FFXIV Bitter Sweet

[MistressAthena]

Note: Please keep in mind that while this is a rant, I'm still enjoying the game, despite all of its serious flaws, I'm still somewhat enjoying it. Only if because I make my own fun outside of what SE want's me to do, but that doesn't mean what I say is in any way wrong, or out of line. Nor does it mean it doesn't have some serious merit to it. We'll agree to disagree at this very moment, and I may or may not respond to anyones response to this post, as I have very strong feelings about the game, and MMO's in general, and hate seeing the direction they are taking.

I also have quite a strong resentment against SE, especially Yoshi, for destroying what SE stood for. SE has always done things differently, while paving the road for other game companies, they do things differently, do things never before seen, and ultimately perfect something new.

I feel as though they chickened out, and started kissing Blizzards feet with FFXIV which does make me quite sick. I'm especially angered at Yoshi for destroying what FFXIV could of been, and instead making a semi WoW rip off with FF elements, and doing 1 of the worst decisions ever possible. Focusing just on End Game, and throwing both elite and casual players together in the same bowl to deal with each other.

That being said, this is just the way I feel. However what I have to say below, is not necessarily an opinion. There is a difference between "opinions", and logic, this is something alot of people don't understand. A good Apple is a good Apple, even if someone "likes" rotten apples, doesn't make that Apple good. It may be a weak explanation. I DO go into some opinions below, but try to keep an open mind, not everything is an "opinion".

Now sorry to go on about the word "Opinion" but, its necessary. The word "Opinion" is a weak word often abused by people who don't understand it, or often times again, simply used wrong in 90% of the cases its used. For example. Say 2 people have 2 diff sets of armor at the same level. 1 has a high amount of VIT, while another has a high amount of DEF. They start discussing/argueing about which is better. Then one of them says "well its my "Opinion" This is better. That statement is wrong of what he just said. It's not an Opinion. One -IS- better than the other, however how much better is what's at question. It could be that they are so close it doesn't really matter. This does NOT however, make it an Opinion. This makes it a "Preference" His Preference is to have higher VIT over DEF. However when they start talking about which color looks better on that same set of armor, that is now his "Opinion". Opinion and Preference are so similar they are often times confused as well, notice how "Opinion" doesn't work in the Preference example, but Preference works still in the Opinion one.

Opinion, Preference, and Logic(The VIT vs DEF argument being a logical debate) are often times confused, and jumbled all up into the "opinion". Which again.. is wrong. You can like 1 combat system over another, even if that combat system isn't as good. It's your preference, and what you like. It's all cool and I have no problems with that. However, that doesn't make which is better, any less better.

So before you say "Well its my opinion." Stop and think.. Is it really an Opinion? Or is it just something you don't like as much? (Or like better?).

/Endnote

You have to understand what makes a good game. A good game needs a nice balance of everything. It should be both easy, yet hard, a nice balance in difficulty, while also pushing players to get better, and achieve something. A good game will have a good, engaging story, and will have depth in the battle mechanics. A good game will have balance between levels, and will have balance in the market, and of course decent balance between classes.. A good game will have good immersion as well as the topping on the cake. Everything ties into everything, which is why, despite when I split these things up it may seem as though I go off topic, when in reality, everything ties into everything, so it gets a bit hard to draw a line.

FFXIV has none of this.

Literally everything in FFXIV has major flaws which stop it from being a great game. But instead of pointing out every tiny flaw, I'm instead going to highlight what makes a great, solid game and why FFXIV misses the mark.

Balance in difficulty

The absolute #1 issue with the game, is how it speed rushes you to 50 for "End Game". This is what is the cause of all of the other issues throughout the entire game.
As Yoshi himself said, levels 1-49 are basically a "tutorial". He wants it easy through these levels. This is causing a serious issue with people not knowing their jobs for the "harder" dungeons at 50. This is a serious issue.
The fact "Fates" are the only real way to level after your 2nd job and you've done the main story and cleared all the quests, only results in you not knowing your job yet again, and just magnifies the above issue.

At the moment everything between levels 1-49 is just.. easy. The battle mechanics themselves are extermely easy, yes I'm sorry for those of you with rosy sunglasses on about FFXIV. The battle system is a shell, and has no depth or challenge to it. You are simply spamming out the same rotation again and again. Every class does it.

Elements play no part in battle. (yes I understand there is "Fire, Ice, etc." But none of them actually do "Fire" damage. Why else does Fire II do the same damage to a Fire elemental as an Ice elemental? Makes no sense, and is there simply to keep the game easy and derp mode.

But it spikes. At level 50 it gets hard, (mainly due to the fact half the people don't get how to play their job), but also because the primals, and dungeons now throw more at you and mess with your beautiful rotation (albiet only slightly). But its enough to make it much tougher than normal to most people as they just grinded their Fates to 50 and now have no clue of the proper rotation of their class, and or have not trained themselves to be quick on the keyboard when certain situations happen, or thinking on their feet.

There is absolutely no sense of achievement other than an empty one when you get your AF, as.. It wasn't difficult what so ever. There is absolutely no sense of achievement or success, or any form of accomplishment when finishing the story, as every single fight (yes even the primals) were extremely easy, even to the point that its nearly almost impossible to LOSE a main story quest as you have 1 or more NPCs healing you indefinetly and or straight up tanking something for you.

Battle Mechanics

I know I just talked about this, but the core of a game is its battle mechanics, and I feel FFXIV missed the mark hardcore. As I stated earlier its essentially repeating the same rotation again and again and again.
Elements take absolutely no place in battles, I.E. Fire doesn't neutralize Ice, etc. There is no need to learn a mobs strength and weaknesses, etc. There is no need to learn a mobs movements as you get big red lines showing you when its about to do something, and neither do you have to worry, as 9/10 times it takes a year and a half for that said mob to actually do its AOE or line attack.

It's essentially a spam rotation battle system which lacks any proper depth.

Balance between levels

Because Yoshi wants every player to focus only on level 50, he has sped up the leveling, which causes serious balance issues between every level. It causes the need for dumbed down battle mechanics, and thus the dumbing down of the mobs themselves.
I don't see the reason why players should be forced to focus on End Game, when games can be just as enjoyable between levels 1 to max and enjoying everything else. Focusing on just End Game, again, is causing 90% of the game to be empty and void of depth and content.

Immersion and the sense of adventure

I love stories, and exploring, and I understand that's not for everyone, which is fine. However, again, like everything else, FFXIV misses the mark hard on this. The Area's are extremely small. When you have NPCs talking about how dangerous it is outside of the city gates, yada yada, and then you pick up a quest where the NPC literally says "It's to dangerous to go get these items, can you get them for me?" then you realize those said items are literally 5 feet from the gate, it gets really ridiculous and breaks the immersion.

It's like this again, to bum rush you to 50 as fast as possible. The Area's could of been huge and lush, and granted great forms of exploration and sense of adventure. But they don't. You already have countless ways to fast travel, whether it be warps, mounts, sprinting, the chocobo stables, and even the free warps after leve's to quickly get you from point A to B, there really is no reason to skip out on making the game big and beautiful.

The fact the battle mechanics, and fights themselves are so simplistic and easy, grants absolutely no form and sense of adventure either, knowing you can just spam 1 non stop and easily beat that same level mob while doing your homework, kissing your girlfriend, or boyfriend, and while talking on the phone all at the same time while not even realizing which mob your fighting (cuz it doesn't matter anyway, they have no difference between any of them besides cosmetic).

Now I'm not saying battles need to be as slow as FFXI, but a nice balance between the 2 could of been more than possible.
The fact all the quests are so simple as well kills the adventure. AF quests being so stupid simple that AF armor is utterly useless. What happend to making AF Armor being something to seriously aim for, and dedicate yourself too, getting it being something you can be proud of?

The Market and Crafting/materia

This one I'm doing last, only because I don't like to talk about it much since its such a heated debate for no real reason.
The market is greatly unstable, and chaotic due to how much free armor/equipment you get shoved down your throat because of the simplistic and easy quests, story, and dungeons themselves. Because there is no form of check to keep prices stable (like the FFXI
AH system, which was a nice check and balance system).

To compound this issue even more you have the game focusing on just End Game. Which creates a serious issue of most items/armors being useless anyway as you only have them for a few hours then its on to the next set.
But it doesn't stop there either.

The fact that your only real focus is Fates (at least that's what most ppl focus on), you ultimately don't need the best armor, etc. either, as Fates generally have tons of people spamming away on the same few mobs, and it essentially doesn't matter.

This is causing serious issues with crafters and the economy in general.

Compounded yet again by the fact, that once you even hit End Game in a week of focusing for it, all your equipment will now come from tomes, and drops, and thus any high level crafting equipment will be essentially useless to you.
I'll stop here and say I understand you can make gil from crafting, I understand some items which aren't distributed throughout the game can sell for alot, these are not many items in and of themselves.

The Materia as well is just about useless between these levels because you go through them so fast its a waste of gil.

Conclusion:

Ultimately, if the game slowed down, focused more on every level, and had a more in depth, intuitive, and just as fun battle system, while creating an atmosphere of adventure, and slowly going up in difficulty at a steady rate from level to level, you'd see the market balance out, Crafting that has meaning, Materia being worthwhile at every level. Players who know how to play, Duty Finder not being such a nightmare, a welcoming atmosphere for every type of player, and a strong, powerfull game that has depth and meaning to it at every angle with great immersion that every player can enjoy.
Why have you not done this SE? I just don't get it.

End Notes:

This game is just a Bum Rush to 50, while when you get there, its 1 endless grind after another for "Better" armor, but nothing ultimately new. This alone makes End Game empty, as there is nothing truly "new" besides a new cosmetic piece with a few better stats, while you end up grinding the same exact thing again and again and again and again....

The Oxymoron thing here, is that most of these players complain about how FFXI was nothing but a grind in the same area on the same mob....

Sorry to break it to you.. But so is FFXIV, except instead of the same area and mob, its the same dungeon, over and over and over, and unlike FFXI where you can look forward to that new skill, new sets of armor, new quests, and new part of the main story, and loads of other things at your next 10 levels, you having nothing to look forward too, except yet.. More of the same dungeon...

[Fenwick]

afasdfafasfafaff

Truer words were never spoken.

Yes, I'm aware I caught you before you had a chance to edit your post. I couldn't resist.

Edit: It is a good read though.

[Comicbookguy]

well said well sad well bat well fed

[MistressAthena]

Truer words were never spoken.

Yes, I'm aware I caught you before you had a chance to edit your post. I couldn't resist.

Edit: It is a good read though.

Lol, well done

[ufufu]

So basically you're mad that FFXIV isn't FFXI? Yawn. I hated XI and I like XIV.

Quite honestly, I'll agree that EXP levels from FATEs versus dungeons need to be changed, and the market is in a constant rollercoaster state. But really, the game has only been out for a month, things are still stabilizing right now. The rest of your post is just opinionated whining from someone who seems to have LOVED FFXI and I can't agree with any of it.

[vienne]

I fully agree with what you said, i really want to enjoy this game though, But logging in just feels like a waste of time atm. i'm willing to wait it out for a bit longer but the notes i read about the upcommig update dont look like they will be catering to my needs. I dont have the motivation to lvl to 50 cause knitting socks seems like more entertainment for now.

[Dynamis]

I really wanted to disagree with what you were about to say after reading you first few paragraphs, but after reading the meat of the article, I couldn't. You make some valid points.

[MistressAthena]

So basically you're mad that FFXIV isn't FFXI? Yawn. I hated XI and I like XIV.

Quite honestly, I'll agree that EXP levels from FATEs versus dungeons need to be changed, and the market is in a constant rollercoaster state. But really, the game has only been out for a month, things are still stabilizing right now. The rest of your post is just opinionated whining from someone who seems to have LOVED FFXI and I can't agree with any of it.

Wasn't gonna respond but /yawn it's so obvious when people don't read.

[MistressAthena]

I fully agree with what you said, i really want to enjoy this game though, But logging in just feels like a waste of time atm. i'm willing to wait it out for a bit longer but the notes i read about the upcommig update dont look like they will be catering to my needs. I dont have the motivation to lvl to 50 cause knitting socks seems like more entertainment for now.

I feel the same way, I'm making my own fun though, and just talking and spending time with friends, etc. is fun. I RP, and make videos, etc. It's an entertainment to me, but it could of been so much better. I think when they release more end game content it'll be a bit better, but that doesn't mean the majority of what I said will ever go away, it simply won't because of how they setup the game. Except End Game will have "new" dungeons to look forward too to grind 100x over.

I really wanted to disagree with what you were about to say after reading you first few paragraphs, but after reading the meat of the article, I couldn't. You make some valid points.

Thank you. I may have come off a bit wrong, or oddly on the start, I'm glad you took the time to read it though. <3

[ufufu]

Wasn't gonna respond but /yawn it's so obvious when people don't read.

You can believe that if you want. I certainly did read through your post; I just think that your opinions - because no matter what you say, that's what they are - are wrong.