Aesthetic and Necessities

Final Fantasy XIV has a number of aesthetic animation on characters, including some gesture and emotes, for example when your character laughing he's actually makes the laughing expression on his face and the appropriate body language, it's a trick taken from Aion and RIFT but FFXIV made it better. Your character head follows an ally or even a mob when targeting it, the legs tilted when on uneven ground, even the death animation is satisfying (other word from frustrating) and I like the fact that when I logoff a character on an inn, he'll make the wake up animation when I login

Of course sleeping in front of the inn can be considered a public offense :P

Another one is the sound: music of Final Fantasy is one single point from being perfect, it's gorgeous and atmospheric, it's rare for some repeated theme can be so familiar and still enjoyable even after a few weeks, Ul'dah Theme for example is different on day and night, creating a feeling that at night your character should be in bed rather than huddling in the nearest market =)), I also have suspicion that the upbeat tempo of Garuda's theme is my downfall since I tend to sync anything, (including my tapping) to a song, I might accidentally push that limit break button too soon =))

On combat however the graphical aesthetics becomes complicated, my longest animated skill "rage of halone" can be a perfect example, it features the character slashing the enemy four times, ended with a flashy groundsmashing animation, it takes like three second from casting to dealing damage, and this is when it becomes a problem, rage of halone is not a channeled skill which means it shouldn't/can't be cancelled, unfortunately your character can move while using this skill which result into an awkwardly sliding animation. Not to mention a controversial issue: unchanneled long timed skills locked the character position which means no matter how far you are from those red circle area, as long as you're still doing animation for that skill (and cast it while inside red area) , you're still gonna get hit

I also returned to WoW several weeks ago for the last raid content: Siege of Orgrimmar, it's also a perfect opportunity to examine my character animations, my warrior is of course instant casting all the way, and the animations are mostly one second and deal instant damage, it doesn't have much animation (almost none actually) but it does the work. It looks like Square is still using the old MMORPG system for positioning (where miss is not based on positioning but your stat) and failed to update/mix it with the new positioning system. On newer MMO like TERA and Guild Wars 2, positioning is everything since battle occurs actively.

the ability lag is also still a hot topic out there, it ranged from the cancelled skills when chaining attacks until the skill becomes completely unaccessible or didn't deal any damage, mostly blaming the animation and lag on server side, I think SE really needs this addressed since they've been completely silent about this issue,

Aesthetic should be necessary but should be carefully cultivated in order not to breaking the immersion of gameplay, other than that SE has put a real effort to creating Eorzea to be full of beautiful things... and characters :D

Being Saleh: Reborn in Eorzea

Again, works get ahead of me (but this time I actually enjoyed it, maybe I'm getting older, well... whatever)

So yes, I finally got myself a copy of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, the chocobos finally did it, or to be specific: my guildmates needs a tank :D.

Here's the thing, Square finally sorted all of their crazy-numbered error message and opened servers as well as resuming their digital sales, so I boot it up and created a gladiator with paladin in mind. Of course first I have a list of what I should do to be on level with my 15-days-earlier friends, so my twelve hours a day powerleveling begins.

this is my place to unwind after being used by my friends

The Quests
As I said before Final Fantasy has a solid story quest and numerous sidequests to choose about at the start, every five level you're also treated to your class ability/skill quest which also can be considered a side story, although ability quest takes place in a solo instance where's your allies are NPC (which sometimes rushes themselves to death) they can be quite hard to ge into if you're on a minimum level required, Square refunded your lost time with a buff that stacked every time you failed these mission which gives you expanded stats until you're finally on a level where mow down your enemies like hot knife through a butter, quite convenient

Apparently the sidequests stopped flowing on the last 10 levels, and the story quest required you on a specific level, this is where the grind begins, you can do FATEs, levequests, dungeons, or hunting logs. Stocked some rested xp under your belt also helps, food buffs aren't significant so you can do without it, there several FATE spots where people are LFG-ing, notably in Mor Dhona and Coerthas

The Grouping Content
Yes, apparently it's true: Sometimes your progress on the main quest storyline are halted on a content where you must find groups to tackle a dungeon, this is where the duty finder (LFG tool) comes in handy, although it's still a curiousity that I have to queue 20 mins on the late mandatory dungeons, side dungeons has more horrible queue time, more like hours, and I'm a tank, my DPS and healer buddies said "you don't want to know my average queue times"

This probably can be traced to the fact that dungeon on Final Fantasy XIV are... difficult, I'm not talking about mindbreaking diffcult, it's just that there are numerous way to screw up on some bosses and even some trash, the difficulties can be compared to early Cataclysm expansion dungeons on WoW (before they nerfed it to the ground) where I sat down to watch more drama than defeating Jin'do =))

Dungeons in FFXIV contains numerous mechanic, and nothing can be facerolled, as a tank you're completely dependent on your healer, the healer also dependent on your DPS ability to take down trash mobs before his/her mana ran out to heal you, AOE skills are almost non-existant on the first few level and since your level scaled down to a dungeon your late level active and passive skills are also locked out. Also: Dungeons have timers, sometimes it's like 60 mins or something and when it ran out you're kicked out of it, so when you wipe you risk your whole dungeon experience although you d get to keep your loot from defeated foes or bosses

Ability lag or sometimes called : "I'M OUT OF THE RED CIRCLE GODDAMIT, WHY AM I STILL GETTING HIT???!!!" is my bane of existence in FFXIV. Yes, the dreaded beta bugged red circles still has it's place on the live version. It's where the animation and the hit or miss situation isn't synhronized perfecctly, the result is you're still getting hit even when you're 100 yards out of the red circle, or cone, or line, whatever. Let's take a peek of Garuda, the primal of air, she has cone-wide slipstream that must be avoided or your healer will have double trouble healing you, when I strafed so I face her side, or her behind I'm still getting hit, it can be frustrated sometimes since the red circle isn't helping at all and all the late dungeon bosses will one shot you.

Taste my rage of Halone!! where you can one shot me while I strafe-gliding with this skill

Trials are where your party faces one of the primals of elements, there are three so far: Ifrit (fire), Titan (earth), and Garuda (air), they made a really awesome group and story content since it requires you to stay at your toes no matter what odds they throw at you (also the soundtracks are great), on the story content they're manageable with PUGs. On the hardmode endgame content however, they will wipe the floor with your face seconds after you engaged them if your full party (2 tanks, 4 DPS, and 2 healer) doesn't know what to do with them, it takes skilled and seasoned well-coordinated players to go toe and toe with them, and also: good gears. I used to against locked content but this thing? This is a wild ride that will keep you glued on your keyboard or flip it with frustration =))

I'm actually Diablo, this is my final form after Blizz took the auction houses down

  

Almost 50
I've only 6 level more from cap but I also found some flaw of Final Fantasy XIV, since there's only one story content and you exhaust it on leveling your first class leveling another class can be a completely tedious job, since there's no more story to follow, the side quest on another town however abundant they're only consist of your average kill ten rats quest, so you're limited to FATE and leve grinding (also hunting log if you prefer it). Leveling a diciple of land/hand is probably more manageable since they have their own leves and ability quests, also high-end crafting will requires you to take up some interesting sidequests

Overall it was a trip, I'm glad I finally bought it, the great soundtracks and story is probably the highlight of this game, I'm still curious of what SE will brought up with this game, the Crystal Tower raid and housing features seems promising for early updates, they still have a long way to go if they want to be on par with WoW and Guild Wars 2 as an AAA High Fantasy MMO

I will write a next post observing the aesthetics of FFXIV, another highlight (If i have time) :D

For now I'm just gonna stare at the fire and hope it yielded exp

Final Fantasy XIV Open Beta Test: A Hype Reborn

Final Fantasy is the most popular game franchise in the world, it's the only thing that have double digit number in the sequels (as I recall Ultima only got to 9) not to mention every other spinoffs, movies, crossovers, and so on. The latest installment is the MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV, they actually release it on 2010 after being in development for 5 years, and it flunked, they only live for several months before Square fired the director, revamped the development team and everything in the game and will relaunched it on 27th of August 2013 (If Square was an American company, they will shut it down after 2 months and never looks back), I guess they really don't want it to tarnish the 'Final Fantasy' name, Japanese can be scary determined demons sometimes =))

They also invented this thing

So let's talk about it, Square officially renamed it, Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, FFXIV takes place on a crystal covered/attuned/based/everything- revolved-around-it-world called Hydaelyn, the continet is called Eorzea, the original installment takes place in a peaceful era called Astral, the server pre-shutdown event which happens in November 2012 marked the 'transition' into the Realm reborn timeline, which can be called Umbral, marked with the unleashing of Bahamut (the dragon which exist all accross final fantasy series) and the destruction of Eorzea itself (after thet it's server shutdown to give time for development). The existing players are 'teleported' to the future, to the Realm Reborn chaotic Umbral era, while new player will also started here

The Beginning:

I participated on their latest CBT and OBT, due to hype on those MMORPG webs...   Anyway: There are three starting town which house the eight initial classses of FFXIV, first is Ul'dah: the desert area and home to pugilist (roguelike hand to hand specialist), Thaumaturgist (offensive spellweaver), and Gladiator (sword-shield tanker). Next is lush jungle of Gridania for Conjurer (healer), Lancer (spear/polearm DPS), and Archer (umm... archer) :D. The last is Linsa Lominsa the port piratey island of Marauder (melee DPS and off tank axe wielder), and Arcanist (summoner type). Continuing the footstep of Final Fantasy XI every class can be everything else, just equip their weapon and you become that class (axe for marauder, sword for gladiator, etc etc) of course you'll still need EXP to level up those class, not to mention specialized armor and weapons

On my first CBT test I first step up in Ul'dah as a pugilist and for a moment I return to Rabanastre (a place in Final Fantasy XII), as expected from Final Fantasy series the cities are breathtakingly beautiful (Linsa Lominsa could use a polish though), the early quests revolved around classical fetch and go and kill ten rats things, so there's not much to say about it.

The combat is another return to classical MMORPG, with hotbars and trinity system, rotation and don't stand in the fire things, pugilist delivers quick blows and stance change depends on it's condition and playstyle, Marauder just hack things but a good interrupter, magic class is the most boring IMO since they shoot bolts while standing still... (It made me miss my mesmer)

The combat system also doesn't require you to get party, although there's a vague chain kills system that multiplied your EXP every time you killed something, not sure how it works then. The basic is when you see someone punching a mob, join him/her, every hit you land is counted towards the "kill xxx mob" quest, you're also have personal loot which automatically gained after you kill something, so no kill steal and no loot drama (damn, no more popcorn...)   

The End:

What? It ended already? Well, Open beta lasted only three days and I have like 52 hrs downtime because of error 3102 and social time, but here's some highlights and perk of Final Fantasy XIV that started to grow on me at the end:

The Story so Far....
It's good, not really magnificent but I can tell they did it with passion, personal story quests takes place in a solo instance and introduces you to important NPCs, some are memorable than other, story dialogue are short and since our character didn't talk it feels like playing Half Life 2 combined with a little bit of The Sims, cutscenes are many although I prefer them voiced


Non Combat Class (Gathering and Crafting)

There's no gathering and crafting as a side job on Final Fantasy XIV, they have their own class!!! Non combat classes on Final Fantasy XIV are unlockable on level 15, there's gathering professions (Fisher, Botanist and Miner) called Disciples of Land, theres also crafting profession (Alchemist, Armorer, Blacksmith, Carpenter, Culinarian, Goldsmith, Leatherworker, and Weaver), you can switch back and forth of it anytime, just like switching combat classes, they have their own weapon (tool) and armor though.

Switching to gathering profession will enable you to see resource nodes on world map, although you might want to be careful since you don't have  combat abilities and battle armor and monsters can attack you, gathering from a resource node will display what item can you obtain from the node, along with their percentage, switching to crafting profession enable you to craft weapon/tools/armors/accessory, the crafting process is ... intriguing, it desn't involved RNG but it involved percentage like LOTRO style, you can add some additional materia to add effect on things, I don't manage to fully grasped the concept due to my low playtime on it but I believe Eorzea Reborn has good guide on it

Guildleves

How am I gonna level up my character? I ran out of quest for my level 14 character, fret not, you can grind repeatable quests called levequest or guildleves, unlocked at level 10 through story quests, levequest are bounty-like quests, they rated you based how you finish the quest, whether you're fast enough, have additional monster spawn, enemies have ++ level from you (just like City Of Heroes instance scaling) and many more. It's still a grind though but the reward is plausible enough to go on (it's the only thing there is now, btw) there are limited numbers you can do from it though, like 6 per day or something. Guildleves also have levequest for crafting and gathering professions so instead of grinding on making and gathering items, you can do this kind of grind instead :D

Guildhests and Dungeons

The Guildhests is basically a short (some of them long) instanced scenario created for group party, fortunately Final Fantasy XIV is generous enough to give us.. LFG Tool!!... errr they called it Duty Finder, usually they required one tank, one healer and two DPS, dungeon needs more and has longer time. Unfortunately: I only have time to tested out Guildhest, and it's pretty cool, not too special, not too hard (I guess those time on Ascalonian Catacombs taught me something)

You know the tune that plays everytime combat won, yep, they play when leveled up too

FATE system

It's Dynamic Event on FFXIV!!! a scalable open world event, and I LOVE IT!! YAY!! KILL ALL DODOS!!

Poor Dodos...

Armory

The armory system is revolutionary, it's a separate inventory for putting your armor and weapons, you can also create equipment set for all of your class of your character and shortcut it so they will automatically wear their intended armor and weapon when they switch class

Things To Smooth Over:

• The combat is still feel clunky but the animation has softened during Beta Phase 3 to Phase 4, I think they need to address this just for the sake of aesthetics, Final Fantasy style.
• The Aether Crystal is a waypoint system similar to Guild Wars 2 but you must remember the name of the waypoints because instead of displaying their location on the map they only listing names of the crystal which I found... hassling.
• Teleport Spell and Return Spell should be combined into one single spell, only with different costs, zero cost for home
• PUT...VOICE...ON...MY...CHARACTER...ON CUTSCENES!!!
• PUT...VOICE....ON EVERY OTHER CHARACTERS... ON...CUTSCENES!! (there's some that's been voiced though, they promised it on release it'll be fully voiced)
• Why is my starter armor looks awesome but the rest after it... looks sucks, unmemorable, bland, and bad?
• I really want to see an item icon (hovered for info) and animation of it being put in my bag whenever I received a loot, right now there's only text that tell me that I got something after a battle, it's not a link text too.

Last Words:

It's Final Fantasy after all, expect the lavish buildings, radiant colored worlds, Chocobos, Ifrit, Bahamut, and great soundtracks (it's the greatest thing in this game so far) but anyway let's do something about the hype: I can't really put my finger on Final Fantasy XIV, I don't know, it looks like there's not a thing that can keep me here, I guess it's wait and see since I don't mind buying another subscription MMORPG. It's a good game but there's nothing clicked with me... for now.

Although I'm sure the chocobos will bring me to it