Can we stop pretending that 7.4 is magically going to fix the state of FFXIV?

The copium levels around 7.4 are honestly impressive, as usual. It’s like every time the game hits a big patch, the loud “Yoshi-P can do no wrong” fanclub collectively decides that this is the patch that’s going to save everything. We’ve been doing this dance for years now.

You’re going to log in, pretend everything is fine and “saved,” and within one week fine, I’ll be generous within two weeks, you’re not logging back in anymore and the game is right back to its boring, stale state.

Don’t get me wrong 7.4 has some cute changes, but that’s as far as it goes. Acting like it’s going to fundamentally fix the deeper issues with Dawntrail shows a certain detachment from reality.

The core problem isn’t a lack of things to do. It’s that almost everything funnels into the exact same formula: log in, do the patch content, clear it in a week or two, then wait. If you’re not raiding, the game increasingly feels like a checklist MMO where the long-term systems barely evolve. If you are raiding, the rest of this patch just feels like filler padded out with copium.

Music is still top tier, sure. But working with a drummer from Rage Against the Machine fixes… what exactly? No one is saying it isn’t a cool collaboration, but it doesn’t fix Dawntrail’s problems. Pretending that compensating with collaborations will somehow last forever doesn’t change the fact that the underlying gameplay loop remains largely unchanged.

A patch can’t fix direction. It can’t undo years of design philosophy that prioritizes predictability, especially when the dev team has grown comfortable knowing the loud minority will accept almost anything presented to them.

So yes, enjoy 7.4 for what it is. But maybe we stop pretending it’s some kind of reset button. The game isn’t “dead,” but it’s also not being saved by this patch. If anything, it just keeps highlighting how players keep getting the short end of the stick while development time goes into things no one really asked for.

By the way the all jobs can wear anything glamour thingie was turned down over and over again (check previous QA from years ago) but now they decided to fix it when the ship has already sailed.
The contradictions and hypocrisy are there but the community loves to just ignore it.

Jesus, just let people be happy with an upcoming patch if they think it's exciting. Not every patch in it's entirety must be evaluated whether or not it fixes the game's direction right from the get go. That's what expansions are for.

We get it. People can't have fun if you're not.

Am curious as to who said this? The general consensus, from what I've seen, is that 8.0 is where they need to make a big difference.

Again - from what I've seen the trailer generated some hype and plenty of players appear to be looking forward to the content 7.4 is bringing moreso than they did with 7.1 - 7.3 but are viewing it as a probable good patch (and an improvement on the previous) rather than something that's going to fix anything.

Does it not get tiring to be bitter about patches that in no way suggested they're the going to majorly fix the game?

- Some people are excited to see where the story is going because the Dawntrail base arc finished in 7.3
- The conclusion of the Arcadion is almost here so people are excited to see who the president is and how the battles are going to play out (or the race for the world first for others)
- Others are excited because of the glamour restrictions being lifted
- Some are waiting the new variant dungeon because of how colorful it is and unique it looks
- Others the new crafting planet since it does give a strange star wars-y feeling
- Many more

People have their reason to be hype for 7.4, if there's nothing that excites you right now, you can play other games until something fun for you gets added! :D

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Originally Posted by SkizzleAbernath

The copium levels around 7.4 are honestly impressive

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Are they? Not seen much really, to be honest with you.

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everything funnels into the exact same formula: log in, do the patch content, clear it in a week or two, then wait.

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Fundamentally there isn't a problem with that. This is how it should work for the casual players. A normal gamer's behaviour is to login to whichever game had new DLC, play it, then move on to another game. If they don't finish that game's DLC within a week, they usually stop playing that game anyway, so it's in a developer's interest to make it only last a week.

However, it is fair to make optional grindy content or long-term replayable content for those who want to "live" in the game, and they do, it just doesn't necessarily interest all players. For example, there are typically long-term mount or minion grinds, weeklies, or new RP features for those that "live" in the game doing RP, but if a player is not interested by these things then, for them, there is nothing more to do.

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Music is still top tier, sure. But working with a drummer from Rage Against the Machine fixes… what exactly? No one is saying it isn’t a cool collaboration, but it doesn’t fix Dawntrail’s problems.

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They didn't try to collaborate. The band just sent them the track out of the blue and offered it for free. They didn't expect it, and understandably felt so honored by it that they felt pressured to base a raid around it. This is apparently common with collaborations - companies approach Square Enix, not the reverse, Square Enix doesn't usually approach them, but out of respect they collaborate with them when they do.

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By the way the all jobs can wear anything glamour thingie was turned down over and over again (check previous QA from years ago) but now they decided to fix it when the ship has already sailed.

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That is true. There are people saying that the glamour change is to "save the game", but it's not. It's a direct response to the lodestone post Yoshi-P made after shutting down a certain glamour-related mod. That was what led to the decision.

SkizzleAbernath, why every single one of posts in this game's forum boils down to "I'm not happy so you all can't be happy too and here's why"?

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Originally Posted by Brandr

SkizzleAbernath, why every single one of posts in this game's forum boils down to "I'm not happy so you all can't be happy too and here's why"?

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Because these people get off on paying their sub just so they can come here and tell everyone why they're stupid for paying their sub to actually enjoy the game.

No one thinks that anything will be 'fixed' in the next patch, but the QoL improvements look nice, people who enjoy the glamour aspect of the game have a lot of reason to be excited and the trailer made the final tier of the Arcadion look really cool, there's also new Frontlines which is great because I enjoy the PvP.

I know what I'm expecting from this patch and I'm looking forward to it, I don't expect any underlying to magically be 'fixed'.

Please show me on this puppet where the Yoshi P Can Do No Wrong fanclub touched you.
I'll wait.

I don't think it is as bad as it has been in the past.

I just chalk it up to people being fickle... They'll gush over new features, raids etc., but when 7.5 comes around, and when nearly everyone is starting to get starved about content, we'll all go back to the same 'ol negative discussions.

It's literally been clockwork for a decade.

A lot of you are arguing against something I never actually said.

At no point did I say people aren’t allowed to be excited, or that enjoying 7.4 is somehow wrong. If you’re hyped for the Arcadion finale, glamour changes, PvP, variant dungeon, crafting content good. Genuinely. Enjoy it.

What I’m pushing back against is the recurring narrative that every major patch is framed as a turning point for the game’s broader issues, only for the conversation to quietly reset a week or two later when the honeymoon phase ends. That’s not bitterness, that’s pattern recognition.

Criticizing direction isn’t the same thing as demanding every patch “fix the game.” But pretending direction doesn’t exist outside of expansions is just as disingenuous. Dawntrail is the current direction, and patches are how that direction is reinforced or questioned in practice.

Yes, casual players logging in, doing content, and moving on is normal. That doesn’t invalidate long standing concerns about stagnation, predictability, or systems that barely evolve expansion to expansion. Both things can be true at the same time.

As for the "you’re just unhappy so no one else can be happy" angle that’s just an easy deflection. Having a critical opinion about the game’s trajectory doesn’t mean I’m trying to police anyone’s fun. It means I’m engaging with the game beyond surface-level hype.

If 7.4 gives you things you’re excited about, that’s great. But being excited doesn’t require pretending criticism is invalid, exaggerated, or somehow hostile. The game isn’t going to implode because people question where it’s heading and it’s not going to improve either if every concern is dismissed as "bitterness".

You really hate people having fun with something they enjoy, don't you?

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Originally Posted by XtremePrime

Does it not get tiring to be bitter about patches that in no way suggested they're the going to majorly fix the game?

- Some people are excited to see where the story is going because the Dawntrail base arc finished in 7.3
- The conclusion of the Arcadion is almost here so people are excited to see who the president is and how the battles are going to play out (or the race for the world first for others)
- Others are excited because of the glamour restrictions being lifted
- Some are waiting the new variant dungeon because of how colorful it is and unique it looks
- Others the new crafting planet since it does give a strange star wars-y feeling
- Many more

People have their reason to be hype for 7.4, if there's nothing that excites you right now, you can play other games until something fun for you gets added! :D

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I’m excited for all of the above! :D Personally this patch feels fuller of the kinds of stuff I enjoy than the others have so far.

The glamour unlocking is huge, and I’m going to be spending hours organizing my dresser and eventually go back and run old dungeons for missing pieces of gear… already started on that, but MSQ will take priority for me come Tuesday. Variant dungeons are one of my favorite “new” things, so I’m happy to finally have another. The Arcadion story has been excellent and I’m excited to see how they end it, and yes the new song has me hyped too. And I’m looking forward to a new crafting planet and the new rewards for that, since they’ve been pretty consistently giving a good amount of rewards on each planet.

it is not, but it is one of many roadblocks removed.

It’s been a while since most people have enjoyed the game and looked forward to any patch content, I think we can all agree we WANT to look forward to the game and need to give the devs the chance to make up for DT….

I think being happy with new content isn't "copium" when I actually, genuinely, didn't hate anything in the last patch and have really enjoyed the raid series this patch is focused on. If other people being excited makes you upset, that's a you issue.

I am excited about many announced features of 7.4, like glamour, dyes, next tier of of arcadion fights, because so far it's been amazing and I've enjoyed it a lot, but the new song sounds like made with SUNO AI.

Nobody is pretending that.

https://i.imgur.com/KpS4S2E.jpeg

Really skizzle you complain about 7.4 and you sit in limsa all day and do nothing all day

Honestly, Dawntrail and 7.1 were a mixed bag for many, and even now some people's continued disdain for the game since DT launch has gotten exhausting, atleast for me. So, it is refreshing to see most of the folks in here interested in what is to come, even if they know it wont fully fix what occurred.
SE cant change what DT was, but I honestly feel they have been making changes in the right direction. I dont think everyone expected them to magically fix that overnight though. Members of my household and FC are waiting to see what 8.0 delivers before they decide if they are done with the game or not but we all really want to see them succeed and return to form. That's not copium, its honesty. We love(d) this game, so why would we want to see it fail? We're giving them a chance to course correct. If others are unhappy with the game, then its up to them to decide if they have had enough or not.

Sadly, if other people's commentary is bothering you, then I implore you to to avoid it where possible. You'd be surprised how many prominent FFXIV influencers I have unsubscribed from because all they have done is belittle the game's flaws for the last year. I still like the game and want to see it shine again, so I avoid their videos and rhetoric so I'm not getting exhausted with the constant and often unwarranted negativity.

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Originally Posted by Reinhardt_Azureheim

Not every patch in it's entirety must be evaluated whether or not it fixes the game's direction right from the get go. That's what expansions are for.

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I find this a bit flawed. If we can't look to patches to fix the direction of the game, does this mean whenever we get a lackluster/bad expansion we are just supposed to throw our hands up for the next ~2 years and say "welp better luck next time"?

7.4? no no no, 7.4 cant save ff14 because 8.0 will save ff14. we all know it 8.0 will bring the big changes for jobs, it will add a ton of shit and we all gonna love it. it will be incredible. we all will be happy with anything in the game and once more sing praises for yoshida. you will see! 8.0 is the saviour.

so yeah. case closed!

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Originally Posted by Selsix

I find this a bit flawed. If we can't look to patches to fix the direction of the game, does this mean whenever we get a lackluster/bad expansion we are just supposed to throw our hands up for the next ~2 years and say "welp better luck next time"?

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By expansions I don't mean X.0 patches. I mean when "they are planning to address XYZ", I generally think it should be fine to look at it in a 1-2.5 year timeframe, which is somewhere between half to a full expansion.

For example, Yoshida was giving feedback prior to Endwalker that they want to use the 7.X series to improve raid content in retrospect of Endwalker raids having been too simplified. So it would make sense to evaluate the success or lack-thereof (YMML) with Arcadion being released as a whole. So far it has definitely gotten a fair bit better and more interesting ways the raid deals with the party has been introduced. Alternatively, it could have been much worse so it would not have been correct to judge too heavily when for example only the Light-Heavyweight tier was released.

In light of this, anything he most recently has said that they are working on, it would be prudent to give them a few patches and some time to get it right. From what I gathered reading the interviews, they only fairly recently had a change of heart to a lot of design philosophies, so it will likely take a while before they get things right to a satisfying degree.

This will matter regarding upcoming Main Scenario Questlines, 8.X being the supposed expansion where they want to focus on job identity and other grander features - the change will likely be gradual, but hopefully steady and not with steps going backward.

Hey im just here to say. sure 7.4 wont be the god send be all end all but dang.......GLAMOUR FREEDOM BOYS LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FREE MY GLAM LIKE YOU FREED MY GOONING WOOOOOOOOOOOOO but yeah 7.4 got some cool stuff dont care about the story but THE ARCADIAN BRUH WE BACK BOIS WELCOME HOME!!!

My checklist this month is:

Login
Try new PvP FL Map
Logout

I would hope people are getting more out of the patch compared to a lazy person like myself, I'm practically paying to dodge content at this point.

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Originally Posted by SkizzleAbernath

The core problem isn’t a lack of things to do. It’s that almost everything funnels into the exact same formula: log in, do the patch content, clear it in a week or two, then wait. If you’re not raiding, the game increasingly feels like a checklist MMO where the long-term systems barely evolve. If you are raiding, the rest of this patch just feels like filler padded out with copium.

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Nobody says that 7.4 fixes the game, thats just the voices in your head.

If you do no activity that is very time consuming like higher difficulty content or PvP, you are going to run out of content, that's true for every MMO.

Can't wait for the Forum post on the patch day of 7.4, that the person already finished the patch and when asked about farming extreme or doing pvp he's gonna say he doesn't do that.

Yeah I don't think 7.4 gonna fix the game but I'm also somewhat excited for it because it gives me a reason to log in rather then not.

I've accepted for a long time that ffxiv isn't likely to change much at this point.

As someone who has taken many long breaks from FFXIV if it doesn't really interest me at the time and I don't think anyone said 7.4 or even 8.0 new expansion will "fix the game." Also, I still login to FFXIV even on normal days because I genuinely like and enjoy the gameplay even if I'm not doing any high-end content or PVP goals because I find it fun. So, if FFXIV is no longer fun for you personally, I'd just quit and move on from the game like others.

No one on the forums or the rest of the internet is here to fight you about an MMO you don't enjoy playing and why you should remain here like truly, it's a MMO meant for you to have fun and not be stressed out over new patches soon.

My biggest issue with the current planning for the game is tying the dungeon AND the trial to the MSQ. As such, while I do not have a good idea what is happening with the dungeon exactly, I do know that the trial will involve restoring the train between the two cities. I hope that in 8.0 they decouple the trial from the MSQ and while I would like to have the same done with the dungeon, I know that is unrealistic.

As it stands now, the formula for the patch content is 30% into the patch, dungeon, then at 60% to 80% the trial and then an epilogue for the patch. What makes real life so worth living is not knowing what is happening next, where we will go and end up. It would be nice if I could not predict the patch with such a high degree of reliability, let alone the expansion.

To OP:

No one is pretending. You just have to get this into your head. There are players like me who love 7.xx. (& FF11 24man collab).

I'm sick of seeing Scions and Ascians (Hydaelyn <3) for the past 11ish years. (counting from 2013). A new story arc is very much welcome from SE. If you are bored of this franchise, just move on. Play other games. Smell some roses in the garden or something.

Thank you.

Yes, 7.4 isn't going to magically fix things.

However I love the Arcadion and enjoy glamour.

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Originally Posted by FudoMyoo

I'm sick of seeing Ascians for the past 11ish years. (counting from 2013). A new story arc is very much welcome from SE.

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https://i.imgur.com/Lsm0m3x.jpeg

Funny how the alleged "x will fix the game" commentaries are always found by the "skeptical". One would think those arguments would be easier to find on their own. Almost as if not many (if at all) actually thought that.

Years of neglect can't be fixed by a single miraculous patch or expansion and that goes for any game. Expecting otherwise is setting oneself for disappointment at every patch cycle. Yet fact doesn't stop anyone from liking what changes actually come.

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Originally Posted by BokoToloko

Funny how the alleged "x will fix the game" commentaries are always found by the "skeptical". One would think those arguments would be easier to find on their own. Almost as if not many (if at all) actually thought that.

Years of neglect can't be fixed by a single miraculous patch or expansion and that goes for any game. Expecting otherwise is setting oneself for disappointment at every patch cycle. Yet fact doesn't stop anyone from liking what changes actually come.

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As said in my reply on page 1, if anything I've seen more reference to the idea that 8.0 is where they need to make changes.

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Originally Posted by Hyperia

As it stands now, the formula for the patch content is 30% into the patch, dungeon, then at 60% to 80% the trial and then an epilogue for the patch. What makes real life so worth living is not knowing what is happening next, where we will go and end up. It would be nice if I could not predict the patch with such a high degree of reliability, let alone the expansion.

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As nice as it'd be, if the structure of the game were a bit less predictable, SE is a company that abides by an extremely rigid structure for some reason. The fact we shifted from Trials in the story being at X3 and X7, to X3 and X9 in SHB may well be the limit of their 'break the formula' attempts. We'll have to see what 8.0 brings to shake things up, but I'm going to remain excessively pessimistic about it

A perfect example of how predictable things currently are, is Item Levels. We can predict, with pinpoint accuracy, the Item Level of any piece of gear, if we're given the Patch number and the content it comes from. For example, if nothing is done to curb the ballooning Item Level values on gear, the 9.2 Savage Raid will drop Item Level 1020. The 24man in 10.5 will drop Item Level 1170 gear. The EX trial of 15.3 will drop Item Level 1795. It's laughably simple to work out, and it's kinda sad

This probably helps explain why gear feels so shallow, we can work out both when stat increases will occur, how much they will increase by, and what effect those increases will have on our damage output ahead of time

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Originally Posted by Carin-Eri

As said in my reply on page 1, if anything I've seen more reference to the idea that 8.0 is where they need to make changes.

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I hope and pray that the devs have seen and really understand that 8.0 is the make or break expansion. It’s a realm reborn style stakes, if they botch 8.0, it will be nothing less than catastrophic.

You know, if even the forum almost united is calling OP out on spreading misery and shadowboxing then the final days are truly approaching.

I'm under no disillusion that 7.4 will be any different than any other patch. I don't really have as many problems with the game as others here, though.

I will pay the MSQ and Arcadian - Normal and play long enough to get gear for Healer/Casting. If PvP has new rewards I want I'll get those. I'll play around with unrestricted glamours. In 7.41 I'll upgrade a couple Relic weapons.

Maybe I'll play around with the Variant dungeon a bit.

Then I'll probably be bored again. Barely played the last month as there is not enough interesting things to do for me between patches, and that will probably happen again here.

I suppose if I was interested in the crafting relic zone, maxing out the jobs in Crescent, or progging I'd have more to do, but none of that is for me.