Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn - First Impressions

Square-Enix finally partially dropped their nondisclosure agreement regarding the ongoing beta for Final Fantasy XIV:  A Realm Reborn, which means that I can finally talk about it (though I'm still not allowed to post video footage... for some reason).  As per the usual, this was a work in progress, and things I talk about may not end up in the retail version.

Anyway, I played the original Final Fantasy MMO, Final Fantasy XI extensively.  To this day I still maintain that FFXI was a revolutionary MMO for its time.  Bear in mind that FFXI released in 2002, two years prior to World of Warcraft changing the genre landscape.  Compared to its major competitor at the time, Everquest FFXI offered some fresh gameplay ideas, such as character storylines, cutscenes, multiclassing and quest-unlocked advanced jobs (classes).  For years I loudly proclaimed that if Square-Enix took the good aspects of FFXI, and applied what the genre had learned since WoW's release, then the result would be something amazing.  Unfortunately, none of that happened during  Final Fantasy XIV's development.

Evidently Square disagreed with me - on its release, FFXIV played like a relic, and not the good kind.  The release version FF14 felt like an amalgam of abandoned genre tropes and mechanics.  One example of this:  On release day, I discovered that the most efficient means of gaining experience involved setting up camp in a random out of the way cave, and killing the same three monster spawnpoints...  I did that for over three hours.  After giving the game several play sessions, I decided that it just wasn't worth my time, and my shiny collectors' edition box became an interesting conversation piece on on my computer room bookshelf ("Hey look, I spent $70 on that crappy game, just to get access a week early!").  Short aside - a friend of mine went so far as to build a brand new gaming PC, so that he could properly enjoy FFXIV.  He was do disgusted with the result that he threw his collectors' edition copy away.  A symbolic gesture summing up his feelings for Square-Enix as a whole.

Goblin camp.  Watch out for bombs!

 Needless to say, I can't extensively comment on the original version of FF14.  The game was so broken and feature incomplete (airship travel? auction houses?) that I simply wrote it off as a gigantic disappointment and began actively repressing my memories of it.  But then...  Then Square-Enix did something amazing.  Something unheard of in this era of game development.  They actually acknowledged that their game wasn't very good, even going as far as issuing an apology letter to the fans.  Then they told us that they were going to take the necessary steps to fix the thing.  I'd like to take a moment to drive that point home:  They admitted their game was crap - then spent untold amounts of money and additional dev time to make it work.  Just imagine if EA/Bioware released a statement saying something to the effect of:

"Yeah, after a couple months, we realize that The Old Republic is kind of crap when it comes down to it.  The gameplay is clunky and unresponsive, the endgame is anemic, and that thing where every single quest NPC is fully voiced?  That was a GIGANTIC waste of dev time and money.  So here's what we're going to do:  We're going to take a major revenue hit, and yank the game offline for a year, then spend even MORE money reworking it.  And by the way, we're all very sorry for putting out such a subpar product."

And yes, I'm fully aware that if the FFXIV relaunch works out, Square-Enix stands to make a stupid amount of money - according to... the internet, their other Final Fantasy MMO is the most profitable game in the entire series, due to its subscription fees.  Yet, I still think that the attitude is refreshing.

Crystallized Dragon Fire from Bahamut's rampage... I think.

So then, did it work?  Is the new and improved Final Fantasy XIV:  A Realm Reborn worth a try?  After spending a couple dozen hours in several phases of the beta, I can say...  Yes.  Yes, I think it is.  As a MMO lore hound, I've always appreciated the Final Fantasy MMOs' focus on story, so true to form they actually provide an in-game reason for the series reboot.  The game's new opening cinematic details how the continent(region?) of Eorza suffered a calamity, as the Dragon-God, Bahamut was summoned during a great battle.  The ensuing destruction rearranged the landscape (which allowed for some nice in-lore gameworld restructuring).  Also as a storyline enthusiast, I definitely appreciated that in addition to your character's main storyline (which is tied to your starting city), it seems that each class also has its own major quest chain arc.  My lancer had to deal with a rival polearm fighter, while my marauder was tasked with growing strong to eventually slay the great beast, Kujata.  These quests progress as you level up, and I only assume that they'll continue into the higher levels.  Finally, the scenery looks great.  I made sure to check out several different areas, just to see what the game world had in store, and I wasn't disappointed.  The game runs FAR better than it did in its initial form, and the environments are definitely more interesting (at least the ones that I saw).

The game's UI is very user-friendly, which is a major step up from FFXI, where literally the entire game had to be played with macros (for me).  In what I think should be a baseline option in EVERY game, all your individual user interface elements are fully moveable, allowing you to easily change the game's layout to your liking.  Targeting enemies, moving your character, and firing off special abilities all felt very natural and responsive.  However, combat is slightly slower paced than in WoW (but I think that's a positive).  Using one of your abilities puts everything else on cooldown too, this results in combat that is a bit more methodical than WoW's slightly spammy gameplay, but it's still much faster paced than battles in FFXI.  Bottom line:  you're not going to be wearing out any keyboards playing FFXIV (fun fact:  I have several broken keys on this keyboard - casualties from my years of playing a protection warrior in WoW.  Heroic strike spam ftl).

I TOLD you to watch out for bombs!

Unfortunately, I was unable to play long enough (due to character wipes between beta phases) to get into the true crux of the game's combat - the armory (class) system.  Basically, each class has a specific weapon type that they're tied to.  Lancers use polearms, marauders use two handed axes, gladiators use sword/dagger and a shield, and so on.  Equipping a weapon changes your class to the one tied to that particular piece of gear.  This is where things get a bit interesting.  As you level up in a given class, you gain abilities tied to that class (which is standard for pretty much every game ever).  Where FFXIV's mechanics could potentially become interesting is that some of those abilities become available to you when you have OTHER classes active.  So you could potentially have a sword/shield gladiator tank, who also has access to the conjurer's cure and protective spells.  My only concern regarding the armory system is that after you gain level 10 in a class, you're able to allocate stat points.  I believe that stat point expenditures are permanent, so there's doesn't seem to be 100% complete fluidity between different classes.  For example, someone playing a melee heavy character who has been allocating their points accordingly will be at a disadvantage if they decide that they want to try their hand at healing, only to discover that they've spent all their stat points on their now useless physical stats, though this may only affect true min/maxxers.

The older FFXI employed a similar "job" system, however it was much less fluid; only allowing you to pull in abilities from one other class.  One of my major annoyances in FFXI was managing all your different gear sets for all of your different jobs (classes).  FFXIV fixes that annoyance by having both an in-game item set organizer, and also an "Armory Chest" that conveniently stores all of your unused equipment, and is available at all times for easy gear swapping.  This is much appreciated, coming from FFXI, where changing gear involved returning to one of the major cities to access your storage, which was also horribly limited (I actually went as far as to pay an extra $1.00 a month for an additional character, used only for gear storage).

What's more classically Final Fantasy than kicking the crap out of some Cactuar?

Also, as a self-admitted oldschool Final Fantasy fan, I was quite excited to see the return of classic Final Fantasy jobs (Dragoon, Black Mage, White Mage, to name a few).  The jobs aren't accessible on character creation, and have to be unlocked via attaining specific levels in the base classes, and then completing special quests.  But I feel their inclusion helps FFXIV retain the proper "feel" of a true Final Fantasy game.  Given the modular class structure employed in the game, and also the franchise's history, I think it's reasonable to believe that going forward, we can expect the addition of several more base classes and advanced jobs, A Realm Reborn has already seen the inclusion of the Arcanist base class and the Summoner advanced job not seen in the original release..  Red Mages, please?

FATE!

The last thing I'll mention is the FATE system, which is an acronym for... something (Full Active Time Event - thanks, internet!).  FATE events are FFXIV's version of rift events in Rift, or the multiplayer quest... Guild Wars 2.  Basically, FATE events will pop up while you're out in the world questing.  You'll see a notification pop up on your game map - if you venture there you'll be confronted with an objective and a time limit.  The objectives that I've experienced thus far in the beta include killing a large number of specific spawning creatures, gathering and turning in resources, or just killing a boss monster.  After the FATE is beaten, the players earn experience and money based on their contribution.  Lower level players' contributions aren't weighed as heavily, but they're still able to contribute, and characters above the FATE's level range are given the option to turn on the game's level sync mechanic, which will scale down their gear, stats and abilities, so that they can gain the full reward from the FATE - or they can leave the sync off if they just wish to assist.  There is definitely some interesting potential in the level sync mechanic.  According to the game's level sync tooltip, the function will also be available for use in dungeons and raids, though what exactly that could entail, I haven't seen yet.

I included this shot because I like the Bahamut fire in the distance

     
So then, the bottom line... of my first impression, is that this version of Final Fantasy XIV represents an infinite improvement over the game that I was so disappointed by two years ago.  I've seen some criticisms levied against the relaunch, mostly by the fans of the original.  People claim that in seeking a wider audience, FFXIV compromised what made it special in the first place.  However, as someone who didn't particularly like the original version of the game, and really enjoyed the previous Final Fantasy MMO, this Realm Reborn definitely has more of what I look for in an MMO, and less of what I dislike.  I also feel that the relaunch has recaptured some of Final Fantasy XI's "spirit" which I think was missing from the game when it first launched.  If you liked XI but hated XIV when it launched, I think it deserves a second look.  If you've never played either, Final Fantasy XIV:  A Realm Reborn officially (re)launches on August 27th.