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Retardo? Final Fantasy XIV, at least the soundtrack is enjoyable

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  • Total voters
    69

Hobo Elf

Arcane
Joined
Feb 17, 2009
Messages
13,999
Location
Platypus Planet
You've never played an MMO before if you think this game has a huge grind lmao.
 

vonAchdorf

Arcane
Joined
Sep 20, 2014
Messages
13,465
latest


Yugiri Mistwalker's voice actress and her three kids have been murdered.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-35235288
 

Immortal

Arcane
In My Safe Space
Joined
Sep 13, 2014
Messages
5,062
Location
Safe Space - Don't Bulli

SerratedBiz

Arcane
Joined
Mar 4, 2009
Messages
4,143
This update is entitled, "So I Tried FFXIV Yet Again And It Finally Stuck".

I've been playing FFXIV for like a month now (granted, about two weeks of that I was away from my computer but during that time I really missed it). This is a game I had tried to get into twice before in the past with disastrous (ditched it at level 20) and cataclysmic (ditched it upon leaving the starter city) results. So, what's changed?

Frankly, I'm not sure. That's because I can't say with certainty that the leveling curve hasn't been tweaked to make it a little easier on the player, or whether I just took a better path through content. Unlike previous tries, this time I started out with a strong DPS class (Thaumaturge, aka Black Mage) and, once I had unlocked the abilities I wanted, only then started working on my main class Conjurer (aka White Mage), which means that leveling the slower, less bursty healer had a bonus to exp.

But that's not all. Dungeons have now been buffed in exp to the point where it's actually worth it to queue for them for leveling (eg, a 20-30 min low-level dungeon might give you a level's worth of exp even without the duty roulette bonus), instead of being stuck grinding FATEs to accomplish that purpose. The rest of the content wasn't nerfed in return, so FATEs and (to an extent) Leves continue to be decent options. However, on this run, simply doing dungeons as they came up and going along with the main quest, along with a few FATEs but only as they came up, was more than enough to keep me leveling and well above the level requirements of the Main Scenario Quests all the way through ARR and into the expansion, Heavenward.

But most importantly, the biggest plus for me was that I finally endured the game long enough to make it through the "kiddie" dungeons and into the more challenging ones (imo, starting from Haukke Manor onwards). The difference between the design philosophy between the two is huge. Whereas kiddie dungeons are packed with endless batches of trash mobs along roll-your-eyes corridors, later dungeons throw away with the idea of attrition by adding less, but more difficult, encounters. Don't get me wrong, most of it means higher damage or more AOEs, but at least there's less spamming abilities and more necessity of using cooldowns and dodging. Furthermore, bosses start getting unique mechanics to look out for and FFXIV does a pretty good job of keeping you on your toes, as pretty much all boss encounters (pretty much 3 to a dungeon) have their own gimmick. They're not terribly hard but they add a certain amount of tension to running them, and since even low-level content can (and will be) run by higher leveled players by syncing, they're always dangerous (ie, no having your tank sit on AOEs because his equipment can just soak it) - though high level equipment is still better synced than appropriate level ones and so your run will still go faster, just not braindead faster.

It's the philosophy and execution behind these dungeons that's got me hooked. I'm leveling my second class now, Astrologian (healer but with a randomy card mechanic behind them) with ease due to the main class level bonus exp and the buffed exp from dungeons, which I'll run a few times a day. It's also important to have an FC if you're, like me, way behind on game knowledge as updates have brought in a lot of complex crap you'll likely have no idea about and it's also nice being able to run a dungeon with good players every now and then.

The bad? Main story quests are retarded shit. SPOILER ALERT. By the time you're level 21 you've already killed your first primal and are branded a godkiller, which is something no one else in the realm can boast about, and still (all the way up to 50) you're sent on important missions such as collect the fucking dinner for the party or go talk to the secretary and find out why she's sad. As long as you make sure to visit these quests sparingly, in between of area quests and dungeons and shit, they'll be manageable. Just make sure not to leave them too far behind as a lot of content is gated behind main scenario quests and you'll need them to access your Grand Company, mount, certain dungeons, etc. They're not the worst I've ever seen but they're certainly not anything you might want to do twice (and thankfully, FFXIV has a pretty good one-character-does-all system). Also, nowadays you might want to shell out for Heavensward since it brings new abilities for all classes and one new class for each of the trinity, plus everyone's playing it.

TL;DR

Good: If you can stomach a few hours of kiddie tutorials, game has awesome dungeons with real difficulty, which tends to scale favorably upwards as you level. Mechanics also become more interesting as you get more abilities (duh, but still). Leveling has been made easier. Game is still alive. A shitload of shit to do. It's still pretty by today's standards.

Bad: Still requires base game + subscription + expansion if you don't want to be that guy that can't run endgame content with their FC because they're cheap. The thick of main story quests are awful, with exceptions you can count on a hand that's been in a sawmill accident.

Ugly: The voice acting, ffs. It's certainly some of the worst shit I've heard and, if you're used to the already low standard of SWTOR, you might want to skip dialogue as fast as you can read it. It's a pity too, since the game can boast, at times, some of the most creatively and better expressed *written* dialogue I've seen in a game.
 

Hobo Elf

Arcane
Joined
Feb 17, 2009
Messages
13,999
Location
Platypus Planet
Dungeon design is one of the stronger aspects of the game. I also really like that the Hard modes of the dungeons are actually completely new dungeons with a different layout, different mobs and different bosses. so Haukke Normal and Haukke Hard are different experiences. Completely unlike the lazy dogshit WoW where hard mode = mobs have better stats. My main problem with the game is that when I play MMOs, I play them the way they are meant to be played, as a no life nerd. And for FF14 it takes me a month tops to clear all the current content. I haven't played since after the first month of when Heavensward was released, but if I was to resub back today I'd probably power through the new content they have released since then within a week. My only option is to wait for the next expansion, although I do not look forward to shoehorning more binds and abilities into my WAR rotation. The current amount of skills I have to juggle around with is perfect. I hope they are smart about the next new abilities that they add and make them replace old skills. Pulling off a triple Fell Cleave is the best.
 
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Hoaxmetal

Arcane
Joined
Jul 19, 2009
Messages
9,157
Yeah, I kinda got into XIV during my second try (didn't resubscribe though), it does have some redeeming qualities but in the end it's still a theme park mmo and nothing more.
 

SerratedBiz

Arcane
Joined
Mar 4, 2009
Messages
4,143
It probably is, but in an age of nu-WoW clones and asian grindfests, if you haven't given it a solid (endgamey) try yet I'd definitely recommend doing so.

Dungeon design is one of the stronger aspects of the game. I also really like that the Hard modes of the dungeons are actually completely new dungeons with a different layout, different mobs and different bosses. so Haukke Normal and Haukke Hard are different experiences. Completely unlike the lazy dogshit WoW where hard mode = mobs have better stats.

I was thinking about that when I wrote about challenges being more about difficulty. The hard mode of dungeons are refreshing, with not only different layouts but also doing away with the mob-after-mob philosophy of its normal counterpart.
 

Gideon

Novice
Joined
Jul 8, 2014
Messages
20
Thanks for the review, made me jump the fence and bought the game.

Currently enjoying ride.
 

J1M

Arcane
Joined
May 14, 2008
Messages
14,616
I don't think I could stomach the time investment to get to the interesting content.
 

Tribal Sarah

Arbiter
Joined
Feb 9, 2014
Messages
316
Location
My dad's bigger than your dad
I enjoyed my time with it but after getting every class/job to lvl 50 I lost interest. I downloaded it again a few days back after seeing the 4 days free promo and played around with it but nah, I'm done with mmos. Still it's probably one of the best out there.
 

Hoaxmetal

Arcane
Joined
Jul 19, 2009
Messages
9,157
Just play DDO with codexers and forget about this. No need to play for 200 hours to get to the good stuff either.
 

jungl

Augur
Joined
Mar 30, 2016
Messages
1,420
this game is more like the most overrated mmorpg in history. Awful ps2 tier graphics and copy pasted gameplay from warhammer online and korean mmorpgs that been out for 10+ years
 

Hobo Elf

Arcane
Joined
Feb 17, 2009
Messages
13,999
Location
Platypus Planet
The soundtrack alone is reason enough to make me want to resub back to this game every now and then (although I don't; there's just not enough new content available for me at the moment).








And of course this new take of an old classic:


One of my favorite aspects of the OST is that you can hear the main theme of an area during the day time and during the night time they play a softer piano instrumential of the same song. It just makes night time exploration comfier.

And I agree 100% that the game is kinda shitty at the beginning, but once you get to the end stretch of the base game it starts to get better, and then when you get to the expac it gets really good. Hopefully the next expac is as godly as Heavensward. I'm just afraid that they'll add even moar skills when they should probably do some skill squashing. I have too much shit to manage with my Warrior as it is.
 

Ninjerk

Arcane
Joined
Jul 10, 2013
Messages
14,323
Do the expansions become 99% irrelevant when a newer one is released?
 

jungl

Augur
Joined
Mar 30, 2016
Messages
1,420
ff14 is shit just because there a shit ton of otaku millenial neets that pretend their japanese play it doesn't make it a good game. They don't know whats a good game if my dick slapped against their forehead. The environmental designs and graphics are straight out of the ps2 era.

And don't get me started about DDO which is just as bad with its pointless content and equally shit playerbase. Which consists of super autistic grognards and eurofags that are obsessed with running the same content for the thousandth time at the fastest and most efficient manner to sate their autism.
 

Hobo Elf

Arcane
Joined
Feb 17, 2009
Messages
13,999
Location
Platypus Planet
Do the expansions become 99% irrelevant when a newer one is released?
No. You have to do the content in order to progress and all the old dungeons will be put in a dungeon finder roulette. Old players will get currency to buy end game gear for clearing them and new players will get the story progression.
 

Hobo Elf

Arcane
Joined
Feb 17, 2009
Messages
13,999
Location
Platypus Planet


Next expansion will be called Stormblood and it's coming out in early summer 2017.

Producer and director Naoki Yoshida noted that Stormblood will mainly be about reclaiming Ala Mhigo from Garlean oppression.

The expansion will raise the level cap from 60 to 70, feature new jobs, a skill system overhaul, item inventory expansion, and reassessment of unused and ineffective actions.

Hopefully the skill system overhaul will lead to skill squashing and streamlining the classes as piling more and more skills every expansion would only lead to headache. Ala Mhigo is kinda meh though. I never really cared much for the 3 factions. Ishgard was a far more compelling setting, although, who knows? Maybe they'll make Ala Mhigo more interesting.

They're also dropping the PS3 support of the game so maybe that'll give the designers more freedom to do shit.
 
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Kem0sabe

Arcane
Joined
Mar 7, 2011
Messages
13,076
Location
Azores Islands
What they need to do is completely revamp their quest and world design.

Final fantasy xiv is great for dungeon groups but the solo experience is one of the worse out of every AAA mmorpg I have played.

While WoW innovated with their phasing tech years ago, allowing drastic world changes based on player action, and having an incredible variety of quests and quest mechanics, FFXIv remained a dead static world full of standard fetch this kill that quests.

Even elder Scrolls Online provides a much better questing experience with actual player choice in outcomes.
 

Theldaran

Liturgist
Joined
Oct 10, 2015
Messages
1,772
I'd rather play DA:I :troll

Bioware are experts at this sort of shitty design.

Edit: sorry, I thought the thread was about FF XV.
 

anus_pounder

Arcane
Joined
Mar 20, 2010
Messages
5,972
Location
Yiffing in Hell
I'd play if it wasn't sub based.

What they need to do is completely revamp their quest and world design.

Final fantasy xiv is great for dungeon groups but the solo experience is one of the worse out of every AAA mmorpg I have played.

While WoW innovated with their phasing tech years ago, allowing drastic world changes based on player action, and having an incredible variety of quests and quest mechanics, FFXIv remained a dead static world full of standard fetch this kill that quests.

Even elder Scrolls Online provides a much better questing experience with actual player choice in outcomes.

Potentially an odd question, but what are some MMOs that have good solo experience?

I nearly bought Elder Scrolls Online just to have some crap I can run around in and hack and slash away without having to party up or any of that rubbish.
 

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