7.3 is my favorite patch since Shadowbringers

[Valence]

I really enjoyed the mood, vibe and gameplay during the whole first part and the investigation. It was well done.

I continued hating in disbelief the amount of rubbish and cheesy shounen lines and actions the writing continued serving us afterward. And the epilogue, I just wanted it to end. Were they trying to outdo Tolkien, but without the skill to pull it off or what?

[Xapapetsu]

I'll say I've heard a lot of positivity from the most recent patch which I do like seeing, since things have been so negative recently, but I would put one point of criticism and give my reasoning for it. I would have loved to see the deep dungeon introduced earlier in the patch. I raid so I don't know if I'll have the time to complete the deep dungeon and clear the ultimate version of the fight before the next savage tier, and after the savage tier there's an ultimate in 7.5 so I'll want to clear that at launch. I'm hoping I don't need to grind out aetherpool to 99 before running the fight because if I do, there's no chance of me clearing before 7.4. It's not the biggest issue in the world if I can't run it, but it is a point of frustration for me since I'm excited for it.

[ZephyrMenodora]

7.3 MSQ was really strong, and I feel a step back in the right direction.

I found most of 7.0 and 7.1 to be utter garbage, with 7.2 being a tad better - but this was really enjoyable to me.

[DynnDiablos]

Well, we sadly can't all have great standards.

[brinn12]

The MSQ gameplay felt much better than the usual fetch quests and talking to NPCs. I just hope they keep this going forward, rather than being an isolated case.

[CKNovel]

The pacing was much better. In my opinion the patch feels a lot higher in quality because the bar was set so low.

Calyx is still a boring and annoying villain, he has a lot to do to get on Elidibus level. Golbez was the best antagonist during patches.
I muted him while doing EX farming and Dungeons as his annoying voice made me want to grab and violently shake the closest thing to me.
Dungeons AND Trial, he just yaps too much just to be pointlessly annoying.

DT's writing remains on a Narutoesque foundation, Wuk Lamat remains a shonen protagonist and I feel they absolutely missed the mark and failed to redeem her. Or maybe the core of her writing was so flawed it couldn't be possibly fixed.
Literally Geode and Shale felt more interesting.

Talking about the side character, I'm deeply annoyed they put so much work into those but in duties the Scions pops from nowhere like raid teammates when it's time for weeklies.
Use the NPCs, we know they're not meant to be as strong as the scions but they'll be infinetly more interesting and fitting than them.

It's a step in the right direction but we need to hope they won't stop here.
CBU3 has a tendency of taking those kinds of good steps then never finishing them.

[Carin-Eri]

I honestly thought it was great!

Enjoyed the overall story, the puzzle element was great and I really enjoyed the ending. I've watched the ending cutscene several times, not just because of the obvious

interest in seeing how it plays out whilst playing other jobs

but because I sincerely enjoyed the sequence.

[Mondschnee]

I agree that the direction is a lot better now.

And the Alliance Raid was SO FUN! I had the same experience as OP, everyone was joking around. We compared the second boss with the void arc, a nice callback.
So much chaos, so much death, sometims wipes. Super fun, I loved it.

MSQ I'm still rather critical about, but I can see the effort. But yes, there is still a lot to be done to get it up to standard again.

Regardless, I also really enjoyed that little animation where my WoL was allowed to attack IN a cutscene. Really cool.

[Gwenkatsu]

Calyx is still a boring and annoying villain, he has a lot to do to get on Elidibus level. Golbez was the best antagonist during patches.
I muted him while doing EX farming and Dungeons as his annoying voice made me want to grab and violently shake the closest thing to me.
Dungeons AND Trial, he just yaps too much just to be pointlessly annoying.

So I was not the only one The super bored nerd kid trope is one of the worst anime stereotypes I could think of. Was so looking forward to never see this guy again after 7.3... ah well.

[Haru304]

I don't care about a random nerd dude.

I don't really even care about Alexandria, though there've been some good moments with Sphene. (that don't feel earned)

Tural has succeeded in boring me, across the board. Not because of the idea, but rather how they've been explored. I walked into DT expecting some wild, un-tamed land, where I'd go on adventures with all of the locals and learn organically via in-depth world building - not baby sitting a furry Monkey D. Luffy with no redeeming qualities.

Oh, I also don't like being distracted by extremely mundane mini-games in the middle of the MSQ unless they're actually enjoyable and not just there for padding.

The content itself, in spite of neutered class design, is not the worst imaginable. It suffices.

But yes, on the whole, I agree. In the same way McDonalds occasionally remembers to put the lettuce on my burger, this was an upgrade. It's just a shame there's still no meat or cheese.