Will this game differentiate itself from other MMOs, post-changes?

[Seikninkuru]

It is hard to argue that the game isn't in a better place now. However, I'd like to play devil's advocate since I've been thinking about this recently.

We have seen that the focus of the game has changed in order to revive it. Fixed-sized dungeons(raids) are displacing scaling guildleves as the game's main content(while guildleves being more targeted towards solo play) and more importantly the combat system is changing from stamina management for manual attacks to auto-attack(where attack speed will likely become the most important stat for melee, in time). There are also a bunch of smaller things, like trying to define class roles for party makeup and equipment. Now I personally think of all of these ideas were poorly implement(e.g. the attack system coming down to spamming 1 because of very plain encounter design/player vs monster interaction). Still FFXIV was quite unique, if also broken.

Now it seems the best strategy is to scale back FFXIV's "weirdness" in order to make it a more traditional MMO(maybe even more so than FFXI, in its earlier years). I wonder if this is a good thing, considering how many MMOs on the market look alike mechanically. It is hard argue that it isn't a better idea, since very few, if anyone, liked the older design(whether it was truly flawed and just very poorly implemented is also impossible to say). Why would anyone who isn't already playing play FFXIV if it isn't very different? It is going to have a handicap no matter how you slice it(and a poor reputation). I guess graphics comes to mind.


P.S. I bet this game could really benefit from being released on the Vita, assuming that takes off in Japan and elsewhere. That would at least get a platform-based quirk, which I believe helped FFXI a lot before and after the MMO popularity boom.

The game offers nothing worthwhile for a subscription once battle changes and progression changes go through. It's sad that the majority of the playerbase is too stupid or blind to realize it, but whatever.

I sure as hell won't pay a sub for what they're giving us.