So... why aren't you playing Final Fantasy XIV?

[Karbuncle]

It's hard for me to think of the avatar I play in an mmorpg as a character. They don't have a personality... you're not playing the story to learn more about them or their relationships with others. It's easier to call it a toon because it is animated. I would agree with you in offline FF series that you usually play a character (although it's a bit hard to say that even for the simplest FF games). Yeah there's a story in FFXI and you are the hero of the story but the story is never about your toon.

Lies! My Character is a Character.

You see, Karbuncle was once a mighty Warrior in the Mithran homeland. however her life was empty as there were no enemies who can stand against her Knife. Eventually she became restless and began looking for new Enemies.

She finally came across a Legendary Sandworm. It was a Sandworm that had said to shoot lightning from its massive mouth, and had taken many from her Village. her goal was To defeat this and claim its teeth as a trophy. However Karbuncle was eventually bested by this beast, and just barely escaped with her life, able to seal the Worm in a sunken cavern beneath the southern deserts.

However the beast was still alive, her confidence shot from not being able to slay the beast, she vowed to redeem herself by becoming the most powerful fighter in the world, as such she set out for Quon continent, after hearing the recent turmoil of the war-torn country from Mithra returning from fighting in the Crystal War.

She then came to land in Bastok, and from that day would train until she is strong enough to defeat the beast that dwells beneath the depth of the southern desert, locked there by her own hand. Her Resolve was resolute.


So yah, Character. Just sayin!

[Chocobits]

When I think of "fun", I think of mashing 11111111111122111111111 on my keyboard, I don't know about you all. There's something magical about having basic attacks and your DPS being reliant on the repetitive mashing of the num pad. And to encourage this, when you press it too fast, which you also need to do to ensure DPS, you are greeted with an error beep that is most certainly NOT the stuff of nightmares that some perverse developer went out of their way to make as annoying as possible.

Also, having a target-less target system is brilliant. While the people of Vana'diel had to trudge through using the Tab key or the D-Pad to quickly target nearby npcs/mobs and then being able to lock onto them, instead the overjoyed people of Eorzea get a much more random experience.

Oh, and FFXI players have continuously decried the institution of Secure3D, billing errors, and having their accounts banned for disputing legitimate overcharges. There was great hope that the billing system would be greatly improved in FFXIV.... and it was. Now players get to enroll in a payment system based in London that they need to send a written letter along with ID forms to cancel recurring fees. Simply having a subscription based service that a person could simply pay with Visa/MC/Paypal would be downright nonsense.

Also, instead of dealing with the headaches of lush, huge fields ripe with monster and adventure in FFXI, every map in FFXIV looks like it was designed by a novice Dungeons and Dragons DM. Narrow trails make up 90% of every map. Small "glade" areas, slightly larger than the alleyway roads exist, where a dozen or so mobs are available after a short 10-20 minute walk.

Taking a cue from Sarah Palin, players at launch were greeted with a couple dozen "Road to Nowheres". Fancy gates patrolled by NPCs that you could barely or not at all interact with. Where they might have lead, I'll never, but it haunts me sometimes. Also, there are some great looking decrepit buildings in remote areas.. but they're just that. Devoid of any NPCs or anything interesting at all.

And finally, all the bowing, scraping and vows to "regain player trust". You had our trust completely before game's release SE. Our trust didn't matter much when you thought you could push out a content barren alpha product for some advance player fees.

[Krystal]

Becuase it sucks. point blank.

[thefinalrune]

I played the beta like many others and graphically, I was blown away by XIV, however, it was the only aspect that worked for me. Absolutely every single other thing in the game drove me nuts. Honestly, what I wanted was essentially FFXI-2, not a completely new vision of a MMO. And with the rehash of the existing characters I honestly thought that's what SE was going to give me.

For what ever reason they chose to create the horribly sluggish interface with its endlessly excessive menus I'll never understand. Navigating multiple menus in XI is slow enough, I expected XIV to be faster, not 10x slower. The horrible software mouse only made things worse. In my opinion the keyboard control system designed for FFXI is quite possibly the most easy to use system I've ever encountered for a MMO. Why SE chose not to replicate it precisely for XIV is beyond me.

And then there was the simple lack of content issue. The intro, while pretty, didn't really grab you at all, you were left with no idea of any semblance of story or plot. While I dislike the false impressions XI's intro gives, it at least sets the mood a little better.

All in all everything that was wrong with XIV, and it was a lot, comes back to my belief that without Sakaguchi, Square-Enix just isn't really a story teller anymore. Every RPG they've made in since 2001 has fallen short of being impressive when compared to the previous entries. The only reason I continue to play FFXI is because I enjoy the community, not because I think the game is of sound quality.

[Kailea_Nagisa]

I could say that "it sucks" like others have, but honestly it is not that cut and dry.

I do like FFXIV to be honest, but there are still a few things that need to change before I am willing to go back, and until that happens, I will play FFXI to tie me over.

The crafting needs work, and in turn weapons and armor need work, for me that is really it, other then that, I love FFXIV.

[Hoshi]

LOL Karbuncle... I agree, you've got a character. Out of curiosity are you the same Karbuncle who was friends with Sorai?

[Karbuncle]

LOL Karbuncle... I agree, you've got a character. Out of curiosity are you the same Karbuncle who was friends with Sorai?

The one in the same, On Asura here~

[Atomic_Skull]

. However most of the music is simply gorgeous. The missions theme song "Answers" with Susan Calloway is ridiculous.

Ugh that song made my ears bleed.

If your going to use vocals in video game music do it like Nier did and use a made-up language.

[Jski]

I am not playing ff14 mainly because my pc cant run it unless it looks worst then ff11 (not sure how that works) the lode times are ungodly long and it feels like no one plays it. I am not sure what was going on but it would not let me zone out of a circle unless i did an event or go to the right spot this is an mmorpg dam it the ideal is to go where you want and do what you want.

[Elexia]

Ugh that song made my ears bleed.

If your going to use vocals in video game music do it like Nier did and use a made-up language.

Opinion noted.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AD7Zr_tj7Q

This isn't a made up language.