Some of the design decisions I’ve seen (like Odin’s sword Zantetsuken not being a very good lv50 weapon stat wise) make it appear you don’t fully grasp the appeal of a FF MMO to fans of the franchise. The majority of people who decide to play FF XIV want to experience a Final Fantasy universe and use iconic Final Fantasy abilities on characters that look and feel like iconic Final Fantasy characters. We do not want yet-another-Tolkien-inspired-fantasy-setting with the bulk of the game concept bored from Everquest and World of Warcraft. The MMO market is flooded with “Not-LoTR” worlds and I personally am tired of those games...the most enjoyable parts of FF XIV are the end-game content focused on nostalgic things, like the Empire from FF6, Ultima Weapon from FF7 and the primal fights. Sunken Temple is obviously the Stillshrine of Miriam from FF12. I even liked the Demon Wall, and I’m going to assume Cutter’s Cry is supposed to be Antlion’s Den from FF IV. I am looking forward to Crystal Tower as well. But a lot of the other dungeons are forgettable and its because they could have been in any other game.
Story wise, there is tons of nostalgia infused into the game. So I believe you must understand that nostalgia is important for the players, otherwise it'd not be there. And while the story is very good and filled with references, the GAMEPLAY is lacking in the nostalgic "feel" of a FF game. Sure, my Gladiator looks really bad-ass doing his FF style attack animations but he looks bad ass while doing very little damage. It's hard to feel epic when that is the case.
So when it comes to the problem with tanks, not applying the same level of care you took to creating the storyline as to the gameplay of Gladiators and Marauders is what is causing much of the disconnect. You copied the form of World of Warcraft tank classes, but you failed to infuse any of Final Fantasy’s heart into the Jobs to make them your own. You need to fix this.
The nostalgic elements that have defined the Final Fantasy universe for three decades is what drew me and many others to this world. Personally I was very reluctant to buy the game and try FFXIV when it was first released because I took one look at the ability lists for Gladiator and Paladin and it didn’t seem very FF inspired to me. I feared a repeat of FFXI’s “Everquest with Final Fantasy flavor-text” experience that I did not want again.
Because hardcore MMO gamers like myself research these games before buying them (we want to ensure our time and money won’t be wasted on a game we won’t enjoy), I believe the developers missed a huge opportunity to take advantage of the nostalgic sentiment that we have for iconic melee characters like General Leo, Terra, Celes, Cloud, Squall, Tidus, etc, when they designed the Gladiator class. At least change the darn ability names. I believe this is a small and not time consuming tweak that would have a huge impact.
(I would also suggest renaming many of the Marauder and Warrior abilities, too, probably drawn from the melee ability lists of games in the Final Fantasy Tactics series but I don’t have the time or inclination to level up a Warrior just to examine their ability animations).
The third reason is that playing a tank -- at least a Paladin -- is harder than it ought to be on the PS3. I have no experience with the PC version so it may be different but because the targeting system is so crappy I have trouble provoking mobs that are attacking the player. By “crappy” I mean the targeting system often skips over mobs that are directly in front of my character and jumps to a mob at the back of the room. There are encounters like in Aurum Vale where I fight the game’s controls more than the monsters; the fruit are nearly impossible to select with only a controller (suggestion: it’d be easier to trigger a fruit by walking over it just walk over it) because of the poor target selection system for the PS3. I can literally be standing in front of an fruit but unable to select it no matter what direction I cycle through, forcing me to constantly reposition myself until I get the fruit or die trying.
Some FFXIV legacy players might scoff at these suggestions but I think they would do a lot to encourage people to play the Gladiator / Paladin class. With how the abilities are named right now it is NOT clear how this Job has anything to do with past Final Fantasy characters; you’d need to have an encyclopedic knowledge of FF games to get the references. It needs to be more obvious. I suggest you make the name changes now while the game is still early in its life-cycle, while the player made guides can still be easily updated.
I'm not trying to be rude but you need to understand what the players want. Nobody buying this game cares about brand new made-up gods like Halone that do not appear in the main story of FF XIV, and have never been in previous FF games. We have no sentimental attachment to “The Twelve” because they are never introduced, and they NEVER appear in the storyline, so we have no reasons to care about them. Unlike the Primals they do not have three decades of legacy supporting player attachment to them.
Therefore, naming abilities after The Twelve is meaningless to the player. Names have power; if you had instead called Rage of Halone “Omnislash” or “Renzokuken” the playerbase attachment to the Gladiator would be significantly higher, and therefore the desire to play one much more prominent. Then when a mediocre damage ability is named something very notable like Riot Blade, the poor use of a powerful name detracts from the experience. I was initially excited to unlock Riot Blade, but then I realized it’s not part of the DPS rotation, but instead a way to recover MP for Flash spamming. Riot Blade is an iconic limit break for a beloved FF protagonist, Terra and it did tremendous damage. Thus you have inconsistent branding issues with the Gladiator class and it detracts from the enjoyment of the game while playing that class.
Some of the design decisions I’ve seen (like Odin’s sword Zantetsuken not being a very good lv50 weapon stat wise) make it appear you don’t fully grasp the appeal of a FF MMO to fans of the franchise. The majority of people who decide to play FF XIV want to experience a Final Fantasy universe and use iconic Final Fantasy abilities on characters that look and feel like iconic Final Fantasy characters. We do not want yet-another-Tolkien-inspired-fantasy-setting with the bulk of the game concept bored from Everquest and World of Warcraft. The MMO market is flooded with “Not-LoTR” worlds and I personally am tired of those games...the most enjoyable parts of FF XIV are the end-game content focused on nostalgic things, like the Empire from FF6, Ultima Weapon from FF7 and the primal fights. Sunken Temple is obviously the Stillshrine of Miriam from FF12. I even liked the Demon Wall, and I’m going to assume Cutter’s Cry is supposed to be Antlion’s Den from FF IV. I am looking forward to Crystal Tower as well. But a lot of the other dungeons are forgettable and its because they could have been in any other game.
Story wise, there is tons of nostalgia infused into the game. So I believe you must understand that nostalgia is important for the players, otherwise it'd not be there. And while the story is very good and filled with references, the GAMEPLAY is lacking in the nostalgic "feel" of a FF game. Sure, my Gladiator looks really bad-ass doing his FF style attack animations but he looks bad ass while doing very little damage. It's hard to feel epic when that is the case.
So when it comes to the problem with tanks, not applying the same level of care you took to creating the storyline as to the gameplay of Gladiators and Marauders is what is causing much of the disconnect. You copied the form of World of Warcraft tank classes, but you failed to infuse any of Final Fantasy’s heart into the Jobs to make them your own. You need to fix this.
The nostalgic elements that have defined the Final Fantasy universe for three decades is what drew me and many others to this world. Personally I was very reluctant to buy the game and try FFXIV when it was first released because I took one look at the ability lists for Gladiator and Paladin and it didn’t seem very FF inspired to me. I feared a repeat of FFXI’s “Everquest with Final Fantasy flavor-text” experience that I did not want again.
Because hardcore MMO gamers like myself research these games before buying them (we want to ensure our time and money won’t be wasted on a game we won’t enjoy), I believe the developers missed a huge opportunity to take advantage of the nostalgic sentiment that we have for iconic melee characters like General Leo, Terra, Celes, Cloud, Squall, Tidus, etc, when they designed the Gladiator / Marauder classes. At least change the darn ability names. I believe this is a small and not time consuming tweak that would have a huge impact.
(I would also suggest renaming many of the Marauder and Warrior abilities, too, probably drawn from the melee ability lists of games in the Final Fantasy Tactics series but I don’t have the time or inclination to level up a Warrior just to examine their ability animations).
The third reason is that playing a tank -- at least a Paladin -- is harder than it ought to be on the PS3. I have no experience with the PC version so it may be different but because the targeting system is so crappy I have trouble provoking mobs that are attacking the player. By “crappy” I mean the targeting system often skips over mobs that are directly in front of my character and jumps to a mob at the back of the room. There are encounters like in Aurum Vale where I fight the game’s controls more than the monsters; the fruit are nearly impossible to select with only a controller (suggestion: it’d be easier to trigger a fruit by walking over it just walk over it) because of the poor target selection system for the PS3. I can literally be standing in front of an fruit but unable to select it no matter what direction I cycle through, forcing me to constantly reposition myself until I get the fruit or die trying.
Originally Posted by Reiryuu
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