Read Mixed User Reviews for Final Fantasy XIV Online: A Realm Reborn on PC

zublits

Aug 27, 2013

7

This game is quite good as far as MMOs go on launch: amazing IP, great graphics and aesthetic, lots to do, a great sense of discovery and wonder, in depth crafting, and more.

However, I can can't help but feel that the WoW-esque hot-key MMO with endless fetch quests has seen its day. The game play is good, don't get me wrong. It just feels like I've done this all before, and that'sThis game is quite good as far as MMOs go on launch: amazing IP, great graphics and aesthetic, lots to do, a great sense of discovery and wonder, in depth crafting, and more.

However, I can can't help but feel that the WoW-esque hot-key MMO with endless fetch quests has seen its day. The game play is good, don't get me wrong. It just feels like I've done this all before, and that's because I have. It's the exact same formula that has dominated MMOs for years, and frankly it's getting a little tired.

The game is definitely worth picking up if you haven't gotten your fill of the classic MMO theme-park experience, or if you just love the Final Fantasy franchise so much you can overlook the dated game-play. If you're bored of WoW and it's clones, you won't find much new here. All in all, this game is a good take on a tried and true (and a bit played out) genre.… Expand

Reihert

Sep 28, 2013

7

I gave it a low score mostly because of it is abysmal costumer service during launch and early acess. After all, they are no strangers to the number of game codes sold and should planned accordingly.

With that behind, there are still some game breaking bugs in it. In high crowded Fates (like open world bosses), your target disappears, your party mates are also gone making it close toI gave it a low score mostly because of it is abysmal costumer service during launch and early acess. After all, they are no strangers to the number of game codes sold and should planned accordingly.

With that behind, there are still some game breaking bugs in it. In high crowded Fates (like open world bosses), your target disappears, your party mates are also gone making it close to unplayable. Very bad culling coding. Also, when you reach 50 and wanna do an instance, it is most likely you'll wait for an hour even if you already have a full team. Instance servers doesnt have enough room for player load.

Game starts off boring and slow. Voice Overs are horrible and many in game translation.

However, game starts to pick up around lvl 15 and it only shines from there. You can cross class skills, dungeons are smart with a scaling difficulty and the world is just beautiful.

Crafting is different in a way, you actually have to know how to react to certain conditions in employ proper skills to make it work.
It is surely a great game to try, if you can put aside the slow start and the said game breaking bugs.… Expand

ataak

Feb 23, 2022

5

I imagine this is what being in a cult is like.
The game is not bad, but the people in it makes it worse than it is.
As long as you agree that everything is " absolutely awesome, the story is epic, and bunniebois are super cute" you are golden. If not, you are in for a rough ride.

xinny

Nov 1, 2013

6

I'm coming at this review from the perspective of simply being a MMO Gamer.
I have not played the previous iteration of this FF MMO, and my review is not based on the differences of the 2.
The Good, and the Bad: The Good: Great Graphics and Visuals, actually one of the best Different Class Types to Fit all Persona's Lots of Instance based Content Great looking End Game gearI'm coming at this review from the perspective of simply being a MMO Gamer.
I have not played the previous iteration of this FF MMO, and my review is not based on the differences of the 2.

The Good, and the Bad:

The Good:
Great Graphics and Visuals, actually one of the best
Different Class Types to Fit all Persona's
Lots of Instance based Content
Great looking End Game gear

The Bad:
Global Cool Down is Too Long
Lack of Direction in Questing. You will easily end up several levels ahead of your quest line.
Instances have to be unlocked
This one might just be me, i felt like i was traveling more than i was enjoying the game.
Fate Grinding
Instance Queue Times

Summary:
FFXIV:ARR has great graphics, and great looking end game gear with a variety of classes to choose from.
However, what killed it for me was the lack of direction and general slow paced game play.
The Global Cool Down is 2.5 seconds, unless you have a instant cast here and there, combat will become monotonous because you are waiting on the GCD more than you are casting abilities.

It is far to easy to out level your questing line, what i mean is, you will end up being 5+ levels ahead of your questing line. This is actually a huge problem because this games instances are unlocked by doing Story Quests, and Story Quests tend to require a lot of traveling. So unless you strictly do each Story Quest back-to-back-to-back you will easily end up being 10 levels ahead of the instances you are unlocking. Which is fine if you just want to see the inside of them or the story behind them, but for purposes of gear it becomes pointless.

Once you are ahead of your quest line you will most likely end wanting to fate grind, which is fun for the most part AS LONG AS YOU HAVE AOE. If your class lacks a variety of AoE most of the FATES will not give you XP because you are simply not dealing enough damage to the mobs while those with AoE are mowing them down.

Overall i think this game has great graphics and variety, however due to the lack of direction and slow paced "ability usage" inevitably killed this game for me.… Expand

Bryguy1982

May 20, 2014

5

**This is a long review, but I am just trying to help out my fellow hardcore MMO players out there. Even though I am a huge World of Warcraft fan and have played the game (WoW) for many years, I am not comparing FF14 to WoW. I am just trying to save you disappointment if you are trying to fill that WoW void with another MMO.**

**Short list of Pros and Cons at the top, while details**This is a long review, but I am just trying to help out my fellow hardcore MMO players out there. Even though I am a huge World of Warcraft fan and have played the game (WoW) for many years, I am not comparing FF14 to WoW. I am just trying to save you disappointment if you are trying to fill that WoW void with another MMO.**

**Short list of Pros and Cons at the top, while details will be below that**

Pros:
+ You can level all the classes and professions on one toon.
+ Plenty to do and experience leveling your first class.
+ Good graphics with a decent story.
+ Pretty easy to get geared and get right into the endgame action (This can be viewed as a con as well)
+ Challenging bosses for the parts of the game that haven't been nerfed yet.

Cons:
- Game world/community just feels empty and dull while questing.
- NO world PvP. The game does have arena-like PvP, but it is the most boring thing ever.
- There is no stand-out gear that separates the casuals from the best players. You can pretty much get the same ilvl gear without completing the hardest content in the game.
- Professions are useless for improving your endgame, so there is no point in leveling them.
- 30 minute to 1 hour dungeon queues for DPS classes using the duty-finder.
- Too easy for bad players to get gear!!!

FF14 Review:

I have played this game for 40 days now while putting at least 5 hours a day into the game, so I feel I can give an honest review of the game. Like most MMOs, the gameplay grabbed my attention right away, but fell short for endgame material in my opinion.

I am basing my review on Character Leveling, Endgame, Professions/Crafting, and just the overall server community (this will vary depending on which server you play on).

Character Leveling: 7 out of 10
What I like about this, is that you can basically level every class to 50 on one toon, which prevents the game from getting too boring right away, because you can mix-and-match different abilities. If you get bored of leveling a healer, just switch to a DPS class or tank.

You can level by questing, queuing for dungeons (which start at lvl 15), doing Fates (random events that pop up around the world, which involve killing things), queuing for Guildhests (mini-dungeon). Basically, the game offers a variety of ways to level.

The thing that sucks about using the same character to get your first few classes to 50, is that you will eventually run out of quests to do, because the quests don't reappear when you level a new class. As a result, you will be forced to grind fates over and over and over.

Endgame: 5 out of 10
(Before you FF14 fanboys bash me, I've completed Titan Ex and made it to T9 as a WHM. Basically, I feel I'm qualified to comment on endgame.)

Dungeons consist of 4-man groups; Raids are usually 8-man groups, aside from Labyrinth which is 24.

*Endgame provides a decent amount of dungeons for new players, such as Labyrinth of the Ancients, Primal HMs and Exs, and Bahamut Coil 1-9. My complaint with endgame isn't that the content is easy, but rather that you can grind the easier dungeons over and over and pretty much end up with the same gear as those who take pride in being a skilled player and spend hours wiping on near-impossible bosses.

I feel the endgame is what killed this game for me. It basically becomes a grind-fest for Tomestones (these are used to get ilvl 90 raid gear). You don't even need to be good at the game and get equivalent gear to the best hardcore players. At lvl 50, most people are walking around with the same blues and looking the same. Due to this, you will get grouped with a lot of terrible players that were most likely carried by others.

On a side note, it is really easy to gear up your other classes on the same toon. Just from healing raids over and over, I was pretty much able to get a full bard set and tank set.

Professions/Crafting: 3 out of 10
This game isn't any different from most other MMOs. It is a time-killer and doesn't give you any better gear that you can't easily farm for yourself. Most people do it just to sell stuff on the auction house (BTW... Money is pretty much pointless in this game. The only time you will spend it is on stuff for your guild house), or just to get achievement points. Basically... There is no benefit to leveling any profession to lvl 50.

Server/Community: 4 out of 10
Even though this is a MMO, most of the time you feel like you're playing the game by yourself. Once in a while you will group with people for dungeons/raids, but outside of that, the game just feels lonely. This is coming from someone that is on a popular server too. You will have the gold farmers spamming non-stop; the occasional troll yelling out random things; and the people in party finder needing people for extreme primals or fate grinding to upgrade their relic weapon. The world just feels empty to me. Maybe because their is no world PvP? I still can't put my finger on it.… Expand

Bryst

Oct 10, 2013

5

First off let my say, I didn't play v1.0. So I can't comment on game improvements from 1.0 to 2.0. I can however say: Meh it's an MMO. I played XI LONGGGGG ago, and loved they fact that one character could be ANY class. However, after you get that first character to 50 and want to start a second, be ready to farm fates. ALOT. And they become very repetitive. Its really all the game has toFirst off let my say, I didn't play v1.0. So I can't comment on game improvements from 1.0 to 2.0. I can however say: Meh it's an MMO. I played XI LONGGGGG ago, and loved they fact that one character could be ANY class. However, after you get that first character to 50 and want to start a second, be ready to farm fates. ALOT. And they become very repetitive. Its really all the game has to offer at the moment in terms of lvling. If you're not a tank or healer, be ready to spend 50+ minutes in que for a dungeon.(Which you HAVE to do almost all the dungeons to continue the story quest) They don't even give decent EXP, and the gear is kind of mediocre compared to stuff you can buy on the AH. Levequests work, but are boring and VERY repetitive.

The story quest has no voice overs, and typical of SE they are a massive wall of text. Oh and 50% of them are go to this guy and talk to this guy or that. After playing Star Wars: The Old Republic, which had cut scenes for EVERY quest, which I loved, this is a huge annoyance.

The class quests are a JOKE. To become a bard I had to walk maybe 300yards, kill 5-6 mobs and loot a sigil. DONE. To become a paladin I lit a brazer and killed a mob. Then at 45 to get my 4 pieces of relic gear I had to kill 2 non elite mobs at 4 different chests. To get your white mage relic gear you pray at an alter and kill ONE mob to get all FOUR pieces. Its just laziness on SE part. Very disappointing.

I was very hyped for this game, and even after all of SEs fail with server issues and the congestion because they never implemented an AFK logout I was excited. But once I got my Bard to 30, I realized if I was to ever get my story quest done I would need to roll a healer or tank. So that's exactly what a buddy an I did. But yet again once we hit 45, the dungeons got few and far between, and we completed most the quest in our range. So guess what we got to do? FATES.

Hopefully SE in a future patch will give more incentive to run dungeons, add some more quests and maybe add more Guildhiests(which I didn't really touch base on)… Expand

AtlasOrion

Nov 30, 2013

5

I'm a big FF franchise fan and I was stoked to play this, lots of hype. There's good and bad, as with every game, but overall I found this game to be incredibly underwhelming. A great big "MEH". I really wasn't sucked in the way I have been with other games, even though it offers some really cool (albeit unoriginal things).

Good: -Price, $30 is pretty reasonable, considering what youI'm a big FF franchise fan and I was stoked to play this, lots of hype. There's good and bad, as with every game, but overall I found this game to be incredibly underwhelming. A great big "MEH". I really wasn't sucked in the way I have been with other games, even though it offers some really cool (albeit unoriginal things).

Good: -Price, $30 is pretty reasonable, considering what you get
- Graphics are amazing, though not recommended for anything less than an Nvidia 570 or above, or radeon 6870 and above if you want to get close to ultra settings, it's pretty demanding on systems.
- Lots of detail, the mounts, pets, cities, characters and country side are very well drawn out with lots of little features
- Great story lines adult scripts, not fluff for little kids, there's swearing and some "colorful" themes lol
- Seems to be a decent crafting system in place, lots of mats to farm for ppl that like that thing

Cons: Quests don't teach you much, you really have to make google your friend with this game. Can be very confusing and infuriating trying to figure out how to play and how to complete a quest. Like under quest objectives it will say "complete the quest objective". Ya, thanks for that...
- Skills are very limited and very banal. Enjoy your half dozen ineffective skills with no customization.
- Everyone looks the same. You're gonna wear THIS armor, and you're gonna not like it. No dressing room either.
- Very tedious UI and game mechanics. To hand in an item you have to talk to the NPC, open your item log, click on the item to select "hand over" or place it in the "hand over box" then press "hand over". Iknowright?
- Map tells you nothing, and there's icons all over the place that you will have no idea what they are, next to players, next to mobs, above NPCs. It's a crapshoot.
- absolutely 0 visible range on mobs, PCs or NPCs. You can see them, but mousing over them does nothing past about 50 yards. That'll be fun for pvp...

I'm sure they'll eventually fix it up and change a lot of things, they've already made some improvements while I was playing, but as of Dec 1/13 I would say wait another 3 months or so or you might become really disappointed and never come back to it.… Expand

Cocytus

Sep 24, 2013

5

Be careful if buying this game.
The game is riddled with unrestrained RMT bots, hacked user accounts that are used as RMT mules that when banned Squeenix refuses to reestablish. Heavy lag problems, long(90min+) dungeon finder queues along with unstable dungeon servers. The game is so poorly coded that high end gpu’s tend to run at very sloppy fps. (Same with Sli/Crossfire)
As if thisBe careful if buying this game.
The game is riddled with unrestrained RMT bots, hacked user accounts that are used as RMT mules that when banned Squeenix refuses to reestablish. Heavy lag problems, long(90min+) dungeon finder queues along with unstable dungeon servers. The game is so poorly coded that high end gpu’s tend to run at very sloppy fps. (Same with Sli/Crossfire)
As if this wasn't good enough their customer support is the worst of any MMO ever to have graced us. Their email support takes 24hrs to create your ticket and 48hrs to receive a copy/paste response to any issue you may be having. Long wait times on phone/chat (2:00hrs+) only to be cut off because there are no agents available after you were already on a queue during working hours!! And even if you get lucky and are able to get attended by an agent they never resolve the issue and always respond with a 'Prepared response' followed by disconnecting the chat/phone call.
Oh, but wait there's more. You'll love this one. They refuse to take your money. That's right, their payment system is so archaic and sloppy that it's unable to properly process your credit cards. After the first attempt fails your credit card gets locked for 24hrs and each additional attempt resets the timer and adds more wait time (48-72hrs). Until the systems locks your card for 30days. All this information was gathered via phone. The payment process makes no mention of this nor does it provide a way for you to see the time left on your lock down so you're left guessing whether or not you already have the 30 day restriction and resetting the timer if you attempt to use it again. (Customer service doesn't have a way to tell you either )
Square Enix response to the issue? "It's your fault" "Your credit card denies the payment" Even after repeatedly informing them via email, chat, phone and forums that after calling to our respective banks (that's right more than one credit card/bank) there was no issue with them.
OK, so paying with cc is a no-go. Let's try their "Crysta" system (it's a payment system similar to Xbox microsoft points). Assuming you fall under their designated allowed countries (Brazil & Venezuela aren't part of America and Puerto Rico isn't part of the USA Sqeenix has spoken!) you will be able to buy crysta via the UltimatePay option by buying their pre-paid $20 cards. Please note that this card will also be rejected by Squeenix and you will be required to call UltimatePay support in order for them to manually push the crysta onto your account once you provide them the card code via phone call.
I strongly recommend staying away from this game until Square Enix fixes all these issues if at all. Please note that from past experience (FFXI, FFXIV) Square Enix has for the most part always ignored the player and done their own thing at their own pace. If anything I hope this post helps new players get a clearer picture of what they're getting into after paying for the game.

Current outstanding issues on forums for those interested:
Payment Method Registration Errors [Error Code 401 and 601]
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/93493-Payment-Method-Registration-Errors-Error-Code-401-and-601
Can't Buy Crysta
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/94774-Can-t-Buy-Crysta
Error 2002 and 90000
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/94987-Error-2002-and-90000

You can view all issues at their Technical Support Forum:
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/forums/627-Technical-Support… Expand

Marandopsu

Sep 11, 2013

5

Now a mediocre game instead of an abysmal turd. This qualifies as a tremendous turn around for Square Enix, but don't expect anything other than archaic mechanics and a mundane story.

Voqar

Sep 28, 2013

5

It's pretty and what's there is polished but overall, FFXIV is a stripped down and dumber than usual post WoW clone that plays too fast and easy and which has little chance of keeping players busy like the old school MMORPGs it wants to copy (in regard to subs, little about the game itself is old school at all). FFXIV lacks MANY quality of life touches and features typically found inIt's pretty and what's there is polished but overall, FFXIV is a stripped down and dumber than usual post WoW clone that plays too fast and easy and which has little chance of keeping players busy like the old school MMORPGs it wants to copy (in regard to subs, little about the game itself is old school at all). FFXIV lacks MANY quality of life touches and features typically found in premium (MMO)RPGs. Making the game work on out of date consoles diminishes the PC potential.

The story quests are generic, simplistic, and tedious. Other quests, when they exist are ultra simplistic and silly easy. The game has a public quest system called fates that are almost always zero challenge, zero threat, and tons of reward for doing nothing. Often at times while leveling, or especially when leveling alt classes, you'll ONLY be able to do fates you will do many fates. The dungeons have very fun bosses but are filled with tedious trash.

Endgame is pretty typical grind some content, get your special currency, hand it in for gear, except in FFXIV there isn't a whole lot of content to grind to get that gear. Endgame content is an odd mix of very few challenging encounters mixed with some stupidly easy content and players tend to grind the least challenging most rewarding content (since there are no lockouts or restrictions or limits) so most players grind the same 2 instance several times a day for days.

The game suffers big time from quality of life issues. No attributes or important stats on item comparison, clunky/brutal inventory system, clunkier/more brutal armoire system, cumbersome banking/market/ah system, no item preview, no server transfers, and on and on the list goes.

FFXIV has a 2.5 second global cooldown, which is the wait time between actions in combat. You either fire an instant ability and wait 2.5s before you can act again, or you have spells with a 2.5s or higher casting time. The 2.5s GCD slows down combat. The theory is that it gives players more time to think although when you have simplified and stripped down and simplistic classes as in FFXIV, there isn't much to think about. Most MMORPGs (except FFXI, the predecessor) have a 1.5s GCD and often give you ways to reduce it to 1s or give you abilities "off the GCD".

FFXIV has somewhat pretty graphics but for one thing, it has smallish zones with little to no exploration value, invisible barriers, you can't go in water or swim or fall off a cliff and die, or fall off a bridge, you can't jump off a dock into the ocean, you can't go into water that's more than knee deep, and so on. The bigger issue with the graphics is that the engine can't render lots of avatars at once, so in some game content, like when rare level 50 bosses appear every few days and hundreds of players show up, you can see maybe 20 players near you and may or may not be able to see and target the boss even when standing right on him.

One of the potentially interesting things about FFXIV that ends up not being so great is how they do their class system. Any character can unlock and do any class (crafting and gathering disciplines are classes too). Some skills from a given class can be used wither classes (cross class skills) that allows you to augment your character a little. Then eventually you unlock jobs (prereq levels from 2 classes, for ex, gladiator conjuror paladin). Where this kind of breaks down is with the fact that jobs are highly restricted for cross class skills and even the base classes can often only find so many usefull skills to tack on, such that in the end, every player ends up being similar because there are so few choices.

FFXIV doesn't have talents or any other way to customize your character, so with cross class skills being so limited, you end up with everybody being the same. On top of that all gear looks the same and there's no real customization (there are armor dyes but you can't dye the better gear. As a result, every player is a clone.

The crafting system is a mix of a cool minigame style of going for high quality with skills and finite resources, but this ends up being brutally tedious to level up and since crafted gear is generic with drops and quest rewards until level 50, there isn't much point to crafting except to max it out for endgame.

Gathering is also a minigame of sorts in that you can use skills to increase gathering change or to get high quality materials. Cool idea that's buried in brutal tedium as you run around in a circle tapping 4 tightly placed nodes that respawn faster than you circle.

The game had a brutal release and even now players can wait 15-45 minutes to "reserve" a level 50 instance even joining as a full group.

The game is plagued with gil spammers (RMT) in public chat and whispers.

Console tie in results in small zones, tons of loading screens, screwy UI design, and 3/4 of cutscenes having no voice overs. Even the tiny cities are multi-zoned.… Expand

suneater

Nov 29, 2013

6

While it has improved a lot from the "1.0" launch version, not everything has changed for the better. FFXIV is completely average and doesn't try to excel at anything.

The storyline has been changed from a quest every 5 levels (give or take) to a hand-holding, tunnel vision, JRPG-style story that leads you from one quest hub to the next and locking you out of everything that you haven'tWhile it has improved a lot from the "1.0" launch version, not everything has changed for the better. FFXIV is completely average and doesn't try to excel at anything.

The storyline has been changed from a quest every 5 levels (give or take) to a hand-holding, tunnel vision, JRPG-style story that leads you from one quest hub to the next and locking you out of everything that you haven't done a tutorial for. I appreciate the attempt at a longer and revamped story but it has so many small problems that, while being the highlight of the game, is still sub-par for both JRPGs and story-centric MMOs. Many parts of the main story are NPCs literally just handing you extra "kill X" and "loot Y" quests that have become a cancer on MMOs. Everything outside of the story quest you are currently on is locked out until you are "allowed" to do it; for example, I had two mounts I earned during 1.0, but I wasn't able to use them until I completed a level 20 quest that I didn't have access to on my level 50 character because I wasn't that far in the story yet. If you're looking for a JRPG, try replaying one of Square's older games instead.

The combat has been reworked into a hotkey spamfest. Like most modern MMOs, once you find your "rotation", you will be facerolling for most of the story and into endgame. "Red circle dodging" has become ridiculous in 2.0 with most endgame content requiring more running in circles than actual fighting. Playing a melee class is infuriating with many late/end game enemies spamming ground targeted AoEs that have a habit of one-shotting non-tanks. In short, the gameplay has become a slower version of GW2 with even more AoE spam from enemies.

Endgame consists of grinding the same 2 dungeons for months to get tokens (why don't the dungeons drop token-strength gear?) to upgrade your gear so you can grind harder dungeons to get bigger numbers. All equip from 1.0 has been streamlined into just bigger numbers and stripped of unique stats & buffs; AF quests used to require a party to help and rewarded some of the best gear in the game with Job-enhancing stats. Now AF is trivialized, handed to you for finishing solo content and discarded once you get Darklight. Everyone looks the same, uses the same rotation, and is running the same dungeons to increase their numbers.

After 2 years of reworking, FFXIV still has too many small problems to really be any better than "good". With all the huge changes in 2.0, many old problems were fixed but many new problems were introduced. Overall this is an average MMO, using average gameplay elements seen from many other popular MMOs while introducing no innovation or creativity. There is too much pandering, too much recycling of content, and too much rehashing of old FF elements (what does Lightning from FFXIII have to do with this game?). FFXIV is a western gameplay jigsaw puzzle pieced together by an eastern dev who bring nothing new of their own to fill in the gaps.… Expand

Antiks

Oct 8, 2013

6

The pacing and gating of the game still needs a lot of work. Gating key content behind instances that require a group that can take up to hours to form is very old hat. After about level 20 any semblance of pacing or direction disappear They really need some help in their game design/balance department. One example, they throw you from level 17 instances into a story quest where youThe pacing and gating of the game still needs a lot of work. Gating key content behind instances that require a group that can take up to hours to form is very old hat. After about level 20 any semblance of pacing or direction disappear They really need some help in their game design/balance department. One example, they throw you from level 17 instances into a story quest where you fight level 11 monsters. It makes no sense.

Overall the game still suffers from poor design choices more than anything. The graphics they nailed, the sound they nailed, the combat is slow but i'm sure there is a crowd for it. Instances are pretty standard don't stand in red and some fights requires you to interact with objects during fights. Nothing revolutionary here though some people will say they are "complicated" or "hard" if you are any type of power gamer at all these will be childs play.

Overall when you get past level 20 the game kind of falls apart into a loosely coupled mess. In my opinion it's not worth your dollars still. There are better offerings out there.

Better than before does not a 10 review from me. They improved a lot but they still don't seem to understand some basic mmo concepts. I would caution buying the game on any 10 review because no honestly rational person can say there are no issues with this game, there are still a lot.

Pick it up if you want a lounge game with very little pressure or twitch skill required. If you are looking for a quick paced mmo avoid this game completely.… Expand

braindamage

May 18, 2015

6

a ok game ruined by bad game design, the design of this game turns the community into the game it to foul impatient piece of shi , I played ffxi online back a long time ago and never ran into the grief laden piece of chunks, I do in this game man,

play it with a group of friends if possible also about time to ditch the ps3 don't you think,, it holds the game back the story isa ok game ruined by bad game design, the design of this game turns the community into the game it to foul impatient piece of shi , I played ffxi online back a long time ago and never ran into the grief laden piece of chunks, I do in this game man,

play it with a group of friends if possible

also about time to ditch the ps3 don't you think,, it holds the game back

the story is really hard to keep a track of in between all the dumb stuff you have to do in the meantime between missions, but the game is ok, not the story but the game play… Expand

DemiGoth

Oct 7, 2013

7

FFXIV:ARR is a 1000 times better than the failure the initial release was, and I think we all agree on that. But sadly FFXIV:ARR has become 'yet an other MMO' like so many are. It's not really offering anything new in mechanics it's all been done before. The story though is is very well told, but what else can you expect from a FF game?

Graphics at maxed settings are excellent, but myFFXIV:ARR is a 1000 times better than the failure the initial release was, and I think we all agree on that. But sadly FFXIV:ARR has become 'yet an other MMO' like so many are. It's not really offering anything new in mechanics it's all been done before. The story though is is very well told, but what else can you expect from a FF game?

Graphics at maxed settings are excellent, but my GPUs (GTX460 SLI) do run close to full performance. Music is good too, and for once that 'standard' FF tune isn't the only one played in a FF game.

Personally I think there are enough equivalent MMOs out there that do not require a monthly subscription. I have paid up front for 3 months, but I already can't be bothered to really play it because of it's mediocre mechanics and gameplay.… Expand

kaltorak

May 22, 2014

6

It's not bad, it's just... ok. I wanted to like it, but there is not much to be enjoyed. It has nothing bad. But there's also nothing to look forward.

PRO: Graphics. Mostly outdoors, cities and characters are a bit meh. But in general they are good. CON: Skills and spells are dull. I could see all the skills I was going to get and there was none I could be really looking forwardIt's not bad, it's just... ok. I wanted to like it, but there is not much to be enjoyed. It has nothing bad. But there's also nothing to look forward.

PRO:
Graphics. Mostly outdoors, cities and characters are a bit meh. But in general they are good.

CON:
Skills and spells are dull. I could see all the skills I was going to get and there was none I could be really looking forward to.

The game is fine. The problem is Rift is better, GW2 is better, Wildstar beta looked like it will be better, even Neverwinter Online would be better if it weren't for the horrible subscription model.

I would say, if oyu love FF universe, you can still enjoy it. Otherwise, even though not having anything really wrong, you won't… Expand

GigaHz

Oct 3, 2013

6

I wanted to like this game. As a former Final Fantasy 11 player, Square Enix piqued my interest as early as v. 1.0 with similar race designs and the job/class system.

At the time, I had the sense to watch some "Let's Plays" and read reviews. After finding out the game played terribly, I didn't bother wasting my time with it. Post-critical reception, I read articles about the revivalI wanted to like this game. As a former Final Fantasy 11 player, Square Enix piqued my interest as early as v. 1.0 with similar race designs and the job/class system.

At the time, I had the sense to watch some "Let's Plays" and read reviews. After finding out the game played terribly, I didn't bother wasting my time with it.

Post-critical reception, I read articles about the revival effort of Final Fantasy 14, primarily out of skepticism and general curiosity. Call me negative but I expected an embarrassing failure. In this case, I am not ashamed to admit I was wrong.

The game, for what it is, plays exceptionally well. The combat is reasonably paced with plenty of actions to do (depending on class and role), all of the classes feel balanced and useful, the leveling mechanics are reasonably fleshed out (to a degree I'll touch on later), the world is varied enough to hold your interest for a good while, and the cutscenes occur with just the right amount of frequency and execution, something I can't say about SWTOR.

So, I don't dislike Final Fantasy 14: ARR for being a 'bad' game. In fact, I'm confident that the game will appeal to some. However, it's not what I am looking for specifically and I'll explain why.

Firstly, I'm heavily biased. I was fairly invested in FF11 during its prime. You can argue if it's a fair benchmark or not, but they were made by the same company so I'm counting it. My primary complaint with the game is that it is not challenging, at all. Every class has a specific niche for operation. Once you figure out that niche and what a boss'/mob's gimmick is, you're gaming on autopilot.

Call me a masochist but FF11 had a daunting difficulty curve. There were easy aspects of the game, sure, but I remember going into certain fights with anxiety. Anxiety because I knew that after my hour plus trek to the fight, the chance of failure was very real, even if everything went according to plan.

This also leads me into my second complaint with the game, the consequences of failure. In FFXIV there are none, or at least nothing that wouldn't be considered more than a slap on the wrist. There is durability wear, similar to WoW. I'm sure this 'can' be inconvenient if you forget to repair recently, but if you go into a dungeon recently fixed up, this will not present a problem unless you fail so miserably that you're sooner to run out of time than become useless. This scenario, already considering the non-difficulty of the game, is a feat in itself.

In ff11 people disbanded parties due to death. You could downlevel and exp in general was a serious time investment. This conveniently leads to my third point.

Am I longing for the days of spending 3 months grinding away to reach level cap? Hell no. I will say that Square Enix almost had the aspect of leveling down properly for ff14. But I want to stress 'almost'.

Leveling functions similar to WoW in that there are quite a few ways to reach cap. The traditional affair is to string together a bunch of quests with a few dungeons and fights along the way. FF14 follows this template but also introduces a few additional concepts (some borrowed/stolen from GW2): Levequests, Guildhests, and FATEs.

Levequests are almost like portable instances that you can trigger whenever you want to do them. They provide decent exp and are repeatable with some limitations (you can do up to a given number, with allowances replenishing after a certain time has passed). These are a decent option if you want to make non-quest, solo exp. Guildhests I mention only because I'm not sure why they are even an option. They are basically a boss fight or a short series of fights that only offers decent exp once. After that, they are almost completely useless, unless you decide to try them again with a different class.

And lastly, potentially my biggest gripe with the game, FATEs. Arguably the best way to level classes fast but also the most mind numbing, repetitive option. FATEs are basically GW2s Dynamic Events system. They offer a tremendous EXP bonus, a bonus so generous it almost invalidates any other leveling method, including quests.

So you level faster, what could be bad about that? Well, I'll tell you. Not only is the game easy by default, having massive zerg parties scour the map looking for FATEs negates any group functionality or any remote sense of purpose. FATEs are guaranteed good exp, so why NOT have everyone pile on? This would all be a minor issue if quests didn't fizzle up around the 40 mark, which almost forces you to join a FATE party for the last few remaining levels.

What's worse, your story quest with its exp bonuses only happen once. Unless you've left a few quests laying about, you might as well expect to FATE grind entirely should you decide to level another job.

I'm not sure how this could be considered a good idea for any game. It's such a deceptive method to artificially extend playtime.

A solid effort SE, but not enough to keep this customer.… Expand

halcyon_zephyr

Mar 26, 2014

5

First off, I would like to say that I played this game since launch, and quit about a month ago (February 2014).

The Pros: > You can switch classes whenever you want (outside of combat) on the same character! This means that you can have basically every class unlocked on the same character so you can fill virtually any party role. If you picked a DPS at the start and find that it isFirst off, I would like to say that I played this game since launch, and quit about a month ago (February 2014).

The Pros:
> You can switch classes whenever you want (outside of combat) on the same character! This means that you can have basically every class unlocked on the same character so you can fill virtually any party role. If you picked a DPS at the start and find that it is too hard to get into groups, then you can just start to level up a healer.
> To help with re-rolling, you actually get an EXP boost to level up your other classes basically twice as fast.
> The grouping system / duty finder is really nice in this game. You can just queue up solo and be paired with a random group (this usually goes a lot better than it sounds), or you can queue up with some friends. When you queue solo you now have the option of leaving a player commendation which can be spent on some aesthetic items, like a crown.
> The graphics are stunning and the soundtrack is also quite nice!
> The story is really interesting, as are most FF games. Depending on where you start off (one of three different towns, JOB dependent... not race) then you get to meet different a certain couple characters more in-depth than the others. This gives people a little bit of a unique feel for the game, and also makes it slightly more enjoyable to create a completely new character.
> You get mounts that you can level up and use while exploring the game! Well, the only mount that you can have fight with you is the chocobo mount, but you can get other mounts that you can ride as well.

The Cons:
> The armor system makes no sense.... when you first get to level 50 you are probably using armor that was either crafted, or just found in a dungeon. This armor, if it is i50 or i55, can be infused with materia to give it bonus stats... like +HP or +Accuracy. However, you can easily get some new i70 armor from doing some dungeon grinding for a few hours, or by crafting it (this crafted armor can have materia added to it). This armor has a higher item level (the i#) and usually a little more defense with some stats added on to it. Later, you can get myth tomes in order to get the next highest item set which is i90. This armor is just a little better than the i70. However, if you put as much materia as possible on the i70 armor then you can basically have armor that is just as good, if not better than the i90 armor! The i90 armor is something you have to either wait MONTHS to get (since there is a mythos cap per week) or you have to beat the coils over and over and over which will also take months (since you can only do it once per week...). So basically the materia system is pointless because you can't use it with any of the high level armor, and it makes easy to get armor basically the best. This also renders the higher end dungeons, like the coils, basically useless (at least when it comes to loot acquisition).
> They have completely broken the market so that there is no way to make money! You can have every crafting profession that you want, but there is no point to any of them since they take forever to level up and no one can buy / sell anything since patch 2.1 came out. This patch brought out guild housing at 1,000,000 gil!! This made everyone and their brother try to make money at the same time, so everyone was trying to sell things and no one was buying them... no guild on my sever could even afford a large house (the million dollar house) and only 3 guilds could even afford a medium house (15,000 gil).
> Every major update that SE has planned so far (patch 2.1, and patch 2.2 *not out yet*) has just destroyed the game further when it comes to the actual game content. In 2.1 they came out with something called the Crystal Tower where there are three teams of 8 players fighting a series of bosses and enemies in order to get some random loot. This loot is seriously random, and basically all that was dropped were Lancer and Monk gear the whole time, when 8/10 times there wasn't even that class in your party. This frustrated SO many people... Also, once you obtained loot for that week you were not allowed to get any more for that week - but you could still do the dungeon. Thus, it was important to pass on loot that you didn't actually want!! However, some people at the end of the dungeons were getting FORCED to take loot, resulting in them being locked from getting loot the rest of the week! SE did nothing to fix this, and they were then behind in gear because of a programming error.
> Trying to level up another class, even with the EXP boost is terribly slow and grueling; exponentially more so if you are trying to level a DPS class. When using the duty finder, you may have to wait for over an hour for just one dungeon! This one dungeon won't even get you half a level either... Tanks however, get into everything instantly, so if you plan to level a DPS, then you need to get a tank friend!… Expand

Izz

Oct 28, 2013

7

This game is getting FAR too much credit. I was a huge fan of FFXI some 10 years ago, I always wanted an MMO with the amazing world and houses like it, but with a western feel and combat, and FFXIV ARR does just that.

It is a good game, but it is not without it's problems. In fact, while a lot of big issues have been addressed, and there's a lot of awesome things in the game that manyThis game is getting FAR too much credit. I was a huge fan of FFXI some 10 years ago, I always wanted an MMO with the amazing world and houses like it, but with a western feel and combat, and FFXIV ARR does just that.

It is a good game, but it is not without it's problems. In fact, while a lot of big issues have been addressed, and there's a lot of awesome things in the game that many MMO's miss, a LOT of the LITTLE things are completely non-existent. This can range from simple right mousing a player to block or report as a gold seller (which there are many) to not being able to kick players in dungeons (Had a couple leechers put us on follow and AFK, and we could do nothing but accept it or leave ourselves, having to wait 40 minutes to requeue).

The quest system is messy, there are very few quests around for those who like to level multiple classes (which I do, and have leveled EVERYTHING from professions to standard classes and jobs, to at LEAST 15, with all the jobs unlocked)

This game has F.A.T.E's not much unlike public quests from warhammer (just, no where near as good) or similar somewhat to RIFT's in...rift (again, just not as good) These help to level alts, but unfortunately, it's a zerg fest of joining a party and just running around the zone racing other parties to a little blue circle and spamming as much AoE (sucks for non AoE classes) in hopes to tag the mobs for the extra XP, and then move on. This is alright for 30 minutes but it gets boring fast, and once you've done the quests on 2 possibly 3 (any more would be unbelievable unless you spent most of the time doing fates on the first 3) you're stuck with doing just these, or leve's (repeatable quests, in which you get 3 a day (12h), stacking up to 100. They also give low XP.

It's nice that you can mix and match classes, but in reality, it's not like FFXI, and unless you've leveled a lot of classes, you get very little abilities to choose from, and if you have unlocked a lot? You still have few, even fewer that's not a carbon copy from another class, and/or just utterly useless (For example, a couple taunts, or heals that are identical, or "combo" abilities, that do 100 potency (damage) or 200 if chained from a specific ability, which you won't have unless you're that class, so you'll be using your basic 150 potency instead.

It's "early" as it's only been out a couple months however, it's already been re-released once, so this should have been gotten right the second time around. Also, houses are not in it yet, and its something i really look forward too, and whilst their adding housing in the first content patch, its only for guilds.

The zones are also very messy, where none of it falls together seamlessly. You have level 15's in one part that can just wander right into a level 40 part of the zone. The quests send you to often different area's altogether, and this might be alright if there was more than 8-9 per quest hub, and if they wasn't stupid quests like "/bow to this NPC" now "/dance"...I don't want to travel half the world, paying a fortune in teleports just to do that.

The actual world is also very small, and we've just had the halloween event which consisted of ...3-4 quests.

However, there are some good things about it. The professions and gathering are very nice and well thought out, if not a little easy but time consuming. The graphics is also amazing for an MMO.

All in all, it's a fun game, and it has the POTENTIAL to be one of the best MMO's out there, the problem is, it's already losing it's player base and unless they get round to doing it SOON, it might end up going F2P and falling with the rest. Especially when you need people to do FATES, and since it's not very solo friendly for altoholics, this could be an issue.

Graphics 8.5/10
Sound 7/10
Music 5/10
longevity 8/10
playability 7.5/10
character development (tough one, there's a lot to get but ultimately, too much that's similar across classes and too few abilities) 7.5/10

It however, does have a certain charm to it!

Overall 7.8 10

I hope that VERY soon they address some GLARINGLY small issues that should never have been overlooked, small issues yes, but lots of them. It has the potential to be the best MMO on the market, but the lack of housing and availability for leveling alts, and especially solo really let the game down.

It's certainly worth the price tag (I paid less than £18 for PC) even if just for the free month to give it a go. If you like MMO's, this is certainly one to at least try, it has a lot of charm and the more support it gets the better it could potentially be… Expand

augh18

Apr 9, 2014

7

Probably the greatest comeback in videogame history (aside from perhaps the original Final Fantasy, though that was playing with far smaller stakes than FFXIV was in its original iteration).

Best parts of the game are the animations and music. Has a distinct JRPG feel. Questing is tedious at times but I expect that with any MMO. Most revolutionary aspect of this game is probably theProbably the greatest comeback in videogame history (aside from perhaps the original Final Fantasy, though that was playing with far smaller stakes than FFXIV was in its original iteration).

Best parts of the game are the animations and music. Has a distinct JRPG feel. Questing is tedious at times but I expect that with any MMO. Most revolutionary aspect of this game is probably the Extreme Primals, which is a good and bad thing. Good, because they are the most intricate boss fights I have ever seen in any MMO, but bad, because the fact that it's an MMO means there are latency issues that can cause wipes in this fights due to a simple lag spike. It's like playing Super Meat Boy and needing to make a perfect jump to clear your perfect run, but getting a lag spike when you hit the jump key, so you just fall off the ledge into a pit of spikes and die.

Thought the endgame was pretty decent (it's the standard MMO login for dailies affair) until the implementation of the "Atma" questline, at which point I decided to quit. Everything from 1 - 50 was overall extremely enjoyable, I do not see this as being a long-term game for most people, but seeing as you can get this for $30 right now (and often less due to sales) for the PC version, it's worth checking out for the free 30 days and enjoying the ride from 1 to 50.

If this were a single-player game, the experience would be so much better, but unfortunately the "theme-park & dailies" MMO aspects start hurting the game the deeper into it you get, and this does detract from the Final Fantasy experience. While it's a far cry from what FFXIV was in its original form, it still shows why some franchises are better off sticking to what they do best, and this is a franchise that was never going to see gameplay benefit from going online. It's just more potential for monetizing, and that does nothing for the gamer but devalue the experience.… Expand

SpookySpartacus

Jan 29, 2015

5

It's a good MMO overall, but it falls short of being great by any means.

To put things into perspective: I didn't play FFXIV 1.0 and I haven't played an FF game in years before this. I have, however, played my share of MMOs, both sandbox and themepark: ArcheAge, WoW, Guild Wars 1 and 2, SWtoR. I'm not an FF fanboy by any means, but I would call myself somewhat jaded by the MMO industryIt's a good MMO overall, but it falls short of being great by any means.

To put things into perspective: I didn't play FFXIV 1.0 and I haven't played an FF game in years before this. I have, however, played my share of MMOs, both sandbox and themepark: ArcheAge, WoW, Guild Wars 1 and 2, SWtoR. I'm not an FF fanboy by any means, but I would call myself somewhat jaded by the MMO industry of late.

After putting in about 40 hours I have to say, plain and simple, I got bored. I didn't even reach the endgame, but already I was yearning for... more. More exploration maybe would have helped. More variety surely would have. FFXIV ARR has good content, enjoyable classes, fun crafting minigames, and I liked the FATE system even when it was repetitive. The idea of hunting down monsters for rewards is a nice twist, too.

Really though, that's where the game ends and should have begun. There's no difference in this class system compared to any of the other games I mentioned above (with ArcheAge being the only possible exception). It could just be me, but I'm perfectly okay with making a new character to try out a different class, and that's essentially what you are doing whether you admit it or not - when you take a new job, your level goes back to 1 and you start over, accomplishing the same end through slightly different means. There's certainly nothing new about the questing, other than that the quests were honestly a whole lot easier than I expected, which partially led to the boredom I've experienced and ultimately in putting the game down for good.

I like to think that this game is the same skeleton of the traditional themepark MMO (quest hub system, group and raid finder for parties, the good ol' leveling and crafting grind we know and hate) with the pretty colors of Square's AMAZING Final Fantasy universe painted all over it. So if you like that, this is a game worth looking at because at it's core, everything is present and shown off very well.

The bottom line is that the MMO gamer picks up an MMO, as he or she has done time and time again, and plays it looking for something that improves on that design while still presenting the traditional elements in a way that is... well... palatable is a good word. If the amount of people still playing SWtoR is any indication, we will put up with any amount of bugs and terrible graphical quality as long as the GAME is fun. A lot of people will happily take that same formula in stride when it looks and feels this much better. However, the MMO gamer who's looking for the next new hit, the next fun, innovative game, will not settle for the skeleton model any more. We'll play it to see if we can tolerate it and when we can't find anything new and exciting in it, we'll move on and never look at it again.

Sadly, that's what I'm going to have to do with this title - move on and never look at it again.… Expand

WCM320

Feb 6, 2021

6

It's fine for a MMO.

It really did kind of leave out the best part about the prior FFMMO.

Polarthief

Mar 16, 2014

7

Not great, but not bad. More or less the subscription pay model is what makes me a bit more critical of the game (should this ever go free2play, I'd instantly bump it up to a 9, if not 10).

The game does some really, and I mean, REALLY stupid things, such as disabling any social menus and all whispers while inside a dungeon/raid, doesn't let you queue up for a role (and instead you onlyNot great, but not bad. More or less the subscription pay model is what makes me a bit more critical of the game (should this ever go free2play, I'd instantly bump it up to a 9, if not 10).

The game does some really, and I mean, REALLY stupid things, such as disabling any social menus and all whispers while inside a dungeon/raid, doesn't let you queue up for a role (and instead you only get to queue as a class), the game feels "slow", mostly due to the global cooldown of 2.5s and things that aren't on the GCD require spamming the keys very hard to get them to work, but overall, the game feels fluid and very fun. The graphics are great and the sound, like any FF game, is in a league of its own at the top of the video game music genre.

If you ever get bored for a month or two and have a lot of free time, I recommend picking it up for the reasonable price (that comes with a free month). You will get a LOT done in that free month (I got two classes to max and even managed to do endgame). Until a few more patches roll out, the score will remain as is. It's not the best, but by no means is it bad, especially if you're bored of WoW.… Expand

eialici

Sep 12, 2015

7

This would have been a great game if they had included voice acting for dialogues which, sadly, they did not.

I see reviews and people claiming that the story is well written and sorts and that creating a voice dialogue for every scene is ridiculous. The story might be well written but I did not buy a game to read, I buy a game to play, Remember, Skyrim has voice acting for allThis would have been a great game if they had included voice acting for dialogues which, sadly, they did not.

I see reviews and people claiming that the story is well written and sorts and that creating a voice dialogue for every scene is ridiculous. The story might be well written but I did not buy a game to read, I buy a game to play,

Remember, Skyrim has voice acting for all scenes and that was in 2008. We are living in the 21st century, not in the 80's,… Expand

mirg

Jul 17, 2021

5

Yoshi and the team did a great job improving the game from the original but they used too broad a brush. The best features from 1.0. are still missing even after so many years, things like belt glams for instance are still not there in this version and are infact being removed, which is sad to see.

The problem with this product is that yes it's entertaining at first but after a fewYoshi and the team did a great job improving the game from the original but they used too broad a brush. The best features from 1.0. are still missing even after so many years, things like belt glams for instance are still not there in this version and are infact being removed, which is sad to see.

The problem with this product is that yes it's entertaining at first but after a few years of playing it from expansion to expansion it's clear the product is suffering from stale, repetitive, and restrictive systems and choices. Yes there can be multiple things that one can go into why they enjoy it as with many games but the thing is this game is simply getting less and less enjoyable with each decision made to make it more focused on the catering towards those that rarely play the game which causes less and less reasons to care about investing your time into continue playing the game.

Yes, they did provided a reason to have invested your time into the game during the transfer from 1.0. to 2.0 but after that there is less and less reasons to bother doing so especially when you consider that nearly everything in the game as of this post is simply lacking in content to do once you've done all the previous content and have reached "endgame" which as of right now the "endgame" is simply you running through bozja to get your blade weapon and running through Eden's Promise, that's it.

I'm bored, so bloody bored. I got all the beast tribes, got everything to max, got basically all achievements as well as the mounts too. now with the end of shadowlands it's clear to me that this game isn't designed for hardcore play instead it's more designed with casuals in mind. which i'm not saying there is anything wrong with being a casual but when it comes to a mmorpg if there is no fun to be had for hardcore players too then what's the point?… Expand

ElaineMes

May 6, 2021

7

This is a rewiev based of my memory since the actual ARR experience isn't available anymore!

FFXIV: ARR is the 2013 "remake" (if you wanna call it like that) of FFXIV Online which failed ridiculusly back in 2010. ARR improved on alot of issues sourrounding the game by either changing massive portions of it's game or outright replace them. It also delivered many new things to this gameThis is a rewiev based of my memory since the actual ARR experience isn't available anymore!

FFXIV: ARR is the 2013 "remake" (if you wanna call it like that) of FFXIV Online which failed ridiculusly back in 2010.

ARR improved on alot of issues sourrounding the game by either changing massive portions of it's game or outright replace them. It also delivered many new things to this game such as normal raids and alliance raids. Aswell as new jobs and dungeons.

The story is a continuation of the original with many new characters, enemies and allies. Gameplay and combat has been replaced entirely. From what used to be a bad immitation of FFXI it made itself anew by adding a Tab-target system of combat. Whilst it was a big improvement overall it did suffer from balancing issues.

Overall a very solid new start for this game wich would be the foundation for the game in years to come.… Expand

naughtywolf3

Jul 9, 2021

7

It's alright. Not the biggest fan of it, but I'll give it a 7 just because it doesn't deserve any lower.

itslevi

Sep 1, 2013

5

Forgettable MMO. Without consideration to the login difficulties that may (or may not) be fixed soon, the game is still a painfully boring grind right from the onset. Quests I assumed were just early game tutorials for MMO newbies like emoting in front of an NPC continued well into the later part of the level grind. I played a Thaumaturge, Arcanist, Archer and (briefly) a Black Mage andForgettable MMO. Without consideration to the login difficulties that may (or may not) be fixed soon, the game is still a painfully boring grind right from the onset. Quests I assumed were just early game tutorials for MMO newbies like emoting in front of an NPC continued well into the later part of the level grind. I played a Thaumaturge, Arcanist, Archer and (briefly) a Black Mage and all four were very simple and boring. Combat is just so clunky and weird, most abilities have slow casting times, there's several abilities that are uselessly weak, and with no talent customization it basically means that you'll probably have two useful abilities that you use in almost every situation.

I can't speak of how the tradeskill disciplines are in this game, except that I can safely assume they're probably useless given that I had no difficulty in either instances or solo for any pre-level 50 content wearing nothing but random quest rewards, many of which were 10+ levels under my current level.

Instead of traditional talent trees for class customization, this game offers you the ability to borrow select abilities from your other leveled classes. But the cross-class skills offered are very limited and some are completely useless (weak spells, or spells that have no real synergy with your primary class) or functionally identical to other abilities that this "customization" is really just an illusion and amounts to nothing more than mandatory alt level grinding. You also unlock an attribute point every level that you can appropriate into the stat of your choosing. However, because it's semi-permanent, this mechanic actually works against the design of being able to switch to any class on the fly because it means that classes that don't benefit from the attribute you chose are always going to be weaker than your primary class. A subtle (yet fundamental) oversight in this game's design philosophy, but one of many that permeates the game.

Maps are a mess, I have no real perspective on what the world looks like because the world map looks awful and is difficult to navigate so instead I just found myself fumbling through menus to fast travel everywhere.

The FATEs are a familiar mechanic to those who've played GW2 or Rift, and virtually all of them are either mindless AoE fests or turn-ins.

Group play is pretty bad. The group finder mechanic functions great and is very intuitive and easy, but the instances themselves are mind-numbingly boring. Every instance is padded with indistinguishable trash packs, every single one feels exactly the same and there's no real sense of danger because they pose no risk to the party. Special attacks from mobs have very clear reticules indicating dangerous zones and give you ample time to move and react- not that you really need to, because most of them do negligible damage. In fact, I ran two instances (once at level 18, once at level 35) without a true tank at all. Even if you somehow managed to wipe (which I've only done twice, both due to a DC, in about 30~ instance runs, all with PUGs), it just sends you back to the beginning of the instance where a teleporter instantly returns you to the place you died. The limit break mechanic is meaningless, the meter fills up very slowly so you typically only get to use it maybe 3 times per instance.

All this said, the instances are still the part of the game where it shined the most- select boss fights (Ifrit!) were the most memorable and challenging affairs the game provided, but they were so few and far between that they really weren't adequate payoff for the painstaking tedium needed to access them.

Graphics are decent. I feel a little shorted playing this game at max settings compared to Guild Wars 2, which seems weird because I've heard of people complaining about the system requirements, which suggests that this game doesn't really accommodate a wide range of machines like you would reasonably expect from a modern MMO.

All in all it just feels that Guild Wars 2 eclipsed this game in almost every way. As a veteran FFXI player, the nostalgia factor was endearing for a little while but wore off quickly. Without it, I can't actually think of a reason why someone would choose this game over its big name competitors, particularly so when at least two of the superior MMOs are free to play. Grindy, mediocre and outdated but not a complete waste of money.… Expand

Kittencandy

Oct 10, 2013

5

When I first got to play the game, I absolutely loved it. Everything looks pretty and it's crowded so it never feels like you're the only person walking around in the world, the job system seems cool, the opportunity to use just 1 character for all the classes... I took a few crafting classes, some gathering ones, and stuck with conjurer arcanist for mains cuz I wanted to be a white mage.When I first got to play the game, I absolutely loved it. Everything looks pretty and it's crowded so it never feels like you're the only person walking around in the world, the job system seems cool, the opportunity to use just 1 character for all the classes... I took a few crafting classes, some gathering ones, and stuck with conjurer arcanist for mains cuz I wanted to be a white mage.
All was fun for the first few days but it didn't take me too long to notice some rather annoying things, like how the only way to get money (or decent exp) is by questing, occassionally a monster will drop 1 gil but that's it and exp is really low from normal mobs so the only way to lvl is questing (or fates). A lot of quests are one time only, so when you've lvled your first class to 30, and needing to lvl the 2nd one to 15, it gets boring very fast having to slowpoke farm your exp. Gathering works ok for the first 15 lvls but it gets gradually more bothersome and at around lvl 25-30 it's just so boring it really isn't worth it. Trying to enter instances (needed to progress main story) as a DPS is just impossible most of the time, and when you do get in there's a good chance on dying cuz a lot of ppl never bothered to learn their class. And the world is pretty small, you could probably see everything within just a few hours.

Anyway, I've played this game for 2 weeks after which I was so bored with it I quit. It's just too repetitive a game to enjoy for very long.… Expand

MellerYeller

Sep 5, 2013

5

Is this better than the 1.0 version? Absolutely. However, it basically just went from terrible, up to mediocre. It's an amazing difference by comparison to the old one, but comparing it to more recent MMOs, it lacks any and all substance. It's basically just the skeleton of a modern themepark MMO because it has your basic functions like quest hubs and boring combat, but absolutely nothingIs this better than the 1.0 version? Absolutely. However, it basically just went from terrible, up to mediocre. It's an amazing difference by comparison to the old one, but comparing it to more recent MMOs, it lacks any and all substance. It's basically just the skeleton of a modern themepark MMO because it has your basic functions like quest hubs and boring combat, but absolutely nothing past that. These kinds of MMOs don't cut it anymore with a more and more particular MMO audience. There's nothing special here other than Final Fantasy styling, so it is basically babby's first MMO and most likely forgotten entirely with in a few months.… Expand

mijxero

Apr 9, 2017

7

This is a tough one to review. It has a very solid classic MMO feel to it, which is a plus for me. The community is the best I have ever seen. While the story itself goes from okay to really good, the quests attached are terrible. To get into the level 51 areas you probably have to do 20 hours of fetch quests, running back and forth, and just generally boring quests. It is a shameThis is a tough one to review. It has a very solid classic MMO feel to it, which is a plus for me. The community is the best I have ever seen. While the story itself goes from okay to really good, the quests attached are terrible. To get into the level 51 areas you probably have to do 20 hours of fetch quests, running back and forth, and just generally boring quests. It is a shame because everything else is great, you just have to ask if you are willing to push through the boring quests to enjoy the gem hidden within.… Expand

33	#33 Best PC Game of 2013
19	#19 Most Discussed PC Game of 2013
31	#31 Most Shared PC Game of 2013

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