With Fan Fest in Berlin firmly in the rear view, I would expect most Final Fantasy XIV fans to be looking forward to Fan Fest Tokyo in October. After all, we got the announcement of the Bastion Job class, but we still have the Ranged Physical DPS Job to be revealed in October. As exciting as the future is, though, Berlin has caused me to pause for a moment and reflect on the current state of Final Fantasy XIV.
In the whirlwind of reveals, panels, activities, and losing a bet so I have to change from a Healer main to DPS when Evercold releases in January (yes, this happened), a thought struck me. This is not the first time I’ve thought about this, but the experience of Fan Fest Berlin really cemented the idea in my head. I think the Arcadion in Dawntrail is the best raid content in the entire game.
Do not get me wrong here … there are several individual instances across the game that easily beat some of the Arcadion. After all, the NieR Alliance Raids exist, and it feels like those were made for me as a huge fan of NieR. Parts of the Alexander raids in Heavensward are incredible, as are instances of the Sigmascape and Pandaemonium raids (hi, Abyssos: The Seventh Circle, you slightly disgusting gem). But the reason I place the Arcadion as supreme within the many, many raids of Final Fantasy XIV isn’t in these individual components, it’s the complete package.To begin with, the setting of the whole thing is inspired. As Dawntrail itself is a vacation of sorts for the Warrior of Light, the standard fare of the raids being somewhat dour or dry affairs (Pandaemonium) wouldn’t have worked. So, the decision to place the raid series within a gimmicky fighting tournament was a great one. Sure, it still has more serious implications story-wise, but the general premise was refreshingly daft.
This premise lends itself to one of the reasons the Arcadion stands out for me – the fight commentary. Due to the nature of these raids being part of a televised tournament in the style of professional wrestling, every match has a commentator narrating the battle. There’s something about a little guy calling out mistakes, successes and telling me that my opponent has broken the rules – ahem, Brute Bomber – that really adds to the experience.
What’s more, this commentary could very easily have been deeply annoying, but it’s just unobtrusive enough and genuinely funny so that it doesn’t veer into that territory. Also, in the vein of this choice of setting, the satisfaction of hearing the bell ring when you bring down one of the combatants is palpable. Although that might just be the wrestling fan in me.Speaking of the combatants, they are my next point, as these twelve raids feature a delightful menagerie of wonderful visual gimmicks. The point of the Arcadion is that each of the fighters outside of yourself has enhanced themselves with monster souls to obtain enormous power, and this clearly allowed Creative Studio III to playfully experiment with designs. The results? The queen bee-infused Honey B. Lovely and The Tyrant, powered by the soul of a Behemoth, to name but two.
These might have been the first two that came to mind, but you cannot move for exquisitely designed characters here. Dancing Green, Black Cat, Vamp Fatale, they all look amazing and come loaded with the theatricality and camp-ness you would expect from the setting. But it’s not enough for them to look great, this is a game after all, and thankfully the Arcadion doesn’t skimp in the gameplay department either.
Not to continue to drone on (pun intended) about Honey B. Lovely, but she is a great example of this. A lot of her fight is your standard area of effect attacks, tank busters, and other expected shenanigans – albeit ones that (at the time of release) hit pretty damn hard. That is until she tests your adoration for her with attacks that, if you get hit, give you a little heart. Get too many hearts and you are lost in your adoration for her and are temporarily unable to move or attack.Every one of these raids has something like this, some kind of flavour that links to their character, kind of like a finishing move. This is not unique to the Arcadion as many fights throughout the game follow a similar blueprint. But the consistency of how enjoyable these mechanics are in the Arcadion, and the variety of them, is really in a league of its own with this raid series.
It’s purely anecdotal, of course, but I think this raid series is responsible for the highest amount of “Damn, this is cool!” responses to specific game mechanics from me. In a game like Final Fantasy XIV, where you can barely move at times for great mechanics, it’s a testament to the combat design of the Arcadion that so many of these moments exist in just twelve instances that can be cleared in roughly 20 minutes each.
Then there’s the final reason why the Arcadion reigns supreme: the music. This was something that Fan Fest repeatedly reminded me about as several of the songs from the Arcadion were played by The Primals on the Sunday night. One of which they were joined by Naoki Yoshida himself for the screaming parts – name another game director in their early 50s that can claim such a thing.Across these raids, Soken and the sound team leverage so many genres and vibes, hitting infectious pop music, pop-punk, jazz, and hard rock, to name a few. The series even ends with a phenomenal track from Tom Morello collaborating with Beartooth. Even if the genres I listed aren’t your thing, I can guarantee you that the songs of these raids will crawl inside your head and stay there.
I feel like I’ve made my point here, but there’s nothing I could say that beats the experience of just playing this raid series. So, that’s my call-to-arms, as it were. Play the Arcadion, for the love of the Twelve. The next expansion, Evercold, will be bringing both Final Fantasy VII Remake and Evangelion as the Normal and Alliance Raids respectively, so we will have to wait and see how these raids fare. But, for me, the Arcadion will not be an easy opponent to topple.
Source: https://www.thesixthaxis.com/2026/08/10/the-arcadion-is-the-best-raid-content-in-final-fantasy-xiv/
About The Author
Comments are closed.