Was any of the 6.3 content worth waiting 4 months for?

[Liam_Harper]

I guess there was the Ultimate that only 0.01% of the players would actually get to enjoy.

Overall Ultimate participation (not clear) rates are in the 15%+ but Ultimate itself is only like 1% of all the content in the game. It also generates interest from content creators and streamers which creates a little advertisement for the game. And even for the players who will never step foot in there, it's a potential goal one day while leveling and gearing that motivates them.
Also importantly, players are running Ultimate all the time. Even now Party Finder has more listings for Ultimate than Savage or the current EX.

For one single boss with reused assets, Ultimate is incredible value for resources.

Island Sanctuary on the other hand? That required the devs to create an entire detailed Island for every player, kept the majority occupied for a week and is now dead content. Just 60s click and collect a currency every day. Most people ignore it, I'd say it'd be lucky to have 15% participation rate now. Casual content is a much bigger drain on resources. Especially since casual players have short attention spans and in this game are mostly averse to grind and earning things. Casuals are content sponges.

[Rufalus]

Just 60s click and collect a currency every day.

Man that has to be the greatest misfire of this expansion. I loved the concept. There's potential in the island idea to be a great value addition to the game.

The way I imagined it was having only 1 building on the island, but a much larger and more customisable one that serves as your base. Maybe one mammet around, not an army of them so you're constructing upgrades by yourself. Your minions would all roam around there instead of spread out so much.

The exports thing would be more of an active pastime, like an enjoyable minigame with no timegating that lets you keep earning the more you play it. There could also be more of a minigame for collecting materials which replaces the standard click click node gathering system. Something similar to the spearfishing minigame outside of island content where you time your button presses to moving targets and finish with a haul of many items.

I thought the central base area would have enough purpose and QoL features that you could treat it like a second home and have some things to do around there. Anyways

[FatalFatalis]

No, it really wasn't, and If you planned to resub in 6.3 I recommend doing so after 6.35 comes out because half the content of this patch or even more is there.

[Derio]

What we are missing. Another version of Bozja. The relic content the past 2 years have been engaging and probably the best filler content to hold people over until the next major patch. Since we dont have that, now people are hoping deep dungeon will hold us over.

Criterion dungeons while many dont want to admit it was a failure. The rewards were non existent so the content died after 1 or 2 runs.

With patch 6.3 and with all odd number patches we normally get much less MSQ than even number patches. The trial being apart of the MSQ takes away from the impact that the weapons had in shadowbringers. The fact that there were trials outside of MSQ didnt create an illusion that we had more content. It was actual side story content that was engaging and had a good storyline.

For me I am just writing this entire expansion as the meh expansion because it follows the pattern of:

Heavensward--- Really good
Stormblood----Meh
Shadowbringers----Really Good
Endwalker----Meh

[Xaruko_Nexume]

As someone that stopped at 6.0 and came back at 6.3... Honestly, Island Sanctuary is such a bummer. I was hoping for something with more mini-games such as fishing, and incentive to collecting stuff. Also a bit more customization options, different exteriors you could mashup and craft (not unlike housing outdoor). As of now it is a glorified cookie clicker. Also the z-e-r-o multiplayer aspect is a bit meh as well, given that every island look pretty much the same, there's no reason to visit.

Personally I love slow-paced games such as Cozy Grove and Animal Crossing so I don't really mind that aspect. Unlocking things and taking time is actually there but the rest... isn't.

I use the Island Sanctuary as an example when citing something I absolutely hate from the game and think is an unmitigated disaster. I've been called an apologist for this game but Island Sanctuaries were a waste of developer time. WoD Garrisons were better.

[Xaruko_Nexume]

I agree we're light on content, but saying only 0.01% of players do ultimate is hilariously wrong. Lucky Bancho statistics show a range of about 0.5% (Crystal NA) to 6.5% (Mana JP). And that's only people who have cleared and not people who have done some prog but haven't cleared.

Im confused, are you saying single digit participation in a piece of content is a successful piece of content?

[Rilifane]

Im confused, are you saying single digit participation in a piece of content is a successful piece of content?

Clear rates and participation is not the same.
People participate in the content well before getting an Ultimate clear which is why Rolder specifically mentioned that this is just the people who cleared. Participation rate is much higher. So considering the resources spent (a lot of reusing assets), Ultimate is extremely resource-efficient as the participation rate is good, it has a lot of longevity (people still run UwU/ UcoB, they're usually even the first choice for people trying Ultimate) and you don't have to think up completely new concepts like with IS where you have to do develop the core concept first.

[raelgun]

Im confused, are you saying single digit participation in a piece of content is a successful piece of content?

What's more successful, content that's lasts years and continually done by many people since it's inception or abandoned content by even it's target audience.

[Hanayumi]

No, it really wasn't, and If you planned to resub in 6.3 I recommend doing so after 6.35 comes out because half the content of this patch or even more is there.

Screw 6.35, jump back in at 6.5, its of many reasons why FFXIV blew up in Shb so well. People came into the game late into the expansion cycle and had 5-6 months to catch up even when starting fresh...

[Jirah]

Im disappointed that even with the story concluded they still continue to put out these predictable patch cycles. I’d figure they try something new but it looks to be the exact same formula