Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn

I managed to get into the beta last weekend and my initial impression of the game is pretty good.  Map navigation was a little tough to get used to at first and NPC text is in a sort of old english, which makes it a little difficult to read quickly and fluidly at times.  Other than those small setbacks, I found myself enjoying the game.  Firstly, since I'm a big fan of Final Fantasy, so that plays a part in my interest for the game lol.  The game has a feature that I loved in Guild Wars 2, which FF14 calls FATE events.  Basically it's when a quest appears on the map that everyone can join in on and work together without having to form a party.  Another neat thing that I've heard about, but didn't have much a chance to see for myself, is that you can change your class much like the job class system employed by previous Final Fantasy games, so you could really have just one character instead of being limited to just a healer or just a tank, or just a mage or just a warrior.  Sure the race you choose will probably be more advantageous in certain classes, but I don't think that the difference in stats will be huge.  Most MMOs don't hold my interst for long, but I was able to keep my interest in this one in the short while I played it.  I know that when this first released, it was hit hard with negative reviews, but this recreation seems to be hitting a much more positive note with the community thus far.  An open beta should be appearing soon, sometime this month I'm guessing, so that would be a perfect opportunity to get your hands on the game to see what you think of it.

Thanks for the heads up Xpert. I'll keep an eye out for the open beta and try it out.

Another thing that made it hard to play was that with the beginning quest rewards I was getting...  I had a short bright yellow robe, purple tights, purple gloves that looked like oven mits, a red mage's hat, and red sandals.  I couldn't bare to look at my mage.  Thankfully, I ended up getting a long white robe that made my character look more like a white mage and hid his purple tights. lol.  It was truly a horrifying experience.

I played quite a bit of Phases 1 and 2, but the entire time I just kept wishing it was more like FFXI. d@mn I miss that game  

But in FFXI, didn't you pretty much NEED to have a party after going through the earliest parts of the game?  Honestly, I don't want to be forced to join a party all the time.  I do like the option of being able to solo play.

No I soloed up to about 20 or so on my original black mage, but later on I liked to duo or party at the early levels of my other jobs. To me, I loved groups and hate solo. They have changed that game so much over the years that now you actually can solo, plus you get a huge exp bonus to level up really fast. Everything in the game has become too easy now.

S7 Hellogiraffe wrote: Everything in the game has become too easy now.

Just like Sticky's mom!

AtrumX wrote:

S7 Hellogiraffe wrote: Everything in the game has become too easy now.

Just like Sticky's mom!

 Or just like Sticky's mom jokes?

Gave this another look since the Beta is available again until the end of this weekend.  Still not in open beta yet, but I think this will be the last of phase 3.  Phase 4 will be open beta and I'd expect that in the next couple weeks.

One thing that I found interesting was that your level is mapped to your job class.  So if I have a level 15 paladin and decide to switch to an archer, a job class I've never played as yet, I would be level 1.  If there was an ability that I wanted to have on my paladin that an archer has, I could level up the archer until I gained that ability, switch back to paladin, and be able to use the archer ability. You change your job class by changing your held weapon.

There's also a set of quests called Guildleves, basically you choose a quest from a list.  When you initiate the quest, you choose the difficulty of the quest and you are given a certain time to complete it.  You get more experience and gil(money) for completing the quest quickly and when set to higher difficulties. I like giving myself some challenges.  I did a few set to the maximum difficulty and they were pretty tough.  Thankfully a healer was nice enough to help me out as I was getting a beating. lol

Phase 4 beta starts today, 08/16/13, for existing participants.  I believe it will be open tomorrow, 08/17/13, for anyone who wishes to participate.