A new review: comparison of realease version to now (patch 1.18b).

MagicBubble

Here is some background on my experience with this game so far:  I played the beta for a short while but the game was in such poor condition at that point that I quit after only a few days.  Finally release came, but the game was in more-or-less the same state at the beta - pretty much unplayable for a wide variety of reason.  Below, I try to provide a (mostly) objective review of the current state of the game from the perspective of a lv 25 conjurer / lv 20 tailor. 

I recently started playing again ( a few days ago ) and here are my new impressions. 

1) Interface:  is VASTLY improved - the intense interface lag is finally gone and feels much easier to navigate now.  There are also alot of nice customizaton options available such as being able to move ur HP/MP bars to wherever you want on the screen.  You can basically move any bar on your screen to whatever position you prefer.  Also, you can change the target indicator from a circle to an arrow over a targets head using some of the in-game options.   Personally, I prefer the arrow target and found the game to be much easier to play after this change.  I suggest you play around with these options to find a congifuration that suits you best, it can improve your gameplay experience.

2) Levequests - pretty much the same as release .  They all involve killing X number of mobs, crafting Y items and running all over to accomplish it.   

3) Regular quests -  I was surprised to see some NPCs with a (!) over their head now, these NPCs offer ordinary quests (as in WoW style quests to find certain items or kill something or go to a location), but they are fairly sparse.  These are largely side quest type of things, so do them as you see fit. 

4) Crafting:  is largely the same as it was: same mini game - it takes around 30 seconds for a single synthesis.  Many may find this is tedious and time consuming, however there are some nice tools that can automate it to some extent....enough said...you can do your own research on that topic.

5) Item search feature - this is incredibly useful to have.  At release, we had to travel to random market areas searching for a needle in a haystack.  This new search feature will only tell you where the item you seek is located and puts a icon over the retainer that is selling it.   This is not as good as an auction house of course, but its vastly better than nothing. 

6) Grouping:  for me, this was the redeeming feature of the game before I was about to quit again.  I found levels 1-15 to be extremely boring.  I was sitting in town when I saw an xp group looking for 1 more, so I joined and we went to some camp nearby and killed tons of mobs for about 4 hours.   In this time i went from level 15-23 and had a ton of fun doing it.  This experience brought back a lot of fond memories from FFXI where grouping was 100% necessary to accomplish anything substantial in the game.  It also reminded me that this is not a solo leveling type of MMO, consider that before you play. 

7)Travel:  Well, anima regen is still pretty slow (1 per 4 hours), however the cost to teleport to cites has been reduced since release, making things a little easier.  Also, you can set up to 3 or 4 locations as "favorites" and those locations will have a reduced anima cost to teleport there.   Additionally, you can return to your homepoint for free every 15 minutes.  So, not HUGE improvements here since release, but still those small changes do ease things up quite a bit.  More importantly, in patch 1.19 (due for the end of septemper), there will be chocobos for use as well as air ships, basically the same as in FFXI. 

8) Graphics are fastastic in detail- same as realease. Hopefully you have a nice video card so that you can enjoy them fully.  I recently upgraded and the game is more enjoyable with a higher framerate and higher detail.  The terrain and world map is still dull however and copy pasted, and in my opinion, seriously lacking some vibrance ( lots of dull colors for example dull grays, reds and greens) 

Overall: since release the game has improved greatly and there are a lot of really significant changes coming up very soon.  In fact, patch 1.19 will be the "miracle patch" that everyone was hoping for after the beta.  Back on point, game play is more fluid and interfaces are polished.  While some mighy say there is still a lack of content ( I agree) , there are certainly fun things to do such as joining an exp group or crafting or doing "dungeons" with friends.  Here is the bottom line: the game IS actually very playable now (unlike at release) and I can actually see the potential in it now (previously, I thought it had no potential but they appear to be re-doing almost everything for the better).   To enjoy this game more fully, it will be  important to find some good linkshells and make some good friends that you can acquire from random exp groups.  Like all MMOs, this game is based alot on the social aspect and will keep you interested longer if you tap into that.   While the game still suffers from  drawbacks, I think this could be a really enjoyable and polished game given a bit more time, but again, its certainly playable now.       

TLDR:  Heres my final recommendation :  if you enjoyed FFXI and that style of game, you will probably like this game now as it is.  If not, or you ragequit recently, definitely give it another shot after 1.19.   If you play,  come join the Lindblum server, there are lots of english speaking players and its well populated.