(Editor’s Note: This was originally supposed to be a one part article, but for some reason it was playing hell with the server, so it has been split up)
Now let’s talk about the negatives, starting with everyone’s favorite piece from 1.0: Levequests. Levequests are back and they are just as convoluted as they were in their past iterations. Levequests work by accepting them at an appropriate NPC, who then directs you to another area where you enter a specific location and “initiate” the levequest. This generates monsters that are specific to you and cannot be attacked by anyone else, and at the end you are rewarded bonus experience and gil. Remember the artificial limits I mentioned that were in that other game? They are back. Levequests are limited to six daily, however they roll over and stack for any days you miss or don’t run any. What this means is that the more dedicated players will quickly run out of things to do, since traditional quests are sparse and easily completed.
For now, players are power leveling by completing FATES, the game’s open quest system similar to those found in Guild Wars 2, Rift, Defiance, etc. The FATE system not only awards extremely generous amounts of experience, but they pop up fast enough that they are not only the best form of leveling up, but compared to the sparse story quests and limited levequests, they are the only viable option for a solo player to level up that doesn’t involve sitting around just killing stuff for base experience.
And I’ve already touched on this in the previous, very short impressions piece, but the more I look at it the more I believe that Square Enix hires their designers by going to McDonald’s, finding the people who weren’t qualified to work there, and ignoring them for the homeless person rummaging through the dumpster out back. Now that the server issues are mostly squared away, I can turn my attention to other choices that would qualify under “why didn’t you learn this the first time?” Like the horrible chat interface that forces you type a person’s name in if you want to blacklist their chat, making blocking goldfarmers just about impossible when they are either spamming too fast to writer their names down or, god forbid, their name uses confusing or special characters that can’t be replicated on an American keyboard. Forgetting an easy ignore button in an MMO is something I’d expect from a startup company, not from a game that is built from the remains (and lessons) of one of the worst launches in gaming history.
There are plenty of rookie mistakes that Square continues to make, including the total lack of an AFK kick function resulting in unnecessary server congestion, being unable to leave chat on “shout” and having to select it every time, the fact that you have to log in to multiple different websites to manage various aspects of one account, and the total lack of defense against gold spam.
I did my best to review Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn without thinking about the MMO’s prior release, but I found that the game is just too deeply burned into my brain to not make comparisons. That being said, I think that people who even slightly enjoyed the original MMO will be very happy to see the improvements that Square Enix has made. Those of you who are just coming in for the first time will either be overjoyed or disappointed to know that FFXIV doesn’t deviate from the standard MMO spectrum all that much.
If you put a gun to my head and asked for a numerical score, I’d give it a 9.0 out of 10. Yes it isn’t perfect, and I’m sure there are a lot of people who simply will not like it. I can see myself paying the monthly subscription for this, which is a lot more than I can say for most other MMOs.
MMO Fallout 