announcement showcase!

[Shougun]

In terms of my hopes? I'd agree, and I also agree with your comments on how this all pivots on whether they intend for XIV to be there for the long haul, or take a backseat to a newer MMO. But I'm going in with very muted expectations... even as to the trailer.

What I'd like to see is for them to expand and improve upon character customisation, primarily.

Bonus points would be Zenos dying off rather quickly in the expansion; a darkness-based caster, be it Time Mage, Necromancer, whatever; good new abilities and playstyle twists for existing jobs (esp BLM/SMN, which I main); more variety in harder content (e.g. dungeon challenge modes); and finally seeing derplander in some caster job in the trailer. But most of those relate to things I don't expect them to touch on until the later fanfests.

Dark job hypeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeEEEee! I don't think dark like it has to be evil or even willingly doing something "bad" but man I really want a dark focused job and if possible also just plainly dark as you go through the checklists. Like in FFXI with blue mage where you shattered your soul. Dante, Vincent, or Yuri - in how they either had some or very little control over the demon/darkness within. Or since I've watched it recently you've the main character in the Sweet Home Korean drama.

Would love for the job to be top to bottom lore to visuals to gameplay feel "dark" (which doesn't mean "black exclusively, no other colors ever" lol, speaking upon the theme of the word and the vibes drawn from the job as you play it). And of course have a lot of magic vibes to it. You know my bias is probably to a dark transformation based job (which I did include a mage transformation as part of the suggested design) but I'd be excited for pretty much any type lol.

Actually pointing at your signature image in vibes, like Sweet Home, or some of the other games I mentioned (Yuri from Shadow Hearts). A job that is clearly resting right on the edge of chaos. As mentioned in the post but also to people who have qualms with the idea of WoL willingly doing something that brings chaos.. is where I point out A. SE did it before, in this game and others, and B. that's fine the lore doesn't have to be entirely willing (like FFXI blue mage, and also like in this game already (lightwarden) and others). Some of the lore could be made much better if it wasn't purely willing (how you have to deal with your job's quest line for example could offer some really fun personal responses to npcs and as well discuss some of the morals of chaos and utilizing fire to fight fire). In real life I'm really hesitant about the idea of fighting fire with fire, just sounds like a great way to burn down the whole neighborhood and bring in many innocents.. but in games I absolutely love the dark fire with dark fire edge of chaos themes (so a job that had a bit of fun on that moral point, while also giving you a bit of an out in that it wasn't entirely willing, could be quite fun).

Some may point out Dark Knight but, I imagine this as a DD job and I've other issues like I just massively prefer playing Paladin in gameplay and features (and the holy knight as a tank is a favorite theme for that- so when playing Dark Knight I mostly just think "I should be playing Paladin right now" lol). Paladin is just my go to main for tanking. Also Dark Knight, imo, doesn't really capture that essence I was trying to point out with your avatar or other games edge of chaos characters. That broken nonchalant confident smile, confident yet two seconds away from exploding into pure chaos and or rage. Although to be fair the story for Dark Knight was fun and does have dark moments - it's definitely a job up there in terms of when I was paying closer attention to the story (not attempting to insult dark knight).

I'm sure you have your own biases on how that is best represented, but just wanted to share mine lol. Long wish for that and especially done by FF's artists who are told to "make chaos".

On expectations- I might be a little "awwww" if we didn't get too much for this 5th but I wouldn't riot if it was more hints and less substance. Mostly I think then my response would rely on presentation. Naturally I don't want to be misled/lied to so I'd prefer if they can't then they don't lol. I'm not "unburnable" but I don't find SE to be just like an EA/Activision or something where if I don't "distrust them" I'm a fool (those companies can still make great games, and they do have talented people even in the bad ones - don't want to bag on the employees, but they've shown time and time again trusting them too much is a shame on you moment).

Since you mentioned customization and dungeon content, I personally hope for improvement of their exploration loops and the general sense of "existence" / role play. Like you might point out each job in WoW tends to have something that makes them cute both in and out of combat, FFXIV has the in-combat thing (sometimes, certain jobs are way more pronounced than others), but there is basically zero concept of this outside of bard in FFXIV. WoW does that sort of thing on multiple levels at multiple points of game play, it's not just jobs, or just races, or just a random quest. I really would like to see SE pick up on that thought process (although it's not really important to me on races, I'm fine with that being more same same... but jobs, or the general vibe of being in a location I feel they could improve). Why is dragoon taking more fall damage than any other job? Flip me a table right now, that is anti-role play lol. Small thing like fires in WoW often burn you but here it's like whatever, fire, ground, all the same thing. Now if SE is planning to cool FFXIV off and heat up another flagship mmo.. I guess hopefully they'll take that concept into their next game (and that can be a huge cool new selling point to the game) but if not... still wishing they did it here. That idea pervades many systems its not just that random jump example, like we've nearly no critters that peaceful run about and everything must aggro you for whatever reason. Extra things here and there that make a concept stand out as "that is what that would do.. yeah.. feels right...", like campfires do something. On a far greater aside and more FF specific concept I still miss airships too . . . obtaining an airship was a major memory for me in many FFs.

Although I don't really expect that (role play to suddenly be brought to the fore front).. just wanted to respond to your more specific desires with my own .