FFXIV A Realm Reborn

[Jaall]

Weirdly enough the FFXI "crowd" seem to be the hardest to please when it comes to XIV. I know it's a different game but it's still a final fantasy and the atmosphere of final fantasy is still there. I played XI for so long because of the community and from what I've seen so far, the XIV community is mostly just as friendly as the XI player base.

There are a lot of changes to XIV and no it's not a XI clone like a lot of people wanted but that's actually a good thing in most ways. There are things that I think should copy over from FFXI, but overall it's got fantastic potential. I think anyone saying they won't play it without even trying it should give it a go, because you'll probably be pleasantly surprised even without the jobs you love (there are variants of a lot of XI jobs in XIV, but they have different names and every job has different mechanics regardless of name). XIV is a different game, but it's only bad if you go in expecting it to be an exact remake of XI. If you go in expecting a brand new, exciting mmo then you will probably find it much more enjoyable.

[Merton9999]

Yeah but the melee aspect is part of what I love most about RDM, I built my only Relic and Emp for RDM on FFXI and have always done my best to melee when possible. Taking that part out of the job just kind of kills it for me in a way. It would not really feel like my favorite job, just a cheap knockoff, like a SCH or something similar probably, and in that case, I would probably end up playing SCH since it was announced recently I thought.

SCH was announced recently but is not playable in the beta yet, similar to SMN and the starting class for both, Arcanist. I'm glad about this actually. Those are the classes that interest me the most, so I'd like to save the best for last, or in this case, until the official release.

Demon I think you should give this a try. The second paragraph of Mayoyama's post is what might interest you. The skill system structure is similar to Tactics. Instead of one subjob, you can assign skills from any other class you've leveled to your main class. Although, there are some limitations based on class. Depending on how those limitations play out, you might just be able to create your melee mage by maining GLD (the sword wielder) and assigning some spells to it from other classes.

FFXIV is a miracle of a game. Most of what I love about it has already been posted here. Rather than repeating that I'll give some personal facts:

1. For the first time in 17 years I spent two weekends playing a "new" video game for 24 hours straight. And last weekend I didn't even know the beta was shutting down on Sunday.

2. I never recommended XI to a friend that hadn't tried it already. I'm telling everyone I know who loves Final Fantasy to try XIV.

3. I never listened to a FFXI music track outside of the game on purpose. I have tracks from ARR favorited on YouTube to listen to at work (all official of course!).

4. When playing ARR alone, I stop regularly to take a screenshot or soak in the BGM. I have over 200 shots now, and many are used as wallpapers. When I was on PS2, I never reached the screenshot limit for XI.

5. People are complaining about a simplistic battle system, but just on THM I had a heck of a lot more fun in the early levels than playing BLM 1-10 in XI. I do hope it becomes as complex as XI in later levels but for the only levels I can compare, ARR is far better.

6. A good friend at work was on the beta for XIV 1.0. He decided from that to not buy it. He and I both reserved our collectors editions of XIV ARR last weekend.

Don't fall for any of the political, philosophical, economic or borderline religious junk that plagues this forum concerning XIV. If I see a game I think looks phenomenal, I'm going to sign up for a free beta or demo no matter what baggage it has. If it's fun I'll buy it. If it stops being fun for whatever reason SE has to make it that way, I'll cancel and move on then. For now, XIV feels like a Final Fantasy game I can play with friends. I would have never described XI that way.

[Crusader81]

Here are the screen shots I have, I couldn't find my Bubbly Bernie pic.






You may remember Ulhaudshi

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[Demon6324236]

I most definitely plan to try FFXIV, and I will probably love it, I just meant to say that my only problem with the game as of right now is the lack of RDM, I like the idea you can get somewhat close though.

[Duelle]

If anything the job class Musketeer might be XIV's RDM. Well it's melee side at least (that fencing thing).

You forget that real life musketeers were ALL about ranged combat and had the sword as a last resort if they found themselves in melee. The way archers had knives/axes as a means of self defense.

Musketeer should be designed around ranged DPS through firearms (guns, muskets). RDM should stem from Fencer because, well, it makes sense (fanmade pics, but get the point across).

[Alpheus]

You're right that was a blanket assumption going only by the movies and the (tho different) fact that both RDM and Musketeers had Pimp Hats.

That said I'd imagine them adding Guns w/ the Gunner/Fusilier class.

[Kaisha]

Weirdly enough the FFXI "crowd" seem to be the hardest to please when it comes to XIV

Doesn't help when a 'new' MMO lifts a lot of enemy models directly from FFXI and just slaps a higher resolution texture onto it.

It's also a WoW-clone, which is the polar opposite of how XI plays in terms of deliberate pacing and XP grinding (forced group-play + safe camps vs. grinding 50 quests solo in a zone you can slaughter mobs in 3 seconds with zero fear of death), or at least used to prior to Abyssea giving everyone a taste for easy-mode.

[Demon6324236]

Doesn't help when a 'new' MMO lifts a lot of enemy models directly from FFXI and just slaps a higher resolution texture onto it.

From what I heard it has some music shared with FFXI as well. Both of these things are good to me, not bad, because it means upon starting there will be somewhat a feel of similarity and familiarity to the game, it will not be FFXI, that's for sure, but it will have a familiar feel to it in a way, one which I will embrace and enjoy.

[BST]

Guess what else we got :


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And...


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Look! a giant crystal, and.. focus.. eye :


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I'm actually K.O in this picture, but where? ...

[Jaall]

It's also a WoW-clone, which is the polar opposite of how XI plays in terms of deliberate pacing and XP grinding (forced group-play + safe camps vs. grinding 50 quests solo in a zone you can slaughter mobs in 3 seconds with zero fear of death), or at least used to prior to Abyssea giving everyone a taste for easy-mode.

It's definitely not a WoW clone, have you played it? It looks slightly similar to WoW and yes you can kill mobs fairly quick if they're the same level as you, but fight those 2+ levels higher and suddenly it gets to the difficulty level of XI in terms of both damage done to the mob and the damage it does to you. If you consider those with the same level as you being "easy prey" and then those 2 levels higher being "decent challenge" - 3 levels higher being "even match" etc etc then you'll probably realise it's not that easy. EXP works the same too and increases for higher level mobs you fight.

In terms of XP grinding, currently they only have quests once and lets not forget that like XI you can change class/job any time you like on 1 character. Therefore if you finish all quests (they don't give much exp compared to a lot of WoW clones) which you likely will on 1-2 classes then you are left to grind. There are also leve's which seem like an updated version of Fields of Valor that is essentially a varied grind. The only issue I have with leve's are that you have a limit on how many you can do in a certain time frame.

FFXI players looking for an XI clone will forever be unhappy. There will never be another XI and I think that's pretty obvious. XIV however is the next best thing to that and is probably the closest any game will ever come to it, especially with the atmosphere largely being the same. You will still run around seeing Chocobos, Mithra, Taru and Galka etc. XIV is definitely a FF and definitely has the feel of the older FF games which IMO were a lot better than the latest versions.

If, like I said, an XI player goes into XIV, not expecting it to be an XI clone but expecting it to be a whole new game then you will probably be pleasantly surprised. If you go in expecting an XI clone, expect to be disappointed. Also in the same respects if you expect XIV to be like any other mmo then you have it wrong and it will cloud your vision. In reality the only similarities between XIV and WoW are the quest system and UI, but that is essentially what makes an mmo. Just because WoW started that off and made a huge success everyone thereafter blames every game designer of copying WoW but that simply is not the case.