It's insanely difficult for me to resist taking a tour in a game that looks as lush and visually polished as Final Fantasy IV. Sure they copy-pasta'd some scenery elements in a way that seems lazy-obvious. I could get past that faux pas, IF the game is more than another Asian-port grindfest. I know FF as a series has a long history and loyal fan-base. I'm sure this game has legs and its core populace is going to play this game come hell or grindwater. However, I have my reservations and can name Aion as my most recent port experience gone bad - times two collector editions. *Sigh* Do I really need another MMO parked on the shelf gathering dust?
Slow Doesn't Scare Me
Slow progression doesn't scare me if there are interesting things to do along the way. Killing 50 mobs for one quest versus sending me on 10 little step-n-fetch quests wouldn't bother me one bit. I HATE quests that send me back and forth, back and forth, as if the idiot dribbling out his needs (stupid NPC) couldn't have told me the first time that he required 10 foxes, 5 bears and 6 pig nuts, from that valley WAY over there, the first time he opened his trap. Nah, he has to dole it out one request at a time and have me running back and forth like a fool. Not sure why I'm supposed to be entertained by such activity in a - wait for it, GAME, as though because the request was dribbled from some quest-givers lips, it all of a sudden becomes fun. HA!
It's not acquiring or killing large numbers of mobs or items that bothers me. It would be if after doing that, there aren't enough quests to level and you end up off in a corner grinding some more. For me, that's when it crosses over into what I consider too grind-heavy even for my tastes. I could have excused Aion for their utter fail in that department, if the crafting system hadn't been more of the same on top of being insanely expensive to produce junk.
FFIV's crafting appears to be more like EQ2 where I'm an active participant in the processing of the materials and the success or failure of the combines, rests with me. I'm okay with click-n-go crafting too. I thought crafting was nicely done in WOW but that's a game with a large amount of content - quests, instances and PVP to keep you busy. And while I would have loved more in depth crafting, there was plenty of other things to keep me occupied for the first 3.5 years.
Do I need Another Dusty Box on the Shelf?
Would I enjoy FFIV if the leveling is a grind and perhaps short on content but the crafting is done well and the world itself is breathtaking? Can I get enough out of the experience to warrant purchasing the game and paying for a subscription? I can't decide. It's sounding like I could replicate my shop idea I'm playing out in EQ2, just as well in FFIV as a cook or alchemist. I'm just not sure I'd enjoy or play it long enough to get my money's worth.
I know I don't have the time to give EQ2 and FFIV close attention. What I'm doing in EQ2 is working for me. I'm having more fun than I've ever had in EQ2. It's just hard to see the gorgeous images coming out of FFIV without wanting to see those places for myself. For now at least, I'll exercise self control and continue to wait for GuildWars 2.
While I'd like to explore the world of FFXIV, I honestly don't care for a lot of the character races (similar to TERA) and much of the art style. The world itself looks interesting, but I find the rest rather blah, but that is just personal taste. It also has tons of stuff I don't like; the crafting click-at-the-right-moment thing, user interface, lack of AH, company that has even worse support and interaction with players than Aion, only 1 character, etc. I thought I read someplace about a buddy account, which lets you play for quite awhile? Might be worth checking on that to at least explore the game some before actually buying it.
BTW, Aion actually fixed a lot of the lack of quests in 2.0. The new solo instances are great and give out tons of XP. The daily quests are also nice. The new rental Mist armor & weapons (you get tokens from daily quest) are another good addition. The rift nerfing has been mostly welcomed by me, although they probably took it too far. Much of the crafting is still insanely expensive, although I'll craft items I like the look of. You can now pretty much avoid PvP to a great extent all the way up to level 50, for those that just want to explore. Still problems and bad choices by the devs and NCWest. I'm very neutral in recommending the game. I have fun playing it, but some poorly thought out things in the game still need revamping. Oh, did I mention the pets? The pets are super cute (they all can fly) and the 1 year reward multi-purpose pet (Aqua Griffo) was a nice surprise. :)
Posted by: Yarr | October 04, 2010 at 11:54 AM
There was an RP drink yesterday at the Briny Brew Barrel bar? club?, you should go take a look if you have the time and if you're interested in other people's decorating, it's next door to us in the Glacial Villa, under the name brinybrewbarrel.
Signed Jexi, and it's almost too much for my computer to handle. But some of it is really well done.
xox
Ziyi & Twinkle
Posted by: Ziyi | October 04, 2010 at 01:03 PM
Was in the Beta and wasn't very impressed. But then again, I didn't try the crafting and I'm really not much of an explorer.
I'd suggest you find out all you can about the levequest and fatigue systems before you make the purchase.
Posted by: Winged Nazgul | October 04, 2010 at 01:46 PM
@Yarr - Aion was visually stunning and the flying/gliding exhilarating. It still has the smoothest combat I've experienced. I won't go back though. Both of our accounts got caught up in a ban sweep long time after we unsubscribed. I didn't even realize it had happened so didn't protest. Now, I wouldn't be bothered. I'm SHOCKED that their customer support is so piss-poor that I didn't receive any emails! We only found out when one of the kids tried to give L2 (hurl) a try and found both of my accounts locked.
@Ziyi - Dang how do you know when stuff is happening? Was it broadcast in chat? I know of Jexi's work and will definitely take a look.
@Winged - I will hold out until / unless the urge becomes insanely overpowering. LOL Right now, have both my hands full with EQ2.
Posted by: Saylah | October 04, 2010 at 03:33 PM
Loving the crafting. But not for the faint of heart... When the level 7 blacksmithing tool takes material that needs a level 21-ish weaver to make, this is not the game for impatient crafter. On the flip side you can make a +1 level 7 weaver tool at about level 6 blacksmith - I did.
Posted by: Letrange | October 04, 2010 at 04:24 PM
@Letrange - Are you a long time fan? I need to visit your blog. Sorry, been absent from readings while spending MUCH TOO MUCH time in EQ2x. It's interesting to see you in a game that's not EVE. :-)
Posted by: Alysianah aka Saylah | October 05, 2010 at 09:18 AM
Saylah, yeah, from what I've observed, anyone that stopped playing Aion probably has had their account locked via a ban. It is probably done to prevent them from getting hacked and used as bots/gold sellers (because NCSoft apparently can't program some decent protection in the first place, although they are finally adding a secondary password), but typical of the way they do things, they likely just did it via auto-banning and then leave support to deal with it if the player comes back.
Posted by: Yarr | October 06, 2010 at 09:48 AM
Wow, that is HORRIBLE!! They could have had a subscriber for a few months. After we discovered the account ban when attempting to try L2, my son called and asked if I could reactivate Aion. I told him what happened and didn't look into it because I was pissed that they'd ban without a single notification. So I was like, screw them. They don't get anymore of my money! Wow.
Posted by: Alysianah aka Saylah | October 06, 2010 at 01:56 PM
Yep, quite a few friends had the exact same problem and reaction. Of course I'm just guessing that is what they do. Who knows, it might just be their crappy automated security software doesn't work right.
I just tried to change my credit card on file and found out you have to cancel your sub and then sub with the new card, even though there is a "change credit card on file" section in account management. It doesn't work. So I am currently canceled, but will very probably re-sub closer to my end date with the different card. Talk about a poorly run game/company!
You do get an email when you cancel. Not much of one, no thank you for having been a customer, no "we wish you'd reconsider" or anything. Just a "your account is canceled and you won't be able to play when your time is up" type message. At least they have you take a survey when leaving.
Will see how canceling my LotRO VIP goes in a few minutes. So far their site has been down every time I try to get on it. :(
Posted by: Yarr | October 06, 2010 at 02:20 PM
@Saylah yep, just taking a breather from EVE for a while (this time BEFORE I have a serious burnout - EVE is intense but there's only so long you can do intense before you need a break). I'll be back in EVE one day - no doubt about that - but I also did about 3 years of FFXI, so I had serious interest in finding out if they "fixed" some of the issues that I had with the previous version (like being unable to do all the crafting on a single character). Some things are better from my point of view - definitely. And for the things that are worse, I'm hoping most of them are of the "fixed in upcoming patch" category rather than "sunk in stone design" category. Time will tell, but I'm having fun atm so that's what counts.
Posted by: Letrange | October 06, 2010 at 04:09 PM
I am really excited for FFXIV though, can't wait to see and hope they changed up the game from FFXI, the leveling was excruciatingly bad. I loved when FFXI released for the Xbox, it made owning one that much more exciting, now I have both a 360 and a PS3 so :) double the fun.
Posted by: James | October 11, 2010 at 02:14 PM