 | MMOs are a natural time sink in order to critique and discuss them properly, but in FF14's case, I'll be sinking time into it happily. |
MMOs come in two overarching flavors; paid subscription and free to play (F2P). The latter is notorious for being shovelware trash in some instances, while others have poor business models with mountains of premium content that requires real cash after the initial download, and often enhances your character over other players’, which ruins the experience if you aren’t willing to shell out the coin to power up. Paid subscriptions are more closely scrutinized however since they require you to make an initial investment and then recurring payments to be allowed further play time, and burning that money away on a product that ends up being poor or unenjoyable has an even harsher sting to it than just burning away your free time. World of Warcraft may be the reigning champion of paid subscription MMOs, but it still to this day refuses to let go of many of its ancient tropes and get on the same pace as its competitors - The thousands of subscribers they’ve lost over the last year or so must be a testament to that. I’ve dipped my toe into a fair number of F2P MMOs, but I’ve been downright suspicious of games that require paid subscriptions, mostly since player opinions range from the extremely supportive to the extremely dismissive, with only a handful of those being somewhere in the middle. When Final Fantasy 14 (FF14) was introduced to me, I recalled my brief time playing Final Fantasy 11 and how I hated it so much that I felt criminally cheated - My hesitation was likely understandable. However, a free week was on offer, and so with little else on my docket did I take the plunge, figuring that losing a few hours and dismissing the game wouldn’t be that much of a waste. Was I ever surprised.
Never will I say that FF14 is the greatest MMO to date, because like many others it does many things right while doing plenty of things wrong. However the things that FF14 does right are incredible leaps in quality and enjoyment that gives me hope that this genre of games won’t just be trying to emulate WoW or push out awful Korean produced money-printers one after the other. To preface, I am fully aware that the combat in the early levels has very little variance and is borderline carbon copy for many encounters that don’t involve dungeon or trial bosses, but MMOs and mindlessness have gone hand in hand to certain extents (arguably defining one another). What we would call grinding and boring repetition would be known as progress and maximizing effectiveness to a longtime player - Different strokes for different folks, etc. Whether anything has been taken from FF11 to 14 mechanically or gameplay wise is far beyond my knowledge, but much like the single player games, you don’t need to have a knowledge of the series in order to enjoy your stay in Eorzea, though it will help in recognizing certain references and cameos. My initial bit of time in the game involved me asking questions from those in the chat while I streamed my experience, often alt-tabbing to look up details so I wasn’t spamming the server chat with an array of greenhorn queries. As I plugged along and gained levels while proceeding with the overarching main story, I wasn’t exactly sold in FF14 being a grand entrant to the MMO stage until a trio of game features convinced me that this game was something special indeed.
1: Dungeons and mini-dungeons can be repeated at any time and at any level (providing you have it unlocked), though if you are over-levelled the game will scale back your level to keep things balanced and allow you to gain experience.
The mini-dungeons I speak of refer to ‘guildhests’, instances that have your party running through a gauntlet or challenge that generally takes less than fifteen minutes to complete. They start off easy enough but ramp up in challenge before long, acting as skill checks for your class to see if you’ve actually been learning how to play as your class, not to mention preparing you for later, greater challenges. Dungeons are self-explanatory, but in other games once you went over the maximum level you would no longer be able to roll a group for it, only able to return for the sake of nostalgia or farming materials. Being over the level restriction simply has your level scaled back so you can roll it so long as you have access to the dungeon, and this all applies to guildhests as well. In both cases your stats and equipment are also scaled back so you’re not horrifically overpowered, just being set to the best possible stats you could have at the time. Completing a hest or a dungeon for the first time or with players new to the instance nets the group a bonus, though in an amazing display of tact does the game also reward you for rolling a roulette (a randomly chosen instance) as a needed class. If the ‘duty finder’ is asking for a tank, switching to a tanking class and completing that instance will net you a bonus for taking the initiative (sing along if you’ve been stuck in DPS waiting hell). There is also a daily bonus for completing a roulette, giving you incentive to roll a group at some point after logging on. My seething hatred for ninja looting has also been all but abolished thanks to the loot rules when in instances. If your class cannot equip a dropped piece of gear, you may not roll need for it, only greed. This means that if a magic enhancing bandanna is dropped, a tank may not attempt to grab it for himself if the healer and/or DPS caster roll need for it. Gear drops incredibly rarely off of mobs, but there is a chance of getting a drop off of static treasure chests placed in dungeons, and gear is guaranteed to drop after boss encounters. This means that if something for your class is found, you will have a fair chance of getting it - and if you already have that piece of gear in your inventory, you can’t even roll for it! This has kept a vast majority of my instance groups happy and cooperative, save for cases where someone makes a mistake or isn’t playing their class to maximum effectiveness and people get angry and yadda yadda tempers flaring.
2: Should questing get tiresome, there are other ways of leveling your character or making a profit to avoid boredom.
Go here, kill X number of rats then return to the NPC for your reward then speak to the next quest giver and repeat ad nauseum. Standard fare for MMO’s, but FF14 has made efforts in letting you do other things to keep you from getting bored and logging off. Next to rolling for instances, there is also a chance that you will encounter a Fate when out in the field, a timed event that generally requires a few players to complete it, while boss Fates require an impromptu party to clear safely, or a well equipped player to face solo. Fates can range from killing a number of enemies or defending objects from being destroyed, to gathering items to return to an NPC, but again tact is used to make sure people who show up put in at least some kind of effort. Participation is split into three tiers of bronze, silver and gold depending on how much you contribute in clearing the Fate, be it actively fighting or healing the participants. Getting gold isn’t all that difficult if you make an honest effort, and arriving to a Fate late and getting one slap on an enemy will still net you a bronze medal along with experience and money. Seeing a Fate pop into existence on your map means for a few minutes you have something else to do, which is often enough to keep your brain from shutting off, doing so to the game shortly after. Fates also tie in with the challenge log, a weekly resetting list of goals that upon completion merits big caches of experience and money. These range from taking part in a certain number of minigames, or crafting a certain number of items, to completing a certain number of Fates, or defeating a certain number of enemies with your chocobo companion (who can act as a tank, healer or damage dealer when out in the field alone, depending on how you spec your avian buddy). There are also levequests which, in the same vein as guildhests, are quickly and easily completable quests that require you to complete objectives like defeat a certain number of an enemy, gather a certain amount of a material, or deliver a crafted item for a reward, sometimes including gear and venture tokens which can be brought to your retainers, NPCs who act as your storage and gathering butlers. Then there’s the Golden Saucer which has mini-games left and right that net you a unique type of currency that can be traded in for minions (aesthetic pets), clothing, and equipment, just for example. Of course if you’re still bored after all that you could simply change classes. No, you misunderstand me; I said change classes, not characters. This leads me into my third and final point…
3: Provided you have them unlocked, you can switch classes/jobs whenever you please from combat to crafting to gathering.
So, this is kind of a massive thing for me. There’s always the trapping in MMOs that after you make a character and select a class, you’re stuck with that class. Sure you can expand on the class and evolve at certain level caps in some games, but the long and short is that you’re stuck and would have to make another character altogether if you wanted to play something else for a change. FF14 doesn’t bother with this limitation and instead lets you change between classes at the double-click of a button, handled wonderfully by letting you create equipment sets so you can go from a cloth wearing healer to a metal-laden tank in moments. This does mean you’ll be handling a lot of gear, but luckily the developers were kind enough to supply an armory chest that houses your equipment separately from your main inventory. You’ll have to reach a certain level with your originally chosen class before you can take on an entry quest for a new class, but afterwards you’ll just need that class’ weapon and you can change on the fly. This does mean that if you want to try out all the classes you’ll be starting off from level one with each newly acquired class, but there is incentive to level them all by means of ‘borrowing’ abilities from different classes - A lancer with a conjurer’s healing spell for example certainly improves his survivability when out questing, or an archer with arcanist’s debuff spells help keep the squishy ranger from being overwhelmed. Since you more than likely would have a handful of guildhests and dungeons unlocked along with access to simple levequests, leveling your new class wouldn’t be all that time consuming if you had already swept through an area completing all the regular quests (Additionally there’s an armoury bonus which means that if you have a class/job at a higher level, your lower jobs level at a faster rate). This also extends to crafting and gathering classes, meaning you can be entirely self-sufficient if you have the time, patience and resources available. It’s just so great not having to make a whole new character and start from the bare bones minimum if you want to play a different class; to go from healing through a bunch of dungeon runs then being able to switch to a pugilist to go complete some hunting logs just gives the player so much freedom to do whatever they like doing in an MMO, and there’s a lot to do in FF14’s case.
I’d be writing a whole book if I wanted to talk about FF14 and every minor to major aspect of it, but it’s those three points that make the game a winner in my books. Again, I will not call it the best MMO ever, but it certainly has taken my personal top spot when it comes to MMOs, and I find it doubtful that anything will be able to even come close to it. While the combat lacks tactical variety and is generally by the numbers in the majority of enemy encounters, the fact that you can change classes without having to log off alone is an absolute godsend, no longer requiring players to play character Dance Dance Revolution in order to avoid boredom. I have a few hundred hours sunk into it already, and I’m confident when I say I’ll be seeing the endgame content in the future from how much I’ve been enjoying my time so far in Eorzea.
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bbbmoney - December 15, 2015 (12:41 PM) It's a great MMO but I think the narrative is a real chore. It's not optional. That means if I only want to play the MMO aspect of the game, and not a cheesy single-player adventure, I still have to run through all the triggers, quests, scenes, and dialogue like everyone else. Only certain scenes are skippable to a degree, but it's all tedious nonetheless. It also creates a barrier to entry. I'm at end game and my buddies would love to join me, but they can't just power play to max level and have a good time. They have to go through the motions of a weakly produced narrative that they've no interest in, spending hours and hours going from questgivers to story dungeons. A real shame. |
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honestgamer - December 15, 2015 (12:47 PM) Interesting comments! I've purchased the game twice: once on PC, when it was released in the original form, and then more recently on PS4, where it came with the Heavansward expansion in a bundle. I haven't played that yet, though, so I can't comment on the current version of the game. Honestly, I don't have the time right now to sink in an MMO and really enjoy it. There are too many great single-player games I want to play, and those don't require a monthly fee that makes me feel guilty if I let them sit for a week or two. |
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