What does FFXIV lack?

For it the game lacks alot of things but i will just put 2

FFXIV lacks..
1. A open world content. Theres zero reasons to explore

2. FFXIV's lack of evolution. They have a formula and their sticking to it. Which is sad

1. First person shooter mode
2. Adult-only areas
3. Gacha banners

1. A reasonable budget to develop and finish basic features, apparently?

1. Quality of Life
2. Social reliance (as in you can solo everything or do it with others but without talking). This makes everything the same every time, increasing complaints of "no content".
3. Mechanical creativity (with the example of how every Field Operation is mostly the same mechanically, Cosmic is mostly the same as Firmament mechanically)
4. Medium difficulty. Example is how Pilgrim's Traverse 51-100 is what dungeons should have been, where everyone nervously feels like they could wipe at any moment.
5. Difficulty modes for jobs, dungeons, etc.
6. Faux Hollows for Savage tiers which they have even said they could do but never actually do. It gets conveniently forgotten.

something that gives incentive to play during content draught, copy pasting WoW's mythic+ system could solve that

More casual to midcore content. I think this is the first expansion while i've just....didnt care to really stick to playing. I'\nM still online, I'm still subscribed, but I'm not running anymore.I'm just kind of hanging out till next xpac

It's lacking all the shards crashing into one and the game being re-reborn.

I really wish the Ascians succeeded.

- Repeatable content with rewards worth the time investment (Criterion tried and failed big time)
- Modernized basic features like Friends list
- Proper Tab targeting
- Modern Macro system


Plenty of other things but it's early and I need coffee.

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Originally Posted by UNDEAD10000

- Actual normal difficulty group content when there is only easy, hard and very hard group content.

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I think Normal raids do a good job of being the "normal mode content"


Dungeons are the very easy content.

Normal Raids, Alliance Raids, Chaotic Raids and Extreme Trials are the "normal content"

Savage and Criterion are the "hard" content.

Ultimate's the "very hard" content.

For me job design is what it lacks, they got good raids terrible job design.

which hurts casual content such as dungeons as it lacks the good raid design ect.

This is an MMO. The social experience is supposed to be a core part of it. Right now, most activities can be done without any real interaction with others, or even without being in a FC. You can solo almost everything, and even Savage can be cleared through Party Finder without any long-term social ties.

I really believe the Free Company system needs a major overhaul. It should allow members from different Worlds and even different Data Centers. FC buffs could be made more meaningful. Casual and midcore players should be encouraged to group up more often instead of being able to experience everything in isolation. Aside from submersibles, FC systems haven’t really evolved since Heavensward. It feels abandoned, as if guilds are no longer an important pillar of the game.

Other issues:

- The open world feels empty. There’s little sense of exploration or danger. Monsters are neatly grouped in small packs in their designated areas, and traveling never feels risky. Compare that to older MMOs where exploring could lead to hidden caves, underground areas, or unexpected threats. There’s very little of that here.

- Older cities (ARR/HW) are still divided into multiple zones because of past PS3 limitations. That hardware era is long gone. It would be great to see unified city maps that feel more alive and seamless.

- Jobs lack customization. We used to have cross-class skills (even if imperfect) and the ability to allocate stats manually. FFXIV has no real skill trees or meaningful job variation. Materia gives the illusion of choice, but stat caps limit that freedom heavily.

- Jobs also lack identity compared to earlier expansions. Many roles now feel mechanically similar, especially in how they approach damage rotations and mitigation.

- Healers should feel necessary again. If a bad healer causes a wipe in a dungeon, that’s normal in an MMO. Tanks shouldn’t be able to solo everything “just in case.” Group content should require cooperation.

- Mitigation is good design, but the need for healing should feel impactful. Dungeons, trials, and raids should reinforce the idea that “I can’t do this alone.” Every role should matter. Right now, tanks feel overly focused on DPS, and healers often feel underutilized.

- Side quests need better writing. After saving the universe, being asked to trim an alpaca’s fur feels disconnected and trivial.

Besides what has already been mentioned, I feel like the game desperately needs activities that newbies and veterans can do together. Yeah, yeah, I know you can run old content but I think it would be much better if there was something that's at least somewhat relevant to both crowds. Deep dungeons are nice but newbies only have access to Palace at first and not everyone is into that type of content. Maybe something that would configure to a selected level when it comes to enemy HP and attack? Over and over I see new players joining and logging in less and less because while our FC does our best to support them, they just can't do a whole lot of content with us endgame players.

As a quality of life thing, I really, really wish we could queue up for roulettes with multiple roles. I just want to get them done, I don't care which role I need to play. Most of the time, anyway. RIFT had that functionality years ago, it's not impossible.

1. Jobs that are fun and complex.

2. Reasons to communicate and cooperate with other players.

3. Playable race variety.

Feeling like a RPG

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Originally Posted by NightHour

- Repeatable content with rewards worth the time investment (Criterion tried and failed big time)
- Modernized basic features like Friends list
- Proper Tab targeting
- Modern Macro system

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You could probably hit the character limit just listing UI/UX issues. So many things take so many windows, and there are plenty of cases where you can't open or interact with them at the same time because the act of opening some windows counts as an action, and having some open counts as being occupied.

Open world content that’s meaningful and replay-able and the need to actually feel like an MMO again…trust has caused this game to go towards a solo experience…it’s an MMO, start acting like it again. If you want to play a solo game, go pickup a FF main installment…

-Open world Content
-FC Enhancements & Content
-Real Community Events
-Stop supporting Trust in dungeons.
-More content like Quantum/Criterion
-Stop gatekeeping content like Forked/COD Chaotic.
-Make Jobs fun and semi challenging again and not a complete joke to play.
-Most importantly - road maps need to come back and shorter patch cycles…seeing as how we are in fact paying customers.

It'd be nice if the dev team actually put some effort into the maps. They're all very pretty, yes, but they're all devoid of life, there's no reason to explore, very little storytelling outside of text boxes and nothing ever develops. Imagine if we arrived in Tural immediately after a storm and people were assessing damage, just walking up and down, taking notes. Then later in 7.0 we see workers and materials arriving, in the patches work happening and come 7.5 the main routes are reopened and shops get new items from across the continent. Sure it's a lot of work and people in different sections of MSQ would be on different maps but patch MSQ is short enough to trivialise that issue and it would make the places we visit feel more like actual places with actual people and actual government. They could even use the fate system to have players escort convoys and/or help build things.

Equally fanciful, healers that aren't tanks.

This game has a sense of less being full of players and creatures and whatnot, but rather a bunch of actors running in-front of a green screen and then being imposed over positions. It's easy to tune out after you start the game, but this game has a lot of details that make you feel disconnected from the world. You stand on a slope, your partially float (where other games would plant your feet at appropriate altitudes). You can run one way or another without showing any sense of how it would be to shift momentum. You are constantly skating around during animations. Would love to see them improve the animation blending in this game and some of the technical aspects to have a better sense you are really fighting these monsters or running up hills and the likes. Less graphically-sophisticated games from decades ago have achieved it, so I hope FFXIV can do that to create a better first impression for people seeing the game, and keep those already playing more immersed.

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Originally Posted by Alice_Rivers

It'd be nice if the dev team actually put some effort into the maps. They're all very pretty, yes, but they're all devoid of life, there's no reason to explore, very little storytelling outside of text boxes and nothing ever develops. Imagine if we arrived in Tural immediately after a storm and people were assessing damage, just walking up and down, taking notes. Then later in 7.0 we see workers and materials arriving, in the patches work happening and come 7.5 the main routes are reopened and shops get new items from across the continent. Sure it's a lot of work and people in different sections of MSQ would be on different maps but patch MSQ is short enough to trivialise that issue and it would make the places we visit feel more like actual places with actual people and actual government. They could even use the fate system to have players escort convoys and/or help build things.

Equally fanciful, healers that aren't tanks.

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This is what I think is missing:

1. Time continuity outside of a major patch zone
2. Continued reasons to visit certain NPCs even after their expansion is gone.

I haven't seen Hien in like 3-4 years, because he hasn't been involved in anything. Nor Yugiri, for that matter. They are our friends! And I can't even drop by for a cup of tea and ask how they survived the end of the world.

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Originally Posted by Catwho

This is what I think is missing:

1. Time continuity outside of a major patch zone
2. Continued reasons to visit certain NPCs even after their expansion is gone.

I haven't seen Hien in like 3-4 years, because he hasn't been involved in anything. Nor Yugiri, for that matter. They are our friends! And I can't even drop by for a cup of tea and ask how they survived the end of the world.

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Hien, Yugiri, and Gosetsu have their current state tied to side content (EW phys ranged role quests), so they're never going to show up again. It's just what CS3 does.

A new producer/director maybe ?

1. Mid-difficulty content. Something between story dungeons and EX. Normal raids are pretty good but we only get four of them every eight months, and their rewards aren’t enough to get by on from only doing that content.

2. Mutually supporting types of content. Occult Crescent should be the best way to get relics, which you then take and use outside OC; stuff from outside OC should help you do OC better. Equipment and currency rewards should be structured to encourage you to do a little of everything, with synergy between all the different types of content.

3. Writers with the courage to write something tragic and make the story deal with the consequences. After we killed Sphene in 7.0 (which we had to do!), we should have had to deal with some negative consequences from it in 7.x as well as mourning someone who could have been our friend if not for her duty. Instead we got a replacement goldfish in 7.2, and all the sadness taken out of Living Memory in 7.3 too.

Casual content and an approachable community.

a glamour dresser in my house

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Originally Posted by GraceHorizon

1. Mid-difficulty content. Something between story dungeons and EX.

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EX are mid-difficulty content. What you're asking for is just casual content.

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Originally Posted by hydralus

EX are mid-difficulty content. What you're asking for is just casual content.

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They spelled it as clear as crystal: "something between story dungeons and EX".

It doesn't matter whether it qualifies within casual content or not for you, it's beyond the point.

Coming from a fan of Diablo III and IV, I think it would be great if they would explore creating dungeons with randomly generated layouts each time you enter. Monters' strength would scale up based on the "level" of the dungeon. The higher it is, the tougher the mobs are. Each of the party member would receive a "rating" at the end of the dungeon, based on certain objectives they fulfill during the fights. There would be no hand-holding, every entry is unique, you have to figure out yourself how to get to the end boss and beat him. There is also a time limit, where you would use the duration to "show off" how well you parse in comparion to other parties/people. Boss would drop very unique and "legendary" stuff, but the drop rate is extremely low, and even then, the stats on the item would be randomly generated, so it's super difficult to hit a legendary with maxed out stats. Oh man, I would love this so much hahaha

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Originally Posted by Diablo_Eichenwald

Coming from a fan of Diablo III and IV, I think it would be great if they would explore creating dungeons with randomly generated layouts each time you enter. Monters' strength would scale up based on the "level" of the dungeon. The higher it is, the tougher the mobs are. Each of the party member would receive a "rating" at the end of the dungeon, based on certain objectives they fulfill during the fights. There would be no hand-holding, every entry is unique, you have to figure out yourself how to get to the end boss and beat him. There is also a time limit, where you would use the duration to "show off" how well you parse in comparion to other parties/people. Boss would drop very unique and "legendary" stuff, but the drop rate is extremely low, and even then, the stats on the item would be randomly generated, so it's super difficult to hit a legendary with maxed out stats. Oh man, I would love this so much hahaha

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So you want to have Deep Dungeon with small modifications?

Actual gameplay, the literal turn-off for most people taking a look at the game, where most classes are bland or unrewarding save for a scant few.

I guess, fast paced, meaningful levels and not bullsh-- like "the first 50 levels are snorefests but after that it gets interesting!", also gears can be used outside too

Speed to fix problems. Feels like the only time we (sometimes) get fast fixes to issues is when they're so big it would be embarrassing for them to go ignored.

The easiest way to fix Casual = boring is to create activities that are just silly and stupid, in a good way. Take, for example, the Valentine event way. Building cakes while being chased by marmets.

They could expand/revamp the Gold Saucer since that already exists, and it's supposed to be a place for fun.

redesign existing modes + adding ones on top, and give each one of them also unique rewards on top of general ones.

Here is the list of top 5 things FF14 is lacking sorely today.

5) Better writing.
4) Better writing.
3) Better writing.
2) Better writing.
1) Better writing.

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Originally Posted by Gwenkatsu

Here is the list of top 5 things FF14 is lacking sorely today.

5) Better writing.
4) Better writing.
3) Better writing.
2) Better writing.
1) Better writing.

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That's all? Youre ok with the bad content we been getting for years?

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Originally Posted by Miguel85NYC

That's all? Youre ok with the bad content we been getting for years?

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That's pretty much how it's worked for the last 12 years so yeah.

Lacks a story skip mode for those that just want to skip the whole story.

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Originally Posted by Valence

They spelled it as clear as crystal: "something between story dungeons and EX".

It doesn't matter whether it qualifies within casual content or not for you, it's beyond the point.

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You're correct I used the wrong word.
EX is already mid-difficulty content, what they're asking for is just more low-difficulty content.

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Originally Posted by hydralus

You're correct I used the wrong word.
EX is already mid-difficulty content, what they're asking for is just more low-difficulty content.

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Then they're asking for more (to you) "low-difficulty" content that's not as low-difficulty as the existing 'low-difficulty' content. So what?

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For my part, though it's far from all or even the most important: repeatable 20-to-35-minute instanced and DF-able content somewhere between Savage and Extremes in difficulty but less dependent on memorization, e.g., keyless "~M+" but ideally where players choose the challenges they want to add.

Or, job distinction and alt-friendliness (in terms of both characters, and more importantly if job distinction were allowed, jobs). Note here that fights would have to be redesigned to actually leverage those distinctions without just forcing X job for Y fight each time.

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Originally Posted by Shurrikhan

Then they're asking for more (to you) "low-difficulty" content that's not as low-difficulty as the existing 'low-difficulty' content. So what?

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For my part, though it's far from all or even the most important: in a nutshell, keyless "~M+" where players choose the challenges they want to add.

Or, job distinction and alt-friendliness (in terms of both characters, and more importantly if job distinction were allowed, jobs). Note here that fights would have to be redesigned to actually leverage those distinctions without just forcing X job for Y fight each time.

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If we're going down the "According to you" argument: Considering we have people on the forum complaining dungeons are too hard perhaps it already exists and dungeons are now mid-difficulty.
Jokes aside I don't even agree with the original statement that difficulty between Story dungeons and EX doesn't exist because: normal raids, Floors 61+ of Pilgrims, Occult crescent CEs (yeah people can be carried through them but that's due to swarm size not mechanical difficulty) are already there. Would it be nice to have more? Sure. More is always good, but saying it doesn't exist is just wrong.

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Originally Posted by hydralus

If we're going down the "According to you" argument: Considering we have people on the forum complaining dungeons are too hard perhaps it already exists and dungeons are now mid-difficulty.
Jokes aside I don't even agree with the original statement that difficulty between Story dungeons and EX doesn't exist because: normal raids, Floors 61+ of Pilgrims, Occult crescent CEs (yeah people can be carried through them but that's due to swarm size not mechanical difficulty) are already there. Would it be nice to have more? Sure. More is always good, but saying it doesn't exist is just wrong.

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A lack is to not have enough, not necessary to have nothing. "There is no food." =/= "There is a lack of food." And look at what was said in the exact section you take issue with:

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Normal raids are pretty good but...

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...the rewards aren't enough...

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Normal Raids were already mentioned, and given that Pilgrim lacks rewards and CEs aren't even instances while all other examples were and OC was mentioned separately just below...

Like, why bother with the nitpick, especially when, as you said, "more is always good" and lacking / having a lack of something does not necessitate that there is outright none anyways, only not enough (which will be, in a video game, inherently subjective)???

I agree. They really need to hire world-class screenwriters and make impactful stories which are told like an epic movie. Also, they need to make characters move more realistic and beyond the emotes waving and stuff. It was fine 10 years ago but now it just feels lazy as hell.