Final fantasy XIV any good?

[Siveon]

I genuinely don't know how people get into games like this, the most boring tedious stuff imaginable.
FFXIV would be a lot cooler if it was just a single player, or focused co-op game. I think most themepark MMOs would be. Action, turn based, anything is better than that dull routine.

 

[mogwaimon]

yea the level 50 end story dungeon has unskippable cutscenes for some reason, likely because they drop tons of story in the middle of a dungeon while most players would just want to...you know, run dungeons, so i suppose they had to leave those cutscenes unskippable for the benefit of newbies. That said, the later dungeons are a lot better at leaving the story parts for the beginning and end of the dungeons so the other cutscenes are skippable, and the two unskippable cutscene dungeons don't show up in the normal daily roulettes, instead being relegated to their own special MSQ Roulette that provides heavy EXP bonuses for participating.

 

[Anonona]

The reason for the unskipable cutscenes in those dungeons was because back in the day both of them were some of the best ways to gain Tomestones, the endgame currency that is used to get high ilvl gear. Because they are supposed to be the climax of the story, SQ put a lot of work into it and a bunch of cutscenes. Problem is that players used to speed run the fuck out of it, so every single new player doing the instance would had been left behind watching cutscenes while the party obliterates every single enemy and boss. It wasn't strange for the instance to be over before the new players could even get to fight the boss.

So SQ solution was to make it so players couldn't skip cutscenes, and never designed anything like those to dungeons ever again.

 

[ADL]

This interview has been making the rounds and it's frustrating to say the least that the guy knows incline when he sees it yet we get this crap.

MMORPGs today look very different to classics like Age of Ultima and Everquest. Looking at Final Fantasy XIV, as well as your competitors, how has the MMO genre had to adapt and innovate to capture changing player interest and attitudes?

I think the only MMORPGs that could be considered equal to Ultima Online [UO] would probably be Lineage and EVE Online, but in my personal opinion there hasn’t been a role-playing experience that’s surpassed that of the original UO. These works have a special place within the MMORPG genre and there’s still demand for them even now, but that demand is by no means great enough to support a large-scale MMORPG project, because they need [a lot of] role-play skill to play effectively. If we could prepare a profitable business model, I’d love to take on the challenge of developing such a game.

EverQuest is another masterpiece of the first generation of MMORPGs. It’s an incredible game that combined a subscription-based business model with a ‘time-to-win’ game design. But it was World of Warcraft that faced EverQuest head-on and provided a new way to play. It wasn’t based on time-to-win, but WoW incorporated an item level system while keeping player skill at its core. Players who invested lots of their time could co-exist with players who didn’t, encouraging a free style of play.

As for the evolving genre, I believe it’s easy for MMORPGs to accept and reflect changes in gamer lifestyles. If you look back about 20 years, were our lives as busy as they are today? There was the internet, but correspondence was limited to email. Real-time communication was limited to PC messenger clients. Nowadays you and I have smartphones in the palms of our hands. We have access to entertainment whenever we have a free moment. It goes without saying that there’s a dramatic drop in the amount of time players have available after eating, sleeping, working, and spending time with their family and friends.

The game design of UO and EverQuest are still shining jewels even today, and I’ve no doubt there is demand for these titles. It’s just that it’s now more difficult to make those games succeed as a major business undertaking. As a result, game design needs to change and innovate to ensure it matches more closely with MMORPG gamers. For FFXIV, we’d like to remain receptive to changes in the lifestyles of our players, and we’ll continue to adjust the design little by little accordingly.
https://www.pcgamesn.com/final-fantasy-xiv/ffxiv-yoshi-p-interview-wow

Hell, I'd say XIV 1.0 over ARR. It wasn't great either but I'm convinced that if it launched in a technical state that didn't require a computer straight out of NASA to run it, it would've survived long enough to be patched into something more interesting than what we have now.

 

[Hobo Elf]

I'd be surprised if the vast majority of game devs didn't know what's really good and what's not. Just ask Todd what his favorite games are and then wonder how he can keep rereleasing Skyrim ad nauseam. The answer is simple: when you're working for a big corporation and gambling with someone elses money, you're supposed to make mass market crap to make more money. Fail at that and you're out of a job. The best a game dev working for big corpos can hope for is to make enough hit products to generate good will with the people whose money you kept gambling so that they let you make your passion product regardless if it'll be profitable or not.

 

[Seethe]

By far the most irritating issue about this game for me is how absolutely boring the gear is. It's just stat checks and nothing else. It's one of the reasons I quit nu-WoW many years ago.

 

[tet666]

By far the most irritating issue about this game for me is how absolutely boring the gear is. It's just stat checks and nothing else. It's one of the reasons I quit nu-WoW many years ago.

It's a JRPG first and foremost and a MMO second, gear is usually not a big deal in JRPGs besides most people playing this only rly care about how it looks and not much else anyway.

 

[Caim]

So I picked this game up, created my Thaumaturge and sat through a cutscene of a dream scene with my character putting on his robes and wizard hat before having a wizard duel with someone I am at least 60% sure of is my future self. When the dream was over my guy was on a cart with another dude on there commenting on how I finally woke up.

Todd Howard you did it again.

 

[Myobi]

I genuinely don't know how people get into games like this, the most boring tedious stuff imaginable.

FFXIV would be a lot cooler if it was just a single player, or focused co-op game. I think most themepark MMOs would be. Action, turn based, anything is better than that dull routine.

It’s “most boring tedious stuff imaginable”, meanwhile it’s also the one of the most, if not the most played MMORPG currently released, that said, we are left with only two options, either, people just happen to enjoy different sort of shit, OR, aliens.

Also, why would every Final Fantasy need to be a single player game? Why not just, both.

 

[ADL]

By far the most irritating issue about this game for me is how absolutely boring the gear is. It's just stat checks and nothing else. It's one of the reasons I quit nu-WoW many years ago.

Unfortunately that's most MMOs these days. Seems almost everyone forgot how to make gear interesting. Have you tried The Elder Scrolls Online? The build variety across gearsets and ability morphs are insane. Since they never raise the "max level" the endgame is about collecting gearsets to mix and match. Highly recommend it.
Here's a magicka sorcerer build for example where you did 2X 5/5 sets and a 2/2 monster set for helmet+shoulders and some destruction staves from arenas. Alternatively you could throw on a bunch of 1/1 uniques with some cool bonuses.

optional uniques

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I genuinely don't know how people get into games like this, the most boring tedious stuff imaginable.

FFXIV would be a lot cooler if it was just a single player, or focused co-op game. I think most themepark MMOs would be. Action, turn based, anything is better than that dull routine.

It’s “most boring tedious stuff imaginable”, meanwhile it’s also the one of the most, if not the most played MMORPG currently released, that said, we are left with only two options, either, people just happen to enjoy different sort of shit, OR, aliens.

Also, why would every Final Fantasy need to be a single player game? Why not just, both.

weebs will overlook anything to play japgarbage

 

[Seethe]

By far the most irritating issue about this game for me is how absolutely boring the gear is. It's just stat checks and nothing else. It's one of the reasons I quit nu-WoW many years ago.

Unfortunately that's most MMOs these days. Seems almost everyone forgot how to make gear interesting. Have you tried The Elder Scrolls Online? The build variety across gearsets and ability morphs are insane. Since they never raise the "max level" the endgame is about collecting gearsets to mix and match. Highly recommend it.
Here's a magicka sorcerer build for example where you did 2X 5/5 sets and a 2/2 monster set for helmet+shoulders and some destruction staves from arenas. Alternatively you could throw on a bunch of 1/1 uniques with some cool bonuses.

optional uniques

I have actually tried ESO, and I am playing it from time to time. In fact, I tried it because I read your posts in the ESO thread, and because I saw how the itemization works. Gotta say, the world content is a bit boring due to how easy it is, but I do enjoy the setting/quests and to vibe in it when I'm bored, so that kind of saves the non-instanced content. While the combat is meh, I kinda got used to it and apparently I am autistic enough to enjoy the animation cancelling. I was also surprised with how beautiful the architecture in the game is, especially Elsweyr. Equipment also doesn't suffer too much from your average MMO glowing eye cancer which is always a + from me. Aesthetics are yet another reason I did not enjoy FFXIV.

 

[Myobi]

weebs will overlook anything to play japgarbage

True, but then again… you play Fallout 76 dude, so just be quiet.

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

I gave up when I saw I had to do nearly one hundred missions after hitting 50 along with the usual trials/dungeons and in that you even have to do an old raid attunement series as well as run the old raid itself.

I'm convinced the people who fanboy this shit have been raped so hard they somehow fooled themselves into thinking it's making love.

Despite the interview above waxing poetic, item level is the single biggest cancer of MMORPGs and the neverending vertical treadmill of gearing. The game has its own set of glaring issues, but ESO and how it treats its gear is what every MMO should be taking notes on today.

 

[mogwaimon]

unlike other MMOs the old raids are still done regularly though because the dev team incentivizes doing old content through daily bonuses so there's that at least. That's one of the good things about this MMO compared to others is that most of the content that requires a party isn't made obsolete every other patch.

But yea, the stretch of missions between ARR and Heavensward is rough. Not for the faint of heart and unfortunately what you saw was AFTER they trimmed the fat; what's left is hard to trim because a good portion of it sets up plot threads for later on, having repercussions well into Stormblood and beyond...and the itemization is pretty terrible, it's all just the same basic template except 'this is the version for tanks' and 'this is the version for melee DPS' and all that nonsense. really there's no good reason for me to play the game now that I think about it but it just has a certain 'pull' that I don't get from other MMOs. I mostly just fall asleep nowadays when I log into anything else but for some reason FF14 just does it for me despite knowing the combat sucks, the gear sucks, etc, etc.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

daily bonuses

daily garbage is one of the worst things added to MMOs and nobody can change my mind

 

[mogwaimon]

I agree, I don't much care for doing dailies either but all it is in this case is there's like 5 separate 'playlists' of dungeons, you jump in and do a random dungeon from said playlist, and get a massive EXP bonus for your character upon completion. Typically unless there's an event going on that's the only advantage to doing them so you don't miss out on anything by not doing them other than EXP.

The daily beast tribe rep grind on the other hand....well, that's the typical MMO bullshit in spades especially because they add at least 3 factions per expansion

 

[Sentinel]

As a PvE fag I really like this game's PvE content. I love that bosses and dungeons have their own unique music and the boss mechanics are entertaining. I really like the 8-man content and vastly prefer it to the 25 man shitfest of WoW or the 24 shiftest of alliance raids. Other than that though, this game is pure garbage. I'm 1 class homogenization away from quitting altogether, but I'm happy they're nuking the scions with Endwalker because they're non characters and boring as fuck.

I can't imagine what it must be like playing this game as a new player. The story legitimately sucks throughout, it never gets any better. They cut out a lot of the tedium and filler of ARR in expansions but the writing itself never really improves, it's just different shades of bland, and what's worse is that the community hails this as some of the best writing around. It's genuinely sickening.

On another note, how do I level alt jobs 60-70? Feels like I have nothing to level aside from daily roulettes and spamming the highest level dungeon which is pretty boring. Is heaven on high that much better for leveling? I never bothered with PotD to lv50 so I don't have it unlocked yet.

 

[Myobi]

daily bonuses

daily garbage is one of the worst things added to MMOs and nobody can change my mind

That's because it makes it feel like a fucking chore, as in, I need to get this shit done cuz rewards, before actually jumping into what I actually enjoy doing, it's shit way to make players log-in by giving them a false sense of obliguation.

 

[d1r]

As a PvE fag I really like this game's PvE content. I love that bosses and dungeons have their own unique music and the boss mechanics are entertaining. I really like the 8-man content and vastly prefer it to the 25 man shitfest of WoW or the 24 shiftest of alliance raids. Other than that though, this game is pure garbage. I'm 1 class homogenization away from quitting altogether, but I'm happy they're nuking the scions with Endwalker because they're non characters and boring as fuck.

I can't imagine what it must be like playing this game as a new player. The story legitimately sucks throughout, it never gets any better. They cut out a lot of the tedium and filler of ARR in expansions but the writing itself never really improves, it's just different shades of bland, and what's worse is that the community hails this as some of the best writing around. It's genuinely sickening.

On another note, how do I level alt jobs 60-70? Feels like I have nothing to level aside from daily roulettes and spamming the highest level dungeon which is pretty boring. Is heaven on high that much better for leveling? I never bothered with PotD to lv50 so I don't have it unlocked yet.

Just do the dailies. The story dailies give mad xp, though are a pain in the ass to do with those unskippable cutscenes.

 

[Caim]

So I'm slowly making progress, but I've yet to make a decision on just how much I like the game. How's the content for a solo player anyway? I know that the ARR segment is tedious at times, but how's the game from that point onwards?

Also how do you level up secondary jobs? Can you just go to other low level zones and do quests there, or will you be stuck in daily quest hell until you're done?

 

[Smigle]

I've bounced off of this game years ago. Really didn't like loading screens going through every gate. The world seemed vast, but unreachable for the player and it looked bland. I've heard it's way better now, but somehow I'm still not convinced. I really long for a good mmorpg, but is this the one?

 

[Sabotin]

Besides the end-end-game content (where you need to practice a complicated boss until you deal with its mechanics efficiently enough that you can kill it in the alloted time) the rest is easily doable with just signing up and going with a random party. You'll want to pace yourself though because the amount of available content rises and you'll quickly burn out trying to do everything all the time. The game encourages long-term play (obvious from business model), where you can progress a certain amount/day very fast (rouletes etc), but trying to go beyond that gets less and less efficient. My favorite content was from the stormblood expansion (which many consider the worst one). Certain dungeons and locations felt amazing with the combinations of visuals and mechanics.

Secondary jobs I leveled early through a combination of quests, potd (sort of roguelike procedural dungeon where the depth you get to translates to exp for the job you picked), dungeons, etc. That was up to 50, after that I just did daily roulettes on these and they essentially leveled up without me focusing on it. I remember the pvp one was especially good due to low time required for completion and class role not mattering. One gripe I have is that the gameplay of a job changes greatly as you level up, you might not like something at 80 that was great at 50.

Anyway what people end up doing later is:
-Savage raids (I didn't do these)
-Socialising (Hope you're not too conservative)
-Crafting (I enjoyed this very much although technically spent 99% of time on out of game tools and websites)
-Housing/Glamors/etc. (There's often parties set up for farming a particular thing)
-Daily roulettes for sub-jobs/gear (I often skipped many)

If you're big on pvp this game is not it unless there were some drastic changes in recent months.

 

[Sentinel]

-Crafting (I enjoyed this very much although technically spent 99% of time on out of game tools and websites)

Mind sharing those tools/websites?

 

[Sabotin]

ffxivteamcraft.com has most everything related to crafting/gathering.
garlandtool.org database is much faster and easier when looking for something
universalis.app for looking up markets when lazy
ff14fish.carbuncleplushy.com for keeping track of fish and en.ff14angler.com for more indepth info about it
ffxivcollect.com for keeping track of all the random things you collect

There's also xivlauncher with various plugins if you wanna go a bit more on the darker side (technically against TOS, but not enforced unless you cause problems)

I just remembered how this game almost requires wikis for certain stuff...