My sub runs out in 2 weeks and I won't be returning unless things change drastically.

HW gripped me with it's fantastic setting, realistic characters and S-tier story. I've been an MSQ junkie ever since. When when I've unsubbed before, I always looked forward to returning as I loved fooling around with friends on discord and slowly grinding relics, glam and side content.

EW patch content was a disaster. MSQ and trial stories were consolidated into one, the endgame zone was substituted for a Microsoft Excel simulator and the fun relic grind was reduced to a vendor weapon. The lack of midcore content really stood out. It was so painfully obvious that the team's resources and attention went to FF16, when they should have been focusing on 14 during its jump in popularity due to WoW's downfall.

I was really, REALLY looking forward to a complete reset with Dawntrail. Specifically a brand new, original story and THE MOST CONTENT THEY'VE EVER PROMISED!!!!

I mean, sure, content usually comes in patches, but they've never announced an endgame zone, criterion, cosmic exploration, a limited job, deep dungeon, ultimate, daily tribal quests, etc, on top of the usual content, ALL IN THE SAME EXPANSION! Surely, at least 1 of those pieces of content will be available at launch, right?

Then Dawntrail released - literally the single worst MSQ experience in the whole franchise's history (except FF11, never played that one, so I wouldn't know).
Slow pace, lack of actual gameplay, an awful children's story in a game where adult topics were always the norm.

At least the leveling dungeons were great, so I was looking forward to all the promised conten....Wait, the only thing available during the first month of release is a treasure dungeon.... Which is a reskin of all the previous treasure dungeons down to even the layout.... -_-

Dawntrail's MSQ was so abysmal it not only killed my excitement for the story, it lifted the veil obscuring the game's, well, gameplay shortcomings.

I can only repeat the same dungeons, raids and extremes so many times before I reach for my PS5's power cable. Especially when the majority of jobs I enjoy play identically to how they have for the past 2-3 years.

There's nothing fun or exciting for me.

After Dawntrail's launch I stayed subscribed for 2 reasons: playing with my discord friends and waiting for a Live Letter hoping the negative feedback will be addressed and a course-correction promised. Yoshi-P's recent interviews killed that last hope.

I'll keep an eye on subsequent patches, but until something drastically changes that's it for me. It's a shame, because I love MMOs, but now none appeal to me. I guess single player games it will be for a while ..