My first 72 hours since being gone for two years...:(

[SyferU]

Now, let me address the comments I made regarding how FFXIV is emulating Dark Souls or Elden Ring. This article, from June 2024, shows Yoshi-P himself directly stating that the influence for Dawntrail was heavily inspired by his crew playing both Dark Souls and Elden Ring. Even if the game is not 100% as hard as those titles, they factually influenced many of the fight designs in this expansion, and to say they did not is disingenuous.

The article is here: https://www.pcgamer.com/games/mmo/ff...brutally-hard/

This is the intellectual dishonesty I've come to expect from many of the hardcore defenders of the game who dismiss any criticism of the current design. No, FFXIV is not an exact one-on-one copy of either of those games, but these defenders try to play it off as if this latest expansion was not designed with these influences, running counter to what we've previously seen with FFXIV over the past 12 years. Again, we have Yoshi-P's own words as evidence, but they seem to be ignored simply because the new content is not at the same extreme difficulty level as Elden Ring or Dark Souls. Every game has telegraphed attacks, yet to pretend that Dark Souls or Elden Ring isn't on a completely different level of telegraphed attacks is astonishing.

Well now you are being disingenuous. In the article it doesn't say anything about heavily inspired, especially not the difficulty since the article said this:

In the interview with PC Gamer, Yoshida went on to say that you'll probably see most of Elden Ring's influence outside the combat encounters.

[ItsKylos]

I do want to mention that many people that are disagreeing with you in this thread are some of the most vocal in critiquing the game for it's flaws. These are not FFXIV defenders, but quite the opposite. I mention this because you are not engaging in the conversation because you are under the notion you are talking to white-knights, when in fact, you are talking to the opposite.

People are also allowed to disagree with you. Considering a lot of people have complained the game has gotten simplified, too easy, etc., and we just started seeing the return of the usage of a brain cell in the casual content, I'd like to see the game heading the direction of upping the difficulty WHILE still keeping it casual (not a repeat Forked Tower lol). People are allowed to disagree with me, but casual content is easy to me in an extreme degree. Other FFs have implemented more of a challenge while still being considered casual, FFXIV can do that as well.

Know I still wish you well in your current journey in FFXIV or any future journeys you take part in, but when you start a thread, people will agree and disagree with you. Ignoring them and not taking them into account is the same behavior of the white-knights you have disdain for.

[Valence]

I do want to mention that many people that are disagreeing with you in this thread are some of the most vocal in critiquing the game for it's flaws. These are not FFXIV defenders, but quite the opposite. I mention this because you are not engaging in the conversation because you are under the notion you are talking to white-knights, when in fact, you are talking to the opposite.

People are also allowed to disagree with you. Considering a lot of people have complained the game has gotten simplified, too easy, etc., and we just started seeing the return of the usage of a brain cell in the casual content, I'd like to see the game heading the direction of upping the difficulty WHILE still keeping it casual (not a repeat Forked Tower lol). People are allowed to disagree with me, but casual content is easy to me in an extreme degree. Other FFs have implemented more of a challenge while still being considered casual, FFXIV can do that as well.

Know I still wish you well in your current journey in FFXIV or any future journeys you take part in, but when you start a thread, people will agree and disagree with you. Ignoring them and not taking them into account is the same behavior of the white-knights you have disdain for.

There is at least two different sides to people criticizing the game for its flaws. One side is mostly satisfied with the current model and just wants more difficulty in baseline content. Another side is completely dissatisfied with where said difficulty has been shifted to and doesn't really like the direction of the content nor is really interested in seeing baseline content becoming more difficult.

Of course there is also intersecting opinions between those two and nothing is binary depending on who you ask.