I really don't like it when great games like this receive as much negative attention and invalid criticism as this has been receiving, especially when it influences people into not getting it, and especially when it's largely perpetuated by people who haven't even played the game properly. It was the same with Final Fantasy XIII, which was not only a great game but a true masterpiece and an achievement in video game development; apparently it's become cool to ***** about Square Enix and the Final Fantasy series though so I guess you'll get it no matter how good the games are. The fact of the matter is that not only is this a great MMO but a great game, period.
The FFXIV developers have created what is quite easily the most captivating game world the MMO genre has ever seen, through incredible music, visuals (both technically and artistically speaking) and NPC design (where they've fleshed them out and put as much thought into them as they would a single player RPG where going around and talking to everyone is part of the storytelling experience); no MMO, not even FFXI, has come close to offering an immersive experince of this calibre. Never has it been as much of a joy to simply go around exploring and traversing through the world as it has been with FFXIV.
The developers put as much thought into the gathering and crafting jobs as they did the battle oriented ones and it's reflected through what is quite easily the most involving, multi faceted gathering and crafting mechanics an MMO has ever seen, with a battle system as good as any other to boot.
The main storyline, as it's thus far been, is on par with the kind you'll find in a single player Square RPG, the only MMO other than FFXI to do so (no, Guild Wars most certainly doesn't; they provide an emphasis on storyline but the quality isn't even close).
FFXIV, like XI, has the perfect methodology when it comes to designing an MMO, which is telling a quality storyline to drive you through extremely well designed gameplay of the kind of scale and variety you can only get in an MMO, while setting a difficulty that forces you to interact and cooperate with your fellow players, and all within the confines of an extremely captivating world.
The only real issues the game has is stuff almost any MMO would likely have this early after release, and that is a relative lack of content and usability based issues, which will undoubtedly be resolved over time given that it's still being tested and polished and content is going to continuously be added. Anyways, stop hating and go home.
According to Nobuaki Komoto, director of the game, it’s a matter of balancing and making the game fair for those who can’t spend all their waking hours logged into the game:
First off, the main concept behind FFXIV is allowing those players with little time on their hands to play effectively, and game balance is based off of that. Furthermore, it is being designed to not give those with more time on their hands to play an unfair advantage. Because of that, systems such as Guardian’s Favor (a bonus to Guildleves) have been implemented to make leveling in the short-term easier than leveling in the long-term.
^^ A very fair point.
It also forces the player to try out the wide variety of gameplay elements the game has to offer so its effective as a control and focus mechanism, which is often what games need to be able to give the player the best gameplay experience possible.
Add in the fact that the armoury system enables players to use skills from different jobs that you're not even using at a given time and it can't be said to even really detract at all from the main build of your character.
I think it's a good design choice.
The CE was released in PAL regions as well by the way.
The collector's edition is just as much the game as the standard edition is, friend. Game got released a week ago. Standard edition gets released tomorrow.
Does it pain you that no game in the Guild Wars series will ever approach the captivating brilliance of a Final Fantasy XI or XIV? Does it?
What are the main criticisms made in the review out of curiosity? I only read a few paragraphs down but I can already tell you that you can use the keyboard to navigate the menu in the game as it is now at least, and they're releasing an official FFXIV PC game controller () that's been perfectly designed for the interface.
Not many people bother with the CE because rarely is it worth the extra money.
Also, sales numbers disagree with that. Half a million subscribers vs. 6 million accounts. Hmmm. Guild Wars is the second-most popular MMO, second only to WoW. There may just be a reason for that.
The combat is buggy, boring and lackluster, the spec requirements for it are too high, everythings fiddly and counterintuitive, the character creation is laughable, the classes seem unbalanced and retarded (half of them are gathering or crafting focused, wtf?), fetch quests ahoy, its difficult to find anything on the map etc
Also, I will go on record as sayng that visuals and music in games are the single least important aspect of a game to me, so don't bring them up in FFXIV's defence, becuase I'm really not interested.
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Last edited by Nephthys on Sep 29th, 2010 at 03:59 PM
No, though I don't see how it being an MMO makes the music and visuals more important at all from a regular game. And in regular games they're the least important aspects bar none (the most important being gameplay, story and characters). BTW visuals /=/ art direction.
Not only that he's a sock? Neph, my boy you got talent.
But really when will people stop defending this ass load of shit? The restrictions are just plain retarded. The whole point in MMOs is to establish an elite clase from casual gamers. If the casual gamer isn't going to apply the effort in leveling up don't punish the hardcore gamer. If they don't have the time to play mmos why buy a monthly fee one? MMOs are meant to be a time consuming games, not for people who pick them up one day and drop it for a month later.There are tons of internet mmos that fill that purpose like gaia and that free realms crap.
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Last edited by Phanteros on Sep 30th, 2010 at 02:09 AM
What they should have done was give casual gamers a one-time-payment version with somewhat less stuff that is considered premium content, and a reverse of the current experience model, where casual players who don't play often get an experience bonus that decreases over time, while the more serious, invested players pay their monthly fees to access all the game's content, with continuous experience gain for as long as they've paid to play for. That way the casual gamers don't get stuck, and still get to level at their pace, and the paying ones get their full game without idiotic restrictions. And a casual player who finds themselves playing enough to warrant going premium can consider that choice and add themselves to the more serious ranks. Everyone wins, and no one's punished for playing.
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Sep 29th, 2010 01:43 AM
) that's been perfectly designed for the interface.
