I'm Frustrated with FFXIV's New Direction

[GrizzlyTank]

It does feel like they have deliberately been steering away from the things that made FFXIV special, starting with the end of SHB where they prematurely ended half their plot.

For all of ARR's issues, the world still felt mature, something that's been absent from a large part of EW and almost all of DT. Tuliolala and Raz was all sunshine and utopia like, while Sharlaya was neutered from what we had been teased about earlier with their assassinations.

They also don't want to pull in side story to the main-store like what happened with Crystal Tower, Alexander and Omega... Even though that's one of the things truly elevated the story well above that of other jrpgs. How Gaia, Cyella and Unukalhai was largely ignored in our brief void quest.

[Gaddes]

Tuliolala and Raz was all sunshine and utopia like, while Sharlaya was neutered from what we had been teased about earlier with their assassinations.

I think, at least for me, Radz-at-Han gets a pass because it's a very unique circumstance. I thought it was believable that Radz-at-Han would be prosperous and thriving because they basically have a cheat mode enabled with a nigh-immortal dragon as their leader. With that you get dragon's protective power, and more importantly consistency (since he can oversee changes and evolution of his nation over centuries). But more important than that, it being a successful nation really set up an effective narrative shock once everything goes to shit with the Final Days. Seeing it do a complete 180 shift to absolute chaos and ruin is a lot more of an "oh shit" jaw-dropper than if the nation was already problematic or in dire straits. Had it been that, then it wouldn't be such a visual shock honestly... the dramatic shift is one of the things that I think still makes the Vanaspati dungeon so visually arresting to me even now.