Playing an expansion as current content has been a lacklustre MMO experience

[Johners]

(1/2)

I've spent the better part of a month trying to formulate this into feedback and/or a discussion that isn't just dunking on XIV as a whole or the Endwalker expansion pack. I do have criticisms of some of the content they've added, which did lead to me posting this, but there's also a wider point on play style and the content cycle.

To provide a background, I started successfully playing Final Fantasy XIV back in April 2021 after getting bored and a bit burnt out in the Shadowlands expansion of WoW. I say successfully because two months prior in February, I tried and quit after about five minutes in Limsa Lominsa during the really on rails tutorial section where you can't do anything other than what the game says, even running slightly off the predetermined path.

After forcing myself through that experience on the second time of asking, I ended up really enjoying the game. So much so that in the following six months I went all the way through to the end of Shadowbringers and was really looking forward to Endwalker... and that's when the game slowly started taking a turn as an MMO.

I specify "as an MMO" because I'm aware there's the single player Final Fantasy part of the game and that’s what was recommended to me most. In hindsight, this is why I enjoyed XIV so much when I started and contains most of my memories of playing this game.

This is where my problem lies personally and I think there is a dilemma. I must say that I never got into doing savage raid content but I did try during the first tier of Endwalker. I was even raiding with "the boys" from WoW but it just didn't feel right and after a few nights, in which we got to about 50% and had some laughs between us, we never got a kill. Most of my friends did clear the tier however and I was happy to see they did.

I do want to enjoy this game as an MMO and beyond running around in Bozja, and more recently completing Eureka obtaining a full set of Fending armour plus the Paladin weapon including the Baldesion Arsenal steps, I have great memories formed already. However, these are my only MMO memories in XIV and everything else is just memorable story moments like I'd get in other single player games.

My subscription is active for a few months as I pre-paid for six months and I’m aware this may seem like buyer’s remorse. Some of that is down to me not liking the content such as Island Sanctuary which is just the Garrison from Warlords of Draenor, a poorly customisable space driven by a mission table but is separate from the main story so you can safely ignore. Beyond that there's been two Hildibrand quests, a couple of weeks of Beast Tribes and tomestone capping for gear that takes a little too long to obtain.

[Johners]

(2/2)

I think my enjoyment, or recent lack thereof, comes from the fact I could play entire expansions at once when I started. I could enjoy the funny man quests back-to-back. I could overlap beast tribes for the synergy that makes my MMO brain tingle. I could just use the last HQ crafted gear in ShB instead of getting tomestone gear despite there being an increased cap of 900 in place by then.

What I really dislike though is the lack of a "midcore", the content between Normal and Savage in terms of raiding as an example. We've got Unreal and Extremes but those are single digit numbers of fights each patch and you farm them for a mount before stopping. There's also Criterion which is a new system and while I've not touched it so far, it does seem interesting but unless they're going to add new dungeons to that with EVERY major patch (and maybe more rewards), I don’t really see why I’d play this now versus waiting for the last patch to binge all of Endwalker.

Relic weapons being a tomestone grind that was added two months into the tier when you could've near-completed obtaining a set of capped tome gear was disgraceful. It's bad enough playing that many weeks for one set of 620 gear, but to then go back in and repeat the farm for one or more relic weapons is just painful. Luckily I had enough tomes when they added the relics so that I could buy my items. I'm more disappointed that we're not getting Eureka or Bozja content for relics though, I really enjoyed playing both of those and would've liked a further iteration rather than abandonment.

I'm aware this post is quite long and ultimately crosses a lot of topics which relate to both personal preferences within a game and the content development choices that Square Enix make but there's an overlap between the two. Likewise, as a game that I need to spend a monthly fee to play, I think it's valid criticism.

Going forward I'm not really sure what to do though. I could give Savage another go, even if the party finder drops after the first few months of the tier. I could also try getting into other social/RP areas of the game). I could grind the really excessive make X of Y achievements. I'd glamour collect but there's no glamour catalogue.

My final option, which loops back to one of the reasons why I started this game in the first place, is ignoring FFXIV as an MMO and just playing as a single player Final Fantasy title... even though it's an MMO and the story is driven and designed around "MMO bullshit". But if I do that, I could also then open the can of worms around XIV being a bad "story game" even if that's another tangent of discussion entirely (before anyone bites on this, there's nuance between XIV being a good story for an MMO and being a bad single player story game due it being an always online tab target MMO... although the XIV story being remade FF7R style in Unreal Engine etc would be kinda cool though).

[Ath192]

You reached what we all do. A content drought. Also every time any piece of midcore content comes to the game the casual playerbase shreds it to pieces with complaints. The game used to be a lot more midcore around Stormblood gameplay wise and it all got dumbed down to appease the mass market.

This game does not have a middle ground unfortunately. And people have been working non stop to make this division exist.

[SannaR]

Welcome to what being current in the game feels like during an in between patch. You know that fabled end game that some people hype up to be this big exciting thing. Where most due to having done anything that has a story either unsub for a bit or go do minor stuff like Ocean Fishing, TT card collecting, mount farming, dipping their toes into stuff like Blue Mage, or PotD/HoH party or solo climb. And yes what little midcore stuff there is is barely that and things that used to be deemed as such has over time gas been chipped away due to a highly vocal minority that sadly has been listened to.

[Atelier-Bagur]

I would honestly just take a break from FFXIV at this point. I commend you for sticking through the whole experience and even doing some of the meaty off-content but that can only get you so far. To me, FFXIV's philosophy really challenges the standards set by the Western MMO Market where retention content is king and design-wise for a subscription service this model makes sense, but FFXIV isnt as such as you've indeed witnessed. Its very easy to feel "done" with a patch cycle once you've get into current game but I also see that as this game's greatest strength in our current day and age, people have just gotten more busy with life and its important to respect the consumer's time. Its kinda hard to let go of that feeling; needing to justify your subscription by staying logged in and with this game they've gotten more and more away from it. People can argue whether this is good or not but me personally I just enjoy FFXIV for allowing me to spend enough time to do what I want and not feel left behind if I decide to leave.

[Knot_D]

I've been farming an achievement that people bored of, such as Jewel of the Firmament.



There's still plenty things to do, but once again, "I'm not interested." kind of behavior

[Anienai]

I've been farming an achievement that people bored of, such as Jewel of the Firmament.



There's still plenty things to do, but once again, "I'm not interested." kind of behavior

Getting alts maxed on crafting and such.

[Iscah]

Weren't you the one in the other thread saying you deliberately force alliance roulette down to Crystal Tower only? And here you are saying there isn't enough mid-level difficulty content.

[AnnRam]

Dunno what to say but I have been doing the same since a year a go.

-Log in
-Frontlines x2-3 depending of the mode
-Trail Roulette
-Normal Raid roulette
-Log off.

Everything else its a chore and doesn't worth my time.

[Jeeqbit]

Some of that is down to me not liking the content such as Island Sanctuary which is just the Garrison from Warlords of Draenor, a poorly customisable space driven by a mission table but is separate from the main story so you can safely ignore.

Most of the time, what they add can be enjoyed in future expansions such as Ocean Fishing and I do think they will probably add more routes to that eventually. But you're right that it's difficult to see anyone doing Island Sanctuary once the expansion is over unless they see it as a suitable replacement for a house.

But I can tell you that they have seen the feedback and although it's difficult for them, they want to try things like allowing customization from housing if they can manage it. At the very least, they want to add more customization.

Beyond that there's been two Hildibrand quests, a couple of weeks of Beast Tribes and tomestone capping for gear that takes a little too long to obtain.

Relic weapons, new raids, new savage raids, a new dungeon, a new trial, a new extreme trial. If you like to collect things there are new mounts, minions and triple triad cards. There was also a new pvp series in 6.2 and another trial rotated into unreal. It's absolutely fine to not be interested in all of these things, but if you aren't then the only thing you can really do is occupy the rest of your time with something else instead, such as another game.

Being into lore and story and doing all of the side stories can keep you there for a long time, potentially years, but eventually that will run out. The truth is, you either become a collector or a roleplayer, or you usually run out of content. So you can either be happy with that amount of content or play some other games.