Anti-Aliased: Final Fantasy XIV is a good, good thing pt. 2

Not a FFXI fan here - except for the story bits that I got every once and a while - which I loved! It was too slow to keep my attention. My hope for XIV is that it does exactly what you're saying it will do and pull the story out from and disguise the grindiness in the background somewhere.

I also hope that the characters will have a bit more variety. It's been a while but I remember being turned off to the fact that everyone in my class wore the exact same armor ("this is the armor you want when you reach this level")... Petty I guess but that bothers me. I never got to any high levels so that may have changed later on... dunno

Also I'm sorry you're having to apologize to readers for writing an opinion piece when it's clear that is what it is... carry on! Loved the article.

Amazing how this moron can spin some meager PR hype into unending adulation.

> Final Fantasy XIV is not being developed from the perspective of an MMO -- it's being developed from the perspective of a Final Fantasy console game that just happens to be online.

...and it's a MMO. This one idea literally has half a dozen paragraphs dedicated to rephrasing it in various ways.

> For these guys, it's not about the grind -- it's about the story.

What MMO hasn't claimed that, 12 months+ out from release? And they all have their own meager twists on the formula, occasional morsels of "story". I guess this article is just a paean to the franchise.

Where's the skepticism and the circumspection? Why is "game journalism" so freaking awful?

I highly doubt that SE is going for a WoW clone. They actually have MORE MMO experience than Blizzard. And I think they'll put that experience to good use.

Beautifully written and even inspirational,. I love what you said about it being designed as the best FF game to date first and an online game second since that was what really stood out to me from the press conference as well. However.
I think you're a little over-optimistic and are a tad blinded by the brand name.

Yes, they succeed profoundly at making beautiful, detailed game worlds, but looking at how they've developed FFXI compared to other MMOs on the market, they fail immensely at maintaining an MMO!

A few examples:

They seem to have no concern or concept of class balance at ALL. Thief, beastmaster have been woefully underpowered since the game was released. Most jobs have ever only recieved 2 adjustments in 7 years... They keep adding classes that offer nothing unique and have no clear purpose in the game. SE's response "we just don't know what to do with pet classes." Really? I'd figure it out, because even though you're more highly praised than Jesus in Japan, Square Enix, it's still your job to find solutions to your game's problems.

They don't communicate and don't seem to have any real desire to communicate with their players. When asked why they don't open official forums they say it's because of the multilingual, international player base. Apparently having 1 forum for English, and 1 forum for Japanese is just too difficult. Or they just can't be bothered to listen to what we have to say.

Hackers, botters and cheaters have COMPLETELY taken over end game and SE doesn't seem to have the slightest idea. Want the best gear in the game. Visit ffxiapps.com before applying to the game's greatest guilds, because they REQUIRE you to verify that you will help them bot on the APPLICATION. The botters themselves have even started to grow weary and try to think of solutions to the botting problem. Square Enix's repsonse: nothing. They've never even mentioned it.

They keep the game mechanics a secret and refuse to reveal even fundamental mechanics of the game. Thief's level 5 ability, Steal, how does it work? Nobody knows. Their prized job trait, Treasure Hunter, is even more of a mystery. Players have speculated they don't reveal the information, because they don't KNOW the information. The people who engineered the mechanics are all spread out on different projects within the company. On one hand, this does create a unique air of mystery in the game that can make it seem more "real" and less like a giant math formula. In the end though, visit any endgame forum on final fantasy and that's exactly what you'll see: countless threads of math geeks with their speculative maths on game mechanics. Great for math nerds, off putting for everyone else.

Then there's Absolute Virtue... It has become the joke of the FFXI world. 4 years and STILL nobody knows how to beat it? They even released a video to give "hints" on how to beat it which revealed, in typical complacent SE style, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Except that they designed the fight to take over 18 hours... They did that on purpose! When they got heat from main stream media for adding another 18+ hour fight that made people physically ill, (Pandemonium Warden) they patched 2 hour time limit on both bosses, making them even more impossible to kill! Popping both these bosses takes HUNDREDS of hours of tedious, grindy work (work, not play) from dozens of players, and yet every attempt is only an experiment to figure out how to even damage the thing...


Final Fantasy XI is greater than the sum of its parts. It has a certain something that is so special and unique in the MMO market, that it makes playing it worthwhile to me. Sorry to sound so negative, I DO absolutely love FFXI. Square Enix themselves on the other hand just repeatedly gives the community an enormous ," F U. We don't care." They are so smugly satisfied with themselves for doing a less than mediocre job at maintaining their MMO.

I could not be more excited for FF14, but I can't help but wonder what the new, mainstream MMO market will have to say about Square Enix's arrogance and indifference.

7 years ago, it was all we knew. Smallish patches 3-4 times a year were standard. Now, with games like WoW and WAR, people expect obviously unbalanced classes to be adjusted. They expect direct, regular communication from the developers. Part of me hopes they continue their antics so that they might learn a lesson in serving their customers when the MMO market rejects their complacent attitude, another part of me hopes that they've just been so busy making FF14 the most awesome game that has ever existed they've unintentionally neglected FFXI.

I completely disagree, because as I have stated, the trick is to HIDE the grind in task oriented ways or in quests, which WoW does excellently. FFXI, does not ever offer XP for quest completion. It does things, the old school EQ way, you have to join a group and "grind" for hours at a time. Meaning, repetitive actions, you stay in one are for a few levels, fishing targets. A few years ago, before WoW this was fine. Even with the recent changes in FFXI, I still have to sit in front of my PC for a few hours at a time, IF I'm lucky enough to get into a group that isn't horrible and I get to hit the same skills over and over. Without it really being hidden behind going and doing. The meat of the game is all the story, and unfortunately to see the story you MUST level up. See where I'm going with this? I tried recently and the grind isn't comfortable to me because I have to depend on other people.

I don't mind partying but only for small sessions and for other reasons, like doing missions or quests or instances, NEVER for leveling purposes. But that's just my playstyle, and it looks as though Square has heard me and many like myself and will make this type of playstyle available in FFXIV. Which is AWESOME on so many levels.

I never said I didn't want to party with people. I said I want to party with people in certain areas of the game and leveling is NOT one of those areas. Ever. I feel like I earn my levels by getting them solo, just like life. You earn most of what you have solo. It takes a team/party to get the uber stuff, money, gear, etc. and that's the way it should be.

It's really a matter of opinion and taste I guess. My first taste of quest grinding was in Vanguard, and then I played WoW or a couple years. I loved it at first but ultimately it boils down to just killing the same mobs with the same method over and over.

Coordinating with a group to make the most efficient EXP possible is much more engaging and fun in my opinion. And you always have company to boot.

A grind is a grind. "Hiding" it in mundane, silly stories about silly things I could care less about doesn't do jack to make it easier for me anymore lol. I know it's kind of a cynical attitude, but if I feel that way, others surely do as well.

I dont want to burst your bubble, but of every MMO I have ever played, my experience with FF Online was by FAR the most grind. I will likely give the new one a try, because I love almost all of the non-MMO FF games. But if they borrowed more than just the name from the first one I will likely give up on it quickly.

I think it could be good, but its because wow is out now. As much as you say S/E won't look at WoW, they will. It has around 10 million more subscribers than the next guy. It's the only mainstream MMO out there (Do most people know what Warhammer Online or AoC are? Doubt it).

I think they look at wow, see what the differences are between the two (in at least philosophy, not gameplay), and make their own. That's what everyone does nowadays and why i think the quality of MMOs has gone up. LotRO, Warhammer, even AoC are much better than EQ2 and FFXI imo.

It doesn’t exactly look as if Final Fantasy XIV is going to have a different setting than FFXI. The trailer and screens clearly show Galka, Elvaan and Humes sporting gear that is very similar to that worn in the previous game. Even if the game does in fact take place in a different setting, it still won’t be as radically different as FFVII, FFVIII, and FFIX were.

Overall, I’m been kind of done with Square-Enix’s games after FFXI and FFX. They just seem to lack the sense of freedom and maturity that western developers are putting into their games. I’m sure there are a lot of people who enjoy games with moogles, soapy drama, and mysteriously vague language, but I’m not one of them.

needs to be instanced, notorious monsters only catered to haijin players and chinese gil farmers.

subjobs were cool, except max lvl never could be increased...which was lame

hopefully they fix all the things than made that game aweful, because environments and quests were awesome.

Hows about Project Slypheed, or Lost Odyssey?
Theres a long list of games made by SE that isnt a Final Fantasy.
Including a movie, named Final Fantasy.

Yep... ffxi is my favourite mmo for the exact reasons you listed. This is probably my most anticipated game. Its even ahead of XIII and Versus XIII just because I know this game will give me so much more enjoyment and it'll last years instead of days. People complain about it being an mmo but if you actually gave xi a decent chance you'd know that this game will be very special.. I just hope they don't change the job, level and battle systems too drastically. Btw I'm assuming the graphics will be on par with 13.. Its running on the same engine and XI had better graphics then X and X-2 I would say.

To be honest I think that Final Fantasy XIV will beat World of Warcrat for #1 MMORPG to many Simple Minded PPl play wow for the fact that they cant even play a real challanging game there like gamers that uses cheat codes to beat games becouse there games like final fantasy XI and Everquest too are harder and show more of a Challange to them so they go to an Easier MMO becouse basicly they suck at playing games thats the basic gamer so simplke minded and can't see the real PIC of the conspet that Square Enix and some of there Fans see and I dont care what you think of me or what i am saying I only speak the truth WoW is to easy of an MMORPG for one thing i mean come on it only stays about 1 week or 2 to go from lvl 1-80 thats too damn easy so I love were Square Enix is going with this and I Bet will be become the #1 MMORPG and beat WoW and blow it out of the water IDC if you think its a bad idea becouse it's gonna be better then FFXI that not the point the point Square enix is going for is why put FFXI on the ps3 it would take them to much tim to do that it was easiyer to put on 360 becouse they do not have blu-ray they have basic HD so basicly making a NEW MMORPG for PS3 and PC is a good Idea and a good next Step to gamming it will be the 1st MMORPG on the PS3 and with the unique new Battle play style there working on will make the game even better hell I think there gonna make it Real Time Base combat were you can make the monsters miss you and jump outthe way of there attacks making it a new and Unique MMORPG so Let Square Enix have there time in the sun God knows blizzard did even tho they had help from 2 other game computys to help them make WoW Unlike Square enix. and thats all i have to say about that!.

Best read so far about xiv. Also makes sense if you listen to the square enix interview.