Final Fantasy XIV Hot Takes

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ivtrix

Rise is trash, .

---

https://i.redd.it/8xz6fb8gx85z.jpg

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by TheMightyMollusk

https://i.redd.it/8xz6fb8gx85z.jpg

---

https://media.discordapp.net/attachm...0/IMG_4374.jpg

Here's some of my own epic hot takes:

- Endwalker is worse than both Shadowbringers and Heavensward
- 3.3 was the only good X.3 patch in terms of MSQ
- Alexander is still the peak of the game's OST
- Any time there's an arrangement of an old FF track it's always worse than the original by a wide margin
- I don't like how much the game relies on old FF fanservice, it's fine in side content but in the MSQ it leaves a bad taste in my mouth
- Direct Hit is a worthless stat from a game design standpoint
- The static 10000 MP thing looks dumb at low levels and there was pretty much no reason to change it
- 1.0/early ARR gear design actually looks good (when undyed)
- Alphinaud is the best Scion and Alisaie is the worst :p

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ameela

- Endwalker is worse than both Shadowbringers and Heavensward

---

I feel like this is said so often that it's not even a hot take anymore. But yeah, you're 100% right IMO.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by kpxmanifesto

I feel like this is said so often that it's not even a hot take anymore. But yeah, you're 100% right IMO.

---

It probably depends on what side of the internet you're on, maybe here on the OF it's not that uncommon but you'd be surprised by how many people tout Endwalker as the best expansion in other spaces that discuss the game.

Blue Mage limited job is actually a good idea, the only bad aspects of it are details of how it runs their "endgame" content (to be more specifc, the inability to partake Log objectives solo).

Hot take: Posting "people's opinions aren't as important as they think" is one of the most useless non-contributions to any topic you can make. If that's how you think, you shouldn't be on a message board or talk to people at all.

Now FFXIV related...
"Modern" glamour like the stupid social shirt with backpack make anywhere with a big group of players look like a circus of eyesores. If there was a way to replace them with attire that actually looks like it belongs in the setting I would.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ReynTime

Hot take: Posting "people's opinions aren't as important as they think" is one of the most useless non-contributions to any topic you can make. If that's how you think, you shouldn't be on a message board or talk to people at all.

Now FFXIV related...
"Modern" glamour like the stupid social shirt with backpack make anywhere with a big group of players look like a circus of eyesores. If there was a way to replace them with attire that actually looks like it belongs in the setting I would.

---

That really bothers me too..why is it so hard to get simple designs? They always need some annoying belt or purse or hat or backpack or fannypack or tattoo attached to every tshirt or blouse.

This entire game is built around melee classes, most heals require everyone to be grouped tightly, single target healing feels awkward and most healers seem to hate it. Most buffs are 20yds so everyone needs to be grouped tightly. Melee DPS is highest, and their LB3 is the most useful on over 95% of boss fights. They also have insane survivability and movement in large PvP situations like Frontlines.

The concept of "ranged" is pretty much a joke in this game, almost like developers put them in as an after thought. Contrast this to WoW where ranged can be at max distance most of the time without issue and ranged regularly beats most melee on DPS.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ivtrix

The best track in Alexander is Mobeius.

---

I am a Brute Justice enjoyer, myself.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ivtrix

Locus is trash

---

https://media.giphy.com/media/thUM5CWFPNoLS/giphy.gif

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SassyAssassin

That really bothers me too..why is it so hard to get simple designs? They always need some annoying belt or purse or hat or backpack or fannypack or tattoo attached to every tshirt or blouse.

---

In my case I just hate the floodgates the restoration glamour opened. We went from that, which already looked incredibly stupid to the "street dancer from mid 2000s" set to the "office intern tripped and fell into the world of Final Fantasy XIV by accident" set. New mogstation glamour is taking cues from freemium Korean MMOs at this point.

Some Spicy takes

>I rather have worse game balance at the highest end for a more complex game that has more options
>Cross class skills are a more fun and interesting for the game (aka having the option of gaining abilites from jobs, in a limited capacity)
>Current tank stance system is pretty bad for the game, I'd like more options for tanks to have "defensive" stances and "offensive" stances again, even if a defensive stance isn't used much.
>Storm blood story was pretty good.
>Warrior BW shouldn't heal for each target hit (only one)
>I enjoy the levelling process.
>I feel like mounts are a waste of time.
>4 man content is more fun then 8 man, sadly I like harder content aswell but i guess savage dugeons fixes that
>Big shoulder pads ruin 90% of tank "glams", as someone who generally likes to have class fantasy and being a tank main It's something that really annoys me.

Ok some of them are agreeable depending on who you ask, I woulda also put stuff like "healers need a total rework" but i think a lot of people agree with that.

Papalymo should have been a smoker. Give him a little pipe.

Final bosses in Dungeons should have a full wipe mechanic that can be prevented ala Interject and other methods. Hermes was a wasted potential and most dungeon mechanics can just be ignored

(But it's for casuals!)

Dungeons difficulty is much lower than casual difficulty, it's called Braindead Difficulty.

Also

Raids after Coils and Alex aren't raids, they are Glorified Mini-Trials.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by OM3GA-Z3RO

Final bosses in Dungeons should have a full wipe mechanic that can be prevented ala Interject and other methods. Hermes was a wasted potential and most dungeon mechanics can just be ignored

(But it's for casuals!)

Dungeons difficulty is much lower than casual difficulty, it's called Braindead Difficulty.

Also

Raids after Coils and Alex aren't raids, they are Glorified Mini-Trials.

---

Actually enjoyed certain endwalker dugeons such as dead ends and zot because the pulls were pretty harsh and mechs were somewhat punishing especially on dead ends, but in general I agree dungeons are way too catered to a casual player base, I'm really excited for new harder dugeons also more explorative dugeons are gonna be pretty awesome compared to what we got currently, shame theirs never going to be "hard modes" of current dugeons which i don't think would be *too hard* to implement

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Rithy255

Actually enjoyed certain endwalker dugeons such as dead ends and zot because the pulls were pretty harsh and mechs were somewhat punishing especially on dead ends, but in general I agree dungeons are way too catered to a casual player base, I'm really excited for new harder dugeons also more explorative dugeons are gonna be pretty awesome compared to what we got currently, shame theirs never going to be "hard modes" of current dugeons which i don't think would be *too hard* to implement

---

Every expansion has 1 or 2 outliers in MSQ dungeon pull difficulty for some reason. In ShB and EW it was the first and last of the X.0 MSQ. Everything beyond that feels undertuned.

I still find Lyse sexy and I want her to myself T.T Also Doki Boki

Very niche musical hot takes:
- Hic Svnt Leones is complete trash
- Alexander raid music is the peak of Soken's work
- Heavensward had the best soundtrack
- None of the Primals remix sound good.
- Musical leitmotivs are way overused
- Music has meaning, and I dislike when they use themes randomly. Like Don't be Afraid (FFVIII's generic battle theme) used for Cloud of Darkness, Heavensward's main theme used for so many different things which have barely anything in common (like Fandaniel for instance), Devola and Popola's theme used for random battles against Machine Lifeforms, FFII's battle theme used for comedic, low-stakes battles, Esper Battle used against pretty much anything but Espers in Ivalice related content...

ShD and EDW was trash
StB was the best expansion
HW had the most player agency
ARR had good item diversity but was never expanded upon
Limited Jobs wont ever matter
Being good at the game doesn't matter
They should have never made male viera
Crafter gear killed dungeon and raid gear
jump potions killed early game content
FCs and GC are pointless
Devs work hard
Yoshi P isn't special even during ARR
The single player MMo is good in concept but not in execution
Also I like Minfilia

Samurai should have been a tank.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ronibosch

Samurai should have been a tank.

---

Maybe one day we could get "Shogun". A beefy Samurai-like as a tank. Yay or nay?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by BRVV

Maybe one day we could get "Shogun". A beefy Samurai-like as a tank. Yay or nay?

---

A thousand yays! :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SassyAssassin

That really bothers me too..why is it so hard to get simple designs? They always need some annoying belt or purse or hat or backpack or fannypack or tattoo attached to every tshirt or blouse.

---

We have this issue with furniture too(actually, it is even worse). I cannot understand WHY they go for "complex" designs before the basic ones everyone needs/would use.

The general forum is like the movie Groundhog day.

XIV is on a downwards trend of mechanics and those they keep feel unfinished, some made sense but a lot of them its like ... why

- Hunting log, yea i guess thats not really something we miss.
- Retainer can become a full job, which makes no sense from a lore perspective and the only thing it adds is they can equip gear.
- Dungeon variety: I understand that most dungeons are beelined, but i still feels bad that everything by now is 2 packs > 2 packs > boss > 2 packs > 2 packs > boss > 2 packs > 2 packs > boss.
- Area based achievement fates were dropped, only the rare big ones remain.
- Job based quest lines were tossed
- After Airships and Submarines nothing was really added to FC's
- Beast tribe final quests were tossed.
- The big grindy content is still not rolled out fast enough (relic weapon)
- Deep dungeon and Adventure map used to be given both, Potd+Diadem ... Hoh+Eureka, in shb deep dungeon was droped and the missed exp implemented into Bozja. From an outside perspective i do not belive that thet new dungeon is going to be as much content as Bozja, so thats a downtrend again.
- A lot of Goldsaucer side content is completely neglected, Chocobo racing, Majong and Lord or Verminion are basically "there"
- Our Companion still has had no update since ARR
- Treasure Map dungeons overtime were reduced in whats in them and their room size, the additional rare maps were tossed
- We still have not found the cure to the housing problem, but we are on about 20 layers of ductape now.
- A lot of Achievements are discontinued, no new tank mounts either, what happend to Commendations etc.
- Bluemage is still "there" and played for 2 weeks when theres an update and then tossed aside, i dread to think what happens to BST if they add it as a limited job.
- We are on a continues spiral of "make it easier" to raise the skill floor, while not raising the celling a lot of players want more complexity to their job.
- A lot of job are just derailed, drk by now lost almost all of its identity, and Delirium is basically inner release.
- If you overlayed tank skills from one class to another you'd realise that a lot of them are almost fully the same, the only outliers are pld magic combo and gnb added hit. (and Pld gets a "rework" soon)
- The content is made more simple in order for SE to not get their trusts killed on low lv, which means many mechanics are lost to time now, no more "bomb the slime" etc.
- GC Are pointless, ranks add nothing of value and are now just an afterthought
- Theres so many bots now that crafting has no value (cept for patch days)

Also i have massive problems with ShB soundtrack, i understand now that soken was in hospital for that but they really should've said that up front.

Innocense uses a remix of the dungeon boss track.
Twintania was new and cool
Hades was the title music
Ruby, big fat tacos
WoL, fusion of 2 songs
Emerald, big fat tacos
Diamond, big fat tacos (should've been a zenos dna thingy, like emerald had gaius etc but instead it had a ifrit form i guess.)
Memoria, dungeon boss music, like what?

Raid 8 man FF8 music or remixes of ffxiv music (did we really need a 5th version of Shiva/Titan?)
Raid 24 man Nier music
And Bozja music felt very, odd? I'm not sure how to describe it.

I love the game and it made a few good improvements but there's a lot of things that got lost on the way, and not as much new stuff added. The overall quality went up, but it can be problematic for those that play a lot.

XIV is the perfect game if your new, soooo much to do, but if you kept up with it from like ARR till now, you will feel that we get "less"

Also fuck

Graha Tia, annoying fan boy
Yshtola, never runs out of lives even though shes been sucking on her own life force for like 4 expansions now and had numerous "oh no" moments

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kazhar

Heavensward's main theme used for so many different things which have barely anything in common (like Fandaniel for instance)

---

It's a funny domino effect.
Because ARF was the final Heavensward dungeon they used the Heavensward main theme for it, but since ARF is also a location so intrinsically tied to the Allagans then by extension so is its music.
That leitmotif is used for Fandaniel because it's ARF's theme, which just so happens to also be the Heavensward theme too.
I do have issues with how the game's become accustomed to reusing the main themes of each expansion though. I really like the way it was handled in Heavensward where it was a threeway conflict so it had three musical themes to signify each one - Dragonsong was mostly used for the dragon side of the conflict, Ishgard's theme was for... Ishgard, and Heavensward was for the WoL and their allies, this is even reflected with Nidhogg using all three leitmotifs to solidify it as the culmination of everything where all three sides clash together.
But then in Stormblood it's like... what does Zenos or Shinryu have in common with Kugane? You'd think nothing at first but the OST seems to disagree since they share a musical leitmotif. Why is Flow playing in the battle against Zodiark? I guess it's a play on how every final boss has the main theme leitmotif (except for Ultimate Weapon oops) but then you get to the actual final boss of the expansion and it has that big medley of every final boss track but it's not even the main theme part? So why are they playing here? If it was the main themes I could understand it as the culmination of your adventure so far but why associate it with the other final bosses in specific when Endsinger doesn't even have anything to do with them?
That said I'm glad they managed to keep the Maker's Ruin as the WoL's theme throughout every expansion, felt good to hear it at the very end.

Sorry for the ramble lol just felt like getting it out there since this is the hot takes thread anyway

HW spoiler ahead!

Haurchefant, while a nice character, is super overrated, and my foremost thought when he died was "thank goodness it wasn't Aymeric"

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kansene

HW spoiler ahead!

Haurchefant, while a nice character, is super overrated, and my foremost thought when he died was "thank goodness it wasn't Aymeric"

---

I still want that bath with him :(

Had that same "thank goodness" when Papalymo died

*ehem*

Housing was integrated as a privilege, not a right, and maybe it should've stayed like that.


...
...
...

See, that's a hot take, cuz I'd get witchhunted for saying it, not something mildly debatable a lot of people already agree with :P

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Allegor

*ehem*

Housing was integrated as a privilege, not a right, and maybe it should've stayed like that.


...
...
...

See, that's a hot take, cuz I'd get witchhunted for saying it, not something mildly debatable a lot of people already agree with :P

---

They could, and should, have just implemented instanced housing like any other smart MMO dev team ever. But they went with the neighborhood approach.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Videra

They could, and should, have just implemented instanced housing like any other smart MMO dev team ever. But they went with the neighborhood approach.

---

I love neighborhoods and I'm glad we have them. If housing was instanced from the beginning I doubt I'd be as interested as I am.
There's no reason why we can't have instanced housing alongside it though, especially now that we have a ISLAND for ourselves

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Allegor

Housing was integrated as a privilege, not a right, and maybe it should've stayed like that.

---

If that is also the standing of SE than i just don't understand why they market housing as a feature. They don't market savage glamour, PotD ranks or anything else gated by skill or chance like that

Warrior and Dark Knight cooldowns have their flavors reversed. Warriors should be the ones who retaliate with a huge attack when they take enough damage, and Dark Knights should been the ones with lifesteal and sustain.

Condensing rotations and removing button bloat isn't inherently bad.
An example of this is RDM, where many of the buttons are flips and not standalone buttons. As long as the job feels like you're playing DDR with your fingers, it doesn't matter if a rotation of 60 buttons is condensed into 10.
And no, healers are not a good argument against this because it's not a rotation condensed into a single button, it's a single button with nothing to rotate whatsoever. Just like there's a maximum number of buttons that are enjoyable to play with, there's also a minimum, and if in 10 years the 1-2-3 rotations are condensed into a single button, nothing important will be lost provided they add extra buttons to constantly keep your attention and keep your fingers busy.

Hot take response to the above:

Square won't add anything meaningful to replace anything they condense. That'd be too much work when they could just butcher it and leave people who liked previous iterations in the lurch.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Voidedge_Ragna

XIV is on a downwards trend of mechanics and those they keep feel unfinished, some made sense but a lot of them its like ... why

- Hunting log, yea i guess thats not really something we miss.
- Retainer can become a full job, which makes no sense from a lore perspective and the only thing it adds is they can equip gear.
- Dungeon variety: I understand that most dungeons are beelined, but i still feels bad that everything by now is 2 packs > 2 packs > boss > 2 packs > 2 packs > boss > 2 packs > 2 packs > boss.
- Area based achievement fates were dropped, only the rare big ones remain.
- Job based quest lines were tossed
- After Airships and Submarines nothing was really added to FC's
- Beast tribe final quests were tossed.
- The big grindy content is still not rolled out fast enough (relic weapon)
- Deep dungeon and Adventure map used to be given both, Potd+Diadem ... Hoh+Eureka, in shb deep dungeon was droped and the missed exp implemented into Bozja. From an outside perspective i do not belive that thet new dungeon is going to be as much content as Bozja, so thats a downtrend again.
- A lot of Goldsaucer side content is completely neglected, Chocobo racing, Majong and Lord or Verminion are basically "there"
- Our Companion still has had no update since ARR
- Treasure Map dungeons overtime were reduced in whats in them and their room size, the additional rare maps were tossed
- We still have not found the cure to the housing problem, but we are on about 20 layers of ductape now.
- A lot of Achievements are discontinued, no new tank mounts either, what happend to Commendations etc.
(trimmed)

---

People in general need to stop using "we" in these instances. I WISH they didn't stop with hunting logs or battlecraft leves. More OPTIONAL content in the overworld that can be done for experience and cheap rewards is never a bad thing.

DISCLAIMER: Speaking from a filthy "normal mode" player point of view, and also from the perspective of a healer:

Boss fights could actually do with a bit more of rng mechanics beyond "will the boss hit with their left or right hand first?"
I'm thinking stuff like debuffing a couple of party members and them needing esunaing, hi-damage bolts on randoms that encourage actually using a healer GCD to heal someone, more individual healing in general that isn't exclusively limited to when people fail at mechanics.

There is a certain satisfaction to be had from perfecting a tightly scripted encounter, but I've always been more on board with "thinking on your feet."

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Voidedge_Ragna

snip for characters

---

The problem that XIV has is that Square Enix's game design is now just restricted by the underlying technical limitations of the game client and server infrastructure. This is ultimately a legacy of ARR in which SE pumped out content and features without much, if any, thought on long-term viability of the technical implementations.

Prime examples of this are the housing system or glamour catagloues in which we've had layers of duct tape fixes and Square Enix mostly walking around the underlying problem when responding to player criticism on the matter.

Now that the big story arc is done, Endwalker is setting up the future of the game and these underlying issues are going to be more important than ever.

We're already at the stage in which there's ton of legacy systems they should just remove such as job stones because underlying classes are dead and the idea of cross-class abilities are gone also. The job is just the class and the game should be modernised to reflect this. Not to mention all the systems like challenge and sightseeing log in which SE don't really have an idea of what to do with it but also won't remove it.

The big sticking point in all of this is that truly modernising the game, which can be done without starting again if you just look at World of Warcraft, is the money requirement. It's no secret that FFXIV is the cash cow which Square Enix use to reinvest into everything else such as FF7R and FF16... plus allthose games that flopped like Babylon's Fall, Avengers and Outriders.

At some stage, if we're not already there, the excuses around no glamour catalogue or the terrible housing system is just SE not wanting to spend the money to modernising the game. Instead we'll get systems like Island Sanctuary that repackage a mission table mechanic with other recycled mechanics.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kansene

DISCLAIMER: Speaking from a filthy "normal mode" player point of view, and also from the perspective of a healer:

Boss fights could actually do with a bit more of rng mechanics beyond "will the boss hit with their left or right hand first?"
I'm thinking stuff like debuffing a couple of party members and them needing esunaing, hi-damage bolts on randoms that encourage actually using a healer GCD to heal someone, more individual healing in general that isn't exclusively limited to when people fail at mechanics.

There is a certain satisfaction to be had from perfecting a tightly scripted encounter, but I've always been more on board with "thinking on your feet."

---

As a fellow filthy casual, I strongly agree more rng would be nice. Kinda why I like playing alliance raids, because it's gauranteed some people will always screw up and it's really exciting to place a shield on a non-tank party member and watch them absorb the damage, "it's a dps loss" be damned.