Unsubbed Thread (Tell us why)

[Carolingian]

I've got around a week of my sub left and decided not to resub. Might as well post the reasons in the faint hope that the devs finally realise what a lot of people dislike.

There are honestly quite a few things that have been bothering me for a while now (content being too predictable, jobs being boring and too homogenised, and the glamour (inventory) system being terrible) and the lack of improvements to any of these things in DT combined with the terrible MSQ this time around were the last straw. I just don't see enough improvements, if anything I see things only getting worse.

When the story was still exciting I could forgive a lot of the game's flaws because it kept me hooked and entertained despite it all. Dawntrail has ended that. The writing has just become way too childish and safe, and while I still love the world of FFXIV there's nothing in the boring and juvenile Tural that I look forward to exploring in the future. It's a seemingly solved continent with no real conflict where everyone gets along (the story should have taken place before Gulool Ja Ja had united all people on Tural). It doesn't make me excited or curious to explore. And that combined with the boring and homogenised state of most jobs I'd rather spend my time on other games.

I might be back once a proper job rework is finally finished. Or otherwise when the story goes back to properly exploring more mature themes with some depth instead of the shallow nonsense that we got in Dawntrail. Just go back to storylines involving flawed people and societies like we used to get with the xenophobic racists like the Gridanians, colonising outlaws like the Lominsans (who actually use real bullets for duels), and selfish, greedy, and corrupt merchants like the Ul’Dahn and less of whatever perfect happy Disney world that Tural ended up being.

[Willemdarke]

colonising outlaws like the Lominsans (who actually use real bullets for duels)

Last expansion a xenophobic military leader commited self-exit-the-game with a bullet to his head, while his whole society and worldviews were coming crashing down around him.

This expansion the happy-go-lucky Robin to Estinien's Batman had a haha-funny duel with a granny robber using rubber bullets.

Someone please explain how these exist in the same story.

[localareanetwork]

I've been permasubbed since ~4.55ish on a different character, then this one, and recently I've been thinking of unsubbing after Futures Rewritten is released, and that's only because Eden's Promise was the first raid tier I completed on content. The story is just complete garbage IMO, all of my drive to see what's next is gone, the nerdy discussions I've had with my friends about MSQ either don't exist anymore or are just arguments from people that love Disney slop, battle content aside from maybe Ultimate, which is only two times per expac, is literally all the exact same to me (We cleared this raid tier in 2 days after it was released, a lot of it was because of "oh this mechanic is xxx thing from previous fight"), they aren't making an effort to do things they have once done like add new job weapons to old fights, not ever addressing egregious clipping issues with certain hairs, hrothgal rigging, viera/hroth hats, a large portion of my time as a fanfest attendee spent sitting and looking at an advert for a mogstation mount, jobs generally all feeling the exact same or making them a lot less fun, and a billion of smaller things like them not fixing portraits, the dc travel issues, them finally making something basic mmo feature like chat bubbles a feature 11 years after launch, the state of housing, inconsistent mechanic snapshots, all of it just seems worse than it was before. Don't even get me started on the general playerbase, the average raider is so obnoxious about the damage they're doing; it's also gotten to the point where cheating is not only standardized in PF, but also encouraged, or MANDATORY for fights like DSR/TOP.. people have been cheating for a long time but ever since TOP it has gotten so bad to the point where I see this sentiment almost ANYWHERE I HAPPEN TO BE. I hate all of it, and I don't think any of that is really worth the $12.99 considering they're not really pouring the resources back into the game. A big "huh?!" of mine recently was just how much gear/weapons were blatantly missing from the Benchmark... like, why? I enjoy the graphics update, socializing, raiding generally, PVPing and effectively just playing Gaia Online 2.0 with 14 lately so that's all that's keeping me hooked now.. for a couple hours until I just sit AFK in Limsa while I do something else.

[Rehayem]

I'm considering letting my sub run out for identical reasons as others have posted. I didn't expect much from MSQ, but it was atrocious. I realized I'm very dissatisfied with the battle job system, especially healers being the worst iteration in any MMO of all the 20+ years I've been playing MMORPGs. I'm gonna wait and see what post 7.x has to offer (space exploration and the new field operation), but I know I won't be buying 8.0 expac until reviews come out.

[DoomRyder]

I mean it's pretty pointless to post here if you aren't planning on playing the game

And yet here you are. Stop wasting our, and your time then.

[Ardeth]

And yet here you are. Stop wasting our, and your time then.

It's also just a constructive way to say, "SquareEnix, this game isn't up to snuff. Not only am I not giving you any more money. I am going to tell you why."

Because at the end of the day, if you walk into a store and say, "I didn't find anything I liked." And leaving it there, that store has no idea on how to improve. But if you said, "I don't like tacos, and that's all you sell." There's at least some feedback. Maybe if I sold nachos, I would make more money. Or maybe they want burgers. You could even send a survey asking why you don't eat here. Feedback is important. I always find it hilarious when low iq fanboys attack people for giving feedback, then they wonder why people quit and never come back. Let people say why they quit. It makes the game better for all of us. Especially now since Wow has seemed to not shit the bed for once.

[DoomRyder]

It's also just a constructive way to say, "SquareEnix, this game isn't up to snuff. Not only am I not giving you any more money. I am going to tell you why."

Precisely. I can understand someone coming to you and complaining unprompted, but this thread is specifically for unsubs and the players thoughts for doing so. To come in here and call other peoples' thoughts, opinions and experiences "pointless" is so far gone that I can only pity the person on the other end of that post.

We're here not to tear down or just complain, merely vent and let our thoughts/dismays known.

[Vensaval]

I'm going to see how 7.1 goes. If it's not a stark improvement story-wise over what we got in 7.0 then I'm just going to let my sub run out and walk away.

I know well that I'm playing almost entirely out of obligation at this point.

[Nebelheim]

I'm holding out hope that the story in 7.1 will be a massive improvement and hoping they don't somehow screw up the ff11 alliance raids and implement ff11 story in a horrible way.

[Fiel_Tana]

I have unsubbed, can no longer log into the game so have very little time left on these forums but felt I should add my reasons for leaving here as well.

To put it simply, Dawntrail MSQ was the worst piece of storytelling I’ve experienced for a very long time. Truly disappointing on so many levels.

Cardboard Cutout Characterisation:
The scions were both there and not. They existed in body but their personalities did not. They could have been replaced with Random NPC 1 through 7 for all it mattered. Alisaie and Alphinaud existed only to agree with Wuk and declare that she was the absolute best at everything but never use their actual interests or areas of expertise to further the story… why were they even there then?

Krile and Errenville could have had interesting stories, but those were shoved aside and rushed in to make room for the Wuk Show. In fact any character that wasn’t Wuk had rushed stories and lack of development or depth.

The WoL was reduced to nannying a spoilt toddler or perhaps was there to hold the camera. Nothing of great importance would have changed had we not been there.

The writers were unable to convince me that Wuk was AT ALL suitable as a leader. I had liked her at first but by the coronation I was so done with her juvenile antics, selfish comments and repetitive dialogue (Peace! Tacos!) I truly wanted to never see her again… yet she stayed with us taking all the screen time to her and only her even when it was time for others to shine.


Plot holes, so many plot holes!
Too many to go into. But so, SO many!

Interesting Concepts Left Unexplored:
The story itself was mind-numbingly dull. Bad pacing, terrible characterisation, concepts that could have been interesting left unexplored. The final zone is a prime example.

Yoshi mentioned in an interview (https://www.thegamer.com/final-fanta...siting-future/ ) that zone was supposed to bring questions about how we define life. That never happens in the story though. Instead of the story showing the WoL and scions questioning it or how they felt about any of this, they just… don’t?!?

We were SHOWN creatures that could think, feel and change, but were TOLD they were just data therefore didn’t matter. No questions, no depth, just dissonance.

The writer seemed to want the players to enjoy entertaining kids and reuniting lovers and cry over Erenville and Kriles parents being destroyed, but ALSO be totally cool with destroying them all. No comments. No questions. No lingering camera shots over pained faces, not even the clenched fist closeup … nothing! Instead we just go along with the wishes of Bun Mum and proceed to Emet-Selch our way through the zone without a thought or care. (We did not consider them to be truly alive. Ergo, we were not guilty of murder when we destroyed them… I’m sure Emet was peering at the gang from the lifestream thoroughly enjoying the irony of it all! Perhaps that’s why he sent us there, a final lesson and a laugh at the WoL’s expense.)

This show versus tell dissonance left the zone VERY unsatisfying. It would have given emotional whiplash had I cared about the story, but at that point I was both emotionally numb yet annoyed and just wanted it to end.

Voice Acting:
The EN voice acting all around was not up to FFXIV standards. I’m guessing the direction and sound recording wasn’t adequate since it affected many actors that have previously given good, to great, performances. As for EN Wuk, her delivery was flat, emotionless, the accent strays all over, and had didn’t have the range required in some scenes. From listening to her VA reels, Sena has done well in other roles, so she was either miscast or the direction failed her, could be either or both really.

Combat:
Combat jobs are cookie cutter, just memorisation, no way to be creative with them. Many jobs within each role play very samey. Healing is as dull as watching paint dry.

Graphics Update:
The graphics upgrade makes a lot of characters look like different people or downgrades. The eyes still look dead to me for many characters both NPC and player models. Facial animations often look really off now. Some are oddly twitchy. There has been Mod response that there will be a statement soon, so that at least may be resolved.

Eye Strain & Headaches:
Boss fights and dungeons are so flashy that it causes eye strain and massive headaches, so those are a no go. Started being bad in EW, now unplayable, possibly due to the graphics upgrade, inability to remove/reduce bloom or simply too many flashing graphics overlaying each other. Not sure which is the worst cause but I suspect all those plus other issues. The team really needs to bring in some experts to find what is causing some players the eye-strain and headaches. No word from the team about this issue so not having any hope it will change.

No game is worth physical pain!

I didn’t even finish the MSQ because of it. I was at the final trial and dungeon and called it quits for a while waiting for an update about the eye-strain / headaches. It never came. I finished the MSQ by watching a streamer VOD so I could skip much of the fights but get the end of the story. A terrible way to have to end a terrible MSQ!

Current Interviews / lack of Response:
Current interviews with Yoshi-P seem to show him missing the complaint points. It’s not that Wuk isn’t confident, she just never goes away and isn’t an interesting character. She has no real growth, no interests beyond tacos and peace.

No, again, the scions existing or not existing was not the problem. Their hollow characterisation was.

Perhaps Yoshi should take a break from the media tour and play DT. I swear he must not have if this is honestly what he thinks the problems are!

“It’s the start of a new arc...”
As for it being the beginning of a brand new story and that’s why it was so mind-numbingly dull? I’ve seen 5 minute short films with more depth, character building and complete stories. DT had what, 40 or so hours? Films wouldn’t exist if it took so long, they average between 1.5-3 hours. So no, that is a juvenile excuse and simply untrue! Seems to be the new “media literacy” argument but this time even Yoshi took this excuse. :/ Perhaps he felt he had to protect the writers? Honestly, I feel bad for them. They didn’t set out to write something bad, and may even have skills to write an amazing story, but this is NOT it.

Localisation:
This has always bothered me that spoken English is UK, the text is written in US English. Not a huge issue but always slightly annoying. DT being in the new world I could even accept US English without a quibble, but “on accident” in the MSQ now??? Really???! Dear gods, no… just… no!

OK, that complaint is more tongue in cheek, even though that phrase makes my skin crawl.

But there has been less far consistency about how the in-world language is used the past few years which does feel very off. It has even been brought up in a thread about the current Rising quest. Mind you, not saying “must needs” may be an improvement, but perhaps not using current faddish regional colloquialisms is best unless it fits a specific character?


So what was good?
I’ve honestly thought about this for hours off and on and haven’t found anything I’d say was good… maybe a few minutes in not-Texas? Some bits there felt more like the FFXIV I’d enjoyed previously. Well, minus the sing-a-long musical while building a train bomb, or rubber bullets which I’m guessing was meant to be humour?

Despite the story itself having to be about Wuk in that zone, she was not in our faces at least which may have left some breathing room for narrative.

The hook at the end with the key really *should* have interested me, the shards and the ancients (including Azem) really had caught my interest before. I felt a blip of excitement that was quickly crushed by the reality of what I’d just experienced in DT. Their story, written by these writers is not something I’d care to experience. :/ Unsubbed at that point.

I honestly can’t think of anything else that was good in DT… realising that is truly sad AF. I really had loved this game.

So I guess all that’s left to say is TYFP and GG!