Final Fantasy XIV going back to Final Fantasy Roots

[Spartacus_Owen]

OK I want to start off by saying that I am not 100% bashing Final Fantasy XIV. It has a lot good about it. However I feel like it is going away from what makes Final Fantasy, Final fantasy. I fell like Square Enix is just worried about numbers and getting as many people to sign up for Final Fantasy as possible. The problem is yeah you might have 5 million people sign up for it but how many are actually playing 1 million? If that. Things that drastically need changed are things like the FATE system. I love being able to take a party and with my party only fight a strong monster in the field and let onlookers watch not have the whole server fighting one monster. There is no challenge in that or sense of accomplishment. Another thing is some FATES people don't do anymore and if you can not find 20+ people that level to do the FATE then guess what you will never be able to do it.

[Spartacus_Owen]

I can not stand the Tank swapping mechanic drives me nuts to the point I don't want to tank anymore. The biggest problem I see with Final Fantasy XIV is that it has taken so many ideas from other mmo's which I am sure some people will say all mmo's take from other mmo's. That is all fine and well however Final Fantasy XIV takes the cake there are way too many to list on this forum I would have to create a separate one just for that. The only thing taken from XI is some mob designs and names. My biggest complaint and everyone has to agree with me here when I say that Final Fantasy XXIV is drifting away from Final Fantasy is when I fight Ifrit and I use Fire on him that hurts him.... That should heal him same thing with Ramuh and Shiva... however I do understand the way BLM's is set up to work and they would have to drastically change BLM to make it right. I would be ok with that.

[Iagainsti]

I can not stand the Tank swapping mechanic drives me nuts to the point I don't want to tank anymore.

I'd like to point out FFXI, since you compare a lot to this game, had tank swaps, even in the old pre-book leveling party style; 6 player parties, you used to bring two tanks. It gave the healer 2 HP pools to save from /rest constantly. I never played EQ myself, but I'd imagine that also had a similar system.

[Metathetical]

Elemental damage in traditional FF games is actually really boring from a design perspective, for the most part. You usually get each tier of elemental damage spell at roughly the same time, which means it doesn't introduce any tactical choices: either the enemy is more vulnerable to one element, in which case you always want to use that element, or they're not, in which case you use whichever one you like the most. You might as well just give the black mage one 'generic damage' spell and have certain monsters take more or less damage from it.

There are some exceptions, like enemies with changing/randomized weaknesses, putting on elemental absorbing gear and using it to heal, etc., but in general it's actually a pretty boring mechanic. I can't imagine how you'd implement it in an interesting way.

Monsters doing elemental-aligned damage is somewhat more interesting because it creates decisions like 'do I want to wear this gear with really nice defensive stats, or this gear that has moderate defensive stats but lets me absorb the boss's huge fire-aligned attack?'. But in traditional FF games you have unlimited gear space, so 'forcing' the player to keep around fire-absorbing gear has no downside. You can't really do that in FFXIV.

I think the grindy nature of MMOs compared to traditional RPGs also pushes people towards making more 'optimal' decisions. If you're going to fight a boss once, then sure, you don't have to think about what your gearing strategy is. But if you're going to do it hundreds of times for XP/loot/whatever, you're going to gravitate towards the one optimal loadout and ability rotation.

[Spartacus_Owen]

[QUOTE=Metathetical;3370868]Elemental damage in traditional FF games is actually really boring from a design perspective, for the most part.

Ok and spamming fire until you get a fire proc is thrilling?

[Shurrikhan]

Elemental damage in traditional FF games is actually really boring from a design perspective, for the most part.

Ok and spamming fire until you get a fire proc is thrilling?

Don't worry, soon you'll hardly give a damn about Firestarter procs. (But at least you're using all three elements in any given fight...)

Agreed though. Traditional FF elemental mechanics are really, really dull. The possibility of elements actually having more to them than just potency and caster-specific "additional effects" tacked on, though? Likely quite interesting.

[Spartacus_Owen]

Really all I want to do is see how many people I can get to like this to make Square understand that the actual Final Fantasy fans want it to feel like we are playing Final Fantasy. People can and I am sure will comment on this saying how wrong I am and you are entitled to your own opinion and I respect that. Just make a legit response if you do is all I ask. So If you agree with me and would like to see a change back to what makes Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy please like this or thumbs up or what ever this forum has for approval and get your friends to do the same. Again I am not bashing FFXIV I just love the series to much to see it ruined.

[Spartacus_Owen]

I am sorry for making it into sections It's just I couldn't put more that 1000's characters in it and I need more to get my point across.

[Bluffnix]

inB4 the trolls, its been mentioned for a year now that SE is on its last leg for JRPG's because their player base in Japan is more into mobile platform games like Candy Crush.

But, that being said. I approve.

[Enkidoh]

Firstly, you can get around the 1000 character per post limit by going back and editing your post. (like I just did)

Secondly, it seems you just want FFXIV to just be FFXI-2, which it will never be. You say you want FFXIV to 'go back to FF roots', but it's clear you actually mean "this should be like FFXI". I hate to say it, but the style of game you want is no longer a viable entity - for instance, wanting hard NMs on the world map that "only your party can claim and force others to watch you fight," I'm sorry but this comes across as incredibly self-centered and elitist.

Considering FFXI was inundated with rampant claim bots automatically claiming NMs as soon as they spawned and thus legitimate parties could never get a look in, well, it's not hard to see why such as system was abandoned on the kerb in favour of what is now regarded as standard MMO practice (that is, open claiming on enemies when anyone can freely participate and get credit for the enemy's kill).

Given the fact even FFXI has mostly abandoned party-centric ideas in favour of solo-based gameplay (including concepts brought wholesale from FFXIV), it's not hard to see that this is actually how things are now. Face it, it's not 2001 anymore. The WoW-style of MMO gameplay is here to stay (and it should go without saying that FFXI similarly copied Everquest's style of gameplay and played nothing like a 'traditional FF game either). If you don't like that style of game, then I'm afraid FFXIV will never be enjoyable for you.