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Thoughts on Modern Minecraft

I have pretty strong opinions on Minecraft and how it's changed over time. I first started playing it 12 years ago (as of 07/07/2025), so maybe a lot of this is just nostalgia talking, but I do have misc opinions on modern Minecraft that very much are not nostalgia-led.

As you're reading this, I can almost guarantee you will disagree with a lot of my points, maybe even all of them. So be it, I'm not here to change your opinion, I'm here to express mine. If you do disagree, feel free to contact me and explain but if you contact me saying something like "your opinions on modern minecraft are wrong" then I'm going to ignore you. Opinions are subjective, suck it up and deal with it.

It's a sandbox... right?

After Microsoft's acquisition of Mojang, I noticed that the updates started to... slowly lose the creative feeling of Minecraft.

The game is advertised as a sandbox, exploration, and crafting game. And it does very well at those, although the recent updates have started moving away from some of these aspects and aiming for a much more RPG-feel.

Don't get me wrong, I love RPG games. I love being thrown into a fantasy world and playing the role of a hero, learning about the world, and defeating the final boss. But I also like sitting back, relaxing, and building a cute house. Minecraft does very well at the relaxing part... unless I'm in a modern version.


Take 1.14, the Village & Pillage update (aka the Texture Update). This update is *very* clearly RPG. Looking at the additions for the sandbox feeling of the game... there are not too many. I mean, new variants for signs and walls are cute, and I love the Cornflower and Lily of the Valley. But the *majority* of the update is pretty clearly RPG.


How about 1.15... oh wait... Mojang got lazy on that update (remember this, it's a common trend that I will cover later). Bees are adorable, I'm a fan of them. This update was good, although definitely not deserving of a major version increment.


1.16... how do I even start... 1.16 is when the game started taking a turn for the worse in my opinion. Yes, the Nether *definitely* needed an update, but there are MAJOR issues with this version. Primarily...

Netherite. Netherite is *obnoxiously* rare. If I want to say, gather every item, or get maxxed out tools, or anything else, now I need to grind for actual real life HOURS to get even 1 or 2 Netherite tools/armour. This is insane, genuinely insane. Diamonds are rare, sure, but you'll find a good many within 1 hour. Netherite though... I've spent 2 hours mining for it and found nothing. Not to mention you need to find FOUR of the ores to get ONE ingot to upgrade a SINGLE tool/armour piece.

*Ignoring* Netherite, 1.16 is a pretty solid update. Tons of new unique building blocks that aren't intrusive. It made the Nether just a little bit more enjoyable to explore.


Now for 1.17. Overall, this update was not bad, I do genuinely like it. I have no negative comments about it.

oh wait. Mojang said that they had to split this update because it was too big. If an update is out of scope, *don't announce it all at once.* Mojang made a huge blunder with this update in that sense, and it caused them to keep adding "new" content in the subsequent updates to add the features that were promised from this one.


1.18! Now we actually get the world generation promised in 1.17. Thanks Mojang (sarcastic).


1.19... oh god. Alright this update REALLY caused a nosedive for my enjoyment of modern versions. The swamp is cool, frogs and Allays are cute. Here's the issue: The Deep Dark.

The Deep Dark does not, in any way, shape, or form, fit Minecraft. This isn't even something that can be argued, looking at the update trends in the 1.12 and previous versions, *nothing* alluded to adding mobs that were almost unkillable, would nearly one-shot you if you **made too much noise**, and had basically no useful loot. The Deep Dark punishes you for playing the game. It's not a "fun challenge" either, I have to play with keep inventory or in peaceful mode in the Deep Dark because I don't want to get instakilled because I was walking in the wrong place. The Deep Dark is also huge. Don't believe me? Download a minimap mod and open the cave map on the lower Y-levels. You'll find a Deep Dark, and it'll be *big*.

There is absolutely no reason to punish the player for mining. That's stupid, completely stupid. If the Warden spawned solely in the Ancient Cities and the Deep Dark weren't so enormous, *maybe* I could enjoy this update. But the way that Mojang went about this update brings me no joy.

Oh and we also got more features previously promised from 1.17! Thanks Mojang (sarcastic).


Alright now for 1.20.

1.20 also introduces one of the single WORST items: Netherite Upgrade Templates. Remember when I said that 1.16's Netherite really annoyed me? Yeah they made it worse. Now you have to go to Bastions to find Upgrade Templates to upgrade your gear. Remember how it would take hours to find Netherite? Yeah now you need to also spend more hours grinding Bastions hoping to find an upgrade template. Luckily you can duplicate them!... using 7 diamonds. What the heck???

So let me spell this out real quick: A "relaxing sandbox game" now wants you to spend actual hours of your time (perhaps multiple real life DAYS) grinding to find Netherite, an Upgrade Template, AND metric tonnes of diamonds just to get a SINGLE set of Netherite gear. What part of that is relaxing??? Mining in the Nether certainly isn't relaxing, it's nightmarish. Mining in the Overworld isn't relaxing anymore either thanks to the Deep Dark taking up dang near half of the world.

In terms of what *good* came from 1.20, Cherry Blossom trees are cute. That's the only part of this update that I really like.

Oh and we also got more promised features from 1.17 (archeology). Thanks Mojang (sarcastic).


Alright now for 1.21. This update REALLY annoys me. Trial Chambers?? What part of this is relaxing sandbox. Okay cool new building blocks (Tuff and Copper block sets) and automated crafting, but everything else REEKS of not-creativity. Oh and the Mace, a weapon that can one-shot a Warden... I haven't seen this level of power creep since Tearalaments dropped in Yu-Gi-Oh. The Heavy Core is also obnoxiously rare, even more so than Netherite. I haven't seen this level of rarity since starlight rares dropped in Yu-Gi-Oh (I don't care that I made this joke twice).

We also got stuff promised from 1.17 (bundles), is this getting old yet? Anyway, thanks Mojang (sarcastic). (1.21.2: Bundles of Bravery)

To add, the Pale Garden (1.21.4: The Garden Awakens). This is very blatantly just Mojang trying to bandwagon on the Dweller mod trend. The mods from that trend are bad, and the Creaking really isn't that much better. I love the Pale Garden itself, a desolate forest with a fun wood type and resin bricks, sign me up! But the Creaking... not great. I will mention, the Creaking would have fit well into the End with some tweaks. The End desperately needs something to make it a little less boring, and the Pale Garden would have fit in **remarkably** there.

Alright now for the GOOD of 1.21. It's not even from 1.21.0, it's from 1.21.5 (Spring to Life). This update makes the game feel way more alive, I love it! I have no critiques on this version.

Okay, 1.21.6 (Chase the Skies). I'm bittersweet about this update. I've always theorized/headcannoned that the Ghasts came from the Overworld, and seeing that come to life was awesome. But something about this update just feels weird in terms of the Minecraft theme... I'm not sure what it is though, so I'm not counting this as a negative point. I will however mention that Happy Ghasts are hecking adorable, so that is a plus :3

And now 1.21.7... the marketing ploy update... This one just adds references to A Minecraft Movie. It's only a music disc and a painting so I'm not really annoyed by it, but I hope that Mojang doesn't bring their marketing magic from Bedrock to Java... I'll be quick to remove it via a mod if so.


You might be thinking, "but you can ignore the RPG aspects." And to that I say: Nope. I can't, not when almost half of the modern game is RPG and the recent updates don't add much of interest to me. That's not "ignorable," that's turning a blind eye.

Ultimately what this means is that if I want to play vanilla Minecraft for the sake of relaxing, modern Minecraft just... doesn't sit right for me. Any version before 1.13, heck yeah, but after then... it just doesn't feel like "Minecraft" to me anymore.

Textures

Okay so this point is really... *really* subjective. Most people I've talked to about this like the new textures, and yeah, I do too. But unlike most people, I like the older textures more. I like the crunchy and saturated textures, they feel oddly charming.

The new textures don't feel like they have as much love put into them, they feel more dull and less fun to me. I do like them, but they don't give me the same feeling that the old textures do.

This could very well just be nostalgia talking :P

Mob Votes & Mojang Laziness

Mob votes are... not great in my opinion. Mojang could easily add all three of the mobs, but instead they just... don't.

Mojang feels pretty lazy in that regard. Then there's 1.15, which is just a joke of a "major-version-incrementing" update.

I do understand that there are internal changes too, I'm a modder and I follow the game's bug tracker via a little Discord webhook bot, I know when Mojang are working hard on bug squashing and such, and I know when they're making internal changes too because... my mods break. Despite that though, some updates are still really lackluster. I'm hoping that the game drops update scheme helps with this, and so far it does seem to be.

Speaking of, just a few days ago (as of 07/07/2025) the Copper Golem was announced, so maybe they are fixing their mob vote tomfoolery.

"Fixing" the Modern Game

Okay! So I've explained why I don't like the updates, but I do like modding on new versions since there's better tooling and there are lots of amazing mods made for new versions, and since I happen to *be* a modder, I can simply tweak parts of the game that I dislike.

This is a list of what I would change in modern versions via a mod to make it appeal more to me. I do plan to make a mod(pack) using these tweaks in the future, if so then I'll add a link to this page :D

Note that this is not intending to recreate Alpha or Beta in a modern version, it's intending to make the modern version lean way more into the sandbox, exploration, and crafting aspects of Minecraft and remove or tweak a lot of the RPG aspects.