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
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  1. Neiloch
    Oct 6, 2010
    10
    Funny to see so many people hate the UI when its exceedingly simple, more so than other popular MMO UI's. If using the keyboard you just press the Home key and boom, a menu for every window in the game, even a top section for context sensitive options. It's just that easy.

    I'm not a fan of the market system, and can't imagine it not getting some overhauls with the amount of pressure they    Funny to see so many people hate the UI when its exceedingly simple, more so than other popular MMO UI's. If using the keyboard you just press the Home key and boom, a menu for every window in the game, even a top section for context sensitive options. It's just that easy.

    I'm not a fan of the market system, and can't imagine it not getting some overhauls with the amount of pressure they are receiving. Seems a lot of people's dislikes are directly related to the fact that the systems aren't typical of the WoW clones. People complain they can't find the right vendors because they don't have a label, but then the weapon vendor has his own stall and is surrounded by guess what, WEAPONS. The systems and methods are atypical so people have a hard time getting used to them, but they work fine.    … Expand
  2. jade
    Oct 6, 2010
    2
    UI: a slow interface requiring multiple clicks to navigate wasting time

    Crafting: From the first level you notice dependencies on almost every other crafting job and materials that you have to spend hours tracking down. Repair: requires exotic materials and many crafting jobs to repair your own gear, NPC is overpriced and cannot repair all your gear. Combat: Lag/no auto    UI: a slow interface requiring multiple clicks to navigate wasting time

    Crafting: From the first level you notice dependencies on almost every other crafting job and materials that you have to spend hours tracking down.

    Repair: requires exotic materials and many crafting jobs to repair your own gear, NPC is overpriced and cannot repair all your gear.

    Combat: Lag/no auto attack/Slow/Targeting issues (click attack and wait 2 seconds to see if you attacked). And then the chipmunk kills you. Oh do you feel weak. Combat became easier as I got the hang of the system and re-issued my commands over and over. Definately understand why there's no PvP.... I feel like I write my character a postal note saying please wand attack again, then give it to a courier and /pray the courier actually gets to my character before she's gnawed to death by a fluffy critter.

    Lag: despite a killer connection running into a room doesn't even load static NPCs for a long time making quests difficult (am I in the right place?)

    Inventory: 80 slots, cannot sort, cannot "consolidate" split stacks easily, very tedious.

    Economy: N/A - right now if you want to buy a piece of crafted gear you either get to run around shouting all over cities and craft points or visit the retainers in the wards. Imagine 1000 people in a room and 1 person has something useful, you need to do a lengthy/slow interaction with each one to find the item you want (if its even there)

    Graphics: Pretty, would be enjoyable if the rest of the experience was.

    Music: Could be better

    Quests: wow - only can do X quests per couple days. And they're the same repeatable ones.

    Plot: NPC's with screens filled with text. Very little voice acting. If I ever met someone who spewed 3 pages of text /wout letting me read I'd shot them, however not an option here :(

    Music: Music: Music: Music: Music: Music: Music: (am I getting repetitive?)

    Forums: They appear to be all rants. I see almost no promising posts from SE. I wonder if the forums are being read.

    As a big fan of MMO's I am really sad to score FFXIV at 2 - I can /pray it gets better, but at the moment I'm writting the expense off as a loss and canceling my account. I had Realm First achievements in Warcraft along with 6 level 80 toons, I've played many many many MMO's including FFXI which I actually enjoyed.    … Expand
  3. Synthaxus
    Oct 6, 2010
    1
    Having been a fan of FFXI since it's NA release as well as owning every FF game to date (13 was a let down...) I was excited for FFXIV. Myself and a few LS members from FFXI Bought the game and rolled on Besaid.

    Sadly we were greeted with issues from the start... Setting up an account was pretty painful (not as painful as dealing with PlayOnline, but a pretty close second). Patching up    Having been a fan of FFXI since it's NA release as well as owning every FF game to date (13 was a let down...) I was excited for FFXIV. Myself and a few LS members from FFXI Bought the game and rolled on Besaid.

    Sadly we were greeted with issues from the start...

    Setting up an account was pretty painful (not as painful as dealing with PlayOnline, but a pretty close second). Patching up the game uses probably the most annoying torrent system I have ever used.

    Once in game performance was OK, but the UI lag was pretty bad. The menu navigation is best described as tedious, as pretty much everything in the game requires you to sift through several menus and menu layers to get anything accomplished (add in the UI lag and you get frustrated really quick)

    Combat: I have read everywhere from various fans how the combat is deep and engaging... I have no idea what game they are playing, but it is quite the opposite. Slow and cumbersome come to mind when describing the combat system in FFXIV. Melee combat isn't too slow, but slow enough. Spell casting on the other hand ends up being a lot of *Click target, click spell, click spell again to actually use the spell (sort of a confirmation that 'yes, I want to cast this') and then wait 5 to 20 seconds for the skill to go off, rinse repeat*.

    Character advancement is pretty poor. You are presented with 8 guild leves every 36 hours, as well as a few local leves. Once these leves are completed (about 3 hours tops at around PL 22) the rest of your time will be spent grinding XP from mobs (which are few and far between and mostly controlled by grind parties) or crafting (which can be really expensive and even more tedious due in part to the plethora of menus/sub menus you have to trudge through for each step).

    The community in the game is pretty elitist overall. While there are a few players who are willing to help others out or answer a few questions, a majority of the players we encountered usually replied with a 'This isn't WoW' or just totally ignored us and our question.

    Basically after several days of playing we decided to head back to FFXI. We were going to burn out the rest of our 30 days that came with the CE, but then decided it just wasn't worth the headache.

    If you are interested in the game, grab a buddy key from a friend or wait until the have a free trial. I would not recommend buying the game unless you have tried it first.    … Expand
  4. 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
  5. nirvycn
    Oct 5, 2010
    2
    At the present, there is little to reccomend about FFXIV. It has little to no content barring a few repeatable daily quests, and 3 mainy quest lines. It looks pretty, however pretty doesnt make the game fun. This is no FFXI, in fact compared to most MMO's its a little inadequate, the UI is slow, buggy and cumbersome, the content is severely lacking, once you hit about rank 23-24 there areAt the present, there is little to reccomend about FFXIV. It has little to no content barring a few repeatable daily quests, and 3 mainy quest lines. It looks pretty, however pretty doesnt make the game fun. This is no FFXI, in fact compared to most MMO's its a little inadequate, the UI is slow, buggy and cumbersome, the content is severely lacking, once you hit about rank 23-24 there are no longer any mobs, or zones you can level in. The servers lag, and the chat system is appalling, the servers are like ghost towns community wise, and the linkpearl system is getting old.

    That said the game has potential, but needs a year or so of content to make it worth buying, as it stands, even the most casual will get to rank 25 or so in a few weeks, and thats where the content and zones abruptly stop.

    Stay away for now, but come back in a year and see how the expansion makes the game play.    … Expand
  6. Jae
    Oct 5, 2010
    10
    Game doesn't deserve all the hate it is getting. The game plays nice and looks great. It is lacking in content, which is obviously going to be provided throughout the life of the game. I hated the keyboard/mouse controls from FFXI but am perfectly fine with them here. Takes a powerful computer to run. Has real potential.. but a lot of it is going to hang in the air until SE releasesGame doesn't deserve all the hate it is getting. The game plays nice and looks great. It is lacking in content, which is obviously going to be provided throughout the life of the game. I hated the keyboard/mouse controls from FFXI but am perfectly fine with them here. Takes a powerful computer to run. Has real potential.. but a lot of it is going to hang in the air until SE releases patches. It has more potential then any mmorpg I have seen released in the last 5 or so years.… Expand
  7. thegrave
    Oct 5, 2010
    0
    Worst peice of crap I have ever played in my life in concerns of an MMO. This is a warning to those that are thinking of getting this game. They have a fatigue system which limits your play. The UI is absolutely horrible too the point that its a stuggle to play fluidly. There aren't any servers in the United States so the lag is horrible. The only nice thing about the game is theWorst peice of crap I have ever played in my life in concerns of an MMO. This is a warning to those that are thinking of getting this game. They have a fatigue system which limits your play. The UI is absolutely horrible too the point that its a stuggle to play fluidly. There aren't any servers in the United States so the lag is horrible. The only nice thing about the game is the graphics. Which aren't even close to enough to save the title. There aren't any REAL quests. only 8 simple run and kill "x" creatures a day leves quests. There is no content in this peice of flaming turd. This is a warning to you. Don't waste $85 like I did for the SE box. Don't buy the standard box. Just stay away from this title. I have never been so angry at a game in my life. I can't believe this unfinished turd was released to the public. It should be criminal. And too all of those that try to promote the game. Shame on you for making people waste money on a game that they are going to rage quit like half the population already has in less than a week. Metacritic should have allowed us to post reviews when the SE was released so the standard edition peeps could warn them of this ripoff. And as far as the company that already posted its 84 review. **** Code Central, shame on you. You have no taste and are betraying the customers in the gaming market. People turn to review companies to lead them in the right direction. I should start my own review company that actually serves the fans and warns them of such horrible titles. Enough said.… Expand
  8. bloodychill
    Oct 5, 2010
    8
    Graphics are top notch, user interface is a bit wonky and really needs a gamepad and it's not going to register with people used to playing WoW (the game by its very nature works on a different paradigm). It'll be most friendly to people who played FFXI, fans of the series already, and people who are looking for an MMO that's just a little new and different.
  9. 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
  10. 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
  11. 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
  12. p0ltergeist
    Oct 4, 2010
    2
    The graphics are the only redeeming quality to this game. The game is missing everything that you would come to expect from a modern MMO. And worst of all, there is nothing to do but GRIND. The VAST majority of quests are just "kill X of monster Y" or "Collect X items by killing monster Y". And even then, you can only do a tiny amount of these quests because they are locked out on a 48The graphics are the only redeeming quality to this game. The game is missing everything that you would come to expect from a modern MMO. And worst of all, there is nothing to do but GRIND. The VAST majority of quests are just "kill X of monster Y" or "Collect X items by killing monster Y". And even then, you can only do a tiny amount of these quests because they are locked out on a 48 hour timer. Trust me people, steer clear of this game until AT LEAST the first expansion. If it even makes it that far.… Expand
  13. Lansow
    Oct 4, 2010
    0
    Garbage. Absolute garbage. The lack of hardware mouse cursor, xp restricted on a timer, sluggish UI, far too much reliance on server side processing, unintuitive gameplay. I'm sorely disappointed in SE here.

    Pretty graphics do not a solid game make. 0/10 for SE. I was so looking forward to this. Only a completely out-to-lunch JRPG knucklehead designer would release such tripe to the    Garbage. Absolute garbage. The lack of hardware mouse cursor, xp restricted on a timer, sluggish UI, far too much reliance on server side processing, unintuitive gameplay. I'm sorely disappointed in SE here.

    Pretty graphics do not a solid game make.

    0/10 for SE. I was so looking forward to this. Only a completely out-to-lunch JRPG knucklehead designer would release such tripe to the NA market. For shame, SE, for shame.    … Expand
  14. Wildarms567
    Oct 4, 2010
    6
    Pretty much all of the reviews are accurate, albeit the scores themselves are scewed. All the problems that they complain about in the low score reviews are there, as well as the good points from the high reviews. The crafting system is robust and involved, requiring players to write down the recipes they learn from leaves(or look them up online). The graphics are top notch, and I have yetPretty much all of the reviews are accurate, albeit the scores themselves are scewed. All the problems that they complain about in the low score reviews are there, as well as the good points from the high reviews. The crafting system is robust and involved, requiring players to write down the recipes they learn from leaves(or look them up online). The graphics are top notch, and I have yet to experience any graphical hiccups on my rig. The game IS casual friendly, but not in the way people usually use the term. Basically what they meant when they said casual in reference to this game, were people who don't have the time to play very much during the week won't fall hopelessly behind. The way the game is set up is so that the casual player will progress almost just as much as the hardcore player. You can freely change jobs at will by equipping the jobs weapon type, and you can mix and match abilities from different jobs, which can turn out to be interesting later on down the road. Now for the cons, and my oh my are they abundant. First and foremost is the menu system. Anything you do in the game requires you to go through a menu, this wouldn't be so bad if the game wasn't so unresponsive. From combat to menus there is a huge lag time between when the player clicks an action and when the action is carried out. For combat this kills twitch gameplay where well timed moves can win the day, as all you can do is pray that your moves will go off in time to save you. For crafters this means over half the time spent crafting is done sitting through menus waiting for the next option to load. When a game is so reliant on crafting as a gameplay feature this is unacceptable to me. While we are on crafting we have to also include the market system. It's obvious they wanted to hamper RMT's with this game, but IMO using the free to play style player markets was not the correct way to go. Basically you or your hired retainer can sell items on you, and there are several market wards set up to house all the people who want to sell things. Problem 1: It is an unorganized mess, players are all just scattered around in the different markets along the main walking path. There is no search feature as of yet ( but one is being implemented later I hear) so finding a specific piece of gear or mat can take hours on end of searching through endless people only to discover no one is selling the mat you require. While I do not like the AH system that permeates most MMOS the FTP market system is even worse and I do not understand why they thought that would be a good idea for this game. The anima system allows you to teleport to locations you have been before, but don't get excited because you will blow through your points in around a week if your seriously lving a job, and you only get one point back every 4 or so hours. I hate when developers try to extend play time by doing useless things such as this, and to all the people saying this all was done by design think of it this way. Does it contribute to the gameplay or is it just there to be a timesink to milk more money out of the subscribers? The chat system is also incomplete at this point with no global chat and people only talking to buy/sell goods. The guild system is also incomplete at the time of writing, with the companies they were talking about not yet implemented. There are not many quests in this game as of yet, and you will find yourself doing the same ones every time your able(like a 2 day wait before you can do leaves) once you have finished you tri weekly leave quests, you will spend the rest of your time grinding till they reset again, which will be a pro for some and a con for others; I will leave it to you to interpret if thats good or bad. Lastly are the glitches, which while can be fixed I am doing this review on the state of the game currently not based on promises of the future. So far I have experienced a great deal of glitches in gamepley from mobs constantly resetting and regen hp while still hitting you to people appearing dead on my screen and not being able to target them, which is devastating if you are trying to heal people (I am a healer). For the past week I was not able to send tells and people in party chat and linkshell chat were coming up unnamed. This is something they addressed a week ago, but then came back again a few days later. Sometimes the quests do not update, especially if you kill a fleeing mob on a guildleve before he gets to the ambush location. Basically to sum up, This game does show promise, but only if they listen to their player base and fix some of the numerous gameplay problems. If you are thinking of buying this I would wait a month or two and see how the dev team responds to problems with the game. early adopters are sure to have a frustrating time out of the gate on this one.… Expand
  15. 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.
  16. 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
  17. Scritty
    Oct 4, 2010
    1
    Firstly, could people stop assuming the negative reviews are all becasue "we don't get it" and "we just want an "easy mode" game" That's really patronising and in most cases completely untrue.

    Check out all the review sites on the net. Although their are few "pro" reviews now, there are literally thousands of user reviews, the majority of them rating the game the wrong side of average.    Firstly, could people stop assuming the negative reviews are all becasue "we don't get it" and "we just want an "easy mode" game" That's really patronising and in most cases completely untrue.

    Check out all the review sites on the net. Although their are few "pro" reviews now, there are literally thousands of user reviews, the majority of them rating the game the wrong side of average.
    Given that all the fan boys voted this game a 10, then you'll see it's struggling to average 5.5 on most sites despite this.
    Why?
    Because the menu system is broekn (and no patch is going to change that any time soon)
    The lag (not people's porcessors or GFX card _ but the LAG is terrible. I get almost 50 frames a second, but a ping of over 1000 millisenconds constantly.
    The gathering pro's a re great, the crafting ones are hit and miss, some like them - many don't (they are - again - dull)
    The need to have the same animation every time you speak to certain NPC's - with the associated time wasted.

    I know the game is well animated - it looks wonderful. BUT GET ON WITH IT ALREADY, i have seen theis over long cut scene of the vendor turning to notive me a hundred times -it takes too long, and I don't want to see it again.

    I LOVE complex MMORPG's. EvE (which is VASTLY more complex than FFXIV will ever be) is my all time favourite.
    I DON'T WANT an easy mode game.
    But then again, I don't want to struggle through half a dozen menus just to select an item to sell or trade.
    The GUI is broken, the PING is dreadful for none Japan players, and there are start up bugs.
    The startup bugs will go, I can forgive them, all MMORPG's have them.

    But the intrusive animation, overly complex GUI and horrendous PING will probably be with the game forever.    … Expand
  18. yamers
    Oct 3, 2010
    1
    ATROCIOUS. This game is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay behind our day and age. Square Enix doesn't understand what they are doing, they are still stuck in 2000 when it comes to making MMA...actualy I think they want back in time. Why did WoW do so well? it was fun and refreshing for players. Everything in FFXIV is a tedius task that is built to annoy the living crap out of a player.
  19. maettsy
    Oct 3, 2010
    2
    Still playing, level 25 atm.
    Rushed release, anyone who doesn't think so isn't 20+.
    SE needs to rehaul a lot of things, long time fan of their franchises but terrible choices here.
    Anyone who defends moronic decisions around their designs is in denial.
  20. Sunshinetrooper
    Oct 3, 2010
    6
    Satisfyingly different, promising but rough around the edges, that is how I would sum up FFXIV.

    Pros: Beautiful game Excellent macro system Variety Multiclassing and Multiskilling Saves equipment on exit *g* If you get that reference.... Doesn't patronise the user with how to do everything A true TEAM game, its all about the partying and working together Story Cons UI is currently    Satisfyingly different, promising but rough around the edges, that is how I would sum up FFXIV.

    Pros:
    Beautiful game
    Excellent macro system
    Variety Multiclassing and Multiskilling
    Saves equipment on exit *g* If you get that reference....
    Doesn't patronise the user with how to do everything
    A true TEAM game, its all about the partying and working together
    Story

    Cons

    UI is currently clunky, it takes getting used to. Lag in battle with animations, not horrendous just annoying
    Accessibility of information is not easy, all the info on the game is out there but finding it is harder!


    Summary:

    This game has alot of potential and is very different to WAR/WOW/LOTRO which will put off many people I'm guessing. However if you stick with this game you are rewarded with variety, open ended game play and generally a fun time.

    Do note, this game is about working together with others, forming a linkshell/company (guilds), it isn't a solo affair and why should it be, it is a massive online multiplayer game- go out and work with others!

    6/10, currently losing points due to the bugs which i'm confident will be patched!    … Expand
  21. Aeliene
    Oct 3, 2010
    0
    Absolutely gorgeous! I just wish I could figure out how to play it.
    The fact that (1) the instruction booklet has zero information about actual gameplay and (2) that no strategy guide company even attempted to make a guide for this game - should tell you everything you need to know about it.
  22. ottomatic
    Oct 2, 2010
    6
    This game could have been really something, but it has far too many problems to make it a game that I would strongly recommend, especially when so many potentially more enjoyable games are coming with the next year or so (The Old Republic, TERRA, Rift, Earthrise, World of Darkness, and Guild Wars 2). For whatever reason the developers of this game decided against including basic qualityThis game could have been really something, but it has far too many problems to make it a game that I would strongly recommend, especially when so many potentially more enjoyable games are coming with the next year or so (The Old Republic, TERRA, Rift, Earthrise, World of Darkness, and Guild Wars 2). For whatever reason the developers of this game decided against including basic quality of life systems that worked for their previous MMO. There is no mail system so if you or a friend needs an item for crafting, or for whatever reason, you need to meet up at the cost of either time or precious anima (point system that regenerates painfully slow). Which leads to another problem. Travel is limited and can be time consuming. Yes the environments look great, but one quickly grows tired of it after having to run from city to city. And hey, maybe when you get to each city you might want check out the local economy. Or not. There is no auction house system and the centralized marketplace for each city is a disorganized mess made up of player bazaars.

    Some of the 10 reviews (really, a 10? That has to be in eqaction to the 0/1s) make mention the game doesn't suffer from lag. That's ridiculous. I'm on a server where the population barely tops out at 2400 (kind of low for a new major release. Make of that as you will.) and it seems like the game can barely handle it. Even when the population well below the 2000 mark the controls and laggy UI is still noticiable.

    Let's say you don't mind any of that. In fact, you probably think Square Enix is onto something here and you want to enter the world of Eorzea. One thing that has to be said is that if you come into this game looking for at least some decent action you're going to be very disappointed. As I mentioned earlier there is no auction house, and if you don't find what you're looking for in a bazaar, guess what? You're crafting! You don't want to? Everyone's doing it! I mean everyone. I guess they have to though. Oh, did you know there's a fatigue system in the game? You didn't? Basically, you can only level a class for so long until you get diminishing experience points then it's either switch classes (yo, crafting class. You can't resist.) or take a break. For those of you who would rather take it slow and just craft or gather materials in the game's world, you might actually like this game. If you can stand the laggy UI. For those of you who twitch angrily at the thought of having to craft, having the length of your playtime decided for you by someone else, archaic controls and slow interfaces, poor design choices ("Oh, god, Activison is readying Cataclysm! Put it out now!) and at the thought of having to sit through a typical Oh-soJapanese-it-hurts fantasy story, you should seriously pass on this.    … Expand
  23. 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
  24. Jabborwacky
    Oct 2, 2010
    2
    I've played this in both the open beta and on release, and I've never seen a game that has come out with so many flaws and problems. Just like FFXI, the entire basis of the game is the advancement of a linear storyline... and that's it. The game boasts impressive in-game art, graphics, and cinematics, but the gameplay is boring and repetitive. Once you get through your first few startingI've played this in both the open beta and on release, and I've never seen a game that has come out with so many flaws and problems. Just like FFXI, the entire basis of the game is the advancement of a linear storyline... and that's it. The game boasts impressive in-game art, graphics, and cinematics, but the gameplay is boring and repetitive. Once you get through your first few starting quests, you are left to do repeatable daily quests in one of three categories: Battle, crafting, and gathering. So basically you are left doing daily quests in a very similar fashion to World of Warcraft's endgame play, only that is what you will be doing for the entire length of the game. To make matters worse, the combat controls make working in a group a pain, as they do not allow for point and click casting. A redundant target select is built into the game so that people with gamepads can keep their eye on one target while healing people around it, but this only complicates PC controls.
    The crafting in this game is a carbon copy of the Final Fantasy XI crystal crafting system with an unintuitive mini-game added on top. You have no recipe list, so you must look up all the recipes online at their website and you also have no way to tell if the item is too difficult for you to craft at your given skill. This also means you must manually put in all the materials for the item into a grid of boxes before you start crafting. Once at the mini-game, new players will be left scratching their heads in frustration as they vainly try to learn the crafting mini-game with a complete lack tutorials. Sure, if the player is smart enough to pick up the crafting tutorial quest back at the city he will have something to work with, but the tutorial fails to explain the intricacies of the game, such as what the pretty light on your crafting tool represents. Also, when you fail at making an item, all the ingredients you meticulously collected are destroyed, only adding to player frustration. The gathering mini-game trades the frustration for boredom, and is just as unintuitive as the crafting mini-game. Thankfully the introductory gathering quest is helpful here, but "hot and cold" mini-games belong in the realm of things to do on long car trips when we don't have advanced electronic devices available to us, not in a video game. At least not in the unintuitive, and rather dull application it is applied here. The player market is a mess as well. Square went with a Bazaar system as opposed to an Auction House, and since the economy is mostly player run (think like 90%), this ends up creating a convoluted mess. You will be stuck searching through an army of retainers (the npcs that player hire out to put their stuff on) for close to an hour before finding what you want. The costs will also be either out the roof or ludicrously low due to their being no way for players to gauge the marketplace in order to set a good price for their goods.
    The game's physics engine is a rip straight out of Final Fantasy XI as well, meaning poor interaction with the environment and no swimming or jumping. You are guaranteed to always be on the ground in this game. The only improvement that this game boasts over its predecessor is the fact that it allows for solo play. This is nothing to be proud about, however, since that has been standard issue in MMOs for at least the last 5 years. So basically we have a game system that is a carbon copy of the Final Fantasy XI system with the only difference being repeatable quests and solo play. The only thing to look forward to is the storyline, but we've moved far beyond linear stories with games such as Baldur's Gate, Dragon's Age, and Fallout. Nothing to be proud of here folks, and certainly not worth wasting your money on. Pretty graphics give this two stars, but ancient game-play mechanics on top of endless player frustration gives this a 0 in game-play category.
    2 out of 10 for this one folks.    … Expand
  25. 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
  26. CitizenSwift
    Oct 1, 2010
    1
    From installation to patching to account setup to playing... Everything about this game has been painful. Far less than I'd expect from an established developer.
  27. 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
  28. 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
  29. richitt
    Oct 1, 2010
    10
    This isn't a turnkey MMO as Square Enix doesn't hold your hand with tutorials and the like. But, for gamers with a non-linear vision of what a game should be, FFXIV is engrossing-- taking a decent level of commitment to to the game's various modes of play-- gathering, crafting, shopkeeping and, to be sure, battle. It's still too early to tell what the game will really be like given theThis isn't a turnkey MMO as Square Enix doesn't hold your hand with tutorials and the like. But, for gamers with a non-linear vision of what a game should be, FFXIV is engrossing-- taking a decent level of commitment to to the game's various modes of play-- gathering, crafting, shopkeeping and, to be sure, battle. It's still too early to tell what the game will really be like given the player-driven economy and everyone's limited exposure to date, but directionally, it's a solid game with a lot of promise. I'm hooked.… Expand
  30. Tubie
    Oct 1, 2010
    0
    No search feature, no mail system, no AH and no support for party play are just a few of the things that are broken with this game. Stay far away from this, at least until they release it on the PS3. PC players are paying to play a game still in Alpha stage. I am slowing but steadily losing trust in SE a company I once admired.
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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 »