Sorry you don't get to play the alpha/beta card because they are not charging a sub fee atm, and the reason for that is they released this game and sold it to millions of dissapointed players. People paid real world cash for this. It is a disgrace that companies are willing to release such poor products.

  I also think that this review should have happened a very long time ago. I feel the site has lost credibility by waiting this long to post a review.

Originally posted by Esherdon

  I also think that this review should have happened a very long time ago. I feel the site has lost credibility by waiting this long to post a review.

I actually agree with this because THEN this review would actually be relevant. Now it's just a bad joke. 

Originally posted by Esherdon

  I also think that this review should have happened a very long time ago. I feel the site has lost credibility by waiting this long to post a review.

 

They lost credability for being too impatiant to wait 4 days for the first huge patch

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Originally posted by Kaijin2k3
You and some other posters may fool people who don't play it, but you can not fool the actual players. I've been playing since headstart and will continue to do so. This tidbit of "continuously adding content" (from another poster, not you) and bothering to mention those "sidequest" (you) is garbage.
There is no real content in the game besides leves, period. Those sidequests offer no xp or sp from doing them; they offer no gil rewards; their items rewards are absolutely pitiful; they're useless outside of just reading some lore. You also don't mention that most of them are either fedex quests or play out exactly like leves.

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You forgot to say "until 1.18", because yes, the rewards of sidequests are being overhauled, and SP rewards will be introduced. Some fact checking would be in order.
Besides, saying that they play "exactly like leves" shows a degree ignorance that's quite baffling from someone that claims to be playing the game (thing that I honesly doubt).
 
Betweem the two dungeons, new quests, the overhaul of levequests, and the mission system bound to the grand companies, anyone that actually plays the game and follows it knows that 1.18 will add quite a lot.

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Originally posted by Kaijin2k3
However, I really don't think the changes in 1.18 would have any real change on this article

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Originally posted by Kyleran Hmm, I've seen people complain that MMORPG has waited too long to review this game, now you say they are reviewing it too early.  Although they don't charge a sub fee, do they still charge people to buy the game? If so, it's released and you can't call it an alpha. 
Should they have waited a few weeks for the next "miracle" patch?  Maybe, but go ask the STO people how well that is working out for them when they complained about their recent re-review before a new patch that in the end didn't live up to most people's expectations.
Likely the same will prove true in this case as well.  Sure, the game will get some degree better, but the site can't wait forever to review a released game.

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Originally posted by JeroKane

Originally posted by Airget

Originally posted by MadnessRealm

I have a hard time giving credibility to a review of a game where the developers believe they've screwed up so much that they've made it entirely FREE while the build up the game to a point where they believe to be "acceptable", after which they'd bring back the P2P model. It's like a BETA, so reviewing a BETA is a bit....eh.

 

Although in all honesty, if I were to review the current state of FFXIV, I'd score the game around 5 or 6 on 10 too. But I'd definitively have put more emphasis on the current state of FFXIV, being like a free Beta while developers figure out what works and doesn't work (Massive patch coming next week for exemple).

 

Ya it is a tad fishy that they decide to review it now before a patch and the fact that the game itself is still free. Had they started charging for a monthly subscription this month I would understand the need to review it but this seems more like a way to discourage others from playing more then anything.

If this reviewer wishes to give a fair review they should get their but in gear and play the game again after the patch. Note the differences from what they've said and keep their trap shut til they actually start charging. You can't compare XIV to Rift or WoW yet until they decide to charge or even mention a form of revenue for the game itself.

 

 

 Oh please! Next week's patch is not the miracle patch people have been waiting for!

Finally fixing the combat mechanics after almost a year of horror isn't going to change a single thing!

As the game is still lacking content! So after next week you still end up doing the exact same "utterly boring and repetitive" stuff as you've been doing the past year.

The next patch puts in a lot of content. The game is being played as well. The fact that SE haven't closed this one down should tell you that they are on the upward path now....sadly though Bill decided to review the game before a major patch.

SE has repeatedly oppologized for the state of the game.  It was bad form for them to release the game in the state they did.  The company has paid for their mistake and paid dearly.

Since that mistake, they have completely changed development teams and instilled a new director.  The game has remained free to play for the past 10 months.  The created an official forums and actively listen to the forum participants.  They've opened up the line of communication and provide updates/developer letters every 2-4 weeks.

Yes, I spent $80 for this game.  Everything that SE has done since it's release has been a step up.  I'm not going to perpetually doom a company for infinity based on a decision that the current developer and team had NOTHING to do with.

I will support them (moral support, since the game is currently free) because I believe their current level of communication is genuine.  I will leave when I realize that SE no longer backs this game and has given up on it.  I don't believe that to be the case because their pouring money into it without getting anything back.

A game focused on salvaging its credibilty with an honest effort is something I enjoy supporting.

Its fine to review it pre patch.  It was long overdue although everyone knew it would get destroyed in this review as it has every other.  There is no salvaging the game at this point and they would have been better served to shut it down and dealt with the bad press.  There is no miracle patch.  THe game has such a horrid reputation that it will never recover.  To give credit where it is due though, at least they havent charged for it to this point.

Originally posted by Cynthe

Originally posted by Esherdon

  I also think that this review should have happened a very long time ago. I feel the site has lost credibility by waiting this long to post a review.

I actually agree with this because THEN this review would actually be relevant. Now it's just a bad joke. 

Nothing to see here. MMORPG.com were waiting to get payed for a high rating review and finally realized that SE isn't going to pay them, unlike many other mmos did.

I do like mmorpg.com and I agree that FFXIV is flawed in many many ways but I can't stay serious about it getting only 5.1 while other, MUCH WORSE games got stupidly high scores, compared to FFXIVs one (I'm looking at you, Xsyon, Vanguard, Ryzom and many more).

Btw, I'm now in the process of installing FFXIV again to be ready for the 1.18 changes, since most of them are exactly what I was waiting for.

Originally posted by parrotpholk

Its fine to review it pre patch.  It was long overdue although everyone knew it would get destroyed in this review as it has every other.  There is no salvaging the game at this point and they would have been better served to shut it down and dealt with the bad press.  There is no miracle patch.  THe game has such a horrid reputation that it will never recover.  To give credit where it is due though, at least they havent charged for it to this point.

This is a silly statement if i ever saw one. The market is full of games that launched disastrously and have then become very enjoyable due to continuated work by the developer. Age of Conan, Champions Online, EVE Online and many others.

Mind you, all of those games would have benefitted enormously from the treatment SE is giving to FFXIV (free to play until fixed).

There's no need of a "Miracle patch" but of continuated improvement, which anyone that actually plays it already saw so far, and that the annoouncements about the coming updates show quite easily.

The "reputation" of the game can be easily reverted with a good PS3 launch, possibly accompained by a cheap Steam relaunch of the PC version.

The PS3 launch will trigger new reviews, and if it's good (and if journalists have the little bit of integrity necessary to admit the improvements), it can easily trigger a renaissance for the game.

It's that simple.

I'd also like to say that this review does not cover the main story line at all other then the very beginning, my guess being that Lori never actually got far enough or never noticed her NPC linkshell blinking.. The story plays a lot like in FFXI except you get notification in the UI when you are high enough of a level for the next installment. You are set on a quest which has cinematic scenes (though not cutscenes but like mission scenes as in FFXI with no voice over) that explain what is going on in the world and what your role is as an adventurer. 

I find the story to be really immersive and personal, something most MMOs fail to achieve. I felt cheated at the release of this game that there were literally no side quests, some have been added in though not nearly enough yet. But I look forwards to more that will also give out SP (xp), what I will say about the new quests is that they are not half baked story wise and they directly tie in to what is currently happening to the world, that the monsters grew bigger is actually commented on by NPCs and quest givers, that change is in the air ect... 

I feel like my Miqo'te lives in a world on the brink of possibility and while this may not be enough for many players, for the type of gamer that I am; explorer and role player, this means everything to me. 

Sincerely, Siali Liatho. 

Originally posted by Delsus1

Originally posted by parrotpholk

Its fine to review it pre patch.  It was long overdue although everyone knew it would get destroyed in this review as it has every other.  There is no salvaging the game at this point and they would have been better served to shut it down and dealt with the bad press.  There is no miracle patch.  THe game has such a horrid reputation that it will never recover.  To give credit where it is due though, at least they havent charged for it to this point.

 

Only a complete retard will look at a MMO 2 years after release and look at obviously biased reviews like this one that could not have been done at a worse time. Or look at a release review. The game can be salvaged and I dont doubt SE at all, there is more chance of these useless waste of time reviews killing it for the people who only check these reviews.

 

This review is worth NOTHING and the reviewer should be fired for making the website look like it only keeps outdated information

It will never amount to what could have been....ever.  Almost a year later and they still cannot charge for the game.  Almost a year later and still no real reason to believe it will be ready for another year .  Also at this point you would be hard pressed to find it in stores.  I seen a CE at best buy for I think 39 dollars the other day.  I hope it improves for the fans but there is no reason for anyone but the most hardcore supporter to believe it will get better.

Originally posted by Cynthe

Actually logged in for the first time in ages (first time this year?) Just to comment on this. I am a FFXIV player, have been since beta and the game has suffered greatly all year long from SE wtf decision making. (Yes let's redesign the entire class and combat system, because that's ONLY going to take the whole year to do!! WTF?)

HOWEVER considering this game has been effectively taken back to beta in all but name since before the very first month came out and all the initial horrible reviews had just come out, you would think the author of this article would have taken this into consideration. And perhaps maybe held off for a few more months or perhaps until the PS3 release for a 'final' review. How do you finally review a game that is still in limbo? In MMO purgatory? 

Since when is development NOTES a frigging RUMOR??? You think the Lodestone is where devs post their RUMORS do you? Does this writer take 10 minutes to research anything about what they wrote?

Anyway, to end yes these scores are completely fair, it's too bad people at MMORPG do not take development cycles into account and view the game's progress as a rumor. My opinion of this site has been rather POOR for a while, but now it's non existant. 

 

You gotta pay to get the game right? ofcourse it'll get reviewed, I prefere beeing warned before i spend money on crap.

And how can anyone review a game depending on dev notes? I've seen tons of dev notes not make it into games, for several reasons, heck a game like SWG had issues at launch, and the dev team tried to "fix" it, and completely killed the game, a patch arent always godsend and an addition that will make any game way better.

Heck reviewing a game would be impossible, there are always a patch on the new, that will make whatever game it is, so much more fun and great, we've all heard and seen it before, but most patches add little, or doesnt change the core game.

The game is just flawed at it's core, they need to pull the plug and start all over.

Originally posted by Cynthe

I'd also like to say that this review does not cover the main story line at all other then the very beginning, my guess being that Lori never actually got far enough or never noticed her NPC linkshell blinking.. The story plays a lot like in FFXI except you get notification in the UI when you are high enough of a level for the next installment. You are set on a quest which has cinematic scenes (though not cutscenes but like mission scenes as in FFXI with no voice over) that explain what is going on in the world and what your role is as an adventurer. 

I find the story to be really immersive and personal, something most MMOs fail to achieve. I felt cheated at the release of this game that there were literally no side quests, some have been added in though not nearly enough yet. But I look forwards to more that will also give out SP (xp), what I will say about the new quests is that they are not half baked story wise and they directly tie in to what is currently happening to the world, that the monsters grew bigger is actually commented on by NPCs and quest givers, that change is in the air ect... 

I feel like my Miqo'te lives in a world on the brink of possibility and while this may not be enough for many players, for the type of gamer that I am; explorer and role player, this means everything to me. 

Sincerely, Siali Liatho. 

Well that is just such a great set of points...Bill missed the story arc on this one somehow, I guess through lack of playing.

Originally posted by parrotpholk

It will never amount to what could have been....ever.  Almost a year later and they still cannot charge for the game.  Almost a year later and still no real reason to believe it will be ready for another year .  Also at this point you would be hard pressed to find it in stores.  I seen a CE at best buy for I think 39 dollars the other day.  I hope it improves for the fans but there is no reason for anyone but the most hardcore supporter to believe it will get better.

 

You fail to realise because of Tanaka's mistakes Yoshida has to completly rebuild a game that took 5 years to make, so if we are paying in less than 5 years they havent been slow they are progressing stedily right now which it whats needed not a patch thrown together in a month full of bugs and incomplete

For what I payed for this game (80$) I got my money's worth so far. Your point would have value IF they had been charging a monthly fee for it like any other broken released MMO to date, but they have not. 

Now people can get this game for far less, it's the equivalent of a movie (which offer no guarantee to be good or enjoyed by every customer either), or eating out, or whatever else you'd blow 15-30 bucks on... That's really nothing for mere ACCESS to the game that has no monthly fee until further notice and the game is deemed actually ready for one. 

Originally posted by Abriael

 

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Originally posted by Kaijin2k3
You and some other posters may fool people who don't play it, but you can not fool the actual players. I've been playing since headstart and will continue to do so. This tidbit of "continuously adding content" (from another poster, not you) and bothering to mention those "sidequest" (you) is garbage.
There is no real content in the game besides leves, period. Those sidequests offer no xp or sp from doing them; they offer no gil rewards; their items rewards are absolutely pitiful; they're useless outside of just reading some lore. You also don't mention that most of them are either fedex quests or play out exactly like leves.

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You forgot to say "until 1.18", because yes, the rewards of sidequests are being overhauled, and SP rewards will be introduced. Some fact checking would be in order.
Besides, saying that they play "exactly like leves" shows a degree ignorance that's quite baffling from someone that claims to be playing the game (thing that I honesly doubt).
 
Betweem the two dungeons, new quests, the overhaul of levequests, and the mission system bound to the grand companies, anyone that actually plays the game and follows it knows that 1.18 will add quite a lot.

 

Yes, in 1.18 they'll actually attempt to make them useful. Until that happens, don't list them as content because AS content, those side quests are a joke. And no fact checking was in order, because you listed as them as content to do all ready in the game and not of what will become of them in the future. On that side note, I'd wait to see how they're redone come 1.18 before committing to that as some great change.

Also, many of the combat related ones actually, you know, DO. You go to the area highlighted in your map, your mobs spawn and you kill them. If you want to argue the smaller technicallities like some locking you into a private instance once inside the zone, go ahead.

And ah yes, the leve overhaul. Where as right now the main form of leves are done as leve-link parties, they're overhauling them to make them more solo-focused. I welcome some changes, such as rewards being given based on time completion so no more purposefully stalling leves, but I'm not thrilled on them being redone to focus on solo.

That leaves group content to the 2 instances and... I guess you can still leve-link and zerg through the leves as fast as possible?

Finally, the Grand Companies - as they are described - read a LOT like faction grinds in every other MMO. I suppose that is something new to do, though? I hope I'm pleasantly surprised, however.

As for you doubting I'm still playing, I frankly don't care.

EDIT: some spelling mistakes

Originally posted by Cynthe

For what I payed for this game (80$) I got my money's worth so far. Your point would have value IF they had been charging a monthly fee for it like any other broken released MMO to date, but they have not. 

Now people can get this game for far less, it's the equivalent of a movie (which offer no guarantee to be good or enjoyed by every customer either), or eating out, or whatever else you'd blow 15-30 bucks on... That's really nothing for mere ACCESS to the game that has no monthly fee until further notice and the game is deemed actually ready for one. 

Might not even have to pay that. It's still very easy to find friend codes from the collector's edition.

Originally posted by Kyleran

Originally posted by darkrain21

this review is unjust on the game, I agree with the review but this is a review for a game that square knew was bad, and are currently working with a brand new team to bring the game up to par. So as of now you are reviewing a game that isnt finished and it takes a hit for that. So I cant see were this review is needed or acurate at all because the game is still what i say....In Alpha.

Hmm, I've seen people complain that MMORPG has waited too long to review this game, now you say they are reviewing it too early.  Although they don't charge a sub fee, do they still charge people to buy the game? If so, it's released and you can't call it an alpha. 

Should they have waited a few weeks for the next "miracle" patch?  Maybe, but go ask the STO people how well that is working out for them when they complained about their recent re-review before a new patch that in the end didn't live up to most people's expectations.

Likely the same will prove true in this case as well.  Sure, the game will get some degree better, but the site can't wait forever to review a released game.

I think the main difference between STO and FFXIV, is that SE not only acknowledged the bad quality of FFXIV, but removed the monthly sub and allowed players to play for free while they listen a bit to player feedback and build the game to a point where SE is satisfied with. Of course the boxes are out there, but this is mainly a move towards those who had already bought the game, as a way to make up for failing to meet the player's expectations along with theirs. They've decided to go back to somewhat of a "testing" phase until they are happy with FFXIV to charge monthly again.

That is why this review seems "unjust", in the way that it's basically like beating a dead horse. And to top it off, they release this "review" few days before an important patch that will overhaul a few areas. Perhaps it will fail to deliver, but it still would've been wiser to wait, especially when it's only in a couple of days (less than a week?)

STO on the other hand, still charges monthly fees and has a Cash Shop on top of it, so they're definitively asking to be judged like other MMORPGs. Although MMORPG.com *should* have reviewed after the patch, even though it failed to deliver.

Originally posted by Abriael

Originally posted by Cynthe

For what I payed for this game (80$) I got my money's worth so far. Your point would have value IF they had been charging a monthly fee for it like any other broken released MMO to date, but they have not. 

Now people can get this game for far less, it's the equivalent of a movie (which offer no guarantee to be good or enjoyed by every customer either), or eating out, or whatever else you'd blow 15-30 bucks on... That's really nothing for mere ACCESS to the game that has no monthly fee until further notice and the game is deemed actually ready for one. 

Might not even have to pay that. It's still very easy to find friend codes from the collector's edition.

Mine are still unused if anyone wants them.

EDIT: Codes are all gone.

Originally posted by Abriael

 

If you don't like people doubting that you're still playing, maybe you shouldn't post gross inaccuracies.

Sidequests don't play like levequests (get the quest from a generic NPC, no real story, go to the aetherite, kill stuff, teleport back done). They play, guess what, exactly like normal quests in every MMORPG out there, short of the rewards, that are going to come next patch, alongside new quests. That alone means a good chunk of content (and saying that they're not content just because of the rewards that are going to be changed anyway is a gross inaccuracy).

What you like or not like about instances and grand company missions is irrelevant. What's relevant is that they are content separate and differentiated from levequests, and will be implemented in 4 days.

Which means that this poor excuse of a writer went out of his ways to post a review that in 4 days will be irrelevant and inaccurate.

Doesn't take such a sensitive nose to smell a fishy stench here.

They're not inaccuracies in my eyes as mechanically, they function exactly the same as how leves function mechanically once you go out and do them.

I suppose the rest is "agree to disagree?" Which is fine. We'll all know just how much everything is changed come this weekend anyways.

EDIT: Nevermind, I misread "doesn't" as "don't," hah hah.