Support NeoGAF

[ElBoxyBrown]

He basically did what Tabata couldn't.

Not a good comparison since Versus XIII never came out.

 

[Garlador]

Yet they added breast slider, breast bounce, female AF armors that show more skin than male variants ...

I mean,, is not as bad as the other MMOs out there but ARR added some fanservice compared to 1.0 or XI. Still, it's good that they maintain their point of view instead on going all in with stupid fanservice.

Larger (and also smaller) breasts are not inherently sexist.

My wife has a large chest. She dragged that slider all the way up on her Roegadyn because it matches her.

Context is always important, and everything you describe is player choice.

I play as a female character too, but I'm decked out in the heaviest of gear that covers my character from head to toe.

 

[Ferr986]

Larger (and also smaller) breasts are not inherently sexist.

My wife has a large chest. She dragged that slider all the way up on her Roegadyn because it matches her.

Context is always important, and everything you describe is player choice.

I play as a female character too, but I'm decked out in the heaviest of gear that covers my character from head to toe.

Yeah you're probably right, shouldn't have added the slider in there.

 

[DarkLordMalik]

He basically did what Tabata couldn't.

Remove your Yoshida love googles to see that Tabata actually created a decent mainline game for once.

 

[JeffZero]

This site really loves FFXIV, wow.

Well, in any case, I think it'd be swell to give this Yoshida fellow a shot at FFXVI, maybe. But I suppose the question is whether he'd even want to do that.

 

[Vital Tundra]

Yoshi-P is SE's best asset right now. Hope he can spread his wings after FF14 is said and done.

This site really loves FFXIV, wow.

Well, in any case, I think it'd be swell to give this Yoshida fellow a shot at FFXVI, maybe. But I suppose the question is whether he'd even want to do that.

I think if he were to move on to another game SE would be stupid to not let him take the helm on the next single player FF. Can't be any worse than "Getting Nowhere" Nomura or "Creepo Waifu Lover" Toriyama.

Alas I don't think he will move on permanently from 14, which isn't a bad thing personally.

 

[Kagari]

This site really loves FFXIV, wow.

Well, in any case, I think it'd be swell to give this Yoshida fellow a shot at FFXVI, maybe. But I suppose the question is whether he'd even want to do that.

Because it's a good game and a massive turnaround any other company would have just burned to the ground after its original failure.

Yoshida also genuinely "gets it" and isn't just a PR-mouthpiece. That in itself goes a long way.

 

[DarkLordMalik]

Because it's a good game and a massive turnaround any other company would have just burned to the ground after its original failure.

A massive turnaround that required them to sacrifice many of their internal projects?

Definitely NOT a good trade off but I guess SE were lucky it worked out for them, otherwise they nearly gambled their future on it.

The time now is different as they are making big money from Mobile but that wasn't he case during XIV 1.0.

 

[orthodoxy1095]

A massive turnaround that required them to sacrifice many of their internal projects?

Definitely NOT a good trade off but I guess SE were lucky it worked out for them, otherwise they nearly gambled their future on it.

The time now is different as they are making big money from Mobile but that wasn't he case during XIV 1.0.

They now have a new, stable, money-making MMO. I don't see how that's a bad trade-off for their future financial stability.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Because it's a good game and a massive turnaround any other company would have just burned to the ground after its original failure.

Yoshida also genuinely "gets it" and isn't just a PR-mouthpiece. That in itself goes a long way.

Squenix didn't invest the enormous amounts of money and manpower to remake the game out of the goodness of their hearts. They made the mistake of assigning it a mainline number (XIV) and there was no way they could just shut it down and forget about it like APB or something. It had to succeed, not necessarily because XIV itself mattered but because of the irreparable damage to the Final Fantasy brand that would occur if it was just allowed to fail.

And yeah, Squenix sacrificed years of progress on other projects in the mad rush to remake XIV. The whole company was reportedly all-hands on the the ARR project.

 

[Slater]

They now have a new, stable, money-making MMO. I don't see how that's a bad trade-off for their future financial stability.

I think what Malik meant is that 14 requiring saving fucked over a lot of things, like Versus. And many would probably prefer the woltld where it never needed to be saved and Versus and all the stuff that got messed up in the process could have gone on unmolested

 

[Wagram]

Keep an eye on Blizzard because what-ever they're doing will be FFXVI if he's in charge.

We'd all prefer a world where the game we want was able to come out and another game wasn't utter shit. Sadly, Tanaka was old and bad at MMO design so Yoshi-P had to come in and save it. The games industry in general needs more people like him.

Tanaka had a lot of flaws, but blaming him entirely for how XIV 1.0 turned out isn't the right approach. He had a boss who had a boss that wanted shit rushed out. Even then, he designed XI which was a far superior experience to XIV.

 

[Sylas]

A massive turnaround that required them to sacrifice many of their internal projects?

Definitely NOT a good trade off but I guess SE were lucky it worked out for them, otherwise they nearly gambled their future on it.

The time now is different as they are making big money from Mobile but that wasn't he case during XIV 1.0.

I'd say it was a good trade considering FFXIV kept SE profitable when they had nothing else coming out. Not to mention the fact that a good MMO has a massive tail on it.

I also think it's pretty great that the one MMO that's directed/produced by a dude that at least tries to be fashionable has what is probably the greatest array of armor/clothing choices in the game. Like, seriously I can go from:

This (Tank) to This (Caster) to This ("Casual") to This (Whuff Buddy) all on the same character. If nothing else, FFXIV does armor/gear design like no other MMO on the market.

I think what Malik meant is that 14 requiring saving fucked over a lot of things, like Versus. And many would probably prefer the woltld where it never needed to be saved and Versus and all the stuff that got messed up in the process could have gone on unmolested

We'd all prefer a world where the game we want was able to come out and another game wasn't utter shit. Sadly, Tanaka was old and bad at MMO design so Yoshi-P had to come in and save it. The games industry in general needs more people like him.

 

[orthodoxy1095]

I think what Malik meant is that 14 requiring saving fucked over a lot of things, like Versus. And many would probably prefer the woltld where it never needed to be saved and Versus and all the stuff that got messed up in the process could have gone on unmolested

I understand what he meant. That's the price of doing business though. Sometimes projects have to be stuffed in order to prioritize other things.

We got a good MMO out of it, and SE got a stable money-maker. I'm fine with that.

 

[Angelina]

For me the top mmos are between this an eso.both came out to huge outcrys of series fans saying it needs changing. And both games got huge turnarounds

 

[Slater]

I understand what he meant. That's the price of doing business though. Sometimes projects have to be stuffed in order to prioritize other things.

We got a good MMO out of it, and SE got a stable money-maker. I'm fine with that.

So am I, minus Versus dying lol.

But ah well there no guarantee Nomuras story would even be good. XIV IS good so I'll take it

 

[ArchedThunder]

I would definitely be interested in a non MMO numbered FF from him.

 

[DiipuSurotu]

Tanaka fucked up with XIV 1.0 but I can't hate the man who produced and game-designed FFIII, Secret of Mana, Secret of Mana 2, Xenogears, and Chrono Cross.

 

[Spiritreaver]

GAF loves it some FFXIV.

As much as I don't like the game, there's no denying the work Yoshi-P has done to turn it around. It has a lot of flaws (awful combat, the world feels stale/flat, gear/character progression is no good), but it's still one of the better MMORPGs on the market.

 

[Sylas]

You are two focused on slot swapping that people macroed for XI

Which is stupid. I dont want that either. I DO want gear to be more than just glorified number boosters

Imho a horizontal progress-based MMO simply isn't possible these days. There's always going to be BiS and Blizzard got rid of super interesting set bonuses, etc because it was all but impossible to balance. You had people using gear from 3 raids back because the proc on it was strong or led to an exploit. It became really hard to keep track of gear when things were horizontal. That said, I would like some more choice--I'm just not sure where it can come from.

Tanaka had a lot of flaws, but blaming him entirely for how XIV 1.0 turned out isn't the right approach. He had a boss who had a boss that wanted shit rushed out. Even then, he designed XI which was a far superior experience to XIV.

That's fair. FFXI was really good at the time and I'd definitely love some of the features coming over/coming back. I, to this day, love the concept of the old class system that XIV had going for it. I know why they took it away, but still. I did try going back to XI and I think it's a bit of a relic at this stage. Understandably so, but it is tiresome to have a hurdle for every little thing and even through my nostalgia I know getting the Kazham keys was annoying and being locked out of expansion content in Chains of Promathia got game-quittingly frustrating when level caps were a real roadblock.


If I could fault Yoshi-P for anything it's that he plays it very, very safe with regards to patch cycles and the content they bring. I'm hoping Stormblood can mix it up since there's a new FF game on the market so there's (hopefully) less of a spotlight on FFXIV as "the" Final Fantasy game available.

 

[Spiritreaver]

For me the top mmos are between this an eso.both came out to huge outcrys of series fans saying it needs changing. And both games got huge turnarounds

Agreed. ESO is my MMO of choice as it gave me things FFXIV didn't. Character progression and horizontal gear progression are the big ones. You have a lot of freedom to a play a class how you want to and it will work out. The community is mostly okay with it too.

There is only one way to play every job in FFXIV. The cooldowns and buff timers almost force it. Stat points don't matter either.

 

[Kagari]

Agreed. ESO is my MMO of choice as it gave me things FFXIV didn't. Character progression and horizontal gear progression are the big ones. You have a lot of freedom to a play a class how you want to and it will work out. The community is mostly okay with it too.

There is only one way to play every job in FFXIV. The cooldowns and buff timers almost force it. Stat points don't matter either.

Oh yes they do.

 

[Gamer @ Heart]

Agreed. ESO is my MMO of choice as it gave me things FFXIV didn't. Character progression and horizontal gear progression are the big ones. You have a lot of freedom to a play a class how you want to and it will work out. The community is mostly okay with it too.

There is only one way to play every job in FFXIV. The cooldowns and buff timers almost force it. Stat points don't matter either.

Well, there is one way in actually playing a job WELL. But I enjoy that there is a high skill ceiling in actually accomplishing that, some jobs way more than others.

It never stops surprising me how poorly the general populace plays with the gear they have. It honestly feels like no one reads the menu on what their moves actually do or get affected by.

 

[Spiritreaver]

Oh yes they do.

I was specifically referring to the ones you get on level up. They did not matter when I played outside of tanks. Everyone just put all points into the main stat of that class.

Then they went and made STR and VIT function virtually the same for tanks to force people to just pump it all into VIT. That really isn't offering a choice. That's about when I stopped playing the game. So if things are different now, it would be good to know.

 

[Sylas]

Well, there is one way in actuay playing g a job WELL. But I enjoy that there is a high skill ceiling in actually accomplishing that, some jobs way more than others.

It never stops surprising me how poorly the general populace plays with the gear they have. It honest feels like no one reads the menu on what their moves actually do of get affected by.

There's also 12 classes to choose from. Of course you have to play them as the game wants you to!

I was specifically referring to the ones you get on level up. They did not matter when I played outside of tanks. Everyone just put all points into the main stat of that class.

Then they went and made STR and VIT function virtually the same for tanks to force people to just pump it all into VIT. That really isn't offering a choice. That's about when I stopped playing the game. So if things are different now, it would be good to know.

It's the same, yes. I'm a little salty about the STR/VIT change but I totally understand it. Stats are a redundancy I can see them getting rid of because you can only really do it wrong.

 

[Taruranto]

Well, there is one way in actuay playing g a job WELL. But I enjoy that there is a high skill ceiling in actually accomplishing that, some jobs way more than others.

It never stops surprising me how poorly the general populace plays with the gear they have. It honest feels like no one reads the menu on what their moves actually do of get affected by.

That's because you can get to max level and get end-game gears with little effort. The game doesn't prompt you to get better, in some cases losing even rewards you by making things easier! And cross-server instanced content foster this attitude since people don't have to face consequences for their low skills.

The easier the game is, the less efforts the casual player that never played a MMORPG before is going to put in it to get better. You can also sorta see in FFXI nowadays when the game got less punitive.

 

[Gamer @ Heart]

That's because you can get to max level and get end-game gears with little effort. The game doesn't prompt you to get better, in some cases losing even rewards you by making things easier! And cross-server instanced content foster this attitude since people don't have to face consequences for their low skills.

The easier the game is, the less efforts the casual player that never played a MMORPG before is going to put in it to get better. You can also sorta see in FFXI nowadays when the game got less punitive.

Well, kind of. There is very little chance any terrible player has 'real' end game gear. Savage raids are no joke and the poverty upgrade items don't come out until well into a patch cycle.

Outside of 4 man content, where people flaws are FAR more obvious, it's just easy to get carried as long as you aren't on the floor the majority of the fight and that is true for ANY multiplayer game like this. But that's only super prominent this long after patch when people are well geared, relatively, and people know strategies.

But yeah, the game has a serious problem of not teaching players how to be better. It basically falls on the community to call it out, but that has some bad consequences at times. The training hall was a nice start for new comers, But I'm tired of teaching lvl60 black mages to stop doing their level 30 rotations.

 

[DrROBschiz]

Oh yes they do.

Puh leaaassee

You know what he means

 

[TheYanger]

Agreed. ESO is my MMO of choice as it gave me things FFXIV didn't. Character progression and horizontal gear progression are the big ones. You have a lot of freedom to a play a class how you want to and it will work out. The community is mostly okay with it too.

There is only one way to play every job in FFXIV. The cooldowns and buff timers almost force it. Stat points don't matter either.

Good MMOs (FF14, wow) have one 'right' way to play a character, but the right way involves adapting to situations too, it's always slightly different depending on what is going on and performing at a top level is EXCEEDINGLY difficult. For as much shit as these games get as 'easy' they're really not - it's easy to perform at an adequate level, but it's very hard to be good at them.

Every game, EVERY GAME, not just MMOs, has a 'best' build and 'best' way to play that build. Even ESO. The only difference is that ESO is so trivial and set up in such a way that nobody cares. The original wow talent system would be fantastic for random shit like that if nobody cared, but when the game is designed to be challenging, people start caring.

 

[Ploid 3.0]

The number increases on gear was one of the reasons the game bored me. I could only see myself playing for that extra 1 point of whatever attribute on gear each step on the ladder. The ladder that SE will just continue to build, making all previous gear worthless as I pile them under my feet. I didn't like the idea of gear level requirements too, dps checks on bosses, maybe it existed in ffxi but it didn't seem so in your face.

I hate subligar, it demoralized me in FFXI as a thief in endgame gear with dragon subligar (the quest for pants).

 

[DrROBschiz]

The number increases on gear was one of the reasons the game bored me. I could only see myself playing for that extra 1 point of whatever attribute on gear each step on the ladder. The ladder that SE will just continue to build, making all previous gear worthless as I pile them under my feet. I didn't like the idea of gear level requirements too, dps checks on bosses, maybe it existed in ffxi but it didn't seem so in your face.

I hate subligar, it demoralized me in FFXI as a thief in endgame gear with dragon subligar (the quest for pants).

Yup

No toys to play with in 14. Lost interest at the end.

They should take a page from Destiny and previous FFs when it comes to gear and treasure

 

[Sumio Mondo]

Having just "joined the party" I have to say the game is incredible and I feel like I made the right choice when choosing between it and FFXV, especially after seeing that backlash against XV lately (I do plan on getting XV one day, though). The game is really addictive and feels like the closest thing to FFXII I've played in the series. If they do get Yoshida to Direct FFXVI (which would be a very wise choice, imo, since he gets games out both quickly and with top quality), he should get Ito to handle the Combat Systems and work as a lead designer, take his other most talented members from FFXIV with him (who seem to mostly be former FFXI and FFXII devs, lots of talented folks, some of which were directors themselves in the past like Minagawa who directed the Tactics Ogre remake on PSP and was Art Director on all of Matsuno's games) and BAM you have an amazing game right there with the best FF team working on it.

 

[Weltall Zero]

Yoshi-p seems like the best person working at square.

Unfortunately that is kind of faint praise right now. But I really wish they let him helm a non-MMO FF. I'm mostly done with MMOs but damn if FFXIV doesn't put every other FF game in the past decade to utter shame; which, again, may not be a particularly tall order all things considered.

 

[KeRaSh]

I've been secretly hoping for ages that either he or someone from the FFXI days gets to take on the singleplayer FFXVI...

 

[Taruranto]

The number increases on gear was one of the reasons the game bored me. I could only see myself playing for that extra 1 point of whatever attribute on gear each step on the ladder. The ladder that SE will just continue to build, making all previous gear worthless as I pile them under my feet. I didn't like the idea of gear level requirements too, dps checks on bosses, maybe it existed in ffxi but it didn't seem so in your face.

I hate subligar, it demoralized me in FFXI as a thief in endgame gear with dragon subligar (the quest for pants).

The sad thing is that they already made a MMORPG with excellent itemization, but basically completely threw everything away. I know some people hate gear swapping, but it's really a great mechanic that makes a lot of content relevant and makes people want to do that content.

Granted, FFXIV in its current form can't really support gear swapping due to the lack of stuff like secondary stats, skills and general poor RPG system.

 

[King Gilga]

I really do the miss the aesthetic and the npcs/dialogue of this game, shame the combat is dreadfully slow and no fun and that it's full of borders too.

I feel the same way about ARR as I do about SWTOR now that I think about it. I miss my characters, the quests, and I enjoyed the story, but I never want to play (do the combat) the actual game ever again (x1000000 for swtor), and the zones feel so limited and unconnected.

Agreed. ESO is my MMO of choice as it gave me things FFXIV didn't. Character progression and horizontal gear progression are the big ones. You have a lot of freedom to a play a class how you want to and it will work out. The community is mostly okay with it too.

There is only one way to play every job in FFXIV. The cooldowns and buff timers almost force it. Stat points don't matter either.

lol no, ESO has probably the most vapid emotionless meaningless combat I've ever played in an MMO.

ARR might be slow but at least hits feel like they have impact.

Also I've never heard anything about ESO in ages, isn't it dead?

 

[mrlion]

A massive turnaround that required them to sacrifice many of their internal projects?

Definitely NOT a good trade off but I guess SE were lucky it worked out for them, otherwise they nearly gambled their future on it.

The time now is different as they are making big money from Mobile but that wasn't he case during XIV 1.0.

You do know its the game that's making the most money out of their company right? It was a good trade off for them. Not even FFXV can reach the numbers FFXIV has, not by a longshot.

 

[Ploid 3.0]

lol no, ESO has probably the most vapid emotionless meaningless combat I've ever played in an MMO.

ARR might be slow but at least hits feel like they have impact.

Also I've never heard anything about ESO in ages, isn't it dead?

Nah, I think I saw expansion trailers playing recently. Still seems strong. I might eventually get it since there's no sub, I don't care much for Elder Scrolls world and look though. If they let me steal stuff from NPC's houses as thief like I did in Oblivion though... (Best thief I ever played in a game)

Wow they actually had a The Game Awards trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9K15Mv5ydO8 One Tamriel is the name of the update, content, or whatever. There's also something newer that was posted 4 days ago, Homestead or something. Seems to be doing good.

Anyway this game added player scaling to the world, like their TES games. Seems like it would be too tame for my blood. More tame than FFXIV's world before I stopped playing.

 

[DiipuSurotu]

Has Yoshida ever made an offline console game?

 

[DrROBschiz]

The sad thing is that they already made a MMORPG with excellent itemization, but basically completely threw everything away. I know some people hate gear swapping, but it's really a great mechanic that makes a lot of content relevant and makes people want to do that content.

Granted, FFXIV in its current form can't really support gear swapping due to the lack of stuff like secondary stats, skills and general poor RPG system.

Ehh was never a fan of gear swapping as a mechanic. sure change gear in prep for a battle but mid battle?

Still the lack of "tools in your toolbag" approach really started rubbing me the wrong way the further i got in

 

[BossDarkseid]

Let Yoshi-P, Ito and Matsuno team up and I'll go die happy.

 

[Sylas]

The sad thing is that they already made a MMORPG with excellent itemization, but basically completely threw everything away. I know some people hate gear swapping, but it's really a great mechanic that makes a lot of content relevant and makes people want to do that content.

Granted, FFXIV in its current form can't really support gear swapping due to the lack of stuff like secondary stats, skills and general poor RPG system.

This line of thinking confuses me--you had one item set that was "best" for any one individual task (stacking haste +% for TP or Enfeebling Skill+ for enfeebles) but you still didn't have much in the way of choice. Remember when you got kicked out of parties if you didn't have the walahra turban? Or you always had to eat sushi since accuracy gear wasn't great? Maybe that got fixed as XI got older.

More gear options are meaningless if that just means each gearset has a single purpose. Then you're just playing a game of collecting all of the gear you "need." Interesting itemization is, imo, more like older WoW with unique set bonuses that could radically change how you played that class. The problem with that really does come down to the balancing act. It'd be cool to have a powerful shield with "5% chance to cast cure when struck," but how do you make that both worth having and then provide another option later that's more powerful but still different? There's definitely a way! I just think it's too cumbersome for most games to deal with.

 

[DrROBschiz]

This line of thinking confuses me--you had one item set that was "best" for any one individual task (stacking haste +% for TP or Enfeebling Skill+ for enfeebles) but you still didn't have much in the way of choice. Remember when you got kicked out of parties if you didn't have the walahra turban? Or you always had to eat sushi since accuracy gear wasn't great? Maybe that got fixed as XI got older.

More gear options are meaningless if that just means each gearset has a single purpose. Then you're just playing a game of collecting all of the gear you "need." Interesting itemization is, imo, more like older WoW with unique set bonuses that could radically change how you played that class. The problem with that really does come down to the balancing act. It'd be cool to have a powerful shield with "5% chance to cast cure when struck," but how do you make that both worth having and then provide another option later that's more powerful but still different? There's definitely a way! I just think it's too cumbersome for most games to deal with.

See 11 is a bad example

You only need to look at how other multiplayer games handle rpg building and balancing to see how it could be done better

Destiny, Dark Souls and Monster Hunter are all games where gear AND execution matter. Tons of toys, tons of fun

FFXIV is an amazing achievement but when the luster wears off its either grinding or sweating it to hardcore content

There isnt much discovery, experimentation and stuff to toy with that drives uniqueness and replayability

And I dont buy this crap that its impossible to balance

 

[hosannainexcelsis]

Has Yoshida ever made an offline console game?

Not really. Before directing FF XIV, he worked on the Far East of Eden and Bomberman games at Hudson and the Dragon Quest: Monster Battle Road arcade games as well as the early planning of Dragon Quest X at Square-Enix.

 

[Spiritwalker]

A great man. Hope he gets to work on a single-player FF in the future.

 

[Sylas]

See 11 is a bad example

You only need to look at how other multiplayer games handle rpg building and balancing to see how it could be done better

Destiny, Dark Souls and Monster Hunter are all games where gear AND execution matter. Tons of toys, tons of fun

FFXIV is an amazing achievement but when the luster wears off its either grinding or sweating it to hardcore content

There isnt much discovery, experimentation and stuff to toy with that drives uniqueness and replayability

And I dont buy this crap that its impossible to balance

I think the method I mentioned is "impossible" to balance, but I absolutely agree that Dark Souls, MonHun and Destiny are pretty solid examples of having diverse builds. Granted, I'd say Destiny has the right design idea of only surfacing 3 "main" stats in the first place. Accuracy has always been an incredibly annoying number and should be discarded in it's current MMO fashion, for example. I like how Destiny does it since it still plays an intrinsic part of the item, but the player can also compensate for it--to a degree.

The big difference between those games and most MMOs are having an active combat system as opposed to something much slower and are thus less reliant on constant player input to compensate for failings in other aspects of that playstyle.

fwiw I'm also super burned out on the FFXIV's vertical progression. I adore the game but the only reason I play consistently is because I'm a dreaded roleplayer and that keeps me engaged with the world outside of PvE or PvP content. If you're someone that loves getting new skins FFXIV is a wonderful game in that regard (to the detriment of inventories everywhere) but if you want stats and character building it's not great for that at all.

 

[Spiritreaver]

This line of thinking confuses me--you had one item set that was "best" for any one individual task (stacking haste +% for TP or Enfeebling Skill+ for enfeebles) but you still didn't have much in the way of choice. Remember when you got kicked out of parties if you didn't have the walahra turban? Or you always had to eat sushi since accuracy gear wasn't great? Maybe that got fixed as XI got older.

More gear options are meaningless if that just means each gearset has a single purpose. Then you're just playing a game of collecting all of the gear you "need." Interesting itemization is, imo, more like older WoW with unique set bonuses that could radically change how you played that class. The problem with that really does come down to the balancing act. It'd be cool to have a powerful shield with "5% chance to cast cure when struck," but how do you make that both worth having and then provide another option later that's more powerful but still different? There's definitely a way! I just think it's too cumbersome for most games to deal with.

This completely echoes how I feel. I don't think XIV's gear system is an actual fault. It's just something I personally don't like. The game limits choice, but also doesn't suffer from having to constantly balance every single facet of every class or item.

As much as I prefer games with large amounts of gear and character customization they suffer heavily from flavor of the month builds and playstyles being shunned for not being optimal. This leads to a neverending cycle of nerfs and buffs.

At the end of the day, I would prefer the freedom over a more streamline approach, but I can understand why others would prefer it the other way, and why XIV is the way it is.

 

[oSoLucky]

Yeah, it's weird how a console game is made to work with pads. Wait, what?

So ignore the parts where I talk about understanding it and just personally wish it wasn't so? I own it on PS4 also just in case you were wondering.

 

[BLCKATK]

This line of thinking confuses me--you had one item set that was "best" for any one individual task (stacking haste +% for TP or Enfeebling Skill+ for enfeebles) but you still didn't have much in the way of choice. Remember when you got kicked out of parties if you didn't have the walahra turban? Or you always had to eat sushi since accuracy gear wasn't great? Maybe that got fixed as XI got older.

More gear options are meaningless if that just means each gearset has a single purpose. Then you're just playing a game of collecting all of the gear you "need." Interesting itemization is, imo, more like older WoW with unique set bonuses that could radically change how you played that class. The problem with that really does come down to the balancing act. It'd be cool to have a powerful shield with "5% chance to cast cure when struck," but how do you make that both worth having and then provide another option later that's more powerful but still different? There's definitely a way! I just think it's too cumbersome for most games to deal with.

I really agree with this post. I feel like it's really difficult to create a way to make multiple powerful and unique equipment options without someone finding a method that makes one better than another. With FFXIV, they just decided that's not what the games focus was going to be, it was going to be crafting a story that feels like FF, and having large selection of activities that players could take part in. (Story, Leveling Content, Crafting, 4 Man Dungeons, 8 Man Raids with multiple difficulties, 24 Man Raids, Player vs Player, Mini-games, etc). They've also put effort into keeping all of those things relevant, with adding incentive for endgame players to go back and do that old content for chances at endgame rewards.

Mind you, I'm not saying that all of that content that they deliver every 3 months is up to par, they've dropped the ball on several occasions. But they are learning and still trying to craft that kind of experience that allows people to casually play in the world but also entertain hardcore players that want to play all the time and not be bored. It's a really difficult task, probably impossible, and FFXIV is definitely one of the only contenders still standing at this point.

 

[J-Rod]

It's funny he says that about female gamers because I thought the women designs and their armor are way more busty and revealing in XIV than they ever were in XI.