Final Fantasy XIV yey or ney?
The beta is now pretty much open for all, and this game will be released late september.
I'm personally indifferent, it looks fun but I think I was one of the few anyway who enjoyed FFXI.
anyway! What are your thoughts on the game?
I'm personally indifferent, it looks fun but I think I was one of the few anyway who enjoyed FFXI.
anyway! What are your thoughts on the game?
Replies
I've only played on a PC with keyboard and mouse.
UI and software mouse are horrible on PC. can't bind any of the character, ability, quest journal or anything to a key so you have to use the laggy mouse to click in the lower right corner or hit the Home key to open your menu then click through. The code for a hardware mouse is in the game and there is a fan made patch to enable it which makes navigating the UI a lot easier.
You can't scroll the map unless you have a right analogue stick.
I've only really played two of the three starting areas but they are rather barren of enemies. The questing area outside the seaside city is populated by wharf rats which are like level 1-2 and puks and dodos which are like level 10 and will 1-2 shot your character if you attack them.
Melee combat is ok but spell casting requires more clicks than needed.
Tab targeting doesn't differentiate between enemies, other players, npcs, or yourself.
The tutorial needs a lot of work.
It is a console mmo meant to be played with a controller with little to no effort made to adapt it to the PC market.
The game is very pretty though.
So basically very pretty but not very user friendly.
UI is sub-par on the PC.
Menus and Actions rely heavily on server response so the entire game feels unresponsive due to latency.
Many odd gameplay design decisions. Maybe these mechanics are standard fare in Japanese MMOs, but american players aren't going to respond well.
The menus are pretty impossible to navigate through, but you can do it all without a mouse. I've been playing the beta for maybe a week now and I've pretty much stopped using the mouse completely.
Tabbing or selecting enemies is next to impossible. There's no cut off distance for selections.. So basically if your using tab to select the enemy you likely select a couple on the other side of the area your in. Mouse is no easier to select with due to its lag.
On a different note, the environments are really well done. Everything for the most part is 'believable.' All the models and textures are really nice as well.
I'm still a little skeptical about buying it however. We'll see.
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=56985
And I think it's the only reason I would try the beta or demo of FFXIV... inspect the great art via some viewer.
... I'm not a fan of monthly fees, that was my truely let down... never played WoW because of that (and the outdated graphics).
Well, hoping Square Enix take your feedback from you guys playing the beta and that they change what it seems a 'Ney'.
As it's open beta now, it's less about getting gameplay feedback and more about them getting free network stress test & any major bugs out of the way so their launch is newsworthy.
@asherr - it sounds like they just didn't bother to implement the beta well with the keyboard/mouse which is very strange for a beta starting on pc. Pretty isn't going to make me buy a game anymore (see FF13) even if it is an mmo.
brandoom - see that's my issue right now too. I'm not sure if I should get it or not, I mean, will they really have enough time to 'add' everything in whe the game is released? Beta's usually don't fall too far from the tree, see StarCraft2. If anything Beta's get a bit improvement and bugs fixed and that's it.
What i find strange is they seem to have a lot of problems with Beta already, keyboard/mouse issues and just not having a whole lot in the game yet, but this game is due out near the end of september. :S
Here's to hoping they fix the problems and it runs well when it's released. I may be cancelling my preorder too, and just waiting for some people to play it for a couple weeks before I get this one.
Personally i'm going to wait till after release, see how much they've fixed (if anything) and then make my decision.
Oh.. and there is absolutely nothing to do quest wise. Maybe I missed something but I only found 1 or 2 quests for the whole 2 hours I was playing... I played Aion and I did the 40-50 grind which was a nightmare grind fest with no quests but... I seriously couldnt find anything to do in FFXIV. Maybe it was just me though.
When comparing FFXIII to FFXIV, FFXIII is way better. At least with FFXIII, menus weren't laggy and aspects of the game were explained in some sort of tutorial fashion. Seriously, XIV seems to be marketing itself to the niche market that is FFXI players, which I think is totally the wrong direction. They took some nice elements from WoW, but there could be way more. (Drag and dropping icons, marker for quest start and end points, etc etc.) Not to mention the 48 hour cool-down on doing quests (which you can only have 8 of in your "journal") is a complete sham, probably just there to prevent players from leveling up too quickly.
I like the concept of the crafting system with the "mini-game style" sequences, however the game doesn't TELL you how it works, and results seem more or less random. There's also absolutely no way to tell whether you are doing it right or not until you fail. Not to mention that when you fail a quest, you can't repeat it!
Everyone is saying the environment art is "good", but I think there's far more that could have been done. There's absolutely no use of landmarks, making navigation a tedious task of constantly opening and closing your map! There's awful LOD usage, with an obvious seam in the distance that's more or less distracting and slightly ugly. Many rocks on pathways are painted on the diffuse, which looks *ok* but they tried to make the rocks look bigger than they should, so you get this normal map that is trying to make something look like it has more depth than it really should!
The level design itself seems sub-par sometimes as well, the cities aren't separated into clear "districts" and there are many pathways and roads that are needlessly longer than they should be, which is just frustrating.
Player models and the gear / textures are amazing. Unfortunately, there's not much in that category that is really "new", players who played XI will be already familiar with the races and many of the pieces of the gear look and feel similar to the original series. I was hoping they may have gone a more sci-fi style, or at least something that makes the game feel and look different, unfortunately it feels like more of the same. Having said that, there's no doubt in anyone's mind when it comes to how gorgeous some of the models are in this game.
I honestly think it's a shame because there are some ideas about FFXI that I enjoyed. The concept of mostly team play instead of solo for an MMO was an interesting one, and I think they could have vastly improved upon that system if they had only done more research. Things like cross-server partying systems like the one in WoW would have been a godsend in FFXI, and would have been amazing to see if XIV, but unfortunately I doubt they spent any hours researching this. There are even some cool ideas in FFXIV, like the fact you can equip gear at any level and it scales down to whatever level your class is. I think that's really really awesome! Again, giving the crafting / gathering a fun minigame aspect is also really enjoyable. Unfortunately, there's too much crap you have to cut through in order to do anything because of the UI being unintuitive.
To be honest, I can understand why Japan is kind of behind the times when it comes to MMOs. WoW isn't even available in Japan, so the japanese market doesn't really get what many other nationalities would consider standard MMO features. I remember talking to one of my Japanese friends in my "linkshell" (guild) during a brief return to FFXI, asking if they had tried WoW, and the funny thing is that many players have tried it and many even said it was interesting and they wanted to play more, but it just wasn't possible to play it in another language. I just don't think there was enough research put into this game, the game really feels rushed and lacks content (which is a similar complaint I had with FFXIII), and even if it wasn't rushed, it just feels like it is!
That ends my rant. Though I do like how they added Windows IME support now... Too bad I am going to have to pass this game up.
Oh, as for UI lag and mouse lag problems, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. Often times upon a servers initial start up phase, the mouse would function fine and the UI lag would be minimal, however it seems as more connect the laggier those aspects get. So maybe this will be something that just needs to be tested with this open beta, but they really probably could have figured that out during closed beta if they had just sent out more invites.
(If anyone is wondering, Battle Regimen seems to be a way for you and your party to queue up one attack each, then execute it in a chain, end result being some sort of negative status effect on the enemy. With us I led with Spirit Dart (Conjurer) and he dropped some Light Attack (Marauder))
My main beef right now is I'm kind of lost. Some people have talked about the main quest, but all I've done is the intro fight at the castle, then move on to the next camp, do a levequest, then I can't find anymore levequests.
Yesterday we roamed around looking for some stuff to kill that was still conning blue or green to us, but gave more xp than the starting area marmots. We found a Dodo, that was conning blue to us, and it hit like a truck, we're talkin almost 3 shotting snowman, 1 shotting me.
I learned last night I gained an ability called stoneskin, which absorbs damage. It helped a lot with snowman as he was far easier to heal, and helped me too as I was getting healing aggro, which brings me to another frustration...
Snowman attacked 1 enemy, but 2 we're aggroed on him. He was doing decent damage to his target, and I healed him. BOTH mobs jumped on me, I can understand the 2nd mob coming to me (healing aggro) but that's pretty lame that he seemed to have generated almost no aggro from his attacks alone. I was reading on some forums too, another party had a similar incident but they were actually using a gladiator + taunt abilities. I don't get it.
Dispite the frustration I'm enjoying it. I most likely wont buy it if they keep the "8 hours a week then you get no more xp" limit, that's just a stupid idea for a game you expect people to play monthly for.
EDIT: The lag is brutal too, even with navigating menus. I think it took a good 15 seconds for me to even see the trade window pop up. But I get that it's open beta and they'll probably be tweaking things. Plus the server is loaded with people.
Drumonman: healing agro is absolutely BROKEN as far as I can tell. Been playing it with my gf whos healing, and i'm a pugilist. I'll beat something down by myself to 50%, she'll heal once, and it will still agro her. You basically NEED level 10/taunt skill to be able to keep things off healers. Kinda silly.
Luckily, Bioware is trying to do something different.
After playing for a long time, it's like I said, the navigation is great. Just need to get used to it. targeting is a little buggy right now, but it should be fixed for release. I really don't understand what the QQ/whining is about. It's not WoW people. It doesn't cater to casual people. You need to understand how the game is built, and it's great!
I was playing with a buddy of mine, and all he did was complain about everything that wasn't like WoW, or any other similar MMO (Warhammer Online, Aion, etc).
I also do not understand how people can say that it is basically FFXI-2. Because it isn't. The game is very different, the mechanics are completely new. Races are similar, but then again, they've added significant racial changes as well. So far, I am really, REALLY enjoying the game. It's not easy to start off, because it isn't as intuitive as WoW, but once you understand the control scheme, it's awesome. The UI is fine, a little unresponsive right now, due to the fact that the servers are pretty laggy. But that should/will be resolved.
Definitely a yey for me. Also, those saying you can't bind any custom keyboard shortcuts, you can. Just can't bind everything. But the things you CAN bind, you can bind them to any key on your keyboard.
its not even about being a wow person or a casual gamer. I love the fact that its not like wow, but that's no excuse for such a terrible UI. If you've ever played WoW, or any other MMO, and then you jump into FFXIV and attempt to navigate around, its like playing with both hands tied behind your back and you're only allowed to use your tongue to press keys. I could deal with the stupidly clunky UI if it wasn't for the insane lag that the UI also has. I mean really, no complaints? You're fine with the fact that it takes like 10-30 seconds just to open the synth window? I guess that could be fixed in retail, but right now its really bad.
Major fail by Square Enix... although it is pretty.
Questing, the beta forums are gold if you ever have time to read them. People have already data mined that you can still grind if you want to just like wow or ffxi. There are also way more options then just the standard quests you can do crafting quests or kill quests that dont fall into the time limits. You can also walk or airship to the other citys and do their "Dailys" as well within the given time.
Before you guys start really putting the game down at how this and that sucks play more then 2hrs on it. I have played wow since beta and am currently in a top raiding guild, I raided on FFXI through chains of promethia, so I'm what you might call a hardcore raider and will try to theory craft the crap out of the game before I say ney. Does the game have some issues yes, but so far all the issues you guys have found the producer already has said the support isnt added for the beta. Pay attention to the beta forums and bug reports and actually participate in the beta rather then oh snap a free game to play for a month.
Sorry for the rant fill free to flame me back it's just some things I have been meaning to say after reading some of the things said in this thread. If you find some false logic in my statements then let me know what you think. Im not going to get mad or cry about it, if anything it might open my mind up to something new.
Have you been able to post in the beta forums or post bug reports because I haven't. I can login but that about it. I actually wrote down some feedback I wanted to give but all I get is an access denied.
Put some time into the game before saying it is shit. It's not an idiot-proof game. You need to think a little because not everything is explained to you in depth. You need to figure the stuff out.
I don't think it's so much about it being not explained. I play many games without having to read an instruction manual but there's a difference between something being needlessly difficult versus being intuitive. It doesn't need to be a WoW clone but to throw everything out the window in the effort to be different is stupid when you throw out what works as well. Hell, there are things from XI that they threw out and those were things that worked. I was in beta for a few weeks and I just got sick of it.
http://lodestone.finalfantasyxiv.com/pl/topics/detail?id=c499e4c5df4f3f0fde1fb47a28574cb9c3991c9f
Essentially, they've changed quite a bit of the team working on this to get this to an enjoyable state.
I haven't been playing due to the fact that release was a complete flop, but here's to hoping they can turn things around with their realization.
WOW,just WOW!
There's no subscription, it's been under, "Free Trial" since the day it was released.
if not i'll stick with WAR.
Whoa, Japanese people never cease to amaze me. When shit hits the fan and they fuck up, they can take a step back and apologize to their customers. I know it's probably not written by Wada himself, but the fact that he signed it says quite a lot; especially when he's in position that lets him not give a fuck.
Glad to hear they're taking responsibility and not abandoning it. As a former fan, I'm often very critical about the current state of FF franchise. Yet, by making that post they got some of my respect back.
Now, get rid of Nomura and bring back this motherfucker.
Would like to check it out, despite the negative reviews.
THIS
I've still got my buddy pass.
They still haven't started charging their monthly fees. They just keep extending the initial trial period since launch.
I think you can find the game for ~$25-30
Also: [ame]http://www.amazon.co.uk/Final-Fantasy-XIV-Standard-PC/dp/B003S3RNJW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1292003246&sr=8-1[/ame]
All of this +1 man, especially bringing back my ultimate hero of all time.
We were all talking about this at work today - how they handled everything is just awesome. I do hope that the new team can pull the rabbit out of the hat though. The game has loads of potential to do good things. Crafting is crazy addictive - i think its the only reason my wife still plays.
Shit dude you think its really that bad? I'm not sure it would effect the offline side of things ie Versus XIII, FFXV etc. I can see their online name being mud forever if they cant patch this up though.
The other thing we were talking about at work today was the fact that people have been playing this for 2 - 3 months now for free. So, Lets say they fixup the busted UI, lets say they make the game more playable and have better tutorials, lets say they revamp combat and really do make some fundamental changes for the better, the thing is, will it EVER be enough for the players who have been playing for free until its fixed, be willing to start paying for it ?
Maybe its going to need to be moved to being a F2P / Microtransaction tier product?
Square Enix doesn't ride on the Final Fantasy franchise I don't believe, they have a lot more going for them.
Also, the difference between "Squee" and other developers or producers, is that if they do mess something up, they have the money and the man power to invest further into their product for a comeback on their sales.
It's not logical nor is it even a choice for them to NOT fix FFXIV, as that would be disastrous for the series as well as a loss in their investment.
I can't really throw any facts out there, but from my perspective I don't believe there's any downfall for them, maybe just a mood adjustment.
If anything, their communication on the issue has given them amazing props for trying to please the consumers, and unfortunately due to the fact that they're such a large company, communication isn't always the easiest.
Glad to see they're trying to touch base, which I honestly have not seen them do in a very, very long time. :thumbup:
It's failed in the western market, you only have one chance to launch an MMO. I don't see anything in this game that appeals to the Chinese or Korean market - the social and grinding features don't seem that strong. Granted, I don't know much about the Japanese market except that consoles reign supreme there, maybe the PS3 launch will be able to draw and maintain a relatively small group of hardcore fans.
But it honestly sounds like they'd like to change heavy core features, I mean come on.. Do you see how many leads they replaced?
Lead Programmer
Hideyuki Kasuga (FINAL FANTASY XI, DIRGE OF CERBERUS -FINAL FANTASY VII-)
Lead Combat System Designer
Akihiko Matsui (FINAL FANTASY XI)
Those two alone tell you an insanely large amount of information on what they're willing to change, unless I'm mistaken?
Absolutely not trying to argue a point, there's really no point to be made, we're all speculating, so sorry if I come off as though I am.
Monster + M&M's + Late shift = :poly122:
=D
Lol Ditto.
FF XIV 2.0
http://www.ffandmore.com/?p=2623
Amazing. And if you wonder about gameplay. It's almost diffrent game now, than it was durning release.