Quote Originally Posted by Ruisu View Post
I haven't even fought Ifrit yet, but from flowcharts that I've seen, he looks far more difficult than any average raid boss from any other MMO that I've played. Yoshida even stated that the developer of Ifrit wants to make Good Moogle King's fight even harder than that. You're talking about Timesinks, my friend, and that is exactly what we don't need in this game.
Ifrit is not so much a difficult fight, it is just obtrusive and that is compounded by factors like server lag. It doesn't require people to excel in their roles or as a group. It just requires them to do X when Y occurs.

The stronghold bosses are more difficult fights (not difficult, just more difficult than Ifrit). You can take a complete noob tank/healer/DD to Ifrit and do fine as long as they are able to avoid specials. That same group can wipe multiple times to a fight like Flamefist Ahlygg Roh without hope of winning.

I understand why Matsui designed Ifrit like he did (he is unhappy with the current battle system and doesn't believe it can facilitate difficult encounters) so he made a fight that is about gimmicks and not player skill.

I share the OP's concerns about their design philosophy going forward and whether we will see fights that push players', groups, and linkshells' skills like we had in XI. However, until we get the battle system and mechanics they want in place I don't think we have any evidence of their intention one way or another other than vague comments which are either reassuring or worrisome depending on how you read them.