83 levels filled with "Speak with Alphinaud"?
That's some amazing experience right there.
Did you play the ff7r release? That game is single player and the difficulty ramps up in normal mode.
Also, most people never finish games they buy. You'll see trophies/achievements for completing the first chapter at like 60% completion.
It's level 80+, if you haven't figured out how to learn new mechanics by now, what the heck have you been doing?
Most people at that level have more time in game than I did when I was doing extremes in 2.0....
The problem here is that, if you cannot finish this expansion, any future content will be barred, too. That means you effectively kick people out of the game. To what end, to make people happy who find it too easy? Make Extreme trials. Funny, they're already doing that, and another level above that even, for those who still find it too easy. So what's the problem? Make story-mode easy.
It's not tho. Even the extremes aren't that difficult. I cleared ex1 with healers who hadn't done a single ex fight, 5 new people, all in a single 60 minute instance.
People just want to clear on 1 pull with no issues ever. That's not "hard" that's playing a game.....
There is where we have to respectfully disagree. 'Story mode' is at least supposed to build the foundations of play to give the player the ability to go further if they want to. They don't have to, but it should at the very least teach the fundamentals of encounter mechanics and at least make one baseline, foundationally competent with their chosen job. At least in my opinion. It should offer the tools that people who want to go further can, but people that don't want to don't have to. Bare in mind, I am speaking of basic, foundational mechanics.
Seriously, I'd be fine with a boss you can just oneshot. Better yet, put a button there to skip the fight, watch a cutscene,. problem solved.
I'm talking about story mode here. Not gameplay. This doesn't take anything away from the playable content, normal trials are only relevant for MSQ progress, and nothing else. All the loot is elsewhere.
Some people play this like an interactive movie or book, and why not?
Seriously, this is treading on "you have to play the game the way I say" territory.
I won't convince you, you won't convince me, and that's cool. I've said my thing, and I'm sure anyone who read this understands my point, no matter if they agree or not... so I reached my goal.