For future reference, if your time travel story has to rely on memory wipes in the middle of the action in order for it to make sense, it's likely inherently flawed. All it took was 5 minutes of reflection and all the hype masking the flaws in the later portions of the story falls apart. At least I still have my headcanons. With hardly any content to do in game besides pvp and not much personal excitement for the upcoming patch story, it's going to be a long wait until things really start to pick up again for me.

Even then I have limited expectations for 7.0 - if the game wants to pander to people who can't stomach a serious story or level-appropriate gameplay in direct contradiction to things that built its foundation then there's little I can do. I came to this game for a world that was interesting, stayed on for characters that were fleshed out and well developed, and admittedly suffered through some of the earlier gameplay mechanics until things evened out, until that train got derailed entirely with no job being safe from unwanted, detrimental changes.

All while the G'raha fanclub preaches about how emotional and amazing 6.0 allegedly was, while being catered to by not only the main game's forceful advances of him onto the player character but the manga made in honor of that style of storytelling as well. I had already made up a dream concept for a 7.0 set in a Meracydian "Mist Continent" with a mix of old and new cast members to keep things balanced, but instead of grounded storytelling it doesn't seem like we can expect anything other than more convoluted ultra-supernatural plot elements and unkillable cast members. Taking from visual novels from one part and taking from WoW the other, the things that contributed to widespread community disappointment with the story over time until the game self-selected to the point where hardly anyone was left.

As others have mentioned, it is embarrassing that things have turned out this way for a game that at one point was able to satisfy both serious players and the whims of its social media fandoms, yet now is objectively tilted against the former with each patch grating on our patience further and further. This isn't going to be sustainable long term and will eventually lead to the same sort of self-selection problems where just like how WoW struggles to attract new players, FFXIV will struggle to find people outside the twitter fanclubs willing to tolerate lackluster story and gameplay combined.

Also happy national hamburger day I guess. Naturally with EW being more defined by G'raha Tia eating McDonalds than any other scene, that's what the official twitter is promoting today and what that crowd is apparently hyped up for. Players like myself will vanish once games like FFXVI come out, and prior to that depending on how botched 6.2 turns out perhaps my attention will turn over to Soul Hackers 2. Though Stranger of Paradise was tragically short, I can always hop into FFXI and play jobs with a more accurate feel over there than here - especially Summoner with a complete pantheon and a Blue Mage that can progress the main story.

FFXIV's future is more uncertain than ever despite its roadmap and upcoming graphical improvements. You cannot hope to retain players if both pillars of gameplay and it's story - it's alleged strongest selling point - both collapse onto themselves.