by Danny Gourley on Sep 30, 2010
This is because Final
Fantasy is more a style or philosophy than a continuing
story. Fair analogies include works of art, such as music or paintings.
The artist of the piece, Square Enix in this case, uses signature
movements or brush strokes that identify the piece as belonging to the
series. In a new Final
Fantasy title, gamers can look forward to an epic story,
outstanding graphics, and familiar monsters and spells. The
similarities to other Final
Fantasy games tend to end there, though, and quite often
the battle systems and mechanics of the latest release in the franchise
differ greatly from anything fans have seen before.
style="font-style: italic;">Final Fantasy XIV,
the second of the Final
Fantasy massively-multiplayer online games, is the same as
the rest of the series in that it is so very different from anything
players are used to.
Ten Ton Hammer covered some of the differences between
style="font-style: italic;">Final Fantasy XIV
and, well, every other MMO on earth in the
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/ffxiv/preview/aug-2010-hands-on/story">August
hands-on preview from San Francisco and the
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/ffxiv/interviews/pax-2010-sage-sundi">candid
interview with Square Enixs Sage Sundi from PAX 2010. In
reviewing FFXIV, it is impossible not to reference these blatant
differences and attempt to assess their impact, positive or negative,
on the release product.
Additionally, Square Enix dramatically changed
some gameplay elements between the time when the game went gold and
release on September 22, 2010 with a launch day patch. The degree to
which FFXIV differs from the competition and the level of revision from
open beta product to the retail install mark a theme for the review:
Square Enix does things very differently in a market dominated by
companies all trying to clone the success of Blizzards
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow">
style="font-style: italic;">World of Warcraft.
A product that is so radically different is sure to polarize gamers,
and it is likely that Final
Fantasy fans will love FFXIV while most other gamers will
be intimidated by its unusual game play and mechanics.
Square Enix never directly takes the credit card information of FFXIV
subscribers, which can
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=53665">cause
frustration but protects gamers finances in the event their
account security is compromised.
Character creation first involves choosing a race and customizing its
appearance before selecting a class, birthday, and guardian deity. Each
race has different starting values for the physical and elemental
attributes, but the difference between the race with the lowest
intelligence and the race with the highest is only one or two levels
worth of attribute points. Square Enix really wants players to choose
their race based on appearance. The options for customization are not
as deep as some MMOs but rich enough to create distinct-looking
avatars. Players can adjust height, skin tone, hair style and color,
color and shape of eyes, chin shape, mouth shape, and features
(tattoos, scars, braids, and more).
FFXIV launches with eighteen classes spread over four disciplines, two
of which enter combat. The Disciples of War are the physical fighters.
They include the gladiator (tank brandishing sword and shield),
pugilist (tank/DPS hybrid with hand-to-hand weapons), lancer
(DPS/support wielding polearms), archer (DPS using bows and crossbows),
and gladiator (DPS carrying large axes). The Disciples of Magic are the
two caster types in the game. The conjurer learns elemental direct
damage spells, healing, and buffs. The thaumaturge showcases debuffs
and light and dark elemental spells while mixing in the occasional
small heal over time spell.
The non-combat disciplines are the Disciples of Land (harvesters) and
Disciples of Hand (crafters). The Disciples of Land include the
botanist, fisher, and miner. They collect the materials needed for the
Disciples of Hand, comprised of the alchemist, armorer, blacksmith,
carpenter, culinarian, goldsmith, leatherworker, and weaver, craft
items used by the players in the world.
The impact of the non-combat classes on the economy is tremendous, as
monsters and quests in FFXIV almost never yield gear. Instead, they
most often produce materials needed to craft gear. Furthermore, each
crafting class must cooperate with other crafting classes in order to
produce valuable goods that meet the demands of the player base.
Of course, a single gamer can try to master all of the classes. FFXIV
allows players to change classes merely by changing the weapon or tool
equipped in the main hand. Because a single character can become any of
the classes, Square Enix provides only one character slot with the base
subscription price. Start as an archer with a bow? Simply equip an axe
to become a marauder or a hatchet to become a botanist. It also is
possible to mix and match most skills from the different classes. Want
to add some heals to your pugilist? Just level conjurer or thaumaturge
for a while. The number of skills you can equip is a factor of the rank
of the currently equipped class.
Speaking of rank, character progression happens on two fronts: rank,
which is tied to each class, and physical level, which is independent
of your class. Fighting monsters, crafting, and harvesting all reward
players with skill points to improve their class rank experience points
to increase their physical level. Higher class ranks result in greater
HP & MP totals dependent on both class and stamina and mind
scores, respectively. Even-numbered class ranks reward players with new
spells and skills. Gaining a physical level produces points to allocate
in both physical attributes and elemental resistances. Disciples of War
might favor strength, dexterity, and stamina while Disciples of Magic
are likely to prefer intelligence, mind, and piety. For players trying
to blend the two disciplines, FFXIV allows gamers to reassign stat
points, but the process does not happen all at once. Players can
redistribute only a handful of points every few hours, making hybrid
builds tricky. Additionally, physical attributes affect crafting and
harvesting actions while elemental resistances play a role in
determining the types of shards and crystals (needed for crafting)
obtained in loot. Players must look for clues in game and experiment to
find which combinations of classes complement each other best. While
the trial and error can be fun for theorycrafters, it can be plain
annoying to more casual gamers.
Casual gamers who play Final
Fantasy titles are the primary audience Square Enix has in
mind for FFXIV, and the developer implemented many features to try to
cater to them. The most controversial of those features is called
Surplus XP. This is a complicated system whereby the game limits the
rate at which players can progress their characters. Play long enough,
and gamers reach a cap, or threshold, for gaining skill points for a
class. Players will then have to switch to a new class or eventually
gain no skill points for their current class. Likewise, players can hit
a cap on experience gains. These caps are on a weekly timer, so players
can go back to 100% growth every week. Confused? Many people are when
they first encounter the concept. One FFXIV fan made a
href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abE09-tqhoM">helpful
video to help explain.
The idea behind Surplus XP is to keep hardcore players and those with
more time on their hands at about the same physical level and class
rank as a casual player. Those who play more will level more classes.
The idea is interesting, but it garnered a lot of negative feedback
from gamers who do not want to be limited in their growth or told how
to play. Square Enix tweaked the system so that most players can reach
a physical level near 20 before ever hitting a wall. The real test of
the system will be near the level cap of 50, when it will take players
nearly a week of experience to gain a level. If the Surplus XP system
halts development in an intrusive way then, Square Enix will have hell
to pay.
The way to the level cap is paved with a system called Guildleves.
These are quests, or leves, issued by NPC guilds that give much higher
skill and XP gains that grinding random mobs and crafting items. The
majority of Guildleves that the player base knows about are
straightforward fetch and kill quests. This is because Square Enix
withheld some of the more interesting and challenging quests for
release, a huge gamble considering the negative impression Guildleves
could create in open beta testers. A player may log two to four leves
for combat, harvesting, and crafting in each of the three city-states
for each camp in the area. While gamers can log only eight leves of one
type simultaneously, they can trade in completed leves when they pick
up new ones. Like the Surplus XP system, leves are on a timer. Do all
the leves for Camp Black Brush, and you will have to wait 36 hours to
do more at that location. Once players pick up a Guildleve form a city,
they go to the camp for the leve and activate the quest by accessing
the Aetheryte crystal there through the main menu. Aetherytes serve as
a sort of teleporter and quest hub for players in the field. The
difficulty of a Guildleve is adjustable from one star (designed for the
solo player) to five stars (for multiple parties). With party sizes of
15 players maximum, the more difficult settings for Guildleves involve
complicated strategies and require clear communication. While multiple
players can work on the same combat leve together, harvesting and
crafting leves are more for solo players.
The turn-based battles of the console
style="font-style: italic;">Final Fantasy
titles do not work for an MMO, but FFXIV manages to blend much of the
feel of the console titles with the action bars and targeting systems
standard to MMOs. Players have access to up to three action bars with
ten slots each. Combat requires targeting a creature and selecting it,
which pulls up the action bar. Players then select a skill or spell to
use to draw their weapons and begin combat. Every skill requires
stamina, a sort of timer essentially. When the stamina bar fills up
enough, the skills fires off. The cycle repeats until one of the
combatants dies or flees. To run faster and regain HP, players need to
put away their weapons (F key by default). MP recovers only when quests
are completed and players teleport back to camp or through special
skills and spells. Thus, conserving MP during Guildleves is a tactical
necessity.
Two other aspects of combat that do not appear in other MMOs are
Technical Points (TP) and Battle Regimens. TP accrues in combat as the
player deals and takes damage. Some player skills require TP to use.
This adds a tactical layer to combat because some of the most powerful
skills cannot be used at will but only upon gaining enough TP in
battle. Battle Regimens are sequences of moves used by two or more
players in a party to produce special effects and extra damage. The
first player activates the Battle Regimen by clicking the icon to the
left of the action bar. The he uses the first skill in the chain. If
the other players in the party use the right skills in order, they can
generate special debuffs to the target to make tough battles easier.
The story of FFXIV unfolds outside of the Guildleve system. Square Enix
immerses players in the story right from character creation with an
opening cinematic featuring their character. Players get one more story
quest (called class quests by Square Enix) upon entering their starting
city. Each subsequent class quest comes at rank 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50.
Each features great cinematics, most often used with in-game footage,
and highlights the players avatar as a direct part of the story. Other
stories may unfold by joining class-specific NPC guilds and gaining
their favor by completing special Guildleves. This is yet another
aspect of gameplay that Square Enix has kept secret for better or for
worse.
Harvesting feels a bit like mini-games in FFXIV. In harvesting, botany
and mining are games of hot/cold. The player finds a tree or node of
ore, picks the height or depth to harvest at, and begins harvesting.
The first stroke of the hatchet or pickaxe may not find anything, and
players will see a message telling them how hot or cold they are.
Using that clue, players select the next location within the node. Most
nodes can be harvested from five times, but a single turn of harvesting
only allows for two to three strokes. Thus it is important to get good
at the game of hot/cold. Fishing requires bait, and its mini-game is
more of a combination of knowing when to wait for a bite versus taking
in some line and understanding how to reel in catches without letting
them get away.
Like harvesting, crafting uses a sort of mini-game. Players choose the
ingredients to use in a synthesis and decide whether to use their main
hand crafting tool or their off-hand crafting tool. The goal of
crafting is to get the progress to 100% before durability reaches 0
while getting quality as high as possible. Each round of crafting,
players choose between standard synthesis (high progress gain with
normal quality gain and durability loss), rapid synthesis (small
progress gain with small quality gain durability loss), bold synthesis
(normal progress gain with high quality gain and high durability loss),
and wait (doing nothing for that round to change the status of the
synthesis). It is possible for a synthesis action to fail, which mostly
costs in durability. Additionally, players must consider the status of
the synthesis, represented by colors of the orb that represents their
crafting item: white (normal/safe), red (bad/unsafe), pulsing through
different colors (volatile/risky), and yellow (good/low-risk). While it
is possible for synthesis actions to fail on rounds when the item is at
white or yellow, it is less risky. Players should wait on rounds when
the color is red or pulses. At launch, players do not get a recipe
book, so it is important to write down recipes that work or visit a fan
site with a good wiki.
Pros:
Cons: