MSQ Difficulty and Exclusion

[Aravell]

Personally, I don't think the MSQ content needs to be made harder. I disagree with the sentiment that it would force players to get better, Nidhogg, Shinryu and Titania didn't force players to get better, all they did was spawn endless complaints on the forums and social media.

However, I would love to see alliance raids, extreme trials and the earlier floors of savage get some teeth back again, those are all optional and wouldn't affect people who don't want to do them, they could stand to be harder and bridge the wide gap between the ease of the MSQ content and the difficulty of savage/ultimate.

[vetch]

Personally, I don't think the MSQ content needs to be made harder. I disagree with the sentiment that it would force players to get better, Nidhogg, Shinryu and Titania didn't force players to get better, all they did was spawn endless complaints on the forums and social media.

However, I would love to see alliance raids, extreme trials and the earlier floors of savage get some teeth back again, those are all optional and wouldn't affect people who don't want to do them, they could stand to be harder and bridge the wide gap between the ease of the MSQ content and the difficulty of savage/ultimate.

YoshiP, in a June 2021 interview with Destructoid: "... content like FFXIV’s alliance raids are great because it allows for players to have fun taking on challenges in a larger group of multiple parties, which lowers the amount of personal responsibility for each player for a more relaxed experience. It is also an opportunity for us as a development team to invest resources on a larger scale to create epic battles with grandiose presentations. Through this, players who aren’t as skilled at battle content can experience both story and battles, while also raising their gear item level through the equipment rewards from the alliance raids. This content is also meaningful for players that have been taking a break from the game for a little while, as it can help them get back in the groove when it comes to battle content, and also catch up on obtaining better equipment."

https://www.destructoid.com/ffxiv-pr...ing-from-home/

[HyoMinPark]

Personally, I don't think the MSQ content needs to be made harder. I disagree with the sentiment that it would force players to get better, Nidhogg, Shinryu and Titania didn't force players to get better, all they did was spawn endless complaints on the forums and social media.

And I believe a huge reason for this is because these fights aren’t literal pushovers like the rest of the MSQ content in this game. They aren’t ridiculously hard by any stretch like people enjoy saying they are; but they are more difficult than, say, Thordan at the end of HW. He was an absolute joke. At release you could stand in his AOEs and not die. Now, I could eat everything and barely walk away with a scratch. It was incredibly underwhelming as a new player who wasn’t even into anything in the high-end or hardcore scene. Shinryu, by comparison, actually felt like an expansion boss. Coming from someone who was still, more or less, a casual back then.

If the MSQ actually had a gradual curve in difficulty progressing through the levels (not anything insane or Dark Souls level, but mild and gradual), I don’t think the complaints would be nearly as high. These fights are “spikes” in terms of the level of challenge, and there are people who are perfectly abled that simply throw their hands up in the air if they wipe. All because this game has spent 60+ levels conditioning them that everything is super easy and you can basically smash your face on your keyboard and win. And it’s unfortunate that the response changed from “try harder” (Yoshida’s response to cries for Final Steps of Faith, Weeping City, and Dun Scaith nerfs) to things ending up nerfed because people complain (Thundergod Cid in Orbonne Monestary—you know, in the optional content people don’t have to do if they don’t want to).

[Amenara]

And I believe a huge reason for this is because these fights aren’t literal pushovers like the rest of the MSQ content in this game. They aren’t ridiculously hard by any stretch like people enjoy saying they are; but they are more difficult than, say, Thordan at the end of HW. He was an absolute joke. At release you could stand in his AOEs and not die. Now, I could eat everything and barely walk away with a scratch. It was incredibly underwhelming as a new player who wasn’t even into anything in the high-end or hardcore scene. Shinryu, by comparison, actually felt like an expansion boss. Coming from someone who was still, more or less, a casual back then.

If the MSQ actually had a gradual curve in difficulty progressing through the levels (not anything insane or Dark Souls level, but mild and gradual), I don’t think the complaints would be nearly as high. These fights are “spikes” in terms of the level of challenge, and there are people who are perfectly abled that simply throw their hands up in the air if they wipe. All because this game has spent 60+ levels conditioning them that everything is super easy and you can basically smash your face on your keyboard and win. And it’s unfortunate that the response changed from “try harder” (Yoshida’s response to cries for Final Steps of Faith, Weeping City, and Dun Scaith nerfs) to things ending up nerfed because people complain (Thundergod Cid in Orbonne Monestary—you know, in the optional content people don’t have to do if they don’t want to).

I think that is what my complaint with the MSQ is. It is spikes in difficulty that are followed up by easy content with no encouragement to try a little harder. The difficulty curve is all over the place which is the underlying issue.