FFXIVstuff, aka monster hunter XIV Options

[Alisha]

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/08/04/final-fa...new-job-system/

The latest edition of Famitsu Wave recently hit newsstands in Japan, bringing with it a DVD which contains an 8-minute exposé on Square Enix's second stab at the MMO genre, Final Fantasy XIV. The whole video is posted after the break. Fret not -- it sports convenient English subtitles.

Here's some of the more titillating excerpts: The game features a reinvented character progression system which does not include experience points or leveling up. The job system from XI will make an appearance, but in a heavily altered form -- an interview with the game's director, Nobuaki Komoto, revealed that the game will place a focus on the weapons players use, explaining that your armaments will determine "the way you play" and "the way you grow." Sounds reminiscent of Final Fantasy IX. (That's a very good thing.)

In addition, FFXIV producer Hiromichi Tanaka explained that the game takes place in a new region with a more "modern" feel to it -- the mysterious Eorzea which was mentioned in the trailer. The new world features familiar races (albeit with new names), and plays host to a "deep story," which is told through cut-scenes and quests. For more FFXIV info than you can possibly handle, check the video after the jump.


sounds similar to monster hunter no?

Race Scans

Someone translated the text on BG Forums regarding the characters:

"When you make your character, aside from choosing the race, you will also be able to customize their appearance. Head, skin color, hair type etc, there will be multiple factors. Just how exact we will be able to customize their appearance is still unknown, but we mean it in a good way when we say that it seems like it will become a worry to many players."

[Scan_Man]

Apparently there are 2 more caster classes, among a few more physical classes, that were data mined from the game. There is so much variety in the physical classes, but not caster; it is odd. A lot of people wish to play a pure healer. I would like to see a pure healer class in this game. The advancement system can lead itself to pure builds, but being able to distinguish who is who makes grouping so much easier.

I hope there is a way to distinguish who is a pure healer. Same goes for pure tank. With the state of the MMO community these days, the thought of having to find a group makes me cringe. For example, I don't want to group with the Conjurer who has been advancing his damage spells but says "LOL I can heal I got curez!" But, the truth is he has not touched/advanced his healing spells at all, and we are doing high level group content. I can think of a million scenarios like this because it has happen to me in every MMO I've played recently. I need to know who is going to be an idiot, and who is going to be good at the role/class they were invited to play as.

The idiots suck the enjoyment out of the game and makes the community hostile; trusting other players. This is mostly because of the WoW player base, and the state of the WoW community. The majority of the WoW player base are very very very bad at playing these types of games, and they don't listen when you tell them they are doing it wrong. The thing is the people playing FFXIV, US side, are going to to be mostly WoW players. The success of FFXIV game is going to rely on how many WoW players that stick.

The cycle is always the same when a new MMO comes out. First you have the hype that it is a "WoW killer." All the baddie WoW players believe into this garbage, and buy the game. The game will generate record breaking sales or pre-order sales. Server instability the first week of release. Awesome reviews from gaming sites. After a month people realize the game is not WoW or the "WoW Killer" they bought in to, they abandon the game. For the people that actually enjoy the new MMO for what it is, they are left with a deserted game where it is difficult to find good groups, or difficulty in taking on certain content because the population is spread thin.

Looking at the classes being able to have multiple roles, as well as being able to solo and switch jobs on the fly, this tells me they want to be more friendly to WoW players. There are so many pitfalls with having so many classes being able to do multiple roles, though. Having so many classes able to tank, for example, is a balancing nightmare. Just ask Blizzard with introducing Death Knights in WoW. The problem is when people get a firm grasp of the mechanics, min/maxing will always determine which class is best suited for a particular role. What that does is leave the people who want to tank with another class out to dry. So you have to ask, why are the lesser classes able to tank anyway? That is why I ask where is the pure healer and pure tank?

FFXIV seems to have very well defined class roles, but they decided to haphazardly throw in some ambiguity for the sake of appealing to WoW players; or solo enthusiast. This ambiguity in the class roles is not a good thing when you are trying to put together a group that will have the highest chance of being successful. The result of this issue is different depending on how many people are playing the game. If the population is huge, then you are more at risk of running into idiot players like I mentioned above; not having the correct skill or knowledge for the role they were invited for. If the population is small, then desired roles/classes/playstyles will be harder to find, thus finding a good group takes longer.


I do like there is no PVP to speak of. Having PVP always ruins balance for PVE.

I really want this game to do well because I think the advancement system, ie no experience based leveling, is the direction MMO's need to go. Maybe, it will encourage MMO developers to stop making WoW clones that suck.

This post has been edited by Scan_Man: Apr 21 2010, 03:50 PM