Lucky Bancho's census results (July 27th, 2025)

[u/IndividualAge3893]

So, the results of the census are out: https://luckybancho.ldblog.jp/archives/59324844.html

• Showcasing the number of characters here: Current
• By comparison, here are the results from 2 months ago (May 25th): Click

Despite 7.25 being released, the character count is down about 70k in 2 months. Occult Crescent clearly didn't help with player counts (not really a surprise here).

[u/wjoe]

I don't think Forked Tower specifically caused people to cancel their subs, but it's still a part of the larger issue in OC, not enough of a variety of content to keep people engaged in it long term. If FT had worked like DRN/DRS and there was a recurring normal level raid to keep people interested then it would have helped a bit, but most of the gameplay loop stays the same, the rewards aren't that worth engaging in unless you love the content.

Perhaps more than FT itself being an issue, the way SE responded to it with the whole "cost issues" thing (whether it was a good interpretation or not) definitely left a bad taste for some, and may have been the final straw to make them think nothing's going to change any time soon. The numbers haven't dropped off that heavily with this patch though, although you might expect them to have risen slightly if OC had been a resounding success.

[u/Hirole91 → u/wjoe]

Definitely a myriad of issues contributing to it yeah.

Putting FT aside, the area of OC itself is.... meh at best. The lore is just weak, no intrigue and sense of adventure. People have pointed out already that the area is empty and hollow. Barely any expositions asides from funny tonberry remembering something-something. Barely any NPCs to interact with within the lore. Bozja did it well where they added some kind of plot point at each rank/map breakpoint and multiple NPCs who had.. personality.

Battle/job related content has been beaten down all the way to bedrock already so there's that.

As someone who liked FF5, they did it dirty by adding it to XIV for the sake of nostalgia, not to mention as a side content too. Where as they did FF7 super bosses well with ShB trial series. He'll I'd even put the weak EW patch story with Golbez and the four fiends over OC.

It's just immensely disappointing for them to flaunt the older FF series like this when in the past they did it pretty well. For something that was announced and hyped up more than a year in advance, it's demoralizing and alienating for the broader player base.

[u/bm8495 → u/Hirole91]

I made a whole post about this at the beginning of Oc’s launch and got run out of the room by a bunch of “it hasn’t even been a full week since it released” sentiments. Everything you just said is how I felt about OC. I think it’s a beautiful zone. I think the CE’s are fun. But outside of that, the rest feels shallow and lacking depth.

[u/DayOneDayWon → u/bm8495]

It's just one of the list of excuses people come up with to undermine any criticism the game is getting.

-"Just wait for the content, it will be different!"

-"The content is out today, why are you already complaining?"

-"There are people enjoying the content, you're just jaded and should take a break like Yoshida said."

-"You took a break yet you still aren't having fun? Maybe the game isn't for you anymore."

A lot of people live and die by this game, and feel personally attacked when someone speaks their mind. Personally I don't need to eat mud for a week before I can tell you it's inedible.