Week in Review: Not-so-Final Fantasy

Massively has been doing opinion pieces ever since I started using them as a main MMO news source three years ago. Not to mention covering press releases, and other blogs. It's a mixture that requires a little extra attention to detail by the reader (lest we forget the source), but provides a richer experience in learning about new and current MMO's. The fact that there is more 'publicity' now days, comes from the higher traffic, which brings a greater diversity of opinion. Ironically, it has not increased tolerance of others opinions.

A lot of websites do weekly roundup. Sorry that the most talked about as of late has been XIV. You can always head on over to MMO-CHAMPION for your nonstop, uninterrupted WoW news.

In short, if you don't like it feel free to take your troll ass elsewhere. Stop attacking the staff for doing their jobs. If you think you can do better, I'm sure they'd love to have a good laugh at your application qualifications.

haters gonna hate!

Horse feathers!

Actually it sucks because SE didn't try to make a good MMO.
They have no idea what people want in a game or an MMO.

They basically made a very crappy version of FFXI.
FFXI is an awesome game but it's very outdated, it came out in 2002 and was never updated with anything the modern MMO's came out with.

FFXIV is just a 2002 MMO with nothing modern in it except graphics.
It's a very small wold with only 6 areas, outdated crafting, no actual open areas (almost every area in FFXI was open) , you can only do a few story missions every 10 levels, and that's all the game has.


You don't have to compare it to a modern game like WoW to show how bad it is, it's crappy no matter what game it's compared to.

No one buys the collector edition to see if they are curious about a game.

Servers may be packed, but it's mainly full of two types of people right now; the diehards, which would pay $15 a roll for Final Fantasy toilet paper to wipe with, and the curious, who are there just to SEE how bad the game really is.

I bought the collector's edition accidentally. I'd preordered via Gamestop, but completely forgot the fact I'd preordered it long ago from Amazon. I cancelled my Gamestop preorder long ago, because this game has serious issues. Lo and behold though, a copy showed up at my door from Amazon with my preorder of Civ V.

I've got it installed due to sheer curiosity. It took me 4 hours to install it because of the torrent like patch system failing horribly. Took me another hour fiddling with S-E's mess of a website to link this and add this account to that and confirm this and that. Once I finally logged in though, and made a chara, I will admit, the graphics and the cutscenes and the story were quite amazing.

Problem is, once you get out of the original cutscenes......you're left clueless. The missions are very vague, there's no worthwhile combat or skill tutorial, the combat is clunky, and totally useless without a gamepad. Chat is non-existant. In the few hours I've given to this game I've NEVER heard anyone speak save for NPC's. It's like paying to play a single player game. The entire game is completely unintuitive from start to finish. I can't get past more than maybe an hour or two of play time before I'm bored and ready to log out, because I don't know what I'm doing, and the game sure isn't giving me any clues.

Square has a LOT of work ahead of them. Sure the numbers are going to be large now; people are interested in seeing the train wreck. It's the numbers AFTER the free 30 days are up that S-E needs to concern themselves with, or it'll be the Final Final Fantasy.

Stuart replied inpart:

"...and the curious, who are there just to SEE how bad the game really is."

I'm not so sure about that. The curious I agree. But some of those curious maybe there to SEE if this game could hopefully be better than WoW. Since Blizz is designing Cat in a fashion that can only be quailified as ass-backwards and currently is in the death throws of well worn content...

I really hope that FFXIV doesn't disappoint them.

Fair enough. I was truly hoping this game would be the true successor to FFXI, and that it would compete against the WoW juggernaut. So far, my hopes are not high. I think I should have phrased that line better as well. It should read more like "see if the game is as bad as everyone says", since most times I tend to not believe the negative (or positive) hype until I've played it for myself.

Because after this:

http://wow.joystiq.com/2010/09/26/cataclysm-beta-removes-portals-from-dalaran-and-shattrath/

...amoung numerous other things that indicate Blizz is losing it, some of us are starting to wonder if it's time to start looking for a replacement for WoW. So it's more an exercise of window shopping rather than pumping WoW's success. Just that the games we would be looking need to be...well...good. Or this would defeat the purpose of the exercise.

Blizz not is losing it at all... its about time they remove the portals so mages will be useful again!

It's honestly not about "competing with WoW" more than it is "holding it's own". WoW was an aberration. I don't think anyone can honestly say that they knew when WoW was coming out that it would garner 492 bagillion subscribers and become the powerhouse it is today. What I think people (and the industry) are looking for now though in terms of success is simple; they need to garner a respectable core of subs, and be able to draw people in. There's been too many failures since the dawning of the age of WoW, simply because not only do they have to get compared with WoW these days, but people are expecting certain things from MMO's now. AoC, Warhammer, Tabula Rasa, even Aion to a certain extent are all massive failures simply because they did not give the "average" player what they were expecting.

FFXIV's key problems have been explained ad infinitum ad nauseum on this website and many others. I think the expectation was a spiritual successor of FFXI, with updated gameplay and graphics. They got the graphics right, the gameplay is a step backwards though.

....

...Hey, I'm already my raid's water cooler, so what are you talking about Jack? Besides, my small girth and pink pigtails make me their official "plushie" they can carry about for entertainment values for those lacking in "cute" vanity pets. Just saying... :)