AnnaBananya: Anyone who isn't playing currently, just wait another year and check back.

FhtagnCthulhu: I returned a few weeks ago after leaving right after Dawntrail. I think DT really stumbled in storytelling (Not that there weren't rough spots before) and most of us are here at least partially for the story. Because of that, a lot of complaints we may have had on other aspects of the game were overlooked. I also think that there are some longstanding issues with the way that jobs and parties work that are getting pretty frustrating at this point. Honestly, there are intentional aspects of XIV's battle system design that I also just personally don't like that keep me from doing high end anyway.

As a 'casual' player though, the dungeons and normal raids have never been more fun. The actual battle content in DT is some of the best I have played. Between Dungeons, Trials, Raids, alliance Raids and some of Occult Crescent, there is a lot of content I am having a blast with.

7.3 doesn't fix all my issues with the writing, but it is a big improvement. Honestly though, I started in 3.0 and this is not

riplaekic: Game is not clicking atm. Recent patches are definitely better, but they still cannot seem to nail any one feature. Recent DDOS hasn't helped those with mixed feelings.

alenacheka: If you’ve never played this game you can get yourself a good couple of years to enjoy. FFXIV will forever have a place in my heart, but now it doesn’t click for me anymore. I tried to return to the game several times but after a couple of hours it becomes boring and empty, everything is the same

andrenetmaill: i've dropped dawntrail in the first week and never come back since.

Jooce-y5u: came back after a 1-year hiatus, the game seems empty at the moment

Royal.Grand.Majesty: I honestly feel really bad to say this.

I've enjoyed the game since I started playing in Stormblood. I've always defended the game and always saw any criticism with a half glass full approach.

But Dawntrail just broke me, it really wasn't what I was expecting. I've always loved FF14 for the story, yet even this has been a let down in DT.

I made the very hard decision to let my house be removed and have moved onto other narrative based games.

FF14 will always be something special in my heart and I hope great future success for it.

kenzotenma9214: It's almost 2026

Sephirothll: Game needs to reach the bottom for Devs to evolve basic things. The formula is "If it's generating money, theres no change. If money stop, then investors let dev change." Get the ideia and chose for yourself.

tone3973: I’m still in the honeymoon faze with this game.. I’m just 3 week old

feueld: It’s not imo.

agsdedluxferre2955: The community thing doesnt hold up anymore, when a game starts doing bad it increases the toxicity within the game and outside of it and I promise you it has. I don't know why people are still lying acting like this game's community is like it was 2 years ago. I've seen a massive increase, in community servers, and social circles of people flaming people behind their back only because if they did so in game they'd be banned. The reality is, the community is ran with an iron fist of "if its reported its banned" and if its not "its fine" meaning people get away with saying and doing all sorts of stuff they shouldn't, meanwhile little timmy makes a comment in social and is immediately whisked to the shadow realm because everyone didn't like timmy and decided to mass report him because they can twist what he said as "offensive" because the way the TOS is written its about what I find offensive not if its actually offensive or not which is very very broad and only a matter of time before you mess up if you speak openly.

So new players avoid public chats and be aware this game is very two faced unlike it was in shadowbringers. A lot of the two faced stuff used to be regulated to a small 2% loud minority on social media and elite raiding groups. But it has massively shifted to where its become common place, just saying you like something in the game outside of certain circles gets you flamed it's wild, and the once loving "it's just a game" community no matter what level content your in for normals is all but gone. People have begun to do what people do in wow and leave groups on wipes, bitch and moan if you struggle even a little, or shame you for not being as good at moving the little model around on screen and pushing the buttons as well as they do when you eventually would just get it on the second or third try. This is the first expansion i've wholy avoided roulettes because I dread a DT dungeon not because it's too hard but sometimes I slip up or my machine that's dying lags at a bad spot and I die and get absolutely flamed also first expansion I was kicked from a dungeon its wild. Shaming is also becoming public thing outside of niche circles and become more accepted on social media which is wild. Your also going to need discord to play this game unlike some other mmos on the market because the chat is so regulated most people won't actually talk to you within in it in detail.

There's also this shitty politics thing hovering over the game now which can flood your media feed with negative videos you don't want to see just because you watched your favorite animator or FF14 content creator so instead of getting good videos like these im constantly having to tell the algorithm I don't want to see the video which means the algorithm thinks I don't want to see FF14 content and so I don't see as much as i'd like.

Ok so something else to add, servers! Every mmo player knows you want to be on the server where the action is happening, well bad news once again despite the declining player base the dev team has locked two of the biggest server networks also called datacenters. If you love raiding the aether server is locked to hell and back and while you can data travel, they often block data travel during busy periods ya know when the raiding is happening. This means your forced to instead make a character on a different server, which if you've played mmos knows this is basically locking yourself off from the groups you want to do the content you want to do. If you like RP which i'll get into next, the crystal server is also becoming locked down despite having less players than ever. This patch as of writing this comment no new character can be made on crystal or Aether. This means you can't join any FCs on those servers unless your on them. Thankfully its easier to data travel to crystal than it is to aether but given raiding is most of end game its a big oof if your not already on aether.

If you like RP I also have bad news, with the introduction of plugins the RP scene practically forces you to break TOS and install third party tools because the devs won't use an iron fist and just mass ban the tools instead they have this "If we don't see it its fine UWU" BS take that needs to be relooked into as it's killing the social RP of the game for those of us who like TTRPG style RP in our mmos. The two main RP hubs are Balmung (An erp cesspit think moonguard goldshire but instead of just the inn it's the whole server.) and Mateus. Whats worse is your thinking, wait I thought mare was gone? Well it is and for a month RP was finally back on track, console players were actually going to bars, people were actually having fun writing moments, dice RP made a come back, people were ACTUALLY making their characters look cool and you could see it without plugins it was great! Then because the devs soft on plugins policies two new mares have already come into full light and people are talking about them openly in chat. Poof it all reverted back to gooner city. See the sharing of plugins was a cool concept at first I can understand the idea it lets you do custom animations, enhance RP in interesting ways, be custom ancestries, add details of features still ttrpg rpers like. BUT like anything else mod related gooners took it over full stop, what was meant to be a fun enhance to RP became a majority of gooner slop being generated. This horribly ruined the RP hubs, those clubs, those bathhouses, and other low effort venues are literally gooner hubs, they are all secretly modded. This ate the actual RP hubs, the dinners, the taverns, the fight arenas, the card shops, the libraries. and only very few remain and none remain during the late night hours if your an owl like me who plays at like 2am because thats the time gooner city hits full stop. Now nothing against gooners what I just said might be a for you but for most folks I feel coming into the game who seek RP, they want actual mmo roleplaying, silly adventures, fighting monsters, rping in dungeons, ect. Not just "hey lets use animations to watch our characters smash" and whats worse is it feels very Opt out when it should be opt in, if you try to RP you will be bombarded with people trying to be inappropriate with your character which is highly uncool, even moonguard in wow keeps it to the inn but FF14 players just lay it all out in the open its WILD.

I've pretty much wrote a book at this point but these are things you absolutely need to consider as a new player if you watched this video depending on your interests as you could find yourself massively disappointed to find much of the social side of the game has been taken over by third party tools you have to hide due to the dev team's soft on plugins policies. Only to further be disappointed by the current state of servers and the ever declining community good will that made this game awesome in its peak.

All in all FF14 is worth playing for it's MSQ, DT wasn't great but its a mixed bag so you might like it or you might hate it. It also has a fun crafting system with a nice community of buyers for your crafted goods. The game certainly has it's positives so if your looking for a game to just play through a storyline and kill some time crafting items you'll get some enjoyment out of it for sure. This novel I wrote is a bit excessive but I think more people need to hear the potential negative aspects of a product rather than all the positives because its the negative parts that will make or break if you enjoy the game or not depending on if they are negatives to that individual or even effect the individual in question.

matthewroberson4803: I just started playing and am having a BLAST

NPDStudio: I'm coming back for a month for 7.4, and might wait and dive back in for 8.0

steffren: I came back recently because apparently it's gotten better. It hasn't. The job design, relic weapon process, gear structure, MSQ, literally all of it dates back to when the game was released and none of it has changed significantly enough to feel current. I don't enjoy playing a class with 20 buttons. I don't enjoy running around in a Bozja-style field for hours on end (even days) in the hope that a certain coloured crystal drops. I don't enjoy farming tokens when the gear could just drop from the damn boss. The story was pretty much what made Shadowbringers and Endwalker good, and now we don't even have that anymore. They need to completely overhaul the game or the subscriber numbers are going to continue to fall rapidly. While we don't have the numbers, one look at social media and the amount of people I know that have quit tells me everything I need to know. On that note I'm also not surprised that a channel that posts exclusively FFXIV content is defending it, because you'd be out of job without it. Best PvE Raiding experience? Yup, absolutely love strictly choreographed / telegraphed fights that take place on a single platform and then wiping on that boss for weeks and calling it progression. That's my idea of fun right there.

Once the MSQ is done, there is only one thing this game does better than other MMOs, and one thing only: Community. That's it.

carsontyler3203: No, it's not. Save your money!

jakeliujakeliu: No better wait until 8.0 or if not played yet can try free trial from ARR

MAFIUS5454: Long Answer: This entire video. Short Answer: NO.

lecrab8090: If you've never played, it's always worth checking out. If you're someone that quit because you didn't like the direction, you should probably just accept that it will never be worth playing for you.

aly_tcg: I’m having ao much fun! I restarted this may and been obsessed since

Gregaric9106: No

chu1990: to me the game in itself isnt that bad, its the playerbase. Alot of very very sensitive people who need safe spaces for everything. If i return to the game for story i most likely will just stay FCless way too much drama people create over dumb things that make playing the game unfun.

Silvamoon: I basically come back for a month every patch or expansion. It’s enough to keep it entertaining.

DanielRoloff: tbf, a lot of the pros and cons depend on personal interest and also progression. if you are already a longtime player at endgame, then yes, you will have a tough time waiting for new content, but if you are new, or far behind endgame, the game has so much to offer.

pvp isn't the best, but the game as a whole is not pvp designed, if you want to focus on pvp, play something designed for that, like black desert

i'm a filthy casual, as interersting as high tier raiding sounds, the entry really isn't easy, especially without experienced people offering to coach newbies, but for me, there's stiff enough other stuff to do. i'm still working through the cosmic exploration, getting all tools, still have bozja and occult crescent to finish, still have all of the dawntrail relics to grind for; so many longterm goals to achieve, like x amount of a rank hunts, or getting all the tank mounts.

also i take my time, i play the game for 2-5 hours every other or 3rd day, i'm not a highschooler spending 8 hours a day in the game, grinding through every new patch on day 1, complaining how short it is.

then i have a friend who literally ignores 80% of the games content, and spends most of her time posing for screenshots and/or roleplaying, but she still has fun.

is the game perfect? no, it has it's fair share of issues.

can i look beyond them and still enjoy the game? absolutely

tldr, it comes down to personal interest and expectations

Sachiko-w5f: Basically the same format as every previous 'ff14 still worth playing?' nothing much to write home

pod155: a lot of people commenting really sound like a bunch of turbo causals that only act based around what big Youtubers tell them to think. The game is doing much better than it has been content wise in a very long time. It's just the opposite of Shadow Bringers; that the story suck, but the content is superb.

Like I understand that people want to think that the game fell off, because it's trendy, but I can wholeheartedly say the game is just fine. My friends and I have so much stuff to do and look forward to every time we log in, EX, MAPS, Monster Hunter farm, Deep Dungeon, Chaotic, etc... if you're too bad at the game to keep up with it, do everyone a favor and stop playing.

Also, if a house is the only thing keeping you around, maybe you should just go ahead and quit the game.

Nov 20 2025

Buy FFXIV GIL