RPG Fan FFXIV Review has been updated (and is actually positive)

Just wanted to share with ya'll, it's the 5th time they review FFXIV.

http://www.rpgfan.com/reviews/Final_Fantasy_XIV/index5.html

Good article. I actually agree with everything in it, and it's clear the author has actually played more than one hour of the game, unlike most of the other FFXIV reviews I've read.

I do like it how things have been turning around. :)

Refreshing to see an honest review... In fact I think he was even a bit too positive about the UI (I think it's still sub-par) but his complaints are legitimate and informed. You can tell the reviewer played the game for an extensive amount of time and has a good grasp on mostly everything.

Hopefully more reviewers follow suit when 2.0 comes out.

Positive?? This is a trap, that link will blow up my computer. I know your scam

:)

Fair review. Acknowledges that a lot of things in the game has been fixed, but still a long way to go.

This is the best review I have seen, not because its positive (though that is nice) the reviewer actually played for more than 10 mins, they played through pretty much everything we have to make an informed decision, rather than the old "the character creation SUX, the whole level I obtaind woz too slow, kthnx rating 20 bai"

Also it shows all the same concerns as the community and acnowladges all the recent changes, awesome review :)

wow a good honest review? the world is really going to end isn't is? o.O

the only thing i disagree with is that i think the low droprates on the primal battles are exaggerated in my opinion (maybe im just super lucky which i doubt) and he forgot to state that garudas tokens have a good droprate.

There were a few innacuracies in the review

and theres something in the reward system i wished he woulda mentioned, but otherwise a pretty fair review

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Originally Posted by Yumi_Hibiki

wow a good honest review? the world is really going to end isn't is? o.O

the only thing i disagree with is that i think the low droprates on the primal battles are exaggerated in my opinion (maybe im just super lucky which i doubt) and he forgot to state that garudas tokens have a good droprate.

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Didn't seem exaggerated to me. The reward system is based primarily on luck and doesn't reward effort.

Good review. Thanks for posting! I don't understand the 65% score for sound at all, but I agree with the complaint regarding drop rates. I think the change to the reward system in the Garuda fight is a significant improvement, but getting Darklight gear or other Primal weapons is still a lottery.

I do think there's a reason for this though. They want to keep these items special and rare, but if they demand too much skill or precision, the players come up against the limitations of the current system. Hopefully we'll see more demanding content in 2.0 when this is no longer a concern.

I agree with every point he made, and mostly with this.

"The instanced dungeons are also offensive. These raids reward groups with more treasure chests based on speed of completion. Some dungeons will award additional treasure based on certain combat or task conditions as well. In theory this sounds relatively harmless, but it has made the community completely ostracize characters in melee jobs who want to run these raids. Those brave souls who try to go against this practice find themselves being completely unable to finish the content successfully. To add fuel to the fire, the best dungeon equipment has a ridiculously low drop rate even with a perfect 5 chest speed run. This leads to groups zipping through content over and over with zero group flexibility until they burn out. Players don't have a chance to really experience and enjoy the dungeons, because they're too busy running past enemies to meet the speed run requirement. In its current state, the primal fights and dungeon raids are unforgiving rat races that reward mostly luck, not hard work. Not a great way to attract new players who are accustomed to being rewarded for their efforts."

78%? The servers and engine alone drag the game down to <60%. The sad truth is, no matter what they do to the current game it will still be crap until the engine and server infrastructure are replaced.

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Originally Posted by Betelgeuzah

78%? The servers and engine alone drag the game down to <60%. The sad truth is, no matter what they do to the current game it will still be crap until the engine and server infrastructure are replaced.

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All things considered the review is a very accurate view of the current state of the game, yes server lag wasn't metioned, but if you hate the game (only time you would call a game "crap" why are you playing?)

The guy who reviewed the game indeed played a lot, even has a few 50s. So, yep, is not someone who played a few hours and made a "review"

http://www.rpgfan.com/boards/index.php?topic=8556.60

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Originally Posted by Andrien

I agree with every point he made, and mostly with this.

"The instanced dungeons are also offensive. These raids reward groups with more treasure chests based on speed of completion. Some dungeons will award additional treasure based on certain combat or task conditions as well. In theory this sounds relatively harmless, but it has made the community completely ostracize characters in melee jobs who want to run these raids. Those brave souls who try to go against this practice find themselves being completely unable to finish the content successfully. To add fuel to the fire, the best dungeon equipment has a ridiculously low drop rate even with a perfect 5 chest speed run. This leads to groups zipping through content over and over with zero group flexibility until they burn out. Players don't have a chance to really experience and enjoy the dungeons, because they're too busy running past enemies to meet the speed run requirement. In its current state, the primal fights and dungeon raids are unforgiving rat races that reward mostly luck, not hard work. Not a great way to attract new players who are accustomed to being rewarded for their efforts."

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100% agreed, the bold text, I could have not worded that better.

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Originally Posted by AdvancedWind

The guy who reviewed the game indeed played a lot, even has a few 50s. So, yep, is not someone who played a few hours and made a "review"

http://www.rpgfan.com/boards/index.php?topic=8556.60

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Infact all DoW lvl 50, heres his lodestone page.

http://lodestone.finalfantasyxiv.com...cicuid=1294507

Kudos to the reviewer for not hiding his character name :)

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Originally Posted by Delsus

All things considered the review is a very accurate view of the current state of the game, yes server lag wasn't metioned, but if you hate the game (only time you would call a game "crap" why are you playing?)

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All things considered the servers and engine suck, which make or break any game. Nothing works well enough if the foundation doesn't.

I don't hate the game and it is still crap. Maybe it is just crap regardless of my emotional connection to it. Oh the wonders of the world.

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Originally Posted by Betelgeuzah

All things considered the servers and engine suck, which make or break any game. Nothing works well enough if the foundation doesn't.

I don't hate the game and it is still crap. Maybe it is just crap regardless of my emotional connection to it. Oh the wonders of the world.

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Then you don't feel the game is crap, because thats an extreme way of saying you dislike it, lets put it into another context, do you say "I feel like crap" if you are fine? do you say food "is crap" when its the best food you have had?

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Originally Posted by Delsus

Then you don't feel the game is crap, because thats an extreme way of saying you dislike it, lets put it into another context, do you say "I feel like crap" if you are fine? do you say food "is crap" when its the best food you have had?

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I say the food is crap when it looks and smells good but is made from rotten ingredients that spoil the whole thing.

That doesn't mean I hate it. It means I think it's bad food (which it is, unless you can overlook the fact it's rotten to the core).

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Originally Posted by Delsus

Then you don't feel the game is crap, because thats an extreme way of saying you dislike it, lets put it into another context, do you say "I feel like crap" if you are fine? do you say food "is crap" when its the best food you have had?

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Sometimes you like the game enough you are willing to deal with the server/UI issues.

It's funny how a year ago people were calling these guys terrible because they gave the game a bad review (Allbeit with out of date data and other flaws)

But it's all good in the hood with a new positive upswing.

I think that was a different site, not RPG Fan, the one that's always biased in reviews? MMO site was the one that reveiws FFXIV (and other MMOs) just before a patch or update to bring negative attention to it iirc?

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Originally Posted by Elexia

I think that was a different site, not RPG Fan, the one that's always biased in reviews? MMO site was the one that reveiws FFXIV (and other MMOs) just before a patch or update to bring negative attention to it iirc?

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Yep, MMORPG.com if I'm remembering correctly.

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Originally Posted by Jynx

It's funny how a year ago people were calling these guys terrible because they gave the game a bad review (Allbeit with out of date data and other flaws)

But it's all good in the hood with a new positive upswing.

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That was mmorpg.com. That other article was written with completely outdated info and didn't even include new screenshots, all the ones they claimed were new, were screenshots from launch. Mmorpg.com basically republished a review from launch and called it a re-review.

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Originally Posted by Jynx

It's funny how a year ago people were calling these guys terrible because they gave the game a bad review (Allbeit with out of date data and other flaws)

But it's all good in the hood with a new positive upswing.

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I think its mostly due to the fact that its a thorough review who spent alot of time not a quick 30 min one.

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Originally Posted by Fear

I think its mostly due to the fact that its a thorough review who spent alot of time not a quick 30 min one.

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Or the fact it's a completely different site...

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Originally Posted by Leyza

Or the fact it's a completely different site...

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This is more like it. I confronted the mmorpg.com "journalists" on their forums and let them know how I felt about their lack of journalistic integrity back when that "re review" was published. Of course they banned me.

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Originally Posted by Molly_Millions

This is more like it. I confronted the mmorpg.com "journalists" on their forums and let them know how I felt about their lack of journalistic integrity back when that "re review" was published. Of course they banned me.

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I remember that. It's why I don't trust them. IGN all the way, for me!

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Originally Posted by Molly_Millions

This is more like it. I confronted the mmorpg.com "journalists" on their forums and let them know how I felt about their lack of journalistic integrity back when that "re review" was published. Of course they banned me.

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I got constant bans from mmorpg.com for disagreeing with the reviewer. They think they are right about everything to hell with what other people think, now if they post an up to date review and the reviewer actually plays the game rather than watching youtube vids, I will give them some credit.

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Originally Posted by Delsus

I got constant bans from mmorpg.com for disagreeing with the reviewer. They think they are right about everything to hell with what other people think, now if they post an up to date review and the reviewer actually plays the game rather than watching youtube vids, I will give them some credit.

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It still wouldn't give them any credibility, they lost that a long time ago. By banning dissenters they've lost any respect I might have had for them, and have proven they are not to be trusted.

i completely agree with the primal drop rates, i love the game and play it all the time. hell im playing it right now, but i've done ifrit and moogle so many times and still rarely get anything i need, it makes me not even want to fight them anymore, i just always expect dark matter >.>

and i cant even try garuda much because nobody does it since its so hard, and if people do do it, its in a ls with a group of people who do it together all the time and probly talk on vent together. im just saying that you cant do that with random people which really sucks.

but back to the point, im not saying drop rates for primals need to change exactly but they should at least be passable. i cant tell you how many times a party member got something he didnt want or had multiples of and it was just lost.
i know i got 3 ifrits blades sofar and dont have my gld lvled.
totems are a joke too and dark matter is a slap in the face
dont hate, it had to be said lol

Awesome review. And I agree. This speedrun mentality has to go. :D

I think a big reason for all this luck based stuff is simply that there's not enough content to keep interest if it was skill based.
A lot of people would finish too quickly.

It is possible the speedrun mentality could stop in 2.0 since if you consider how the servers are now, when to many people are doing an instance it becomes harder to enter, which is true for an event that just started. So making it where said event is timed and encouraging people to finish it fast helps to open up space so groups can enter quicker and not be thwarted by those who may take their sweet time killing everything. When the fact is that speedruns help to improve the loot you gain I guess one could conclude the reason for it is to help open up instances. If instances had no time limits and people took their time to comb through the dungeon then odds are we would run into a lot of issues in which people can't enter a dungeon because groups are hogging it. So when they are forced out by a timer and have to wait to re-enter it makes it easier for the next group to enter since said group that just left can't compete.

With that said though I'd like it if they took more of a Hamlet route with how they determine the loot. Using a point system perhaps keeping said dungeon time based to an hour but make it where speedrunning isn't the best way to go about it. Or even add it where unlocking certain mysterious requirements grants the chance at additional loot. The golden bat appears in the 3rd room after opening the last gate to the boss but only if you've slaughtered all the mobs before opening the gate to the boss. Granted it's simple there could also be more complex requirements like having to kill certain mobs or luring a group of mobs to designated location.

There are a lot of ways they could go about it but most likely due to server issues we'll be dealing with speedruns til we are in 2.0.

Read the entire thing, was a good review, it really made me think how far the game has come since launch and all the anoying things in the game that have been fixed.

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Originally Posted by Gramul

I think a big reason for all this luck based stuff is simply that there's not enough content to keep interest if it was skill based.
A lot of people would finish too quickly.

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That's somewhat true, but people who can do it quickly are going to try and finish it ASAP, get their drops, and move on way before new content comes out anyways. Giving the dungeons artificial longevity through a poor drop rate that rewards luck more than skill is just bad design overall, and that's not counting the lag and instance congestion that occurs from groups constantly repeating the dungeon who would otherwise have stopped by now if not for the badly designed reward system.

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Originally Posted by SwordCoheir

That's somewhat true, but people who can do it quickly are going to try and finish it ASAP, get their drops, and move on way before new content comes out anyways. Giving the dungeons artificial longevity through a poor drop rate that rewards luck more than skill is just bad design overall, and that's not counting the lag and instance congestion that occurs from groups constantly repeating the dungeon who would otherwise have stopped by now if not for the badly designed reward system.

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Hopefully that will change as they add more things to do.

That was somewhat a good review in a viewpoint of a knswledgable MMOPRG player of the game he's reviewing. Gramul above makes a good point and it's a point where "Squenix" is at fault. Like 5+ years developing this game before launch and nowhere near the amount of content expected from collective data from what worked in FFXI?? Where's the cross examination consisting this observation.

The review was positive. FFXIV deserves a review reflecting its improvements! I'm real sure the RPG style of 14 will improve, the UI will improve, the playability, the drop-rates, the story, the content in general will increase and improve....(pheeew). We still forget that SE has developed/ published... so many RPGs and just one MMO... that's still running from the year 2003!
That review really should've talked about points concerning things we can't really see and why we can't see it. The game in the state it is now, was it meant to build up to this point as planned?

As long as the 2.0 content will have me(and most of you) playing till 2013 and beyond with minimal updates(not including maint.), it'll be well enough compensation for the fail and catching up they had to do within a whole year. They promised us new areas, meaning expansions. It really should be halfway on par with Final Fantasy XI. That should of been in the review and 'that' my friends would of been priceless.

Oh, shout out to my LS: Lux Nocturna. You made me the Monk I alway wanted to be! (I just don't have my plush Moogle-fist yet) We will survive!!! XD
:cool:

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Originally Posted by Yumi_Hibiki

wow a good honest review? the world is really going to end isn't is? o.O

the only thing i disagree with is that i think the low droprates on the primal battles are exaggerated in my opinion (maybe im just super lucky which i doubt) and he forgot to state that garudas tokens have a good droprate.

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As someone whose party got two drops in the Golden Bazaar in five runs (scythe and choker), but am currently sitting at EASILY 0/200+ on Ifrit's Bow, I can guaran-damn-tee you this game's entire drop system is luck.

Except Garuda, where is just plain damn impossible to even beat since the patch without either Krishna, Zeus or Susano-o somewhere in your party lineup.

I liked the article, but I sort of feel like a lot of what the author was saying was based on what their expectations for 2.0 are rather than where the game is at now. Enthusiasm is all good but...I hope no one is banking on a miraclefixeverythingomggoldencancercuringrobots patch anymore and we can move past that childish notion and just enjoy what comes.