Final Fantasy XVFollow

I like the combat, but there are quirks that I don't love. I should also note I'm a healer, so I have relatively low demands for combat systems, since party damage is essentially my mechanic.

For instance, raising someone in combat. First there's the delay while the animation completes, so they hover up into the air and it takes forever. During this time, they CAN be killed, even though their health bars still show 0.

Then the health bar will show the damage, so you go to heal it. But in reality you can't actually cast on them yet, so the heal hits you instead, and you just wasted like 1.whatever seconds trying to heal them.

And then BOOM, area AoE takes them out again. >_<

Some other things, too. I don't like that area AOE is based on the cast timer, not the animation. If I'm in the fire, I should get hurt. If I'm not, I shouldn't.


But yes, the questing is really poorly structured. For instance, right now I need to bring some uniforms to the weavers guild in Ul'Dah and the helmets to the Armorer's guild in LL. For the same quest. AFTER I had to go harvest the helmets and uniforms from different units (because, obviously, the key to a passing disguise is mismatching uniform items).

But here's the thing - if there's a mender in camp who can repair my gear back to PERFECT working condition, enchantments and all in-tact, how the hell is the mender not capable enough to work a slightly damaged uniform into a passable disguise.

Also worth noting is that I can wander right into the place I'm infiltrating without a disguise, kill units, and there's no grand alarm and the aggro range is pretty large...

I don't know if this is a really Japanese-style aspect of MMOs, but there's really no good reason to have THIS much travel across the maps, let alone between the zones, and across the continent.

Honestly, the actual story content is just a mess. It's terrible. I'm close enough to the end of the story quest that I feel like I should finish it. But I'm also really not interested in grinding the 4 levels to cap, because the story just dropped off for no good reason, and I was already getting bored of it. They actually piqued my interest with one plot twist in the level 46 quest, then very heavily back-pedaled on it, and then they just abruptly halted story progression.

Spoiler for the only story-line I've yet to really care about, even though that was short-lived:
SpoilerThancred was revealed to be Lahabrea. And everyone was like WHAT and pissed off and depressed. And their despair sustained me. But then they backpedaled, and said that Lahabrea was just possessing Thancred, because Ascians don't have physical forms... which means he didn't betray them at all, which makes their initial reactions make NO sense whatsoever. And then they suggested he only became Lahabrea after he was ordered to investigate the Ascians, which makes no sense because that happens after you meet Lahabrea. And now it's hinted at that we can save him.

Which maybe I would have cared about if they didn't manage to completely butcher that story transition in the matter of two quests.

Spoilering this to save space. It's me ranting about why I dislike the writing and big aspects of the content design. TL;DR: They completely fail to manage the simple tasks that EVERY MMO is doing nowadays. I don't expect a story on par with the kind of experience TOR is offering, because that was obviously TOR's thing. But both RIFT and GW2 have managed far, far better story experiences than this. FFXIV isn't even on the same level, from main-story, side-quest, or general content-progression levels.

Spoiler1. Huge gaps. I'm level 46. My next story quest is 49. That's like 1,350,000 experience at least before my next quest. At 10k a Fate reward, I am FAR from amused.

2. Inconsistent story telling. They spend so much time sending you all over the world, that the highs never reach the crescendo they should be at, and the lows get really damn low, rather than just leaving you at resting heart rate, or teasing at your heart strings, before blasting the tension. Literally every other recent MMO (sans Tera) has managed this. FFXIV stretches its stories well past breaking point, because it's easier on them.

It's akin to taking a plot arc in an anime, tossing 3+ unrelated fillers between every episode, and then making sure the episodes barely progress the plot anyway. Then you finally have one episode where things move, and you're starting to get excited, but boom - it ends, and it's back to filler, so you lose all emotional connection to those events.

3. Really bad plot basis. I have 2 major complaints here, because I think the plot devices being used are bad. The Calamity and the Warriors of Light. I think they both have a place in the story. But neither should have been NEARLY the focus they were. Something that happened 5 years ago is not a conflict. It doesn't make me interested, and I can't fight it, I can't change it, I can't prevent it, I can't stop it, etc. I get it - the Calamity sucked and things are different. That was okay for 10 levels. Everything else should have been dedicated to moving the plot of the world into something new and interesting; something I could sink into. War with the Garleans, Primals and Beastmen, etc. The Calamity should not be what 80%+ quests are about. "Ever since the Calamity..." Instant disconnect from whatever that character wants.

And the Warriors of Light are much the same, except worse. Thing is, they're a metaphor for the game's old players. And I was not one. And they haven't personified them for me. And they are just this nondescript thing, like "heroes of old." I don't give a crap when you compare me to the "heroes of old" because I know nothing about that. It was sort of nice the first time, but the 589th time is just stale.

Flesh out Louisoix's character and compare me to him. That would be cool. But some nondescript notion is not an engaging comparison. I get that this was SE's way of trying to thank those players for their investment. I do, I get it. Doesn't excuse it from being bad writing, or for failing their current players.

4. Story quests fail to provide utility. In WoW, if you're following the story, you're moving from quest hub to quest lub, engaging in content, and progressing naturally. The story is driving you through the game, leading you to discover new areas, and it's split between multiple main quests designed to submerge you in both the local and the global conflict. TOR took that concept and ran even further with it, upping the ante on submersion. GW2 changed the formula some, but kept the utility the same - make the story quest drive you through areas so you could engage with the content there; let it guide you on.

FFXIV fails here completely. You're going to spend most of your time traveling, or moving through lower level zones to initiate random higher-level duties. Or maybe they'll send you to the token higher level area of a zone that doesn't actually contain a quest hub or anything and seems to exist just to justify that quest being set there.

When it sends you to a new quest hub, it does so after making you stop and traverse the world. You never move from <level 35-38 quest hub> to <level 38-40 quest hub>. You start at the firs hub, head to each country once or twice, run some errands, and then they'll tell you to go to the zone that has the <level 38-40 quest hub>, except you're not close to it anymore, and you have to go find out how to get there. And you probably don't know why you're going, story-wise. And most hubs, in my experience, are actually a fair bit above the level of the story quest that will send you to them (because apparently SE guessed you'd be over-leveled for the story content).

In WoW, you often find that a mount will take you to the next hub. Or a quest chain will get you there. Content organically flows you into the next content. That is NOT how FFXIV works.

/sigh. I was really happy with the state of the game at early levels. But I'm hating it at higher ones. Had it kept up the pace the whole way, I'd be happy. But it's actually like there's approximately the same amount of content across the board, without respect to increased experience requirements. I feel like there's the same number of quests to complete between 42 and 44 as there are between 2 and 4, except that the quests between 2 and 4 will actually get me those levels. The quests between 42 and 44 might get me half way to 43.

Honestly, after today, the chances of me subbing are slim to none. It's a shame, really. Because I can SEE all the room for potential the game has. I just don't understand the decision to so heavily endorse grinding. Even the Asian market has been leaving that behind recently, because other companies have demonstrated you can create driving content not so clearly centered around mindless grinding. They bother to actually vary it, at least.

I mostly agree with everything but point 3. I also didn't play 1.0, but basing the plot on the "Calamity" and Warriors of Light doesn't seem far-fetched to me. However, **************** Thancred. Seriously. He's just possessed? Seriously? So dumb. The Ascians could be cool if they weren't just incorporeal beings that possessed people. Make him an actual bad guy, it makes the betrayal that much more painful and important story-wise.[/spoiler]

But yea, that grind from 46-49 was duuuuuuumb, and also it's not like you get enough story at 49 to take you all the way to 50 either. I'm going to take a while to level my second combat class because I'm not looking forward to leveling with even fewer quests available than the first time. Thankfully, I'm finding crafting and gathering to be enjoyable thus far!

I guess my final thought is that I will probably sub for now, because I have a core group of friends also playing and seemingly having fun, and I'm still mostly enjoying myself despite the flaws. We'll see what happens after a month or two, and if the endgame content will be enough to satisfy us (I've been hearing good things from others thus far).

I bet in either a story patch or expansion, SpoilerAlphinaud's sister becomes possessed. Seriously, she just disappears from the story so soon that it feels like it'd be an obvious setup.

SpoilerShe reappears and helps you out if you continue on with the story.

Edited, Sep 24th 2013 4:25am by Deadgye

I like it well enough, I just don't know if I want to deal with the grinding that's coming up after I finish the story. I like the crafting elements of the game, but I don't see any real use for it after level 50. All the good gear comes from drops and quests. The best I could hope for is melding relics for people and even that will dry up eventually.

I'd be enjoying it if I had time to play. It wasn't really a conscious decision to stop playing. I picked up another job so now I'm working around 70 hours a week. Usually I have to be in a certain mindset to play a MMO-type game, and being burned out from work doesn't make me want to jump into it. I'll probably try to get on Sunday.

I really need to get into Ampador Keep. That gives you both types of Tomestones, right?

For the record, while I'm obviously unhappy with the story content of the game, I think there's a LOT of good here. And there's plenty of room for improvement.

Take the culling system. So much of what exasperates me as a healer is this horrible system, right here. It makes all non-duty content simply painful. There are two major problems with the system:

1. You cannot target players whose models have not loaded, even if you go through the party menu.
2. There is no weight on the loading procedures relative to the actual importance of those units.

In any given FATE, only half my party will have loaded, but I'll have ton of extra players. I can't see the mobs, but even though the stock NPCs are there, any IMPORTANT NPCs will not be (Oh, you needed to turn in your items? Too bad). And then not all mobs are created equal. If I'm in a FATE, FATE mobs should gain a culling priority over normal mobs. And within a FATE, any "special" FATE mobs need to have the ultimate priority. The boss should NEVER be culled in favor of the trash.

And, as a whm, it's really just a terrible experience to watch someone die and have to tell them that I couldn't heal them, because in the 7 minutes we were fighting that boss, they never loaded. There's no reason for that. I should be able to cast my healing spells on them regardless of whether or not I can actually SEE them. When we hit that level of saturation on the screen, it's not like I'm watching for the pretty spell effect anyway; I'm watching the health bars.

But that should be SUCH an easy change to make, and it would be a huge improvement.

Things I love about the game:
1. It's gorgeous. There's no denying this game is breathtakingly gorgeous. I just stopped and sort of stared at Costa Del Sol at night.
2. The armor generally does a great job of remembering that the female body isn't made of steel and does, in fact, need to be protected. This inexplicably stopped applying for the Drg armor (which looks ridiculous as a result - AIM HERE, SKEWER ME HERE), but in general the Female Warriors and Plds look like they're ready to bash faces in, and that's awesome.
3. Gathering and Crafting professions as classes. LOVE it.
4. Class quests for abilities and such. I really miss when WoW used to have this. Though I admit that they had progressed to the point that change was good. But I like the idea of quest chains constantly reinforcing your progress and teaching you new skills.
5. Having a job system, as opposed to normal "set" class systems. I LOVE being able to invest myself into one character, and not be forced to play as only one class, and level an entirely new character for another.

Things I hate:
1. The story content, as we've established.
2. The culling systems, as we've established.
3. The complete unimportantance of guildleves after your first time. Seriously, they just don't matter. They need FAR more than a typical Fate's worth of Exp to make their time investment worth it.
4. The complete unimportance of the normal Primal fights after your first time. Seriously, how are later players ever going to get these run without begging for help? There's literally NO reason to run them again. Is there even an exp reward?
5. Lack of meaningful rep/faction options. I don't always love the implementation of a grind, but having multiple organizations and groups that players can join and support is an interesting way to add immersion into the world. I loved the Burning Crusade approach to making two mutually exclusive factions (and I wish more games did that). Right now you hit endgame and there's not all that much to do. And I don't mean that in the typical "BLARG THERE'S NO MORE RAIDING!!!!" way you always hear with MMOs. I mean that the game just sort of stops and turns into nothing but a straight gear grind. No FFXI-style Fame, or Wow-style rep to speak off. Nothing to spend your time on except grinding the same handful of dungeons and primal fights.


The big problem here is that the things I love about the game are things that don't really have much to do with content or play systems, and the things I dislike do.

I REALLY hope they get fixed and I can come back to the game and love it. I don't necessarily see that happening for another 2 content patches, at least. But I'm going to remain hopeful that they will fix them.

I don't think the animations options even exist on the PS3? Not sure. I do have nameplates enabled, though. But I'd really hate disabling those without being able to easily mouse over someone.

Oh, which brings up another thing: There's no good reason for the PS3 version to not have official mouse/keyboard support.

Ultros is the Zam server.