Final Fantasy 14: Endwalker's first post-expansion patch came out today, adding a new eight-player raid and making various tweaks and adjustments. As I was peeping the patch notes I came across something I hadn't expected: Square Enix fixed the goddamn grapes.
In case you missed it, the Final Fantasy 14 community briefly became obsessed with these low-poly grapes found in Labyrinthos, one of the expansion's new zones you can visit. Some thought the grapes were an atrocity, while others (including our own Tyler Colp) thought they were fantastic. I'm on Tyler's side—they were beautiful, blocky and unique bunches of polygons.
It seems all the memes and tweets were enough to bring the grapes to Square Enix's attention though, as the new patch has made them considerably less chunky. They're not quite at the levels of detail as the infamous 1.0 flower pot, but the sight of them isn't as jarring anymore. The patch notes are bold enough to call the low-poly grapes an issue, claiming they "were reduced in excess to alleviate system memory usage in the area," but I think there's a good chance they wouldn't have changed had their presence not quickly become a joke amongst the community.
Their lost roughness is being mourned on Twitter and Reddit, which really just goes to show how quickly players can become attached to the daftest things, even things they've spent the last two weeks taking the piss out of. I'm pretty sad they're gone too, but we'll always remember the OGs—you can polish a grape crystal, but it's still a grape crystal after all.
Patch 6.01 has also made some actual meaningful changes. Solo duty 'In from the Cold' has had its Easy and Very Easy difficulties tweaked following frustrations around the quest's structure, making it easier to locate certain items needed. New eight-player raid Pandæmonium brings item level 580 armour, and an issue causing game sound to cut out completely has been fixed. Experience from dungeons from levels 81 to 89 have been increased and NPCs should no longer randomly float when accompanying you during quests.
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