- Image by FINAL FANTASY XIV courtesy of Square Enix

Final Fantasy 14: Patch 7.25 Sparks Player Outcry

Originally posted on Total Apex Gaming | By Dunia Zakaria | Last updated Jun 18, 2025 8:58 PM ET

With the release of its Dawntrail expansion, Square Enix’s MMORPG darlings, Final Fantasy 14, are going through a very tumultuous moment. Clients have recently poured low Steam reviews on the Dawntrail expansion. The sentiments fell quickly after Patch 7.25, as players now express so many unmet expectations. This perception further raised against the bashing concerning the new content under Final Fantasy 14 and all fandom frustrations.

Occult Crescent Frustrates Fans of Final Fantasy 14 Karl

Image from Final Fantasy 14 courtesy of Square Enix

Most of the frustrations turned towards it by fans were directly from the new Field Operation, Occult Crescent. Most of the fans call this addition boring, repetitive, and uninspired, but devoid of the marvelous design that is otherwise largely associated with flagship content.

A lot of complaints are about excessive grinding in plaintext, while the thrill has been lost from these new activities. The feeling shared among the whole community of Final Fantasy 14 is that they have been much more annoyed by issues regarding limiting the number of players per instance. This makes it harder to raid the Forked Tower with a full group under Occult Crescent.

Player Reviews Patch 7.25

But their displeasure in the community goes further than that for Occult Crescent. Some reviews seem to suggest that there is a wider malaise, which is that “the formula is stale,” which in fact was how Square Enix maintained that the prior feedback had been taken into account by this patch. However, the very fierce blow-back getting tossed at them by players over platforms such as Steam has only bolstered the idea that this matter had stirred the developers to action.

The developers have thus confirmed this fact, and they will be taking in players’ feedback this week regarding Cosmic Exploration and the Occult Crescent, with further information expected to go through the official Lodestone.

Connect with Community Expectations in RPGs

This has become Final Fantasy 14, and this is precisely why the developers should be responsive to their player base. It is the same community that continues exchanging relevant information with Square Enix on matters where status will differ from other RPGs.

The discussions as to how Clair Obscur Expedition 33 has gone in approaching new content and improvements are pointing to a different view towards www.contentandpostrelease.com post-patch post-release development. For all that, it is consumer behavior in the RPGs, as in the demands posed by fans regarding certain features in Witcher 4.

This article first appeared on Total Apex Gaming and was syndicated with permission.

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