I think one of the problems with FATEs are part of what makes it a good design solution. They wanted to take many components you'd like in an open world game, like elusive enemies (that aren't hunts), spontaneous collection quests, defence missions, world events, etc., and package them all under one label. One flaw with this system is there is a huge, broad, massive range of disparate activities in how it works, the consequences to the world, the rewards available, etc.

I don't think it's a problem that some FATEs are just walkovers where you fight some random enemies you can bulldoze in short time. The problem is there is not enough visual distinction to let players know of all the cool stuff that is happening because there is too much noise, and the developer doesn't respect their own systems with stuff like BLU being able to oneshot bosses or giving the same amount of credit with regards to relic weapons or events like the Yokai stuff regardless of how much effort it actually took.

It would have been better to maybe have a system delegating the quality/reward/impact of FATEs in a visually intuitive way. Like, notorious monsters that are meant to be fought by a party should not have the same appearances as some chump you can blow up in a minute. A solution could have been to maybe have a bronze, silver or gold border for FATEs on your map, with different presentations in terms of music and stuff.

So it would look like:

Bronze: Very basic enemies, bosses, gathering FATEs you can easily do on your own and have no impact on the world.

Silver: FATEs part of a massive chain, or winning here changes the world like making vendors available or yielding collectable loot.

Gold: Big scary FATEs you really are not meant to try to fight on your own; typically with loot and achievements. Stuff like the cyclops out in Coerthas.


Also, while I appreciate the novelty of "hidden bosses" and stuff, IMO stuff like Odin makes the world feel way more awesome after you learn about them and I wish the game had some kind of notice system. Let's not pretend it's elusive; it's usually a matter of people being inside of some kind of Discord or linkshell or not. It's cool the community is the notification system but I feel like we'd get more people into those communities and more involved with the game in general if they knew about these things.