What is FFXIV lacking?

[Winterclaw]

For me it's missing fun... this week I logged in long enough to get an earth egg, wondered what to do with it and then logged off.

More atmosphere/depth to the world would be nice too.

[Allcars]

I found another great video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzrmw...eature=related

[C56]

After watching that video, and seeing all the little things that made FFXI feel like a living breathing world, FFXIV just isn't up to par now, all I see in FFXIV copy and pasted scenery and camps, It feels dead, especially with barely anyone playing anymore on my server. I log in and nothing is moving, everything and everyone is just standing there, kinda dead looking. Meh I'm getting to the point where I don't even wanna log in anymore, nothing to do, there's no point in even exploring, all the caves look the same, and everything is just bleh -_-

[Nero]

After watching that video, and seeing all the little things that made FFXI feel like a living breathing world, FFXIV just isn't up to par now, all I see in FFXIV copy and pasted scenery and camps, It feels dead, especially with barely anyone playing anymore on my server. I log in and nothing is moving, everything and everyone is just standing there, kinda dead looking. Meh I'm getting to the point where I don't even wanna log in anymore, nothing to do, there's no point in even exploring, all the caves look the same, and everything is just bleh -_-

Copy Paste?.. Did you ever play any MMO? Or even Offline Games? Scenery is ALWAYS copy-pasted... in FFXI its way more than it is in FFXIV.. So whats your point?

[Seif]

Xi has a lot more depth and story to the areas. XIV has just generic forest and 3 generic plains in different shades. In my view XI is just a lot more beautiful game than XIV not graphically but visually.

[Dreamer]

I think the biggest thing contributing to the lack of atmosphere is that the world simply doesn't feel finished. There's massive lack of points of interest, and even those that are there are just...props. Like those 2-d scenery backdrops used in B-movies. Go to any of the hamlets. They all have about 6-8 NPCs with small snippets of dialogue and NOTHING else. Plenty of them mention goods that that town makes, but I've yet to find a single store at any of them. A few buildings, but none of them can be entered. Docks that serve no purpose. Not a sub-quest in sight.

You see this in other places as well. I've did a little bit of exploring, and for the most part, there's simply nothing to really explore in the game. What little can be found is simply placeholders for future stuff - NPCs guarding areas you can't access yet and similar.

People complain about this and that about the game, but the real problem is that it was released WAY before it was ready, and SE was arrogant enough to think that the media would simply give them a pass on selling customers an unfinished game. So now, they're trying to play catchup while at the same time doing a 180 in terms of PR so that they can try to regain customer confidence after their blunder.

[Jericho]

That stuff from the video is great, but none of that kept me in the game. Some moments had me pausing for a second to take it in, but what is great about it now is that its a world I spent 9 years of my life in. We're all grown ups there, and now we stop and *watch* the flowers. Its nostalgia.

As far as ffxiv goes, I'm only anticipating stuff thats going to keep me in Eorzea longer. We're all children there. Once we're old and feeble, we'll all be nostal..gi...cally... Wandering from place to place, looking at the old hamlets, taking pictures with the Mor Dhana spire, etc... Along with the new stuff they implement.

Don't get me wrong... I have faith. I won't give up until SE does. And that video brought a tear to my eye, I won't lie. Thank you for that!

[Elexia]

That video proves my point that there was nothing wrong with making an "HD-FFXI", because it did a lot more right than wrong even if its things people rarely pay attention to because sadly most people play a game just to play and never take the time to appreciate small things, yet will bitch when those small things aren't found.

[Oscillate_Wildly]

Cutscenes and lore to an extent, a really immersible environment. A lot of history is missing, and the game feels almost too new, as though the story is still being written as they go along.

I liked how in XI the quests were sometimes mini cutscenes. Like for the rank 20 quests, if the normal quests could be more like those.

Also, is it just me or was anyone else rather peeved that some of the more 'epic' cutscenes barely feature your character, while you just look on the other NPC's doing fantastic things while you just stand there picking your nose. I personally find it rather obnoxious and a little boring. I'd kind of like to see my character a little more animated. I've seen NPCs who do absolutely nothing in the background do more than my character.

It'd be great if they could even get lines, and use those voices we pick out for them. If we are a hero, we ought to be more than oddly stationary furniture, especially in battle cutscenes. Nothing too extravagant, but something that can be universal like stealthily dodging an attack or pushing someone out of the way.

I'm sure someone could turn this into a cultural phenomenon, but the very last cutscene I experienced in Mor Dhona (no spoilers I promise) left me feeling rather deflated. Yes it was great, until about the end where you suddenly vanish while everyone else shows their stuff.

It'd be nice if we were also given idle emotes while in Cutscenes instead of standing in the default pose. It's all very unnatural.

But aside from that issue I think the game is amazing and headed in a fantastic direction. Would like to see more done with the maps however, the game is just very not fun to explore, since every cave is the exact same cave over and over. More maps like the mines would be great. I miss that one in XI with ghosts and the silent hill siren. That was fantastic. Actual miners in the mines would also be a plus.

Opening the cities a bit would also be great. XI had many great places to explore and discover in the cities. Like the star tree, and San d'Oria's castle. Places you can only enter after reaching a certain rank or level.

[C56]

Copy Paste?.. Did you ever play any MMO? Or even Offline Games? Scenery is ALWAYS copy-pasted... in FFXI its way more than it is in FFXIV.. So whats your point?

There is an acceptable level of copy and pasting, but FFXIV takes it to an extreme, as shown in the videos below. Honestly, FFXI has more detail and more verity so the copy and pasted stuff isn't as noticeable, FFXIV just uses the same patches of terrain over and over and doesn't use much variety so it's very noticeable.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=La9nLBfH44c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OODPo9fzk0Q

There using a much better engine to design FFXIV, so I would hope they could provide a better environment to play in, not the crap I just showed -_-