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Announced earlier this week, Final Fantasy XIV is an MMO, and – as such – will be coming to the PC. However, even though the game shares a number of cosmetic genes with direct predecessor Final Fantasy XI, the two games’ developers insist that they, like two adolescent identical twins, are “completely different.”
"FFXIV is completely different from FFXI and as such, there won’t be any porting over of characters from FFXI to FFXIV, even though the character design is similar. We will not be using the PlayOnline system but a new design," said Producer Hiromichi Tanaka.
And while we’re certainly glad that we’ll no longer have to jump through PlayOnline’s many flaming, crocodile-moat-surrounded hoops in order to play FFXIV, Tanaka didn’t exactly explain how the game is different from FFXI. That’s where Director Nobuaki Komoto came in.
“The game systems will be different. FFXIV will have new in-game systems for character development as well as an expanded job system. It is quite different from FFXI. Many features of FFXI will be improved upon. We want to bring content for solo players and casual players as well as large party play from the beginning of the game,” he explained.
Tanaka also added that FFXIV will have plenty of content for “those that just want to play 40 minutes a day and content for those that wish to play all day.”
Will it have content for people who want to play Star Wars: The Old Republic all day, though? Yeah, that might be a bit of a sticking point for us.
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Mishri
June 12, 2009 at 11:34am
Did you even play FFXI? it had a story line.. a decent one.. but there is a long storyline involved. The only thing I hated about FFXI was waiting forever to get a group together and most of the decent groups spoke japenese and wouldn't play with you if you couldn't even though it had a built in translator, it didn't do a good enough job to effectively communicate. It had some really fun features though and I enjoyed it, especially as a White Mage.. I actually rarely had to wait for groups.
Consolitis
June 11, 2009 at 7:30am
Tanaka also added that FFXIV will have plenty of content for “those that just want to play 40 minutes a day and content for those that wish to play all day.”
Nice. In FFXI it was pretty much group or die.
kiaghi7
June 06, 2009 at 8:54am
FFXIV will be completely different from FFXI, in that it will also be utterly terrible but in an entirely different way...
Final Fantasy games should be single player (or at most co-op, ala Secret of Mana) experiences so that the quality of the game shines through, there is actually a story line, and that the game itself is the experience. You shouldn't be saddled into earning experience to play the game that has no story line, that is the antithesis of what Final Fantasy games have traditionally been.
If Squenix wants to make a MMO game, by all means they should do so, but don't ruin their most idolized franchise (for a second time) with a hamhanded effort to shoehorn Final Fantasy into a MMO experience which it just doesn't fit. Name it something else and set it in an original fantasy realm to adventure in, I've even thought that one of their previous games, Last Remnant, would lend itself fabulously to an MMO environment since it's nearly there alread, but of course that's down right logical...
mesiah
June 06, 2009 at 6:34pm
The FF franchise screams mmo. Final fantasy to me has always ment epic storylines, Insanely hard to complete side quests, and epic battles involving the cooperation between many characters of varying fighting styles. While I will admit that SE missed their mark on FFXI it was a learning experience. They definately had the teamwork down, so much so that you could barely leave town on your own. The insanely hard side quests were definately there, some people worked years on obtaining relic weapons. The epic storylines were..... not so much there. They did tell great stories, but there was no real reason to finish the storyline. And none of it felt tied to the game.
As for what little SE has spoken of this new title, it is very evident that they realise their faults from FFXI. They have already stated that there will be content from the start for groups of all sizes, including solo. They have also stated that the traditional exp leveling system is being replaced, by what noone knows. If I had to guess I am willing to bet that leveling is going to be tied directly to the storyline. If they did that then it would fix grinding problems and give everyone a reason to experience the epic storyline.
SE stated in an interview that when they started work on FFXIV they set out to make the best FF game ever, not to make an MMO. But it was decided that the best FF game ever had to be an MMO. Since the days of FFII I have always wanted to share my adventure with friends. While I enjoyed FFXI I will admit it didn't feel like a final fantasy game because of the shortcommings listed above, but it was a good effort. I really think FFXIV is going to be what SE had invisioned all along for an MMO and what die hard FFXI fans have been asking for for years.
kiaghi7
June 07, 2009 at 7:36pm
riiiight...
So the part about there being little to no story line in MMO games, which is and has always been the heart and soul of a true final fantasy game, lends itself well to being taken away for the sake of bland generic stereotypical situations and characters?
Perhaps the vacuous find and kill quests in MMO's which are entirely the antithesis of missions in a single player RPG where they expand upon the characters themselves, rather than adding fluff or busy work to the game?
Perhaps you meant the level treadmill which is prerequisite to actually playing the game's largest and most desireable portion of the content is what likens it to traditional FF games, you know, where you start at level one and make your way through the game and leveling is a matter of course, not a hurtle to be continuously constrain your progress.
Maybe you meant that the final bosses always required you call upon between ten and fourty friends to tackle rather than your own individual ability and effort, all in order to complete the STORY (which again the MMO severely lacks), rather than a repetitive and competitive grind for gear so that you can resume doing it all again in another session in the hopes of getting one more piece of gear in the eternal e-peen comparing gallery, which of course makes you just strong enough to step onto a different grinding treadmill ad infinitum until you either have nothing else to get or you quit playing.
While I may seem very vulkanized against MMO's in general, I'm actually not, I like MMO's for what they are, and I like RPG's particularly those from a much vaunted and heraled lineage for what they have traditionally brought to the table. But it's pretty much settled that many of the Final Fantasy games have been among the masterpieces of games and their franchises, but FFXI was a black eye that demonstrated that slapping FF on the front of it does NOT make it a good game no matter how much the developer insists it is. FFXIV may turn out to be good, but it's also going to come about in an already terribly overcroweded MMO market, competing with not only the current king of the hill, WOW of course, but it's also going to be fratricidally competing with FFXI leading toward it's ever shortening lifespan (which can't end soon enough frankly), and all in an effort to call a misbegotten child "Final Fantasy", when it would likely be better served with an original franchise title.
To be quite honest, short of setting a Final Fantasy game quite literally in the world(s) of Final Fantasy II, III, IV, V, VI, or VII it's going to be shallow from the opening credits, because the entire game world will have to be established from square one, which -NO- mmo sufficiently does and it's left to the player to feel out the game world for what's there, and it's almost universally "flavor" dialogue but nothing that really sets YOU on a course with a destiny apart from thousands of others. Rather than being 'one in a million', you become 'one of a million' all doing the same thing and it feels about as exciting as visiting the DMV.
I understand where you're coming from, and I'm not going to pan FFXIV outright, but my 'skeptsism meter' is already nearly maxed. I wish for nothing but good things for squenix, I've been a huge fan of their separate and now collective works for decades (now I feel old), but their recipe for one part final fantasy and one part MMO wound up making a bunch of burned cookies... and they weren't even chocolate! BLASPHEMY!
mesiah
June 08, 2009 at 9:28pm
Do you realise you spent the first half or your reply listing the very things I already addressed? Did you even bother to read what I said? Just because MMOs for the most part are one big grind fest with unimpressive storylines does not mean they have to be. SE even stated in their press conference that an EXP based leveling system will not be implemented in this game. As for your perception of being one in a million in FF games, you are dead wrong there. When is the last time you played a FF game about one single person that took on the world? Never. FF games are about a group of extraordinary adventurers banding together for the greater good. The final battle isn't You Vs. what ever evil being is threatening mankind. Its 8, 10, 12 people working together. Even back in the days of FFII. You had to split in to three groups to get to the boss. Three whole parties working together. The only difference is, you have to control every single character. But if SE could have made it multiplayer back then and done it well, I am sure they would have.
Once in a while a game comes along that revolutionizes its genre. This is SEs second attempt at really mating the MMO with the RPG. I think it is evident that they have learned from their last attempt. If you truely do like SE and the FF series, I would give them the benefit of the doubt on this one. Wether or not you tihnk FFXI was an epic failure, in the eyes of SE it was a real success and a good start. Their player base is still going strong, although who is to say what will happen once this game arrives. Although, if you hate MMOs because you can't stand the thought of not being able to control every aspect of gameplay or you dont understand why you have to pay a monthly fee, then this game will probably suck as much for you as the last one.
kiaghi7
June 09, 2009 at 3:07pm
So acknowledging it makes it no longer the case? Check... Oh wait a minute, no it doesn't! Just because you "address" it doesn't mean you made the matter all better, or some how un-did what the case clearly is.
As for your nonsense "When is the last time you played a FF game about one single person that took on the world? Never."
When was the last time you played a real FF game? obviously you have a group to pal around with, that's of course part of the genre, but the protagonist is by far -the- core impetus from which progression is made throughout the game, so don't get out too far ahead of yourself, because you seem to trip upon your own words.
"Once in a while a game comes along that revolutionizes its genre."
Yeah, thus far they have been Ultima Online, Everquest, and World of Warcraft. Final Fantasy XI wasn't revolutionary, heck it didn't even to derivative right, and again I am exceedingly dubious about FFXIV bringing anything stellar to the table other than another black eye for the Final Fantasy lineage it's dragging down when it could just as easily been an independently titled game, set in an original backdrop without the burden of living up to criteria set by the the excellence already set in the franchise, there's so much room to fail and only a target to suceed that is hardly more than a speck being aimed at from the moon.
"This is SEs second attempt at really mating the MMO with the RPG."
Actually, it's not, Front Mission online is another of their titles, unfortunately however not only was it comparably dismal to FFXI, but support was ended for it last year. Bare in mind that I too follow the subject.
