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Having a hard time grasping the game's appeal
urbanaudio
Member Posts: 11
Before you get riled up about the title, its not a flaming or trolling thread. I have personally tried out the game, but I couldn't quite figure out what it was that made the game so appealing. It might be that I have a hard time understanding the appeal for most Asian mmos in general, but I keep hearing really good things about this game and I'm disappointed that I can't "get" then game. For those of you who like the game, is there something that sticks out for you? or does FFXIV just pull off the standard theme park mmo really well?
Comments
The thing that captures me the most is the pure number of things to do. Like Crafting? Each gathering skill is an entire class. Each Crafting skill is an entire class. Complete with gear. Like getting cool Gear? There are many different ways to gear. Raiding, PVP, Grand Company rewards, Hunts, FATEs, Quests, etc. You can level every combat class on one character if you want to. Also, the community in game is one of the more friendly ones I've encountered recently.
As far as themeparks go, this one has an amazing number of things to do, and does each of them very well.
Just my opinion of course.
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Hi Urbanaudio,
Let me start by saying that I find FFXIV quite engaging and fun to play but I could see why you do not "get it". First of all the game has a very specific and stylized high fantasy setting and feeling, no dark gritty graphics, no visceral bloodshed or depressing visual. Everything is bright and colored, the aesthetics are bubbly for a lack of a better word. The music while great is constantly upbeat and fast paced. This by itself might turn off people looking for a more down to earth fantasy experience, think Arthurian legends settings or what is commonly referred to as "Low fantasy" where things work mostly the same as the real world would in the time period with some magic sprinkled in.
The combat is not fast paced or action oriented, allot of the boss mechanics revolve around knowing the fight and being able to work as a team during move, burn and mechanics phases. I personally love this aspect of the game, it requires 4, 8 or 24 people to work as a team. There are allot of one shot fails in raids and that will really get under some people's skin, especially when some cry baby goes on a Beiber level emo rant and leaves the instance. Raids and instances are also timed, anywhere between 60 and 120 minutes, meaning there are no hardcore 12 hour raids or fights. Everything is in challenging but bite sized components. I am simply in love with the group focused combat mechanics and how they find a use for every person in a raid, very rarely will someone feel unneeded. That is both a bonus and a drawback as I can understand people not liking this aspect of it.
FARMING OMG THE FARMING! well maybe not quite that bad but yes. SE is famous for including farm mechanics in almost all their games and this is no exception. There is allot of grinding and farming in this game and allot of it will be tied to change (The much hated RNG). While farm progress is mostly constant there are dry spells that can be anywhere from annoying to pencil breaking, hair pulling, insanely maddening. I can see the reasons why this is done but it would have to be my one pet peeve about this game.
Overall FFXIV offers fans of the series a true to form MMO that is challenging but not impossible. It rewards dedication without asking for 60 hours a week playtime. Encourages team play and greatly rewards those with class and fight knowledge. It will put off some players due to the high fantasy setting or difficulty and some beacuse of the grindy nature of progression but it will attact many other players for those exact same reasons.
It is perfectly okay to not like or get the game to be honest, many of my friends wonder why me, a die hard EVE Online player would go for a kiddy no loot game but there we have it. It has plenty of charm for some people, not all
In hopes of not having confused you more,
Kahrek Laume
I'm in the same boat. I bought the game and although I enjoyed my time playing, I didn't find it worth the continued subscription.
Pretty much this. I'm level 32 after coming back, having not played since ARR launch, and man, the amount of things to do is a bit overwhelming. I've been doing a bit of everything. Story Quests, Side Quests, Class Quests, leves, FATEs, Dungeons, and my Hunting log.
Just recently participated in my first hunt by complete accident. Was in Southern Thanalan finishing up an story quest there, when /shout was filling up with people asking for invites for whatever the mobs name was, and people pointing out it's location. Then a MASSIVE group of 50's ran by me, so I followed. Ended up getting 8 Tomestones of MYthology, and 2 Tomestones of Soldiery, and 2 Allied Seals. I don't even know what all that stuff is. o.O
I bought the game in January and stopped after one week at level 22 because i found the game boring and too classic. Picked it up again before patch 2.3 and my opinion chaanged radically after playing it longer.
The trick is that the game unlocks slowly many forms of fun content on your way to level 50 and also a lot more at end game. Contrary to most other mmos you really have to play it long enough to get the full picture. The game has good lore ad class/job stories also.
That said the people who seem to enjoy the game the most play several classes at the same times, if you play only one class and do only dungeons and raids you'll get bored quickly imo and the 2.5s global cooldown on abilities is a turn-off for some people
Personnally i play a bit of all contents and it's easily my favorite themepark and I tried many.
FFXIV is a very very well done WoW clone with very fast and meaningful content updates.
IF you love WoW and Final Fantasy, like tab target content, and you like lowman/solo content. You will probally love FFXIV.
It is simply an ultra casual WoW game with a Final Fantasy skin. Best way to describe the game.
There is nothing unique about this game besides maby its crafting system it is alot more deep them most mmos.
almost everything in FFXIV appeals to me, including the asian style of the characters.
I think its easier for me to list things that dont appeal to me since they are far fewer.
- Compared to most open world mmos, XIV has too many invisible walls in places they shouldnt be (but thats not a deal breaker for me)
- A game full of water, water everywhere, and nobody knows how to swim... (i can live with it, but it sucks really bad)
- The main issue (and sort of deal breaker) for me is the lack of role flexibility. Every class is locked to a single role. The combined jobs (sub classes) still lock you to a single role. Thats why i discarded EQ2 and every other mmo that doesnt have role flexibility. And thats why i decided not to play XIV again. If i ever come back to the game it will be strictly as a non combat player focused on crafting (and that alone isnt enough reason to resub)
Played-Everything
Playing-LoL
You are not alone. I don't get it either.
And not being a FF fan doesn't help. I played it for couple of months because i found crafting interesting but beyond that i find it to be a pretty average game. For an adventurer in me it left me un satisfied with its small shoe box zones.
You're probably right, I guess I was wondering if there was a really well done gameplay aspect that I was missing out on. I remember being gravitated towards WAR for its tight and fun PvP, was wondering if there was something akin to that I was missing out on. From what you guys are all saying, the crafting is pretty deep, so I might think about giving it another shot
That's something I find really annoying. Personally I don't like having to click a button to travel from the top part of a city(pirate city on the ocean, can't remember the name) to another part of the city. Definitely makes me feel better that I'm not alone on this haha.
Its probably the most well conceived mmorpg I have ever played. If you appreciate great game design, this one is one of the overall best. Every system has value and ties in to multiple other systems. You can play casually or hardcore and it feels equally rewarding. I recently bought mists of pandaria and resubbed to wow for a bit. People who think ffxiv is a wow clone are smoking some primo shit haha.
The Main story arc actually does have voice overs!
I think the main thing is that while it doesnt do anything all that innovative / new, it takes a lot of existing things from other games and does them extremely well and / or improves upon several of them slightly. IN many other games you will have that 1 or 2 things it does well, but everything else pretty much completely sucks.
For example WAR, as someone mentioned earlier, was a fun game for being able to just jump in and pvp anytime. The rest of the game was very lacking.
FFXIV does a lot of different aspects well, and now with the addition of Frontlines they also finally have some decent PvP instead of that atrocity Wolves Den.
This sums it up fairly well ^
And it's not a harp on the game, either. It's a well made, albeit typical themepark MMO. There's a lot to do, but it all feels very polished, and the graphics are nice.
It's a game for people who love final fantasy, and aren't looking for a new kind of MMO. They just want one that's comfortable, feels polished, and has an IP they love.
You both clearly haven't played the game. At least not tried any of the Dungeons!
As in FFXIV the Dungeon content is actually challenging, with slowly ramping up the difficulty of the Dungeons the higher Level you get.
Unlike the snooze fest that is WoW today.
Indeed. IT starts out with some pretty simple ones like Copperbell Mines (though I could see new players maybe having issues with the Ichorus) and Tam-Tara, but then you get into primals like Ifrit at ~20 and Titan at ~30 which can also be challenging. Hell, I just did the Sunken Temple of Qarn for the first time, and let me tell you, that first boss is a little tricky, what with the Bees with Final Sting and then the Boss casting Doom on everyone.
I can only imagine what the hard mode versions of some of these are like.
1st: Part of its appeals is that it is a true FF fans game for once with all the lore and a true FF story line that works for the FF universe. Incorporate many of the ff games. With many characters from a bygone time showing up. Many people over the age of 30 years old understand it. This game like a childhood and teenage memory. (Bigs and wiggs, ect....)
2nd: Part of the appeal is , it works amazing well for a console gamer were FF grew up on , and both the xbox one and ps4 are lacking on the mmo's . That user base of the market has been untapped for mmos. Really it has been most of the mmos been avoiding the consoles in the last 30+ years , besides FFxi and PSO. For the consoles.
3rd: Part of the appeal. The game is also getting into the japanese market. That have been lack luster on mmos and behind the rest of the world. Remember Sony,nintendo, capcom, konami , tecmo and other japanese companies years ago said online game was 20 years away. They were wrong.
Beside monster hunter , phantasy star online and final fantasy 11 most the japanese mmos have sucked. and even some the smaller ones are lack luster compare to the rest of the world. Do not confuse the japanese market and developers to the south korean market. were most of the asia games have been coming from.
4th: It is a solid game for what it is well polish themepark. That they are going for right now and there updates have been very well done. And you can see there also changing as it goes. I bet buy next year the GCD will be gone. It is only in the game for the new console/pc fans of theres' FF fans that are new to the genre to not feel so lost.
Remember there is like a userbase of FF fans in the 30 million range from 3 generations.
What an odd thing to say.
There are plenty of people playing themepark MMOs... and they're not all playing FFXIV.
There's a variety of reasons a given MMO may appeal to someone or not. For example, the OP suggests that maybe the style of the game is an issue. That's possible.
Plenty of people love themepark MMOs but can't stand WoW because of its 'cartoony' (aka 'stylized') art style and rather 'silly' approach, which doesn't take itself seriously at all.
To say "if you don't like FFXIV then themeparks just aren't your thing" is woefully short-sighted, and ignores a huge gray area of reasons why someone might love themeparks in general, but not enjoy FFXIV in particular.
Broaden that perspective a bit there
What an odd thing to say.
There are plenty of people playing themepark MMOs... and they're not all playing FFXIV.
There's a variety of reasons a given MMO may appeal to someone or not. For example, the OP suggests that maybe the style of the game is an issue. That's possible.
Plenty of people love themepark MMOs but can't stand WoW because of its 'cartoony' (aka 'stylized') art style and rather 'silly' approach, which doesn't take itself seriously at all.
To say "if you don't like FFXIV then themeparks just aren't your thing" is woefully short-sighted, and ignores a huge gray area of reasons why someone might love themeparks in general, but not enjoy FFXIV in particular.
Broaden that perspective a bit there
Well said mateSmall zones killed it for me, they even split the cities.
Timmer dungeons sucked too.
250 part story quest was another one, THIS IS AN MMO, running off to do story quest doesent belong in an mmo.
Dynamic events, so much for building a community, Hay, just jump in !