What does FFXIV lack?

[Tracewood]

A horde mode of some kind. Sadly, I stopped playing 1.0 before they let monsters in the main cities on repeat to experience it. I'm going to get crazy here, but one of the new main cities should have random attacks like how XI did Besieged and Campaign. If you lost, you have to rescue vital NPCs from captivity from the enemy stronghold. Said stronghold would be an open world dungeon, flying is disabled and enemies are tougher (like having B, A, S, SS Rank monsters). Only problem is this might be bad for low pop data centers, so they'd have to modify the strength of the stronghold depending on who's in the zone.

You know how Gold Saucer in FF7 had a battle arena? That would make for an interesting attraction on XIV's Gold Saucer. It's solo content like MSQ duties, but with good rewards. The BLU masked carnivale was such a solid idea that other combat jobs could benefit.

[Kisshu]

A horde mode of some kind. Sadly, I stopped playing 1.0 before they let monsters in the main cities on repeat to experience it. I'm going to get crazy here, but one of the new main cities should have random attacks like how XI did Besieged and Campaign. If you lost, you have to rescue vital NPCs from captivity from the enemy stronghold. Said stronghold would be an open world dungeon, flying is disabled and enemies are tougher (like having B, A, S, SS Rank monsters). Only problem is this might be bad for low pop data centers, so they'd have to modify the strength of the stronghold depending on who's in the zone.

The number one reason that FFXIV would never have something like Besieged, is that the writers want to resolve all conflicts in each expansion, so there wouldn't be any enemies at the end.
ARR: We break the Garlean legion
HW: We stop the war and form an alliance with the dragons
SB: We push out the Garleans, and then later they are destroyed off-screen
SHB: We defeat most of the threatening Lightwardens so only small, unorganized pockets remains
EW: All over the place, but the crisis is solved and stopped
DT: We make friends with the Alexandrians

For something like Besieged to work, we would need an organized opponent that is allowed to remain in place after the expansion ends.
ToAU's story was never about the player solving Aht Urhgan's beastmen problems, so that conflict remained after the expansion moved on. In FFXIV we would have tried to befriend these enemies.

FFXIV would need to completely change how the story is handled for something like Besieged or Campaign to happen. And it sucks, those are events that could make the game feel more community focused, like with Cosmic Exploration upgrade fates.
But not even Bozja gives this feeling with, even though the conflict is allowed to be kept in place, since it's just fates that have no meaning on the world.

[MonsutaMan]

(This is simply one man's opinion.....it is not gospel......)

It lacks an identity. Hence, XIV is like the less cooler brother, who takes everything from the old brother but it does not hit the same.

XI had an immersive, deeeeeeeeep world. That is what XI is known for. It was like, if Fromsoft made an MMO.

Example, Notorious Monsters within the open world of XI were basically cryptids. They were difficult to find, or claim most of the time. Like other players, I would question if this monster even exist......standing there camping it all day.

That is basically the hallmark of cryptids. They are rare, and ppl doubt they even exist.......Very few "See" them. Some "Do" by happenstance.

Oddly, many encounters of NM are simply ppl passing by. Other times, a NM was deemed a hoax (Fazasher Death Weapon, Yensho, etc).

XI is a beautifully constructed title. I retired from XI retail last year.....but this thread might make me come back lol.......I digress.......

....XIV does not have an identity imo. Just my opinion....One man......

[Kisshu]

Fazasher Death Weapon.

Man, I remember this one. The myth even went so far that the devs made Shikigami Weapon based on this.

FFXI devs weren't shy of giving no directions in the game for some really obscure events. Still remember the Gobling Wolfman, only reason people knew of it was because of datamining, and they only had a hunch that Goblin Drink was used to spawn it. Yet noone had any idea how to get or craft this drink, so one crazy player tried every imaginable combination based on the drink's description, and after a long time it was created.

[Connor]

snip

Despite all the issues with it, I think XI embraced its identity and never apologised for what it was. Even with all the changes they’ve made over the years to make it more easily accessible / modernised / etc it’s still more or less the same beast it always was; for better for worse lol.

XIV, conversely, seems intent on doing nothing but apologising for what it is and desperately trying to change that to cater to the widest possible demographic. It feels like they actively seek to undermine any sort of ‘identity’ the game could develop from fear it would negatively affect profit margins. Which ultimately just means it’s a game for literally nobody (but also everyone, somehow lol).

[Myotis]

Everything is pre-scripted what does kill any excitement of the game.

The script after 15 years doesn't work anymore.

There is complete lack of fresh air in this game. - It's too stale...

[Reginald_Cain]

Good tutorials for how to play your job.

How many cure 1 white mages do you see failing to heal thru a big pull because they aren't using cure 2? Hall of the novice is garbage and too many players aren't taught how to play correctly until somebody wrongfully rages at them over it and then they dont wanna play anymore. It is not the noobs fault that the game and community can fail to explain important mechanics.

There's a similar problem with new players trying to jump from brain dead normal mode content into ex or savage. It's a big jump for casuals and I wish there was something to mitigate this.

[LeCorbeaux]

Good tutorials for how to play your job.

Fully agreed. And if you think PvE is badly tutorialised, look at the state of in-game PvP tutorials and weep.

There's a lot which should be improved here.

[AlliciaCapulet]

Good tutorials for how to play your job.

I agree with you, and that’s why I keep saying the following:

1 – Skill distribution at lower levels needs to be reconsidered. It currently takes far too long to get a meaningful toolkit, especially in synced dungeons. With every expansion, skills are removed, merged, or shifted to higher levels. As a result, lower-level gameplay has become overly simplified. A level 50 job in ARR felt more complete than a level 50 job does today. Now, those brackets feel stripped down and lacking depth.

2 – Dungeons and trials should gradually return to a reasonable level of challenge. You don’t truly learn your job without some degree of struggle. I understand that difficulty was reduced so players wouldn’t get stuck in the MSQ or fall behind, but in reality, you improve by facing mechanics that require proper execution. I’m not suggesting everything should be tuned to Extreme level, but there should be consequences for poor play. Even in a dungeon, there should be a DPS checks on bosses. Tanks should need to mitigate properly or die. Healers should have to actually heal, more than just healing on the trash mob pulls. If roles are not played correctly, wipes should be possible. Dungeons also need more variety than the standard “two trash pulls, one boss” repeated three times.

3 – Leveling should be slower, especially at lower levels, and experience shouldn’t be awarded to jobs you didn’t actually play. For example, Frontline roulette allows you to queue as one job, swap, and level something you never actively used. You learn a job by playing it.

Wanting more challenge isn’t elitism. Right now, the difficulty curve is so flat that it’s no surprise many casual players struggle when they first encounter mid-tier content like Extreme trials. If you’ve never had to worry about DPS checks or proper rotation before, of course it becomes overwhelming later.

Developers shouldn’t lower the difficulty of group content to accommodate weaker players. If necessary, they could offer a dedicated “story mode” version for players who want to experience the narrative with NPCs on an easier setting. But when you queue with other players, the difficulty should be high enough that you’re expected to understand your role and perform it correctly.

[ReynTime]

XIV has an identity. Well, it had more of a unique identity before Shadowbringers... But it's current identity is simply being a "PlayStation Home" with a story. But replace PlayStation with Square Enix.
The game does have original lore in it, but by and large it exists to advertise Square Enix's other products. It's literally Square Enix virtual Disneyland.