My Final Fantasy FXIV 2012 Youtube Video Review

[Tibian]

Thanks for reading my FFXIV 2012 Review. Feel free to share your thoughts in the replies.

Graphics - 10
As mentioned before, the graphics are truly monumental.

/sigh. How can this game get a 10/10 on graphics when there are so many problems. Lets start with the fact that animations lock you to a position leading to game breaking issues. Lets mention that hardly any of the objects in the game actually have animations to them (the ones that do were added after Yoshi took over -- and even then that is holiday only). You can only have 40 characters (including NPCS) on the screen at one time, leading to issues where you could be standing right next to your best friend who you want to trade with... and cant because he/she is invisible. Mage spells and casting animations are garbage. There are no "projectile" spells, and to put it simply... blobs of light are all that spells really are. Areas are copy/pasted because they didn't want to spend time creating unique areas with special graphics... again these areas are being completely redone with unique features for 2.0.

Aesthetically I'll give you an 8.5/10 -- but you cannot give 10/10 to graphics when they are COMPLETELY REDOING THE GRAPHICS ENGINE DUE TO HOW BAD IT IS.

Sound - 9
The soundtrack is excellent and the sound effects aren't bad on the ears.

I can agree with an 8-9 ish... some of the earlier Uematsu tracks just felt out of place... but the newer music feels appropriate.

Story - 9
The story lines are excellent, while the cut-scenes do a beautiful job in telling them.

Hardly. If anything the story deserves something near a 5. The cutscenes are too short and barely anything has been added to the story other than the few grand company leves -- which are so short you don't really get anything out of them. This is where SE really needs to pick up things if they want to make 2.0 a unique MMO.

Gameplay - 7
The combat may still be a little rough around the edges, but it has come a long way since launch. Unique elements in the game such as the guildleves, Behests and gathering system all make the game stand out as enjoyable.

I find it difficult to take this seriously when you said guildleves and the gathering system are "stand outs" and "unique." Guildleves have been done before... its called daily and repeatable quests, and the gathering system is a horrible implementation of the "hot and cold" game. Guildleves aren't fun, and Yoshi/SE knows this by REMOVING THEM FROM THE CENTRAL ASPECT OF THE GAME. Dear god, its like you didn't even care to read the producer letters. Has gameplay improved from the terribleness? Yes, but it still only deserves a 4-5 due to the fact that daily quests are not fun, horrible amounts of grinding are not fun, pressing enter 10,000 times to craft is not fun, and overall you cannot have a fun and engaging battle system with crap like animation lock, server lag, etc. This doesn't even begin to go in-depth into the user interface, which PC/keyboard + mouse users must constantly battle with due to how terrible it is setup. Lack of drag and drop features? Lack of multiple action bars? Lack of concrete information on tooltips? Please. Stop being delusional.

Replay Value - 7
The current level cap is 50 and while that's not particulary high, the game is very young. The extra $3 a month for an extra character slot provides an annoyance for anyone wanting a variety of characters, although with the interchangeable class system one could essentially be anything ( just stuck with the same physical character ).

Again, horrible grinding, repetitious grinding, continuous grind... more grind. That is all this game really is. There are barely even hints of disguising the grind. I will admit that the fact that you can play every class on one single character is actually very unique and a welcome scene. It means that my overall continuous play will contribute to my character... whereas in other games I have no desire to create alts because they don't contribute to my main.

FINAL SCORE: 8.4 ( based on average )

White knight much? This review was baseless and completely biased due to the fact that two major systems that are being completely redone for 2.0 (graphics/guildleves), were championed as unique and amazing features.

Sadly, since the forums will be restricted to only subscribers in a few weeks, you're going to see more posts like this, championing broken mechanics and spreading complete falsifications of the truth of the game.

Star Wars the Old Republic has an 8.6/10 rating via Metacritic 'official' critics... and you're telling me XIV is right up there in quality? Even when we're still limited to 4 trade slots, no buyback/mail features, and a n "auction house" that feels like your game is crashing every time you're using it? Phew, I'd love to see what you consider a 10/10.

/sigh

[ChiefCurrahee]

Star Wars the Old Republic has an 8.6/10 rating via Metacritic 'official' critics... and you're telling me XIV is right up there in quality? Even when we're still limited to 4 trade slots, no buyback/mail features, and a n "auction house" that feels like your game is crashing every time you're using it? Phew, I'd love to see what you consider a 10/10.

/sigh

Cause starwars is the best thing since sliced bread!

I haven't logged into SWTOR for almost a week and cancelled my account. I don't agree with Metacritics score of 8.6 I'd put SWTOR over all around 6.5-7.0 It's nothing special. PvP is terrible, PvE is lame. The flash points are a yawnfest. The voice over cut scenes are just a gimick. They were awesome for the first hour. now if I get a CS thats not part of the main story: SPACEBAR!

I don't agree with the reviewers score for XIV either. I'd give XIV around a 6.5 over all. I still can't recommend to a friend to give XIV a shot. I'm holding onto my buddy pass for the day that I feel XIV is at a point where I can in good faith says it's a game worth changing to.

[Bulwarkz]

the forums will be restricted to only subscribers in a few weeks

Yeah, can't wait.

they are COMPLETELY REDOING THE GRAPHICS ENGINE DUE TO HOW BAD IT IS.

LOL... calm down.

The actual graphics have been universally praised, even since the game was launched. That's if you have the hardware to do it, as the review states. I could understand your frustration with the way the game may look when viewing it on YOUR monitor, DUE TO HOW BAD IT IS.

They may be changing it around a bit, but ultimately they're just implementing a way for users with lesser hardware to dumb the game down more. It will be optimized to run better on more PC environments and on the PS3 in the future.

I think you were trying to touch up on animation lag and whatnot - That's a completely separate issue.

[Bulwarkz]

This game would be better if it didnt require you to level up alot of classes to share abilities. This is mainly why people don't like grinding.

I can totally understand that. Although IMO it's a lot better than say, FFXI's half-level sub job was. I didn't play too much of FFXI because I didn't enjoy it, so I have no idea what it's like now. However with FFXIV, the more you put into it, the more rewarding it is. So all that work really pays off in a sense, if that's what you want out of the it. It's literally the ultimate 'Juggernaut' experience. With the new jobs coming shortly in 1.21, it's gonna be even better =D

[buritoslicer]

Glad you got a text version in, it really saved me the trouble of watching a video. Lots of good points, though I think you should experience a bit of end game before you technically review a game for it's entirety.