a chaotic mess as you try and learn the patterns. I wont get into a full on guide here, but suffice to say that some rotate around the battlefield, some bounce down in a straight line, some target random alliance members. He also summons waves of lesser reds to charge across the battlefield to stampede you, while ALSO summoning meteor pillars that a teammate has to stand in to absorb the raid wide damage.

Now, after spending enough time in Bozja you learn the fight, and after a bit longer you gain access to reflect spells (which bounce the damage of a spell back onto the caster, in this case, damaging Red Comet). The fight becomes more of a joy to watch and to guide new warriors through. If sufficiently built up without overhyping, the experience of besting the fabled Red Chocobo for the first time boosts new players’ experiences of the Bozja content and the game as a whole. And, even for the carry, the fun of helping a newer player tackle something that is like a rite of passage is always a welcome experience compared to the grind of tome farming.

I’m really excited for the next chapter of the resistance weapon story, which unfortunately, is going to be the last. Here in Shadowbringers we got a lot of the larger scale battle content I was expecting with Stormblood. It’s definitely a welcome content cycle, but I cant help but wonder what we could have had if not for Covid.

I’m exceedingly bored by the same-old-same-old of the tomestone grind, and raid format. I know that they continue to do it because it keeps a steady baseline for new, returning, and veteran players; but the content like Eureka and Bozja are where my heart gravitates.

Here’s hoping that Endwalker brings more unique content with it, and hopefully we find ourselves squared up with another Red Menace.