NarutoOnDope: you really underestimate how much Wuk-Lamat turns people off the game.

jamesrusselleriii8284: Let's be honest, so long as this game continues to bankroll Square-Enix's megaflops, nothing is going to change.

LightSummoner84: I'm sorry, but yes—the state of the game is catastrophic because it's having its human resources drained by other CBU3 projects.

This is clearly proven by the current patch cycle: it was initially announced as 4 months, but since Endwalker, the average has been 4.5 months instead of the promised 4.

Previously, it was 3.5 months, which was reasonable.

Today, it’s not, and this increase in delay raises our spending to $80/€70 because the waiting period has gone from 2 years to 2.5 years.

And who pays for that? The consumer. All for rushed content and scraps.

I'm sorry, but they’re not allocating enough resources to their flagship content, which renders it soulless and completely lacking in innovation.

It’s been a long time since CBU3 remembered what "taking risks" or "innovation" means.

We had far more—and higher quality—content back in Stormblood, with 3.5-month cycles, than now, where everything feels incredibly superficial, copy-pasted from old ideas, with no innovation, just déjà vu. Unfortunately, they’ve forgotten what made FF14’s special.

At this point, I’m sorry, but burying our heads in the sand won’t help: the game has already hit the iceberg and is sinking.

And sadly, given Square Enix's current policies and the lack of investment in the game—and I’m not just talking about financial cost, but the clear lack of human resources—it will never recover.

It will only keep declining.

That’s inevitable unless they outsource part of the work on the official version, like they did with the mobile version.

FF14 has no bright future and will sink into an unrecoverable state.

And since the developers and the CEO of Square Enix don't care—despite the complaints that have been around for years and the sentiment that's been felt for a long time—the game will sink.

Square Enix has only itself to blame for having such a toxic policy toward both its staff and its consumers.

wackantheduck6883: It's actually just because nothing is happening. They're moving WAY too slow in response to these issues. You need to curb them instantly or it will grow exponentially as people start to believe they aren't being listened to (in this case they are right). Them not acting leaves people thinking the team isn't up to the task which in turn amplifies dissapointment from the lackluster additions they are making to the game (because they have absolutely zero clue what they are doing)

Add on top of this the fact that Dawntrail completely killed the story and cheapened the world to such a degree that I simply do not want to live in this world. The fact that Dawntrail is canon lessens the rest of the storyline. I know that for me atleast no possible addition in 8.0 to the story will ever be enough so long as FAMILEE AND TACOOOSS AND CULTUREEE (tacos) is happening on another continent. How can I ever get invested in a future storyline when there is an actual entire continent of wholesome 100 big chungus redditors that inhabit a continent triple the size of Eorzea with less conflict than the Brume, where the actual real conflict is that the lizard people decided to fight the cats because they got tired of eating bananas for so long (which we solve by giving them potatos to eat instead)

elouiseharriet5497: When we first met Wuk Lamat in post content I knew DT was going to be awful. It was just more awful than I anticipated.

Remend1: All of the negativity surrounding this game would have been easily resolved if they took accountability for the issues in Dawntrail, apologized, and gave us a road forward of what they're doing to fix each of the major problems (Job Identity, length between patches, lack of content, bad story, poor communication, ect.)

SE listened to nothing we said, oversold, and underdelivered quite literally everything we've seen in Dawntrail aside from graphical changes, and the raid series. Occult crescent, and Stellar Exploration, and not mention the disaster that Forked Tower was a total failure to me. Boring, very grindy and badly designed. The story marginally getting better will not draw me back when they are repeatedly making excuses like not having enough money to make a normal mode of forked tower, while releasing $42 glamour sets... It shows where their priorities really lie. Yoshi P said it best, "Go play other games".

powergi3996: The negativity has reached the JP community, so NOW things might actually change in the future.

pklifeupa7064: Thats what toxic positive gets ya...

GAF516: You call it negativity, some just call it what it is. The truth.

einjharrelraca: And what makes all of this worse, is that endwalker and shadowbringers were the two most profitable expansions in MMO history.

The fact that the result of that is mediocre story, led by a mediocre character, with decent at best content. Savage raids are sick, but not even CLOSE to good enough to carry an entire expansion.

pedromoreira6218: the way we got here is because of something i call the Square Enix effect when things are at a point they will go bankrupt they listen to people but when they start getting out of the Red they fall back in their old ways of "we know best" and this is the same thing that happened to 14 devs taht thought they knew best and grew complacent and now they got to a point of "oh shoot people are mad actually"

AlexanderMartinez-kd7cz: -the game grows big

-the higher ups want more money

-they need the normies to get that much money

-the game simplifies gameplay to fit those normies

-the OGs complain

-the normies cry accessibility/elitism

-gameplay gets gutted

-normies keep flooding in

-profits grow

-higher ups want more money

-gameplay has no corners left to cut, story gets simplified to fit normie standards

-OGs complain

-normies don't care just turn your brain off

-normies are the majority now

-story gets gutted

-game's rep is in shambles

-higher ups want more money

-abusive monetization is introduced

-OGs complain

-normies don't care

-normies are majority

-game becomes cashcow

-OGs leave

it's the cycle of life.

rodimus580: People are in denial about how bad things are and how many players have left since dawn trail. And this whole OC garbage it was the last straw. The story isn’t compelling, late updates like 5-7 years later shows you where their priorities are and it isn’t the paying customer. so, my money goes to better games. Nostalgia and cope won’t hold people forever. But I understand…it was the cost right?

ZaneLynx: 14 has been my bread and butter mmo for the longest time, but now its not like that anymore. I feel that people speaking about the negative things for the game being silenced or given the most hostile responses helped lead to this. If you are not willing to have real discussions about issues that come up without getting emotionally attached, then the little mole hills become massive mountains down the road. People forget how 1.0 became ARR, it was because it was lambasted right from the get, no excuses, no emotional defense lawyers protecting them, just straight up real complaints about the game and they fixed it. Dawntrail was okay IMO, they fumbled it and didn't win any brownie points with it, but to see it continue to nose dive is pretty heart breaking. Maybe its time to try another MMO until the 14 team gets their act together.

Canned_Corn_isgood: Idk, they really dropped the ball, and what sucks is they have other games they could pull more inspiration from. WoW came back from the dead and is introducing an incredible new expansion with Midnight. Guild wars 2 is like arguably the most MMORPG MMORPG we have rn...like it sucks that FFXIV is where it is.

reluttr2: It's because the game by modern standards is just as jank as 1.0 was at release and its clear Square is not willing to do another ARR to course correct. If anything they are looking to double down on monitization and just let the PC game burn in favor of restarting everyone on the cash leech gacha nightmare that will be the mobile version.

FubukiTheIcyKing: How hard is it to write a naive character trying to be a hero, and have that character learn and grow?

Ruzgfpegk: I don't hate the game, I still play it daily and overall like it, but the string of disappointments is starting to weight.

During Endwalker I was like "this is fine, content is slow because they're surely preparing something huge for Dawntrail".

For Dawntrail I expected another ARR in the way that there would be new regions with sub-zones and city-states, each with their own myths and lore layered through multiple eras, but to kick off 10 more years… we only got the same amount of content as usual, proving that there was no new solid ground for the next decade.

And yes, the relics, the "Excel sheet simulator" island, the chaotic alliance and forked tower raids that were uninviting to most players, the ugly 13th reflection, Wuk Lamass, increasingly expensive cash shop items, less communication from/with the devs, out of touch justifications to make content for a minority of players while ignoring the majority, jobs losing their "spark of fun" one after another, …

I know a lot of players who stopped being regulars during Dawntrail, but I bet many more will leave FFXIV as their main game if the next expansion follows the same trend.

evelynfive5684: The consequences of simping on the game and not tolerate to any criticism.

billy65bob: Honestly, 5.0 ruined the gameplay.

6.0 followed this up by concluding the story and jettisoning the narrative momentum they had going.

So the negativity spiral begins with 6.1, Because the gameplay has been been ass for years, and the primary distraction (great story) is no longer solo carrying the game.

Dawntrail's greatest failure is that it just wallows in awful ShB's awful gameplay with post-EW's subpar writing, and the combination is just making everyone see the cracks that have been festering as far back as 2.0.

Also spawned a lot of stupid cope like "I don't feel like the main character!"

GoIdenbaum: About the story, I am sick of all the nostalgia baiting, the obnoxious fanservice and the straight up ripping off of characters from other mainline games of the Final Fantasy series. And I'm saying this as a long time FF fan.

It's so insulting. What happened in the EW patches and in DT was unacceptable. It really gets old. Does the world of FF14 have nothing else to offer? Not sure if I'm alone in this.

VashimuXIV: Speaking from the heart for a moment (or rather rambling), I won’t pretend it’s not demoralizing a bit to still be a fan of 14 and to see all the negativity around it. I’m not ashamed of playing the game, and I know you should do what you love regardless of what others say; but there is a point when it’s willful ignorance and enabling. Of course not everyone needs to pitch in on their opinions of the state of the game, but sometimes a healthy dosage of tough love reminds you to have the serenity to speak for what’s right. Understanding that as good as there is for content like raiding and quality of life - 14 has gotten extremely repetitive and stagnant. I really can’t add more to potential ideas because I think you pretty much hit the nail on the head with more iterations of phantom jobs and revamping dungeons, JMulls. And really, there’s so much they could do, and I would love to see them commit more to something new and refreshing. And I still love 14 and always feel like I will, but we certainly didn’t get this way overnight either, being extremely mixed and uncertain, and a lot of it has been likely amounting for years. At the risk of generalizing a bit - just because you have people voicing their concerns, anger, or grievances, it doesn’t mean everyone wants to see it crash and burn out of spite - they love this game and wish it to be in a better place. And not everyone who still defends the game are just white knights who want to silence any and all criticism, just those who are still positive about the future of 14.

It’s also very possible I’m taking this too seriously and should just stick to my own bubble if it’s making me uncomfortable to face the reality of negativity towards 14. But I still genuinely enjoy my time in it and working on personal goals or trying things I’ve never done prior, doing my best to try and keep a healthy relationship with it - knowing and acknowledging the issues no matter how much I love it. It’s easy to say everything is doom and gloom and it doesn’t look like it’s going to get better with simple search on any social media platform and to those who have written off 14, I hope you’re doing well and that you might play it again sometime. But I like to hold onto the hope that is in me, that the feedback and concerns are being heard and taken into consideration even with their roadmap seeing as far as 10.0. And if that ends up being egg on my face, then I will take responsibility for my choices. It can still feel exhausting to hear negativity on repeat, demoralizing even - but I always do my best to remember it’s coming from a place of love, and I truly hope it’s being invested into the future of the game and its future expansions.

frost2094: with the literal first line of dialogue voiced by Wuk I already knew it was gonna be a hot steaming load of crap

ShadowAimai: Forcing me to kill characters I liked, and then forcing me to interact with a character I despise for an entire expansion. I like Hildibrand in small, controlled doses. Wuk Lamat was too much in my face, too long and so forced that I can't help but scowl whenever she appears.

Hell, I feel downright hostile towards her at this point.

slimabob: I enjoyed all the stuff with Zero. Probably because i hadnt played the FF it was based on, and from what I gather it was a very close copy. I love stuff around the 13th, so it was fun for me.

ninponighthawk: Things im hoping for in 8.0 or near future.

- job identity. Doesn't have to be arr or hw deep but deeper than now

- pick up the pace with the patch cycle, we went from 3 months 4 months to now 5 months between patches, thats far FAR too long.

Jul 20 2025

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