The mechanics in some of Final Fantasy XIV’s dungeons can be a bit repetitive. Players pull two packs of mobs, kill them, pull two packs, kill them, boss, rinse, repeat, three times over. So when a dungeon has more unique mechanics, they can be memorable and beloved — and when one of those unique mechanics is removed, fans will unsurprisingly be annoyed.
That’s exactly what’s happening as FFXIV players realize that a memorable mechanic from The Drowned City of Skalla dungeon was removed in Patch 6.5. The mechanic in question saw players transform into giant blue ghost-like creatures (A Zangbeto), and float (or often, hop) across an impassable gap in the floor. If you lingered, you'd fall and die, and have to be resurrected. It was unusual, it was weird, and it was the only mechanic like it in the game.
When fans discovered earlier this week that it had been removed, there was some outcry on both Reddit, and Twitter/X. First posted about on Japanese 2chan-affiliated FFXIV blog, the mechanic has now changed to create a bridge across the gaps, rather than transforming the players into the Zangbeto mob.
Remember the ghosts as they once lived
As the blog notes, this was likely due to the dungeon’s recent addition to Duty Support, the in-game feature that allows players to play dungeons with a party of NPCs. It seems the NPCs must have had trouble navigating the gap, and the feature has been removed.
Whatever the reasoning, fans are sad to see a unique part of the game disappear. In the Reddit thread on the removal of the mechanic, players fondly remembered it. Reddit user u/orangedonut reminisced: “I remember messing around with the ghosts and not noticing it has a timer and I turned back in the middle of the pit and falling to my death, 10/10 would do it again.”
Another user, u/notnotLily, said “There’s a tiny optimization you can do with the second one where you click off the debuff, which will transform you back early so you can start sprinting.” Sadly, there will be no more optimization with the feature removed.
This removal was only partially described in the 6.5 patch notes. Under the “Miscellaneous” section of the “Playable Content” notes, a single bullet point reads “Certain dungeon mechanics have been adjusted.” The notes also explain that the bosses in The Drowned City of Skalla had been adjusted.
