6.5 is about what you'd expect from a x.5 patch, maybe even more when you consider the relatively low stakes build up to each subsequent expansion that took place in 2.5, 3.5, 4.5, and 5.5. But I think for me, what makes 6.5 feel so much lesser is how tired the game feels. The plot's main thrust has been resolved; much of the wonder and mystery the game held has faded. Final Fantasy XIV has been pushed to its conceptual limits multiple times already, and it happens roughly twice in 6.5 between the MSQ and the Alliance Raid questline.

The content is as competent as always, but I can't help but feel it's reduced to only being serviceable thanks to it being effectively identical to every other patch. The same dungeon trash, different but eerily similar bosses, blink-and-you'll-miss-'em trials, cutscenes that are utilizing decade old BGM and 3D animations -- it legitimately gives me existential dread when I hear the same hokey backing tracks that have been in cutscenes for the past decade while my avatar smiles placidly at some mundane situation. And perhaps it's my fault for playing the game for so long; of course I'd be tapped out on enjoyment to some extent. But honestly this is a GaaS we're talking about, and the past two patches have been revelatory in their failure to meaningful build upon a game that even at its worst moments could make you wonder what was next around the corner.

Like a TV show that's go on for a season or two too long, everything starts to blend together. There are no more layers to peel back, and even seemingly important moments feel unaffecting to the point of unflinching apathy, reduced to post-Avengers: Endgame MCU caliber quality (even down to having its own 'The Eternals', of sorts). It makes me wonder if it was ever truly that good in the first place, or if it was just the novelty of unraveling this world and seeing what it had to offer. Stories don't need to extend themselves this long, and 6.5 has really proven that further.

I'm certain Dawntrail will be of significantly higher quality than the patch-by-patch MSQ of Endwalker, the side stories of Endwalker's patch cycle, and hell, probably Endwalker itself (whose story I think grows increasingly worse the more I think about it). But I'm not convinced Dawntrail won't share the same issues as its predecessors. We'll get a dungeon at every odd level, three trials, a new set of 8-player raids, fancy new moves for all the jobs, a story that's well-written (to a fault) with a genuinely strong sense of adventure at its highest highs. But ultimately it'll falter as a holistic gameplay experience thanks to it being stuck within the framework of an MMO, doomed to never truly have a naturalistic gameplay structure beyond same-y field areas and identically structured instanced content that are carried by bespoke art direction, music, and 3D assets.

FF14 is a respectable multimedia project with lofty ambitions and a growing overconfidence in its own subject matter that would make the FF7 compilation blush, but as an MMO and a game it's gradually depreciating patch by patch thanks to the fact that by its very nature it cannot disrupt its own status quo. Profit and longevity are king in live service games, even in ones that are largely full of meaningful experiences like FF14. Tbh tho as long as it's where the gay people are hanging out, I'll keep coming back, prolly.