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Final Fantasy XIV: Any Better a Year Later?

SBFordSBFord Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129

With the v1.19 patch set to hit Final Fantasy XIV later this week, MMORPG.com's Adam Tingle decided to check out the game. It's been over a year and a lot of updates and changes have been implemented since Adam's last foray. He's got a lot to say about Final Fantasy as it stands now. Read on!

Nobody is quite sure how it happened, but Square Enix’s latest attempt at MMORPG conquest has seemingly fallen to its knees and is currently crying out “uncle” to the rest of its online peers. This is a title that was so dismal at launch the CEO of the company actually apologised to the community for releasing such a shoddy product. I for one accepted that apology and quarantined my own “special edition” copy of Final Fantasy XIV and decided to leave it alone until its noxious gasses had cleared, and its world inhabitable by gamers.

Read more of Adam Tingle's Final Fantasy XIV: Any Better a Year Later?

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Comments

  • morbitangelmorbitangel Member UncommonPosts: 70

    "Almost a year has passed since I last set foot into the games beautiful world of nothingness, and with patch 1.18 spreading its updated code about, and with 1.19 imminent, it seems like a better time than any to head back into Square’s product to see if there is entertainment to had in this title after all."

      no offence but i actually just stopped reading at this point 1.19 is imminent but you still go ahead and write the article now already? just another piece written that could go just into the trashbin right away as most of these write ups lately on this site.

    <shakes head and starts searching for a different mmo site>

  • ZetsueiZetsuei Member UncommonPosts: 249

    And to everyone bashing about this coming out right before 1.19 read the Editor's Note at the top and stop being blind. This was written after 1.18 came out.

  • deadmilkdeadmilk Member Posts: 173

    Originally posted by Kraiser

    And to everyone bashing about this coming out right before 1.19 read the Editor's Note at the top and stop being blind. This was written after 1.18 came out.

    Yeah.. but what's the point of writing this when 1.19 is gonna overhaul damn near everything?

  • WizardryWizardry Member LegendaryPosts: 19,332

    I don't mind anyone's view or displeasure of the game,however i look at how the reviewers are rating it compared to the EXACT same things in other games.

    Here is a perfect example....

    We talk about boring scenery ok np,there is some of that of course,but take a look at how you start the MOST popular game on the planet >>WOW.The reviewer mentions notihng more than a few tents,well when you start in nothing more than a few tents in Wow,how is that any different or acceptable in WOW?

    At least in FFXIV as was case in FFXI,you start in very large ,elaborate cities that scream "effort" not a simpleton slap together few models.In this case alone,why would anyone continue on in WOW when this trend is common throughout the frist few  zones you encounter.You should after your first week be saying ,this Wow game really looks bland ,boring and down right awful ,i think i'll quit playing.

    Combat...Ok i didn't find combat to be as good as FFXI ,matter of fact i found it a step backwards,however to say it is too simple and slow,ummm how does that rate again versus the MOST popular game on the planet?Hit a couple hot bars is all you do in WOW and matter of fact,i felt i was never challenged even as a solo player and that i could actually eat a sandwich or almost fall asleep and still win hitting a couple hotbar icons.

    UI.....Ok i don't like some of the needless clicks either,but i heard these EXACT same complaints about FFXI and yet i found their UI better than every single game on the planet,except for missing the dbl mouse button movement,i would have liked to have seen that in game.It also lacked the dbl mouse move look.however for accessing all my commands,noting tops the way it was setip for me on my keyupad,VERY convenient.So i somehow feel the UI complaints are sometimes valid,but MANY times way over stated,they are imo more a preference than a legit complaint.

    My whole point behind mentioning these 3 main topics is to compare them verus other higher rated games and how poeple play those other higher rated games.

    I already established that the higher  rated Wow does nothing different in these three main categories except UI is a preference for sure.OK he mentioned about game play offering anything above levleing....umm say WHAT?What exactly does Wow or ANY other game offer and how are players doing anything different in other games?In other games players are 99.9% ONLY leveling ,that is all they do and to speed level at that,it is like peoiple are trying to tell me they are having fun but want the game over as fast as possible,makes no sense.

    My rating of FFXIV would not be very high either,but when compared to other games that offer nothing more than the EXACT same thing but with inferior graphics,it would still be higher.If i gave FFXIV a 5.5 i would still give other games a less rating and i would play FFXIV before MANY of the higher rated games.A perfect example IS EVE,you couldn't pay me to play Eve,it offers NOTHING a video game should offer,spreadsheets are not video gaming ,2d screens are not video gaming,yet it receives a higher rating.

    I think quite often reviews are skewed and biased.If we look at actual facts and compare to other games,you will see FFXIV does very litte different and even tries to speed up those boring LEves [same as dailies in Wow] by allowing you to warp back.If one does not feel FFXIV is that great a game fine,but don't go giving other inferior products a higher rating based on bias/preference.

    Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.

  • Dekarx12Dekarx12 Member UncommonPosts: 380

    @WIZARDRY nicely said... =)

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  • sancher36sancher36 Member UncommonPosts: 458

    I decided to check out ff14 a few weeks back, sad thing is I only lasted a week before I uninstalled. The scenery was very well done but the actual gameplay is what hurts it the most. I found it so mind numbingly boring.

    I also admit that maybe a week of play for me wasn't enough.

  • QSatuQSatu Member UncommonPosts: 1,795

    the game has improved but it's still far behind game made 5 years ago when it comes to combat fluidity, ui response. Pople scream that new patches changes thing but the truth is the game still is not good enough. People are delusional if they think that ui is good now for a keyboard and mouse users. When you use an ability you're not even 100% sure if this ability will work. That's the problem with servers which SE doesn;t want to improve for whatever reason. The world is devoid of life and things to do. Everything still looks the same. 2 new dungeons are basicaly as simple as they can be. Every patch adds something to do, but it all comes down to killing the same mobs, the same way without any kind of interesting storyline. Tel,l yourslf.. why do you log into this game? Why are you leveling up? There is nothing to achieve here, chocobos in 1.19 will help you travel. But where and why would you want to travel anywhere? Maybe in 5 patches there will be some meaningful content but we have to wait another year.

    And yet again someone comes and says.. wait for the next patch. It was the same with 1.18 and it will be the same before 1.22.

  • channel84channel84 Member UncommonPosts: 585

    Unless ur a fan of ffxiv else i think the review is quite spot on

    I've been waiting for them to fix it up enough but apparently the improvement is coming in too slow for my liking.

    For starter.....get the combat lag problem fix....zzz

  • XzenXzen Member UncommonPosts: 2,607

    Has the game gotten better? Yes. Is it worth the price of the box? No. It is a long ways away from being worth a sub fee as well.

  • SerenesSerenes Member UncommonPosts: 351

    The game has got much better. Altogether from release too now the game is about half way too were it should have been when it was released but thats my opinion. The UI remains like a rock is my only real complaint fix that and I could see myself in Eorzea for awhile =P

  • Dekarx12Dekarx12 Member UncommonPosts: 380

    in all seriousiness... This is just a repeat article with a different cover... it didnt need to be rehashed again over the same stuff... patches improvments UI combat... been there done that move on... cause you'll just get the same arguments over n over... with more fuel to add to the fire from fans of the game (me included)

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  • TheFirst109TheFirst109 Member UncommonPosts: 182

    I was pretty much disgusted with SE when FFXIV came out. I felt they botched what should have been an extremely easy launch, having a formula for a game that should have been pure win. I came back after 1.18 and found a much more improved game, not perfect obviously, but I could see the changes they were making. Then again, I played from level 1 to 30 in patch 1.18 so maybe I am just getting a better picture of what changes there were unlike the reviewer? He didn't even touch on most of the changes (or any?) that went into 1.18 for good or bad, but to call the combat slow once you have a decent set of moves is pretty arrogant.

     

    Now after I hit level 30 I decided to focus more on LOTRO again because of Isengard coming out, but I've kept the game installed for when 1.19 comes out because the patch is so huge I feel like it is going to put the game into a payable sub state. It's almost overwhelming how big this patch is and I am really looking forward to giving it an honest shot. Come on seriously though, you do a review, supposedly based around patch 1.18 (questionable at best) and you wait till a few days before patch 1.19 is out to give your opinion on where FFXIV is lol. What did you expect? Flowers and chocolate?

  • LonzoLonzo Member UncommonPosts: 294

    The setting on this game alone makes it unattractive to the majority of EU and US players anyways

     

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  • dsp1dsp1 Member Posts: 36

    the people defending the game and complaining that 1.19 is coming out soon so the review is irrelevant are the same people that attacked the last review about 1.18 coming out. if you do another review after this patch they will complain and say 1.20 is going to be the saving grace.

     

    i do play the game and i will specifically state that, for me, the new battle system is horrible even compared to the system the game had originally. the crafting system in xiv is one of the few things people liked due to the complexity it involved, but even that is being removed. this game is headed in the direction of a mid range generic mmo. if you are looking for a mmo to keep you for years to come and be drawn into then this is not the one for you.

  • MuruganMurugan Member Posts: 1,494

    Originally posted by dsp1

    the people defending the game and complaining that 1.19 is coming out soon so the review is irrelevant are the same people that attacked the last review about 1.18 coming out. if you do another review after this patch they will complain and say 1.20 is going to be the saving grace.

     

    i do play the game and i will specifically state that, for me, the new battle system is horrible even compared to the system the game had originally. the crafting system in xiv is one of the few things people liked due to the complexity it involved, but even that is being removed. this game is headed in the direction of a mid range generic mmo. if you are looking for a mmo to keep you for years to come and be drawn into then this is not the one for you.

    I wouldn't have minded a review of 1.18

     

    Did they post one?

     

    Oh you mean this one?  No this is not a review of the 1.18 changes, this is another review about the opening Tutorial unchanged since Beta.  Something they covered quite heavily in their original review.

     

    In fact none of this review mentions anything above level 5.  It takes 5 minutes to get past level 5, so we can pretty safely surmise that the writers of MMORPG have apparently spent less than 5 minutes playing FFXIV.  And they managed to get multiple articles and a "re-review" out of it,  that is efficiency.

  • InktomiInktomi Member UncommonPosts: 663

    To me UI is everything, but for some reason, like FFXI which I am a big fan and retired from. Joypads seem to work better than keyboard/mouse combos. I have a logitech ps2-esque joypad and it made all the difference in the playability of the game overall. Seems to be able to catch a rhythm with the game with a pad. 

    As long as I have been monitoring the game, I have heard not very good reviews to come of it. Just lately is it becoming playable and everyone in FFXI that I asked that had played this version said it was really boring, then they returned to 11.

    What turned me off mainly about the game was that they took all the races and kept the models and changed the names. Why in the world would you do that? A galka is a galk and a taru is a taru. Why would you totally disregard your fans by offering shamelessly regurgitated and renamed product? I was hoping for a sequel in some way, keep the heart of 11 alive in a more modern design. 

    Funny thing, the client was being sold locally for 15 bucks, now its back up to 30 again. So someone thinks that its worth it. I laughed and said I will wait til it goes free to play.

    But as far as this article goes, I feel that Adam Tingle should at least enclose how long he played it for before writing the article. I don't really care about when it gets published before this or that patch, but I want to know how much time invested before making the judgement s that he did. That would provide some validity to his arguements in my opinion.

    I don't write a game review or opinion piece until I have at least 20-30 hours test play in the can. Then I can answer for what I did and where I went if someone wants to ask me. I know other reviews that provided video to back up their meaning. Why does this website not offer that?

  • TheFirst109TheFirst109 Member UncommonPosts: 182

    P.S. Thanks for the ifrit battle video, I'd never seen that before and that's insane o.O

  • NovaRyuNovaRyu Member UncommonPosts: 31

    Another terrible review of this game by the mmorpg staff. I am far from a fanboy of ffxiv, this game needs an incredible amount of work to get where it needs to go. But even I can see that this game has come a really long way, and it sounds like patch 1.19 is going to be another huge leap forward.

     

    I've been a member of this site for a lot of years now, and I rarely feel the need to post, but this really stood out as an exceptionally poor review of a game. Dissapointing, you can do better.

  • TheFirst109TheFirst109 Member UncommonPosts: 182

    Originally posted by Murugan

    Originally posted by dsp1

    the people defending the game and complaining that 1.19 is coming out soon so the review is irrelevant are the same people that attacked the last review about 1.18 coming out. if you do another review after this patch they will complain and say 1.20 is going to be the saving grace.

     

    i do play the game and i will specifically state that, for me, the new battle system is horrible even compared to the system the game had originally. the crafting system in xiv is one of the few things people liked due to the complexity it involved, but even that is being removed. this game is headed in the direction of a mid range generic mmo. if you are looking for a mmo to keep you for years to come and be drawn into then this is not the one for you.

    I wouldn't have minded a review of 1.18

     

    Did they post one?

     

    Oh you mean this one?  No this is not a review of the 1.18 changes, this is another review about the opening Tutorial unchanged since Beta.  Something they covered quite heavily in their original review.

     

    In fact none of this review mentions anything above level 5.  It takes 5 minutes to get past level 5, so we can pretty safely surmise that the writers of MMORPG have apparently spent less than 5 minutes playing FFXIV.  And they managed to get multiple articles and a "re-review" out of it,  that is efficiency.


     

    Exactly, thanks for being intelligent and not a blind troll or fanboy. It's amazing what people can see when they aren't on either extreme.

  • shakermaker0shakermaker0 Member UncommonPosts: 194

    this isn't a review.

  • InktomiInktomi Member UncommonPosts: 663

    "I played FFXI for 7 years. This game FF14 is worse than the launch if XI even after 14 has been out for a year. Everquest 1's launch in the 1990s did better than this game."

     

    Didn't FFXI make you feel like you were a part of something from the beginning? I remember logging in on my PS2 for the first time and feeling blown away. It felt so alive in San D'oria, I was knocked out when I finally got to Jeuno. Does FFXIV capture any of that? Why would they go away from a formula that seemingly works?

     

  • KhebelnKhebeln Member UncommonPosts: 794
    I tryed it a month ago again and i didint feel like it changed back since beta, maybe even got worse timisation wise. I gave up on the game after few days of trying to make the mouse control work as it should. If they cant even make the game work with basic pc controls instead of pad then its waste of time in the end, as the game got low quality and polish. This game pretty much finished the era of releasing unfinished mmos.

    image
    (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

  • raistlinmraistlinm Member Posts: 673

    Originally posted by deadmilk

    Originally posted by Kraiser

    And to everyone bashing about this coming out right before 1.19 read the Editor's Note at the top and stop being blind. This was written after 1.18 came out.

    Yeah.. but what's the point of writing this when 1.19 is gonna overhaul damn near everything?

    How about because it hasn't done it yet???And until it actually does this is the game as it exists today maybe???

    FFXIV fans we get that you love the game and I would hope the rest of the mmorpg community would afford you the right to love a game that seems to present a range of emotions for a range of people from love to hate to the dreaded lack of confidence in the games developers.

    But please stop with the constant posts about how articles should not be written on the game in it's present state for mmorpg to do that would be very unfair to it's customers who know nothing about this game as it is TODAY.

    When they re reviewed the game after an entire year on the market you guys did the same thing pitched a fit about how some other miracle patch (either 1.18 or 1.19) was around the corner and how dare they do a reveal on the game as it exists today.

    The truth is they have had multiple patches over the year and none of those patches has stopped the game from being in a state that calls for bad reviews so why should we assume the next one won't be the same as all the others and not change enough to make the game worth paying for with most of the people who may have an interest in the game.

    Patches are always around the corner as you say so why not just not review anything since it will only be different in a few weeks,months,or years.

    What boggles my mind the most though is if you guys are too thin skinned to accept criticism from a game that you only play (didn't give birth to) why waste your time reading an article you know is only going to trash the game because it is based on a build that doesn't take all the stink off of the game.

    Honestly if you guys gave SE even half the crap you give the mmorpg writers they wouldn't be in a position to trash this game every two to three months.

  • KanoRainKanoRain Member Posts: 94

    The thing that no one has noted, is there is NO grouping in the game.  You do levies up to max level then do one of two things, sit around and talk to people ONLY IN YOUR LINKSHELL (the game is completely devoid of community) or craft.

     

    Have fun, at least it's free.

    Originally posted by Deleted User

    So much of the game is centered around forced grouping that soloing is not an option, major design flaw in my opinion.

    ^
    ^lol

  • TheFirst109TheFirst109 Member UncommonPosts: 182

    Originally posted by KanoRain

    The thing that no one has noted, is there is NO grouping in the game.  You do levies up to max level then do one of two things, sit around and talk to people ONLY IN YOUR LINKSHELL (the game is completely devoid of community) or craft.

     

    Have fun, at least it's free.




     

    Well you just put your foot in your mouth because this at least is definitely not true. They revamped leves a while back so that grouping and killing monsters as a group can be far better exp than doing leves. In 1.19 this is going to change even more with more beast camps to bring back the ffxi style of grouping and xp chains.

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