Well someone else can find a better JP review translated in English. But that's how the JP are, non-confrontational.
I doubt JP reviewers are as jaded to MMOs as western ones are. On the other hand there has been a lot of negative response from Japanese fans, no different from what you see on these boards. Then again, who knows if those type of opinions ever align. I want to see what Famitsu gives it, I can't call it.
I can't wait to see it bomb, expect alot of 6s and 7s.
Maybe not professional reviewers, but these people are: link.
130 reviews, 1.5/5 stars average.
Inbefore "lol first impressions review", but yeah first impressions do matter.
In this context, how? Considering everyone knows this game's current state was product of an involuntary rush to release and anyone with a brain knows that the pay-to-play MMO model is only possible with frequent updates, revisions, tweaks, fixes, content additions, etc... Why does a first impression really matter when the genre itself embodies evolving with the customers over a period of several years?
Additionally, who cares about reviews when you have a free trial?
More like the big monster and it's little failing minions.
...but we're not talking about P2P vs. F2P and their rates of success whatsoever. The fact is, regarding P2P MMOs, if people are paying monthly fees, the game needs to undergo content updating/adjusting to justify the cost... which negates any significance a "first impression" of a P2P MMO, that we all know was rushed out the door, might have.
First impressions are everything. Who is there to play if the game is hardly recommended by any source? There is extensive statistical research done whenever players begin or quit a game to help determine where to improve advertising support. This research showed Blizzard how only 30% of players who played the WoW trial would not play any further than that trial, and they felt that this was important enough to focus hundreds of hours of development time to vastly change and hopefully improve major portions of lower level play for the next expansion of WoW. So, yes, first impressions matter very much.
However, let's assume first impressions do not matter nearly as much. SE is not known for their amazing game balance adjustments. Poor development decisions are one of the worst mistakes of any MMORPG developer. Look at every other MMORPG released after WoW, and look at their current state. A good majority (if not all) of them are on life support or are on the road toward life support. SE has yet to show that they know what the fuck when it comes to making consistent and good development decisions. Little fixes for small problems every once in a while, or large fixes every once in a blue moon is not how you survive in this market. This has been the downfall of many other MMORPGs, and it will most likely be the downfall of FFXIV.
Not to mention, SE has had a ton of leniency due to their reputation and their fan base. This post by Krandor on the last page pretty much sums it up:
The point is, there shouldn't be "first impressions" of any MMO that's younger than a month or even a few months. "First impressions" of the genre involve the updating/fixing/etc process as well as the immediate build it was release with. Those things can't all be seen in a few days. The people releasing such reviews, in full knowledge that the game was rushed to launch, are only doing so out of some weird, personal vendetta. Give the online community-based game some room to breath before you begin shitting all over it. That's the benefit of the doubt that any MMORPG deserves and if it still sucks and lacks major fixes 4 weeks down the road, that's a first-impression. Any real journalist who understands the genre would note in any of these reviews with something like "let's see how they handle these issues in the coming weeks, it has some promise if they don't fumble it" etc.
Anyways, it's incredibly fucking retarded to wah wah about asshole video game "critics" reviewing a game that is downloadable and has a month of free trial. So... yeah.
I can be reasonable and say yeah SE was not able to get all they would have liked to into the game before launch but there is just no excuse for certain things. I cannot fathom why there has not been an emergency maint. yet that is looking into party exp of 3+ people, this had been reported in beta. I still fail to understand why my leve's STILL go bye bye when I get a complete random "server error" and get kicked off the game during a leve while my connection is perfectly fine and stable. Why such horrible epic fail mob placement throughout the world?' Why do adventurer guild doors not open over 90% of the time when I go there until nearly 1-2 mins of standing there.
Whoever is responsible for coming up with the requirements on the crafting mats and finished products should be fired from the gaming industry for good. Why does my level 5 armor synth require level 15+ item components? Why is the level 5 chain colf synth have a whopping optimal rank 27 on them? Who fucking approved this shit? they should be fired too.
Shit like this is a major fuck up and there is no excuse for it. SE deserves the bad PR they are getting at the moment, those two major issues about the leve's and exp issues have been reported for months now and both should have had emergency maint's to fix it before release.
As was previously mentioned somewhere, if they're planning on changing the progression system to something that makes more sense (which the system desperately needs), they wouldn't bother with fixing things like that.
Crafters don't make their own equipment, they participate in the economy by not being self-sustaining classes and having to actually spend money like the rest of 'em.
What's too bad is that an important update is just a few weeks away but the release did not budge.
Its and MMo true but i ask you all to think about it this way, MMo have been around for some time know and having a buggy launch seem to be the standard. Why is that, am i the only who thinks if i pay for something that i should get what i pay for? Yes their not going to fix every thing in the game but there are a lot of problem that should have been fix since beta. I saw let people review the game as it is from day one because that what your payed for day one. One month free trail your telling me who would pay 50+ for a game and then have to pay for a month(month one is not no dam free trial)
I ask you all to pay attention to the reviews and keep an open mind not just bashing the reviewer and peoples opinion.
FFXIV does not have a free trial, Mioko. EVE, Conan, WoW, Warhammer, and other MMOs have free trials. You can play them (with restrictions or time limits) without spending a dime. If you want to try FFXIV, you have to pay $50 USD.
You're joking, right?
People plopped down $80 for an unfinished product, but it's ok since the first month is free? The notion of SE telling people to wait a month before reviewing is an utter joke in itself. Don't want a negative review? Don't release an unfinished product. SE deserves everything they get as they obviously have not watched the market that's been saturated with early releases that past 3 years.
While saying MMO's are an evolving entity shouldn't even need to be said, that still doesn't change the fact that first impressions are everything. You only get one shot and SE blew it.
Yet we still don't know that. In fact even if the reviews were to come in negative or mediocre, we still won't know how successful the game is until a year or so later. Hopefully you understand how pointless it is to even discuss this, especially in a thread like this where we have yet to collect the opinion of the subjects.