Final Fantasy XIV

[Zeyla]

Who else is going to check this out? If there are enough of us we should try to gather/congeal on one particular server. I'm looking for a casual experience, I'll help get a guild presence going, but I have no desire to run it all, raid, etc.

I ordered the Collectors Edition so I'll be starting early, Sept 22nd. instead of Sept. 30th for the regular version. I'll post my info and observations as I play it, for those that are interested.

I have high hopes for FFXIV, but who doesn't when a new MMO comes out :rolleyes:. I really loved Final Fantasy XI for a while. The world/lore were really cool, they had more world "events" than WoW, beyond just the now-typical seasonal "flavor" events. The crafting/gathering felt about right (WoW crafting has always felt too easy to me, almost trivial). The group dynamic was much better too, you could setup chain attacks with multiple group members for bonus damage, healing, etc. I even liked the macro system better. And you only had to have one character (yay, job system!)

The thing that did it in for me was the super grindy-nature of it. You had to level in groups, and there were leveling sweet-spots where everyone went so you were competing against people for pulls all the time... After a year I was only at lvl 45 (I think the max was 55 or 60 when i quit).

If they can fix that, make it more accessible (i.e. you can play for short sessions, even solo, and get something done) I'll be all over that!

So for those looking for something different, sound off!

-Z

[Valdis]

I got a beta invite today and went to the page and they found critical bugs and decided against the beta until they fixed it. I don't know if I'll play it but depending how the beta goes I might get tempted.

[Zeyla]

Yeah, there is supposed to be an open beta test soon. Like you said, it was supposed to start today, but has been delayed a bit due to some issues that popped up.

[Domathoine]

Open beta started today.

That being said, I was in the closed beta. I won't be buying this game.

[Kikiyo]

How was the game Domathoine? I heard that the user interface was horrible, but I can't find anything about actually gameplay and fighting.

[Kikiyo]

It's been fixed now appearantly. Will try it a tad before raid likely?

[Domathoine]

The UI wasn't awful, but the game just isn't designed to run smoothly and seemlessly. That isn't to say its a bad game or even a bad MMO for that matter, but I literally got stuck in a map screen once. As in, I opened the map, and there was NO way to close it. That shouldn't happen ever, closed beta or not.

As far as the gameplay goes... with some polishing, it could be really nice.

[Kikiyo]

So far. 5 hours into this game and this game has huge problems. I'll probably continue playing the game over the week to give it a chance, but this game is looking pretty shitty for something that is going to be released in 2 weeks. If I had preordered this game, I would cancel it if I were you.

-UI is made for gamepad / console play. It's pretty bad and clunky. No keybindings for menus. Often large navagation that requires you to spam esc just to get back to normal.

-Graphics are gorgerous, but there is no way to maximize the game or play in full screen mode so far. As such, it's using only 2/3rds of my screen on 1600X900 setting.

-Mouse is very slow and there is no way to increase the senstivity of the mouse so far.

-Map screen is a joke and only shows you a small section of the map where you are located at. No way that I can figure out to increase the map to show the whole city. Basically it's a guessing game on where you are supposed to go in the city until you memorize it.

-The chat window is very small and the font is very large. It's practically useless. Definately made for console screen. It fits like 20 words max and the entire combat system is shoved into it as well. So there is just spam spam spam.

-fatigue system basically prevents you from playing the same class for a long period of time. Deterent to people who are going to play the game for 12 hours to get max level in a class. You will have to work on like 2 or 3 classes in the same period of time or else suffer XP loss.

-Targeting system is very clunking and just getting ready for combat by unshething your weapon takes about 6 seconds to do. Lockon sucks and tabbing will tab NPCs as well which make it horrible for combat. I kepted targeting the little boy I was supposed to protect instead of the mob attacking the little boy when I pressed tab which locked on to the boy and I had to unlock it. It blowed.

-Gameplay is interesting, but seems actiony. Basically the entire beginning, I'm pressing 1 a bunch of times until the mob dies. There really isn't anything else to do. I got a CD attack that is based on TP which is a WoW equivalent to rage. Mobs are overfarmed, but quests called Guildleves are pretty fun and have instanced mobs so that people don't farm them. Haven't done many though

-Intro story quest was fun, but basically a bunch of running around and while good lore, ended really confusingly.

-basically very little in terms of tutorial. you will definately need to read the instruction manual for this game.

-Seems very grindy so far, but we'll see how it goes once I break into teen levels.

[Zeyla]

I have about the same amount of time into it as Kikiyo. I'm on the Rabanastre server.

-UI is definitely made for a gamepad, some tweaking you can do in the config menu, but it might just be easier with a gamepad. I've learned some keyboard navigation shortcuts that seem to speed things up so far though. For those that played FFXI, the keyboard/mouse navigation is much better however.

-Graphics, you have to use the separate config program before you launch the game. On my Phenom II 955/Radeon 4890 system it was a little chunky at 1920x1200 with all the settings maxxed out, I scaled it back to 1680x1050 and it ran much smoother (even with everything still turned on).

-Windows and such, you can pretty easily move around all the various windows pretty easy, the chat window can be resized as well, although there is a lot of spam in there. I found that you can scroll around the map using keyboard shortcuts, but again it seems to be better suited to a gamepad overall.

-The Leve/Quest system prevents power leveling like Kikiyo mentioned, it encourages playing multiple classes, or say going from leveling your fighting class to a gathering or production class. It's a little wonky but I see their point. With a little tweaking that part should be fine. Plus if you are done with your quests for the day you can always help out a friend with theirs too. And I like that you can do farming/crafting quests as well (earning XP for both your character level and role level, which is nice)

-I liked the Gameplay after getting used to it, after you get over level 5 with the combat classes you get a nice mix of abilities, some TP-based (kind of engery/rage style) and some reactionary abilities that open up after certain actions. And much like FFXI you can dual class sort of, where you can use abilities from other classes that you have obtained (although they aren't typically as strong when used by a different class).

-Really liking the story/world/lore so far, the Story quest I had was pretty interesting and varied.

So far I am liking it. It doesn't have the pickup and play feel of WoW, but honestly I don't mind figuring stuff out on my own. There are tutorials in there you just have to dig for them a bit. And again, this is still beta so things might be tweaked a little for the launch in a few weeks. But as it stands now I think it has a fairly solid base to build on.

[Elidroth]

The only thing is has going for it right now IMO is the world is gorgeous. I don't have enough time to devote to a real playtest unfortunately.

[Zeyla]

http://lodestone.finalfantasyxiv.com/pl/topics/detail?id=cb4dc09784bc24b4fde2e45de9f018ec5fb504d2

Looks like they are fixing a lot of the issues, or at least working on them. The horrible interface looks like it is getting some improvements. But much like MMO's from recent years (Warhammer, Conan, Aion, et al), it may be too little too late. I'm sure they will have a small core of players, but it could have been much better if the interface wasn't crap... Too bad, it was a good looking game... I only lasted a week when it launched, way too rough fighting the interface all the time.

I knew they were in trouble when the extended all new players time an extra month a few weeks after it launched.

Anyone still playing?

[Zeyla]

I guess Square-Enix finally realized that Final Fantasy XIV sucks (I hope someone on this "new team" knows how to design an interface...)

They sent out an email this morning:


Thank you for your continued interest in and support of FINAL FANTASY XIV.

While more than two months have passed since the official launch of FINAL FANTASY XIV service, we deeply regret that the game has yet to achieve the level of enjoyability that FINAL FANTASY fans have come to expect from the franchise, and for this we offer our sincerest of apologies.

After thorough deliberation on how to meet those expectations, it was decided that the most viable step was to approach improvements under new leadership and with a restructured team.

To realize this vision, and in doing so, provide our customers with a better game experience, we have assembled our company’s top talent and resources. Taking over the role of producer and director is Naoki Yoshida, a passionate individual for whom customer satisfaction has always taken top priority. Not only is he one of our Group’s most accomplished and experienced members, Naoki Yoshida is also a charismatic leader possessing the skill to bring together and effectively helm a team which encompasses a wide range of responsibilities. We also welcome several new leaders handpicked from other projects to work with the existing talent on FINAL FANTASY XIV.

We realize time is of the essence and are fully determined to provide our customers with quality service. It is because of this that we ask our customers to be patient until we are able to confidently present them with a concrete plan outlining FINAL FANTASY XIV’s new direction. The free trial period will be extended until that time.

Regarding the PlayStation 3, it is not our wish to release a simple conversion of the Windows version in its current state, but rather an update that includes all the improvements we have planned. For that reason, we have made the difficult decision to delay the release of the PlayStation 3 version beyond the originally announced date of March 2011.

The FINAL FANTASY XIV team is working hard to bring our customers an unparalleled adventure, and we ask for your continued understanding and support as we march ever diligently towards that goal.

President and CEO, Yoichi Wada