Yes, I paused a lot. There’s a lot to say and this is something I’ve been talking about for weeks, maybe even months. Repetitive maybe, but the discussion needs to be had and people need to be more critical of the issues. Dawntrail needs to do better and people need to stop pretending that it’s fine for an MMO to not feel like an MMO anymore, and for veteran players to be given less and less despite the game’s success.
Original Video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3fwXgcZvjQ
Zepla HQ – https://www.youtube.com/@ZeplaHQ
Twitch – https://www.twitch.tv/serenaya_carrin
Twitter – https://www.twitter.com/SerenayaCarrin
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The raids in this expansion have definitely been dogshit, maybe the first savage tier was good, but the others we absolute garbage
is the job balance still bad? I thought they mostly fixed it after the p8s disaster. I'm very new to high end content and I am genuinely curious.
It's almost impossible for me to like a game as much as I like XIV and the devs still find a way to fumble the bag so badly that the only time I ever log on is when I need to raid because I made a commitment to 7 other people.
but SE managed to do it ^-^
I have this theory that the relics were made for people doing top to get to get that negligibly diminutive amount of dmg and that’s why they made them easy to get, lmao.
The cherry on top is Square adding the Shadowdog mount to mogstation, while simultaneously giving a middle finger to Blue Mages
"i went on twitter where all the people who follow me already agree with me, this surely must be an accurate representation of the wider sentiment"
Just to offer context, Stormblood was notorious for crunch, and the devs have explicitly said they're not intending to do that level of content again (it's why the second dungeon was nixed, because it was the least important content being added).
That being said though, here's the actual issues I've seen:
Raiding has been exceptionally stressful this expansion, with Asphodelus (actually the best tier this expansion) into DSR (Which was ruthlessly difficult) into Abyssos (which was a mess) into TOP (an even bigger mess) into Anabaseios, and I know several statics that fell apart or burned out (I myself had to skip Anabaseios because Abyssos was That Bad).
A lot of resources have been devoted to reworking existing content (Trusts, PvP), experimenting with new content ideas (Criterion), fixing existing design mistakes (A ton more housing), new social/QoL features (Adventure Plates, Portraits, Fashion Accessory improvements), amongst other things. Obviously these are good things, but they're not repeatable content.
99.99% of the malding is because there isn't an Exploratory Zone this expansion, and I've been saying that all expansion. Endwalker doesn't have a time sink to stop these sorts of videos from existing, which is arguably a godsend if you have to juggle several games (I play Genshin on the side, as well as weaving in whatever other games I can).
I'd argue that what we recognise as the era of "I play only one Game, and No Life it" has probably ended as a result of changes in the overall gaming market, and the devs are adjusting to this.
Whenever people mention "we got two Ultimates though!" They always seem to forget, the devs outright said DSR was 70% finished when they paused. Sure, they had to go back and readjust to the level and damage scaling but a lot of the work was already done. DSR is at best both a Shadowbringers and Endwalker Ultimate.
Might be just me but the life service nature of expansions is pretty much the reason why I never play the hottest new expansion in any MMO. I always play the previous one until I'm satisfied, play something else and return when all the patches are through and everyone else is excited for the next big expansion coming around. That way there's always something fresh around the corner and I don't have to wait for the devs to drip-feed me new content. So yeah haven't touched Endwalker yet, will probably get into it soon tho.
Talk about a massive hot take.
I thought it was a sarcastic title but… wow. People actually believe that shit?
I’m not an hardcore raider and I mostly enjoy the game for the story and side content and when content lul appears I play to something else, but I followed zepla channel for many years, loved her shenanigans and even played with her when she was still on Phoenix.
Like she said she got burned out and have hot takes about EW I don’t fully agree with but at the same time how could she enjoy EW when at the same moment she basically had to flee Ukraine when the bombs started to fall ?
when finally she had some rest probably half the content of the expansion was already cleared and she hard focused on doing ultimate.
Also it’s a bit hypocritical to talk like she does when the last few months was her playing genshin impact all days, she clearly have gaming addiction and it’s sad to see she burned out herself like this.
dont get me wrong, i can see the issues and critizism, but damn how the wind has changed. A year ago ff14 was praised as the holy grail of mmo's, story, rich content etc. and blizzard was the evil cash grabber. Now there is more like …weeeeell, atleast blizzard does… xD and ff14 is boring, formulated and Endwalker is lazy! What i in parts also think. The relic thing really bugged me, cuz while manderville story is cool, the relic is the most laziest thing. The new variant, i wasnt even in yet. I forgot about it. Island i go once a week, get the stuff, do the workshop and go out for a week again. The only thing that is consistent is raid and only cuz i am shit and need ages for savage and social aspects, rp, clubs, but that i am tired of at the moment as are many i think. Socially exhausted cuz no game content! ^^ I think what keeps ff14 lively mostly atleast in towns and housing areas is, cuz many ppl see ff14 as a social hub and second life! Less an actual game! Even i did that for a time until i got tired. But i came from WoW where i chased carrots for years before! ^^
I started in 5.3 Shadowbringers so Endwalker was my first expansion to go through from start to finished. I personally loved the story and don't care about the "fanservice" as it's Final Fantasy, and I think it served as a good send off for the main story. Now the Epilogue is a bit weird as I don't mind it, but the shift from it to what we are seeing of Dawntrail atm is a bit jarring although this could be a "Warriors of Darkness" scenario in which the contents of this Epilogue will play a major role in a later expansion.
As for Job Balance, I am just starting into Savage proper as well as progging UwU and have done Extremes so I probably don't have the knowledge to suggest much. I do think this 2 Minute raid buffs is a pain and should go as I feel it's really punishing if you die since you lose out on so much damage if you miss a window, let alone messing up your rotation. I think buffs should be used when the player thinks it should so you can still have those burst windows and are rewarded for holding them until you use them.
As for relics, I do wish they used Criterion, Eureka Orthos or even Island Sanctuary to get materials needed for them. The 1500 tomes is just boring. I think the Anima Lux Weapons are the best Relics because after you do certain steps you can buy some materials after doing with tomestones but still required you to do stuff like light farming which was a bit boring but still something do.
I love this game and I am excited for Dawntrail as it seems to be going be a fresh start once again, but I want it to be a game which I can enjoy and get my friends on to play with me instead of being alone which has let me meet new people and make new friends, but I miss having my old friends who only now get on to play the new patch MSQ/ maybe do the new extreme. I really hope Dawntrail gives us that fun replayability that encourages us to keep playing as well as making jobs fun and different to play.
Just some quick thoughts of mine.
Here's my take, I enjoyed this release. Because I had time to play other games. I didn't need to log into FFXIV to grind for my relic weapon, didn't fight with friends and family because I rather do content in this game. I got through back logged games on my own time.
Its relaxing to log on, get a few stuff done, and log out.
Would it be nice to have some grind content? Yes, but we would be right here again saying there's not enough stuff to do.
I think people just have a hard time adjusting to a change in direction on how FFXIV is designed. I think older expansions have been designed to stay in the game. Then they changed direction to "play it whenever you want" and you'll still be relevant gear-wise and character progression-wise.
I've always said EW is the best spot to stop playing especially for older players who've played for 5+ years, if you want to stop.
The game is 10+ years old. The devs are in 9-5 mode and I doubt it's gonna change as this point. It should of "Ended" at Endwalker. I'm ready for FFXVII Online but SE is a small indie company, please understand. I have the Hunter Wolf title (0.4%), the Penguin Prince minion (1.5%), Chocobo Race Barding (3.2%), the Magicked Card mount (3.8%), at least one of each relic completed minus Stormblood (last phase I think). There's plenty to do but you can tell the clock in clock out cycle has taken it's toll on the devs where they are too scared to give out decent rewards and they just save their focus for the Online Store (Criterion 2 was decent tho).
For vets like myself (ps3 beta) there's not much else to sink into really. Static Raiding, Ultimates, & "Competitive" PVP has gave way to tool assisted cheats(or the pressure to have them) so it's mute content for me. Add to the fact there's a lot of players with "Mare" in their Adventurer Plate profiles, we're in scary territory with the state of the game for the actual "purists" out there. I do appreciate the quicker grind but you can tell when it's phoned in here and there. Especially when we are getting TWO DPS classes for Dawntrail. They might have to end roll restrictions entirely in the future. Gear progression should also be eliminated but that's a discussion 5 years from now. You're only as good as the gear you wear is dinosaur stuff for 2023 and beyond.
Something I'm quite curious to know more about is how much time and work was needed to create duty support for everything prior to Shadowbringers. Like how much of each patch's development cycle did Duty Support consume, percentage wise? 10%? 20%? And since that undertaking will finally be complete soon, that does mean that amount of effort will now be free to go toward something else during Dawntrail's patch cycles.