You either like Final Fantasy, or you don't

5hrs before beta phrase 4 started, I already been camping FFXIV for logging in. After Beta phrase 4 ended I continue to play on NA/EU server(those servers shut down slower than JP servers). On Aug.24 I logged onto XIV early access and play on JP server(since NA/EU server down). After hours and hours of time spent in XIV on different characters, I only have 1 opinion:

I'm not impressed.

To be fair with XIV ARR, let's start with the good part about it. IMO the new game engine is great. My shitty $600 laptop with 1G dedicated VRAM can run it smoothly, and 2 years ago when 1.0 launched I spent nearly $1300 for my laptop at that time to play it.

The new world is full of detail, as if it's real, that the exploring experience is only a bit worse than my first WoW experience. I especially liked some nice touch that doesn't exist in XI, such as noises when standing near lots of players. If you've played 1.0, there are some unique touch that I often go "OOh, this area now look at this".

                                                        Afania, naked as usual!


I also run to some higher lv area such as Mor Dohna and Coerthas, they're both very different from 1.0 now. And at least I haven't run into super high lv mob yet. One thing I really, really hate in 1.0 is dev threw a lot of lv 80 mobs all over the place on maps, and lv cap was 50  = =, so travelling is such a pain in the ass because even your lv 50 char get ass kicked everywhere.

     I wanna jump! But it doesn't make sense that you won't die if you jump down from this high >.>

It seems that all the 1.0 story progress start from 0, including GC. So even if you have all jobs lv 50, you still have to start story from scratch. I can't wear my flame gears from 1.0 because in 2.0 I don't belong to any GC anymore:(

I can't remember old MNK AF stats atm, but I think new MNK AF has better DD stat. In 1.0 wearing MNK AF 5/5 to event is an indication of gimp, but since I can't wear flame gear anymore I may as well just AF it! Although I plan to lv low lv jobs and do low lv content for a bit before I do anything mid/high lv.

In 2.0 you also can't change class unless you already unlock them on legacy character. In 1.0 you unlock a job by equipping new weapon. In 2.0 you have do class quests to unlock them. So you can't change to new class Arcanist just by equipping a book.

I strongly suggest legacy characters start with Arcanist unless you have a low lv job, because doing all that lv 1 lv 5 lv 10 quests on lv 50 character is just no fun. I didn't start with Arcanist, and ended up having to do boring low lv main quests for a bit so I can go to Limsa and unlock it.

There's new active public quest system FATE for lving, and you can lv sync to join it even if you're on a high lv job. Public quest isn't new in MMO, even if I do FATE on a high lv job, it seems to give me lower EXP pain for that lv that I'd much better doing higher lv FATE.

Which is pretty sad because, I kinda expect after 2 years FATE in starter zone won't have anyone doing it anymore, since there aren't real reason to lv sync down for it.

I also tried Duty Finder during Beta, and it took longer than expected to find a group on prime time, which is pretty surprising, cuz I thought the server exploded and full of ppl ;p

It's either because not a lot of ppl use Duty Finder during beta or it puts ppl in same language in same group only, I guess.

I played Arcanist for a bit, but not to very high lv. It just feel like....SMN+ SCH and that's it.

Anyways, now to the bad part of XIV.

I still have no idea why every FFXIV white knight on forum all go "ZOMG AWESOME MMO" when it comes to FFXIV. After hours and hours of playing, NO aspect impress me so far.

And inb4 "You haven't make it to endgame, and it's only fun after certain lv/progress blah blah".

Endgame in an MMO is supposed to be contents for players that's already hooked and have "buy-in"

If you can't hook a new player so new player make it to endgame, and have "buy-in", then it's not a very good game.

I made it to endgame in XI, because I had "buy-in" since lv 3(Yes I was hooked in XI that early). And atm I still have no buy-in for 14 that'd last until endgame.

And sadly, in FFXIV, besides "Final fantasy" I see 0 "addicting aspect" of it. It's same old formula that's been used for years.....talk to NPCs with ! on their head because they have some personal problems, solve the problem for them, get money, get EXP. Then you go to instance/dungeon at certain lv via party finder, then you hit endgame and grind gear blah blah.

And you can get same experience in majority of F2P MMOs. So why pay every month to do same shit you can do for free?

For someone that's entirely new to FF, FFXIV is really not very friendly to them. Current-gen MMORPG gamers are very demanding. They want F2P and no sub fee, they want action oriented battle system, they want FAST paced battle system. If the game still use target based system, they go "booooo I want action oriented battle system cuz it's more fun q.q". If the game takes longer than 3 sec to kill a mob they go "BOOOOO SO SLOW I'M OUT".

And FFXIV's pace, although faster than FFXI,  still MUCH slower than majority of current-gen MMOs.

Skills has like 2.5 sec global cool down time, so you can't use another JA immediately after last one, which is something I'm not very used to because the pace is slower than majority of newer MMOs. After seeing some skill speed gears I guess it's kinda like XI. At lower lv XI has super slow combat pace too, but at higher lv with max haste you TP/WS faster than your macro can handle.

Not just that, but it also takes more than just a few sec to kill a mob, although on DD jobs such as lancer it takes lower time. But the entire pace is certainly too slow for a 2013 game.

And slow start would scare 90% of casual player away. The entire lving, questing pace is slower than most of the MMOs too.

I haven't finish the story, but so far it seems to be 1.0 and XI quality.....that means the story is uninteresting. The voice acting is beyond horrible, at least the English one.

If it's 1995, this lv of story is quite acceptable. Since all FF story are....like this. But again, it's 2013 now and I'm almost 30, been reading same quality of story in video games for past 20 years, so it kinda need Bioshock lv of story and presentation for me if I want to play a game just for story.

SWTOR kinda set the voice acting standard high too, so FFXIV's VA is certainly not acceptable.

After hours of playing, I see literally 0 reason to convince my rl friends to play it with me. Why would they spend 12$ a month on a MMO to talk to NPC and solve their personal issue, kill X amount of mobs, do instance raid with tanks/healers/DD when 1 million other F2P MMO do the same?

And why spend 12$ a month for another avg Final Fantasy story when you can just read a New York Times best seller in 5hr for a better story?

In fact, if this game isn't Final Fantasy, I'd much rather go back to SWTOR and enjoy that 5 min load time and their shitty F2P model, than spend $12 a month and look at pretty graphics only to do the same content and read inferior story/VA.

But it's Final Fantasy, and SE knew ppl would bite the bait. So they can make another avg MMO, cuz they knew white knights would defend for it to death.

Long time ago someone said SWTOR fail because "You either like Star Wars, or you don't". If you don't like Star Wars, you may as well play WoW to do the same thing.

And FFXIV is on same boat, you either like Final Fantasy, or you don't. This game really isn't great if you don't love Final Fantasy style of thing.

It's strength is the presentation. The music, the sound effect, the world, the detail. It has a very relaxing atmosphere that's similar to XI, that I can just log on and relax.

If you enjoy the "art aspect" of a game, and liked this kind of style, then it's an enjoyable game to play with.

Otherwise, this game is totally overrated by FFXIV fan boys in every fucking way, it's not impressive at all, just another mediocre MMO, out of many. I expect the hype cool down a bit after launch, since most ppl played Beta are 1.0 fans and FF fans. After many avg none FF MMO players tried it and found it just avg in other aspect, more negative review would come, lol. This game is not casual friendly, and doesn't offer anything new for super hardcore MMORPG lover too, at best it's for FF fans only.