Final Fantasy XIV "Damaged" Final Fantasy

[Roogle]

Kotaku recently posted an article based on a statement from Yoichi Wada:

Final Fantasy XIV "Damaged" Final Fantasy (http://kotaku.com/5844193/final-fantasy-xiv-damaged-final-fantasy)

What do you think of this article? Do you feel that this game is responsible for damaging the Final Fantasy brand? I have not played Final Fantasy XIV, so I feel like I should refrain from commenting on any specific details about the game itself. I think that Square Enix should have had a better going with this considering it was not their first massively multiplayer online role-playing game.

[Old Manus]

Square have been pumping out mediocre games by the truckload ever since the Enix merger. I don't think the Final Fantasy brand has been 'damaged' by XIV per se, but that it was just the apex of what's been a slow decline in notability and respect of Square as a developer over the last ten years or so. Time was, the announcement of a next FF installment would cue it being splashed on magazine covers for months. Any notion of it being a great game was a given. Now? Few are quick to hold their breath anymore.

[nirojan]

I was grinding yesterday for 3 hours and gained ONE F&*KING LEVEL!!! You tell me how broken the game is? It's mind numbing to say the least, but I wanna level my guy up a bit before that new patch drops. BTW: I was fighting monsters higher level than me, never died and fought back to back without any breaks.

[Rostum]

Square have been pumping out mediocre games by the truckload ever since the Enix merger. I don't think the Final Fantasy brand has been 'damaged' by XIV per se, but that it was just the apex of what's been a slow decline in notability and respect of Square as a developer over the last ten years or so. Time was, the announcement of a next FF installment would cue it being splashed on magazine covers for months. Any notion of it being a great game was a given. Now? Few are quick to hold their breath anymore.

Agreed. XIV was just the pinnacle of disgrace.

[Miriel]

I think FFXIV exposed a level of ineptitude as well as general "we don't care about quality as much as money" attitude to an extent that most people probably weren't aware of prior to the game's release. I mean, yeah, I didn't care for 12 or 13 and 11 had a slew of issues as well. And Square has never really been all that good about reaching out to the gaming community. But the general incompetence with the release of XIV was staggering. Like, beyond what I could have imagined. I don't just mean the quality of the game, but just the whole management of the release. It was all just so SO bad. Even during Beta, everyone was saying that it wasn't ready for release. They shoved it out anyway and expected people to pay for it. It was all so... distasteful.

[Loony BoB]

I was grinding yesterday for 3 hours and gained ONE F&*KING LEVEL!!! You tell me how broken the game is? It's mind numbing to say the least, but I wanna level my guy up a bit before that new patch drops. BTW: I was fighting monsters higher level than me, never died and fought back to back without any breaks.
What level were you at and what were you fighting?

[nirojan]

I was grinding yesterday for 3 hours and gained ONE F&*KING LEVEL!!! You tell me how broken the game is? It's mind numbing to say the least, but I wanna level my guy up a bit before that new patch drops. BTW: I was fighting monsters higher level than me, never died and fought back to back without any breaks.
What level were you at and what were you fighting?

I was a Level 21 mage, the third Uldan camp (forgot the name) and was fighting lady bugs (level 24) and aldgoat nanny's (range from 20 to 28). I was fighting back to back, with only short breaks to replenish my MP. When a game's story is bad the gameplay ends up picking up the slack, but XIV still has a long way to go.

I played today with a friend online and it was a bit more enjoyable (just on the fact that we could do twice the leves and kill monsters faster). The downside is that I think last kill matters. So there's a frantic rush of spell barraging when the monster's life gets widdled down. I've been able to play with my other linkshells, but none of you FatChocobo guys are on often enough D:

[Loony BoB]

If you're playing solo with a mage, first off: Don't grind - do levequests instead. If you've completed your 8 leves for the day, well, you're around the level in an MMO that grinding on your own will probably yield pretty poor results. Having said that, in the next patch you'll be able to 'stack up' on leves and do 99 in a single day if you really want to, so perhaps it will suit you a bit better. But definitely leves for grinding.

Mages aren't exactly the ideal thing to solo with, though. They die way too easy to take significant hits for a long period and most enemies have a long range attack so you can't rely on that, either. Danielle never really solos her mage, she'll always look for someone to level with - usually me. :p

[Del Murder]

I don't think FFXIV in particular damaged FF. It's more the direction they have been going in general. The FF name was already damaged for me before FFXIV, and in fact, I don't even count FFXIV as an entry in the series yet because as far as I'm concerned it is incomplete. Once there exists a version that could be considered complete (basically whenever PS3 release happens), I will play it and make a judgement then.

I feel that the FF name was tarnished once the series (and its creators) started to take itself too seriously. The whimsical nature of the series slowly disappeared starting with FFX and was almost completely gone by FFXIII. The games now feel more like the result of a brainstorming seesion rather than careful planning to create a masterpiece.

[Lionx]

Well I tend to think that once a company becomes too big, its easy for them to get lost in their greed and expansion. Look at SE and how they are publishing so many games including great game Deus Ex or Dungeon Siege III. They just got too big, and quite frankly forgot their roots.

Similarly Capcom is doing the same (Canning Megaman Legends 3, no Breath of Fire games for a while now, or any other old franchises) with pumping out fighting game after fighting game because its hype since SFIV, and Resident Evils..and Lost Planets to cash in the FPS craze. Same for Blizzard (Anyone who played Starcraft 1 can say how bad 2 is...and butchering Warcraft's story just to release more WoW Expansions with mediocore imagination).

SE lost focus on what a good game is and what it is that they did that made people like them in the first place...thats all. FFXI started in FFX's dev cycle when it was still SquareSoft so imo it had a good base(Everquest's)...not so with FFXIV which should at least have copied WoW in some form if they couldn't make anything original.

[Gamblet]

Hmph, FF as a MMO? I think not! :mad: I'd rather play Aion, It's a MMO masterpiece in my opinion.

[APolaris]

AHAHAHA... AH... AHAHAHAHA... *insert more laughing here*... I'm... I'm sorry, this guy is... this guy's saying that FFXIV is... is THE GAME that damaged Square's... BAHAHAHAHA... previously illustrious reputation of the past... AHAHAHA TROLOLOLOL... the past 10 years that... AHAHAHAHAHAHA... that was in all ways living up to... LOLOLOLOL... up to its... OMFGZWTFBBQKKTHNXBAITROLOLOLOL... living up to its history of producing the best game every... AHAHAHA OMG SORRY I CAN'T GO ON MEOWOWORJOEIHE.

[Wolf Kanno]

I'm in agreement with everyone else, XIV isn't the beginning, this has been going on for a very long time, and when most of the notable creative talent has been jumping ship after every major release, that's just concerning... I mean the creator of the Mana Franchise left (he's also one of the founders of Square), Matsuno, Uematsu, the battle system designer for Front Mission (also designed FFX and XIII's battle systems), and they no longer have any in-house composers for their music. It just seems like something is going on in-house over there and its showing in the quality of their work.

I agree that in the past the release of a new FF caused huge fanfare, now it gets a blurb and maybe a two page review, usually filled with comment on the gaudy designs, the pretentious titles, and the sexy graphics. XII was hailed by critics and denounced by fans, XIII is a true love it or hate it experience that both fans and critics can agree that much on, and everyone considers XIV a disaster. I don't think XIV will be saved by a PS3 release, I think we'll see its true fate when SE starts bringing up subscription rates. I wouldn't be surprised if a good chunk of the current players may jump ship when that happens, cause I can't really see XIV becoming so good that it will attract players or even keep players after how bad they mismanaged everything.

[APolaris]

From an alternative perspective, this fan thinks a PS3 release hurts games if anything. Not everyone can afford to spend $600 to get just the system to play a game on.

[Del Murder]

How would a PS3 release hurt anything? It would bring more people in to play it.

[Rostum]

Who spends $600 on a PS3? I'm in Australia, the land of double-the-price and it is still no where near $600.


I'd rather play Aion, It's a MMO masterpiece in my opinion.

Oh man, that game ended up being such a flop. Moreso from the MMORPG community as a whole.

[Loony BoB]

From an alternative perspective, this fan thinks a PS3 release hurts games if anything. Not everyone can afford to spend $600 to get just the system to play a game on.
So just buy the PC version. Releasing on both PS3 and PC is not worse than releasing on just PC. You get two audiences and people have options. I can't imagine there will be anything bad that will come out of it, although some will point to the limitations the PS3 has put onto the PC release. I don't notice such things anymore, though, as almost every one of those issues seems to have been ironed out.

I think the PS3 release will help a little, but oddly enough I actually think the thing that will help the most will be subscription fees. When subscription fees kick in, that will be the moment that FFXIV tells people "we feel the game is ready and the way we want it to be" and the gaming industry might take at least a little notice. People who have followed the game but not been playing will come back in to see if it's worth paying for. Yoshi-P has stated recently that he feels as of patch 1.19 he is "half way done" getting the game where he wants it, so hopefully a few more major patches and we'll get a better feel for it all. At this point a lot of people will leave, but those people would have always left once subscriptions came in as far as I'm concerned. Some people are only playing now because it's free, that much is obvious enough. But when the subs come in, some other people will possibly actually return to the game. The industry will re-look at the game at that point and possibly come up with new reviews for the PC version. Who knows? But people are mentioning things in the FFXIV forums such as "It doesn't feel like I'm playing a beta anymore" which shows progress is being made. I don't think FFXIV will ever reach the potential it had before it's initial release, but I do think it will get enough subs to make it profitable.

[Wolf Kanno]

You are much more optimistic than I am BoB, I really feel the awful release and the move to what has basically become an expanded Beta that went public has really hurt the image of the game. Why come back to pay for a game that was so terrible at its launch, its original design team had to be stepped down, the head CEO apologized for it, and its free subscription was expanded indefinitely to use anyone willing to play it for free as Beta testers? Unless they start implementing designs and elements that could give WoW a run for its money, I don't think a game with this much of a tarnished reputation is going to somehow comeback in full force. I think some will come back, but there is no guarantee they will stay if the game is just "good". If SE wants XIV to be a success then they seriously need to bring in PR for the next couple of significant patches like they did for 1.19 and show the gaming world that not only has XIV overcome all of its problems, its now a must have MMO experience. They lost the chance to capitalize on name brand recognition, now its going to have to survive on its merits. At this point I would say that XIV might at best become a modest success but I'm already going to bet that it won't be as successful as FFXI mainly because it has too many factors going against it.

[Lionx]

It def won't be as successful as FFXI. When PS3 version comes out i honestly expect a blip on the radar, a couple of people rolling their eyes at 'that game', and even if there are good reviews for it...just move on along. I know that even with this monster patch, a lot of my friends just don't care anymore and rather not even play because it was that bad to begin with. First impressions can last a lifetime...

IMO, the game isn't anything like WoW, and in fact i don't think its better than WoW in terms of gameplay. Its not as free form and as action oriented as other MMOs, so a couple people might come back, like SE hardcore fans and a few others that don't mind it. But most people would move on to the MMOs of today that are more action oriented like Aion, Blade & Soul, or the new Star Wars MMO... I just don't see FFXIV turning into anything as exciting, interactive or fast paced as these games that people want. Patch 1.19, although REALLY good in FFXIV world, is still way too weak and not good enough to make people really care.

However the second you see the Camera, zooming behind your character as he or she is dashing into battle, and jumping around doing stuff while moving...THEN i will see a big turnaround... Because thats what people are clamoring for.

[Rostum]

Edit: Kind of agree with Lionx, but I think they can definitely salvage this game to be enjoyable to the masses. With GW2, SWTOR, B&S coming out it's going to be really tough to garner any interest, but it can be done.

Things take time but that's exactly what is against them. They can't take too long to get things up to par with the rest of the genre or they'll miss the boat.

[Loony BoB]

Why come back to pay for a game that was so terrible at its launch, its original design team had to be stepped down, the head CEO apologized for it, and its free subscription was expanded indefinitely to use anyone willing to play it for free as Beta testers?
Because it's a different game. The gameplay is completely different to what it used to be. As I said, it will come down to reviews, news and feedback that arises at the point that FFXIV state "the game is now good enough for us to charge you."


Unless they start implementing designs and elements that could give WoW a run for its money,
I hate this, seriously. No MMO will give WoW a run for it's money. It is so insanely far ahead of the pack in profit that if you get 1% of the profit that WoW makes, you're doing well. The rest of the world's MMOs should not be compared to WoW. WoW is a different thing, and until a Pokémon MMO comes out I honestly can not see what MMO will challenge WoW. It's like saying that a new mp3 player is an "iPod beater". No mp3 player will ever be an iPod beater - and this is in no way down to the lack of quality of a product. It's simply because the market is already 90% iPod, and you would have to get far too many people to give up their iPod to get an iPod beater and they simply won't do that. To get a WoW challenger, you would have to get over 5m subscribers at least, let alone 16m. To be a successful MMO, you do not have to give WoW a run for it's money. You simply have to make a decent profit.


They lost the chance to capitalize on name brand recognition, now its going to have to survive on its merits. At this point I would say that XIV might at best become a modest success but I'm already going to bet that it won't be as successful as FFXI mainly because it has too many factors going against it.
I totally agree that it will not be as successful as FFXI. But I do think it will be profitable, and I do think that the brand recognition factor still applies, even after it's been so bad for so long. If this was not an FF game, the game would be dead. I think that almost everyone can agree on that. It's because of the brand name that SE will not let it die, and that the fans are still pushing for it to become a success. Those fans, like myself, will allow this game to become a success because we'll be patient enough and hopeful enough to come back when SE says the game is ready to play.

I know I'm an optimist, you're definitely right about that, but it's easy to be an optimist if you don't allow yourself to get too down when things don't go as you'd hope. :p Better to be in a positive mood over something for a long time than not, I say!

Lionx: What do you mean by the camera zooming behind your character as you dash into battle? Just curious.

As for patch 1.19, I'd not logged in for over a month prior to this patch but since it came out, both Danielle and myself have barely been away from the game. If this patch is the one which Yoshi-P says gets FFXIV 'half way' to where he wants it to be, then we can look forward to a lot more. :) I hope!

[Lionx]

Lionx: What do you mean by the camera zooming behind your character as you dash into battle? Just curious.

What i meant, was the sense of epicness you get when your character can run/dash quickly into battle all hyped and ready to do something.

Remember how Blade and Soul had that Camera that followed you epicly when you ran...? Things like that can really entice or keep a player playing. Little things like that. Similarly, if you know WoW, Warriors can Charge, and the Camera tries to catch up quickly to the Warrior.

The feeling of doing a Shout then Charging straight into battle really amps the player up unlike the feeling of FFXIV or even FFXI's system of battle. Then the battles are quick with multiple button presses (think of FFXIV's battle system before auto attack and think of yourself pressing your buttons every 1-2 seconds while paying attention to surroundings). Even more fun is the freedom to jump off a cliff going whoaaa!! then target a mob, and hit Charge, letting you do dive in mid air safely without fall damage right into an enemy engagement 15 feet away.

Warrior charge - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYAj_a_TjZc&feature=related)

Basically, if MMOs don't have that action oriented feel, and the excitement you get from engaging something in such a manner, most people would not care as much.

Just look at Tera, or even Phantasy Star Online 2 for example:

PSO2 -- more combat - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKuoBG03q4o&feature=related)

Intricate juggle systems, movement etc.. FFXIV unless built from scratch, won't be doing something as fast paced as this. And i believe that, it will be a huge factor in the future of this game in terms of getting people interested in this wide market with so many MMOs.



I hate this, seriously. No MMO will give WoW a run for it's money. It is so insanely far ahead of the pack in profit that if you get 1% of the profit that WoW makes, you're doing well. The rest of the world's MMOs should not be compared to WoW. WoW is a different thing, and until a Pokémon MMO comes out I honestly can not see what MMO will challenge WoW. It's like saying that a new mp3 player is an "iPod beater". No mp3 player will ever be an iPod beater - and this is in no way down to the lack of quality of a product. It's simply because the market is already 90% iPod, and you would have to get far too many people to give up their iPod to get an iPod beater and they simply won't do that. To get a WoW challenger, you would have to get over 5m subscribers at least, let alone 16m. To be a successful MMO, you do not have to give WoW a run for it's money. You simply have to make a decent profit.

While true that you only have to make a profit to be successful, what I believe the point of the matter is, unless you can show people you have something better that WoW doesn't have, then it won't turn any heads.

Honestly though WoW has lost i think..at minimum 20% of its userbase due to stagnation. It tries to be everything but doesn't excel in anything so people move onto games like Rift, Aion, the new Star Wars MMO... However, WoW did revolutionize MMORPGs away from the EQ era, and ignoring that in your design like FFXIV was foolhardy. You don't have to copy or supersede it, but don't ignore it altogether like the dev team did. This is where the comments of "SE does not understand MMORPGs" come from. Things didn't just stop after FFXI, MMOs evolved and the initial devs didn't pay attention to it.


-----

If the PS3 launch fails, then i suggest they go the micro-transaction way with a free game like many other titles that made more money than subscription fees had.

[Rostum]

Yeah it definitely needs more of an action-orientated feel. Archer has felt fine, except that it needs more distant combat, but Lancer has felt so slow and rather boring within the first 10 levels.

Also, and maybe they'll fix this with the map redesigns, but it just takes forever to run to places. I've been playing the first 15 or so levels and it just feels like I spend 80% of my time running to a location. It'd be nice if they at least bumped up the overall movement speed until they do add the new environments.

Speaking of the enivornments and overall visuals, I have been fairly impressed lately. There's an extremely unique atmosphere in the game, but unfortunately it can get clouded by the copypasta. When they do impliment the map changes, I hope they try and keep the atmosphere. The lighting on the character's themselves is actually extremely nice now that the game runs smoothly, but it'd be nice if they could do some dynamic lighting for environments; as in having the leave's shadows moving, god beams through the trees that flicker and move, subsurface scattering on the stained glass in Gridania, etc.

By the way, they can definitely make the game more fast-paced and action-orientated. It's not dependant on the game mechanic's foundation or the engine itself. They just need to add in faster and more "epic" animations, more skills and the ability to easily chain them without much delay.

[Loony BoB]

Rostum, man, you totally need a chocobo. :) Look forward to it! I just wish the chocobo felt as fast as it is, because when you look at it on the map, it's great how much faster your little position cursor moves along the map, but when you are looking at your movement in the first/third person perspective it just doesn't feel fast. This is probably a good way for me to understand what Lionx has touched on. The game needs to feel a lot faster.

I also wish the chocobo was faster than it already is, but I must concede that I will probably always want the chocobo to be faster than it is. xD I'm hoping that they aren't maxing it's speed too far out of consideration of incentives to breed chocobos (once we are given that feature).

It's also being suggested that we will get magitek armour as a mount. I'm unsure of how I feel about this. Actually, I'm pretty sure I don't like it. I hope it's just for special situations/scenarios/instanced content or something. =| I never understood the appeal of a giant robot pair of legs and guns. Final Fantasy is not about that kind of thing, or at least it isn't to me.

EDIT: I will be devastated if they use microtransactions for FFXIV (outside of maybe a few aesthetic-only things). I hate microtransaction games.

[Lionx]

You should consider how many mounts WoW have...

List of mounts - WoWWiki - Your guide to the World of Warcraft (http://www.wowwiki.com/List_of_mounts)

People LOVE mounts, different ones, personalized ones..the more options the better. Having them do something might have to be optional to quests but at least riding in them would be great. Customizing them even more is something that would keep me very interested...kinda like furniture in FFXI.

[Loony BoB]

I know a lot of people like them but Final Fantasy should stick to some tradition, and that's having chocobos be the best mounts in the world. If they start flowing with numerous mounts and have chocobos just be the 'introductory' mount, I'll be seriously disappointed. I'd much rather a breeding system similar to that of FFVII than the ability to use ten different creatures as mounts. I know it's just a personal preference but yeah, for me, I can only speak for myself. :p

The dev team have actually asked the community to suggest mount types in the past, so I imagine they are definitely coming in some form or another.

[Rostum]

Maybe being able to decorate your own chocobo too. Like different types of sadles, armor, etc. would be a really cool way to make something unique for each player to invest in.

[Loony BoB]

Yeah, definitely. I really hope we get that kind of functionality, without the need to feed your chocobo EVERY DAY like you had to in FFXI. Some people might not be able to log in for a couple of days! I can understand every few days, though, or at least some other time-consuming method rather than a short quest, but yeah. Breeding will hopefully be very awesome.

My biggest 'want' for FFXIV will, however, remain as Triple Triad. The demand for this (in a thread in the FFXIV forums) was really big and the dev team said they'll consider it down the road, although obviously this stuff would be more likely to come out in future expansions rather than as a patch. But yeah, I really really really really hope we get an in-game card game. :D

[Wolf Kanno]

I hate this, seriously. No MMO will give WoW a run for it's money. It is so insanely far ahead of the pack in profit that if you get 1% of the profit that WoW makes, you're doing well. The rest of the world's MMOs should not be compared to WoW. WoW is a different thing, and until a Pokémon MMO comes out I honestly can not see what MMO will challenge WoW. It's like saying that a new mp3 player is an "iPod beater". No mp3 player will ever be an iPod beater - and this is in no way down to the lack of quality of a product. It's simply because the market is already 90% iPod, and you would have to get far too many people to give up their iPod to get an iPod beater and they simply won't do that. To get a WoW challenger, you would have to get over 5m subscribers at least, let alone 16m. To be a successful MMO, you do not have to give WoW a run for it's money. You simply have to make a decent profit.

While true that you only have to make a profit to be successful, what I believe the point of the matter is, unless you can show people you have something better that WoW doesn't have, then it won't turn any heads.

Honestly though WoW has lost i think..at minimum 20% of its userbase due to stagnation. It tries to be everything but doesn't excel in anything so people move onto games like Rift, Aion, the new Star Wars MMO... However, WoW did revolutionize MMORPGs away from the EQ era, and ignoring that in your design like FFXIV was foolhardy. You don't have to copy or supersede it, but don't ignore it altogether like the dev team did. This is where the comments of "SE does not understand MMORPGs" come from. Things didn't just stop after FFXI, MMOs evolved and the initial devs didn't pay attention to it.


-----

If the PS3 launch fails, then i suggest they go the micro-transaction way with a free game like many other titles that made more money than subscription fees had.

This is pretty much what I meant BoB, it doesn't have to copy/paste the game but it needs something that will not only set itself apart from other MMOs like Rift, Star Wars and WoW but also be something people feel the need to play. Going into a market you've been into before and settling for a partial part of the market is just bad business, you should be trying to make a splash when you get in, and not simply accept the fact you can't compete for top dog. This is Final Fantasy for christsakes, this was a series that once set the standards for a genre for a whole gaming generation, and its just going to make a half ass game to get a small piece of the pie? They might as well not even try if they weren't serious about competing.

I also agree with Lionx about maybe moving to a micro-transaction business model. I think that will go over much smoother with players than finally dropping a $10+ subscription fee and I feel it would be much better model to entice new players by keeping the main components free. I just find it to be a much smarter and more savvy business model than the old standard.

Also, smurf you BoB and your dislike of Magitek Armor, the only thing that made me remotely interested in this game after it was revealed to be nothing short of a re-imagining of FFXI, was the fact the dev team suggested Magitek was coming back. :p

Though Chocobo Breeding might be cool to implement.

Hell, I think it would be a great idea to allow established guilds to get their own airships to fly around with and customize, maybe even introduce airship battles into PvP.

[Del Murder]

I think bringing in old-school elements like chocobo breeding, Magitek armor, and Triple Triad would be a great way to garner interest in the game. They already implemented a 'materia' system, didn't they? Might as well cash in on your past success as long as you can, SE!

[Lionx]

Oldschool things that made FF great back in the day is the right way to go. Like Del said, things like this do factor into the interest of the game. I didn't want to be a Conjurer, i wanted to be a White Mage with Cure Level 1... Its more iconic.

I also hope they would have talent trees too to differentiate your character. Or just something along those lines. The Gem Slot passives in FFIX was good, or a form of the Sphere Grid might be good too. You can even have a square board that you unlock through levels/items, and insert bonus items in varying shapes to fit the board strategically(maybe craftable) to help make your character more you. Even Tabards from WoW that do nothing but have visual appeal is good. Moar customization!

[Rostum]

Well they are bringing back the job system that the series is famous for on top of the armory system which is quite nice, and the materia system is a good way to customise your character via gear.

But I agree, there needs to be more Final Fantasy elements and a Triple Triad would be so awesome; you could even have a class/job that utilizes the cards you've won in battle either via support or damage. I think that's what Yoshi realised and has been aiming for since day one. I don't know whether cleaning up the incompetant developer's mess is taking a long time, or if it's just their overall processes of the company that are dated, but man is it taking forever for them to fix this. I have a feeling patch 1.19 laid the ground work, and I'm hoping that future major patches come along much faster.

Also I've been doing some quests, and so far they've all just been "run to the other end of the city, then run back, then run to the other end again, then run back, etc.", and boy does it take awhile to get around the cities. The rewards aren't even that good (2,000g and 300exp, whoopdiedoo). Also there seems to be a ridiculously random difficulty curve in some quests - I just failed one where I had to run around the entirety of Limsa Lominsa for around 30 minutes to talk to boring NPC's, then I had to go run outside to a tunnel only to have two level 15 enemies just pummel me. Nevermind the quest said it was perfect for a solo level 15 player (which I am), and there being pretty much no-one around to help. All this for only 500 experience points and 7,000g! Not even worth it... *clicks abandon*

Sure, you don't reward players for every little thing they've done, but not rewarding them at all is just insane. Especially since none of these quests can ever count as fun.

[Loony BoB]

Yeah, Yoshi has mentioned that the reason for the time taking so long is that they want to get it right. First came the surveying of users, then came the analysing, then came the decision making, then came the developing of the groundwork, then the testing, then moving forward to deploying things... all while having zero income from the game. I think they're working at a pretty good speed, overall, when you consider that all that time they have also had to carry out balancing and further surveys and whatnot, let alone providing new content.

To be fair, I don't mind magitek armour if it's instanced content. But for me, it just doesn't fit the present state of technology in the game. Although I suppose there are airships... there are just so few machines in the game at the moment and magitek armour seems very "ahead of the game" if you like.

To my understanding, airship PvP or at least instanced airship PvE will be inserted into the game eventually.

Rostum, you definitely need to get to around rank 20 before the game opens up. The low level quests are very dull. Also, story quests will never involve SERIOUS fighting because for some reason Tanaka (or whatever his name is) wanted to allow people to have a botanist or weaver level all the way to 50 with no other classes used and still be able to complete the storyline. Urgh. But! If you get to level 20, you get class quests, which obviously involve fights for disciples of war/magic. And of course there are random quests, behests, leves, faction leves, grand company quests (where instanced content kicks in), grand company leves and chocobo caravan escort quests.

I would definitely get at least one fighter/mage class up to rank 20 before you judge the games' quests. I spent all my time getting every class leveled and because of this I only got to that stage very late, and I wish I'd just jumped one of the classes straight to 20. It doesn't really take that long to level if you make use of leves and invoke guardian's favour, so it should be easy enough for you to get your lancer or something up to 20 so you can really get a better feel for the overall game.

They have definitely made the game tougher, and going by the fact that two level 15 enemies were against you as a solo level 15 character, I'd say that they haven't got the balancing act done right just yet. They have set it up so that a level 15 character is somewhat 'equal' to the level 15 mobs. To be two-on-one against mobs your level is no good. I wouldn't have abandoned the quest, though - go back later when you're stronger or alternatively get a friend to help out. I've never maxed out on the 16 quest limit yet, and I wouldn't want to do all the walking around you talked about all over again.

Personally, I avoid solo fighting at all costs. It's just not worth it post patch 1.19 - at least, it isn't yet. But with Danielle and I as a duo, we walked through a lot of enemies and got good experience out of it. I think SE is slowly edging towards favouring groups a little more than they used to.

[Rostum]

Ah ok, we'll I'll keep on battling. I'll try and play more of my Roe so that hopefully we can do some party-based stuff together.

Oh also, have we seen much or anything at all of the Empire? They could be more advanced in technology to use Magitek Armor (kind of like their airships).

[Loony BoB]

I've seen them, yeah. You'll see them in the storyline quests, I think at around L26 or something. That quest was seriously annoying. You see them on other quests, too, I'm sure. I just can't place which ones.

[Kenshin IV]

The franchise had been damaged and turned into the laughing stock of the video game industry long, LONG before Fourteen.

I just hope this was rock bottom, and that Square might actually try to put some effort into making a quality product for Final Fantasy XV rather than just relying on the name brand to sell it.

[Rostum]

Well, good news is despite what people think of Square as a compnay, the new dev team for FFXIV are extremely passionate and are real game designers. This is very good news, as we can see from the latest "FFXIV 2.0" news that they are pouring their hearts and souls in to making this a great game. It can also be evident in them reaching out to their player base via letters, forum posts and live video conferences which up until now was completely unheard of from this company.

For this title their attitude has done a complete 180, and I think the downfall of this game's release is the major contributor for that. So at least that's something to be thankful for.