Zepla: Endwalker is the Worst FFXIV Expansion I have played

[MintnHoney]

Except your thread was derailed by post 2, the entire first page was derailed, and Fenyx didn't appear until page 3.

Don't take this away from him. All he has in his life are the enemies on this forum that he purposefully makes for himself.

And, you know, none of that would be happening if he had something to do in FFXIV besides come on to the forums to try and be the Warrior of Light here.

[OdinelStarrei]

Hey friends, my sub has been out for a bit, so I'm not gonna be able to post soon. A shame, since I have so much to say, but I really think that I'm checked out.

There's simply too many bad things about this expansion for me to even have the rose-tinted googles that I do for Shadowbringers or Heavensward. Why did my entire FC, four statics, and social group explode? It's not because of the release of Elden Ring, or AC6, or BG3, or Honkai, or any of that. It's not because they were "burned out". It's because we were spending more time talking about what we miss, or what we're disappointed in over even playing enjoyable content for over a year. It's because the game itself became unfun to play because of the changes in the jobs, the changes in the savages raids that are now just body check simulators, the absurdity of TOP. Objectively, I have spent less time in Endwalker that I have in even a single patch of Shadowbringers or Stormblood, not just because I find the actual gameplay experience of the jobs not only lackluster, but a complete downgrade in many aspects, but that so many people around me agreed with that prognosis that they effectively unsubbed until further notice, and didn't come back/didn't get invested in anything outside of MSQ. Every once in awhile I'll see someone turn up, ask if the game is fun yet, receive a RESOUNDING "lmao no" and away they go again. Endwalker caused the collapse of the MMO part of an MMORPG around me.

Seeing that interview from Mr. Ozma is like, another straw for me. There have been so many opportunities for communication about these issues that go beyond "Our metrics say everything is fine" and "sub number high" because there will come a point where the metrics MIGHT NOT be fine! Datacenters outside of like, what, Aether??? are a desolate wasteland, but that's made even worse by DC travel. It's top tier being a newer player right now with a backlog, but as of late, I refuse to bring new players in unless they are MSQ-ONLY, as they just won't be given a compelling gameplay experience that they can find in literally any other game.

I went to Fanfest. I AM A FAN OF THIS GAME. But rather than being in an abusive relationship, it's almost like I'm in an avoidant one. I want the devs to communicate with us, not just about fluff nonsense but about the GAME itself. I want the devs to WANT me to play their game! That they feel Yes, we are PROUD of our work, we WANT you to be here with US! I want the devs to want my attention as a player! Because right now, they really don't seem like they could care whether I was here or not. Every other game is FIGHTING for my attention, they want me to come enjoy the experience they've created with their vision. FFXIV doesn't even put up a compelling argument. They just say "Come back later!" I did. What did you change? Nothing. "Take another break!" I did. What did you add? Nothing engaging for me and my friends, based on our playrate. "Play another job!" I did. You ruined the combat, and refuse to acknowledge that feedback is even exists on the front. Good god, being a support focused player in this MMO is actual hell.

I am glad that I am finally allowed a platform to say these things, and that other people are experiencing something similar. Because I really don't want to feel like all my friends left for no reason, and that their experiences didn't matter. Because they mattered to me.

[purgatori]

I don't know what's going on at CBU3, but there's clearly something off. FFXIV has stagnated and FFXVI is the most shallow, soulless game I have played in the series (having played all of them since FFVI).

[Swordsman]

I don't know what's going on at CBU3, but there's clearly something off. FFXIV has stagnated and FFXVI is the most shallow, soulless game I have played in the series (having played all of them since FFVI).

The crazy thing is for a bit I thought FFXVI was a good game... right up until Baldur's Gate 3 came along and blew it out of the water. FFXVI is still sort of ok in my book, but the depth of its plot and setting pales in comparison to BG3's by a huge margin.

[Vahlnir]

The crazy thing is for a bit I thought FFXVI was a good game... right up until Baldur's Gate 3 came along and blew it out of the water. FFXVI is still sort of ok in my book, but the depth of its plot and setting pales in comparison to BG3's by a huge margin.

FF 16 is more akin to God of War in a lot of ways. For me, that is a pretty significant pro, but it definitely goes against what FF usually is.

[Supersnow845]

16 was fantastic right up until they finished the first foray into zanbreque when they decided to dump the game of thrones style story for the most generic JRPG “kill the evil god” plotline they could one up with

Yet despite doing a 180 on storyline they still didn’t drop the most uninspired take on slavery I think I’ve ever seen and continued to drill it into our heads every second, they didn’t even use that plotline effectively

[Jeeqbit]

I don't know what's going on at CBU3, but there's clearly something off. FFXIV has stagnated and FFXVI is the most shallow, soulless game I have played in the series (having played all of them since FFVI).

There is no pleasing some people then. Story and sidequests seemed good and regardless of if it's easy, the fighting looked cool visually.

Seeing that interview from Mr. Ozma is like, another straw for me.

Thing is that what he says makes a lot of sense and has a lot of truth to it. People were constantly trying to maximize uptime and felt bad when they lost out on DPS, for example, because of the nature of their role (being melee) and subsequent phase changes that interrupted their rotations. It's fair to say that you actually liked those issues because they were something to fight against, but it really did feel in the past like a lot of people were fighting the system as if they wished they could have 100% uptime so SE just granted their wish.

there will come a point where the metrics MIGHT NOT be fine!

I think so too because statistics usually catch up eventually if there is a problem. But so far they have been managing to keep them high with all the new players and returners.

Fenyx didn't appear until page 3.

I see them earlier than that.

[Theodric]

The crazy thing is for a bit I thought FFXVI was a good game... right up until Baldur's Gate 3 came along and blew it out of the water. FFXVI is still sort of ok in my book, but the depth of its plot and setting pales in comparison to BG3's by a huge margin.

I'm really eager to see how Dragon's Dogma 2 fares, on that note. Since it's also a Japanese RPG attempting to capture the 'Western Action RPG' style without losing sight of being an RPG.

FFXVI fooled me with the promise of Ivalice style intrigue but as Supersnow pointed out, it sort of abandoned all that towards the latter half of the game. Ironically sort of similarly to how FFXIV decided to throw out any story line that had genuine, lasting nuance and grey morality.

I was shocked that it took the exact same approach to side quests as FFXIV does. They've certainly had a lot of criticism over the years regarding that particular style and the amount of time spent watching rather than playing. No side content was a bizarre decision too. There's hunts, sure, but then you look at the likes of The Witcher 3 which had horse races, a card game, fist fight competitions and a tourney....and then there's older JRPG's like Shadow Hearts and Breath of Fire 4 which had a whole bunch of fun side content to explore.

[Aldath]

The crazy thing is for a bit I thought FFXVI was a good game... right up until Baldur's Gate 3 came along and blew it out of the water. FFXVI is still sort of ok in my book, but the depth of its plot and setting pales in comparison to BG3's by a huge margin.

I said this before, but FFXVI reeks of PS3/Xbox 360 Corporate Japan Stench. Remember how they made Nier a beefy ugly dude with an eyepatch for the global release because "people won't like our japanese-styled protagonist"? Or how Capcom thought outsourcing development of Devil May Cry was good because "westerners are tired of Dante"? Oh! Let's not forget what Konami did to Silent Hill!

Seriously, I thought they learned their lesson. It makes CBU3 seem disconnected from current times. I mean, how many brooding FF protagonists with sad stories and heart breaking endings more do we need? They just slapped blood, sex and swearing on the FF name and turned it into a generic Hack and Slash. For all the hate FFVII Remake gets because of its awful final part, at least it actually turned the ATB system into an interesting action and RPG blend...

[Supersnow845]

16 100% feels like a game where all the decisions around its structure and content were made in 2009

The game is rigid, stale and plots like the bearer plotline feel like a first stab at a controversial topic back when social issues in video games that didn’t involve critiquing government structures wasn’t terribly common

The game just feels so dated