What Final Fantasy is:

Limitless.
Final Fantasy has no limits. Characters have been known to breathe underwater, leap stories into the sky, fly aircraft at supersonic speeds and into space, heft mighty weapons with superhuman strength, travel through time, dimension, and dreams… all while saving the world with their sensuality and charm.

Surreal.
You never know what you’re going to get with a Final Fantasy title. The only thing you can expect is the unexpected. Flying lizards, savage wolves from a prehistoric era, massive, mutated aliens, green men with knives, massive quadrupeds that reach for the sky, cities that float in the clouds, pulsing lights, epic motorcycles.

Unique.
There is nothing quite like a Final Fantasy title. The characters are ones you have never heard of, from a world you could only dream. The main character has been everything from a super SOLDIER, to a dream, to a figment of an imagination, male, female, quasi-animal. Every one of them has a distinct and personal look that every fan of the series will instantly recognize, which is why games like Dissidia are so popular.

Bold.
Final Fantasy always pushes the limits. They aren’t happy until your character is slicing an entire building in two with his sword, or calling massive meteorites from the void of space to crush her foes. Characters commonly do the improbable to the impossible, and that’s just fine.

Traditional.
Final Fantasy always sticks to tradition, despite the unique and bold flavor of each title. The music, composed by the legendary Nobou Uaemitsu, is always fresh and new while retaining the homage to the past. Chocobos, summoned creatures, class types, crystals are all prevalent in every Final Fantasy title, which reminds us in subtle ways that we are playing part of a legendary history.



What Final Fantasy XIV is:

Limited.
XIV’s characters cannot even jump from the ground, nor run at any fantastic speed, or climb a wall. They jog from point A to point B, trying their best not to be destroyed by a rodent along the way. They are fearful and intimidated by the world, their expressionless faces showing no resolve or determination. They cannot lift epic weapons, or wear fantastic armor. They have no interest in saving the world. They’re just thrown into it and are hoping to escape as fast as possible.

Real.
The characters of XIV are plain, boring, and as brown as the world they hail from. Their hairstyles are plain and uninspired, their faces are cute – and not in a good way. While the body shapes can be somewhat aesticially pleasing, the males look like computer nerds the way they hunch over, and the females run like dainty little girls, as opposed to daring adventurers. The armor is plain, and while I’m sure that the realists are rejoicing to see “real” armor, the rest of us are sighing that we just worked for several hours to days to get a boring, plainly-colored jerkin.

The most notable example is the hairstyles. Compare Claire “Lightning” Farron’s hairstyle to any style in XIV, and you’ll see what I mean. It has no life, no uniqueness, and therefore no interest to me.

I wish nothing more than uniqueness in my character, and that is even proving to be a real stretch. We are simply too limited in the creation process. Far too limited.

Copied.
There is virtually nothing innovative about XIV. The characters are veritable carbon-copies of XI, the world is as plain as any world in video games, and Square appears to be doing their best to change the rest of it into the style of other MMO’s, a style that has been used time and time again with failed results. A copy of a certain popular game doesn’t make it better.

Timid.
Developers are scared to do much of anything, which is understandable since the average internet player is usually trying to create a bot to break the system and dominate over other players. It’s taken several months to even implement a jump system, and even now it appears its falling off due to the issues certain members of the community bring to light. Someday, maybe with the next MMO, Square will realize that characters in Final Fantasy have no limits. That’s what makes it special.

Untraditional.
There is virtually nothing that reminds me of “Final Fantasy” in XIV, aside from the theme music at the character creation screen. No chocobos, no summons, no jobs, no incredible spells, recognizable costumes, nothing. Final Fantasy should be a celebration of all the things that made the game great, much like Dissidia was and is – well, without the “fighting game” part. Not sure what that’s about.

The music a lot of people seem to hail, but I don’t see where it is so wonderful. The dungeons are without music, the fighting theme is bland and repetitive, as is most world music. While I understand that the original composer game up with this music as well, it doesn’t seem as inspired.



While I understand that the game is a work in progress and some of these things are being addressed, I just wish that I were playing an actual Final Fantasy title, not whatever this is. Personally, if they added more Final Fantasy elements to the game, I would be a lot more on the happy side. More than anything else, the strange class names, lack of uniqueness, bland music, cutsiness, and copy-style of other games disappoints me.

So it will sit on my hard drive, until I feel it's fixed or they release a better game in the future.

I'm sure it won't go anywhere, as it is hard to do much of anything since I realized that Final Fantasy XIII-2 - a game created as the purpose of being a Fanservice to Lightning - doesn't feature Lightning as a main character. I'l be scratching my head on that one for a long, long time.

I'm glad they're working on it, but as with all things, I'll believe it when I see it.