The Reason Why FFXIV Is No Longer Fun/Exciting

[Veritas-Ancora]

Final Fantasy XIV has been a passion project for a great number of years. So much has been experimented with, so many ideas came to fruition, so much excitement over the game and story and new experiences made this game worthwhile for over 10 years.

But if you're like me, the game is getting stale. Allow me to explain why.

The Endless Dungeons (PoTD, HoH, EO, PT) doesn't take any risks or massive changes to the content. There's never a moment where you say, WOW, this flips the series on its head!

The MSQ story is almost formulaic and the MSQ characters don't take any real risks like Papalymo did or Moenbryda. The last time I was on the edge of my seat wondering what will happen was Shadowbringers (Endwalker was great, but I personally can't think of a time that the characters took risks on their lives or their safety beyond a few short minutes at L90 in the final zone)

The recent Alliance of San d'Oria CLAIMED it would be different by introducing different enemies each time you played in the first boss, but it turned out to only be one mechanic in a fight. The excitement of the promise fell flat on a single different thing that popped in a 25% chance. I was so excited for change and breaking the norms, but it felt like a lost opportunity.

Look, I could go on. You can even type up your own experiences and what you think is getting bland, but I'm going to try to focus on solutions, not problems.

The solution is to take risks. Aside from Cosmic Exploration, there's nothing really new or unique in this expansion. There's nothing that goes, "wow, I did not see that coming." It's the same FATEs, similar MSQ low-risk storytelling, same endless dungeons, same grind, same 10 level-ups, same everything.

Not every risk was amazing but it was exciting. The Diadem went through multiple iterations and a brachiosaur murdering everyone with Meteor was annoying but it was a challenge to the game's core systems. People were bound determined to take it down.

Exploratory Missions has made several changes to the system but the content doesn't feel as exciting as Eureka. I'm not saying Occult Crescent is bad, but when I cap my level I'm no longer afraid of anything that isn't a boss. The only thing I'm afraid of is how quickly my fellow players snipe the boss and if my teleport to the boss is going to be fast enough to get one hit (which is really unfortunate).

TL : DR - We need more risk taking. When we're deep into an expansion where we already know what to expect, the game is going to feel bland.

I'm hopeful that this rant is meaningful to you. I think it's really important that we have additional QoL changes like housing (which keeps getting delayed) and an improved glamour system, but I'm also advocating for taking risks on the content that you're exploring. Just because we liked a thing a lot doesn't mean we need to keep reintroducing the same idea continually.

[Valence]

I think SE never really cared about their veterans that much when it comes to XIV. Veterans are picky, get bored of the formula and keep complaining. Meanwhile, as long as they have that flow of new players to experience the game, its story and leveling and discovering its theme rides for the first time, that's who the game is primarily aimed at. It doesn't mean that the game doesn't try to appeal to vets, but past a point they choose consistency and safety over creativity because of the main audience that is directly targeted. Their current game model works for them because it doesn't bank on retaining its players forever - go play other games, take breaks, it's always what they have told us. On top of it, they do not care about the game that enthused their veterans because those directly get in the way of the new directions they have chosen to stubbornly go for, especially in pve content.

Beyond the complacency they recently talked about after the OC fiasco, I think that they've actually grown risk averse and will play ostrich immediately when facing the slightest criticism. They do not want to talk to us like they used to. There hasn't been a single Q&A session during live letters since a whole expansion by now, and PLLs have become a commercial formality. You don't feel any passion anymore when watching those. They carefully pick game journalists or influencers/streamers during media tours or interviews in salons to cherry pick what they actually want to talk about, or repeat the same success story they've been asked ad nauseam over the past decade.

[GrizzlyTank]

ARR and HW was pretty much all about risks. Since then, yeah they've been too conformist to their own recipe.

[Veritas-Ancora]

Beyond the complacency they recently talked about after the OC fiasco, I think that they've actually grown risk averse and will play ostrich immediately when facing the slightest criticism. They do not want to talk to us like they used to. There hasn't been a single Q&A session during live letters since a whole expansion by now, and PLLs have become a commercial formality. You don't feel any passion anymore when watching those. They carefully pick game journalists or influencers/streamers during media tours or interviews in salons to cherry pick what they actually want to talk about, or repeat the same success story they've been asked ad nauseam over the past decade.

I agree with you 100%.

When they lost the Q&A in their Live Letters, the bridge to the players was burned. They just didn't seem to care what players wanted any more. It's further insulting that the Fan Fests don't have those Q&As any longer. I can't possibly imagine justifying going to an event to see Yoshi P (obviously from my signature I've met and conversed with him) any longer.

You're right, I don't feel the excitement of Live Letters any more. Yes there's a surprise every couple of Live Letters, the glamour changes was a very exciting QoL change, but you don't get them as often as we did.

I would get so excited when Yoshi P would answer a question I put on these forums and he cared enough to answer it. Even if it wasn't the answer I wanted, I felt heard and seen.

[hydralus]

I dunno I thought requiring tributes and specific conditions to open a difficult dungeon that needs 24 people in a pre-made to run was pretty experimental. People absolutely hate it but y'know.

[MicahZerrshia]

We have had the same boring fates since 2.0, there is absolutely no reason they couldn't throw in some new objectives, they just don't. Making them have some effect on the world would also do wonders. But instead they just slap a currency on, lock a few things behind said currency and call it a day. aka the laziest approach you could take to what is supposed to be such a major component of your product.

Outside of taking risks and making the battles more exciting, I think things like 24 mans and 8 man raids would be a lot better if instead of new gear each time, we had a system were we upgraded the gear from the first tier and they added something other than basic stats. Gear in this game is some of the most boring gear in the mmo genre as a whole, they need to take a good hard look at how to make it better. It would also be a major boon if they were actual raids instead of just a few bosses with a hallway between them. If they would implement something like Dynamis or Assault from FFXI, with wide open zones, bosses that need to be popped by doing something and trash mobs that were actually worth fighting, it would be so much more interesting.

OC was bad, you can say it. It was just another fate grind but in a special zone. The reliance on fates instead of more complex or compelling content because they need to make it as dumb as possible so all players can partake is just so silly. These are relic weapons, weapons of legend and forged in sweat and steel. They should be something we work for and are exciting to obtain, but they are really no more exciting and not much more work than tome weapons at this point.

Adding jobs, zones and the like mid expansion would do this game a lot of good, instead of just dumping it all on us in the .0 patch. They could really flesh out zones and leveling new jobs would give us something to do in the down time. They also should not be so scared to change what is broken in the middle of an expansion. Waiting until the next expac when things that are broken are pointed out in the .0 patch is just mind boggling poor development.

They are so scared of failing and driving away players, that it is making them fail and driving away players.

[Fawkes]

idk if it was ever experimental, people have been complaining about how cookie cutter the patches are since 2.1. They're like that by design so they can be delivered on a schedule.

Q&A was almost entirely just dodging questions with "please look forward to it" or whatever, there was rarely anything substantial that came out of it. Live Q&A at Fanfest was even worse, it just made people mad that "good" questions weren't being asked, like they expected Yoshi-P to blow up his whole content reveal schedule and tell you the new jobs early if you just asked him in a Q&A.

[Jeeqbit]

In ARR, they had a problem where all the scions were the same and Minfilia was useless. They solved this problem by having them all get affected by conditions to make them unique. Thancred woke up unable to use magic forcing him to specialize in physical arts or have help; Y'shtola woke up blind and used magic to see, giving her the super power of sensing aether in a way we can't; Yda explored a backstory that led to her becoming something more interesting (but ultimately they phased her out of the scions); Minfila became something greater (part of Hydaelyn) so she could be a guide from above. Urianger was fine as he was being a scholar and librarian, although I suppose they made him see a bigger picture than just telling everyone the truth.

I believe the reason they got rid of characters like Paplymo, Moenbryda and Minfilia is because they were 1.0 characters that they didn't have a way to salvage, so they got rid of them. Paplymo was ultimately just another scholar like Urianger and Y'shtola so what could they really do to differentiate him? Moenbryda was a 1.0 character they clearly had no plans for, so they got rid of her quick. Minfilia again was ultimately useless aside from our deep relationship with her which Yoshi-P wanted to move to Alisaie.

When you realize all that you realize these were never risks like we thought. They were just cleaning up 1.0.

I don't really have a problem with content having a formula, but I do think they need to be more creative with the content within said formula. To give an example, a new Field Operation shouldn't just be "here's your FATEs, your CEs, your terrain, and your end raid". It could be something ultra fresh, such as having a collection of islands and you use a boat to travel around. Your battles could include a FATE where you board a ship and fight an enemy ship by manning the cannons, diving underwater and doing a repeatable race with an NPC underwater, finding treasure underwater while avoiding patrolling underwater enemies, and underwater battles where we have to consider the more difficult movement. Something like the G-Warrior could be used for some activities as well.

Another example is Deep Dungeons. Having another deep dungeon itself is fine. They did change some of the pomanders, added voltaves and made the deep dungeon itself take place outside, but they could have made the pomander differences much more drastic and themed differently than POTD. Witching can make them Fuaths. It stems from the same issue that caused Occult Crescent's issues, which is that they just remake things based on precedent without even so much as discussing if they should or if it makes sense to.

[MicahZerrshia]

Moenbryda was a 1.0 character.

No she wasn't

[Jeeqbit]

No she wasn't

Oh, well they acted like she was an existing character so it seemed like it when I played through it. In that case she was added purely so that she could be immediately killed off. Just like characters are these days. Nothng risky about that.