Final fantasy XIV any good?

[rusty_shackleford]

EVIL ZOMBIES AND GHOULS APPEAR

Fighter: "Great, we're fucked."

Cleric: "I can Turn Undead."

Fighter: "Oh no not on my watch, nigger. You're sitting your ass back and healing me."

FFXIV: "Sorry, enemy type specific abilities are too hard to balance."

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

Why are you still playing this game anyways. You could be having Dark Messiah crash on you for the record breaking 22nd time in three hours like me.

 

[abija]

Finding some opportunity windows where you do some damage is one thing. When you dps most of time with some heal/support casts in between then the design is just shit.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Dunno if I'm going to keep playing, finding pretty much everything about the combat/encounters less and less fun. If you want a game that's basically designed entirely around late-WoW style raiding, I guess it'd be decent. Much of the complexity of the "RPG" part(planning ahead, character builds, meaningful stats on gear beyond "item level" and a bit of tweaking, etc.,) has been removed and replaced with encounter complexity(AKA dancing around and staying out of the glowing yellow floor areas -- it's a good thing the bad guys all decided on a coherent color scheme to use or we'd be screwed)/combat rotation glowy button and job meters everywhere puke.

oh yea and if you play it buy a fucking second keyboard because you will have abilities out the ass lmao. Basically every class is overflowing with abilities that have no right in being their own separate ability beyond giving ADHD naruto kids another button to press. They even acknowledge this and combine many abilities into a single button for pvp.

kind of a shame because the gathering/crafting is pretty cool/unique rather than just copy-pasting what other themepark MMOs do.

-
Story-heavy and MMOs really don't mix well. FFXIV and SWTOR are both very story heavy, and both took two different approaches. FFXIV encourages a more community-focused approach, but it feels jarring constantly being taken out of the story to play a minor role with some randoms. Also, getting roadblocked every couple quests and having to wait 15-25 minutes to continue sucks.
SWTOR opted for full single-player friendliness which was great... except why is it an MMO? The MMO part of SWTOR felt like a tumor.
Neither of these really feels satisfying in the end. There's probably a middleground here somewhere.

I actually ended up liking a lot of the major side-quests(e.g., job quest chains, etc.,) more than the main story quest because of this.

 

[abija]

I would say swtor approach is great, they just had bad devs for the gameplay/mmo part.
And WoW atm uses a similar approach, but in their case story is so bad you wonder why bother...

The base idea is solid, single player stories with repetitive group content. They just fail at one or the other.

 

[Kalarion]

I want:
- Big, class-defining abilities,
- Meaningful itemization,
- Differentiation between classes,
- Interesting group content,
- Interesting party dynamics,
- Healers who focus on healing
- Interesting crafting system,
- Interesting gathering system.

I think you just picked the wrong FF MMORPG. You want FF XI, preferably pre Wings of the Goddess expansion, not FF XIV.

Classes are sharply varied with unique methods of playing their roles. Crafting is some of the most involved I've ever experienced (time of day, weather, phase of the moon, day of the week, and compass facing all play a role). It has some of the most satisfying grouping dynamics ever, the Weaponskill/Skillchain/Magic Burst triad are both impactful and involving to play. Area design and music are superb. Itemization is really good. Attributes and stats matter; +3 STR is a noticeable difference over +1 STR on an item, for instance.

It's also the first MMORPG I played that encouraged me to have multiple specialization "sets" of equipment that I used all time, rather than switching from one spec to another. For instance, as a Dark Knight I had one set of equipment I used for normal fighting; another used for Weaponskills, with some overlap; and another for casting my spells. It sounds cumbersome, but it actually feels great in practice and allows for skill expression through itemization (you'll quickly notice the difference in effectiveness between players who gearswap and those who don't). Swapping itself is also relatively painless; the entire process can be dealt with through hotkey macros.

The dungeons of FF XI in particular deserve a mention, you actually feel like you're spelunking in dangerous and fantastic locations, wondering what's around the corner, excited to see what drops and treasure you'll get. Imagine a game with dungeons of the complexity and fun of Chardok, Sebilis and Guk, going from level 10 to 70. Now imagine all those dungeons, in addition to named monsters that drop good loot, also have actual treasure chests with difficult-to-obtain keys, that contain unique loot tables. That's the FF XI dungeon scene.

It comes with its own problems though. Raid content is pretty bad, with lots of kiting and running in and out of combat. The UI was designed with PS2 limitations in mind and Square Enix never allowed the amount of customization even EQ had by that time. Several systems were obscenely opaque (some aspects of crafting, for instance, still aren't completely understood to this day). Initial Weaponskill design had atrocious power scaling mechanics, which wasn't fixed until very late in the game's lifecycle. And it is perhaps the pinnacle of SE's JRPG grind mindset (this is not necessarily a problem for me, but I recognize it's a huge turn-off for many). Graphics are pretty dated, although the art style and direction still hold up to this day. The story after the base game (Shadow Lord) is pretty shit.

Ok, I'll get off my soapbox now.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Spoiler

so the savior of the world, capable of killing gods, gets conveniently knocked out by some poison obtainable by a commoner in one sip of a drink, huh? In the middle of a busy bar, and nobody notices the warrior of light flailing about and just leaves him on the floor?
Then a lord tells a knight to stop someone who is only speaking and... he kills her?
wtf

This is some fifth-grader tier writing.

even losing interest in the story, going to probably drop this faster than I thought.

also, probably due to jrpg heritage, there's very little(any? I assume the choices you make don't actually matter) c&c
I would have chosen the same choice it forced on me for the tournament due to my character being a dragoon, but I'd imagine most warriors of light would prefer remaining neutral rather than championing a specific nation

 

[rusty_shackleford]

*nods in your direction*

 

[Caim]

*nods in your direction*

"Five!"
"Four!"
"Three!"
"Two!"
*nod*
(thing happens)

 

[rusty_shackleford]

btw, blue mage is an example of what class design would be in an MMO that didn't care about 'muh balanse'
yes, some of its abilities are over the top and OP as shit. Yes, it has content completely unlike every other class that is nearly identical and uniform. Yes, it doesn't have a standard rotation/priority system(gasp! the horror!)

it's also, unlike the other classes, fun.

when I play ffxiv, nearly everything other than gathering/crafting just makes me wish I was playing a more fun game.

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

when I play ffxiv, nearly everything other than gathering/crafting just makes me wish I was playing a more fun game.

MMORPGs in a nutshell.

But yeah, FFXIV is real shit in this regard. Blandest MMO I think I ever played.

 

[GreyViper]

Yeah, when I saw Blue mage I was, like what is this, its like something out of a RPG. And I'll say its definitely unique, going kamikaze suicide bomber on mobs.
Overall the experience has been interesting, but man going through the MSQ can tire you out if you plow from xpac start to finish. Also, someone has to say it, Alf Elphonse is such a loser, there I said it.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I'd say this game is as much of an "RPG" as the typical EA game with tacked on leveling mechanics tbh.
Can't really recommend it honestly unless you're looking for a popamole themepark MMO resembling late-era WoW with all the decline that implies(e.g., no real character customization, attributes/stats dead simple, races that don't matter, etc.,) Alternatively, good game to play if you're looking for an easy way to get repetitive wrist strain injury or really enjoy playing "stay out of the colored areas on the ground"
Yes, it's very polished, and the crafting system is unique and good. But it's not enough to carry the game.


I already know the ffxivtards will come running and screaming about how "you haven't played it for 1500 hours yet! you can't judge it!", yea well, play with deez nutz for 1500 hours you fucking weebs.

[edit]
and one area it really failed at despite being story-heavy is that all of your choices mean absolutely nothing. Just pick random choices, they all have the same exact result. You're being railroaded the entire time, grab some popcorn.

 

[Kabas]

Wasted a month of my life on this, just finished the Stormblood main story.

Started as a black mage during ARR, switched to astrologian in heavensward because i couldn't stand the long duty finder queues anymore and switched to gunbreaker for stormblood because i realised that i don't like playing as astrologian. It's nice that you can switch your class whenever you feel like it, though it's annoying that you need to level some of them from the beginning considering the fact that classes of similar type(tanks, healers, magic dps and etc.) don't have much diffirences between each other judging by what i saw.

Main story quest is a slog at times, stormblood especially likes to do "let's win the favour of this village/faction by doing chores for them" parts.
I must say i liked the heavensward story the most so far, starting with the post ARR part leading into it. Stormblood is overall weaker but it does has it's moments, the final boss fight was cool.

Spoiler

I heard people saying that stormblood main villain sucks. I think Zenos works fine as an obstacle, the plot kept fellating Warrior of Light as an absolute badass so far and here you get the most Animu villain with the most Animu motivations who kicks your ass twice before you finally allowed to beat him. I think people hate him for beating you in a cutscene more than for him being a character with a very simple motivations.

It's fine as a themepark mmo in which you can pretend you're playing a singleplayer game most of the time.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Wasted a month of my life on this, just finished the Stormblood main story.

Started as a black mage during ARR, switched to astrologian in heavensward because i couldn't stand the long duty finder queues anymore and switched to gunbreaker for stormblood because i realised that i don't like playing as astrologian. It's nice that you can switch your class whenever you feel like it, though it's annoying that you need to level some of them from the beginning considering the fact that classes of similar type(tanks, healers, magic dps and etc.) don't have much diffirences between each other judging by what i saw.

Main story quest is a slog at times, stormblood especially likes to do "let's win the favour of this village/faction by doing chores for them" parts.
I must say i liked the heavensward story the most so far, starting with the post ARR part leading into it. Stormblood is overall weaker but it does has it's moments, the final boss fight was cool.

Spoiler

I heard people saying that stormblood main villain sucks. I think Zenos works fine as an obstacle, the plot kept fellating Warrior of Light as an absolute badass so far and here you get the most Animu villain with the most Animu motivations who kicks your ass twice before you finally allowed to beat him. I think people hate him for beating you in a cutscene more than for him being a character with a very simple motivations.

It's fine as a themepark mmo in which you can pretend you're playing a singleplayer game most of the time.

the problem with the story battles is that they're never difficult at all
very common issue with singleplayer content in MMOs: it has zero difficulty

 

[Kabas]

the problem with the story battles is that they're never difficult at all
very common issue with singleplayer content in MMOs: it has zero difficulty

Speaking of difficulty, i found extreme trials to be a hit or miss experience.
Sometimes you will be paired with a group of idiots like yourself who will slowly learn the mechanics after a bunch of wipes and will beat the trial at the end.
Sometimes you will be paired with people who will vote abandon after two wipes.
Sometimes you will get a player who will waste half an hour complaining about people not reading guides and wasting his time or something.

It felt satisfying to finally beat Shiva extreme after two abandoned/failed trials though.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

the problem with the story battles is that they're never difficult at all
very common issue with singleplayer content in MMOs: it has zero difficulty

Speaking of difficulty, i found extreme trials to be a hit or miss experience.
Sometimes you will be paired with a group of idiots like yourself who will slowly learn the mechanics after a bunch of wipes and will beat the trial at the end.
Sometimes you will be paired with people who will vote abandon after two wipes.
Sometimes you will get a player who will waste half an hour complaining about people not reading guides and wasting his time or something.

It felt satisfying to finally beat Shiva extreme after two abandoned/failed trials though.

There really should be an option to search for parties willing to actually learn the fights

 

[SerratedBiz]

You could always list your party in the Party Finder. You can set the duty you want, suggest roles, write in the description, etc.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

You could always list your party in the Party Finder.

lmao

 

[SerratedBiz]

lmao

Are you being intentionally retarded? You're filtering by "Other", which is 25 groups out of the 81 possible.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

lmao

Are you being intentionally retarded? You're filtering by "Other", which is 25 groups out of the 81 possible.

and that's half entire reason people even use it, nearly every other entry was people selling completion runs. Absolutely nobody used it to actually make a group.
this is what it looks like when you don't sort by other:

"durrhh just use the tool nobody uses to create a party"

yeah, great idea, genius

 

[Anonona]

and that's half entire reason people even use it, nearly every other entry was people selling completion runs. Absolutely nobody used it to actually make a group.
this is what it looks like when you don't sort by other:

"durrhh just use the tool nobody uses to create a party"

yeah, great idea, genius

Usually players wanting to create groups or find party members to complete duties use the tabs of Trials and Raids if I remember the names right (the ones with the red and purple "evil faces" respectively). Not always but usually. Perhaps filtering using those may help, but it has been a while since last I played, so maybe the community has degraded (even) more.

 

[Gruncheon]

lmao

Are you being intentionally retarded? You're filtering by "Other", which is 25 groups out of the 81 possible.

and that's half entire reason people even use it, nearly every other entry was people selling completion runs. Absolutely nobody used it to actually make a group.
this is what it looks like when you don't sort by other:

"durrhh just use the tool nobody uses to create a party"

yeah, great idea, genius

Everybody uses pf - I cleared the entire Savage tier using just party finder. Any given day on party finder you'll find loads of people doing old extremes, relic quests etc.

 

[SerratedBiz]

Are you being intentionally retarded?

No.

Gotcha.

As someone else pointed out, PF is a good tool and I've used it myself to clear content. I don't know why exactly you decided to blank out the names on the image - more than likely you're just regurgitating crap you saw on 4chan or something.

When you're not too busy breathing through your mouth to actually work the PF, this is what it looks like:

Starting your own group is mysteriously effective as well, who woulda thunk.

 

[Daithos]

The GMs are heavy handed purple hairs. Call someone an idiot or even say your guild might be LGBT unfriendly? Ding-dong-bannu. Advertise one of the many 18+ guilds grooming minors or ERPing in the open? Absolutely ok and progressive.