The Perfect Response to "Take a Break"

[Cilia]

This is not how you attract FF players to your game.

"Final Fantasy players" is a pretty broad umbrella. You are aware there are games in the franchise not set in Ivalice, and all of them (Ivalice included) have humorous moments to ease the tension, yes? Even the ultra-edgy Stranger of Paradise has some softer and lighthearted moments. It's called "good writing." Furthermore if the only customers the game was trying to attract were "Final Fantasy players" it would never have grown to the juggernaut it is.

In NA the game is rated T (16+, weirdly; why not just go with M, it's only a 2 year difference) but in EU it's rated PEGI-13, and so is meant to be acceptable for anyone 13+. (In JP it's CERO 15, just for the record.) That you personally don't enjoy the tension-cutting slice of life scenes is just a difference in taste, not a mark of the game's writing falling off a cliff.

In any case however, your personal emotions are not relevant to FFXIV’s current circumstances.

For the past 3 years there has been no content of substance so yes, unfortunately now this large company with ample resources at their disposal is going to have to play catchup.

Comedy gold. Anyway...

There's been plenty of content of substance, it's just not to your taste.

SE is in financial disarray due to Yosuke Matsuda's ruinous business moves, and SE has chronically underfunded this game anyway.

However, I have good news for you, kiddo! A TTRPG version of the game was announced a few weeks back, meaning so long as you get a few friends together you can play through your story rewrites. It'll be on tabletop, and if you're GMing there's no guarantee your players will follow your story threads how you want them to (unless you decide to railroad and that's not cool at all), but playing through the game with your bespoke desires indulged is not so farfetched now!