FFXIV Dawntrail reviews are out on Metacritic

[ViinaS]

Not sure if your comment was in relation to the mod that got banned recently, but if it was, yeahhh... Did some reading into the third party mod that got banned. That honestly sucks for players who used the mod. I've never used the mod myself but I can still sympathize because it seemed like a good way for players to enhance their gaming experience and to make things interesting. Like why upset the playerbase even more, especially when SE even admits the game is struggling? I guess we will see in the future if this comes back to bite them.

I can say I had an eye on the DT section on Steam.
The "recent reviews" have been Mostly Negative for months now.
The total score had been slowly slipping, from 52, to 51, to 50 and now finally to 49%.

There are a bit more reviews this months compared to the last ones (130 this month, average was 70 to 90 each month).
So, yeah there are a bit more this month, but the trend is the same. (right now 27% positive reviews this month, when on average over the last months it was like 30% to 35%)

But what does it even matter with the reviews in that section.
DT sucks according to reviews. For at leats half a year those numbers were similar, now only with a few extra ones.
Not like that would improve when the people are done with their reviews caused by Mare being shot down.

More negative ones will follow. I have subbed for 7.3 on release and not even a month later I was done with what it offered, now I just log in to do dailies if I can bother and... am unlikely to pay for another month of sub. For me, who did the things I wanted of old content already it's another content drought, weeks after the brand new patch...

The only thing now is sub to not lose my house and when a patch drops for one month...
I'll do that till 8.0, depending on if they salvage or continue like this will decide if FFXIV remains installed or not.

[Basteala]

Yeah the longer patch cycles have become really unacceptable. The waits are longer and the content feels less.

I've said it before, but it does not help that so many nuanced and more complicated jobs have become bland and brainless. Rehashing content with those different job experiences was a way to kind of stretch out content in the past. That isn't really there, now.

If I didn't have my own active RP community I would have been done back in 7.1

[SuperZay]

Nope it's totally pathetic to write a review about something that isn't even in the game, just to try and ruin the games reputation. I hope out of spite they go for the base mods :P

What you don't understand is MMOs are not just about the game's features, the community plays a big role too. Something outside the game ended up creating a huge community within it, and now this community was destroyed.

[Swordsman]

I did some more digging into the theoretical reasons behind banning the mod and I'm going to reverse my opinion about the ban being against the better interest of FFXIV. It seems the third party mod was oftentimes being used to display nudity and smut to anyone else who used the mod. People forget that FFXIV is meant to be played by people age 13+ so if a game and its 3rd party mod are being used to display unregulated pornographic content to minors illegally then its no wonder SE put their foot down on it.

Rip to those who used the mod in a reasonable way like putting a hat on a Viera or Hroth, but shame on those who exclusively used it for inappropriate reasons which were more than likely the reason for its downfall.

But what does it even matter with the reviews in that section.
DT sucks according to reviews. For at leats half a year those numbers were similar, now only with a few extra ones.
Not like that would improve when the people are done with their reviews caused by Mare being shot down.

Oh for sure, you won't hear any argument from me about the poor state of DT. DT has been the weakest expansion by far in the history of FFXIV. I'm not even subbed right now. I'm just here for the free login weekend and probably won't be subbing until 8.0.

[Striker44]

I did some more digging into the theoretical reasons behind banning the mod and I'm going to reverse my opinion about the ban being against the better interest of FFXIV. It seems the third party mod was oftentimes being used to display nudity and smut to anyone else who used the mod. People forget that FFXIV is meant to be played by people age 13+ so if a game and its 3rd party mod are being used to display unregulated pornographic content to minors illegally then its no wonder SE put their foot down on it.

I've never seen any issues ever raised about that mod "often" being used to do that. Does it probably happen on isolated occasions? Yeah, I'd believe that. But it being anywhere close to the norm? Not at all.

Hey, while we're at it, since a handful of people have turned the cars into weapons and driven them into crowds, we should ban all cars from the road for everyone. Right?

Taking a sledgehammer to something because a small subset of its users abuse it is usually a terrible idea.

DT has been the weakest expansion by far in the history of FFXIV.

Nah, not even close. It's probably on par with both ARR and SB for being tied at the "bottom." It just feels worse because it came on the heels of ShB and EW, which are widely viewed as the *best* two expansions in the game's history, and it never really had a chance of competing with them given how it's the start of a new direction with nothing really to build on. You can probably amplify it because DT was certainly not written for the segment of the video gaming population that is hard-right ideologically and also disproportionately the ones to do things like proliferate on forums or post reviews and the like. When you actually look in-game, you still see a *ton* of people and they're having a blast.

[MayuAmakura]

This expansion was on mixed reviews since its release. Now it's mostly negative for months. It's not going to be better. They ruined the jobs, mid content, people fairly even forgot that they have cosmic exploration due to how its forgotten and bland. The reviews are there for a reason. Plus let's not talk about the main character and Sweet Baby involvement as well that led to these reviews as well.

[bic12]

What you don't understand is MMOs are not just about the game's features, the community plays a big role too. Something outside the game ended up creating a huge community within it, and now this community was destroyed.

FF14 has like no content and the only thing keeping the vast majority of people subbed are the UGC and community. You can get through the content of 7.1-7.3 in just half of the free play period lol.

And the team just does not have any iota of creativity left in them. I don't think anyone other than absolute ghouls could stand playing this game just for the content for more than 2 expansions without getting bored.

[Rabblerabble]

Creating an alt used to be fun for me. And Im sure when I have this nebulous void festering in me, I may again, but for now, I am ok.

Going through a ton of skip cutscene, sparkly node clicking madness just to have access to the vast majority of content has just lost it's luster. I haven't gone through 7.3 yet, but the feat of trying to watch the cutscenes of 7.1 and 7.2 took me from just being numb to being very vocally critical to people who ask me about xiv. My advice has been wait for the next expansion or just play something else. And I say that as an active subscriber who helps run a moderately active fc with 20 or so regulars.

A lot of my friends have unsubbed and let their houses (full of nice deco) fall, which hurts because it tells me they have no real intention of coming back or if they do, things need to take a drastic upturn in terms of content and a realization that subpar support will no longer keep them hooked.

I think many "major" systems need a revisit. Decoupling zone access from MSQ progress is critical at this. At least let people get access to HW and Stormblood zones right off the rip. Maybe not the dungeons but let them explore past the ARR stuff and be able to join for treausre dungeons.

The 'roulette' system is hellishly outdated. HELLISHLY outdated. Gating gear upgrades behind tomes is also kind of stale last years' sushi. Let dungeon drops be relevant. You can do this without invalidating crafted gear. The incentive to do roulettes and dungeons for someone who has levelled everything to 100 (usually because they were 90 in everything in Endwalker) is very low. Making the bosses use their moves more randomly instead of in the most formulaic basic scripted way imaginable would work wonders in keeping it fresh for a lot of people.

Give real consideration to the idea of giving someone's alts access to apartments / housing on the same account and world. Perhaps let people give shared estate rights to fc chambers and apartments.

Instead of petitioning a place to take away reviews of your product, go back to the tried and true method of addressing valid criticism. If 40% of the playerbase says your story or music is bad, consider addressing your story writers/ musicians. (Not saying your story or music is bad these are just examples)

Generally, just try to understand where a person who is newly coming to XIV is looking at when they consider giving the game a try. Either make the starting areas relevant again for someone who knows who the Dawntrail cast are, or decouple zone access from MSQ progress. Keep it gated behind expansion purchase. Stop cramming 200 hours of cutscenes most people are probably skipping in the way of playing the actual game or make the cutscenes worth watching.

Let me share my house among my alts on the same account.

Love you senpai.

[Zelda206]

It doesn't matter what the critics say.
If I didn't like the expansion, and I enjoyed almost everything up until that point (growing from ARR all the way to the somewhat 'meh' epilogue of Endwalker), then the expansion was bad to me. You can enjoy a bad game, or you can dislike a good game, but DT is not worth more than a 1.0 as it stands.
Once they eventually get around to the glamoured, overhyped 8.0 milestone that even the CEO is telling shareholders to hold out for, and we all look back on DT, then the reviews will be applied with critical thinking. But as it's an unfinished expansion, it's not worth reviewing or trusting the scores.
But so far, my time away from it has been more exciting and fun than spending time in it.

[WeebPolice]

I did some more digging into the theoretical reasons behind banning the mod and I'm going to reverse my opinion about the ban being against the better interest of FFXIV. It seems the third party mod was oftentimes being used to display nudity and smut to anyone else who used the mod. People forget that FFXIV is meant to be played by people age 13+ so if a game and its 3rd party mod are being used to display unregulated pornographic content to minors illegally then its no wonder SE put their foot down on it.

Rip to those who used the mod in a reasonable way like putting a hat on a Viera or Hroth, but shame on those who exclusively used it for inappropriate reasons which were more than likely the reason for its downfall.

Weeaboo Police detectives have contributed enormous amounts of intel to Square's Special Task Force, citizen. There were many illegal underground ERP Discords that we've infiltrated and have been investigating for months. There is no need to thank us, it is only our duty.





The mountain guides us home.