Now that we've seen all of Bozja, it's clear that Eureka was better than Bozja

[Feronar]

Bozja is too easy. Eureka relics actually prove dedication.

Eureka is time consuming, but not particularly difficult. Most Notorious Monsters can easily be killed with a single party of 8, and the mechanics are generally easy to deal with. Certainly easier than the mechanics on many of the Critical Engagements in Bozja and Zadnor.

[Ceasaria]

Eureka was the best content ever in this game (despite not having a very good story).

Bozja routine was like the 2nd Diadem : rush from fate to fate, afk (or kill mobs), repeat until the Emergency Mission.
It's kinda braindead and there is no feeling of a community learning, speaking and working to achieve goals together while having fun.
The maps are not looking good (efforts were made for Zadnor), and it's lifeless, without sense of danger like in any world zones we know so well.

At the contrary, Eureka managed to create 4 distinct thematic zones with different proportions (heigh matters), their own rules and mechanics to learn and dangers everywhere to avoid and/or fight.

I hope the next content for 6.0 will be as elaborate as was Eureka (with the quality story from Bozja).

[Niyuka]

Well I think Bozja vs. Eureka is the perfect example of Shadowbringers vs Stormblood in their 5.1+ lifecycle. Shb started with strong intentions and hype, and fizzled out continously, doing less of everything, making everything dumber and simpler, while catering to nobody. Stormblood didnt start out that well, picked itself up and added onto old, and created new systems that are memorable to this day.

I think we can safely say with Shb that dumbing down things even more than Stormblood did is not the right way to go. We can also safely say that there hasnt been the massive influx of new players (look at how few servers are currently full) that completed dwarfed the ones leaving over the weaker design. Shadowbringer tried to trade in old fans for new fans, and it didnt add up to a bigger success in the end - there is hope Endwalker may try to at least retain and build on this new generation (I imagine down the road Shb newbies will be like WOWs Wrathbabies) of players by raising, once more, the level of quality, engagement and depth.

We lost so much during ShB (Squadrons, most of Gold Saucer, no Deep Dungeon, missing Ultimate, a watered down mini-Eureka, watered down BA, watered down dungeons even further, no interesting crossover content like Rathalos, less depth of beast tribes, less depth of itemization, no new housing zone, the list goes on and on) to gain so little (New game+, Trusts, a cute-to-look-at picture zone for the fairies, Critical Engagement System in Bozja, the solo dungeon for relics and the solo sapphire weapon fight), I think its fair for the playerbase to be disappointed that apparently top level sales does not translate into a better product.

[Azper]

I feel like the, "I hate both," camp is vastly underrepresented here.

[Amh_Wilzuun]

I think we can safely say with Shb that dumbing down things even more than Stormblood did is not the right way to go. We can also safely say that there hasnt been the massive influx of new players (look at how few servers are currently full) that completed dwarfed the ones leaving over the weaker design. Shadowbringer tried to trade in old fans for new fans, and it didnt add up to a bigger success in the end - there is hope Endwalker may try to at least retain and build on this new generation (I imagine down the road Shb newbies will be like WOWs Wrathbabies) of players by raising, once more, the level of quality, engagement and depth.
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Gotta love when someone’s like “I am personally unhappy with the game so I’m gonna make up some weird theory about the state of the playerbase despite having no evidence at all”

[Niyuka]

Gotta love when someone’s like “I am personally unhappy with the game so I’m gonna make up some weird theory about the state of the playerbase despite having no evidence at all”

Chill, I am still playing the game. But every bit of evidence is supporting my assumed state of the playerbase right now. Of course, you can ALWAYS say that its not true, since SE didnt come out and tell directly how it is (and you would have enough fans not believing it then, as well). We know from official statements that Shadowbringers sold better than Stormblood. We know, from just last week, that more servers are now considered lower population/not overly full than after 4.55. So unless SE secretly drastically increased server capacity and told nobody about it (which would be about the most stupid PR idea ever), the drop off in active players is higher now than in Stormblood at the same time. Assuming there are not more or less players starting the expansion NOW than in 4.55 to a significant degree, Occams Razor would suggest we simply have a significantly larger drop of playerbase.
The only argument that is hard to make is whether the pandemic helped or hurt FFXIV. It helped other games a lot, so I ll assume it at least didnt hurt here, but then SE had to slow down and cut down content releases, so it may be FFXIV was managed worse than other comparable titles - which, again, I dont assume.

But this is more for the benefit of those who are not already locked in on "SE can do no wrong" stance. I think SE has had great moments (I praised ShB release a lot, also on these boards), and I think the Eden raid tier is their best work since Coil for Savage-equivalent raid content. But there is no way around the reality that post-release shadowbringers support doesnt hold a candle to Stormblood, or Heavensward for that matter.

[Adeacia]

I gave up on eureka on the third map. Did nothing but annoy me and make me not want to continue.

With Bozja however, after ignoring it for a long time I decided to work on my weapon. Currently rank 20 and I want to keep going. I'll finish the story and weapon this time. It isn't so bad that I refuse to continue like Eureka.

[Pepsi_Plunge]

What makes the difference: Eureka really felt like an ADVENTURE. A mysterious island were you're like a newbie again, everything was unknown and you were even back to level 1, while all the monsters were out there to eat you alive. The world was dangerous, you really had to watch your steps exploring (while sneaking around things that would one-hit you) and even at max level there were still things that could easily kill you.
Bozja, on the other hand, is a warzone and should feel scary and dangerous, but you are just walking through it like a god of war, being nearly invincible outside of CEs or if you somehow were stupid enough to AOE too many mobs as a non-tank. Also, with Bozja, you were basically done instantly. I needed a few hours to max level when the new zone came out last week and now I'm already close to finishing my third relict weapon. Compared to Eureka this feels like nothing at all. I don't wanna say that Eurekas grind was a good thing, but at least it kept you entertained for weeks and not merely a few hours.

The only thing I like more about Bozja are the dungeons. Eureka introduced us to BA and while it was fun, DRS is even better. DRS might even be one of the best content they ever added. And Castrum, DR normal and Dalarium feel kinda like alliance raids.

[Venandi]

Bozja is worse because everyone is so impatient and refuse to communicate and wait for people to get to FATEs. In Eureka you'll be reported if you pull earlier than the pull time for newbies to get to the NM.

[MPK]

What makes the difference: Eureka really felt like an ADVENTURE. A mysterious island were you're like a newbie again, everything was unknown and you were even back to level 1, while all the monsters there were out there to eat you alive. The world was dangerous, you really had to watch your steps exploring and even at max level there were still things that could easily kill you.
Bozja, on the other hand, is a warzone and should feel scary and dangerous, but you are just walking through it like a god of war, being nearly invincible outside of CEs or if you somehow were stupid enough to AOE too many mobs as a non-tank. Also, with Bozja, you were basically done instantly. I needed a few hours to max level when the new zone came out last week and now I'm already close to finishing my third relict weapon. Compared to Eureka this feels like nothing at all. I don't wanna say that Eurekas grind was a good thing, but at least it kept you entertained for weeks and not merely a few hours.

The only thing I like more about Bozja are the dungeons. Eureka introduced us to BA and while it was fun, DRS is even better. DRS might even be one of the best content they ever added. And Castrum, DR normal and Dalarium feel kinda like alliance raids.

DRS was terrible. The fight didn't have any wipe mechanics outside of the first room. It was expensive as hell costing >50k per run. The rewards was completely garbage since it's all untradeable and only really used for the dye-able judge set. BA had at least decent rewards that fetch a pretty penny if you got lucky.