What do we have to look forward to with Dawntrail?

[Tetsujin]

Kinda stopped reading here. The only "every single" comment that would actually be factual is that every single "fact" you claimed is nothing more than your own personal opinion and not in any way, shape, or form something that can even *be* factual.

Yeah, yeah. Maybe not the best use of the word fact, I admit, but I did start the entire thing saying it's from my PoV. You sure you didn't stop reading earlier? I already said it's off the cuff as it is. I didn't plan this meticulously, enough with the semantics.

A lot of your list is also subjective. For example, many people don't feel class design is "horrible", there's OBjectively not "less content than ever" (HW had less; handwaves can be made about "the game was still getting its feet" or whatever, but it's a fact), how "stale" raid mechanics are, how "weak" content and story are, (etc..)

Less content than ever in terms of per expansion, per patch delivery, is not subjective at all. We're talking expansion to expansion, not overall. I don't know why you would assume otherwise, by that logic WoW players shouldn't have complained about Warlord of Draenor because they technically had more content than ever.

[ReynTime]

I'm still under "hopium".

"Maybe" they will not actually have us hang with the team of hiveminded blondes who speak in Sheldon Cooper, many who had their personal arcs DONE by now, during the entire MSQ and actually introduce some new characters instead, like a Roe or a Hrothgar with unique design and personality.
"Maybe" they will add another field exploration zone, or "maybe" they will make the overworld feature things from field exploration to make the field zones less sterile and plastic MSQ stages.
"Maybe" they will realise having 2 savage modes for criterion was a stupid, STUPID idea nobody asked for.
"Maybe" they will introduce some new type of PvE content.
"Maybe" the new deep dungeon will actually be interesting.

That's why I'm still waiting for Dawntrail. My expectations for the MSQ are low. If it's the exact same gang as Endwalker + yet another fujoshi-bait (this time a pretty bunny-boy instead of pretty cat-boy) I'm gonna be skipping a lot of cutscenes.

[NekoMataMata]

I'm afraid of almost everything that I'm looking forward to.

There's the graphic update and dye channels. Both of these have huge potential but I'm scared that while some areas will look much better, somehow others will have something wrong with them or you'll have spots that are somehow forgotten. I feel like a lot of gear is going to get forgotten when it comes to the second additional dye channel. Just really can't trust them with either until I see the results because they've already forgotten smaller things like hroth/viera hats.

New jobs/MSQ actually don't worry me. Unless they dumb down every job to the same amount of buttons as pvp, I'll just adapt.

Upcoming 7.0 MSQ is actually in a good place because the MSQ patches have been rough for EW. The way I see it is that there's no way to go any lower. They said DT might be more casual, but I'm hoping it starts that way, and builds up to a bigger issue that expands into the next couple of expansions. There's potential and that's just general story structure anyways.

Hopefully they add a reward structure to V/C dungeons and just make them actual in-game content that people play. The dungeons themselves aren't really that bad, and you can at least solo the regular version for the mount/minions. Finding people to do the savage version with is next to impossible though, and I say this from the experience of spending 5 hours in PF with one other person attempting to find +2 for it.

Better relics. Nothing to really add. EW Relic is at the bottom so we can only go up from here(I hope).

Not really hoping for Eureka/Bozja but I am hoping for engaging content that isn't IS updates.

[caffe_macchiato]

Kinda stopped reading here. The only "every single" comment that would actually be factual is that every single "fact" you claimed is nothing more than your own personal opinion and not in any way, shape, or form something that can even *be* factual.

What I am looking forward to? A game that I continue to have a fun time playing, with a storyline I find engaging, characters that I enjoy journeying alongside, classes that I find fun playing (right now PLD, SCH, and RDM), a plethora of various content from throughout the game's history that I can continue gradually doing as my limited playtime permits (along with whatever new side content is introduced), a dev team that makes me smile when they seem to me to be having a lot of fun making things like Hildibrand quests or the relaxing banquet with a burger , and so on. Basically, I'm looking forward to continuing to enjoy a game I'm already very much enjoying, and I think that's a very realistic prospect.

That seems to be the plan! FFXIV is just fine as-is, it's totally good, and the dev team cares a lot. In fact, I think we should push Dawntrail back until 2025 or so because we're not done with all the content we currently have. Surely the people who are criticizing our game in this thread don't have all their mounts or minions or achievements. Surely they don't play as much as we do.

We don't need Dawntrail, and honestly? We're all having a blast with the game as-is, and we don't need them to waste their time.

[ZephyrMenodora]

I'm excited for Dawntrail, but I'm happy with the core of what FFXIV provides:

* MSQ
* Dungeons
* 8-Mans
* 24 Mans
* Some new Furniture
* New Tribes

Pretty sure we will get all of these basic offerings, so I'll be basically happy and anything else is just extra.

Excited particularly for a new story - though honestly I'd be a bit more excited for this if we parted from the Scions. Not sure why we are so inseparable. The WoL going out on his own and meeting entirely new people with Cameos from the Scions would have felt nice for a brand new story arc and would feel more of a fresh start.

Interested in what the new jobs will be, and what my new capstone skills will be. Always fun to get a powerful new ability.

[ASkellington]

I'm not looking forward to anything aside from how they will fix/butcher the AST/DRG reworks.

[Korbei]

I personally disagree with the premise that the post-EW MSQ has been worse than ever before. I actually feel it's been one of the better ones with only one major gripe: Vrtra/Varshaun is kinda lame, not really living up to what we know about the great wyrms. Though it is consistent with him going out and doing his own thing when the rest of them were waging wars against man. I've enjoyed getting some insight and access into the Void. Seeing the treacherous way of life of its denizens. I like Zero. I've enjoyed the trial fights against the fiends. Barbariccia in particular was really good. I enjoyed the dungeon boss battles against Scarmiglione and Cagnazzo. Rubicante and Golbez are fine. Granted I'm a very long time Final Fantasy fan and that kind of fan service is aimed at people like myself. It's not the Four Lords, which I really enjoyed but it's been decent to good.

By contrast, I thought the Ruby Weapon fights and story were awful. Seat of Sacrifice can go right in the garbage with that QTE. Memoria Misera is actually gated by completely different previous content.. (I'm not even sure what to be honest) which, along with Bozja was an asinine design decision made repeatedly in the back half of Shadowbringers. Bozja itself was entirely forgettable. Wasn't interested in anything going on there. Nier raids suck. And Graha Tia... Effing shoot me every single time I need to deal with that loser.

I feel two major things have fallen short story-wise post-Endwalker (which itself was bad to mediocre). First is that the dungeons have been extremely uninspired. Nothing new or interesting basically from end-to-end, with maybe the exception of Troia. More towers. More elevators. Vanaspati is a poorly lit Holminster copy. Ktisis is basically a well lit Fractal Continuum. Alzadaal feels like a better maintained Skalla. Lapis Manalis feels like a mashup of Anamnesis Anyder and Bardam's Mettle. There's nothing new here, whereas Shadowbringers kinda felt fresh and cool end-to-end, From Holmister Switch all the way to Paglthan.

The second problem is the pace.. dear lord we are really spinning the tires at this point. Absolutely tip-toeing through this stretch in the Thirteenth. Pick it the hell up already! I've been enjoying the Myths of the Realm raids.. other than Graha Tia clinging on.. but the time between them has been excruciating! Pick it the hell up already!

Seeing the date of the next expansion was going to be summer of next year was an absolute dagger. It really doesn't matter what they plan to do in that expansion, it simply cannot come soon enough. Even if it was due in December, it would feel overdue.

[Boblawblah]

That seems to be the plan! FFXIV is just fine as-is, it's totally good, and the dev team cares a lot. In fact, I think we should push Dawntrail back until 2025 or so because we're not done with all the content we currently have. Surely the people who are criticizing our game in this thread don't have all their mounts or minions or achievements. Surely they don't play as much as we do.

We don't need Dawntrail, and honestly? We're all having a blast with the game as-is, and we don't need them to waste their time.

Angry noises!!!

Also:

[Theodric]

The way I see it is that there's no way to go any lower.

Don't jinx it...

[EgilTheStressedMage]

Don't jinx it...

Indeed. Look at what Sega did to Shining Force, Bethesda did to Fallout, and what Nintendo did to Paper Mario though they were skilled enough to almost kill the spinoff with one single game.