At some point I was thinking of purchasing Final Fantasy XIV and playing it for a month or two until Cataclysm approached its actual release date (in which case I would continue obsessively playing WoW :P). I don't feel like I really gave Final Fantasy XI a fair chance and would have loved to at least experience a taste of why people find that game so attractive. But as mentioned before, I don't really want to do the $60 temporary MMO thing again, ala Aion, so that leaves the open beta.
All other criticisms and issues aside, I will be frank: The interface and controls are horrible if not borderline unacceptable. My goal is to play the open beta past the introductory curve for the sake of getting into the real meat of the game but the problem is that, it feels like such a chore to do anything in FFXIV at this point. I mean, I was never fan of the nested menus, but they aren't too different than any menu found in any of the console Final Fantasy games which weren't too bad. the real problem is that there is a palpable delay between literally everything that you do. It is cludgy and feels like a bad port.
The interface lag makes it feel like I am playing the game through a remote terminal connection, which to my understanding is a correct assessment given that literally everything, including mouse control is being handled server side, or at least feels like it. Speaking of which, why is there no hardware mouse support? Supposedly Square Enix is 'considering' adding it into the game at some point, but that is such a basic feature. It is like selling a car and then adding the wheels on at a later date.
I think it's pretty clear that Square Enix has absolutely no idea how to make a game that is not console based. There is a solid standard for PC MMO interfaces that hearkens back to the days of Everquest. Over the past decade or so, one game or another has build upon it but it is effectively, the same damn layout, it just works and there is little reason to deviate from it. But, I am playing a beta so hopefully within the next few weeks at least a few of the interface issues will have been polished out.
Also, the omega hares of death have been replaced by the dodos of impending doom.
Comments (24)
you`re an idiot go play fucking wow you crying ass baby
why is it everyone is comparing 14 to wow or 11 or other games and if you knew how japanese like to play you know why they dont support mousees very well because japanes dont use them and its a fucking beta you stupid shit of course things will be kind of shitty
Damn hollen calm down, alot of ppl are saying the same thing (and it doesnt seem like hes comparing ffxiv to wow just sayin hes messin around with ffxiv til wow, not really a comparison). im a ffxiv follower and so far i like what i see (havent played any beta but seen quite a few vids). ill be playing on ps3 so hopefully by then all will be good.
Christ hollen give the guy a break, even if he was picking at it compared to WoW its a useful opinion, nobody really plays two MMOs at the same time, and as seen as WoW is the most mainstream MMO out there then its useful to have some kind of comparison to determine whether people want to switch over or not.
Hollen, you completely missed the point. The point is that there's a lot to improve upon and very little time.
1. I represent a pretty average demographic of PC gamers in respect to my tastes and play times. It's not unreasonable to expect decent mouse control from a compute game.
2. No, FFXIV is not perfect and yes, it is still in beta. However, the release date is rapidly approaching and I'm not the only person who is put off by the fact that such a basic and serious issue has been present for so long (since early alpha with no ETA and very little dev feedback to my understanding).
2. Fanboys who are willing to accept and perpetuate any masochistic piece of junk that SE pushes out are not going to make the game even better. Ultimately it's up to the player base to vocalize (let's see if they listen).
3. Well then if Japan is their one and only target audience then the game should have stayed in Japan as a console exclusive. It is extremely shortsighted and baffling to seemingly alienate an entire playerbase. And besides, at this point isn't FFXIV effectively PC exclusive since the console version was delayed?
4. Whether SE chooses to state it or not, all fantasy MMO games are in direct competition with each other. There are a finite (allbeit large) number of users and most only are willing to or have the resources to play one. I am only drawing a comparison in the sense that many aspects of FFXIV aren't on par with other games in the same genre, including its predecessor.
All that said, XIV is a fantastic looking game. I just hope that they are able to hammer out at least the basic interface issues before release. If you read the August dev interviews I think it was stated that most of the feedback has been about mouse usage alone.
I am an ex WoW player. I love MMOs but WoW was just too time consuming. I have been reading that FFXIV is a MMO built for people with lives, can anyone confirm this? Or does anyone have amny thoughts or comments? I am debating about preordering, so any thoughts would be great! Thanks!
Unfortunately Hollen's seems to represent the same attitude as many of the FFXIV "fanboys" whose posts I've read recently after I had my own underwhelming experience of the beta.
First, to the poster above me ("G"), if FFXIV is anything at all like FFXI, which considering the interface, camera and story/npc/questing parts of the game are pretty similar seems to be a safe assumption, then it is certainly not built for people with lives. Online final fantasy games are pretty much exclusively multiplayer based. You need a group to level up, and getting a group can take a long time, or it did in FFXI at least.
My experiences of the beta (albeit only about 45 minutes) are pretty negative, if I'm honest. Even registering for the damn thing took an age, and afterwards the beta tester website was inaccessible for me, so I went in pretty disheartened.
Character creation was great, quite deep (surprisingly) and also amusing, loved the animations. Graphics and cut scenes are also top notch, and will probably be the main draw for the majority of Squares target audience.
This is where we get to the bad parts. It is impenetrable. There is no tutorial at all, when you get control of your character in your chosen city, you have no idea where to go, what to do, where to buy stuff or anything. Now this might appeal to people who want to talk to every NPC and shopkeeper, but not to me personally or many casual players (of which I am not, I was into FFXI heavily and play wow extensively).
And the controls are equally impossible. Basically if you want to play FFXIV on PC, you really need a console game controller to make it work efficiently. Or you can use the keyboard exclusively which worked for FFXI but not for this in my short experience.
One of my biggest gripes was how many more buttons you have to press to do basic things. To start attacking an enemy, you have to:
1. Target it (tab cycles through targets or you can use the mouse button which is slow)
2. Press enter
3. Select Ability
4. Confirm ability
That is 2 commands too many and considering how slow the menu's are its about 5 times too long to do this aswell. I might be remembering wrong and it may be 3 buttons instead of 4, but the time it takes to do simple things is ridiculous.
I agree with Keiya's post pretty much completely. I really hope they fix it before release, but considering their track record with ignoring their consumer base at the same time I can't help but think they probably don't deserve the loyalty they get from woefully naive and ignorant people like Hollen.
This is just one of those games that really does need a newbie tutorial to introduce the non-standard control scheme. On a similar note, I had the exact same problem Resolve. There is a lack of early guidance. I'm assuming that the design intention was to encourage exploration, or something along those lines but it's frustrating not knowing where to go or what to do.
I am almost positive that it all gets better deeper in the game but the problem would be getting to that point. It's such an impenetrable game at this point to anyone who does not play FFXI.
Also what exactly IS SE's target audience (serious question)?
From what I've read they are focusing on their japanese fanbase which was pretty much what FFXI lived on I believe, but I think the broader target audience is those MMO fans who prefer story-driven MMO's and thus those who want an improved FFXI. Unfortunately it doesnt look like the game is quite there yet (For the improved FFXI bit, the storyline looks fantastic I'm just sorry I won't get to see it).
I really don't know why they've went for the most unintuitive, unfriendly, confusing control system they could possibly think of. If you compare it to WoW (Hold the hanging rope) Blizzard's system allows you to play instantly because it is so simple, while gradually getting deeper as you get to 80 and so allows millions of players to play and keep playing. I think that FFXIV's start gameplay is going to put so many people off that at best they're going to stay with the population numbers from FFXI. But then, this may be their goal anyway, they may not be looking for new people but just to attract the old XI players.
if youre going to assess the game, atleast read the manual. it says that the interface is laggy because they are running it in debugging mode to catch where the bugs are. have you never played a beta before?
I've played many open betas and this one is pretty bad. Smart developers know that open betas serve two primary purposes: Advertising the game and load testing the servers. In most cases, most bugs and features should have been straighened out in the closed beta releases.
For all intents and purposes, especially this close to the actual release date, the game should be just about finished, minus a few doodads and some pollish. There are still going to be glitches that persist into the open beta and the game's release date as well as expected serer load issues, but i mean, FFXIV feels like it is half finished.
So, either they are holding out or they really do plan on pushing out a half finished game (dev confirmed: no end game content and no AH on release). Either way, it's a mistake. Open beta is the one chance to get new players interested in what the game offers before they lay down cash. With so many MMO options nowadays, there's not a whole lot of margin for error.
And to top it off, there has been little communication between the beta testers and the developers. Most of the information given in the recent interviews (late August) is vague at best. Oh, the mouse lag is exists because it's a software mouse not a standard hardware mouse. If you don't know exactly what that means or implies, Google it.
I can appreciate both sides of the arguement. I played XI for a short time before Warcraft was released. Not enough time to get into the meat of the game, but enough to know that I enjoyed what MMOs were about.
I've been playing WoW since release. I've been hooked on Warcraft for the last 5 years... but over time, the enjoyment/excitement is slowly fading away. Maybe it's just the familiarity of being in the same "world" for the last 5 years. Cataclysm isn't going to fix that, at least not for me.
XIV is, for lack of a better word, HARD. It's hard to get used to the controls after playing WoW for 5 years. It's hard to get used to the combat system after just spamming keys. It's hard to figure out what/where/who you're supposed to visit. It's not IMPOSSIBLE, though. For me personally, the challenge of finding my way through this new world IS the reward. Having to actually work with people in my linkshell to find where quests are, figure out the crafting system (Synthesis is BRUTAL... but I love that too)... all these little things that we've been spoonfed in other games have once again become somthing worth investing time in.
Leveling, on the other hand, is actually the easiest thing in this game. No, you won't blow through to max level in a week like you can currently in games like WoW, but EVERYTHING you do advances your character. You don't HAVE to grind to level... but you can if you want. You can do solo quests, group quests, crafting/gathering themselves will level you as well as their associated quests, PLUS there's the main story-line quest chain. You can level as fast as you want, depending on how much TIME you want to invest. If you're casual, you'll NEVER run out of stuff to do in this game... ever.
People have to also remember, BETA isn't RELEASE. We're only getting things that they want us to see at the moment. Peeking at one or two of your presents before X-mas day just heightens the anticipation for the big event. Seeing everything before you unwrap it makes the big event meaningless (bad metaphor is bad).
I'm guessing that people that enjoyed XI will love this game. People that enjoy a challenge will enjoy this game. I'll admit, it's probably not for everyone... but those are usually the people I tend to throw on an ignore list in other games. If that's how it's going to be, I think I can live with it.
To each their own.
Plain and simple Square-Enix couldn’t give a care about what the majority of the Western market thinks about their game design. This game, just as I predicted, was made for Eastern gamers and the FFXI fans. The fact that so much of FFXIV plays similar to FFXI is saddening; really all they did was give FFXI a face-lift and repackage it under the illusion of a new game. It will still be the same grindy, unforgiving, Eastern favouring game FFXI was. This is total pass for me.
So if you are bothered by counter-intuitive controls and a lack of direction in the game, you're an easy-mode, spoon-fed, noob?
Wow. Just wow.
I downloaded the game, which required using a torrent program since SE's updater is terribly broken. I played around with creating several characters, which I enjoyed. The models look great. The one minor snag in character creation is that it's unclear what the choices you have to make actually mean for your character. The difference between the two magic using classes is vague at best. You have to pick a patron god, and assign a birth day to your character, with no indication how (or if it even will) affect how the character plays.
Once you get into your starter city, there's no information. You have to talk to every NPC, because there's no indication which ones have game purpose, and which ones are just for color. That's a lot of color text to wade through, and it isn't interesting enough to make it worth while.
Along the way I got the hint that I should be joining a guild right off. I had created a marauder, so I wandered the city until I could find the marauder guild-hall. It's a beautiful pirate ship, filled with details and several levels. I spent time talking to every single NPC on the ship. One of them even sounded like he was going to help me join up. No go, though. They all appear to be color NPCs.
Somewhere in this city I'm aware I can buy weapons and tools so I can have other classes, but the idea of having to talk to every NPC in the city to find that vendor just makes me want to uninstall the game.
This game isn't challenging, it's just obtuse.
It's worth noting that Square Enix made a pretty big deal about making the game more casual friendly as a part of the game's 'vision.' So far, they haven't really held true to their word.
What dissapoints me is that at its core, FFXIV isn't a bad game. I like the story, the world and the art direction. It has a great I don't see why they make it so damned inaccessible (to be honest, all signs point towards bad console port).
Even though I don't think that it is unreasonable to expect decent mouse/keyboard controls on a PC game, I may just give FFXIV the benefit of the doubt and try playing the game through a game controller. Since the UI was obviously designed for a controller I would imagine that being a better experience. If anyone is curious, I can post to a link/instructions stating how to hook a PS3 controller up to your PC (Win 7 64-bit).
By the way: http://www.ffxiah.com/forum/topic/13698/ffxiv-mouse-lag-fix/ (assuming that this isnt kosher with Square Enix, but if there is a hardware mouse mode hidden within the game, it could mean that it will be enabled...at some point)
okay I guess I am here to comment on the overall experience of the open beta so here goes. I would just like to make this clear I am a final fantasy fanboy so with that I would like to say this 14 is from a visual standpoint is second to none, the games graphics get a 5/5. Now character development is highly customisable from the birthday to diety and clan it give your character some substance like they actaully belong to certain group not just what you can see and a linkshell, so i gave that a 4/5, I gave it a 4/5 becuase every character is a super model I was hoping to have some overwieght models to choose from or at least not so perfect. okay now game controls I agree with some of what I have been hearing, my brother and I both played open beta and he was always keyboard and I used a control the problem is this whenyou have a person who is used a keyboard and mouse say I need a control and the the person uses a control say the control is not responsive enough then yes it is a problem but I am sure it is a easy fix but I have to give my unbiased opinion so that gets a 1/5. now gameplay menus and such for the most part if you played and FF game you know that they have always used those type of menus minus th lag and such the fight system is excellent, I like what I am seeing so far you wont fall asleep at the keyboard or control (which you use) like you did in 11 you have to actually be enaged and attack, the crafting is also a good thing you can gain a lvls from the crafting so if you decide to just craft you will be good at that but your sword skill will be terrible which is what makes this game so good you can play the game and simple control the economy sort of a businessman someone might know you as a great warrior but some ppl might know your friend well he is a great crafter from what i understand crafting is highly important so for gameplay and menu and fight system it gets a 3/5 simply in part i do not like the the lag of the menu system but it is only the beta for those of you that dont know what beta means please look it up in a dictionary you will feel stupid and for those who say I am not getting ffxiv no one cares your a WoW player anyway so why are you here on the blog bashing the game if you dont even play it I can bash WoW if I want but there are things about WoW I dont like and there are things about WoW I do like but overall its not my cup of tea I like visuals that is one of the most important things to me when I play a game I can look at WoW and be like "holy crap those are the same graphics they used in FF7" but I can also say "I really like the way I can just log on and start playing my character with no help or group". So yeah SE might have somethings you dont like and somethings you do like doesnt make it a bad game nothing is perfect and I dont expect 14 to be perfect that is what the BETA is for to correct some issues get player feedback so while before you go judging the game give it a few months on the official release not the BETA and give them a chance to succeed or fail which ever way you want to look at. FFXI and WoW have been in the community for quit sometime now this is the birth of a New updated version of FFXI with some ideas from WoW and they are trying new things I am sure there will be some major fixes as SE reputation is riding on it but at the same token they want to get as much feedback as possible so if your are concerned with simple menu lag in a BETA !!!! version please do yourself a favor and me a favor go play WoW Enjoy the graphics that were used about 15 yrs ago.
Just because its a casual targeted or non-western game doesn't justify horrible design. This game is just plain bad.
They shouldn't have bothered releasing it on pc at all.
I'm sure it's a fantastic console game, but it's diarrhea for pc.
Also, any of the disciple of the land stuff is really quiet tedious. I was looking forward to making a character with botany but the mini "games," aren't really games at all. At least they aren't any fun. They're just annoying.
Hrm... tough call... oh wellz, looks like I'll wait til FF13 Versus announecments... I'll give it a shot on PS3 and i don't like it, it iwill be going on ebay for a safer recovery of assets as gamestop will not accept returns on opened games. :-)
http://entry.ffxiv.com/na/index.html Open beta registration is still open at the moment afaik. Also, PS3 beta testing is supposedly scheduled for Spring of 2011 (March I think). You may want to try to get into the beta or find someone with an extra 14-day trial pass.
It might be hard to ebay a used serial number...
I am hoping to get the FFXIV Beta without even trying (just by being a PS+ Member).
But I will try to see if I can get into the PS3 beta.
Also, Namco-Bandai's latest game, Enslaved is BREATHTAKING.. I played the demo
Oh hey, I think the Assassin's Creed Brotherhood beta is opne to PS+ members.
Gah, I've been meaning to update this site for weeks. Every free moment of my life lately has been occupied by Minecraft...
The controls really are horrendous. I played beta aswell..for about 30 minutes total and the controls are just a huge turn off. Im sorry but I enjoy being able to set my keys to WASF. And being forced to use either the games default fucked up controls [arrow keys] OR WASD is not acceptable. If I want to use F to move backward I should be able to...Its something I am used to after years of playing other MMOs which let me change my controls.
Besidea, this game is currently bombing big time in the West and rightfully so. The first thing players notice when playing a new game is the controls..Fuck that up and your game is screwed out of its potential. And FF14 did just that. You FF fanboys can bitch and whine all you want and tell us to buy a controller but the reality is thats a retarded idea to 90% of PC players and the reviews/sales reflect it.
Well.. the complaint regarding the odd controls wouldn't be present on the PS3.
The PS3 doesn't have any MMORPG (That I know of). And FFXIV will be the first.
There are lots of MMORPGs to choose from on the PC.
Mainly I choose the PS3 as a system is because of the games I like - Tekken 6 is an example. I am mostly a fighting person. :-)
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