Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn
Everything was looking promising as hell in 1.0. We went from a trainwreck that was slowly building itself up. Each new patch brought lots of stability and new stuff to play with. If this was the direction they were going with for the game, it'd be fantastic. Then they threw everything they were doing in 1.0 away and went in the complete opposite direction for ARR launch. Fetch quests, spam run dungeons, get incrementally better gear. No feeling of exploration. No excitement. Nobody even talks to other people. Just going through the motions. Terrible game.
I guess that's fair, though I hate to call it a disappointment when I wasn't really looking for a great game (I don't think there has ever been a good MMO). It didn't succeed at being a guilty pleasure for me like FFXI and FFXIV 1.18+ did. Aesthetically beautiful, which is the main reason for me playing in a sense, but they went out of their way to make it a game where I struggle to keep myself attached to its world or seek to interact with its mechanics for any period of time (or central story mission/quest-line, which is to say: they made the most typical example of a modern MMO. As much as I appreciated the music, visuals, etc., it is hard to overcome sheer disgust with what you do in the game itself (at least 90% of the time). From the quest design (both individual and overall), combat design, equipment/ability design, etc. just run so contrary to what I want that I find it gross to even interact with. I don't know how people who preferred FFXI to every other MMO, even in its darkest days, can stomach it as well as some do.
I felt the disappointment was coming as the game was being revealed and put into Alpha (the complete trashing of combat, animations/weight to actions going to crap, walking out of circles replacing managing AoEs through skills and timers strategically), but it really set in when I saw them nerf story quests difficulty (more so, the message it gave). With what they did with the 7th Umbral Era scenario in 1.0 and the introduction of level caps and party-based dungeons, I was sure there was going to be exciting coop game in the midst of its MMO-ness (like CoP was for FFXI). That alone would make me satisfied and invested.
Unfortunately, instead we got a quest-line that could not be more like MMO-filler/fetch-quest/lazy BS with party content being a rare pleasure, but not enough to make up for it (maybe until the very last few encounters, all still interspersed with filler, if not soul-crushing FATE grinding). The plot and characters were poorly used (filler arcs are drawn out, interesting stuff is rushed, and everything is simpler, but not charming like FFXI), turning everything into a NES-level FF. Without considering how often public events systems fall short, FATEs are hardly entertaining when they work and are some of the worst videogame content in existence when they do. The combat system itself could not be more uninteresting to me, with it being typical MMO design and gear/classes/abilities all being stream-lined and dry as hell (not really a single creative choice to make as a player in the entire game. It doesn't even have elemental weaknesses). There isn't much to do outside this dull main storyline, dull FATEs, and the hyper-linear progression system that kills variety at any given moment and makes the endgame one giant grind. In terms of mechanics, it is everything I never wanted FFXI to be while I played it and certainly not what I hoped for a revived FFXIV. While I appreciate the aesthetics, it seems to be losing little by little what made Eorzea special (and gaining a lot what makes MMO tacky). A canon Lightning story-arc (with equippable Lightning and Snow outfits!) is the greatest example of this, but I would also point out how the game's female armor design is creeping towards Korean.
And yes, as I predicted, the community is utterly dead, if not sub-Xbox Live levels of wretchedness in the few gaps it exists. FFXI was not a random anomaly, but they ignored why it had such a rich community factor. Apart from there being no potential with the game design itself, they actually went as far as making a community weaker with the way they handled "duty finder" and friendlists. They ignored FF MMOs ever existed and made a WoW-clone when WoW-clones are no longer successful. I had my eye on a non-typical (highly cooperative based) MMO battle system with at least mediocre encounter design, mechanics in place to create a community I could grown attach to (such as a never ending cycle of players partying up for lower level content), and a strong quest-line I could focus my attention on instead of the general MMO rubbish that will inevitably exist. These three elements work together to not only make a MMO bearable, but to justify the "MMO" aspect to begin with. So, yeah, I wanted a FF MMO. Oh well. As much as this is a rant, I could make it several pages by going into detail in every area ARR failed to carryover the creative momentum they had going with 1.0's recovery and FFXI's resilient niche. I rarely label games as "disappointments" (in a straight discussion, it would probably be the new Fire Emblem, but I knew what that was before I played it), but I guess it is my weird fascinations with sub-par games/genres that leaves me vulnerable.
