FFXIV Bitter Sweet

[MaverickEntity]

My post may seem confusing. Indeed, at this time at night it seems confusing to myself.

I may not really have a say being that I am casual and have not experienced endgame, but I would like to share a few thoughts.

Gear and Appearance: I had hoped that with the characters I spent some time creating that I could achieve a certain "look" to them. Maybe for an archer I would want fingerless gloves all the time, or a small spare quiver by my side, or perhaps even something like a hunting knife and sheath on my belt (one that is visible!). For a pugilist, say I want a jacket that hangs off the shoulders, or just a sash across my chest? Currently the gear appearance selection, as echoed by others, is lacking. I understand that it is difficult enough for all so far that has been made, but simply recoloring/re-skinning the same piece of gear (weapons included) every few levels is frankly the most saddening thing that I notice in various genres of games. Sure, vanity slots would solve the issues for many, but I believe that the "cookie-cutter" look will still be prevalent, in that whatever looks the best as a full set for a particular class will remain the choice for many. I mean, do you really believe that people will be inclined to wear a set of mismatched gear when they could look like "that" model of character, or run around in the "flavor of the month" getup?

Leves: Honestly, I don't know how anyone could enjoy them, in the sense that for every level tier of them you get a similar style of quest for each area and essentially you would be repeating them over and over again. No, I do not want to fight "insert enemy npc" who summons "insert number of adds" 50 times on that level of leves. Mix it up a little, make one travel out into the world a bit (some of the DoL certainly do more than DoW/DoM), or have to fulfill something unusual as part of the quest (and I don't mean emotes or "sprinkle something on it while it tries to murder you). Grand Company leves are my bane, since the seal rewards are pretty much mute considering what happens when you end up out-leveling the leve tier and even lower level fates offer more.

Grand Companies: I really do not feel connected to my Grand Company. The leves do not feel really connected to my "comrades" of the company. The supply and provision quests are like that as well. Turn in an item of some sort once a day? Why not have for crafters the challenge of filling out a large order of gear over time for a company squad? Perhaps some distant outpost needs warm clothing, and to get the supplies there, a caravan must be formed and guarded by you and other players of the same company. Road ambushes, coming to the aid of a beleaguered outpost, leading raids against beastmen camps where you cannot simply waltz through but must instead help your comrades (both player and npc) beat back seemingly endless hordes of beastmen that emerge to oppose you, all of that would make me feel more involved in my Grand Company. Heck, I would love to have a reason to wear the full gear sets of my Grand Company for quest involvement with other company members, but that is not something implemented at all.

Class Guilds: I enjoyed the story of the pugilists, and was saddened to find that after lv30 you essentially have no reason to return to your guild hall at all (I assume this is different from DoL or DoH). I would have liked to keep in contact with the wonderful npc's of my original guild, maybe run some sidequests for my master, or help teach newcomers by assigning them tasks. It really isn't a guild I feel, and it sort of discourages me from other classes in the sense that even though they each have their own little story, it ends far too soon no matter what pace you are at.

Duty Finder: The one matter that I am saddened by this is that it most assuredly places you with exactly no one from your own server world. I understand why, but it is sad when I meet someone who likes to talk or comforts newcomers to a dungeon, whom I myself feel grateful upon meeting, yet not only will I never likely meet that player again (since changing servers to do so is a bit silly), I cannot even send a message after the dungeon is over to give one last thank you or to send a person a tidbit about something. If it is meant to help bring the community of players together, let there be an option to do so on your own server. Someone may argue that you should join a FC instead, but I do not see myself doing so simply because often the only times I meet truly good players is within a dungeon (heavily off-set by the bad ones of course).

Now, my time runs out within less than a week, and so far I am considering waiting for some sort of update that will do something to ignite the spark of players before I return. Maybe I am just tired from games in general, or I am just too pessimistic about matters (most likely true) but I feel truly sad not only for the community, but really for the game world itself. It seemed so enticing, so alluring, so, well..., final fantasy-like. Even not being at endgame, it already feels like a dead world, which is sad because I like to think every game has some form of passion flowing through it by both its creators and those who embrace it.

[MistressAthena]

My post may seem confusing. Indeed, at this time at night it seems confusing to myself.

I may not really have a say being that I am casual and have not experienced endgame, but I would like to share a few thoughts.

Gear and Appearance: I had hoped that with the characters I spent some time creating that I could achieve a certain "look" to them. Maybe for an archer I would want fingerless gloves all the time, or a small spare quiver by my side, or perhaps even something like a hunting knife and sheath on my belt (one that is visible!). For a pugilist, say I want a jacket that hangs off the shoulders, or just a sash across my chest? Currently the gear appearance selection, as echoed by others, is lacking. I understand that it is difficult enough for all so far that has been made, but simply recoloring/re-skinning the same piece of gear (weapons included) every few levels is frankly the most saddening thing that I notice in various genres of games. Sure, vanity slots would solve the issues for many, but I believe that the "cookie-cutter" look will still be prevalent, in that whatever looks the best as a full set for a particular class will remain the choice for many. I mean, do you really believe that people will be inclined to wear a set of mismatched gear when they could look like "that" model of character, or run around in the "flavor of the month" getup?

Leves: Honestly, I don't know how anyone could enjoy them, in the sense that for every level tier of them you get a similar style of quest for each area and essentially you would be repeating them over and over again. No, I do not want to fight "insert enemy npc" who summons "insert number of adds" 50 times on that level of leves. Mix it up a little, make one travel out into the world a bit (some of the DoL certainly do more than DoW/DoM), or have to fulfill something unusual as part of the quest (and I don't mean emotes or "sprinkle something on it while it tries to murder you). Grand Company leves are my bane, since the seal rewards are pretty much mute considering what happens when you end up out-leveling the leve tier and even lower level fates offer more.

Grand Companies: I really do not feel connected to my Grand Company. The leves do not feel really connected to my "comrades" of the company. The supply and provision quests are like that as well. Turn in an item of some sort once a day? Why not have for crafters the challenge of filling out a large order of gear over time for a company squad? Perhaps some distant outpost needs warm clothing, and to get the supplies there, a caravan must be formed and guarded by you and other players of the same company. Road ambushes, coming to the aid of a beleaguered outpost, leading raids against beastmen camps where you cannot simply waltz through but must instead help your comrades (both player and npc) beat back seemingly endless hordes of beastmen that emerge to oppose you, all of that would make me feel more involved in my Grand Company. Heck, I would love to have a reason to wear the full gear sets of my Grand Company for quest involvement with other company members, but that is not something implemented at all.

Class Guilds: I enjoyed the story of the pugilists, and was saddened to find that after lv30 you essentially have no reason to return to your guild hall at all (I assume this is different from DoL or DoH). I would have liked to keep in contact with the wonderful npc's of my original guild, maybe run some sidequests for my master, or help teach newcomers by assigning them tasks. It really isn't a guild I feel, and it sort of discourages me from other classes in the sense that even though they each have their own little story, it ends far too soon no matter what pace you are at.

Duty Finder: The one matter that I am saddened by this is that it most assuredly places you with exactly no one from your own server world. I understand why, but it is sad when I meet someone who likes to talk or comforts newcomers to a dungeon, whom I myself feel grateful upon meeting, yet not only will I never likely meet that player again (since changing servers to do so is a bit silly), I cannot even send a message after the dungeon is over to give one last thank you or to send a person a tidbit about something. If it is meant to help bring the community of players together, let there be an option to do so on your own server. Someone may argue that you should join a FC instead, but I do not see myself doing so simply because often the only times I meet truly good players is within a dungeon (heavily off-set by the bad ones of course).

Now, my time runs out within less than a week, and so far I am considering waiting for some sort of update that will do something to ignite the spark of players before I return. Maybe I am just tired from games in general, or I am just too pessimistic about matters (most likely true) but I feel truly sad not only for the community, but really for the game world itself. It seemed so enticing, so alluring, so, well..., final fantasy-like. Even not being at endgame, it already feels like a dead world, which is sad because I like to think every game has some form of passion flowing through it by both its creators and those who embrace it.

Wanna know whats funny? This is how FFXIV 1.0 was.. Exactly what you want...

[Soukyuu]

Wanna know whats funny? This is how FFXIV 1.0 was.. Exactly what you want...

How so? Each class had it's set of "optimal" gear everyone wore. Leves were just as repeatable. Granted, GC quests were a lot more involving, but that was because of the Umbral era storyline - they were essentially the continuation of the main story - something that is filled by hard primals & coil this time. Class quests were just "done once and forgotten", the only difference was that they started later in the game, lv30 afair. Chocobo caravan escorts were just as much of a grindfest (for seals) as CM/Prae/AK are now - and people wanted only a specific setup for them, else it wasn't efficient. Back then it was "AoE only" now it's "full DL/relic please".

Are you sure you're not falling victim to the rose-tinted glasses? 1.0 did some things better, like the 1.23 battle system, elemental wheel and monster AI, but it certainly wasn't better in anything else. Powerlevelling to 50 by abusing the party claim system. Now FATE spamming. Grinding same dungeons over and over again for a low drop rate item. Now speedruns for tomes. Open world was just as dead as it is now - additionally being plain copy pasted environment.

I agreed with your initial post, but I don't think 1.0 should be the first example on how to do it right. They had to make 2.0 for a reason.

[SolviteSekai]

First off since the very beginning Final Fantasy has just been a shallow younger brother to Dragon Quest. Shin Megami Tensei did a lot of the stuff Final Fantasy does a lot better, and the last 3 Final Fantasy games have been average at best.

It's kind of dumb to blame Yoshi because this game isn't weaboo enough. He's just trying to make a successful game.

[Datu]

I wish SE could read this thread. To all the people saying OP is impatient for new content is missing the point. It's not the content that's the problem, it's the core of the game. Everything is simplified and dumbed down which equals to a boring game.

[Kalam]

Time to unsub if you have that much distaste for the game. You guys will just have to wait and see if the next "big thing" can meet your requirements! Good hunting!

[Merceus]

I'm logged on pretty often but I alt+tab as soon as I do pretty much to go read forums. I didn't really notice it was a habbit of mine until I read this thread.
I pretty much agree though. If I run AK again I'm likely to unsub, I just can't take that place anymore. I get bored of it, I can't help it. I want to not be so casual as to get bored with doing the same thing 32 times, but I can't help it. (I did Garuda 38 times before my scholar book dropped so now I don't even want to bother with doing a relic quest for another class) I have four jobs at level cap and none of them are fully geared of have a relic. I'm a baddie and can't do DF Titan so no relic for a reason but the DL gear is just rediculous. I just can't do it. I'd rather log in and alt+tab to read the forums than run another Prea/CM/AK/WP or attempt Titan DF. I dunno maybe I'll try something new like RP or whatever but as it stands I'm bored with the game. :/

[Gramul]

Time to unsub if you have that much distaste for the game. You guys will just have to wait and see if the next "big thing" can meet your requirements! Good hunting!

For Gods sake, did you even bother to actually read it? You could at the very least grant her that respect instead of jumping directly into the "If you dont like it leave" defense with a side of "Good luck ;-)" passive agression.

[Soukyuu]

For Gods sake, did you even bother to actually read it? You could at the very least grant her that respect instead of jumping directly into the "If you dont like it leave" defense with a side of "Good luck ;-)" passive agression.

The short attention span of the majority of the younger generation is partially to blame for MMOs going the instant gratification route.

It's kind of dumb to blame Yoshi because this game isn't weaboo enough. He's just trying to make a successful game.

I don't see how this topic is related to weaboo at all. I don't think the word means what you think it means.

[TunaTime]

God I'm so tired of all these moaners! Posting about how bad this and that is. Why can't you stop playing and leave the forums for us who wants to stay? We don't care about your whinning!

And for those of you that don't like to level fast: Stop doing fate grinds. Go do dungeons and Guildhests, leves and whatnot. Not complaining about fates - no one is forcing you to speed level! I simple cannot see how fates are ruining the game when it's just an option and not a requirement to level.

Ppl are always crying about players not knowing their class because of fate grinds. Then join a FC and do endgame with your fellow FC mates to ensure the players you are teaming up with knows what they re doing.

And the whole duty finder is bad blah blah blah. Stop using it! Again... no one is forcing you to use it! Join a FC and do dungeons and primals with the players from your FC or even random players on your server. Duty Finder is just a tool to make things easier.