I have quit and I have feedback

Getting back into the game was far more frustrating than it needed to be.

I built a new PC about six months ago, so I had to redownload the client. Naturally, I went to the Lodestone, thinking I’d find a download link there — but couldn’t. Then I checked the Mog Station, assuming it would be under my service account — but it wasn’t there either.

I ended up Googling “download Final Fantasy XIV” and was only offered the options to start a free trial or buy the game, neither of which I wanted since I already own it. Eventually, I discovered that if you scroll all the way to the bottom of the page, there’s a tiny grey button to download the game. That felt unnecessarily hidden and frustrating.

Then came the real kicker: you can’t download the game unless you have an active subscription. That meant I had to pay first, then wait overnight to download 120GB before I could even play. It’s such a backwards system — other MMOs like WoW, SWTOR, RIFT, and LOTRO don’t do this. It’s just confusing and off-putting.

Honestly, when I see players dropping off, I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them tried to return and gave up because of this exact process.

Suggestions for Improvement

- Make the official pages more intuitive.
The Lodestone should make it crystal clear how to download the game. Ideally, both the Lodestone and Mog Station should offer direct, visible download links.

- Reconsider the account flow.
The free trial and “buy the game” options are designed as soft nudges, but they’re presented in a confusing way. Let people download the client first — then guide them through account setup while the game downloads. That way, you turn the wait time into productive setup time, keeping players engaged.

- Allow players to download without an active sub.
This one’s simple: don’t require an active subscription just to download the game. It’s counterintuitive and creates unnecessary friction. I almost didn’t resubscribe because of it — and now, after all that effort, I’ve unsubscribed anyway.

I still love the Final Fantasy franchise and have a lot of great memories from my time in FFXIV. I’ll probably share more thoughts later about the in-game issues and possible improvements. Many of these problems have straightforward solutions, but I feel like the current development culture is too bureaucratic and prideful to consider genuine change.

If you make an FT account, you can download the game for free and any patches if you already own it but don't have an active sub at the time.

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Originally Posted by CCheshire

If you make an FT account, you can download the game for free and any patches if you already own it but don't have an active sub at the time.

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That’s great and all, but it feels like a very specific workaround — something a new or returning player might not even know exists. It’s definitely helpful to learn and share, but it also feels like players are doing triage for a game that should already have simple, built-in solutions for common situations. Especially since I imagine the developers want to make it as easy as possible for people to return.

Still, I really appreciate you sharing that info!

I remember a download link in the account settings somewhere.

When you googled it, it used to take you to outdated free trial links that caused errors or other issues, but that's no longer the case because SE went out of their way to revamp it and do SEO (Search Engine Optimization) so that proper free trial and download links show up when you search.

When you search for "download ffxiv", you now get the following results:
https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/windows/download/
Where can I download the client for FINAL FANTASY XIV?

When you search for "ffxiv free trial", you find the free trial page that you described. You just clicked the wrong result that's all. That page is for people new to the game.

You do have to login to download the patches, but you can't play if you don't login anyway, so I don't see the problem.

As for it taking all night, that's really going to vary depending on both your and SE's connection load, but SE's is unlikely to be high except when a patch releases.

Go to the Lodestone, scroll down to the bottom of the page, click "Game Download", which takes you here https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...uide/#returner

Okay, a lot of people seem to be getting hung up on this — I’m not sure if that’s meant in good faith or as a challenge. Just to clarify: my feedback is based purely on my user experience. Whether you personally agree with my perspective isn’t really the point. I’m simply sharing what my experience was and offering suggestions for improvement.

If you know where certain things are located, that’s great — but they weren’t obvious to me. And if they weren’t obvious to me, chances are they’re not obvious to others either. If you don’t see it as a problem, that’s fine; that’s your opinion. But for me, it was frustrating enough that it almost stopped me from resubscribing altogether.

There’s a lot more I wanted to discuss — other issues and some constructive suggestions — because I genuinely thought that might be useful. But at this point, it feels like most of the time is being spent going back and forth, and the tone is starting to get a bit of a defensive vibe. So, I think I’ll just bow out here.

I don’t mean anyone any ill will — honestly, I wish everyone the best. I’m just going to move on and play other things for now. Like I said before, if the game makes some meaningful changes in the future, I’d be happy to come back.

tbf this is the official forums, so anyone else who is searching for the same info now has the answers too. I mean this is the most calm reaction to your question as we provided you with the correct answer.

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Originally Posted by Tsumoro

my feedback is based purely on my user experience. Whether you personally agree with my perspective isn’t really the point. I’m simply sharing what my experience was and offering suggestions for improvement.

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Your user experience was a common one before they did SEO to improve the search rankings. But as I explained, even for your search term, two other links appear that are unrelated to the free trial. It doesn't make a lot of sense to click the free trial site instead of the "download FFXIV" results.

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it feels like most of the time is being spent going back and forth, and the tone is starting to get a bit of a defensive vibe.

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That's how forums work. They are places of debate. In order for that to be effective, they need two sides. I understand most people aren't used to this, because most other places on the internet are echo chambers these days because people avoid anyone that challenges their point of view, despite that it has the potential to open their mind to other perspectives.

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I don’t mean anyone any ill will — honestly, I wish everyone the best.

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Same to you. It's really up to developers to make changes to entice people back, honestly. It doesn't hurt to leave what you would like improved in a forum post, but SE equally want to see what others say about such things as well. Even if other people disagree with you it doesn't mean SE won't agree with the suggestion, because there is a bigger picture than just what replies say sometimes.

For me since i use steam, i download it form steam and login from there. otherwise the ones above me have posted the way to download it

i bought a new pc and googled "ff14 download", it immediatly led me to this site:

https://de.finalfantasyxiv.com/windows/download/

theres a HUGE download button

done

they couldnt even make it easier and more accessible

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Originally Posted by Tsumoro

Okay, a lot of people seem to be getting hung up on this — I’m not sure if that’s meant in good faith or as a challenge. Just to clarify: my feedback is based purely on my user experience. Whether you personally agree with my perspective isn’t really the point. I’m simply sharing what my experience was and offering suggestions for improvement.

If you know where certain things are located, that’s great — but they weren’t obvious to me. And if they weren’t obvious to me, chances are they’re not obvious to others either. If you don’t see it as a problem, that’s fine; that’s your opinion. But for me, it was frustrating enough that it almost stopped me from resubscribing altogether.

There’s a lot more I wanted to discuss — other issues and some constructive suggestions — because I genuinely thought that might be useful. But at this point, it feels like most of the time is being spent going back and forth, and the tone is starting to get a bit of a defensive vibe. So, I think I’ll just bow out here.

I don’t mean anyone any ill will — honestly, I wish everyone the best. I’m just going to move on and play other things for now. Like I said before, if the game makes some meaningful changes in the future, I’d be happy to come back.

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From an user experience stand point and ergonomy, all your points are spot on, but that's nothing new with SE. Their UX design is abysmal and has always been. It's a joke compared to most serious gaming companies out there.

If anything, just look at how convoluted it is to actually buy a game, have a store account that's not the same as a mogstation account, and find your way through all that mess... Even today when every expansion drops i'm still amazed I can manage to find where I can actually insert my product keys. And judging by the amount of upvotes your post got, we're not the only ones having issues with it. It's literally permeating everything from out of game account management to ingame medieval inventory systems, menus and arbitrary behaviors that just make one want to pull their hair out.

No one should be surprised at how backwards JP companies operate. They're still stuck in the 90s.

Oh right, not only they make it so annoying to actually subscribe and pay for the game, but they also changed stuff in their payment backend that a lot of credit cards aren't even working, it's like they actually don't want us to spend money on their products.

Save the whole game directory into a portable HDD or even a thumb drive. Copy and paste into the new pc.

Voila ..... tested and proven working.

To be honest their account management and webdev team need to Create a Battle.net account, download, subscribe to, and then launch World of Warcraft.

After doing so, they should recreate that process verbatim, 100% copy it.

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Originally Posted by dotsforlife

No one should be surprised at how backwards JP companies operate. They're still stuck in the 90s.

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That's just insulting to 90's Japan. That's a time when standards were an expectation. Not a suggestion.

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Originally Posted by FudoMyoo

Save the whole game directory into a portable HDD or even a thumb drive. Copy and paste into the new pc.

Voila ..... tested and proven working.

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Back in the day I managed to run FFXI on a netbook using a 16 GB external MicroSD card. Ran just fine.

FFXIV can easily run off a 250 GB thumb drive in the same manner.