Monday, August 19, 2013

FFXIV: A Realm Reborn - Open Beta Thoughts

I want to start by saying I certainly didn't get enough time to really take a good long look at the game, particularly due to the dreaded 3102 error after about 9 hours of playtime which does not include a quick break for laundry and food. These are just my initial thoughts on the game and what I am excited for and what worries me. While I want to state I have full faith in Square Enix (SE) to provide a good game and proper support, I can not ignore what they've done in the past and go all fangirl crazy about it. I should note I have pre-ordered (about a week ago) and am excited to play the game in the coming months.

I played FFXI at launch for a teensy bit but adding North American players to a Japanese server that had already been running for six months turned me off that game so fast I didn't even get past the initial 30 day play time before I gave up. I didn't have enough faith in Squeenix to even try FFXIV 1.0, though I did do a media review it for an MMO site a long time ago. Back then the controls were difficult, the naming conventions were odd and non-intuitive, and the game play seemed to cater way more to a console controller than a PC. To top it all off, Final Fantasy online players of either game are relatively difficult to get along with, and that's saying something given WoW's general disdain for newbies. In my experience players were either cut-throat LIKE IT OR ELSE or had given up long ago. So my experience this weekend really came from a new player of the Final Fantasy (FF) online world perspective though I am not at all new to the FF singe player games.


Character creation was what I expect from an MMO. Very similar to EQ2 as far as options available, and way more customization than WoW. I do feel like my character is how I want them to look. Others may feel differently, but for me, it was acceptable. The character benchmark download allowed me to pre-create my character, so once the servers launched I was able to port over my created look without doing it all over again. A very nice touch, I thought!
   
The intro scenes are beautiful. They are narrated with full voice over (though I didn't get any NPC voice overs from it) and allow for character interaction in that you get to choose your character's responses to the intro NPCs. The cut scenes really show off your character and some of their animations. I felt immersed in the story from the very beginning. The starting areas of Limsa Lominsa (Marauder and Arcanist classes) as well as Gridania (Conjurer, Archer, and Lancer classes) felt well put together. They were a bit confusing to navigate at first but I learned them quickly. Coming from someone who cannot navigate a map in real life or an average MMO to save their life (just ask Dimli) this is quite an achievement!

Cutscenes, on the other hand, mostly had no voiceovers (fine by me!) but others said that they were supposed to. So I am curious as to whether this is intended or not. Of course, again, it is beta! This is the time to get all this stuff worked out, because if it's plaguing me come pre-release I will become more pessimistic regarding the game's outlook. I found the scenes helped deepen my interest in the storyline - and gave me a chance to take a drink or a bite of food while not missing a chance to whomp on anything....or fish (fishing was fun!).

The music was pretty amazing and is well placed in the areas I've visited so far. To be fair, what I've seen of the game is quite limited but I still feel that the music is something I know and love from the Final Fantasy teams. The ambient noises are also very well done. I realize I'm in the minority here but I'm a really big fan of the little things in an MMO that make your everyday playing life just that much more immersive.
       
As far as quests go this is a pretty standard MMO. Run for 3 minutes, kill 3 things, run back to your quest giver who sends you back the same place to kill 5 more things in the same place. Innovative, definitely not. But it's supplemented with a type of public quest called Full Active Time Event (FATE) that are level based and spawned fairly often this weekend in the areas we were in. We found the experience gained was pretty good and as a Marauder and Arcanist class we had no trouble getting a large chunk of our experience this way while we ran to and fro on quests.
   
Not including the 3102 error, we experienced what I would call excellent performance. No lag and hitches only every few hours and only for a second or two even when walking through heavily populated areas or participating in FATEs filled with people. We did not create on a super populated server mostly because we don't really enjoy being sardines. We like our space and are willing to forgo a heavy busy economic world for being able to actually log in and not competing like crazy people for accomplishments. We'll see how that works out for us 3 years down the road.
   
Game animations seemed a little off, but only barely. For the most part they fit my character well and I liked they way they fit in the world overall. I love the fact that they included jumping! It's just not an MMO without it. Though I feel the need to mention that jumping just doesn't seem natural. It's more of a straight up and down than a forward or backwards arch. I was also pleased to find there was also a sprint button! Every game should have a sprint. It still annoys me, to this day, that WoW doesn't have a generic sprint available for all characters.

Cut scene animations were a little more off-putting for me personally. I felt like I was just standing there watching my character participating in something I had no control of. It's not a big thing to be sure, but it does cause my heart a little angst.

Combat pacing is a nice change from my WoW raiding nights. I think I will enjoy it. I'm not sure how the game will open up in the later levels but my level 14 Marauder could hold her own in level 19 FATEs with Dim's level 14 Arcanist doing some healing. The global cool down is almost double that found in WoW. It makes combat a little less hectic for me, and while there is positional/action-y stuff going on, I didn't find it near as offensive as Guild Wars 2 combat (sorry guys, I hate that stuff in an MMO!).
   
As far as the things that worry me - most of then have to do with SquareEnix and their history with MMOs in general. The 3102 error started occuring and just steamrolled into what can only be called a disaster. This *is* beta though, so I get that things happen. I was mostly disappointed in their lack of communication regarding the issue. I do understand that it happened at an inopportune time considering their offices are in Japan - but if they have no one on staff or on standby that could get a message across on the forums, Twitter, or Facebook, I find that disappointing at best.
   
I am not totally willing to absolve SquareEnix of the atrocities they committed in FFXI and FFXIV 1.0 but I am willing to give them a grudging opportunity to win me over. Evidenced by the fact that I am both participating in beta *and* handing over cold hard cash to play the game. I am committed to at least three months of playing albeit at the one month subscription price.
   
As far as in game goes, the questing is really linear. Everything I've read has told me that will open up between 18 and 22, so while I'm willing to give that one a pass it does worry me a little. Movement is overly controlled in some areas, like some of the early questing areas of Gridania. Here, you can see across a river - but gods forbid you want to walk through the river to get there. One must find the bridge and may only move across it, not jump off either side. This seems somewhat non-open worldy to me. It's not at all a deal breaker but is somewhat disappointing.

  
The 3102 error did cut short our time to play, but I am hoping it gives the team to debug and fix whatever it is that broke the ability of thousands of players to log back in after being kicked from the servers.
   
The re-launch for FFXIV will be no different than other MMO launches. There will be login issues, server issues, and issues with getting one when you want. We will probably see login queues or server crashes and will definitely see the frustration of the community we see when they're not getting the services their payment entitles them to. Let's face it, logging in and playing is a basic requirement of an MMO. I do think that they'll figure it out, though it always takes time when these games launch.
   
For now, I am optimistic enough about the crafting and gathering skills as well as the basic questing and partying options that I am willing to give some faith to SE. I hope they can pull it off, because this could be a really great game.

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