Disappointed With XIV Direction

[Ritsugamesh]

This creeping sense of hollowness in both multiplayer and single-player experiences is undeniable. For all the game's talk of being a vibrant, dynamic world, it feels like the soul that once drove it is slowly slipping away.

This is the most important line there. What makes this MMO vibrant or dynamic? Literally everything is copy/pasted timelines and exact mathed out 'this is the best statistical dungeon layout so EVERY dungeon is the same design'. There's literally no moving parts in the world outside of hunts/fates (no thank you, I've done more than enough mindless fates and hunt trains for a lifetime) - everything else is as static and regimented as can be. Even the fight design is the epitome of static and unyielding, do the dance the right way and win. I know fights are only beat with the right strategy in every game, but imagine playing FFIX and the only way to win a fight was to sequence the perfect combo of attack/spell/attack/attack/defend/back row/etc. - it's hyperbole, but you get the concept.

There is just no room for anything other than the designed scope. Jobs have no identity and have been boiled down to the bare essentials. No room for expression, I mean even look at things like AST cards - the long vaunted discussion I know - but like, they're not even cards anymore. They're just additional crap oGCDs that are worse than other AST oGCDs.

FFXVI unfortunately felt exactly the same. The combat was flashy but was ultimately pointless, not challenging, and the whole effort lacked soul. I'm no longer sure this dev team have the creativity to escape the tightening of the noose.

[Kaecilius]

Literally everything is copy/pasted timelines and exact mathed out 'this is the best statistical dungeon layout so EVERY dungeon is the same design'.

At this point I'm BEGGING them to take another look at the old ARR dungeon design where you actually had to do things in the dungeons, and they were not just a long hallway. I understand that this might not be possible in the standard dungeons because of Roulettes, since you are expected to beeline for the next boss, but they have variant dungeons where they could get even more experimental with the branching labyrinthine paths and do interesting puzzles.

[Daralii]

At this point I'm BEGGING them to take another look at the old ARR dungeon design where you actually had to do things in the dungeons, and they were not just a long hallway. I understand that this might not be possible in the standard dungeons because of Roulettes, since you are expected to beeline for the next boss, but they have variant dungeons where they could get even more experimental with the branching labyrinthine paths and do interesting puzzles.

They'll look at them, but only to turn them into trash -> trash -> trash -> boss hallways for trusts.