Phil and I basically spent the entire weekend playing the newly rebooted FFXIV. Very, very impressive.
As someone said in chat, you have to give Squenix credit for taking it on the chin with the first version and going back to the drawing board to completely rework the entire game, and much applause to them for doing so. How good was it? After having played the first horrible, virtually unplayable version I downloaded the open beta client just for giggles, because I was bored. I didn’t expect a company who could have launched that first hot mess to actually get their shit in order and come up with something good…but I was wrong, and by Saturday afternoon I’d preordered the game.
I am very much looking forward to launch, and levelling my conjuror/white mage in training past 20. I love the class, although the archer was a second choice. I actually healed in pug groups. If you know me, you know that that is really saying something. I hate grouping with strangers, partially as I have the very WORST luck in pickup groups – if you’re an immature idiot, or an elitist jerk, or the GOGOGOGO guy, I’ll land in your group. I certainly would not want to heal a pug. However, we sailed through all the ones that we did, even one with a DPS (whichever the melee class is with the great axe) who queued as tank. He had no taunts and all the health of a sickly butterfly, but we made it through (the only death during that run was mine, having made a bad choice between healing him and getting out of the bad).
I had so much fun that I didn’t even take screenshots, which is a shame as the game is gorgeous. The three starting areas and capital cities are all very different, and the quests actually make you want to read. Unfortunately the PC version was missing most of the voice acting (although it was evidently in place for the PS3 version), but it didn’t detract too much from the experience. Combat is a bit limited and dull at low levels, possibly to cater to console players, but it is still not terrible. Crafting seems a bit tedious to me right now, but perhaps that gets better.
We chose the EU server Moogle, which the various English-language community sites had chosen as the unofficial RP server and also the unofficial English language server. Unfortunately the French players don’t read those sites and had chosen Moogle as the unofficial French server, so there was a certain amount of bad feeling over chat being flooded with people who only wanted to speak French and group with other French people.
All in all, a huge amount of fun. Will I play forever? Probably not. But for now, or at least until WildStar comes out, it’s a fun, immersive and very playable game.
Some of the screenies from the weekend:
Like you I was also in the “ehh” boat. A buddy of mine bugged me to play. I am also going to purchase and play. I picked the big axe guy (marauder) and to my surprise that is actually a tank class. As far as your French-English issue there is a translate feature in the game. It has quite a few things that can be used to make communication easier. I found the list on xivdb.com, Zam’s new “wowhead” for FFXIV. Good article, Ty for the read.
Perhaps ours was just an inexperienced tank – he did take a LOT of healing, though! :)
I’d heard about the auto-translate function, which is an extremely cool feature. I wish more people used it. I don’t mind people doing guild adverts in their own language, or posting questions if you can’t speak the common language; since it’s an MMO, however, I think that players should at least try to communicate with the larger group. Why would you refuse to talk to anyone who isn’t from your particular country? I’ve never understood that. That’s the whole point of playing in a shared world, meeting other people.
My cousin and I are really looking forward to Wildstar. I haven’t been tempted by an MMO in a few years, but I really think that one will do the trick. Probably a good thing the release date got pushed back to Spring 2014.
My initial impression is that the MRD is a threat machine and the GLD is a iron wall. The MRD will have to manage CD as do as much active mitigation as possible. While the GLD is more about keeping threat. I’ve only played to lvl 16 before the Error 3102 struck me down, but that was my initial impression. I was on my way to Ul’dah to work on leveling a GLD, when the gods of Eorza struck me with the 3102.
You know as for the game, I’m not sure what it is about this game that is so appealing. It’s not super innovative or different. It’s pretty standard MMO stuff you’d expect at this stage of the MMO launch, but I am having a great deal of fun playing. I get excited to thump mobs, and find myself getting distracted by fates, guildleves and hunting logs. I’m usually such a driven quester. This game has me taking a serindipidous route to go anywhere, and I like it!
Seth, I think the whole world is looking forward to WildStar! :) I have my fingers crossed that the style and sense of humour that you see in the promo videos is carried through into the game.
Outtkast, sorry about the dreaded Error 3102 – that’s affected so many people! It’s good that they fixed the problem, but it’s a shame that most people were affected throughout the weekend.
I couldn’t put a finger on why I liked it so much this weekend. No, it’s nothing groundbreaking. But it is fun…and that indefinable thing that makes a game fun, that makes a world seem like a real place, is part of what kept WoW’s massive subscriber base subbed all these years. You know it when you feel it. :)