Out with the OLD, IN with The NEW -- A Look Back to Epicness

[Purrfectstorm]

FFXI did a lot right and felt pretty epic. FFXIV has had its epic moments (for me it was AK or doing HM primals for the first time). However, things that are wrong with FFXIV (in my personal opinion) are:

- Itemization (Just bigger numbers on gear, no special traits, boring)
- Customization (No character builds or decisions to make)
- Hunts (mindless zerg fests, rewards too great for what they are)
- Repetition of content (more primals, HM dungeons, Coil, tomes, same old pattern)
- Content for endgame gear not varied enough (Coil, tomes)
- Team rope jumping is frustrating (feeling of being held back by others)
- Open world mobs too easy (no sense of world danger)
- Everything is instanced (no need to explore)
- Overboard on daily/weekly lockouts (sense of logging in to do a checklist every day/week)
- Missing player conveniences (being able to queue with chocobo out, for example)
- Hyped content that is disappointing (housing too expensive)

I know not everyone will agree with this list but I see these complaints a lot and I agree with all of them despite the fact that I do enjoy FFXIV overall. I really don't think I will stay for the long term if the game's direction doesn't change somewhat.

[Kiara]

Things that are wrong with FFXIV (in my personal opinion) are:

- Itemization (Just bigger numbers on gear, no special traits, boring)
- Customization (No character builds or decisions to make)
- Hunts (mindless zerg fests, rewards too great for what they are)
- Repetition of content (more primals, HM dungeons, Coil, tomes, same old pattern)
- Content for endgame gear not varied enough (Coil, tomes)
- Team rope jumping is frustrating (feeling of being held back by others)
- Open world mobs too easy (no sense of world danger)
- Everything is instanced (no need to explore)
- Overboard on daily/weekly lockouts (sense of logging in to do a checklist every day/week)
- Missing player conveniences (being able to queue with chocobo out, for example)
- Hyped content that is disappointing (housing too expensive)

I really don't think I will stay for the long term if the game's direction doesn't change somewhat.

GREAT list. I totally agree.

While it's true that there's some nostalgia that hits people who played FF XI and are now playing XIV, there are some fundamental flaws with XIV that I hope are rectified in 3.0 (or sooner). To add to Purrfectstorm's list:

* Stringent Lockouts and Inability to Raid with Friends (outside of Static). This is just awful: Besides a FIXED, stringent 7 people in a Static (or a clear for the week), you are unable to help out Friends, fellow FC / LS Mates. This leads to segregation and NOT a "community" feel.

Do you have 2 - 4+ other people in your FC / LS or Friends that don't have a static, but want to Raid with you?

Sorry, you're out of luck. You can't even rotate them in: They have to go and join some random Party Finder groups / strangers to get their Second Coil runs for the week. This is just awful.

At least in XI, with Dynamis, Sky, Kings, etc., you can rotate people in, you can have VARIABLE party sizes to do stuff with more people! You're stuck with Yoshi P's stringent fixed party sizes here.


* Itemization: Definitely agree. Boring, same stat increases every patch. Guess what the New Item Level 700 Dragoon gear is going to be? "Surprise!" More +STR, +VIT. Guess what your Level 1,200 Dragoon gear is going to be? More +STR, +VIT. Awful and boring.


* Lack of Customization: This goes hand-in-hand with the Itemization. It would be far more interesting if there were some meaningful Character Builds to go for.


* Team Jump Rope is Awful: You're not being tested on good you know your job; you're being tested on how well you MEMORIZED the Combat Team's new "Just Dance / Dance Dance Revolution" Gimmick of the month.

Someone posted about having those epic comebacks in XI, where a Red Mage Chainspelled, or if you were close to wiping someone could kite the Boss / NM around like mad, while the party tried to raise up and recover. You had more freedom to recover, even if 1/3 of your alliance was Charmed and attacking your friends by accident , and continue on the Raid run.

In XIV, it's so scripted, it usually means a total wipe and reset. Do it over again from the top. Same dance, same routine.


* Instanced Everything & Duty Finder. Don't get me wrong, I DON'T miss "Looking for Party" for hours any more than the next person. But in copying World of WarCraft, Yoshi P's Duty Finder / Instanced Dungeons/Fights everywhere, makes XIV feel more distant / soulless.

Most people don't care who they're in the party with via Duty Finder (you have no choice). You just go in, go for a clear, and exit quickly. "Hi & Goodbye!"

Is there a way around that? I'm not sure. I love the convenience of queuing anywhere, but it's sad that most of the time you really don't get to know fellow players (especially on your own server).

I think Cross-Server Friends List & the ability to make Cross-Server Parties would go a long way to bringing more of a Community feeling to this game.


* No Team Combos. This is more specific, but I think it goes a long way to making *each* Fight you do, far more interesting and dynamic:

Have a Team Combo System, perhaps like CHRONO TRIGGER's Triple Tech, where up to 3 Party Members (or whatever works) can contribute and add their Weapon Skills / Spells to create some cool, unique devastating attack.

Final Fantasy XI's Skillchain / Renkei (early days) was also really interesting where players could contribute their Weaponskills or Spells to create Combos / Magic Bursts, and something Square-Enix should celebrate instead of ignore (and just copy World of WarCraft).

Having something like this would make EACH fight you participate in, be far more engaging and *changing* (you don't just have to do your same boring 1, 2, 3 Rotations), but with the party changing up, you might do one type of Team Combo, or another. It's variable.

These things may seem like a rant, but I bring these up in the hope that Yoshi P and the Dev Team IMPROVE FF XIV to thrive and be successful and fun for many years to come. If it continues as is, I fear they'll lose even more players. It's just too shallow and problematic right now.

[Alukah]

They were replaced for launching an unfinished game with no content on it, hoping it would make money just for the name, not for making a bad game, unfortunately we can't see what they had planed for the original ffxiv, its fail was as exaggerated as the hype the actual game causes.

This said, what most ppl miss is 1.23, which was a decent game.

No, they were fired for making a bad game, a bad game that failed, if it was just the unfinished part they would have continued the original plan, not remake the whole game.

[Saseal]

Ragnarok Online beta back in 2000/2001-ish till about a year ago was my first and long time MMO home...
as much as I have some attachment to it for all the peeps I've met and all the things I've done in it... this is a steep, steep upgrade to me. This is my epicness. This is where my storylines are, my non 'grind-to-level' (on monster maps that a lot of Korean MMOs seem to love), this is where my boss battles are and and where actually having battle mechanics has ever shown it's face to me. I've played RO for a loooooonng time, along with a few random F2Ps with similar aspects... but this is my first MMO that seems to actually have a personality to it.

I think the only thing I miss from RO vs FFXIV was having complete freedom as to your character build. I've had a Hindsight Scholar (so fun, with a soul linked battle smith doing AR), Agi/Crit Knight, Agi/Dex/Int knight (with random magic bolt weapons) Str/Vit/Dex knight, FS (full support) Priest, crit Battle Priest, ME priest (exorcist, basically), agi smith, Crit sin (assassin), Natural crit sin, Dex sin, Agi/Luk pali, Sac Pali (sacrifice), A regular ranger, a falcon ranger.... all the same class, but -I- chose the TYPE of ranger or knight or paladin or assassin or priest or what ever, based on where I plopped the stats and which skills I chose and how I prefer to play (....huurderrr lotsa agi-builds :3 I likes swings fasterses hurr hurr). Ofcourse, that completely lead people down astray if they didn't know all the options of all the types of successful builds there were... but no one was force-fed the same-ish stat build or same skill set.

I tried playing FF XI once. On the PC. (big mistake. Damn you and your going-out-of-business clearance, Comp USA!)
The only thing I remember for XI was, "How the hell do I move? *Opens a million menus* *One hour later, after managing to take the first step ever* Where the hell am I? How the hell do I get out of this castle? Where do I go?? Bwaaarrrgh! *Ragequit*"

So, really, it's kind of subjective... x.x

[Meier]

I agree with you OP. I have been playing FFXIV since 2010. While I have some memories from 1.xx, in ARR? None. Nothing is memorable, I have never felt more detached from a games story in my life.

This game has been out for over a year, and by now we should be able to have some epic memory, or something...ANYTHING. I've none.

[maxthunder1]

I agree with you OP. I have been playing FFXIV since 2010. While I have some memories from 1.xx, in ARR? None. Nothing is memorable, I have never felt more detached from a games story in my life.

This game has been out for over a year, and by now we should be able to have some epic memory, or something...ANYTHING. I've none.

I agree with you completely. I have great memories of XI and 1.0 but with arr not a damn thing that is so sad.