The future

[RatKing]

That's true. EW is a mixed bag with highs and lows and my post was an exaggeration. But it still pains me that this is how "the saga" concludes with such a disconnect between what came before and how it ends. The lore being trampled over, the characters taking so many stupid pills, the whole final zone. At times I prefer to believe that the story ended in 5.3, that with no more unsundered ascians we no longer have to fear any more rejoinings, Zodiark keeps doing its thing, the galaxy is at peace. The end. Even the final cutscene with the returned scions at Revenant's Toll could have been a fitting conclussion.

More seriously, for the future I also think they should keep things more grounded. In my opinion FF14's story shines the most when it focuses on the people, the relationships they keep, how they find a way to overcome their struggles, how THEY fit within the lore, etc. The things that made Eorzea feel like a living world. And when the lore keeps more grounded too and focuses on "things working". Please no more "mysterious energy sources that encompass all of creation but that we didn't know about in all these years". PLEASE NO MORE TIME SHENANIGANS. The FF14 universe with the "rules" that already exist has plenty of avenues for telling stories. Please remain focused on those and don't try to force new rules if they don't fit with what we already have.

Sounds like you want another stormblood, which was arguably the worst expansion story wise.

[Tanis_Ebonhart]

For SE to actually kill off characters and not bait us out. Thancred shouldve died a long time ago, Yshtola shouldve been dead since HW.
This one is my personal opinion but i want more evil choices. Like if someone asks for my help let me say no im busy. Matter of fact let me join garlmald please. They actually have cool armor pieces that shouldve been in the game since arr.

I wouldn't mind it if they didn't bait the deaths so much then don't commit.

[Sicno]

Sounds like you want another stormblood, which was arguably the worst expansion story wise.

I know a lot of people hate Stormblood but I love it. Of the few complains I have about it the biggest is how they shoved in the primals forcefully despite them not fitting with the narrative at the moments they appeared.

[Larirawiel]

Sounds like you want another stormblood, which was arguably the worst expansion story wise.

It is not. I like EW way more than SB. SB has its own problems which are very different to the problems EW has. But yes, EW felt very surreal und not very logical to me in the end.

EW spoiler:

And i have found some errors which can easily happen when you start with time traveling. They should not do that.

Cheers

[KageTokage]

I'm kind of hoping that Elpis doesn't get involved in the 6.x MSQ anymore, because as much as I'd like to learn more about certain specifics of the Ancient era, I feel like they could've just as easily had us stumble across more locales akin to Akademia Aynder that managed to survive through the eons, especially given the mention of how abnormally durable their architecture was compared to what we're used to.

The storytelling becoming overly reliant on time travel and weird causal loops is...not a direction I want things to go in.

On a more positive note, I'd like if the 6.x MSQ mostly focuses on us going on little misadventures with each of the Scions; possibly laying low more stray blasphemies that are a bit too wily or dangerous for the alliance to deal with. I feel like things are going to blow up in the .3 patch again, though, but rather then it serving as the climax of the current storyline it's going to mark the appearance of a new threat that's big enough to warrant a trial and kicks off the bulk of the build-up to 7.x.

[Xaruko_Nexume]

I would like to see them pump out more MSQ more often. The world is pretty big now, and if we can make use of the existing world for more story, which would save a lot of time, then we should do that.

[Elleia]

I'd like the WoL to go back to being a regular adventurer - no more echo or blessing of light. I'm not 100% if it's already been confirmed or not, but I assume that those abilities will slowly fade away now that Hydaelyn is gone (only issue being side quests/jobs quests etc that use the echo...but time bubble, I guess).

Just more grounded stories with lower stakes. Discovering new places, uncovering secret and mysteries, meeting new people. I think there's a lot they can do now.

Though Endwalker really did feel like a fitting end for everything, at least to me. I kind of thought this would be our final expansion and they'd announce a new MMO. But, I guess there is still a lot left to do in Eorzea.

[Recon1o6]

I hope for a complete 180 to this constant simplifying and homogenisation going off in the jobs. While primarily my biggest gameplay gripe with this game, the lore behind our actions was a highlight for me.
Return of job and crafter quests. While shb it was fine, but the role quests I'm really not seeing the supposed improved quality having done 4/5 of them now. Likewise in the studium, while some of them were good and funny, others didn't seem anything related to well...the crafters i use for them.

I'd like the relic to start asap, and for future expansions, same time as savage. Back in ARR's start Titan hard's weapons and the relic were the highest levels you could get until they added glamour weapons and fixed turn 5 of the coil.

Like everyone here, I'd like more deaths rather than fakeouts story wise.
If we got to have time travel, lets have it done right and sensibly, and not with major plotholes please. Done right its excellent. Done wrong and it kicks away any impact.
A more grounded story seems likely which is good.
More downtime scenes with our companions like ardbert in the first and the takeout we had in the annex. They were a nice change of pace

Finally...please dont kill off the well written villains so much and leave the shit ones alive. Could have avoided this plots are really tiresome. Zenos, yotsuyu and fandango were all really frustrating. If the villain's doing something dangerous but they are open, let us smack them damn it like at the end of In from the cold shoulder tackling the baddy.

[CKNovel]

Let's see.

HD textures
Been a while since I want an upgrade of textures, I feel that many equipment got more pixels but we're not quite exactly here.

Job design actually complete
Dark Knight Living dead, TBN, Oblation, Enhanced Unmend, pet with a questionable AI, Darkside virtually inexistent.
Machinist Flamethrower, questionable AI, utility in the strawberries and no damage to back it up.
Gunbreak very rigid continuation.
Ninja getting a rework every X.1.
BRD.
Summoner.

Many jobs have a gauge for... ONE button.
Everyone asking for SQEX to not dumb down a job, it results in the job being 2 button mash and/or a very rigid mess.
I'd like for SQEX to stop adding jobs or limiting themselves to 1 and complete the existing jobs. Don't make the job appealing to the casuals or the hardcore, make the job appealing to the one who plays/want to plays this job due to thematics/mechanics.

I won't complain about balancing, because at least there is no actual dead job, just less popular one.

Small party hard content
Asked for a long time, I wish they would add hard content such as Delubrum Reginae Savage but not 48 players please avoid large scale hard content higher than 24 players.
Savage dungeon with a timer for cool rewards for example. Something that makes gear acquired in savage worth using somewhere else.

Content to improve yourself
The game takes the player hand way too much.
There are quests where people complains about it being too hard, I'm not an exceptional player, I'm closer to a human body piloted by 3 monkeys and there is no hard quests to me.

More puzzles
It's great that we got sniping mini games, traveling with X NPC quests, tracking quests...
But I'd like more puzzle like the one in Sharlayan. Even more, find a combination, complete a circuit, things that can be done by the UI team.
You know, rather than make huh... Stickers.

Communication about development
Liveletters are great, Yoshida shares a lot of information. But I feel that feedback was often ignored.
Blood weapon and Hypercharge not on a stack system, Livind Dead, TBN are really the most popular and relevant feedback I can think about.

IMO, XIV is a great game with big roughs spots.
The story shines, the music shines, the universe shines... But there are things like job design left in the shadows.

[Misplaced_Marbles]

This one is my personal opinion but i want more evil choices. Like if someone asks for my help let me say no im busy.

You...consider it an "evil" choise to not help some random asking for help? Wow, the bar couldn't possibly be lower than that.

If we'd go with the "evil" choices, I'd rather that my character has their own ambitions and end goal that may or may not cause some extreme collateral damage, all for their benefit, instead of just the usual a-hole hero who saves the world, just like the average hero. The average hero was only less of an a-hole about it.

What's the point of being "evil" if the worst you can do is kill some random nobody in the middle of nowhere for a little extra cash? Boring.

Now, obviously this kind of thing will never happen in a game with choices (FFXIV is not a game with choices), since they'd rather focus on the option that most choose, which is to say, the average hero. Best you can get is to (re)play Overlord 2.