Final Fantasy XIV has been receiving massive heat from its fanbase as of late, as people have been review bombing Final Fantasy's popular MMORPG on Steam.
The reason this is happening is that fans are upset at Square Enix for shutting down a popular PC mod for the game called Mare Synchronos.
Mare Synchronos is a mod that allows players to see other people's mods in-game, whether its cosmetic or gameplay. For example, this mod can let you see a player equipped with a unique armor set and perform abilities not officially available in the normal version of Final Fantasy XIV.
When Square Enix caught wind of this mod, it filed a cease and desist order demanding that its creator, "Her Royal Fluffness", to shut Mare Synchronos down.
The mod creator complied with the demands and announced the mod's shutdown on August 21, 2025.
Final Fantasy XIV Mod, Mare Synchronos, is shutting down from r/ffxiv
Fans reacted to this news with so much rage and disappointment, that they posted over 400 negative reviews on the game's Steam page within 48 hours between 21-23 August, 2025.
While this number doesn't represent the entire fandom, as the game still has an overall positive review reception on Steam, it is still the biggest backlash Final Fantasy XIV has seen in a long while.
In fact, I haven't seen this game get this much heat since the troubled launch of Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker in 2021, where fans were complaining about the absurdly long-queue windows and server issues so bad that Square Enix had to temporarily halt the game's sales to fix them.
Final Fantasy 14 Is Being Review Bombed On Steam Following Mare Synchronos Take Down from r/gaming
This isn't the first time Square Enix has cracked down on PC mods, as earlier this year, it shut down a mod that enabled stalker behavior.
In addition, Square Enix also banned mods that zoomed the camera out further than normal, damage meter mods, and hitbox-reveal mods, which some people used to cheat their way into beating Ultimate Raid bosses during World First Races.
Like those times before this one, the shutdown of Mare Synchronos mod has sparked debates among the fans, with fans arguing for and against it.
The mod's supporters decry Square Enix, with Steam reviews saying that it's unfair of the company to remove purely cosmetic mods that do not harm the game at all, and should focus their time more on making the core game better.
Meanwhile, the people who defend this choice say that Square Enix made the right decision. It's been claimed by a Mare Synchronos alpha tester (which has been shared on Reddit) that the mod has been causing major errors within Final Fantasy XIV's online servers.
These errors alerted Square Enix to the situation and prompted the company to shut down the mod for the good of the game's health.
To mod or not to mod
As a lover of PC mods like the gargantuan library of PC mods for Monster Hunter World: Iceborne or the relatively young but rapidly expanding catalog of Clair Obsur: Expedition 33 mods, my take on this situation is somewhat mixed.
On the one hand, I'm opposed to the removal of purely cosmetic mods as they don't hurt the gameplay and don't count as cheating, as they merely give the game a new coat of paint.
So long as a mod doesn't result in cheating or breaking the game, I feel it should be left alone and allow the mod's creator to express their artistic creativity in ways that will ultimately give the game more life and attract more people to it.
On the other hand, if the claims that the Mare Synchronos mod has been causing server issues, then I think it's a necessary evil to remove it, as it may have done more harm than good for the whole game in the long run.
What's sad is that this drama has been completely overshadowing Final Fantasy XIV's recent positive developments.
The MMORPG had dropped its massive 7.3 update on August 14 and announced a crossover event with Monster Hunter Wilds at Gamescom 2025.
With Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail's main story coming to a close with the 7.3 patch, it's only a matter of time before we see Square Enix set the stage for the game's next expansion.
While I was very disappointed with Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail's lackluster plot, I did enjoy the new Jobs, new bosses, and Final Fantasy IX homages it had to offer.
Hopefully, whatever Square Enix has up its sleeves for the next expansion will be interesting enough to pull me back into the world of Eorzea once more...if it can somehow manage to pull me away from World of Warcraft, and its upcoming epic expansion, World of Warcraft: Midnight, that is.
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