FFXIV population decline continues

[Jeeqbit]

Yet Square-Enix still felt the need to add them all the same, even when nobody asked for them. It suggests that there's a thought process over there that they prioritize wanting people to experience the story, and FF14 isn't a stranger to that already.

You're right. That is their mindset. And I can't entirely say it's wrong. I'm sure everyone had the time to grind 99 levels in old Final Fantasy games when they were a kid.

But things change, you get real life responsibilities - work, education, looking after your health better, maybe a partner, kids or caring for an elderly relative. More than that, it starts to occur to you that you don't in fact have unlimited time on the earth like you thought as kid. And at that point, perhaps you want to skip the timewasting mechanics like grinding to 99, so that you can just do the important bit: the story.

Whether or not they go further than just unsync though, THAT'S the part I wonder about.

They already don't sync properly anyway. Cape Westwind was an extreme example, but there is a lot of content that is just as much a striking dummy with mechanics that do 2% damage.

And BST is a limited job so it will only be OP in a pre-made party like BLU.

Ultimately it'll come down to what they can and can not get the code of FF14 to do, which is the one part where I still try to give Square-Enix the benefit of a doubt where I don't think they're creatively bankrupt, they're creatively handicapped.

A lot of them are the very same people that made FF11. So they can't be incapable of making "complex systems". It's partly a design decision for the exact reason we've been discussing - they don't want to waste people's time or confuse new players which caused huge problems with FF11.

But I can't shake the feeling that it's partly that they see it as a limitation of what they can do easily within the engine. I'd love to see a beast master catch an animal, take them to a training ground, feed them different stuff, teach them new techniques and each one have different possible attacks. Yet knowing this game it'll just be a beast book and nothing quite as sophisticated as I'd imagine. I just don't see it being anything more than that, but hopefully they'll surprise me.

The game isn't bringing in new players right now. Anyone new who's curious about the game does one google search and sees the "Mostly Negative" on Steam, the 5/10 on MetaCritic, and dips out.

I've been meeting plenty of new players on Dynamis actually, just doing my regular mentor roulettes there.

[iiOmarSP]

Amusingly, I bought all of the Pixel Remasters last year for a Steam summer sale but have yet to touch any of them because I was too distracted by FF14. Given how things have played out since then though... one wonders if I made a bad call here and would have been better served cancelling my sub at the time.

Id say go give em a go in the meantime: 4 is a pretty good start, and 3 is possibly the best PR release imo.