Seasonal events in FFXIV are bad.

[Altina_Orion]

Not offensively bad. Just... soulless. They're two yellow quests, a quick cutscene, and a maybe a glam or emote if we are lucky. Fifteen minutes of content, tops.

And sure, they’ve always been lighthearted. But somewhere along the way, they stopped feeling like events and started feeling like chores with a costume attached. No group duties. No gameplay. No reason to interact with it once you complete it.

What’s wild is that they could be more. This game has tried before with a haunted house during Halloween, or Valentione’s Ceremony, where players had to work together to solve a maze and match memory cards. These were light, playful glimpses of what seasonal content could look like. But they were one-offs: quick, shallow, and with no reason to return. Other MMOs build seasonal events around progression, currencies, or replayable activities. FFXIV shows sparks of that potential, but never follows through. It's frustrating to see something that could be so much more just quietly fade after one run.

I’m not asking for the world. I’m just asking for something worth showing up for.

Other games at least try. WoW brought back a whole dungeon as a raid for its 20th anniversary. Was it perfect? No. But it was ambitious. It was something. FFXIV doesn’t need to copy that, but it wouldn’t kill Square to give us a reason to log in that isn’t just “get your item before it hits the Mog Station.”

And yeah, these events aren’t the core of the game. But they’re still part of its rhythm. They decorate the cities. They show up in the Lodestone, get a blip on social media, and become the backdrop for countless screenshots. They matter. They’re chances to celebrate the world, the community, the stories we’ve been part of for years. Right now, they just feel like a checklist.

FFXIV is better than this. That’s why it’s disappointing.

[YovelaLindswood]

Unfortunately they listened to the vocal minority of players saying events were too long to complete so they made them short soulless events over in 10 mins.

[Asari5]

they somehow only listen when its about making their work less....

[YovelaLindswood]

they somehow only listen when its about making their work less....

Its just a coincidence it keeps happening I assure you.

[Birdbrain]

Most have been feeling rushed and by-the-numbers, like they started banging them out at crunch time. Occasionally the writing will hint at wanting to segue into something interesting but it never goes anywhere. The Valentiones event went something like

NPC: "We could stage a fake sword fight to draw out Elusive Elezen Lady!"

Me: Ok cool, an Ishgardian duel sounds neat. Would be fun if we could partake in it, even fight other players in a quick silly minigame or--

NPC: "Oh there she is, looks like we don't need to do anything interesting at all. Thank goodness. The end, here's your emote."

[Raikai]

Wait, but they used to be really good, at least until Shadowbringers, I think. I used to alternate here and on WoW and I clearly remember that I thought that XIV had the upper hand with events, because they were never the same, while in WoW the seasonal celebrations were static as a rock not even new rewards.

In XIV, I remember one Saint's Wake bringing the Haukke Manor as an instance for the first time, or the Valentione with the duo mini duty. I do remember having a lot of fun in the horror that was failing at one year's Starlight celebration choir (screams from hell), which was a minigame on its own. Yeah, they can bring back some of those (Which they do sometimes alongside whatever is new) but hardly impacts as the first time. Today yeah, just a couple of quests that are often uninteresting with a cutscene.

It's kinda wild to me that many of the complaints we have nowadays are the result of change (for the worse) because it was once good enough.

[Valence]

Wait, but they used to be really good, at least until Shadowbringers, I think. I used to alternate here and on WoW and I clearly remember that I thought that XIV had the upper hand with events, because they were never the same, while in WoW the seasonal celebrations were static as a rock not even new rewards.

In XIV, I remember one Saint's Wake bringing the Haukke Manor as an instance for the first time, or the Valentione with the duo mini duty. I do remember having a lot of fun in the horror that was failing at one year's Starlight celebration choir (screams from hell), which was a minigame on its own. Yeah, they can bring back some of those (Which they do sometimes alongside whatever is new) but hardly impacts as the first time. Today yeah, just a couple of quests that are often uninteresting with a cutscene.

It's kinda wild to me that many of the complaints we have nowadays are the result of change (for the worse) because it was once good enough.

The manor one is often fondly remembered and I believe it also comes from that it was used more than once. But I do think the best we've had in terms of ambition was the Tam Tara instance that played like a creative dungeon.
Of course I also miss Riggy (bring back Riggy), as even little things like Riggy EggHunter were an unexpected surprise.

[Altina_Orion]

The manor one is often fondly remembered and I believe it also comes from that it was used more than once. But I do think the best we've had in terms of ambition was the Tam Tara instance that played like a creative dungeon.
Of course I also miss Riggy (bring back Riggy), as even little things like Riggy EggHunter were an unexpected surprise.

I'm going to be real, I do fondly remember the tam-tara one as well, but I also think that the tam-tara one still didn't live up to its potential. I would compare it to Disney's Haunted Manor ride, where it's a neat little experience, but has no value beyond the first time you experience it. I feel like events in other MMOs and even single player/co-op titles still do it better. I kinda look back on the tam-tara one and think to myself "Ok, but why go through the effort of creating this for a one-time experience." Also, just spamming two duty actions on it was fairly shallow.

[Striker44]

Wait, but they used to be really good, at least until Shadowbringers, I think. I used to alternate here and on WoW and I clearly remember that I thought that XIV had the upper hand with events, because they were never the same, while in WoW the seasonal celebrations were static as a rock not even new rewards.

In XIV, I remember one Saint's Wake bringing the Haukke Manor as an instance for the first time, or the Valentione with the duo mini duty. I do remember having a lot of fun in the horror that was failing at one year's Starlight celebration choir (screams from hell), which was a minigame on its own. Yeah, they can bring back some of those (Which they do sometimes alongside whatever is new) but hardly impacts as the first time. Today yeah, just a couple of quests that are often uninteresting with a cutscene.

It's kinda wild to me that many of the complaints we have nowadays are the result of change (for the worse) because it was once good enough.

As far as I can tell, they're still never the same event twice in FFXIV. Even if they keep one part of an event (like the Ninja Warrior course for summer), there's still a unique mini-questline that's developed for each year. The only event I've missed in the past several years was this year's Little Ladies Day, so possibly they kept that one the same? No idea, but if even if the questlines are short, they still create new ones for each event every year (as you said, unlike WoW which just recycles the same exact thing every year - while it's usually longer, once you've done it a single time, you'll never get anything new at all).

[Raikai]

As far as I can tell, they're still never the same event twice in FFXIV. Even if they keep one part of an event (like the Ninja Warrior course for summer), there's still a unique mini-questline that's developed for each year. The only event I've missed in the past several years was this year's Little Ladies Day, so possibly they kept that one the same? No idea, but if even if the questlines are short, they still create new ones for each event every year (as you said, unlike WoW which just recycles the same exact thing every year - while it's usually longer, once you've done it a single time, you'll never get anything new at all).

The issue is that those quests usually had more meat to it than just a couple of scenes. Sometimes adding extra features. They're still unique each year, but idk... they became so bland. Even the actual stories aren't that interesting. And even worse when the reward ends up being just a small decor piece.

In regards WoW, it kind of shifted nowadays... Seasonal events there always have some sort of yearly update. More infrequently with the story, but there's always something new to earn.