Who doesnt want gear restrictions removed?

[Shougun]

And again... Almost every gear outside of AF gear shares it's look with a different role, chosen seemingly randomly. Sometimes melee and healer shares looks, or ranged and healer, or ranged and caster, tank and ranged. And the only silhouette difference between healers and casters in most cases is that casters start with gear dyed black by default and healer white... which we again can dye away.

And everyone no matter what job can glamour themselves a joke outfit like the infamous namazu roegadyn, so removing the restrictions wouldn't give us the ability to make more absurd outfits than what we already have. Having played this game for a while it is clear that the vast majority of players prefer using reasonable outfits so it's safe to say that there isn't any risk of things looking even more absurd.

Not sure if this was meant to be to me or not. Since in many ways I said pieces what you said, like that things are already pretty broken. I was just adding to the post that asked who doesn't really run towards removing restrictions on stuff, unless this post was made more to be insulting or a huge echo chamber (I don't think they intended that), I assumed they would benefit to actually hear from someone who felt the way they asked- along the lines that I actually want both restrictions added and removed and also see the general task as a shrug since I don't believe FF games are best represented by the players being able to do absolutely whatever they want or absolutely only by what the gear suggests (an opinion that has evolved over time, and perhaps maturity lol).

Like I don't think if you went to so much freedom as Aion that would be a good thing- I think Aion makes itself look like a F2P Korean mmo which doesn't take itself seriously at all, but also does have an impressive level of freedom and I've seen people do really neat things with it (and a very deep wallet lol).

If it's removed I don't think it was 'the best choice', nor will it kill the game, but if it stays the same I'd also not think it was the best choice either, and no matter what they do anyways someone will be annoyed lol. "How dare you take away my snowman hat, it's my identity, you're taking away what you gave- this feels horrible, who cares how I dress and if they care I don't want them to play the game anyways "it's my character"" "how dare you let snowmen show up in my finale MSQ cutscene, how am I suppose to take this dungeon seriously when it's a big joke, is your content a joke to you? You would never do this in your own FF game, you know this isn't serious, take your content seriously" whatever etc etc. I think SE is trying to play both the fence on these two individuals and also on their own system which has technical limitations (at least so they've told us).

No matter what SE is going to lose something lol. Like if they wanted as free as Aion, it would lose an element of seriousness and strong consistent art presentation (but could gain impressive freedom, worth it? eh.. I don't think so to that level, but someone will of course, I believe FF is a very special form of purposeful art).

So if they wanted they could remove it I'm sure as they are so far down that rabbit hole already, perhaps in the future as they get closer to their next mmo, but I honestly hope the next mmo they make whenever that is that they take the world space more seriously and attempt to give players as much freedom as possible while also attempting to not create something as silly as "naked snowmen being your main tank as part of your very serious somber fight against some boss that you both respect and hate".

I believe presentation, the visual narrative, is an important part of games and particularly important for FF experiences as they are uniquely talented in that aspect. That occasionally offers the option to be goofy, but understands when to and not to foist it upon the player (like you have a goofy fun dress up cloud section but you're not required to wear a dress the whole game, you earn Bayek's bathrobe outfit doesn't mean you have to wear it for the rest of the game.. but you could!). Games come with intention, and sometimes options that verge from pure baseline intention but in a single player setting that's all fine and well. That said this is also an mmo so now you get that extra challenge to that whole ordeal.

I'm not confused that people want it removed, or restricted, particularly I don't think doing too much of either is the best for the narrative but I also wouldn't say we are in the perfect spot currently. So here is my big ol "/shrug" given the state we're currently in lol and the main reason why I posted was simply to answer the question the OP had proposed.

[GrizzlyTank]

One thing that we can commend FFXIV for is that it does have a good balance of realism and absurdity so that the world doesn't feel too depressing, reminder that the first dungeon for even have a dungeon full of trafficking victims... some of which are transformed into monsters the next time we run through the place. But then we have the moments with moogles "shudder", namazu and even wacky situations with ordinary citizens that again lightens the mood.

And this balance can even be seen in our gear, where the vast majority of it looks reasonable and that which looks absurd is still designed in such a fashion that it fits this world. Does the snowman head look silly? Yes, but it doesn't cower the screen with a blinding light making it impossible to look at anything else. It just is there, along with all the other outfits.