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Based on the first 7 levels... *some spoilers*
Ghavrigg
Member RarePosts: 1,308
... this game is shaping up to be incredible. I believe we're allowed to share all but videos and audio at this point.
I started as a Mi'qote male Gladiator. The character creation isn't crazy robust, but it gives more than the original, and it suits my needs perfectly fine. The combat is really fun, with the auto-attacks adding a bit of extra damage, but your skills providing most of it, and they are very flashy and fun. The animations for everything your character does are just outstanding. Some of the best I've ever seen.
There are a lot of introductory quests, and so far that's all the majority of side quests. They might feel pretty generic and boring to those of us that have been playing MMO's for awhile, because it's all about features that have been in MMO's before, and not a lot of new stuff.
The main story, however, compared to the original, I'm already awe-struck. I'm assuming you could only start at Ul'dah since I didn't see any option for other places. The first major quest involves finding a Lalafell girl, and upon finding her, a dude with white hair, who was present in the original game and redone, comes to find her as well, and after some talk, we're attacked by a large gargoyle in an instance. I like how the story has you interactively participating, and a central theme right off the bat, rather than some little bitch on the side who is completely useless for most of the story, as I felt with the original. So you suck at this point, and rather than doing major damage to the main boss, you are expected to fight off the adds that show up instead to allow the other guy time to finish off the main guy. Then treated with a cut scene, which I won't spoil at all..
It was pretty epic for only being level 7. As a Gladiator, I had 4 skills at this point, A "Fast Blade" or whatever attack for some DPS, a buff to lower damage on myself by 10% for a small amount of time, an attack to increase enmity (aggro) that did more damage than my initial fast blade attack (also on same cooldown, so you need to choose which is best for the situation at any given time), and one other I can't remember off hand. The combat isn't feeling in the least bit slow or boring so far, and from what people say, it only gets better from here.
This game also feels as much like Final Fantasy as I could expect from an MMO. Way more than FFXI. They have the "victory theme" play when you level up, they have the "prelude" play at many occasions, they mention "Crystal Bearer", "Warriors of Light", yada yada. You get the picture. It's Final Fantasy to its core.
The graphics are also amazing, there's no lag whatsoever, and in general, it's just very smooth, crisp, and responsive. Even during Closed Beta.
I am going to play the game some more tomorrow and see how things continue, though I don't plan to play too much, 'cause I don't wanna spoil too much before launch. But so far, I'm very impressed. 
Comments
It's quite simple to travel between the different main cities, especially after the level 15 Main story quest. Until then though, you can run between Ul'dah and Gridania, or take a boat to Limsa Lominsa and it takes less time than anything FFXI ever did... lol.
Yeah, I figured there was an easy way to get between the main cities. I played FFXIV 1.0 for about a month and didn't find it too tough then, though I assume it's more streamlined now.
I just meant I am not sure if I'm gonna wanna play the game beyond the Thanalan region because I don't wanna spoil too much for the launch. Then I start somewhere else for a different experience. But then, I believe there's only limited content in the game for now anyway, so maybe it's not a big deal.
Yeah, the content is limited in beta at the moment. We can only do I think 7 dungeons, only do up to the level 15 class quests, up to level 20 of the main story quests, and we can only level to 35 (except for legacy members who already have characters higher than that; they get to keep them that level).
Might as well check out the other areas and see which one you like best--even if it means just creating a new character. They'll all be deleted after the end of Phase 3 on the 15th anyway.
i agree, the animation and effects are amazing... better then anything western devs can do.. i played rift and it was HIDEOUS.. skyrim online looks pretty ugly too, the character models..
i can't play western games because of the ugly factor..
The game does a lot of things well. Combat isn't one of them. That's like praising Tera for its questing.
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)
Fun is subjective. I had fun with the combat system.
Same, same.
However, some elements of group play from FFXI are missing and would be a great addition. I forget the name of it...but it was where multiple players would fire off certain skills in a certain order to amplify damage and earn additional effects...I wanna way skill chain, but its just been so long. Anyroad, this would be a great feature innff14, even if it only started to work at higher levels.
other things that I will miss are some features that were more atmospheric to me, but really gave the world a a feeling of depth. Here they are, in no particular order.
Weather was an indication of the presence of an associated elemental somewhere in that zone...was pretty cool to think that certain creatures would influence the world around them in such a way. I remember being in the dunes with the sun so hot that everything was wiggling from the hot air....the fire elemental was about....just really neat.
creatures having different means of aggro...some aggroed by sight, by smell, by sound or more than one....I just liked that not everything out there worked the same...felt more real..
days of the week had an elemental power associated with it....spells of this element were a bit more effective on these days...the elemental opposite was slightly less effective....I think....I know they influenced crafting...depending on with crystals were needed for the job.
Things like this made the world feel deeper to me...just gave the world a more random feel...maybe it's just extra complexity...but I will miss them.
Frank 'Spankybus' Mignone
www.spankybus.com
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Don't really get why you got so awe struck from the rather slow cut scene with the girl and the blond boy, the cut scenes are painfully slow , and uses the ingame emote system wich in turn makes it look very odd and cheap at times. Also , there isn't any voice overs (don't know if they will add that later) but that is also making the scripted cut scenes incomplete in a way..To put it short , it doesn't make the game better at all..
If you are going to do cut scenes , there simply cant be a middle ground for it. 2 MMO's so far has gotten scripted events and cutscenes good that is TSW and SWTOR..
Couple things. As I understand it, voices were kept out in the Beta. I could be wrong, that's just something I heard by word of mouth. AS far as the dialog system. This is part of Final Fantasy. Love it or hate it, it's the history and theme of what a FF game is. So I can understand why they put it in. and you forgot WoW. Blizzard has always done a top rate cut scene. (If nothing else since 2006)
I completely agree with this. The reasons I loved FFXI so much had a lot to do with these things. If we had this in FFXIV it would make this good game incredible.
The devs did mention the main quests will have voice overs but they are turned off for the betas. there are some parts of the story that does have voice overs if you get that far but most have been turned off. Its stated in the beta forums.
Yes..Square Enix is great at making cutscenes, but these are just placing an avatar in the gameworld and have it make some of the ingame emotes then acompany it with some dialogue, they are just bad and annoying..
Yes I get that this game is made "again" from scratch, but they should seriously consider making these better or let us skip them...(I coudnt skip them atleast) Good to hear that they will be voiced come release atleast
You can skip cut scenes. I just hit esc and it prompted me to skip. And yeah, I did skip them so I understand where you are coming from.
I couldn't agree more.
I love so far everything about FFXIV ARR at least in comparison to the original FFXIV launch, but there are some things I do miss from FFXI.
That group combat system you refer to was called the Skill Chain system (Renkei system) and it was the absolute best part of being in groups in that game. There doesn't seem to be a skill chain system in XIV, but there is a limit break ability that sounds similar, allbeit more watered down.
I really liked the weather icons too, and the link between weather and other mechanics in the game such as bonus to Water spell effect if you casted while it was raining. Very good stuff they should have kept.
The mob aggro tables were also fantastic, but I can't assume they won't be in FFXIV somehow. Maybe just at a higher level? I was really excited and engaged back in FFXI days when I had to put on sneak oil to get through Kazham, sneaking by goblins that only aggro on sound. Just to get to the bottom of the map in that secret cave to start (Samurai?) unlock questline...
In all fairness, I don't think it's not worth hoping for that these mechanics or possibly better ones could be in FFXIV perhaps later in the game. So far I was having a BLAST in closed beta.
I can honestly say I haven't enjoyed an MMO and it's COMMUNITY like this since I played FFXI.
I can't wait for phase 4
I'm glad you enjoyed your first 7 levels but you can not even begin to start judging this game until at least level 15 when you unlock the first dungeon and you don't even get your own personal mount until level 23-25. I only made it up to level 31 before the reset so couldn't do the final dungeon ='( but I heard it was amazing compared to the others. My only complaint so far are the dungeons I have done are far too easy and really just there for exp and item grinding for lower levels I guess. The only reason you should die in them is because you have a bad tank or healer or if you're internet lags I guess. Only time I cam close to really dying outside of my own personal mistakes was on the Ifrit fight. He flies up in the air at one point and screams something like "Bathe in the Inferno!" My group had a great medic but I thought to myself "Oh crap this doesn't look good." Luckily I stopped my self from drinking a Hi-Potion earlier in the fight, which have a very long cooldown, and took a sip that attack took me from full hp to 15 in one hit and it was unavoidable so that would've killed me had I not saved my Hi-Potion.
All in all the games been great and very fun my only other complaint would be no swimming... Really Square? You have a beach area with bikinis and bathing suits but we can't swim?
Big tip for the open beta to everyone, rush through all the minor quests in your starting city right away then rush through the Storyline quests save Guildheists until later luckily I ignored them unlike most and their experience seems to scale with your level.
You can skip them it just isn't made simple I tried pressing all the buttons and none do it alone but if you mash them it then lets you skip lol think it ended up being O/Triangle followed by Start on the gamepad, no idea what it would be for keyboards.
That made me laugh. The animations of combat are enjoyable, but I think I am a bit over the generic hotbar combat. I think that is more my issue than the game though. If I hadn't already played this type of game for the past 8 years, I would probably find the combat fun. The world and mobs are amazing though, looking forward to adventuring in FF14, even if I do fall asleep at the keyboard during combat.
the combat does change a bit as you get higher level
I don't think there is anything wrong with the combat. I can certainly appreciate those who feel that combat should be more interactive and action oriented. But I don't want that in my MMORPG. I liked it better when the game factored in those actions. Dodge was supposed to be a passive skill for the character. One I could build and balance in my overall stat distribution. Combat was supposed to be slower in MMOs.
When I was growing up, I had a toy called Big Trak ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Trak) It was basically a programmable robot. You wold set it to move a distance. then stop, turn at a certain angle, then move again. etc. This is in contrast to something that was remote control. I kinda think this is how MMORPG combat is vs, action games. One being more of a set it up and watch it go where the other is more hands on. As i get older, I am preferring the former.
Agree 100% with this.
What does any of this have to do with the PACE of combat, the tab targetting, and the time-delayed hotbar skills? You can still have a very tactical rpg feeling combat without requiring any of these things. These things add tedium, without really getting anything in return.
Good for you if you discovered a way to make a game as tactical as possible without sacrificing time. You should definitely send your resume to the big rpg companies, b/c since from the dawn of time, decreasing time between moves in any game(chess for example) was always inversely proportional to amount of thought required/strategy. sure you can make a game slightly tactical and make the pace somewhat fast, but that is not what FF is aiming for (or has been known for given its history of games). the main question here is not whether or not time sacrifice is needed to make a strategic game- it is whether or not FFARR actually makes the game strategic enough to substatiate the slower pacing requirements.
Most memorable games: AoC(Tryanny PvP), RIFT, GW, GW2, Ragnarok Online, Aion, FFXI, FFXIV, Secret World, League of Legends (Silver II rank)