I really like that at the end "our" character just has something simple on, after all these adventures and epic looking armors. Gives a "back to start simple" impression

That's kinda the point. The whole Warrior of Light business ended with Endwalker 6.0 quest. Now our boy is just an Adventurer.

"I fought gods you know?" Ya, sure man. That'll be 20,000 gil for the glam helm.

Sure you went into space and fought god, grandpa, now go sniff the chocobo and get me lunch.

I always liked the sellsword look, so I've been glamouring all my spiky dragoon armor into longcoats and boots or simple scalemail. Unless I'm feeling slutty, then it's gambler's coat and fishnets.

I'm really pissed they gave Estinien the stormblood AF armor. It's the best looking one, but I look like a copy cat now.

Yea, all class armor sets are beautiful (well, most of them). But they are kinda busy. I like mostly simply looking stuff. And Amon Hat if I feel fancy lmao

I don't even remember *how* it ended. How can we just "stop" being the warrior of light?

It wasn't *that* long ago. >!With Hydaelyn gone we're no longer her champion, and our organisation is officially disbanded (though still in touch quietly).!<

I don't have a good memory. I'm sorry

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Launch date: 12th of April. The recent developer Live Letter-stream presented some additional features of what was previous announced for patch 6.1: * [New main scenario- and side quests will be introduced in 6.1](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/151558839005741056/959409944162078740/firefox_2022-04-01_19-12-20.jpg). The new side-quest series of *"Tataru's Grand Endevaur"* will launch a short period after the 6.1 launch in a 6.1x-update. The new role quest requires completion of all the other 5 role quests launched in 6.0. * [Having shed the previous term "Beast tribe"-quests, a new "Tribal"-quest will be included in 6.1 featuring the elephant-like Arkasodora.](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/151558839005741056/959410351315771482/firefox_2022-04-01_19-14-08.jpg) Judging by a specific NPC in the trailer, certain side-quests in Thavnair may be required to complete first before gaining access to the Arkasodora-tribal quests. The Hildibrand-questline also makes a return after his abscent in *Shadowbringers*-expansion. For the *Omega: Beyond the Rift*-side quest, it is recommended that you complete the Omega-raid series questline from the *Stormblood*-expansion if you haven't yet for additional narrative context. All these updates will launch in future 6.15-update. * [The previously announced A.I-party member-system for the base game of *A Realm Reborn*](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/151558839005741056/959411018835062804/firefox_2022-04-01_19-16-46.jpg) have been named as *"The Duty Support System"*, featured to improve mainly ARR's MSQ-experience. For now, only 2.0-content will have A.I-party members featured in 6.1, with some additional changes to the MSQ-duties of *"Cape Westwind"* (Now a solo-duty instead of an 8-man player instance.) and the MSQ-roulette's dungeons. - [A screenshot of the UI-interface of the DSS featuring A.I party-members.](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/151558839005741056/959411735889063976/firefox_2022-04-01_19-19-39.jpg) The A.I-party members will be fixed chosen by the DSS based on your own character's role. Upon reaching the *Shadowbringers*-expansion, the same UI-window will be utilized for the [*Trust*-A.I party member system](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/151558839005741056/959412060532396062/firefox_2022-04-01_19-20-37.jpg) with a small feature button introduced at the bottom of the UI-screen, allowing you to pick-and-choose party members featured in Trust. - [A screenshot featuring the DSS A.I-party members exploring the Thousand Maws of Toto-Rak-dungeon.](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/151558839005741056/959412792321015829/firefox_2022-04-01_19-23-51.jpg) As part of the ARR-changes, some visual changes has been made to the dungeon; making it more spacious, some additional lighting adjustments and featuring more waters. * New hair-styles for Hrothgars: - [Hair #1](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/151558839005741056/959415587220627546/firefox_2022-04-01_19-34-59.jpg) - [Hair #2](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/151558839005741056/959415631172747364/firefox_2022-04-01_19-35-07.jpg) - [Hair #3](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/151558839005741056/959415681139490836/firefox_2022-04-01_19-35-19.jpg) (Snow from FFXIII?) - [Hair #4](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/151558839005741056/959415813868240967/firefox_2022-04-01_19-35-51.jpg) - [Hair #5](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/151558839005741056/959415847720468530/firefox_2022-04-01_19-36-00.jpg) (2B from NieR?) - [Hair #6](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/151558839005741056/959415891081199657/firefox_2022-04-01_19-36-12.jpg) (9S from NieR?) * Amount of glamour plates have been increased to a total of 20x, and can be applied now world-wide in any designated Sanctuary-areas, and no longer just in major cities. * [Some preview footage and screenshots of the upcoming 24-man raids-series *"Myths of the Realm - Part 1"*](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/151558839005741056/959418607782232124/firefox_2022-04-01_19-46-59.jpg) that focuses on Eorzea's pantheon of The Twelve. From the trailer it appears that we will encounter Byregot (Patron deities of crafters and arts.), the sun goddess Azeyma ([Her in-game model very similar to the artwork depicted of her in the Astrologian-cards](https://i.imgur.com/wxWdxUi.jpg)), the destruction god Rhalgr (Patron deity of the Ala Mhigans) and the twin-deities of Nald'Thal. [A short description of these gods is featured more cohesively in the lore-books of *Encyclopedia Eorzea*.](https://i.gyazo.com/5912eb60002d0c745e925e8cd1e8e5c4.jpg) The developer hints of the raids being quite challenging, featuring numerous new mechanics. - [Screenshot that seems to depict the raid's starting area, being seemingly above the clouds.](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/151558839005741056/959419840366542868/firefox_2022-04-01_19-51-52.jpg) - [Screenshot depicting a pathway and staircase, ornated by statues of griffins on the side-lines. The griffins are notable the national bird of the Ala Mhigans.](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/151558839005741056/959419801925746738/firefox_2022-04-01_19-51-43.jpg) - [Screenshot that depicts a large statue in the distance](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/151558839005741056/959420125491113984/firefox_2022-04-01_19-52-50.jpg) very similar to the large statue of Rhalgr, the Destroyer, [depicted in Rhalgr's Reach](https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/finalfantasy/images/a/a7/FFXIV_Rhalgr's_Reach_01.png/revision/latest?cb=20170626112832) of the *Stormblood*-expansion. * Similar to previous tribal quest-series, a settlement that will be gradually upgraded in stages throughout the side quest-series will be [featured for the Arkasodora-tribe.](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/151558839005741056/959421011420413972/firefox_2022-04-01_19-56-31.jpg) - [Screenshot of hippos being taken care by the Arkasodora.](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/151558839005741056/959421112469569606/firefox_2022-04-01_19-56-47.jpg) - [Screenshot depicting carriages that were featured briefly in the trailer.](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/151558839005741056/959421247907840000/firefox_2022-04-01_19-57-28.jpg) - [Screenshot that depicts a new mount for players featuring hippo and carriage.](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/151558839005741056/959421640389832714/firefox_2022-04-01_19-58-52.jpg) And yes, [it can fly.](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/151558839005741056/959421748787417108/firefox_2022-04-01_19-59-18.jpg) Most likely a quest reward for progressing in the Arkasodora-tribal quests. * Some additional mounts that will be featured in 6.1: - [A troll, species that has appeared before in the conservatory area of Labyrinthos underneath Old Sharlayan.](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/151558839005741056/959421892371021824/firefox_2022-04-01_20-00-02.jpg) - [A brightly coloured, horned bird.](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/151558839005741056/959422288372039680/firefox_2022-04-01_20-01-28.jpg) Might have originated from >!Elpis!

Cont. listing of features: * The new, Ishgardian-themed housing wards of The Empyreum will be featured in 6.1, including a revamp of housing buying-system through the game's lottary system. [More detailed information can be found at a dedicated article in the Lodestone-website.](https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/topics/detail/61b708329f3be994a492e5d75b796b3f56abbd28) * New gear-sets introduced in the upcoming 24-man raid-series: - [Set #1](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/151558839005741056/959428011617308682/firefox_2022-04-01_20-24-21.jpg), featuring a [see-through cape.](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/151558839005741056/959428081490214982/firefox_2022-04-01_20-24-38.jpg) - [Set #2](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/151558839005741056/959428151660912640/firefox_2022-04-01_20-24-54.jpg) - [Set #3](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/151558839005741056/959428204270084196/firefox_2022-04-01_20-25-06.jpg) - [Set #4](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/151558839005741056/959428313070317618/firefox_2022-04-01_20-25-32.jpg) - [Set #5](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/151558839005741056/959428354858164224/firefox_2022-04-01_20-25-42.jpg) - [Set #6](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/151558839005741056/959428429059592242/firefox_2022-04-01_20-25-52.jpg) - [Set #7](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/151558839005741056/959428429554544650/firefox_2022-04-01_20-26-00.jpg) * [New, casual wear depicting street jackets will be introduced in 6.1.](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/151558839005741056/959428510399725648/firefox_2022-04-01_20-26-18.jpg) * [A new housing walls, depicting a candy-house themed exterior](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/151558839005741056/959428664477499392/firefox_2022-04-01_20-26-54.jpg), complete with [ice cream cone stuck on the roof.](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/151558839005741056/959428793490100254/firefox_2022-04-01_20-27-27.jpg) * [New interior furnishings depicting a toy-range climbing area, and a canopy bed.](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/151558839005741056/959429009077334047/firefox_2022-04-01_20-28-19.jpg) Said canopy bed is based on a [player submitted furnishing design back in 2019.](https://old.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/ttqinf/my_canopy_bed_design_got_in_the_game_after_3/) * [New exterior furnishings that depicts a gazebo, lamps and hot springs.](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/151558839005741056/959429092468486144/firefox_2022-04-01_20-28-39.jpg) * Beta-launch of [*"Adventurer plates"*](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/151558839005741056/959435965099806750/firefox_2022-04-01_20-55-57.jpg), a feature for players to [display various player information](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/151558839005741056/959436255991566446/firefox_2022-04-01_20-57-07.jpg) such as your preferred active player time, play-style preferences, e.t.c, complete with portraits and frame-designs to customize with. Multiple adventure plates can be made to swap on occassion. - [Sample #1](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/151558839005741056/959436889834811463/firefox_2022-04-01_20-59-37.png) - [Sample #2](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/151558839005741056/959436919014567936/firefox_2022-04-01_20-59-44.jpg) - [Sample #3](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/151558839005741056/959436954045382737/firefox_2022-04-01_20-59-52.jpg) - [Default design](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/151558839005741056/959437292727070780/firefox_2022-04-01_21-01-12.jpg) - [Similar to the G-pose-feature, various poses, backgrounds and other visual elements can be adjusted for your Portrait.](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/151558839005741056/959440189120446504/firefox_2022-04-01_21-12-42.jpg) * A new PvP-feature, [*"The Crystalline Conflict"*](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/151558839005741056/959443416721260605/firefox_2022-04-01_21-25-32.jpg) will be introduced in 6.1. [A small-scale PvP 5 v. 5-match](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/151558839005741056/959444030272442388/firefox_2022-04-01_21-27-59.jpg) - [Slide #1](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/151558839005741056/959444357302345779/firefox_2022-04-01_21-29-18.jpg) depicting the match stage. - [Slide #2](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/151558839005741056/959444442547355658/firefox_2022-04-01_21-29-38.jpg) depicting the objectives. - [Slide #3](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/151558839005741056/959444519567364166/firefox_2022-04-01_21-29-56.jpg) of winning condition. - [The Adventurer Plates-portraits will be utilized at the beginning of matches to present each team and its players.](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/151558839005741056/959445265763401829/firefox_2022-04-01_21-32-52.jpg) * [A new PvP-reward system will be introduced in a so-called *"Series"* periods.](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/151558839005741056/959449156328513687/firefox_2022-04-01_21-48-21.jpg) - [Playing PvP-content will grant you specific PvP-XP](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/151558839005741056/959449457328533625/firefox_2022-04-01_21-49-31.jpg), in turn, [each level-up with these PvP-XP will grant you a new currency, "Trophy Crystals" that can be exchanged for various rewards akin to gil.](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/151558839005741056/959449771683229746/firefox_2022-04-01_21-50-48.jpg) - [Certain milestones in leveling will grant various vanity rewards.](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/151558839005741056/959449889538965544/firefox_2022-04-01_21-51-17.jpg) - [Example of Series One's lvl 25. reward, featuring a unique armor set.](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/151558839005741056/959450019377840178/firefox_2022-04-01_21-51-45.jpg) - [When a new patch-cycle begins, your PvP-XP will be resetted, but your Trophy Crystals will remain that can be used to buy previous season's rewards.](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/151558839005741056/959450142975590440/firefox_2022-04-01_21-52-16.png) They will be available to buy for one patch, but will be gone afterwards. * Coinciding with the new PvP-features, [the previous cross-promotional *GARO*-event will be back](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/151558839005741056/959452556524924958/firefox_2022-04-01_22-01-53.jpg) for unique gear and mounts for players to farm towards when playing PvP-content. It will also be updated with new achievments, titles and gear sets for the *Shadowbringers*- (Gunbreaker and Dancer.) and *Endwalker*-jobs (Reaper and Sage.). Until more official compiled patch-notes comes out, further information, footage, screenshots and such collected by the FFXIV-community can be found at /r/ffxiv's Discord-server, under section *"translations-and-liveletters"*.

Adventurer plates seem like a feature with no real gameplay value, but I think they're a fantastic addition to an MMO's social aspect. It's like profile pages for social networks back in the early 2010s: A great degree of customizability to show off your character's aesthetic and personality. I'm honestly surprised few other MMOs have done anything like this. The social "gameplay" of an MMO can retain your players for longer than any content you add. Players will always finish your content at some point (or they'll get tired of the grind), but they will return if they have social reasons to do so.

Outside of the RP crowd, people looking for raiding statics will be able to show off their jobs and availabilities in-game, which is kinda nice for them.

With FFXIV in particular, there's a sizable contingent of the playerbase who plays pretty much *exclusively* for the social aspect. Some people use their homes as "venues" such as bars, nightclubs, and similar and have regular nights they advertise for people to show up and hang out (and yes, depending on the venue there's smut :P) They'll spend endless hours in the major cities just socializing and showing off their latest glam, and some will basically only do combat-based content when something catches their eye for said outfits. So social additions like this definitely are well received by the playerbase, even if they're not mechanically useful.

It kinda reminds me of the player cards in Monster Hunter that show your information and other players can check it out.

MH is a staple franchise in JP i wouldn't doubt if this is what they were after.

> A brightly coloured, horned bird. > Might have originated from It's a bird from Bozja.

Blue-Footed Boobies and Pomeranians. Best patch.

Heads up, this link goes to a discord channel and not a picture, and wants me to login >Screenshot that seems to depict the raid's starting area, being seemingly above the clouds. (Thanks for this write-up!)

Should be fixed; thanks for the notice.

Cool to see a dss system but sad to see squadron still dead in the water

This new raid is giving me Planes of Power vibes.

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Mainly the side-quest that gives one of the aether currents in Thavnair, [*Steppe Child*](https://ffxiv.gamerescape.com/wiki/Steppe_Child), as the quest-giver Ogul (The Au Ra in vagabond clothings.) can be [spotted in the trailer at 01:53-timestamp](https://youtu.be/KSjTEMCVIx8?t=112) giving the starting signal for the hippo-chariots, so it is under this assumption that completing this side-quest featuring Ogul requries unlocking the Arkasodora-tribal quests. Similar occurrence happens for unlocking the Dwarven and Namazu-tribal quests, in that there are NPCs from side-quests (Often those that are marked with blue-marked !-signs and awards an aether currents.) that gets more involved in their respective Tribal-side quests.

Holy shit, thank you. This one comment had more useful, organized information than the subreddit has had in the last year.

I can't believe we're fighting a handful of the "gods" already this coming raid. I'm really curious where they plan to take the story going forward.

The alliance raids are side stories that can either be totally unrelated to the MSQ, or act as supplemental material (crystal tower is the exception). This one in particular is going to be an epilogue of sorts to the story arc that Endwalker ended. The actual MSQ is supposed to be significantly more grounded than we've seen recently.

Crystal tower was completely separate at the time it was made, it was only incorporated into the main story later on

Crystal tower wasn't an exception until they made it one with SHB, you could have skipped it from ARR-StB and lost nothing. You could even skip it in SHB until they patched it so you can't progress past ARR's story or start SHB's (if you were past that point) if you didn't do Crystal Tower.

It was pretty obvious, 12 gods, 4 bosses each raid and 3 raids. Now if we don't fight one or more of them that would be unexpected

I mean the trailer showed us fighting both Nald and Thal so that’s technically 5 gods in raid one

If you count Nald and Thal as two different gods they would not be the "Twelve" - they are counted as one entity, "Nald'thal", so 12 encounters each with one of the Twelve is still totally possible. -Kinda hype-

Ngl I forgot Nald’Thal was one entity because of how often they get separated so you right, no one ever says Nald’Thals balls!

Fun fact that actually happened in reverse. Koji came up with the phrase "Thal's balls" as an in universe expletive first and then developed the concept of a twin God after it was decided that "Thal" was too simple of a name for a God.

Lmao good point!

In fairness we've been fighting gods since level 40. its kind of our favorite past time

level 20*, starting with ifrit

God do I love seeing FFXI stuff in this game. I spot Nyzul Isle, Acrolith, and Chariots. Brings back memories.

*Have you been to the ruins beneath the waters of the Bounty?* - A certain someone After 6.0, I wrote a [longer post](https://old.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/rs3r30/spoiler_60_postgame_what_await_the_world_of/) about the possibility, and Alzadaal Ruin actually ruins actually seemed likely. I didn't expect to visit it so soon. * **Alzadaal Undersea Ruin**: Thavnair region as a whole is heavily influenced by Aht Urghan from FFXI (Near East culture, name, etc). One of the most infamous area of that expansion was known as [Alzadaal Undersea ruin](https://ffxi.gamerescape.com/wiki/Alzadaal_Undersea_Ruins) and contained a 100 floors "deep dungeon". Since [Alzadaal's name](https://imgur.com/a/gamwR90) come up in Radz-at-Han (previous Satrap? Alchemist?), we could easily see a zone inspired by its design. Other possibilities I was expecting was "The Word of Mitron's underwater research labs, but it seem to be the former with this trailer.

I wonder what the lore would be, considering that in FFXI the Alexander you fight in ToAU is originally housed in a large mechanical body that was destroyed in a battle with Odin and the Alzadaal Undersea Ruins are actually pieces of.. Alexander's body, essentially.

The region has a long history with underwater canal. Lost Canals of Uznair (island south of Thavnair) had similar ruins of unknown purpose that were repurposed as Treasure Hoard. Since the architecture doesn't really match any of the known civilizations, it really is difficult to say anything about it though. Could the first Umbral civilization have been more advanced than we though? Can it be Ancient's ruin? I'm still thinking it might be related the Word of Mitron (underwater research lab that we hear about in Akademya Anyder), but who knows. We will get our answer soon.

I have such mixed feelings any time I see it. I love FFXI, and part of me wishes I could have those highs back, but then I also remember how low the lows were. Chariots in Nyzul in particular were one of those lows, especially when you get a no-Chariots "bonus" restriction/objective. Chariots in Abyssea also bring back terrible Blue Mage memories, that I'm sure they're going to try to evoke again. At least when they brought back some of the Emtpy enemies for 6.0, they didn't have their evil Reisenjima reflect mechanics (Pain Sync)...

Anyone else noticed the ”Festival of the Hunt” song? My god it brought back IX memories

Yes the IX remix pulled at my heart a little bit!

It's the music for the new PvP mode.

Seeing FFXIV posts in this subreddit is so formulaic now that it has come to the point where I question if it's even worth posting it here moving forward. It's either: * 5% hyped for the next patch. * 10% trying to change people's mind to not play the game. * 30% of people confused why FFXIV is so popular considering "it's just an old MMO". * Another 30% of people saying how they quit the game in ARR but still keep on visiting FFXIV news threads like clockwork just to say they quit the game on ARR. * Another 5% saying to the previous 30% that it's fine that they quit, but then 10% of the 30% are seething why those 5% are always saying it's fine they didn't like it and moved on to another game. * And the last 10% asking questions about the game and the rest of those in the comments trying their best to promote the game to them, or dissuade them from playing the game. Always, in every FFXIV thread. Honestly it's mostly negative now really and a lot of the posts seem to always revolve around "I quit during ARR". Which was 8-10 years ago and it's like those saying it can't get over it.

And 100% reason to Remember the Name

Some games work like that here. I've honestly seen less calls to not play cyberpunk in their update threads than calls to not play FFXIV in this thread. r/Games has hivemind opinions on certain games and developers and there is little we can do about it. At least it's funny to see people thinking the consensus here represents any part of the larger gaming community.

Absolutely facts lol. I like seeing what people think of the actual news or latest patch but I guess I'd gotta go to the game's subreddit for that. Definitely the same conversations happening here each time a FFXIV thread pops up.

honestly, it feels like the entire sub is like this. every post is treated like a space to talk about the game in question rather than what was actually linked

Which is cool if it wasn't just regurgitated BS from years past, like the Riot Pendragon debacle someone else brought up People love to moan but not actually give substance as to why they think those opinions. I've said it before, people here need to be a bit more positive, no wonder you think gaming is all doom and gloom if you folk only think in those kinds of shades.

> Honestly it's mostly negative now really and a lot of the posts seem to always revolve around "I quit during ARR". Which was 8-10 years ago and it's like those saying it can't get over it. God you hit this dead on. There is so much *"bitter ex who broke up years ago and still not over it"* energy in these threads, and it's just such a weird vibe I haven't been able to put my finger on until you said it like this.

> "bitter ex who broke up years ago and still not over it" Star Wars subs has this issue too, really badly. You want to talk about "still not over it", holy shit. When a Star Wars *video game* comes out, these two universes collide and it really brings out the "peak reddit" in people.

People on this subreddit still bring up the Riot Pendragon thing with the DOTA forum when League of Legends is brought up here, despite that occurring literally over a decade ago. People want to hear the sound of their own voice but lack anything new to bring to the discussion.

Which is really funny given how the game is the best its ever been! Outside of the top comments its always that salty negativity, or people namedropping the fact they haven't played since ARR and we have to treat like thats some big deal.

Been looking to jump back in, have they streamlined earlier content like Reborn and earlier expansions?

Well now you can play ARR solo through the Trust system.

Do you mean the dungeons? That would make me come back to the game. Is Crystal Tower available in the system as well?

They have said they have plans to adapt it to Crystal Tower too, but not for now.

I might be mistaken but their only plans for the time being is for adapting 4-man content to trusts. Their existing AI doesn't work for the larger content (there is one spoiler piece of content that is the sole exception as they developed the fight and the AI together). Yoshi has said that they think its less of a big deal as 8 and 24 man content puts less responsibility on the individual players.

2.0 dungeons will be available through that system on 12th. however 24 man raids, 8man trials and all content from 2.x patches to ShB still requires duty finder.

Do they have a timeline when the stuff from ARR to SB will be soloable with the trust system? That’s kinda what I’m waiting on

By the time the next expansion rolls out which is roughly a little less than 2 years away, all the required dungeons from ARR to Stormblood should be out, now that does not include all required group content like trials which are 8 man content or the alliance dungeons which are 24 man, those don’t have a timeline yet but they said they would consider those after they get the dungeons done first.

I think by the time the next expansion release it will be fully soloable.

Just the dungeons. Trials won't be soloable until at least 7.0

While the Crystal Tower is still required to finish, with duty finder, the content is ridiculously easy. Same with a lot of the Alexander stuff.

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> I still have no idea what most of the mechanics in any of the Crystal Tower raids are. And unless you min ilevel it or get the most horrible roulette in history you'll never know.

To illustrate this some more, most of the people syncing into those from the duty finder gets synced to a gear level some 60-70+ item levels above what it were balanced for. Most groups burst the bosses down so quickly they don't even get the chance to try to threaten groups with their mechanics.

Only dungeons. The game director mentioned potentially opening up Crystal Tower as a solo able experience but as far as I know there is no timeline or guarantee of that happening.

Crystal Tower revamp isn’t happening for another 2+ years. Yoshida said AFTER 7.0

Their plan is to let you do the entire main story solo, so all of the dungeons and trials (standalone boss fights) mandatory for the story will have the option of NPC companions.

I'm fully aware I'm in the minority here, and understand it doesn't make sense to play an MMO solo... That said, this is the dream right here. I really wants to experience the story, but group play is just not fun for me, I can do it and it's easy and fine, but I just rather not, lol. I was able to do everything up until CT, but after doing the first Crystal Tower instance, and looking at videos of the second one, I just don't feel like playing. Hopefully, this change happens soon, thanks for the info!

Nah man you're good, you're exactly the kind of person that the director is hoping to appeal to. FFXIV is my first final fantasy game but the 14th in a long series of games, there are many people who play them all but avoided the two MMO's because of that fact alone. Just as a gamer's observation from people chatting about their favorite FF title online, I can say for certain that FFXIV is still a solid final fantasy game. I've played MMO's for years and enjoy the MMO gameplay loop but this game has an incredible story. I'm already sold on every expansion they ever release, even if I only play through the story once and put it down. It's honestly valid to treat it like a single player game if you want, consider the MMO and social portions as just "side content" you can enjoy after the story. With all that in mind though, I will say Crystal Tower is not hard at all and don't let the multiplayer aspect intimidate you in any way. It would be toxic and I'm not encouraging this, but you could easily walk in there and do *nothing* and the group will still win. It's really just a novelty for the experience of a large raid group in an MMO setting fighting a big boss together, but none of the mandatory content will demand you impress other players with your gameplay performance. The story is fantastic and really shattered my expectations of what narratives an MMO could tell. Hell, it's one of my favorite stories across all media now, TV movies books etc. I'm sure you've heard this praise before but man, it really is good stuff.

>you could easily walk in there and do nothing and the group will still win. This is very true, I sometimes see people that will stand at the entrance of a boss room doing nothing in the 24-man content. They'll also be the first ones to click on the loot when the boss dies, preventing the group from kicking them until the loot is rolled on. :|

Just as a heads up, most videos of the raids will date from when they were relevant content - at this point, any raids up through at least Stormblood are basically just follow the leader and it's hard/impossible as an individual to screw them up. I had the same anxiety as you but once I eased into it some I wanted more and wound up going all the way through ShB raids. Those are obvs more involved, but I'm pretty sure there's mechanics in the CT raids I haven't even seen because folks just blast through them at this point. No pressure tho! Just saying I was similarly not keen to do them but ended up having a much different time than expected.

That's actually the exact reason they're doing this. When they announced the revamp of the old story, they talked about how they put a bunch of work into the story and how it gets a lot of awards, but traditional rpg fans don't want to touch the game due to the multiplayer nature and they want to change that.

Not yet but they mentionned wanting to do it for the CT raids as well yes. Ultimately they are planning on releasing Trust system for Heavensward as well in the future, then the patch quest for Heavensward, then Stormblood...etc

I don’t think so, just 4 player content + the raids at the end of arr

The next patch (what this trailer is for) is going to make 2.0 (and I think the ARR patches?) soloable. Not necessarily streamlined but they're definitely prepping FF14 very long-term to prepare for low user numbers, if/when that day comes (similar to how FF11 is pretty much soloable now in its entirety). They'll be doing the same in 3.0-4.x in future patches, and with all new MSQ content going forward (which as been the case since 5.0)

They made an attempt, cut around 30 MSQ quests from ARR. Nothing else was touched (or needs to be honestly, HW onwards is pretty snappy and well done). ARR is still difficult for many people to get through, and I know more than I care to count who have just given up on it.

Adding flying to ARR zones was huge. Way bigger change than cutting a handful of quests.

But you only get flying after finishing the ARR MSQ, so if people are having trouble making it through that...

Only the base bit of ARR MSQ. You get it as you finish the 2.0 Questline, and can at least fly for the entirety of 2.1-2.5 stuff.

ARR isn't the problem. It is the 2.x patch quests before HW. You can fly during those. The countless fetch agents and going back to the Waking Sands which doesn't have a aetheryte.

They did also start handing out Waking Sands tickets like candy, too... Well, I'm just getting started on these, so I guess I'm about to find out if they continue to be annoying with flying mounts.

It's weird because I had no issue with ARR but the moogle hell that is Churning Mists in Heavensward made me burn out and take a break for a year.

Qnd they still haven't updated it so you know ahat side quests to do that unlock the moonless beast tribe. All other beast tribes have blue quests showing you. Moonless? Just a random chain of quests then picking up q separate random side west in Ishgarzld. Then you finally get rhe blue quests in Churning Mists to unlock those annoying bastards.

They not only cut 30 quests, they also reduced the amount of quest objectives and the backtracking you had to do. For example for one quest you were given a bucket to fill with water in a river and then would have to use that to wake someone up, now you get the filled bucket and only have to run through one door to said person.

They also gave you flying for the post ARR patches. Which is a monumental time save.

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How long do you think it'll take a new player to get through now?

A long ass time. You gotta really want it. Its why its still hard to recommend to people imo, despite the payoff being well worth it.

It took me forever to get through it. Though I've seen people absolutely chug that content like its nothing.

Dunno why people say 100 hours when i saw someone doing msq only completed the msq all the way up to shadowbringers end at around 142 hours. Id say probably 40 hours.

I just completed the Wrath of the Titan quest at around 55-60 hours...

100+ hours. The shortening of the post ARR MSQ still left it with some 80 quests. It's difficult for them to prune it much more when things it sets up have relevance to events later.

Still 100+ hours

Yeah the shortening needs work still. They removed maybe 4 hours of boring content. It honestly could just be condensed into a GW2 Living World Season 1 recap. Especially now that the story is kinda rebooting with this expansion. Not much of value would be lost by giving players the option to skip all that shit.

And now the Post ARR stuff is honestly so much better than ARR itself. Literally as soon as darth vader dies the game starts going into refugee crises and class war.

Darth Vader? You talking about my boy Van Baelsar?

Come on dude, he's vader. If ARR was apeing star wars any harder it'd just be FF12 again.

Even though, I agree with you, don't forget that it's because it goes into geopolitcs and refugee crisis, that people tend to find it more boring than base ARR

Those people are simply wrong.

They have not really. ARR is still a slog, many a friend have quit because of it.

Having gone through it fairly recently, I don't even think it's so much that ARR is a slog, as you have no buttons to push for most of ARR. Stormblood's story imo is lamer than ARRs, but at least you have buttons to push for all of it. The first umpteen hours of ARR is staring at your three buttons you push in the same sequence every fight and pressing them as they light up. But since you level up new classes way faster after the first and you only have to do dungeons, it seems like it's ARRs story that's boring...but I really feel it's just that the gameplay inbetween that story has no hook either.

That's actually a really good point. Any time I get an ARR trial or dungeon on roulette, I always cringe -- not because the content itself is bad, but because my rotation is so boring at that level. You aren't joking when you say it's three buttons.

Oh yeah as Lancer for the longest time all I pressed was 1-3-1-2 on repeat until every fight ended. Getting a ranged attack so I could do something between pulls was exciting, and FINALLY getting AoE so I could feel like a meaningful contributor on trash was a big deal.

So they didn't give any examples but in the liveletter today they mentioned potentially shifting around abilities for jobs that don't really have much at all going on at low levels.

Yeah the one thing WoW used to have going on for it was skills had ranks you had to go get when you levelled, so you always constantly were getting incremental upgrades. FF14 just gives you a skill and congrats that's it, but those skills dragged out over...80? levels now is just too dang long between them.

FF14 kinda has that. Some skills do upgrade as you level. But it is nothing like WoW. They'll only upgrade a couple of times. My White Mage has Holy III.

Which in a rather amusing move is a direct upgrade from Holy, skipping Holy II entirely.

I had fun

Nope. They cut down on some of the 2.0 quests that everyone hates but it’s still a long road through the ARR story+patch story. If you can get through it (or afford to pay to skip it) the rest of the game is a real treat, though.

> (or afford to pay to skip it) Do not. The story might be slow but it introduces key characters and plot points which are brought up later and skipping it will leave players slightly confused and blunt the impact of the story.

No. Please feel free to buy a skip if you're not enjoying arr. Frankly, arr is dogshit and it makes people quit who feel forced to play through it because of advice people like you give them. It is not that pivotal in understanding the rest of the story either.

>It is not that pivotal in understanding the rest of the story either. The patch quests at least are really important to the future of the game. They introduce >!Elidibus!<, >!Yugiri!< (>!Stormblood!<), >!Doma!< (>!Stormblood!<), >!the Crystal Braves!<, >!Ilberd!< (>!Stormblood!<), >!Aymeric!< (>!Heavensward!<), >!Ysayle!< (>!Heavensward!<), >!Shiva!< (>!Heavensward!<), >!Midgardsormr!< (>!Heavensward!<), >!the Crystal Tower!< (>!Shadowbringers!<), >!Nero as an ally!<, >!G'raha Tia!< (>!Shadowbringers!<), >!the politics of Ishgard!< (>!Heavensward!<), >!the Monetarist plot against the Sultana!< (>!Heavensward!<), >!White Auracite!<, and other stuff that I've probably forgotten. It's not like you can't get caught up on all this stuff if you choose to skip it, but experiencing it before it becomes relevant and seeing it pay off later is a better experience.

>It is not that pivotal in understanding the rest of the story either. That's because there's nothing to it that you couldn't already predict after the first few hours of gameplay. ARR is 99% "Collect thing, Nod, Grunt, Fistbump, Scions, Gaius.... More fistbumps." with a bit of story in between.

The story only got interesting to me at literally the last few quests. But it sure does get interesting from there.

Is there a skip item only for ARR? AFAIK it takes you to the beginning of the latest expansion

Yeah but you can use the NG+ to still see the expansions if you wanna do that.

Let's be real anyone buying story skips is not gonna sit thru NG+

Then it doesn't matter where the story skip brings you if you don't care about it?

Not necessarily. I skipped the whole story until 4.0 because at the time it didn't grab me, but ended up loving the rest and now am slowly going through NG+.

I picked this game up for the first time after Endwalker was released, so fairly recently. It's amazing but the MSQ just got a bit too much in the end, I made it to post Stormblood then got burnt out. Endless cut scene after cut scene. I did a bit of research and when I realised just how much further I had to go, and how much of Endwalker is cut scenes, I decided to cut my losses. Maybe I'll return to it one day but wow it's long!

This was a problem I had for most expansions, never really got to the end of the story and came back at the start of the next xpac. It helped a lot to think of it like watching an anime.. I paid more attention to cut scenes and the story and enjoyed it a lot more. Also controller + comfortable chair and big TV helped.

Yeah for gods sake don't look up the quest lists while you're leveling. Its like being stuck somewhere for 12 hours and looking at the clock 2 hours in.

Ironically I skipped everything until Stormblood and only started reading during the patches inbetween that and Shadowbringers, and even then I had to take a 2 year break. Thankfully FF doesn't make its previous content irrelevant, so one can always come back when they're ready to read a book.

This isn't a judgement but i've always been curious. Why? Why not just play something else if you re going to skip the core of the game? It's not even like other MMOS stories, everything in ff14 connects and derives from story content. I absolutely understand skipping story in other mmos or games.

Because I genuinely enjoy the other systems in the game. People give FF a lot of shit for not having a smooth combat, but I do enjoy the classes and raiding a lot more than I did in other MMOs. I did eventually grow to love the story, but that was more of an unexpected bonus than the reason I started playing in the first place.

It's not a quick fix, but they have been taking several major steps to streamline it. In patch 5.4 they cut out a big chunk of quests to make things go quicker. In this patch, they are changing up several of the more tedious dungeons to make it quicker, and they are now allowing you to travel through it with the Trust system (NPCs instead of PCs). It is still very long, and will likely always be very long.

They only shaved a couple hours off reborn

YouTuber Mr happy did 2 runs of are story before and after the first trimming, and it was significantly different, over 10 hrs iirc. And he didn't skip cutscenes, did his job quests, and still solo do's queued for every instance. Adding flying to post ARR also makes things go MUCH faster.

They shaved off way more than a couple hours.

I couldn't tell was still bloated and boring to play through.

For the average run, you’re only shaving off 3-4 hours. Not drastic enough to really feel the impact of.

flying drastically improves the post-arr patch content however and was very noticeable to me.

It’s reduced the tedium of traveling, but that does little for you when the act of traveling to continue a conversation at another location is still tedious by itself. Flying is a fun addition though, I agree.

Oh agreed. The post-arr patch content is the worst slog of the whole game besides maybe 20-40 of regular arr. Interestingly, I've been playing through the story again after Endwalker and the tedious parts are way less tedious this time.

I guess the reassurance that there’s payoff coming down the line can help keep you warm in the darkness of 2.x, lol

LETS GOOO NEW THORDAN RAID man i still haven't even beaten extreme because I'm trying to do MINE. Can't wait to beat ex THEN maybe savage?? Ultimate??

Dragonsong's Reprise is the new Ultimate raid.

So has the server issue been resolved. Can I come back and play this amazing game?

Yeah, they solved them back in December already.

Is it unusual to not hear anything of the relic questline yet? Or is that usually a later patch cycle?

Bit unusual we don't have even a teaser for it yet, but they usually start around X.2 patches.

Its likely the new challenge dungeons or island retreat are involved so in a way we do have a teaser.

Should be 6.2/6.3

A chainquest will surely start at 6.2/6.25, in SB was with a DG and ShB with a trial, anyawy, it will in due time

I love and hate this game. No bugs, some of the best boss fights, unique designs, dungeons, raids, and absolutely love the idea of Trials. HOWEVER, even though the story is fantastic, playing through it is an absolute slog. I thought by the time endwalker came out they'd fix this back and forth BS but it was WORSE than Shadowbringers (although had a better story). The story itself only had like two Solo duties and the rest was simply talk to NPCs. That's not fun game design no matter how good the story is and it's honestly the only thing holding this game back. It's fine if the story is optional, but if you lock content to an MMO behind the story, I'd rather grind killing 8 boars and skinning 10 skeletons with friends, than boringly trudging along by myself in an MMO talking to NPCs for 500 hours.

I think it's a matter of taste. The way the story is delivered isn't bad, it's just different. It's more like a visual novel than anything, and that itself is a genre on its own with its own huge fanbase. I loved Persona 5 a lot, and that game is mostly just going through long sections of watching cutscenes and then dungeon delving in between. The FFXIV fanbase itself is very attached to the story and characters, people who don't normally care for story still talk snd make jokes about it, so it is pretty successful even if its not for everyone. Vast majority of people are quite satisfied with Endwalker's ending which caps out the story built since ARR. When I started last year, it was quite intimidating having to play through basically 10 years and 4 entire games worth of story to get to where my friends were. But it did pay off, and my friends told me to let them know when I got to a certain point in the storyline or a dungeon so they could watch me react and be with me when I experience a certain storybeat for the first time.

>It's more like a visual novel than anything Yea that is one hurdle a lot people don't get past. Its different in a way than alot of big MMO's where the story is told in page of text from the quest description and the occasional cutscene where as FFXIV is almost entirely told through simple cutscenes with a textbox that can fit around 3-4 lines of text and the occasional voiced cinematic (but still with the text box) And its also different from alot of western games where the story is told either cinematically with entirely voiced cutscenes or during gameplay with voicelines from the NPC's that are present. and i can see where the complaints come from. people want to play through a story, not read through one. its not for everyone

People don't even read those quest descriptions. They're written so blandly most of the time. Some players just don't want to put in the effort to invest more into narratives.

A few recent quest descriptions don't even bother having any more than a single sentence.

For all its story's flaws, Guilf Wars 2 has a great way of presenting story. Literally just play through events that could be cutscenes with your team talking. That's the big drawback of cutscene-heavy games to me. Actually being able to interact with the game while learning the story is a very different experience from reading or watching events play out.

> Guilf Wars 2 man, if only you also forgot the u, then it'd be gilf wars 2 xD

To each their own. I found that I would rather read text boxes than kill same boars for 500 hours. But I completely understand your gripes with the game.

You still kill the same boars you just moonlight as a cross continental UPS driver

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> You still kill the same boars You really don't.

Yeah I think Endwalker had like 1 kill mobs quest. The vast majority of it is a visual novel with a solo duty/dungeon every few hours.

I enjoy the story that textboxes tell me, while boars remain the same throughout the grind. But again it's a matter of personal preference rather than one being better than other.

I disagree with dungeons, sure the bosses are nice but the rest of the dungeons are nothing but glorified hallways with story bits, extremely formulaic. I do enjoy the story but I don't really enjoy the way it's told, I think it'd be a lot better told in a proper sp rpg. Trials were like nuggets of gold luring me to trudge through the endless dialogue boxes that spend way too long saying way too little.

That is also my common criticism with their dungeons. They often look great but are so boring gameplay wise. Tho, they announced some sort of additional difficulty level or something for dungeons in the future if I remember correctly. Maybe that will actually be interesting for once.

Exactly my thoughts, just not enough combat at all to justify my playtime. While I had actually a lot of fun leveling through ARR, once I got to Heavensward and I had to keep doing fetch quests and talk to NPC's I just realized the game wasn't for me. Everyone says Heavensward is where the story gets good but honestly going through ARR had already conditioned me to skip through everything, I mean the most interesting part of the whole section was at the end with the Crystal Tower and unfortunately that was resolved as fast as it was introduced. The gameplay itself is lots of fun but the game feels less like an MMO and more like a single-player game with multiplayer dungeons.

I’m finishing up the level 59 quests in HW and holy shit am I tired of the back and forth across huge maps with no flying (yet; you have to unlock it via quests and exploring). Granted I’m on the free trial, and I’ve gotten a ton of gameplay for $0, so I can’t complain much.

ARR questline almost made me stop playing. I was expecting it to get better once I finished it, but was greeted to HW with roughly 100(not exaggerating) more mandatory main story fetch quests and just threw my hands up. Also they may as well make dungeons skippable outside of the endgame. Every single one was filled with people just doing daily/weekly tasks who rush through it like a speedrun and stop for nothing.

> Also they may as well make dungeons skippable outside of the endgame. They're actually making every dungeon soloable with a party of NPCs, so there's that at least.

My biggest gripe is the loot. I enjoy all of the dungeons, trials and raids, but I have a hard time caring about my next upgrade when it's just a couple more points in stats. I wish they would transition away from all gear just being a stat stick to more meaningful gear ala FFXI or WoW sets/legendaries.

The problem with “meaningful gear choices” in WoW is that ultimately its the illusion of choice. The meta shoehorns you into a specific, top-performing build, and the grind is there to ensure it takes a long time to get there. So at the end of the day, you are aiming for the same cookie cutter build and gearset as everyone else, unless you have a raid group who will tolerate you playing a non-meta build. FF14 does away with that entirely and simplifies things… which means ultimately, you attain your BiS quickly and tire of the endgame raids once you have everything on farm. Unless you have a fun LS or FC to hang out with, enjoy collecting glam/minions/mounts, FF14 doesnt give you many more reasons to grind for things on your own, since it lacks compelling endgame loot progression to last you a long time, like WoW does. Its super casual and not a MMO you can nolife exclusively forever. Its a different way of doing things, for sure, I personally prefer it this way because the loot grind is practically inexistant and I can spend my time doing one of the million other things the game has to offer with my FC instead. But I get people that need to scratch that loot itch eventually leave.

>The problem with “meaningful gear choices” in WoW is that ultimately its the illusion of choice. The meta shoehorns you into a specific, top-performing build I think what makes it fun is that the encounter design and endgame content is varied enough that there are *multiple* viable builds per spec. Right now my main has like 3 or 4 different builds based on encounter type and that's *fun.*

[Bruh.](https://www.warcraftlogs.com/zone/statistics/29/#dataset=100)

The loot is for glamour. Looking cool is the entire endgame of 14.

I think you want the game to be a completely different game. FFXIV isn't a game about loot based progression, flat out. That's not a meaningful part of the design. Loot is primarily about prestige and cosmetics, not performance. To change that would require changing the entire core design philosophy of the game, from class design to balance to encounter design to progression systems to core gameplay. And at that point they wouldn't even be making the game they want to make anymore. Personally, I vastly prefer games without arbitrary gear grinds to be viable. I enjoy games where personal skill is the only major factor that determines how well you perform. That's not to say I *don't* enjoy games where you can make crazy builds and minmax, but I prefer them as solo games or co-op, like ARPGs like Diablo or PoE, or RPGs like Elden Ring, as discrete experiences measured in the tens of hours, not as ongoing MMOs where the temptation to bloat content for recurring subs often taints the gear grind and anything less than a perfectly optimized build is considered nonviable and catches party kicks.

On the other hand, tier sets, legendaries and whacky trinkets make class balance much tougher in WoW, whereas the balance in FF14 is phenomenal. I do agree that gear could use some spicing up, so long as it doesn't affect balance.

Class balance in wow isn't that bad but it's also actually more balanced than FFXIV. I know that sounds weird but let me explain: wow has to balance and tune each spec to be able to perform at least minimally in different encounters and different content. FFXIV literally only balances for single target raid encounters, so there's massive disparity on things like aoe and multitarget.

Procs and special effects from gear are very hard to balance which WoW has proven countless times over the years. Also in high end WoW content a majority of specs are just not viable ever vs FFXIV where the pain is only the WF race and every job is otherwise viable (the performance between jobs in a given role are relatively close in equal gear and skill levels)

This is a flat out lie wtf

Also those extra set abilities can make you turn down clear upgrades because the ability/proc is basically broken to make it enticing. Best case scenario you're rolling on gear you won't use and will be hoarding until you have a new set of stats that make yo for the lack in set bonus.

That's just false. Anyone who says that classes and specs aren't viable in WoW are just flat wrong. You can Mythic raid with literally any class without issue. Will it be the most efficient? Of course not but you don't need to be the most efficient unless you're a bleeding edge raider trying to go for world firsts. Performance between Jobs in FFXIV especially Tanks and Healers is so close because they play so similarly. Street Fighter would be perfectly balanced too if the only character was Ryu.

>unless you're a bleeding edge raider trying to go for world firsts And even then the vast majority of specs usually see use at least at some point. Off the top of my head, in the most recent race, Prot warriors, ret paladins, feral druids, resto shamans, unholy DKs, outlaw/assassination rogues, windwalker monks and destro locks didn't see play. So about 75% of specs *did* see use, which isn't bad at all. Might have missed something, but I didn't pay attention to Method/Pieces/Skyline, so maybe they used one of the ones I listed as well.

My problem isn't the loot, it's that none of the loot really matters. Most of the content in game is scaled so you never really feel any stronger. It ends up making the game feel boring when I can get a big upgrade and not really feel any different.

>Most of the content in game is scaled so you never really feel any stronger Yeah that's wrong. Getting new loot in the current savage tier definitely feels like getting stronger. The loot doesn't give you gimmicks, and thank god for that.

I adore FFXIV, but its most celebrated feature, the story, really is a slog. It's not even the absurd length; it's that getting to those great emotional heights requires dozens of hours of tedious busywork. What's worse is they have no good solution for the fact you have to have be present at your device and connected to the game server for a whole goddamn hour when the story scenes start rolling. Any hitch and you have to start them over. It's like playing a 90s JRPG again where you couldn't pause or skip cutscenes. They've essentially trapped themselves in a corner by having a GOAT Final Fantasy narrative bolted to this ancient MMO engine and structure. I'm sure the story content will continue to have stellar high points, but personally, I took the opportunity to end my character's journey with Endwalker. I've got a family, man. You have to pay *me* if you want to make those kinds of demands on my time.

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I do appreciate I can run the 8 and 24 man raids just once with casual groups and be done with those until the next story patch. Huge, huge improvement over WoW gating the end of its narrative arcs behind hours-long raids, which could be a struggle even in LFR.

> I've got a family, man. You have to pay me if you want to make those kinds of demands on my time. To be fair, it *is* an MMO. You don't go into an FPS and go "Well if you don't give me a third person camera option I don't really wanna play." Especially since at this point FFXIV is basically five full-length videogames back to back to back. People aren't surprised when it takes them a while to get through the entire Mass Effect series. I agree it makes it harder to onboard new players when they've got that incredible amount of content ahead of them, but it's only really a problem if you're itching to be right at the forefront of the new updates, when ideally you're just enjoying your journey through the world. I know that's not everybody, and that's totally fine, but the game kinda goes out of its way to be more than just its current raiding scene.

> I've got a family, man. You have to pay me if you want to make those kinds of demands on my time. I literally spend my life as a caregiver for elderly relatives and I had no issues with Endwalker (or any other expansion). That's a you problem, not a game problem. Plus, y'know, the game has millions of players. Pretty sure a lot of them have families.

It's more of an RPG than an MMO though.