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Shadowbringers is better than your favorite FF
- Thread starter Zen
- Start date
I maxed out BRD WAR and DRK in FFXIV though? It's just not fun to play. You go in and do a dungeon, nobody even says a word because nobody gives a shit in duty finder. Dodge some circles and spam a basic rotation. The endgame dungeons at least through HS were not much more advanced save for when nobody could beat coil 4 or whatever.
I totally get why XIV is more popular than FFXI. I'm just saying it plays like WoW, whereas FFXI played like FF. I really don't enjoy the mashing keys on my keyboard dodging easy shit style of game.
That's subjective and totally fine, but
Dungeons are meant to be easy to repeatedly clear and are not really endgame content. People are also just trying to quickly get in and out and not typically looking to chat like in a slowly paced game like XI. And as for
Have you cleared ultimate or at least savage? Otherwise lol
No. You'd miss all the story, so you have to buy into it specifically from the online shop.
Not a good thread to praise XIV, the game is amazing but the one way boring dungeons really hurts it for me.
Anything and everything is better than XV.
Anything and everything is better than XV.
You'll never convince me to slog through a dull MMO for dozens of hours to get to something that I *might* like
No it's not. It's an MMO, I couldn't care less for the genre and the differences make it a stupid comparison to make. FF14 is probably a great MMO, but that doesn't make it a better game for me to play if it isn't for me, while the SP FF games rather are for me, in theory.
Look, I get that FF14 deservedly has a lot of fans and that the latest SP FF games made a lot of people lose interest in them (including me). But the constant wave of people telling SP FF fans that their games are shit and this MMO is great has become really annoying, imo, cause it's not a worthwhile comparison and they speak to a different audience.
Look, I get that FF14 deservedly has a lot of fans and that the latest SP FF games made a lot of people lose interest in them (including me). But the constant wave of people telling SP FF fans that their games are shit and this MMO is great has become really annoying, imo, cause it's not a worthwhile comparison and they speak to a different audience.
I think I'm halfway through the quests right after ARR, and it's one of my favorite FFs already, and I'm damn curious about Shadowbringers. But it's been a long time since I've played, and it'll take time to get back into it and adjust, but also the huge time commitment to get there... I'm not sure.
Shadowbringers is definitely up there.
But it's still not better than the secret best Final Fantasy: FFV.
But it's still not better than the secret best Final Fantasy: FFV.
If you're not into MMOs, you're not into them, that's fair. But I can tell you, as someone who vastly prefers single player games to multiplayer games, the story of Shadowbringers scratched the same itch as a single player FF game does, and scratched it better than almost any other JRPG in the last ten years or so. It's a lot more comparable than you expect going into it.
Yeah. Like you can't say God of War (2018) is better than Big Rigs because they're going after different audiences.
(Also FFXIV totally goes for the FF SP audience, in the latest expansion you can literally do all of the main story dungeons with AI Companions)
FF14 is basically single player.
People you play with via duty finder might as well be NPCs and there is no teaming up for any story missions at all ever.
I dont understand why "mmo" is supposed to be an insult or a negative. Even so, you dont even have to do the mmo part if you wish, which is completing content to get upgrades and grind stuff.
You can play this game and do the story without ever needing to touch the MMO aspect. Doing dungeons (can even do with AI bots in shadowbringers) is NOT a "mmo" thing lol. People you find in queue for dungeons might as well be npcs since you can choose to not interact with them ever during story stuff if you wish so.
You can play this game and do the story without ever needing to touch the MMO aspect. Doing dungeons (can even do with AI bots in shadowbringers) is NOT a "mmo" thing lol. People you find in queue for dungeons might as well be npcs since you can choose to not interact with them ever during story stuff if you wish so.
I've never quite understood this argument. Not liking an MMO is obviously fine, but XIV is 100% playing towards the same audience that the other titles go for. It's why the story is such a big focus for them and it's why they've made the game so friendly to people who want to play solo.
there have been over twelve different SHADOWBRINGERS IS SO GOOD threads since the expansion launched. what you're saying has contributed nothing to what the past dozen threads have said.
we get it, it'sgood great, but for fucks sake why does every thread that praises shadowbringers have to talk shit about all the other final fantasies? It's so tiresome. It's turning me away from even wanting to play the game. I'd be surprised if I'm the only one who feels like this.
we get it, it's
ERA is just genuinely afraid that at any point there could be someone in a textchat saying "Hi" and they are reminded other people are there too
Being a fan of Final Fantasy and choosing not to play this 95% solo JRPG with a great story because you are absolutely determined that all MMOs suck before trying them is a pretty big self-own. Oh well, keep writing whiny forum posts for another 10 years about how Final Fantasy has sucked since the 90s, I guess.
Agreed.
This thread is only getting attention because of the title.
Not only this, but having FFXIV brought up in every FF thread even with specific questions is incredibly annoying.
Someone made a topic about FFXV Royal Edition and asked whether it was worth it. Guess what someone said about FFXIV?
Ugh.
You're gonna have fun when FF7R comes out and every thread is dominated by that then...
Slowly working my way towards it. I'm about 50 hours in A Realm Reborn (haven't hit the 2.X patches yet).
There definitely is a huge barrier to the good stuff it seems, which is a bummer, but I'm kind of enjoying myself. It's relaxing to play and some areas still look really nice. Excited to get to the juicy bits, though.
There definitely is a huge barrier to the good stuff it seems, which is a bummer, but I'm kind of enjoying myself. It's relaxing to play and some areas still look really nice. Excited to get to the juicy bits, though.
It is, and I also totally get new players not wanting to get through the leveling to experience it.
OP
OP
People said the same about XI. Want to know why? Because of the wrongly assumed determination that it sucks just because it's an MMO. Because it's already a given in people's minds that it's a 'lesser' FF than the single player games which looks absolutely ridiculous when you look at what it has to offer. The story, which for many FF players is king, is fantastic. People are going to talk about things that excite them. I lol at the idea that I have to tiptoe around my title choice so as not to hurt other FF fans. If I made a 'VI is better than your favorite FF' thread it wouldn't have nearly the amount of salt. I never attack any of the other titles for that matter. I haven't once put them down. I just said XIV is the best.
It's true. FF14 has taken the lead for best FF for me. So far heavensward is above shadow. That could change as I'm no finished yet.
Genuinely believe that it is leagues better than the recent FF games. Kinda sad really.
Genuinely believe that it is leagues better than the recent FF games. Kinda sad really.
Sorry OP but not listing FFXII automatically invalidates your opinion to me.
And to think that I almost bought FXIV!
Not really, because OP specifically said Shadowbringers is great. Wasn't a broad statement about Final Fantasy 14, so you can be upset about that but it has no bearing on the narrow statement about Shadowbringers.
What about FFXI "plays like FF"? I never got far into it because despite being a lifelong FF fan, when it tried it on PC, it was obtuse and confusing to control and felt like a game built around MMO mechanics I didn't like with a vaguely FF skin. I never got any kind of vibe that it played like FF in any meaningful way (not that FF has a steady "plays like" feeling thanks to changing gameplay with each entry beyond the ATB stuff for a while).
When does Shadowbringers truly start to pop off like everyone tells me it does? I'm a decent chunk of the ways through the final area of the expansion (for those who know, I'm in the "city"). And to be perfectly honest, it's felt kind of straightforward. Besides for the whole "being in another world and light is the enemy instead of dark" thing, it feels like an average story of several locales struggling to deal with their situation.
Only two moments have really made me feel like I see what people are talking about, the first Sin Eater transformation we saw right at the beginning, and the arrival of said city I am currently at right now. But that's two moments between 50+ hours of content so far. Is there some magical moment at the end where everything suddenly clicks and tons of story beats I didn't really think anything of somehow just come together?
Right now my favorite FF game still remains as X, followed by VII and XV.
Only two moments have really made me feel like I see what people are talking about, the first Sin Eater transformation we saw right at the beginning, and the arrival of said city I am currently at right now. But that's two moments between 50+ hours of content so far. Is there some magical moment at the end where everything suddenly clicks and tons of story beats I didn't really think anything of somehow just come together?
Some of the things I feel like were supposed to be "revelations" felt like reworks of previous twists in FF14. Urianger was "betraying" us the whole time, again? Of course Emet Selch wasn't on our side. Things like that all felt kind of obvious and didn't feel like they had much impact.
Also Y'shtola "dying" again only to come right back felt cheap. And I still can't figure out how her "blindness" even works. There's a scene where she literally describes cave paintings as if she were looking right at them.
Also Y'shtola "dying" again only to come right back felt cheap. And I still can't figure out how her "blindness" even works. There's a scene where she literally describes cave paintings as if she were looking right at them.
Right now my favorite FF game still remains as X, followed by VII and XV.
The 2.x patches are gonna be the worst part of the game, just as a word of warning. But once you finish those, you hit the expansions, and that's when the game really takes off. It's too bad that 2.0 is such a slog nowadays, because I can't blame people for not wanting to play through it to get to the expansion content.
I know half y'all got me ignore but hear me out
This is by far the stupidest thing that has been insinuated in this thread. Take this from someone who is currently taking the long road and just got done with Heavensward.
MMO stands with Massively Multiplayer Online.
Whenever you do a dungeon you are matching with random players. yes, shadowbringers finally allows you to do SOME dungeons with NPCS, but all the way up to that point you are playing with randoms if you don't have any friends. To put this in perspective, shadow bringers is the THIRD expansion, which means playing through the base game, Heaveansward, and stormblood (essentially three whole games quest time wise) to get to the current expansion.
For the poster I quoted the MMO part is a detractor for many because when other people get involved you either have to deal with people who don't know what they are doing or are just straight up rude. Sometimes you can kick them, sometimes you get kicked if you aren't playing up to snuff with the randoms. You just gotta keep chipping away at it.
While yes I'm enjoying my time I also recognize some people don't want to deal with the stupid drama that happens time to time online.
Story is good but based on the what I've seen spoilers wise it is worth the grind but it is not the second coming of Jesus. There still are mainline Final Fantasies with better stories.
If you want to try it then fine, take your time and enjoy it but don't feel pressured by hyperbolic posts like OP's
Yeah I've definitely heard that. I'm prepared. For some of the sloggy missions I'll usually just put on some Giant Bomb content in the background. It's super relaxing after a long day at the office haha
It never really takes off. I thought the first half was pretty intriguing, because of the world building, but it leads to absolutely nothing. You can see the twists coming from miles away and everything else was pretty standard rpg-writing.
Again I'm not saying it is bad, I consider it to be the best story ever written in an MMORPG, but it is far away from the best RPGs out there.
Yeah I agree, I'm not saying it's bad either, just... boring? It's very nothing so far, I feel nothing for anyone. New Minfilia is irritable, Thancred turned into an asshole when he used to be fun, Urianger is just as weird and samey as he always was, Y'shtola is fine, but she gets weird story beats like those I mentioned above. Alphinaud and Alisae still feel like they're trying to force their importance due to their grandfather's relevance ever since the beginning of ARR. The only character I found interesting was Emet-Selch until they pulled what I mentioned in my previous post as well.
The best thing about the game is the world building, it has an amazing world, look, and lore, but the characters in it just don't make me care about it.
If you need to spend more than 40 hour to get to that expansion, it can't be that good, there's no way around this. It loses by default.
I usually like FF for elements such as having a party of predefined characters and having strong closure to its narrative. 14 just didn't feel like it was going to be prioritizing that sort of thing from what little I played.
As much as I enjoy XIV, the game has still many MMO idiosyncrasies, like how the combat system only flows well in group content or how it takes several hours of leveling to have your skill toolkit to a point the job you are playing starts being fun. Usual MMO style combat is designed around endgame/max lvl.
This is a barrier for many people, and even if the game is basically a 90% SP experience (98% in last expansion) is still a barrier, alongside the grind, that many people won't or can't climb. And that's OK.
That said, this is the closer an MMO has been to a classic JRPG and is part of the design of the game. They know they have a lot of FF and JRPG fans playing and they put a lot of effort to minimize the natural walls between a MMO and a standard RPG. Last expansion is basically a full FF SP experience.
Trivia time: in ARR dungeons had optional rooms with extra stuff or paths (even very simple puzzles), but they changed it to linear dungeons, because people leveling multiple jobs just wanted to clear dungeons fast VS new players wanted to explore dungeons and get the extra chests. This created friction and so the devs decided to streamline the dungeon design.
This is a barrier for many people, and even if the game is basically a 90% SP experience (98% in last expansion) is still a barrier, alongside the grind, that many people won't or can't climb. And that's OK.
That said, this is the closer an MMO has been to a classic JRPG and is part of the design of the game. They know they have a lot of FF and JRPG fans playing and they put a lot of effort to minimize the natural walls between a MMO and a standard RPG. Last expansion is basically a full FF SP experience.
Trivia time: in ARR dungeons had optional rooms with extra stuff or paths (even very simple puzzles), but they changed it to linear dungeons, because people leveling multiple jobs just wanted to clear dungeons fast VS new players wanted to explore dungeons and get the extra chests. This created friction and so the devs decided to streamline the dungeon design.
As someone who loves JRPGs I completely disagree. It's not just good for an MMO, it's good period. But if you played it I can't convince you otherwise.
Shadowbringers (and somewhat the other expansions) literally has this.
Bait title aside, I just don't have it in me to pay monthly to slog through ARR to get to the 'best' parts. I'm sure it's good though, the format just holds it back for me.