Seasonal events in FFXIV are bad.

[Altina_Orion]

Interesting that WoW has been mentioned, where their seasonal drops also include event dungeons that come with a very low change of getting the new items, with a slight higher chances on the first try, account wide.
And if you are doing it, each day, which apparently provides are slight stacking bonus chance for the new drops, you might end up empty-handed from this all regardless.

I should know, since I wanted the spectral dog, Arfus, from their Halloween Event since it was added to the loot pool in 2023. And got nothing to show for.

And you can bet many players share their frustration with it.

Why do people think it needs to be all or nothing? I say WoW does more with their events and FF players are so quick to jump on and be like "WoW sucks! Rewards are too hard to get! events are too grindy!"

Why not learn lessons from it though? You don't need to copy paste everything to take ideas and inspirations from something. This very much isn't a black and white thing and its strange that I see so many people treat it like it is.

All of that said, even with the criticisms of the 20th anniversary WoW event, it was still better and more engaging than any FF event. FF events are safe and inoffensive so nobody complains. Take some risks! make something fun and be bold! Would a 10th anniversary Aurum Vale raid be a cool part of the 10th anniversary FF event or a level 100 reimagining of praetorium? I actually have no idea, I don't have the answers for everything, but I'm tired of "safe an inoffensive"

[Volgia]

Why do people think it needs to be all or nothing?

Probably another reason why we can't have gameplay based seasonal events. Look at how people reacted to stuff being "locked" behind Chaotic (despite being sellable in the MB), Square is pretty quick to jump and say well we can't have that again can't we, just listen to these two NPCs talk and here you have your outfit.

[Raenra]

Used to genuinely look forward to the seasonal events.
The stories were relatively short, but they were often very sweet and emotional. For what it was, it was usually very good.
The rewards were never the thing I cared about. A furniture item, a glam I won't use, another mount/minion/emote on the pile, didn't really matter to me.

Can't really say without looking back through the wiki, but probably in the last year it's been more 'miss' than 'hit'.
The stories often don't emotionally resonate.
Not sure if that's a 'me' issue, or if they're not putting the same passion into it as before.
Can't really expect employees to always be super-passionate about their work, but after a series of wiffs it feels like there's a greater problem.
Oh well.

[Striker44]

Wait, but they used to be really good, at least until Shadowbringers, I think. I used to alternate here and on WoW and I clearly remember that I thought that XIV had the upper hand with events, because they were never the same, while in WoW the seasonal celebrations were static as a rock not even new rewards.

In XIV, I remember one Saint's Wake bringing the Haukke Manor as an instance for the first time, or the Valentione with the duo mini duty. I do remember having a lot of fun in the horror that was failing at one year's Starlight celebration choir (screams from hell), which was a minigame on its own. Yeah, they can bring back some of those (Which they do sometimes alongside whatever is new) but hardly impacts as the first time. Today yeah, just a couple of quests that are often uninteresting with a cutscene.

It's kinda wild to me that many of the complaints we have nowadays are the result of change (for the worse) because it was once good enough.

As far as I can tell, they're still never the same event twice in FFXIV. Even if they keep one part of an event (like the Ninja Warrior course for summer), there's still a unique mini-questline that's developed for each year. The only event I've missed in the past several years was this year's Little Ladies Day, so possibly they kept that one the same? No idea, but if even if the questlines are short, they still create new ones for each event every year (as you said, unlike WoW which just recycles the same exact thing every year - while it's usually longer, once you've done it a single time, you'll never get anything new at all).

[Raikai]

As far as I can tell, they're still never the same event twice in FFXIV. Even if they keep one part of an event (like the Ninja Warrior course for summer), there's still a unique mini-questline that's developed for each year. The only event I've missed in the past several years was this year's Little Ladies Day, so possibly they kept that one the same? No idea, but if even if the questlines are short, they still create new ones for each event every year (as you said, unlike WoW which just recycles the same exact thing every year - while it's usually longer, once you've done it a single time, you'll never get anything new at all).

The issue is that those quests usually had more meat to it than just a couple of scenes. Sometimes adding extra features. They're still unique each year, but idk... they became so bland. Even the actual stories aren't that interesting. And even worse when the reward ends up being just a small decor piece.

In regards WoW, it kind of shifted nowadays... Seasonal events there always have some sort of yearly update. More infrequently with the story, but there's always something new to earn.

[BigCheez]

I do miss the FATEs, instances and minigames that used to come with seasonal events. They're pure slop now and have been for quite some time. I don't even bother reading the text for them anymore.

[Rinoa_353]

They should bring back all the minigames, Fates and such and let us farm tokens to buy things from past events. Just make them non-tradable like they currently are to keep them out of the MB if needed.

[Khryseis_Astra]

The manor one is often fondly remembered and I believe it also comes from that it was used more than once. But I do think the best we've had in terms of ambition was the Tam Tara instance that played like a creative dungeon.
Of course I also miss Riggy (bring back Riggy), as even little things like Riggy EggHunter were an unexpected surprise.

Oh I remember the Tam Tara one! That was really fun! I definitely wish they’d do more stuff like that! Loved Haukke Manor and the Valentiones maze too.

One thing I do like that they seem to be repeating is the Spooky Hollow estate to wander through and gpose. Starlight Stalls was similar, and hopefully that will return as well. Now they just need to add some more creative mini-dungeons or other activities to go along with those and other events. Something that isn’t just another Fate or talk to 3 people, but on the other hand not so long and tedious that it sucks the fun out of it. Short & repeatable doesn’t need to be boring.

[BedtimeBear]

I really don't mind short quests but the rewards are getting dire. Like it feels like maintenance mode?


This game has a premium shop..

[Hallarem]

I do miss the FATEs, instances and minigames that used to come with seasonal events. They're pure slop now and have been for quite some time. I don't even bother reading the text for them anymore.

Skip and claim the reward at best. Nothing new for the lore or the world. It's just some random NPC having confidence issues, rince and repeat without any gameplay to boot. I'm not saying I'm a writer, but I think I could write better gameplay and a story black-out drunk on the wall of an elevator while being kicked in the knee.