Final Fantasy XI & XIV

[bildo123]

Hello all,

I was curious if anyone had any *current* opinion on either of these games. I downloaded the trial this morning but didn't have time to install it yet. Do any of you have any Pro's/Con's or neat features the games do/will offer? I'm a big fan of select FF games (the ones I actually played, VII being my favorite). It looks like the combat is turned based just like in XII which I found to be awesome (well in a different type of way, not like VII were it was random). In fact both games look just like XII but with multi player and more dynamic characters. I hear leveling is long winded, but is it really a grind? By grind, I mean cubersome, unfun, a means to some other end. Thanks for any opinions.

 

[din130]

Well I'm an on and off player of FFXI. When people talk about grind in any other MMO I don't think they really understand just how long the grind is in FFXI in comparision. They have recently implemented things like level sync, magic tablets (which allows everyone special abilities like runing faster), faster skill leveling, etc. to make the grind a little more bearable for new players to an 8 year old game. But it's still EXTREMELY time consuming, almost to the point of "cumbersome, unfun". However, I feel like this gives you a great since of accomplishment when you finally reach level 75 (and beyond with merit points).

I must say I was super addicted to it the first time I played it. I quit for about a year and then went back to it with a fresh character and have been with it for the past couple of months. I really feel like it's a dieing game. I've waited several nights for hours waiting for a party and never found one.

Anyway to stop my rambling I'll just say, in a nut shell:
The community and players are awesome people. The Japanese players are very sincere.
The grind is incredibly time consuming.
It is very much a questing game with very little PvP. (I like this style)
The graphics are very dated but come on it's 8 years old!
The launcher for the game (PlayOnline) is retarded.

Best I can say is try the demo and see what you think. If you get in, go to the Hades server and look me up, Rokano.

Cheers!

 

[bildo123]

Hello,

Thanks a lot for you input.
First and foremost, your absolutely right about the PlayOnline program, what a waste of life that thing is. Also after hours upon hours of downloading (even through comcast cable which varies from 750k~1.1MB/sec) it finally finished and installed. Then when I actually got into the game...holy low-resolution batman! I literally had to google on how to change these settings through the config utility. Also, I have no clue on this earth how anyone can play this game with a keyboard. Thankfully I have this old USB-playstation controller adapter which I surprisingly configured quickly and easily.

So far I'm pretty aggravated with the downloading, configuring, UI, and pretty much everything overall. But I've played EVE online for a year so I've been through worse (actually I'm sorry even EVE was slightly easier to break in). My experience so far includes getting killed by a giant hornet, and walking around...A LOT. But now that I got my gamepad configured and I'm already feeling more optimistic. Not only that I really like the whole Final Fantasy theme and the intro movie was a good tingle on all the senses. So I will probably try it out till the end of the 14 day trial.

With XIV coming out within a year though it's hard to really put in a commitment, but I'll bet that'll be mind-blowingly better. I get home later tonight, maybe we can meet up, if your around. I'll be available around 10:30PM EST. I'll recreate my character on your server, I don't even remember the server I signed on (top most one.) Thanks again.

 

[din130]

Well I've only used the keyboard but it takes some getting used to. All the actions are from the numberpad and everything else is for chatting and macros. I'll try to be on at that time and start your character in Bastok if you can.

As far as FF XIV goes, I was blown away to hear that they are working on it. I hope they take all the great parts of FFXI and just refresh it with a new storyline and better graphics. But it is a long way out and anything could happen.

Maybe I'll catch you on tonight.

 

[bildo123]

Hey,

I tried finding you that night but wasn't sure if I was doing it right, I used the /tell command then your name. Either way I finally figured out how to do certain things, such as equipping my amazing onion sword and some ring I don't know where I got from. I also completed my very first mission... It only(insert sarcasm) took 45+ minutes with the help of google. I can't believe how much they make you run around, and this was just the first mission! I also almost got killed by ding bats (1HP remaining!) but thankfully some random person was in there(the cave) and when I asked, they healed me back to full. I also killed a single cave worm thing (with only 8HP remaining).

I have to admit though I like the fact that even from the start you not in 'god' mode like most other RPG type games. Even the beginner enemies can take you down if your not careful. What I don't like is the long walks and no real sense of direction. I honestly don't know (or would want to know) how long I would have wandered around town before finding the presidents office at the top of the armory. It would be nice if they could at the least highlight on the map the edges of the map you need to head towards or if your within the map show a little blip of the general area you need to go.

I sense there is some good character customization with many item slots and 'job's or classes. I just hope questing gets a tiny bit more streamlined as I progress.

Forgot to note, I'm Highwindcid on the hades server. Is there a way we can add each other to a list to see when we are on? Thanks.