The reason FFXIV is lacking content is because of casualization.

[Raven2014]

Excuse you, I have never forgotten SE's best titles, and still play them to this day.

Well, I had played every Front mission games, including the one that didn't come out in English. To me they're some of the best TBS games ever. But it's safe to say given its popularity, I'm not exactly in the majority :P

[PintyMcEars]

Then people are entitled or have selected memory. Even in that era, not all games SE put out were a gem, they have always released some average run of the mill tittles, or even flop. RomanceSaga, Mana Legend, Front Mission, Grandia, Radiata stories .etc. are those games that you kinda play and then forget, and they have always outnumber the few flagship tittles.

I think this could also be just confirmation bias. How many people here can honestly they remember games in those series I just listed above? (most of them wasn't even one game, but an actual series). It has been far too long that those less than stellar tittles probably had fade from memory, leaving only the the brightest as what people remember. And that's normal, but I would call it's hardly a fair assessment. Like I said, over there years there always gonna be up and down, but on average, it's an upward trajectory, otherwise the company would have fold long ago. You don't survive in this industry and a free-market by staying on a 20+ years down spiral. As you said, the market have become much bigger than it ever was, and they have more competition, not less.


As often when people complain, they talk with feel rather than fact, and thus sometime ignore what is "logical".

I loved Grandia 1&2 but ya the others I didnt play. But yeah square have had their fair share of flops even in the good ol days.

[Atelier-Bagur]

Final Fantasy XI.

Dragon Quest VIII.

Depending on what metric for surpassing we're going by, at least half a dozen other games.

Chrono Trigger is one of the best games of all time, but even it has its faults and weaknesses. Overall the best thing about it is the Dual/Triple techs, the quickly paced ATB combat, and the structure of its 5 visitable time periods and associated endings.

Its weaknesses though....

There's a disconnect between actual expected level progress and difficulty i.e. Spekkio's first form is actually a green frog. Most people do not know this, because without even stopping to level up, you will be a higher level unless you purposefully force yourself to miss as many encounters as possible and even kill Crono a few times before the first time you make it to The End of Time.

Its translation/localization done single handedly by Ted Woolsey is actually pretty good, but he changed just enough things for players to miss out on an entire subplot for Zeal, Lavos, Frog, and the Gran Leon(the Masamune's actual name, which Woolsey straight up changed).

To get all of the different endings requires new game+ and basically trial and error with when you beat Lavos. The game gives you a hint or two with regards to this with the Developer's Room ending which is available if you defeat Lavos at Zeal in a regular NG, but otherwise, if you don't look things up, you could beat Chrono Trigger a dozen times and be confused as to why you only got two or three endings, instead of the promised 15.

I love Chrono Trigger, but it sure as shoot ain't perfect.

I wouldnt count FFXI to be on par with Chrono Trigger since its a different thing all together. Also that even in its heyday I personally wouldnt count it to be as well polished as Chrono Trigger and I love FFXI.

DQVIII is a good contender though but its plagued down by its need for level grinding and its cast being used as well as it shouldve. They get their small moments but a lot of the sub-plots couldve been used to better implement them into the narrative and the most we got was party chat to flesh them out. Also while its combat is simple yet satisfying, its pacing is still slow compared to Chrono Trigger where battles are about the same level of depth but encounters dont take nearly as long to complete. Also CT's battles are properly paced through dungeons.

It still has a killer orchestrated soundtrack though and its voice acting is very charming.

[Atelier-Bagur]

I wouldnt count FFXI to be on par with Chrono Trigger since its a different thing all together. Also that even in its heyday I personally wouldnt count it to be as well polished as Chrono Trigger and I love FFXI.

DQVIII is a good contender though but its plagued down by its need for level grinding and its cast being used as well as it shouldve. They get their small moments but a lot of the sub-plots couldve been used to better implement them into the narrative and the most we got was party chat to flesh them out. Also while its combat is simple yet satisfying, its pacing is still slow compared to Chrono Trigger where battles are about the same level of depth but encounters dont take nearly as long to complete. Also CT's battles are properly paced through dungeons.

It still has a killer orchestrated soundtrack though and its voice acting is very charming.

Ugh typos on phones, cant even edit. I meant to say "its cast NOT being used as well as it shouldve"

[Payadopa]

Personally, I think it's a bit disappointing. No, I don't want to do the same stuff 15 times in a row. That's just boring. But Eureka and Bozja were at least their own thing and fun. And you had bosses attached to it. ARR had the chimera and such.

I really dislike this obsession from SE to want everyone to replay the same OLD content again and again while they keep homogenising jobs so I'm even more bored while grinding.

The current design isn't omg awful compared to garbage FATEs but it's creatively bankrupt in the gameplay department all the same.

[MagusMirel]

Finally people are starting to realize what i've been telling people around me for years. FFXIV has become more casual then it should be. The focus is so much on Solo Content now which is on top short living. As an really active Player (which is what i pay for) you're done on in a day or two. The Island took me a week, but wow... It was so hyped (not for me) and it was so less Content. On top of everything we're getting the same stuff Expansion after Expansion again. There are rarely new things to do and almost nothing which you can do as a group. MMORPG's aren't supposed to be Solo Playable. That was always the difference in those Games and it was Key to play with others. It was the whole idea behind those Games. People who don't want to play with other should just leave this Game or do what they always do, afk in Limsa.
I'm done with the lazyness of SE and the catering of those crybabys. SE should honor the Players which made this Game what it is today. We were always supporting the Game since ARR. Without us the Game would be dead. Give us more to do. I want more Content starting from 7.0! More Dungeons, more new Stuff and on top of that the old Stuff.

[CStrife912]

Finally people are starting to realize what i've been telling people around me for years. FFXIV has become more casual then it should be. The focus is so much on Solo Content now which is on top short living. As an really active Player (which is what i pay for) you're done on in a day or two. The Island took me a week, but wow... It was so hyped (not for me) and it was so less Content. On top of everything we're getting the same stuff Expansion after Expansion again. There are rarely new things to do and almost nothing which you can do as a group. MMORPG's aren't supposed to be Solo Playable. That was always the difference in those Games and it was Key to play with others. It was the whole idea behind those Games. People who don't want to play with other should just leave this Game or do what they always do, afk in Limsa.
I'm done with the lazyness of SE and the catering of those crybabys. SE should honor the Players which made this Game what it is today. We were always supporting the Game since ARR. Without us the Game would be dead. Give us more to do. I want more Content starting from 7.0! More Dungeons, more new Stuff and on top of that the old Stuff.

I played 1.0, played the ARR beta...played ARR/HW till SB...took a gap and played SB-EW and now every week, I want more things to do...but this company doesn't owe me anything. I cannot in good conscious demand they make things to cater to me because there are many types of players and content types to cater to. When they have caught up with duty support in prior expansions and tidying up the new player experience those resources should come back to the wider content pool. EW seems lesser compared to others when in my eyes its the only expansion + patches that has actually put in way more work tidying up things, reworking things and bringing consistency to the whole game (Outside of say 5.3 ARR revamp)

[Shinkuno]

I played 1.0, played the ARR beta...played ARR/HW till SB...took a gap and played SB-EW and now every week, I want more things to do...but this company doesn't owe me anything. I cannot in good conscious demand they make things to cater to me because there are many types of players and content types to cater to. When they have caught up with duty support in prior expansions and tidying up the new player experience those resources should come back to the wider content pool. EW seems lesser compared to others when in my eyes its the only expansion + patches that has actually put in way more work tidying up things, reworking things and bringing consistency to the whole game (Outside of say 5.3 ARR revamp)

what makes you think those resource come back considering how many people pay and defend for the current barebones content? they are a company, they will just use those resources on another game

[CStrife912]

what makes you think those resource come back considering how many people pay and defend for the current barebones content? they are a company, they will just use those resources on another game

Well they have a resource allocation that doesn't change...generally in most companies it doesn't get less it stays the same or increases with budget and workforce increase. However I am just being positive it may not occur but once they have finished pouring them into tidying up the new player experience they can use that allocation elsewhere. They don't have to...they may think oh we want to condense the story more or duty support the trials now or put more into making all the glam/npcs are visually upgraded quicker. But that is up to Yoshi P and his project leads to allocate it. I am just spitballing is all, when it comes to them making as much money as they do you don't loose resources allocated (for the most part anyway)

Also you say as a company....but Creative Business Unit 3 are their their own division...they are given that allocation plus Yoshi P is on the board of directors so they can't really piss around with them too much without him probably saying its not a good thing to get us to take XYZ. People say he shouldn't of taken on 16 but as a leader, project lead and producer...you should be able to effectively balance teams on multiple projects. People will say the content being lesser clearly means they cant balance..not true...the content is borderline the same...you just don't have a zone yet you have a deep dungeon...and yeah you don't have to grind 60 fates because of poor drop rights or light gather for a relic you just do tomes...its subjective and an illusion of padding.

[Rilifane]

Personally, I think it's a bit disappointing. No, I don't want to do the same stuff 15 times in a row. That's just boring. But Eureka and Bozja were at least their own thing and fun. And you had bosses attached to it. ARR had the chimera and such.

I really dislike this obsession from SE to want everyone to replay the same OLD content again and again while they keep homogenising jobs so I'm even more bored while grinding.

The current design isn't omg awful compared to garbage FATEs but it's creatively bankrupt in the gameplay department all the same.

I think what is part of the problem is the fact that the majority of content is story-locked. People cannot progress with the story until they've completed the current dungeon or trial or even alli raid. They are mandatory and there is no way around it unless you want to be forever stuck in a certain era in terms of story (and never unlock your HW skills/ SB capstone skill).
So they need to make sure that they always have a healthy amount of players filling the queues so any new player doesn't get stuck in the story from a lack of people filling dungeon/ trial/ alli raid queues for too long. Best way is to shoo people into these duties is by tying them to old content, be it by making said old content mandatory or increasing the reward for doing old content over other avenues so much that it's simply the only sensible choice.
While there is NN and PF to help to grab more people, new players often see PF as something reserved for "endgame" content, be it old endgame content or current and NN is... well, I can't blame new players for often leaving it again depending on the server,

Adding Trusts to more and more MSQ duties will eventually prevent this problem of "MSQ mandatory but tied to group content, must ensure people finished with MSQ always do old content" but that's a long backlog they have to work on with ARR to ShB. The downside to this is that all duties need to be AI friendly now, though.
I hope that once Trusts are added to the remaining MSQ duties that they get more creative for relic tasks.