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Any other previous players blown away by the beta?Follow

#1 Jul 12 2013 at 9:04 PM Rating: Excellent
Let me start off as saying this, I had no shortage of bad things to say about this game when it first launched. I think Aion had kept my attention better than XIV did, and it really didn't help matters that I preordered the expensive Collector's Edition. FFXIV may very well be the first game I ever played that literally made me want to buy a plane ticket to Japan just so I could stuff a brick in it's fancy giant box and throw it through a window at Square-Enix's headquarters. I would be fooling you if I did not express some certain amount of sadistic joy in hearing that they were taking down the servers and letting a giant dragon have its way with the game in the end. Hell, to this day I can't really count the number of FFXIII sequels that have come and gone since I deactivated my XIV account and silently watched as every patch was "Going to save the game."

Times change though, and so do MMORPGs. I distinctly remember my interest being piqued when I heard that a new production crew was being brought on-board for this game and a completely new engine being made. Academically speaking, this kind of thing just never happens for MMO games. The amount of money, research and man hours needed to get an MMORPG up for launch day is COLOSSAL. The fact that Square-Enix was willing to do this at all seemed like a challenge worthy of immortals. Of course, it was also going to be pretty fun to watch fail miserably. I won't lie, that possibility didn't necessarily upset me so much as give me a dry smile. So, that fateful week where the ending FMV was blasted out to the four corners of the gaming universe, I decided that I would at the very least keep an eye on this inevitably reborn zombie failure monster of a game. I was so, undeniably, fantastically and stupendously wrong!

As of three weeks ago, I checked my mail and received my beta pass. Now, I've heard a few good murmurings about the changes, but if the original launch of FFXIV and subsequent XIII spinoffs selling in the millions has taught me a dang thing it's that sometimes the Final Fantasy fanbase is too loyal even for its own good. I HAD to try this game for myself to see if it was true. It truly deserves to be said, you guys might possibly not be gushing about this game enough! The control scheme is tighter than a Ferrari gearbox (that is, without the flappy paddles, of course), the storyline is contiguous and engaging and the only thing more brilliant and fluid than the drop dead gorgeous graphics and animation is the pacing of the quests as well as the ability to develop your character. Whereas before, the entire game hinged and fell flat on its face depending on the leve system, now there is a meaty chain of quests to go on as well as an exhilarating dash of FATE battles to really keep the blood flowing! I am praying that I'm not driving a monster truck through the NDA on this beta by saying these things, but DAMN!

Square Enix didn't just take on a difficult task and do well. They didn't just take on a thankless challenge of resurrecting a game with a bit of a bad taste in people's mouths and do excellently. No, that wasn't good enough. They tore the stars from the sky bare-handed whilst charging on a chariot of hand-wrought brass, waving their mighty banner and drove the heavens into the ocean with a thunderous crash! This beta proves to me that somewhere inside SE still beats the heart and wields the soul of that fateful group that once took a small developer that was about to close its doors and made one game that changed the way the gaming world looked at RPGs. Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn is so good, it may just possibly change the way people look at MMORPGs. This game is a masterpiece stand alone of its genre or its name! I can't wait to log in on launch day!
#2 Jul 12 2013 at 11:21 PM Rating: Decent
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Blown away? I think pleasantly surprised would better express my feelings.

In my humble (and not very respected on these forums) opinion, the game is about 70% complete. It still needs a lot of work, tweaks, and additions. It's a lot better than FFXI was in the beginning though, and waaaaay better than 1.0. I've enjoyed beta, but not as immensely as some of the others here. I'm happy it's getting good reviews, I just hope they continue to look at the feedback and ideas that the players have expressed. From my point of view, conceptually the players of XIV 1.0 (not the blind supporters) built this game. Without our ideas and criticisms, this game wouldn't have gone anywhere. SE and the new supporters had better not forget that.
#3 Jul 12 2013 at 11:33 PM Rating: Excellent
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Blown away would be the wrong word for me, but I will say I was massively impressed.

I can't say it's a masterpiece, but it's a much better spot than other MMOs had at beta or even at launch. Yoshida and his team seem to have a strong game plan and I can confidently say that while I am still skeptical about the longevity of the game, I'm pretty hopeful it will be successful.

The main thing that worries me is the combat system. You can look at the dozens of threads on the official forum to see why. I won't get into it unless people here are actually interested to talk about it.

Edited, Jul 13th 2013 12:34am by HeroMystic
#4 Jul 12 2013 at 11:38 PM Rating: Excellent
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HeroMystic wrote:
Blown away would be the wrong word for me, but I will say I was massively impressed.

I can't say it's a masterpiece, but it's a much better spot than other MMOs had at beta or even at launch. Yoshida and his team seem to have a strong game plan and I can confidently say that while I am still skeptical about the longevity of the game, I'm pretty hopeful it will be successful.

The main thing that worries me is the combat system. You can look at the dozens of threads on the official forum to see why. I won't get into it unless people here are actually interested to talk about it.

Edited, Jul 13th 2013 12:34am by HeroMystic


Make sure you have a lot of fire resistant gear if you do.
#5 Jul 12 2013 at 11:39 PM Rating: Good
By all means, I welcome any and all opinions. I would temper my enthusiasm with caution, but that wouldn't properly convey how excited I am about getting on board with this game and seeing how it develops in the future. If the game had actually launched like this, originally, I think people would really be through the roof about it. In that respect, the really fortunate ones are the players who were holding out for the PS3 version.
#6 Jul 13 2013 at 2:52 AM Rating: Excellent
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I guess I would say I'm blown away by the stark difference between 1.0 and ARR...But ARR is on par with what a AAA MMO should be.

I am surprised at how polished this beta is. I've been in open betas that weren't nearly as polished as this. How many actual bugs have any of you encountered. GW2 had early level quests that just didn't work in retail. I haven't seen that in ARR so far.

I am blown away by the consistent dedication and communication that has gone on by Yoshi and really wonder how much more he can give.

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All MMOs, especially at this stage, will have some growing pains; it's just the nature of the beast. Things will change, classes will get balanced, things will be added, but this is the best possible start from the ashes of 1.0.

Before I played the beta I was under the "cautiously optimistic" camp. But after seeing and playing ARR, and even looking ahead to FFXV, I think the SE we knew is finally starting to "get it."

I'm not as gushy as Lefein is but I'm probably more of a white knight than I'd like to admit....and I really disliked XIII and couldn't stand 1.0.

#7 Jul 13 2013 at 5:22 AM Rating: Decent
Not really blown away at all. It's a playable game but it's not their formula, it's totally adapted from World of Warcraft and RIFT.

The user interface looks great and all but the way they went about doing this remake is all very surgical, never straying off the path, no creativity, no risks. I'm not going to go overboard with praise about something like that. Also, the graphics are pretty subpar for a game being released in 2013.

I'm only following this game because I'm a fan of the series and a real life friend happens to be playing.

Maybe it will be good by the first expansion. Maybe they will get the combat system to be slightly enjoyable, add support for DX11, add in some Final Fantasy classic jobs like Thief, Red Mage, Dark Knight, Ninja, Samurai, Blue Mage, etc. None of the jobs I like are in at the moment.

Edited, Jul 13th 2013 7:23am by Killua125
#8 Jul 13 2013 at 5:24 AM Rating: Good
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I'll briefly state my concern about the Combat.

I'll first say that I actually like it. It works. It's responsive and I have yet to find anything that annoys me about it except for the targeting (gamepad user here). It is way too easy to slide around while doing abilities though, but I can't really complain about that considering how much you have to move around in this game.

My main problem with combat is how routine it feels, and it feels a little "wrong". At first I thought it was the GCD, but after playing LNC I realize it was actually the abilities themselves. There's no weight or oomph to them, and they all feel the same. As a LNC, I can't figure out why I would ever use Impulse Drive instead of the Thrust Combo. As a GLA, I can't begin to tell you how disappointed I was that the classes flashiest skill, Rage of Halone, had no real impact along with it's animation. It might as well should've been just another slash. It's deceiving.

Why aren't there abilities that cost more TP than others, and therefore given a strong power boost? It gives us the ability to choose whether or not we should use powerful skills, or just stick to basic rotations in order to manage our TP.

TP Management is also an issue: It basically doesn't exist. Every battle is literally spam your attacks over and over again until you run out of TP, then just spam it a little slower.
#9 Jul 13 2013 at 6:51 AM Rating: Excellent
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I'm with ya Lefein. I've gotten progressively more excited for the game in the past few months, but when I actually got to test it I was just blown away. I like almost every aspect of the game. Sure I have some minor gripes like gathering is a bit boring, customizing the UI seems slightly more difficult than it should, etc... but for the most part, this game has gone above and beyond what I expected it would.

Heck, I even like the combat system. Especially on a job like pug, I'm very happy to have that longer GCD, as it allows me to get into position for my next attack and gives me a half a second to really think about what I want to use and check my buffs to see if it's time to reapply Twin Snakes, Straight Shot, or Touch of Death. It also allows me to see when I get 2 stacks of Greased Lightning up on bosses so I can most efficiently use raging strike and internal release to maximize damage. I like to play tactically, and this system really allows that.

I love the crafting system, I think it has been done almost flawlessly. I love the FATE system. It plays a lot like GW2's system, and I liked that as well. I love switching classes on the fly, saving gearsets, having an armoury for all my gear, and having a huge inventory and retainer. I haven't been this excited about playing an mmo since the early days of FFXI. Launch can't come soon enough for me as well. Am I fanboy of SE? No... but I'm definitely a fanboy of ARR now, and I'm completely ok with that.
#10 Jul 13 2013 at 7:39 AM Rating: Good
Blown Away ? Nope not at All. Impressed ? Yes!

#11 Jul 13 2013 at 8:02 AM Rating: Good
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I think I've been blown away. ;w;
#12 Jul 13 2013 at 8:03 AM Rating: Excellent
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Finally able to try beta I agree I am impressed and pleasantly suprised on how enjoyable the game is so far.

Not over tedious like ff11 which excludes many playstyles and those with a rl, hence the small playerbase ...forever.

I think 14 will achieve its goal yup :) will definatly have a dedicated fan base as every mmo has and the more they design content to cover ALL types of players the more successful they will become. It has so many similar qualities to rift and wow and thankfully thats what makes it fun and not a way of life ,good job SE , hats off!

Graphics are just right too.

I never hated 1.0 it simply just didnt "do it for me". I play many online games at once and got busy in a couple others during last release.
A huge improvement this time round and again, good job!!
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#13 Jul 13 2013 at 8:25 AM Rating: Excellent
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Definitely impressed. I went from losing all faith in SE after buying two collector's edition for 1.0 to uncontainable excitement about ARR. I even threw more money at SE, pre-ordering a PS3 version because my pc hates me.
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#14 Jul 13 2013 at 9:56 AM Rating: Excellent
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I'm one of those who played the closed beta for FF14 way back in what seems like 1990. I remember how unpopular I was with many posters here for saying that I thought it was inexcusibly bad, that it was going to fail horribly. Ended up buying the collector's edition at gamestop about 6 months after launch for 10 bucks, logged in for a few hours and decided it still wasnt good enough to justify my time spent playing.

Fast forward to a few weeks back, getting a beta key for ARR (thanks Zam, thanks Wint). I've been very impressed, and find the game to be very engrossing, and much closer to what I expected FF14 to be. I have already pre purchased the digital deluxe version and will be playing ARR with some real life friends, as well as LS mates from FF11.

IMO, the state of FF14 justifies the time and expense that Squaresoft put into improving and relaunching the game. I was done with them as a video game maker, and now I am giving them another chance.
#15 Jul 13 2013 at 10:30 AM Rating: Good
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In general, I'm pleased with what I've seen so far and will obviously be giving it a shot. Long term interest will solely depend on solo/low-man friendly I find things due to my RL/schedule. Being blown away is probably impossible for me at this point in the MMO genre unless I find I'm not treated as an afterthought in endgame left to grind away for mediocre gear and seeing no content for 8+ months at a time.

Another plus for me is that game hasn't caused any catastrophic crashes for my PC in the time I played. I don't know what it is about Rift, but since November of last year I've found that playing on any graphical settings above the bare minimum risk my PC freezing. The only other game I've played that did this was Tera and that has a reputation for being a terribly optimized game. In turn, other games like XI, GW2, and Diablo III running fine for me on top of XIV leaves me feeling it's not a video card issue despite the fact I did entertain that possibility and even applied new thermal paste in case it was a heating problem relative to my temperature-sensitive room. Just being able to play a game without having to force a reboot every hour or three then wait 5 minutes just to get back in is one of those blessings people won't understand unless they have to put up with it. No, I'm not playing the game on max, but I don't need to to enjoy it. Of course, this problem has led me to strongly considering a new PC once finances line up, as this one is creeping up on 4 years of use.
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#16 Jul 13 2013 at 10:41 AM Rating: Good
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HeroMystic wrote:
Blown away would be the wrong word for me, but I will say I was massively impressed.

The main thing that worries me is the combat system. You can look at the dozens of threads on the official forum to see why. I won't get into it unless people here are actually interested to talk about it.

Edited, Jul 13th 2013 12:34am by HeroMystic



I agree with you. If it were one or two people complaining about this but there are hundreds of threads. Also how many are keeping there mouth shut do to being afraid of being bashed because that seems to be the staple especially on the beta forums. THere are those who don't speak up because the rest of the game is great.

I find targeting hard in this game unless you are in party as a healer. As a DD if multiple things are going on it is not too easy either, I think these things will get worked out. I do not think it will happen before launch any more because it is too close and they have to finalize the code to have disk printed.


Back to the main topic I am not blown away but I think this game is awsum. The crafting did blow me away, I am actually having more fun crafting and I hated that in FFXI. I think what impresses me is they fixed allot of what I didn't like about FFXI.. I think they thought of allot when they did it this time around. I am impressed how far this game came in such short time, What I do think is this game needs some polishing yet and the could benefit from a few more months of coding and polishing. There are a few bugs I saw and seems like some people had problems running the game..Fact is we are at the age when companies release games and then patch them.. I am just worried this game can not afford that, The best thing this games has going for it is Yoshi P, he seems to listen to those who criticize the game even through all the noise and fixes the legitimate problems, (He listens to the people) He also seems to think of everything and is fast.
But overall I am extremely impressed.






Edited, Jul 13th 2013 12:47pm by Nashred
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#17 Jul 13 2013 at 11:13 AM Rating: Excellent
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Blown away, no. Like others have said, I'm pleased that it's a polished game that seems to be worth a sub for a few months to see how it all shakes out. You can complain that this is what the game should have been three years ago: novel, if not innovative mechanics; graphics that scale well across the platforms and provide a breadth of systems to run it; a cohesive story and questing that doesn't require a trip to a website to find out how to start; it's accessible, pleasant, engaging, but nothing there is genre shattering. Does that matter? Is that what is required? To those that are still clamoring for the feeling of their first MMO, or the first one that hooked them, they are likely to wait almost an eternity for that; it's passion borne in a period of the person's life, smelted with the newness of the genre, and seasoned over the years with hearty helpings of nostalgia.

ARR will go down as a relative success, but MMO's are a difficult genre to be out and out successful these days. For broad success, you can't go niche, nor can you have a game that's too dumb. I think SE has found a decent mix, the first levels hit you with accessibility by the handful leaving you thinking this will be a cakewalk game, however in the first 30 levels you start to see where they're going and that there's complexity and challenge of its predecessor lying in wait. Naturally, time will tell, but I will sub. I will not gush. I will play until I'm disappointed, or life prevents me from continuing.

I think everyone in the beta now and in P4 are getting a great spoonful of the game, enough to let us all know if the game is something we want to play. Hats off to SE for offering so much content for us to make that decision. If it's not for you, great. If it is, see you in game.

Edited, Jul 13th 2013 12:13pm by Krycis
#18 Jul 13 2013 at 11:18 AM Rating: Good
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Krycis wrote:
a cohesive story and questing that doesn't require a trip to a website to find out how to start; [/sm][/i]


I think for me this is a biggie.. In FFXI I had to read the wiki for every quest because they made no sense at all. I used to sit there and go how did anyone ever figure out you had to go here or this and that.

Edited, Jul 13th 2013 1:19pm by Nashred
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#19 Jul 13 2013 at 11:36 AM Rating: Excellent
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KarlHungis wrote:
I'm one of those who played the closed beta for FF14 way back in what seems like 1990. I remember how unpopular I was with many posters here for saying that I thought it was inexcusibly bad, that it was going to fail horribly. .


That was the single most heart-breaking experience in my gaming career. I got back in to cars at that point and pretty much stopped playing video games altogether after 1.0 sunk. It's too expensive of a hobby though! ARR must succeed or my wife is going to kill me!
#20 Jul 13 2013 at 3:22 PM Rating: Good
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I was extremely impressed by the crafting and gathering, and I really hope they expand on it. I love having different abilities to use while crafting, while also having gear that directly affects my crafting ability. I would love to see artifact gear for the different crafting and gathering classes.

The rest of the game is so-so for me. Ok combat, Ok dungeons, Ok questing.
#21 Jul 13 2013 at 3:49 PM Rating: Excellent
I am impressed with FFXIV as a modern, current MMORPG that does everything it needs to do.

I'm blown away by how much I like it.
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#22 Jul 13 2013 at 4:06 PM Rating: Good
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Imios wrote:
I was extremely impressed by the crafting and gathering, and I really hope they expand on it. I love having different abilities to use while crafting, while also having gear that directly affects my crafting ability. I would love to see artifact gear for the different crafting and gathering classes.

The rest of the game is so-so for me. Ok combat, Ok dungeons, Ok questing.

If that OK categories can turn to good I'll be fine. It doesn't have to be the best of the best in every category.
#23 Jul 13 2013 at 10:21 PM Rating: Excellent
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In regards to targeting as melee, tab can be a very good remedy for this once you get used to it. It's fast and precise you just have to make sure you tab'd to the right mob before you unload on a slept/cc'd mob.
#24 Jul 14 2013 at 5:51 AM Rating: Excellent
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I am right with the OP on this. I'm a 1.0 CE buyer myself, and I had fun with it until I ran out of that initial batch of Levequests. After that, I got tired of wanting to play and having absolutely nothing to do but grind while waiting those 48 hours for the Leve allowance to refresh. I'll definitely be subscribing to this and can see myself playing it for some time to come. THIS is the potential I seen in the original and I'm so glad they took the time to rework it.

Thayos wrote:
I am impressed with FFXIV as a modern, current MMORPG that does everything it needs to do.

I'm blown away by how much I like it.


I couldn't have said it any better myself.

HeroMystic wrote:
I'll briefly state my concern about the Combat.

I'll first say that I actually like it. It works. It's responsive and I have yet to find anything that annoys me about it except for the targeting (gamepad user here). It is way too easy to slide around while doing abilities though, but I can't really complain about that considering how much you have to move around in this game.

My main problem with combat is how routine it feels, and it feels a little "wrong". At first I thought it was the GCD, but after playing LNC I realize it was actually the abilities themselves. There's no weight or oomph to them, and they all feel the same. As a LNC, I can't figure out why I would ever use Impulse Drive instead of the Thrust Combo. As a GLA, I can't begin to tell you how disappointed I was that the classes flashiest skill, Rage of Halone, had no real impact along with it's animation. It might as well should've been just another slash. It's deceiving.

Why aren't there abilities that cost more TP than others, and therefore given a strong power boost? It gives us the ability to choose whether or not we should use powerful skills, or just stick to basic rotations in order to manage our TP.

TP Management is also an issue: It basically doesn't exist. Every battle is literally spam your attacks over and over again until you run out of TP, then just spam it a little slower.


Really? If you mean effect-wise, I think it's too flashy now. Can barely see what the hell's going on due the bevy of skill fireworks going off. Not sure if there is a way to turn off other players skill effects though. I'll have to check in Options. Would be nice to have.

Edited, Jul 14th 2013 7:51am by DragonBourne

Edited, Jul 14th 2013 7:56am by DragonBourne
#25 Jul 14 2013 at 6:28 AM Rating: Excellent
Even the alpha of ARR was a major surprise. For the first time I could play a FF game that properly interfaced on the PC and didn't require "windower" to work properly. SE actually looked at other MMO's and finally got the basic interface down right. (send these guys over to FFXI please). Of course, we were all glad to see the cut and paste areas made over to look like something more intelligent than a chimpanzee designed them.

The interesting thing though is that even coming in with a capped legacy character there is a great deal tied to the story quests, and level syncing meant that you weren't going to just breeze through them. Its a beautifully done game.
#26 Jul 14 2013 at 8:41 AM Rating: Good
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DragonBourne wrote:
Really? If you mean effect-wise, I think it's too flashy now. Can barely see what the hell's going on due the bevy of skill fireworks going off. Not sure if there is a way to turn off other players skill effects though. I'll have to check in Options. Would be nice to have.


They're indeed too flashy, but I'm not totally talking about animations, but rather the ability's mechanics. Here's a post I made on the official forum that explains my point pretty clearly.

Quote:
GLA for instance doesn't get any more than 2 rotations, 1 if you don't count the situational Fast Blade > Riot Blade. Everything after Rage of Halone are defense buffs (dead pan simple defense buffs mind you), except at Level 50 where you get Circle of Scorn. For the life of me I cannot figure out why something with the same range as Flash, a potency of 30, and a DoT of 30 is somehow worthy of a Level 50 spot.

When I made my post saying that the TP system was the problem, I misspoke a little. I meant the abilities themselves doesn't utilize the TP system well. One idea I had was to give skills varying TP costs and buff them accordingly.

I'm gonna use GLA again as an example but bear with me. For instance, Rage of Halone costs 60 TP. Lets bump that to 150 TP, and give it's Combo Potency 340 instead of 240. Lets also add a trait called "Enhanced Riot Blade" that allows you to restore TP.

Now Riot Blade regains both MP and TP, and we have Rage of Halone as a powerful finisher move. Rage of Halone will eat away your TP really fast, so you have to use Riot Blade to regain that TP, but Riot Blade doesn't give enhanced enmity, so DPS classes are capable of stealing threat from you, so there are times when you just wanna stick with Fast Blade > Savage Blade to manage your TP.
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