State of the Game prior to Liveletter

[RyuDragnier]

I really want them to talk about Hrothgar first because of how sad their situation right now...

This is the biggest one. We don't care if we don't get any new hairstyles right now, JUST FIX THE EARS. I can cope with no new hats (but we still need these badly) if I can just wear a different hairstyle and feel unique.

[GeminiReed]

People are defending a 22 dollar cosmetic item in a game with a subscription cost.

I don't see a lot of defense, mostly excitement. I am seeing quite a bit of criticism over the price. I really only like the jacket but the one character only thing would make it cost ~$400 for me so that's a "hard pass" like pretty much every character specific outfit.

[Raoabolic]

Don't forget about Blitzball. Still waiting on that.

I'm sure it will be released around the same time areal battles are released on WoW. :^)

[Vrankyl]

As a SAM main I don't really care about Kaiten being gone at all. Sure it sucked having to rework the muscle memory since I was so used to hitting it, but it wasn't really an OMG NOOO moment. Nor did it really add anything to the class fantasy at all. The class fantasy for SAM revolves around the Iaijutsu.

I also don't really think the Island Sanctuary debacle is on them. Yeah they've been sparse about what it is, but they've been up front and vocal about what it isn't. Anyone who keeps thinking it is instanced housing and Animal Crossing in FF14 (and ever thought that to begin with) has been on something that I'd love a hit of.

That all said I am a bit worried that the first step of the Relic quest will be the same simple quest so I hope the go into detail on the relic quest expectations, as well as Island Sanctuary and Criterion Dungeon information. I also think the Hrothgar players deserve a section to have their situation addressed because what happened with the hairs is absolutely unacceptable.

[GrizzlyTank]

Throw in "Hypocritical and contradictory glamour restrictions" too.

[Jeeqbit]

Agree on all points except Dark Knight and Endwalker MSQ.

We look set to go to the Void in the patches, so Meracydia, Ilsabard and the New World might be saved for the expansions.

[RyuDragnier]

Agree on all points except Dark Knight and Endwalker MSQ.

We look set to go to the Void in the patches, so Meracydia, Ilsabard and the New World might be saved for the expansions.

I'm pretty sure New World will be saved for 8.0. Why then? Because we'll already have hit the normal level cap of 100, so any level squishing or new leveling system they add would be best done in a brand new continent that's as big as Ilsaberd and the Far East combined. And with a continent that big, we could easily stay there for multiple expansions.

[shao32]

I agree mostly with job related stuff, content and hairstyles.

Right now in terms of jobs they pretty much barely listen the community anymore, they just push they oversimplification no matter how unrecognizable the job become like how DRK is just WAR rip off or Healers are just 1 spell jobs + all the gutting of iconic mechanics of different DPS now and some ppl cheering they keep removing stuff and make the job system more like a glamour system each expansion.

Lack of content is just being cut for the sake of being cut to reduce production cost while still got maximum profit, and the hairstyles problem is like is just beyond my mind.

I just expect they touch sanctuary island and SAM complaints since the playerbase has been going to the neck with kaiten but for the rest jobs like Healers, DRK, SMN and ect? Not all all, they know they can get away with those for so long.

[aveyond-dreams]

SMN has become so mind numbingly boring I'm still not over the shock at how anyone could design such a horrible playstyle. But I suppose it's at least better than what healers have...

The job's current kit feels more like something that would be the standard for a Summoner who has just finished ARR at level 50 instead of finishing the whole of Season 1 at level 90. A lot of this could have been avoided if they had opened their eyes 8 years ago and realized that turning Final Fantasy's Summoner into a knockoff dot class wasn't going to work, especially if they were just going to stack disjointed systems directly on top of each other.

All that caused was a process of self-selection of people who were willing to put up with and prided themselves over being able to manage a job ridden with glitches and overly convoluted mechanics who then felt immense betrayal and shock to discover such a design was unsustainable. They go on to war and argue against those of us who favor the rework but obviously want logical improvements-not reversions, and then there's the 3rd faction that says things like "Carbuncle should become the future of the job" or other unusual takes of that nature.

In ARR, maybe by the end of that expansion the player Summoner would have Ifrit/Garuda/Titan and say Phoenix instead of Bahamut - for then to go and obtain Bahamut along with Ravana and Bismark in Heavensward, if not the Warring Triad. Then in Stormblood we'd obtain Lakshmi, Susano, and Shinryu. Shadowbringers doesn't have primals per say, but we could have definitely received Alexander and/or Odin as our capstones for that expansion. For Endwalker naturally Anima is a prime candidate, and many have floated the idea of a demi-Hydaelyn or demi-Zodiark which would make for excellent final abilities for Season 1.

Instead we got none of that because it took them 8 years to figure out what to do with this job. And we still have to wait till 7.0 for our additional gems, assuming they don't listen to the crowd that is brazen enough to ask for reversions and put a halt to any of the good progress this rework did. They will be and always would have been happier with Time Mage, Necromancer, Arithmetician, anything of the sort and leave Summoner alone. Oh, but Blue Mage is there taking up space and they add jobs based off rounding off numbers and adding pairs so 7.0 is likely a Scouting job and a physical ranged DPS with no caster. The Blue Mage fanclub is unwilling for anyone to taint their job by allowing for a non-limited normal kit to be used in regular content, so that's no avenue to turn to either.

There was never a need for things to snowball into this. There was never a need to put everyone through this immense frustration - but at the end of the day this just only one of the many problems the game is facing now.

[anhaato]

The general mood for this live letter I’ve noticed, even for people who are part of the “VAST MUHJORITY” who are “too busy playing the game” to complain on the dirty rotten forums about it, is far more anxiety than general hype. People are mostly scared about how disappointing island sanctuary will turn out to be, compounded with upcoming job changes being promised after literally none of the 6.1 changes being good. Literally none. For the 6.1 letters people were definitely anticipating whatever was coming in them, but now it’s almost a palpable lack of hype. The dead air is so thick it’s unnerving.