"It's simply impossible": Final Fantasy 14 lead explains why the MMO's difficulty level will never be "just right" for all players

gamesradar.com:

The Final Fantasy 14 community has long found its members at odds over difficulty, and this discourse hasn't slowed down after Dawntrail or the expansion's subsequent patches - but as the MMO's lead battle designer himself puts it, the game's difficulty will likely remain a hot topic forever.

Speaking in a recent interview with PC Gamer, Masaki 'Mr. Ozma' Nakagawa explains why he doesn't see Square Enix ever designing the "perfect" difficulty for all of Final Fantasy 14's players. "I believe it's simply impossible to design a difficulty level that's 'just right' for all players," he says. "Each [piece of] content should be designed with a specific demographic in mind, with a difficulty that's just right for that target audience." 

Nakagawa continues, detailing how diverse he believes content should be and how different types of duties fit different kinds of players best. "At the same time, I also believe the content should still have something in store for players outside the primary target audience," says the lead. "For example, alliance raids are primarily designed for those who don't participate in high-end duties such as extreme trials or savage raids."

Alliance raids aren't necessarily fun for everyone, however. "On the other hand, those who enjoy savage raids and other high-end duties may find that alliance raids are neither satisfying nor engaging; to them, alliance raids would just be boring content. So although we adjust difficulty levels based on a primary target audience, we still try to make the content as enjoyable as possible for all players, and we apply that philosophy to all content."

The lead then looks back at some of Dawntrail's content and describes how difficulty played a part in its development. "For example, Patch 7.0 added Worqor Lar Dor (Extreme), which was designed with the target audience of 'players who are trying extreme trials for the first time.'" As a result, Nakagawa admits that "many players probably felt the encounter was easier