Final Fantasy XIV

[Brasel]

Is anyone playing Final Fantasy XIV? I've been playing on Diabolos. It's been pretty good so far. There aren't any instances of having to camp for a spawn, or anything like that. It's like a streamlined WoW. I dunno, it's fun, but I'm not sure how long I'll play it.

[CJC]

Hmm... maybe the game instances bosses to the user, so the boss is always there if you haven't defeated it yet.

I haven't played it. I've made an effort to avoid MMOs after my brief foray into the addictive free trial of WoW. I need my free time!

[Aliem]

I've heard nothing but good stuff about the game since Realm Reborn launched. I really wanna play it, but I won't have time for an MMO till late spring.

[Brasel]

Play anyway. It's fun. You don't have to get too involved with people and parties. The FATE system is really fun. It's like easy to party together quests that happen at random. I'm tipsey, look it up.

[Dark Knight]

I loved the FATE system when I played. As I recall, you do not even need to be in a party. As long as you are the appropriate level and actually contributed to the FATE's completion you receive a share of the XP earned. I also loved the fact that it was really easy to pick out which quests belonged to the main story of the particular region. My favorite quests were the instanced "boss" quests. These generally involved a cutscene or two and pushed the story onward. My favorite aspect of the entire game was the combat. Provided you did not outlevel your opponent to the point of being capable of 1- or 2-shotting it, you usually had to pay attention. Failed to notice you were standing in a red shaded geometric shape painted on the ground in time? Enjoy being knocked on your ass or hit with a debuff. The one instanced dungeon I ran was pretty neat. Each trash encounter generally required a kill order but thankfully did not need much in the way of crowd control beyond "tank holds threat". The final boss (a large, bipedal lizard that I assume was a sahagin) of the dungeon required the DPS to pay attention to their surroundings. Otherwise, adds would pile up and the fight would take a turn for the worse. Not necessarily the most complex of battle strategies (tank holds boss, DPS burns adds then deals with boss, repeat) but the fight certainly was able to keep me awake without the need of an addon making some god awful noise (or throwing up huge text) every time something changed during the fight. I had to pay attention the entire time.

Sadly, it would seem accounts are easily hacked. Though Square was quick to lock down my account (before they even chose a character) it was still unsettling that someone in China had already broken into my account. This forced me to use the Android authenticator app. This was actually a requirement for me to get my account unlocked. Unfortunately, my Android phone's touchscreen stopped working so I have no means of using the one-time password the app provides. In the end I removed the authenticator from my account but now I'm stuck with a game I refuse to pay to play without the use of an authenticator. I have a Windows Phone now (all I could afford) but there is no app for Windows and I would rather not have a physical authenticator that could get lost, stolen, or destroyed.

I would still recommend the game; albeit with an authenticator of some sort attached to the account. It takes longer than a day to reach level cap and has other classes to level should you cap one (Level 50 Warrior? Why not switch him to a monk and level that?). It has engaging combat compared to most "right-click to make things die" MMO's, the storyline is fairly easy to find in the sea of non-plot related quests and is actually pretty decent. Most of all, it helps me remember why I loved the Final Fantasy series. It may not be the same Final Fantasy most fans have nostalgia for but it is certainly far closer than the garbage Square has been shoveling these last few years outside of remaking Final Fantasy IV or re-releasing VII/VIII's low quality (music wise) PC ports.