A Realm Reborn: Final Fantasy XIV Online

[Thin Crust]

So I can't get a direct link to the video, but spoonyexperiment had some terrible things to say about the game here. Scroll down a little bit to find the video.

Does someone who has played the beta care to comment on his allegations?

[NeoForte]

So I can't get a direct link to the video, but spoonyexperiment had some terrible things to say about the game here. Scroll down a little bit to find the video.

Does someone who has played the beta care to comment on his allegations?

He basically saw the tutorial battle and just called it a night. Can't blame him by the way the reps treated him but trust me the game isn't as bad as he says it is. The game is no where near perfect but I've had a blast. The cities and areas are populated, the combat is slightly slow at the start but as you get more abilities it becomes faster and more engaging. Mobs don't just stand there being stupid. Only reason that video showed that Jellyfish stand down like that was because it's the tutorial battle that's suppose to be easy so you can figure out the controls and how to engage and kill enemies. Now about it looking generic, well that's matter of opinion. I don't think it does personally. And yea SE should have made the demo on the show floor part of the open beta so it would look more populated. It was a weak show but I think he's being a bit unfair. Also he stopped the trailer before it got to the more actiony parts of it at the beginning.

The beta is filled with lag in menus, areas and other places, there's still some crashing problems but it has stabilized a bit since it started. Also there's a few design issues SE has done that we'll see if they make it to the final release. There's not a whole lot of content in but that's expected since it's a beta. I will admit though Guild Wars looks very cool and I can see why he was wowed.

[Sixto]

So I can't get a direct link to the video, but spoonyexperiment had some terrible things to say about the game here.

Wow, Guild Wars 2 looks great.

[Souliarc]

Wow, Guild Wars 2 looks great.

I wanted to say this too but didn't, for fear of derailing the thread 0_0

[Conan The Politician]

I wanted to say this too but didn't, for fear of derailing the thread 0_0

Well, after watching that review of the pax demos, there are a few points of the FFXIV beta that need to be addressed -- the crashing and its... inefficiency of graphics output.

I don't have a very powerful computer, but I can run games such as Oblivion and Fallout 3 (older games, yes, but still rather taxing in the grand scheme of things) on high settings @ 45 fps at its worst. It boggles me that a game like this could tax my system so much as to have me on average of 15-20 fps at lowest settings. Sure, it's a pretty game, but I think they could have done a better job at making a balance between performance and quality.

On the matters of crashing, I hope they find some way of allowing guildleves to continue after some inadvertent termination of the game. I was raging so much that I would 'fail' a guildleve after a crash, only to find out I couldn't start the guildleve up again for quite some time.

I get the feeling that FFXIV will be one of those games that will bend the players into fans that will love it, rather than become a game that can be loved.

[ZealPath]

I feel bad continuing this off topicness but GW2 looked pretty awesome .

Now as far as that dude's "review" of FFXIV, I have my problems with the game (clearly, from my previous post) but they almost all pertain to the interface. I don't really think he was being fair to the game itself, which is admittedly fairly standard fare for an MMO, but also, largely not very well understood even by beta people at the moment. I mean who here has ever done a battle regimen? They sound cool, yet I have almost never partied all throughout beta including alpha so I don't know. With more changes, or, probably better referred to as additions on the way, hopefully this game can evolve quickly from "FFXI-2" to "FFXIV".

We know there will be a lot of changes come release and afterward as well. I don't think there's a super seekrit dev only version that will knock our socks off, but some very good improvements are coming, there is also the fact that a dev did come out and say the beta has debugging routines in it that are having a (probably minor, but still) impact on performance. The fact that they have finally stated that hardware mouse is coming is simply excellent news and I really think this will help more new (ie non-ex-FFXI players) people get acclimated to the game. Hearing them talk about their awareness of the UI lag was another big one, so I personally was very pleased to SE acknowledging the PC users, the timing is a little interesting, as I'd think you'd want all of this stuff in the beta as soon as possible, but if nothing else it has me excited (for once) to see what things look like on release.

His comment about the cutscene did make me laugh, because I've always felt that CSs didn't quite fit with MMOs, but at the same time, FFXI did a great job with them, and FFXIV clearly is as well, "pretentious" as the intro cutscenes, with no context, may appear to some. Basically I can understand some of what the guy said and SE does come off as "cocky" sometimes in the NA market but he didn't play the game and was basing about 90% of his "review" on the tutorial fight, so I wouldn't put too much stock in what he said.

[Bleck]

in my experience if the tutorial fight in a game is unenjoyable chances are the rest of the game won't be that great either

[Thylacine]

in my experience if the tutorial fight in a game is unenjoyable chances are the rest of the game won't be that great either

But aren't tutorials usually really boring?

I'm not arguing your point (and, in fact, would agree more than disagree), but have you experienced an ENJOYABLE tutorial?

[Bleck]

it's not so much to say that tutorials for fun games are fun so much as it is that tutorials for fun games tend to not be boring - a tutorial shouldn't even really leave an impact on you

but if play a tutorial and can tell just form that that the game is boring, then 99% of the time the rest of the game is in fact going to be boring

[Thin Crust]

Having never played an MMO before, I have a few questions.

1. I won't get a chance to play this till next august for my ps3. Do you think it will have mouse/keyboard support? Which interface sounds better for FF14?

2. It better support my bluetooth headset.

3. How exactly does story work for an MMO? It's not like the world will revolve around you to progress the story at your pace. How does the game present an unfolding story when people will play this game at different paces and different starting times?

[Coyote-Trickster]

was reading some of the comments to Spoon's Video. This one stood out...

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Mordaedil Today 09:17 AM

I have played in the Open Beta test of Final Fantasy XIV and I can say wholeheartedly that their tech demonstration of the game doesn't do it justice.

It is far worse than any game I have ever played. Not just with slow combat, but with unfair combat, boring visuals, terrible quests and a storyline I couldn't give a crap about, which does not star your character as the protagonist, but at least two other people you meet in a beginning cut-scene that are basically whom the story revolves around.

It is the lamest type of gameplay I played this year and was a worse showing than the Last Remnant, which was barely tolerable for a game in that it could actually kill you if you glazed over.

Square-Enix can't make good games anymore. It is beyond their capabilities. FFXIV is standing proof that Japan is behind when it comes to game design.

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it's over 1000 replies now and rather filled with hostile posts, kinda funny to read.

Edited September 16, 2010 by Coyote-Trickster

[EC2151]

I was actually looking forward to The Four Heroes of Light on the DS, because I just REALLY wanted to play another Turn-based FF that wasn't gay like FFIVDS (don't kid yourself it was bad).

But see then I heard Square Enix "modified" the gamplay of the DS game so that in the turn-based battles, you CAN'T select targets for attacking and for Healing- it's all automatic and AI-controlled (your lowest HP guy gets healed, you attack the weakest enemy) and they said this added 'strategy.'

This is where I start to agree with that post above mine.

Really, why do you ruin the GREAT part about turn-based combat? Y'know the strategic part?

SE can't make a good game.

Edited September 16, 2010 by Emperor Charlemagne

[Bleck]

FFXIV is standing proof that Japan is behind when it comes to game design.

I don't really agree with this since all they are doing is trying to make games that are more similar to western rpgs

if anything japan is getting dragged down by shitty american games that somehow make millions

[Brushfire]

was reading some of the comments to Spoon's Video. This one stood out...

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Mordaedil Today 09:17 AM

I have played in the Open Beta test of Final Fantasy XIV and I can say wholeheartedly that their tech demonstration of the game doesn't do it justice.

It is far worse than any game I have ever played. Not just with slow combat, but with unfair combat, boring visuals, terrible quests and a storyline I couldn't give a crap about, which does not star your character as the protagonist, but at least two other people you meet in a beginning cut-scene that are basically whom the story revolves around.

It is the lamest type of gameplay I played this year and was a worse showing than the Last Remnant, which was barely tolerable for a game in that it could actually kill you if you glazed over.

Square-Enix can't make good games anymore. It is beyond their capabilities. FFXIV is standing proof that Japan is behind when it comes to game design.

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I have been saying this for at least the last 3 years, but no one believed me cause JRPG fags are idiots.

[tweex]

Having never played an MMO before, I have a few questions.

1. I won't get a chance to play this till next august for my ps3. Do you think it will have mouse/keyboard support? Which interface sounds better for FF14?

2. It better support my bluetooth headset.

3. How exactly does story work for an MMO? It's not like the world will revolve around you to progress the story at your pace. How does the game present an unfolding story when people will play this game at different paces and different starting times?

Granted, I haven't played the beta, but if 14 is anything like 11, a mouse isn't even used. You can go entirely with keyboard or a combination of keyboard and controller. I preferred the later, but that was just me.

Also, I don't know if 14 is supporting voice chat. Are they?

[Brushfire]

Also, I don't know if 14 is supporting voice chat. Are they?

That would be a smart game design choice, and we all know how the Japanese feel about that.

[ZealPath]

nah there's no built-in voicechat, many many people will be using vent servers for voicechat though, whether it be for smaller groups, a guild server, or whatever. A classic issue in FFXI would be console players' inability to get on vent servers if their pc wasn't nearby and convenient, I expect that to resurface again. Depending on the group of people, being unable to be involved with voicechat could be anything from a minor inconvenience, to grounds to disallow said person into the guild.

Now for the story it basically plays out exactly like FFXI, so anyone who played that can expect the same mission structure with cutscenes eventually leading to some kind of (progressively more interesting) boss fight. What that means is that you have storyline missions that are full of cutscenes primarily "starring" npcs that you meet, your character eventually becomes more and more involved, though you are essentially a silent protagonist for this aspect of the game. Most MMOs don't even use this type of "single player story" as a side dish to their games, but I think it's one thing Square is good at and so far they've made it work for theirs.

If this sounds like what the guy was complaining about in Coyote's post, well yeah, that is pretty much how the story aspect works. The only saving grace is that in the end you will eventually be the star of the story because only you (and your friends I suppose, who all see the same story you do but from their perspective) will be able to go to said dungeons and battle said storyline antagonists. As I've said I find the whole "single player style storyline" in an MMO to be a little strange but for the most part in FFXI anyway the missions were a lot of fun, as was the advancing storyline which would lead you to new areas you couldn't access before.

I would say the storyline missions are a smaller part of the game overall, they are interesting, and the CSs and later fights should be very cool, but the real bread and butter of an MMO is just you with your friends finding things to do. Sometimes that will be story missions, but once you're done with those, the game's other systems "should" keep you entertained, obviously it's too early to know but generally it boils down to leveling more jobs, a quest here and there, and endgame "raid" type events.

Edited September 16, 2010 by ZealPath

[Deathtank]

Last day of open beta guys.

[EC2151]

That would be a smart game design choice, and we all know how the Japanese feel about that.

"If it's a good idea, don't do it.

However, if there is a way to work in a hot spring scene, do it."

[Thin Crust]

How are the weather effects?

[Modus]

Sorry for jumping in late but after a quick Google search I can't find f this game uses DX11. I hope they do.. tessellation in an MMO would be ammmmazing.

When I'm out of school I'll play this MMO. I was addicted to FFXI.. can't have those distractions around now though.

[NeoForte]

Sorry for jumping in late but after a quick Google search I can't find f this game uses DX11. I hope they do.. tessellation in an MMO would be ammmmazing.

When I'm out of school I'll play this MMO. I was addicted to FFXI.. can't have those distractions around now though.

They don't. They are still using Direct X9.

[ZealPath]

Here's hoping everyone's CE versions are ready for pickup tomorrow!

[Modus]

Fffffffff... they better patch it to DX11 in the future. Also, nobody take the name Galcien.

SO! Who's going to be buying gil from the chinese

[Thin Crust]

For the ps3 version, will they be using unique character names or your PSN ID?