XIV has nothing new at all really. Everything is from previous mmos more or less.
But massive innovation, game changing mechanics, and so on and so on that people use to hype up games have all more or less been gimmicks.
Innovation and brand new ideas does not make a game good. It is the quality of what is in the game that makes it good. While XIV has borrowed many ideas from other mmos they are executing them extremely well in ARR.
Quality Game > Innovation.
If you want a action mmo and it is game breaking to not have it for you do not play XIV.
If you want a XI/EQ1 clone do not play XIV.
If you really hate the final fantasy series definitely do not play XIV, because this game is crammed full of FF.
For me I would not say it is the best mmo since EQ1, I really liked XI. But not counting that I would say it is better then everything else out there atm. I really enjoy the beta so far. This is personal opinion though. I highly suggest all the doubters to try it before coming to a conclusion.
I'm not shocked by the major PR going into XBone in the forums right now. I'm usually the one rolling my eyes when people make claims of paid users talking a game/system up. This though feels heavy-handed, even for Final Fantasy fans. This leaves a sour taste in my mouth.
Originally posted by Avarix I'm not shocked by the major PR going into XBone in the forums right now. I'm usually the one rolling my eyes when people make claims of paid users talking a game/system up. This though feels heavy-handed, even for Final Fantasy fans. This leaves a sour taste in my mouth.
Originally posted by Avarix I'm not shocked by the major PR going into XBone in the forums right now. I'm usually the one rolling my eyes when people make claims of paid users talking a game/system up. This though feels heavy-handed, even for Final Fantasy fans. This leaves a sour taste in my mouth.
FFXIV is PS3, PS4 and PC only dude. I have no idea what you're talking about.
lol wish I was getting paid to hype it up, but really I am shocked and pleased by the game. Considering I really have not seen to many bash it (and this is mmorpg.com after all, home of the haters) it speaks well for the game
Originally posted by jmlane223 lol wish I was getting paid to hype it up, but really I am shocked and pleased by the game. Considering I really have not seen to many bash it (and this is mmorpg.com after all, home of the haters) it speaks well for the game
after being a long time lurker before eventually signing up, anything positive, especially to this degree this early on is shocking for these forums. Really must be a decent game
Originally posted by jmlane223 lol wish I was getting paid to hype it up, but really I am shocked and pleased by the game. Considering I really have not seen to many bash it (and this is mmorpg.com after all, home of the haters) it speaks well for the game
Its not only here, i checked every major mmorpg hub site and its same everywhere. Even on official forums. Sure there are still plenty of suggestions and wish it would have that kinda prayers but overall everyone is happy and hyped about the game.
Originally posted by jmlane223 lol wish I was getting paid to hype it up, but really I am shocked and pleased by the game. Considering I really have not seen to many bash it (and this is mmorpg.com after all, home of the haters) it speaks well for the game
Its not only here, i checked every major mmorpg hub site and its same everywhere. Even on official forums. Sure there are still plenty of suggestions and wish it would have that kinda prayers but overall everyone is happy and hyped about the game.
I think that's one of the best parts about the change actually. SE is actually listening to suggestions! Now they don't always accept them but they list them and say why they were declined or when they'll probably be implemented (now sometimes they don't give a decent reason but at least you know).
I got 2 beta codes, sorry already gave extra to a friend, I will say I actually am highly impressed I only made it to level 12 main quest lines glitched only allowing 1 person in an instance at once lmfao, we actually had a line formed but after a 1hr wait in line got up then game froze girl let me cut because she saw that I froze and felt bad so another 20min wait and I lost connections o could not get further =(.
Anyways story aside graphics are nice even on PS3 only complaint I had graphics wise was in cities player pop in is very very bad you'll be running suddenly 5 players will pop up only 5 feet in front of you guessing it is to keep the lag down but the good news is outside of cities no issues at all you can see enemy NPCs a good 100+ meters away. Quests are fairly generic aside the occasional cutscene. What I really enjoyed instead of being separated by race, nationality etc. starting zones are decided solely by your starting class which means you instantly start out with tons of like minded individuals. It is scary how many like minded people like me there were I was a Mi'qote archer, I was a guy btw, and a good 80% of the archers were Mi'qote. Each starting area is dedicated to two classes as an archer I began my story in Gridania the forest nation with fellow archers and lancers.
Now community this is honestly my biggest props FFXIV has BY FAR! the best MMO community I have ever seen through my whole time playing I only saw one out right douchebag and in general everybody was very friendly and accepting. You could be struggling to take down a mob for a quest when a stranger would come up and start being a healer for you or help take it down. If you got stuck just a quick shout into the Area Chat would get you a response in around 20 seconds. The most amazing thing as I mentioned before we actually had a 1hr+ line going for that glitched quest what other MMO would you actually manage to get a patient flowing line going for a glitched quest instead of having 3 dozen people spamming the entrance to the glitched instance.
Now my one negative combat starts out very bleh you begin at level one with no abilities at all then at least as an archer I got a basic enhanced shot at level 2 then by time I was 11 I had 7 abilities going 1 buff, 1 stun for crowd control/support, and 5 basic attacks a basic heavy hit that was later upgrade to give one of my other attacks a 20% crit bonus, a medium strength attack that boosted my overall Crit chance by 10%, an 8 second poison shot, a heavy hitting 150% damage shot with no other effect, and then a very heavy hitting ability called Misery's End which is designed to end a fight quickly when your opponent is under 20% HP.
Travel was fairly easy you get a large map divided into zones, each hub has access to a crystal that will teleport you to other hubs, each city has a crystal network teleporting you to different districts, at level 10 you can beginning renting Chocobos either for a hefty fee every 10 minutes or a miniscule payment for a simply ride to a town you have visited similar to Skyrim's cart system, I did not gain access to them because of the glitched main questline but there are also airships bring you to all the major cities across the continent.
Now one last thing this may be a negative to some, but it works fine and avoids the wierd issue of avoiding the players name in conversations, there is no voice acting.
While I still rank DAOC and vanilla WoW as my favs after EQ ( pre PoP) , I will say this game is a fresh of breath air and enjoyable.
With the past few years of voice acted but no time change - static world - devs can't code weather - exploits hourly - chat doesn't function at launch - pieces of crap that have been released - FF ARR is definitely the closest I've seen to an enjoyable virtual world.
Originally posted by Dahkoht While I still rank DAOC and vanilla WoW as my favs after EQ ( pre PoP) , I will say this game is a fresh of breath air and enjoyable.
With the past few years of voice acted but no time change - static world - devs can't code weather - exploits hourly - chat doesn't function at launch - pieces of crap that have been released - FF ARR is definitely the closest I've seen to an enjoyable virtual world.
Oh ya I forgot about the weather!!! I loved the rain can't say how much I loved going inside a building and actually hearing the rain pattering against the roof.
How about immersion things like invisible walls, tunneling, panorama views (mountains for example) which you'll never reach. All those things.
I'm not specifically a FF fan. But I can become one :-)
There were invisible walls against cliffs that would be a sure death or against a deep river that you would not be able to get out of oh ya that was the other negative there was no swimming from what I saw. From most of what I saw everything in the distance I saw I could reach some way or another no actually getting to the top of a random mountain no but going up to the mountain and going up a designated path yes you could. Gridania is a central region though so every direction I looked there was another area.
Also I loved this, there is no carebear everything is safe around starting areas. Yes right outside the city gates is noob friendly with level 1-7 enemies but soon as you go down the road a bit cross a bridge and take a wrong turn and your suddenly faced with level 35+ enemies at level 5 X D.
How about immersion things like invisible walls, tunneling, panorama views (mountains for example) which you'll never reach. All those things.
I'm not specifically a FF fan. But I can become one :-)
There are some invisible walls I have found, but I usually just report them like they are bugs and so far they have all been removed. FFXIV 1.0 was very much like that, everything cool was off into the distance and you couldn't get to it.
But you can climb the waterfall in Gridania now, and landmarks everywhere are traversable. It is a huge improvement in that regard. Isghard apparently will still have its gates closed, and that sucks. But as it is being opened in the first expansion I guess I can't have everything.
I do very much look forward to be able to actually get to the Agrius/Midgardsormr crash though at launch once Mor Dhona opens. It was by far the best landmark in 1.x
So after a good amt. of of beta testing FF XIV I can honestly say I'm surprised at how good the game is.
I went back to my roots this beta and decided to play a ranger. I haven't played a ranged class since my wizard the first year and half of EQ2 (2004-2005), and I realized I still don't love them. Which is an attestment to how good the game is (at least at the early levlels). Again, I never played 1.0 so i have no idea what came prior, but right now the game plays like a mix of WoW, GW2, Rift and even a little Swtor.
At first was kind of like been there done that, but then something hit me. For the first time since the early days of EQ2 i actually felt immersion. The intro leading into your personal quests are engaging and really bring a sense of a larger world. There are two parallel arcs in the the lower levels so far (I only got up to lvl 12) one is a main story line quest that puts your character in the larger scope of the world, and the other is a class trainer(s) that help you focus on tactics for your archetype. This really felt like EQOA or Wow as every 5 levels or so you'd go back and learn-but there was a story attached to it.
In addition to these types of quest you have something called a hunting journal that basically shows you what mobs are good to kill at your lvl, but in a fun i killed 5 of these way. There are also other types of quests called Guildleves Guildhests and Fates. Fates are random events (think rifts or in WAR or GW2 the random quests than anyone can join) The other two are group type quests that sadly I was just working on when i had to log. I also never got to do a dungeon but i hear they are pretty fun.
It's not all great news. There are currently too man kill 10 of x quests (no matter how you dress it up) and there need to be more grouping early on (hoping thats what the guildhests are). some of the things are still buggy like dynamic quests and also the chat system is terrible as /tell commands dont work, but overall I'm seriously considering subbing.
If you like the FF IP at all I recommend a visit back no matter how bad the 1.0 version was as this is a whole new game.
How about immersion things like invisible walls, tunneling, panorama views (mountains for example) which you'll never reach. All those things.
I'm not specifically a FF fan. But I can become one :-)
Swimsuits and bikinis even though you can't swim. Miqo'tes with no litter boxes. Yeah the invisibles and panoramas do take away from a game. It is not limitless. There are excessive zone lines. It still feels right though.
Yes they have really turned FFXIV around. Its very beautiful. The world feels massive and i love how natural some parts of Gridania look. They really upped the animations and spell effects to. Being able to move, cast and jump felt so good. Sooo much better than that 1.0 debacle. This time it actually feels like a Final Fantasy game.
How about immersion things like invisible walls, tunneling, panorama views (mountains for example) which you'll never reach. All those things.
I'm not specifically a FF fan. But I can become one :-)
There were invisible walls against cliffs that would be a sure death or against a deep river that you would not be able to get out of oh ya that was the other negative there was no swimming from what I saw. From most of what I saw everything in the distance I saw I could reach some way or another no actually getting to the top of a random mountain no but going up to the mountain and going up a designated path yes you could. Gridania is a central region though so every direction I looked there was another area.
Also I loved this, there is no carebear everything is safe around starting areas. Yes right outside the city gates is noob friendly with level 1-7 enemies but soon as you go down the road a bit cross a bridge and take a wrong turn and your suddenly faced with level 35+ enemies at level 5 X D.
I could live with an invisible wall here and there on cliffs for example. But I truly dislike postcard panorama view when it's there just for eyecandy. I want to know that I can get there at the foot of that mountain.
So good news. How about the tunneling? You know. Big map, but not really at your disposal. Instead you get a number of routes, paths and roads which "is" the map for us explorers.
How about immersion things like invisible walls, tunneling, panorama views (mountains for example) which you'll never reach. All those things.
I'm not specifically a FF fan. But I can become one :-)
There were invisible walls against cliffs that would be a sure death or against a deep river that you would not be able to get out of oh ya that was the other negative there was no swimming from what I saw. From most of what I saw everything in the distance I saw I could reach some way or another no actually getting to the top of a random mountain no but going up to the mountain and going up a designated path yes you could. Gridania is a central region though so every direction I looked there was another area.
Also I loved this, there is no carebear everything is safe around starting areas. Yes right outside the city gates is noob friendly with level 1-7 enemies but soon as you go down the road a bit cross a bridge and take a wrong turn and your suddenly faced with level 35+ enemies at level 5 X D.
I could live with an invisible wall here and there on cliffs for example. But I truly dislike postcard panorama view when it's there just for eyecandy. I want to know that I can get there at the foot of that mountain.
So good news. How about the tunneling? You know. Big map, but not really at your disposal. Instead you get a number of routes, paths and roads which "is" the map for us explorers.
Let's call it open world. Is it an open world?
There is tunneling a bit but less so then in recent games and the zones are decent sized. The instancing between zones is also superfast so it doesnt feel that clostrophobic...but certainly not open world in the grand sense.
How about immersion things like invisible walls, tunneling, panorama views (mountains for example) which you'll never reach. All those things.
I'm not specifically a FF fan. But I can become one :-)
There were invisible walls against cliffs that would be a sure death or against a deep river that you would not be able to get out of oh ya that was the other negative there was no swimming from what I saw. From most of what I saw everything in the distance I saw I could reach some way or another no actually getting to the top of a random mountain no but going up to the mountain and going up a designated path yes you could. Gridania is a central region though so every direction I looked there was another area.
Also I loved this, there is no carebear everything is safe around starting areas. Yes right outside the city gates is noob friendly with level 1-7 enemies but soon as you go down the road a bit cross a bridge and take a wrong turn and your suddenly faced with level 35+ enemies at level 5 X D.
I could live with an invisible wall here and there on cliffs for example. But I truly dislike postcard panorama view when it's there just for eyecandy. I want to know that I can get there at the foot of that mountain.
So good news. How about the tunneling? You know. Big map, but not really at your disposal. Instead you get a number of routes, paths and roads which "is" the map for us explorers.
Let's call it open world. Is it an open world?
I know what you mean by tunneling and it's completely gone now. The Shroud around Gridania was much hated for this in 1.0 and SE were well aware and opened up every region so you no longer feel like you're being funneled down false corridors. There's a video somewhere demonstrating it actually, comparing the regions of 1.0 to ARR.
The loot so far has been entirely either gear to be used, or tradeskill stuff. No vendoring greys or the like. I started playing around with armorsmith near the end of the weekend and /really/ wish I had spent more time in it. I found myself actually enjoying crafting as it is engaging without being simon says.
For example, once I hit a certain level I could choose to risk some durability (Crafting fails at 0 durability) to improve my chance at a high quality item, or I could simply bang out normal items all day using my standard 'shape' attack for example. There was still some risk, like I was trying to make high quality bronze plates so I'd bang a couple times on the plate to get me a 10% chance of high quality, then finish it off with two hits of normal crafting ability. If I failed in the normal crafting ability though I could ruin the whole attempt because I would run out of durability.
The graphics are just gorgeous but there /are/ some invisible walls, but, there are also places where you can jump off to your death so don't expect invisible walls to save you. Zoning is /fast/ in general, not a big wait. Also /tell commands worked fine for me, so not sure why it wouldn't work for all. Maybe on PS3 it was broken or some such. I just got my PS3 beta key so will play it on PS3 some next time around.
I found the quests to be entertaining, mostly because the text wasn't typical. People from different areas had different accents and different manners of speech. Sure there was fetch and carry, and kill X, but really, what do you /expect/ from quests? Like there's something /else/ you can do with a quest? It's either kill this, or go find that. Sure you can dress it up as 'protect this place' and there are quests like that in FFXIV AAR also. I'm sure as they add more polish it'll get better as well. There are a couple spots voice acted but since I know how to /read/ it didn't bother me that most wasn't.
Overall, I am now getting a collectors edition pre-order and I am chomping at the bit to play some more, can't wait for the next part of phase 3.
Originally posted by Avarix I'm not shocked by the major PR going into XBone in the forums right now. I'm usually the one rolling my eyes when people make claims of paid users talking a game/system up. This though feels heavy-handed, even for Final Fantasy fans. This leaves a sour taste in my mouth.
Lets all take a moment to once again gawk at this post.
He is claiming we are shills for Xbox, talking about a game THAT WON'T EVEN BE ON XBOX?
Though I think the OP is more than a tad over the top, I was quite pleasantly surprised and pleased by my time in the FFXIV beta and definitely recommend anyone with any interest giving it a try when it hits open beta (I'm assuming Soon(tm)).
That having been said, declaring it the game of the decade isn't just premature, it's insane in that "doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different outcome" kind of way.
For the love of God and all that's Holy, if there's ever been a game where people should know better than to declare it their one true love before they've even played release or had time to really see the good, the bad, and the ugly in any real depth, it's this one. Just once, can we try and be somewhat sensible about this?
Agreed with OP:) Only proplem i had in combat was not able to see enemy spell cast on mini-hpbar. its hard see when enemy cast spells. Mobs are awesome and they look funny too:) Just poor ladybugs get killed first class quest:(
Comments
XIV has nothing new at all really. Everything is from previous mmos more or less.
But massive innovation, game changing mechanics, and so on and so on that people use to hype up games have all more or less been gimmicks.
Innovation and brand new ideas does not make a game good. It is the quality of what is in the game that makes it good. While XIV has borrowed many ideas from other mmos they are executing them extremely well in ARR.
Quality Game > Innovation.
If you want a action mmo and it is game breaking to not have it for you do not play XIV.
If you want a XI/EQ1 clone do not play XIV.
If you really hate the final fantasy series definitely do not play XIV, because this game is crammed full of FF.
For me I would not say it is the best mmo since EQ1, I really liked XI. But not counting that I would say it is better then everything else out there atm. I really enjoy the beta so far. This is personal opinion though. I highly suggest all the doubters to try it before coming to a conclusion.
Huh ? Did he miss a topic or something.
(Retired)- Anarchy Online/Ultima Online/DAoC/Horizonsz/EQ2/SWG/AC1&2/L2/SoR/WoW/TMO/Requiem/Atlantica Online/Manibogi/Rift+(SL)/Lol/Hon/SWTOR/Wakfu/Champions Online/GW/Lotr/CO/TcoS/Tabula Rasa/Meridian 59/Vanguard/Shadowbane/Fury/SotW/Dreamlords/HGL/RoM/DDO/FFXI/Aoc/Eve/Warhammer Online/Gw2/TSW/Tera/Defiance/STO/AoW/DE/Firefall/Darkfall/Neverwinter/PS2/ESO/FF14/Archeage/Gw2
FFXIV is PS3, PS4 and PC only dude. I have no idea what you're talking about.
after being a long time lurker before eventually signing up, anything positive, especially to this degree this early on is shocking for these forums. Really must be a decent game
Its not only here, i checked every major mmorpg hub site and its same everywhere. Even on official forums. Sure there are still plenty of suggestions and wish it would have that kinda prayers but overall everyone is happy and hyped about the game.
(Retired)- Anarchy Online/Ultima Online/DAoC/Horizonsz/EQ2/SWG/AC1&2/L2/SoR/WoW/TMO/Requiem/Atlantica Online/Manibogi/Rift+(SL)/Lol/Hon/SWTOR/Wakfu/Champions Online/GW/Lotr/CO/TcoS/Tabula Rasa/Meridian 59/Vanguard/Shadowbane/Fury/SotW/Dreamlords/HGL/RoM/DDO/FFXI/Aoc/Eve/Warhammer Online/Gw2/TSW/Tera/Defiance/STO/AoW/DE/Firefall/Darkfall/Neverwinter/PS2/ESO/FF14/Archeage/Gw2
I think that's one of the best parts about the change actually. SE is actually listening to suggestions! Now they don't always accept them but they list them and say why they were declined or when they'll probably be implemented (now sometimes they don't give a decent reason but at least you know).
I got 2 beta codes, sorry already gave extra to a friend, I will say I actually am highly impressed I only made it to level 12 main quest lines glitched only allowing 1 person in an instance at once lmfao, we actually had a line formed but after a 1hr wait in line got up then game froze girl let me cut because she saw that I froze and felt bad so another 20min wait and I lost connections o could not get further =(.
Anyways story aside graphics are nice even on PS3 only complaint I had graphics wise was in cities player pop in is very very bad you'll be running suddenly 5 players will pop up only 5 feet in front of you guessing it is to keep the lag down but the good news is outside of cities no issues at all you can see enemy NPCs a good 100+ meters away. Quests are fairly generic aside the occasional cutscene. What I really enjoyed instead of being separated by race, nationality etc. starting zones are decided solely by your starting class which means you instantly start out with tons of like minded individuals. It is scary how many like minded people like me there were I was a Mi'qote archer, I was a guy btw, and a good 80% of the archers were Mi'qote. Each starting area is dedicated to two classes as an archer I began my story in Gridania the forest nation with fellow archers and lancers.
Now community this is honestly my biggest props FFXIV has BY FAR! the best MMO community I have ever seen through my whole time playing I only saw one out right douchebag and in general everybody was very friendly and accepting. You could be struggling to take down a mob for a quest when a stranger would come up and start being a healer for you or help take it down. If you got stuck just a quick shout into the Area Chat would get you a response in around 20 seconds. The most amazing thing as I mentioned before we actually had a 1hr+ line going for that glitched quest what other MMO would you actually manage to get a patient flowing line going for a glitched quest instead of having 3 dozen people spamming the entrance to the glitched instance.
Now my one negative combat starts out very bleh you begin at level one with no abilities at all then at least as an archer I got a basic enhanced shot at level 2 then by time I was 11 I had 7 abilities going 1 buff, 1 stun for crowd control/support, and 5 basic attacks a basic heavy hit that was later upgrade to give one of my other attacks a 20% crit bonus, a medium strength attack that boosted my overall Crit chance by 10%, an 8 second poison shot, a heavy hitting 150% damage shot with no other effect, and then a very heavy hitting ability called Misery's End which is designed to end a fight quickly when your opponent is under 20% HP.
Travel was fairly easy you get a large map divided into zones, each hub has access to a crystal that will teleport you to other hubs, each city has a crystal network teleporting you to different districts, at level 10 you can beginning renting Chocobos either for a hefty fee every 10 minutes or a miniscule payment for a simply ride to a town you have visited similar to Skyrim's cart system, I did not gain access to them because of the glitched main questline but there are also airships bring you to all the major cities across the continent.
Now one last thing this may be a negative to some, but it works fine and avoids the wierd issue of avoiding the players name in conversations, there is no voice acting.
With the past few years of voice acted but no time change - static world - devs can't code weather - exploits hourly - chat doesn't function at launch - pieces of crap that have been released - FF ARR is definitely the closest I've seen to an enjoyable virtual world.
How about immersion things like invisible walls, tunneling, panorama views (mountains for example) which you'll never reach. All those things.
I'm not specifically a FF fan. But I can become one :-)
Oh ya I forgot about the weather!!! I loved the rain can't say how much I loved going inside a building and actually hearing the rain pattering against the roof.
There were invisible walls against cliffs that would be a sure death or against a deep river that you would not be able to get out of oh ya that was the other negative there was no swimming from what I saw. From most of what I saw everything in the distance I saw I could reach some way or another no actually getting to the top of a random mountain no but going up to the mountain and going up a designated path yes you could. Gridania is a central region though so every direction I looked there was another area.
Also I loved this, there is no carebear everything is safe around starting areas. Yes right outside the city gates is noob friendly with level 1-7 enemies but soon as you go down the road a bit cross a bridge and take a wrong turn and your suddenly faced with level 35+ enemies at level 5 X D.
There are some invisible walls I have found, but I usually just report them like they are bugs and so far they have all been removed. FFXIV 1.0 was very much like that, everything cool was off into the distance and you couldn't get to it.
But you can climb the waterfall in Gridania now, and landmarks everywhere are traversable. It is a huge improvement in that regard. Isghard apparently will still have its gates closed, and that sucks. But as it is being opened in the first expansion I guess I can't have everything.
I do very much look forward to be able to actually get to the Agrius/Midgardsormr crash though at launch once Mor Dhona opens. It was by far the best landmark in 1.x
http://xivpads.com/?1595680
http://guildwork.com/users/murugan
Here's what I wrote on my guild forums:
So after a good amt. of of beta testing FF XIV I can honestly say I'm surprised at how good the game is.
I went back to my roots this beta and decided to play a ranger. I haven't played a ranged class since my wizard the first year and half of EQ2 (2004-2005), and I realized I still don't love them. Which is an attestment to how good the game is (at least at the early levlels). Again, I never played 1.0 so i have no idea what came prior, but right now the game plays like a mix of WoW, GW2, Rift and even a little Swtor.
At first was kind of like been there done that, but then something hit me. For the first time since the early days of EQ2 i actually felt immersion. The intro leading into your personal quests are engaging and really bring a sense of a larger world. There are two parallel arcs in the the lower levels so far (I only got up to lvl 12) one is a main story line quest that puts your character in the larger scope of the world, and the other is a class trainer(s) that help you focus on tactics for your archetype. This really felt like EQOA or Wow as every 5 levels or so you'd go back and learn-but there was a story attached to it.
In addition to these types of quest you have something called a hunting journal that basically shows you what mobs are good to kill at your lvl, but in a fun i killed 5 of these way. There are also other types of quests called Guildleves Guildhests and Fates. Fates are random events (think rifts or in WAR or GW2 the random quests than anyone can join) The other two are group type quests that sadly I was just working on when i had to log. I also never got to do a dungeon but i hear they are pretty fun.
It's not all great news. There are currently too man kill 10 of x quests (no matter how you dress it up) and there need to be more grouping early on (hoping thats what the guildhests are). some of the things are still buggy like dynamic quests and also the chat system is terrible as /tell commands dont work, but overall I'm seriously considering subbing.
If you like the FF IP at all I recommend a visit back no matter how bad the 1.0 version was as this is a whole new game.
Swimsuits and bikinis even though you can't swim. Miqo'tes with no litter boxes. Yeah the invisibles and panoramas do take away from a game. It is not limitless. There are excessive zone lines. It still feels right though.
I could live with an invisible wall here and there on cliffs for example. But I truly dislike postcard panorama view when it's there just for eyecandy. I want to know that I can get there at the foot of that mountain.
So good news. How about the tunneling? You know. Big map, but not really at your disposal. Instead you get a number of routes, paths and roads which "is" the map for us explorers.
Let's call it open world. Is it an open world?
There is tunneling a bit but less so then in recent games and the zones are decent sized. The instancing between zones is also superfast so it doesnt feel that clostrophobic...but certainly not open world in the grand sense.
I know what you mean by tunneling and it's completely gone now. The Shroud around Gridania was much hated for this in 1.0 and SE were well aware and opened up every region so you no longer feel like you're being funneled down false corridors. There's a video somewhere demonstrating it actually, comparing the regions of 1.0 to ARR.
So how's the loot? Is it a universal loot table or do specific mobs drop their own items? Any rare spawns that you noticed?
The loot so far has been entirely either gear to be used, or tradeskill stuff. No vendoring greys or the like. I started playing around with armorsmith near the end of the weekend and /really/ wish I had spent more time in it. I found myself actually enjoying crafting as it is engaging without being simon says.
For example, once I hit a certain level I could choose to risk some durability (Crafting fails at 0 durability) to improve my chance at a high quality item, or I could simply bang out normal items all day using my standard 'shape' attack for example. There was still some risk, like I was trying to make high quality bronze plates so I'd bang a couple times on the plate to get me a 10% chance of high quality, then finish it off with two hits of normal crafting ability. If I failed in the normal crafting ability though I could ruin the whole attempt because I would run out of durability.
The graphics are just gorgeous but there /are/ some invisible walls, but, there are also places where you can jump off to your death so don't expect invisible walls to save you. Zoning is /fast/ in general, not a big wait. Also /tell commands worked fine for me, so not sure why it wouldn't work for all. Maybe on PS3 it was broken or some such. I just got my PS3 beta key so will play it on PS3 some next time around.
I found the quests to be entertaining, mostly because the text wasn't typical. People from different areas had different accents and different manners of speech. Sure there was fetch and carry, and kill X, but really, what do you /expect/ from quests? Like there's something /else/ you can do with a quest? It's either kill this, or go find that. Sure you can dress it up as 'protect this place' and there are quests like that in FFXIV AAR also. I'm sure as they add more polish it'll get better as well. There are a couple spots voice acted but since I know how to /read/ it didn't bother me that most wasn't.
Overall, I am now getting a collectors edition pre-order and I am chomping at the bit to play some more, can't wait for the next part of phase 3.
Lets all take a moment to once again gawk at this post.
He is claiming we are shills for Xbox, talking about a game THAT WON'T EVEN BE ON XBOX?
I laughed so hard I peed myself.
Though I think the OP is more than a tad over the top, I was quite pleasantly surprised and pleased by my time in the FFXIV beta and definitely recommend anyone with any interest giving it a try when it hits open beta (I'm assuming Soon(tm)).
That having been said, declaring it the game of the decade isn't just premature, it's insane in that "doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different outcome" kind of way.
For the love of God and all that's Holy, if there's ever been a game where people should know better than to declare it their one true love before they've even played release or had time to really see the good, the bad, and the ugly in any real depth, it's this one. Just once, can we try and be somewhat sensible about this?
I know, I know, that's just crazy talk...