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. 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
  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. Ranmauzo
    Oct 7, 2010
    2
    They rushed this game out the door so fast they didn't have time to bribe their usual gaming websites.

    - Played FFXI since launch and loved it - Has been waiting for this game since the project rapture tech demo they released in around 2006 - Invested $600 in PC upgrades to be able to max this game out - Played the Beta and thought things were going to get better once retail hit - Bought    They rushed this game out the door so fast they didn't have time to bribe their usual gaming websites.

    - Played FFXI since launch and loved it - Has been waiting for this game since the project rapture tech demo they released in around 2006
    - Invested $600 in PC upgrades to be able to max this game out - Played the Beta and thought things were going to get better once retail hit
    - Bought the Collector's Edition gleefully

    Even I can't deny this game is complete and utter ****
    I've tried to lie to myself, tell myself it's going to get better, but the Square MMO team are complete frackups, as clearly laid out by FFXI. Somehow, they managed to make a game that takes all the good of FFXI and turns it to **** and then took a huge steaming **** on top of it, and put a cherry on top for the beautiful graphics.

    This game is abysmal. It's a complete failure. I'm a fraking Finfan fanboy for fracksake, and I can't stand this pile of horse**** Here's to hoping Guild Wars or that bland looking Starwars MMO can finally pull me away from the cesspool that is WoW. As for this game, I just hope they shut down the servers quickly before too many people find out about it so it isn't etched into everyone's minds as the biggest failure in MMO history.    … Expand
  4. AnimusSadow
    Oct 9, 2010
    2
    After navigating through the mind numbingly complex process of actually setting up your account, you get the choice of creating your character (you only get one, unless you want to pay more money, so make sure your friends are all on the same server), and watch what is a stunningly beautiful cutscene with good voice acting. After the cut scene, however, you're basically dropped off in theAfter navigating through the mind numbingly complex process of actually setting up your account, you get the choice of creating your character (you only get one, unless you want to pay more money, so make sure your friends are all on the same server), and watch what is a stunningly beautiful cutscene with good voice acting. After the cut scene, however, you're basically dropped off in the city with a "good luck" The graphics are well done, too well, perhaps, as even some high end gaming computers will struggle with it to be even semi-smooth. The sound has two settings, off and loud, and gets very repetitive very fast. The user-interface is slow and horrendously designed, to change weapons you have to open the main menu, and once you find the gear section, it doesnt only bring up items that can be placed in said equipment slot, it brings up your whole inventory, so you have to scroll through and find what you want. The main quest line, which seems interesting, has quests that are too few and far between, and it relies on a system of "levequests", of which you can only do 8 every 36 hours. These are your standard MMO style quests, go here and kill x monsters, but leaves nothing to backstory about the world, or stories about characters, or anything.
    The crafting system, which Square Enix has clearly placed a lot of emphasis on, is neat and refreshing at first, but quickly becomes exceptionally irritating. You have to either have their players website open and alt-tab to view recipes, or write them down yourself, as the game provides no in game recipe book. Another downside to this, is that the only way to get gear is either to buy it from someone else or craft it yourself, the emphasis being on crafting it yourself. This can be a horribly confusing and aggrivating process, as after farming for materials for hours, you finally go to make said item, and it breaks while you are crafting it, costing you both the materials and the time you spent gathering them. Overall, while FFXIV is a visually beautiful game, the poorly designed menus, slow and shoddy targetting system, the almos impossible to read maps, the over-emphasis on an insanely coplex crafting system, and overall lack of feeling like you are actually a part of the world make this game not only feel much more like work than a game, its an insult to the many great games of the Final Fantasy series. I wouldn't recommend this game to anyone    … Expand
  5. RobbazKing
    Oct 9, 2010
    2
    This game falls so extremely short on all aspects, poor gameplay, poor quests, poor dialogue, poor interface, poor environment at least the graphics and music is good.

    But the game is simply bad, sure graphics are nice but all the maps are like puzzles you will run past the same scenery like 15+ times, monsters are few and bugged not to mention the overall time it takes to kill one is    This game falls so extremely short on all aspects, poor gameplay, poor quests, poor dialogue, poor interface, poor environment at least the graphics and music is good.

    But the game is simply bad, sure graphics are nice but all the maps are like puzzles you will run past the same scenery like 15+ times, monsters are few and bugged not to mention the overall time it takes to kill one is 25-40seconds and this is your basic newbie mob. The game runs at a snail speed and it's so linear that you can't skip anything. The crafting system is decent if you care to figure it out.

    I thought FF13 was boring, but this simply sets a new high. I Probably never watch on a final fantasy game the same way any more. Even free asian mmorpg's can beat this crap!    … Expand
  6. Enchufado
    Oct 13, 2010
    2
    3 points por graphics,-1 point because resources optimization doesn't exist in this game.The rest is very poor.The worst numeric final fantasy.Compared with other mmorpg,ffivx is boring,frustrating,and very expensive,and doesn't have any innovations.What a waste of time.
  7. Kinlay
    Oct 21, 2010
    2
    I just don't understand how a company as large as SE can make such a glaringly flawed game, it has already been mentioned many times but the flaws far outweigh the and positives. The atrocious UI was my biggest gripe, I can't even begin to describe how much I loathed it. I do believe there is potential but for a game to be released like this is an insult to gamers, shame on SE.
  8. Lusterredux
    Nov 6, 2010
    2
    I wanted to love XIV, I really did. I bought this game knowing there was a huge chance it would be hard to get into and a major timesink like FFXI was. In fact, I WANTED that. I played FFXI for over 4 years and those years were the highlight of my gaming history. But what I got instead was some terrible trainwreck of a game that falls short of any expectations one could possibly have.I wanted to love XIV, I really did. I bought this game knowing there was a huge chance it would be hard to get into and a major timesink like FFXI was. In fact, I WANTED that. I played FFXI for over 4 years and those years were the highlight of my gaming history. But what I got instead was some terrible trainwreck of a game that falls short of any expectations one could possibly have. Bogged down by menus for the sake of menus, leveling that somehow manages to suck the life out of you, LACK OF AN AH, subsequent failure of the bazaar system, the list goes on.

    I almost want to rant for this game wasting my time. Why is it 100x worse than it's predecessor? Why weren't the flaws and annoyances worked out during the beta (which I took part in)? Why, why, why? I feel like I should take SE to court for defacing the Final Fantasy series and MMORPGs as a whole (though their projected profits next quarter should be punishment enough).

    Oh, and the 2/10 is SOLELY because FFXIV is nothing short of graphically amazing. All looks and no substance.    … Expand
  9. Carlitoxic
    Mar 21, 2012
    2
    Final Fantasy chapters should not be online, and if it is done, at least that is brilliant. It is not the case. The worst Final fantasy with a ton of really annoying bugs, restricting chat system and many wrong ideas. What demons is happen with Final Fantasy?
  10. djkal
    Sep 4, 2013
    2
    Broken. Not much more needs to be said. The game came out in an unfinished state and that is inexcusable. I love final fantasy, but will skip this game.
  11. imjoey
    Oct 6, 2010
    1
    I am disappointed with the overall game. The User Interface is lackluster and cumbersome. I have read that SE took the time to observe what made WoW such a HIT; yet, SE failed to deliver. Even with the great graphics in this game, I cannot rate the game any higher than a 1. In addition, the game lacks an actual auctionhouse or something similar. All the FFXIV servers are located in Japan.I am disappointed with the overall game. The User Interface is lackluster and cumbersome. I have read that SE took the time to observe what made WoW such a HIT; yet, SE failed to deliver. Even with the great graphics in this game, I cannot rate the game any higher than a 1. In addition, the game lacks an actual auctionhouse or something similar. All the FFXIV servers are located in Japan. Total letdown if you ask me! LAGGGGG much? You are also limited to a certain amount of questing/experience gain a day or so, which is dumbfounded. Terrible! Also creating additional characters seems to be frowned up in this game. There seems to be more work involved with actually adding new characters... and it is supposed to cost money too to have more than one character... (After your trial expires)

    JUST TERRIBLE!

    Worse MMO thus far to sum it up. I rather play WoW!    … Expand
  12. 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.
  13. PopPhonic
    Sep 30, 2010
    1
    After trying my very hardest to love this game in the Beta, the only advice I have to fans is to run. Run far, far away from this game. Never look back. Horribly designed, sluggish, with nothing to keep you involved or enmeshed in the game's pretty graphics. After a month, you will feel like you have wasted your money.
  14. Edeor
    Sep 30, 2010
    1
    One of the worst mmorpg I've ever seen. The UI is very complex and not user friendly, the mouse-keyboard support is very poor, the combat system is slow and repetitive, anche the graphics engine is very heavy. The worst thing is the absolute lack of content, and at the end is just a matter of grind.
  15. 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.
  16. 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
  17. 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
  18. Jennacide
    Oct 7, 2010
    1
    First off, I must say this: How exact a game company can look at thier currently released MMO and decide that features it utilizes need to be removed from thier new game is beyond me. FFXIV does a few things right, but so many wrong it's downright baffling. Visually the game is in the top tier of MMOs, with nice high fidelity scenery, very well done player and item models. Unfortunately,First off, I must say this: How exact a game company can look at thier currently released MMO and decide that features it utilizes need to be removed from thier new game is beyond me. FFXIV does a few things right, but so many wrong it's downright baffling. Visually the game is in the top tier of MMOs, with nice high fidelity scenery, very well done player and item models. Unfortunately, that's about the only praise I can give it. It has beautiful scenery, but that scenery is copy pasted all over the world in such blatant fashion it's painful. You will walk through numerous areas where the exact same monsters are in mirrored positions from where you just came, and every rock/tree/bush/hill is in the same place as well.

    Performance is spotty at best on my high end gaming PC. Controls are sluggish if you use mouse and keyboard, almost forcing you to resort to using a controller. (Works well with 360 controller at least.) But the real meat and potatos of the game is the real problem. FFXIV took gameplay mechanics from FFXI that were already inherently not well balanced, and makes them worse. Gameplay is bogged down with tedium and artificial ways to increase time sunk into the game. Trying to craft a single item could take you hours upon hours, or 3x's+ the actual valve of the item.

    So, you say to yourself, FF games are about story! This is true in FFXI, the only MMO I know of where I cared about the story going on. Shame this is not the case here. There is almost no story content in the game so far as much as a small handful of scenes per city, and then nothing but the big experience cap wall to chip away at. In case you hadn't heard, FFXIV introduced a series of systems to restrict your experience gains. The first is an 8 hour limit per week, account wide, that any time past 8 hours means you start to lose out on experience. The second being more party/powerleveling related, where if your healer heals more than 5 times, exp is reduced or nullified.

    It's an honest shame. I actually enjoyed FFXI, regardless of it's flaws. I was truely hoping that SE would learn thier lessons from FFXI and carry them into a beautiful, well crafted, and enjoyable game. I can barely give it one of those three.    … Expand
  19. lawina
    Oct 7, 2010
    1
    I find it funny that fanboys are stubborn on admitting that this game is very bad. The only positive thing I hear from them are the graphics, sadly this did not make a game playable for me. I prefer a game which is fun to play, with a good story and good game play over the graphics. FFXIV Online sadly only does OK in the graphics department. I'm saying OK, because the graphics aren't asI find it funny that fanboys are stubborn on admitting that this game is very bad. The only positive thing I hear from them are the graphics, sadly this did not make a game playable for me. I prefer a game which is fun to play, with a good story and good game play over the graphics. FFXIV Online sadly only does OK in the graphics department. I'm saying OK, because the graphics aren't as amazing as some fanboys would make you think it is. Ofcourse, the CGI/cutscenes are great as expected from Square, however you will notice that most of the environment is the same and gets very boring quickly. The graphics are comparable to Eve Online, amazing but you'll notice the same everywhere.

    I won't even go in detail regarding the other aspects of the game. I have played games made by ONE SINGLE PERSON and they were better in all the other aspects. I wonder how big Square's developer team was, but in my opinion and I am being serious, I believe it consisted of trained monkeys. No offense, OK maybe a little, because I was really looking forward to this game.    … Expand
  20. Roarshack
    Oct 7, 2010
    1
    I really wanted to like this game. I really did. When I bought it and installed on my PC I felt like I've been sold cheap Chinese product that barely works. But on to the point, this game lacks everything and it's simply not fun to play. The core content is doing quests around big crystal that require you to kill critters for experience. I think Square Enix ran out of time and they justI really wanted to like this game. I really did. When I bought it and installed on my PC I felt like I've been sold cheap Chinese product that barely works. But on to the point, this game lacks everything and it's simply not fun to play. The core content is doing quests around big crystal that require you to kill critters for experience. I think Square Enix ran out of time and they just slapped higher stats on rabbits because they couldn't be bothered with making enemies models.… Expand
  21. thegorgatron
    Oct 8, 2010
    1
    This game was rushed to market by a company that doesn't listen to its player base. The updating system is garbage, and the game requires you to have a bleeding edge system to be playable. The game play itself is backed by interesting concepts that were executed beyond poorly. The crafting and gathering mini games are neat ideas but it takes forever to do or make anything. TheThis game was rushed to market by a company that doesn't listen to its player base. The updating system is garbage, and the game requires you to have a bleeding edge system to be playable. The game play itself is backed by interesting concepts that were executed beyond poorly. The crafting and gathering mini games are neat ideas but it takes forever to do or make anything. The interface was seeming planned out by someone who has never played an MMO before and coded by someone who failed out of junior college. It wasn't until maybe a week before release that they decided to allow a hardware mouse to cut the interface lag and make it usable. A great example of how out of touch Square is with the rest of the world as a whole is the fact that there is no auction house or mail system..... I mean really, take a second think about that. An major market MMORPG that does not have a mail system or auction house at release. Its as if the lead designer had a stroke half way through development. To make it worse they limit you to 8 "Guild leves" (for the love of God square why cant we just call it a quest, why do you have to go out of your way to confuse people by renaming things to which we are all accustom to some meaningless collection of letters?) ever 36(?) hours, but count yourself lucky, it was 48 hours just a week or two before release, I hear they cut the time down a bit just before release but I am not totally sure on that. On another note, each of these guild leves takes about 5 min. to complete leaving you with more than a day of wondering "ok...what now?". The graphics are pretty but there is a lot of cut and paste going on. A lot of people, myself included, were very excited for this game and really really wanted it to be good and enjoyable but it seems that the majority of use were let down in a big way. I can't help thinking that if the ideas, concepts and art for this game were given to literally any other company other than square it would be a good game but Square managed to pull defeat out of the cold clutches of success. I would recommend steering clear of this title, at least for the time being. I still hold out some hope that maybe they will learn their lesson and enact some sort of changes by the time the PS3 version is released sometime in March or April of next year.… Expand
  22. Navii
    Oct 12, 2010
    1
    A staggering disappointment of a game for someone that loves the final fantasy series.

    Archaic UI, sluggish controls and extremely lengthy pauses when doing tasks such as buying and selling items just add further to aggravation when trying to do even the simplest actions in game. Quest dialogs assault you with a wall of irrelevant text that fails to pull you into the world and simply    A staggering disappointment of a game for someone that loves the final fantasy series.

    Archaic UI, sluggish controls and extremely lengthy pauses when doing tasks such as buying and selling items just add further to aggravation when trying to do even the simplest actions in game.

    Quest dialogs assault you with a wall of irrelevant text that fails to pull you into the world and simply rehashes the tired travel kill/fetch routine already present in many mmos. The game touts itself as casual friendly, but fails miserably at instilling any sense of accomplishment if one only has a few hours a day due to so much travel between the repetitive landscape. Compared to the Fields of Valor and experience ring bonuses in FFXI, the system in FFXIV appears to be a fluffed up and overcomplicated copycat version with more travel.

    The lack of an accessible Auction House for easy buying and selling of items creates a time sink when trying to find of upgrade equipment navigating the poorly thought out and tedious market wards, aggravating for a player that cares only for questing and monster slaying.

    The graphics nice to look at, and the music is a feast for the ears, but the characters lack a warm soul to them, and the character armor available looks highly generic, the iconic artifact armor associated with final fantasy jobs is nowhere to be found, making this feel like its not a final fantasy game.

    This game is a step backwards from its well aged forebear FFXI in many ways, provoking the question of FFXIV's necessity in the market place. FFXIV tries to be different in several ways to set itself apart from other games, but frustratingly does so in the worst ways thought possible for those that area already fans of FFXI or more accessible MMOs.

    Given the state of the current game, I would recommend waiting until next year to give this game a try, provided they have heavily patched the game to address the myriad of other nagging issues too long to list that plague this game in its current form.    … Expand
  23. abigsmurf
    Oct 13, 2010
    1
    At every turn this game makes things difficult for the player. The menus lag, the NPCs don't give you important directions, the map is horrible, there's no Auction house, the retainer system (where players set up their own shops) is painful to use, the game doesn't store your recipes for crafting, you're limited to how much XP and skill points you can receive, you can only do a smallAt every turn this game makes things difficult for the player. The menus lag, the NPCs don't give you important directions, the map is horrible, there's no Auction house, the retainer system (where players set up their own shops) is painful to use, the game doesn't store your recipes for crafting, you're limited to how much XP and skill points you can receive, you can only do a small number of guildleves a day...

    I could easily keep going. One or two problems could easily be fixed but there are so many fundamental design flaws with this game that it requires an incredibly extensive re-write that I can't see them doing post-retail.

    I've never cancelled a subscription to an MMO as fast as I have for FFXIV. I usually stick with them, even if I'm not enjoying them, in the hope that they'll improve in the future. That's not going to happen here.    … Expand
  24. Eventide
    Oct 19, 2010
    1
    In case the extra 30 day trial extension wasn't evidence enough, buyer's should be aware that if they are purchasing this game they are essentially buying a Beta product from a company asking consumers to fund it's further development. This is inexcusable to me, especially from a company as prominent as Square-Enix. The game is clearly unfinished as evidenced by major exploits and bugsIn case the extra 30 day trial extension wasn't evidence enough, buyer's should be aware that if they are purchasing this game they are essentially buying a Beta product from a company asking consumers to fund it's further development. This is inexcusable to me, especially from a company as prominent as Square-Enix. The game is clearly unfinished as evidenced by major exploits and bugs still in the game, the worst user interface anyone could imagine, and a droll, lifeless world that is only pretty to look at until you realize you're staring at the same copy/paste environments over and over again. Pathetic.

    This game might be saved a year from now when it is out on PS3 and has had several major version updates. But is it fair for these companies to ask us to pay for such a product now? Absolutely not.    … Expand
  25. Kyl63
    Oct 27, 2010
    1
    FFXIV is easily the single worst MMO I have ever played, period. There is no guidance whatsoever in the game, you create a character, get a quest to go somewhere, and that's about it. It tells you to come back later, but doesn't say when. Apparently you just check back every once in a while and hope for the best. To be fair, there are a couple of quests, one when you begin, and oneFFXIV is easily the single worst MMO I have ever played, period. There is no guidance whatsoever in the game, you create a character, get a quest to go somewhere, and that's about it. It tells you to come back later, but doesn't say when. Apparently you just check back every once in a while and hope for the best. To be fair, there are a couple of quests, one when you begin, and one when you hit level 10, the latter giving you no indication that you should go get a quest. From 10 to 20 you are on your own with Guildleves, that you can only do 8 of every 36 hours, and grinding. Once you get to 20, you can expand a little bit and have a few more options.

    Crafting in FFXIV is unnecessarily difficult. I can appreciate that you don't just click a button and you magically have an item, but not being able to complete crafting leves you are several ranks higher than because of consistent failures is quite unreasonable.

    Combat is boring and uneventful. Engage, stand there, hit basic attack button until you can use another ability. The whole time 1/3 of your attacks miss and another 1/3 are evaded, and even with advancing gear and stats this seemed to be all to prevalent a problem. I played an Archer, and I might as well have been a melee class, every monster ended up in my face and the most effective way to kill it was to just stand there.

    The UI is absolutely horrendous. It is slow, clunky, and completely counter-productive. It takes 5 minutes to clear out a full pack in FFXIV, whereas I can do that same task in 5 seconds in every other MMO. The map is useless, since quests aren't tracked on it unless you go through the journal, which in itself is useless. There are no indicators that an NPC might be important or have quests or missions. You simply have to check every NPC you come by, every time you run by them, because there is no guidance as to when you might get a quest.

    There is a simple fix: Play Vanguard, Saga of Heroes, that game has an entertaining, challenging, and productive crafting system. Play WoW, see how combat is fluid, fast, and entertaining. I might recommend taking a look at WoW's UI as well. And why the hell can't the characters jump?

    I don't want a WoW clone, that is the last thing I want. But the simple fact is that other game's UIs, gameplay, and social capabilities work. I understand the need to be different and refreshing, but you can do that in other ways without making a nonsensical UI and a poor combat system.    … Expand
  26. MeleeAsura
    Oct 28, 2010
    1
    My short story as my reason to not buy: My girlfriend and I heard this game was coming out a year ago on PS3 and PC in 2010. As a self proclaimed fanboy/girl we had to have this game we went and bought 2 $300 PS3s, fast forward, release day is going to be PC only. Old PCs not up to par with XIV requirements, buy 2 $1100 PCs & 2 $75 copies of collector's edition ($2950 total). Plan 1 weekMy short story as my reason to not buy: My girlfriend and I heard this game was coming out a year ago on PS3 and PC in 2010. As a self proclaimed fanboy/girl we had to have this game we went and bought 2 $300 PS3s, fast forward, release day is going to be PC only. Old PCs not up to par with XIV requirements, buy 2 $1100 PCs & 2 $75 copies of collector's edition ($2950 total). Plan 1 week vacation for Sept. 22 - 29 for release date. Play for 4 weeks all the while literally rotating turns at forcing each other to get on and level in game we wanted to love. In short we didn't even 'like' it, just simply put... not fun at all. Our final decision: /flamerage, quit, delete characters & account, delete XI characters & account and vow to never, ever ever give SE another penny. On an up side, we are loving Aion for the last week. CONS: Game isn't fun, UI is bad, Buying/selling, lag, not fun, ZERO quests @ start to pull me in, virtually no story @ start to pull me in, fighting was a pain, guildleves were boring and repetitive, game itself not helpful and not fun, lots of copy pasted terrain that you cannot ignore after awhile, gear that can be worn by any level any job doesn't give me any drive to level to look/be a 'great hero'. There are more for the con side but I cannot always remember everything about this broken lame game. The looks of the game itself and character creation are awesome features that I am going to put in the con section due to them being attached to such a bad game in every other way. (Besides I recently learned that Aion creation and world look just as nice if not better) PROs Who cares? Not enough things to like about this game to out weigh the bad.… Expand
  27. freakytea
    Nov 2, 2010
    1
    Pretty awful game. Yikes. I can't believe anyone is giving this a good review. SE must be putting some interns to work! I could go on about the glaring faults, including the retainer system, the copy-pasted dungeon crawler like terrain, the UI lag (oh my GOD the lag), the lack of content at every level, the ridiculous skill point system, the grinding, the broken party mechanics, etc.,Pretty awful game. Yikes. I can't believe anyone is giving this a good review. SE must be putting some interns to work! I could go on about the glaring faults, including the retainer system, the copy-pasted dungeon crawler like terrain, the UI lag (oh my GOD the lag), the lack of content at every level, the ridiculous skill point system, the grinding, the broken party mechanics, etc., etc., etc. I could go on and on and on. The bottom line though, and the reason why people aren't going to play this game without serious improvements (if there's even enough left to salvage) is that FFXIV isn't fun. At all. Many people, including myself, bought this game because of the Final Fantasy name, and I have a feeling that we won't be making the same mistake again.… Expand
  28. Schitsocash
    May 17, 2011
    1
    I have been playing Final Fantasy XIV since Open beta until May 15th 2011, I have seen the many "Improvements" Square Enix has made and I can without a doubt tell you that this game is not worth your time, to this date the biggest changes they made were changes in monster and special effect sizes, they have changed the way you get Experience so that you get less, and altered non-combatI have been playing Final Fantasy XIV since Open beta until May 15th 2011, I have seen the many "Improvements" Square Enix has made and I can without a doubt tell you that this game is not worth your time, to this date the biggest changes they made were changes in monster and special effect sizes, they have changed the way you get Experience so that you get less, and altered non-combat Jobs so it's harder to get experience altogether for them.

    To this point Square Enix has promised many changes, as well as a big update Mid-June that adds more content, the problem being that added content is all it is, the game is still broken without any intent to be fixed, Just some of the general problems you'll experience are things like framerate drops (Don't think you are an exception if your PC is a beast, their engine is highly unoptimized, crippling even some of the high-end stuff) Alt-tabbing out of the game causes the game to shut down, there is a noticeable, and quite annoying Lag between activating action and the action being performed which can cause you a life or a Leve (timed quests which you are limited to 8 per 36 hours, win or lose) if you are not careful, Monsters you are supposed to kill quite often spawn inside aggressive Zone bosses which are way above your level, Square refuses to even acknowledge this particular issue, let alone do anything about it, several Leve monsters do not drop the quest items they are supposed to drop making you pretty much guaranteed to lose the Leve once again. Low level extermination Leves more than often have all the monsters you are supposed to kill spawn in a single large group making it impossible to solo on a solo difficulty, now many would argue that it's an MMO and should be played with a party, but there are two problems with this.
    1: Square advertises this game as solo AND party based, you can in fact chose "solo" difficulty for each Leve which in theory should let you pass it single-player but is so broken it is impossible.
    2: Community is awful (and if you mention this on the official forums your posts "disappear", thanks SquarEnix) when I say awful, i mean absolutely awful, when you start your game for the first time, the first thing you are welcomed by is some gold sellers trying to scam you out of your money, Then nothing, nobody wants to talk, nobody wants to interact, people want you to pay them for any kind of interaction that people in other MMOs would gladly do for free, and when you see people talking, it's some German, Japanese, or Spanish players who got tired of the same problems on their servers and decided to try the US server to see if its any different, Unfortunately it is not. And don't even think about having gear you like unless you're willing to level three or four jobs to level 50 because nobody will repair anything for you, even if you offer to pay them, making you either hunt down and craft the items yourself, or buy them in the marketplace for extortionate prices because the game has entirely player-driven economy, because apparently SE though it would be a good idea to have teens with no concept of finances be in charge of an entire world's economy.

    All in all, this game is an exercise in frustration, from the moment you log in it essentially does everything it possibly can to make you hate it as much as you can, most people here that gave it bad scores were probably in love with it at some point, rather than just straight-out hating on it, but the fact is, you can't love something that hurts you so much, at the end of the day you turn on your games to relax from a long and frustrating day, so what is the point of playing if the game frustrates you more than the entire day before it?

    The game does have potential, quite a bit, the problem is Square Enix is more obsessed with introducing more new broken features than fixing the current broken ones, and keep promising to fix the issues without even an attempt to deliver, the concept is fine, but execution absolutely terrible, and SE would do all of us a favor if it would just cut it's losses and kill this mutated beast that's choking on its own excrement.    … Expand
  29. chronoT
    Sep 6, 2012
    1
    Yes, I finally get to review a game and give it under a 4! Long story short, I am a huge RPG/Final Fantasy gamer, I have a lot of respect for FF 1-9, and for others on PS2 and XBox. Please check my reviews as I love the series and give my intake on a few, my lowest game is a 4, and that is SWG. Sadly though, there is one game that I thank my brother for showing me before I almost spentYes, I finally get to review a game and give it under a 4! Long story short, I am a huge RPG/Final Fantasy gamer, I have a lot of respect for FF 1-9, and for others on PS2 and XBox. Please check my reviews as I love the series and give my intake on a few, my lowest game is a 4, and that is SWG. Sadly though, there is one game that I thank my brother for showing me before I almost spent real $ on it, and that would be Final Fantasy 14 Online. I will say right now there are only a few other times in my entire life where I saw my bro so upset, after 1 hour of playing he was appalled that he spent money on this game. After witnessing it as well I felt genuinely sorry for him and told him I would try not to laugh about it. I know this is a superbly late review but I am new to reviewing so here it is. I have no idea what the creators of this game were thinking, releasing it in this condition. Also, having the nerve to charge more money for a supposed "exclusive pack" + $12.99 a month subscription. They refused to refund either of the 2 months that he paid for in advance and definitely didn't want to use. He literally paid $111 to dry dump a mushroom for an hour and a half. This game is a broken piece of trash and honestly I think all players deserve a FULL REFUND!!!… Expand
  30. Chaiwallah
    Sep 30, 2010
    0
    The game is an insult to the Final Fantasy fanbase. It's an abomination. Poorly conceived, poorly designed and poorly executed. The fanboys are saying that the graphics are cutting edge, and the game is challenging, that it doesn't hold your hand. Aion's graphics are superior, and the game is impossible and it won't hold anyone's interest . . . for long. Check the reaction of the JapaneseThe game is an insult to the Final Fantasy fanbase. It's an abomination. Poorly conceived, poorly designed and poorly executed. The fanboys are saying that the graphics are cutting edge, and the game is challenging, that it doesn't hold your hand. Aion's graphics are superior, and the game is impossible and it won't hold anyone's interest . . . for long. Check the reaction of the Japanese gamers on Amazon.co.jp. This could be Square-Enix's swansong. It's a Titanic fail.… Expand
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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]
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