Honestly, What's the verdict for you?

[Astronema]

Overall I still like DT but I find myself logging in a lot less.
Part of the reason is that my buddies are mostly raidlogging and I have retired some years ago. Playing on my own with randoms isn't as much fun.
Another part is that (gut feeling) the time between patches has increased significantly. You get a short burst of content and then, unless you raid, you just do nothing for half a year.

I am in the apparent minority, as I liked the DT storyline. I am not an FF buff, only ever played VII, VIII and X, so I don't recognize many references from the others. The story proposed interesting concepts and thoughts.
Albeit fundamentally flawed on a logic level: even if they drain all shards of aether, an ever growing population of endless WILL run out of energy to sustain them. They'd need a different form of energy that is available in overabundance, e.g.: a Dyson Sphere, harnessing the energy of a sun, to really make it work long term. That AI-Sphene refuses to even consider this possibility and notice the stop-gap nature of her plan is a huge fail of the writing team.

I'm totally digging the sci-fi visuals of the Alexandrians Just wish the game had proper RTX. Imagine Solution 9 with real time reflections!

Content seems the same-ol same-ol, it's just that the longer I do not raid the less I care about the gear hamster wheel.
Especially as a healer where you barely feel these upgrades. I750 or I720 ... doesn't make a lick of difference unless you venture into Savage.

I hate the wasted color aesthetics of s9 overused purples and blues to offload the golds and yellow of living memory which we turned from lovely into Detroit... I'd rather s9 and living memory has reversed aesthetics and that would actually match the story better.

[Mawlzy]

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.

I wasn't aware that Mario Kart was a story-driven MMO.

[MitsukiKimura]

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.

Did you really just compare Mario kart to a MMO? Of all the things? You can't be serious with this one

[Vikor]

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.

Termninally online forum poster is fine with a lack of creativity, more at 11.

[Kisshu]

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

That is certainly a take, trying to use Mario of all games as a gotcha.

When Mario has been doing a lot of different types, even in the platform genre, from 2d, to M64, Galaxy, Sunshine, and so on.

Termninally online forum poster is fine with a lack of creativity, more at 11.

If that 11 was FF11, we might actually have gotten something decent and new. ToAU is still around peak FF11 with Besieged, Assault, Nyzul Isle, Salvage, Einherjar, Pankration, besides all the old systems it borrowed like ZNM and ISNMs. And all that in around one and a half year before WoTG released.

[SeriousPan]

If that 11 was FF11, we might actually have gotten something decent and new. ToAU is still around peak FF11 with Besieged, Assault, Nyzul Isle, Salvage, Einherjar, Pankration, besides all the old systems it borrowed like ZNM and ISNMs. And all that in around one and a half year before WoTG released.

I've said it before but the happy go lucky nature of Dawntrails story telling and how 'at peace' Tuliyollal is ruined any chance of them giving us unique ToAU styled content which I think would have really helped it. The fact that the Dawn Servant made the realm so happy, stopped all wars and no one is angry except one small subset of Giants... Yeah. Besieged in XIV could have had some actual legs if they wrote Tuliyollal to be less, I dunno, over the top happy?

But I write this as someone heavily biased towards ToAU which was the pinnacle of MMORPGs for me and still is.

[Valence]

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?

I think the reason it's not going to change was pretty much hinted at by Yoshida when he was asked about dungeon structure and how it was unlikely to change as they were happy with the template because it allowed them to produce them fast enough to release them appropriately. I do feel this is the same with everything in the game: fates, systems, etc. When they do work on something new, it's always some brand new content, like field exploration or deep dungeons in HW. Once it's out as a prototype, they will tweak and mix things around with the basic building blocks used for it, but they won't make something truly new out of it. Which may be fair, I don't know, if people enjoyed it, then they expect to get something reasonably similar for its next iteration I guess.

Now I think you're right in pointing out that the main issue doesn't lie in the content in general but the building blocks used and assembled to make such content: fates, chariot/dynamo ddr, etc. I mean, look at Variant that was introduced last expansion: I'd be hesitating to call it new, precisely because it was just a dungeon with 3 different main paths, but all the mobs, the bosses, everything else was the same old pve.

However, when it comes to truly new, fresh and creative things, there has been such content, but it's by far and few: Deep Dungeons in HW were a totally new experience, nobody can question that, too bad that it's getting stale with the reskins. Crystalline Conflict has also been something truly new even though it was pvp. It's the problem with a lot of the new content they make in my opinion, they're not going for those new systems much if at all, except for those rare cases. And guess what, those cases are precisely where there is the best community reception and shelf life I think. Not Chaotic, which was exactly like any pve we've gotten, they just rearranged the same old legos to make it look new.

That is certainly a take, trying to use Mario of all games as a gotcha.

When Mario has been doing a lot of different types, even in the platform genre, from 2d, to M64, Galaxy, Sunshine, and so on.

To be fair, maybe they do have a point. FF14 pve has kinda felt like mario kaizo lately.

[Daralii]

I've said it before but the happy go lucky nature of Dawntrails story telling and how 'at peace' Tuliyollal is ruined any chance of them giving us unique ToAU styled content which I think would have really helped it. The fact that the Dawn Servant made the realm so happy, stopped all wars and no one is angry except one small subset of Giants... Yeah. Besieged in XIV could have had some actual legs if they wrote Tuliyollal to be less, I dunno, over the top happy?

But I write this as someone heavily biased towards ToAU which was the pinnacle of MMORPGs for me and still is.

Almost everyone is happy with everyone else, and all outliers can be fixed with encouraging words and food from Llama Tea. No other character could solve 500 years of ritualistic infanticide with the promise of imported crops.

[0blivion]

Dawntrail up until Shaloaani: 5/10
Shaloaani: 1/10
Alexandria: 7/10
7.1: 4/10
7.2: 8/10

Basically, it's decent when it's good and it's absolutely atrocious when it's bad.

[Kaurhz]

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.

Why are you even making this comparison. These two types of games and genres could not be more different LOL.

Like, you go into these games expecting two entirely different things...

It's fine if you don't see an issue with it, but frankly some people do expect more from a game that has had well over a decade to figure out what it wants to do with itself