This is awesome... Why couldn't we have this?

[TouchandFeel]

While 1.X definitely had problems and made mistakes, it most certainly did very good cutscenes for a MMO.

I would love for the game to bring back that level of cinematic storytelling to the game but I get the feeling that the team's budget and resources for doing cinematics is shoestring at best and so they do what they can with what little the have.

I also get the feeling that SE corporate is being very cautious and tight-pursed when it comes to FF14 and budget allocation since 1.0 was seen as a financial failure for them and so they are trepedatious with the funds that go towards the current version. While this is understandable to a point, hopefully they will loosen the purse-strings a bit and start to give more resources to Yoshi-P and team to improve and grow that game now that it has proven to be successful and profitable.

Also, another random note. I feel the lighting was a bit better in 1.X. Not sure what changed, but it just seems like it had more "pop" and depth to it back then.

[Felis]

Where was that story in 2.0? Why did it get cut out?

It get mentioned during 2.0
You also cooked a dinner for those who fought against Titan before the calamity.

Why it never went live in 1.0? Earthquake 2011

[Duuude007]

1.0 was so great, that's why its still aro.. oh wait

I enjoyed both, but there was such a huge exodus of subscribers from 1.0 that SE had to react or they would have to kill the game. A huge dishonor and a black mark on the FF franchise. That could not happen. So they changed who was in charge and guess what. Now ARR in many ways carries SE and has helped make the company as a whole turn a profit.

1.0 had serious glaring issues but some elements were fun. Considering the timing of real world events (Japan Earthquake) postponing Titan due to the sensitivity of the quake topic, a lot of the situation (for this specific cutscene) wasn't even in their hands.

[Jynx]

I loved 1.0 it had alot of problems no doubt about it, but I really wish they were a little more true to the original game and design when they went to 2.0.

The biggest issue the game had was the engine, not the content.

[Kuwagami]

I wish 2.0 and onwards primals had that much deep... Sadly they have mostly been reduced to "graah graah destroy everything!" except Ramuh (and Shiva, but that's because she isn't an entire Primal entity per say)

snip

Well, the main reason we had to go there was because Limsa Lominsa made a d*ck move on the kobold and trespassed their lands with bad intentions. Just like most other 2.X primals, he was summoned because Eorzean people are a bunch of selfish and greedy bastards who have little to no consideration for beast tribes.

Ifrit ? Amal jaas being persecuted and driven back in the desert
Ramuh (not eorzeans!) => Garlean baddies
King Moggle Mog XII ? Mogs being persecuted
Ixals are freaks
Leviathan ? Limsa raiding the spawing grounds (granted the Sahagins attacked the place first, but they had nowhere to go after the cataclysm)

in 2.0, the WoL was just cleaning the mess Eorzean people had made.

[Zojha]

The biggest issue the game had was the engine, not the content.

Are you implying people left en masse over the engine? Because I can hardly imagine that.

[Jynx]

Are you implying people left en masse over the engine? Because I can hardly imagine that.

Did you play 1.0?

The UI took FOREVER to even load anything, things such as basic menu interactions became laborious. The engine and it's slipshod optimization was the cause of the vast open world maps being the way they were. Hell 1.23 was miles better than what we started out with in Alpha and 1.0, the game was shoved out the door before it was ready and the bedrock (Engine) was faulty from the starting line. The game started out with little content and janky mechanics due to the limitations of the system in place so much so they threw it out and started anew. Sadly they threw more than just the engine out.

[Zojha]

Did you play 1.0?

Yes. And the reason I left was certainly not the engine. I followed the MSQ up to the point where I couldn't anymore because I needed more levels (Which was very soon). Since I couldn't find enough quests for my level, despite searching far and wide in the Shroud, La noscea and Thanalan, I tried leves, but only had 3 a day, so after that I tried grinding mobs instead, up to the point where I needed better equipment because I got my ass handed to me by equally leveled mobs (also, my equipment was broken). And then I couldn't find any affordable gear and tried making it myself. Took up a pickaxe, ran out to the desert, then got crushed by a random Ant while trying to find a node. Eventually I made it, did some accessories as goldsmith and was happy to at least have gotten *something* done in this game (I still keep those on my retainer). My highest level at this point was like 11, about three weeks in.

Then I logged out and conveniently forgot to log in again.

[Preypacer]

The reason they rebooted the game is because 1.0 could not have recovered, period. It could have garnered a small niche audience after they fixed it, but nothing major such as FFXIV or WoW numbers which is what they're striving for.
...
The same would have happened with 1.0, along with core issues that could not have been fixed no matter how much time they invested, such as the awful engine they used for an MMO, the server issues with how it was programmed, etc.

In the end, they opted for the smart option of playing it safe with ARR and replicating what made WoW successful. What they're failing is moving out of that cycle, they've established an audience, they can take risks now, which was promised pre-3.0.

First, I agree 100% with your final statement, regarding how they're stuck in the cycle of trying to replicate WoW. It really annoyed the hell out of me when I saw that was the direction they were taking it, and it still annoys the hell out of me when I see them doing things WoW has done (likely because Yoshi-P is trying to "play it safe", going with "what people know", and bringing those ideas into XIV). Seeing Square Enix content to be a follower, taking their cues largely from "what's already proven and safe to try" is really a damn shame.

For the rest, which I've bolded...

For the sake of clarity to others reading this thread, or any who may still be unclear of exactly what is meant when people say they wish they'd continued 1.x on into ARR...

No one (who was playing the game) wanted 1.0 to continue "as it was".

I know I've explained, and others have as well, that they wanted the game to continue as it was by the end of 1.23, but with all the necessary fixes to infrastructure, the graphics engine, the servers and so-forth, to allow it to run as it does now.

All of that stuff needed to change. Yes, absolutely and definitely. No argument.

The problem is, a lot of people (and I think a number of them do it deliberately, just to poison the well and shut down any chance of honest discussion) continue to conflate the two, and think that those of us who say "we wish they'd have kept the game as it was when the servers shut down", mean we wanted it to be as it was during 1.0 and those initial patches.

Directly and Definitively: No. No, that is not what we are saying. When we say 1.23, we mean 1.23, not 1.0. FFXIV was a verrrrry different game by the time they took servers offline.

The direction the game had gone, the design choices that had been made and the changes by 1.23 had turned it into a very enjoyable experience - enough so that, according to Yoshi-P himself, they'd managed to at least triple the number of players in the game *after* they re-implemented subscriptions. Think about that. 3 times the number of people were playing the game when they had to pay a sub, than were when it was free and they only needed to own a copy. That should tell people something - that the game had come a long way, and was going in the right direction.

Unfortunately, instead of following that path, they took a left turn and converted the game into a standard Theme Park with a FF skin and loads of FF fan service. While I enjoy playing XIV as it is - it definitely has its charms - I still believe the game is worse for that change in direction, and really miss a lot of the things that made XIV stand-out from other MMOs, rather than trying to "blend in".

Some things I miss in particular:

)) A world that actually felt dangerous, where you had to respect your surroundings and learn how to get around the different mobs without being noticed, 'cause they'd destroy you, very quickly. Getting up to Camp Bluefog back then was a pain in the ass, and I loved it. Finally getting to that Aetheryte actually felt like an accomplishment, because I'd avoided certain death, multiple times, to get there.

)) Open world dungeon areas where you could just run in and encounter different types of content. Running through Shposhae, or the old Tam Tara when it wasn't instanced.. It was a lot of fun. There was a lot of danger in those tunnels, and with Shposhae in particular, there was actually a kind of "puzzle" deep within to solve. There was actual content in them. I remember hunting down Pickaroon inside Copperbell, with my FC, to get his body piece. That was fun.

)) Mobs that reacted to your presence. They'd either respond aggressively - giving you warning that they were going to attack if you hung around too long, but would go back to relaxed state if you moved on. Or the Aldgoats who'd become curious and saunter up to check you out, maybe follow you around (it also required you to be careful when fighting, so as not to use any AOEs that might hit them).

)) Many mobs - those I pretty much shrug off now - could be downright terrifying lol. I remember dreading getting the levequest that had me fighting the moles. Those things were bastards in 1.x. The ones you had to fight for leve quests would chase you down. No "leash" where they turn around. No, they were chasing you 'til they, or you, were dead.

For all those reasons, and more, 1.x's world may not have been all that diverse to look at... but it was far more interesting, challenging and rewarding to explore.

That's just a handful of things 1.x did really well, and I wish they hadn't dropped in the name of "streamlining".

I'm quite confident that had ARR re-launched as a continuation of where it was going at 1.23, it would still have done very well, because it was a solid, fun experience by that point, and they had laid a good foundation to build upon.

[DSX]

He "quit" aka fired with dignity.

Beyond what you have seen, the game was broken. But it was wonderful none the less for what it was and superior to ARR and HW in many ways. The old Eorzea was full of danger, just ask any of us who unlocked all the Aetheryte camps and nodes.... omg that was painful but still fun.

I'm still rocking that title to date after getting all the nodes

I loved 1.0 it had alot of problems no doubt about it, but I really wish they were a little more true to the original game and design when they went to 2.0.

The biggest issue the game had was the engine, not the content.

I agree.
Tanaka was handed the engine they made for FFXIII (yes the first one) and was told to make due with it and make an mmorpg using that engine and was denied the request to make an engine for FFXIV to suite it's genre and nature. To make things worse they forced him to kick the game out the door more than TWO years of when it was supposed to be due initially because SE wanted it out before WoW next expansion was out.

There is much more to the story of why FFXIV ver1 came out the way it did than what I just mentioned.