To the Development Team from a PS3 User, Please read.
These are some major concerns I have as a PS3 player that are making me really wonder if I can keep playing this game. I've included a TL/DR at the end of the post for those that want to skip my full explanation.
I want to start by saying, I really love the game. You all have done a wonderful job crafting a very balanced, enriched and beautiful world for my friends and I to explore. Literally everything I like about MMO's is in this game, I always dreamed that FFXI would be like this, and low and behold my dream world is here. There are some problems, sure but I was ready to work past them, ready to work hard to prove that console gamers do have a place in this world contrary to what some PC gamers think. I have a ridiculously fast internet connection and still have these problems, leading me to believe it must be the game and/or the PS3 hardware. I know I have the skills to keep up with them, but the game and the hardware on PS3 currently do not.
First of all, being unable to actually participate in most FATE's due to the lack of enemies loading or loading only upon their defeat was frustrating, but I managed to level up through other ways or suffering through lower EXP gains than my PC counterparts. I thought, "Hey, it's just one aspect of the game, the dungeons seem to be alright!" Man, I really wonder what that Dragon in Coerthas looks like....
However, as I played more and more finally reaching cap and running my Amdapor's Keep for stones I started realizing the dungeons have issues with the PS3 as well. Occasionally one of my party members will dissappear, I will see they are casting on the party screen and see the combat lines for engaging, but I will not see their character, their animations, or be able to target them. Luckily I'm a bard and not a healer, but this one flaw will keep me from feeling like I can do endgame as a healer on PS3 because I would hate to have someone die simply because I cannot target them. For example in coil turn 2 i wiped a whole party because the player I was passing allagan rot too had been glitched and stuck in the 2nd room on my screen and it happened on the next attempt too, forcing our group to rework the entire strategy, but it proved too detrimental. I worry people won't play with PS3 people because they are a liability for the mechanics you've put in place and the errors that are occuring.
Also, in fights like titan, the slightest graphical lag could kill me, I've seen landslides hit me while i'm 8 yalms aways and had immediately run upon the appearance of the graphic, bombs that dissapear having exploded seconds before with no graphics of the explosion, and Plumes that appear instantly at the end of their casting time underneath me. I had to play titan during non peak times to get the win. I've had garuda summon her storm, and even if I leave slightly early being familiar with the timing, once I even ended up dead from the outter circle storm in phase 2 and I died dead center from the attack!
Not only that but I have been locked out of several boss fights in the final dungeon runs simply because the loading time is so much slower on PS3 and if someone pulls the boss, there's nothing I can do until the game loads even if I skip the cutscenes.
My fear, as I'm sure is Yoshi P's is that PC players will say, "We don't want this PS3 Player in our group because they won't be as good, or won't be able to keep up." simply because we are not playing on a PC and nothing to do with our skill level. And also as a FC leader of a group of a majority of PS3 players I wonder how this will affect our FC ability to help others through content and progress through endgame as a group.
I understand there are limits on the hardware, but Prioritizing enemies, NPC's and Party memebers for the PS3 users out there should be a number 1 priority and I encourage the dev team to play more on the PS3 using the Controller and seeing how much more skilled you must be to play at the same level as a PC users. Thanks for your time and consideration and I hope that these changes can be made for the good of the community and the game!
Lynx - A concerned PS3 endgame player.
TL/DR
PS3 users are suffering from NUMEROUS graphical glitches, horrible load times, game breaking lag on major boss fights with split second decisions that could lead to full party wipes or fails. This must be addressed if they wish to have PS3 users continue to play and enjoy the game (especially the endgame content) the same way the PC users can. A player paying the same amount of money and the having the same skill level as a PC player shouldn't be incapable of completing content because of flaws in the game's graphics or the hardware limitations that are fully understood by the developers. This is imperative for the overall health and enjoyment of the console gaming community!
Thanks!