Lone wolves, the one-man squad, the masterless ronin; all pertinent descriptions of my MMO play style that could just as easily be described as being a grumpy, anti-social bastard. A spate in Azeroth taught me the fundamentals of grinding and the eerily similar Neverwinter showed how it could all be done for free – albeit with a little spare change for pesky microtransactions. Time with JRPGs revealed the intricacies inherent in grinding – balancing high-level quests against the appropriately stocked equipment sack – along with the puzzle-piece plotlines from which almost all JRPGs derive their stories. Raids had been conducted but either the feeling of intruding into a closed enclave or the shadow of inadequacy did little to break the mesmerising spell of solitary exploration. There comes a point in Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn when raids become mandatory and that feeling you felt on the first day of school – of entering a playground with no familiar faces – rose up again. The lone wolf had to join a pack… but that’s jumping ahead.
YoshiP, the director and producer of Final Fantasy 14, has apologised for the state of the game at the time of writing.
Do you not see this happening during development? Like, why are we apologizing after the fact instead of stopping it during development?
I was unhappy with DT and have spent far less time in it than any other expansion but it's things like this that makes me respect Yoshi P. It's rare for such a high profile developer to be so candid in his assessment on a live game.
Square Enix released new screenshots of the upcoming patch 7.25 for its popular MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV, including the Occult Crescent.
A Final Fantasy XIV fan has embraced the way of the Warrior by creating an axe-shaped controller for IRL Fell Cleaves.
