Beautiful, really beautiful. In the graphical sense. Nice music too. Can't say anything bad about the crafting part. Very interestingly implemented and varied.
But the actual gameplay is quite subpar.
The story, which has always been a staple of Final Fantasy games, this time around is not even remotely engaging. Don't get me wrong - the whole "big bad empire" vector is done quiteBeautiful, really beautiful. In the graphical sense. Nice music too. Can't say anything bad about the crafting part. Very interestingly implemented and varied.
But the actual gameplay is quite subpar.
The story, which has always been a staple of Final Fantasy games, this time around is not even remotely engaging. Don't get me wrong - the whole "big bad empire" vector is done quite nicely. In the cutscenes. You, as a hero, don't get to really encounter the Garlean Empire until you're almost at the level cap. Until then 80% of your time will be spent doing fetch quests and reducing the population of local monsters. Also, you are a silent Chosen One in the worst sense. Sometimes the story calls for a dungeon. Well, you'll have to find three more Chosen Ones for that. And after the boss is dead, all the NPCs act as if you're the only Chosen One and the other three did not exist.
The combat system is nice, although not exactly varied. You have combos, you have some AoE abilities and that's about it. None of the combat abilities actually look or feel satisfying. The archer just gets to shoot the bow with different colored flashes signifying different abilities. And then that very archer gets three AoE attacks. Which all do roughly the same damage, cost roughly the same amount of energy and occupy three slots on your hotbars. Except one of them has a much smaller radius. As for suplexing a train or doing something really COOL - no, that's not happening. Stun an entire group of enemies? Freeze an enemy to the ground then blink away and unleash a Pyroblast? Nope.
But the worst part by far is the technical implementation. Almost everything in this game speaks of lack of user friendliness:
To use a key item on an object you have to: a) target the object; b) open your inventory; c) find the key item; d) right click the key item; e) click "Use". Not simply right-click the object, no, sir. And there's no choice in using the items, really. One item for one task.
If you want to insert materia into your gear, you need a crafter of that particular item type. Not just a separate materia specialist.
If you want to run a dungeon, that's fine. You can queue as one class, then swap to another and continue questing/farming/something. When your turn comes, you switch back to the class you queued as and enter. And suddenly you find yourself unable to: a) Use private chat; b) Blacklist goldsellers; c) Open your Free Company window; d) Open your friend list. Presumably all of this was done to make players focus on the task at hand...
If a player leaves your dungeon group... Well, you have to stick around in the dungeon and pray for a new one. You can not teleport out, you can not invite someone manually, you can not even change your class. Lost a tank/healer midway through? Run is over, because most players do not set that "Join party in progress" checkbox.
Then there's the bane of a lot of people: The AoE dodging. Bosses, you see, have AoE abilities. And the actual area of effect for those abilities is clearly highlit for everyone to see and move out of. But there's something very wrong with the timing for that. You move out of the AoE zone a good couple seconds before the cast is over. You are standing on the other side of the room... And then you get hit! This damage lag can be really two or three seconds. All the other abilities at the same time will work fine.
Of course, even eight months after release the game still suffers from random disconnects.
And while we're on the subject of user friendliness. A lot of dungeons will have story cutscenes. Right in the middle of them. So if you're watching a story cutscene for a quest that sent you there, everyone else is either waiting for you or pulling the boss while you're locked in that cutscene. Of course you can skip them and rewatch later from an inn. If you know about that option and want to actually skip past parts of the story. This mechanic is rather unfriendly towards anyone who has beaten the story quest before.
Sure, all of these have workarounds but the sum of all small problems weighs heavily.
One other thing that you start noticing rather quickly is how FF XIV is trying to be NOT WoW. Down to wording. There are no instances/dungeons, there are duties. There are no daily quests, there are leves. There is no threat, there is enmity. There are no bosses, there are lords of the lair. There is no pleasure in playing, there is frustration.
Overall FF XIV is just right for you if you wish to spend time walking around beautiful landscapes and enjoying sunsets, gathering items and then crafting something. If you want to be a fighting class, the game is not really for you.
P. S.: A Botanist's tool of choice is not a gardening implement like a shovel. It's an axe. Botany in this game is not about sowing seeds and nurturing plants. It's about chopping down trees. And that's the kind of design that fuels this game.… Expand
Final Fantasy XIV Online: A Realm RebornYour Score0 out of 10User Score
