I just sampled this as part of the Xbox beta test, since I've always been curious how a game like this works on console and just generally how a Final Fantasy MMO was implemented.
My first impression was how flawless and smooth everything ran. I don't know why I expected bugginess or sub-optimal performance, maybe because it's a beta test but everything looks fantastic with tons of frames and I didn't experience any kinds of bugs or roughness.
My second impression was how totally they just lifted basically everything in this game directly out of World of Warcraft. WoW did more or less the same thing with Everquest, but at least made major improvements with elements like maps, quests and NPC interaction. In the opening hours at least this feels much less like an evolution of the formula and more like a reskin.
Speaking of skins, the UI is really bad. I had heard a lot of good things about how they managed to make this PC game playable on a controller. I can confidently report those things were wrong; this is a terrible experience. You can really tell this UI was designed with a mouse in mind; everything on the screen -- which is A LOT OF THINGS -- is "clickable" which is an unnatural and counterintuitive interaction on a controller. It seems like they haven't done anything to simplify the UI or cut down on the superfluous interactable elements. I was very disappointed with this aspect but I'm sure that with enough practice one could git gud enough with it to move around the world confidently. I can't imagine it's a ever particularly fluid experience, though, everything just takes way too many steps.
Years of EQ and WoW completely depleted my love for MMORPGs so I was never going to start an FFXIV account and really dive in, but I'm super glad I got the chance to try it out finally. It's awesome they're finally bringing this to Xbox and that the dozens of Final Fantasy fans that don't own a Playstation will finally be able to join their friends.
My first impression was how flawless and smooth everything ran. I don't know why I expected bugginess or sub-optimal performance, maybe because it's a beta test but everything looks fantastic with tons of frames and I didn't experience any kinds of bugs or roughness.
My second impression was how totally they just lifted basically everything in this game directly out of World of Warcraft. WoW did more or less the same thing with Everquest, but at least made major improvements with elements like maps, quests and NPC interaction. In the opening hours at least this feels much less like an evolution of the formula and more like a reskin.
Speaking of skins, the UI is really bad. I had heard a lot of good things about how they managed to make this PC game playable on a controller. I can confidently report those things were wrong; this is a terrible experience. You can really tell this UI was designed with a mouse in mind; everything on the screen -- which is A LOT OF THINGS -- is "clickable" which is an unnatural and counterintuitive interaction on a controller. It seems like they haven't done anything to simplify the UI or cut down on the superfluous interactable elements. I was very disappointed with this aspect but I'm sure that with enough practice one could git gud enough with it to move around the world confidently. I can't imagine it's a ever particularly fluid experience, though, everything just takes way too many steps.
Years of EQ and WoW completely depleted my love for MMORPGs so I was never going to start an FFXIV account and really dive in, but I'm super glad I got the chance to try it out finally. It's awesome they're finally bringing this to Xbox and that the dozens of Final Fantasy fans that don't own a Playstation will finally be able to join their friends.
MiraMiraOTW
2 months ago
Speaking from first and second hand experience: You're hearing this from people who crashed against the insane execution wall that controller demands and decided to keep going until they (wrongly) convinced themselves it was intuitive.