Final Fantasy XIV - EU Fanfest 2017 - Way of the Samurai - MMORPG.com

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Final Fantasy XIV - EU Fanfest 2017 - Way of the Samurai - MMORPG.com

For one weekend only Frankfurt Germany became the Mecca for Final Fantasy XIV. Earlier this morning Square Enix kicked off their third and Final Fantasy FanFest prior to the launch of their newest expansion Stormblood. To get the celebration rolling Naoki Yoshida opened the event with his keynote speech after an expanded Stormblood cinematic.

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Dragnelus

blueturtle13 said:

Nice

cheyane

It looks good nice sword play.

Warlyx

what no extended trailer?

Albatroes

Although I dont care too much for the charged special attack (people were joking that samurai would be a psuedo casting melee....less funny when jokes become reality) the animations still look sexy as hell, which this game is really great at. Definitely going to try my best to main this job.

Grakulen

Some or the samurai animations look really good but others still need a little bit of work. His sword clipped too far into his arm when he wiped the blade. Also some of it looks a little too robotic. That said this expansion looks like it has something for everyone and they added a lot of landmass to play with now, and heading into the future.

Albatroes

Grakulen said:

Some or the samurai animations look really good but others still need a little bit of work. His sword clipped too far into his arm when he wiped the blade. Also some of it looks a little too robotic. That said this expansion looks like it has something for everyone and they added a lot of landmass to play with now, and heading into the future.

You bring up a good point on the room for areas. the original continent still has a lot of areas not introduced as well, so it has a lot of potential.

QuarterStack

lol... "Two new DPS classes, because we know people will continue to play Tank and Healer."

Well, yeah... but you know, after up to 2+ years... people might like some actual variety in the Jobs they play. Just like DPS like to switch up different styles of DPS... Tanks and Healers might like some new options to mix it up as well. Good grief, Yoshida... short-sighted as usual.

Meanwhile... enjoy them DPS queues! lol

Xingbairong

I've always thought about giving this game a try, but WoW always prevented me I guess, but since I'm not playing WoW at the moment I'm actually thinking of trying this out.
My question is though, how hard is to get into the game? I mean when you hit max level will you need 1-2 more months to learn stuff or it's like WoW - dumbed down and basically once you hit max level you know pretty much all there is to it and you can start doing crap right away without having to figure out stuff first?

Ruepel

FF14 best mmorpg atm imo

Albatroes

Xingbairong said:

I've always thought about giving this game a try, but WoW always prevented me I guess, but since I'm not playing WoW at the moment I'm actually thinking of trying this out.
My question is though, how hard is to get into the game? I mean when you hit max level will you need 1-2 more months to learn stuff or it's like WoW - dumbed down and basically once you hit max level you know pretty much all there is to it and you can start doing crap right away without having to figure out stuff first?

Well if you're used to wow, the combat will definitely much slower in terms of pace due to the 2.5 gcd on many abilities. If you can get past that after a while then its ok I suppose. Combat does tend to flow a bit more smoothly for most classes towards their cap so that's something to keep in mind. Another thing is a lot of content is gated by the story (including the newer jobs machinist, astrologian, and dark knight) which can take 1-2 weeks to clear depending on how dedicated you are to it. I suppose the advantage is that you can do everything on a single character, so you aren't going through the same quest content over and over when you want to level something new. They also added an instance which you can unlock at around 17 after progressing a little bit through the story which allows you to pretty much test how a job plays at capped level, called Palace of the Dead. I'd recommend leveling up that way but keep in mind that you do not get jobs until 30 and jobs play quite a bit differently than classes (think of it like a class advancement in some asian mmos). But if you can stand getting your classes into jobs, then you can accurate assess how well they play at cap and which you might want to focus on.

Xiaoki

QuarterStack said:

lol... "Two new DPS classes, because we know people will continue to play Tank and Healer."

Well, yeah... but you know, after up to 2+ years... people might like some actual variety in the Jobs they play. Just like DPS like to switch up different styles of DPS... Tanks and Healers might like some new options to mix it up as well. Good grief, Yoshida... short-sighted as usual.

Meanwhile... enjoy them DPS queues! lol

They said that they made a new tanks and healers for HW (especially a fan favorite DARK) to get more people playing tanks and healers but it didn't work.
People that normally play tanks and healers just switched to a different tank or healer. The new tank and healer in HW didn't expand the number of people playing tanks and healers.

So, they decided to not make the same mistake again. They need to make tank and healer gameplay more attractive than just throwing more classes in.

Yaevindusk

Xingbairong said:

I've always thought about giving this game a try, but WoW always prevented me I guess, but since I'm not playing WoW at the moment I'm actually thinking of trying this out.

My question is though, how hard is to get into the game? I mean when you hit max level will you need 1-2 more months to learn stuff or it's like WoW - dumbed down and basically once you hit max level you know pretty much all there is to it and you can start doing crap right away without having to figure out stuff first?

@Xingbairong

You won't know everything by the time you're max level. In fact, systems keep on unlocking (they don't even tell you about them, you have to find them in the world by talking to an NPC -- though they now note which NPC side quests are important in game with a special plus symbol on their quest icon) as you play through the game, all the way up to max level. In addition, all old systems acquired through leveling remain relevant due to scaling. Not to mention they always go back to old systems and try to revitalize them with new equipment, new systems that support that or work in tandem with, as well as completely redesign them if they feel the time has come for it. Diadem is undergoing a major overhaul in 3.5.5, which will technically only be "useful" for a couple months. But they try to keep everything updated rather than forgetting about it.

The game's core is simple, but most the systems therein are very complex and well thought out (and updated, as mentioned). Many, many ways to get equipment, many systems to unlock, and all the classes to master since they can be played on one character. Though some can be very hard, boasting a 50 button rotation or more. With them also having situational rotations, positional rotations, buffing rotations, debuffing rotations, etc. All without addons to help you decide what to do. Basically, with some classes, this game's rotations have rotations. So if you prefer WoW style rotations of a couple buttons and addons to tell you when to use them, you might get overwhelmed by max level here. This isn't even going into detail about cross class skills, job synergies, limit breaks or individual class mechanics such as the Ninja's mudra system where they have a mini game during fights of forming hand symbols in-between fights (Naruto style) to boost their DPS. With a failure in the mini game costing you 20% of your DPS. Or what some call "Proc weaving" inbetween globals or off the GDC weaving.

They are trying to make the combat slightly more manageable in Stormblood since the skill gap and damage is exceedingly high between the best and the worst at the moment.

They always release a couple dungeons with each major patch (about 3 months per major, 1.5 per minor -- though the minor has more content in it than WoW traditional has with their major baring Legion since we haven't seen it through its end and won't know how it is as a whole) and they usually always have new systems, side quests, story, hair styles, emotes, furnitures, updates to old systems, etc. in as well. They've even added a new class or features that are traditionally used to sell expansions, in patches. Such as Chocobo Racing, Gold Saucer, Housing, PVP Areas, Triple Triad, etc. If they think something is cool, they try to put it in even if it's just a patch.

Even back when 1.0 only had 10,000 subscribers due to it being a piece of crap, they updated frequently and with a lot of passion. They always tend to keep on schedule with patches (missed only one that I can think of), even if the expansion is just weeks or months away. They will release the patches on time, regardless and just won't say they had to work on the expansion instead as an excuse. And it's typically all high quality stuff. No droughts whatsoever.

They also keep on listening to the community and adding things and updates and corrections and what people didn't like and actually show the changes in patches or in live letters. My main beef is still with housing, but they're adding more again and new furniture and doubling furniture capacity and increasing inventory by quite a lot. Plus a lot of battle changes; cleaning up skills, adding unique U.I elements to new jobs, etc.

It's perhaps the only P2P game that is worth it monthly, in my opinion. The crafting is also amazing. Gear, jobs, rotations for crafters -- as well as story.

Kumapon

I herd there was going to be multiple new dungeons. The devs showed off one that was channelling Arrapago Ghost ship feels.

Xingbairong

@Albatroes & @Yaevindusk
Thanks for the info. I'll probably buy the game since it's having a 50% sale atm anyway(though I think it's actually even cheaper from g2a even with the sale lol).

Anfere31

So if i want to play this expension as a new player, i need to level but on top of that play every Story Quest arc since 2.5 and all through heavensward until the new expension ?

Or will they put some kind of time slip story mechanic ? Leveling in itself doesnt bother me, its the gated content behind 100+ Quests at the lvl 50 and 60 pit stops that makes it impossible for me to take up this game. I dont like the idea of having to play 4 months (casual player here) before being able to visit the end game content or the content of the newly released expension.

Kajidourden

I want to be excited but I just can't do the WoW-style gear treadmill rinse and repeat every couple of months.
Content overload means the vast majority of it is worthless.

DeadSpock

Grakulen said:

Some or the samurai animations look really good but others still need a little bit of work. His sword clipped too far into his arm when he wiped the blade. Also some of it looks a little too robotic. That said this expansion looks like it has something for everyone and they added a lot of landmass to play with now, and heading into the future.

No clue what are you talking about. Must need glasses and watch the video again.

Jamar870

Looking forward to the expansion. As to story barrier, I guess most games that have some sort of story arc will have this problem for new players. It will be something that each game will have to sort out as how to accomandate new players.

Yaevindusk

Anfere31 said:

So if i want to play this expension as a new player, i need to level but on top of that play every Story Quest arc since 2.5 and all through heavensward until the new expension ?



Or will they put some kind of time slip story mechanic ? Leveling in itself doesnt bother me, its the gated content behind 100+ Quests at the lvl 50 and 60 pit stops that makes it impossible for me to take up this game. I dont like the idea of having to play 4 months (casual player here) before being able to visit the end game content or the content of the newly released expension.

@Anfere31 @Aori

They mentioned "Jump" potions a few times that allow you to skip the 2.0 story. It also takes you to level 50 for your first combat class. Though they're still in internal debates on it. Though honestly, it would be best if they just got rid of 2.1 and 2.2 quests and allow people to start in the middle of 2.3. Since that's when the real story begins, leading up to Heavensward. You could feasibly do 1-50 story and then use the hypothetical potion to skip the patch content, but you'd be missing out on an amazing 2.4-2.5 story arc.

Yaevindusk

Aori said:

Yaevindusk said:

Anfere31 said:

So if i want to play this expension as a new player, i need to level but on top of that play every Story Quest arc since 2.5 and all through heavensward until the new expension ?





Or will they put some kind of time slip story mechanic ? Leveling in itself doesnt bother me, its the gated content behind 100+ Quests at the lvl 50 and 60 pit stops that makes it impossible for me to take up this game. I dont like the idea of having to play 4 months (casual player here) before being able to visit the end game content or the content of the newly released expension.

@Anfere31 @Aori



They mentioned "Jump" potions a few times that allow you to skip the 2.0 story. It also takes you to level 50 for your first combat class. Though they're still in internal debates on it.

Though honestly, it would be best if they just got rid of 2.1 and 2.2 quests and allow people to start in the middle of 2.3. Since that's when the real story begins, leading up to Heavensward.

You could feasibly do 1-50 story and then use the hypothetical potion to skip the patch content, but you'd be missing out on an amazing 2.4-2.5 story arc.

Which sucks, they just need to streamline the experience, they're being lazy if that is the route they take. The MSQ has so many useless quests and wasted time in it.

While I agree excess quests from their questing process wasn't as streamlined and experienced, I won't comment on the laziness part. I don't know their systems or any potential technical hurdles, but I do agree with the idea of focusing on the current content rather than going back to old content that most people have already done.

They mentioned an inability to allow us to replay old quest instances due to quest triggers in an interview, but in the same interview thought more on it and said they could feasibly do such with a lot of work and debugging and creating a new system to hold the completed content. If this is a process they would have to follow to get rid of old quests and still have them connect / make sense, etc. (as some of the text the NPCs say is still relevant even if some of the early patch quests are filler)... then I would prefer they keep on working on Stormblood. They are already introducing about two new continents in it. The other half of Eorzea, Othard and part of Kinashi (or whatever it is called). Not including potential underwater explorations and Eureka.

They did mention saying that they are making more MSQ while leveling, and lowering the amount of side quests while doing such. Since the balance seemed off to them for Heavensward areas. They also confirmed themselves to be working on Blitzball in a Fanfest interview, but have come across a few technical hurdles.

Danielleblue

If you are going to use fanart for your article please give credit: Art of Carlo Marcelo - Just noticed the piece also has the name removed- not cool!

http://carlo-marcelo.deviantart.com/art/Odin-s-Courage-486621221