Minecraft 1.21 Review
One of the biggest Minecraft updates has finally made its way to players and everyone is excited to explore the trial chambers and revamp their Minecraft farms with crafters! Now that Minecraft 1.21 features are out, you must be wondering if they truly deserve your attention. Well, I’ve been testing the Minecraft 1.21 update since the release of the first snapshot, so let me share my views on all the new features in this release.
First, Let’s Look at All Minecraft 1.21 Features
There are quite a lot of new features with the Minecraft 1.21 update. These include:
- 17 new blocks, including new copper and tuff variants
- 22 new items, including a crafter, vaults, trial spawners, and more
- 2 new weapons
- 2 brand-new mobs
- 1 new structure, the trial chambers
- 8 new advancements
- 3 new enchantments
- 6 brand-new effects
- Ominous Trials event
- 9 Background tracks
- 3 Music discs
- 20 Paintings
As you can see, the Minecraft 1.21 update packs a total of 94 additions. However, it’s safe to say that these features have been polished nicely. They function as planned and don’t have significant bugs or exploit opportunities. That said, how do these new features interact with the old ones? So, let’s talk about that.
Do the New Features Fit Well with the Minecraft World?
The features in the latest Minecraft 1.21 update mainly focus on the combat aspect of the game. Many of them are part of the new trial chambers, which aims to provide exciting and unpredictable battles that the player will enjoy. Some players claim Minecraft is too easy, so this new structure is going to offer harder challenges and greater rewards if you’re up for them.
Not only that but due to the brilliant vaults and ominous vaults, every player will be rewarded, no matter how late they are to the party. I say that because, unlike chests, the vaults give every player who interacts with them rewards individually. As a major problem on the multiplayer servers, it’s good to see the 1.21 update fixing it with a smart solution.
The crafter block on its own has helped with plenty of inconveniences that would arise during the day-to-day grind and gameplay. So, it is more than a welcome addition in multiplayer and single-player worlds. I can’t wait to see the redstone mechanic maestros and fanatics put the crafters to good use in their Minecraft farms.
On the other hand, some features may seem a bit unbalanced. Yeah, we are talking about the mace and brand-new potion effects. The Minecraft mace is a new melee weapon that’s extremely powerful in the right hands. It can be enchanted with 3 unique mace enchantments, which provide additional power and abilities.
Despite all this, I believe that the mace has been tamed to be powerful but not broken with testing in snapshots. So, I would say the mace fits in with the rest of the game’s world very well. However, the same might not be said for potions.
There are 4 new potions – potion of oozing, infestation, weaving, and wind charging. These potions have an intended use inside trial chambers to make ominous trials more difficult. However, the oozing potion in particular is the most controversial one.
It summons two medium slimes upon the death of an affected mob or player. These slimes drop slime just like normal slimes, so you can imagine how easily players can get slime with just one splash potion of oozing and a bunch of chickens.
This addition in my opinion doesn’t make much sense. The slime farms won’t be as efficient and useful as they used to be, so simply no one will bother building them. Furthermore, you’ll obtain morh slime, so this resource will essentially become free. But if Mojang is making slime easier to obtain then maybe that’s the point.
Maybe Minecraft 1.22 will have something important to do with slime and players will need them in large quantities. Or this may just be an easy way to get slime in case you don’t feel like hunting them in a swamp or making a farm.
Apart from this, there is also the potion of weaving, which generates cobwebs upon the death of an affected mob or player. This is an easy way of obtaining cobwebs, though that is acceptable, as they were difficult to get and weren’t renewable before.
Does the Minecraft 1.21 Update Live up to the Community?
Before Minecraft Live 2023, the community wanted one and only one update—the End Update. However, that is not what we got after all. The Minecraft 1.21 update that we now know is called Tricky Trials and is related to combat challenges. Its primary goal is to bring new adventures to players so they can experience difficult fights and earn amazing rewards.
The community’s feedback and suggestions have created the crafter and the vault blocks, which have fixed some glaring issues in the game.
Minecraft 1.21 was expected to be a new 1.16 update that would finally fix the End dimension and make it more lively as the endgame location. Instead, Mojang focused on mechanics that were not necessary to be upgraded immediately. That said, the developers have been regularly listening to the community’s feedback, so we can expect other requested features in the future.
Perhaps Mojang is working on a massive End Update but simply needs more time to execute it in the right way. They first focused on a smaller update introducing various useful items and blocks. What do you think about this possibility?
Minecraft 1.20 vs 1.21: How Do They Compare?
Let’s compare Minecraft 1.21 to last year’s 1.20 update. The 1.20 update added fewer new features to the game than the latest update. However, it truly has a little bit of everything in it. From brand-new decorative blocks, the cherry grove biome, and cute passive mobs to changes implemented in most structures, thanks to armor trims and archeology, there was so much to explore.
The 1.21 update, on the other hand, mainly focuses on improving one major game aspect – combat. Note that this doesn’t make the update fully stand out for me as it has a different goal altogether. So, while a direct comparison wouldn’t be fair, 1.21 proves to be a feature-packed Minecraft update.
Minecraft 1.21 Update: How Good Is the New Update?
Now that we have looked at all the changes in Minecraft 1.21, I’ll give you my opinion on whether or not it is a good update. In short, yeah, I think this is a fairly good update. It adds many brand-new features that mostly complement the already-existing game features.
Moreover, some of its additions are a direct result of the community’s feedback, which is always a huge plus. Some of these items are surprises, making you look forward to trying them out in your world.
To add to this, Minecraft 1.21 is a fulfilling update for players who like combat challenges. They would love exploring the trial chambers and fighting hordes of mobs with friends. The second sect who will appreciate this update are redstone fanatics, thanks to the new crafter block.
So, all in all, while we didn’t get an End Update, the quality-of-life features, great-looking decorative blocks, and the completely new and complex trial chamber make the 1.21 update worth the salt.
At least, that’s how I feel about the Minecraft 1.21 release. Do you agree with me? Would you say the 1.21 update is good enough? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!
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