Final Fantasy XIV 1.23b - Would you Play it if Available?

[Canadane]

You say you're the opposite, but you seemed to agree with me!

[Shurrikhan]

You say you're the opposite, but you seemed to agree with me!

Ahh, I misunderstood. Since you mentioned the old engine and the game changing (tone suggest for the worse) since, I thought "as it was" referred to everything about it, not just the design philosophy, and the later day version of even that system being outside of what you were looking for (the original experience?).

If not, we are indeed in agreement!

[odie]

I would absolutely play it. I'd even pay for it. Under the condition that the battle system we have currently was brought back. I'd be more interested in the story from 1.0 than anything.

[KaivaC]

Personally, I would love to experience the original storyline - just because things look so nice from what I've seen. That fight between Gaius and the Scions looked super amazing.

[Shurrikhan]

An aggressing leader who wants to free the planet from psuedo-creatures (Eikons) literally draining it of life, and honestly believes he and his empire are doing the right thing for the most part in their invasion, if we would just... stop... resisting...

A continent in a cycle of destructive ignorance, reaching clarity of this fact only to be destroyed in yet another Umbral cycle... Or as would have been the case, could certain individuals not see into the memories of others...

The implications of dreams becoming reality at the cost of the world spirit's very matter, of their being pervertable - of nothing born of magic quite being reality save for what we make of it...

You can pick up any weapon, without starting from 0, and start figuring out what comes naturally to it, and make use of those things, insofar as they are applicable, on any other weapon, making your job as you wish, out of the underlying factors of play and all you've learned thus far...

They all seem like promising concepts even now, as poor as their original interpretation may have been. A bit fatalistic, a bit pessimistic is world mood, but within that highly open, to exploration, interpretation, and between the two, potentially even something optimistic for a given player character.

As for world design, while it was too barren of content and details, and arguably even of civilization for nations allegedly having built itself back up over so many years, I actually miss the frontiers it offered. Somehow, even the larger (and in a somehow different way, emptier) Stormblood maps could never bring back the original feeling of, say, the original Coerthas. Now just imagine that with greater level flexibility, better mob camp mechanics, mob AI, movement animation, terrain navigatability, etc... /drool

[Doki]

No, I wouldn't. Why? Because there is no jump button, unless you count being a DRG.

Seriously though, I played all jobs to 50 back on 1.23b, and it was fine, but 2.0 forward was a HUGE change in the right direction. There's very little from back then that isn't in game now, and the character models, etc were not THAT huge a change. The maze-like forests were a chore, limited teleports abysmal, and complete lack of instances made a lot of stuff boring fast.

The only relic of 1.23b I would love to see return would be areas with extremely high level enemies that can 1 shot you, that you have to sneak through to reach primal fights, etc. There is little to no feeling of real danger in the game now, and it sort of stinks.

Then again, people still rage quit when they die in easy stuff now, and I'm like "Seriously? Are you that put out that you have to run back to us from a shortcut?"

[Tigerfury]

I would love an opportunity to play through that storyline again. The events leading up to the Calamity, and our attempts to stop it were worthy of a Final Fantasy title.

If all I could have is one thing from 1.23b, it would be the Rivenroad fight. That fight was amazing. A multi-tiered battlefield that forced you to divide your party on different levels to handle mechanics is something that ARR+ has not been able to duplicate. We have had some great fights since the remake, and maybe some nostalgia is influencing my memory of it, but Rivenroad was best fight and best battlefield in XIV to date.

[Evraeh]

Personally, I would love to experience the original storyline - just because things look so nice from what I've seen. That fight between Gaius and the Scions looked super amazing.

That is the real Gaius we had to see in ARR, but no... And still, I found he left too fast without so much explanations. I really wish to see more of him and his story.

I saw him for the first time in that cutscene and now I really regret that I didn't play 1.X till that moment.

[Kerwin]

Holy revival Batman. This threads OP is dated in 2015.

FFXIV 1.23b was the best that engine was ever going to get.

The story was amazing.

Not to sound mean, but it was an amazing experienced filled with rich lore, voice acting and motion capture that took hours of hard work to achieve. I was immersed. But as many people have voiced, gameplay > story.

Thus ARR was born. Still a great game, but very different.

1.23b is in the past and I've had great memories of it. But that's all it should be today is just memories. There's nothing to gain from rewalking those old footsteps.

Let's look to the future instead.

[Singularity]

But that's all it should be today is just memories. There's nothing to gain from rewalking those old footsteps.

There are those of us who don't have those memories though - who've never walked those footsteps, and would like to.