What XIV is and isn't

What Final Fantasy is:

Limitless.
Final Fantasy has no limits. Characters have been known to breathe underwater, leap stories into the sky, fly aircraft at supersonic speeds and into space, heft mighty weapons with superhuman strength, travel through time, dimension, and dreams… all while saving the world with their sensuality and charm.

Surreal.
You never know what you’re going to get with a Final Fantasy title. The only thing you can expect is the unexpected. Flying lizards, savage wolves from a prehistoric era, massive, mutated aliens, green men with knives, massive quadrupeds that reach for the sky, cities that float in the clouds, pulsing lights, epic motorcycles.

Unique.
There is nothing quite like a Final Fantasy title. The characters are ones you have never heard of, from a world you could only dream. The main character has been everything from a super SOLDIER, to a dream, to a figment of an imagination, male, female, quasi-animal. Every one of them has a distinct and personal look that every fan of the series will instantly recognize, which is why games like Dissidia are so popular.

Bold.
Final Fantasy always pushes the limits. They aren’t happy until your character is slicing an entire building in two with his sword, or calling massive meteorites from the void of space to crush her foes. Characters commonly do the improbable to the impossible, and that’s just fine.

Traditional.
Final Fantasy always sticks to tradition, despite the unique and bold flavor of each title. The music, composed by the legendary Nobou Uaemitsu, is always fresh and new while retaining the homage to the past. Chocobos, summoned creatures, class types, crystals are all prevalent in every Final Fantasy title, which reminds us in subtle ways that we are playing part of a legendary history.



What Final Fantasy XIV is:

Limited.
XIV’s characters cannot even jump from the ground, nor run at any fantastic speed, or climb a wall. They jog from point A to point B, trying their best not to be destroyed by a rodent along the way. They are fearful and intimidated by the world, their expressionless faces showing no resolve or determination. They cannot lift epic weapons, or wear fantastic armor. They have no interest in saving the world. They’re just thrown into it and are hoping to escape as fast as possible.

Real.
The characters of XIV are plain, boring, and as brown as the world they hail from. Their hairstyles are plain and uninspired, their faces are cute – and not in a good way. While the body shapes can be somewhat aesticially pleasing, the males look like computer nerds the way they hunch over, and the females run like dainty little girls, as opposed to daring adventurers. The armor is plain, and while I’m sure that the realists are rejoicing to see “real” armor, the rest of us are sighing that we just worked for several hours to days to get a boring, plainly-colored jerkin.

The most notable example is the hairstyles. Compare Claire “Lightning” Farron’s hairstyle to any style in XIV, and you’ll see what I mean. It has no life, no uniqueness, and therefore no interest to me.

I wish nothing more than uniqueness in my character, and that is even proving to be a real stretch. We are simply too limited in the creation process. Far too limited.

Copied.
There is virtually nothing innovative about XIV. The characters are veritable carbon-copies of XI, the world is as plain as any world in video games, and Square appears to be doing their best to change the rest of it into the style of other MMO’s, a style that has been used time and time again with failed results. A copy of a certain popular game doesn’t make it better.

Timid.
Developers are scared to do much of anything, which is understandable since the average internet player is usually trying to create a bot to break the system and dominate over other players. It’s taken several months to even implement a jump system, and even now it appears its falling off due to the issues certain members of the community bring to light. Someday, maybe with the next MMO, Square will realize that characters in Final Fantasy have no limits. That’s what makes it special.

Untraditional.
There is virtually nothing that reminds me of “Final Fantasy” in XIV, aside from the theme music at the character creation screen. No chocobos, no summons, no jobs, no incredible spells, recognizable costumes, nothing. Final Fantasy should be a celebration of all the things that made the game great, much like Dissidia was and is – well, without the “fighting game” part. Not sure what that’s about.

The music a lot of people seem to hail, but I don’t see where it is so wonderful. The dungeons are without music, the fighting theme is bland and repetitive, as is most world music. While I understand that the original composer game up with this music as well, it doesn’t seem as inspired.



While I understand that the game is a work in progress and some of these things are being addressed, I just wish that I were playing an actual Final Fantasy title, not whatever this is. Personally, if they added more Final Fantasy elements to the game, I would be a lot more on the happy side. More than anything else, the strange class names, lack of uniqueness, bland music, cutsiness, and copy-style of other games disappoints me.

So it will sit on my hard drive, until I feel it's fixed or they release a better game in the future.

I'm sure it won't go anywhere, as it is hard to do much of anything since I realized that Final Fantasy XIII-2 - a game created as the purpose of being a Fanservice to Lightning - doesn't feature Lightning as a main character. I'l be scratching my head on that one for a long, long time.

I'm glad they're working on it, but as with all things, I'll believe it when I see it.

I disagree. The game is pretty amazing now atm.
As for FF13-2.. That game will rock.
Who cares you cant go through the game again with Lightning..
FF10-10 Didnt have the same characters. Only 2.

OK I haven't found the same magic as FF7 had yet but.. FF7 is the most unique game there is.
If they would remake FF7 on Ps3 as an exact copy of the old 1 just better graphics and all.. Damn.
That would be lovely :D

I agree with some of this. FFXI was a typical RPG setting found in the FF rpgs, blended into an mmo setting. That's all I wanted in XIV also. Some of the classic ff elements aren't there, and FF elements aren't staples, they can be new to every game, I don't know how to explain it I guess. But the music in XI like in Jeuno reminded me of the music in some of the classic castles in FF games. Simple things like music, lighting, and placement are off in my opinion.

i completely agree.

If you took the name off the game, there isn't anyone who would think it is a Final Fantasy title. That's what really amazes me. I know I'm just another complainer, but if they simply made a list on a marker board at one of their meetings that said what is "great" about Final Fantasy and went from there, I'm fairly sure they would have more success.

I think their biggest error was making it part of the sequel stream, as opposed to simply "Final Fantasy Online". Kind of like Ultima wasn't Ultima 10 - it was Ultima Online. Separate, distinct, with a direct focus on all the best things about the series.

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Originally Posted by Alexis_Arteme

If you took the name off the game, there isn't anyone who would think it is a Final Fantasy title. That's what really amazes me. I know I'm just another complainer, but if they simply made a list on a marker board at one of their meetings that said what is "great" about Final Fantasy and went from there, I'm fairly sure they would have more success.

I think their biggest error was making it part of the sequel stream, as opposed to simply "Final Fantasy Online". Kind of like Ultima wasn't Ultima 10 - it was Ultima Online. Separate, distinct, with a direct focus on all the best things about the series.

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Oh don't get me wrong Alexis..
I do miss the big extreme skills like Lionheart and Omnislash and Summons like in FF7.
Or just take the magic Spell Ultima in FF7.. It still gives me shivers when i play that game and use the magic Ultima :D
I miss that in the new Final Fantasy's.
It's true that the skills and Fantasy part has become a lil simple.
But the games do stay fun to play :-)

I play games to be more than I am in real life. I want to be a great hero in a fantasy world. Not just another person, and sadly in FFXIV that's exactly how I feel.

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Originally Posted by Alexis_Arteme

I play games to be more than I am in real life. I want to be a great hero in a fantasy world. Not just another person, and sadly in FFXIV that's exactly how I feel.

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Yes.

/10chars

LOL pretty much what the OP said. Sad but thats the reality, wont keep us from hoping tho.

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Originally Posted by Alexis_Arteme

I play games to be more than I am in real life. I want to be a great hero in a fantasy world. Not just another person, and sadly in FFXIV that's exactly how I feel.

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Point taken.
But isnt that in every MMORPG? :-)
You are what you want to be.
And everyone is a hero on its own unique way in real life :-)

totally agree they would make a killing in sales

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Originally Posted by GreatLeviathan

Point taken.
But isnt that in every MMORPG? :-)
You are what you want to be.
And everyone is a hero on its own unique way in real life :-)

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Well right now "we're all just normal people" because we have no content right?, maybe given content some of us we feel like we're heroes.

And this is quoting anyone just a general reply. When I play FFIII or IV, i dont think "wow i did that", I kind of think "wow the group set up here, thats what did that" "my rdm was excellent", or "that blm rdm whm drk" set up kind of raped till the whm got hate :/, I still think of me as the brains but the party as pulling it off due to the jobs I had to choose. III more so I guess because you choose the jobs of the adventurers much like XI. I would like that back the feeling of "we accomplished this together", I do guildleves in groups, and the missions, I tried to get as many people as the mission allowed, but why? So the cutscene would only have the party leaders companion? The feeling at the end of guildleves or missions done with 2-3 people don't even give me the gorup feeling that FFIII did :/

i'm just waiting for the day that they scrap this failure

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Originally Posted by Daisycutter

i'm just waiting for the day that they scrap this failure

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What the heck dude? Why are you here and playing the game if you can't stand it? I mean really? What would someone continue to do something even when they don't like it, and complain about it all the while??? I really don't get people like you.
I can only hope new prospective players read my posts and understand that FFXIV's biggest problem isn't lack of content, or faulty battle mechanics (anymore). The biggest issue FFXIV has is people like you!

Granted you ARE entitled to your opinion as am I, however I truly believe the biggest problem I see with this game is the large decline in active players after SE's initial messup. However, the majority of the issues have been and are being addressed and in reality the only thing REALLY holding this game back is the lacking influx of fresh new players excited for a grand adventure. It is comments like yours Daisycutter that help prevent this from happening.

This game would be WONDERFUL in it's current state (albeit with much room for improvement, which is OK in my books) if only their were more people playing it...

There is a reason why people are upset. It's because this game was and still is a failure.

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Originally Posted by Quoc

There is a reason why people are upset. It's because this game was and still is a failure.

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No. A failure is people who play a game and bi*ch and moan about how they don't like it. REALLY doesn't make sense to me...

There weren't any summons on launch of FFXI either. Summoner, and even DRG were expansions. It goes almost without saying that expansions will bring more of the classes we love back. We also know Chocobos are coming. They are working on it, so there is really no point in complaining. It's coming.

The thing about any mmorpg is any feature they add will result in people who love it, and people who complain. The difference is that the people who love it will be in game enjoying it, while the people who don't will be on the forums complaining. The problem is, the forums get so spammed with only the complainers, it gives the illusion that the entire community feels the same way.

Please understand that I'm not saying this about you, and even this situation since we can agree that FFXIV has a lot of flaws, but at the same time, I can say that I enjoy it. I can think what are my goals for today, what are my goals for tomorrow, how will I accomplish those goals, I can plan excursions, etc. I'm enjoying my time, and hopeful for future updates. We can't be mad at SE because we can't jump 40 feet in the air. Can you imagine everyone bouncing around like children.. It wouldn't be realistic, and it certainly wouldn't make people feel unique. FFXIV isn't just about sensual-ism, but realism as well. It's immersive, and I won't feel immersive if I'm hopping everywhere I go like a kangaroo.

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Originally Posted by HappyHimitsu

No. A failure is people who play a game and bi*ch and moan about how they don't like it. REALLY doesn't make sense to me...

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If people didn't bitch and moan, this game wouldn't have progressed in any way and would still be that hunk of crap that it was a year ago.

I agree. The game is nice the way it is already and it will only get better.

indeed we don't want another cartoonish kidsgame like world of warcraft.

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Originally Posted by GreatLeviathan

indeed we don't want another cartoonish kidsgame like world of warcraft.

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Every time I talk to someone who I end up dislikeing "without them knowing ovcourse" I ask them if they play WOW, and they always say yes.

I think what it is, is you take a shy modest kid who doens't really have a lot going for him or her, and you give them WOW. They get level 85+ or w.e it is now with super amazing armor, and all of a sudden they think SO highly of themselves. It gives them this unwarranted sense of confidence that drives me up the wall.

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Originally Posted by Quoc

If people didn't bitch and moan, this game wouldn't have progressed in any way and would still be that hunk of crap that it was a year ago.

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It has progressed and that is my point, so if you agree why were you bitching?

I understand what you are getting at, I just believe there are more constructive ways of doing things.
Are you as stoked for Chocobos as I am?? :D

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Originally Posted by alexi14

Every time I talk to someone who I end up dislikeing "without them knowing ovcourse" I ask them if they play WOW, and they always say yes.

I think what it is, is you take a shy modest kid who doens't really have a lot going for him or her, and you give them WOW. They get level 85+ or w.e it is now with super amazing armor, and all of a sudden they think SO highly of themselves. It gives them this unwarranted sense of confidence that drives me up the wall.

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I agree. A little e-peen isn't such a bit deal, I mean it IS pretty cool when you get high level with the best equipment and can pwn lvl 30 mobs in 1 or 2 hits, but many people forget that IRL none of it counts. It is a video game lol. :D

I started playing again after the disastrous beta experience. The game has improved its true. I would say that not as greatly as I expected seeing how its close to 1 year from release and thats quite a lot of time. Im not a FFXIV hater but I have mixed feelings with this game. I love some parts of it but some other parts just make me want to smash it.

Sadly I think that the parts I hate seem to be unfiaxable, they are in the very core of the game. The game is focused to be played in ps3 and pad and Im a pc lover and mouse+keyboard fanatic. So I find the slowness of the interface, the count in seconds delay of actions, the lethargic character conversation, the sluggish menu navigation insufferable. It has been slightly improved but still cant stand it is like going back to 1994 and the firsts O.S. slowness.

I play a couple of hours a day and it takes more than 30 minutes to talk to the guild vendors, the leve providers, the quest speeches, journal navigation, retainer interaction. So Im wasting 25%-33% of my time just with the interaction between machines and menu navigation and this is something that I cant understand.

I will keep playing casually to see if the new aditions make up for that great flaw I find in this game I really hope they make a great game and add some more user friendly functions to let the casual player as myself to enjoy to their most their playing time doing enjoyable things.

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Originally Posted by Hasthur

I started playing again after the disastrous beta experience. The game has improved its true. I would say that not as greatly as I expected seeing how its close to 1 year from release and thats quite a lot of time. Im not a FFXIV hater but I have mixed feelings with this game. I love some parts of it but some other parts just make me want to smash it.

Sadly I think that the parts I hate seem to be unfiaxable, they are in the very core of the game. The game is focused to be played in ps3 and pad and Im a pc lover and mouse+keyboard fanatic. So I find the slowness of the interface, the count in seconds delay of actions, the lethargic character conversation, the sluggish menu navigation insufferable. It has been slightly improved but still cant stand it is like going back to 1994 and the firsts O.S. slowness.

I play a couple of hours a day and it takes more than 30 minutes to talk to the guild vendors, the leve providers, the quest speeches, journal navigation, retainer interaction. So Im wasting 25%-33% of my time just with the interaction between machines and menu navigation and this is something that I cant understand.

I will keep playing casually to see if the new aditions make up for that great flaw I find in this game I really hope they make a great game and add some more user friendly functions to let the casual player as myself to enjoy to their most their playing time doing enjoyable things.

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It's funny how much we can all differ in opinions. I do have to agree that the menu is very tedious (I really can't understand why we can't use shortcuts for all of it) but other than that I actually enjoy the quest speeches and such. I feel they add to the game and should not all just be rushed through, though I am probably in the minority as such. That is why I do not enjoy 99% of mmorpgs out there, they all feel too rushed to me, too concentrated on quick gameplay and not enough emphasis on story line. FF has always been about the story, and I enjoy that.

The only other thing I can't help but pick at is the cut and paste environments. Maybe I am too early in the game and just haven't explored enough but I swear when walking through Gridania it felt like I was running in circles when I wasn't (I think SE wanted it to be maze like, but instead made it too redundant. This sort of thing only works when we don't have a full map of the area, otherwise it is pointless). They even had the same slab of stone graphic in the exact same place in multiple areas!
Other than that however, I am in Love with this game :)

Its not the speeches I dislike its that it takes me 3 seconds to read the chat and 3 seconds for the next sentence to appear. And all those transitions from one character to another that give black screens for 5 seconds (my pc isnt the best so it could be less for others). I love story in games but look at those quests how many words those conversations have and how long it takes. The chat window has like 2 lines of big letters text in the end its just a few dozen lines of script that take minutes to unfold.

And yeah I have to agree im playing at Gridania and everything is so repetitive that it gets boring corridor after corridor that look exactly the same.

It doesn't bother me so much now that I have traveled to the other cities and can just teleport between them. :)

I agree completely with OP. It is quite disheartening esp. if you have played FFXI.
I think it's obvious and that is why the whole team has been replaced and are taking it serious and going forward with changes.
So will have to give them credit for that and being a Square-Enix and an FF title.. have to keep hopes up.

So long as we keep expressing our thoughts and frustration and addressing the issues annoying us about FFXIV, hopefully they will be addressed one by one.

I as many others am inclined to bash the game hard and will probably do so out of frustration but i think it's important for us all to keep focus on offering solutions and ideas to improve it.. so it can move forward to what we all want it to be. a Classic unique enjoyable FF title.

Completely agree with OP in all aspects, thank you!

Another point I'd like to raise is how I can't stand grinding, and how this game forces you to do so in order to make any progress as a "war" class.
In any other Final Fantasy you were able to travel/adventure/progress in the story while at least maintaining the appropriate level of your character. In XIV this is not the same.

In XIV you must patiently kill the same monster over and over and over until you reach the appropriate level to do anything. This alone is EXACTLY like other MMOs and drastically takes away from the Final Fantasy feel; I may as well play those free MMOs out there...it's the same thing.

Do you see what I'm saying?