I really got bored at that time but I know well enough to say one particular thing: it's set on earth, real earth, just a trillion years later (I forgot the exact date, I think it was 11k years later?).
Do you know what means? It means that Eorzea, a fantasy realm invented for the sake of this game, a fantasy world where it has its own rules, a fantasy world where there are different races, is going to be tied to our earth as a potential canon. Is this the first time that something like this happened? No: Drakengard 1 has an ending where you go to Tokyo - which leads to the Nier games - but it's not shoved up to our throats and it's actually well implied and explained. What are they going to say here? That humans got to Eorzean to escape the alien invasion and suddenly they forgot about earth?
My point with this is that Nier: Automata, a game world set in the real world, is going to be canon to Eorzea, a fake world, and as far as I know, "metagaming" references are pretty much disliked...so now suddenly they are? I don't care about the game's plot of both games but even I would think "it's pretty dumb". Why not make a crossover with kingdom hearts? It's all about world travels, it fits the world. Or even Dragon quest? Sure the style is incredibly different but it's another dimension we can buy it.
It's also just hard to watch having such a realistic and futuristic setting mesh with the fantasy world of Eorzea...feels like those old movies where someone goes back in time and it's all about the stranger trying to fit in. It's old and not really fun.
And yet he can freely judge it: it's called "An educated guess", because we have no physical and undeniable truth of what's to come but, making the above mentioned "educated guess" and noticing how the patching and the content releases were made until now, we can deliberate that the expansion is going to be similar - if not identical - to the previous ones. If you're not sure here's the patching archives https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...patchnote_log/
TL;DR playing the games for 5 years gives you a good insight of what's gonna happen.
Like I said earlier, in his defense after 5 years of playing the game gives a good insight of what's gonna happen. He might be wrong but there's also a good chance he might be right...he played it for 5 years: it's been the same since 2.0. It's called educated guess and for all we know it could be just recycled story bits for the sake of fanservice. We don't know BUT we could be also right. Right now? Each odd patch is a new 24 man raid and each even patch is a new 8 man raid + tomestone change. That is not changed until now and it won't change for 5.X.
Unless, again, we are wrong and suddenly everything is changed in which case we would welcome it with open arms - as long as it's polished and functional.
I'm not complaining about content being new - not entirely at least.
I'm complaining about content being not polished or improved from the predecessor. Almost everything "new" feels (and eventually shows) to be either a downgrade from the previous installment or just the same stuff and we're at a point where we are tired of this.
I mean, you talk of deep dungeons hunts and Blue mage: POTD was an okay experiment and it kept being relevant as another way to level up but HoH is practically the same. Removing 20 floors and adding a couple of new spells don't exactly make it fresh. It makes it a copy cat.
Hunts were innovative and I even did them back then, but it was so easily exploitable and so hard on the server that it felt like they didn't test enough: it was pretty common for little groups of hunters going around ninja-killing rank A and B (before the changes) without letting others know and crashes were a big issue as well (sometimes entire areas weren't accessible due to constant crashes). And it hasn't changed until today but it's not as relevant as before.
And Blue Mage? I'm upset because it's a very fun class, I enjoy learning skills - despite the bullshit rng - and It's really interesting how the spells work but, once again, it feels unpolished and untested: many spells are weak, cannot dungeons "because", and can't even use it as to progress MSQ. And their reasonings made no sense either so it feels like being unpolished rather than actual fear of toxicity and stuff.
Want more examples? How about the overworld? The zones are still empty despite being larger and larger, and yet nothing is in them! Beast tribes are a joke, from 5 in ARR we only have 3 and the quests have gotten really boring and similar. What about fates? As useless as ever, and yet they keep adding them and make it relevant in everything we do.
I'm not complaining because the new stuff is new: I'm complaining because the new stuff is going to be the same or worse than before, usually the latter: SB had triple the budget of HW and yet HW delivered so much more in terms of novelty (flying mounts, 3 new classes, a new race, normal raids, POTD, etc) even if not all of them were great (Diadem and partially POTD).
if ShBring could improve on what's already there - and I mean actual improve, not improve by removing 1 or 2 things and not improve by making it look different - I think people would be less doubtful about future expansions. So far it's not the case.
....why not? I mean wow, that would be actually something different! The final quest is actually done as a 24 man raid! It would be a fantastic diversion from the mold, it would be a drastic change!
Also, WoW had Siege of Orgrimmar as a raid, so Kugane as a 24 man? Totally possible.
Also while we're at it what about adding savage 24 man raids too? That's something new that I think is worth a try.
I told you why I don't like the content, I told you why I feel it's unpolished and I would tell you more if I could, but all you can say is that we're annoying and we're complaining...so that's your point? Screw reasoning and valid points, screw actual criticism and feedback: we're complaining and we deserve nothing in return!
Somebody shows to be a bigger white knight than they should be...I wonder why?