FFXIV seems to be undergoing an aesthetic change of sort, that has impacted both story beats and more recently marketing material/guides. It’s come to my attention that a series of guide videos intended for newer players has recently been released, but I am not sure that their general style is really indicative of what a player would seek out in a guide video or to get a better feel of the game. However, with sequences such as the 6.1 Y’shtola scene and 6.0’s overall focus on more modern aspects rather than high fantasy, it really does seem that something has changed with FFXIV.

To briefly touch on the video series, I think it is important to consider that the players of FFXIV are of a mostly adult or late teen audience. A key factor in the way in which we consume media or guides especially video ones is when we seek out creators who give more of a feel of talking with us rather than at us, which was a very prominent critique as well during WoW’s Dragonflight showcase videos. The art style and general behavior of the characters in the first video alone seemed a bit too cheery, for lack of a better word, and if I were a new player I don’t understand why I would prefer watching those guides as opposed to Mr. Happy, Zepla, Xenos, or Preach. These creators I feel do a better job of speaking in ways and visuals that are more palatable, to me at least. Moving forward I think it would’ve been better to try and do more things the way they go about their content creation.

It all sort of links back to each other, from the new direction and tone of the MSQs to these videos...this feels so much different to the Heavensward and Shadowbringers eras. Even though in the leadup to Shadowbringers there was an ad that included the likes of Tom Holland, that ad was still very different compared to this new video series.