Everybody loves Yoshi-P. Everybody loves Final Fantasy XIV. Hey, people even love Final Fantasy XVI. Creative Studio 3 is the best game developer in the industry. They have never made a bad product. Please continue to provide them with your hard-earned money in exchange for their products. I love Yoshi-P! I love Dawntrail! I love Wuk Lamat!
#finalfantasyxiv #mmorpg #gaming
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9:43 Shoutout to my wife for holding my phone up against my forehead to get this POV shot.
FFXVI was the best game I have ever played. I liked it so much more than anything else. Yeah, it is surely not perfect, but the presentation, graphics and music was insanely good
A lot of people are downvoting, but where's the lie? I agree with most of this. I couldn't catch up with my friends in Dawntrail, because I had a mental break running from one unvoiced cutscene to another across a map with nothing in it, for 7h in a row. I completely gave up trying to watch the cutscenes at some point, and now struggle to get through them in any game. FF14 completely drained my patience.
I've had a lot of fun returning to GW2. It's not a difficult game, but it has a lot of midcore content. I am happy when a boar attacks me in the open world, because it might have usable loot. Every piece of content is still relevant, and not arbitrarily tiered into obsolescence.
The man saved Squeenix
Worry about your business and dogs bruh
Worst 60 euros i spent last year on ff16 wouldve been more worth to buy 60 euros of weed tbh
3 Visual Novels in an MMORPG trench coat.
I think FFXIV's endgame is the worst i've seen in an mmo. Grind weekly each week in savage raids to increase your gear stats just for you to do it all over again and again until the last tier, making the gear you farmed pointless (except for glam). Majority of content at endgame is catered toward raiders, locking out and imo neglecting the players who are more casual or do not have the time or flexibility to be in statics. We havent had a field operation since ShB. Meanwhile they add a plethora of hardcore content to satisfy a portion of their players. I'm not hating on the harder content but if majority of endgame is focused toward a portion of players that applies to and nothing for the rest then that's bad game design.
Erping transvestites have become the face of this game, for some reason.
Dawntrail is the first expansion I refused to buy, and I haven't logged in or subbed since it's release. I started playing during Heavensward's patch "Revenge of the Horde" and started raiding in "Soul Surrender" (yes I even remember the names of the patches, because I had so damn much fun with the game back then); and I noticed the downfall in quality as soon as 3.0 (Stormblood) hit – not with the story, but with literally everything else. I still did some raiding with friends, but ultimately got more and more frustrated with the game and the direction it was going – that direction being the watering down or straight up removal of all the deep systems I enjoyed in Heavensward. And it only got worse with Shadowbringer and Endwalker. I am not planning to go back.
Can we just say his titles totally miss the mark on the only thing they want to do, tell a good story? Both FFXIV (looking at Dawntrail and parts of Endwalker) and FFXVI kinda drop the ball when it comes to story and storytelling.
Sooooo… Stories are meh, storytelling is meh, VAs are meh, gameplay is meh, characterization is meh, world building is meh.
Tbh I'm just sad 'cause I used to love XIV and, as a lot of people, purchased 16 in preorder just because. But I now realize ARR-ShB was just a lucky shot, a perfect storm gone long ago
hit the nail on the head.
The community won't accept it though, they're absolutely blind to ANY flaws this game has – however, a louder and louder crowd is being heard about just how stale and safe this game has become.
Sad reality is that casuals complained about Dawntrail dungeons being too hard lol
this whole thing read like a long therapy session for me. there isnt a single point i disagree with.
this type of game design is what works today. many people are fooled into thinking theyre gamers, and you can find them all on platforms like twitter, bearing arms against anyone who critiques either 14 or 16, never knowing that this medium used to have a soul.
I think the most valid critique is how the world is made. Not even the lack of danger, but the lack of exploration and incentives to do so. Everything else (with both 16 and 14) is likely due to "lessons" CBU3 learned with FFXIV (TL;DR: the players were a major part of why things got this way, any difficulty in the non-raiding content got a lot of outcry from the vocal minority), but the zones in FFXIV were always kind of…just there. I don't think they've ever purposefully tried to make them differently, even Eureka was only slightly different because of how dangerous the enemies are. In fact, I think they just don't know a different way, because for the last 15 years, they've made their zones that way.
Someone asked yoshi p during the dawntrail interviews an interesting question, it went something like this
"Are you planning to spice up the dungeons? Experiment with the template, because now we have 3 bosses, and between each one of those we have 2 pack of trash mobs.."
And then I realised, yea? It is like that, it's literally down to the formula. Why can't we have dungeons with 4 bosses? Alli raids with 6? or 2? Just do whatever, something different. Nowadays you enter a dungeon and it's the same sht…
And he replied that
"They don't want to do that, because it allows them to make the dungeons really quick, the artists/designers know how many bosses there will be and how the dungeon will flow, with it being formulaic like that they can design a dungeon really quick. Same about the amount of alli raids, expansion content etc. Their workflow can be easily planned out, that's the reason"
Wish I had a link to that, because it's a really rough recollection.
At that point i understood the issue with this game, and that this will probably not change. Back in ARR they had to have this strict workflow to fix the game. You mentioned a bit about in the video. Seems like they're still stuck in ARR mindset and are afraid to go out of their comfort zone. That's why with every expansion we basically get the same game over and over again, LITERALLY down to the formula, you can predict the amount of content and what kind will be released throughout the expansion. It's fkin boring.
Dawntrail is a wakeup call for many, there's absolutely no gameplay in this game, at least when it comes to the long af story.
Speaking of the story, what sort of strategy is this? They make a critically acclaimed expansion, Shadowbringers, that literally shines a spotlight on their game, they get a huuuge wave of new players and WoW refugees. Everyone absolutely loves the story, everyone is hooked on the universe and the writing.
So what do they do? They end the saga that got everyone interested. Move their great writer Ishikawa away from a writing position to an overseeing position. And replace everything with the dumpster fire we got. Whoever was behind dawntrail should get fired, at least moved away to a lower position. How can the writing go to such a dog sht level in one expansion is baffling.
13:38 I don't inherently disagree with your take on gear. However, in a majority of games, most gear is trivialized to stat stick or a piece of equipment that buffs a certain skill or ability. For you to feel nothing from achieving that BiS is understandable, but since ARR that's what the game has been like so maybe you just don't like the game?
As for XVI it feels like you chose to not invest into the system and try different things other than "your combo that you have been doing since the beginning of the game."
You can try by taking away will-O-wykes and inputting different primal to do snazzy combo strings.
End all be all its your choice and your opinion is your own! Hope you have a good day!
First things first, I'm ESL so sorry about any English grammar errors!
I agree that FFXIV is at a crisis point (and contrary to what many say, form e this point has already started in Endwalker, especially the post-patches, who plays the endgame as I do know what I'm talking about, but I disagree with many points addressed in this video.
It's not Naoki Yoshida's fault – it's the fault of the Final Fantasy franchise and the Square Enix company as a whole.
This problem of invisible walls already happened before FFXVI. One of the biggest criticisms of XV is the amount of it and the map being unexploreable in a whole, and considering the last FF games released (XII, XIII, XV and XVI, XIV being the exception because it is an MMORPG), XVI is probably the best one. XV per example needed DLCs to solve its narrative problems and had a large amount of contente removed in the final version of the game (like Insomnia).
You were also unfair in some things – compared the map design of ARR (which yourself mentioned in the video to be from the PS3 era), when we have amazing map design in later expansions, and then I would only agree with the lack of interactions on these maps (although understandable for being na MMORPG, I already think this game, especially after Dawntrail launch, is poorly optimized, let alone what it would be like if it had more map interactions).
You also said that the hunts don't offer difficulty, but compared it to low level hunts, which to me makes sense it doens't offer harder fights, because we are max level, so it needs to be easier. Even so, most S rank hunts can hithill you with the mechanics and aoes offered by them, even at lower levels, and in general I don't want an Absolute Virtue 2.0 fight. Hunts are farmable contente, it is made to be easy, people make hunt trains, no one wants to got through an "extreme fight" every single time. Also, rare FATEs (like Chi on Endwalker) are still harder fights, mainly due to the level sync, and only suffer some kind of "cheese" against Blue Mages on level 80 and below.
Even with criticism involving the ease of the current contente, in fact the opposite effect is happening – many people, in forums and outside, complained about the higher difficulty spike in Dawntrail's dungeons and raids (harder aliance, harder normal raids, harder dungeons, the expert one Strayborough Deadwalk with the first boss being one of the most "stupid" bosses in the game).
About progression, imo it's a matter of perspective. I had a lot of advantage with DRG BiS (ex I solo farm SB EX, especially Tsukuyomi, making profit with the materials, selling the shiny weapons). I'm also a player who likes to optimize my gameplay (yes I care about shiny numbers from a site), but clearly the gear helps in killing faster even in Dawntrail (faster kills = faster farming = faster items = faster profit).
I agree that the game is not immersive, but that's a problem in the entire game, not Dawntrail. Even HW and SHB (best exp imo) have many quests where you help a person X with Y problems that has no relation to the bigger problem, Endwalker being the worst in this regard when in the middle of the end of the world you have to talk to Loporrits or look for 6 scients in an area of Labyrinthos in a very boring and time-consuming quest.
Overall, I believe Chaotic is a good step, also we will have Beastmaster that will expand the contente horizon, the return of Field Ops that is something excelente (Endwalker have the WORST relic imo), so Dawntrail (atleast for me) is on a positive path, better than the path that Endwalker was taking. Dawntrail is, umtil now, being an exp focusing more on QoL and things like that. I don't think it's wrong to criticize, regardless of wether we agree witch each other or not, because everyone desserves to have a good time with this game, because both you, me and everyone else pays the same montly fee, so we desserve to have our good experience.
The problem is, as I mentioned before and used several examples, it is not something exclusive to Yoshida, but to the company itself, and unfortunately I fear that if they fires Yoshida and put another guy on his place, this game would probably go bankrupt, because given the situation of several life servisse games in recente years, Yoshida is probably the best diretor among them. I'm not a fan of Yoshida myself, I've made several criticisms of him in the past (especially in the Endwalker period), but I admit that he tries a lot, and a lot is also not in his control, especially Square Enix being a company with a negative reputation in ecent years.
Anyways, good video in general! New sub!
I only play for my friends now, after ew i expected dt to be so much better. To actually let the wol relax and unpack the tramas of the shbr and ew. I mean we literally had our soul ripped out and shoved into some random dead imperial soldier and we gonna unpack that?
I didn't want another 'save the world' plot, i wanted to see more of the wol's personality??? Ff14 has really made me hate silent protagonists. In making an everyman he appeals to no man
If the next protagonist is yet another edgelord/lady (looking at Lightning, noctis, clide) I just might become one.
Gimme another carefree blondie with no ties to a monarchy.
Honestly that stock footage of the dev floor, if that is cbu3 then I hope the lady with the Jack frost figure takes inspiration from atlus and passes it on to yoship for ff17, sega have been killing it in the jrpg space, and square is lagging. Its a shame too, octopath traveller has an amazing turn based system and does a great Job innovating the ff5 Job system and the brave system. I would love if they had the courage to do an atlus and stick to there guns innovating the same system over and over until it feels great, like the smt press turn system, rather then either playing it safe or trend chasing.
Xenoblade as a series is the original FF devs. They understand emergent gameplay and world threatening better than Square. FF14 is the literal ppposite of Xenoblade. Xenoblade has items, chests, rare monsters, high level monsters in low level areas to constantly keep you aware of everything. Square Enix qnd their design philosophy has left a sour taste in my mouth. It is kind of sad that the best RPG they have made in years is Dragon Quest 3. Square should take a good hard look at DQ and see why people loved those games and what they do differently than FF. Ff14 doesnt even feel like an rpg where your gear matters all the way through normal raiding at the final level.
Th issue you have isn't with ff games, almost every one of those points can be any rpg game. Gear is a means to an end, any story game will push the player through to get the major story points. With most with the choice aspect of gear you either get forced down a rabbit hole to progress a specific way for the current raid due to players making it so, or you have simplistic general bis to not exclude anyone not playing the meta. In any story game the scenery is just a set dressing especially in ff games. In almost ever ff game it's either barren ground to fight mobs or is a hallway
The worst part about comparing 14 to 16 is with 14 you pay 20 dollars a month to watch cutscenes
Bro, you could have everything you want by just playing Guilty Gear Strive instead of Final Fantasy. So why complain about FF being baby mode, or DMC, or any PVE game. They should allow hard modes at the start the same way they should allow easy mode and skip cutscene, but there are so many more jrpgs that aren't easy just play one of those. tl;dr go play GGST and a real SMT game.
While Yoshi-P deserves praise for what he did for XIV in ARR, I truly do not know how he is still considered the patron saint of game development in the eyes of the playerbase. XIV has quickly become one of the safest, most neglected cash cows in the history of gaming and a lot of that is attributed to Yoshi-P's corporate minded nature, where he develops "packages" of content that has worked in the past and just repeats them ad nauseum with close to zero innovation.
I actually truly believe it's not the "spaghetti code" that causes a lot of the problems we see in XIV. It's bizarre creative choices, lack of funds from SE, and corner cutting. FF16 proved that. If a small mobile game studio can rebuild the entirety of the game to be more responsive and have QoL players have been asking for for half a decade, I don't see how the great Square Enix can't do the same. I really don't.
I went from being stunned at how great FFXIV was pre Dawntrail…
…to being stunned at how bad Dawntrail was, and requesting a refund.
What a massive fall from grace imo…
I never made it more than 20 levels into 14. For 16, me and my roommate had a conversation about game design while he mashed one button and periodically tilted a stick or let a cutscene with naked people not having sex play.
The level design also struck me as archaic. Those are NES Final Fantasy rooms in 3d with pretty texture work. I'd love combat rooms that pretty in a DMC sequel, but holy hell, Squeenix has been bad at level design for years and they aren't getting better in a hurry. Remember when Final Fantasy games started off letting you roam a little and go fight that optional overpowered dinosaur near the starting area?
Yoshi P saved the game with ARR. He built it up through the expansions, culminating in the excellent Endwalker MSQ. Unfortunately, he got a huge amount of plaudits and then split his attention to work on XVI. This was too much and XIV suffered for it with EW post-MSQ and now DT. He needs to understand that he can't grasp all the responsibilities he has been given and to go back to basics. Find good writers and put them in key positions, NOW!
As a fan of CBU3, I agree with most of these points. If they work on these points and provide a story on the level of Heavensward, Shadowbringers, or Endwalker the sky is the limit. Great vid.
i feel this boils down to why can't set pieces be like darksouls. While that is nice it is also a bit silly. wanting to do more with less is a hallmark of the video game space. I personally hate it when they have extra set pieces but don't do much with them. however, i did enjoy the story of FF16. the game's lack of difficulty felt less like the game being bad and more the game just being in the modern setting. I do understand that wanting to pilot the boat to avoid slashes would be cool but also understand why it was not done. some of the game play enhancements would be nice albeit generally square enix is spreading their people thin on projects at times so i also understand not implementing that one section of the game.
however, i do have beef is the 1 hour play session complaint. RPGs take time. Japanese ones especially like persona, final fantasy, and many more. those games have such a focus one story that it would be disingenuous to say that you devoting one hour didn't have gameplay when you are at a story beat. the point of those games is for there to be a story to engage and when it asks you to engage, then yeah it is something to sit down and watch/read. complaining that a game that's genre usually recommend more than 1 hour play sessions and only playing 1 hour would be unsatisfying is a not great.
i feel mixed on this. on one hand yeah i do want more from these games. i do want more difficulty and area exploration. however, on the other hand i feel this video also shows a lack of wanting to play RPGs in general and wanting to play more action games as you don't ahve to worry as much or devote as much time. this partially comes from the long work day comment. at that point while it would be nice maybe long game genre's might not work for you or games with daily bonuses to work to would be more your speed.
Maybe you should try playing the game
You really said it all with this one, so I don't have much to add. I've always liked FF14 despite its flaws, but now that the MSQ sucked, it's harder for me to forgive those flaws (I still haven't been able to bring myself to finish Dawntrail). I feel like CBU3's biggest problem is that they are too afraid to offend any part of their playerbase. Everything they make is frictionless. Any challenge or excitement is caged away in their higher difficulty raid content that more casual players don't have to worry about. And I myself am a fairly casual player, but I too want something exciting even if I don't bother with raiding. I want to discover something in the game's world. I want to progress my character in meaningful ways outside of just the looks of my outfits. I want the game world to feel alive and not just a set piece for the MSQ. I want to have some choice (what about a talent tree of some kind? What about making side quests with player choice altering the narrative? Anything that isn't just "click a highlighted object" or "speak to this npc"?). But they don't want to "force" anything on their playerbase. So yeah, the base game is just predictable and boring gameplay-wise, and I don't see it changing any time soon.
I just want classic turn-based combat back. I hate modern Final Fantasy games which are Final Fantasy in name only.
So he became another Kojima, where they're releasing interactive movies lol
Such a based take. I unsubbed last week for pretty similar reasons. Gonna lose my house and I don't even give a fuck. All you missed imo were the massive 4 month gaps between content updates.
FF14 went from shit to playable but then stopped there. Final Fantasy in its entirety pretty much died with X-2, anyway.
Pretty much spot on at least with 14, I wont' touch 16 due to it being a rehash of 14. Played 14 since 1.0, and your completely right about the gear, hence I have 0 motivation to raid in also the fact all the "fights" boil down to DDR-with friends & guitar hero. In the age of AI and self driving cars it feels kinda old. I haven't even tried dawntrails MSQ due to flat out boredom with the job design and system as a whole. Yoshi had good ideas but also he gets extreme tunnel vision design-wise and now that FF14 is a "success" he will never admit something in the game failed. Just look at how many times he tried to shove Diadem down our throats shivers or the current housing situation. They are so scared of "failure" or upending "balance" that nothing ever changes.
Too based, one of my favorite memories in FFXIV is sneaking around in kugane with Lyse and that asshole namazu who tried to scam us, the reason it stuck with me is because i was a ninja at the time and when i read the description of the item you are given to dodge the guards i was like "hol' up will this work?" And i used NIN's hide to completely trivialize the duty, it was the only moment in the game i experienced emergent gameplay, where my choice of bringing one job over another actually mattered
Yeah, I agree with your points. I feel like DT was a pretty package but wasn't FUN. I'm tired of running from one spot to another, clicking piles of dirt, talking to npcs, and watching cutscenes. I adore 14 but I pay monthly to play a game. If the gameplay and story aren't up to par, then I'm just paying to play old content. I've been getting back into GW2 lately and finding the horizontal progression a breath of fresh air. Every little bit of progress feels meaningful because it won't become obsolete in a few months, I can build a unique class + gearset, etc. I really want 14 to improve but it feels like robbery just paying my sub to keep my house from getting demolished..