Video highlights the differences in Final Fantasy XIV test versions

Well... it looked great up until the combat portion. What the heck was the combat like before it was "improved"? Did you just play rock, paper, scissors with mobs?

I'll hold judgment on the combat until I play the game, but yeah, the combat looks pretty boring.

I watched this a few days ago and i am still amazed at how great it looks.

I want it sooo bad!~

not having auto-attack in the game does make it look slower

Also, the combat seems to be a complete bore. Very static, no movements, next to no animations, in fact id say it looks very much like every FF rpg i have played over the years. Which is sad, because combat has always been the weak point of the FF series. But then again, this is a early build so there is still time to improve on the combat.

At first glance I was ready to come down hard on how slow and boring the combat seemed.

In hindsight, the combat during newbie levels of all MMOs are a bit slow and boring. Maybe it speeds up as you go? Lets hope so.

Combat looks a bit weird, but I'll wait until I try it.

I can't wait for this game. This video has me really hyped.

The combat is fine, I don't know what people are complaining about once again. But I suppose that unless it's a hardcore button mashing game, people can't find enjoyment.

In FFXI and, presumably the case with XIV from the battle regime system, you don't just pay attention to yourself mashing your buttons and doing as much damage as possible like say WoW or EQ2. You're paying attention to your entire group and what's going on with them, trying to skillchain, magic burst, debuff the right spells (a bit more on that, in WoW most healers I know have an addon that just changes their name plate to a different color when they get any debuff, and then they can use the generic debuff cleanser spell by clicking their name that rids of any debuff instantly. In FFXI there were different things for everything, poisona, paralyna, erase, silena, blindna, etc.), keeping buffs up, carefully watching threat/aggro, stuff like that.

The combat was faster than it was by basic soloing because you had to pay attention to more things. I don't want them to remove that type of gameplay from XIV by making it a stereotypical WoW clone like RoM, Aion or LOTRO (not saying they're WoW clones, just they follow the basic gameplay formula). I want them to keep it like FFXI was, a primarily group-centered MMO game. Because after all, that's the point of the MMO genre.

Combat isn't the only thing in games, another thing that mystified me about XI was how well the story was and the incredible scope of things you could do. I hate to reference WoW again, but I played it for 3 years and XI for 5 so I think I can do such. Nowadays in WoW there's little to no immersion, you just hit your button and teleport to the heroic. Then there's the 2 raids people do now, one of which takes an hour max to do. In FFXI there was einherjar, sky, sea, assault, salvage, nyzul, ISNM/BCNM/KSNM/ENM/ZNM/ANM/VNM/SNMs, limbus, dynamis and other stuff such as campaign, garrison and the vast amount of storyline missions from Bastok, Windurst and San'doria and the expansion content which rivalled all of those put together times two such as the 34 CoP missions or the 48 ToAU missions.

I hate to drone on but I can't stand when people instantly label game as "Shit game, combat too slow in beta." when that's not the only thing important to a game's enjoyment at all and doesn't reflect any of the more advanced mechanics of said game. The point of the video was to show the vast improvement from the late stages of the alpha to the earliest build of the pre-beta. Not to brag and show how super flashy their effects or intense their boss mechanics are.

To everyone complaining about the combat, if you look at the video you see the char is level 1. :P

"Very static, no movements"

Yes yes, except for the whole "position and direction affects your damage and efficiency" factor that wasn't showcased here. Guess why?

Because that wasn't changed from Alpha to Beta. It is that simple. This video shows the changes (stamina gauge), not what is still the same.

Why are people complaining about level 1 combat again? Heroic strike, sinister strike, smite, shadow bolt, ice bolt, wrath, auto shot and auto attack. Thats all you had in WoW at level 1 to do combat.

FFXIV combat still looks slow though but seeing the direction that SE is taking with the game, in terms of weapons and now the reveal that mobs and bosses will have breakable parts to increase drop rate on loot ( as in actually positioning yourself to break those parts) , It looks like they want to make this into an MMO version of Monster Hunter while still retaining some of FFs flavor. I hope they succeed since FF and MH are my favorite Japanese series

Interesting how split opinions are on this. For the sake of the game I hope it means they're doing somethin' right :)