ARR Press Reviews

[Kelenae]

I guess we should be saying. How much did SE pay for those reviews.

[Kincard]

I don't think 7 is an unfair score. I personally would've gone with an 8 because I think it does what it does quite well.

Bad structure of endgame content and lack of a lot of quality of life features, as others have mentioned, are probably the most bothersome things for me.

I get that people always say "you can't compare new MMOs to established ones" but I don't really see how that's relevant for endgame because for any other given MMO the only endgame that is relevant at a point in time is the most recent expansion (unless you count FFXI). I have more fun running a rotation of dungeons in the latest WoW expansion compared to XIV's "spam AK forever" stuff, but I think XIV's boss fights (Primals) are a lot more fun.

[ronin sparthos]

No MMO should ever be a 9-10 in the beginning then. There is no MMORPG out there that had everything it "should have had" in launch. You're essentially competing against games developing on top of themselves, adding features over-time. You have 3-5 years to create from the scratch a rival for games that have been constantly "in development" for 5-15 years.

Well, that's alright with me really. But I think it's a bit silly we should omit 9 and 10 from the review scale when it comes to new MMO's. Granted like you said it's a fact for long-time MMO gamers. Yes, they should realize that they are looking at the game through completely different glasses than the common folk.

GW2 could be considered a high 8 to 9 launch. It kicks the shit out of XIV on all fronts other than localization, music and story. Not even mentioning its F2P vs. Sub. Its a shame GW2s strong launch has resulted in nothing but floundering since.

[Rocl]

was gw2 the one with felicia day voice acting cuz that's an instant -50 dkp and forty demerits

i will take the campy as fuck english va in xiv over gw2 any day

[Kanriel]

GW2 could be considered a high 8 to 9 launch. It kicks the shit out of XIV on all fronts other than localization, music and story. Not even mentioning its F2P vs. Sub. Its a shame GW2s strong launch has resulted in nothing but floundering since.

You realize that "Music" and "Story" are typically 2 of 4~ scores given on reviews? And they're things FFXIV has done exceptionally well. For an MMO, the story is very good, and the music...it's pretty much a given for an FF to be a 9-10 in music.

For an MMO LAUNCH, specifically, I can easily see the game getting a 9-9.5. Endgame shouldn't really be considered in a rating for an MMO launch, since all you usually do is put in a barebones system in until a patch or two in. I mean we're getting what, a doubling, at least, of endgame events in the first patch?

[Andradi]

You realize that "Music" and "Story" are typically 2 of 4~ scores given on reviews? And they're things FFXIV has done exceptionally well. For an MMO, the story is very good

The final scores aren't averages, though. And saying "it's poop, but it doesn't smell too bad I guess" is not exactly high praise. Because on its own terms, the story was nothing short of mediocre.

[Kincard]

I'll put up my flame shield and say I find ARR's music to be...just adequate. I liked 1.0 and XI's music a lot more. I think it's mostly because I generally don't like ambiance soundtracks as much as melody-based ones, and they opted for the former this time, even going as far as discarding the majority of Uematsu's soundtrack because too much of it felt out of place.

Lots of great boss themes though.

As for the story, I think it's enjoyable enough, but I think it's pretty much on the level of what MMOs put out now if you compare it to TOR, GW2, or even arguably WoW's recent expansions. Especially distracting was the "go get a block of cheese while the world is doomed" scenarios that constantly came up.

[Spider-Dan]

If someone thinks FFXIV: ARR is a 9-9.5 (Forbes, Gamesbeat) then yeah, I'm going to be skeptical of their review. While Yoshida and co. salvaging one of the worst MMO launches in history is noteworthy ranking a game like this that totes the status quo at every turn near perfection is ludicrous. Games that change the industry and become household names get to be 9s and 9.5s.

XIV kicks the crap of out any console MMO on the market and I challenge you to say otherwise.

You don't seem to be looking at the big picture. Should Goldeneye have been rated a 7 because it didn't introduce anything that hadn't been seen in the FPS genre? Or maybe it only deserved a higher rating because there was no PC version that came out at the same time?

[Meresgi]

The final scores aren't averages, though. And saying "it's poop, but it doesn't smell too bad I guess" is not exactly high praise. Because on its own terms, the story was nothing short of mediocre.

The story was very well done for a MMO storyline. Was it fantastic and fap worthy? No, but neither was the starting story to XI and I loved XI's story later on so i'll wait to see what comes about. No other MMO i've played (and ive spent way too much money playing MMOs in the past few years) has had a story that actually made me want to read more then 5mins worth of text. I wouldn't even have given a shit if none of the game was voice acted.

I feel like the filler quests in the story of "get some cheese" "get some (x)" detract from it, but at the same time since they were going about making exping through quests more worth the time, I can see why some of them are there, otherwise people would have complained about having to grind FATEs even more to get to the next story quest. (Doing dungeons here and there and wandering into FATEs I never hit a roadblock on the story and was usually 3-5lvls over the story quest I was on).

As far as music goes, the zone music while running around in Shroud is really nice, especially since its Fall outside. The boss music at the end of the story is amazing as well, rest is pretty good too.

Games that change the industry and become household names get to be 9s and 9.5s.

So no game in the past few years then. Just the fact that Yoshi and co took the shit that 1.0 was and gave us this puts them up to a 7.0 in my book before even factoring in story/music/atmosphere.

[ronin sparthos]

XIV kicks the crap of out any console MMO on the market and I challenge you to say otherwise.

You don't seem to be looking at the big picture. Should Goldeneye have been rated a 7 because it didn't introduce anything that hadn't been seen in the FPS genre? Or maybe it only deserved a higher rating because there was no PC version that came out at the same time?

So because XIV has a monopoly on consoles that somehow entitles it to higher marks? The game is average and passes which is exactly what a 7-8 grade indicates. It's good, not great but due to the nature of MMOs it can either get better or worse as time advances.

Comparing this game to Goldeneye is nonsense. That game got first mover status on N64 as a FPS and that led to it's success in addition to the addictive multiplayer. XIV is a game following in the wake of a beaten to death WoW-clone saga coming to the market nearly 10 years after WoW defined the checkpoint to checkpoint questing, instance-all-the-things, casual gameplay, duty finder type of play. The only saving grace is that this game has a Final Fantasy skin going for it and that might be all it needs. We'll see.

If this game wasn't FF-themed it'd be thrown into the wastebin alongside every other generic MMO because this game breaks no new ground. It rushes you to endgame for a gear ladder then throws up months of waiting for new content.

[Therin]

Ronin just sounds like he doesn't like the game.

I'd rate it a 9.5. Tons of innovation and a lot that has been pulled off in better ways than before. Graphics, sound, setting and story are almost perfect. I'd give it -0.5 for reliability issues (congestion, latency).

[Kincard]

Tons of innovation

http://static2.fjcdn.com/comments/I+...720ba49604.png

[Viena]

About the story:

It's quite straightforward, not too interesting and poorly written/translated (you can see the writer overusing some expressions on several different characters). Some moments were plain awkward. I'm sure that the game, when compared to other MMOs, offers a better presented story, as many limit storytelling to text bubbles. However, that doesn't excuse the poor writing of the story itself, which is way behind of what SE has shown us to be capable of in many FFs and in XI in particular (CoP, Serpent Generals...). I've even found some of XIV's short side quests to be better written than the main storyline. Also, the poor voice acting doesn't really help. However, XI's story at launch was barely a thing, so I'm really interested in seeing how they progress on this regard when new story content is added.

About the music

It's a huge improvement from 1.0's, particularly in regards to city and starter area music. Most of what was decent from 1.0 was also preserved in some way or another. However, I still feel that it doesn't match XI's best.

Misc:

What drew me to XI and XIV are their art direction and that they are meant to be story driven MMOs. I haven't ever touched wow, even if it had the best designed game mechanics ever its visual design turns me off. Same for many recently released or to be released MMOs. I love how the characters in XIV look and I love how the world looks, even if it feels small (I'd rather have a smaller but detailed world as we do than a huge copypasted world of nothingness as we used to back in 1.0).

The performance of their customer support and PR is alarming, though, as reaching them is extremely difficult and getting a useful reply seems to be next to impossible. Also, many important issues are left unaddressed by their PR team. I'm also concerned about their direction that they might take endgame, as I don't really like the idea that every single piece of gear we work for will end up being worthless.

[ronin sparthos]

Ronin just sounds like he doesn't like the game.

I'd rate it a 9.5. Tons of innovation and a lot that has been pulled off in better ways than before. Graphics, sound, setting and story are almost perfect. I'd give it -0.5 for reliability issues (congestion, latency).

Pretty sure I'm on the record saying that everything from Garuda -> Credits made this game worth the purchase. I must have gotten my group wiped at least 5 times just enjoying the Titan music and then Garuda/Ultima topped that. The localization team once again bring their A-game and are clearly individuals who enjoy their jobs as everything they put out is rich and enjoyable to read.

Only the choppy voicework detracts from the main scenario and the filler arc nonsense. I didn't make a big deal about the Brayflox cheese bit because previous FF games have had you do mindless things to further the storyline. Even the story has some fun with a tongue-in-cheek "Run Fido, Run" as a quest title.

[kmexe]

I guess we should be saying. How much did SE pay for those reviews.

Discussion should have ended here, We all know SE paid for those reviews.

[Cichy]

ok, you dont like the game you proven your point, go back to gw2

[Spider-Dan]

So because XIV has a monopoly on consoles that somehow entitles it to higher marks?

Why, yes; yes, it does. For pretty much exactly the same reason that you refuse to concede that Goldeneye deserved a 7 (based strictly on what innovations it brought to the FPS genre).

XIV is a game following in the wake of a beaten to death WoW-clone saga coming to the market nearly 10 years after WoW defined the checkpoint to checkpoint questing, instance-all-the-things, casual gameplay, duty finder type of play. The only saving grace is that this game has a Final Fantasy skin going for it and that might be all it needs.

If this game wasn't FF-themed it'd be thrown into the wastebin alongside every other generic MMO because this game breaks no new ground.

Ooh, let me try:

Goldeneye is a game following in the wake of a beaten to death Doom-clone saga coming to the market nearly 5 years after Doom defined the multiplayer deathmatch, race to powerups, frag-and-respawn type of play. The only saving grace is that this game has a James Bond movie tie-in and that might be all it needs.

If N64 had a decent game library this game would be thrown into the wastebin alongside every other generic FPS because this game breaks no new ground.

As a PC MMO, ARR probably deserves something like an 8; it doesn't take many risks, while blending WoW-ish gameplay with an extremely unique class system (which, for some reason, you casually dismiss as inconsequential). As a console MMO, it's unquestionably best-in-class and there really isn't anything that's even remotely close.

In that context, ARR fairly deserves the high ratings it has been given. I suppose the Gamespot review could be viewed solely through the prism of PC FPS (in which case it's just on the lower end of reasonable), but mostly I tend to think they're just trolling expressing a non-conformist view.

[Seravi Edalborez]

As a PC MMO, ARR probably deserves something like an 8; it doesn't take many risks, while blending WoW-ish gameplay with an extremely unique class system

This is what sold me on FFXI and FFXIV. Not having to fuck around with 10 characters to play everything I want.

Unless there's some other MMO that does on the fly class changes (that don't automatically gimp you for being a generalist). Closest I've played that fits is Phantasy Star Online 2 but
A) Unless you pay, you're stuck being only good at one of melee/ranged/magic (or mediocre at all of them if you allotted poorly)
B) Still JP onry

[Kuishen]

I'm not sure that "unique" is the right word for the class system. Convoluted is more accurate.

[Kincard]

I tend to think they're just trolling expressing a non-conformist view.

Gamespot's not the only guys giving the game a 7-8 range score. I think it's more that a lot of early reviews of the game were from sites that have a really high review average so people are having this knee-jerk reaction when the sites that tend to be more strict in their grading are coming out with their reviews now. It's not like there's any sites ruthlessly bashing the game just to be edgy, that would be called trolling.