Honestly, What's the verdict for you?

[Valence]

To be honest, when they introduced phantom jobs in the live letter, I expected we'd actually get new jobs for this instance since it's called a job. The way it's worded made it sound like there was a bit of a bigger system behind this, but it's just additional actions. The actions are not terrible but seriously... you can not call this an innovation?

Personally I understood it exactly like the glorified role actions we got. And they even showed what it looked like on screenshots. It felt underwhelming in the PLLs, and was similarly underwhelming once live.

[Daralii]

I suspect part of it is SE is stuck in the mindset that all they have to do is throw in FF cross-references and everyone will get teary-eyed and clap.

This overlooks the COVID/WOW influx that was dominated by people who have never played other FF games.

I think it's possible SE is fine with "shaking off the fleas," and allowing the playerbase to drop back to FF fans, who they assume will put up with anything provided references from other games are dropped in on a suitable cadence.

They should actually try with the references then. DT's numerous IX references feel like they were mechanically and soullessly thrown in by people that didn't care and just skimmed an overview on a wiki, and I dislike the expansion more because of it.

[Carin-Eri]

They should actually try with the references then. DT's numerous IX references feel like they were mechanically and soullessly thrown in by people that didn't care and just skimmed an overview on a wiki, and I dislike the expansion more because of it.

I am, personally, curious as to why there are cases where the reference is there visually, but isn't supported by the dialogue/story. Zelenia for example is - for all intents and purposes - Beatrix, but for reasons that are not clear they avoided naming her as such.

[Jeeqbit]

I am, personally, curious as to why there are cases where the reference is there visually, but isn't supported by the dialogue/story. Zelenia for example is - for all intents and purposes - Beatrix, but for reasons that are not clear they avoided naming her as such.

It is but although they ripped large amounts of the lore wholesale, it is technically a different game and they are just taking inspiration from it. They probably don't want to hurt the lore of the original characters, so instead you can interpret these to be the "next generation" that came after the ones in FF9 if you want, but somehow having similar attributes and personalities.

There is also a standout character that seems very different to Garnet - Spheen, so that might be why.

[TaleraRistain]

I am, personally, curious as to why there are cases where the reference is there visually, but isn't supported by the dialogue/story. Zelenia for example is - for all intents and purposes - Beatrix, but for reasons that are not clear they avoided naming her as such.

It was a bit odd with Steiner and Beatrix they used Otis and Zelenia when they had other obvious references like Zander and Ambrose for Zidane and Amarant that used the same first initial. Garnet makes a bit of sense since Sphene is fulfilling both the gemstone name and the first initial of her real name.

[Zeekdober]

Honestly the lack of creativity is what's killing it for me. Every expansion is the exact same and that works for a bit but eventually you get to a point where a FATE is a FATE, an EX is an EX, and Exploration Zone is an Exploration Zone, and Savages are starting to get to the same point.

FATEs have next to no creativity, they are all literally "Go kill X number of mobs" and the only creativity involved with them is how they disguise the "Go kill X number of mobs" part, maybe you kill 15 mobs and talk to an NPC to "Turn in" items, or you follow an NPC and kill 15 mobs, either way you're killing 15 mobs or one big mob.

EXs are the same ole song and dance, hell some of the recent ones have been just straight up mark a dorito and follow.

Exploration Zones don't even deserve an explanation because they're just more FATEs.

Where is the creativity? Are they just incapable of coming up with any new ideas? Is every FATE going to be kill 15 mobs? Every EX chariots and dynamos?

[Raikai]

I just noticed a small detail that somehow bothered me a lot: During the OC's intro here's zero dialogue reference or easter egg if you're a Scholar who completed the job's storyline. May seem really minor, but they do have history of referencing jobs you have when they make sense into quests. Imagine being a scholar with a fairy out and being confused about what Iris is.

I kept thinking if this is just a small manifestation of the lack of polish in Dawntrail questing experience as a whole.

[dspguy]

I mean lets be real for a Second, the Content really didnt change much, maybe its on your side because you played that game quit long and see now how it really is.

Lets break it down a bit.

Heavensward :
3 Normal Raidtiers + Savage Raidtiers
Diadem
7 Ex Trials
3 Alli Raids
a few Dungeons
3 Beasttribes
-snip-

Thanks for breaking it down like that.

People are complaining about a game that has been this way for 10+ years. It's like asking why a Ford F150 is "still" a pickup truck after being a pickup truck for 50 years. FFXIV has been formulaic for 10 years, at least. It goes beyond even just what you posted, too. We all know that X.2 and X.4 will have crafted gear that replaces pretty much everything earned in X.1. We know that there will crafted DoH/L gear released in X.0 and the right side will be used until X.3 sees the release of a whole new left/right side set. We know that X.1, X.3 and X.5 patches will see alternative ways to upgrade your DoW/M gear. Either turning in hunt tokens, doing the new 24-man raid weekly or spending uncapped tomestones to upgrade crafted gear. We know that beast tribes will be completed in N days every time if you do the turn-ins just right. We know that if you do all 3 beast tribes to Bloodsworn, there will be a late-expansion quest for an emote. We know that if you earn all the Ex Trial mounts for an expansion there is a quest to earn another mount to cap it all off. We know that savage raids will drop tokens for players to turn in so they can get upgrades that didn't drop after their weekly clears.

The list goes on and on.

Frankly, it is like being surprised when we played a Megaman game on the NES and had 8 robot masters, followed by some other version of robot masters, followed by Wily and/or a stand-in for Wily. Oh, and then clearing the robot masters again right before fighting Wily twice.

If I didn't like MM2, I probably didn't like MM3. And I would not have bothered with MM4. The same goes for FFXIV. If I didn't like HW, I probably didn't like SB or ShB or EW or DT. And if I'm still giving SE money after all of this time, I'm a fool.

[Jeeqbit]

It's like being surprised that Mario Kart is a racing game still. "Where's the creativity? It's just another race track with reskinned cars!"

Or Mario being another platformer "Where's the creativity? It's just some rearranged platforms and slightly higher quality goombas"

Like I just don't have a problem with any of this.

[Asari5]

I just noticed a small detail that somehow bothered me a lot: During the OC's intro here's zero dialogue reference or easter egg if you're a Scholar who completed the job's storyline. May seem really minor, but they do have history of referencing jobs you have when they make sense into quests. Imagine being a scholar with a fairy out and being confused about what Iris is.

I kept thinking if this is just a small manifestation of the lack of polish in Dawntrail questing experience as a whole.

yeah im disappointed about that as well. i really love these small references to your own characters adventures. but there was nothing. no schoolar quest line reference, no wanderers palace reference and no amdapor or mhach references

i only played ff13, so i dont care about ff cross references at all. but the things your character did before? i think that should be mentioned.

overall it feels like a very low budget content. sure it looks good and the feel of adventure in the questline is great. (i really whish we could have had that feel in the DT msq)
but they just put all the ancient civilizations from that one age we know of into it, put a bunch of old rewards into it (no nym themed items) and didnt even bother writing a few optional words. fates, fates, fates and a few mechanics used a bit too often. and now we have fate bosses positioning themselves lol