I'm going to keep defending this MMO for a number reasons.

One - the standard edition hasn't gone live yet and it is most like that SE plans to have an update ready to go very shortly.

Second - the game was designed to more of an asian style MMO. If want to get the same old sort of experience you get with WoW or LOTRO your not going to get it because like FFXI, FFXIV is not the same old cookie cutter experience. It's a different MMO based on a number of fundamental differences from WoW and LOTRO.

Three - there are some issues which over all are very minor issues and will be patched very easily. For anyone who likes this style of MMO you're going to put up with them for the short while it's going to take them to patch it.

Four - consider the source. Most north american players have only experienced WoW and expect to get more of the same with a different game. It's easy for this people to disagree with something they don't understand. If it is not your kind of game fine, then don't play it, but we don't need trolls supporting threads of bad reviews based on a TON of false information.

Five - don't ruin it for others, just because you don't like this type of game doesn't mean your opinion is the word of god and have to spew your negitive demeanor all over the place.

Bottom-line - if you want something different and want to break away from the same basic MMO mold then you will really want to try FFXIV and see it through past some of the annoying parts.

Firstly I wanna say I am really enjoying this game, I have never played FF games really before except for FF7 when I was about 11 (which was an awesome game in my head at least :P). However some of what the reviewer said in this video was true.

For example the game is really unintuitive it isnt just a case of click the guy with a yellow ? over his head, accept quest, open map run to spot kill mobs which are there. Especially on the starting quests. There are no npcs with glowing question marks or rings or signifiers to denote them as the required one.
The npcs for the emote thing are stupid honestly that quest was annoying and often it wont tell you who to look for which is also annoying and really should give you more information. But I wont lie the learning curve on this one is steep and you better be willing to play and learn and not just be looking for instant gratification.

However I do think this review is so unbelievably biased it is unreal, the amount of hate and ******** I mean with the running distances come on man, do you have the attention span of a 5 year old? Watching this review felt like someone made their mind up they hated it after the first fight with the jellyfish monster thing and after that point was just looking for something else to justify it.

The running distances although longer than your average MMO dont feel horrible, it adds a sense of exploration and achievement when you reach the next area and it gives you time to kill all the way to the next crystal and regen health and mana instantly when you get there.
I mean the repeated scenery is annoying but is something I have never noticed, seen or spotted but then when I am running I am usually looking at my inventory, checking journal, allocating points I have forgotten to spend or something else so I don't really spend to much time staring at all the pretty colours.
Again the spelling mistakes are something I havnt noticed either but I generally scan read all the conversation and don't spend to much time looking for grammar and punctuation - this one at least will be fixed easy enough anyway.

In my opinion the game world and a lack of jump to manouver it should make the movement of FFXIV feel unbelievably linear but it doesnt somehow.
The combat system although somewhat clunky to begin with after some time begins to feel smooth and fluid which is strange cos first impressions screamed otherwise.
The UI is not built with idiots in mind and it will take you a few hours to feel confident navigating your way around the menu. The descriptions of abilities are not massively detailed only giving you enough info to know that Fire deals Fire damage takes 3secs to cast and costs 10mana. But hey what more do you need to know.

If you arnt looking for a WOW clone this game delivers, the style of play reminds me of the older MMO's which imo are better than most today. WOW imo is a dieing giant spoon feeding its subscribers doses of success to keep em comming back for more and churning out expansion to refresh an otherwise repetitive timesink. WOW is a game I have spent ALOT of time playing btw I played from release and my subscription is still open today although I havnt played it for 4 months (but you never know when the urge to login will return :P)

But imo FFXIV although it still feels unfinished, (some of the bugs are unbelievable however the vast majority of these have been fixed since wednesday). It is still fun to play bringing something different to the market. It will never be a giant such as wow but it will survive with those who are willing to climb the mountain that is a learning curve and enjoy the game for what it is.

Oh also my enjoyment of this game went up 10fold once I started using an xbox controller to play, the mouse and keyboard situation is dire but on a control you really feel as though you are playing it how it was meant to be played.

Sorry for the wall of text dunno if it makes too much sense but hope it helps someone and will encourage some of you to try this game yourselves instead of relying on other peoples opinions to put you off.

Ps, that clip at the end with the ladybug is LOL funny.

Cheers,
Vae

This has to be one of the most biased reviews ever. Who lets this ****** review for such a nice site?

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Honestly, I say give SE a break... Yeah, they merged with a multi~something corp. I guess wow took it to the extreme with the whole monthly billing. But a stable server costs $$. To MMO or to not MMO? RPG, has always been a single player story emersion. But now we get to take that story into a few million dollar design test. Copy and pasta', lol. What about the other 10g of space. I started playing wow vanilla. Watching my lil bro try for his small % at some ti3r. I was instantly hooked. Made me go out and buy a pc (orly ^). Yes! How did a kid with no RPG exp get tier in wow? I guess I'll never know. I've played every FF up to XI. Sorry Square, you lost my interests. I so desperately want this to work. I'm so tired of yelling at blizz behind the mc. So sick of awaiting the return of my precious Diablo. Now they have the nerve to destroy everything I know and love. Avg FF Game Time : 80hrs. WoW: Weeks. So that said. Mike B, dude your awesome. I was rofl all over the place during your vids. (first time viewer, def not the last.) Your dead on man. Get the weak points out the way. Square Kid~