The most powerful plot device in all of DT

[AlienDiplomat]

Remember when the Ananta summoned Lakshmi in the Ala Mhigan Throne Room, and not only did we not just stand around and do nothing, we actively led the counterassault while protecting people from her tempering? And remember how it wasn't just a cutscene but an actual battle instance? Pepperidge Farms remembers.

Remember when Lakeland/the Crystal Tower was being attacked by Sin Eaters, and not only did we not just stand around and do nothing, we actively led the counterassault? And remember how it wasn't just a cutscene but an actual battle instance? Pepperidge Farms remembers.

And then not only do we just do nothing while Tulliyolal gets attacked, we stand around and do nothing while Gulool Ja Ja gets merc'd. The gameplay and story integration have fallen off a cliff. Admittedly the 7.3 cutscenes were better, especially that last bit with Calyx - more effort was put into a single patch's cutscenes than the entire DT MSQ, but still there's massive room for improvement.

We've just been through our "343 Industries didn't realize Master Chief was the main character of Halo" moment with DT.

This exactly!

The saddest part is it isn't even just indicative of bad writing (which it absolutely is, and this new team should have to cut their teeth on lesser projects like everyone else in the industry first before being bro-bumped into a billion dollar franchise WELL before they were ready).

What this indicates to me is that SE is spending less money on FFXIV overall. Designing these fun interactive cutscenes takes time and manpower. It is far simpler to just make another "Talk to Wuk Lamat" meme quest and dump people into battle content with increased difficulty, and let the community attack each other over who has the biggest parse and should "git gud" to take attention away from the fact that quality is down across the board.

Even the shareholders publicly disclosed their conversations about this very fact in a recent interview.

[Gwenkatsu]

Even the shareholders publicly disclosed their conversations about this very fact in a recent interview.

Don't worry. Yoshi-P is now working on 17 other projects, which will surely teach him how to fix FF14.