Final Fantasy XIV (14) Online Announced

[ThreeDog]

Yes, it was hard for me to get into Final Fantasy XI, simply because there was such a huge emphasis on grouping, but I'm really really excited to try and get into the world of of XIV. It looks very, VERY inspired by Ivalice and that's currently my favorite universe of the Final Fantasy franchise. Original Final Fantasy Tactics, and Vagrant Story take the cake for me. Wasn't as excited about XII, but still good.

And of course, from all the footage I've seen of XIV from Gamescom, it looks like it's going to be a real treat.

[Loxone]

I really enjoyed the classic FF games 1-9 and hope that the new MMO can capture some of that spirit again. I never tried XI as I was anti monthly fee at the time.

[TVs_Frank]

FF XI is pretty much responsible for the situation we have with FF XII and XIII with the whole "You got MMORPG in my single player RPG! You got single player RPG in my MMORPG!" stuff.

And Ivalice was ruined for me by Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. I -HATED- the law system. There seriously needed to be an option to skip thata spect of the game. Nothing worse than being saved in a spot where you have to fight animals and you get "no hurting animals" laws. It required too much job changing when you didn't WANT to mess with your team.

Anyways, that's beside the point. I really don't have any faith in XIV being any good. XI, while it had it's moments, had a too detached development team and I honestly think raiding in the game was unhealthy for human beings with the large time commitment it required. And to top it off, the PlayOnline service charged you to re-activate an account if you let the subscription slide. Something close to the original cost of the game if I recall. The funnier part is I've heard that they'd charge you a late fee if you didn't renew when YOU PAID WITH A GAME CARD. I understand PlayOnline is gone for XIV, but this is the sort of stuff consumer's shouldn't forgive.

[ThreeDog]

Totally agree with you Frank. I absolutely LOATHED the law system in Tactics Advance, and I damn near avoided Tactics A2 altogether because of it. Luckily, I sat down and played it A2 anyhow, and was pleasantly surprised. Instead of jailing characters and what not, at the start of the round you're given the abiility to pick bonuses for your entire team that will last the duration of combat. If you break a law, you just lose your bonuses, but that's more or less the only major punishment. However, if you keep breaking the law, THEN jailing occurs, but ONLY for characters that are knocked out during the fight. Basically, it just keeps you from resurrecting a character for that current fight, and it really doesn't occur frequently at all. I highly suggest playing Tactics A2, it's far more in the vein of classic Tactics and actually pretty enjoyable!

A couple of things I can point out here for ya about XIV that have majorly changed from XI:

1. The game is placing a HUGE emphasis on solo play, with scaled encounters and quests depending on how many people are in your group at the time.
2. PlayOnline service is being eliminated altogether, and won't be used for XIV. They're going with the typical MMO model that we're all familiar with.
3. No "classes", no levels. One of the big inspirations for the game was Ultima Online, and Star Wars Galaxies, if I do recall.

I initially had little to no interest in XIV either, but as more and more information has been revealed (plus all the footage of gameplay from Gamescom), my interest meter SKYROCKETED. I prefer open type worlds with flexibility instead of level driven play (Phantasy Star Online being the exception to that, of course), and that's what's got me real excited. I'm not sure if this is going to be the next coming of the great MMO messiah, but I'm completely interested in jumping in and finding out.