I think this only proves that features like that don't matter at all and shouldn't be praised so much. Since if a game turns out to have a bad gameplay, it doesn't matter and people forget about all those details.
It seems like a bit of exaggeration to me. It is nice to mention that this game has weather effects, but to write a topic about a living, breathing world is a bit too much. You will stop paying attention to those details in a month. It is just to much praise for such features that it feels a bit biased.
And like I said, saying it is something rare or new also sounds biased. You probably didn't ever pay attention to this stuff in other games, but the passion for FF made you watch and explore the game world more.
Funnily, day/night cycle and weather are one of the most important things for me in mmorpgs and I pay very close attention to those. The only game that I've seen with better weather effects than FFXIV is Skyrim with Climates of Tamriel mod (but even there, wind doesn't look as good as it does in FFXIV) and I've played most newly released mmorpgs in the past ~6 years.
Please tell me which mmorpg has better weather, day/night cycle system than FFXIV so I can give a try!
"Only in quiet waters do things mirror themselves undistorted. Only in a quiet mind is adequate perception of the world." Hans Margolius
I think this only proves that features like that don't matter at all and shouldn't be praised so much. Since if a game turns out to have a bad gameplay, it doesn't matter and people forget about all those details.
It seems like a bit of exaggeration to me. It is nice to mention that this game has weather effects, but to write a topic about a living, breathing world is a bit too much. You will stop paying attention to those details in a month. It is just to much praise for such features that it feels a bit biased.
And like I said, saying it is something rare or new also sounds biased. You probably didn't ever pay attention to this stuff in other games, but the passion for FF made you watch and explore the game world more.
Funnily, day/night cycle and weather are one of the most important things for me in mmorpgs and I pay very close attention to those. The only game that I've seen with better weather effects than FFXIV is Skyrim with Climates of Tamriel mod (but even there, wind doesn't look as good as it does in FFXIV) and I've played most newly released mmorpgs in the past ~6 years.
Please tell me which mmorpg has better weather, day/night cycle system than FFXIV so I can give a try!
Weather, lighting, ambient sounds and day/night cycles are what makes an OK game into a great game for me.
Because those things create an online world that I can easily believe in. It creates immersion. For people that value aesthetics in a game, FFXIV:ARR is a real treat.
Originally posted by gessekai332 somehow this world seems like its living and breathing or lets say... very organic. Even though it doesnt have a robust dynamic event system like GW2, theres something about it that makes me feel extremely immersed in the game. maybe its the beautiful environment, weather system, day/night cycles, character designs, costumes, the musical score, or maybe just final fantasy nostalgia. Even the way the mobs stand around it looks so much more natural than in other games. the world really feels like a world somehow. regardless of themepark or sandbox, i feel like this immersive quality is what mmo's in the recent past have been missing.
Attention to detail is huge to me.
-Mobs turn at a natural speed, and can be backstabbed or quickly evaded in 1v1
-FATE system rewards based on contribution
-PVP system doesn't destroy FF lore.
-Specs allow modifying instead of just buffing for DPS (GCD can be lowered, for ex.)
-The music. I usually turn BGM to 0%, but not for this game...why? Dunno.
-Balanced fast travel, not immersion breaking
-Quests have easy to see objectives, but often require piecing together knowledge about the world
-Character design
-Limit break, a welcomed (but not game-breaking) addition to group tactics
-Multi-class, with hybrid skills should solve LOTS of LFM issues.
Flashy mechanics and features often create misplaced hype and expectations...As an action RPG player, I never thought I'd say this, but-- I'm totally satisfied with tab-targetting and classic mechanics, so long as attention to detail and gameplay are paramount.
One of the things I keep forgetting to mention is how static and unalive the world feels. Sure, it's pretty, but that's about where it ends. The game world in FFXIV feels more like the world of TERA vs the more open (and still contained) feel of a GW2 or WoW or even Rift (which actually is more seamless and open than most).
Plus you have to zone to get anywhere. The world is anything but seamless. The zoning and load screens suck.
There is no real potential for exploration. You don't feel like, I need to look around and see what's out there, because there's nothing to see. You'll be lead by the hand such that you'll get a tour of the entire zone as you progress thru the quests and everything in the zone is directly tied to quests.
There is nothing cool, extra, or out of the way to find - there is no "out of the way". At least not in the noob areas. Each part of every zone is tied to a quest (or hunt log) and there's nothing there beyond that stuff. Just like TERA. Nothing extra. Nothing that's just a cool looking site that's just there.
Worse, the game is full of borders and invisible walls. You can't fall off a bridge. You can't fall off a dock. You can't fall off a cliff. Invisible barriers restrict where you can go and/or protect players from getting "out of bounds." So much of what you see is just there to view and from a distance, ala TERA. It makes the world feel much less alive to me.
It's not THAT huge a deal and it's not necessarily a bad thing but I don't see how you can say such a world feels all that vibrant or interesting when it's as contained and limiting as it can possibly be. I don't think pretty graphics really make a zone feel alive - the zone design does, and the zones in FFXIV are purely vehicles for questing, rather than being zones that include questing.
Premium MMORPGs do not feature built-in cheating via cash for gold pay 2 win. PLAY to win or don't play.
Originally posted by Voqar Really? One of the things I keep forgetting to mention is how static and unalive the world feels. Sure, it's pretty, but that's about where it ends. The game world in FFXIV feels more like the world of TERA vs the more open (and still contained) feel of a GW2 or WoW or even Rift (which actually is more seamless and open than most). Plus you have to zone to get anywhere. The world is anything but seamless. The zoning and load screens suck. There is no real potential for exploration. You don't feel like, I need to look around and see what's out there, because there's nothing to see. You'll be lead by the hand such that you'll get a tour of the entire zone as you progress thru the quests and everything in the zone is directly tied to quests. There is nothing cool, extra, or out of the way to find - there is no "out of the way". At least not in the noob areas. Each part of every zone is tied to a quest (or hunt log) and there's nothing there beyond that stuff. Just like TERA. Nothing extra. Nothing that's just a cool looking site that's just there. Worse, the game is full of borders and invisible walls. You can't fall off a bridge. You can't fall off a dock. You can't fall off a cliff. Invisible barriers restrict where you can go and/or protect players from getting "out of bounds." So much of what you see is just there to view and from a distance, ala TERA. It makes the world feel much less alive to me. It's not THAT huge a deal and it's not necessarily a bad thing but I don't see how you can say such a world feels all that vibrant or interesting when it's as contained and limiting as it can possibly be. I don't think pretty graphics really make a zone feel alive - the zone design does, and the zones in FFXIV are purely vehicles for questing, rather than being zones that include questing.
I can see how you would think that. I guess we see what we want to see. Normally, loading screens and invisible walls really bother me in mmos. The bug me a bit in this game but not as much. Keep in mind all we saw was the starter zone. Ive read from legacy players that the rest of the game is a lot more open. To me, the landscaping and design of zones are interesting enough to overlook some loading screens and invisible walls. Most of the invisible walls Ive encountered are death drops anyway heh. There are a few in girdania that keep you from exploring a cool looking pond or river which sucks.
Weather, lighting, ambient sounds and day/night cycles are what makes an OK game into a great game for me.
Because those things create an online world that I can easily believe in. It creates immersion. For people that value aesthetics in a game, FFXIV:ARR is a real treat.
I like you.
"Only in quiet waters do things mirror themselves undistorted. Only in a quiet mind is adequate perception of the world." Hans Margolius
I wish the NPCs had more of a life than just standing around waiting for the sheeple to plow through. They're such hard workers. Guards standing guard 24/7 I can understand. They'd rotate. But not even that.
Some of the NPCs were doing something but it's just looped in place infinitely.
Day and night cycles went by too fast for my taste.
I was expecting something to happen at night. Like different monsters appearing only at night and vice versa.
It's halfway past 2013. There's no MMO out now I can think of that I've tried that comes close to what I'm expecting of what a "living, breathing world" should be like.
MMOs could really take a note from Xenoblade in this respect. Of course trying to implement things from a single player game on the scale of an MMO could be challenging.
Comments
Funnily, day/night cycle and weather are one of the most important things for me in mmorpgs and I pay very close attention to those. The only game that I've seen with better weather effects than FFXIV is Skyrim with Climates of Tamriel mod (but even there, wind doesn't look as good as it does in FFXIV) and I've played most newly released mmorpgs in the past ~6 years.
Please tell me which mmorpg has better weather, day/night cycle system than FFXIV so I can give a try!
"Only in quiet waters do things mirror themselves undistorted.
Only in a quiet mind is adequate perception of the world."
Hans Margolius
Couldn't agree more. "In your face"- item mall really decreases my immersion.
Weather, lighting, ambient sounds and day/night cycles are what makes an OK game into a great game for me.
Because those things create an online world that I can easily believe in. It creates immersion. For people that value aesthetics in a game, FFXIV:ARR is a real treat.
Attention to detail is huge to me.
Flashy mechanics and features often create misplaced hype and expectations...As an action RPG player, I never thought I'd say this, but-- I'm totally satisfied with tab-targetting and classic mechanics, so long as attention to detail and gameplay are paramount.
Really?
One of the things I keep forgetting to mention is how static and unalive the world feels. Sure, it's pretty, but that's about where it ends. The game world in FFXIV feels more like the world of TERA vs the more open (and still contained) feel of a GW2 or WoW or even Rift (which actually is more seamless and open than most).
Plus you have to zone to get anywhere. The world is anything but seamless. The zoning and load screens suck.
There is no real potential for exploration. You don't feel like, I need to look around and see what's out there, because there's nothing to see. You'll be lead by the hand such that you'll get a tour of the entire zone as you progress thru the quests and everything in the zone is directly tied to quests.
There is nothing cool, extra, or out of the way to find - there is no "out of the way". At least not in the noob areas. Each part of every zone is tied to a quest (or hunt log) and there's nothing there beyond that stuff. Just like TERA. Nothing extra. Nothing that's just a cool looking site that's just there.
Worse, the game is full of borders and invisible walls. You can't fall off a bridge. You can't fall off a dock. You can't fall off a cliff. Invisible barriers restrict where you can go and/or protect players from getting "out of bounds." So much of what you see is just there to view and from a distance, ala TERA. It makes the world feel much less alive to me.
It's not THAT huge a deal and it's not necessarily a bad thing but I don't see how you can say such a world feels all that vibrant or interesting when it's as contained and limiting as it can possibly be. I don't think pretty graphics really make a zone feel alive - the zone design does, and the zones in FFXIV are purely vehicles for questing, rather than being zones that include questing.
Premium MMORPGs do not feature built-in cheating via cash for gold pay 2 win. PLAY to win or don't play.
I can see how you would think that. I guess we see what we want to see. Normally, loading screens and invisible walls really bother me in mmos. The bug me a bit in this game but not as much. Keep in mind all we saw was the starter zone. Ive read from legacy players that the rest of the game is a lot more open. To me, the landscaping and design of zones are interesting enough to overlook some loading screens and invisible walls. Most of the invisible walls Ive encountered are death drops anyway heh. There are a few in girdania that keep you from exploring a cool looking pond or river which sucks.
I like you.
"Only in quiet waters do things mirror themselves undistorted.
Only in a quiet mind is adequate perception of the world."
Hans Margolius
MMOs could really take a note from Xenoblade in this respect. Of course trying to implement things from a single player game on the scale of an MMO could be challenging.