There's nothing to "get". It's a poor game that fails to live up to FFXI's complexity and oldschoolness. SE's idea of taking XI and making it more casual did nothing but piss off the casuals and annoy most of the hardcore from XI. SE is out of touch with todays gamers, be it casuals or hardcore, and clearly have lost their direction.
I dunno about that... i think ff11 was pretty dumbed down now you can rush through the game without even really trying... if anything its harder than 11 ever was.
There's nothing to "get". It's a poor game that fails to live up to FFXI's complexity and oldschoolness. SE's idea of taking XI and making it more casual did nothing but piss off the casuals and annoy most of the hardcore from XI. SE is out of touch with todays gamers, be it casuals or hardcore, and clearly have lost their direction.
I dunno about that... i think ff11 was pretty dumbed down now you can rush through the game without even really trying... if anything its harder than 11 ever was.
Well thats mainly due to the age of the game and the game being top heavy. New players coming into the game 6+ years later have less people in the low end of the game to work with than there were when the game was new.
A lot of MMOs do this to help get people into the game and near the bulk of the players quickly so they don't feel alone and leave.
Right now FFXIV feels harder than XI, but give it time and the same concessions will be made.
There are 3 types of people in the world. 1.) Those who make things happen 2.) Those who watch things happen 3.) And those who wonder "What the %#*& just happened?!"
the loves are just people who like FF and like the shiney new game and it's graphics and atmosphere, and people who are crusading for the game to succeed.
Give it time and things will go sour with most of them.
why so much malice :P? seems like you want to see something bad happen lol.
Sovrath, please don't go there, making the same generalizations others are making to defend the game. I know you going back to the C3 days of L2, have had many conversations with you and know you're a far more thoughtful person than that.
Now, I do see from a post in another thread that you just picked the game up yesterday so, your experience is still "fresh and new"... You've just begun the "honeymoon phase" with the game. Been there myself. You see little flaws here and there, but nothing glaring because the newness and beauty of the game wins you over.
I feel pretty safe in saying there's a good chance your perspective is going to change over time as the newness wears off, the honeymoon is over, and those "little flaws", design inconsistencies and other annoyances start to add up and present themselves on a regular basis. Now... I'm not saying "you're going to hate the game". I'm just saying... I think it's a bit premature for you to to be hopping into a thread defending the game having *just* started playing it less than a day ago. I'd say give it a little more time - at least a couple weeks - and then see if your enthusiasm maintains its vigor.
I played FFXI for 7+ years since its release. FFXI was very much an "outsider" in terms of its setup and design and received its share of criticism for being such.
Regardless, in terms of its basic design, SE made solid decisions in FFXI... content that made sense, an interface that was far less obtuse than XIV's is, plenty of content, a market system that worked from the get-go, a more thought-out and detailed (not to mention far less repetitive) environment design... the list goes on and on. In terms of "different", FFXI is about as different as you could get for a MMO, in many ways. That's one of the things I loved about FFXI, and still do. It's its own game. It's unforgiving, it's slow-paced and it's got layer upon layer of depth... It's also, in my opinion, much better designed overall than FFXIV is at the most basic levels.
The issues people have with FFXIV go far beyond it "being too different for them". Plenty of people who *want* something different are applauding them for doing that. It's the *implementation* they take issue with. It's some of their design decisions people are taking issue with, with the interface and otherwise.
Here's just one small example that isn't an "omg deal-breaker" by itself, but certainly illustrates - at the most basic level - some of the WTF-ery of SE's decisions.. You can sit down by typing /sit, but to stand up you have to use the "interact" menu option in the main menu. Why is that? Why not type /stand? Why not just have it like XI - or any other game, really - where you simply move and you stand up? It's needlessly inconsistent and unintuitive.
So please, if you find the game fine as-is then that's wonderful. Sincerely. But do not jump on the bandwagon of people pondering if "people just don't want something different", when the reasons given for people's dissatisfaction are myriad and are all well-documented and represented. Again... I know you're far more thoughtful than that.
I can completely agree with that example. I can also agree with other examples that people should be bringing up.
Such as teleporting back to a place has one too many windows. It's like you go through several steps and all of a sudden you get a window that asks "do you want to teleport?" Well of course I want to teleport, I just did all these steps.
It's not just teleporting. Look at crafting, you can go through a dozen or more clicks to make one item at a time. Crafting is something I enjoy im mmorpgs, and I don't mind the little mini-game mechanics of the crafting process itself, but the cumbersome mechanics of selecting the items for crafting, repeated "confirm" menus, and then having to do this again and again for each item is making me hate the crafting system even though it is a very good one at its core.
Where I point out the "comfort zone" part is that I am finding some complaints to be non-issues if one just thinks a bit.
Not having "!" over quest npc's. It's pretty simple to find the quest npc's without the "!"
I can handle that part. It's no different than playing a regular singleplayer Final Fantasy game.
Not having an auction house. I do get the idea that people might want to find an item. Like a shield. I want a shield so it's a good example. And thus going through several sellers to see what they are selling could be a pain in the neck. But remember, I do go back to Lineage 2. Heck, I go back to prelude in Lineage 2. And going from shop to shop, sometimes finding what you want (as advertised in the over head sign) and sometimes finding that one item was sold out. Or that you find that item and there are a few other items that aren't advertised in the shop. Sometimes a good thing. So I havne't found a shield yet. Either items are solely crafted or there is a city that I am yet to find that has an npc that sells gear. Or maybe I don't need new gear yet. upgrading my skills seems to allow success without new gear.
Having vendors is nothing new. Most asian mmos have used that system forever. However western mmorpgs, Star Wars Galaxies and Anarchy Online for two examples, already improved that system damn near a decade ago. SWG uses character vendors just like FFXIV and AO uses player shop terminals. Same concept for both as FFXIV, yet they go further by having a central dearch feature that will allow you to search for individual items and then give you the name, location, and co-ordinates for the vendor(s) selling the item(s) you want.
Another individual was complaing about tutorial. Well, there actually is a tutorial of sorts. It's not comprehensive but it does set you to certain places in the interface. For example, one individual was complainign about not knowing there were points to be assigned to your stats. But at the beginning you get a little message that you can open your interface assign points to your stats. Heck, there is a part of the quest in Gridania that is essentially a tutorial on emotes. At least it gets one familiar with them. Another individual was complaing about not knowing he could assign skills that he got but sure enough when I went back to my quest giver she indicates you can open up your menu and assign them. Doesnt' say "how' but after 15 seconds it became apparent.
Several other individuals were complaining that they couldn't find things on their map. Well, I had the same issue until I made the leap that if it wasn't on my direct map then it might be on the map below. I went "off" my map and lo and behold there it was. A "baddie" on Square Enix's part is that they dont' mention the "I, J, K, L" being the keys to move your map. I even went to the keyboard assignment window and it doesn't mention that.
I didn't figure out how to move the map until I started using a controller and found that the right stick would move the map around. SE made their keyboard control scheme as convoluted as possible needlessly.And yes, there are "tutorials", just not as prominent as in most games. Having been playing games for almost 3 decades now, it's not hard for me to figure out most mechanics for any game, but for a newer player who maybe hasn't played mmos before or only a few, FFXIV can be very daunting.And even so, I still found myself scratching my head trying to figure some stuff out.
Others mention not knowing where to go. Well, there is a main quest (I assume that there is one for each starter area) and it's very clear where to go for each setp. Not "X:" marks the spot as far as which npc to go to but as I said, they are pretty easy to find.
I agree with this.
And gettign back to assigning skills? Once I figured it out it was easy. It's not a game breaker by any means. The interface lag is somethign that comes up but I just don't see it as being as horrendous as others have said. Probably because I have my window down to the smallest setting and the graphics turned up. My windows are not "immediate snappy" but they are close.
Playing on a tiny window in the middle of your desktop like UO back in the day is not what many would consider a "viable" solution nowadays.
When i say "comfort zone" I'm not saying to people that they have to love the combat style for instance. But I am saying that if one is not getting what one wants it seems fairly simple to make a leap and realize that it's pretty much all there on that menu. So for example my quest journal updated and indicated that I should use my orb to contact my "contact" in gradania. My thought was "what orb?". I clicked around at a throbbing orb in my upper right hand corner, looked through my inventory and then went back to the "well, look down my menu" idea. Sure enough, it was there.
Now after my second day I'm familiar with how to buy and sell things, how to assign skills, how they seem to work, how to find things on my map, how to teleport to and fro, how to find quest npc's that seem stationed close to the front of where you arrive. At least so far.
I'm seeing complaints from some that it's worse than Vanguard and I gape because I have yet to find any major bugs/glitches. The cut scenes are so well done (far better that what Aion did in this matter) and I'm able to play at much higher settings in order to take advantage of the beautiful world because I played around with my settings. Closing down my game to fiddle with settings is horrible but after one finds their happy medium they never have to do that again.
I'm playing the game fairly smoothly on a system that supposedly can't even run the game, so I agree they've at least done a fair job of optimizing the game engine.
I might very well get tired of the little inconsistencies or perhaps glaring issues that might be coming down the pike. You are correct, I am only in two days. But when I see people complaining about no "!" no "x" on the map (which there essentially is in Warhammer/LOTRO style), when people say they dont' know what to do when they start the game, I wonder what their thought process is. Things seem to be fairly simple if one just takes a step back and work it through.
Now, after one figures out how the game works, where things are, how to find things, etc, then that's another story. I can easily see why people might not like the game just because of its pacing, how combat works, the cutseyness that is within the game world, etc.
But you know, we'll see.
The only real downer for me right now ( outside of the antiquated vendor system ) is there's no real content between the "main" storyline segments.
For me, I thnk where SE screwed up, somewhat in the case of FFXI but really knocking it out of the park with FFXIV, is they tried to take a singleplayer FF game and just streeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeech it out and call it an mmo.
Look at a singleplayer FF game, you have a main story that you basically grind through "fiends" to get to the next town or the next point of interest on the map or the next cutscene/story moment. Works fine for a singleplayer JRPG, not so much for an mmorpg.
And while we're at it with the singleplayer/mmo differences, let's talk about the "fiends" of the games. That's another low point for me in FFXIV ( was also one for me in FFXI as well ). In what singleplayer FF game did you ever start out by killing little fluffy bunnies, squirrels, or deer? Even in the first FF, the first mobs you killed were some dangerous shit. And all the way through the series, the first mob battles always felt as epic as the later ones.
In conclusion, just give me a way to easily find the item I want/need when I want/need it ( I don't mind having to go to the actual vendor to get the item ) and tighten up the crafting hassle ( at least let me que up multiple items ) and I'll be content for now.
-Letting Derek Smart work on your game is like letting Osama bin Laden work in the White House. Something will burn.- -And on the 8th day, man created God.-
Sovrath, please don't go there, making the same generalizations others are making to defend the game. I know you going back to the C3 days of L2, have had many conversations with you and know you're a far more thoughtful person than that.
Now, I do see from a post in another thread that you just picked the game up yesterday so, your experience is still "fresh and new"... You've just begun the "honeymoon phase" with the game. Been there myself. You see little flaws here and there, but nothing glaring because the newness and beauty of the game wins you over.
I feel pretty safe in saying there's a good chance your perspective is going to change over time as the newness wears off, the honeymoon is over, and those "little flaws", design inconsistencies and other annoyances start to add up and present themselves on a regular basis. Now... I'm not saying "you're going to hate the game". I'm just saying... I think it's a bit premature for you to to be hopping into a thread defending the game having *just* started playing it less than a day ago. I'd say give it a little more time - at least a couple weeks - and then see if your enthusiasm maintains its vigor.
I played FFXI for 7+ years since its release. FFXI was very much an "outsider" in terms of its setup and design and received its share of criticism for being such.
Regardless, in terms of its basic design, SE made solid decisions in FFXI... content that made sense, an interface that was far less obtuse than XIV's is, plenty of content, a market system that worked from the get-go, a more thought-out and detailed (not to mention far less repetitive) environment design... the list goes on and on. In terms of "different", FFXI is about as different as you could get for a MMO, in many ways. That's one of the things I loved about FFXI, and still do. It's its own game. It's unforgiving, it's slow-paced and it's got layer upon layer of depth... It's also, in my opinion, much better designed overall than FFXIV is at the most basic levels.
The issues people have with FFXIV go far beyond it "being too different for them". Plenty of people who *want* something different are applauding them for doing that. It's the *implementation* they take issue with. It's some of their design decisions people are taking issue with, with the interface and otherwise.
Here's just one small example that isn't an "omg deal-breaker" by itself, but certainly illustrates - at the most basic level - some of the WTF-ery of SE's decisions.. You can sit down by typing /sit, but to stand up you have to use the "interact" menu option in the main menu. Why is that? Why not type /stand? Why not just have it like XI - or any other game, really - where you simply move and you stand up? It's needlessly inconsistent and unintuitive.
So please, if you find the game fine as-is then that's wonderful. Sincerely. But do not jump on the bandwagon of people pondering if "people just don't want something different", when the reasons given for people's dissatisfaction are myriad and are all well-documented and represented. Again... I know you're far more thoughtful than that.
I can completely agree with that example. I can also agree with other examples that people should be bringing up.
Such as teleporting back to a place has one too many windows. It's like you go through several steps and all of a sudden you get a window that asks "do you want to teleport?" Well of course I want to teleport, I just did all these steps.
It's not just teleporting. Look at crafting, you can go through a dozen or more clicks to make one item at a time. Crafting is something I enjoy im mmorpgs, and I don't mind the little mini-game mechanics of the crafting process itself, but the cumbersome mechanics of selecting the items for crafting, repeated "confirm" menus, and then having to do this again and again for each item is making me hate the crafting system even though it is a very good one at its core.
Where I point out the "comfort zone" part is that I am finding some complaints to be non-issues if one just thinks a bit.
Not having "!" over quest npc's. It's pretty simple to find the quest npc's without the "!"
I can handle that part. It's no different than playing a regular singleplayer Final Fantasy game.
Not having an auction house. I do get the idea that people might want to find an item. Like a shield. I want a shield so it's a good example. And thus going through several sellers to see what they are selling could be a pain in the neck. But remember, I do go back to Lineage 2. Heck, I go back to prelude in Lineage 2. And going from shop to shop, sometimes finding what you want (as advertised in the over head sign) and sometimes finding that one item was sold out. Or that you find that item and there are a few other items that aren't advertised in the shop. Sometimes a good thing. So I havne't found a shield yet. Either items are solely crafted or there is a city that I am yet to find that has an npc that sells gear. Or maybe I don't need new gear yet. upgrading my skills seems to allow success without new gear.
Having vendors is nothing new. Most asian mmos have used that system forever. However western mmorpgs, Star Wars Galaxies and Anarchy Online for two examples, already improved that system damn near a decade ago. SWG uses character vendors just like FFXIV and AO uses player shop terminals. Same concept for both as FFXIV, yet they go further by having a central dearch feature that will allow you to search for individual items and then give you the name, location, and co-ordinates for the vendor(s) selling the item(s) you want.
Another individual was complaing about tutorial. Well, there actually is a tutorial of sorts. It's not comprehensive but it does set you to certain places in the interface. For example, one individual was complainign about not knowing there were points to be assigned to your stats. But at the beginning you get a little message that you can open your interface assign points to your stats. Heck, there is a part of the quest in Gridania that is essentially a tutorial on emotes. At least it gets one familiar with them. Another individual was complaing about not knowing he could assign skills that he got but sure enough when I went back to my quest giver she indicates you can open up your menu and assign them. Doesnt' say "how' but after 15 seconds it became apparent.
Several other individuals were complaining that they couldn't find things on their map. Well, I had the same issue until I made the leap that if it wasn't on my direct map then it might be on the map below. I went "off" my map and lo and behold there it was. A "baddie" on Square Enix's part is that they dont' mention the "I, J, K, L" being the keys to move your map. I even went to the keyboard assignment window and it doesn't mention that.
I didn't figure out how to move the map until I started using a controller and found that the right stick would move the map around. SE made their keyboard control scheme as convoluted as possible needlessly.And yes, there are "tutorials", just not as prominent as in most games. Having been playing games for almost 3 decades now, it's not hard for me to figure out most mechanics for any game, but for a newer player who maybe hasn't played mmos before or only a few, FFXIV can be very daunting.And even so, I still found myself scratching my head trying to figure some stuff out.
Others mention not knowing where to go. Well, there is a main quest (I assume that there is one for each starter area) and it's very clear where to go for each setp. Not "X:" marks the spot as far as which npc to go to but as I said, they are pretty easy to find.
I agree with this.
And gettign back to assigning skills? Once I figured it out it was easy. It's not a game breaker by any means. The interface lag is somethign that comes up but I just don't see it as being as horrendous as others have said. Probably because I have my window down to the smallest setting and the graphics turned up. My windows are not "immediate snappy" but they are close.
Playing on a tiny window in the middle of your desktop like UO back in the day is not what many would consider a "viable" solution nowadays.
When i say "comfort zone" I'm not saying to people that they have to love the combat style for instance. But I am saying that if one is not getting what one wants it seems fairly simple to make a leap and realize that it's pretty much all there on that menu. So for example my quest journal updated and indicated that I should use my orb to contact my "contact" in gradania. My thought was "what orb?". I clicked around at a throbbing orb in my upper right hand corner, looked through my inventory and then went back to the "well, look down my menu" idea. Sure enough, it was there.
Now after my second day I'm familiar with how to buy and sell things, how to assign skills, how they seem to work, how to find things on my map, how to teleport to and fro, how to find quest npc's that seem stationed close to the front of where you arrive. At least so far.
I'm seeing complaints from some that it's worse than Vanguard and I gape because I have yet to find any major bugs/glitches. The cut scenes are so well done (far better that what Aion did in this matter) and I'm able to play at much higher settings in order to take advantage of the beautiful world because I played around with my settings. Closing down my game to fiddle with settings is horrible but after one finds their happy medium they never have to do that again.
I'm playing the game fairly smoothly on a system that supposedly can't even run the game, so I agree they've at least done a fair job of optimizing the game engine.
I might very well get tired of the little inconsistencies or perhaps glaring issues that might be coming down the pike. You are correct, I am only in two days. But when I see people complaining about no "!" no "x" on the map (which there essentially is in Warhammer/LOTRO style), when people say they dont' know what to do when they start the game, I wonder what their thought process is. Things seem to be fairly simple if one just takes a step back and work it through.
Now, after one figures out how the game works, where things are, how to find things, etc, then that's another story. I can easily see why people might not like the game just because of its pacing, how combat works, the cutseyness that is within the game world, etc.
But you know, we'll see.
The only real downer for me right now ( outside of the antiquated vendor system ) is there's no real content between the "main" storyline segments.
For me, I thnk where SE screwed up, somewhat in the case of FFXI but really knocking it out of the park with FFXIV, is they tried to take a singleplayer FF game and just streeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeech it out and call it an mmo.
Look at a singleplayer FF game, you have a main story that you basically grind through "fiends" to get to the next town or the next point of interest on the map or the next cutscene/story moment. Works fine for a singleplayer JRPG, not so much for an mmorpg.
And while we're at it with the singleplayer/mmo differences, let's talk about the "fiends" of the games. That's another low point for me in FFXIV ( was also one for me in FFXI as well ). In what singleplayer FF game did you ever start out by killing little fluffy bunnies, squirrels, or deer? Even in the first FF, the first mobs you killed were some dangerous shit. And all the way through the series, the first mob battles always felt as epic as the later ones.
In conclusion, just give me a way to easily find the item I want/need when I want/need it and tighten up the crafting hassle ( at least let me que up multiple items ) and I'll be content for now.
The last paragraph about the fiends is what did it for me, I read alot of commentary from folks who are always like "I'm an old school FF fan" and I always ask my self "then how in the hell do you play a game that has you killing sheep and shit?!?". I will say FF always had some "quirky" fiends but they were not like what I'm seeing from the mmo's, when did this start??
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
Not having an auction house. I do get the idea that people might want to find an item. Like a shield. I want a shield so it's a good example. And thus going through several sellers to see what they are selling could be a pain in the neck. But remember, I do go back to Lineage 2. Heck, I go back to prelude in Lineage 2. And going from shop to shop, sometimes finding what you want (as advertised in the over head sign) and sometimes finding that one item was sold out. Or that you find that item and there are a few other items that aren't advertised in the shop. Sometimes a good thing. So I havne't found a shield yet. Either items are solely crafted or there is a city that I am yet to find that has an npc that sells gear. Or maybe I don't need new gear yet. upgrading my skills seems to allow success without new gear.
Okay that sounds more like the Sovrath I remember heheh.
Whew... thought we'd lost ya there :-p
That said, I'm glad you used examples to qualify your point with more specificity.
To be honest, most of the complaints people I have I personally don't, or don't find to be game-breakers individually. My biggest gripe with the game is how "soul-less" it feels to me... especially the world design. It just feels so "functional' and "sterile" and "safe"... hard to put into words, really, without typing a very long post of examples heheh.
Even Aden in Lineage 2 through the early days of Prelude and C-1 seemed more interesting and mysterious to me, than Eorzea does now.
I remember the first time I wandered out to School of Dark Arts, almost fell over the edge and just marvelled at how huge the place is. I ran around it wondering what it was for, what was down there... etc. I remember looking at the massive hand reaching up through the middle of Dark Elven Village, with that wierd magical cloud of stars above it wondering what was at work there... The first time you see the Tower of Insolence filling up the view ahead of you... Or the strange Giant Architecture of Cruma Tower or Giant's Cave... and so on. I don't need to tell you about the many sights and places L2 has to offer, heheh. All of that made Aden feel like another world to me that I loved to get out and explore, because there was almost always something interesting to see, that helped give the world a sense of age and history.
That's what I feel is missing in Eorzea... those little details that give the world identity and "soul". Eorzea right now, to me, feels like an overly large and mostly uninterseting shell of a world. It just doesn't pull me in... and that's very important to me in a MMO. SE captured it *beautifully* in XI. I don't know what happened in XIV.
So... despite all the other "WTF were they thinking?" moments I've experienced in XIV, it's really the world design itself that I feel is most lacking.
That said, regarding the paragraph of yours I isolated above. I think if SE did something more like the market in L2, it would actually have worked much better to be honest. Running around Giran had a real "community market" feel to it. Characters sat on the ground, advertising their wares for sale, or what they wanted to buy. There was a nifty "sign" over their head listing what they were selling/buying...
I knew people who would spend the first and/or last half hour of their time in-game going shop-to-shop in Giran, looking for a good deal, either for themself, or to turn around and make a profit on it. I knew people (as I'm sure you did too) who made millions of adena playing the market in that game.
Four major things about Giran's market make it stand out to me:
1. It was brought together by the players. NCSoft didn't say "Here, in Giran, is where you will set up shop." The players made that decision. And then there's the spot, across from the warehouse, by the grocery store, where most all the crafters setup shop... If you wanted to craft a specific item, that was the first place you looked. Then you looked from crafter to crafter to see who had the best per-item price. Some people were very generous and would craft the most common items (shots, etc) for 1 adena each. It had a fantastic community feel to it.
2. It wasn't instanced. You didn't have to go from one floor to the next, to the next, to the next, trying to find something. This leads me to the 3rd point...
3. A functional search feature. Type CBP into your search input, and anyone buying or selling Coarse Bone Powder would light up - their signs even showing through walls so you could see them. Someone buying would light up one color, someone selling another color. It was a very user-friendly feature that, I think, really helped the market work.
4. A proper trade channel for people to advertise their wares as well.
Lineage 2's Market system worked... well enough where an Auction House was never needed.
Unfortunately, in its current state, FFXIV's system simply does not, in my opinion.
"If you just step away for a sec you will clearly see all the pot holes in the road, and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
That's what I feel is missing in Eorzea... those little details that give the world identity and "soul". Eorzea right now, to me, feels like an overly large and mostly uninterseting shell of a world. It just doesn't pull me in... and that's very important to me in a MMO. SE captured it *beautifully* in XI. I don't know what happened in XIV.
So... despite all the other "WTF were they thinking?" moments I've experienced in XIV, it's really the world design itself that I feel is most lacking.
This part of your post nails it, to me. When I was in the beta, I got past the menu-driven UI realtively quickly (in spite of cursing at its worse-than-FFXI-setup). I didn't need a tutorial, really. It was simple enough to follow the main quest to my first camp. I didn't need much direction at all, in fact, and in spite of the horrible tearing without V-sync and my poor framerates for graphics that didn't warrant them, what you just described is exactly why I didn't bother to gain any more than a few levels and play but a handful or two of hours.
The only thing I can really add is that this factor is very likely why the copypasta discussion was (and still is) such a huge issue for so many. It's like, on top of all the rest, and on top of that soulless feeling, they exacerbated the issue by copying and repeating so much of the map, which still remains inexplicable to me. How rendering terrain coordinates that are little more than copied, flipped, or rotated is any easier on my machine (or smaller for my PC or GPU's memory) than a height-mapped terrain is beyond me. They essentially boil down to the same process, and are little more than processing a small amount of text in the way of many coordinates to generate how a repeating texture is mapped over them. Still boggled by that.
Anyway, just a glorified +1 for the above and that entire reply, really.
"The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it." George Bernard Shaw
What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. Oscar Wilde
I can completely agree with that example. I can also agree with other examples that people should be bringing up.
Such as teleporting back to a place has one too many windows. It's like you go through several steps and all of a sudden you get a window that asks "do you want to teleport?" Well of course I want to teleport, I just did all these steps.
It's not just teleporting. Look at crafting, you can go through a dozen or more clicks to make one item at a time. Crafting is something I enjoy im mmorpgs, and I don't mind the little mini-game mechanics of the crafting process itself, but the cumbersome mechanics of selecting the items for crafting, repeated "confirm" menus, and then having to do this again and again for each item is making me hate the crafting system even though it is a very good one at its core.
Where I point out the "comfort zone" part is that I am finding some complaints to be non-issues if one just thinks a bit.
Not having "!" over quest npc's. It's pretty simple to find the quest npc's without the "!"
I can handle that part. It's no different than playing a regular singleplayer Final Fantasy game.
Not having an auction house. I do get the idea that people might want to find an item. Like a shield. I want a shield so it's a good example. And thus going through several sellers to see what they are selling could be a pain in the neck. But remember, I do go back to Lineage 2. Heck, I go back to prelude in Lineage 2. And going from shop to shop, sometimes finding what you want (as advertised in the over head sign) and sometimes finding that one item was sold out. Or that you find that item and there are a few other items that aren't advertised in the shop. Sometimes a good thing. So I havne't found a shield yet. Either items are solely crafted or there is a city that I am yet to find that has an npc that sells gear. Or maybe I don't need new gear yet. upgrading my skills seems to allow success without new gear.
Having vendors is nothing new. Most asian mmos have used that system forever. However western mmorpgs, Star Wars Galaxies and Anarchy Online for two examples, already improved that system damn near a decade ago. SWG uses character vendors just like FFXIV and AO uses player shop terminals. Same concept for both as FFXIV, yet they go further by having a central dearch feature that will allow you to search for individual items and then give you the name, location, and co-ordinates for the vendor(s) selling the item(s) you want.
Another individual was complaing about tutorial. Well, there actually is a tutorial of sorts. It's not comprehensive but it does set you to certain places in the interface. For example, one individual was complainign about not knowing there were points to be assigned to your stats. But at the beginning you get a little message that you can open your interface assign points to your stats. Heck, there is a part of the quest in Gridania that is essentially a tutorial on emotes. At least it gets one familiar with them. Another individual was complaing about not knowing he could assign skills that he got but sure enough when I went back to my quest giver she indicates you can open up your menu and assign them. Doesnt' say "how' but after 15 seconds it became apparent.
Several other individuals were complaining that they couldn't find things on their map. Well, I had the same issue until I made the leap that if it wasn't on my direct map then it might be on the map below. I went "off" my map and lo and behold there it was. A "baddie" on Square Enix's part is that they dont' mention the "I, J, K, L" being the keys to move your map. I even went to the keyboard assignment window and it doesn't mention that.
I didn't figure out how to move the map until I started using a controller and found that the right stick would move the map around. SE made their keyboard control scheme as convoluted as possible needlessly.And yes, there are "tutorials", just not as prominent as in most games. Having been playing games for almost 3 decades now, it's not hard for me to figure out most mechanics for any game, but for a newer player who maybe hasn't played mmos before or only a few, FFXIV can be very daunting.And even so, I still found myself scratching my head trying to figure some stuff out.
Others mention not knowing where to go. Well, there is a main quest (I assume that there is one for each starter area) and it's very clear where to go for each setp. Not "X:" marks the spot as far as which npc to go to but as I said, they are pretty easy to find.
I agree with this.
And gettign back to assigning skills? Once I figured it out it was easy. It's not a game breaker by any means. The interface lag is somethign that comes up but I just don't see it as being as horrendous as others have said. Probably because I have my window down to the smallest setting and the graphics turned up. My windows are not "immediate snappy" but they are close.
Playing on a tiny window in the middle of your desktop like UO back in the day is not what many would consider a "viable" solution nowadays.
When i say "comfort zone" I'm not saying to people that they have to love the combat style for instance. But I am saying that if one is not getting what one wants it seems fairly simple to make a leap and realize that it's pretty much all there on that menu. So for example my quest journal updated and indicated that I should use my orb to contact my "contact" in gradania. My thought was "what orb?". I clicked around at a throbbing orb in my upper right hand corner, looked through my inventory and then went back to the "well, look down my menu" idea. Sure enough, it was there.
Now after my second day I'm familiar with how to buy and sell things, how to assign skills, how they seem to work, how to find things on my map, how to teleport to and fro, how to find quest npc's that seem stationed close to the front of where you arrive. At least so far.
I'm seeing complaints from some that it's worse than Vanguard and I gape because I have yet to find any major bugs/glitches. The cut scenes are so well done (far better that what Aion did in this matter) and I'm able to play at much higher settings in order to take advantage of the beautiful world because I played around with my settings. Closing down my game to fiddle with settings is horrible but after one finds their happy medium they never have to do that again.
I'm playing the game fairly smoothly on a system that supposedly can't even run the game, so I agree they've at least done a fair job of optimizing the game engine.
I might very well get tired of the little inconsistencies or perhaps glaring issues that might be coming down the pike. You are correct, I am only in two days. But when I see people complaining about no "!" no "x" on the map (which there essentially is in Warhammer/LOTRO style), when people say they dont' know what to do when they start the game, I wonder what their thought process is. Things seem to be fairly simple if one just takes a step back and work it through.
Now, after one figures out how the game works, where things are, how to find things, etc, then that's another story. I can easily see why people might not like the game just because of its pacing, how combat works, the cutseyness that is within the game world, etc.
But you know, we'll see.
The only real downer for me right now ( outside of the antiquated vendor system ) is there's no real content between the "main" storyline segments.
For me, I thnk where SE screwed up, somewhat in the case of FFXI but really knocking it out of the park with FFXIV, is they tried to take a singleplayer FF game and just streeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeech it out and call it an mmo.
Look at a singleplayer FF game, you have a main story that you basically grind through "fiends" to get to the next town or the next point of interest on the map or the next cutscene/story moment. Works fine for a singleplayer JRPG, not so much for an mmorpg.
And while we're at it with the singleplayer/mmo differences, let's talk about the "fiends" of the games. That's another low point for me in FFXIV ( was also one for me in FFXI as well ). In what singleplayer FF game did you ever start out by killing little fluffy bunnies, squirrels, or deer? Even in the first FF, the first mobs you killed were some dangerous shit. And all the way through the series, the first mob battles always felt as epic as the later ones.
In conclusion, just give me a way to easily find the item I want/need when I want/need it ( I don't mind having to go to the actual vendor to get the item ) and tighten up the crafting hassle ( at least let me que up multiple items ) and I'll be content for now.
Yeah, my solution to play on a small window (though it's not "that" small) is probably only good for me. I just prefer seeing thigns very clear and enjoying as much as the graphical "pop" as I can get. So I give on screen size to get more zazz.
I also think your assesment (others' assessment as well?) that they took a final fantasy game and streeeeetched it might be closer to the mark.
I mean, experiencign the main quest and cut scenes and all the expressions on the faces... well let's just say I got a new appreciation for that type of story telling.
The other stuff in the middle? I thing they are hoping that players fill in those gaps. Whether that happens or can happen is another thing.
Like Skyrim? Need more content? Try my Skyrim mod "Godfred's Tomb."
I also think your assesment (others' assessment as well?) that they took a final fantasy game and streeeeetched it might be closer to the mark.
I mean, experiencign the main quest and cut scenes and all the expressions on the faces... well let's just say I got a new appreciation for that type of story telling.
The other stuff in the middle? I thing they are hoping that players fill in those gaps. Whether that happens or can happen is another thing.
I do remember reading that the developers want to build this world with us. I'm paraphrasing of course. As it is now, I can't see this being a very cohesive or coordinated effort. This game is like someone else mentioned about the world, soulless. I love sandbox games, so I don't mind not having theme-park quests guiding me through a world, I can forge my own purpose. If the right tools are there the players can enjoy an open world. This empty game has no sand in the box. There is nothing to explore. I've been through all of the zones. I've seen a lot of tunnels/caves with nothing there. The landscapes are bland. The textures are nice, there is just nothing there to make you stop in your tracks and go Whoa! Sure this game was just released, but this is one of the most pathetic excuses for content I've ever seen. I can name garbage fucking free to play games with much smaller budgets than this that have a ton more content and sadly, more interesting environments.The crafting mechanics, the combat, the multi-classing, the graphics/animations, the sound/music, all of that is great. It is every other aspect of this game that is completely amiss.
I was excited to give this game a go. I was open to a new experience. I've been extremely forgiving of it up to this point. I get the game. I like it's potential. I'd be willing to pay for next month if I knew improvements were coming, and I mean improvements that enhance the game experience and not ones that just fix the bugs and the market system. I'm glad people like Geld are enjoying the game and will be subbing. I haven't seen enough from Square Enix to warrant me paying for the months it will take them to bring some life to this game. All the money they had in the budget for this game and they blew their whole load on graphics and sound.
With that said I'm going to be a twat and say that I truly hope that Square Enix fails hard on this in the time to come.
Maybe the developers of Square Enix would actually start using their brains in game development if their game tanked so hard that they had to shut down the servers and go into re-development or some such.
Yes, that's a fanastic idea. Let's punish one of the few developers who isn't making WoW clones. We don't have enough of them, after all.
Okay, so lots of people don't like the design decisions they made with this game. That's fine. So why not just drop it, quit bashing it constantly in the forums, and let those of us who do like it enjoy our niche game?
Alot of it stems from just what he said, that SE used to be a cherished company to many of us but haven't released a title noteworthy since like 2001. I don't know if they fired the minds behind the original FF's or just lost touch with what made their games to begin with, but 12 was a load of meh and 13 was one of the worst games I've played all year. 13 had such terrible dialogue, writing and voice acting that is was embarressing to play even alone. You would check over your shoulder every cutscene because it was just that cheesy and awful. 14 was basically many of our last hopes for SE as a company and they have flopped harder then we thought. I don't want you guys to be punished or for SE to go under, but I hope they learn from this failure (unlike 13...) and never release a game this terrible again. SE used to be a company with a golden reputation amongst gamers, but has gone out of its way to tarnish itself pretty badly the last couple of years.
Look I am no SE fanboy and have not been a big fan of the FF series overall, but FFXIII has been universaly accepted as one of there better games to come out in a long time. Not to mention one of the things most Critics praised it for was its voice acting and dialogue. (83 out of 100 critic score and 8.5 out of 10 user score[Metacritic])
"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
With that said I'm going to be a twat and say that I truly hope that Square Enix fails hard on this in the time to come.
Maybe the developers of Square Enix would actually start using their brains in game development if their game tanked so hard that they had to shut down the servers and go into re-development or some such.
Yes, that's a fanastic idea. Let's punish one of the few developers who isn't making WoW clones. We don't have enough of them, after all.
Okay, so lots of people don't like the design decisions they made with this game. That's fine. So why not just drop it, quit bashing it constantly in the forums, and let those of us who do like it enjoy our niche game?
Alot of it stems from just what he said, that SE used to be a cherished company to many of us but haven't released a title noteworthy since like 2001. I don't know if they fired the minds behind the original FF's or just lost touch with what made their games to begin with, but 12 was a load of meh and 13 was one of the worst games I've played all year. 13 had such terrible dialogue, writing and voice acting that is was embarressing to play even alone. You would check over your shoulder every cutscene because it was just that cheesy and awful. 14 was basically many of our last hopes for SE as a company and they have flopped harder then we thought. I don't want you guys to be punished or for SE to go under, but I hope they learn from this failure (unlike 13...) and never release a game this terrible again. SE used to be a company with a golden reputation amongst gamers, but has gone out of its way to tarnish itself pretty badly the last couple of years.
Look I am no SE fanboy and have not been a big fan of the FF series overall, but FFXIII has been universaly accepted as one of there better games to come out in a long time. Not to mention one of the things most Critics praised it for was its voice acting and dialogue. (83 out of 100 critic score and 8.5 out of 10 user score[Metacritic])
It was an interactive movie, nothing more.
-Letting Derek Smart work on your game is like letting Osama bin Laden work in the White House. Something will burn.- -And on the 8th day, man created God.-
I think the worst part is that SE lost most of the Hardcore players with all the crap they did too make the casuals just as good. Then they turn around and make the UI and general gameplay so diffcult the Casuals won't want to play either so SE kicked themselfs in the ass not once... but twice ha! This game is such a disappointment I have played and beat every Final Fantasy. I forced myself to play this one.... I just could not do it. I hope that SE puts a bandaid on this but... thats not like SE they don't admit that they were wrong... You can see this from Final Fantasy 11 they don't listen too there fans and they slowly stab there game to death. Good Job SE please stick to Offline games before you ruin the good name of your company.
Alot of it stems from just what he said, that SE used to be a cherished company to many of us but haven't released a title noteworthy since like 2001. I don't know if they fired the minds behind the original FF's or just lost touch with what made their games to begin with, but 12 was a load of meh and 13 was one of the worst games I've played all year. 13 had such terrible dialogue, writing and voice acting that is was embarressing to play even alone. You would check over your shoulder every cutscene because it was just that cheesy and awful. 14 was basically many of our last hopes for SE as a company and they have flopped harder then we thought. I don't want you guys to be punished or for SE to go under, but I hope they learn from this failure (unlike 13...) and never release a game this terrible again. SE used to be a company with a golden reputation amongst gamers, but has gone out of its way to tarnish itself pretty badly the last couple of years.
Look I am no SE fanboy and have not been a big fan of the FF series overall, but FFXIII has been universaly accepted as one of there better games to come out in a long time. Not to mention one of the things most Critics praised it for was its voice acting and dialogue. (83 out of 100 critic score and 8.5 out of 10 user score[Metacritic])
I liked Finall Fantasy XIII too (I liked it a lot to be honest), but this guy has some really good points in there. I lol'd when I read the following:
"13 had such terrible dialogue, writing and voice acting that is was embarressing to play even alone. You would check over your shoulder every cutscene because it was just that cheesy and awful. "
I felt the exact same way. I remember having a fear that my roommate would walk in the room and listen to some ultimate cheesy conversation between the NPCs. The dialog was literally embarrassing in FFXIII.
Comments
I dunno about that... i think ff11 was pretty dumbed down now you can rush through the game without even really trying... if anything its harder than 11 ever was.
Well thats mainly due to the age of the game and the game being top heavy. New players coming into the game 6+ years later have less people in the low end of the game to work with than there were when the game was new.
A lot of MMOs do this to help get people into the game and near the bulk of the players quickly so they don't feel alone and leave.
Right now FFXIV feels harder than XI, but give it time and the same concessions will be made.
There are 3 types of people in the world.
1.) Those who make things happen
2.) Those who watch things happen
3.) And those who wonder "What the %#*& just happened?!"
why so much malice :P? seems like you want to see something bad happen lol.
The only real downer for me right now ( outside of the antiquated vendor system ) is there's no real content between the "main" storyline segments.
For me, I thnk where SE screwed up, somewhat in the case of FFXI but really knocking it out of the park with FFXIV, is they tried to take a singleplayer FF game and just streeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeech it out and call it an mmo.
Look at a singleplayer FF game, you have a main story that you basically grind through "fiends" to get to the next town or the next point of interest on the map or the next cutscene/story moment. Works fine for a singleplayer JRPG, not so much for an mmorpg.
And while we're at it with the singleplayer/mmo differences, let's talk about the "fiends" of the games. That's another low point for me in FFXIV ( was also one for me in FFXI as well ). In what singleplayer FF game did you ever start out by killing little fluffy bunnies, squirrels, or deer? Even in the first FF, the first mobs you killed were some dangerous shit. And all the way through the series, the first mob battles always felt as epic as the later ones.
In conclusion, just give me a way to easily find the item I want/need when I want/need it ( I don't mind having to go to the actual vendor to get the item ) and tighten up the crafting hassle ( at least let me que up multiple items ) and I'll be content for now.
-Letting Derek Smart work on your game is like letting Osama bin Laden work in the White House. Something will burn.-
-And on the 8th day, man created God.-
Usually after I "Get" FFXIV I have to use Pepto Bismol to stop the leakage from my ***.
"Sometimes people say stuff they don''t mean, but more often then that they don''t say things they do mean"
The last paragraph about the fiends is what did it for me, I read alot of commentary from folks who are always like "I'm an old school FF fan" and I always ask my self "then how in the hell do you play a game that has you killing sheep and shit?!?". I will say FF always had some "quirky" fiends but they were not like what I'm seeing from the mmo's, when did this start??
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
Okay that sounds more like the Sovrath I remember heheh.
Whew... thought we'd lost ya there :-p
That said, I'm glad you used examples to qualify your point with more specificity.
To be honest, most of the complaints people I have I personally don't, or don't find to be game-breakers individually. My biggest gripe with the game is how "soul-less" it feels to me... especially the world design. It just feels so "functional' and "sterile" and "safe"... hard to put into words, really, without typing a very long post of examples heheh.
Even Aden in Lineage 2 through the early days of Prelude and C-1 seemed more interesting and mysterious to me, than Eorzea does now.
I remember the first time I wandered out to School of Dark Arts, almost fell over the edge and just marvelled at how huge the place is. I ran around it wondering what it was for, what was down there... etc. I remember looking at the massive hand reaching up through the middle of Dark Elven Village, with that wierd magical cloud of stars above it wondering what was at work there... The first time you see the Tower of Insolence filling up the view ahead of you... Or the strange Giant Architecture of Cruma Tower or Giant's Cave... and so on. I don't need to tell you about the many sights and places L2 has to offer, heheh. All of that made Aden feel like another world to me that I loved to get out and explore, because there was almost always something interesting to see, that helped give the world a sense of age and history.
That's what I feel is missing in Eorzea... those little details that give the world identity and "soul". Eorzea right now, to me, feels like an overly large and mostly uninterseting shell of a world. It just doesn't pull me in... and that's very important to me in a MMO. SE captured it *beautifully* in XI. I don't know what happened in XIV.
So... despite all the other "WTF were they thinking?" moments I've experienced in XIV, it's really the world design itself that I feel is most lacking.
That said, regarding the paragraph of yours I isolated above. I think if SE did something more like the market in L2, it would actually have worked much better to be honest. Running around Giran had a real "community market" feel to it. Characters sat on the ground, advertising their wares for sale, or what they wanted to buy. There was a nifty "sign" over their head listing what they were selling/buying...
I knew people who would spend the first and/or last half hour of their time in-game going shop-to-shop in Giran, looking for a good deal, either for themself, or to turn around and make a profit on it. I knew people (as I'm sure you did too) who made millions of adena playing the market in that game.
Four major things about Giran's market make it stand out to me:
1. It was brought together by the players. NCSoft didn't say "Here, in Giran, is where you will set up shop." The players made that decision. And then there's the spot, across from the warehouse, by the grocery store, where most all the crafters setup shop... If you wanted to craft a specific item, that was the first place you looked. Then you looked from crafter to crafter to see who had the best per-item price. Some people were very generous and would craft the most common items (shots, etc) for 1 adena each. It had a fantastic community feel to it.
2. It wasn't instanced. You didn't have to go from one floor to the next, to the next, to the next, trying to find something. This leads me to the 3rd point...
3. A functional search feature. Type CBP into your search input, and anyone buying or selling Coarse Bone Powder would light up - their signs even showing through walls so you could see them. Someone buying would light up one color, someone selling another color. It was a very user-friendly feature that, I think, really helped the market work.
4. A proper trade channel for people to advertise their wares as well.
Lineage 2's Market system worked... well enough where an Auction House was never needed.
Unfortunately, in its current state, FFXIV's system simply does not, in my opinion.
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering....
I think Yoda must have read far too many FFXIV posts on MMORPG.com before thinking up this jewel of a quote. Well, at least the last two parts.
This part of your post nails it, to me. When I was in the beta, I got past the menu-driven UI realtively quickly (in spite of cursing at its worse-than-FFXI-setup). I didn't need a tutorial, really. It was simple enough to follow the main quest to my first camp. I didn't need much direction at all, in fact, and in spite of the horrible tearing without V-sync and my poor framerates for graphics that didn't warrant them, what you just described is exactly why I didn't bother to gain any more than a few levels and play but a handful or two of hours.
The only thing I can really add is that this factor is very likely why the copypasta discussion was (and still is) such a huge issue for so many. It's like, on top of all the rest, and on top of that soulless feeling, they exacerbated the issue by copying and repeating so much of the map, which still remains inexplicable to me. How rendering terrain coordinates that are little more than copied, flipped, or rotated is any easier on my machine (or smaller for my PC or GPU's memory) than a height-mapped terrain is beyond me. They essentially boil down to the same process, and are little more than processing a small amount of text in the way of many coordinates to generate how a repeating texture is mapped over them. Still boggled by that.
Anyway, just a glorified +1 for the above and that entire reply, really.
"The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it."
George Bernard Shaw
What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.
Oscar Wilde
Yeah, my solution to play on a small window (though it's not "that" small) is probably only good for me. I just prefer seeing thigns very clear and enjoying as much as the graphical "pop" as I can get. So I give on screen size to get more zazz.
I also think your assesment (others' assessment as well?) that they took a final fantasy game and streeeeetched it might be closer to the mark.
I mean, experiencign the main quest and cut scenes and all the expressions on the faces... well let's just say I got a new appreciation for that type of story telling.
The other stuff in the middle? I thing they are hoping that players fill in those gaps. Whether that happens or can happen is another thing.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
I do remember reading that the developers want to build this world with us. I'm paraphrasing of course. As it is now, I can't see this being a very cohesive or coordinated effort. This game is like someone else mentioned about the world, soulless. I love sandbox games, so I don't mind not having theme-park quests guiding me through a world, I can forge my own purpose. If the right tools are there the players can enjoy an open world. This empty game has no sand in the box. There is nothing to explore. I've been through all of the zones. I've seen a lot of tunnels/caves with nothing there. The landscapes are bland. The textures are nice, there is just nothing there to make you stop in your tracks and go Whoa! Sure this game was just released, but this is one of the most pathetic excuses for content I've ever seen. I can name garbage fucking free to play games with much smaller budgets than this that have a ton more content and sadly, more interesting environments.The crafting mechanics, the combat, the multi-classing, the graphics/animations, the sound/music, all of that is great. It is every other aspect of this game that is completely amiss.
I was excited to give this game a go. I was open to a new experience. I've been extremely forgiving of it up to this point. I get the game. I like it's potential. I'd be willing to pay for next month if I knew improvements were coming, and I mean improvements that enhance the game experience and not ones that just fix the bugs and the market system. I'm glad people like Geld are enjoying the game and will be subbing. I haven't seen enough from Square Enix to warrant me paying for the months it will take them to bring some life to this game. All the money they had in the budget for this game and they blew their whole load on graphics and sound.
Look I am no SE fanboy and have not been a big fan of the FF series overall, but FFXIII has been universaly accepted as one of there better games to come out in a long time. Not to mention one of the things most Critics praised it for was its voice acting and dialogue. (83 out of 100 critic score and 8.5 out of 10 user score[Metacritic])
"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
It was an interactive movie, nothing more.
-Letting Derek Smart work on your game is like letting Osama bin Laden work in the White House. Something will burn.-
-And on the 8th day, man created God.-
I think the worst part is that SE lost most of the Hardcore players with all the crap they did too make the casuals just as good. Then they turn around and make the UI and general gameplay so diffcult the Casuals won't want to play either so SE kicked themselfs in the ass not once... but twice ha! This game is such a disappointment I have played and beat every Final Fantasy. I forced myself to play this one.... I just could not do it. I hope that SE puts a bandaid on this but... thats not like SE they don't admit that they were wrong... You can see this from Final Fantasy 11 they don't listen too there fans and they slowly stab there game to death. Good Job SE please stick to Offline games before you ruin the good name of your company.
Hahahahaha....a game that's ahead of the time while it uses a UI system that's based on a 90s single player UI.
Oh you crack me up. You need to look up the term innovation geoldon.
It has nothing to do with "getting it". The game is just bad and feels like something from over a decade ago. Horrible job SE.
I liked Finall Fantasy XIII too (I liked it a lot to be honest), but this guy has some really good points in there. I lol'd when I read the following:
"13 had such terrible dialogue, writing and voice acting that is was embarressing to play even alone. You would check over your shoulder every cutscene because it was just that cheesy and awful. "
I felt the exact same way. I remember having a fear that my roommate would walk in the room and listen to some ultimate cheesy conversation between the NPCs. The dialog was literally embarrassing in FFXIII.