(no subject)
Eh-heh, I guess I should finally post something. =D;; Certainly been much longer than I thought it has been.
Final Fantasy XIV! :O So, early this week we got some leaked magazine photos with tons of new stuff. Just in case you're not aware. I wasn't expecting that much information this early on, it's Square Enix we're talking about here after all. Just quite possibly the stingiest game company there is when it comes to telling fans beforehands what they're going to get. But that long article with pics of all the races from FF11, introducing the job system, introducing the quest system, introducing that much of the world..? It definitely put some life into the slowly disappearing FF14 hype. And when they updated the NA official site, it was down for hours because too many people were trying to access it at once.. xD
Well, they should certainly prepare a bit better, it's only natural that a new SE MMORPG would generate a whole lot of attention right away.
What do I think? ...I want my catboys. I know that it's basically the first batch of proper info we got on that game and it's a bit unreasonable to expect them to announce new races (genders) with the ones from FF11, but still. I want my pretty catboys dammit. :/ And the developers are being as evasive as always, refusing to even say if there's any new playable races/genders. I think not having those catboys playable would be a real bad letdown. They pretty much painted themselves into a corner when it comes to making catboys playable in FF11, but it's not like they have to keep the same mythos for the race in FF14 too, especially since they're being so adamant that it's a new race entirely. It's just really stupid to have single-gender races in an MMORPG. :/
Well, hope lives...there's that gaming convention starting on the 19th, hopefully we'll get new info then.
As for the job-system in FF14, I'm not sure what to think. They basically took the FF job system, remade it as usual and...renamed all the jobs. While the remaking is good and welcomed, what the fuck is up with not using FF job names? It just strikes me as incredibly stupid. They're advertising their goal as being making the best FF ever. If they want to do that, why do they remove such an integral part of FFs? Stuff is always being made over, sometimes being almost unrecognizable from its last reincarnation. The difference is that they don't rename stuff arbitrarily, the names stay the same. If they go that far, then why put the FF name on it at all? Now the jobs (excuse me, 'classes') sound just like any other generic RPG there is. >.<
That change makes me fear for the abilities too. Oh but excuse me again, they're not abilities anymore, they're 'skills'. I mean, what the fuck?! They've used those same titles for certain stuff for twenty-fucking-two years! Why change them all of a sudden? It's a completely unnecessary change, and since most of what makes an FF an FF is what they call things, it removes a pretty good part of that feeling that you're playing an FF instead of some random RPG. I just can't approve of this. :/
That said, the parts that actually innovate instead of destroy are amazing. The freedom of the job (arrrgh, 'class' >.<) system this time around looks to be something amazing. I especially approve of making the crafting/etc classes equal to the fighting classes.
If you haven't checked out the info yet, there's basically four major disciplines in the system. The disciplines of War and Magic include the physical and magical fighting classes, respectively. But there's also two other disciplines, called the disciplines of Land and Hand. Disciplines of Land are gatherer-type classes, they give examples Gardener and Fisherman. If there's even as much variety as in FF11, we'll be seeing stuff like Harvester and Logger, too. I don't know why, but this sounds incredibly fascinating to me. It's unclear as of yet whether Land and Hand disciples will have any fighting power, but for a game to give you an option like this, to concentrate on non-fighting areas, to put that much weight on it (to make them equal with fighting classes)...it's really fresh, and I'm already wondering if I shouldn't main a Land class, especially if they're not completely helpless if a monster happens by.
Right, the disciplines of Hand. Those are crafter-type classes, examples given are Blacksmith and Cook. Once again, a lot of potential variety in there. =D
As for the quest system. I'm a bit doubtful, mainly because the parts of it that bother me haven't been explained. It does have a whole lot of potential - making your own super-quests? Awesome! :O - but will there be even a pretense of a story in them like that? I can't help it, I play mostly for the story. I don't care if they just tag a shoddy (in FF scale) tiny background story for a fetch-quest, I want that attempt to be there. What happens to that story if we're really given as much freedom with making our own quests as it looks like? That said, the ability to combine quests like they describe sounds pretty damn good. It's even more awesome when viewed with the new class-system in mind. Escort quests not of NPCs, but of blacksmiths and fishermen and what have you, all of them player characters out to do their own quests? It has so much potential!
As for the world itself... an MMORPG world is so vast that even with the tons of info they gave in this batch, it's still only a drop in the ocean. Even so, it's looking very interesting. It seems that the major war in the past this time around was 15 years ago (as opposed to 20 in FF11, and I have a feeling the Crystal War was bigger, considering this invasion in FF14 doesn't appear to have touched the whole region of Eorzea) and destroyed at least one major city in the east part of Eorzea. I wonder if we can get there, or if it's completely destroyed...
The cities that appear to be starter cities look interesting too, even though we only have the story/description of one of them. If nothing major comes up, I wonder if I shouldn't start in Gridania, the forest capital. It looks pretty good, and the other city I'm interested in, Limsa Lominsa...well, everyone and their mother wants to start there, so no thanks. xD;
Too early to be thinking such things of course, but I can't help but be excited and make plans.
This week was mostly spent waiting for actual scans of the FF14 article and obsessively going over it in an attempt to glean every hint from the info given. xD;
Sunbreeze Festival has started in Final Fantasy XI. I haven't really had the time or interest to even think of participating in the event yet. Tomorrow at the very least I'll play some, since Sunday is mine and Kitty's FF11 day. Last time we played we spent hours and hours just fishing on the Mhaura-Selbina ferry. xD; Well, and killing some select monsters that appear on it. We even got attack by pirates twice, but didn't get the items we need from them. Bah, should go again to wait for more pirate attacks...we've had that particular quest active for ages, it'd be really great to finally get rid of it.
Final Fantasy XIV! :O So, early this week we got some leaked magazine photos with tons of new stuff. Just in case you're not aware. I wasn't expecting that much information this early on, it's Square Enix we're talking about here after all. Just quite possibly the stingiest game company there is when it comes to telling fans beforehands what they're going to get. But that long article with pics of all the races from FF11, introducing the job system, introducing the quest system, introducing that much of the world..? It definitely put some life into the slowly disappearing FF14 hype. And when they updated the NA official site, it was down for hours because too many people were trying to access it at once.. xD
Well, they should certainly prepare a bit better, it's only natural that a new SE MMORPG would generate a whole lot of attention right away.
What do I think? ...I want my catboys. I know that it's basically the first batch of proper info we got on that game and it's a bit unreasonable to expect them to announce new races (genders) with the ones from FF11, but still. I want my pretty catboys dammit. :/ And the developers are being as evasive as always, refusing to even say if there's any new playable races/genders. I think not having those catboys playable would be a real bad letdown. They pretty much painted themselves into a corner when it comes to making catboys playable in FF11, but it's not like they have to keep the same mythos for the race in FF14 too, especially since they're being so adamant that it's a new race entirely. It's just really stupid to have single-gender races in an MMORPG. :/
Well, hope lives...there's that gaming convention starting on the 19th, hopefully we'll get new info then.
As for the job-system in FF14, I'm not sure what to think. They basically took the FF job system, remade it as usual and...renamed all the jobs. While the remaking is good and welcomed, what the fuck is up with not using FF job names? It just strikes me as incredibly stupid. They're advertising their goal as being making the best FF ever. If they want to do that, why do they remove such an integral part of FFs? Stuff is always being made over, sometimes being almost unrecognizable from its last reincarnation. The difference is that they don't rename stuff arbitrarily, the names stay the same. If they go that far, then why put the FF name on it at all? Now the jobs (excuse me, 'classes') sound just like any other generic RPG there is. >.<
That change makes me fear for the abilities too. Oh but excuse me again, they're not abilities anymore, they're 'skills'. I mean, what the fuck?! They've used those same titles for certain stuff for twenty-fucking-two years! Why change them all of a sudden? It's a completely unnecessary change, and since most of what makes an FF an FF is what they call things, it removes a pretty good part of that feeling that you're playing an FF instead of some random RPG. I just can't approve of this. :/
That said, the parts that actually innovate instead of destroy are amazing. The freedom of the job (arrrgh, 'class' >.<) system this time around looks to be something amazing. I especially approve of making the crafting/etc classes equal to the fighting classes.
If you haven't checked out the info yet, there's basically four major disciplines in the system. The disciplines of War and Magic include the physical and magical fighting classes, respectively. But there's also two other disciplines, called the disciplines of Land and Hand. Disciplines of Land are gatherer-type classes, they give examples Gardener and Fisherman. If there's even as much variety as in FF11, we'll be seeing stuff like Harvester and Logger, too. I don't know why, but this sounds incredibly fascinating to me. It's unclear as of yet whether Land and Hand disciples will have any fighting power, but for a game to give you an option like this, to concentrate on non-fighting areas, to put that much weight on it (to make them equal with fighting classes)...it's really fresh, and I'm already wondering if I shouldn't main a Land class, especially if they're not completely helpless if a monster happens by.
Right, the disciplines of Hand. Those are crafter-type classes, examples given are Blacksmith and Cook. Once again, a lot of potential variety in there. =D
As for the quest system. I'm a bit doubtful, mainly because the parts of it that bother me haven't been explained. It does have a whole lot of potential - making your own super-quests? Awesome! :O - but will there be even a pretense of a story in them like that? I can't help it, I play mostly for the story. I don't care if they just tag a shoddy (in FF scale) tiny background story for a fetch-quest, I want that attempt to be there. What happens to that story if we're really given as much freedom with making our own quests as it looks like? That said, the ability to combine quests like they describe sounds pretty damn good. It's even more awesome when viewed with the new class-system in mind. Escort quests not of NPCs, but of blacksmiths and fishermen and what have you, all of them player characters out to do their own quests? It has so much potential!
As for the world itself... an MMORPG world is so vast that even with the tons of info they gave in this batch, it's still only a drop in the ocean. Even so, it's looking very interesting. It seems that the major war in the past this time around was 15 years ago (as opposed to 20 in FF11, and I have a feeling the Crystal War was bigger, considering this invasion in FF14 doesn't appear to have touched the whole region of Eorzea) and destroyed at least one major city in the east part of Eorzea. I wonder if we can get there, or if it's completely destroyed...
The cities that appear to be starter cities look interesting too, even though we only have the story/description of one of them. If nothing major comes up, I wonder if I shouldn't start in Gridania, the forest capital. It looks pretty good, and the other city I'm interested in, Limsa Lominsa...well, everyone and their mother wants to start there, so no thanks. xD;
Too early to be thinking such things of course, but I can't help but be excited and make plans.
This week was mostly spent waiting for actual scans of the FF14 article and obsessively going over it in an attempt to glean every hint from the info given. xD;
Sunbreeze Festival has started in Final Fantasy XI. I haven't really had the time or interest to even think of participating in the event yet. Tomorrow at the very least I'll play some, since Sunday is mine and Kitty's FF11 day. Last time we played we spent hours and hours just fishing on the Mhaura-Selbina ferry. xD; Well, and killing some select monsters that appear on it. We even got attack by pirates twice, but didn't get the items we need from them. Bah, should go again to wait for more pirate attacks...we've had that particular quest active for ages, it'd be really great to finally get rid of it.