Final Fantasy XIV is the best Final Fantasy since XII

I just think this needs to be said!

In every way, this game delivers where Final Fantasy XIII did not:

• HD Towns
• airships(sorta)
• job system
• final fantasy esque story (heroes - empire)
• witty dialogue
• Tributes to classic Final Fantasy music(there's plenty of this in this game)
• Relatable characters
• nostalgia and modern final fanasy feeling
• it's online, yeahh

Thumbs up Square Enix for a job well done!

I have to agree with the OP.
The Final Fantasy atmosphere that got lost in the last couple titles finally came back. We really feel the Final Fantasy essence in this game...

I honestly am very surprised. Just hope they can keep it goin !

As the game is really good as a ff game and as mmorpg thes servers are as bad.this game is the mmo so many people (me as well) looked for.finally a mmo they deliver all the core of what rpg is.not as some games like gw 2 that have lots of adones but not the core.the game have the best looks and world feel you can get.the weather, any weather you can think of.
so why did they got so lame servers? I think it's the worst one in the last 3 years.
But the game play is so fun :-)

essentially you're saying it's better than XIII.

Talk about damning with faint praise.

I disagree.

I find the game to be a great MMO.

But it's not a good FF, IMO.

It's a MMO with a slight FF theme.

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Originally Posted by Aegis

essentially you're saying it's better than XIII.

Talk about damning with faint praise.

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HAH!
Though I have not played XIII-2 yet. I heard it was, y'know, an actual RPG. Remains to be seen.

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Originally Posted by Aegis

essentially you're saying it's better than XIII.

Talk about damning with faint praise.

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Oh, Final Fantasy XIV stands excellently on his own of course as well. I just wanted to show the stark contrast between what Final Fantasy should be and what it should not be in the process.

Being totally honest, the last true "Final Fantasy", for me, was FFX.

witty dialogue?

It's very Final Fantasy for me. I love this game so much and I enjoy it regardless. Having reminders and relations of past game is nostalgic and to be that character instead of playing a already made character made it even more vivid. And to be able to play with friends, that's a completely new feeling. Some people can't handle change but I'm open minded and I can see the hard work they put into the game. This is a Final Fantasy game and one of the best. Second or third to Final Fantasy VII.

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Originally Posted by Azgarde

Being totally honest, the last true "Final Fantasy", for me, was FFX.

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XI was pretty Damn epic in its own way. Ouryu fight. Airship fight. Proto Omega And ultima. Not as epic as in this game, but it was released 11 years ago.

12 was awful so I guess that isn't hard to top. This game was fun for a while but doesn't seem like its going to have staying power, also its just to easy I'm getting bored right now leveling (and no I don't just do fates to lv).

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Originally Posted by Aegis

XI was pretty Damn epic in its own way. Ouryu fight. Airship fight. Proto Omega And ultima. Not as epic as in this game, but it was released 11 years ago.

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Not as epic? You might mean not as flashy, cause I remember Chains of Promathia being pretty damn epic from start to end...

The game is fun, and has some cool art design, but for a Final Fantasy Game story wise its absolutely awful. Almost NO character development at all, I can barely remember any of the characters names, the whole political and governmental issues were just so contrived and silly, and the way they all talked just got on my nerves.

Gameplay wise it does nothing new or innovative. Its still a good game, but not a great game and certainly down there when it comes to FF games.

XII was awful, definitely my least favourite. VIII, IX and X top the list for me.

I personally think that this is just a starting block. The Final Fantasy we all hope for will be come in the expansions... hopefully. I have not played all of the FF series and i am sure everyone has their own personal ideas of what FF should be.
For me.

It is all about..

How it looks. (Art style)
The quality of the story
The difficulty of fights (which imo the mobs in the open world could do with a tweak towards to harder side.)
The music (this is a big thing for me)
Bosses that make you gawp at the screen in how amazing they look and how you wouldn't want to meet one in real life.
The battle system (which needs some work)
How it makes me feel.

I think FFXIV lacks compelling leads. None of the cast are particularly memorable. And your role as a silent errand-messenger boy / girl is pretty lol worthy. The primals are the real star of the show.


If SE manage to expand on the world / story as well as they did in the Zilart expansion, (and the epic CoP) then all will be well in Eorzea.

disagreed because XIII-2 is awesome.

I think A Realm Reborn is alright, but I think XIII and XIII-2 are better '"Final Fantasy" games.

Even though the story of those games is complex, at least i'm not running around earning the trust of every npc in the game for reasons beyond my understanding.

Am I the only one who thought XII sucked so much I couldn't make it past the first few hours of the game? o_O I also could never get aboard the XIII bandwagon/hype.

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Originally Posted by Zezlar

I think A Realm Reborn is alright, but I think XIII and XIII-2 are better '"Final Fantasy" games.

Even though the story of those games is complex, at least i'm not running around earning the trust of every npc in the game for reasons beyond my understanding.

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Yea the "So ye want to fight a primal eh?, kill 3 squirrels to prove you can handle yourself!" and the silent noding as if your telepathically communicating to people is kinda lame.

I find FFXII to be a great litmus test in evaluating a person's appreciation of all things 'Final Fantasy'. (it's the only main-series FF game that ever received a perfect Famitsu score, and one of 21 games in history that have.) The game was the most intricately crafted Final Fantasys at the time of it's release, and was created by one of the greatest fantasy visionaries of all time: Yasumi Matsuno. (Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions, Vagrant Story, Tactics Ogre, etc)

If you hate on FFXII (esp FFXII:International Zodiac), I'll disregard anything you say in the future in regards to feedback on this or any other FF games, as the series is clearly not for you.

I think that's exactly what SqEnx / Yoshi hoped to do, so I believe that OP is very high praise to their ears. :)

I know now a days the little kids prefer there graphics in games, but me personally I will always prefer FF 1 on the nintendo and 2/4, 3/6 and Mystic Quest on SNES. Still remember dropping $80 on that FF 1 Cartridge back in 1990 and was so worth the money.

So, better than XIII, then...

Yeah, I'll agree with that.

better than FFXIII , FFXIII-2 .....that isnt hard 8)

I agree that FF12 was a great FF, the best for me in terms of gameplay.

More like the best FF since X.

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Originally Posted by Siren

I know now a days the little kids prefer there graphics in games, but me personally I will always prefer FF 1 on the nintendo and 2/4, 3/6 and Mystic Quest on SNES. Still remember dropping $80 on that FF 1 Cartridge back in 1990 and was so worth the money.

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This is one thing why I like XIV so much as well. In some ways, XIV almost has this innocent FF I and II feel to it.

You have this noble and selfless heroes(adventures) in that city serving whoever needs their helping hand. I think we had king and queens in FF I & II for example, here in ARR with have the Sultana and the Grand Companies etc. I believe those are really fudamental elements of the early Final Fantasy games represented in this game.

FFXII was not that good, gameplay was bad and boring and that ruined everything else, music was great, story was great, but the gameplay was horrible:
Big spells preventing from casting any other spell but attacks still worked.
Steal was the only way to make money but you couldn't configure it so it would stop stealing when there is nothing more to steal.
And the biggest problem, you don't play, you only move your character on the map and watch them fight most of the time.

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Originally Posted by Zantetsuken

I find FFXII to be a great litmus test in evaluating a person's appreciation of all things 'Final Fantasy'. (it's the only main-series FF game that ever received a perfect Famitsu score, and one of 21 games in history that have.) The game was the most intricately crafted Final Fantasys at the time of it's release, and was created by one of the greatest fantasy visionaries of all time: Yasumi Matsuno. (Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions, Vagrant Story, Tactics Ogre, etc)

If you hate on FFXII (esp FFXII:International Zodiac), I'll disregard anything you say in the future in regards to feedback on this or any other FF games, as the series is clearly not for you.

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I like the way you think, I even consider FFXII a test of maturity.

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Originally Posted by Zantetsuken

I find FFXII to be a great litmus test in evaluating a person's appreciation of all things 'Final Fantasy'. (it's the only main-series FF game that ever received a perfect Famitsu score, and one of 21 games in history that have.) The game was the most intricately crafted Final Fantasys at the time of it's release, and was created by one of the greatest fantasy visionaries of all time: Yasumi Matsuno. (Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions, Vagrant Story, Tactics Ogre, etc)

If you hate on FFXII (esp FFXII:International Zodiac), I'll disregard anything you say in the future in regards to feedback on this or any other FF games, as the series is clearly not for yo

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Well, that's pretty narrow-minded of you. How about this, then?

In my opinion:

FFXII perfectly captured what FELT like a FF. The setting was fantastic, the music was great, the background lore was great. The gameplay and the combat were fantastic. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

As a GAME(which it is), FFXII was phenomenal. But as a story? It was atrocious. The first 10 hours of the story were so grand and incredible that it opened you up with "this will be the best FF ever made..." and then it quickly becomes a dull journey around the countryside with VERY little plot development and a lame lead character(Vaan). Seriously, have you read the information where they talk about WHY Vaan was made as the lead character? It was dumb. He serves ZERO purpose to the story. Basch and Ashe were cool, I thoroughly enjoyed them. So was Balthier. But even though the game had a lot of pluses, the thing I enjoy most about FF games(the story) was SEVERELY lacking in FFXII. I don't think anyone can deny that the plotline had nearly zero surprises or any kind of interesting plot development(except "He even made me a Judge..."). It's almost as if they didn't have a story planned. A lot of the characters were so one-dimensional. The game hardly had any surprises and surely didn't have a good story. The writing, when it was used, was good though. I'll give it that.

If you feel that FFXII had a great story, I have to seriously doubt that you even payed attention to it. Please, offer me the info as to why you enjoy the story. I'd seriously love to hear it.


On every other account? FFXII was fantastic, and embodied what FF games should feel like(unlike 7,8,10).

i hated FFXII combat , it was "cool" but as PLAYER i feel dissapointed , the game played for u after u learned a few things.....

Eh I like the game but wish it had some elements of FFXI. Like the airships should hold more than one person and have it being attacked by monsters and such. Then again I'm only level 24 or so, so perhaps I am missing some things but we shall see. If they get some elements from XI in it would be really nice overall though I really like what I'm playing :D.

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Originally Posted by flavored

witty dialogue?

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It was inside the wall of quest text you may have skipped through

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Originally Posted by Zantetsuken

If you hate on FFXII (esp FFXII:International Zodiac), I'll disregard anything you say in the future in regards to feedback on this or any other FF games, as the series is clearly not for you.

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I rather liked XII, though have to disagree with you on this point simply because I understand everyone has different tastes, and attitudes like this help get the "fanboy" label slapped on you which I don't want. There were issues with XII, mostly due to battle and gambit mechanics for me.

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Originally Posted by Dorfentyme

But as a story? It was atrocious. The first 10 hours of the story were so grand and incredible that it opened you up with "this will be the best FF ever made..." and then it quickly becomes a dull journey around the countryside with VERY little plot development and a lame lead character(Vaan). Seriously, have you read the information where they talk about WHY Vaan was made as the lead character?

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Vaan really was not the main character, but the point of view they wanted you to receive the story from. He basically was the catalyst for getting Balthier and Ashe's groups together, resulting in the opportunity Ashe needed for her story to take off. Vaan plays a role very similar to Obi Wan's in Star Wars: A New Hope. No Obi Wan, and its quite likely Luke would never have met Han Solo and gotten off of Tatooine. Difference here is the intended point of view of the audience.

I loved FF7, FF8, FF9, FF10, and FF1-6. They were awesome games for their time. Truly memorable. But the one Final Fantasy that holds a special place in my heart is Final Fantasy XI. The game had adventure from zone to zone. The mobs were thrilling, in that you didn't know what would make them come after you, IE: Agroing sight, sound, magic, the stench of death, or true sight. It made you passionate enough to stay up day and night fishing up 10,000 moat carp for the Lu Shangs fishing rod, and later insane for going after the parts to make the Ebisu fishing rod. The thrill of running into Notorious Monsters and taking them down. The adventure of gather items for your AF. It relied heavily on you making friends quickly. It was accessible to all, and loved by many.

That is a Final Fantasy to me, one that I'll never forget.

I agree with OP.

I've been playing Final Fantasy since 1996 with Final Fantasy for the NES. I went through almost every title, except XI. All I can say is that FF XII is one of my favorites. It was an expansion of Final Fantasy Tactics for the PSX, where Ivalice went ALIVE. I found in FF XIV a world with almost the same taste than XII and that's why I like it so much. I would have loved to have some Hitoshi Sakimoto's music as well. I loved the battle system (Yay, it was different from usual, I like innovation), I loved the characters (Except for Vaan and Penelo), music was awesome, the voice cast was awesome and the game itself is pure fun. XII stands as one of my favorite Final Fantasy besides IV, VI, VIII, IX and Tactics. VII is fine, but meh... I saw party characters dying in previous games as in Phantasy Star 4 for the Sega Genesis, so I wasn't shocked at all. Also, anyone that had played Vagrant Story, would have noticed some similarities.

I have only played FF3,4,7,10,12. They all have better story than FF14, as an FF, it's not that good. I still like Tataru, Papalymo, all those Lalafell, but there's nothing to stand equal with characters such as Sephiroth or Yuna.

As an MMO though, it is good, but still not great yet. GW2 really could've gone the subscription mode and made endgame raiding. They had so much potential, and tonnes of details made from people that you know they actually plays an MMO. User friendly Auction House, one button to clean bag up, a very clean looking bag, etc or just quality of life as mentioned in other posts. It's sad GW2 has to go that path.

Alot of people say this is a WoW clone. Yes it surely looks like WoW from it's Golden Age. The level of perfection of the game and level of raid difficulty I'd say is somewhat close to Kara'zhan in BC. WoW wasn't that perfect back in early release of BC, the BC launch was terrible too. But that didn't stop the game from being good. I'm glad SE decided to give us MMOers another chance to hope for real hardmodes.

Since ActivisionBlizzard will never restore WoW back to it's Golden Age (remove LFR, remove resilience, remove boss nerfs, etc....), I'm actually quite glad FFXIVARR exists.