Story falls apart at the end...

[ispano]

It's not a flaw for someone to think that if they're buying a Final Fantasy game, it will play like a Final Fantasy game and should be compared to other Final Fantasy games. What is Final Fantasy? A series of RPGs.

It is a flaw. Because you see Final Fantasy and think it MUST play like a Final Fantasy game, which are primarily single player. The problem is it's an MMO before that. It's Final Fantasy made into an MMO. So some things have to change to make it work as an MMO. You can't make a Final Fantasy MMO that plays like a single player game, because it then ceases to be an MMO.

[yoshikwalla]

It is a flaw. Because you see Final Fantasy and think it MUST play like a Final Fantasy game, which are primarily single player. The problem is it's an MMO before that. It's Final Fantasy made into an MMO. So some things have to change to make it work as an MMO. You can't make a Final Fantasy MMO that plays like a single player game, because it then ceases to be an MMO.

So you're saying that it's wrong to expect a Final Fantasy game to be a Final Fantasy game.

[Vahlnir]

So you're saying that it's wrong to expect a Final Fantasy game to be a Final Fantasy game.

You're REALLY not getting what people are telling you, are ya?

[ispano]

So you're saying that it's wrong to expect a Final Fantasy game to be a Final Fantasy game.

No, i'm saying it's wrong to expect a Final Fantasy MMO to be like a Final Fantasy single player game. As soon as you make a persistent or even semi persistent world with thousands of people or more, it just cannot be the same.

[yoshikwalla]

No, i'm saying it's wrong to expect a Final Fantasy MMO to be like a Final Fantasy single player game. As soon as you make a persistent or even semi persistent world with thousands of people or more, it just cannot be the same.

With that logic, why even bother having cutscenes or characters or a story?

I never said that Final Fantasy XIV should play like a single-player game. It should play like an RPG. All that an RPG has to do is create a progressive storytelling experience. Final Fantasy XIV fails at the most crucial point in any role-playing game - the ending. It doesn't matter if it's an MMO or not.

The most unfortunate part about this is that Realm Reborn did very well as a Final Fantasy game - up until the ending.

[ispano]

With that logic, why even bother having cutscenes or characters or a story?

I never said that Final Fantasy XIV should play like a single-player game. It should play like an RPG. All that an RPG has to do is create a progressive storytelling experience. Final Fantasy XIV fails at the most crucial point in any role-playing game - the ending. It doesn't matter if it's an MMO or not.

The most unfortunate part about this is that Final Fantasy XIV did pretty well - up until the ending.

What ending? That's what you're missing. There is no ending, at least not for a long while. That's part of the point of being an MMO first.

[yoshikwalla]

What ending? That's what you're missing. There is no ending, at least not for a long while. That's part of the point of being an MMO first.

The ending to the storyline, not the game. 1.0 had two storylines - the Main Scenario and the Seventh Umbral Era storyline. Two storylines with a beginning, a middle, and an end.

Since the Umbral Era storyline was very good, I expected its sequel to be just as good. So burn me at the stake. How dare I expect consistency?

[ispano]

The ending to the storyline, not the game. 1.0 had two storylines - the Main Scenario and the Seventh Umbral Era storyline. Two storylines with a beginning, a middle, and an end.

Since the Umbral Era questline was very good, I expected its sequel to be just as good. So burn me at the stake.

You know that some people think the storyline in XIV is great. No company is perfect, no storyteller is perfect. There's almost always going to be someone that won't like some of their work, but like others. And another thing is that the story is only part of what makes a game enjoyable. Long ago I gave up on only wanting specific things from a game, because there's much more to be had that I was missing. And lastly, to be honest, when it comes to have a good story in an MMO, this game does it pretty well compared to most. Your problem isn't so much what you claim it is, but more other players. And that's what you have to deal with in an MMO.

[Buffo_The_Clown]

With that logic, why even bother having cutscenes or characters or a story?

I never said that Final Fantasy XIV should play like a single-player game. It should play like an RPG. All that an RPG has to do is create a progressive storytelling experience. Final Fantasy XIV fails at the most crucial point in any role-playing game - the ending. It doesn't matter if it's an MMO or not.

The most unfortunate part about this is that Realm Reborn did very well as a Final Fantasy game - up until the ending.

This is my point. Square captured the Final Fantasy single story experience perfectly up until the climax, when it mattered most.

[Malakhim]

The term RPG is nebulous at best. Action games can easily be RPGs if you rigidly stick to the term "Role-Playing Game". It seems like you came to FFXIV from the ENTIRELY wrong perspective, and I doubt that any future installment of Final Fantasy made into an MMO would satisfy what you're seeking.

I can't think of a single MMO that had a compelling story attached to it. Final Fantasy XI sought to create just that, albeit within the confines of what an MMO is, and from that perspective, it succeeded. But MMOs are traditionally very open-ended experiences, and due to this fact, any type of storyline dependent on a singular, tightly-focused character or party with a specific voice, dialogue, backgrounds and feelings are not going to work.

If that's what you were expecting, then FFXIV is definitely not for you, as the story itself is pretty weak in the first place.