Final Fantasy XIV Launches To Scathing Reviews 401
RogueyWon writes "Now that the massively-multiplayer Final Fantasy XIV has been on the shelves for a couple of weeks, the reviews are starting to arrive; and it appears that the game is the subject of a critical battering unprecedented in the history of the main Final Fantasy series. First it was the Amazon user reviews, then Gamespot weighed in, describing the game as a 'step backwards for the genre,' and now IGN has described it as 'an arduous experience that, in its current state, isn't worth playing.' Given the general dissatisfaction that surrounded the release of the (offline) Final Fantasy XIII earlier in the year, many long-time fans of the series must now be wondering whether the magic hasn't departed."
Buddy of mine picked it up (Score:4, Informative)
It feels like they just plain gave up and didn't want to take the time to polish it. The now-infamous Gametrailers review [gametrailers.com] is pretty much spot on.
If this and pretty much every Final Fantasy game since VII have proven anything, it's that this series needs to just go away. It's far too late for a graceful death, but put it out of its misery.
YMMV, just my opinion, etc apply.
Re:My impression of the Final Fantasy series (Score:2, Informative)
Celes, not Rosa.
Re:Graphics over gameplay (Score:3, Informative)
The PS3 uses Blu-ray discs, which hold WAY more than your standard PS2 DVD or Wii disc. For a comparison, note that the game was also released on the Xbox 360 in multi-disc DVD format, and that DVDs hold about 8GB of data, while Blu-ray discs usually hold around 50GB (dual-layer). The problem with XIII's linearity wasn't the disc space, but rather mis-guided direction. Prettiness over playability, storytelling over customization, linearity over non-linearity.
Re:Well shit (Score:4, Informative)
So you clearly have no interest in MMORPGs. That doesn't mean those who like them can't be permitted to appreciate content updates. There is no law that says you have to play the game, but that doesn't mean the game should die. There's not exactly a shortage of games that have proper endings.
Re:My impression of the Final Fantasy series (Score:3, Informative)
FFX-2 was not made for tween-girls. It was made for people who like to look at girls in revealing dresses. And for the record, this did not change the fact that it was probably one of the most fun and enjoyable RPGs to be released in years--and not because of the revealing dresses either. Once you get over the farcical setting, it's a great game.
I'm not going to pretend that the FF series hasn't launched some beached whales over the years (FFVIII I'm looking at you), but in general they've usually delivered an enjoyable 50+ hour adventure. Though I've noticed a secular trend towards younger and younger characters and ever more angsty or shallower storylines; or maybe I'm just getting old. It would be nice to get an RPG built for an older demographic every now and again--and no, playing a walking camera in a prescripted world of D20 stats does not count. I want a video game, not a game on a computer.
Problems summed up (Score:5, Informative)
Laggy menus. the vast majority of menus are server side. You have to wait for them to load (1-3 seconds normally, 5+ seconds for vendors)
-Awful interface design. No keyboard shortcuts. To interact with a crystal I don't double click or right click it, I have to open up the main menu and select a menu that only displays near a crystal (I actually had to look up how to interact with crystals).
-Crafting requires you to go through 4 or so (laggy) menus and confirmations. You then start a (slow) crafting process where you're given no information what to do and how to lower the chance of failure. Most crafting requires materials only made by other professions
-No AH. Instead you've got to manually visit dozens of player stores and hope one of them has the item you're after. Laggy menus make this even more of a chore.
-Worthless maps.
-NPC do not give any directions at all. They'll say things like "go get some materials from xyz". You then have to open a help website if you want to know where XYZ is because the game gives you no help at all.
-Limits to the number of guildleves (quests), XP and skill points you can get. All on different counters, all reset in different ways, all punishing the player for playing the game they've paid to subscribe to.
-Worlds are filled with copy and paste scenary.
-Nowhere near enough content. Only story comes from story quests you get once in a blue moon. Other than that it's solo grinding or guildleves.
-Even creating an account is a mission in itself. You have to deal with stupid amounts of unexplained jargon even at this stage, you have to sign up to some paypal clone (with its own cumbersome registration process). Oh and they put on a leaflet in big letters "YOUR REGISTRATION CODE", silly me, I thought that was the code I should use to register. 30 Minutes of wondering how I enter a code with that format, I discovered that wasn't the registration code, that was a code to enable me to use the forums. The code I really wanted was on the back of the manual.
Re:My impression of the Final Fantasy series (Score:3, Informative)
This is also true. FFX-2 is actually quite a good game, if you can get past all the friggin fanservice. Unfortunately, said fanservice is so pervasive and damaging that many people can't bring themselves to play, and it's taken to such a ridiculous level that it's hard to blame them for not being able to do so. One of the characters actually wears more clothing during the hot-springs scene than she does for most of the game.
I'm disgusted with FFXIV (Score:5, Informative)
A few hours later and we've got all the patches downloaded on one computer, but the other one refuses to download much of anything through the torrent-only source method. So, I find a way to trick the patcher into using the other computer's files, which is a complete hassle but eventually we get it working. At this point my excitement is pretty high because I still haven't even logged into the game once. I just registered through their highly suspect payment method and managed to figure out how to login, and I've created a character.
Time for the fun, right? Wrong.
After finally getting into the game I immediately get a bad feeling. I can't jump (what is this, 1999?). In a game where you can't even jump you can forget about flying, as in WoW or Aion and others. I can't bind keys to do anything
It goes on and on like this for a few hours until I log out, disgusted. I will never play it again. Well played, SE, well played. You made $150 off of me for 3 hours of gameplay (if you can even call it that). I should've learned my lesson from FFXIII. I blame only myself.
Re:Well shit (Score:1, Informative)
Well, let's see:
1. Customizable UIs.
2. Fast-travel options. (See the GameTrailers review for why the teleport system does not count - you regain enough "anima" in a single day to teleport within a zone once. Teleporting between zones will take a day and a half to recharge.)
3. Multiple character slots. (A default subscription gives you zero characters. It's an additional $3/month for each character. And, no, I'm not bullshitting, activating you account nets you a $10/month fee and zero character slots. You have to sign up for "character options" separately to be allowed to create characters, and each character costs $3/month.)
4. Sane billing options. (You pay for this game via a PayPal competitor. Not joking.)
5. Local servers. All the servers are in Japan, there are no North American servers or European servers. So if you want to play on a server with a low ping - tough.
6. Voice chat. They've already said they will never add this.
7. Playing with other players. Creating groups with other players is currently broken and will prevent you from completing quests or earning XP. Seriously!
I could probably go on, but I think that's enough for now.
Re:A step back? (Score:2, Informative)
It isn't like XI. XI is better is every way except graphics.
If your system is a few years out of date, the graphics aren't better either. I could tell there was more detail there, but I had to tone down settings to get the game to run decently so that it ended up actually looking worse than how I could've run FFXI. It also seemed muddier and more bland than FFXI. It does have a more featured character creator though.
Re:Problems summed up (Score:2, Informative)
Even better is the crafting interface. Crafting is such a huge part of this game, and yet it's so tough to use that it's borderline imbecilic. For instance, you get a recipe for something as a quest reward and it's displayed in your log. Once. Unless you wrote it down or have perfect recall, you're going to have to consult a fansite, on another computer, because alt-tabbing away from the game currently crashes the thing. And actually crafting a thing for a quest? You have to go to your main menu -> select your crafting option -> click 'requested items' which brings up a box with the items in it -> click the item you want to craft -> click 'OK' (I forget the verbiage since I'm not in front of it now) which fills in the materials on your crafting screen -> then click again to bring up the 'crafting minigame' where you have to pick from a few different actions that will impact the quality of the item you're attempting to make. And if you want to make multiples of the same thing? You have to go through all of those steps again. Every time! How fun!
Or the loading screens. When you're sitting there trying to log in or when you teleport somewhere, you're greeted with a black screen with "now loading" and throbber in the bottom-right corner. Wow, excitement!
Oh, and that teleporting thing? That lets you go to one of the locations around the world that you've already visited? Yeah, that uses another resource called 'anima' that regenerates at an abysmally slow rate (and I couldn't find a gauge for to see how much I had left).
I never did get the payment thing set up right. For whatever reason, Square-Enix outsourced their credit card processing to an outfit called Click and Buy that I've never heard of. Turns out that you have to create a separate account with them to handle billing, which means that I have to give some third-party my credit card information, and if I terminate my FFXIV account, I have to terminate my Click and Buy account separately, which would involve writing and sending a letter [clickandbuy.com]. To London. I couldn't actually get the process to complete, though (some problem with the Verified by Visa, and it was a Saturday evening, so everyone who could help was closed), so I looked at other options, I can pay with Crysta (which are like Microsoft Points or Wii Points), which are available in increments of $5 (or 500 Crysta), but to buy those, I have to register my account through Click and Buy, so it's the same stupid thing! Or I can get a Playspan 'Ultimate Game Card', which again is similar to the Crysta (with the exception that you can supposedly use the points for dozens of other online games, too), but, bafflingly, though I live in a city of almost 200,000 people, the nearest place for me to get the things is nearly 40 miles away. And, for those of you keeping score at home, the account fees (for one character) are $12.99/month (or 1299 Crysta or Ultimate Points), so if you get these ridiculous 'points', you're always going to have a surplus of them you can't use. I was able to eventually tell them that I wanted to pay for my first (free) month by using Crysta instead of my credit card, but I will not be jumping through these ridiculous flaming hoops any time soon just to continue playing this mediocre mishmash of a game.
Re:Oh, on the contrary (Score:3, Informative)
We know how male and female brains work differently from each other.
Male brains have an overwhelming tendency to be distracted by breasts, for example.
Re:My impression of the Final Fantasy series (Score:3, Informative)