FFXIV has lost it's heart

[sindriiisgaming]

Playing again through arr, i see something that is now lost within ffxiv, and while endwalker did try to keep that vibe in check, it was never quite the same. The heart being that feeling of being in a final fantasy universe with a great magical and mystical quest. with magic and high fantasy, hope against despair, of unity and friendship.

but lately i don't feel this way about ffxiv. The story lastley seams to move away from traditional ff themes and go for darker and edgier stories, and what's weird is. i didnt feel this way when playing some of the edgier FF games. like ff7 which ends with summoning the embodiment of hope. or the ending of ff8 literally about always finding your way back to those you love. end the ending of ARR you and your friends ALL team up to defeat lahabrae, in the ending of HW hraesvelgr gives you his final eye that you finally end the war. they all FEEL like a traditional final fantasy. but what happens in dawntrail? idk wuk lamat shows up and you both hit the robot ig? thats not the same at all. and that great feeling of heart and soul is really missing. and if you try to tell me that cant be achieved in the base msq.. ill tell you ARR/ HW/ SHB and EW all felt that way. hell even stb wasn't all that bad. the ending was kinda nice.

And its not just in the MSQ either. its the games content design. arr / hw both focussed heavily on team/party combat systems, and didn't make a huge deal out of savage ultimate content. barley anybody modded, because the game wasn't about doing giga deeps or speedrunning savages. it was just about fun. lately. the game doesnt feel this way another. its an endless tredmil of the next pointless achievement. when everybody knows.. the real achievement.. the real adventure.. was just the friends you made along the way.

seriously tho, what happened to this? now the game is just the SIMS 4. filled with weird cyberpunk neo futuristic imagery that betrays its core foundations. no longer does ff feel like a magical fantasy/ its a dystopian future fitting of its current art direction

[Astronema]

Well when the current armor sets look like what was worn by thugs robbing a CVS in NYC I would say so ... Urban soulless monoculture and dei is taking over the game

[CVXIV]

Darker and edgier?
People complained nonstop about the more lighthearted tone the story had, especially with the role quests
The MSQ got darker in certain areas but overall it was more lighthearted compared to what was seen in Endwalker which is what came directly before

also, FF7 isn't really an edgy FF title
Can't say much about FF8, I have yet to beat it but plan on it someday soon

[SlickPaws]

My worst moment with the game lately was logging in the other day to unlock the new Society Quest. Spend about 5 minutes bouncing between NPCs for meaningless dialogue, then unlocked the quests... And proceeded to fight 1 mob, speak to 1 NPC, and apply an item to 3 Alpacas. I know I'm not going to get anything massively ground breaking with side-quest dailies, but this is ARR-level of quest design. I haven't been playing much since I cleared the MSQ, and this has pretty much sent be scurrying back under my rock until something interesting comes out.

[CVXIV]

My worst moment with the game lately was logging in the other day to unlock the new Society Quest. Spend about 5 minutes bouncing between NPCs for meaningless dialogue, then unlocked the quests... And proceeded to fight 1 mob, speak to 1 NPC, and apply an item to 3 Alpacas. I know I'm not going to get anything massively ground breaking with side-quest dailies, but this is ARR-level of quest design. I haven't been playing much since I cleared the MSQ, and this has pretty much sent be scurrying back under my rock until something interesting comes out.

The beast tribe quests are more or less the exact same as they have always been. It is not exclusive to Dawntrail

The only exception is with ARR requiring fates to spawn, which I am positive people hated because of how long it can take to get the specific one

[sindriiisgaming]

Darker and edgier?
People complained nonstop about the more lighthearted tone the story had, especially with the role quests
The MSQ got darker in certain areas but overall it was more lighthearted compared to what was seen in Endwalker which is what came directly before

also, FF7 isn't really an edgy FF title
Can't say much about FF8, I have yet to beat it but plan on it someday soon

ff7 is pretty edgy lol. the main character and main villain are about as emo as it gets. its about a dystopian future where climate change has ravaged the lands purity and where people are killed for speaking out. its dark, its grungy and it works!. but lets not confuse the difference here between light hearted and older final fantasy, because they were still edgy. but there had good soul and good message of hope and unity. and that was never present in dawntrail, ever. what was, felt forced.

My worst moment with the game lately was logging in the other day to unlock the new Society Quest. Spend about 5 minutes bouncing between NPCs for meaningless dialogue, then unlocked the quests... And proceeded to fight 1 mob, speak to 1 NPC, and apply an item to 3 Alpacas. I know I'm not going to get anything massively ground breaking with side-quest dailies, but this is ARR-level of quest design. I haven't been playing much since I cleared the MSQ, and this has pretty much sent be scurrying back under my rock until something interesting comes out.

I have not unlocked them, and wont. and i will not do the alliance raids more than once. i will do criterion once and that will be it. i will clear ex once and that will be it. savage i will only clear so i can get paid in merc parties on party finder. i have lost all desire and motivation to "play" this game. because nothing in this game feels like its worth doing. Msq is the only thing i ever truly meshed with. and that too is gone. yet im stuck here, to inlove with my wol and ho he was once to let go. hoping he will one day make me feel again what ive felt with him, all that weve been though together. im not sure i could wake up to the unfamiliarity of not having him with me

[SlickPaws]

The beast tribe quests are more or less the exact same as they have always been. It is not exclusive to Dawntrail

The only exception is with ARR requiring fates to spawn, which I am positive people hated because of how long it can take to get the specific one

Like I said in my comment - "I know I'm not going to get anything massively ground breaking with side-quest dailies"
This isn't new information, but it still blows when your dailies are "Run as many roulettes as you can stomach, and then do some fetch quests." And yes, it's been that way for a few expansions - again, not new information. But as a player, I've hit my brick wall of game fatigue with the design. Been on-and-off since I finished the MSQ, thought I'd give it another go the other day by grabbing some dailies and trying to fall back into the routine, but it just feels so bad to do. Hopefully that clears up my complaint a bit.

[Jeeqbit]

Playing again through arr, i see something that is now lost within ffxiv, and while endwalker did try to keep that vibe in check, it was never quite the same. The heart being that feeling of being in a final fantasy universe with a great magical and mystical quest. with magic and high fantasy, hope against despair, of unity and friendship.

Yes, I think there are two major problems.

1. Lore is introduced, then immediately resolved, so there is no mystery. ARR introduced so many elements of lore that we could speculate on for years, and imagine what it could mean, and that helps with feeling that the world has more to it than you know. Now it's all resolved, it's as if we know everything. We are basically the god of our world - we actually know everything, more than any of these "little" citizens we protect know.

2. Lack of conflict. Everyone just agrees with eachother and nods their heads at eachother, beside the antagonist. In ARR, Thancred was invaded by an Ascian, our allies the Crystal Braves and Ilberd betrayed us, Moenbryda and Papalymo made a decision against our wishes. In Heavensward, Alphinaud, Iceheart and Estinien didn't really get along. It was a journey of sarcasm and hmpth. Even FF9, the game they referenced for Dawntrail, had a whole emotional fallout between characters like Garnet, Steiner and Zidane. Even the game their other team is remaking (FF7) had betrayals and in-fighting (like Cait Sith and Yuffie). They have no conception of this when writing it now. Our team are just perfect superheroes that get along 100%.

move away from traditional ff themes and go for darker and edgier stories

Think that now it's them exploring their own ideas, stemming from philosophical thoughts on real life issues. Which I can appreciate on the basis they are trying to make expansions have a morale story ie. confronting depression, confronting AI. They saw AI and decided to tell a story about how crazy the desire for self-preservation could get and its associated power consumption.

And its not just in the MSQ either. its the games content design. arr / hw both focussed heavily on team/party combat systems, and didn't make a huge deal out of savage ultimate content. barley anybody modded, because the game wasn't about doing giga deeps or speedrunning savages.

All I can say is that there were tools used in raids then, and people tracked their DPS then (discord came around during Heavensward and people clearly used them in voice then). Speedrunning savage was definitely around in Heavensward. And it was definitely about giga deeps - it has always been, because it's an MMO.

Before we had The Balance, we had a more infant version of that in Heavensward which was stat weights people looked up, which calculated damage contribution of stats from a blog post in a less accurate way (still very close overall). And people were obsessed with them, just as they are with The Balance now.

filled with weird cyberpunk neo futuristic imagery that betrays its core foundations. no longer does ff feel like a magical fantasy/ its a dystopian future fitting of its current art direction

I agree to an extent. Cyberpunk is not really my thing. But nor was the Japanese aesthetic of Stormblood. However, I appreciate the variety. Because of that, I tried my absolute best to enjoy Stormblood to the fullest extent, and found I was able to, knowing it would only be for a limited time (2 years).

So, yes, we have to endure Solution Nine and cyberpunk for an expansion. But if we try our best to enjoy this aesthetic, then at least we aren't being given the exact same aesthetic for 10 years.

[ZephyrMenodora]

I truly felt the darkness in DT as we all gathered around Wuk after her 10th bout of motion sickness and the entire team had yet another instance of forced laughter.

The same darkness when tacos fell on the ground and someone stepped on them.

[sindriiisgaming]

I truly felt the darkness in DT as we all gathered around Wuk after her 10th bout of motion sickness and the entire team had yet another instance of forced laughter.

The same darkness when tacos fell on the ground and someone stepped on them.

i think tht feeling is called disgust