Have you ever gotten the feeling when you were playing other Final Fantasy games where the plot and story suddenly makes you sit up and go O.O? Kinda like where in Final Fantasy 7 (spoilers!) Sephiroth kills Aeris? Rooks called it "disc 2" and I think that's the perfect description. Well, I just hit that point in FFXIV's story and really *really* want to go kick some butt and move along the story!
I don't think I ever got that feeling from any other MMO, not SWTOR (which has decent writing), or even FFXI (CoP had some cool scenes like the airship vs. Bahamut). FFXIV's main story switched from being generic MMO to the kind of writing I expect from Final Fantasy games. I've been kinda racing along the content, so going forward, I'm going to be a little more selective on my screenshots to avoid giving spoilers! All I'll say is... do the main story quest!
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| Ascy looking... |
Anyway, quick change of topic, here's an early review/comparison of FFXIV!
I had previously done a review of FFXIV's beta right on this blog about a month ago. All of those points still stand, but now that the game is actually out and we have many more players, the experience has changed slightly.
The Masses
The biggest change between beta 3 and retail is the sheer number of people out there in the fields now. Even in the 30s-40s, there are people everywhere. This changes not only the feel of the game, but how you're able to play. For example, in FATEs, while there may be a bunch of mobs, there are so many people around that you really have to step up and act fast in order to get credit for kills. Typical 15-minute FATEs are over in just 2-3 minutes, and if you don't get first claim of a mob, you have to do at least 30% damage to get kill credit. Fortunately, there are now roaming FATE parties that run around doing these together. It's probably the fastest way to level up at this time, and will likely be the norm for the next few months. In the level 30+, possibly 25+ range, there are usually roaming FATE parties running around the zones.
One annoyance of the masses is the quests. While FFXIV is nice in not needing you to kill too many mobs in the "collect X items" quests, and allows you to share mobs, you still need to do at least 30% of the damage for it to count. Most times the mob dies too fast. You can form parties to get credit for things, but people tend *not* to simply because they want to do the quest and leave quickly instead of dealing with interacting with another person. Ironic, isn't it? I'm far ahead of the crowd right now in questing that I rarely have to deal with mob competition, but it can be annoying even with just 2-3 other people trying to camp the same 4-5 spawns.
Duty Finder and the Dungeons
At the moment, the dungeons are still under heavy demand. Everyone is still working their way through the content, and the gear the dungeons give you are good enough that you don't mind repeating it a few times even on your own just for the chance of good gear. However, the Ifrit/Titan primal fights do not have a gear reward associated with them. I'm wondering if it might be hard to get people to do them in the far future? I guess that's what friends are for too!
Tanks + Healers are still the bottleneck in dungeons. I had to wait about 3 minutes to get into the Titan fight on PLD, but everything else was pretty much instant-queue still!
Finally, Brayflox Longstop seems to have changed since beta 3. The mechanics and mobs are the same, but it is a *lot* harder to do if you are on a class instead of a job. I did this once in GLA and died a few times on the 2nd sub-boss. Everything was hitting harder, and hate was rougher. In beta 3, I had no problems at all on MRD, so I had thought that GLA would have been fine. Switching over to PLD made this dungeon a piece of cake again, even though I was a lot more limited in abilities. I did get a boost in HP on PLD though, so that might have explained some of it. I guess the lesson is... use your jobs for dungeons! Annoyingly, you can't equip a soul crystal inside a dungeon, so be sure to change it out before you enter!
Leveling in the future
Looking into the future, I'm expecting that low level FATE activity will die out as people get the jobs they want to level cap. Low level dungeons will also fade away, though the dungeons themselves aren't critical for exp. In fact, it's probably faster to level by FATE/leves compared to running a dungeon over and over again. Dungeons are still good for gear, but it probably does not take too long to get everything you want. (I'm already full on my Foestriker set)
How will things be in the future? Well, I'm expecting more people will depend on levequests for exp. The good news is that most FATEs can actually be solo'ed, even at high level, so you get a grind on mobs plus the bonus from that. I had an experience with a level 34 FATE that popped far from civilization, nearly off the map and managed to finish it. Your chocobo companion will also be great help here as well. The random gear you get from treasure chests during leves pretty much take care of gear requirements too even if you finished all the side quests, and you can get gear rewards from levequests!
Big picture & long-term success
From a high level, FFXIV really isn't that special from a gameplay point of view. It's a standard questing hub, dynamic quests and instanced dungeons system that was made popular by WoW and considered outdated by many so-called MMO experts. It's also great fun to actually do and has a great story, at least, when you're able to login to play. It definitely has a good many-month run for any player.
Long-term success will still depend on endgame. The lack of a good endgame is what killed SWTOR. We still haven't gotten to that point yet, but FFXIV does have a few things that give it an advantage.
1. The multi-class system essentially multiplies the time that someone will play before getting bored. People get attached to their character and want to continue playing/improving themselves. An "alt" just isn't as attractive. FFXIV essentially has a lot more time compared to other MMOs to put together compelling content
2. There already *is* a significant, long-term challenge in the game. The relic quest carried over from 1.0 would be one of the things that people would go for, and unlike other MMOs which add endgame content later, this was inherited from the past and at least give an initial goal for people!
We'll have to check back on this topic in the future after we actually start doing endgame stuff!
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| Still a *really* pretty game! |
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| Ok, who among you looks the most suspicious... >.> |
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| I think Zu is the one who wants this show :o |
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| /peep |
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| ... |
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| This is one of the optional dungeons like Halatali. You have to do a short pickup/drop-off quest to unlock it in duty finder. It's also a lot of fun and fairly short! |
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| It also comes with giant statues and lots of pew-pew lazers! It almost looks like a rave! xD |
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| One of the body pieces that drops from a coffer. It has no stats, but is level 35+ and looks dirty D: |
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| Emo snowman? :o |
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| One example of the "FATE train". Typical fates at this level and number of people last maybe 3-4 minutes tops. I saw one FATE that lasted barely 1 minute before it was completed. |
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| I get my choice of guys?! Who should I pick? |
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| Most recently promotion. I also got the achievement recently for getting 50,000 seals, *but* I have only spent seals on promotions and my chocobo ~.~ |
Small dump of pics since the good pics have too many spoilers xD
Hopefully SE's data center upgrade next week will stop all these stupid login problems. Meanwhile, see you AFK on Hyperion!
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| Yay for highest yet number of concurrent users! |
