FFXIV Initial Impressions (For curious FFXI peeps)

[Chewzer]

I think all you ex-FFXI'ers should just get your asses back to Lakshmi.

In all seriousness, the last 4 months have completely changed the game for me (and most everybody else). Believe it or not, it's actually fun again.

[Claire]

meh FFXI thats like taking a step back and i wanna mov forward! sorry Chewtoy lol i miss most of yall but i got Anduril forums or my phone for the rest i dun wanna be dragged back to lvl up and all that FFXIV for meeeee lol

[Chewzer]

i dun wanna be dragged back to lvl up and all that

I just wanted to say that I giggled at how contradicted this statement is.

[Sahearniitth]

I still wish they would just do a major graphical/UI overhaul of XI and abandon PS2 support.

I am in complete agreement of this. With the level cap increases and the changes to levelling and such, SE could completelly overhaul FFXI if they wanted with brand new endgame mobs, cities, etc since people have already accepted that things are going to change. A simple graphics/UI overhaul of FFXI would be preferable to giving up years of investment.

[Phane]

The fatigue system, which everybody has heard about by now, it a complete turn-off for me. I like the fact that I can work on one job for 16 hours a day if I please. Hell, I leveled Corsair from 1-72 in something like 2 weeks through actual exp parties because I loved playing the job so much.

One note on that. FFXIV's jobs are nowhere near as clear cut as they are in XI. You learn a spell on Conjurer, you can use it as a Gladiator, or Marauder, or any job you darn well please. So it's not a bad idea to diversify in FFXIV. Gladiator itself has high def but no way to heal. Level Pugilist to 7 and get Second Wind to use TP to cure yourself and level Conjurer to 7 for Cure and Stoneskin and presto, you got a good tank.

[Phane]

FFXIV Emergency Maintenance from 9am-1pm PDT.

Embarrassment is an emotional state experienced upon having a socially or professionally unacceptable act or condition witnessed by or revealed to others.

Having a 6 hour maintenance in the middle of your big retail release day I think would qualify. In fact, I would think it would be more than embarrassing.

BTW, at 8:30 CDT this morning the server was so lagged from the JP launch that I couldn't even sell any items to an NPC, even an obscure one where there was literally only one other PC on my screen.

[Enneisevoli]

FFXIV is alot of fun. All my complaints with it came in the form of technical and UI design/interaction. But the game mechanics are actually very smart and fun IMO. But they need to fix the lag, as well as fine tune the UI and social/chat interaction mechanics.


and sah just shut up and play XIV already! If you and kiera play il activate my account again (maybe..probably not but. you guys should give it a shot in a few months once its not laggy as hell and thus annoying as hell lol)

[Phane]

Gamespot just completely ripped FFXIV a new one. Gave it a 4/10 citing the abysmal UI and the fact that it's clearly designed around a PS3 controller with very little done to accommodate the PC's mouse, keyboard, and other capabilities.

[Chewzer]

Now Gametrailers has followed suit, also ripping FFXIV apart.

Can it get worse? Yep:

Penny Arcade followed up on the GameTrailers review. Now that's some serious exposure to some bad publicity.

[Phane]

Worst part is that all of those reviews are spot on. I don't know why SE released the game as is. I know it's going to take some time to let the economy stabilize and stuff, but the game itself feels more like a beta test than a retail launch. No chocobos, no airships, no real marketplace, shoddy UI, all of the bugs mentioned in the reviews, laggy gameplay, random crashes, and more.

I feel like I'm playing a bad game to get a head start on the good game that I hope is coming sometime in the future *shrug*.