Rabanstre and future Raids

[KisaiTenshi]

I like it, and that there is a fair amount of story between the actual Raid's.

However compared to CT and VA I think CT was just a series of trash encounters in between fairly evenly balanced bosses with good mechanics. Void Ark series I felt the actual layout of the raid and bosses was better than CT, but the story that connected it was better than CT. With the Ivalice raids, I like the larger boss fields, but in general I think we're kinda just over-compensating for gear creep.

All the raids kinda have the same established pattern:

1. Three groups of trash
2. One decently hard boss
3. Three paths of trash
4. One fairly facerolly boss
5. Some more group trash
5. One reasonably good mechanics boss
6. The final boss which is often easier than the previous boss.

Like I felt the lighthouse was more fun than the Rabanstre raid. However I like Sycrus Tower the best out of the Crystal Tower (though I felt the end boss was more fun in WoD.) Void Ark series, I actually preferred Dun Scaith, if only because the final fight felt like "did you think this was over?"

[ErryK]

Don't care much for the story as I'm not a big tactics/XII fan, but I do like the scenery and callbacks as I did enjoy a bit of XII here and there.

The fights are great, I especially like Belias and Construct 7 from Ridorana, none of the bosses of Royal City stood out for me, however. Overall, I do prefer Syrcus Tower and Mhach over Ridorana. Ridorana felt very... repetitive in its scenery, and bland. But the fights are definitely more fun and intuitive.

Unlocking Ridorana was stupid, though.

[Destati]

As someone who has never touched the games this raid series was based on, I can't say I've found the story all that interesting, nor has it given me any reason to check out the source material. It comes off as mere fanservice to me (which I know sounds rather silly given the whole of FFXIV anyway), so it's difficult for me to really appreciate. I liked the Void Ark series much better, in story, aesthetic, and design. It doesn't help that the "Greed Only" rule has left a sour taste in my mouth either, although we've just been given an update that it will be reverted:

Hello, Producer and Director Yoshi-P here. Patch 4.3 brought major changes to the Need/Greed system in alliance raids, and we received a lot of feedback from players around the world. After careful consideration, we have decided to revert those changes and bring back the Need option. This will take effect from the next hotfix and includes all alliance raids.

We hope you continue to give us your feedback on your experiences in the world of FINAL FANTASY XIV!

Overall Return to Ivalice has been pretty "meh" for me. I know a lot of hard work has been put into it by the developers, and I'll still give the 3rd raid a run or two when it comes out but I don't expect it to change my mind.

[MuseTraveller]

I'm yet to do Ridorana but every time I queued the wait time was so long, I figured people weren't doing it as much till greed only was fixed. Or I just picked a bad time to queue.

I enjoyed CT's story most. It felt like I discover something part Eorzea's history. I think having NPCs we're familiar with helped my immersion while with Void Ark I didn't quite care for the characters but loved the lore bits. Ivalice feels very fan-service-ish. I'm a huge FFT fan but I also kinda wish these raids would be more connected to FF14 and it's already established history.

[Maero]

I honestly prefered CT over Rabanastre however they are all well done.
Ridorana is my favourite thus far.