Final Fantasy 14 Director Regrets Making Things Less Stressful

thegamer.com:

Final Fantasy 14 is a pretty chill experience for the most part, especially if you're not a big raid buff, and I think most of the community agrees that the game has been getting significantly easier over the years with each expansion drop. A lot of that is intentional, especially in the game's main story, as it could be potentially frustrating for someone to suddenly hit a brick wall of difficulty after having been invested in a game for close to a decade.

However, the gradual easing of content could be coming to an end when Dawntrail finally releases, as director Naoki Yoshia has explained in a recent interview with Famitsu that he actually regrets turning Final Fantasy 14 into "a game that you can play without stress". He admits that over the years, Final Fantasy 14 has become a lot more of a comfortable experience than in previous expansions, and that the team may have "overdone" things a bit.

Yoshida goes on to explain that video games as a concept should "have an element of stress" for them to be fun, and that he "would like to restore that part a little bit" and make things more of a challenge for everyone. Of course, that sounds a little bit scary if you've been struggling to make your way through Endwalker or have any accessibility needs, but it seems much more likely Yoshida is referring to optional content rather than the main scenario.

One of the big reasons why Final Fantasy 14 is enjoying such popularity is that it's less concerned about the MMO elements of the genre and would rather tell an interesting and dramatic story. That stuff is there for players to tackle if they want more of a challenging experience, but Final Fantasy 14's main story is essentially a regular game tucked inside a Final Fantasy-themed MMO.

Yoshida is more than likely referring to content such as Alliance Raids, which have gradually been getting easier and easier since Stormblood. You'll find plenty of fans in the Reddit thread above hoping Dawntrail brings back tougher Alliance