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FFXIV’s brand new type of content is absolutely fantastic. However, the developers are starting to run into a problem that many other games are starting to face: How, when you have lots of cool and different content, do you keep players feeling *rewarded*? …Not even Yoshi-P has the answer to that one.
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Im in the camp of i dont need the reward…. the content being fun is the reward… sure shiny new thing is nice but i would rather focus on the gameplay and not what i get at the end.
Live long mmo fan but I just can't get into FF, something about the animation, loadscreen heavy style that I can't jive with. That along with the 1-70 experience gameplay wise being slow and boring. I hope they redo the onboarding part of the game at some point
I had a lot of fun soloing this dungeon <3 Noticing varying patterns in fights, interacting with Nanamo and seeing all the lore ! <3 <3 <3
Can I just say how much I love your new hair cut? You look amazing. Thanks for another great video. I'll be starting NieR soon because I remember you saying how amazing it was.
"On your first try you don't know which one the left one is" That is, unless you take the other route first which has the opposite side of the flag ripped. You can guess at the right-side one because it's the same as Temple of Q'arn (which is left side fLame, right side fRuit)
Looks like u lost lots of weight. Looking good.
I ran one variant dungeon, it felt extremely similar to a normal dungeon. I personally don't get the hype it's basically the same thing we have had recycled. I think FFXIV players let the story blind them to the flaws. No rewards, each path is no different than running an expert dungeon, 25 criterion runs for a really terrible looking mount.
As far as live service games go, this is probably the best problem to have.
I have never seen someone defend a shitty game so much. Does Yoshi-P come to your house and suck you off personally? I doubt you guys even play this game like you played wow seeing as all you talk about is the story and never mention ANY end game shit.
Whenever I see 'Community' in reference to FFXIV it's automatically synonymous with 'Cult'…
'Too Much Great Content' …….. Like the 2 hours of story you get every 4+ months? Or the 2 wall to wall dungeon spams every 4+ months? Or the raid loot lockouts that actually punished all 7 other players in the party if ONE person already did it that week? Or the developer saying "please play other games, then come back" ?
Face it… This game is just a virtual chat room for furries, potential (and convicted) child molesters and other deviants.
….
…
..
.
(aaaaannnnndd Queue the pitchforks and torches)
Too much content lmao what a joke
It is already easily one of the best games of all time. 🤓
If your not gonna look at the camera , why just do a voice over work . The contently looking at the que does not go over well for me.
You probably should have had a spoiler warning in front for all the peeps still working this blind. ^.^;
not gonna lie I got baited by the thumbnail and title
FF14 not having long lasting battle content is because they lack what the masochist love : RNG. Seriously if the dev start putting RNG in the loot without some pity limit, their battle content would last for longer time. Making the gear stat based on RNG would solve all this so called 'I don't have anything to do in the game' problem for the battle oriented player. After all it opened the gate to endless grind to get the best stat.
But it isn't something that the FF14 dev use as business method. They wrap it nicely by saying that they want player to do something else beside doing their game but the thing is that they have realized that there is no difference in income between player who only play for a week in a month and player who play for 30 days in a month. If we dump Mogstation out of equation, the money that one player give is the same 12$. In a way, they will profit more with this than making a treadmill out of the game. Server won't be pushed to limit except for when they launch an expansion or patch, the daily claim would lessen since there aren't that many problem in the first place.
If you think you're being tricked out of your money, remember annual theme park ticket exist. FF14 use the same principle of it down to the attraction. One might like Jet Coaster or Haunted House, but I doubt anyone would get into it everyday no matter how spectacular it was, maybe one would realize that the attraction weren't that exciting in the first place. Only because we go there from time to time that we enjoy the ride and the experience that we feel that our money was well spent. Having the theme park staff smiling to us increase the feeling.
If you're not someone who like this kind of method, none of the FF14 content would satisfy you. Of course not, it isn't designed to be that way. They will fix what is needed but they will never make treadmill content for that is just not their business method. If you want this to change, you need to fire Yoshi-P and his whole staff and change it to other management who have treadmill mind. What would happen to the game after that though….. well, no one will know until the time come but it might become something similar to current WoW I think.
The Sil'dih thing reminds me how I felt back in Heavensward when they introduced Palace of the Dead and finally did something with the great big hole in South Shroud with the explorers standing around it.
One thing that a lot of new players don't realise is FF14 has had duds and problematic content in the past. Their first attempt at an open world zone like Bojza, was Diadem in HW and it was total rubbish. However they learned from it and developed off it. Their 8 man Savage trials evolved similarly. I think we will see a similar evolution with this content too. We usually do. I imagine an issue as relatively small (not saying it is unimportant) as the rewards for the hard version is something they should be able to address.
I loved this content. I had a blast soloing the 12 paths. Thank you very much for the detailed and insightful review. I was not expecting this or looking forward to it and I was blown away by how much creativity and work they put into this. As you say, they tied it altogether and set it in my home city of Uldah.
I hope they will give us more of this. But why should they if all they hear is that it doesn't help us gear our alts faster. So it's great to hear your detailed take on the experience of running Variant. If you read the Japanese forums players are discussing all of this in detail, unlike many of us here in NA who asked for this content to begin with.
Most of this lore was only available in the Encyclopedia of Eorzea and not in the game but these dungeons brought it all to life in an immersive and absorbing way.
Loved the Variant dungeon. Just wish it lasted me a bit longer. I was done with it in a few days. Honestly can't be bothered with the savage mode. I started on it and just dont feel the drive to continue with it.
If they're going to add titles as the only reward for clearing something difficult, they need to take what Aion had and have it where titles actually give different stats.
Matt rocking the haircut.
If Lahabrea replies in the comments YOU KNOW he triggered as fuck. LMAO stay mad yo. 🤣
I solo'ed the 12 routes myself and it was great fun trying to get the clues and finding out myself it was a good challenge too. I wanted to do it on my own pace. I love it.
Once I had found all the routes I did run it a lot with my FC and it was also fun but in a different way.
Always nice to get a new FFXIV video here. Some of us don't care about WoW or Dragonflight in the slightest but nevertheless have fun over there.
See you on the next 14 video!
I did the entire variant solo and found the paths without a lick of hint. It was obviously nothing gigabrain because I am, in fact, a moron. But DAMN did it feel fun and enticing. Having to go off and still thinking "OK tomorrow, when I get back, I want to fail the balance and check the other lever", just to see what mechanic changes, just to see what lore entry it unlocks.
Damn. WHEN was the last time I had FUN content to look forward to instead of grind I had to convince myself was worth in the end in an MMO?
More of this, XIV Team. Please!
This content was so close to being a smash hit. Variant was AMAZING. Criterion has been p fun (still going through it) but the Savage offering nothing major as a reward just feels off, especially considering it's the same mechanically as normal Criterion. Like, at least let it drop double the silver that Normal does or something.
sees title we need a new entry point don't we.
Ooh a miss 🤣
I haven't even tried this stuff, but looking forward to it when I decide to resub to the game later. I'm just burned out on FF14 because virtually all of the jobs I like aren't really fun to play in Endwalker, and I think coming into it when they first expanded the free trial gave me tons of story, MSQ, raids, dungeons, etc. to do. Now that I'm mostly caught up, I'm still not used to the wait for stuff to do.
Still looking good with that haircut Matt. Nice take on the new content. I've not run them yet but I'm looking forward to running solo. The comment section is pretty comical.
With the amount of free time I have my biggest struggle is keeping up with the content they put out. Something I never experienced in my 16 years of WoW.
The only downside is that my backlog of other games keeps growing and growing 😂, and I love it. Keep it up FF14!
did he lose weight? he's looking great!
i am not bothered by the lack of rewards, that dungeon itself was like a reward.
i would like to add one thought. the INCREDIBLE potential this system has.
for one,
if they start to implement variants here and there in main story dungeons and quests that could be incredible impactful for individual players. giving players a choice which alternates outcomes.
let's say depending on what you do in the dungeon the afterthougt/wrap up with the characters afterwards could sligthly differ. not in a way to off-set the overarching story ofc BUT to make it feel more individual to the player. similar to an rpg where your own choices have consequences for the outcome. i think squeenix would only take it so far as to differ the dialouge at the end a little to fit it more to your personal experience and choices.
NOW THE SECOND THING.
variant dungeons very much have a potential to reflect what the player has done leading up to them. let's say there is one scion you interact way more with than any other or there is one you barely talk to at all and only when necessary. that could very well impact on who might accompany you in a story dungeon for example or who talks to you and wraps it up afterwards.
so in short, i see the potential basis for a "player-choice-driven-rpg-experience" in the making on an MMO-scale. very exciting and the potential this has is simply immeasurable. keep in mind this was a first test run.
I'd be fine with more mid-tier rewards, the issue here isn't that the easier difficulties got a mount. It is that the harder difficulty did not ALSO get a mount.
not related to the video but Matt, you look way better with the shorter clean-cut look!!
I appreciated how solo-approachable it was.
There's mobs very early into their prior solo dungeons (PotD) that can 1-shot you if you're not careful.
Here, I pretty much ate every boss ability, regularly had 5 debuff stacks, and still cleared it first time. It's such a chill experience.
Glad the puzzles were reasonable. Some in the past have been nigh-impenetrable, like the one by the ruined statue in west thanalan.
Very much enjoyed the story going with it. Having done the beast tribe rep and seeing it from the other side, added extra weight to the tragic story.
There's very little regarding Sil'dih in the game, but there was a little extra in the 1.0 mining quest chain which is worth a watch imo – v=g6ydwFDmJ2g
Uh. Wren is questionable. If it isn't holding people accountable for things like transportation and animal product consumption, it's basically something that tells you good things about your bad habits. One of the biggest ways to have a positive environmental impact is a vegan lifestyle. By not being vegan, you support poverty, poor living conditions, rainforest destruction, anti-biotic resistance, murder and exploitation of animals, and several health crisis (like Covid and obesity). I have to call out people for what they are, otherwise the planet will never change.
I was really excited for Criterion dungeons, and figured Variant dungeons would be whatever. But the reality was basically the opposite. I had a blast going through the variant dungeons with a friend and figuring the puzzles out. The fight challenge in the Criterion was good, but it wasn't the kind of content I was hoping it would be. I wasn't expecting M+, but I was hoping it would be something that encouraged me to run it a bunch. But given I'm not hurting for materia, it's just another thing I can do to do. I would have loved to see some sub raid gear or something from this. Maybe 615 or 620 stuff.
But all in all, I think these were a success and a good addition to the game. My only complaint is that I would have liked to see this as an opportunity to help fix the non raid progression in the game, which is my only serious complaint with the game. But this is a general criticism of the game as a whole, not a criticism failing on V&C dungeons.
I'm hopeful that they find a way to shake up the non raid progression loop in the game at some point, even if they are reluctant to break the current mold. But just like the other chances they took along the way, at some point they'll have to make that leap. I just hope it's sooner rather than later, because I would hate for them to lose the momentum they've had recently.
The diary entries were my favourite part of this content.
The lore and everything around the feature is top notch but soloing the variant itself was kind of a drag toward the end. A little bit too much heatlh and/or too little mechanics to keep the bosses exciting for me. Maybe I should not have done this in 3 days but I really wanted to read more pages of the journal.
Really like Matt's FF videos.
And the new look really fits. 😆
What they need to fix is the inventory loot. Because when everyone leaves the last person gets all the items without give them a chance to say no. And that's not fair that can leave unnecessary junk on their loot
Criterion is like how I wanted M+ to be. Basically just 4 man raids you can do together with your friends during raid downtime. I hope they don't make the same mistake as Blizzard if they add gear. Mythic + misses the mark in terms of rewards. Rewards in lower keys like +15 are too good for being spamable content and bad for very high keys (+25 – +30). Also it feels bad if M+ players need to get Mythic raid gear just so they can compete in high M+ keys. I hope they find a way in XIV to avoid this situation. I feel like the best way would be to add unique weapons to criterion savage like in ultimates. I feel like tomestones should be changed instead of adding gear for all gear slots to criterion. I love criterion but I don't want to spend my entire time in these dungeons.
Also you look great Matt.