I wish I could go back to 2010 and place a large bet in Las Vegas against 1:1,000,000,000 odds that one day mmorpg.com's forums would be brimming with people singing the praise of Final Fantasy XIV.
I really never saw this coming, I was in beta 1/2, even up until Thursday I was expecting at best for this forum to be either dead like it was prior to phase 3, or full of people trashing the game. There was so much hatred for this game here and everywhere else, at E3 it got pretty paultry coverage from gaming media and was really dismissed by most big media outlets it seemed. I went to vote for it as MMO of E3 at a lot of sites like IGN etc., and it wasn't even listed at all. This site didn't mention it in the article about MMO's at E3. It won Destructoids best MMO of E3, but I'll be honest I'd never heard of destructoid.
No game is for everyone, and I'm not going to say NOW that it is the best game in 10 years (because well endgame will decide that for me personally).
But can we raise Naoki Yoshida to the ranks of legendary MMO producers like Garriot, Jake Song, Brad McQuaid, Jacobs etc? How can anyone not be impressed by a man who in two short years turned 1.0's abject failure into this? The guy put himself in the hospital several times during development due to exhaustion from overworking, and it is great to see that his passion and dedication shows in the final product and the reception.
The only game he worked on prior to this that I had played was bomberman (he was a lead level designer), I don't know where SE found him but I'd almost say SE should hire Wada back as CEO since for all his poor decisions (like allowing the first version of XIV to launch) the guy really picked a diamond from the rough by hiring Yoshida as producer/director.
None of this at all would have happened without Yoshida.
I wish I could go back to 2010 and place a large bet in Las Vegas against 1:1,000,000,000 odds that one day mmorpg.com's forums would be brimming with people singing the praise of Final Fantasy XIV.
I really never saw this coming, I was in beta 1/2, even up until Thursday I was expecting at best for this forum to be either dead like it was prior to phase 3, or full of people trashing the game. There was so much hatred for this game here and everywhere else, at E3 it got pretty paultry coverage from gaming media and was really dismissed by most big media outlets it seemed. I went to vote for it as MMO of E3 at a lot of sites like IGN etc., and it wasn't even listed at all. This site didn't mention it in the article about MMO's at E3. It won Destructoids best MMO of E3, but I'll be honest I'd never heard of destructoid.
No game is for everyone, and I'm not going to say NOW that it is the beset game in 10 years (because well endgame will decide that for me personally).
But can we raise Naoki Yoshida to the ranks of legendary MMO producers like Garriot, Brad McQuaid, Jacobs etc? How can anyone not be impressed by a man who in two short years turned 1.0's abject failure into this? The guy put himself in the hospital several times during development due to exhaustion from overworking, and it is great to see that his passion and dedication shows in the final product and the reception.
The only game he worked on prior to this that I had played was bomberman (he was a lead level designer), I don't know where SE found him but I'd almost say SE should hire Wada back as CEO since for all his poor decisions (like allowing the first version of XIV to launch) the guy really picked a diamond from the rough by hiring Yoshida as producer/director.
None of this at all would have happened without Yoshida.
Agree 101%
I didint expect much, but they really surprised us all and wherever i look people are praising the game, even the biggest sceptics.
I played ff14 1.0 and it was pretty awful, but I have to agree with the OP about ff14 ARR. They did a lot of good work on it and it does remind me a lot of the old school games like EQ1. I spent the first day doing the quest grind and was like ughhhh this is so boring!!!
But then I realized that the mobs give really decent exp so I just killed mobs for the rest of the time and had a much better time. The world is fantastic and it was fun progressing through zones just on the levels of mobs.
My one complaint in that regard is the mobs are still solo only so having group camps wouldn't be worth it. Maybe in the later parts of the game the mobs will be to hard to solo and I can put together some camping spots for groups.
Playing: Smite, Marvel Heroes Played: Nexus:Kingdom of the Winds, Everquest, DAoC, Everquest 2, WoW, Matrix Online, Vangaurd, SWG, DDO, EVE, Fallen Earth, LoTRo, CoX, Champions Online, WAR, Darkfall, Mortal Online, Guild Wars, Rift, Tera, Aion, AoC, Gods and Heroes, DCUO, FF14, TSW, SWTOR, GW2, Wildstar, ESO, ArcheAge Waiting On: Nothing. Mmorpg's are dead.
This MMO is about to be that sleeper hit no one seen coming other than the alpha and previous beta players. I mean everything is so flawless i'm even shocked on how well it is done. It's exactly what i been waiting for all these years of drifting form mmo to mmo. Usually i have something to complain about but i cant find even a single detail i dont like.
Also the armory chest and inventory system is just freaking amazing. I've never been more happy about bag space.
so 2 days of playing the beta has given me enough gratification that I am now having withdrawal from not being able to play, other games just not satisfying me. I can't wait till next weekend and game release!
Totaly agree with OP. I was looking forward to AA / Wildstar...but FF changed evrything i had planned out.
Its got great potantial to become the best mmo on the current market, its danerous to say, but you know fromthe inside when a mmo you play is gold or fail.
Totaly took me offgaurd and iam very happy we finaly got to play something thats worth investing time in.
Original post is great, the OP is spot on with most.
The title to this post sucks - In the future ARR is "MY" best mmo experience since EQ1
Graphics - The in game character, landscape, monster, npc graphics designer deserves the biggest reward ever given to a graphics designer.
The combat animation team should be fired.
Combat animations are incredible, you sir are wrong.
:-(
You like the fireworks? I turned all spell and combat effects off, the mob just flinches. Maybe I am just old school and think the flashes just hide the fact there is no ignites, poisons, stuns, arrows, or blood on the mobs. The animations to me seem to have absolutely no identity. The limit breaks are a whole different story.
Original post is great, the OP is spot on with most.
The title to this post sucks - In the future ARR is "MY" best mmo experience since EQ1
Graphics - The in game character, landscape, monster, npc graphics designer deserves the biggest reward ever given to a graphics designer.
The combat animation team should be fired.
I think most of the animation is amazing... the immersion is incredible. But one thing that absolutely bugs the crap out of me is their archer animations. The guys pull the bow string a foot behind their head! it looks so awkward. I think the bow animation could easily be fixed to. they should work on it. It would go a long way to fix problems with immersion as far as "i" go at least...
I honestly was not surprised about the initial release of this game. Nor its failure and wasn't exactly holding my breath for this revival, but I got a beta key and decided to try it. Yes, I don't post much but decided to for the sake of expressing my opinions on the game and to not let anyone jump on this game as if though it was a god send...because it's not. It's FF yes, but I don't know...
Firstly, character customization is not great but not exactly bad either. It was " passable" in my opinion...having body muscle tone, height was cool, but generally speaking I didn't feel there was enough options currently for a next gen MMO in this day and age. Dragon's Prophet, although a bad game, had a lot more freedom in customization...be it a bit much at times since you could make your characters look wonky.
I had everything on max on my pc, and well its going to be console as well as PC so I guess I expected the graphics to not exactly blow me away. Graphics should never be the #1 factor that makes and breaks a good game anyway, its game play so I guess I can say the graphics were 7.5/10 for me. Hopefully they'll have a high res texture patch or something prior to launch.
As far as the meat of the game such as gameplay, quests, ui, progression, FATES, etc. I don't know, players being pigeon holed into a city based on your class is pretty backwards imo. Basically if you play a Marauder...well you're going to be in a particular city, you don't have a choice, and guess what? Everyone else there is going to be a...MARAUDER! So don't even think about playing with your friends or guildies when you start the game atm because ...well, you can't. That and the beginning city and sequence quests literally burn like 1-2 hours of your time, before you even get to see any sort of combat. I know FF and SE wanted to make the game story driven etc etc, but it seemed very drawn out and extremely slow paced for me.
Well, once you do get into combat its nothing new. Basically, click, walk over if your melee shoot it afar if you're ranged, nothing new here. No action combat, active dodging, etc, just your typical run of the mill old mechanics of hit key 1,2,3. Or hit 3 to activate a combo dmg boost for key 1, then 2 then rinse repeat. Seriously, it works I guess but after playing GW2, TERA, and even Neverwinter Online, the combat is very stale and boring for me. That and the whole clicking combat and animations could use some fine tuning.
Quests...well fetch this, kill that, light the lamps with oil, etc...I've been done these damn quests since '99 but its ok I guess? Since every mmo has "typical" quests you'd expect this boring stuff, so I'll give a pass on this...but didn't get a chance to see any other more "interesting" quests.
FATES, like open world public quests from Warhammer Online, GW2, RIFT, etc are interesting I suppose. I only jumped into a few and seeing "Your level is lower so therefore your contribution is lowered" was strange considering I was 2 levels below the mobs but was plowing them easily.
I won't rant on but as far as the potential of the game? Multiclassing, FF lore, cross platformed, end game, crafting, etc I feel the game currently stands at a 7, with a 8-8.5 if some things were addressed. I personally will not buy nor sub to this game as well....market is flooded with a host of new games, games with action combat, non instanced zones/areas, pvp, open ended content etc (Archeage, The Elder Scrolls Online, WIldstar, Black Desert just to name a few). I'm sure FF will rake in the cash, just like SW:TOR did because well...that's what SE is hoping for. To cash in on the fans, but be warned...just like TOR, having a great single player game or great established lore wont save a poorly made game.
Everyone apply for a FF beta key and try it yourselves. Don't take my words for it. XD
Must say I'm playing it, won't say anymore about the game other than it is light years ahead of the original release. Think this game could finally have a bright future, very impressed with what I've seen anyway, its not action combat granted but to be honest I'm abit bored already of that genre it's quite nice to play a standard mmo combat system again.
I purchased FFXIV and played it during V1.0, Now I was under the impression that I was given access to the betas - is this the case or not the case?
Hoping someone in here is able to give me some information as so far the game seems to be making some very happy waves and I'm interested in seeing just how good the ARR is.
Thanks.
"Regard your soldiers as your children, and they will follow you into the deepest valleys. Look on them as your own beloved sons, and they will stand by you even unto death!" - Sun Tzu, the Art of War
This game was not even on my radar, i didn't read or checked or even blinked at it before i found out a beta key in my mail. I wasn't even going to play, but i got bored and was like, eeeh well i beta tested it back in 2010, lets see how bad will it still be.
And my mind was just blown away. I think i played for 15ene hours straight. And now i'm replaying through my FF DS games coz i can't take my mind out of this game. Withdrawal too stronk !
This game just snuck in a bunch of gamers and took them by surprise.
Silverbarr, i previously purchased the game and just got an email with a code to play, the impression I got was everyone who brought the game before should be getting access now.
I have played since Phase 1, and i agree with the OP fully. but...
The combat is very slow.... very very slow. I have played FF11 for 5 years, but right now its so hard to not fall asleep. The story is amazing and really brings you in. But the group party side is only 4, which is weird to me. Granted i havent gotten to really play the jobs. it is so far the only thing holding me back from buying this game and playing
I am interested in pre-ordering after reading this. One question, is the skill system like WoW where you have hotbar after hotbar of skills and tons of macros. or is it more refined like say guild wars where you had to pick and choose x amount of skills from what you had available?
I tried Tera and i played GW2 and gues what.....its even worse long term then the traditional mmo.
Maybe not for evryone...but iam happy they went this path for the reason I had enough of the new "gimmicks" studio's tried in their mmo's.
If FF would have gone Tera / GW2 style then i woulnt even touch it and just wait for the next mmo.
To each his own preferred style of play, and we cannot decide what it best for me or you, but iam happy with what has been shown.
Agree on the city quests as i wanted to jump straight into the combat, but then again this aint some shabby backdoor mmo, its a Final Fantasy mmo, and we should respect that style.
As for graphics...dude a 7.5 ? with max setting ? trolling ? i cannot believe that sentence m8.
With my 7950 maxed out i have never ever seen a more beatifull world then the engine Naoki Yoshida builded A Realm Reborn on.... Did we even played the same game ?
I know the style might not suit your cup of thea, but it totaly blow me away. The forest just looks organic.... The sky moves real time...just look at the stars and see it moving... The whole engine is one of the most solid one's i have ever played in.
But then again it might not have suited your prefered style of play.
We shall see what thegeneral population says when it goes open beta
Very curious to see if none Final fantasy fans like or not like this mmo
I think i can put it into a different perspective.
When i login to most F2p games,i don't need to think ,most don't even start in a city,some barren quest hub.When i login to FFXIV i felt overwhelmed,i actually got a headache trying to grasp all the information.I like that,i had the same feeling when i played FFXI,so much to learn,.
I was also turned off by the early UI but no question it is awesome now,just took me a bit to figure it out and get everything in order.it has key mapping,you can rearrange your hud.It could be still improved,example i would like to open my Character screen and AH screen at the same time and i would like to completely turn the chat box off.However,everything else is there,totally polished UI.
Another thing that really surprised me was how well it looked and played on my ancient system.
Also the reason the graphics are crisp and clear is most likely compression,many games use terrible compression,it makes the textures look dull.I have shadows turned right down,so the shadow edges are jagged,no biggie for,i can't really notice it.
I would say everything the OP mentions is the truth and i would be quick to state otherwise :P.
I am still spoiled by the very unique FFXI game and it's huge depth of design but FFXIV still does a lot of it similar with some changes that although i would rather different,i can accept them.I mean seriously what are we doing in other games,running from yellow marker to yellow marker.
You know what puts a smile on my face,i can walk through a doorway in FFXIV.Most every game is either static placeholder buildings or instanced,this is why you pay sub fees,quality over a rushed product.Yes Square tried to copy other devs rushing the release,but they learned their lesson,this is a polished game now and i was VERY unhappy with the original release.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
The story missions are insanely well done. The sense of immersion into the story is what left me craving for the next beta weekend. This game is the FFXIV that I expected to follow FFXI not that other pile of crap. Good job Yoshi-P!!
If you have not signed up for the beta already do so and give it a shot.
The combat is more strategic than your average mmo. Yes it's not action based with 5 skills and no GCD. It's more hotbars, and mix of skill from different class and stuff. But the combat feel slow at the start because you don't have many options.
You have you're limited set of spells, and that's it. But add to that spells from 1, 2 or 3 other class's and you get another dimension of gameplay that is way more dynamic.
And there are conventional class's and more action flavor class's. If you go Conjurer don't expect to get excited by the combat at first, but if you want fireworks, try the pugilist, and the monk later on, they have a pretty active style.
But one thing's for sure, this game is not the spam fest no GCD action combat style. You need to manage your cooldowns, synergises the spells you choose from each class, and build yourself a nice array of spells to use.
It have it’s ups and downs, but i’m really glad they choose to go this road. This is how a FF RPG game should be.
The combat is more strategic than your average mmo. Yes it's not action based with 5 skills and no GCD. It's more hotbars, and mix of skill from different class and stuff. But the combat feel slow at the start because you don't have many options.
You have you're limited set of spells, and that's it. But add to that spells from 1, 2 or 3 other class's and you get another dimension of gameplay that is way more dynamic.
And there are conventional class's and more action flavor class's. If you go Conjurer don't expect to get excited by the combat at first, but if you want fireworks, try the pugilist, and the monk later on, they have a pretty active style.
But one thing's for sure, this game is not the spam fest no GCD action combat style. You need to manage your cooldowns, synergises the spells you choose from each class, and build yourself a nice array of spells to use.
It have it’s ups and downs, but i’m really glad they choose to go this road. This is how a FF RPG game should be.
sounds exactly like something I would enjoy, I am not a fan of action combat but also not a fan of juggling 50 different spells across 4 hotbars all over my screen. thanks
I agree with the OP i havent been this immersed in an mmo since final fantasy 11 and I have way more than one post. nobuo uematsu did a great job with the music as he always does make some master pieces for each final fantasy game. The final fantasy prelude always gives me goosebumbs.
Stayed away from 1.0 like the plague, and was skeptical of ARR, but tried it out and was quite impressed.
Some of the people here are in that new MMO honeymoon phase and claiming it is the best game in 10 years is going way to far, but it does stand up very well to the other recent old school type games like SWTOR and RIFT.
The primary drawbacks of this game are that the questing is kill 10 rats and fed-ex galore, and the combat is the same tab 1-2-3 while trading attacks.
That said, the time-to-kill is pretty quick at least in the early zones and downtime is extremely low so things move along very quickly and keep the player engaged.
The multi-class system and well put-together world as well as fast play make this among the best current theme-park games which I would recommend to people looking for a decent game. I think it will give Wildstar some very solid competition.
Stayed away from 1.0 like the plague, and was skeptical of ARR, but tried it out and was quite impressed.
Some of the people here are in that new MMO honeymoon phase and claiming it is the best game in 10 years is going way to far, but it does stand up very well to the other recent old school type games like SWTOR and RIFT.
The primary drawbacks of this game are that the questing is kill 10 rats and fed-ex galore, and the combat is the same tab 1-2-3 while trading attacks.
That said, the time-to-kill is pretty quick at least in the early zones and downtime is extremely low so things move along very quickly and keep the player engaged.
The multi-class system and well put-together world as well as fast play make this among the best current theme-park games which I would recommend to people looking for a decent game. I think it will give Wildstar some very solid competition.
The questing isn't just kill 10 rats.
This is the only mmo or online game I've actually read every quest and cared about characters since... I can't remember.
You are killing 3 lady bugs and 3 funguar because the conjurer guild master asked you to do so. Why would a tree hugger like him ask you to do such a thing? Well a lot has changed since the meteor Dalumd crashed into the continent of Ezorea, and he knows this, certain species are growing out of control, and they must be kept in check.
There are no quest hubs, there are quests that take you to towns, just like in ANY final fantasy game. They lead you to other adventures in other towns that lead you back to the towns you've been before which all culminate in a larger story about the area how you've been involved in saving it etc.
Very Final Fantasy.
The combat is limited at low level, just like every single game ever. When you get more jobs / classes unlocked you can go and socket more abilities to yourself when you are leveling another class at low level. For instance you can have Cure at level 2 as a conj. when you switch to Gladiator and you hit level 2 you can equip Cure, thereby adding more buttons, more skills, more combos, and more strategy to every class / job.
People are upset about the start of a game being slow... I'm baffled.
I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by FFXIV:ARR - it just sucked me in! I have never played a FF game before, bought FFXIV back in 2010 and was so unimpressed and utterly confused by it that I quit the same day But ARR is another story indeed!! I could not get enough of it this weekend, so sad the beta for the week is over already! I can't wait for phase 4 when I can make my permanent toon! Yay!
I am anxious to see how pvp is in this game, not really sure if you have to be max level to pvp or not... Still a bit confused here. But from what I have seen, I think this game is going to be worth the money and time I put towards it.
I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by FFXIV:ARR - it just sucked me in! I have never played a FF game before, bought FFXIV back in 2010 and was so unimpressed and utterly confused by it that I quit the same day But ARR is another story indeed!! I could not get enough of it this weekend, so sad the beta for the week is over already! I can't wait for phase 4 when I can make my permanent toon! Yay!
I am anxious to see how pvp is in this game, not really sure if you have to be max level to pvp or not... Still a bit confused here. But from what I have seen, I think this game is going to be worth the money and time I put towards it.
Comments
I wish I could go back to 2010 and place a large bet in Las Vegas against 1:1,000,000,000 odds that one day mmorpg.com's forums would be brimming with people singing the praise of Final Fantasy XIV.
I really never saw this coming, I was in beta 1/2, even up until Thursday I was expecting at best for this forum to be either dead like it was prior to phase 3, or full of people trashing the game. There was so much hatred for this game here and everywhere else, at E3 it got pretty paultry coverage from gaming media and was really dismissed by most big media outlets it seemed. I went to vote for it as MMO of E3 at a lot of sites like IGN etc., and it wasn't even listed at all. This site didn't mention it in the article about MMO's at E3. It won Destructoids best MMO of E3, but I'll be honest I'd never heard of destructoid.
No game is for everyone, and I'm not going to say NOW that it is the best game in 10 years (because well endgame will decide that for me personally).
But can we raise Naoki Yoshida to the ranks of legendary MMO producers like Garriot, Jake Song, Brad McQuaid, Jacobs etc? How can anyone not be impressed by a man who in two short years turned 1.0's abject failure into this? The guy put himself in the hospital several times during development due to exhaustion from overworking, and it is great to see that his passion and dedication shows in the final product and the reception.
The only game he worked on prior to this that I had played was bomberman (he was a lead level designer), I don't know where SE found him but I'd almost say SE should hire Wada back as CEO since for all his poor decisions (like allowing the first version of XIV to launch) the guy really picked a diamond from the rough by hiring Yoshida as producer/director.
None of this at all would have happened without Yoshida.
http://xivpads.com/?1595680
http://guildwork.com/users/murugan
Agree 101%
I didint expect much, but they really surprised us all and wherever i look people are praising the game, even the biggest sceptics.
(Retired)- Anarchy Online/Ultima Online/DAoC/Horizonsz/EQ2/SWG/AC1&2/L2/SoR/WoW/TMO/Requiem/Atlantica Online/Manibogi/Rift+(SL)/Lol/Hon/SWTOR/Wakfu/Champions Online/GW/Lotr/CO/TcoS/Tabula Rasa/Meridian 59/Vanguard/Shadowbane/Fury/SotW/Dreamlords/HGL/RoM/DDO/FFXI/Aoc/Eve/Warhammer Online/Gw2/TSW/Tera/Defiance/STO/AoW/DE/Firefall/Darkfall/Neverwinter/PS2/ESO/FF14/Archeage/Gw2
I played ff14 1.0 and it was pretty awful, but I have to agree with the OP about ff14 ARR. They did a lot of good work on it and it does remind me a lot of the old school games like EQ1. I spent the first day doing the quest grind and was like ughhhh this is so boring!!!
But then I realized that the mobs give really decent exp so I just killed mobs for the rest of the time and had a much better time. The world is fantastic and it was fun progressing through zones just on the levels of mobs.
My one complaint in that regard is the mobs are still solo only so having group camps wouldn't be worth it. Maybe in the later parts of the game the mobs will be to hard to solo and I can put together some camping spots for groups.
Playing: Smite, Marvel Heroes
Played: Nexus:Kingdom of the Winds, Everquest, DAoC, Everquest 2, WoW, Matrix Online, Vangaurd, SWG, DDO, EVE, Fallen Earth, LoTRo, CoX, Champions Online, WAR, Darkfall, Mortal Online, Guild Wars, Rift, Tera, Aion, AoC, Gods and Heroes, DCUO, FF14, TSW, SWTOR, GW2, Wildstar, ESO, ArcheAge
Waiting On: Nothing. Mmorpg's are dead.
This MMO is about to be that sleeper hit no one seen coming other than the alpha and previous beta players. I mean everything is so flawless i'm even shocked on how well it is done. It's exactly what i been waiting for all these years of drifting form mmo to mmo. Usually i have something to complain about but i cant find even a single detail i dont like.
Also the armory chest and inventory system is just freaking amazing. I've never been more happy about bag space.
Totaly agree with OP.
I was looking forward to AA / Wildstar...but FF changed evrything i had planned out.
Its got great potantial to become the best mmo on the current market, its danerous to say, but you know fromthe inside when a mmo you play is gold or fail.
Totaly took me offgaurd and iam very happy we finaly got to play something thats worth investing time in.
You like the fireworks? I turned all spell and combat effects off, the mob just flinches. Maybe I am just old school and think the flashes just hide the fact there is no ignites, poisons, stuns, arrows, or blood on the mobs. The animations to me seem to have absolutely no identity. The limit breaks are a whole different story.
I think most of the animation is amazing... the immersion is incredible. But one thing that absolutely bugs the crap out of me is their archer animations. The guys pull the bow string a foot behind their head! it looks so awkward. I think the bow animation could easily be fixed to. they should work on it. It would go a long way to fix problems with immersion as far as "i" go at least...
but im loving the game as well so far.
I honestly was not surprised about the initial release of this game. Nor its failure and wasn't exactly holding my breath for this revival, but I got a beta key and decided to try it. Yes, I don't post much but decided to for the sake of expressing my opinions on the game and to not let anyone jump on this game as if though it was a god send...because it's not. It's FF yes, but I don't know...
Firstly, character customization is not great but not exactly bad either. It was " passable" in my opinion...having body muscle tone, height was cool, but generally speaking I didn't feel there was enough options currently for a next gen MMO in this day and age. Dragon's Prophet, although a bad game, had a lot more freedom in customization...be it a bit much at times since you could make your characters look wonky.
I had everything on max on my pc, and well its going to be console as well as PC so I guess I expected the graphics to not exactly blow me away. Graphics should never be the #1 factor that makes and breaks a good game anyway, its game play so I guess I can say the graphics were 7.5/10 for me. Hopefully they'll have a high res texture patch or something prior to launch.
As far as the meat of the game such as gameplay, quests, ui, progression, FATES, etc. I don't know, players being pigeon holed into a city based on your class is pretty backwards imo. Basically if you play a Marauder...well you're going to be in a particular city, you don't have a choice, and guess what? Everyone else there is going to be a...MARAUDER! So don't even think about playing with your friends or guildies when you start the game atm because ...well, you can't. That and the beginning city and sequence quests literally burn like 1-2 hours of your time, before you even get to see any sort of combat. I know FF and SE wanted to make the game story driven etc etc, but it seemed very drawn out and extremely slow paced for me.
Well, once you do get into combat its nothing new. Basically, click, walk over if your melee shoot it afar if you're ranged, nothing new here. No action combat, active dodging, etc, just your typical run of the mill old mechanics of hit key 1,2,3. Or hit 3 to activate a combo dmg boost for key 1, then 2 then rinse repeat. Seriously, it works I guess but after playing GW2, TERA, and even Neverwinter Online, the combat is very stale and boring for me. That and the whole clicking combat and animations could use some fine tuning.
Quests...well fetch this, kill that, light the lamps with oil, etc...I've been done these damn quests since '99 but its ok I guess? Since every mmo has "typical" quests you'd expect this boring stuff, so I'll give a pass on this...but didn't get a chance to see any other more "interesting" quests.
FATES, like open world public quests from Warhammer Online, GW2, RIFT, etc are interesting I suppose. I only jumped into a few and seeing "Your level is lower so therefore your contribution is lowered" was strange considering I was 2 levels below the mobs but was plowing them easily.
I won't rant on but as far as the potential of the game? Multiclassing, FF lore, cross platformed, end game, crafting, etc I feel the game currently stands at a 7, with a 8-8.5 if some things were addressed. I personally will not buy nor sub to this game as well....market is flooded with a host of new games, games with action combat, non instanced zones/areas, pvp, open ended content etc (Archeage, The Elder Scrolls Online, WIldstar, Black Desert just to name a few). I'm sure FF will rake in the cash, just like SW:TOR did because well...that's what SE is hoping for. To cash in on the fans, but be warned...just like TOR, having a great single player game or great established lore wont save a poorly made game.
Everyone apply for a FF beta key and try it yourselves. Don't take my words for it. XD
You reap what you sow.
I purchased FFXIV and played it during V1.0, Now I was under the impression that I was given access to the betas - is this the case or not the case?
Hoping someone in here is able to give me some information as so far the game seems to be making some very happy waves and I'm interested in seeing just how good the ARR is.
Thanks.
"Regard your soldiers as your children, and they will follow you into the deepest valleys. Look on them as your own beloved sons, and they will stand by you even unto death!"
- Sun Tzu, the Art of War
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This game was not even on my radar, i didn't read or checked or even blinked at it before i found out a beta key in my mail. I wasn't even going to play, but i got bored and was like, eeeh well i beta tested it back in 2010, lets see how bad will it still be.
And my mind was just blown away. I think i played for 15ene hours straight. And now i'm replaying through my FF DS games coz i can't take my mind out of this game. Withdrawal too stronk !
This game just snuck in a bunch of gamers and took them by surprise.
I have played since Phase 1, and i agree with the OP fully. but...
The combat is very slow.... very very slow. I have played FF11 for 5 years, but right now its so hard to not fall asleep. The story is amazing and really brings you in. But the group party side is only 4, which is weird to me. Granted i havent gotten to really play the jobs. it is so far the only thing holding me back from buying this game and playing
I tried Tera and i played GW2 and gues what.....its even worse long term then the traditional mmo.
Maybe not for evryone...but iam happy they went this path for the reason I had enough of the new "gimmicks" studio's tried in their mmo's.
If FF would have gone Tera / GW2 style then i woulnt even touch it and just wait for the next mmo.
To each his own preferred style of play, and we cannot decide what it best for me or you, but iam happy with what has been shown.
Agree on the city quests as i wanted to jump straight into the combat, but then again this aint some shabby backdoor mmo, its a Final Fantasy mmo, and we should respect that style.
As for graphics...dude a 7.5 ? with max setting ? trolling ? i cannot believe that sentence m8.
With my 7950 maxed out i have never ever seen a more beatifull world then the engine Naoki Yoshida builded A Realm Reborn on....
Did we even played the same game ?
I know the style might not suit your cup of thea, but it totaly blow me away.
The forest just looks organic....
The sky moves real time...just look at the stars and see it moving...
The whole engine is one of the most solid one's i have ever played in.
But then again it might not have suited your prefered style of play.
We shall see what thegeneral population says when it goes open beta
Very curious to see if none Final fantasy fans like or not like this mmo
I think i can put it into a different perspective.
When i login to most F2p games,i don't need to think ,most don't even start in a city,some barren quest hub.When i login to FFXIV i felt overwhelmed,i actually got a headache trying to grasp all the information.I like that,i had the same feeling when i played FFXI,so much to learn,.
I was also turned off by the early UI but no question it is awesome now,just took me a bit to figure it out and get everything in order.it has key mapping,you can rearrange your hud.It could be still improved,example i would like to open my Character screen and AH screen at the same time and i would like to completely turn the chat box off.However,everything else is there,totally polished UI.
Another thing that really surprised me was how well it looked and played on my ancient system.
Also the reason the graphics are crisp and clear is most likely compression,many games use terrible compression,it makes the textures look dull.I have shadows turned right down,so the shadow edges are jagged,no biggie for,i can't really notice it.
I would say everything the OP mentions is the truth and i would be quick to state otherwise :P.
I am still spoiled by the very unique FFXI game and it's huge depth of design but FFXIV still does a lot of it similar with some changes that although i would rather different,i can accept them.I mean seriously what are we doing in other games,running from yellow marker to yellow marker.
You know what puts a smile on my face,i can walk through a doorway in FFXIV.Most every game is either static placeholder buildings or instanced,this is why you pay sub fees,quality over a rushed product.Yes Square tried to copy other devs rushing the release,but they learned their lesson,this is a polished game now and i was VERY unhappy with the original release.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
The story missions are insanely well done. The sense of immersion into the story is what left me craving for the next beta weekend. This game is the FFXIV that I expected to follow FFXI not that other pile of crap. Good job Yoshi-P!!
If you have not signed up for the beta already do so and give it a shot.
FFXIV Beta Site.
The combat is more strategic than your average mmo. Yes it's not action based with 5 skills and no GCD. It's more hotbars, and mix of skill from different class and stuff. But the combat feel slow at the start because you don't have many options.
You have you're limited set of spells, and that's it. But add to that spells from 1, 2 or 3 other class's and you get another dimension of gameplay that is way more dynamic.
And there are conventional class's and more action flavor class's. If you go Conjurer don't expect to get excited by the combat at first, but if you want fireworks, try the pugilist, and the monk later on, they have a pretty active style.
But one thing's for sure, this game is not the spam fest no GCD action combat style. You need to manage your cooldowns, synergises the spells you choose from each class, and build yourself a nice array of spells to use.
It have it’s ups and downs, but i’m really glad they choose to go this road. This is how a FF RPG game should be.
sounds exactly like something I would enjoy, I am not a fan of action combat but also not a fan of juggling 50 different spells across 4 hotbars all over my screen. thanks
Stayed away from 1.0 like the plague, and was skeptical of ARR, but tried it out and was quite impressed.
Some of the people here are in that new MMO honeymoon phase and claiming it is the best game in 10 years is going way to far, but it does stand up very well to the other recent old school type games like SWTOR and RIFT.
The primary drawbacks of this game are that the questing is kill 10 rats and fed-ex galore, and the combat is the same tab 1-2-3 while trading attacks.
That said, the time-to-kill is pretty quick at least in the early zones and downtime is extremely low so things move along very quickly and keep the player engaged.
The multi-class system and well put-together world as well as fast play make this among the best current theme-park games which I would recommend to people looking for a decent game. I think it will give Wildstar some very solid competition.
The questing isn't just kill 10 rats.
This is the only mmo or online game I've actually read every quest and cared about characters since... I can't remember.
You are killing 3 lady bugs and 3 funguar because the conjurer guild master asked you to do so. Why would a tree hugger like him ask you to do such a thing? Well a lot has changed since the meteor Dalumd crashed into the continent of Ezorea, and he knows this, certain species are growing out of control, and they must be kept in check.
There are no quest hubs, there are quests that take you to towns, just like in ANY final fantasy game. They lead you to other adventures in other towns that lead you back to the towns you've been before which all culminate in a larger story about the area how you've been involved in saving it etc.
Very Final Fantasy.
The combat is limited at low level, just like every single game ever. When you get more jobs / classes unlocked you can go and socket more abilities to yourself when you are leveling another class at low level. For instance you can have Cure at level 2 as a conj. when you switch to Gladiator and you hit level 2 you can equip Cure, thereby adding more buttons, more skills, more combos, and more strategy to every class / job.
People are upset about the start of a game being slow... I'm baffled.
I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by FFXIV:ARR - it just sucked me in! I have never played a FF game before, bought FFXIV back in 2010 and was so unimpressed and utterly confused by it that I quit the same day
But ARR is another story indeed!! I could not get enough of it this weekend, so sad the beta for the week is over already! I can't wait for phase 4 when I can make my permanent toon! Yay!
I am anxious to see how pvp is in this game, not really sure if you have to be max level to pvp or not... Still a bit confused here. But from what I have seen, I think this game is going to be worth the money and time I put towards it.
There wont be wipes after open beta?