Quote Originally Posted by AdvancedWind View Post
In fact, Final Fantasy is a series that excels in this: Each game is very similar to it's predecessors and at the same time it's very different. The most recent entries accentuate this fact even more (each iteration after IX is completely different from it's predecessors and STILL manage to feel like FF. Even XIII.). I don't want them giving up on that philosophy and just resorting to porting as much as possible from FFXI, and I also think this is, commercially speaking, a bad idea.
This is the thing, every FF was like this and only FFXIV wasn't because they initially tried to cater to the mainstream audience instead of doing what they do best (they even admit it was a mistake to be different for the sake of it.) Taking what works in FFXI is no different from copying WoW like every other developer does.

The ZNM system for example isn't really used in any other MMO, especially because they tend to dump things in instances and makes the world feel barren outside of hubs and cities. ZNM system is basically open world content where you spawn challenging HNMs (at the time) for good gear, you controlled when you fought them and you progressed through a series of them to fight the "final bosses" and eventually Pandomnium Warden.

ZNM was more of an adventure as you travelled all over ToAU fighting tough enemies, even in spots you'd normally never go in basic leveling/exploring. How is this a bad thing to incorporate into XIV? What will happen in Hamlet defense is exactly the same concept as Campaign and Campaign Ops? (It's sounding like it from recent review) There's nothing wrong with taking what works from a previous game, especially one you've created before and making it better, if every other MMO developer can do it, SE can do it too.

It's less about "re-living glory days" and more about "SE, look at what you've done before, you made a successful MMORPG, especially in the FF series 10 years ago and opt'd to ignore that."