For the first time in recorded history, Final Fantasy 14 is currently going through a bit of a rocky period. Although I no longer play the game, I loved FF14 like no other game I had ever played. Here are my candid, honest thoughts on the game that I’ve never been able to share before.
source
Although I no longer play or make videos on FFXIV, I genuinely want nothing more than the game I once loved to be great again. This game meant so much to me in my teenage years and helped shape me into the person I am today. I have over half a decade of memories from this game that I will never forget. And I would absolutely love to enjoy the game like I used to!
P.S. This isn't a come back video, just a one off project I wanted to make.
P.P.S. Since I can't record footage of the game I had to use a lot of YouTube video footage and asked my friend to help me with some background footage so none of the characters besides Lynx Kameli are my character. Well not even Lynx Kameli bc she is deleted.
bro, holy shit, how have i just discovered ur ass, ur fucking based mate.
ur so fucking based.
I've been saying this game has been awful since shadowbringers released with I'm Fox's video on how garbage the MCH rework was, even though everyone said "ZOMG ITS FINALLY PLAYABLE!!!"
i knew from the moment i played my beloved mch in shadowbringers, among other things, the game was going downhill. genuinely so sad to see jobs continue to be butchered and gutted since everyone loved the first garbo reworks. Stormblood is truly the PEAK of this game, idc what anyone says, it was glorious to be playing the game when Stormblood was current content. everyday i miss when eureka was current and relevant.
As a FFXI vet. FFXIV is an absolute disappointment after the rework. How do you unlearn how to make a good overworld. Unlearn how to make players better by giving them damage markers instead of making the player learn safe spots on their own. Unlearn how to make a relic quest feel like a journey to greatness. I can go on make it'd take a TED talk to talk about all the things SE has unlearned from FFXI to FFXIV
Videos like this are just hate farming, but you are right nevertheless, just more hate than necessary. The problem is simple, the devs put all their best to make Final Fantasy 16 and FF14 was on "ice" for years. FF16 kinda almost failed… so… FF14 should return to be the focus. They tried their best to make FF16 the best, sure the team must be devasted, and now they are receiving knives on their backs from youtubers. I hope that all the manpower return to FF14 so they can solve a good chunk of problems. But man, I've played dying games for years, games with real and troubling problems; FF14 is not at this state, it is just a bad time.
I've been saying for the last few years that the game is being made for the people who are playing the least. It's really heartbreaking watching a game you once loved be picked apart until so many of the things that made it good are now just gone. I miss rotational jank, planning buffs with varying timings, having to move bosses around rather than moving around bosses, fights having higher overall damage intake that isn't simply hit x amount of mit or get one shotted on every instance of party damage. Even the writing which was on a fairly high note coming off of shadowbringers has nosedived hard for essentially all of endwalker. Writing the Garleans in ways where you're supposed to sympathize with what are essentially nazis is such a weird choice, alongside them saying that the 6.x story was going to build up to the next arc, and then stating in the 6.5 live letters that this all just doesn't really have much or any importance to the 7.0 and beyond story just makes the entire post patch story nothing more than a waste of your time and money. Feels bad going from enjoy week 1 raiding and clearing the last 3 ultis in 1-2 months on patch to wondering why I've even bothered being subbed for a game that was so clearly not willing to create content that feels like it respects your time anymore.
Ive been saying the games dying 5 years ago its incredible that ppl still play dang lol i still log on till this day to refresh my mansion hoping that ffxiv same old washed down system changes i said it for YEARRRRS ff11 mmo was the best mmo square enix ever made for those who never got to experience that mannnnnnn yall missed out BIG TIME but ehhhh good times and memories that will forever be Seered into my brain cause man that was one hell of a game at its prime
Valid points but on god this is the clickbait of the century. No wonder you're getting a bunch of dislikes. Honestly this has been the same with every expac so far (started in early stormblood) 4.1-4.5 had no content but mindless eureka grind, 2 ults, shb had ONE ultimate and mindless bozja grinding. Now that there is no grind in EW everyone loses their shit. And especially if you play this game 24/7 like arthras you'll start to complain about the lack of content and the pettiest shit. Content classes being dumbed down is a valid point but omg dunno they cant please everyone but im hopeful for Dawntrail.
Y’all really like to bandwagon doomsay huh? Yes, the criticisms I agree with, but the clickbait video title? And then you use clips of xenos, who LITERALLY states in multiple videos, that the game is not spiraling, not in a downfall. Be for real.
For me, as someone who's played on and off for every Xpac since ARR, HW was the best the game felt imo. DRK and WAR were so much fun to tank with. I strictly played tank then, cause of how engaging I found it when enmity was actually a mechanic, and I loved stance dancing so much. I played for countless hours to hone my abilities, until I could pull a 99% parse as the MT on A12s without an AST feeding me cards (my static's AST fucking hated me lmao). Those were the days. Sad to see the way things have gone. The changes to DRK in Stormblood made me lose a fair bit of interest, and the gameplay has been all downhill since.
On some of zeplas videos ive had comments up there trying to let ppl know stop wasting your time on ffxiv there goal was already met on sales and first two expansions after that money was made now they sit back and collect monthly fees and sell garbage on the mogstation trash lol
10/10 video, earned a Like and a Sub, but a few things.
1. I understand why you brought it up, but NO one liked the Point Allocation system. It didn't introduce anything interesting, didn't interact with the game in any meaningful way, and there was only one solution. If you allocated points into anything other than your primary main stat, you were just wrong.
2. One of my big gripes in FFXIV isn't even how accessible or fast gear acquisition is (it does suck really bad though), but that even gear itself isn't anything interesting. They're just stat sticks. I'm not sure if they can make things work in a way that make the game interesting yet balanced, but incorporating things into gear that do things other than just bigger number do gooder would be awesome to see. Just off the top of my head, a gearset that makes old Cleric Stance weaker, but also doesn't cut into your healing potency as much would be a potentially awesome prog solution. Or, a gearset that renders Fist of Fire useless, but boosts Fist of Wind in speed and/or damage to compensate (yet obviously remains balanced with the alternative BiS) would just add another interesting way of playing Monk. Hell, you'd probably want both- some fights could benefit from more GCDs, yet others from harder hitting bursts from playing Monk normally. Or how about for the super casual player that just wants to mash buttons: a gearset that allows constant Huton, but decreases the potency of all your moves by a tiny amount. But none of these things exist.
These might not even be good examples, but making gear bonuses that CHANGE the way you play the game that benefits you in some situations, yet not so optimal in others, would be really cool to see instead of just "did you hit your DH threshold? Did you hit your targeted Crit tier? Do you have enough SpS for 2.42s GCD?" After a point, these are just words of a psychopath.
Side note, I'm beginning to think players spending hundreds of hours completing the story and getting to level 90, yet not grasping the fundamentals of both their job and how the game works in general, is more of a game problem than a people one. Not only do I think FFXIV doesn't do enough of a good job tutorializing its progression (there isn't even a single point in the MSQ where it skill checks/skill gates you anymore), I don't think it's doing a good enough job making you WANT to engage in the game and get better at it. If the bare minimum is enough for someone to win and play with their friends, why would they want to put in more effort?
Alternative life first, video game second I suppose.
excellent video. also i had been wondering why you hadnt posted for a while, and now i know the reason 🙂 i hope the game gets good again too
And yet again the ff community can't take criticism, you bunch of F-ing babies.
I honestly started listening with an open mind, however you proved me that I can’t do that with videos like this. I was going to list the things I disagree with until you started making fun of certain groups of people. Now, your video lost all validity. I get that you don’t care for the story, but hating on people for enjoying it??? The story is the point of the game. You don’t like it? Then honestly it isn’t for you and you should definitely never come back. Go enjoy other games cause this one will never be for you.
Your comment about not adding content, only replacing it is maybe the biggest hitter of the video. Absolutely predictable, boring patch cycle, paired with a predictable, boring gear treadmill with predictable boring stats. I held on for a long time hoping that the next expac would change up the formula, take some risks… It never came.
On break now, definitely not quit but… I let my house get demo'd and quit my raid team of 8+ years due to burnout. I'll check out Dawntrail, and I'm sure it'll be business as usual and I'll just casually log in once every 4 months unless they actually make a change (which they won't)
It wasn't just the dumbed-down gameplay that made me drop FFXIV.
Good characters were killed off, and the surviving did not develop.
The lead writer elevated her pet character ("rEmEmBeR uS") at the expense of all others, out of spite.
The main story quest was half-assed in favor of nostalgia-bait side content, until said nostalgia-bait became the MSQ.
Yoshida's mafia rests purely on a ten-year-old success story now, and the FFXIV cult (not a fanbase, a cult like the Branch Davidians) will crucify you if you refuse to spread their twisted gospel.
I hate FFXIV, its fans, and its developers, and I wish them all slow, quiet deaths. They take every criticism as a personal attack anyway, so I'm completely justified in this.
That these tourists completely dominated all discussion surrounding FF and RPGs as a whole ruined my lifelong interest in video games as a whole; I sold my collection, including original boxed copies of Dragon Quest III, precisely to spite those mutants. At least I bought a house and get to retire early with the cash.
I cured myself of a mental cancer typing all that… better than being Naoki Yoshida's attack dog, I guess.
While I'm someone who found things like tank stance swapping, cleric stance, buff alignment and cross-class something easy and tedious so I'm somewhat happy they're gone, I do agree that jobs are getting too simple. I hope they find a way to breathe new life and bring more uniqueness to all of the jobs. There are some instances where jobs shine more than just BLM in TOP, like SMN in UCOB or UWU for example.
I do think some of the things you mentioned like cross-class and attribute allotments were… kind of worthless to begin with though and only created an illusion of customization.
As someone who has raided on a lot of MMOs, pretty much EVERY mechanic is just stand here or go there and let mechanic resolve. Moving platforms can be simply thought of as moving AoEs. That's not to say I don't agree with the sentiment that FFXIV should try and bring more unique mechanics to the game, I do however think that there isn't exactly a game that does it any better.
I am happy that Dawntrail is supposed to have the most content in one expansion we've seen, I just hope it brings some new things to the table we haven't seen before.
"Who is this game made for?" That's actually really easy to answer…
Final Fantasy XIV is made for fans of the franchise who want to play a multiplayer/social version of a series they love. It isn't being made exclusively for that audience, but I'd wager it's being made for Final Fantasy fans first and everyone else being an afterthought. FFXIV has the same "problem" that ESO, Fallout 76, and the Old Republic has… It's a MMO designed for people who don't actually normally play MMOs.
Hell, all your issues? With the exception of tank stance swapping (which I seem to miss more than most of the raiders I've known), I don't feel most of the problems you have are issues I have with the game. My main issues are the lack of difficult single-player content since I'm one of those weirdos that hate the multiplayer aspects of MMOs (but love the social aspect). I hate how in order to involve myself with airships or submarines, I had to basically create a solo FC and roll the dice when Ishgard housing game. I hate how for the most part, relic weapons are worse than raid weapons since if it wasn't hardcore raiders would be triggered that my weapon is as good as theirs even though I'd absolutely play difficult solo content to get it if I could.
Wait stat points is gone? Awesome.
LYNX KAMELI!!!???!!!! :O :>
While i would've said things differently, and this sounded like an angry rant (maybe thats just how i perceived it lol), i do agree in almost everything. This game really needs a breath of fresh air. I blame the shit game engine and Square Enix just being a shit company overall (which i dont think people realize because theyre in love with the XIV team).
I've never felt more represented in a video than I have now
This comment section is exactly the reason why this game is in downfall 😂 players just can’t take criticism about the game at all
the like to dislike ratio in this video just shows how people are too stupid to understand you have to criticize something to see it improve. The community of this game is both a blessing and a curse
valid criticism ngl
anyone else miss when they would make a hardmode (not really hard) dungeon which was a remix of a previous dungeon with new bosses and mechs and music I always thought it was a cool throwback.
I hope this game dies so the people saying "oh bandwagon" can get screwed over since they have their heads so far up their own ass .
I been around since beta 1.0 and yes everything is rinse and repeat and its knowable whats coming next with fights. I personally don't mind most of it, I am just annoyed by the grind of leveling everything lol. Having to do the same shit 900+ times to level all the classes. I been playing final fantasy games since I was 6 though (with ff 1 – I am now going on 42 years old) They did make crafting easy, I do miss adding points to skills/stats. But I have had a love for SE games all my life reason my game collection dating back to my SNES has many SE games lol =) But I totally get what your saying =) I just log in to do roulette pretty much, haven't gone back to MSQ since the 2nd patch since Endwalker came out, I been more addicted to my Switch SE games (Octopath II and Tactics Ogre reborn etc) I do hate how they dumbed down quite a few things in FFXIV.
The new expansion is going to be so stupid, probably will add more modern casual clothes to wear to Walmart. Also it's the developers fault, I mean look at the north America devs kate lmao.
This is nothing new, this game has been like this for literally a decade now lol. All the critiques of the gameplay and content structure are things people have been saying for ages, yet they were always shot down by that rabid fanbase that attacks literally any criticism. They enjoyed it somehow and for some reason, so theyu will keep doing it. They completely neglected and defunded their older MMO, FFXI. I had been playing it for over two decades and they treat it like garbage (along with this community that has hated on it for ages during the first few years of ARR) and have since defunded it to maint mode. They will do the exact same thing to this game over time and especially once their new MMO comes out.
People can say what they will about WoW,
it's always had better raids than FF14.
well said
Finally someone who openly speaks the truth and who is not afraid of angering this rabbit hole trapped fanbase, you must have received so much hate for this.
I miss HW and SB, sisters.
If world ending event was one bad season, that is survivable, but if bad gaming continues, the uninstall button will be pressed
I've been playing this game since Heavensward. I do agree with most of your points, specially the job changes. It hurts SO much everytime they simplify them, I get bored to death while playing most jobs every new expansion since. The glory days are dead and gone…
So basically, this is the wow version complaint of classic play…nah
I haven't noticed the game getting easier. I've noticed that myself and everyone I play the game with has been getting better. Much, much better. Starting out as sprouts in late ShB to Savage raiding clearing tiers and some of my friends even going on to clear several ultimates while the rest of us take our time progging them. I suppose that's what 11k hours does.
I don't think the game has gotten all that much easier. I think I've just gotten more familiar with the mechanics, understand what it wants, and have gotten better at recognizing it, and playing to my strengths.
But it's easier to just say game bad need get better cause not up to standards anymore and be done with it.
I think most of the issues you mention are not unique to FFXIV but rather affect the MMORPG genre as a whole, since many of the changes you mentioned had a strong reasoning behind them, and most people seemed to agree whenever those changes were first revealed.
Most of the uniqueness any given game has to offer quickly goes away the more you play, which ironically is the main motivation a game developer has to keep you paying your sub. There are only so many mechanics you can mix in a game, and then most hardcore players will always go the extra mile to try and find ways to cheese those mechanics, so what's the point in the end?
You get tons of skills, then people go and theorycraft the best rotation and then everyone plays the same.
You get tons of possible builds, then people go and theorycraft the build that does the most DPS, then everyone builds the same. Make them all have the same damage potential you say? Then people complain their harder to play build should be doing more damage, then we are back to square one with everyone trying to play the same build.
You get tons of equipment variety, then people go and theorycraft a BiS set and then everyone wants to equip the same.
You get tons of dungeons to farm, then people go and find the fastest dungeon then just spams it. But what's the point of a dungeon anyway, you either do it for leveling or getting loot, which is pointless because of the point made above.
I could go on with a lot of aspects of the genre, but I think I made my point, and I always thought this is the main reasoning behind developers "dumbing down" their games overall, because the more you think about it, the more it feels like hardcore gaming on an MMO is pointless so they end up catering to casuals.
In the end, I think we should enjoy whatever feels the most fun while it lasts then move on.