Why would that detract from how good the story is?
Class balance is entirely irrelevant to the story and also entirely irrelevant to about 98% of the playerbase. Plus the balance in ShB is pretty decent at the moment.
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Shadowbringers is better than your favorite FF
- Thread starter Zen
- Start date
Class balance is entirely irrelevant to the story and also entirely irrelevant to about 98% of the playerbase. Plus the balance in ShB is pretty decent at the moment.
Oh man. Now I need to find another reason not to play that game. I'm pretty sure if I start playing, I will lose my SO and my job...
Yep, I don't hear anyone complaining anymore. There was some rumbling when Shadowbringers first came out, but that seems to have mostly subsided.
You have to always be online to play it. That said the time you're actually playing with other people isn't much unless you want it to be. You have to do some mandatory story dungeons which take about 20 minutes and some trials which are single boss encounters which go by pretty quick. Shadowbringers itself can almost entirely be played without other people. There are only three fights that require other people.
I'm at my first level 49 quest, only at lvl 46 though. I'm nearing the end of the base game slog and the story was picking up a bit, but now I've gotta grind to finish the last bit. Takes a bit of willpower, honestly, especially with Control, Gears, and now Greedfall on m plate.
To be fair, they could be playing on a PS4 where typing on the keyboard takes forever and don't want to hold the game up in dungeons.
Yeah, people can hook up a USB keyboard, but most people don't know this.
Man.. if you already like it that much, you're going to love it when you get to Heavensward
I really want to link some music from Shadowbringers because it's outstanding, but unfortunately it seems virtually all videos have spoilers in them >_>'
I guarantee you that class balance has been waaaay worse in the past. And even then, you could still clear any content with any job. People are way too focused on what job composition is absolutely optimal, ignoring that even if some jobs aren't as good... they're still good enough.
Skill-up did a playthrough of the entire game + expansions for his review recently. it's all still in his past broadcasts.
It is damn fuckin' good.
And to all the people commenting on the monthly payment, if paying a monthly fee made the other Final Fantasies nearly as good as FFXIV I'd be much more into them.
And to all the people commenting on the monthly payment, if paying a monthly fee made the other Final Fantasies nearly as good as FFXIV I'd be much more into them.
you can play it as a single player service game, but this game is still trying to be an mmorpg you know. Why compare it to offline FF all the time? I get it, the story is good when you've followed the game for 5+ years and everything is fresh on your mind. Just don't trick and bait people with this nonsense. Many people are not going to like endless online filler.
yes, the combat is way too easy. Only a tiny amount of content is more demanding. Most of it is attend to win.
yes, the combat is way too easy. Only a tiny amount of content is more demanding. Most of it is attend to win.
I can promise you I at least died more times getting to Level 80 than I did finishing any other Final Fantasy game.
By probably a pretty significant margin, too. I don't know what you would consider challenging or difficult for a Final Fantasy game, but I had more trouble learning and getting through 14 than anything like the 3 or 4 DS remakes or the original NES/Famicom games.
Dodging AOEs and figuring out mechanics while keeping up proper rotations isn't the easiest shit in the world, I dunno. Actual reaction time and reading of tells are required. I think it deserves more credit. That you even have to think about where you're standing is a level of mechanical complexity that most other games in the series don't even attempt. Most FF games have no more thought to positioning than "Front Row or Back Row".
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why compare literally any game ever. Why do people do GOTY lists?
Is the whole "base game will be streamlined in an upcoming patch" a confirmed thing or just speculation?
It's confirmed and they are looking to do it around patch 5.3.
I said someone, not everyone. The rest of the post you didn't quote is still important in getting across the point you didn't get.
That's pretty much true for every Final Fantasy except maybe the NES ones. The difficulty in most FF games comes from late game optional bosses, same with 14.
you can just pay 1 month and play it like its a singleplayer game like me, ill be back for the next expansion again and again
There's plenty of good content out there discussing FFXIV and it's expansions. There's plenty of reviews. I'm really not sure what more you want...
Okay? if you want to put it on your goty list no one is going to stop you. Just don't fall for simple brand names.
I tried it. The game never did it for me, and I'm a huge JRPG fanatic.
It's funny cause the main producer himself says the game is designed in a way for you to unsub and come back after a few patches/expansion comes out. Hell he joked in e3 that Shadowbringers should hold you over until the FFVII remake comes out
I'd place it in the top 5 somewhere, though I'll wait for the rest of the 5.x content to know for sure. Some of the best stuff in Heavensward came during the patch cycle, after all.
Something like
1. IX
2. VI
3. Shadowbringers
4. XII
5. VII
I'd probably put Heavensward at like 6, too, as each expac is really like a full game.
Something like
1. IX
2. VI
3. Shadowbringers
4. XII
5. VII
I'd probably put Heavensward at like 6, too, as each expac is really like a full game.
Speaking of Final Fantasy fan service, there's an entire set of 24-player FF Tactics-based raids in Ivalice at the end of Stormblood. They're great.
There is more to the story of Ramza, Mustadio, Agrias, etc, and it's in Final Fantasy XIV.
The brand name has nothing to do with why its good. It's got a ton of fan service, true, but the music, story (Post ARR), art...IMO, its certainly better than the majority of FF games, especially in the last few years. Best MMO currently running period.
Been hilarious and a bit sad watching the hoopla about WoW Classic at the same time as people complaining about having to go through the story in FFXIV. The worst FF ever gets is ten times better than that.
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Speaking of ARR, I can pinpoint the level and the part of the story where it clearly kicks up a notch and that's right after the horrendous series of quests around level 30 to 34 that have you running about for no particularly good reason across a long map, which everyone hates. I should probably do a playthrough on an alt just to see how long it would take me to reach this point. Before this, the story is setting up the main cast and the conflicts Eozea is facing, which is why if you're looking to be thrown into action it will be slow. The latter half of ARR is honestly great and the job questlines have good stories as well, some featuring characters that will be prominent later.
When ARR first launched a lot of people were singing the story's praises not unlike today. So as far as story is concerned ARR isn't a horrible slog. It's the quest structure that's the culprit. The dev team learned from that and subsequent expansions have considerably less quests to get through and more cutscenes (and CG prerendered sequences).
That being said. You need to be able to push the fear of missing out mentality away and enjoy the game for what it is, not for what eventually comes. Yeah the thread title is hyperbolic, but that's me being a big dumb fan of the thing. I love the game because when I started playing I already enjoyed the presentation of the cutscenes and dialogue, and the cast grew on me. If you're playing to rush towards the expansions then you deny the game any level of investment in the cast and narrative that they all stem from. Basically if you dislike reading, dislike the prose of the characters, or dislike that cutscenes aren't always fully animated and voiced and demand that kind of presentation from your gaming experience, then you will have a hard time enjoying XIV's story and cast. And if you completely despise the combat system, then you will also have a hard time enjoying the game.
And on the topic of combat- it isn't push the right buttons in the right order over and over. It's push the right buttons in the right order in the best situation while dodging a huge area of effect zone attack while setting up your resources for the next attack phase while breaking the tether the boss just put on you and another person that would kill you both if you don't break it soon enough. Or it's keeping your tanks healed and proactively guarding them from the attack the boss is telegraphing, or keeping them alive through a huge pull of monsters that would chew through them if you aren't prepared. Or it's keeping enemies off your party and shielding them with a skill when the boss fight isn't going so well and it shoots off an attack that might otherwise wipe the party. There's a lot of situational skills and playstyles supported by different jobs and wringing it down to pushing buttons in sequence is disingenuous. Combat at lower levels is simplistic compared to higher level combat, but that seems like RPG 101 if anything.
ARR is a good game. It wouldn't have succeeded if it weren't. There are parts of it that are annoying to get through, and I believe this is because of the quest structure and number, which are slated to be addressed at some point in the next year or so with a revamp of the base game content. The story is very good. The cast are good. If you absolutely hate the combat, or the presentation of the cutscenes, or hate having to read, then yeah, this game probably isn't for you. That's not going to stop me from yelling about it being the best FF, because it is. Yes it's hyperbolic, but I'm not even downplaying or attacking the other FF titles. It really is just that good, and it's because it has taken the time to set up the world and characters that are in it, and has grown and challenged them many times already before this expansion. Shadowbringers is payoff for all of that in massive, massive spades.
When ARR first launched a lot of people were singing the story's praises not unlike today. So as far as story is concerned ARR isn't a horrible slog. It's the quest structure that's the culprit. The dev team learned from that and subsequent expansions have considerably less quests to get through and more cutscenes (and CG prerendered sequences).
That being said. You need to be able to push the fear of missing out mentality away and enjoy the game for what it is, not for what eventually comes. Yeah the thread title is hyperbolic, but that's me being a big dumb fan of the thing. I love the game because when I started playing I already enjoyed the presentation of the cutscenes and dialogue, and the cast grew on me. If you're playing to rush towards the expansions then you deny the game any level of investment in the cast and narrative that they all stem from. Basically if you dislike reading, dislike the prose of the characters, or dislike that cutscenes aren't always fully animated and voiced and demand that kind of presentation from your gaming experience, then you will have a hard time enjoying XIV's story and cast. And if you completely despise the combat system, then you will also have a hard time enjoying the game.
And on the topic of combat- it isn't push the right buttons in the right order over and over. It's push the right buttons in the right order in the best situation while dodging a huge area of effect zone attack while setting up your resources for the next attack phase while breaking the tether the boss just put on you and another person that would kill you both if you don't break it soon enough. Or it's keeping your tanks healed and proactively guarding them from the attack the boss is telegraphing, or keeping them alive through a huge pull of monsters that would chew through them if you aren't prepared. Or it's keeping enemies off your party and shielding them with a skill when the boss fight isn't going so well and it shoots off an attack that might otherwise wipe the party. There's a lot of situational skills and playstyles supported by different jobs and wringing it down to pushing buttons in sequence is disingenuous. Combat at lower levels is simplistic compared to higher level combat, but that seems like RPG 101 if anything.
ARR is a good game. It wouldn't have succeeded if it weren't. There are parts of it that are annoying to get through, and I believe this is because of the quest structure and number, which are slated to be addressed at some point in the next year or so with a revamp of the base game content. The story is very good. The cast are good. If you absolutely hate the combat, or the presentation of the cutscenes, or hate having to read, then yeah, this game probably isn't for you. That's not going to stop me from yelling about it being the best FF, because it is. Yes it's hyperbolic, but I'm not even downplaying or attacking the other FF titles. It really is just that good, and it's because it has taken the time to set up the world and characters that are in it, and has grown and challenged them many times already before this expansion. Shadowbringers is payoff for all of that in massive, massive spades.
Tactics is definitely the one I'd rank closest to it, for what it's worth
Yeah, actually. I would still put Tactics over it, personally.
There's some cool Tactics fanservice in there from that time they had Matsuno write some raids, though.
You can, but you shouldn't. The story builds upon itself from the very start, and it'd be like jumping to the last third of a book.
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If you pay, then yes you can. I wouldn't recommend it if you're looking for the best FF story since you won't have any attachment to the characters, but if you just want to get cool armor and play the endgame, go for it.
There are (very expensive) microtransactions that let you skip up to it, yes. You need to buy 2 separate ones, one to get a class/job up to Level Cap so you can start Shadowbringers and another to skip all the story missions up through the end of Stormblood.
Better than most for sure. Hopefully they really do cut down the 2.0 slog in a big way because 3.0 is fantastic, 4.0 is good, and 5.0 is beautiful. I want people to experience it because its worth it, but not with 2.0 in its current form.
I bought into the hype, preordered, liked what I was playing, or the idea of it and the possibilities of where it'd take me, but it (vanilla, beginning of the game) became boring after a while and a bit of a chore to think about booting it up. Then I got a message about my subscription ending which I honestly didn't realize I had to keep paying for (just took me by surprise, I don't disagree with it) and that sealed my will to discontinue for a while.
Heard about a condensed version/patch of the vanilla campaign being talked about which would help me get back in. I really want to play the good stuff.
Heard about a condensed version/patch of the vanilla campaign being talked about which would help me get back in. I really want to play the good stuff.
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If it's the story you're after then youtubing a let's play will be better and you'll save money.