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Posted By Shaun K. about 9 months, 2 weeks ago
Man there are few things worse than an uppity tree, amitrite?
There is probably little point in recounting the full details surrounding the truly dreadful failure that has been to-date Final Fantasy XIV. Likely as not, we all know the story by now: despite previous success with the long running and still popular MMO Final Fantasy XI, Square Enix dropped the ball in pretty much every way imaginable in the lead up to XIV‘s release two years ago as of this Sept 30. Which in turn ultimately produced one of the single most disastrous launches for a big-budget MMO in the history of a subset of gaming already justly infamous for its poor launches. Things where so bad in the early days of the game that many legitimately wondered if Square Enix would be, despite all the money they had poured into the title, forced to simply cut their losses and outright pull the plug on the entire game. And while it never quite reached that point, FFXIV has continued to undergo major revisions while simultaneously work has proceeded on a planned full relaunch for the game.
Currently set to arrive on PC sometime in the early months of 2013, and also meant to coincide with the release of the game’s long delayed PS3 version, the relaunch has been dubbed Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn by Square Enix. Among the changes that will be incorporated into this revamped version of FFXIV is a new graphics engine, a completely redone server system, and a dramatically altered (and hopefully improved) user interface. Also being added to XIV in the Reborn relaunch are redesigned maps for the majority of the in-game world, more gameplay variations and content including 1v1 and large scale PvP, and new playable sexes previously unavailable for certain races (like male Miqo’te and female Highlanders and Roegadyn).
Which all sounds good in theory at least but its going to take more than just promises to win back players in the aftermath of XIV‘s nightmare launch. Personally, I think it is fairly vital that A Realm Reborn includes some variation of a two week/one month/up-to-a-specific-level trial when it goes live if the people at Square Enix are really serious about getting people to try their game again. In lieu of that however, a trailer actually composed of entirely of in-game footage of the new engine in action, in contrast to the essentially cinematics-only trailers SE has released for A Realm Reborn to date, is certainly a step in the right direction . And indeed, that is exactly what Square Enix has done with the just-released Limit Break Trailer below:
Not too shabby looking; not too shabby looking at all. Still, good looks alone a great game does not make, but it is a start if nothing else. And who knows, perhaps five years from now when Final Fantasy XIV has become the most successful MMORPG of all time, supplementing even WoW, we will all look back on the game’s early days of woe with amusement and laughter. It could happen; it is not very likely, but it could happen. Time will tell. Stay tuned to Blistered Thumbs for continuing coverage of all things Final Fantasy and Square Enix and be sure to share your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below.
i am not impressed…those were limit breaks? The only one of note was the goddamn meteor the mage cast…everything else looked like normal skills/spells they would cast. I’m not feeling that “epic” Limit break feeling like i would in any other FF game.
But again..that shouldn’t determine the game…they better hope they completely fixed ALL of their problems if they want the people who wanted this game to succeed play again.
ehm the meteor is the only limit break they showed in this video, the attacks before are showing the party building up the limit bar together
Really? =/ Sooo..the Limit Bar is a “Party Thing” rather than individual character thing?
i would have mentioned the hard work the dev team put in the current version from launch to now instead of reminding us multiple times how horrible the launch was
o)completely new combat system
o)More than one complete revamp of all abillities
o)new specialized job system on top if the armory system that gave us classic final fantasy staples such as blackmage, Whitemage, Monk and Dragoon
o)3 endgame raid dungeons
o)4 enemy strongholds swarming with bad guys complete with enemy leader bosses
o)3 very challenging standalone boss battles versus the primals(summons in FFXIV)
o)2 difficulty’s of the final story fight versus the imperial general van darnus
o)a exclusive storyline that leads to the end of the current eorzea and into a realm reborn complete with fun battles and awesome story cutscenes
o)2 kinds of a military exercise type boss gauntlets
o)the materia system to customize and boost our gears stats
the list goes on
they busted their asses to make the current version better and delivered new content frequently even thou they knew almost all of it has to be scrapped or remade for a realm reborn, and don’t forget we had a whole year of free gameplay since launch while they pumped out all that updates.
you kinda make it sound like its still the same flawed game it was at launch
i think its a real shame not to honor their dedication for the game and its current playerbase even now before the relaunch.
Call me a “fanboy” if you want but i was truly impressed by their effort and im looking forward to the conclusion of the “end of the world” storyline and A Realm Reborn.
My words exactly ^^.
I play since beta and it’s been an improvement ever since yoshida-san took over. I still have some gripes about lag issues and the interface and even though I’m kinda psyched for 2.0 I will still be kinda sad when the current version goes offline. I spend so many hours in this game since launch, the 1.0 or 1.23 that it is now will have a special place in my heart. Was an interessting ride to take with the devs and the constant back and forth between community and devs, kudos SE for listening to your players.
On another note, even though 14′s launch was aweful and SE had to apologize to customers and all, since about 10 months they have subscriptions and honestly they didn’t lose many ppl because of it. I dreaded it would be alot but most grew attached and stuck it out. And I see lots of new players. Compare that to SWOTOR with 6 months sub and going free to play I am positive that 14 can sustain on the sub route without going free to play. 11 didn’t go F2P after all those years and they still got a, maybe not that big, but constant userbase who is willing to pay and I think 14 will do just fine in it’s niche. SE doesn’t want F2p and believe it or not players of 14 don’t want F2P. Mention it on the forums and you’re sure to get a shitstorm of hate. Just saying…
I got a shit-storm of hate for saying I thought the UI was a mess during beta. Being able to arrange my spells and not wanting to go through 6 sub-menus just to open my inventory was trivial bitching apparently. FF14 will be a nice niche game.. if for no other reason than the player base seems to think, and has always thought, the game is flawless and everyone else should go back to WoW.
But hey, I never want to see an MMO fail.. except SWTOR.. and if when they finally finish the game, for real, I’ll even give it another try.
You would be surprised how many are still bitching about the UI. Yeah SE tried to speed some things up and implemented something sort of resembling an auction house(with no auction just buy outs) and yeah it’s common knowledge to all who play the game that even if they shorted some stuff to arrange you UI and implemented other things that should have been there from the get go, the UI is still not very good. I think ppl just get pissed about those who bitch because “yeah we all know it suck, all of us have to deal with it. If you don’t like it so much stop playing or wait for 2.0″ Everyone knows since the “free trial period” started, that the game is far from perfect. But honestly, the endgame stuff and the whole extra storyline, which will cease to exisist when 2.0 hits are really interessting and challenging and have so much charm and the dev team show so much motivation and love for the game that it’s hard to dislike it even if it’s pretty flawed.
The one perk to this whole thing is, I mean that I stuck with it, is that I will play for the discounted price for the rest of the games lifetime and have all the extras. I start with my old character, which still hasn’t all classes lvl cap so i’ll have lots to explore and they add a new class and job, which the article writer didn’t mention, the arcanist and the summoner, which is cool. 2 new classes/ jobs to play around with.
Uh on a second thought WTF is up with the FF7 ending, you know all the stars flying at you like a screensaver??
Still pay to play?
Ya it will still be pay to play.
Then no thanks, the days of subs are over and anyone arguing otherwise has their head in the sand. I adored FFXI and actually gave it a revisit to take a few jobs to 99 not to long ago. However regardless of how much the devs have ‘busted their ass’ fixing what should have never been broke; recent events relegate this game as a case of too little too late with the added audacity of thinking it can demand subs any longer. Fanboy fanatics will defend anything, I used to feel like one defending FFXI when WoW was the next big thing, but it had a lot more going for it in that setting.
No buy for me, MMO these days have to add novelty in order to demark themselves, not photoshop flares. All I saw there is your generic trinity system MMO. I’m pretty sure this will never be the new WOW even if it benefits from the “Final Fantasy” fanboy appealing sticker slapped on it.
You just had to play the “fanboy” card, didn’t you? That’s a downright easy way to make you appear far less credible.
I’ve been playing this since Alpha. The game has almost 4 times the content it did at launch and when 2.0 gets released it will have all that content and more. Also the new graphics engine looks amazing.
This. Looks. AWESOME!!!
Personally, I think every MMO should have some sort of trial at launch. Could be a week, could be the first however many levels. Especially, if it isn’t a release launch and if it is desperate to reclaim subscriber confidence.
Pass im playing Guild Wars 2
Good talk. You really articulated your reasons for passing and choosing a particular game over it. Thank you for that.
what so i cant play gw2 and have to devote my life to FF XIV and be a rabid fan?
Or you could just you know, play more than one game.
No, he probably just thought your comment was pointless and served no real purpose in being said. You’re playing Guild Wars 2, good for you. How is that relevant to the article?