Working as Intended

As is obligatory for every single Final Fantasy XIV related post on the Internet, it should be pointed out that, yes, the game is still alive! More surprisingly, people still play it! Isn't that the darnest thing? It's been just over one and a half years since Square-Enix's second crack at the MMORPG genre was released to... well, let's not mince words, disastrous reviews. The nicest things said about it was "keep an eye on it. It just might turn good." So here we are with this entry!

Quite a lot has changed since the last post about Eorzea and it's wacky inhabitants. The biggest of which was the announcement of Final Fantasy XIV 2.0; a complete and utter overhaul of the entire game and its foundations, due out sometime next year. While 2.0 will change all of the zone designs, the graphics engine, the server/network coding and all sorts of other things, it's the patches in Peasant!FFXIV that are introducing players to some of the gameplay additions and changes. Patch 1.20 was all about updating and fixing the established foundations, and the recent Patch 1.21 has instead focused on adding more and more shiny content.

What's noteworthy about Patch 1.21, at least if you're a fan of Square's previous MMO: Final Fantasy XI, is that much of the new content and adjustments are done to try and invoke the feeling of that game. Not so much the pacing or methods, but the look and feel of that game and its very unique atmosphere. In a way, it does feel like Square's trying to replicate the lightning in a bottle they managed to get with XI (an MMO that's been running for a decade has to be doin' something right), but that mindset's not giving XIV and its various new shinies anywhere near enough credit. So, in no particular order, here are some of the more important things the patches added, and my own thoughts about it all.




Straight outta the gate with probably the most anticipated of the new features: new classes to play with! Much like the Advanced Jobs in Final Fantasy XI, these new classes can only be unlocked once you take one of the 'starter' classes up to Level 30. Unlike XI, however, it can't just be any class! Instead, you need to level one of the relevant classes up to 30, a second relevant class to 15, and then you can start unlocking whatever class it is ya fancy.

While that sounds like quite a few irrelevant hoops the game's forcing you to leap through, it actually makes a fair amount of sense. For example, if you want to unlock Dragoon, you have to take Lancer up to 30, and Pugilist up to 15. Dragoon's use polearms, like Lancers, so you'll want those abilities to add to your Dragoon arsenal; and Pugilist is a very complimentary class, with it's Second Wind ability and other such stuff. On top of that, XIV's now a much more friendly solo/low-group leveling experience than its older and stuffier brother, so getting the levels isn't that hard and doesn't take too long!

Speaking of relating to Final Fantasy XI, all of the new classes come from it. Technically they're all long-established staples in the series, but they look and behave very much like their XI counterparts. The new classes are:

• Bard                  (Ranged Attack and Buffing)
• Black Mage      (Casts the spells that make the peoples fall down)
• Dragoon           (Stabs things real good, usually via Jumping)
• Monk                 (Punch, Punch, Punch~!)
• Paladin             (Tank, with some healing abilities)
• Warrior             (Yet another thing to make the enemies cry)
• White Mage     (Heals and often gets no thanks from anyone for it)

While it'll take a few months to really see what does and doesn't work with the new classes, especially in comparison to the older ones, so far things seem really promising. It's given the game a nice shot in the arm, and has given all sorts of people a reason to check the game out, new and returning alike. While they're mostly just more specified versions of the existing classes, they look and play differently enough to earn their place among them. Even so, if some don't work out, there's always updates later down the line to fix that. It's very much a work-in-progress thing.

What's probably worth pointing out is that before any Level 30 player (or potential player) starts drooling and furiously attempts to log into the game to try out these classes, there is a... well, it's not a hitch, but it's definitely worth noting. Unlike a lot of quests/missions in XIV, you will need a small group to tackle the fights to unlock these classes. Generally 2-3 people at Level 30 can take 'em on, so it's not the largest hurdle in the world, but some people seem to be getting worked up about it (as is always the case regarding anything that exists on the Internet), so I just thought I'd mention it.

Once you've unlocked the class/es of your choosing and are on your way, you can eventually work towards your Artifact Armour. Much like the sets in XI, these quests can be started around the 40-50 area, and are quite tough to complete on your own at that level. So far the AF armour in XIV seems to be a darn sight better and more appropriate than in XI, so it definitely seems worth your time and effort. Plus, they look very swanky. And in the end, isn't that the real reward?









The battle system and Guildleves have always been the two trickiest things to get down properly in XIV. Funnily enough, they were pretty much the only things available to players when the game first launched. Since then (and since the old director and some staff got the boot) there's been many updates and attempts to fix the system; not just so it works, but so it's fun as well. The latter's much harder to get down than one'd think.

Originally, Guildleves were considered the predominate way players would get experience points and levels. However, there was a limitation of only being able to do 8 Guildleves every 38-40+ hours. Generally, 8 Guildleves back then wouldn't get you halfway through a level later on, so the idea was that people would party up with other players and help them with their Guildleves. Nice, in theory; however most players just did their 8 'leves and then logged off for 38 hours until they could do them again. Or they just logged off and never came back. It was a sadly limiting and very frustrating system.

Patch 1.18/1.19 swung along just under a year later and overhauled the entire system. While there was still technically a limit on Guildleves, it was vastly reduced. Now you would get a couple of 'leve allowances every handful of hours, and if you went offline for a few days/weeks/months, the allowances would accumulate, so you could have up to 99 Guildleves to do when you got back. It was turned into a very casual-friendly system, and works pretty darn well!

1.20/1.21 didn't bring about any significant changes to the overall Guildleve system, but the level of monsters and the EXP you get for completing 'leves was altered, to make it even more friendly for the casual player. Most XIV players seem to only be online for about 2-3 hours, so it's great to be able to log in during the evening, spend an hour or so doing some repetitive, yet oddly enjoyable 'leves and actually feel like you're accomplishing something for the time you've invested. While a small change, it's definitely had a big impact on the enjoyment gotten from the system.

As for the stabby/burny side of the update, the patches brought in some big changes for the battle system. One of the most important (if not most fun) was the addition of Individual Combos. A few MMOs have this system already, and now XIV's throwing its hat into the ring. Basically, Individual Combos are when one move can be instantly linked together with another move you have available. For example; on Lancer if you use the ability True Thrust, you can immediately follow it up with Heavy Thrust, regardless of the requirements needed for Heavy Thrust (except cooldown). Again, doesn't sound like much, but it does quite a lot to liven up XIV's battle system, and let's the player put a bit more thought into what abilities they want to bring to a fight.

On the less violent side of the leveling and fighting, a very World of Warcraft-like Resting system has been introduced. In each major city there's an Inn you can visit (like there is in any self-respecting RPG~), and once you do an easy and cute quest for the innkeeper, you can now run around your very own room. There's not much to do in there except watch all the cutscenes you've obtained and run around going, "Wheee! I'm in my own room!" However, if you log out in that room you'll start acquiring a Rest Bonus. When you log back in, you'll get a 50% EXP bonus from everything you kill. The duration of the effect is measured by how long you were logged out in the room. It's a much appreciated feature (especially at lower levels), and shows XIV is trying to avoid the grindtastic gameplay the genre is usually known for.




You can't be a game that exists these days if you don't have an Achievement system; and for Final Fantasy XIV, those Achievements are... well, they're pretty darn standard, actually, but still a nice little addition. Unlike most games, however, you actually have to unlock the ability to get Achievements. Very strange, but it pretty much just involves finding what NPC unlocks what category of Achievements and then striking up a conversation with them. The logic being that each NPC has a motive and reason behind wanting you to, say... kill 1000 enemies, or clear a dungeon, or whatever the Achievement may be. It's an attempt to integrate gameplay and story, and while it's a little weird, I think it's a nice touch.

Other than that, not much to say, really! The Achievements right now are pretty basic (Kill X Enemies, Obtain Y Amount of Gil, ect, ect). The developers have promised to introduce more crazy and cute Achievements in future patches. Even so, there's some incentive to at least take a gander at the current ones, since doing some of the more demanding ones may get you a novelty piece of equipment (a shiny crown, for example) to parade around in. It's nothing especially noteworthy right now, but it's still pretty amusing and doesn't detriment anything, so what the hey!




But what good's a fun battle system and leveling experience if there's nothing to do with any of it?! For the past few patches, Square's been adding in more and more lovely dungeons and monster-filled arenas for players to charge into aimlessly, weapons and spells swinging and flailing about like so many overly hyperactive children. Again, like the Achievements, they're pretty standard for MMOs. There's a cave/base full of nasties and one person or another would rather those nasties move onto somewhere else and be someone else's problem, so it's up to you and a few friends/random people to give 'em the boot. A lot of the more difficult fights do require a fair amount of thinking and planning, and there's a nice number of Instances from Level 25 onwards, so there's always something to do!

My favourite of the new Instances/Fights would definitely be the battle against Good King Moggle Mog XII. It's a very silly and cute fight, and it's always nice to see the more light-hearted and tounge-in-cheek side of Final Fantasy.

The rewards are quite nice to boot, if that's more to your liking!









One of the most heavily criticized aspects of XIV was the Market Ward system. In most MMOs, if you wanted to buy or sell things to/from other players, you would toddle on over to the nearest handy-dandy Auction House, click on the item you wanted to buy or sell and that was that. Simple!

In XIV, if you wanted to buy/sell something, you had to go to the Market Wards, where there was a separate room for every type of item (Weapons, Armour, Jewelry, Potions, ect). If you were buying something, you had to hope someone had the item you wanted to buy, travel to a ward and then begin manually searching the room for the Retainer (NPC you can hire to hold your items) that had what you wanted. If they weren't in that ward, you moved on until you finally found 'em. Only once that was done could you purchase the item. If you wanted to Sell anything, you needed to hire a Retainer, give them your item/s, tell them how much you wanted to sell them for, go to whatever ward you wanted them to stand in and then tell them to not move until they make you loadsa money.

Simply put, it was unfortunately extremely confusing and convoluted for no adequately explored reason.

While 1.20 didn't replace the Market Wards with an Auction House, it has cleared up the system a significant amount. If you want to buy something now, you can pull up a list and see what's available, what ward it's in and who's carrying it (including a very handy giant marker above the Retainer's head). It still requires more running about than is really necessary, and is ultimately a solution to a problem that never should have existed in the first place, but it gets the job done and makes buying things a heck of a lot easier now.

If you want to sell anything... well, that's stayed pretty much the same. Being able to see who's selling the item you also want to sell and for what price is really nice, though. It allows you to price the thing fairly, and also allows other players to see what price you want for it.

Ultimately just scrapping the whole thing and replacing it with an Auction House would be the best strategy, and one I imagine the developers are finding more and more tempting by the day; but until that day arrives, the Market Ward system works well for what it wants and needs to do. It's not perfect, but you can get through it without grumbling and cursing, which is a vast improvement over the old ways!




There's a new emote called /airquotes, that makes everything you say come across as needlessly sarcastic.

It is awesome.




Outside of the major stuff, there's several other smaller additions that help to make Eorzea either a more convenient or simply more fun place to run around in. The various quests NPCs can hand out now give you EXP (like in other MMOs), as well as some nice Gil/Equipment rewards. Crafting and Gathering classes got new abilities or changed Recipes, to make their lives much more manageable (I'm not terribly familiar with either, hence it being thrown down here~). Pretty much all of the existing jobs got slight adjustments to their abilities, usually effectiveness increases and/or quicker cooldown timers. Y'know, small stuff like that.

On the more amusing side of things, there's a new Goobbue mount for players to... um.. ride around on. There's brand new animations for eating food and drinking.  Some of the cuter monsters grew in size. Lastly, while not cute, there's some really nice attention to detail regarding the plot in the skies above Eorzea. Ever since Patch 1.19, the second Moon of the planet has been growing in size. It started off as a small little dot next to it's larger sibling, but now it's glowing blood red and hanging very ominously in the sky. Everyone's putting their money down on it being related to something in XIV 2.0, where the world and zones are said to drastically change. Again, very World of Warcraft life.

Well, except Cataclysm didn't involve a small moon potentially slamming into Azeroth, but details!




Patches 1.20 and 1.21 don't revolutionize Final Fantasy XIV or change it as drastically as Patch 1.18 did, but they still bring about some major, and most importantly, much needed changes to the game. She's still very much a work in progress, and the sign of a development team that's been given the unfortunate job of trying to save what was once a rapidly sinking vessel; but I think they're doing a downright admirable job of it all. The game's gone beyond being simply workable and is now very much skipping merrily through the Actually Pretty Darn Fun fields and plains.

If you're not really sold on it yet, I would say wait until Final Fantasy XIV 2.0 arrives next year before giving it a crack, since that's what the game's heading towards anyway. If you're in no rush, then ya might as well wait until everything is actually there, rather than experience the slow transition from failed mess to solidly enjoyable MMO. Again, XIV's not for everyone, but if you like the idea of a very story-heavy, pretty and atmospheric MMORPG, you could now do much worse than trying this one out.

Now we just twiddle our thumbs and wait for Patch 1.22~ Which is said to include...

... Something or other!