My Final Fantasy FXIV 2012 Youtube Video Review

[Bulwarkz]

Hey guys I worked on this last night - just put the finishing touches up on it and uploaded it. The review goes into detail about the past, current, and future states of Final Fantasy XIV. Hopefully it comes across as unbiased and informative.

Final Fantasy XIV 2012 Video Review

Enjoy!

TEXT VERSION:

Welcome to the Final Fantasy XIV 2012 Video Review. Fasten your seat belts. It has been nearly a year and a half since FFXIV retail was launched. As many may know, the game was initially met with negative reception from many players and reviewers a like. Square Enix quickly re-organized the development team and began fixing the game immediately. All of the work is leading up to the launch FFXIV 2.0. Having said this, let's start the review by noting the previous complaints about FFXIV.

Going down the list, the most notorious issue was probably the slow, poorly designed, user interface. The lack of auto attack. The lack of content between story and leve quests, leaving players looking for something to do besides grinding over and over. A mind boggling, boring crafting system. The in game economy which features Player Bazaars and Market Wards, opposed to a typical auction house. The leveling fatigue system. The inability to jump, leaving players stuck running all the way around small obstacles. Large, bland, empty, monotonous outside areas. In some cases, high level monsters were far to close to low level areas, or rather, directly in them. One second you could be feeling good, crushing through a 4x XP chain, just to have a notorious monster thirty levels higher than the current player level cap, come up and eat your face...

Well times have changed friends. Square Enix has finally implemented pay to play. I feel at this point they have earned it, and it is a more than fair time to do so. They need funds to continue down their road map to what will become FFXIV 2.0, which we will now start touching up on as well as go down the list of things that have been fixed in the game so far.

Let's get started. Measures have not only been taken to speed up the reaction time of the User Interface, but individual menu windows can now be bound to specific keys. Auto attack has been implemented. The leveling fatigue system has been removed. They will be redesigning the world map, and breaking up the seamless open areas into more interesting, unique zones. A new feature called a Free Company will be implemented in 2.0, allowing players from different Grand Company factions to quest together. 2.0 will also be introducing player housing, player versus player, and a new server structure for a more lag free environment. Players will be able to find and create parties for cross server dungeons. Furthermore, many more things will also be introduced in 2.0. Note that 2.0 is not an entirely different game, although it will be built on a more optimized game engine. None the less, FFXIV will always be FFXIV. So if you enjoy the way the game is now, don't be alarmed. I will now review the game based upon what FFXIV is today, as of patch 1.20a.

The down sides: The multi language community, is still quiet outside of linkshells. Parties are nearly impossible to come by, if you are lower than say, mid thirties. So aside from unspoken silence rules and the awkwardness within the player community, there are many good things about FFXIV today.

The game's graphics are absolutely vibrant and gorgeous. If you have the hardware to do it, it is a very rewarding experience. The cut scenes and story are simply amazing and engulfing. I really enjoy the gathering system. Behests, now every thirty minutes instead of one hour, are a great way to continue making progress and an effective way to form parties. They are like battlecraft guildleves, except you can always do them. Also, I now enjoy not only buying, but selling things in the new market wards.

The game gets better with more content and features as you level up, such as player companions and Grand Company quests, which open up faction quests. The task board in the adventure's guild also has fun content. The combat has become a lot of fun, and as always the interchangeable class system is very cool. Mixing and matching abilities from different classes is awesome, and unlike any other game experience. The sound track is composed by returning legendary Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu, and it's awesome.

Now, last but not least, I will score the game.

Graphics - 10
As mentioned before, the graphics are truly monumental.

Sound - 9
The soundtrack is excellent and the sound effects aren't bad on the ears.

Story - 9
The story lines are excellent, while the cut-scenes do a beautiful job in telling them.

Gameplay - 7
The combat may still be a little rough around the edges, but it has come a long way since launch. Unique elements in the game such as the guildleves, Behests and gathering system all make the game stand out as enjoyable.

Replay Value - 7
The current level cap is 50 and while that's not particulary high, the game is very young. The extra $3 a month for an extra character slot provides an annoyance for anyone wanting a variety of characters, although with the interchangeable class system one could essentially be anything ( just stuck with the same physical character ).

FINAL SCORE: 8.4 ( based on average )

I would recommend FFXIV, especially because of what it's all leading up to, FFXIV 2.0.
Thanks for reading my FFXIV 2012 Review. Feel free to share your thoughts in the replies.

[Irondude]

your moms basement has poor production value.

[Zenaku]

I love how people complain that grinding is boring and it just something you have to do -.- i myself think grinding is the key point of the game if grinding is boring and dumb like wow i wont play it but something like ffxi where you grind with mobs and fight with other players i enjoy very much.

[buritoslicer]

mind giving this to us in text format? I could read this a lot quicker and not feel like I wasted time watching a video.

Not trying to give you negative feedback, as I would love to see your review in text form.

[Eldaena]

I think it was a fair review. =) The only thing I would have emphasized a bit more is that it is still being reworked and there is a slight lack of content for those who have been playing since the release.

[Bulwarkz]

I love how people complain that grinding is boring and it just something you have to do -.- i myself think grinding is the key point of the game if grinding is boring and dumb like wow i wont play it but something like ffxi where you grind with mobs and fight with other players i enjoy very much.

Remember, I was only noting the consensus of complaints from people abroad. I started using my point of views when I stopped using 'past tense'.

[Bulwarkz]

mind giving this to us in text format? I could read this a lot quicker and not feel like I wasted time watching a video.

Not trying to give you negative feedback, as I would love to see your review in text form.

The only problem with that is it's 'written' funny because in a lot of cases I needed to spell things weird and whatnot so it would be pronounced correctly. It's also organized odd because of the way it needed to be implemented. I'll give it a look and see what I can do.

[Krausus]

I love how people complain that grinding is boring and it just something you have to do -.- i myself think grinding is the key point of the game if grinding is boring and dumb like wow i wont play it but something like ffxi where you grind with mobs and fight with other players i enjoy very much.

to each their own though, I personally do not like grinding

[Claire_Pendragon]

Thanks for the review and link.
Personally I'm not a fan of xtranormal vids, and more so in a "Review".

I would say the review could be spiced up with some videos and screenshots.
Along with using your own voice. (If you feel your voice isn't suited for it, I say hogwash, and just trying recording the lines multiple times, and keep the audio where you think your voice sounded good.)
Also could help to be broken into sections a bit more.

[Bulwarkz]

No problem. I'm putting together the review in text and editing the OP. That way it can be read opposed to watching the video if that's preferred =] I see the Youtube version as a way to reach out to the world, not just the current player community - although I want The Lodestone to have my nicely polished written review.