Disappointed With XIV Direction

[Aneshda]

I started playing here because of the MSQ, then I started with PvP because it was a nice way to pass the time.
I never skipped Cutscenes. Everything seemed fine until Endwalker, but then a big shift happened.
Yoshi P. and almost the whole Team only had Final Fantasy 16 in mind and spent most of their time working on it.
Final Fantasy 14 fell by the wayside. The time between patches got longer, the Content got less and less, the MSQ got worse and worse.
We're now at 7.1, where there are a total of 7 Quests in the MSQ, 1 Dungeon, 1 bit of a new Raid with 4 Quests. This Raid, is like the Raid before just a Fan service.
Most players and even I can't understand where this came from, because there was absolutely no backstory and both Raid's don't fit into this world at all.
There was also 1 change to the House Layout, 1 couple of new Weapons (which almost nobody knows how to get), a Chaos Raid with 1 Layout, 1 Boss and we've already had this boss twice before.
Then there's 1 Trial with a Boss that we've only had a short time before. Not to mention Byakko, who isn't new either. Oh yes, and because it's so nice to bring back everything old, Ryne and Gaia can't be missed.
There's also a new Armor Set that's super ugly, a new PvP Season with a level 25 Reward that nobody asked for.
Don't get me wrong, Casual / Street Style Glamour is perfectly fine if it fits into the overall picture of the game.
Yes, there are other Final Fantasy Worlds where NPC's and Players walk around ultra modern, super casual, but those Worlds also look different.
This super modern doesn't fit into any of the Areas in our World. We only have one tiny Area where some of this Modern Glamour fits and that is Solution 9.
The little bit of Content will now be stretched until the next Patch in 4.5 to 5 Months (Christmas is in between, so there will be a delay of at least 2 Weeks).
If I just look at myself, then the little that we get costs me far too much real cash. I own 1 FC house, 5 extra Retainers (originally had 9 and have already given up 2).
All in all, I pay 19.49 a month for this Game, with a patch every 4.5 Months a little bit of content costs me 87,705 every few Months for a maximum of 5-7 hours of something new to experience.
In this patch, 80% is combat content, I think Yoshi P. is confusing Final Fantasy with World of Warcraft.
The bottom line is that Yoshi P. has eliminated everything old in the Story and in the Game and then doesn't know what to do next.
Why rush to end a 10-year-old story by eliminating most of it behind the scenes?
Why pack 2 Expansions into one and hope for the best?
Who says that an Expansion can only have a maximum of 120-150 quests in a MSQ? Who says how much Content there can be in an expansion?
I mean, ultimately the player is paying for it, and not a small amount. SE limits every little bit and I wonder why.

[Kuroka]

I started playing here because of the MSQ, then I started with PvP because it was a nice way to pass the time.
I never skipped Cutscenes. Everything seemed fine until Endwalker, but then a big shift happened.
Yoshi P. and almost the whole Team only had Final Fantasy 16 in mind and spent most of their time working on it.
Final Fantasy 14 fell by the wayside. The time between patches got longer, the Content got less and less, the MSQ got worse and worse.

This so much. People will insist im just burned out, but no, i just dont get much, its less and less substance... not even two dungeons anymore. Every time its "we can give you A or B" while what we need and want is A B and C.

While some things are nice and ill always accept story will be a matter of taste as well, it just feels like gettin less and less, like the recipe for the special sauce got changed and just doesnt taste as well...

Why rush to end a 10-year-old story by eliminating most of it behind the scenes?
Why pack 2 Expansions into one and hope for the best?
Who says that an Expansion can only have a maximum of 120-150 quests in a MSQ? Who says how much Content there can be in an expansion?

Yeah that so much, We travel to other shards, space... yet it feels like 90 of our continent is unknown to us...

[Jeeqbit]

Everything seemed fine until Endwalker, but then a big shift happened.
Yoshi P. and almost the whole Team only had Final Fantasy 16 in mind and spent most of their time working on it.
Final Fantasy 14 fell by the wayside.

There's just one problem with all that. They started working on FF16 during Heavensward patches. So they have been working on it the whole time and moving staff over; you just didn't notice. I will also point out that FF16 is done with (and has been for ages beside minor stuff like porting it and small addons), yet the content cycle has not changed much. The actual truth is it has nothing to do with FF16. It's just their decision-making.

The time between patches got longer, the Content got less and less, the MSQ got worse and worse.

The first point is objectively true. The second point is objectively untrue. The third point is ultimately an opinion but seems to be shared by many.

We're now at 7.1, where there are a total of 7 Quests in the MSQ, 1 Dungeon, 1 bit of a new Raid with 4 Quests.

Exactly the same as 6.1, 5.1 and 4.1.

This Raid, is like the Raid before just a Fan service.

Ivalice was fan service. Nier was fan service. The Twelve is sort of fan service, but arguably just clarifying lore like the ARR and HW alliance raids. FF11 is fan service. They make them fan service quite a lot overall.

Most players and even I can't understand where this came from, because there was absolutely no backstory and both Raid's don't fit into this world at all.

Just like Omega and Nier. They're explaining it by saying it's from the other shards. We're on the brink of visiting other shards often (13th, 1st, 9th), so it sort of makes sense to do it now.

I suspect their reason for doing it now is because the people who remember FF11 will likely be retiring at some point and they have to do it now or never is my guess. Doing this also means they upgrade a lot of assets from FF11 which (maybe?) could be ported to FF11 to give it a bit of an upgrade, giving the work a dual purpose. That remains to be seen, but it could be their logic.

a Chaos Raid with 1 Layout, 1 Boss and we've already had this boss twice before.
Then there's 1 Trial with a Boss that we've only had a short time before. Not to mention Byakko, who isn't new either. Oh yes, and because it's so nice to bring back everything old, Ryne and Gaia can't be missed.

It's fine that you don't like their formula, but this has always been their formula and isn't a "recent" Endwalker change like you are painting it as. Of the things you listed there, we didn't used to have a Chaos Raid or Unreal. If you go back to Heavensward we didn't even have Ultimate.

This super modern doesn't fit into any of the Areas in our World. We only have one tiny Area where some of this Modern Glamour fits and that is Solution 9.

I agree this whole theme isn't really hitting for me personally. They tried something and it just didn't land too well in a fantasy game.

As for PvP when you consider that Astragalos and Borderland Ruins have been 'temporarily' disabled for years, we have lost more PvP content than we've gained.

The entirety of Rival Wings didn't used to exist and Onsal Hakair didn't used to exist, so we still have a net gain. I think they are just building on Crystalline Conflict at the moment. We have been getting regular new maps for Crystalline Conflict since Endwalker release. Maybe at some point they will shift that focus to the other gameplay modes.

[Rehayem]

The entirety of Rival Wings didn't used to exist and Onsal Hakair didn't used to exist, so we still have a net gain. I think they are just building on Crystalline Conflict at the moment. We have been getting regular new maps for Crystalline Conflict since Endwalker release. Maybe at some point they will shift that focus to the other gameplay modes.

Unfortunately, their "attempt" at fixing PvP has made it currently worse due to animation lock and delays. It's as high as 2 seconds on some skills and CC happens at the end of said animation (i.e: Gravity 2 on AST). Sometimes some things shouldn't be fixed if they aren't broken. They wanted to fix WAR's Primal Rend stun happening before the animation finished, but in return they made everything else laggy, delayed and less snappy. PvP this patch got no new goodies except Series 7 nor a way to spend Trophies on anything.

[Kuroka]

The entirety of Rival Wings didn't used to exist and Onsal Hakair didn't used to exist, so we still have a net gain. I think they are just building on Crystalline Conflict at the moment. We have been getting regular new maps for Crystalline Conflict since Endwalker release. Maybe at some point they will shift that focus to the other gameplay modes.

Yet since they made it we got ONE more Rival wings arena, with the first one being deactivated for YEARS. YEARS! There should be a new pvp mode/Arena every other patch, there should be a PVP Team thats main task is making more PVP stuff - and i say that as someone whos not heavily into pvp.

I feel like PvP arenas are fine being "the same but with a different kind of paint" so its not that monotonous - CC did that very well.