First, a little background. Where I grew up, and when I was about 10, there was a cool place called Wizardrome where you would drop kids off for a half-hour or couple of hours. At Wizardrome, you'd pay pay by the 30 mins and get access to a station with a TV and a console. The place was divided into like "SNES station, PC Engine station, Neo Geo station, etc..." For a 10 year old kid with a SNES who gets maybe a game a year, it was basically the best thing ever. It's where I was introduced to games like Bonk's Adventure and Dracula X, Neo-Geo games like Fatal Fury and Metal Slug. Then one day while there I tried a little game called Final Fantasy 2 (aka IV).
Starting FF2 I was blown away. Opening with an airship in a raid! The imperial march straight out of star wars. The story was gripping and the game was very cool. Later on I got my parents to rent the game from a local Blockbuster Video and marathoned through like 70% of it in those 3 days I got. It was just such a cool story-telling experience. Stuff like (yes, I'm going to spoiler tag FF4 for those that haven't played it)
etc...these were the Aerith moments for me that were doing things no other game was doing and defined FF as a cinematic story adventure to me. It wasn't until almost 20 years later when I finally got to finish the game and was still awesome and held surprises like
About a couple years after FF2 (IV) came out, FF3 (VI) came out and this time I got my parents to shell out the $80+ SNES games were back in the day and got it day 1. This one was even more epic and cinematic. Things like the Opera House scene or even the very introduction blew me away. Kefka was psycho and the World of Ruin was a really cool experience.
From there VII->X kept pushing the envelope further and further for exciting interesting rpg storytelling with cutting edge visuals, memorable characters, the best music and fun gameplay. I skipped XI because MMOs didn't seem like my kind of thing so even though I loved rpgs both western and Japanese, I never played an MMO. XII was cool but had problems as we all know and XIII kinda fell off.
For over a decade I've heard everyone rave about how FFXI and now FFXIV have the "best stories in FF" and are the most pure and best FF tales there is. When FFXV came out, I picked it up, but I was in the middle of some other stuff and by the time I actually played the first hour or so (which I liked), I see the article about how the game is unfinished and they're going to patch plot back in and redo chapters and since I'm not really about replaying a game I decided to shelve FFXV until 6-12 months when they're done patching and adding content and instead I'll finally try FFXIV.
Background Done; feel free to just start here if you don't care
So I try my very first MMO with FFXIV on December 12th and now (thanks in part to the holidays) 75 hours later, with a level 32-ish Ninja and level-31ish Paladin, about to face Titan, I've decided that for me FFXIV is a fun game to play, and I'm having a good time, yet for me it's totally not what I want out of an FF mainline game and I get SE's problem that "FF means something different to everyone" which makes it hard to make FF games for everyone.
For me an FF game is an exciting story adventure rpg, I don't even care about having cutting edge graphics, I just want a good story with interesting characters. I've really enjoyed some single player takes on the MMO idea like Xenoblade and FFXII. Xenoblade's plot had a slow start but was excellent and FFXII was really exciting for about half of it and then yeah. Yet here the story is just barely ok, 75 hours in it's never really been exciting, I've never been intrigued, I can't remember anything about the characters because they have nothing to them. I mean it's really poorly presented and paced and I can forgive that because I know ARR was done quick on a shoe-string budget and MMOs are paced slowly with a million quests to keep players subscribing. Again, I'm fine with that, I'm fine with no voice acting (Trails of the Sky/Cold Steel has minimal voice acting and still great story and characters), I'm fine with these things as long as the story and characters are engaging, but they are just are not in the slightest.
I've googled around and people seem to defend this by saying it's how MMO stories are and how they have to be because they are focused on a generic lead and the world can't change.
To me, this is bullshit. First off, there are lots of rpg series where your character is a silent protagonist and basically "the one" who gets dragged along and has no character of their own. This can be ok, it doesn't doesn't mean you can't tell an interesting and exciting story around your character. You do this by having great NPC characters frequently that essentially take the place of the main character. Also, here almost all the major story characters are instanced. They don't exist in the world outside of the cutscenes, so the writers are free to do whatever they want with them. There's no reason why they can't give them strong development and intrigue and epic moments. In fact, the biggest reason I think the defense that FFXIV's plot is bland and barely there (sounds like what I've heard about FFXV's plot tbh) is a bullshit excuse is the class quests within FFXIV.
The Class Quest Storylines are good and have real characters. Like I was playing the Rogue class and the questline right from the start introduced Captain Jacke, the memorable pirate swashbuckler and his pirate assassin crew upholding the Code, it introduced their rival adversary the Yellowjackets and their spunky little leader. Throughout the handful of quests it introduced a storyline that was interesting and even exciting with an antagonist group and high stakes and then had some major plot movement in the end. This was more interesting and likeable than everything in the main plot so far by miles. The class quests I've played from the other classes are similar, where it feels like the characters in the class quest are more developed and more interesting than any of the characters in the main plot that you see once every 10 hours and they say hi or something and then leave. There's no reason why the Scions can't have good development like the class quest characters throughout the main story, scenes specific to each major NPC where they have their rpg like moments and events and you learn more about them and see them grow. Instead the main storyline is like "can you help us beat down some primals? Ok, go here and do some quests and then fight Titan"; there's no excitement, there's no urgency, it's just the thinnest plot leading you from one town to another so you can quest around the area for a bit until you get to the next dungeon/trial.
One other difference is that the in the class quests, the important NPC characters not only frequently appear, but they're often with you in the missions talking and being actual characters. Why they feel like in the main story quest none major characters can tag along with you on the missions (even just as a guest, they don't even have to fight) and talk along the way and develop those characters is beyond me. Just something simple like having the Scions who are with you come along as you quest through their mission and talk and develop themselves as you do the missions would make such a difference in making these NPCs actual characters.
I've heard Heavensward is much, much better and that even by 2.5 ARR's writing gets better (I'll admit that the best quests I've experienced, the Rogue class questline was added in 2.4 so maybe they started improving their storytelling), but 2.0 ARR feels like it's only the FF you're looking for if what you're looking for is a modern day FF1 "go and follow a simple story with no characters that leads you from dungeon to dungeon fighting the bosses and getting the crystals and like FF2 there's an evil empire too". Yeah, FF originally was like that, but by FFIV the series changed and become a story-focused interesting adventure with memorable characters (FFV kinda being an exception since it was gameplay-focused). So are all the people raving about FFXIV and saying that stuff like FFXV or FFXIII isn't what they want out of FF, but FFXIV is, are they all just huge FF1-3 fans who want that era of simplicity again? Because I just find it hard to see how FFIV and beyond fans would think FFXIV is what FF means to them. To me even though I don't like XIII much, XIII and XV are exactly what I think of when I think FF. FFXV (since I haven't played much of it) looks basically like a cross between FF8 x FF12, which is very FF to me.
Anyhow, the gameplay is fun. As my first MMO, the multiplayer dungeons and guildheists are a blast and this is the fastest I've ever blown through any rpg since FFXII, so it definitely has me hooked. But I'm enjoying it as a gameplay game first, an sorta exploring game second (for a lot of reasons I don't really feel like the game has a great sense of exploration into the unknown like a lot of single player rpgs); but yeah the story does not satisfy me in an FF way at all, it's actually making me want to play FFXV because I feel like there was more character development between the main cast in the first 90 mins of FFXV I played than the 75 hours of FFXIV so far.
Also, totally aside, but leveling up a Conjurer from 1-15 last night to get my Paladin sucked hard. I'm playing the game as a single player rpg with matchmaking for dungeons/trials, but that was one of the spots where I wish I had friends in the game that could've helped me do fates/hunting log to get to 15 much faster :|
And the other thought I have is that there is nowhere near enough music. The city themes are great and there's some good tunes. But I think this is part of what keeps the exploration and world environments from being really memorable and amazing is the lack of good unique music tracks for each area. Like in Xenoblade, when you first go to that swamp early on and it becomes night and glowing and the music changes it's just one of the most amazing exploration experiences ever. Or in Xenoblade X when you get your first flying mech. FFXIV's world just feels a lot less memorable to me, although I do like it and I love how many towns and camps there are.
Starting FF2 I was blown away. Opening with an airship in a raid! The imperial march straight out of star wars. The story was gripping and the game was very cool. Later on I got my parents to rent the game from a local Blockbuster Video and marathoned through like 70% of it in those 3 days I got. It was just such a cool story-telling experience. Stuff like (yes, I'm going to spoiler tag FF4 for those that haven't played it)
The twins getting turned to stone; Cecil becoming a Paladin
the moon
About a couple years after FF2 (IV) came out, FF3 (VI) came out and this time I got my parents to shell out the $80+ SNES games were back in the day and got it day 1. This one was even more epic and cinematic. Things like the Opera House scene or even the very introduction blew me away. Kefka was psycho and the World of Ruin was a really cool experience.
From there VII->X kept pushing the envelope further and further for exciting interesting rpg storytelling with cutting edge visuals, memorable characters, the best music and fun gameplay. I skipped XI because MMOs didn't seem like my kind of thing so even though I loved rpgs both western and Japanese, I never played an MMO. XII was cool but had problems as we all know and XIII kinda fell off.
For over a decade I've heard everyone rave about how FFXI and now FFXIV have the "best stories in FF" and are the most pure and best FF tales there is. When FFXV came out, I picked it up, but I was in the middle of some other stuff and by the time I actually played the first hour or so (which I liked), I see the article about how the game is unfinished and they're going to patch plot back in and redo chapters and since I'm not really about replaying a game I decided to shelve FFXV until 6-12 months when they're done patching and adding content and instead I'll finally try FFXIV.
Background Done; feel free to just start here if you don't care
So I try my very first MMO with FFXIV on December 12th and now (thanks in part to the holidays) 75 hours later, with a level 32-ish Ninja and level-31ish Paladin, about to face Titan, I've decided that for me FFXIV is a fun game to play, and I'm having a good time, yet for me it's totally not what I want out of an FF mainline game and I get SE's problem that "FF means something different to everyone" which makes it hard to make FF games for everyone.
For me an FF game is an exciting story adventure rpg, I don't even care about having cutting edge graphics, I just want a good story with interesting characters. I've really enjoyed some single player takes on the MMO idea like Xenoblade and FFXII. Xenoblade's plot had a slow start but was excellent and FFXII was really exciting for about half of it and then yeah. Yet here the story is just barely ok, 75 hours in it's never really been exciting, I've never been intrigued, I can't remember anything about the characters because they have nothing to them. I mean it's really poorly presented and paced and I can forgive that because I know ARR was done quick on a shoe-string budget and MMOs are paced slowly with a million quests to keep players subscribing. Again, I'm fine with that, I'm fine with no voice acting (Trails of the Sky/Cold Steel has minimal voice acting and still great story and characters), I'm fine with these things as long as the story and characters are engaging, but they are just are not in the slightest.
I've googled around and people seem to defend this by saying it's how MMO stories are and how they have to be because they are focused on a generic lead and the world can't change.
To me, this is bullshit. First off, there are lots of rpg series where your character is a silent protagonist and basically "the one" who gets dragged along and has no character of their own. This can be ok, it doesn't doesn't mean you can't tell an interesting and exciting story around your character. You do this by having great NPC characters frequently that essentially take the place of the main character. Also, here almost all the major story characters are instanced. They don't exist in the world outside of the cutscenes, so the writers are free to do whatever they want with them. There's no reason why they can't give them strong development and intrigue and epic moments. In fact, the biggest reason I think the defense that FFXIV's plot is bland and barely there (sounds like what I've heard about FFXV's plot tbh) is a bullshit excuse is the class quests within FFXIV.
The Class Quest Storylines are good and have real characters. Like I was playing the Rogue class and the questline right from the start introduced Captain Jacke, the memorable pirate swashbuckler and his pirate assassin crew upholding the Code, it introduced their rival adversary the Yellowjackets and their spunky little leader. Throughout the handful of quests it introduced a storyline that was interesting and even exciting with an antagonist group and high stakes and then had some major plot movement in the end. This was more interesting and likeable than everything in the main plot so far by miles. The class quests I've played from the other classes are similar, where it feels like the characters in the class quest are more developed and more interesting than any of the characters in the main plot that you see once every 10 hours and they say hi or something and then leave. There's no reason why the Scions can't have good development like the class quest characters throughout the main story, scenes specific to each major NPC where they have their rpg like moments and events and you learn more about them and see them grow. Instead the main storyline is like "can you help us beat down some primals? Ok, go here and do some quests and then fight Titan"; there's no excitement, there's no urgency, it's just the thinnest plot leading you from one town to another so you can quest around the area for a bit until you get to the next dungeon/trial.
One other difference is that the in the class quests, the important NPC characters not only frequently appear, but they're often with you in the missions talking and being actual characters. Why they feel like in the main story quest none major characters can tag along with you on the missions (even just as a guest, they don't even have to fight) and talk along the way and develop those characters is beyond me. Just something simple like having the Scions who are with you come along as you quest through their mission and talk and develop themselves as you do the missions would make such a difference in making these NPCs actual characters.
I've heard Heavensward is much, much better and that even by 2.5 ARR's writing gets better (I'll admit that the best quests I've experienced, the Rogue class questline was added in 2.4 so maybe they started improving their storytelling), but 2.0 ARR feels like it's only the FF you're looking for if what you're looking for is a modern day FF1 "go and follow a simple story with no characters that leads you from dungeon to dungeon fighting the bosses and getting the crystals and like FF2 there's an evil empire too". Yeah, FF originally was like that, but by FFIV the series changed and become a story-focused interesting adventure with memorable characters (FFV kinda being an exception since it was gameplay-focused). So are all the people raving about FFXIV and saying that stuff like FFXV or FFXIII isn't what they want out of FF, but FFXIV is, are they all just huge FF1-3 fans who want that era of simplicity again? Because I just find it hard to see how FFIV and beyond fans would think FFXIV is what FF means to them. To me even though I don't like XIII much, XIII and XV are exactly what I think of when I think FF. FFXV (since I haven't played much of it) looks basically like a cross between FF8 x FF12, which is very FF to me.
Anyhow, the gameplay is fun. As my first MMO, the multiplayer dungeons and guildheists are a blast and this is the fastest I've ever blown through any rpg since FFXII, so it definitely has me hooked. But I'm enjoying it as a gameplay game first, an sorta exploring game second (for a lot of reasons I don't really feel like the game has a great sense of exploration into the unknown like a lot of single player rpgs); but yeah the story does not satisfy me in an FF way at all, it's actually making me want to play FFXV because I feel like there was more character development between the main cast in the first 90 mins of FFXV I played than the 75 hours of FFXIV so far.
Also, totally aside, but leveling up a Conjurer from 1-15 last night to get my Paladin sucked hard. I'm playing the game as a single player rpg with matchmaking for dungeons/trials, but that was one of the spots where I wish I had friends in the game that could've helped me do fates/hunting log to get to 15 much faster :|
And the other thought I have is that there is nowhere near enough music. The city themes are great and there's some good tunes. But I think this is part of what keeps the exploration and world environments from being really memorable and amazing is the lack of good unique music tracks for each area. Like in Xenoblade, when you first go to that swamp early on and it becomes night and glowing and the music changes it's just one of the most amazing exploration experiences ever. Or in Xenoblade X when you get your first flying mech. FFXIV's world just feels a lot less memorable to me, although I do like it and I love how many towns and camps there are.
