Anyone trying out the recently released Final Fantasy XIV?
I’m undecided about it. I played the beta a little, but I didn’t get very far. The user interface is somewhere in usability between Dwarf Fortress and Hack. That is, horribly clunky compared to any other game I’ve ever played. I don’t know how much of that is the beta version that’s been updated on release.
But ignoring the interface the gameplay itself was fun, what little I tried. A character can advance in each of the classes with out losing progress in any of them, so you can try everything and keep at what you like. The economy is almost completely player-generated and crafting is complex.
So I’m still weighing whether it’s worth giving it a go or not.
Your decision, but I can say that literally everyone I have even heard of who played it said it was terrible - except those who were specifically promoting the game.
I’d read their review before investing any money into it. Basically they said it looks beautiful, but the environments aren’t varied at all. The quests are all monotonous, the story is good but the game never tells you how to progress to the next part, etc etc. One of the things i found discouraging was that they said basically the “player driven economy” amounts to having to walk up to NPC pack mule characters and going through each one of their inventories to see if they have anything useful, rather than having a central auction house where you can look for stuff you want.
Played the beta, and speaking as someone who enjoyed the hell out of FFXI’s clunky mechanics and dragged-out pacing, FFXIV is the worst piece of crap masquerading as a game I’ve played from a truly major studio since Daikatana.
I loved FFXI - played it from just after NA release until they bumped the level cap a few months back, went to all the conventions, etc - but I am not liking 14.
The plot so far is intriguing - but xping is a pain in the ass, and for a game with such a huge emphasis on crafting, the lack of an AH is absolutely crippling. I have a friend who loves the crafting system, he’s on there for hours doing various crafting stuff, but he just gives the results away rather than selling them.
I tried it, but I spent more time installing and updating than I did actually playing it. Not that I thought the installation and update procedure was bad, that’s normal for MMOs. That’s more a comment on how little of a chance I gave it. I get that they are releasing it for consoles as well like FFXI, but the UI is in my opinion simply unusable and inexcusable for a modern MMO. Pass…
FFXIV is probably the worst AAA MMO that’s ever been released. Seriously. I’ve been playing MMOs for eleven years now and never have I played something as downright awful as this game. Vanguard, AoC, and Mortal Online look divinely inspired when compared to it. Imagine Superman 64 in MMO form, albeit with decent cut-scenes and you’ve got yourself FF14. I just cannot express my disappointment with this title enough.
If Gamespot is giving your MMO a bad review, you know you dun goofed. I would have probably rated it lower myself.
Save your money. It’s awful.
Awful. Awful. Awful. Awful. Awful. I feel like pulling a John McCain here and repeating myself because it is completely warranted. Awful. Awful. Awful. Awful.
