Game Design Concepts that the Devs and Playerbase has Forgotten

[KisaiTenshi]

If Square Enix made a "FF17" and was just a reskin of Genshin Impact, people would rightfully decry the greed. Sure, it might have a cool story, but because all the characters are locked behind gacha, and you can't progress without certain element-aligned characters you can only get from gacha, and can only upgrade characters with gacha-supplied trash loot, that's not how final fantasy works.

So compare the WoW players who hate story coming here demanding less story, to players coming from gacha-hell games asking why they can't just pay-to-win every piece of gear in the game without actually doing the fights they are rewarded from. You have two opposing gameplay styles. One only wants to do the "Gameplay" and the end goal is fashion, and the other's end goal is fashion and is somehow happy that gameplay is gated off without spending money.

I feel that "Final Fantasy" as it is now, has the right balance, TO Final Fantasy players. We can't have exactly the experience from FF7-X2 because pre-rendered content can only be used once. There is no pre-rendered content in the game other than the opening video. Everything is done in-engine (to various degrees of success.) A newer game than 14 (Eg 15 and 16) may improve the engine, but these games can not repeat VII's success. And to bean counters and business managers, if the "newest" thing doesn't do better than the previous one, then they see it as a failure when it should not be.

[Magikazam]

If Square Enix made a "FF17" and was just a reskin of Genshin Impact, people would rightfully decry the greed. Sure, it might have a cool story, but because all the characters are locked behind gacha, and you can't progress without certain element-aligned characters you can only get from gacha, and can only upgrade characters with gacha-supplied trash loot, that's not how final fantasy works.

Nah people would buy it and play it all the time, Gacha game are one of the most popular and profitable type of game currently. People don't care if there a predatory greedy system to roll for character as long as the game is good. Also as someone who don't love gacha that much. Ive still played a few never seen one that litteraly block you in the story or main content if you lack certain element aligned characters. As much as I hate Genshin, I can't critic their puzzle since they are doable with your MC and free characters, and you know, doing those puzzle is a f2p way to roll the gacha.

So compare the WoW players who hate story coming here demanding less story, to players coming from gacha-hell games asking why they can't just pay-to-win every piece of gear in the game without actually doing the fights they are rewarded from. You have two opposing gameplay styles. One only wants to do the "Gameplay" and the end goal is fashion, and the other's end goal is fashion and is somehow happy that gameplay is gated off without spending money.

Nice Strawman and nice way to say you never played both of those game. WoW player don't hate story, they just love the fact that game don't force them to go trought the whole story to unlock every contents of the game, They prefer having the option to ignore the story if they choose so, whitout paying real life money. I also quite litteraly never seen anyone ask seriously for a way to p2w and get every piece of gear in the game.

A newer game than 14 (Eg 15 and 16) may improve the engine, but these games can not repeat VII's success.

Final Fantasy 10 sold more than 7.

[Ririta]

Someone seems to have forgotten though that the Final Fantasy series is famed for story more than gameplay (and that this is a Final Fantasy game first and foremost.).

To be fair, FF games don't necessarily dump a lot of story on your before you get into the main gameplay. For example, Tactics drops you right into a high level battle. FFVII starts with you invading a reactor with Barret. FFIX starts with a battle against Baku.

However this might not be possible on FFXIV because we need to avoid congestion like in Stormblood where we couldn't do the Raubahn instance because there were too many players at once.

[Masekase_Hurricane]

Someone seems to have forgotten though that the Final Fantasy series is famed for story more than gameplay (and that this is a Final Fantasy game first and foremost.).

Yes but theres a big difference between single player FF games and 14 and that there's interesting stuff between each cutscene. In 14 the travel between each CS is just there for a time sink there's no risk from enemies, no forced encounters, very little reason to break off from the story apart from aether currents.
The cutscenes are all super long with very little fights, dungeons or trials breaking it up. I'm only at 95 and i'm so tempted to hit skip....

[Magikazam]

Someone seems to have forgotten though that the Final Fantasy series is famed for story more than gameplay (and that this is a Final Fantasy game first and foremost.).

While it famed for it story I can't think of a single mainline game that go out of it way to turn the game into a visual novel simulator. The series usually put big chunk of gameplay around it key story moment. Hell, my favorite of the serie, FF6, known to have one of the best story, split your whole party at the start of the second part of the game and you then need to wander around the map, doing side content like dungeons and exploration to find the rest of the cast around the world. Like, they litteraly give you a gigantic gameplay segment that reward you with character development and world building.

It just sound to me that people who use this excuse never played other games in the series.

3. Echo Chambers - Link

That has nothing to do with Game Design team too, that just a community issues. You can't blame them for that.

[Reimmi]

Someone seems to have forgotten though that the Final Fantasy series is famed for story more than gameplay (and that this is a Final Fantasy game first and foremost.).

Ok, but every final fantasy game has way way way more combat than ff14 does in its story, so your point is...?

[LaylaTsarra]

The formula has been the same over the years it's nothing new. Sorry many appear to not enjoy Wuk but there has never been more fighting in main story progression that what we had in DT. Actually as many have pointed out the dungeons and battles appear to be even more challenging.

I don't mind the no skip parts the first time through but with my many alts I would certainly prefer they were when doing them a second time. Starting my 3rd play though today.

[Zolvolt]

THis is a final fantasy game. You couldn't skip in ff11 either because it's a final fantasy game.

The developers had to decide what they wanted for their game. To be more mmo or more final fantasy and they picked final fantasy. Which based on the absurd popularity and growth seems to the right call.

But also you CAN skip if you pay for a skip potion. /shrug

The let them play notion also is restricted by the Final Fantasy part of the game. IF you didn't want a story-driven game then final fantasy games are not for you. They are and will always be story-driven games. The story is always the fore-front of a final fantasy main-title game.

Echo chamber doesn't apply to the developers of the game they act on our feedback constantly. Anyone who thinks otherwise should consider that they are unaware of why changes have been made over the years.

[Battler-Ushiromiya]

I love how you are writing about echo chambers and toxic positivity. This forum is a MASSIVE echo chamber, but with just toxicity.

That's why I do my best to troll and bait post on here

[Battler-Ushiromiya]

just because an opinion is not one that pleases you, it does not mean that it magically makes the area of discussion into an Echo Chamber.

Yes it does, I'd get a refund on your degree LMAO