How games can have less scripted encounters

[MoofiaBossVal]

The most obvious reason why FF14's fights feels stiff compared to WoW's is that the boss always returns to the middle of the room to stand there and cast. You don't get WoW esque fights where the tank ia dragging the boss around the room as the boss hurls lava and the room slowly fills up with lava until there is little space to stand.

[Reimmi]

The most obvious reason why FF14's fights feels stiff compared to WoW's is that the boss always returns to the middle of the room to stand there and cast. You don't get WoW esque fights where the tank ia dragging the boss around the room as the boss hurls lava and the room slowly fills up with lava until there is little space to stand.

Yeah i'd say this too. wow's fights are just as scripted as ff14's otherwise

[EusisLandale]

The most obvious reason why FF14's fights feels stiff compared to WoW's is that the boss always returns to the middle of the room to stand there and cast. You don't get WoW esque fights where the tank ia dragging the boss around the room as the boss hurls lava and the room slowly fills up with lava until there is little space to stand.

You're making miss Sohm Al Hard's Lava Scorpion.

[Jojoya]

The most obvious reason why FF14's fights feels stiff compared to WoW's is that the boss always returns to the middle of the room to stand there and cast. You don't get WoW esque fights where the tank ia dragging the boss around the room as the boss hurls lava and the room slowly fills up with lava until there is little space to stand.

We do have a similar mechanic to the latter where portions of the arena get destroyed to reduce the room the party has to use.

But I agree with you in general. We've always got a very flat circle or square to work with (barring mid fight changes). There is extremely little variety in how encounter spaces are designed (E12 is the only one that comes to mind immediately) and the environments tend to get stale in appearance. Do we really need to have almost every fight on a dance floor?

There are pros and cons for both styles of raid design but ironically for a game that was so bad when it came to story telling, WoW did a much better job of creating immersion with its raid environments. Compare any of the raids in FFXIV with something like Siege of Orgrimmar. As good or bad as individual encounters might be, they don't add up to the feeling created by having to force your way through a heavily fortified and defended city. It's just a shame that WoW didn't add in shortcuts direct to boss room to use after wipes (or did they finally after Legion).