Disappointed With XIV Direction

[Gaddes]

I always thought it was a mistake and also kind of telling about the devs' change in approach to the game when almost all the ARR dungeons were fundamentally altered to go from a dungeon with multiple pathways to reach a goal, to one long hallway.
I understand that Toto-Rak was not popular with most people, but at the very least you could go about collecting those energy sprites in different ways if you wished, and the map was wild enough that you could take some wacky paths and not play it through exactly the same each time. And I think it's fair to extrapolate that design choice out past the ARR dungeon redesigns to see that they're taking this hyper streamlined amusement park approach to all the new content which does not allow for variety or unpredictability at all.
New maps don't have the same visual interest outside of the meager city teleport points, compared to the older maps. Almost everywhere is fly-over territory and doesn't really encourage exploration or offer lore tidbits.
Some of this simplification may have honestly been made in response to some louder folks complaining that they didn't like certain elements and just wanted to focus on the meat of the content, but I think this was a monkey's paw situation where they trimmed and cut down on frankly way too much.

[fafrir]

I haven't really engaged with these forums for a while but I hate to say this but at this moment, I agree that FF14's direction has been disappointing and something does need to be changed.

I may not be a long time player as I've only played for 4+ years (at least compared to legacy/ARR players) but for the first time in a while, I never felt this frustrated nor numb with playing this game until now, despite a few past things I was frustrated with before. It also didn't help I just wasn't a fan of MSQ at all so that did sour my mood playing it. I have taken a month break before DT but I'm honestly planning on taking a much longer break until 7.2 or until auto demos are back up when my sub ends mid December. Maybe that may change my mood and outlook but I'm not overly optimistic. Besides, there have been a lot of other games and other hobbies I've been enjoying a lot more. FF14 doesn't have much of an interest anymore even if I've been playing it daily.

I'm glad they have stepped it up with content being harder (at least compared to Endwalker) but at the same time, I also cannot help but say it feels empty and monotonous. I am done with this Savage tier, all current EXs are cleared and I don't feel up to farming them as much (my static wanted to farm it last night after doing content but I just wasn't feeling it), dungeon pulls are still boring and frustrating even if the boss mechs are enjoyable, seasonal events aren't interesting anymore, PvP feels like a chore, etc.

I do hope they listen to this more seriously because I love FF14, I'm obsessed with my WoL, my house is epic, and I want to see it amazing again but it's also sad to see it in its current state, at least from my perspective.

[Hallarem]

Honestly, I had a point of "This time I'll keep complaining, so I can actually fight against changes or lack of them unlike I did with WoW where I never talked in the forums and just quietly sizzled with the rest of the community until they turned the game, lore, story and feeling into crap."

But seeing people being happy about the lackluster gameplay, lack of change and some people actually being happy with the really poor quality of writing has me kinda stuck in a corner. I'll just keep having fun with roleplay and my newly acquired medium house. If 8.0 shows a similar lack of interest from the devs to actually make this game more than a subscription money printer with a bad story I'll be gone.

Think a well deserved forum break is in order, keep fighting the good fight, you lot o>

[Silhart]

I've been frustrated with the game's direction since Endwalker. My frustration lies mostly with the job design, so I hope OP doesn't mind me commenting on this aspect of the game even if it wasn't mentioned in the original post. I was primarily a Monk main, and Dawntrail's media tour angered me enough to unsub and walk away from the game. After a few months I calmed down, adjusted my expectations and recently returned to the game with new plans of taking Dragoon to Dawntrail--a job that still looked somewhat enjoyable.

And then I experienced the 7.1 DRG changes first-hand.

Needless to say, those plans have gone up in flames. I don't even feel frustration anymore - just apathy. The devs and the general community (outside of these forums) constantly push for job design to be overly simplistic and free of any friction. Despite my pet grievances in Shadowbringers (such as SE deleting Scholar from the game), I enjoyed myself because there was a healthy mix of simple and busy playstyles to cater to all kinds of players. But it's clear to me now that there is no longer any room for players who enjoy busy playstyles. The devs are hellbent on pruning what little gameplay the jobs have left in order to appease the players who complain that it's "bad game design" when they can't play a job 100% perfectly. Yeah, I am holding those players responsible. Time and time again I've dealt with people who argue that things like positionals, buff timers, DoTs, randomness, and proc management are bad for the game because they're "tedious", "clunky", "pointless micromanagement", "fake difficulty" or whatever buzzword people use to paint something as bad game design just because it doesn't align with their personal tastes, lol. Those voices are the ones driving the game's direction. It's sad because I've identified SAM as a job I could enjoy playing now, but knowing its gameplay is an anomaly with respect to the game's overall direction kills my motivation to put any long-term investment in it--same goes for any other job I could potentially enjoy. Why bother learning the intricacies of Samurai optimisation when someone can just complain about Meikyo Acceleration and Bana Realignment being "unintuitive" and get the devs to remove the things I find enjoyable about the job? I wouldn't get too attached to Pictomancer either: watch as their motif hardcasts are removed in future and for people to justify this change saying "not playing the game for 4 seconds every motif cast was bad game design" lol.

I don't want to stay subbed to a game where I am constantly worried about future patches and what they'll remove from the jobs I enjoy. I've debated using the rest of my sub to argue on these forums--especially against some of the more bizarre takes I've seen in the 123 combo thread--but much like Hallarem above (I like your WoL, by the way), I no longer care enough to push back. I don't see the point anyway - the community outside of these forums seem happy with the game as it is now, and I've been hearing the siren call of WoW in my ears, so none of this will really matter once my sub is up.

[Hycinthus]

The devs are hellbent on pruning what little gameplay the jobs have left in order to appease the players who complain that it's "bad game design" when they can't play a job 100% perfectly. Yeah, I am holding those players responsible. Time and time again I've dealt with people who argue that things like positionals, buff timers, DoTs, randomness, and proc management are bad for the game because they're "tedious", "clunky", "pointless micromanagement", "fake difficulty" or whatever buzzword people use to paint something as bad game design just because it doesn't align with their personal tastes, lol.

SE went overboard with the pruning -- and this over-pruning mentality just permeates across job design and game design overall.

I understand that Toto-Rak was not popular with most people, but at the very least you could go about collecting those energy sprites in different ways if you wished, and the map was wild enough that you could take some wacky paths and not play it through exactly the same each time. And I think it's fair to extrapolate that design choice out past the ARR dungeon redesigns to see that they're taking this hyper streamlined amusement park approach to all the new content which does not allow for variety or unpredictability at all.

To use another example, Toto-Rak, also suffers from pruning. The multi-hallway dungeon concept has always been criticized by players, because eventually people would always just use the most optimized route.

However, the point is more about having those options, even if people don't use them. Let people make mistakes. Let new players take the non-optimized route. It would make the experience less like having the guardrails on all the time.

[BabyYoda]

.

FFXIV dev thinks that making job simple will improve players reacting to mechanics, which is the wrongest thing you can imagine

[Supersnow845]

Somewhere along the way square forgot that people have to have the ability to make a mistake in order for the following success to be meaningful

You can’t sequester the feeling of success after failure only to high end content because you are “concerned” people won’t like the initial failure just doesnt work because it means the success is also meaningless

[xbahax92]

They were eagerly working toward the goal of gaining new players, but are slowly losing the veterans who built the very foundation of the game. Sad.

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

They were eagerly working toward the goal of gaining new players, but are slowly losing the veterans who built the very foundation of the game. Sad.

Anecdotally speaking, I don’t think they could keep some new players around for long either.

I tried to invite my 6-7 group of IRL friends to play together after months of contemplating only to regret it right after because it was exactly as I worried: they found the gameplay too braindead boring & said “If the game can’t keep me occupied for their first few chapters/episodes, I think they’re lost. First impression is important. Spending first 60 levels out of 90 total levels with barebone kits is just plain garbage tier of a progression” to me in VC.

:shrug: I tried.

EDIT: Of course, months later free trial was expanded up to StB, but at that point it's already too late. The damage was done. To their eyes, FF14 is visual novel with boring gameplay so barebone some mobile games' gameplay wouldn't let them snooze or they'd get punished, thus keeping them engaged. Mind you that they also tried a lot of the contents within their own volitions. PotD, Ocean Fishing, synced EX Mount farming, synced Coils, doesn't skip CS, have most jobs leveled, and so on (as far as FT allows them to, I mostly just help them to stay partied & assist when they want it). And they still find it boring. So this isn't just some "ThEy'Re NoT mSq PlAyEr/ThEy HaVeN't PlAyEd MuCh YeT!!!"-cases.

[Garnix]

To their eyes, FF14 is visual novel with boring gameplay

Let's be honest though...
This is mostly what the game is...
If that's what they take away from the game after playing content such as PotD, Ocean Fishing, EX and Coils, their take-away is correct.
Having a kit with more buttons doesn't change that, as most of the fight design is about learning mechanics and maintaining uptime. The rotation is not the engaging part, as most people have them in muscle memory.