Feedback from a Veteran Player: Suggestions for FF XIV Future Expansions

Subject: Feedback from a Veteran Player: Suggestions for FF XIV Future Expansions

Dear Mr. Yoshida,

I am writing to you as a longtime player of Final Fantasy XIV, a veteran who has been with the game since the very first hours of A Realm Reborn. I am from Germany and have followed every expansion with passion. I wish to share my thoughts openly, directly, but respectfully, because Final Fantasy XIV is more than just a game to me – it is a part of my life.

For me, Heavensward and especially Stormblood represent the pinnacle of what Final Fantasy XIV can achieve. Heavensward captivated with the epic Dragonsong War in Ishgard, the Thordan raids, and deep, immersive world-building. Stormblood elevated everything to a peak: the Asia-inspired theme, locations like Ruby Sea, Kugane, and Castle Kugane, and raids such as Shinryu, Omega, and Rhalgr’s Watch – every element was perfectly integrated in story, mechanics, and atmosphere. Difficulty was challenging yet fair; mechanics were demanding but learnable. Every raid phase, every quest, every relic weapon felt meaningful, motivating, and enjoyable. Stormblood, for me, was FF XIV at its finest – epic, mystical, challenging, and emotionally gripping.

In contrast, Dawntrail and some recent expansions feel like a departure from the essence of FF XIV. Storylines drift, raids are often isolated and overmechanized, and phase complexity has reached levels once reserved for Ultimate content. Locations, themes, and antagonists have lost their muse and mystique; the Ascians feel sidelined, and crossovers like Nier or competition/Edge-Lord themes feel out of place. The immersive experience that Heavensward and Stormblood provided has been significantly diminished.

I want to emphasize: I respect the need for challenge. Difficult content is necessary and welcome. However, the current standard in normal raids – with numerous phases and overloaded mechanics – shifts focus to pure execution, reducing the emotional and mystical magic of the game.

My hope is that future expansions will return to the strengths of Heavensward and Stormblood: epic storytelling, compelling antagonists, raids that feel thematically coherent, challenging yet fair mechanics, immersive locations, and music that conveys emotion and drama. Only then can Final Fantasy XIV remain the unforgettable experience it has always been for veterans like me and countless others.

Thank you for your attention and for your work on this game, which is more than mere entertainment for many of us. I hope you will consider this as sincere feedback from a dedicated veteran, who longs to see FF XIV return to the epic heights it once achieved.

Sincerely,
[Your Name]
Germany

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Originally Posted by DarkBahamutZero

Storylines drift

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This is extremely vague.

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raids are often isolated

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This is quite vague as well. Do you mean the lack of trash or what?

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and overmechanized

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While I get what you're saying in the sense, jobs were more difficult to play back then, such as having 3 seconds to continue a combo, it being easy to break a combo or accidently ruin a rotation and lose half its damage, or a death cutting main stats in half. Lots of insane consequences to the rotations that barely matter now, and in exchange the mechanics require more focus.

But do I really, truly feel that, say, a modern Savage fight, is more complex than A8S or A12S? Because if I compare objectively, they had mechanics like Gavel and Temporal Stasis and modern fights equally have such types of mechanics with a number of possible debuffs that require doing different things. And objectively, even going back to there, you could break a lot of it down to stack and spread, in and out, stand somewhere to resolve.

They sure feel faster paced sometimes, but they aren't even that - there is an almost universal cast time of 3 or more seconds between each thing resolving and that has never really changed either, because it's a fundamental rule that the game abides.

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Locations, themes, and antagonists have lost their muse and mystique

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I think that is purely because they "explained" and "solved" everything. We defeated the Ascians and solved all the mysteries surrounding them. We solved the mystery of the Twelve. We solved the mystery of Garlemald by invading it. We solved the mystery to the cosmos by exploring it and even seeing the Dragonstar that Midgardsormr is from. We even solved the mystery of the south sea isles. Oh, and we even solved the mystery of the missing Isle of Val, the mythical city of gold, and the presumed-dead legendary Ketenramm. We solved everything, and SE has not really replaced all those mysteries with a lot of new ones. That is why the mystique is gone.

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the Ascians feel sidelined

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Well they were but maybe that has changed due to the most recent MSQ.

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crossovers like Nier or competition/Edge-Lord themes feel out of place

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Disagree here. SE are trying to prove that this MMO can do anything, and make absolutely anything fit into its lore somehow, even in a strange, multi-dimensional, round-about way. Including sci-fi and space exploration. Including cyberpunk. And for an MMORPG, I think that is alright as long as it's done well and I actually think they do it well. What is good about it, is that it creates "something for everyone". Someone who likes sci-fi can now create a whole sci-fi house, for example.

It also shakes things up and means they are not always using the same aesthetic for 13 years. There would definitely be complaints if they had stuck to the same aesthetic the entire time, just like there are complaints due to the formula being the same.

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the current standard in normal raids – with numerous phases and overloaded mechanics – shifts focus to pure execution, reducing the emotional and mystical magic of the game.

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Does it though? The mechanics continue to feel relevant to the emotional and mystical magic of the game, so let's look at some examples. Black Cat has a paw mechanic that travels around the arena. Honey B Lovely throws honey and bees at you a lot. Brute Bomber drinks something to cheat, completely in line with his gimmick. Dancing Green dances a lot and all mechanics relate to it, making mechanics very relevant to the aesthetic. Brute Bomber v2 jumps around buildings and the mechanics very much involve us doing this. Vamp Fatale's gimmick is about, well, chaining you up, let's just say that, and there are plenty of chains in the fight mechanics. The Xtremes have a lot of surf mechanics, but it's hard to appreciate them until you do the Savage version, but once you do, it is super cool and feels like you're surfing with them in a lot of ways.

And how about Endwalker. I feel that the Carbuncle, Themis and Athena fights were good examples of using their respective lore in their fight mechanics. I really don't agree that SE stopped using lore and storytelling in the mechanics.

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Germany

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If you are lucky enough, there is a Fan Fest in Germany in 5 months where you could potentially tell it to the developers in person.

Thank you, [Your Name], for such a gripping dialogue

Next time you ask ChatGPT or whatever other model you prefer to make you a hot batch of slop, at least read through once to make sure there aren't any parts you need to change.

AI slop post expects to be taken seriously...

Large language models sure do make the world better and enrich our lives, don’t they?

Not even pertaining to what was contained in the OP (I'm not going to comment), but...

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Originally Posted by DarkBahamutZero

Germany

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And subsequent posts latching onto the OP being punched out by AI...

*WHOOSH*

Look at their post history and you can see they are German (and also posted this on the German forums apparently). Maybe this is their only means to try and communicate in English and felt like there was a better chance of being read if in English, much like how some English-speakers have taken to JP forums with likely very badly translated posts (myself included).

Regardless of whether you completely disagree with the contents, the instant snap into catcalling AI-usage is quite cringe. Using it to overcome a language barrier is quite acceptable I would think.

Now if you want an example of AI being used badly, pray make your way into more recent PvP threads...

This community sometimes smh.

No what’s cringe is not even checking your AI output and making sure you fix placeholders. A plea in broken English would get my respect. This low effort slop gets none.