MMO with a bit of flavour now?Follow

That's a hard one to answer, as everyone enjoys different "flavours" in their games, as you so nicely put it. Is there more variety now than in the beginning? Yes, but most of that is relegated to endgame. Does that mean getting there is a endless chore? Not so much, they've streamlined it quite a bit.

It doesn't have that FFXI leveling sense of accomplishment in that you'll spend a weekend finding groups to get from level 12 to 20 as part of the game experience, if that's what you mean. It really seems that as we get closer to 2.0, the developers are pushing everyone to get to 50 asap. In fact it's hardly a challenge now to ascend the leveling ladder and we don't know what this means post 2.0.



No, you'll do the same leves in chunks every 10 levels or so, difference being you'll do far less of them.



One of the (arguably) lacking aspects of FFXIV right now is the progression from 1-50. Party play while leveling is lackluster at best, and really more of a nuisance on the way to endgame. It's most certainly faster than straight leves, however a full party of 8 players will completely mow through mob camps at 700+ exp per kill every 2-3 seconds. There's very little strategy in kills beyond "oh crap, mass respawn" moments, and even those are more of a test of organization skill than abilities.

Simply put we don't know what 2.0 brings, however the game right now has been so streamlined in leveling that it's a very minor part of the overall game. The bulk of the content, and scheduled content for the few patches before 2.0, is really geared toward level 50, and we're being pushed there fast.

Someone else will need to speak toward the grouping experience post leveling.

For what it's worth I don't like this type of MMO - I hate the casual attitude toward leveling and the bulk of the game opening up / focused on endgame gear grinds. But there's so much changing with this game, and the parts we do experience now are actually quite fun, that I'm riding this out to 2.0 and perhaps a bit beyond.

Besides, there's no other MMOs out there for me to enjoy where the leveling is the bulk of the content.

Personally I found the party and exp grind more enjoyable than that of 11. The party play is much more inline with classic Final Fantasy. With your party going against several mobs, but the pace is much faster, and the auto-attack keeps things going.

Right now I am waiting for our server to open up so I can start a new character to level with friends.

There are still a few problems with parties, but for the most part they are player issues more than game mechanics. Such as, most people are just DD fanatics. Hit as much as you can for as much as you can as fast as you can with as many people as you can. This leads to a very painful, confusing, and often-times boring party that just makes it a grind to level.

By simply setting up a small party of 3-6 people, you can get a clear cut set of roles, and the less people in your party, the more exp per mob you get (similar to 11), but less chains, and slower kills. It's a matter of balancing it out. You also have more control and smoother partying.

There are a few camps in the game, but due to the current world design, pulling mobs to your camp and fighting is not practical in most situations (there are a few camps that works at, but mostly it's a roaming party going after the mobs).

And of course there is the concept of pling. Currently, most of the people I know leveling don't actually pl. They go out into parties, and try and have fun with it. With the server merge, this has become more common.

The new party search (Looking for Party) feature has made it so you can now either put up a flag looking for a party, and/or search for a party that is looking for a class that you have. Both features have an auto-join feature to them, which makes it much easier to get parties up and going, and don't require that you sit in Ul'dah shouting.

Don't get me wrong, a lot of the players that have been in the game since the start still insist on shouting in Ul'dah, but it is becoming less and less necessary as new people join, and as people discover these features.

As well, all jobs can now join in the party (again more in line with previous Final Fantasy games), where White Mages can now cast damage spells (ok not a typical FF feature), and DDs can heal.

All and all, the game has more of a feel like Final Fantasy 3 in feature designs, while having a modern multi-player mode.

There is still a drastic lack of quests. However, in it's current state, a player starting now will not complete all the quests available by the time that 2.0 comes out. As well, many of the quests are tied to class levels, allowing for you to gain new quests as you level.

Most of the side-quests are kill quests, though not all of them are. And there are a few of the quests that are reminiscent of 11 (like the trickster quests out of Gridania), there are also some new ones that are purely story driven (like the new Inn quests featuring the "Flamboyant" detective).

All and all, the game is starting to come together. It is still rough around the edges, but it is starting to have the feel of something getting ready for release. I would say Early-Mid Beta. Definitely fewer bugs. The world is open to explore, but there are still many things that either serve no purpose (any mob over level 60), or incomplete (multiple zone lines that either go no-where, or have an NPC saying that they are still closed).

If you are interested in coming back, I would say take advantage of the May 9th through 20th free play period, and give it a try. There are still some basic mechanics that if you found frustrating before that you would still find in the same state, and they will not be fixed until 2.0. But, all and all, the game now is not the same game that was released. Most people who have come back can't even recognize it.

On a side note, people are still pretty quiet, and people are constantly bouncing in and out (coming back to the game, or leaving until the next update), and end-game is BEYOND repetitive (I am actually leveling up all my other jobs just to do something other than another Primal or dungeon raid).

Anyways, that's my 2 cents.

My issue was that there wasn't much by way of content that adds character to the world. It's starts off well enough with the opening scenes and the initial main story line, but it quickly evaporates and dumps you into a system of generic and formulaic leveling and gear grinding without much of a goal.

The sad thing is, it really doesn't take much. I've enjoyed Demon's Souls and Dark Souls which has a very minimalist story, but even that subtle presence is enough to get you going. In some ways, FFXIV has even more detail, with how it begins especially, and yet it still feels like it throws you overboard after the first few levels and leaves you to grind for no particular reason. There isn't a climax to work towards, which can be fine in an open world especially, but Eorzea doesn't really have enough to offer to make your own story matter in any way. It's hard to make a victory over Ifrit seem like an accomplishment if you're just going to have to keep fighting him a few hundred more times to get your desired reward, regardless.

The hope, of course, is that more world-immersing content will be added someday (i.e. version 2.0). I would just rather wait till it's all in place even if it means being "behind" in gear and such.

I figure it's all one raised level cap away from being made useless anyway.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/38201-Coming-in-Version-2.0%21 We know quite a lot don't we?

The core of 2.0 changes seems to be a reworking of the engine to allow it to run on PS3 level hardware, UI redesign, server code improvements and map redesign. I'm sure this stuff will be nice, but will it really bring people back? Unless it looks like a completely different game from before (including gameplay), I dont think so.

Personally I really wish they'd just get rid of classes and rehash FFXI's job system so it'd feel more like Final Fantasy, but I don't think they're going to do that. I miss partying for XP too, this game feels lonely compared to FFXI. They should just have made FFXI 2.0 if they wanted players to switch over, instead of making a game with a completely different playstyle. SE should have stuck to its niche.

Edited, Apr 24th 2012 5:48pm by Dizmo

Am I right in thinking that 2.0 won't bring any serious gameplay or class/job changes?

Honestly, 2.0.


Seriously the 1.0 version is much better than it was at release but it's not that fun a game to p,a compared to other MMOs, namely, most recently, TERA for instance. I think the patches they release are amazing and fun but have no lasting power other than gear grind, and I personally don't care much about that if it becomes a chore. So once again....2.0 will be your answer to whether this game has gotten better or not, everything leading up to that is just filler content to keep people distracted long enough til the new game is released.