kylenne
2010-10-21 06:48 pm UTC (link)

Save your money and go back to FFXI. To say FFXIV is fucking terrible would be insulting terrible. Yes, it's shiny, but that's about all it has going for it (not only that, but unless you're playing on a console, good luck with the system requirements to actually take advantage of the shiny). Not only did it not improve on any of FFXI's weaknesses, it actually took a huge step backwards in many respects. There's artificial xp decay, which as far as I can tell is a cheap tactic used to hide the fact that there is virtually no content right now. Once you get done with the typical boring ass starter grind, there's...well, not much.

That there was no console beta at all, after heavily hyping it (I still have my beta code from purchasing FF13 at launch), should have been my first hint that things were bad. Above everything, it just feels really rushed and ill-thought out. Extremely disappointing, and this is from someone who played FFXI for ages until finally succumbing to the siren call of WoW, being a longtime Warcraft RTS fan.

But really, don't take my word for it. It's telling that I don't know a single person who actually likes this game. None of my old linkshell friends, no one on the internet, no gaming sites. Everyone who's actually sticking with the game is only doing so while clinging to the hope that it'll suck less as time goes on. Me? I just went back to WoW, buggy recent patch and all.

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	seca 2010-10-21 07:43 pm UTC (link)
	That sucks to hear. I was thinking of maybe waiting for the PS3 version came out so I think I will do just that and if they haven't fixed a lot of those issues go back to FFXI after all. (Reply to this)(Parent)

es_
2010-10-22 10:55 am UTC (link)

Wow, that sucks. My boyfriend is a huge FFXI fan (me, not so much. I'm casual, and WoW was a pretty good fit for me), and he was really looking forward to playing FFXIV with me. I doubt I can dissuade him from buying it and playing it himself, but at least I can prepare him for disappointment!

Guess I'll be saving my money for Guild Wars 2. I'm so excited for that game I can't even say.

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	cairea 2010-10-22 05:08 pm UTC (link)
	Guess I'll be saving my money for Guild Wars 2. I'm so excited for that game I can't even say. Me too! has nothing useful to say; just a drive-by GW2 fan (Reply to this)(Parent)

	anarchicq 2010-10-21 07:19 pm UTC (link)
	I tried to beta it but my poor laptop couldn't handle it. So... Sorry I couldn't be more help. (Reply to this)

	sqbr 2010-10-21 08:12 pm UTC (link)
	A friend of mine hated it so much he gave his disk away to the first person who asked for it on twitter. Here's the scathing review he gave. (Reply to this)(Thread)

solle
2010-10-22 05:30 am UTC (link)

Getting close enough to the floating magical rock, an “interaction” notification popped up, informing me that it was called an “Aetheryte”. I interacted with it, which enabled me to “activate” my “levequest” for the area - which, it turned out, was “kill four rats”.

... Wasn't this mocked extensively as a cliché in the second hour of Final Fantasy XII? Are we going backwards in time, Square?

...
... Actually, wasn't the "slay some rats" quest mocked as being too damn cliché in Baldur's Gate: Throne Of Bhaal, in, erm, 2001?

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	kylenne 2010-10-22 03:08 pm UTC (link)
	It was mocked as recently as the console Bard's Tale a few years ago, and also in Dragon Age. The Human Noble origin was intentionally written to be as cliched as humanly possible (as an exercise in Tropes Are Not Bad), and yes, there was rat slaying. I lol'd. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	nursewretched 2010-10-23 02:11 pm UTC (link)
	"Giant rats? It's like the start of every bad adventure tale my grandfather used to tell." Yeah, I cracked up at that part too. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	neuronin 2010-10-21 08:30 pm UTC (link)
	I read (I think it was on Topless Robot a few weeks ago) that it looks like this one was farmed out to some Chinese team, who designed it with the egregious XP-delaying "Fatigue" system to keep in line with Chinese strictures involving limiting the time you can play MMOs. (Reply to this)

shinga
2010-10-21 10:10 pm UTC (link)

I'm pretty sure my boyfriend's playing it right this second, and has been for the last few hours but I have no idea what his thoughts on it are. And they might be useless anyway as even if it's bad, knowing him, he might like it anyway. :P I guess since he's still playing he likes it... or maybe he's just getting enough of a feel for it that he can judge it properly.

Outside of him, haven't really heard happy things.

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hysteria
2010-10-22 01:33 am UTC (link)

I'm a huge Final Fantasy fan and loved 11. 14 is a huge let down so far, for me and my friends who were excited to recreate the FFXI experience. The graphics are gorgeous. And that's it. There's simply no content. Party mechanics are unpolished and there's no real incentive to party up and progress anyway. The crafting system is intricate and quite fun (it's basically a mini-game) but you need to level a variety of subcrafts in order to support your main vocation. Money isn't terribly hard to come by (much easier than 11!) but the lack of AH is frustrating and you'll spend hours scouring bazaars to scrape together the 6 items you need to make one synth. There are features that worked beautifully in FFXI that have been stripped from XIV (macros, targetting, search functions).

I'm sticking around during the extended free trial, but unless there are sweeping changes before December, I won't pay for a subscription. I'd recommend waiting and seeing if they turn things around in the next six months, but wouldn't jump on at this time.

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	tale 2010-10-23 12:22 pm UTC (link)
	Changes are coming to FF14, according to SE. (Reply to this)