Final Fantasy XIV Online

 PC
User Score
3.9

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 408 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 113 out of 408
  2. Mixed: 36 out of 408
  3. Negative: 259 out of 408
Buy Now
Buy on

Review this game

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
    • 10
    • 9
    • 8
    • 7
    • 6
    • 5
    • 4
    • 3
    • 2
    • 1
    • 0
    • 0
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
view
per page
  1. benfreefly
    Oct 4, 2010
    4
    There are some pretty polarizing reviews of this game. Anyone that rates it a 0 or a 10 should be immediately discounted. The reality is somewhere in-between. The game is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but it's also not without potential. For sure, Square Enix has their work cut out for them to make this game truly enjoyable. Here's hoping that they start listening toThere are some pretty polarizing reviews of this game. Anyone that rates it a 0 or a 10 should be immediately discounted. The reality is somewhere in-between. The game is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but it's also not without potential. For sure, Square Enix has their work cut out for them to make this game truly enjoyable. Here's hoping that they start listening to their player base sooner rather than later.… Expand
  2. ketsurui
    Oct 4, 2010
    4
    Huge disappointment. If one buys games like this for the graphics, then look no further. If one buys games like this for the gameplay and lack of frustration, look elsewhere. Square is dead.
  3. Redorb
    Oct 4, 2010
    4
    *Good Things:*
    --FANTASTIC GRAPHICS.- Stunning visuals which make the world and its creatures amazing to look at.
    --MUSIC.- The music brings back a lot of nostalgia from the old days of FFIII (US version) and FFVII. --BATTLE SOUND EFFECTS.- Not great but decent and make you engage in combat. *The Bad:* --USER INTERFACE.- Clunky and most importantly SLOW! For instance, there is no    *Good Things:*
    --FANTASTIC GRAPHICS.- Stunning visuals which make the world and its creatures amazing to look at.
    --MUSIC.- The music brings back a lot of nostalgia from the old days of FFIII (US version) and FFVII.
    --BATTLE SOUND EFFECTS.- Not great but decent and make you engage in combat.

    *The Bad:*
    --USER INTERFACE.- Clunky and most importantly SLOW! For instance, there is no auto arrange on items. I DREAD everytime I have to think about selling something as it takes litterally 5-10 minutes to sell the junk in my inventory. Crafting and gathering literally becomes a chore which makes taking out the trash and doing the dishes around the house seem pleasant in comparison.
    --COMMERCE.- An MMORPG is only as good as its ability to make your character look awsome and feel powerful. One of the best ways for that an RPG can do this is by constantly positively incrementing a character's gear. FF XIV completely and totally FAILS at this. Levequest rewards very very rarely offer any gear rewards at all, this in itself woudln't be a problem if there were other ways to get gear without spending hours and hours searching the "retainer" wards for gear. Of course you can always craft your own gear, meaning you need to be a blacksmith and and armorsmith and a goldsmith and maybe a carpenter (depending on your class); I don't need to tell you how that will go over for you since you've already read about the UI. It is possible... to get gear using this system but honestly who has the time to spend it wasting away in some video game while they are NOT having fun? The commerce system; the most important part of any MMORPG, in this game is all but broken.
    --USER HELP.- I have been playing games for years. I will be the first to admit I'm not the best at them, but I can hold my own and can kick some butt sometimes. This game however trully made me feel like a newb. Something I have never really felt before. This is not in itself a big problem as humility is probably good for me :P. The real problem is that every 5 minutes I have to alt-tab out of the game so I can figure out how to do ANYTHING and I mean ANYTHING. How do you follow someone else? Alt-tab, you can't follow someone. How do I party up with someone who isn't next to me? Alt-tab, you can't party up with someone not next to you. Where can I find a thaumaturge weapon in Gridania so I can switch to that class because after walking around for an hour I couldn't find it? Alt-tab, Gridania doesn't have a thaumaturge's weapon. How do I use sythesis? How do I resurrect my character? How do I use macros? This list goes on and on and on... Oh get this... When you alt-tab out of the game the game automatically crashes. WOOT!!!! This is a common bug btw. It happened on my windows 7 and my windows XP machine.

    This is the first review that I have written for a game ever. However, I felt soo personally compelled to warn the public about this game that I have written this one as well to pop that negative # up one more click. I love video games. I love RPG's. I love MMORPG's have played them for years since Ultima Online came out when I was in High School. I am borderline hating this game. Now I know some people are going to think (or say) "go back to WOW you fanboy". And maybe they have a point. I liked WOW I really really did. But then I liked Ultima Online and LOTRO and AION and EQ and Asheron's Call. All I am saying is that if you have not bought this game and you are reading this review please please do yourself a favor and ask yourself how much free time you have and how much you are willing to give to a video game which rewards you little for the amount of time you put into it. If you have a LOT of free time and like grinding away and don't mind a slow UI then this is the game for you. If, however, you are like the majority of the worlds populace please please look elsewhere for your entertainment. For instance Starcraft 2 just came out, so did Civ 5, Fable 3 comes out in 3 weeks.    … Expand
  4. xukiza
    Oct 4, 2010
    4
    1. Sold as solo/casual - hardcore grind
    2. No quests or significant content - only guildleves on a 36 hour cooldown and not enough teleport anima to do the ones from the other cities every 36 hours to get 8 battle quests.
    3. random skill point and exp rewards 4. no point to grouping 5. world feels dead and empty. 6. Literal copy and paste landscape - I mean you will think you are in the    1. Sold as solo/casual - hardcore grind
    2. No quests or significant content - only guildleves on a 36 hour cooldown and not enough teleport anima to do the ones from the other cities every 36 hours to get 8 battle quests.
    3. random skill point and exp rewards
    4. no point to grouping
    5. world feels dead and empty.
    6. Literal copy and paste landscape - I mean you will think you are in the same place you just walked through 10 mins ago - it's literal copy and paste.
    7. No decent market system
    8. Forced crafting essentially
    9. Time sink annoying repair system
    10. Forced to play most of the other classes to be competent.
    11. Did I mention the grind after the teens is horrific. Go back to Aion, it's a joke after FFXIV.
    12. UI is the most horrific experience of any PC MMO to date
    13. Game is designed around horrific barely hidden time sinks to artificially slow your progress.
    14. Partying is pointless
    15. Guild leves are boring
    16. Crafting requires knowing several other crafts to make most anything.
    17. No real story
    18. Not enough mobs to even make grinding viable.
    19. Mobs don't scale properly - some own your face off as blues, some reds are soloable.
    20. No way to travel when anima is low - i.e. no chocobo, airships etc

    Goods:
    1. Game looks beautiful
    2. Combat itself, if you burn mana etc, is really fun, some cool animations (seismic shock for example)
    3. Having options for lots of classes on one character is a cool idea.
    4. Crafting has potential
    5. Combat has potential
    6. Economy has potential
    7. The game world has hints of possible good things down the line
    8. If the above issues are fixed the game would be pretty awesome.

    Overall, tons of potential locked in a sucky, time wasting, broken mechanics package that sucks your will to play and turn on the game.

    For the price and monthly sub, I recommend you give this a pass.    … Expand
  5. Kuroki
    Oct 20, 2010
    4
    I love Final Fantasy from FFVI - FFXIII, I've collected almost all its goods and its action figures, played the console games and its online games.... and FFXIV is just excited me... well it was... until it launched...

    OMG SE really need to change this grinding mode.... Not every player is hardcore player! to think i will have hours doing quest kills X number of monster etc etc etc and    I love Final Fantasy from FFVI - FFXIII, I've collected almost all its goods and its action figures, played the console games and its online games.... and FFXIV is just excited me... well it was... until it launched...

    OMG SE really need to change this grinding mode.... Not every player is hardcore player! to think i will have hours doing quest kills X number of monster etc etc etc and hours again to do other quest... and more hours in high lv to grind..... thx SE you really ruined my mood to play FF.... i really hopping FFXIV would be different..... guess not... AND DONT SAY I'M NOT A FF FAN BOY 'coz i do.... but NOT for this FF series.... i rather wait and play Guild Wars 2 FTW    … Expand
  6. Xaxxus
    Jul 10, 2021
    4
    Have not even played the game yet. Because I literally cant even figure out where to download the client.

    The FF XIV website is probably the worse user experience I have ever seen. It seems as though they are actively trying to stop you from playing their game.

    Also you have to buy the game more than once if you want to play it on mac and windows.
  7. Robbaz
    Oct 7, 2010
    3
    I played the beta and also tested the game once more at launch. And i all can say is... Only buy this if you are a final fantasy fan or really enjoy asian mmorpgs. Since this is insanely boring and the most linear game i ever played! I mean common! They copied the terrain like 6-10 times at some places! The most entertaining in this game is the spelling errors. The overall combat is veryI played the beta and also tested the game once more at launch. And i all can say is... Only buy this if you are a final fantasy fan or really enjoy asian mmorpgs. Since this is insanely boring and the most linear game i ever played! I mean common! They copied the terrain like 6-10 times at some places! The most entertaining in this game is the spelling errors. The overall combat is very very very slow as well even once you get several abilities it's still slow and some of the controls are just simple horrible! And remapping them wont work since it's the game it self that is played in such a odd manor!

    This game will never be fixed.    … Expand
  8. Velendris
    Oct 15, 2010
    3
    Pros:
    -Excellent Graphics
    -Excellent Music
    -The design of the class system is new and original

    Cons:
    -Unbearable laggy interface
    -Boring guildleves (Main storyline is good however)
    -Too much walking, incredibly inconvenient
    -Market system is a joke
    -Crafting is insanely complex and hard (No recipe lists, level 5 items need level 20 materials, etc.)
    -No bosses, no real endgame content
  9. Aepervius
    Sep 30, 2010
    3
    Too long do not read : poor UI, poor gameplay, pretty graphic. To be honest, I have to admit I am not a fan of FF14. I am OTOH a fan of various type of MMO (from UO, to AC, EQ, AC2, WOW, AION, Conan, LOTR....). I like to explore, level a few class , solo quest. Oh boy, this game fail on that on all level. Graphic : they are very good. From time to time I stop to watch at the environment.Too long do not read : poor UI, poor gameplay, pretty graphic. To be honest, I have to admit I am not a fan of FF14. I am OTOH a fan of various type of MMO (from UO, to AC, EQ, AC2, WOW, AION, Conan, LOTR....). I like to explore, level a few class , solo quest. Oh boy, this game fail on that on all level. Graphic : they are very good. From time to time I stop to watch at the environment. You need a good graphic card, but the result is excellent. Not much to say. UI: HORRID. They very very obviously made this game with console in mind, and quickly rushed the PC version. I can give numerous example of this. As a mage, I have to click/hit a key to cast a spell. But instead of hitting the target, I have to click a second time (only mouse) on the target other wise the spell don#t go out. The map CANNOT be scrolled with the mouse, you have to use the i,j,k,l keys, it can't be zoomed. UI is clunky you can't hit a key shortcut you have to open a main menu, hit inventory to see what you got , and a different menu (top one can't remember how it is called) to ready a weapon. Havign a single inventory and double click to equip unequip ? Not for FF14. Lookin at inventory take a LOT of time many seconds, it is as if UI and the rest was located on the server. Changing action bar is clunky and takes many seconds too. Also to switch class, you have to go in inventory (takes seconds) or use macro ! If you heard of the rest system , well it really is stupid. Not only they limit to 8 quest (battlequest) and 8 work order (crafting) but also it refresh only once in maybe 36 hours. Do your quest in 5 MINUTES, then wait 36 hours to be able to to remove it from the lsit and do a new one !!! And the limit after which you earn NO XP (faitigue system) is invisible. So you have to guess. Gameplay : I had a lot of fun with the various classes (except mage due to clunkyness) but the crafting / mining miniga,me is Much MUCH too slow. You have to click in a menu to begin gather stuff, then click a second time in a menu to "strike" "chop" etc... Why ? They could have done it a single click. And the wait time are horrid. Crafting is also laggy and you can only craft a SINGLE itme at the same time (I did not see a way to craft stack at least). But worst is that there is *NO* receipt book ! You have to note them, and manually add ingredients (not even counting that crafting talke ingredients from many other craft skills). And the menu are too deep. Click on a SINGLE material slot to add a material, do it for all material, then click craft, then click on what you want (if there is only a single possibility you still MUST click that one) then confirm , then confirm again somehow , then start. For a single item I hestimate it could be anywhere around a single minute. Also levelling is sloooooooooooow. I haven't been able with normal play to go above 7 levels in 24/48 hours before "fatigue" kick too much. But it felt slow, because you have to stop after a while because you get ZERO XP in that skill. The trick I use is to switch various fighting class, and once I am finished with the last one, level a bit the first one. But it is sub optimal. It forces you to do sutff you might not want to do, or just stop playing for 24/36 hours. There is no auction house, only single vendor which takes hours to "load" the UI, and you can't search among them. When I tried to find an overpriced item , I had to manually click 12 vendors, then I gave up. There were , I dunno, 40 vendor each side. And you can't preview or know what they sell. The payment system is not good, but I don't count that in the review.

    Bottom line : STAY AWAY. Rushed. Clucky. MMO technology wise, older game 15 years ago got much of that right. FF14 did not.    … Expand
  10. Lans
    Sep 30, 2010
    3
    The best way I can describe it is if somebody took out all the good things about FFXI and made the problems even worse. Some lag and bugs are to be expected at launch so I'm not even counting those against it. Partying is broken due to the way skill gains are awarded and an exp bug that has been in for a long time since beta that prevents some people in groups larger than 2 from gainingThe best way I can describe it is if somebody took out all the good things about FFXI and made the problems even worse. Some lag and bugs are to be expected at launch so I'm not even counting those against it. Partying is broken due to the way skill gains are awarded and an exp bug that has been in for a long time since beta that prevents some people in groups larger than 2 from gaining SP. The market wards are a complete joke and you have no idea if the item you are looking for is actually for sale anywhere. The lack of content is appalling. The one saving grace could have been the story but even that is falling flat (maybe the others have better but Limsa's is pretty lame up to 20). The UI is quite possibly the worst out of any PC game in the past decade. No drag/drop, clicking on things typically doesn't do anything, and you have to go thru more menus than an old DOS MUD to get anything done.

    Not even sure this game has potential anymore. It HAD potential, but given that it's release and they haven't accomplished anything of significance and made so many bad decisions already I don't think they can dig themselves out anytime soon. The graphics and music are nice but the rest of it can hardly be classified as a game.    … Expand
  11. jmegapac
    Sep 30, 2010
    3
    This is possibly one of the worst MMO's to be released relative to other MMO's of its generation. The main story line so far has been blend. The game was touted for its engaging plot and immersive environment. The main quest starts then quickly disappears for a while. The player is left to figure out what to do (the only thing left to do is grinding guildleves and crafting, aside from aThis is possibly one of the worst MMO's to be released relative to other MMO's of its generation. The main story line so far has been blend. The game was touted for its engaging plot and immersive environment. The main quest starts then quickly disappears for a while. The player is left to figure out what to do (the only thing left to do is grinding guildleves and crafting, aside from a small number of quests). I'm fine with allowing players to explorer the world and figure out what to do. But there's nothing to do but grind here! Then there's the environment. A large portion of the world is narrow, twisted valleys connecting rather small main zones. Sure, it takes a while to walk from one area to another. But all you see is narrow paths that twists and turns. You generally don't see a vast area to explorer.

    Perhaps the lack of content can be understood, since the game just came out. However, the issue with UI is unforgivable. SE has had almost a decade to look at and experiment with UI. There are plenty of other MMO's that have shown how a good UI could be implemented. SE decided to completely ignore that and implement an archaic system of accessing practically everything via a main menu. You want to equip an item? Go to the main menu and open equipped item window. You can't just select an item from your inventory and equip it. You have to select a body part in equipment window, select an item from an inventory list that shows up, then click the equip button. Did I tell you that the inventory list is not sorted?

    There are plenty of other issues that made me cancel my subscription. You should be able to find them easily online. I'm not the only one complaining about them. My recommendation is, the game has potential, but it may not be realized for another year. Save your money and play some other MMO until then.    … Expand
  12. santiagodraco
    Oct 1, 2010
    3
    Ok, so here's the real deal._____________

    First off, graphically, sonically and aesthetically the game is great. If games were scored on looks alone I'd give this one an 8/9._______________ Well, games are like books, don't judge it by it's cover. And what's inside isn't prose it's gibberish.___________ I cannot comprehend how anyone can give this game a 10. It simply isn't    Ok, so here's the real deal._____________

    First off, graphically, sonically and aesthetically the game is great. If games were scored on looks alone I'd give this one an 8/9._______________

    Well, games are like books, don't judge it by it's cover. And what's inside isn't prose it's gibberish.___________

    I cannot comprehend how anyone can give this game a 10. It simply isn't rational. First, the combat mechanics are frustrating in the extreme. To give you a taste, lets say you are running around in ANY MMO you can think of and you engage a target. You can move around, reposition yourself or your camera easily, like a normal shooter for example. Not so with FFXIV. When you engage you "LOCK" to that encounter and movement becomes severely hampered and your cameras up down view is frozen. Yes, you heard me, you can no longer change the camera Y position. On top of that tabbing... tabbing targets ANYTHING including yourself and other players and NPCs and target mobs.... how frustrating do you think it will be to have 2-3 mobs putting the smackdown (oh and even con mobs can kill you pretty easy) only to find that you cannot fight them because you keep targeting everything OTHER than the mobs attacking you. It is the worst combat implementation I've ever seen in any game to date._________________

    Now lets talk about the world. It's big. Big and pretty. And repetitive. And virtually empty. If you are expecting the rich and full environments you are used to in games like WoW, EQ, EQ2, Aion, etc then don't get your hopes up. You'll be running quite a bit looking at grass and bushes and trees with little else to create any sense of story or immersion.________________

    Oh, and don't forget to avoid that 2 inch drop off! No you can't jump! How dare you ask! Go around! What do you mean it's only a 2 inch piece of tile on the ground? Of course you can't walk over it. What do you think, this is the real world? You're in our world now and you'll play by our rules of physics! No jumping and no stepping up or down!______________

    Quests. I have to ask, what quests? Other than the main "story line" (which btw seems completely unrelated to the stylish opening sequences) and a couple of sidelines I don't know what quests there are, if any. For one I am pretty sure they are few and far between. But for another you are forced to talk to every NPC (and I mean EVERY NPC) just to see if they have a quest, or if they are your next step. It's so outdated and frustrating that you'll give up questing altogether pretty quick.______________

    Guildleves... a very very sad replacement for leveling quests. They are meaningless, in far to short of supply and add absolutely nothing to the story of the game. At least in WoW the "kill x or gather y" quests were often written into a series of storyline related activities that made them somewhat meaningful. Here guildleves are like going to some kind of soda machine and pressing a button for a refill, only to find out that you've had your limit on refills for today._____________

    Now lets talk about UI and add further to the interaction mechanics discussion. Remember the combat lock and camera note above? Well the same applies for talking to NPCs. First you have to successfully target them, once you've done that and then navigate a few menus just to begin dialog (yeah get used to menus for everything) you'll be locked into that encounter until you click away (don't miss!) to end it. Hopefully that works. So no, you can't simply move away to end like you can with every other MMO under the sun.___________

    And how about that snappy UI! Well there's nothing snappy about this one other than hitting the logoff button.______________

    Storyline interaction? Very short paragraphs of text in a very small window with a very small arrow on the bottom to scroll. You'll have no idea where you are in the dialog, how far you have to go, nor any way to go back OR see the overall context of the dialog. __________

    Expecting NPCs to talk? Interact as you walk by with nice general voiceovers? Nope. _________

    I can go on. As you can gather from my post the game has me pretty seriously dissapointed and very frustrated that SE has taken a game that had such enormous potential and has completely ruined it due to their apparent arrogance and complete disconnect as to what the vast vast majority of gamers are looking for out there._______________


    I really think that SE should purchase the rights to the "You're in our world now" slogan since it so aptly exemplifies the attitude SE has taken to the player base in the introduction of this game to the market.    … Expand
  13. CaptElephant
    Oct 1, 2010
    3
    As a long-time fan of FFXI I was disappointed by FFXIV. It's a pretty substantial step backwards from it's predecessor, despite coming out 7 years later. Overall the game feels unfinished and rushed, the UI is very slow, combat is badly designed and content is sorely lacking. It certainly may become a quality game after a year or so of patches, but currently it's pretty terrible. Save yourAs a long-time fan of FFXI I was disappointed by FFXIV. It's a pretty substantial step backwards from it's predecessor, despite coming out 7 years later. Overall the game feels unfinished and rushed, the UI is very slow, combat is badly designed and content is sorely lacking. It certainly may become a quality game after a year or so of patches, but currently it's pretty terrible. Save your time and money for something better.… Expand
  14. Lawrens
    Oct 2, 2010
    3
    FFXIV is an incomplete game, for that I have to give it a 3/10, it is extremely hard to give a game anything higher than this when initially the game has little to offer, and to add to that, whatever it has to offer is nothing but a horrible experience.

    The game starts you off with a few introductory cutscenes, then off you go doing levequests: quests which offer no story or plot, but to    FFXIV is an incomplete game, for that I have to give it a 3/10, it is extremely hard to give a game anything higher than this when initially the game has little to offer, and to add to that, whatever it has to offer is nothing but a horrible experience.

    The game starts you off with a few introductory cutscenes, then off you go doing levequests: quests which offer no story or plot, but to run around fulfilling random generated objectives, which is all just running to point B to kill a certain number of mobs, you get money and sometimes items as reward. You get 8 everyday and a half, some new ones opens up, and some are just repeats, it also helps you gain levels and class ranks since you have to fight a lot of enemies.

    The above sounds great and fun, but there are a few problems with the mission structure and balance itself:
    Problems:
    Skill points distribution: you get skill points from attacking enemies/heal/etc, this is so far a bit broken as the chances of you getting skill points are not very consistent, there are occasions where you could get really low amount of skillpoints from fighting strong monsters, even if you're to group with a few other players, which leads to the problem where soloing is a better and faster way to play. Difficulty balance - Low level leve quests were also too easy for a group, monsters die in 2 hits and you get no skillpoints at all, and for some quests it is also very easy to do at 3-4 stars even when you're 5-6 levels below the suggested rank. While certain quest have mobs with aoe attacks that could oneshot you.

    Lag - With the partying system, when the lag is bad on your server, there are bugs where you can't target your party members, can't reinvite, and invite taking tremendously long to process (or not process at all), this gets better as the server load is lower, but the targetting issue still exists, sometimes you can't see your party members hp. Lag leads to a lot other problems, abilities gets congested, with the long animation your character do, it delays a lot of your abilities.

    Surplus - This isn't as big of a problem as other players make it out to be, but it is a mechanic that a few might find annoying as it is there to restrict your playstyle and how you want to spend your time. You really can't progress on just 1 job alone, and if you like running around on your highest level job, you will eventually run into surplus - which gives a penalty to the skill points you gain, this isn't a problem if the game wasn't that much of a grind but the skill points required to level at lvl20s is really high, what SE doing here is to restrict people from progressing and forcing them to level other jobs and crafts, if you like that, it is ok, but there is a limitation to the freedom given.

    Crafting itself is more interesting but also tedious, the animations are too long so most of the time it would take 5minutes just to do a craft, imagine having to unequip all your gears, change to your crafting tools and having to access item box to repair them one by one, which leads to the problem of inventory space, and gears swapping, you have to type out lines and lines of macros so you don't have to unequip every piece of equipments by hand when you change jobs.
    The lines of macros is also limited. For a game encouraging you to switch between like 10 jobs, it is an annoyance as you also have to reset all your actions/abilities. Fighting enemies - Some enemies have weird pathing which they will run around and regen itself to full. Sometimes you can't engage your party members' target with a message "Target can not be engaged". Targetting is also extremely hard and you have to tab through a lot of targets.

    There are other issues people have already listed, most will run into problem that leads to another, the core of the game is great and the classes/ability mix is a great system, but there are too many problems that hinders a player's enjoyment. There's nothing to do but grind, there are a few cutscenes every 5-10 ranks.

    It is clearly an unfinished game with restrictions grant upon players so they won't progress too fast inorder to buy time for them to fix/implement new features. If you take a look at their site, they are still "looking into improve" many aspects of the game instead of already having the right idea and releasing patches. Most of the updates/maintenance are all bugs/glitches related that should've been fix during the beta phase, the menu and UI lag infact still exists and I'm not sure how people could tolerate it.

    The game has only been out for 2 weeks, it doesn't sound fair to judge the game at its current state, but it is also not very fair for consumers to be paying 60 dollars for an incomplete game, and for a better experience they have been encouraged to wait until they fix all the problems, for a game with a subscription fee, it is a really bad business practice from square-enix.    … Expand
  15. Aquakitty
    Oct 2, 2010
    3
    I gave this game a chance.

    The Good Graphics are pretty The Bad Punished for teaming, xp drops significantly for no reason Groups of 11 people attacking Ladybugs Repetitive, gameplay and mobs are the same at L 20. I am still killing marmots. Terrible UI Everything looks the same No auction house, you have to click people individually to see what they are selling (usually junk), there's    I gave this game a chance.

    The Good
    Graphics are pretty

    The Bad
    Punished for teaming, xp drops significantly for no reason
    Groups of 11 people attacking Ladybugs
    Repetitive, gameplay and mobs are the same at L 20. I am still killing marmots.
    Terrible UI
    Everything looks the same
    No auction house, you have to click people individually to see what they are selling (usually junk), there's not even a place to put a title of the contents of your "store" like back in Lineage 2.
    Levelling is like molasses
    Chat system is primitive

    Summary: Someone on here wrote the game is a breath of fresh air, I disagree, it is more like a wiff of rotten fish my dog rolled in. The game is a step back in every way possible. Bad chat, UI, archaic and repetitive. Slow.    … Expand
  16. defive
    Oct 6, 2010
    3
    Empty. Souless. Unfinished.

    Stay far far away from this disaster. Worst UI in MMO history, massive empty world filled with nothing except cut-and-pasted terrain. Utterly boring quest system, hilariously broken economy (no ah and no way to search retainers).. I could go on and on.... Be very clear if you buy the PC version of FFXIV - you are paying Square-Enix for the 'privelige'    Empty. Souless. Unfinished.

    Stay far far away from this disaster.

    Worst UI in MMO history, massive empty world filled with nothing except cut-and-pasted terrain. Utterly boring quest system, hilariously broken economy (no ah and no way to search retainers).. I could go on and on....

    Be very clear if you buy the PC version of FFXIV - you are paying Square-Enix for the 'privelige' of beta testing their PS3 release.    … Expand
  17. metro_cube
    Oct 12, 2010
    3
    The good:
    * Powerful graphics engine
    * Flexible class system The OK: * It has decent music * It has a new take on crafting and gathering in MMOs The Bad: * Everything else I really cannot even begin to list the problems this game has. In nearly every way except for graphics, it is a massive step-back from even SE's previous MMO title (FFXI). The User Interface is terrible and sluggish.    The good:
    * Powerful graphics engine
    * Flexible class system

    The OK:
    * It has decent music
    * It has a new take on crafting and gathering in MMOs

    The Bad:
    * Everything else

    I really cannot even begin to list the problems this game has. In nearly every way except for graphics, it is a massive step-back from even SE's previous MMO title (FFXI).

    The User Interface is terrible and sluggish. It takes multiple confirmations and clicks to perform even the simplest tasks, such as moving items from your inventory to your retainer (bank). It will take you upwards of 10 minutes to just sell your vendor trash.

    The terrain is copy-and-pasted to such an extent that it will make those who complained about WOW's copying of caves die of shock. Areas just feel bland and lifeless.

    There is absolutely no reason to do anything in the game (except for it's own sake) because the game has no content (only 8 copy-pasted kill quests every 36 hours, no end-game to speak of, etc).

    There is absolutely no sense of progression in the game. Many dozens of hours in and you're still traversing areas that look exactly the same (literally because they are) and still fighting Moles and Rats; monsters that feel like they should be reserved for characters under level 5.

    The item durability system is absolutely terrible. It is impossible to repair your gear up to 100% without the help of an outside player, or you spend hours trying to work through the terrible crafting interface and retarded recipe design philosophy (a level 2 recipe requires level 15 recipe reagents from the same craft) to level up your own crafting skill.

    Your character will even get stuck on 2-inch high walls (I am not even joking), and have to walk around them.

    There are dozens of features that should have been implemented by release, but are still absent (Chocobos, AH, Airships, Company System, etc etc etc).

    I could go on forever but hopefully you get the idea. This MMO is in no way shape or form ready for a commercial release; it's barely in an Alpha state right now. I cannot recommend this MMO to anyone, but I can recommend you avoid it like plague.

    If it is not dead in a year, check back then and see if it is finally out of pay-to-play Beta.    … Expand
  18. bil
    Oct 12, 2010
    3
    I can't believe I spent $50 dollars and updated my video card for this crap of a game. This game needs at least another 6 months of development but I guess they figured they could charge people to play a beta (if you could even call it that). Yes the only reason I bought it was because I love most FF titles but this is just a big turd wrapped in a popular brand name.
  19. keegander
    Oct 14, 2010
    3
    Possibly the worst MMO I've ever played and definitely not worthy of its Final Fantasy name. The graphic, music, and cutscenes are the only redeeming qualities but you won't even enjoy them since you'll be aggravated by almost everything else about the game. MMO thrive on making its players feel the need to better their character, explore the world and do battle with the monsters itPossibly the worst MMO I've ever played and definitely not worthy of its Final Fantasy name. The graphic, music, and cutscenes are the only redeeming qualities but you won't even enjoy them since you'll be aggravated by almost everything else about the game. MMO thrive on making its players feel the need to better their character, explore the world and do battle with the monsters it harbors. The problem is that character development doesn't go farther than just giving new attacks with the same animations, the world is repetitive (cut and pasted) and lacking interesting vistas, and the combat is unresponsive, boring, and simplistic and you'll probably spent more time doing battle with the interface than monsters. The time spent just waiting for menus to appear is just staggering. It will take a major overhaul just to make this title enjoyable.… Expand
  20. scwmortise
    Oct 13, 2010
    3
    In a word "unfinished". The game seems to have been rushed out, to reach shelves on time and quite clearley needs a lot of work before its ready for retail release. Some of the crafting in the game seems like, it could really work, forcing the economy to buy and trade but sadly this method just usually involves people selling items for ridiculously inflated prices. The game also feels likeIn a word "unfinished". The game seems to have been rushed out, to reach shelves on time and quite clearley needs a lot of work before its ready for retail release. Some of the crafting in the game seems like, it could really work, forcing the economy to buy and trade but sadly this method just usually involves people selling items for ridiculously inflated prices. The game also feels like a complete console port and almost no effort has been made to hide it, hence the use of the crummy menu system to do anything and the almost complete lack of any customisation to the controls. With some work this could be a real contender in the MMO market but as it is, very little has changed from beta, and still many of the major bugs exist. Its a total joke that this was released at full retail price. I know several people who brought in early to the colectors edition, seeing the square enix brand and after the fantastic games they have released in the past I couldnt fault them, sadly they were betrayed by a company with a big reputation. I hope this hurts square enix, I hope it hurts them a lot and scares other companies into thinking about releasing unfinished junk into the market.… Expand
  21. Carmillia
    Oct 14, 2010
    3
    Funny to see people complaining about people rating 0 this game and yet they rate it with max score of 10 talking about objectivity.I have been playing many years FFXI and other MMOs but I have to admit that FFXIV is not up to the expectations, specially having so many years of experience. The whole system is very slow, the crafting system is an improvement: can get you exp AND craftingFunny to see people complaining about people rating 0 this game and yet they rate it with max score of 10 talking about objectivity.I have been playing many years FFXI and other MMOs but I have to admit that FFXIV is not up to the expectations, specially having so many years of experience. The whole system is very slow, the crafting system is an improvement: can get you exp AND crafting skill levels, however it is far too slow and makes it kind of boring (too many windows to have to be opened before actually get into the craft itself). The fact that you can set abilities from another job to you mage allows to customize the type of characters you want and make it unique, which can be good and kind of frustrating for people that like class specific. The party system, however, is a fail as everyone is just doing is thing on his own and not really relying on each others class specificity. The lack of quests is another bad point. The fact that you have to spend hours looking around bazaars in the hope to find what you're looking for is a time sink and very annoying. The auction house should have been implemented and the excuse of avoiding RMTs doesn't make any sense because they will be some anyways (already seeing them appearing) and they tend to actually put the economy down because of the massive amount of items they bring into the market so that it differs from overpriced items sold be players. A step back from FFXI in my opinion instead of an improvement (they could still have made a different system but keep players-friendly users). Now, instead of having the stress/fear of being killed while running to you grinding spot (and the time it took also to reach it, which all together made a nice experience until you could move faster with teleport/chocobos), you can just teleport around to go grind but have to spend hours just to try to gear you up. I'm not even telling about the uber rare piece of gears, just basic equipements are just a pain in the a.. to find. i think that just the use of an AH or a similar system would decrease player's frustration a lot. How the skill/exp gain in a party has still to be adjusted so that it is not just 'soloing with a group of people' and more based on cooperation (teamwork, yes please!). A function to sort inventory also should have been there from the start. The lag and/or slowness should also be worked out so that it doesn't take 10/15 just to sell the junk in the inventory (because you don't want to spend 1 hour putting those into your bazaar...). I am not far into the game yet but I kind of regret the huge maps where you can just explore the world and not series of tunnels leading to small areas. The graphic although are very very nice and deserve a thumb up. Not much talking in the '/shout' chat for the moment going on but this seems just a matter of time. No problems with the linkshell system, works like a charm. Don't indeed expect a game taking you by the hands (NPC with marks on their head to say HEY I have a quest for you), you have to talk to NPCs to actually see if they have some available (as far as I know, none anyways so far). So in the end, because of the problems of the system, the only enjoyable thing is to grind/guildleves and crafting a bit until gets too boring to wait 5s to 10s between each windows to open (and 5 minutes to craft one item). I would recommend to keep an eye on how it evolves but not to play right now if you are currently playing other MMOs that you like. If you seek a new MMOs to play, give it a shot (or go to a friend's place playing it) but surely do not expect the big revelation or the MMOs of the century. Take it as a new firm trying out to make a MMOs.… Expand
  22. ghoststrykre
    Oct 16, 2010
    3
    I went against the flow here and crossed my fingers that the reviews were wrong and biased... Yeah well I paid dearly for that. Truthfully, there IS a good game somewhere deep inside this devilish little game.. Unfortunately, the minds employed at Square Enix have proven again that they can create great concepts, but don't think through the consequences.

    User Interface: AWFUL AWFUL AWFUL.    I went against the flow here and crossed my fingers that the reviews were wrong and biased... Yeah well I paid dearly for that. Truthfully, there IS a good game somewhere deep inside this devilish little game.. Unfortunately, the minds employed at Square Enix have proven again that they can create great concepts, but don't think through the consequences.

    User Interface: AWFUL AWFUL AWFUL. It is slow, clunky, tons of menus, no tutorials to tell you how to use it, and you constantly need to search fan sites to figure out how to add weapon skills, change equipment, etc. Once you understand it though, its not so awful, but WOW its bad.

    Combat: Really kinda fun, but slow and honestly has a sluggish feel to it.

    Crafting: I honestly don't know.. See the markets section.

    Markets: This is where Square Enix had a swing and a miss. FFXI was nearly ruined by gil sellers/RMT's. So Square Enix decided that they would create this retainer system and have no auction house whatsoever. Basically this means, there are items for sale on individual NPC's that must first be loaded (and there's thousands of them) before you can browse their wares individually. No search feature.. Say what? NO SEARCH FEATURE. I searched for over an hour for a freakin' hammer to become a blacksmith in the Market Ward (actually the Fieldcraft Ward since the update hit). I finally found it only to discover that the moron who was selling it wanted 30,000 gil for the crappiest hammer. WHAAtT?! So basically, you have no money, no hammer, and can't do anything. Resulting in the need to find a gil seller. OOPS SQUARE ENIX! Exactly what you were trying to avoid just got encouraged by your process. I applaud their effort to innovate, but internet technology needs about 10 years for this to work as it should, and even then it'd be a pain because the user interface is so terrible. How did this get past the idea board?!

    Verdict: People said the lack of tutorials made this game exceptionally difficult. I, a savvy MMO player thought i'd be fine.. Nope, I was wrong. Even with a quad core processor, 4 gigs of RAM, and an EVGA nVidea GTX 460, the game can't run above 30 fps. The programming is just baaaddd here. So, I think this game has the potential to eventually fix itself. Square Enix said that major updates would be released once every 3 months................. WTF?! In all fairness, SE extended the trial period to 60 days instead of 30.. but that was just because they knew their game was busted as all hell and players were cancelling subscriptions and returning the game as defective. The 60 trial will return to 30 for new registrations after October 25 though. I do not think I want to spend money waiting for Square Enix to fix such basic problems as the UI, the map, the markets, and more. They aren't even going to fix the UI with programming, they're just gonna split zones up onto multiple servers and hope it helps. Really, this is an insulting excuse for an MMO, and for a Square Enix product. I think it'll be over a year before this game is really fixed to the extent it should be. Square Enix has officially become an awful company, incapable of looking out at consequences ahead of their decisions, and completely content with releasing bad products. They even admitted FF13 could have been better (that's a whole other can of worms), the 60 day trial affirms they know this FF14 is garbage, and I'm pretty sure this ruined me ever buying FF13 Versus. Buyer BEWARE! This product is not prepared for market. Consider in one year when it is less than 25 dollars to buy (if SE ever goes that low. they don't even know how to properly price old games).

    I will say this, if you have 4 to 5 friends willing to figure this out together.. Maybe you'll have fun. But playing this alone, and trying to get involved in the community.. omg, near impossible.

    This review boils down to a great quote by the comedian Lewis Black: "So I took a spoon.. and I shoved it in my a$$.. because, if I'm gonna hurt this much... I'm gonna do it to myself."    … Expand
  23. Loury
    Oct 19, 2010
    3
    Square Enix's recent venture into the MMORPG realm has fallen flat on it's face. Being a SE Fanboy myself, i had high hopes for this game, sadly the clunky User Interface hampers any hopes of doing anything in a quick manner. Getting to your inventory alone takes forever, as you have to wait for the server lag to open your menu, then you have to wait for the lag once more, just to openSquare Enix's recent venture into the MMORPG realm has fallen flat on it's face. Being a SE Fanboy myself, i had high hopes for this game, sadly the clunky User Interface hampers any hopes of doing anything in a quick manner. Getting to your inventory alone takes forever, as you have to wait for the server lag to open your menu, then you have to wait for the lag once more, just to open your inventory.

    Issues are still everywhere, with casters having the biggest one I've found; Sometimes your spell will just not cast. In a game with no auto-attack, a spell being devoured by the lag spells death for a caster. The lack of an Auction House is easily overlooked, as most games lack an AH at their release, but the Market Wards, SE's main way for players to sell their wares via Retainers, is a cluster mess of annoyance. Walking in alone, you wait for a minute before the Retainer NPCs load, and you proceed to go through each bazaar, hoping to find the item you seek. Crafting in the game is fun, for a whole five minutes. Once you realize to make anything, you're required to branch out into 5 other crafts, the weight of their system really comes crashing down. To make a single cloth armor piece, it requires the yarn to be made into cloth, the cloth is then made into back piece, front piece, and sleeves (if it has any). along with any materials from other crafts. Seems decent, right? Wrong, if it requires a dye, you have to find the dye to buy it, or go find the material to make the dye yourself (an Alchemy synth) most require leather, normally dyed. so you're picking up Leathercraft. Nothing is ever middle of the road in this game, you spend hours upon hours crafting to make a piece of gear.

    Leveling in the game is a joke, at the start you gain ranks and physical levels like there's no tomorrow, but after hitting rank 10, the learning curve steeps up so drastically you're spending the next couple hours praying you gain SP off a mob. and at 20? well, i hope you enjoy your day long grind sessions. Mob scaling is done so poorly, a blue dot next to the mob's name is meant to mean it's easy prey, something you can kill without an issue, while a red dot means it's very stronger than you, and it's best you don't mess with it. Yet, a blue dot monster can easily kill me, while some red dot monsters are quickly skewered with my spear. FFXIV has great potential, but the rushed half-arsed release that Square did, has greatly damaged the public's belief in their game. I cannot suggest anyone goes out and buys this game right now, but i do suggest you keep an eye for updates and forums to see how people's attitude changes. Maybe come PS3 release, Square-Enix will have gotten their rears in gear enough that the game's actually something to positively write about    … Expand
  24. JP1
    Oct 21, 2010
    3
    As a former player of FFXI, I was really looking forward to this game. I really wanted to like it, and I was totally ready to love this game. However, after playing it for a few days, it became immediately obvious that almost no progress has been made since 11 came out so many years ago.

    On the plus side, the graphics and sound are stunning. There is some repetitiveness in the    As a former player of FFXI, I was really looking forward to this game. I really wanted to like it, and I was totally ready to love this game. However, after playing it for a few days, it became immediately obvious that almost no progress has been made since 11 came out so many years ago.

    On the plus side, the graphics and sound are stunning. There is some repetitiveness in the graphics, but the actual visual experience is amazing. The game compares pretty favorably with the best looking MMOs out there, and as usual, the music of Final Fantasy is incredible.

    The class system which allows you to swap classes on the fly and steal bits and pieces from multiple classes is a great idea, and opens up a lot of potential for creativity. You can tune a character to work exactly how you would like them to, and end up with something which feels pretty unique.

    Unfortunately, that's about all I can say I liked about the game. In many other vitally important areas, the game failed spectacularly. It feels as though the developers of the game worked in an isolated chamber, without the benefit of seeing any of the improvements in MMOs which have come out since then, and without anyone questioning the design decisions made in FFXI.

    The economy of the game is based on a retainer system, in which players essentially set up bazaars to hawk their items. There's no auction house or trading post to scan for the items you want, you'll be coming here if you want something you can't make yourself. So if you want a new sword, you're going to zone into a room chock full of hundreds of retainers. And if you want to find a sword, you're going to have too look at them one by one, until you find a guy selling what you want. I can't imagine how this idea made it through any kind of design meeting. And in an economy where almost anything you ever want is made by players, this is not going to to be a minor annoyance, but a constant chore.

    Navigating the UI in the game is perhaps the most terrible, painful experiences I've had in an MMO. Menus are entirely server-authenticated. I don't know if this was to prevent exploits or just a bad design decision, but it means that whenever you press a button, you'll have to wait a short time to see the result, maybe a quarter of a second, maybe a couple of seconds on a slow connection. If I were going to put this into a game, I would design the UI with this in mind, to make as few calls as possible, but instead, many task in the game require many, many menus, and many calls to the server. Crafting an item frequently takes navigating a half-dozen menus and opening and closing your inventory 4 or 5 times. The tiny lag on every menu action adds up, and makes everything take so long as to be incredibly annoying.

    The levequest system one of the more painful questing systems ever put into a game. You pick up levequests in a large town, go to the correct location at which to do them, and start them up. You complete whatever goals are set for you, and you get the rewards. However, you only have a dozen or so of these quests available to you at any given time, and you can easily finish them off in a couple of hours, and then you're simply out of content until these levequests reset 36 hours later. And unfortunately, these quests are not interesting or epic. Most of them are simply requests to kill X of a specific mob and come back. Once you're done with these quests, you're simply out of stuff to do other than grind.

    And you're not allowed to grind for too long, or else your XP will begin to fall off. If this happens, the only way to gain XP at the normal rate again is to switch classes, or simply not gain XP for a while. This leaves the game in an uncomfortable state in which you can't play for very long periods of time without running out of things to do, but you miss out on opportunities to level your character as best you can without logging on for at least a couple of hours each day. It's hard to figure out what audience this game and its mechanics were intended for.

    The game keeps many of Final Fantasy XI's annoying quirks. Storyline quests which are available to you are very limited and unmarked. You have to stumble upon the correct person while you are the correct level in order to find out if you can make progress. Most fast travel is either not yet available, or you are heavily limited in your use of it. This would be less of an issue if the maps were smaller. But some maps and cities are simply gigantic mazes, with ridiculous amounts of dead space. The menu system is unique to FF games, and painful. Even as a former FFXI player, it took me over half an hour to figure out how to equip new skills.

    I can't recommend FFXIV at all in its current state. At best, it is a 'wait and see' game, and I'm not too hopeful that the issues will ever be resolved.    … Expand
  25. AmyHalf
    Nov 24, 2010
    3
    The graphics are fantastic and-- always my favorite-- the character creation had enough options to keep me happy.

    There was NO sort of tutorial to get me going and the wikis weren't much help, either. I had to talk to all of the NPCs to finally figure out what was going on/what I was supposed to do. The "guildleve" system is interesting but I still prefer vanilla quests. I was    The graphics are fantastic and-- always my favorite-- the character creation had enough options to keep me happy.

    There was NO sort of tutorial to get me going and the wikis weren't much help, either. I had to talk to all of the NPCs to finally figure out what was going on/what I was supposed to do.

    The "guildleve" system is interesting but I still prefer vanilla quests. I was bothered, too, that I could only find SIX to begin with and when finished was on my own again to run around aimlessly (which I did -not- do) until finding something and I certainly wasn't going to create another character (what, a Miner? ha) to take up the rest of the time.

    The fact that I make crafting-only characters is bizarre to me, too. I like being able to do all sorts of things with one character. It's just weird to me to login to JUST craft. Maybe that's just me.

    Fortunately I bought it at a discount and WON'T be paying a monthly fee when the free-trial period expires. They really should make this a F2P game and call it a day.    … Expand
  26. framerunner
    Mar 5, 2011
    3
    This game is pure graphics, nothing more.
    There is almost NO tutorial and you have to find out and guess the controls by yourself.
    And let's not talk about the UI...
    FF XIV is pure fail in my eyes and the only reason it got 3 Points from me is:
    Graphics = 2
    Final Fantasy = 1
  27. UWHusky
    May 25, 2011
    3
    Short and sweet:
    Pros: -Fantastic graphics, but it seems this is all they spent time on during creation of this game.
    -Good sound/music. Cons. -Horrible user interface. -No auction house. As it stands it is virtually impossible to find items that you wish to buy, and just as hard to sell them. -Horrid lag, even with a very good computer and a great internet connection. -SE lost a    Short and sweet:
    Pros: -Fantastic graphics, but it seems this is all they spent time on during creation of this game.
    -Good sound/music.
    Cons.
    -Horrible user interface. -No auction house. As it stands it is virtually impossible to find items that you wish to buy, and just as hard to sell them. -Horrid lag, even with a very good computer and a great internet connection.
    -SE lost a point just for the fact that they have ALREADY CREATED an online game, and you'd think they would have learned some of the mistakes they made from the past game. Instead they tried to start from scratch and just mucked it up. Played for a free trial and dumped the game. Waste of money.    … Expand
  28. StoryBored
    Aug 31, 2013
    3
    Well, I have to say I've had every error that anyone has encountered on this game up until now. Unable to login, instances crashing and dropping me, the game crashing unexpectedly and being unable to log back in, limited full servers and poor connectivity when I do connect. I understood at the end of the Beta, I even understood during the early access, but now we're several days into theWell, I have to say I've had every error that anyone has encountered on this game up until now. Unable to login, instances crashing and dropping me, the game crashing unexpectedly and being unable to log back in, limited full servers and poor connectivity when I do connect. I understood at the end of the Beta, I even understood during the early access, but now we're several days into the actual release and STILL several days away from a *potential* solution.

    I wish I could expand more upon the gameplay so far, but getting up through level 20 so far is the standard MMO fanfare. Good graphics, a familiar interface, lackluster story and characters, and quests you can play with your friends. Most of what this game has to offer is no different at all from what it's competitors have except the FF name. Nothing besides the graphics so far indicating the game is anything other than average, and all the issues I've experienced have dragged the rating far below that. Avoid this game like the plague AT LEAST until mid September 2013 and even then, proceed with caution.

    There was not a sufficient amount of testing and preparation on this game by the development team, period.    … Expand
  29. JonnyBigBoss
    Oct 4, 2010
    2
    It has been about four years since I began waiting for this game. Originally known as Rapture, the game was said to be the next generation of MMORPG. I would like to preface this by saying I have played more than half of the Final Fantasy titles and beaten them, and on the other hand, I have played a handful of MMORPGs including FFXI.

    The Good: - Graphics: The game looks fantastic.    It has been about four years since I began waiting for this game. Originally known as Rapture, the game was said to be the next generation of MMORPG. I would like to preface this by saying I have played more than half of the Final Fantasy titles and beaten them, and on the other hand, I have played a handful of MMORPGs including FFXI.

    The Good:
    - Graphics: The game looks fantastic. Characters are alive and beautiful, and the armor in the game is incredibly detailed. I'd say this game has the best graphics of any MMORPG to date.
    - Sound: While not one of the better Final Fantasy soundtracks, the music is definitely solid. Sound effects from attacks to footsteps are very convincing and add to the atmosphere of the game.

    The Bad:
    - Performance: This game simply isn't optimized. Many players, including myself, have powerful rigs but still chug along. Granted the graphics are great, but the scalability is deplorable. If you don't have a recently-upgraded PC, don't bother.
    - Interface: I think the best way to sum this up is to say the decade-old Final Fantasy XI had a better UI. Navigation of the interface is unbearable at times, and adds minutes of wasted time. The game has been developed with the console in mind, so navigation with a controller is optimal, but is still incredibly tedious and archaic. You can't sort your interface, and everything seems to take twice as many steps as it should. Want to sell some items? Well, you'll have to go through a handful of dialogue boxes just to sell 1 item. Games for the last few years have been using what we call the "right click" on the mouse. Why doesn't this game in 2010 have it? Oh, and targeting is incredibly bad.
    - Lag: Inputs take seconds to execute. This adds to a "clunky" experience both in combat and out. Yes, the game is new, but Square Enix should have at least allowed client-side interactions. Everything needs to be communicated to the server in Japan meaning everything you do has to be registered on the server before it executes. Frustrating to say the least.
    - Gameplay: To enter combat, you have to press a button to take out your weapon. This leaves you standing in 1 place for about 2-3 seconds while your character pulls out your weapon. Animations are slow and must be completed, so if you want to use abilities quickly in combat, good luck. The combat isn't very fun either. Abilities aren't very interesting or varied, and interactions are clunky.
    - No tutorials: This game makes you feel lost, very lost. Square Enix doesn't seem to have taken the precautions to help people figure the game out. When crafting items, there are no recipes, so you'll have to use pen and paper. During missions, you'll be left guessing who to talk to. Instructions are nowhere to be found. Heck, nobody even tells you how to switch classes, you'll have to refer to the internet for that.
    - Controls: No key mapping for the keyboard means you're stuck with some ridiculous keybindings set by Square Enix. Controls are easily the worst in any MMORPG in the last decade and reek of 20th century.
    - Content: Chocobos are in the game but no way to ride or interact with them. Grinding. Lots of grinding. Quests with no purpose. You can't see your party members on the map. Very few search options ingame. No /invite command. The list goes on and on.
    - Market system: No auction house. If you want a specific item, you'll be left begging in /shout and searching through hundreds if not thousands of bazaars to find the item.

    This game is inconvenient. Very inconvenient. It feels like a game from over 10 years ago but with modern graphics. This game was advertised as being welcoming to casuals, but running around takes ages and the combat is slow. Leveling takes an eternity and the lack of direction is evident. This is the most disappointing game I've played in years. I don't recommend it to anyone.    … Expand
  30. Liszt
    Sep 30, 2010
    2
    I bought the game simply because I'm a fan (but not so much anymore) of the Final Fantasy series. I was hoping FFXIV would be a step forward from FFXI (as I really didn't like FFXI at all). Unfortunately, it isn't. In fact, it almost feels like a step back. Yes, graphics are nice, but the UI is just horrid. Everything feels clunky and slow. Developers certainly didn't haveI bought the game simply because I'm a fan (but not so much anymore) of the Final Fantasy series. I was hoping FFXIV would be a step forward from FFXI (as I really didn't like FFXI at all). Unfortunately, it isn't. In fact, it almost feels like a step back. Yes, graphics are nice, but the UI is just horrid. Everything feels clunky and slow. Developers certainly didn't have user-friendliness in mind when they planned FFXIV.

    Lack of quests and content is also appalling. You get around 15 minutes of playable content every 36 hours (Guildleve system). There is no auction house as of now (I don't know if one is planned), so getting new items and trading is a NIGHTMARE. Believe me.

    For hardcore fans only, and even then, I'm sure SE just hurt themselves badly by releasing this unfinished and incomplete product.    … Expand
prev
Page:

Awards & Rankings

23
#23 Most Discussed PC Game of 2010
27
#27 Most Shared PC Game of 2010

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
49

Generally unfavorable reviews - based on 26 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 26
  2. Mixed: 10 out of 26
  3. Negative: 13 out of 26
  1. PC Games (Russia)
    Mar 21, 2011
    50
    Positively, there is nothing to do in Final Fantasy XIV at the moment. It's not even close to a completed product. [Feb 2011, p.82]
  2. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Jan 15, 2011
    40
    MMORPG with great potential is sunken by fatal bugs and errors – first comes a catastrophic interface followed by the absence of player-to-player communication. [Issue#199]
  3. games(TM)
    Jan 11, 2011
    40
    For hardware nuts, Final Fantasy obsessives and PS3 owners, FFXIV does offer a fairly distinctive MMO experience. [Christmas 2010, p.94]
See all critic reviews »