I think ARR will succeed.Follow

I agree completely that FF is mainly known for its compeling story. I also agree that every ff to this point has been able to stand on its own two feet with its story. In a sense though, FFXIV ARR is its own story because it uses different elements but all together all the while incorporating its own originality. But I guess what I want to know is.. WHY NOT use some elements from past installments? If those elements were such a success for the original FFs, why not take those successful elements and build something further with them but in a unity? Why hit players new to ff and new to an ff MMO with a mediocre ff feel of just moogles and chocos etc. Why not hit them full force with staple structures like Meteor and crystal tower and huge landmarks of old school success?? lol.. Those very things create a sense of nostalgia for the ff fan base and gives a peep show to new comers of some of the things that made FF the forefront of epicness RPGness! Some have said XIV is a copy and paste.. Well, someone could also make the argument that if XIV is a copy and paste then so are ALL of the installments to an extent.. They all have moogles chocobos airships etc etc.. all of them cary over something.. Well, so does ffxiv right along with them. Just to a more noticable scale (MMO ARR itself being a larger scale game compared to a regualr ff). But they use those SAME elements in a different way. Just as the former ffs did. Smaller ff game smaller copy and paste bigger ff game bigger copy and paste! LOL!! jk jk. But hey, who knows, this could all just be a ploy of SE to sublimally get players who havnt played regular ffs to go back and buy old ffs just to see all the old elements in their actual original settings!

I do have to say though that I think people keep forgeting that ARR is aimed at gathering many types of gamers.. You have the FF fan that buys anything ff just because its ff, you have the WOW type MMO player, the casual gamer and the hardcore gamer just to name a few. Think about the content that has been mentioned so far.. There are easy quests/raids etc and harder ones such as crystal tower.. You have meteor/golden saucer/crystal tower moogles etc etc which give the nostalgia to the ff fan. The quicker paced fighting (possibly a quicker level progression) for the wow player. Hard content (crystal tower) for the hardcore player. Repeatable quests of go kill this etc for the casual easy going player... ARR is built to satisfy and caiter to so many different types of players. Its not just aimed at one particular group. So I dont believe that ARR can be successfull just having a excellent story or just having excellent gamplay.. Its a combination of both plus at the same time they only have so long to get all this done before the deadline of release because if it is not released soon fans and gamers and SE top dogs are going to be angry lol. So it goes without saying that there will and wont be things satisfying about ARR depending on the type of player you are. (Which by the way I think its kinda cool they added the ability to select the difficulty of quests etc.)

I know some may not agree with me.. And many different points can be argued all day long.. But (and not to be a white knight) but honestly I think that each and everyone of us should be gracious towards ARR and SE as a whole because (maybe not all of theirgames were great games but..) they HAVE given us great games, we are all human and so are they we make mistakes so it goes without saying that a company full of humans will make mistakes and have shortcoming lol.. While I am sure ARR is going to have unsatisfying things that players wont like wether it be to hard, to easy, to much story, etc etc.. Keep in mind no game is perfect they all have highs and lows. Plus when looking back at where SE has come from.. They always come back for a major win after a major fail! So while some of you or most of you may be pessimistic about the game because of its terrible launch I have high hopes that this game is going to rock the MMO industry as a whole and as a whole be an outstanding game that will be hard to compete with. ARR will make it! Give it another shot.. (-:

Squaresoft has given us GREAT games, SE has given us C.R.A.P!(Except for FF Type-0)

I am not againts incorporating things from previous titles, as long as they are cameos, or implemented in a way that is not the same as in it's original title. For example i am all for a dungeon based on the "Magitech Factory" since it fits the garlean empire(Since it is basically geshtals empire) but i do not want to find an esper in the dungeon, and be it revealed that the empires magitech power comes from draining power from it(That would be exactly how it was in VI) or that cid was a judge(Would be what happend in FFXII.)

I am all for dungeons, and some bosses based on previous titles of the series, i am againts copy pasting story elements and mashing them together just because "Reasons" remember FFXIV is a numbered series, it should stan on its own, XI did and it was an online FF title aimed at FF fans, why cant XIV ?

To be fair, Judges were not introduced in FFXII. 12 takes place in the world of Ivalice. That should sound familiar, as Ivalice is the setting for:

Final Fantasy Tactics
Vagrant Story
Final Fantasy XII
Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings
Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift

You act like this is the first time FF has used similar setting or subject matter. FF7 wasn't even the first introduction to Limit Breaks, as they were in FF6 in a slightly different form (Desperation Attacks), and then iterated upon for 3 more games.

The series is basically a large string of fan-service and references. If you dislike that part, why play it? Why put another single thought into the series? There are plenty of original experiences to play, don't waste your time on FF.

Edited, Mar 6th 2013 12:54pm by Louiscool

Let's try to remember what every single Final Fantasy ever has been about: Rebellion against Empires, Crystals, and Destruction of the Planet:

FF2:
The game's story centers on four youths whose parents were killed during an army invasion by the Empire of Palamecia. Three of the four main characters join a rebellion against the empire.

FF3:
The story revolves around four orphaned youths drawn to a crystal of light. The crystal grants them some of its power, and instructs them to go forth and restore balance to the world.

FF4:
The game's story follows numerous characters as they try to prevent the sorcerer Golbez and his evil Empire from seizing powerful crystals and destroying the world.

FF5:
The game begins as a wanderer named Bartz investigates a fallen meteor. There, he encounters several characters, one of whom reveals the danger facing the four Crystals that control the world's elements. These Crystals act as a seal on Exdeath, an evil sorcerer. Bartz and his party must keep the Crystals from being exploited by Exdeath's influence and prevent his resurgence.

FF6:
Set in a fantasy world with a technology level equivalent to that of the Second Industrial Revolution, the game's story focuses on a group of rebels as they seek to overthrow an imperial dictatorship.

FF7:
Final Fantasy VII follows protagonist Cloud Strife, who initially joins the eco-terrorist rebel organization AVALANCHE to stop the world-controlling megacorporation Shinra, who are draining the life of the planet for use as an energy source. As the story progresses, Cloud and his allies become involved in a larger world-threatening conflict.

FF8:
The game follows the story of a group of mercenaries, who are part of an organization named "SeeD". Their main goal in the game is to stop a sorceress from the future (named Ultimecia) from compressing time.

FF9:
Final Fantasy IX's plot centers on a war between nations. Players follow a young thief named Zidane Tribal, who joins with others to defeat Queen Brahne of Alexandria, the one responsible for starting the war. Also, there's something about mist on the planet and a guardian tree... it's been a while since I played this one.

FFX:
Set in the fantasy world of Spira, the game's story revolves around a group of adventurers and their quest to defeat a rampaging monster known as Sin, an Aeon believed to be created as punishment for their ancestors relying on machina and becoming a hedonistic society.. Eventually you rebel against societies practices of summoners sacrificing themselves to sedate Sin.

FF12:
The game takes place in the fictional land of Ivalice, where the empires of Archadia and Rozarria are waging an endless war. Dalmasca, a small kingdom, is caught between the warring nations. When Dalmasca is annexed by Archadia, its princess, Ashe, creates a resistance movement.

FF13:
The game takes place in the fictional floating world of Cocoon, whose government, the Sanctum, is ordering a purge of civilians who have supposedly come into contact with Pulse, the much-feared world below. The former soldier Lightning begins her fight against the government in order to save her sister who has been branded as an unwilling servant to a god-like being from Pulse, making her an enemy of Cocoon.

After writing this up, I'm not sure if I defended the use of previous motifs and themes in FF, or if I pointed out how repetitive and uninspired they are...

And yes, I do have a bit too much free time at work today.

Edited, Mar 6th 2013 1:52pm by Louiscool

True, but they were added to 12's story BECAUSE of the setting. It's fan-service to the max.



And the Archadian Empire is a carbon copy of the Gestahlian Empire in FF6, with Judges added to make you remember Tactics fondly.



I disagree that 1.0 didn't feel FF. The main scenario didn't feel that way until the very end, but the quests and storyline that Yoshi-P brought (Relating to the Grand Companies and Meteor), along with the jobs and other elements, nailed it. Along with the basic "David vs Goliath" theme of Empires, they incorporated the beastmen tribes and world destruction. It's almost pulled directly from the intro to FFXI and the Wings of the Goddess... (1.0 could be the prequel to XI if a few names and events were changed...)

That, and this guy.

Edited, Mar 6th 2013 2:23pm by Louiscool

If i remembered correctly once you had a red card you couldn't take him back correct? It was really annoying.

Yea i believe you would lose the bonus after the fight even if you just had a yellow card also. And sometimes there were really weird rules like no physical damage or something.

I had completely forgot about fftactics! Man I use to get super mad about them judges flipping cards on me haha. But again the game is set to try and encompass a large group.. their are always going to be aspects that someone doesnt like that other will.. If you feel like the game is an exact copy and paste or so close to it you dislike it well sorry :/ ..As for me I will love it and play it probably 4-5 yrs like ffxi! :)

Goal-driven players are also just as likely to form a reliable static party with their friends, and win with the jobs available to them. In fact, that's what happens in most linkshells, as shell members work together to get everyone through certain fights and missions.

I'm a believer that some jobs should always perform better in certain situations. It makes sense. Different jobs have different strengths, different mobs have different weaknesses. Different weapons have different stats. Different weapon types have different speeds. Different abilities do different things. Etc.

The hardcore players may get headaches over not having the job that does the absolute maximum damage per specific situation, but meanwhile, most gamers are simply happy to have jobs capable of getting the job done. And in FFXI, most jobs were capable of getting the job done in most situations.

EDIT: In addition, FFXI and FFXIV are built so that players can level several jobs, enhancing their usefulness in different scenarios. The leveling curve of FFXIV is shaping up to be way, way easier than the leveling of a character in FFXI. In other words, the people who'd get upset over having a job that's "not useful" will easily be able to level up other jobs to give themselves that feeling of usefulness that they need.

Edited, Mar 6th 2013 1:46pm by Thayos

This was best shown in "United We Stand" in 1.0, one of my favorite mmo fights of all time.

There was absolutely an optimum setup for this fight, but my friends were not the optimum jobs, but there were ways and strategies around the setup that worked. It's also an example of a fight where the usual go-to job (BLM) was relatively weak and relgated to killing adds because other targets were strong to magic.

Garlemald and archadia share far more similarities than differences, they both started as a small country, only developing after a military take over(In garlemald it was the legatus that became emperor, in archades it was the solidor family which became a line of emperors) both their magitech armies where created by a cid (Tho in Garlemalds case i am guessing it was cids father, in archades it was cid, if cids father or family really created the magitech the empire uses, it would be yet another copy paste scenario since both sons (Cid in XIV/Balthier in XII) betray their homeland and father to help the good guys) Both army's magitech technology is fueled by crystals that need to be mined, and said resources play a role in their politics and invasions, archades is a very racist country, just like garlemald is, they both have had one crazy judge/legatus and one sane one(Tho i am sure they will mess up grafh in some shape or form) their greatest military power is their air force.

Their only difference is that garlemald has magitech armor and archades did not, they both seem to be after the same goal too, archadia under vayne, was on the path of defeating the gods of his world to free humanity, garlameld is on a path of destroying the primals for reasons yet uknown, but knowing SE garlemald will not be an entierly evil empire out for destruction, just like archades was.

Sephrioth walked through the fire. Darnus pranced, far more baddass, rip off or not.

And Black Wolf already topped the killing NPC moment by dangling a corps of one in front of him to mask himself in the fog of war and then shoot your Path Companion in the chest. Try finding THAT moment in a previous FF.

I found his prancing to be totally the opposite of badass.... Sephirtoh destroyed your entire hometown, looked at you and left all baddass like "Yeah i did it and what" this guy was all over the flames like he did something....

Yeah grafh is badass.... He is grafh afterall.