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

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.

[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! 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.