The Good, The Bad, and The Weird?

[Nanamix]

Hello everybody, this is a thread that talks about my view and take of Final Fantasy XIV so far. And sorry for the confusing title, this isn't referred to that Korean movie, it's my view, darn it!

Since the game was announced back in 2008, and with the engine showcase even further back in 2005, it pique my interest. And realistically, the reason why I decided to buy this game instead of continue playing FFXI was mainly due to the fact that I started way too behind, with content that takes probably 6 years or so to beat. Plus I am a moderator for Gametrailers, and I have been keeping track of it's progress ever since until it release, the disaster that it faced, and the reform of the game. I have played many games, such as WoW, SWTOR, LOTRO, DAoC, FFXI, Ryzom, Face of Mankind, Planetside, EQ2, etc... But please do not take those into heart that I automatically have a bad perspective of the game.

Despite the abysmal start that Final Fantasy XIV received, and of course, it's former development team was gutted, and the entire team was reformed, the game some how pique my interest. After a little more than a year later, I decided to buy the game, not knowing what to expect. However, unlike many people that started the game with the bitter taste in their mouth, I looked at it with a different perspective.

Story

The Good: I made my characters starting from Gridania, and then Limsa Lominsa, and finally settled in Ul'dah, I must say, I was impressed with everything, from the beginning until the end of all 2 main story of Gridania, and Limsa Lominsa. Currently I am trying out Ul'dah, and still discovering the plot.

The dialogue and wording was understandable, and each Grand Companies has their own sort of culture and accent to it, for example, Gridania has a very British folklore sort of language whenever they speak, it was slightly hard to understand at some point, but it was well worth the time to spend and trying to understand what was going on through what the character was saying. Limsa Lominsa, well, of course, pirate speech, what else do you not love? And Ul'dah was a quite common accent. So I praise the team for hiring such good voice actors. Especially whoever it was for Yda. <3

The Bad: It would be nice if they continued with the voice acting throughout the game. Or at some point your character has his/her own dialogue. So it doesn't make me feel like I'm trying to guess what my character just said half of the time.

The Weird: There isn't much for me to say besides that it was engaging, though I wish there was some sort of optional interaction I could do to make it feels like I'm actually apart of the story, rather than a side character.

Gameplay:

The Good: I gotta say, as far it goes for combat, it is so much better than Final Fantasy XI in my personal opinion, everything seem smooth, it wasn't slow, nor too fast pace where I had to constantly spamming buttons for the life of me. I love the movement animations and how your character takes time to turn front and back, like a real person would do rather than magically make a 180 degree turn in a blink of frame like WoW or SWTOR and many other MMO I am too lazy to point out. So great job on that! I also do like the Levequest system, as it makes me feel like I play Monster Hunter (One of my most favorite game) at some point, taking Levequests from the Adventure Guild, just like how it was in Monster Hunter where you get the mission from the quest giver, and when you initiate it, you can do so with the +Level of difficulty, and once it's initiated, everything was so smooth, from the start to finish of the Levelquest, and once you finished your deeds, you get your reward, very nice and simple. Though, unfortunately, that is all I can comment on, and be realistic about it, because I haven't got far into the game yet, but I do hope to look forward as I progress

Also, the musics are amazing! And I hope to see more track to be added to this game

The Bad: Let's face it, the game definitely has some bugs and glitches, for example, when I run into some building, the characters won't load, and sometimes my character disappear as well, and I run around invisible. That is definitely something the team needs to look into and get it fixed. I just hate having to relog back and forth in order to get it loaded properly. And sometimes when it happened during Levequest, and I relog, it said that my quest failed, which causes me to lose one Levequest point, which means waste of experience and money! That is something I does not appreciate.

The weather system definitely need some work, I mean it seems like the effect is planted on the screen, instead of the world. I mean, sometimes I walk into some sort of cover, and I still see it rain through a solid piece of rock! xD

Levequest, this is probably just my personal opinion, but I feel very limited, as how much money I could make or leveling. Sometimes, I felt like this is a great way to solo for those player who like to do so if you take the Levequest points away, and let the players do as much Levequests as they want, that way, it's easier for them to farm for gil, and level up their jobs. However, if anyone here has a better opinion why it should be the way that it is, I'd be more than happy to consider that in mind as well. Just a different way to look into things, you know?

And I'm pretty sure this has brought up plenty of time, the game shows very little direction in the beginning, which I guess it's not quite player friendly for some people who does not have the patients. Not saying that I don't, just some simple googling helped. Hehe.

The Weird: I would say, despite the disaster that almost every MMO community priced Final Fantasy XIV, I find the game very enjoyable, nostalgic, and different from various of other MMORPG I've played in the past, and most of my friends called me crazy, and said "Don't do it! It's not worth it!" Well, most of them probably never played that game, or didn't play them since Launch back in 2010. But I'm glad that many things and content in-game are changing, and being added and fixed. I mean, it's like you got off a bad foot with your male/female friend, and then overtime they changed in a good way, and you ends up dating that person. Kinda like this for Final Fantasy XIV. Though, some people would probably just date them while they're still bad, and overtime they changed and become good. You can also look it like that.

Crafting:

The Good: I had a lot of fun trying to do crafting. Which was my Armorsmith. The experience rate for crafting is dramatic, and you level up so fast trying to craft something. It was a fun and innovative experience I had. It feels like a little "lucky lucky" mini-game going on.

The Bad: Too much self configuration going on. Half of the time, I don't know what the heck I am doing. And you can't really make anything at an early level unless you waste levepoints on crafting quests and get the awarded recipe. Oh well, I suppose I can wait until I get my Marauder up around 30 and start putting a few points into Armorsmith.

The Weird: @_@ So much confusion, a complex yet simple system. Maybe I'm just a silly little newb trying to learn this darn thing! xD

Overall:

Well, let say that giving Final Fantasy XIV a chance caught me off guard, I came in not giving it the perspective that many, or most players, and that was being pessimistic about it. But I find Final Fantasy XIV was sort of giving me a sandbox feel to it. Mainly because I don't consider the jobs as a "Class" to level, but more like a profession to "skill" up. So you can do and be everything you wanted to be that FFXIV offered! Believe me, that perspective helped out a lot. And there are sooooo many jobs that it's really overwhelming @_@;, so I hope that I would find somebody that are nice enough on Besaid to help and show me the loop. ^^;

But that is all I have for now, like I said, I am still in the very beginning of the ride, and I am definitely looking forward for what to come in this game. Also, I am interested in RP, hence why I rolled in Besaid (Did a little research xD), so if there is any helpful RP Linkshell that are willing to put up with my newby butt, I'd be grateful as well! Thank you for taking your time in reading this, and I hope to see you all ingame.

[Wynn]

I love when someone posts genuinely unbiased feedback. More people need to do this. +1

[Jinko]

+1 for the well written post, hope you continue to enjoy the game

[Nanamix]

Thank you! It's a lot to navigate around and get used to, haha. Just very little direction I have to face xD

[Aion]

Am I on FF XIV General Forum?

/confused

[Xaimera]

no! ur name is aion GOWAI! lol

[Nanamix]

Am I on FF XIV General Forum?

/confused

Did I do something wrong? o.o;

[Jinko]

Did I do something wrong? o.o;

We aren't used to possitive feedback, or posts in general. lol

[Endless]

Hey Nanase Sakamoto, I play on Besaid and am also relatively new. Started playing about 2 weeks ago with the same kind of pessimism you had and I have to agree with your post I love the game, it has the FFXI feel that I enjoyed for years but feels different enough that I am learning as I go. Myself and a friend started a linkshell yesterday (we both started playing at the same time) and would love for you to join us. Part of what makes the game fun is playing with others so the more we get the better! We aren't RP but we are friendly and helpful and we don't care if you RP =) I'll be home later tonight if you are on and want to join look me up.

[Rydin]

I also do like the Levequest system, as it makes me feel like I play Monster Hunter (One of my most favorite game) at some point, taking Levequests from the Adventure Guild, just like how it was in Monster Hunter where you get the mission from the quest giver, and when you initiate it, you can do so with the +Level of difficulty, and once it's initiated, everything was so smooth, from the start to finish of the Levelquest, and once you finished your deeds, you get your reward, very nice and simple.

Son of a gun... I have been playing this game regularly since launch and I've played every Monster Hunter released in the US and I've never made that connection...
the Levequest system really IS reminiscent of the MH quest counter....
but the quest counter in MH is:
more in depth...
where a story develops....
each quest comes with an explanation..
Certain quests need to be done to unlock more.
Also the MH quests are MUCH more difficult than levequests in FFXIV....

(in Hank Hill voice) Yoshi-P and co. could learn A LOT from that system... I'll tell you what

I would LOVE to see leves become even more like MH