Why does everyone complain about STORY based MMO's?

[ReynTime]

Most Final Fantasy games try harder than this with difficulty in their stories. And XIII aside have better level design.
They also have actual character management as a staple in jrpgs is the prep you do in a fight by fight basis. Even action rpgs like Kingdom Hearts have this.

A lot of text and cutscenes isn't what defines jrpgs. They lost that uniqueness to every other genre with narrative since the mid 2000s.

[Jojoya]

Most Final Fantasy games try harder than this with difficulty in their stories. And XIII aside have better level design.
They also have actual character management as a staple in jrpgs is the prep you do in a fight by fight basis. Even action rpgs like Kingdom Hearts have this.

A lot of text and cutscenes isn't what defines jrpgs. They lost that uniqueness to every other genre with narrative since the mid 2000s.

Single player games are always going to have the advantage when it comes to making more difficult content. Players feel no pressure to try to keep up with their friends. They can tackle the game's challenges at their own pace.

Those games also aren't dependent on recurring revenue like MMOs (whether subscription or microtransactions) because the volume of technical and customer support needed for the game should be fairly low past any initial release problems. Once the player has bought the game, the game company has all the money they're going to get from the player unless they later release a DLC the player wants. If a player gives up in frustration over difficulty, the company isn't going to be losing out on recurring revenue needed to support game operations.

MMOs that try to go the higher difficulty route with their content either don't last long or are stuck reliant on a very small, dedicated (and hopefully moderately wealthy) player base. A large gaming corporation that has a responsibility to its shareholders to produce profits isn't going to design their game around the high end players demanding difficult challenges. Those players are capable of playing less difficult content and possibly will still enjoy it even if it's not exactly what they're looking for. Less skilled players aren't capable of playing the high difficulty content and won't enjoy what they can't play.

MSQ difficulty is not going to increase from here on out. Too many players are hitting their skill caps as it is, needing other players to help carry them through content (wouldn't need the Very Easy modes for the solo duties otherwise). If some players want more difficult content, they should be asking for additional side content to meet that desire instead of asking for MSQ to be made more difficult.

[ZedxKayn]

Too many players are hitting their skill caps as it is, needing other players to help carry them through content (wouldn't need the Very Easy modes for the solo duties otherwise). If some players want more difficult content, they should be asking for additional side content to meet that desire instead of asking for MSQ to be made more difficult.

I don't think that the problem is that players are hitting their skill ceiling, is that it's never really explained at all how to play well, in addition to just being able to be carried through the content, players basically have no feedback whatsoever on how they're doing or if they're playing the game right. I firmly believe most of the players would find the MSQ to be of baby difficulty if they understood how the game functions. But it is never explained to them.