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A regular guys review of FFXIV
jm11744
Member Posts: 7
I'd like to make a post detailing my experience playing Final Fantasy XIV over the first weekend I had it. I'm an MMO veteran (played almost every MMO since UO launch) and never played FFXIV in beta.
Install was painless enough. Patching took a little while but wasn't anything to bitch about. Honestly I've experienced much worse. Only bad part about the whole patch process was the terrible elevator music that played the whole time. Thank God you can click off the window and it goes away.
Once that's done I dive into the account making process. Making the account took a little while because the menu on the left was very confusing. I got lost a few times clicking around, and I wasn't super clear exactly what I was signing up for. Characters are "options"? What good is the $10 a month service without a character to go with it? How stupid is it to make that a separate process? Anyway, having bought the CE I wanted to register the security key. I went to the instruction page and it told me to click a menu option in my account that didn't even exist. So, I managed to find the right one and got that set up. Finally I'm able to log in.
One I got into the game, I watched a cool cutscene. Graphics are amazing, animations are awesome. My computer runs the game OK, but not great, and my PC is kind of run-of-the-mill, again nothing I feel compelled to bitch about. The game dumps me out of the cutscene and I'm being attacked by 3 dog creatures. Enter action mode it says. OK, how do I do that? I click around, finally double click on the monster which I think put me in action mode. This brings up a common action bar, which I start clicking on. After two or three second, the stuff I'm clicking actually happens, which is annoying. I'm still not completely clear what the stamina bar is for, but whatever. The stuff dies and the cutscene takes me to the starting city.
This is where stuff got really weird. So it dumps me at a gate with a pile of PCs standing around, and there's a very cool looking building ahead of me with a waterwheel. I run towards the building and right before I get there, the game goes black and it dumps me back at the gate. Okie Dokie, I try again, and again this happens. 3 times I try like a freakin hamster in a wheel and every time the same thing. So, obviously the game doesn't want me to do this. So I start clicking around and found an NPC which started another short cutscene which then put me inside the building I was trying to run to. WTF what is the point of that, really? That tiny experience is like a preview of what the entire game was like.
Everything is obtuse and stupid. The woman inside tells me to go to Bentbranch or something. I see it on the map, and get started. I run a little way, open the map and click around, realizing that I cant move the map (it wasn't til much later I learn that IJKL move the map, who would figure that out?). So for now, I'm stuck with a nonfunctioning map, which has no waypoint system of any kind. As I'm running out there, the realization of exactly how the entire world is constructed dawns on me. The entire world (which is MASSIVE) is built like a hamster maze (seeing a pattern here), with the interlocking tubes of copy/paste terrain. If you happen to accidentally run up a tiny incline, you can't jump off, you have to run back around again. WTF this is lazy programming.
Thing went like this for a while. A greatest hit: One story mission had an "instance bubble" around me. Before I realized that, the game kept making me start over if I walked too far, just like my city experience above. I soon clued out that the red circle around me on my radar was the instance border, and I had to wait for the game to update its position so I could take a few more steps forward. WHAT FUN.
I could go on and on. Everything has an weird name and nothing has a mouse over, so it's impossible to tell what everything in the menu is. Couple that with the half hour it took me to buy a retainer and I'm frustrated beyond belief. It takes a half hour to do the most menial of tasks. Still I don't have a clue how to craft something, cause there are no recipes that I can tell. The room with all the other retainers was pure madness. On and on and on.
I tell my story as a warning to anyone else out there who might think the game will "have to be OK cause it's a big company and a huge name". Don't fool yourself. I feel compelled to tell this story, and this is the first time I have ever made a post like this. That's how much rage I have against this game right now. I represent your standard MMO market. A regular joe looking for a good MMO to play when I get home from work. What market did they make this game for? It is completely maddening! Noone is going to play this for more than a few weeks. It's a complete cluster - nothing makes sense, everything is slow, there's no instructions at all, no tutorials - nothing! THIS GAME SUCKS - DON'T BLOW 75 BUCKS LIKE I DID. Please, for the industry, don't buy this scam of a game.
Comments
First let me start off and say I agree with the account set-up process being a pain(must be a Japanese thing). It was the most annoying thing in the game. Secondly I agree the UI is clunky and still to lagy. But what I disagree with you with is the general game play complaints.
If you read everything you know where to go. Also the copy and paste terrain is not as noticeable as people would like to make us think. Finally this game is different from most MMOs out there in that it believes its player base is smart enough to figure it out.
"Never pay more than 20 bucks for a computer game."-Guybrush Threepwood
"I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me."-Hunter S. Thompson
I agree with you on alot of the stuff, espicaly the account set up part lol ' Knightmare. I also never played the beta so everything was new to me too. Took me a couple of days to work out what i was ment to be doing, after 1st cutscean and qst, I was dumped outside a Tavern in Ul'Dah with 4 NPC around me only one of them had the story update and lead me into the tavern, where the game really begins. I also had problems understanding what my goals and objectives were, and was just killing random mobs outside the city lvling up. Then after about 6 hours i decided to read my Jornal properly and it was pointing me to a Camp north of the City, where I completed another qst. but there was nothing else in my Jornal, so I decided to run back to the guy that gave it me too see if he had anything else, Which he did, then I worked out that I didnt even have to run back to him I could use my Linkshell to contact him or what ever it was called.
After that point rather than just clicking through everything I decided to start reading everything properly and found my way around nps, I worked out how to do the do the guildleaves, How to craft and change class/weapon and also make macros to make it alot qwicker , after that point I really started enjoying the game. And I started to like the way its set up. It had a alot slower pace than other games ive played but still enjoyable after the headache at the start lol.
I decided to reroll and join another server and play using my PS3 controler, and How simple it is to play on a controler made the game even more appleing for me anyway. So ive decided to quit for now and wait for the PS3 version to come out instead, nothing to do with the game its self more so to do with my System. It did say on SYSTEM REQUIRMENTS LAB that my system could run it fine it was just under the recomended settings but well above minimum settings, but I ran the FFXIV Benchmark tool and wasnt getting more than a score of 1600 - 1800 on high and low settings. Didnt notice much of a diffrence in proformance on low settings and everything maxed out in GFX card and Settings.
2.8ghz Atherlon64 5000+
4gb DDR2
ATI HD5870
Must admit thou got a much better proformance thou when I changed server jumped from 10 - 25fps to 25 - 45fps
On the copy paste terrain - I'm not trying to make anyone think anything, I'm pointing out that I definately noticed it and thought it sucked.
On being smart enough to figure it out - I played Everquest for four years. EQ is the game everyone seems to refer to as the "good old days", and is the game FFXIV is trying to emulate in feeling. I figured out the basic functionality of EQ in about a day, because things were named appropriately, and it actually came with a manual that had some information in it. Now, if you want to label me as some dip@#$% who can't seem to grasp what's going on, feel free. I figured FFXIV out enough to get to the point that I had nothing else to do.
I think from alot of the reviews the game will be tough on those new to the systems it uses and it's design, especially given that so many people nowadays just like to click over everything without reading it which I too am guilty of but the exception for me is the first time I see something I read over it being an alt aholic I often encounter the content again and then skip the text and such. But this isn't going to be a casual game no though the last one wasn't either and in that respect I can say they seem to be sticking to what it is they think they know. Having played FF before the mmo's though I always get the sense they could do the name more justice than they have with these two mmo's.
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
Actually , thanks for your review. U've given me a good reason not to play this game.
Honestly, the reason why WOW has so many people playing it is not hard to figure out: the game is finished upon
it's release and the game is meant to let you enjoy the quest. An MMORPG is not supposed to be the pain in the arse.
Thanks for your review.
Every game should have a tutorial to teach you the basics apparently this game doesn't even do that.
After reading this and other reviews I am so glad I did not pick this game up.
The entire world is not built like a hampster maze. Just that area you were in. I know, I started in Uldah then I had to move to granadia because I was an archer and needed to be there. Uldah is pretty open , granadia is not.
Anyhow, I didn't experience any of the problems you did, but I will say the game is rather boring, imo.
"When it comes to GW2 any game is fair game"
I played EQ as well and I agree with you that FFXIV is just stupid not the player. I still actually play EQ sometimes and drop on by, but as you said, things are difficult, but they actually provided a manual you could read and things were actually labeled appropriately. It was a harder, game but as you said not stupid. I will attest to the fact that if you played EQ you sir are not the problem. The game in question FFXIV is just defunkt. Anyways, I like your review, I feel it important to warn people of this game as well and the tradgedy that is FFXIV.
I honestly think that Square could have done more for it's low-contextual buyers (US, Canada, Europe, etc...). It makes sense why this game plays the way it does in Asia, especially Japan (extremely high-contextual society).
I'm sorry to tell you, but most of your frustration comes from the fact the game interface has been leveled down to match console capabilities.
How can you imagine a second a paddle can compete with a mouse and a keyboard?
This is where the problem stands, and it is confirmed by the other poster explaining he had a much better experience with a paddle.
As I am a PC gamer, I don't plan to give that game even a try.
And more importantly I cannot support a game with a crazy business model: one character slot, additional slots increases the sub cost.
Unless one can play multiple characters of the same account simultenaously (which I'm sure is not allowed), that has no cost justification whatsoever.
This is just a joke (and a bad one if you ask me).
When that argument gets thrown around it amuzes me. What sort of a business model is that anyway.
When the servers start to shut down (merge) and the Dev team gets put on maintenance mode you will care, a lot.
EvE (a game far more complex and rewarding) is where I am going back to; a complex game that teaches the player the basic meaning, and controls, to the game.
Edit - You guys should listen very closely to what the OP is saying as it is the very reason me, and the three buds I got to join, are not planning on continuing our time (even though we shelled out $150) with this game as it currently is.
Makes me wonder how many players are gonna stay in the game just because they were so quick to defend the game in these forums. I have read that certain things would be fixed before launch, yet they haven't. I just can't fathom anyone playing this game and knocking the opinions of unhappy subscribers with comments like "I am glad they don't like it, go back to WoW," when the opinion are based on what they are experiencing in the game NOW. If someone is unhappy with the game for something like the lack of an AH, I find it silly to not only say that person is dumb for being upset, but using the excuse that they read it will be added later to justify them being right in there assumptions that the complainer is just stupid and can't grasp the game because it is too difficult for them. Just an example, not a complaint. The OP is unhappy with the product and upset enough to write a warning to those that may have like views on what a game should do better. I decided not to play, but I keep reading so I can see if/when these changes that will make the game playable to me. I do agree with the OP that these things would be annoying and don't make the game harder, they just make certain things take more time.
RIP Jimmy "The Rev" Sullivan and Paul Gray.
Is it true that there are no mouseover tooltips for the UI in this game? Honest question because I don't know. But I will say that tooltips are not an element of 'child MMOs', but properly designed MMO's. It's a very tiny little detail, but one that I could see alleviating a lot of problems for newcomers trying to figure out an unfamiliar UI. For me, there's nothing worse that spending more time trying to fight a game's interface than I do fighting a game's mobs.
If there are no tooltips, I'm curious as to the reason why. It's not exactly time or resource intensive to program into a game.
Correct no tooltips and no drag/drop functionality. Both of these PC staples would be welcome additions ASAP!
The only reason that comes to my mind is console experience focus, which has no mechanism I can think of do to tooltips well.
This is why everything about how to do something is in a submenu - when it becomes obvious using a controller is smoother than mouse you know it was designed for console first. Sadly.
I miss Kb+M but getting by with controller, better than I originally thought. Actually I have developed an odd combination of Mouse/Controller. Controller for navigation and combat, mouse for crafting and menu's.
The UI is mainly your health /mana /stam, actionbar, mini map and target + theres another box with your linkshell updates and couple of other things on it, oh and a buff and debuff box. You can move them around by dragging and dropping but didnt see anyway off scaling the size of them which would of helped alot, Thou I must admit after playing the game on my PS3 controler the UI didnt bother me at all, controls were so much better and smoother. Im sure theres tooltips on spells ect cus i had them on my action bar
I still use my controler to access menus ect. I agree , I was suprised how easy it was to play using a controler, made me look forward to DCUO even more now , knowing it will prob have same kind off set up on there and it works perfect
It stopped being a "regular guy's review" about here. Sorry you didn't like the game, but getting up on your soap box demanding that all of us who do like the game have fallen for a scam is way over the line. Final Fantasy XI wasn't for everyone, it demanded their users be willing to adapt a bit. The same thing goes for Final Fantasy XIV. If you're not willing to do that, this doesn't make it a scam, it just means you bought the wrong game for you.
I tried it with a ps3 controller and an xbox 360 controller. It does add to the fluidity of movements, but doesn't improve the experience.
So who is this game for then? Final Fantasy fans? I'm a HUGE Final Fantasy fan and I think it's terrible. Fans of FFXI? I played that for 3 years and loved it. Japanese/Asian players? Considering the 1.5/5 rating it seems to be getting on every site, the Japanese would like to kindly disagree with you. Who is this niche of game players?
A convoluted UI and absolutely 0 tutorial does not add a level of difficulty or make a game any more harcore then any other. It makes the game designers lazy. It's quite obvious to anyone that plays this game for more then a day that the game is made to be a console game, and PC was thrown in there to grab some more money up. Dubbing this "an added level of difficulty" or "no hand holding" or "hardcore" is like me telling you to sort M&Ms by color with your eyelids. It can be done, but why the hell would you do it that way when there are many more easily accesible ways to do it?
Now we get to the part about needing player made gear to get any better. This alone would be an actual plus to me, as I often neglect my professions. But say you need a material you don't have. Well, there's no worldwide chat channel. No problem, I'll go to the auction house....oh wait. There isn't one. So you're left to farm for whatever it is you need, or ask each person one by one. Terrible design.
Now onto the running narrative. The story quests are fun-ish. The leves? Not so much. First off, there's only 8 to do every 2 days. Second, it's the same randomly generated crap every 2 days. Go here, kill x number of y mob, come back. Boring. After these 8 thrilling quests are over, you can either grind, sit and tell stories about how this game could be better with other people who are waiting for their 48 hours to be over, or log off and play a better game. This is hardly the alive and vibrant world I normally expect from SE. This is grinding without even TRYING to cover that it's grinding.
I won't get into the cut and paste environments, the terrible skill up process the fact that there is tremendous UI lag while in groups and even solo. The game is broken. The sooner those of you who vehemently deny that fact admit it, the sooner you'll stop getting told over and over that your game isn't all sunshine and farts.
I predict a mass cancelation of subs after the free 30 days ends.......I've been playing since the sept 22 and this game still fails to be fun to me. i'd say 2/10 people who play this game like it.
It's not that this game is too hard, this game isn't any harder or challenging than other MMO's on the market by any means. It just isn't any good.....I'm sorry
sadly agree
LMAO!! You nailed it.
Ever have a message with something you disagree with, but found it so full of overblown exaggeration that you felt it would be too much work? This was one of those posts. For example:
"Considering the 1.5/5 rating it seems to be getting on every site, the Japanese would like to kindly disagree with you." - We had a thread from one site, one, where the Japanese players had rated it 1.5. Later on in that same thread, we had a post from other sites where it was really more like it'd see on Amazon or Metacritic right now, about a middling score with slightly under half the players scoring it highly, slightly over half the players scoring it lowly, and very few in the middle.
"A convoluted UI"- It's only an opinion that the UI is convoluted, I actually find the UI to be quite slick. The GUI lag, on the other hand, is something less forgivable, but "convoluted" isn't the right word for it.
"absolutely 0 tutorial" - You've got a combat tutorial at the start of the game. It's a bit of trial by fire, sure, but the mobs are just sitting around waiting for oyu to figure out how to target something and hit the attack button. Then you've got a combat level tutorial given to you when you first arrive at the first camp. Tutorials for mining, gathering, fishing built into some of the starting leves. There could have been far more tutorials, sure, but that's still greater than "absolutely zero."
"Dubbing this 'an added level of difficulty' or 'no hand holding' or 'hardcore' is like me telling you to sort M&Ms by color with your eyelids." - Just because you put something in a funny-sounding analogy doesn't mean it's true... or even makes any sense.
And so on. That's about 33% through the message, but I really don't feel like it'll do me any good to go on. It's like, if the guy's that determined to mke the game sound bad, my finest efforts would be tossing a pebble in the ocean.