Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!

[Review] Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn: A Realm Revitalized

1235

Comments

  • MachkeznhoMachkeznho Member UncommonPosts: 422
    I find this review to be far to generous in many respects, but that's my personal opinion I feel as if this post was damage control based off the original "My impressions of FFXIV ARR" post I made 12 hours or so before this one was posted.  Either way I wish all of you playing the best and I hope I am proved wrong when I say I feel this game will not make it in todays market in its current state and something tells me no amount of patching/hotfixes can repair bad game design.
  • cybersurfrcybersurfr Member UncommonPosts: 168
    Originally posted by Zalmon
    Originally posted by cybersurfr
     

    Everyone has a right to express their opinion so I am challenging his. We are both comparing the game's story to GW2's story. What's wrong with that? If you feel like contributing to either one of us then go ahead. If not, then you're the one going off-topic and should be ignored.

    You could have done that without calling him a troll, attacking him for being a new account and his post a garbage.  This agressiveness and rude behavior is un necessary and i hope a mod takes an action regarding such behavior. People get banned around here for lot less.

    Funny thing is that if a new account praises the game then you wouldn't say a word.

    Funny thing is you wouldn't have said a word either if every thing was in reverse. I am not as black-and-white as you are and objective in what I see in the games I play so please do not categorize me under what you would do in that same circumstance.

  • MagikrorriMMagikrorriM Member UncommonPosts: 223

    I think the problem with the lag is due to population issues, the game has become too popular too fast. On Hyperion, we got a queue, again. SE is taking too conservative approach when it comes to adding servers, they aren't adding servers at the rate of new accounts being added.

    It's effecting everything from the duty finder, to instances, to open world. In the quarrymill during peak hours there is usually more than 50 people zerging fates, the latency is over 4300 ping. I'll bet SE is wagering on dropped accounts after subs start being charged, but legacy players are already paying a sub, and the population hasn't changed.

    Every person with an eye mount has paid for a three month sub.

    There are things that are NYI, and these are things which potentially could impact the population, Wolf's den PvP and housing, albeit small impact, however Frontline, PS4 and directx11, if done right, could see another major flock to the game.

  • jazz.bejazz.be Member UncommonPosts: 962

    To be honest, I didn't find this game to be social.

    Unanswered questions in chat

    No conversations

    Generally not a lot of activity in chat

  • PanzerbasePanzerbase Member Posts: 423
    8.4 is extremely generous, I'd give it a 6.5 at best, and a 10 for longevity?! It took me two weeks to get bored to tears of it. Well no shock here, as usual politics and money rules.
  • PhryPhry Member LegendaryPosts: 11,004
    Originally posted by jazz.be

    To be honest, I didn't find this game to be social.

    Unanswered questions in chat

    No conversations

    Generally not a lot of activity in chat

    Have to remember, most of the convo's happen in linkshells, rather than 'general area chat' although im surprised you didnt get any help when asking a question as i've found that if someone has an answer then they usually send you a tell. But the game does really revolve around link shells and free companies for the social side of things. Its not something that your just given either, so far i havent had link shell req foisted on me randomly, you need to put yourself out there and be 'sociable' to get invited into them image

  • ArakaziArakazi Member UncommonPosts: 911
    I think the score is too high. 7.5 would be a more accurate assessment given the many shortcomings the game has. The invisible walls the zoning, ability lag, the global cooldown, gold spamming etc. Make this game frustrating at times.
  • OmaliOmali MMO Business CorrespondentMember UncommonPosts: 1,177
    Originally posted by Panzerbase
    8.4 is extremely generous, I'd give it a 6.5 at best, and a 10 for longevity?! It took me two weeks to get bored to tears of it. Well no shock here, as usual politics and money rules.

    "I don't like it, therefore anyone who disagrees with me must be paid off."

    image

  • MoiraeMoirae Member RarePosts: 3,318
    I'm curious why you would give it such a high rating when the things you listed as negative are game breakers. The whole problem with this industry is that it's become all flash and bang with cool graphics with no substance and game breaking mechanics. 
  • BMBenderBMBender Member UncommonPosts: 827
    Originally posted by Moirae
    I'm curious why you would give it such a high rating when the things you listed as negative are game breakers. The whole problem with this industry is that it's become all flash and bang with cool graphics with no substance and game breaking mechanics. 

    the general consensus is that the reviewer had an incomplete understanding of what game play means.

     

    EDIT because lets face it; in a legit review any gameplay score below 7.5-8 would = a whole page or more devoted to gameplay issues.  Since the only explanation to the score boils down to I had bad lag (didn't even bother to verify if/not most all users experienced) it's hard to take it seriously.

    image
  • HomituHomitu Member UncommonPosts: 2,030
    Originally posted by Hyanmen

    Originally posted by DMKano

    Aesthetics IMO should be 9 (textures are really bad in some spots - no way this deserves 10) longevity should be 8 - social 7.


    Overall the score IMO is around 7.3, again the game was score was too generous.

    If you compare the aesthetics to the MMO genre - not something like The Witcher 2 - 10 is most accurate number. It is the cream of the crop of MMO visuals.

    FFXIV is very very good in the visual department and even better in the overall aesthetics department (which incorporates sound effects, ambiance, and general fee of the atmosphere.)  But if this is a relative scale, as you suggest, where the score is a comparison to other MMOs, it's not quite as good as games like GW2 or Tera.  As such, I'd personally vote for a 9 for FFXIV's aesthetics as well.  

  • wowclonezwowclonez Member Posts: 74
    All of the most important aspects of the game got a 7. Game is clearly a 7 based on the review, nothing more nothing less. Nice review Mr Murphy, odd score though, not that it matters review makes sense.
  • rojoArcueidrojoArcueid Member EpicPosts: 10,722
    I think 8.4 is a fair score for this game. However, i personally think that gameplay automatically affects longevity so a 7 in gameplay should make longevity lower than 10 (IMO). I would definitelly give a higher score if they ever add underwater content and change the global cooldown.




  • DarkVagabondDarkVagabond Member UncommonPosts: 340
    Duty Finder works perfectly, people just don't like healing as often as they like hurting.
  • ArakaziArakazi Member UncommonPosts: 911
    Just gonna add that I am bemused by how people praise the crafting. I find it a tedious grind. Unless you are going to buy from the market, which isn't exact;y recommended you will be spending a lot of time leveling up mining, fishing and whatever. I find the setup fairly good, but I utterly loath the grind. In fact I spent most of the last week trying to level my mining and blacksmithing but I get so bored, I end up doing the washing up....
  • TwoThreeFourTwoThreeFour Member UncommonPosts: 2,155
    Originally posted by Arakazi
    Just gonna add that I am bemused by how people praise the crafting. I find it a tedious grind. Unless you are going to buy from the market, which isn't exact;y recommended you will be spending a lot of time leveling up mining, fishing and whatever. I find the setup fairly good, but I utterly loath the grind. In fact I spent most of the last week trying to level my mining and blacksmithing but I get so bored, I end up doing the washing up....

    Mining and botany do feel like a grind, they do not have enough depth and choices into those systems. Choosing correct gathering leves (I.e. choose tiger girl ones in their picture), choosing correct level for those leves (usually your level +1), using Grand Company seals for 50% exp boost; and it still takes a looong time of leveling.

     

    Of course there is a market analysis to consider in order to gather correct goods, but it is still inferior to the crafting in this game.

     

    As for your take on crafting: I very much disagree with your view, and since I've replied to simlar concerns before, I'll copy and paste parts from a such reply I made:

     

    You may not find that crafting was fun and that is fine though. The leveling is rather quick, specially if you do the tradecraft leves; without leves, you only need to craft about 70 items properly to go from lv49 to lv50 (lv50 is max in the game for those who do not know).

    However, rushing to 50 may far from always be the best idea from an economic standpoint. Doing an economical analysis of the market for different products is crucial to make decisions about which items to produce. This may change from day to day; as an example the cobalt ingot market sucked hard for those selling ingots for like 4 days, then suddenly either the supply decreased a lot, or the demand increased a lot, because the prices over trippled. (Since I am aware of fluctuations, I kept my cobalt ingot in my storage, waiting for the fluctuations to kick in so that I would get higher prices, and that strategy paid off bigtime.)

    An example of how it can be more profitable to focus on a lower level product compared to a higher level product can be seen in the current Phoenix "Undyed Woolen Cloth" vs "Undyed Felt" markets. Undyed Woolen Cloth is currently more profitable than Undyed Felt despite the Felt one being a higher level craft. 

    -------------------------

    An example of how scenarios where you got interesting decisions to make is following that actually happened to my alchemist:

    So my alchemist is lv40, which means he has access to lv40 leves.  There are two versions of the "good" lv40 leves though: one requires High Quality lanolin and the other requires high quality smelling salts. Due to Lanolin only having 40 durability, it is far harder to succeed in making the high quality, compared to Smelling Salt which has either 70 or 80 (don't remember exactly XD).  Both those items "non-quality" version have extremely limited demand since lanolin is only used to craft 3 equips while smelling salt is just a very situational consumable.  

    The ingredients for them are rather expensive as well. So from an economic standpoint, I won't really like leveling with either of those choices. Keep also in mind that we get a limited amount of leves everyday (can save up to 100), so if I spend my leves on my alchemist, I can't spend them elsewhere. 

    There is though a 3rd alternative: I could craft the lv43 recipie "Mega potion". Unlike the lanolin and the smelling salt, Mega Potion is actually a consumable that there is significant demand for. I notice that I can at the very least break even economically crafting them and this is without spending leves. A drawback is that since I am 3 levels below it, there is a significant level penalty involved which makes it significantely harder for me to craft them properly; which means I need to pay more attention.

    In the end, I chose the 3rd alternative.

    ------------------------------------

  • BrynnBrynn Member Posts: 345
    I was enjoying the game up until duty became necessary in order to proceed with the story. The classes aren't balanced well, not enough tanks and healers. They say it's a 30 minute wait, but I've found it takes longer at my character's levels. Belonging to a company doesn't help much anymore. I don't think I will continue with this game when the free time is over.
  • ShauneepeakShauneepeak Member UncommonPosts: 424
    They really should've have waited for the first major patch though I guess if reviewers waited for games to be made better we would always be waiting on reviews.
  • HyanmenHyanmen Member UncommonPosts: 5,357
    Originally posted by Arakazi
    Just gonna add that I am bemused by how people praise the crafting. I find it a tedious grind. Unless you are going to buy from the market, which isn't exact;y recommended you will be spending a lot of time leveling up mining, fishing and whatever. I find the setup fairly good, but I utterly loath the grind. In fact I spent most of the last week trying to level my mining and blacksmithing but I get so bored, I end up doing the washing up....

    Uhh the point is to make money; and both crafting and gathering make you lots of it.

    I mean, what else would be the point?

    It is when these post-WoW folks come into this game and completely miss the meaning of everything you do in-game when you get posts like these.

    I don't even look at the exp bar anymore; more than that, I wish I didn't level so bloody fast. I'm just making money, tons of it, and getting higher and higher in the process.

    In all fairness it took me ten levels of mining and roughly the same amount of crafting until it started to get really fun. Then again it took me so little time to get to this point, it's not even worth mentioning.

    Using LOL is like saying "my argument sucks but I still want to disagree".
  • RidelynnRidelynn Member EpicPosts: 7,383

    I may have dinged the game a bit more on the SNAFU of a launch, the imbalance in risk vs reward for many activities (crafting leves, FATEs), and especially on the still-persistent ability lag. But all in all I don't majorly disagree with anything.

    I think longevity is there to warrant a 10: the people that focus on one class, or focus on FATE leveling or craft leve grinding are going to be disappointed, but by and large the horizontal leveling system works well, there just need to be some tweaks made to balance it out.

  • vecconveccon Member Posts: 17

    Originally posted by DMKano

    Originally posted by Hyanmen



    If you compare the aesthetics to the MMO genre - not something like The Witcher 2 - 10 is most accurate number. It is the cream of the crop of MMO visuals.

    I respectfully disagree. The visual distance is very short - the zones are tiny, the textures are far too low res. Animation sliding/gliding while walking is abundant. 

    10 is perfection - this is not perfect which is why 9 is more accurate IMO.

    There are aspects of other games that are better - AoC for example - visual range and godrays are done better, also much less sliding. 

    10 would be done better than anything on the market, and FFARR falls a hair short - again 9 IMO.

    You may want to consider upgrading your computer. I play on minimum settings to maximize framerate, and it is still the best looking game I have played in a very long time. And one of the only ones where things seem to appear naturally in the distance, not just materialize out of nowhere in a blaze of pixels and rendering.

  • SamhaelSamhael Member RarePosts: 1,488
    I'm not sure if I understand the scoring system... how does innovation get a 7 if it's described as "There is not even anything that is really new."  For me, that would be a score of around 1 or 2 rather than near the top end of the scale.   Not saying I disagree with the review but the numbers don't seem to match up to the comments.
  • BookahBookah Member UncommonPosts: 260
    No matter how I edit this comment its like a computer screen in length no idea why and i don't have time to mess with it lol sry!


    image
  • MysteryBMysteryB Member UncommonPosts: 355
    Got a character to 38 still might level some but I have found myself enjoying Madden and Grand Theft Auto V much more, I haven't had an MMO home since City of Heroes shut down and though Never winter and A Realm Reborn were both fun for a short time like all recent MMOs they lose fun quickly and become a chore

    Mystery Bounty

  • ZagatoMKRZagatoMKR Member UncommonPosts: 263

    You forgot to mention that if you're not planning on making multiple characters, you can choose "Entry"-level subscription for 12.99 USD a month. That's the same price you would get when purchasing a 3-month "Standard" subscription. Plus this is one of the few games that doesn't convert USD to Euro as $15 to 15€, so I'm paying 10€ a month for FF14 which leaves a possibility of playing an extra MMO (I'm looking at you Wildstar).

    Good review all in all. Although they have tuned down the linearity of maps, they're still pretty linear. I know a few people that dislike that in a MMO, but I do understand the need for that kind of map structure (PS3).

    I haven't played FF11, so for me characters (art-wise) are amazing.

    Cheers.

Sign In or Register to comment.