After nearly a decade, im giving this game another chance.

[DwightParkman]

To further help my commitment stay solid, i bought the following:

Bottle of Fantasia
Cute school girl outfit
Red Mage level skip Lv70
Story skip

i caught up on the story i missed since pre-Heavensward which was where i left off last back in 2014 by watching videos online. i am all caught up on the story which is perfectly fine, i expect good story telling, music and visuals from any final fantasy game, But where does that leave everything else as i slowly approach lv 80 on my first job?

well let me start off with what i like before the usual suspects that recognize my name lose interest and start their disparagments.

what im enjoying:
the addition to gold saucer and the further improvement to styles and glamour support were a great idea. i think most of the time i played since i got back was hunting down npcs around the game to play triple triad, i really enjoyed playing that in real life, aswell as in ff8, and the phone app back when it was still relevant.
The outfits, side content to add to your repertoire of cosmetic customization is fantastic, so many ways to do that, i dont even know where to begin, im enjoying how cute my character looks, i even got many compliments on my character's appearance already. the music is fantastic. love the normal encounter shadowbringers combat theme, i listen to it even when im at work.

What im not enjoying:

I already knew what i was going to expect returning to the game as i did extensive research to what has been added since i stopped playing back in 2.0..
it seems not only did they not add any form of "tinkering" to playing as a job, but they even took that a step further by straight up removing the cross ability feature that existed back in 2.0 which was a carry over from 1.0. it wasnt alot, i was able to bring stoneskin over to paladin from white mage... i even spent a week leveling white mage just to get it for paladin, so they straight up made me waste time on that. not cool at all. The combat is very strict on simply just focuing on pure combat rotation. this gets exhaustively tiresome having to constantly stay ontop of the certain order of spells i need to cast on redmage. making sure i dont miss my verfires/stones and keeping the balance gauge optimal to do my holy/flare finisher. i mean the animations are really nice but my eyes are so focused on keeping them on the damn icon interface that i never really get to appreciate the spectacle of what the hard working yoshi-p staff made for us. its kind of a conflict of interest... i personally dont like speed/heavy combat rotation gameplay. the word i used before was "tiresome" as you are constantly rolling your fingers on the keyboard/controller trying your damnest to stay as optimal on damage as possible. many like this though and i can respect that, but personally, i prefered ffxi's (yeah im going there deal with it) where it was more about acting on the situation and building up slowly for a big move cordinated with the rest of your team. it saddens me deeply aswell that no such system exists still in ff14. no skillschains or magic bursts. also i heard that rotation gets even more insane when you get your "second combat mechanic" which i dont think i have yet.

I'm also a bit confused. i thought yoshida didnt like the idea of hybrid roles? didnt they outright outrule that they want to keep roles as "archtype" as possible? i feel like they kinda lied and passively made many of the jobs very much hybrids but didnt make an actual role called hybrid. things like dancers, red mages, and bards are all very much hybrid DPS, its really not a complaint and maybe this shouldnt be in this section but it does kind of annoy me on a design stand point.

TLDR? Im not enjoying Yoshida's philosophy take on core-mmorpg combat gameplay.

Current developing verdict

i think there's something i really need to address and i think everyone should take a second to consider this, and its about who you are as a gamer. please take the time to check this link out.

https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Player_type

Confused? im going to explain now.
for those familiar with Magic the gathering, im 100% sure you already know where im going with this. I am categorized as what is known as a "Johnny" player. people that are known as those enjoy playing with homebrew concepts and builds tailored to them, theorycraft and for their own personal enjoyment. FF14 however is clearly a game made, and specifically designed, only for that of the "spike" player. and what they are, are players who only pick the most meta deck/build in the format meta possible. nothing else matters, only whats best.

i would like to discuss this further if anyone needs more clarification. i also think its important that the developers of FF14 started thinking about this.

Now back to my working verdict.... where i stand now with FF14 is that im only enjoying it for all the non-main gameplay reasons. the fashion is awesome, the minigames, the FF callbacks, its all great, but the very stale, tiresome 1 way only approach to combat and every other aspect of the overly streamlined path of building your character just leaves nothing for me to be truly excited about.

[Ranaku]

Streamlining the jobs and their actions was the best thing SE did in my opinion. The ability to "tinker" with your jobs is just a silly ilusion to be honest. Raiders will always choose the spec with the highest dps, same as it always was in WoW. There were skills nobody would use and people in raids etc. would flame you for it.

FFXIV isn't about being better through gear or better specs. It's about learning your rotation and performing well, it's personal skill based and not gear based.

But to be fair, i also don't like some of the changes they made. Tanks for example, it feels like they lost their unique charme. Like War having more lifepoints and higher healing but no build in mitigation.

[Kes13a]

while I agree with enjoying the "homebrew" version of gameplay, the problem you run into is most people are not that competent or really care for it. for them, that approach is difficult and confusing and they then migrate to websites for the current "flavour of the month" which means you get everyone who is exact same build anyway

for most mmo's that want ease of use by the majority of people playing, its not a sustainable format for at best, indifferent players.

the min/maxing life isnt for all and thats where the real issue is. most of the current gaming population doesnt want the hassle, and I suspect, do not long play a game where that is required

[ReynTime]

I've been feeling the same way you do about the combat, only it took me years to feel that way, mostly because it was Shadowbringers that really put the final straw in the things I enjoyed about the combat and dungeons. And I know it won't get any better since ShB is also the expansion during which this game's population grew the most by far.

The difference I guess is that I personally don't care for mounts or minions as "rewards", and I like glamours but never went crazy for them like most players go. Never saw them as an important feature. I came to accept that once I'm done with the current story (Which Yoshida says ends in 6.0, which means 6.1+ starts a new story) I'll be done with XIV.

I'll always feel a colossal disappointment that the few unique and interesting concepts from 1.0~1.23 were completely thrown away when they weren't the problem with that version of the game. Fixing their implementation would have gone a long way to make the gameplay less shallow. But I guess MMORPGs have embraced MMOLite instead and the concept of slower paced combat, battle experience that doesn't depend entirely on boss mechanics to not be the same thing literally everywhere, proactive party synergy and swapping jobs/gear/setup in a content per content basis are something I'm only getting in offline RPGs now. Huge freaking shame.

Honestly, I think if they were planning to tunnel-vision into DPS-is-everything and dodge dancing from the beginning while pretending your allies are AI controlled, they should have never stayed with tab-target combat. It feels like playing a menu-based game that really really wish it was born a hack 'n slash with dodge mechanics.
Anyone who doesn't think there is something wrong with a combat design where every non boss/notorious monster encounter is dealt with literally the same way by your job is objectively wrong.

Current XIV "respects your time" by making sure everything but high-end content must feel like quick chores rather than lasting and engaging. It really feels to me like 90% of the PvE is designed for people who don't like PvE. They're just a checklist they go through in order to get their next costume combination or cute minion.

[Ath192]

Yeah that's by design. I do hate that rotations have become pretty nuanced and sometimes bloated for classes, keeping track of everything to optimize damage is tiresome, and there's always timers to keep track of and gauges and what not.

I cannot say I look at the battle and battle effects too much while raiding since I'm trying to play optimally. This is not something I particularly super enjoy. HOWEVER, When it comes to Savage tier clears and ultimate clears even though half the battle was keeping track of my rotation and hot bar and the other half seeing what mechanic was coming up by the end of them I do feel like we all worked our butts off to pull it off, and it is rewarding to get a piece of gear or totem that you know others went through the same ordeal to acquire.

It is this aspect I find most rewarding. In a sense it is very much like a sport that requires coordination between many players and beating it is almost as exhausting as winning a tournament. Mentally, at least. The battle high.

But the system has the weakness that when timings tighten to keep a fast pace, the ways to perform a fight get reduced drastically, leaving little for creativity. But every time there's at least a few strategies that allow you to perform a fight a different way. So creativity is not entirely dead.

It is a style, and its definitely not for everyone. I hope you can get into it for sure as a fan of the game but if its not fun then it may not be the thing for you and that's okay. Just sharing what I appreciate so you see what the appeal is to other players.


---------

I'll add a caveat, I do want the game to feel more open world and explore other types of content that are slower paced, like exploring vast zones and things where combat is present but not the main thing. I do like long journeys and discovering. Something XI did much better.

[DwightParkman]

based on the fact that people are still saying the whole "illusion" argument just tells me that this game only caters to the "spike" players. this is a game only made for that singular group.

[Snarils]

sounds like you enjoy everything but playing the game. Noted

[Ranaku]

I mean we get new jobs with every expansion. And if you take all the jobs combined you can play on one character which is unique for an MMO you have more diversitiy than in all other MMOs. WoW might offer you 3 specs for each class but you have to grind a new alt through everything again while in XIV you can just switch and with each expansion there are new jobs and also abilities.

But i respect that you don't like it, it's not for everyone and as i said unique for MMOs. Which is exactly the reason why i think it should be not changed since it's refreshing in my opinion to not be bound to the best gear or the best spec but instead to your own personal skill. But yeah your opinion is also valid ofc.

[Nothv13]

based on the fact that people are still saying the whole "illusion" argument just tells me that this game only caters to the "spike" players. this is a game only made for that singular group.

By this logic the majority of MMO players are in fact spike players. I have yet to play one where even the casuals don't follow some meta guide, even in classless games. These are fundamentally unlike MTG where you can make jank work due to magical turn 1 draws and literally tailoring your play group to it. MMOs fundamentally are much less open to such with much fewer interactions and flexible rules and a static hard defined opponent.

[DwightParkman]

yeh i suppose leveling another job is the only true means of tinkering, but its still another job, i just wanna play red mage, being that its always been my favorite ff job since the nes.