The Mog Blog » Final Fantasy XIV: What’s Over the Rainbow?

While Final Fantasy XI was a game that has been around for a long time, most of its run has been catered towards those that can spend the time to play it. Final Fantasy XIV, the follow up to Final Fantasy XI, was geared towards players that simply didn’t have much time in their hands but still wanted a great experience.

Of course, it had a reputation to uphold. It was not only a chance for Square-Enix to help return those that shunned FFXI away but it was also another entry to the Final Fantasy series as a numbered title. Since the release of FFXIV, most will agree… Square-Enix dropped the ball. Why?Last year, Square-Enix released Final Fantasy XIV, an MMORPG that would be cross platform and internationally connected, to the public on PC. This was preceded by various beta and alpha testing, which also happened to include an open public beta. Upon the release of the game, many players would log into a world that featured a very nice introduction, a beautiful world and just overall a great brand new world that any new MMO released on the market would typically show.

Unfortunately, players would realize that it was all luster without the substance. The game was filled with problems, ranging from user interface issues to having an unbalanced leveling system. The game was simply incomplete. Not only was it incomplete, it didn’t have a direction. The game just felt like it shouldn’t have been made in the first place because the game never really had a foundation to go on.

Normally an MMORPG like this would shut down within months of operation. We have seen other MMOs just drop out such as Tabula Rasa or All Points Bulletin (which is getting a revival soon) but Square-Enix is persistent in trying to get it back in the right direction. Recently, there have been a few revamps but even after logging in and giving it some time, it still needs a lot more time and a lot more revamping.

A few things that Square-Enix did offer to the players that have paid for the game is that you do not have to pay anything aside from buying the actual game. While this won’t be a permanent free service, I expect that they won’t shift it back into a paid plan until the game is working to the standard that everyone can be pleased in. They are also working on pumping out updates at an expedited rate, making improvements to the UI while making it easier for players to level up and also just overall making the experience much more enjoyable.

It is actually amazing how much of a big list of plans Square-Enix has for FFXIV. Heck, the list is so big, I was contemplating posting it all into this blog post but… it’s friggen huge! To give you a bit of sample of it, a lot of these changes are things that you would find in an MMO nowadays. A lot of things many people would feel that the game should have had in the first place. Heck, they want to actually put jumping in the game. In a recent patch for FFXIV, they even added a familiar exclamation point icon on top of NPCs that give quests.

For the few weeks that I’ve played FFXIV, there are a few things that I did enjoy outside of the fancy visuals and presentation. The combat system is a lot more active than FFXI as now the game focuses more on ability spamming rather than auto-attacking. Each hit that you do feels great, especially when you randomly get a critical hit. I actually do enjoy the fact that I can just hop on, do a few guildleves (mini-quests that can be repeated every day and a half) and log off. Finally, I like the potential of what these guildleves can do. These events are phased and that means that it is enclosed to only you and your party. This also means that the game could potentially give a more direct approach of interaction to the party. A good example of these would be like the instances in WoW where a character’s placement and interactions is tied much more directly in relation to the party or enemy.

Other than that, those that have given up on FFXIV, I’d say give it some time. Might as well consider this period as the game’s beta period. Those that have not played it, unless you enjoy experiencing the growth of an incomplete game, play it after it comes out on Playstation 3 later on. This game has potential to be great, it just needed a direction which I feel it now has.

MogKnight

Hanh "MogKnight" Nguyen is owner and Editor-in-Chief of The Mog Blog. A fan of pushing buttons and making things happen. He has recently been seen going around random GameStops to slowly rebuild his Dynasty Warriors collection.