Naoki Yoshida's Comment in Regard to Jump Potions/Boost Potions

[Yasuhiro]

I just typed "Final Fantasy XIV" into Google and...



Again, no where does it say it's a single player, plays like one, or it's "Final fantasy first and a MMO second". It's also hurting them in some type of way, this game being designed like this, hence the jump potions...

Again, your fault for not being familiar with the series. It also says RPG on the end it being part of the mainline titles didn't tip you off?
If it was called Final Fantasy Online II then I'd agree with you but it's not it's the XIV entry of a primarily single player series so it'll play out like a mainline game with online elements.

They shot themselves in the foot when they made ARR 2.0 how it is with the filler and pointless crap that doesn't move the story along, you don't have to like the story, I don't ever since 3.2 I've been skipping it but it comes with the territory and I'm content with that.

[VTXShiva]

Again, your fault for not being familiar with the series. It also says RPG on the end it being part of the mainline titles didn't tip you off?

In all seriousness; though Final Fantasy is well known in the RPG community, it doesn't necessarily mean everyone knows about FF, or specifically how they operate in terms of main numbers/off-shoots.

THAT BEING SAID, you do have a point that when you get a game with a silly high number such as 14... there is a catch.

Welcome to World of Warcraft 7. Here's the newest MMO Star Wars 12 Online... no? no bells?

[Bourne_Endeavor]

Uh... it says it on the box Final Fantasy XIV: A realm reborn with online tacked on its narrative should have told you that it plays out like a mainline FF game.
It's your fault for not being familiar with the series and not doing research on this game. I knew what I was getting into, and I admit the ARR quests suck but I knew I was playing a mainline Final Fantasy title.

Then defer to ThatPlayer's second point. Final Fantasy was originally a single player game until one of the main titles transitioned into a MMO. Therefore, it already abandoned its "classic" label years ago. That fact has only been further cemented with FFXV and FFVII: Remake both distancing themselves from turn based combat. Publishers do not care about fan sentiment or attachment to labels. They only care about whether the current iteration can be profitable. Look no further than games like Mass Effect and Dragon Age, both of which became radically different in design with each sequel. The former even proved far more successful as an action RPG. FFXIV does not have the luxury of being a "Final Fantasy" first because if that label proves less profitable, Square Enix will deviate away. They've already shown a willingness to do just that with FFXV. Being a MMO, it has to cater towards that demographic, lest it meander into obscurity. Hence why we're even hearing talks of a jump potion. The story has reached a point Square no longer feels confident in the current model.

[LineageRazor]

Welp, I guess this is happening. It's not all that surprising, to be honest; the very structure of the game demanded that eventually SOMETHING would need to be done in order to allow new players to catch up faster. Even just one expansion in, I've already heard plenty of new players whining about everything they have to do before they can join their friends in endgame... it was only going to get worse and worse with each expansion. I just wish it hadn't come down to something as ham-fisted as "Bam! There, we did it all for you."

Gating everything behind main scenario completion, and making the storyline a continuous thing from expansion to expansion - these were the two fundamental flaws in the game's design. It wasn't too late to break away from those flaws going forward, but it appears that that is not going to happen. We get this, instead.

I'm really not concerned about a flood of inexperienced players. Most will figure out their jobs quickly enough through experience and coaching from other players. The cash grab doesn't bother me either, since I won't be paying it, and it's none of my business how other folks choose to waste their money. I am a bit bemused, though, that the cost of a job level potion is the same as a level skip potion... it takes SO much less time and effort to level a job than it does to complete Main Scenario! I'd've set MS potion at 20 bucks, and each job potion at 5, but that's just me.

What does concern me is that this Band-Aid fix means that other methods to "ease" older content probably won't be added. For example, I was expecting that eventually the exp requirements for levels 51-60 would be lessened. They were greatly inflated, because SE wanted Heavensward to feel close to as full a game as ARR was, and wanted the leveling process to take a while. If exp requirements had proceeded for those levels at a similar pace as they did for levels 46-50, folks would have been level 60 in a day or two! I fully expected that once we got into the next expansion, exp requirements for those levels would have been lowered to something resembling a natural progression compared to previous levels - but now there's no need. Don't like the grind? Just buy the potion!

It also means that content will very likely continue to be gated behind Main Scenario. I'd hoped for more of a side-by-side thing; I wanted players to be able to participate in (at least some of) endgame while progressing through Main Scenario. This would remove the "pressure" to push through MS as quickly as possible. No need to worry about that, either, now - you can catch up to the start of the latest expansion in an eyeblink! Except, it WILL still be a problem... For new players, even one expansion's worth of Main Scenario can be an annoying impediment to what they want to do if they don't care about the storyline (and they'll care even less about it if they've skipped two thirds of it already and have no idea who anyone is or why they do what they do), and there's no getting around the current expansion's MS. So, for the folks most gung-ho about a skip potion, it doesn't do quite enough.

I'm in full agreement that something needed to be done. I'm just regretful that the solution turned out to be this.

[marewa]

Pathetic.
Well if this is the case, why doesn't SE save themselves a job and just scrap ARR and HW. Start fresh with SB. Since that is really what they are doing.

[Yasuhiro]

No where did SE say that FF HAS to be a single player. When it's all said and done you can not get mad at people that came to a game advertised as a MMO, for wanting to play a MMO.

.

I'm not even talking about that, you're right it doesn't have to be single player but it being a mainline game means its going to follow some form of series tradition is what I'm getting at. This isn't WoW, it's not SWTOR, it's a mainline Final Fantasy game. As someone else said once you see XIV on the end of the box maybe you should look the series up, not even trying to be condescending so I'm sorry if I come off as hostile.

Heck World of Warcraft had the right idea, they didn't call the game Warcraft IV.
They branded it as its own thing.

[Neophyte]

I'm not even talking about that, you're right it doesn't have to be single player but it being a mainline game means its going to follow some form of series tradition is what I'm getting at. This isn't WoW, it's not SWTOR, it's a mainline Final Fantasy game. As someone else said once you see XIV on the end of the box maybe you should look the series up, not even trying to be condescending so I'm sorry if I come off as hostile.

Heck World of Warcraft had the right idea, they didn't call the game Warcraft IV.
They branded it as its own thing.

Which kind of tradition does the mainline games follow in specific?
Please name a few traditional features to recognize a proper mainline game which apply to VIII, X-2, XIIIff., XV, XI and the PS4 version of VII (where you can cheat legit, max hp/mp/limit with a button press, 3x speed and toghle random encounters).

Those specific features should be of a kind, that they don't apply to FF:Crisis Core, Dirge of Cerberus, Type-0, etc., of course... since we want to know what exactly makes the mainline titles special.

[Yasuhiro]

Which kind of tradition does the mainline games follow in specific?
Please name a few traditional features to recognize a proper mainline game which apply to VIII, X-2, XIIIff., XV, XI and the PS4 version of VII (where you can cheat legit, max hp/mp/limit with a button press, 3x speed and toghle random encounters).

Oh boy here we go.
All the mainline games have a structured narrative, usually character driven or carried by a supporting cast they're all roleplaying games at their core what else do you want to hear? That's what's common between them right? You can't refute that all the mainline games don't have those main things.

I'm fully expecting someone to post a list off FF spin off titles now that have those things with a snarky comment saying "well these should be mainline :^)" I know this forum too well to know its habits and I'm ashamed of that

that's like saying you can't play Mario Kart without looking into the original Super Mario. They're two different genres just under the same creator.

Mario Kart is obviously a spin off series, it's not part of the mainline titles, what argument is that?
Final Fantasy XIV is Final Fantasy XIV a mainline title, it's that simple. Go and complain that they didn't call it FF Online II and after Final Fantasy III I'm well aware that the series reinvents itself, FFIV became ATB and not traditionally turn based anymore, we didn't see it again until Final Fantasy X.

[Zojha]

Oh boy here we go.
All the mainline games have a structured narrative, usually character driven or carried by a supporting cast they're all roleplaying games at their core what else do you want to hear?

Up to a point, all the mainline games had turn-based combat - does that mean that all the mainline games without it cannot be part of the mainline as well, because the tradition got broken there?
Moreover - structured narrative is a common occurrence in single-player games in general. You'll probably find more "with" a story that progresses as you progress the game than without. That's because it works really well in single-player games, but doesn't work as well in multiplayer games where you often have no real lore exposition at all unless you go out of your way to find it.

[Yasuhiro]

Up to a point, all the mainline games had turn-based combat - does that mean that all the mainline games without it cannot be part of the mainline as well, because the tradition got broken there?

I mentioned that the series reinvents itself in the rest of my post so I'm well aware of it. If it's numbered it's mainline.
Final Fantasy XIV has all the fundamentals that makes it a Final Fantasy game, single player style story and everything with some grouped content.

People always like to complain that XIV should be its own thing well XIV does but now people want it to be generic mmo #132342? lol, I hate the story in this game but I'm glad it stuck to tradition they just did it in a really poor way with those horrible fetch quests.