The past few final dungeons…

[MikkoAkure]

I don’t see it as a problem because the dungeon isn’t the last boss or the climax.


In ShB and EW’s cases, the last dungeon of X.0 is the prelude to fighting Hades/Endsinger and is basically a playable villain monologue before you face off against them properly.

Lunar Subterrane is also a playable explanation of “Golbez” before we fight Zeromus, which was the real climax of the void arc.

ARR and HW gave us longer dungeons as the climax, but ARR’s was so long that it’s separate from other dungeons and then got overhauled. ACRF wasn’t as long but I remember people complaining about getting it in roulettes back when it was current content because it was longer than a normal dungeon and the last fight was more involved than other mindless roulette dungeons.

[Cilia]

Lunar Subterrane is also a playable explanation of “Golbez” before we fight Zeromus, which was the real climax of the void arc.

ARR and HW gave us longer dungeons as the climax, but ARR’s was so long that it’s separate from other dungeons and then got overhauled. ACRF wasn’t as long but I remember people complaining about getting it in roulettes back when it was current content because it was longer than a normal dungeon and the last fight was more involved than other mindless roulette dungeons.

Respectfully, I believe the climax of the Void Arc was the fight with "Golbez" himself; the story builds it up much more and it's much more personal, not to mention more difficult. The Lunar Subterrane and dealing with Zeromus are more denouement than anything else.

The problem with Castrum Meridianum and the Praetorium wasn't their length, it was the fact they had oodles of cutscenes repeat players would skip and leave newbies in the dust. Just one of those "we didn't quite think this through" moments that ruins the experience for both newbies and veterans.

The problem with the Aetherochemical Research Facility was that it provided more tomestones than anything else, and prior to Stormblood relic weapons typically required grinding out an absolute crapton of said tomestones; ergo, people ran it to death to get one of the steps done ASAP and then were sick of the place and said "No more!" The final boss being a modicum more difficult than standard didn't have much to do with it, at least not in my experience.