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DrSmaSh
Member UncommonPosts: 454
Hello,
yesterday I grabbed FFXIV on Steam for 12. I've been flirting with this game for a while now and for that price , which is less then a month's sub, I couldn't say no.
I went in to this game with pretty much zero knowledge. All I knew was that people were saying it's good fun, polished and some complained it's short.
And what I'm about to say will not make much sense to some people: game is so old school, that it feels like a breath of fresh air. It's ironic, I know. I only sunk couple of hours in to it yesterday, but boy oh boy does it feel nice to engage in good ol' MMO static combat. After rolling about in GW2 and ESO, I kinda felt like being back home again. No voice acting - it's personal thing, but I love to read. And FFXIV takes me right back - it's different enough from regular blocks of quest text in a way that you are actually reading NPC's bubbles. Like reading a book, my imagination fills in the lack of voice acting. I just enjoy reading more than listening to voice acting (even if it's good), it feels more like playing an old school RPG instead of watching a movie.
World seems engaging so far, quests are regular deal (kill, bring, deliver, talk to), but I don't mind em. Hell, I spent 1st hour of the game just running around one of the main starting cities, talking to different NPCs and finishing non-combat quests.
I don't know what's in store for me next, but I can't wait to log in again. And that's a nice feeling to have as a MMO player. Even if it turns our that game is uber shit after level XY, for 12, I got my money's worth 
TL;DR: It's on sale on Steam, if you are fed up with failed modern ways of reinventing the MMORPG, give it a try. You'll be surprised
Comments
Yeah it's not bad. Well polished. Nice stable engine. The ability to take up any class is a nice addition too. I think I must be too western-minded to 'get' asian-themed storylines, they just baffle me senseless for the most part. I found the characters, particularly the bad ones so head-scratchingly cliched that I couldn't keep a straight face for very long during any of the cut scenes. Or maybe that was the writer's intention, who knows.
Ultimately I think the gameplay is pretty standard fare for anyone who's played this sort of thing for the last ten+ years though but maybe that's just an old jaded gamer who's overplayed the format to death talking. The quaint little novelties don't compensate for the sameness to warrant any serious investment of my own time but good luck to anyone who enjoys it.
For the record there is some voice acting(actually a decent amount in the main story lines) and in multiple languages. I found someones voice annoys me in both english and japanese though so just ended up sticking with English
.
But, as you said I think people should at least try it. It's not going to be the game that everyone wants but it's going to be a game a lot of people will want if they give it a chance. And, if minor patches like today continue I for see a lot people coming back in the long run especially if they figure out crafting and the expansion is as big as they say.
Like you i really tried to love the game (being not only a huge FF fan, but someone who put many years of their life with a bunch of RL friends from school into FFXI) and it just didnt do it for me. Pretty much like you said, its nothing new, same old-same old you have seen for a decade now but with pretty graphics and an FF skin. it was fun for a little while but its too much of the same and too casual friendly for my tastes.
Sadly there isnt much coming that is going to be drasically different, limited skill-action games are the new hot trend (along with everybody can be everything design (EQN/ESO being the big examples) Honestly just stick to what you enjoy now and possibly come give it a look after the first expansion (might even be F2P by the looks of it, as much as SE doesnt want it to be)
Nothing will ever hold me like EQ and XI did, nor will anything be built the way those games were either (very team focused and not a rush to "endgame")
Cant agree its oldschool, this is 100% built like the standard (and the devs said this themselves) to work for a causal new age audience.
and yes like another thread was making a big deal about, there is VA's...though very little tbh and most of it is so bad you would rather turn it off.
Final Fantasy has the best crafting. Better than EQ's. There's variety and different ways to craft one item and it's valuable to the public. Even gathering has impressed me. What I craft matters. No other fantasy (not sci-fi) mmo has been able to do that. Def feels like "coming home." Minus the copy and paste scenery in Eleven thank God. Part of me misses the long distance it took to get from one place to another. The world has more detail and is full of more life. Less mob repetition.
The funny thing is tho (lore spoilers maybe) if the world was destroyed by Mr. Fire Breath there how come it looks even better now in the future? No, maybe I better not ask. The LORE PEOPLE will exude from under what rocks they hide and there will be no end in their attempts to confuse the hell out of me. Running away is the only hope.
I think they made the choice of having a smaller but more detailed world over a large boring one. Which imo was the right choice. If they could have done both I wouldn't have argued though.
Regarding lore I never really thought about it :P. 5 years is a good amount of time though. I mean look at forest fires and stuff.