'I Think I've Fallen Out of Love with FFXIV'

[User202503201232]

https://www.vice.com/en/article/i-th...ve-with-ffxiv/

FFXIV has been my favorite MMO, hell, my favorite game for over 10 years now. I’ve vehemently defended it since ‘A Realm Reborn,’ nearly costing me friendships over arguments on why it’s so much better than World of Warcraft in every conceivable way. Yeah, I used to be that guy. I’m still that guy, but I used to be, too (thanks, Mitch). And now, I sit here, having not touched the game since ‘Dawntrail,’ wondering what’s happened. Was it a symptom of rampant Final Fantasy fanboyism? Were the warning signs there all along, and I just missed them? Am I just a boomer, shaking my fists at the sky and longing for the old days? Probably.

I’ve more fond memories of FFXIV than I can count. Meeting some of my best online friends through random FATE parties. Theorizing the plot of ‘Shadowbringers’ alongside my buddies as we experience it together. The Titan fight from ‘A Realm Reborn’. The Pre-‘Endwalker’ PvP scene. Eureka. Man, do I miss when Eureka was at its peak.

I can’t really pinpoint the exact reason for my FFXIV spark fizzling out. I just know, somewhere along the line, it has.

Maybe it’s due to the rampant job homogenization over the past few expansions, nearly stripping what’s left of any class identity in the game. Where every job essentially produces the same results with a different coat of paint.

‘FFXIV’s jobs were a beautiful mess, but they served a purpose

It’s an odd feeling, running a dungeon while decked out in classic Paladin armor. When, somewhere in my mind, I’m just imagining four blank assets, each with red, green, or blue tints to denote their role in the group. I no longer feel like ‘The Paladin’ anymore; I’m just ‘The Tank.’

Jobs may not have mattered that much in dungeons, but now? You might as well remove job icons altogether. Hell, just remove healers as a whole, since they’ve become redundant enough that parties are statistically more efficient without them. As tanks and DPS jobs become more self-sustainable with each expansion, it’s no wonder the literal hardest content in the game is being cleared without healers present.

I know, I know; job balance was all over the place before 4.0, and certain designs were counter-intuitive to engaging gameplay. But you’ll never convince me ‘Heavensward’s Astrologian wasn’t brilliant, albeit intimidating to play. You can’t deny that a good Dragoon wasn’t an impressive feat to witness or that managing MP on a Dark Knight gave players, I don’t know, something to do.

I miss the class diversity. When what little buffs and debuffs the game has mattered. Grinding a different job for specific sub-skills, creating even a crumb of agency in your skill set. When having a Bard in the raid was cause for celebration rather than glossed over to fill a ‘Ranged DPS’ role. I don’t know; I just feel like if I no longer have to adjust my strategy to play any given job under a particular role, there’s a problem here. Maybe we’ve made it too streamlined.

It’s okay to disrupt the status quo

Maybe it’s due to the hyper-formulaic approach that nearly all FFXIV PvE content suffers from. The dungeons, with each new addition a predictable pattern of three to four bosses. Those bosses, separated by a few groups of trash mobs, further separated by a series of walls ensuring your group can pull just enough (but not too much!) to force one or two Cures out of your healer.

Yeah, The Aurum Vale was a nightmare, but guess what? You’ve never forgotten about it. The wipes, the DPS standing in the piss pools, the bad breath. It’s burnt in every 2.0 player’s mind. On the contrary, I couldn’t tell you the name of a single dungeon from ‘Dawntrail’. Not one!

Now, FFXIV‘s content formula is all the more apparent, increasing the gap between patch cycles while giving us less content than ever before. One new dungeon that never dares to stray from the usual, tired format. One new trial boss that just might wipe your party a few times. Maybe a new raid series that, really, are just trial bosses with slightly more advanced mechanics.

If we’re lucky, a new relic weapon quest series may appear. If we’re really lucky, obtaining those relic weapons may actually require a modicum of effort from the player aside from spamming duty roulettes. Hey, if we’re really, really lucky, we may even get a rehashed seasonal event that somehow requires even less effort than before to complete.

“Alexander?” *lights cigarette* “Haven’t heard that name in years”

Remember when raids in FFXIV felt like, you know, raids? When you’d enter massive labyrinths, each with their own unique designs, and had to fight your way to a boss? When some Turns of a raid didn’t even feature a boss, but instead a challenging gauntlet of enemies, or something less predictable than what we’re offered today?

Exploring the Coils of Bahamut in FFXIV, navigating within the chambers of Alexander. Both incredible experiences that really drilled down the idea of the foreboding presence you were up against. I imagine it’s much like the feeling of entering Molten Core for the first time for WoW players.

It’s a stark difference from today’s FFXIV raids, teleporting you to familiar square-shaped arenas with bosses conveniently placed before you. Wanna bet the fourth boss of that new raid series has a second phase? Was actually traveling through a raid too difficult? Too time-consuming? Is this what players want now, an à la carte menu of appetizer-sized content?

In an effort to remove even the slightest amount of friction from the average FFXIV player’s experience, they’ve swung the pendulum so far that I fear it’s never returning. What once felt like an adventure now feels like skating on a smooth lake of ice, grazing the occasional pebble along the way to remind players they are, in fact, playing an MMO.

Maybe ‘FFXIV’ could use another shake-up

But FFXIV‘s reluctance to rock the boat has made it the most stale it’s ever been. Its sparse content output, packaged and served like Lunchables, is designed for mass consumption that anyone can stomach. Easy to digest, and even easier to forget.

Maybe I’m just a bitter elitist, waxing nostalgic for a game that’s outgrown my tastes. I can’t help it. Growing up with Ultima Online and Final Fantasy XI, two games with virtually no streamlining (back then, at least) and a penchant for making players earn every ounce of their progress, conditions me this way. I want that sense of achievement, but instead, I feel I’m standing in line for my inevitable turn to grab the bag of party favors.

Though, I can’t be the only one bitter with the way things are. Especially when FFXIV‘s shortcomings are constantly excused for its 1.0 “spaghetti code” year after year. Or when World of Warcraft, an MMO almost twice the age of FFXIV, releases a housing system that outclasses the latter in almost every way. Or when a consistently updating online store features purchasable headgear that still isn’t equippable by two of FFXIV‘s races.

I’m not sure what the point of all this rambling is, really. I’m not providing anything particularly helpful or new to FFXIV discourse. I still think it’s the best MMO available, and though it’s changed in a way I may not vibe with anymore, there’s clearly a reason behind it. And, you know what? If this is what players want Final Fantasy XIV to be, then this is what Final Fantasy XIV should be. Who cares what I think? I guess I’m just looking for a way to say goodbye to a game I love.

[LinaAkayomi]

Bro literally came and copypasted a whole vice article in the forums and called it a thread

[TemporalFruitsAndVeggies]

over 10 years now

We got old, man. The game got old. It happens. I know it's a bummer, but people are acting like not loving FFXIV is the end of the world. It's just a video game, and it's not going anywhere. Just unsub for awhile -- or don't, even; stay subbed and keep your house or whatever is important to you -- and when you feel the urge to play again, it'll be right here waiting.

Tired of people acting like online games (not just MMOs, I see this same stuff with Monster Hunter, Diablo, PoE, etc.) need to keep them busy for full-time-job hours for multiple decades. Get literally any other hobby. You'll enjoy gaming so much more when it's not the only thing you do with your free time.

[User202503201232]

Bro literally came and copypasted a whole vice article in the forums and called it a thread

I love how white knights never have anything of substance to say about the game. It's always meta commentary from these white knights

It's almost as if they realize it's easier to comment on the criticism than it is defending the game.

[Exmo]

I love how white knights never have anything of substance to say about the game. It's always meta commentary from these white knights

It's almost as if they realize it's easier to comment on the criticism than it is defending the game.

But... you just copy pasted someone else's article. You literally have nothing of substance to say yourself in this thread.

[User202503201232]

I just love being proven right in real time.

It's always meta commentary from these white knights

They have literally nothing to say other than trying to bash the thread because it's sharing a well-written, heartfelt article from someone else. Rock bottom lmao

[KhudusQestir]

But... you just copy pasted someone else's article. You literally have nothing of substance to say yourself in this thread.

Wow. A lot of people are feeling the same way that they can copy and paste the problem. Wonder if we're quitting the game not only to move on but to also send a message to square. /think

[Jeeqbit]

I agree that job homogenization went too far. I understand why it happened to a degree, because there was a lot of unused, pointless or unintuitive stuff in Heavensward. They cut down on it a lot in Stormblood and they'd mostly got rid of it all by Shadowbringers. Also, when people don't have an ability they complain their job is not balanced ie. people asking for DRK to get heals, PLD to get a gap closer.

But it started to go overboard in Shadowbringers and Endwalker, removing things that are part of the job identity such as:

• random AST card management
• making WAR and SAM's conal AoE not a cone
• making PLD about as full of heals as WAR that no longer respected PLD's identity (casting heals and other magic)
• removing Kaiten
• DRK going from having too many ability interactions to having none except for TBN
• I understand why keeping stuff up was scrapped but it was still an enjoyable aspect for some players

I still find the jobs fun at max level, to be honest, but I find myself having to actually switch between them now whereas I didn't used to need to.

Anyway, they are going to look at this issue in 8.0. They should really do this through 7.x, but they said 8.0 so that's what they are doing. If job identity is that big of a sticking point for people they should probably just try the game in 8.0 and see if it changed enough, especially since they have been considering ideas like skill trees.

Jobs may not have mattered that much in dungeons, but now? You might as well remove job icons altogether. Hell, just remove healers as a whole, since they’ve become redundant enough that parties are statistically more efficient without them.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy self-healing myself in dungeons, and it did feel a bit frustrating to rely on the healer in the past. But I accepted that was part of the game and that I was doing my job (pull+mit), and they did their job (healing).
Now I can do all 3 jobs on my own in dungeons (tank, heal, dps). If a healer disconnects I pull anyway. If a tank disconnects, the party continues anyway because tanks don't matter and you can cast Sleep if needed. If a DPS disconnects, you only need 1 DPS anyway to do a decent amount of damage for it to not take ages. If a party member goes AFK, I continue going through the dungeon because they're frankly irrelevant.

The team play was always a part of what made it feel good. You worked together to tackle this dungeon. It was never that it was that hard, but if the healer didn't heal, people died. If the tank didn't mit a pull, it was a wipe. Although there are remnants of that, especially with tanks applying things like Nascent Flash, it's largely eroded in favor of "you can handle everything yourself" - with DPS literally healing themselves with Second Wind, Bloodbath, their own misc ability/attribute they have and why not throw potions into it.

It does seem better in High-End duties now. Even with all of WAR's heals, high-end duties still wreck me currently if the healers aren't looking, so they've restored that aspect somewhat. The autos hurt again. In Endwalker it was at a point where soloing through a few phases of Extreme/Savage was actually possible and it had got ridiculous.

When what little buffs and debuffs the game has mattered.

They announced moving away from status effects with the release of Stormblood and introduction of job gauges. I get why, because people who've never played MMORPGs before this one won't understand buffs/debuffs very much, but for those of us that understand them they are fine. But obviously they want to solve it for people that don't understand little status effects and cast bars hence those giant casts in the middle of the screen now. This is where I would like the old design but I understand why they are making it work for people new to MMOs.

The dungeons, with each new addition a predictable pattern of three to four bosses. Those bosses, separated by a few groups of trash mobs, further separated by a series of walls ensuring your group can pull just enough (but not too much!) to force one or two Cures out of your healer.

The leveling dungeons still demanded a lot of healing from me when I was leveling healers due to their tight sync. So there is an element of item level bloat just making the max level dungeons melt always. They have abandoned some of the unique ideas they used to do with trash as well like in Sunken Temple or Hullbreaker Isle. But I think the issue is more just that lack of variety in Expert roulette. They can make it the hardest dungeon ever but if you get it for 8 months, you become such an "expert" at it that it makes you sick to do it without at least changing job.

Remember when raids in FFXIV felt like, you know, raids?

It's obviously to reduce time wasting. If they are to add trash to Savage they should make it very easy, then it creates the feeling of a raid but you get to the boss quick at least. At the moment, the "travel" to the boss happens in a story instance or solo battle, with the Gates to Pandaemonium instance area being an example and the Omega solo battle being another.

[Exmo]

I just love being proven right in real time.



They have literally nothing to say other than trying to bash the thread because it's sharing a well-written, heartfelt article from someone else. Rock bottom lmao

Maybe you can add just a single original thought that you came up with all by yourself? Nothing?

[User202503201232]

Anyway, they are going to look at this issue in 8.0. They should really do this through 7.x, but they said 8.0 so that's what they are doing.

Improved combat encounters was supposed to arrive in 7.2, and there are only two days left to prove that wrong.

Improved job design in 8.0? They'll conveniently forget to say anything about it and hope everyone forgets about it with them.