Spoilers ahead...
So, I've been playing XIV consistently since COVID.
I was so immersed, in love with the game, genuinely enjoying every single second of all the expansions leading through Shadowbringers. Yes I even loved ARR, because, lets be honest, if you didn't love xiv in ARR, you probably wouldn't be here today. The way the characters build up, environments, story, everything was handled. I loved it. However, I cannot help but feel neglected, forgotten, and taken advantage of. We've given devs "longer patch cycles, so they can give better content" and we've seemingly gotten less effort. I cried at the ending of Endwalker, that moment in Ultima Thule, where you walk with the shades of the past, it really touched me as someone who loves this game, the people, and the places.
That's about as far as I can genuinely say I've been in love with XIV.. Once the patch quests started to roll out, in Endwalker, they did not give me hope. It felt as if there was no real direction, no real idea of what was going to happen next. A spin off series in the 13th with Zero (how is she btw? lmao..). Then we get to the final patch cycle where we're suddenly agreeing to help this super passionate character to win her throne.
I'm not going to say anything about the story telling of Dawntrail, because.. let's be real.. there's enough of that. The zones? Beautiful. The story? Acceptable.. but it's a bit all over the place feeling once the fleets from alexandria show up, and we move into the Solution 9 side of the story.
My genuine concern with XIV recently has been.. What are we getting?
Is what we ask for as a playerbase even considered? We have Event quests for seasonal, big time holidays and such being widdled down to what feels like "Go talk to this person.-- Now talk to this person. -- Now go back to this person. -- Congrats heres a orchestrion roll." What happened to the community events? Fates? Interactions with other people? Even the Valentines event didn't have the normal "trust" instance for you and your partner to tackle.
We have job designs being nuked. Homogenizing classes does NOT mean people will be more willing to play them. I do understand that some balancing to classes is necessary, but taking identities from jobs away just to make them easier to attract new people to them is not what it should be about. Jobs need to have individuality. Classes like black mage for instance do not need to be made easier to attract players away from pictomancer. Pictomancer was a choice in its own right, it should've never been made to be that way. (More in replies, 3800 characters too long apparently..)
Continue reading...
So, I've been playing XIV consistently since COVID.
I was so immersed, in love with the game, genuinely enjoying every single second of all the expansions leading through Shadowbringers. Yes I even loved ARR, because, lets be honest, if you didn't love xiv in ARR, you probably wouldn't be here today. The way the characters build up, environments, story, everything was handled. I loved it. However, I cannot help but feel neglected, forgotten, and taken advantage of. We've given devs "longer patch cycles, so they can give better content" and we've seemingly gotten less effort. I cried at the ending of Endwalker, that moment in Ultima Thule, where you walk with the shades of the past, it really touched me as someone who loves this game, the people, and the places.
That's about as far as I can genuinely say I've been in love with XIV.. Once the patch quests started to roll out, in Endwalker, they did not give me hope. It felt as if there was no real direction, no real idea of what was going to happen next. A spin off series in the 13th with Zero (how is she btw? lmao..). Then we get to the final patch cycle where we're suddenly agreeing to help this super passionate character to win her throne.
I'm not going to say anything about the story telling of Dawntrail, because.. let's be real.. there's enough of that. The zones? Beautiful. The story? Acceptable.. but it's a bit all over the place feeling once the fleets from alexandria show up, and we move into the Solution 9 side of the story.
My genuine concern with XIV recently has been.. What are we getting?
Is what we ask for as a playerbase even considered? We have Event quests for seasonal, big time holidays and such being widdled down to what feels like "Go talk to this person.-- Now talk to this person. -- Now go back to this person. -- Congrats heres a orchestrion roll." What happened to the community events? Fates? Interactions with other people? Even the Valentines event didn't have the normal "trust" instance for you and your partner to tackle.
We have job designs being nuked. Homogenizing classes does NOT mean people will be more willing to play them. I do understand that some balancing to classes is necessary, but taking identities from jobs away just to make them easier to attract new people to them is not what it should be about. Jobs need to have individuality. Classes like black mage for instance do not need to be made easier to attract players away from pictomancer. Pictomancer was a choice in its own right, it should've never been made to be that way. (More in replies, 3800 characters too long apparently..)
Continue reading...