Naoki Yoshida interview @Gamescom

[Zojha]

Accessibility is a great thing. But though I prefer depth which implies interesting systems with complexity. The farther you go into complexity, the harder it is to make content globally successful.

Moreover, complexity does not equal depth.
Fun little article on that note: http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/DanFe...y_vs_Depth.php

There are probably many more, but it gets the point across nicely. Personally, I like depth, but I prefer my depth as simple as possible. It's quite unfortunate that you can't really create depth without some kind of complexity, but...yeah.

[Velhart]

Moreover, complexity does not equal depth.
Fun little article on that note: http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/DanFe...y_vs_Depth.php

There are probably many more, but it gets the point across nicely. Personally, I like depth, but I prefer my depth as simple as possible. It's quite unfortunate that you can't really create depth without some kind of complexity, but...yeah.

Funny thing is, a lot of the times, keeping a system simple does allow more depth in content. Yoshi-P even expressed this in wanting to jump back to lv.50 level difficulty in rotation. So the team can go back to more harder levels for Savage. The difficulty decrease in Alex: Creator is only because he believes the lv.60 rotation is too much. I always think of Super Mario Bros. when I think of simplicity with a lot of depth. You get run, jump, and can go left or right. This in turn allows for more imagination on creating stages. Mario Marker proves this.

Now that doesn't mean make FFXIV's combat just a few buttons, but keeping a easy to learn, hard to master mentality is a good way to develop a working system and also allows developers to be more creative with dungeons and boss fights.