@Casuals , do you think the message has gotten through?

[Nadda]

I really don't think Forked Tower needs a Normal mode.

And that's not like "Look at how good I am" - I haven't done it myself yet but once I go in I'll manage it.

I think with dedicated discord groups like people have used for all the other Field Operations that with friendly approachable people to call out you can be piloted through the fight. I think that's just the nature of things you got to let people figure things out and the more things are figured out the more people can come along. Raids in Field Operations I feel require that bit of mystique and mystery. The rest of the overworld for OC though I think is good challenge for players of all ranges.

That being said Chaotic was content that the team dropped on a whim without prompting... I honestly don't know who it was for. People who did it called it entry level for players to start savage... but that's nonsense. EX is how you get people who never did savage ready to try savage... or just doing Savage itself. All of our high end content is designed around the 8 man cell and well Chaotic ended up having all the issues I thought it would have with PF. I still stand by what I said when I first heard about it. I don't know who Chaotic was actually for.

I think I understand your concern though. I am concerned about Deep Dungeon being Pillar content for 7.3 because well not many people make it to the top floor as a group. Let alone solo. Solo is a 1% title.
That means more players have been to every Ultimate than they have seen the top floor of the Deep Dungeons by themselves.


So I'm very concerned about that. I know people will try to climb ... or in this case run through the Fey Lands but will never even reach floor 99 for the boss.
I liked the variant dungeons to be added for this reason.

Criterion is hard and worthy challenge for the hardcore... but Variants are nice. They are content that is challenging enough for a normal player they can do by themselves and complete or go with friends and even after you do them - the novelty of multiple paths makes them fun... now granted the new DD will of course be what's the word... like randomly generated as you go on (Actually I'll take that back until I see it as this new one looks really ambitious)

So I don't know - my encouragement for Casuals is don't lose hope!

[Erzaa]

I really don't think Forked Tower needs a Normal mode.

The problem is that there's also no equivalent of CLL or Dalriada, not just that it's another Discord raid. I could forgive them having another BA Discord slop, if they at least had something fun and repeatable for everyone else. They don't.

I think with dedicated discord groups like people have used for all the other Field Operations that with friendly approachable people to call out you can be piloted through the fight.

I don't ascribe to the "all raiders are a-holes trying to flex" mentality. Never did. That's why I've stayed away from the casuals vs raiders discussion happening in the other threads. That still doesn't change the fact that I don't enjoy raiding. I don't enjoy anything that forces me to treat my entertainment as a second job. It doesn't matter how many times they throw EX, Savage, Ultimate, Chaotic... whatever, in my face. I'm never touching that content. I've no interest in it.

I think I understand your concern though. I am concerned about Deep Dungeon being Pillar content for 7.3 because well not many people make it to the top floor as a group. Let alone solo. Solo is a 1% title.

I don't believe you do, because:

1. Endwalker's deep dungeon is a slog, literally. Lower floor mobs have endless HP pools and by the time you kill one, another's already spawned. The entire gimmick with that content is, miss a cast, die instantly. No room for recovering from mistakes. Oh, gee, look how difficult we made the content, just like everyone's been asking for.
2. Dawntrail's dungeons, normal trials and normal raids didn't change anything with the casual content or make it more fun. They just turned the speed up to 11. Don't get me wrong, they're still doable, but they're just too stressful to deal with on a week day after work. I'd do them once on a weekend, then never touch them again. But even for players who repeat them, it's what? 20 minutes, once a week? If you're interested in gearing?
3. For the entire last year, since DT released, it's been EX, Savage, Ultimate, Chaotic. Nothing else. Then, they finally release Field Operations, something the casual playerbase have been waiting for ages to do, and they're told, "ah, no, nothing you do here matters unless you want to join an external Discord group and prog a fight for weeks, if they even allow you to".
4. They announce Live Letter 7.3, pretty much tell everyone to our faces that they don't budget for casual players (be it resources, money, time, I don't care, it's all the same, they didn't budget), quickly skip over that, announce another Ultimate is development you lovely raiders, don't you worry, then also announce that the new Deep Dungeon gimmick is now, a harder boss fight unlocks for you raiders, so grab your buddies, climb to 99, then you get to have even more content to prog for yourselves.

And despite all that, I see people complaining that the Ultimate isn't dropping in 7.3, despite all the content that's already been given to raiders, while also some trying to gaslight me into believing what Yoshi-P said was, "oh, no, no we didn't budget for a savage Forked Tower, but the current Forked Tower is the normal mode"... right~

And throughout all that, still no mention of Variant release, beastmaster release, blue mage update, nothing.

As it stands, I'm tired of arguing and waiting. I'm completely boycotting 7.3 content in its entirety, not touching it. Not a single piece.

As for my sub, that's a little harder, it runs out in October, but I have both a house and a solo FC with subs that I sunk alot of time into. I'm trying to find the courage to just let it go.

[DynnDiablos]

As a casual, I have NO IDEA what this long diatribe of nonsense you just rambled on about is?

Can anyone care to translate?

[Tsukino]

As a casual, I have NO IDEA what this long diatribe of nonsense you just rambled on about is?

Can anyone care to translate?

All of their posts read kind of similarly to this, but I think it boils down to this:

There were two separate concerns that were addressed with an apology in the recent live letter - everyone hating Occult Crescent/Forked Tower and Ultimate being delayed. Except only the Ultimate delay was an actual profuse apology, while the complaints about OC/FT were given more of an explanation or excuse as to why it is the way it is and they're not changing it. So the serious raiding audience got a real apology while the "casual" audience did not, showing whose concerns they really care about addressing.

[FantasyOfAg]

As it stands, I'm tired of arguing and waiting. I'm completely boycotting 7.3 content in its entirety, not touching it. Not a single piece.
As for my sub, that's a little harder, it runs out in October, but I have both a house and a solo FC with subs that I sunk alot of time into. I'm trying to find the courage to just let it go.

I respect your stance but I hope you realize your boycott does nothing unless you learn to let go of your house and solo fc. The message you're sending is "casual non raiders will still pay their sub even if we give them no content"

[Erzaa]

I respect your stance but I hope you realize your boycott does nothing unless you learn to let go of your house and solo fc. The message you're sending is "casual non raiders will still pay their sub even if we give them no content"

You're right. But it's not easy to let go of something I put so much time into. But I'm trying.

[thereal_aliceanders]

I'm genuinely worried. This game is what keeps Square Enix afloat, and the excuse they gave about "cost" just infuriated me. I logged in, saw there was nothing for me to do, and logged right back out. After nine years, I've canceled my subscription, which runs out in August, and honestly, I have no desire to ever come back.

[Nooch1982]

As a somewhat casual player, i find a lot of the choices made to be really frustrating.

I hate the idea of duties that are inaccessible to players that don't have pre-made groups. And I'm not talking about the Extremes or Unreals, I mean content that is made to seem to be for the community at large, but there is no DF to join and rarely anything in PF. I still haven't been able to get into a lot of the content, like BA or the V&C dungeons, there's never anyone doing them now and there was no DF for them when they were relevant. They put forth so much effort to rehash old fights, but don't do anything with some of the older dungeons (not that EW dungeons are even old). And I can't get into FT because apparently, that's only for pre-made parties with voice chat (which is also not supported by the game).

The devs make it seem like the game is bursting with content, but honestly, there's so much dead content or so much content that is only relevant and fully able to be experienced the day it releases (all of the restorations). Yoshi says he doesn't expect players to play only this game, but if you're not working this game for 40 hours a week, you may get left behind and miss out on some things permanently.

[Zackmag1993]

Hi, in reality, I don't think this game is dying; I'd rather say it has reached the limit of reach devs can give regarding the same content development they have provided over the years.

What do I mean? Spoilers alert incoming as well.

I don't think the problem with the game is regarding casual or raiding content or between new or old veteran players.

The company is showing to put priority on development that provides quick profit instead of meaningful content, in my opinion.

Relaying a lot in gridding and less costly and meaningful content.

They are focusing on creating content that is focused on long periods of grinding time in order to retain the player base and, in that way, solidify their subscriptions. A simple and strategic point: right, we are an MMORPG game. But with less content that is worth doing than before.

(By the way, sorry for my English. I am actually from LATAM trying to play this game the right way when it is only supported for EU, USA, Japanese, and Australian audiences.) I don't know why LATAM is so forgotten by all game companies. Need a LATAM server as well (for we count).


I am a Final Fantasy fan. I am 32 years old. And it is obvious SE is focusing on doing more gacha-like mechanics inside their games these days than developing them better than before. An example of this is FFXIV Mobile, which, by the way, is looking better than the main game. Which is a problem for us definitively.

The FFXIV store received more development in this expansion than the game itself. I don't know if others have noticed that. First bad sign.

[Zackmag1993]

Secondly, Dawntrail Story is bad. Or at least very poorly written. WUK LAMAT is obviously a WOKE character. The dev team of this expansion made that clear by making everything revolve around here. She was a very badly written character; she could have been a better character. She was written as an ignorant princess that never left her castle. And then, suddenly, she knew how to communicate, how to act, and how to understand her people's culture as if out of thin air. I get it; they wanted to use the power of LOVE as a DISNEY WOKE CHARACTER. And it is obvious she was the main character for that. They created a bad character who had the chance to be better in concept. Look, DION from FFXVI was the woke character of this adult game. And he worked out because he was not defined by his preference or bad writing. He was one of the best-written characters with these characteristics that gave depth to his storyline. Exactly what WUK LAMAT needed. She could have been serious and fun at the same time. by learning her people's ways and showing leadership traits. The main expansion song is a DISNEY WOKE REFERENCE. The team that work on this was definitively with an agenda.