Spectacle Creep

[Kyriea]

Personally, I feel the way they've handled dungeons has an impact on people's perceptions in the story. While they do have a somewhat epic feel, by following the same instanced dungeon design as any other typical MMO they don't have the same impact. For example the typical route of killing trash, killing trash, killing more trash... boss fight! Trash, trash, trash, final boss! It's too linear which makes it seem easy.

I'll use XI as an example for how it was done right, firstly because it was part of the FF universe and secondly because it actually is a good example to use. In XI the only instanced "dungeons" were boss fights, in which you got there by navigating open areas which were very much like mazes. It took a lot of trial and error and actual adventuring to get to these instances. These "dungeons" were typically harder than most boss fights in XIV as well and required a lot more preparation, however that's because there was more to prepare in that game (items to use on bosses etc).

I also think a lot of the problem is because they haven't had a chance to really open up the story yet and this was just the building blocks (think nation story missions in XI). They started the game in the middle of the story due to XIV 1.0 and needed to entice players with a grandiose opening because otherwise not many would give it that second chance.

They then filled the story with filler so they could finish the basic building blocks of the game and work on future content. Let's not forget that we haven't actually got to the point of facing Bahamut himself yet, so they still have room to improve and I don't doubt that they will, but I also think they lose a lot by following the typical MMO model in order to please a certain type of player.

[firepixiedarien]

FF14. Spectacle Creep.

I have always preferred JRPGs over Western RPGs. If I want an RPG with less spectacle I'll play pen and paper Dungeons and Dragons 3.5




...you DO realize this is a JRPG, right?