To those who loved FF11...

[Super_Bee_Brian]

Hi everyone. A question...

Here's the thing. A few weeks ago I made a thread that spawned several players to say that FF11 was undoubtedly the better game. I almost believed them until... I posed the same exact question within the game at Ul'dah shout. ALL of the ones who responded, about five players, said that the only reason why anyone would say that is out of a bias of nostalgia, and that FF14 is superior.

Let's settle this once and for all. Is FF11 truly a better game? Or are the only ones saying that are those with a nostalgia bias?

Thanks.

[kamenkuro]

Probably has a bit of both. I'm not a huge fan of MMO's. They're limited in how well they play. Only reason I play is because of my friends. Now, in that vein I'll admit I don't think older MMO's are worth playing mostly due to how I find their gameplay to be so archaic. Someone that loves MMO's however has this love for what they're made of. The grind, the endgame, stuff like that. They might have a better metric for what makes a good MMO even if it's not in line with what I think makes a good game. Someone that loves ff11 is more than likely thinking about different things. The old MMO landscape is vastly different from the current one. They were more complicated, more co-operative. Today's MMO's are more streamlined, less inclined to force teamwork. Is ff11 better than ff14? I say it depends on who you ask.
I'm just going to add that I'm glad my friends are getting into Monster hunter.

[Dzian]

I often think it's not so much the game but more the world in which it is set.
In XIV it’s the player that is pretty much the centre of the universe everything revolves entirely around them. The other people in your party when you do something are nobodies. In comparison when you look at XI it is the game world is the centre of the universe and your player is just one small part of it. That is probably the biggest fundamental difference between them

It is for this reason that I think Vana'diel is (or at least was) a much deeper and better world than Eorzea can ever be. Primarily because Vana'diel was alive, it was dynamic and it was interesting. Eorzea by all comparisons is incredibly bland, lifeless and static.

When you look at FFXI. absolutely everything any player did had some impact on the game world. every single point of exp or every death they suffered for example would shape the balance of power across the world map in some way in the conquest standings. which in turn then impacted availability of various items and goods from vendors and the prices of those items which then impacted the availability of crafted goods on the auction house and again the prices of such.

Then you had thigs like Besieged which makes fates look even more lame than they actually are. Besieged itself was dynamic even if you won you might find one or 2 npcs still got kidnapped and had to be resxued.. or if you lost the candescance the runic portals were unavailable for teleports... everything affected the world in some way. As a result Vana’diel was always changing..

Zones were also much alive and dynamic and often had their own mechanics which bought them to life. You had Ifrits’ Cauldron where you could use Ice cluster to douse the flames and open new paths, Toramai Canal with its 3 mage gate or you could bypass it with the Moon Orb. The Eldieme Necropolis, Garlaige Citadel, SSG, and Quicksand Caves with there respective gate breach mechanics, 1 big galka to stand on a weighted platform and open a door or 3 taru taru... even that mountain in Attowa Chasm you had to climb. and zones like Sacrarium which had a maze that changed every game day (roughly an hour) so many things that bought all these zones to life in their own little ways and made them interesting. also had more variety between them with underground caves, mines, castles, towers, inside big trees, jungles, derelict settlements like Davoi. There was so much variety in the areas.

XI is getting close to 20 years old now and It's game world is lightyears ahead of Eorzea in terms of being dynamic and alive. Eorzea is just bland and lifeless and nothing ever changes. especially with fates.. “Oh no that settlement is being overrun by mobs..”. it doesn't make a difference if you totally ignore them or try to save the day. fate failed. so what..... fate complete, so what..... it makes no difference and thus is pointless.

Eorzea just doesn't have the life or depth Vana'diel does (or did), It never will and I think that's why it's so forgettable in comparison. even on a quest level. many of Eorzea's quests are quite bland and generic. oh no these slugs are ruining our crops kill them for me. yet in XI again I can still remember the epic adventure I took to the palborough miners memorial to uncover the truth about the miners. Or journing through Xacarabard to defeat the shadow lord for the main story..

There's also content as well. XIV's content is all designed in this lifeless structureless way. Just queue something enter it kill a boss done.... XI's was often much more interesting and structured. Einherjar for example meant working as a team trying to clear 9 wings in order to earn that attempt at odin. limbus was the same. you had to work your way through various sections to collect all the items you needed for ultima/omega. Sky was the same so was sea and nyzul isle... and it's the kind of things players have long wanted to see in XIV since well before 2.0 really.

Actual structured content for fcs to do together and stuff.. closest we ever got was potd 101-200 which required a fixed group of people. all be it only 4 of them... a lot of XI's content was very flexible too which was actually better for groups.. in XIV is you have 5,6,7 or 10 people or any number that isn't 4 or 8 you're really stuck for things to do. you either end up getting random help which isn't always ideal. or excluding people entirely..

In XI it was a lot more flexible. it didn't matter if 6 people wanted to do temenos or 16 people. you could nearly always include them all you might not go do ultima with 6 but you could still go and progress another pop set or something.... and that helped a lot with building groups and bonds and friendships.. XIV is by comparison incredibly anti social right down to the msq and that stupid message that often comes up. "you cannot progress this quest because you're in a party" It's an MMO I want to play with friends... again with things like savage loot systems where if you've cleared it that week you cant then help a friend because you'll eliminate the loot chests at the end just by being there...

Gear was better in XI aswell so was getting it.. Summoners for example who wanted the evokers ring had to go and defeat 7 primals for the quest to get the ring. but the feel of satisfaction or accomplishment at the end was there and made the ring feel valuable. XIV nothing has that everything is just temporary junk that has no attachment or value (except perhaps glamour) and thus it all feels lacklustre to get. and in many cases just means players have no motivation to even bother trying to get. because it will be trash tomorrow...

[Neri]

Why would you want to settle this once and for all? Each person has different opinions on the games themselves. Just learn to respect each other's opinion, and move on.

[MicahZerrshia]

11 was not a better game gameplay wise. A menu based game that put you at a slight disadvantage for not playing in jp thanks to pings was just bad. Also df is a godsend. No more standing in Jeuno/Whitegame /sh all day for clears. Exp was horribly slow too, it was a pain to lvl some jobs where others like rdm or brd you had to go private so ppl would stop asking you for pts. Even then the exp could be super slow and the grind was annoying sometimes. And resting for hp/mp sucked too.

But the game was better overall. Why?

Story. ffxi had an incredible story and each expac was its own thing. You were not forced to play through in a very strict order. New players could play through any they wanted at their leisure.

Gear. Horizontal progression was wonderful. Sure it took ages to build a relic/mythic and realistically the objectives were set way to high (ie 30k alexandrite) but gear was meaningful. When you got a piece you would celebrate and continue to use it sometimes for years. Here gear is extremely temporary and throwaway. Getting a piece doesn't feel like an accomplishment, just another chore checked off your list.

Housing. Instanced and given to everyone at start. No muss no fuss, everyone had the same house and it was all about decoration.

Stats. Stats meant something, here its only ilvl and unless your doing ultimate or some savage content, you don't even need to meld gear much less go for stats. And then some gear even boosted abilities, making them more worthwhile. Granted I hated macroing gear, but that was mostly because the macro system was horrible in xi.

Content. A large variety of content that was always relevant. You had more than 1 or 2 things to do a week and there was always reason to go back to old content which also helped people get clears in some of it. My ls ran dyna, salvage, sky, assault even MMM regularly and with lockouts you could never burn out to hard on anything since you couldn't spam it.

Combat. Sure combat was a lot of auto attacking and menu based, but it was still better than 1 2 3 - 1 2 3 - 1 2 5 - 1 2 3 - 6 6 7 - 1 2 3. A lot of combat took timing, skill and cooperation. This caused some jobs to be a lot of work, sch for instance required a lot of micromanagement, but if you could master those harder jobs they would blow the others out of the water sometimes.

Danger. Walking around the world was dangerous. You couldn't just take 2 steps to the left and unaggro that mob that saw you. Some mobs would sleep you and 1-shot you, others would hit you with ranged skills or blow you up with a fast casted spell. Links were a real danger too. This also meant you had to move through the world tactically. Which honestly was annoying at times, but made the game feel more alive and fun overall.

Nothing was just given to you, you had to work for everything which made everything feel more important. I remember getting a relic for the first time. I felt proud and accomplished. I was excited to finally get it. Gear drops, spells scrolls, housing items, all the same. When someone asked "Do you have X spell?" and you could say "Yes, yes I do" it sometimes meant something. Here nothing means anything. Its just a quick fix until your next quick fix. I honestly don't even run some content anymore because it means nothing. I stopped running extreme content after coil because there is no real need for the gear, I can experience the story running normal mode and in cases of primals, why would I want to run some of them 99 times for a mount that I will use maybe once. And the content imo is just not fun. Scripted battles that overuse markers, rely on dps checks for difficulty and are more about muscle memory than tactics get redundant super fast imo.

FFXI required effort and skill. All you need to do here is log in and queue and if anyone questions your skill, report them until everyone is too scared to question your rotation anymore so you can just be carried through the content by people who actually learn how to play.

Anyway, tldr they both have their pros and cons but xi just did things better if you were willing to put any effort in at all.

[Kazrah]

Pretty sure the biggest issue asking in these forums is that the people who prefer XIV over XI are currently too busy actually playing the game rather than whining on these forums about how much better their choice is.

[Odstarva]

If 11 was a better game, we'd all be playing it right now. It seems obvious to me which game is better.

Anyone that may claim otherwise doesn't really practice what they preach, or else they'd be playing it rather than this one.

[GetFoesReqd]

Well, some people may play and enjoy both, and like 11 better but still love 14 too. They'd still be around here some times.

After all, one needn't choose on over the other if you love both. ^_^

[RiyahArp]

I don't think anyone who played FFXI ever felt the need to say "oh, there's nothing to do, I'm going to raid log till the next patch or expansion until there is."

[Adelaide3]

FFXIV has alot of worthless content that gets outdated very fast because the challenge level is extremely low and the reward isn't good. Then it gets replaced with low challenge content and the cycle repeats itself.


Atleast FFXI had content that wasn't dead on arrival.