Final Fantasy XIV A Realm Reborn Beta – First Impressions - AGR

Final Fantasy XIV A Realm Reborn opened up into open beta yesterday. Check it out your self by signing up here, the beta is only open from the 17th – 19th so jump on quickly.

[Ginji]

"The game currently is very unstable" - It's a Beta release...did you expect anything different?

"all quests and information are relayed via the old-fashioned way of text on your screen. It can often be tedious to read through everything while understanding what they’re all talking about." - You mean you have to think or pay attention while playing a game? Oh no!

"The whole game feels as if it’s been created in the early years of 2000 and touched up with barely HD graphics." - If you played the original you'll know that it's been toned down because there were alot of people who couldn't play it because it looked so damn good. They needed to tone it down to allow maximum coverage.

And it's 'undersight' not 'under-site'

Fair enough it's your own opinion and I can't knock you for it but you can't kill off a full game just from the first hour or two of beta you had.

[abradley]

Yes and as I said in the post, the game is coming out in a week. The game is pretty much release ready in Square Enix's mind. It still has issues that will carry on to the full game. Please read the entire article before trying to be a wise arse.

What I mean is it is less efficient to do it in an archaic fashion compared to what some of the newer MMO's have done. They didn't have to do voices, but what they have at the moment is gonna put a lot of people asleep.

Okay well thanks for the insight on the graphics as I didn't know that. One quick question, why if it had to be toned down for the majority of PC's does it look like crap on the PS3? Is it just because it is a MMO?

Cheers for the spelling, it has been corrected.

Maybe, what I'm afraid of is one of my past favourite RPG makers flushing cash down a doomed toilet. Compared to other games on the market, FF XIV in my opinion will not survive.

I would be very interested to hear about your thoughts on the game?

[Blackcanary]

@abradley "What I mean is it is less efficient to do it in an archaic fashion compared to what some of the newer MMO's have done. They didn't have to do voices, but what they have at the moment is gonna put a lot of people asleep."

You have never played FF XI online have you that had no voices at all just pure texts. And people still play it today. So if it puts you to sleep makes me wonder what would happen if you read a book. I don't mean to be rude by the way.

I've been playing the beta and its great. If your into JRPGS you will love this game. No matter what all MMORPGs will have the fair share of bugs but that's why there is a option to call a mod for help.

Also when this game comes out there will always be maintenance and also updates. FFXI to this day still has times when the game is down for maintenance to fixes issue that are still floating around and to do updates.

[Baka-akaB]

That's a funny argument , from what we've seen many people are bored by voice overs and just skip , regardless of text and voices if they are in a hurry .

I'm not even going to bother commenting the rest of it .

[Magicite]

I think FF14ARR will crush Rift, Tera, Aion and similar. FF11 was way worse yet got huge popularity.
Stop hating already.

[abradley]

@Blackcanary I haven't played the game but have seen people do so. I still wonder how anybody could have said that was a revolutionary game in the MMO world. Yes and Square Enix still charge for that game.

I love books, I play games for the combination of books, movies and music media in one with player interactivity. I do not play games to be stood there pressing skip just to accept a quest. Voice's can be skipped but my main point with FFXIV is the fact that the game does quests like any other ten year old MMO. It has no new feature for quests accept for Fates which were obviously used from another game.

Your not rude, your honest and I respect that.

I'm glad your enjoying it. I have to a certain extent. Would I pay for it? No chance in hell.

I am seriously still surprised by the fact people still play XI. From what I saw of it a year or two ago it was pretty empty and hadn't aged well at all.

@Baka-akaB

Yes and many people skip text as well. The point is this is a new game with a quest system as old as MMO's themselves. They've nicked fates from GW2, I don't see why they couldn't have also expanded on GW2 quest system which needs a minimum amount of effort for the maximum amount of gain.

[Baka-akaB]

Er gw2 didnt invent it to begin with . Hell you dont seem to know how much stuff was lifted from FFXI in many mmos gw2 included .

Wich make discussing it further kinda useless to me , no real offense intended

[Dno]

I would like to know what MMO looks better then this on PC or any system?

If you wouldn't go far as to say its the best then name a few.

Other then that its your opinion but its not a very popular one. People enjoy this game and some of the things you don't like about it most people won't even see as they can skip text and even skip CS and then see them later in their Inn if they don't want to wait.

Also Saying they wont fix things and the game will ship as is just crazy. They had a late server update and it fix lots of problems already. Some UI features are not in yet but this is all just common since as its a beta.

Also I played on Ps3 and its a pretty sexy game seeing all it does. The only other MMO on the system is DCU and the graphics don't even come close.

I just don't like the review im sorry.

[Dno]

im with you this Is a very bad review.

Most quests give a idea of the world your playing in and the problems these people are facing.

Barelt HD graphics is laughable. The game is the best looking MMO ever. that's just a fact.

I dunno if this guy even played this game.

Lastly this is a BETA. which means all they are doing is testing it and fixing it. This is not a final product because its a BETA.

[Stsonic]

I think he must have played it on ps3 because the PC version looks stunning.

[Magicite]

Totally true, no other MMO can compare with graphics, although they could add MSAA instead of FXAA.

[Stsonic]

Well use your graphics drivers for AA?

[abradley]

@Dno

Cheers, I will endeavour to improve my reviews as much as possible if people were fair in examining a game.

Some quests may give some idea of what is going on but that doesn't require a 5 minute sit down while they chat on. I, like many players, wish to enjoy and experience the game by playing, not reading a book every half hour.

Yes I played on the PS3 which was pretty bad. I have since played the game on the PC which is decent. Best looking MMO? I'm not entirely sure I would go that far.

I did, thanks for asking.

Yes and something everybody on this bloody planet seems to ignore when they feel fit too. I mentioned it was a beta in the review, guess what I also mentioned? Oh yeah, it releases in one week. What we have played over the weekend is as close to a release copy as your going to get till the day of release. Bugs are not fixed over night and some features may never be fixed once the game has been launched. There was a reason the game was pulled and relaunched after all.

[Kinger8938]

I tried this over the wwekend on ps3 and have decided its not for me. Its nice to see the option of mmos on console and i hope it is improved next gen but for me initial impressions werent good

Waaayy too much text to read with no audio from the characters just made it feel really empty (unless this was a bug) and the ps3 u.i was just an eye sore and a bit of a put off as a new comer

I imagine it would be improved on kb/mouse, but hopefully its better this time round for series fans and those that may have felt left out first time round

[dcj0524]

I freaking love it on ps3. But 3 things stop me. Takes way too long to type (ps3's fault), no voice chat, $13 per month. Maybe when I run into sone cash I'll get it on PS4 and might be able to afford the $13 a month. Been looking for a mmo that a console can run (my pc is no longer viable for games) and this fits all my expectations. The game it's self is fine though I hope the combat gets mixed up more.

[greyhaven33]

You can plug a keyboard into the ps3

[abradley]

Thanks for putting in your two cents. The UI is slightly better on the PC, though it can still be slightly messy at times.

I agree with the text, shame a lot of people so far think I'm crazy for not wanting to wade through it all to experience a game that seems two thirds finished.

@dcj0524

With the next gen we should be seeing plenty more MMO's hitting the console seen. I don't think many of them will be asking the same kind of monthly price as FFXIV so maybe you'll get lucky.

[maniac76]

Cant log in n last time i tried.fire et up once home lmao

[Emilio_Estevez]

Too late, Beta's over in an hour I think

[abradley]

Its still going at the moment. Not sure if their just waiting till everybody logs off or they extended it for a few more hours.

@Maniac76

Try today, they restarted the servers during the early hours of the morning to fix many players issues with logging in. I myself had the exact same issue. Should all be working now though.

[Emilio_Estevez]

@Bradly - it goes til 11am est, 9 minutes from now.

[Blackcanary]

There's so many big major improvements over FF11 including graphics and i'm really happy that its alot easier to solo in FF14. Also i love that i can go into a town and still summon Carbuncle. Also Game pad controls are very friendly and easy to use.

[Magicite]

In FF11 I died to lvl 1 mob when I was lvl 3 myself :D. Here I can solo mobs few lvls above my.

[greyhaven33]

Well I absolutely loved it and can't wait for the full release

[Mazim]

Not a big fan of FFXIV, but its much better than this review.

[Stsonic]

He is judging the graphics on the console version. What a fail. Then goes onto update his first impressions with an update for the PC controls but does not mention anything about the graphics.

Seriously how can you slam the graphics on a game that was clearly made top to bottom for pc, based on the dumbed down console version.

[greyhaven33]

Exactly, and in any case it looked pretty damn decent on the PS3 imo

[Drithe]

This game can be played solo. It was designed much better than FF 11 for that very reason. In FF 11 if you did not have a group, you were screwed. In FF 14 they add NPC's to help you in certain areas. However I am afraid they did dumb it down a bit.

In one area, on a main quest of a certain class(NO SPOILERS), you fight this mob boss. In beta 3 this mob boss, every minute or so, would POISON YOU. IF you did not CURE this poison it would eat you alive and you could not beat him. Well, they took the poisoning spell the boss had out to make it easier.

It took me a while to figure out what to do. But once I got the CURE set up in my hot bar and used it, I was like, "Oh, that's how you beat it!"

In anther mini boss fight, you had to clear most of the mini boss's surrounding defenders before you could attack him, because if you attacked him head on, ALL OF THE CREATURES would attack at once, as the mini boss would call on them to do. But now, once you get close to him, a higher level NPC will come in an agro all of the other monsters and you can either (A) help kill the smaller monsters first or (B) try and help him kill the main boss.

SO they are doing tons of tweaks and everything for this game. But still, this game is leaning on the side of SOLOING, and I'm not so sure it is worth 13 bucks a month to play.

[Dno]

your quest is lower then lvl 20.

How can you look for parting lower then lvl 20?

You get your first party at lvl 15.

[Lovable]

I think they designed it that way so you can get the feel of the characters for early levels. Hell, can't even survive if I aggro two enemies at once. lol