Letter from the Producer, XI

[Biggie]

Holy Shit.... I don't even... Just never mind...

[Niiro]

There is nothing there.

Don't know why it's not showing up.

edit: there it is, weird.

[Hyan]

People need to remove the rose tinted glasses of nostalgia.

Yes, and you especially.

At least I have a general idea about WTF happened in the opening CGI. It took me a year to figure out what that city in the XI opening was, and even longer to find out what happened to it.

The premise of the story is also ultimately more interesting. Beastmen aren't weakened and just chilling while the nations are all playing some sports PvP, not to mention the vanilla story didn't really start making sense before the Magicite. There are 3 opposing forces instead of 2 (Garleans, primals, city-states).

It's pretty apparent who the Shadow lord of XIV will be, and he is more of a bad-ass than the "shadow lord-lite" raogrimm ever was.

XI was full of clues when it comes to area design, I'll give it that. It just took ages to figure out what had happened.

[miokomioko]

XIV needs way more historically relevant lore-heavy landmarks like Mor Dhona's "Keeper of the Lake."

I'm really looking forward to what Yoshi can do with the fallen capital of Ala Mhigo. Hopefully they do it right with that region in the ways XI never did it right with Tavnazia (which was infinitely disappointing).

[Alkar]

I completely disagree oldschool FFXI was more than an epic adventure than oldschool WoW. In FFXI you did nothing but grind on the same few mob family types the entire game, crab, crawlers, goblin, beetle. The only thing I will give FFXI over WoW is that community is way better because blizzard games are just plagued with bad community, lots of kids, douche bags, trolls.

In Wow you do nithing but spam the same quests over and over again with 0 variety. Even picking a different race or class doesn't change a thing. At least in FFXI you had quests that were actually interesting and you had to talk with people in order to exp.

Exploration in WoW > FFXI Riding on a mount through the plaguelands, searing gorge, burning stepps @ low levels was suicide for the most part. Mob aggro radius gets larger and larger the higher a mob is vs you which made exploring very dangerous, mob knocks you off your mount, you were dead and you weren't out running anything on a starter mount.

It's the same in XI really. Unless you know the areas like the back of your hand you're going to get aggroed and killed all the freaking time. My example of this clearly mentioned the noob days and I couldn't get out of Jeuno back then. I think you've never explored in XI and you probably don't even know why you can't get attacked on a chocobo.

WoW told a much better story than FFXI, you're involved in the world, you progress through each zones story that culminated either in a group quest or a dungeon quest that dealt with the threat. In WoW you have what FFXI has, basically someone/something evil trying to destroy the world except now you're smack in the middle of an Alliance and Horde war as well making things much more complicated in the story.

I don't see the difference. Actually the difference is that WoW drops you into the world without a clue while FFXI starts right off the bat to introduce the city you picked and the storyline. After 1 month of playing WoW I still had no clue what was going on and I talked with every single quest NPC I could find. I wasn't even reading quests after the first 2-3 because they're pretty much the same thing.

WoW is the better designed game by far but I will say I did have more fun in FFXI due to the community being way better.

Good for you I guess.
This is pretty much what I was talking about when mentioning people that can't let go. As a FF fan I'm ready for anything as the series is always changing and bringing something different to the table each time (in general, not strictly MMO related).
I don't think I'm the one with the nostalgia googles on.
Saying that WoW is the best game ever is like saying that the Wii is the best console this generation with lots of amazing games and best specs.
The thing both have in common is that they catered to casuals when hardly anyone did. That's the only innovative thing Blizzard and Nintendo did and I'd love to see Blizzard replace WoW with a new MMO just to see the results.

[miokomioko]

People don't defend a Final Fantasy title for nostalgia's sake. People are more likely to get pissed at Square-Enix for nostalgia's sake because they avoid doing the same thing twice. If anything, nostalgia is the main reason that people nerd-rage over a new Final Fantasy title.

Nostalgia is what annoys me when I have to play a 3rd-person shooter, watch a movie, and play a Kingdom Hearts-style action RPG to get any additional FFVII prequel/sequel/spinoff/lore.

[Jesifromgaruda]

People don't defend a Final Fantasy title for nostalgia's sake. People are more likely to get pissed at Square-Enix for nostalgia's sake because they avoid doing the same thing twice. If anything, nostalgia is the main reason that people nerd-rage over a new Final Fantasy title.

Nostalgia is what annoys me when I have to play a 3rd-person shooter, watch a movie, and play a Kingdom Hearts-style action RPG to get any additional FFVII prequel/sequel/spinoff/lore.

FF13-2 says hello.

Basically the first FF with a nearly identical combat system.

They knew the fighting system was bad. They knew from the complaints and reviews that everyone hated it. But they went ahead and made a sequel with the same exact system.

That pretty much sums up why SE is losing money. They thought they could still just do whatever they thought was best and ignore everyone because they used to put out such quality product. But not anymore.

[Gokulo]

They knew the fighting system was bad. They knew from the complaints and reviews that everyone hated it. But they went ahead and made a sequel with the same exact system.

Hurray for posting baseless stuff. You don't even have to look further than this forum to find people that liked the battle system. So don't go throwing this "everyone" left and right. Plus, the system is supposed to be upgraded and we don't know yet how much, so there's another reason to wait with complaints.

[Elcura]

They knew the fighting system was bad. They knew from the complaints and reviews that everyone hated it. But they went ahead and made a sequel with the same exact system.

Everyone thinks the exact same way I do! Jesus, pull your head out of your ass for a second so you can actually look around to see how people feel. The battle system isn't perfect, but it isn't bad.

If I wanted to appease people in XIII-2, I would:
Allow other members to be controlled
Take away MC death
Allow for some semblance of character movement
Get rid of the initial Paradigm Shift animation

Stuff like Auto-Battle can stay, because while people complained, you could play the game without touching it. It came in handy for a lot of battles, but later on you'll be choosing your own skills and hitting repeat anyway.

[Hyan]

FF13-2 says hello.

Basically the first FF with a nearly identical combat system.

FF1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 says hello.

And as the cherry on top, Lost Odyssey.

[ascalon]

@Alkar When did you last try WoW, because most of the complaints you've made -- lack of immersion in starter areas; repetitive quests; etc -- have been 'fixed' over the last couple of years, especially with the latest expansion.

For the record, I really enjoyed ff13 -- I still wonder how ff14 would play with 13's battle system (albeit solo, tho a paradigm system with your companion would also be interesting). I'm also looking forwards to 13-2. Admittedly, I liked X-2 as well, so many people may immediately discount my opinion of everything for the rest of time... xD

[Sephiroth]

Best thing FFXIII-2 could do is take the best from XII and add it to XIII. Open areas, towns, lots of content etc. People whined too much about XII being too big so they went to the other extreme. Sometimes it's best to ignore the whiners and do what you as a developer feel is right. Hardcore whiners (most of the XIV forums) will whine no matter what you produce.

[Lucavi]

In Wow you do nithing but spam the same quests over and over again with 0 variety. Even picking a different race or class doesn't change a thing. At least in FFXI you had quests that were actually interesting and you had to talk with people in order to exp.

Really? "Go get the President some Dodo eggs from the Dangruf Wadi." Now do it again, for, you guessed it, reputation and a small reward. Sounds a lot like what you're complaining about in WoW, yet it somehow predated WoW.

Hmm. How about we say this. Both games had epic quests, and both games had repeatable, regurgitated shit designed simply for those who have nothing better to do with their day. Sound about right?

[CrstyCptSteveWitherspoon]

Who whined about XII being too big? It was great. Tons of shit to do, some of which I never finished. I agree though, making XIII-2 more like XII would be the best thing. Having side quests and places to explore before you get to the end of the game is a must.

[Kaylia]

At least I have a general idea about WTF happened in the opening CGI. It took me a year to figure out what that city in the XI opening was, and even longer to find out what happened to it.

I still don't know what happened in FFXI intro. There was an army of behemoths, Taru spamming meteor, lot of awesome stuff...then you start playing, and there is 2 and ½ behemoths over 6 months of playtime, no awesome spell and you become the world #1 courrier. That CG was a scam.

XIV needs way more historically relevant lore-heavy landmarks like Mor Dhona's "Keeper of the Lake."

This is by far the worst part in FFXIV. Before the combat, before the story, and before the graphics, what make me want to play a mmo is how much I enjoy exploring the landscape and the world. FFXIV failed so hard at this...

In Wow you do nithing but spam the same quests over and over again with 0 variety. Even picking a different race or class doesn't change a thing. At least in FFXI you had quests that were actually interesting and you had to talk with people in order to exp.

That's not true. You could probably do 3 characters on the same side (6 if you include alliance+horde) and repeat almost nothing but a few quests. The only places where you're forced in a specific path would be the beginning of outland (~4-5 hours) and the end of cataclysm.

[Sephiroth]

Who whined about XII being too big? It was great. Tons of shit to do, some of which I never finished. I agree though, making XIII-2 more like XII would be the best thing. Having side quests and places to explore before you get to the end of the game is a must.

Quite a few people whined about the story lacking because it was so open. I think that's why they went in a linear direction with XIII. That game was all about its story and almost nothing else.

[Mioko Lockheart]

Chains of Promathia is enough said WOW doesn't have one quest line or story that compares to that. I played WOW i strongly disliked it sit there go zone to zone spamming quests or random dungeon finder to level up much fun after it takes 2 hours to get a level doing the same thing to 85. Obviously many people like WOW i liked certain points to the game but i prefered ffxi. With that said im not sitting here spamming the WOW forums of how bad i hate the game and how it sucks. If you want the game to be like WOW then why waste your time worrying about ffxiv and go play WOW instead of try and bash people that like ffxi concepts

[Gokulo]

Lol, dat post.

[Mioko Lockheart]

lol at you bitch yall piss me off on these forums complaining ffxi is the best mmo it just didn't appeal to casual players that suck at playing video games you can't even be diplomatic with yall niggas

[Alderaan]

That's sig worthy material.