Ultimate hiatus feedback

[PFM]

Ultimate is easily some of the best content you've released in the game and has brought the community together and invigorated the game like nothing else. I'm excited to log in every day and go fight it, excited to see my FC members attempt it after cajoling, it helps people grow as players and bond as friends. To not keep it a regular release, to leave the game to atrophy for 8 months until the next expansion is a disservice.

[ArturiaPendragoon]

+1
I'm a casual player, working on uwu too so my voice is probably not as widespread but I also want to have a say. I have lots of friends who already feel like unsubbing when the news comes out, that there will only be 2 Ultimate fights. That is the general mentality of the hardcore playerbase of this game: The only really challenging piece of content is this one fight, and a lot of groups usually have a one- or two-month progression. Afterwards, there is nothing else that really interests them, besides re-clearing this content.
I know it is not easy, considering resources and staffing are being poured into this content to satisfy a few percentage of the population and it does take a lot of creativity, passion, time, and effort to create such a fight; but imo, keeping this content alive in the patch cycles also keeps the health of these subscriptions alive.

[Sakaku]

Ultimate was one of the best, if not the best addition to this game. Not having an ultimate in 4.5 when there's a huge gap until the next expansion is really disheartening.

[AnubisNebthet]

Fully support this. I was gutted when I heard there would be no 4.5 Ultimate. Like others have pointed out, I think Ultimate's existence is very important due to the difficulty of Savage raids. Not having a 4.5 ultimate will exacerbate the inevitable 4.5+ subscription decrease to unprecedented numbers.

[HesitatioN]

ultimate has given me my fondest moments playing this game. i hope to play through to the end of the expansion with one final battle.

[vividhalcyon]

I feel like the notion of an Ultimate level fight every other patch cycle being too overwhelming/fast-paced is specific to Japanese players rather than most of the western demographic for FFXIV.

As I understand it, the English FFXIV community doesn't at all share a similar, dissatisfied line of thought towards Ultimate's release pacing. This can be easily chalked up to a difference in the average player's play-style and mentality; Japanese players tend to want to participate in all the content that's available in FFXIV, whereas it's much more common in the English FFXIV community to extensively focus on one aspect of the game. Hence, it might feel "overwhelming" or "too fast-paced" for Japanese players to try and incorporate another Ultimate into their existing FFXIV play-style after spending an immense amount of time already on the 1st Ultimate (or having it on their to-do list), whereas for a large percentage of English FFXIV players, Ultimate (and Savage raiding to a lesser extent) is their sole focus.

Because of such play-style differences, I think it's important for SE to evaluate opinions from other demographics and weigh them equally to the Japanese player's opinions. At least in the English FFXIV community, many of the players who solely focus on difficult PvE content (so, only Ultimate basically) form considerable foundations of their respective communities. Alienating these players by starving them of content would inevitably have a negative impact on the FFXIV community as a whole. Because of the possibility of such an effect, I think it isn't a great idea to only aim for 2 Ultimate level fights per expansion.

Personally, I enjoyed the Ultimate fights regardless of if I was doing them or not, and I'd like to see the formula of Savage fights on even patches & Ultimate fights on odd patches continue.

[Tronedile]

I've been a long time fan of raiding in various MMO's and Ultimate is no exception. I enjoy the mix between time commitment, difficulty and enjoyment i've gotten from UcoB and TWRU and learning that there won't be a new Ultimate raid tier in 4.5 is really disheartening.

[YandereSenpai]

Ultimate series give us challenges and strive for victory !

[WhyAmIHere]

Square, please don't give up on Ultimate content!
正方形、究極のコンテンツをあきらめないでください！

[Ayesafaile]

The Ultimate encounters are some of the most well-designed fights I have seen in any MMO. There is nothing more enjoyable and rewarding than overcoming the hardships and challenges of these fights.

Please reconsider the decision to halt development of Ultimate until the next expansion.

- Ayesa Faile, Ragnarok