Feedback: Dawntrail MSQ dungeon difficulty

[Rueby]

After finishing the MSQ, I had alot of difficulty discerning some mechanics in final dungeon boss 2 and 3. Not out of 'this mechanic is hard' but more the particle effects were causing me eyestrain or is painful/hard to look at. I don't mind difficulty, but don't make shit hard to see. And please, make me able to adjust where the flashy red text is on my screen, alot of times it's distracting than helpful.

I hope they'd stop making stuff harder to see or painful to see. Visual clarity shouldn't be a difficulty.

[Banggugyangu]

After finishing the MSQ, I had alot of difficulty discerning some mechanics in final dungeon boss 2 and 3. Not out of 'this mechanic is hard' but more the particle effects were causing me eyestrain or is painful/hard to look at. I don't mind difficulty, but don't make shit hard to see. And please, make me able to adjust where the flashy red text is on my screen, alot of times it's distracting than helpful.

I hope they'd stop making stuff harder to see or painful to see. Visual clarity shouldn't be a difficulty.

While I didn't experience the same with the final dungeon bosses at all, I totally understand and agree with this point. P3 is a FANTASTIC example of exactly this.

[Besame]

Just make an "Opt Out" feature for msq dungeons/duties if the player chooses. No harm/no foul. They could also make it MSQ dungeons/duties and not part of the direct path to MS completion but rather a side section of yes or no choice for the player. I don't need any piddley or silly rewards that they give at this point in my game play and perhaps others feel the same.

[Xurias]

I've been off playing other games mostly due to this issue, and I had almost forgot about this thread entirely when I got an email that my subscription is going to expire in a few days. I didn't read any of the new replies really, but figured I'd point out one more thing here before my sub ends and I cannot post. Google autofill seems to agree with the threads' original post sentiment. All you have to do is type "Dawntrail is" and on one of the first three results, invariably, will be "DawnTrail is too hard." These autofill results do not come from nowhere, and are often propagated from commonly put together search terms or search trends, or pages coming up on the internet, if I'm not mistaken. This means the internet is in agreement that it is indeed too difficult. I even tried with an incognito session to make sure suggestions were not ruined by my history, and it still came up as the 3rd autofill suggestion.



As a suggestion to the developer for difficulty level, I'm going to point at massive hits like Zelda: Ocarina of time. That's an example of perfect difficulty level, and one of the reasons the game became such a hit.

I'm also going to point out the fact that older Final Fantasy fans who played FF 1 through 10 (you know, FF games that original father of FF Hironobu Sakaguchi worked on) did not need to have any split second reaction speeds, twitchy fast dodge abilities or precise timing, as they were more chill and turn based, or semi-turn based from the ATB system. I'm sorry, but the series just is not known for such fast paced action or quick thinking/reacting, and I feel overly emphasizing it alienates older fans such as myself. I generally haven't played any FF games after 10 until 14 came along, so no idea what newer ones are like. But I had my reasons to play FF14, and enjoyed it up until the DawnTrail difficulty spike.

[nguyentri11]

Actually searching "Dawntrail is too hard" brings up more links talking about how it's not. Comparing other games with completely different gameplay to FFXIV might as well be comparing apples to oranges. Even then I'm pretty sure there isn't a mechanic in any normal mode/MSQ content that requires "precise timing/split second reaction" unless you count not understanding how the mechanic works and being surprised at an AoE telegraph appearing last second before it hits you.

[Xurias]

....Even then I'm pretty sure there isn't a mechanic in any normal mode/MSQ content that requires "precise timing/split second reaction" unless you count not understanding how the mechanic works and being surprised at an AoE telegraph appearing last second before it hits you.

Alexandria dungeon (last dungeon). Have to be inside the circles or not interesecting the crosses at exactly the right time. And you have to time it just right, especially to not get hit when it overlaps the other AOE mechanic with it. Sometimes I can't even tell which AOE will go off first and there's a big AOE about to hit inside the circle when the donut AOE thing is showing. And sometimes even being inside the circle when the AOE goes off is not enough and I still get hit (my character will be inside the circle on my screen but still get the debuff)

Everkeep trial is an example of quick thinking / quick reactions, particularly the mechanic where the two "blade" things go down the lines. I am fine when it's just one side doing it, but when two sides at once do it I can turn the camera to them to try and see where they are going to come from and go, but they end up shooting faster than I can solve the "line puzzles" to figure out which squares are safe. Sometimes I get lucky and manage to survive the first set, but then the 2nd set comes before I have any chance to figure it out either.

The "Valigarmande" trial (I forgot what it was called) has a part where you have to be fast and follow where everyone is clumping in at for the AOE stacks (this one is more of a problem when doing it with people than trust, but the fact that people have said the normal version is harder than the EX version when doing it with other players should tell you something. If you need AI helpers to kill a boss without hassle then the design here is failed).

The 2nd dungeon has a mechanic that, much like the everkeep boss, has something going on faster than I can figure out where it will hit. The boss will freeze some enemies so they don't do their AOE right away, and due to how many enemies are involved (8 in total) it's too big of a crowd for me to easily pick out which ones are safe to stand near or in front of before the AOE goes off.

Maybe my slowness is my own problem, I'll admit I don't think like most normal people (being on the autism spectrum). But I am a fan from the old FF 1 through 10 days, so I played this as an FF fan, and mostly to relax after work. But these newer DawnTrail dungeons, trials, and raids... when they pop up in duty finder roulettes they are anything but relaxing. Issue also seems to have affected fates. One time I figured I'd relax and do some fates, and this fate with a huge snake thing popped up and was so difficult it was killing entire alliance raids worth of players. Dead bodies all over the floor... not even the fates are safe apparently from this new mindset the devs had going into the expansion. Someone revived me a few times but I could barely get off a single spell before immediately dying again, which was not fun.

[Supersnow845]

^if you are thinking of what I think you are thinking of that snake is a world boss not a fate so that’s a completely different kettle of fish

[Xurias]

^if you are thinking of what I think you are thinking of that snake is a world boss not a fate so that’s a completely different kettle of fish

"The Serpentlord Seethes is a level 100 FATE spawned in Shaaloani." - https://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/w...ntlord_Seethes

It is indeed a fate. And as such, if the level cap gets raised to 110 from another expansion, it will ask you to sync down since it is a fate.

[Supersnow845]

"The Serpentlord Seethes is a level 100 FATE spawned in Shaaloani." - https://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/w...ntlord_Seethes

It is indeed a fate. And as such, if the level cap gets raised to 110 from another expansion, it will ask you to sync down since it is a fate.

That is 100% a world boss. That’s exactly who I thought you were discussing

That is not a normal fate

[Xurias]

That is 100% a world boss. That’s exactly who I thought you were discussing

That is not a normal fate

I'm sorry but I don't follow? The wiki says it's a fate. And it has the fate icon. A world boss is something like those S-rank hunts that require groups of people if you're doing them during current expansion, but you end up being able to plow through and destroy easily after a few expansions raise the level cap and obtainable iLevel.