Tag Archives: FFXIV

Phantasy Star Online 2

Should You Play Phantasy Star Online 2 When Final Fantasy XIV Exists?

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Yes, it’s the question someone somewhere has probably asked at some point: with two highly regarded Japanese online RPGs on the go right now… is one “better” than the other?

Well, let’s nip that one right in the bud from the outset: no, because they’re two rather different experiences from one another, and as such aren’t directly comparable in terms of “quality”.

We can, however, compare their different approaches to various aspects of the online RPG experience, and from that, you can hopefully determine whether or not one or the other is “better” for you personally. So let’s do just that!

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Waifu Wednesday

Waifu Wednesday: Anniversary Special

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So, I wanted to do something a little bit different today, and I hope you’ll indulge me in a somewhat more personal post than usual.

Today is the third anniversary of my marriage to my wife Andie, you see, so I thought it would be nice to show her some appreciation, what with said anniversary falling on Waifu Wednesday and all. After all, what better waifu is there than an actual wife?

That was a rhetorical question!

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One-Shots

You Can Keep Your “Games as a Service”, I’m Fine with Single-Player, Thanks

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EA’s recent announcement that it was shuttering Visceral and “pivoting” (ugh) the Amy Hennig-fronted narrative-centric single-player Star Wars project it had been working on probably didn’t come as a surprise to anyone.

It did, however, rekindle a discussion that last cropped up back in 2010 — once again involving Visceral, interestingly enough, this time with regard to the addition of multiplayer toΒ Dead Space — when EA Games’ Frank Gibeau commented that he believed “fire-and-forget, packaged goods only, single-player, 25-hours-and you’re out” experiences were “finished” and that “online is where the innovation, and the action, is at”.

The “pivoting” of the newΒ Star WarsΒ project is based on many of the same principles as Gibeau’s arguments from 2010: indeed, EA’s executive vice-president Patrick SΓΆderlund claimed that the decision was due to a perceived need to “deliver an experience that players will want to come back to and enjoy for a long time to come” — or, to put it another way, the oft-mooted idea of “games as a service”.

I don’t want that. And I’m certain I’m not the only one.

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Cover Games, Stormblood

Stormblood: The MMO as Musical Theatre

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This article is one chapter of a multi-part Cover Game feature!
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“Video games aren’t movies.” That’s a line of criticism that those who prioritise mechanics over narrative like to level at cutscene-heavy games, particularly those by creators such as Hideo Kojima and David Cage.

And while it’s true that making effective use of games as a form of interactive media tends to emphasise actual interaction over passively watching cutscenes, one can hardly deny the spectacle offered by strongly movie-inspired titles, and the flexibility that entirely computer-generated scenes and characters can provide creators.

Which makes it all the more unusual that so many games focus on movies as their primary inspiration rather than other forms of media. Sure, some role-playing games might be rather operatic in tone, visual novels are effectively “Books Plus” and rhythm games provide a new way of experiencing pieces of music, but video games have never embraced the idea, of, say, musical theatre.

Or so you thought…

This article is also a video! Hit the jump to watch it, or catch it on YouTube.

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Cover Games, Stormblood

Stormblood: It’s a Great MMO, Too

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We’ve already discussed how, despite its massively multiplayer online nature,Β Final Fantasy XIVΒ as a whole is very much an authenticΒ Final FantasyΒ experience in its own right. But is the opposite true?

If you’ve read the headline you’ll already know that yes, of course it is. But one of the most interesting things about the game as a whole as it has developed from its disastrous 1.0 incarnation throughΒ A Realm RebornΒ andΒ HeavenswardΒ intoΒ StormbloodΒ is how well it has managed to balance these two seemingly disparate aspects: the strong narrative of theΒ Final FantasyΒ series, and the sheer amount of things to do and quality of life features that a hardcore MMO player expects from a game like this.

Today we’re going to examine that latter aspect in detail.

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Cover Games, Stormblood

Stormblood: Yes, It’s a Great Final Fantasy

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Final Fantasy XIV and its long-running spiritual predecessor Final Fantasy XIΒ are in an interesting and slightly awkward position.

They’re numbered mainline installments of the long-runningΒ Final FantasyΒ series, which, in theory, should attract series veterans, but they’re also massively multiplayer online role-playing games. The latter is a genre typically (and not necessarily correctly or fairly) associated with being time-consuming, challenging and dependent on playing alongside other people — and thus not especially attractive to those who prefer to play games solo, concentrate on story or take things at their own pace.

What we’re going to talk about today is howΒ Final Fantasy XIVΒ is as much a goodΒ Final FantasyΒ as it is a good MMO — and why you shouldn’t sleep on it if you’re aΒ Final FantasyΒ fan who doesn’t typically go in for online games.

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Cover Games, Stormblood

Stormblood: This Ain’t No Action RPG

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Today we’re going to take a closer look at Final Fantasy XIV’s combat mechanics, and how they’ve been refined between the original release of A Realm Reborn and Stormblood.

For those who’ve never played a massively multiplayer online RPG before,Β Final Fantasy XIV’sΒ mechanics may require a bit of an adjustment, as they’re rather different from the various systems the series has used in the past. But for those familiar with other popular MMOs such asΒ World of Warcraft, the game will quickly become second-nature — with a few important distinctions from the conventions of the genre.

Perhaps the most interesting thing aboutΒ Final Fantasy XIV’sΒ mechanics is that, although clearly inspired by the way a popular Western title has done things, there’s a strong feeling of “Japaneseness” to them that gives the game a very strong sense of its own identity, making it a unique experience even to MMO veterans.

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Cover Games, Stormblood

Stormblood: Introduction

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Square Enix’s second Final Fantasy MMORPG is a big success now, having just enjoyed the release of its second expansion pack, but things weren’t always so rosy.

In fact, the story of howΒ Final Fantasy XIVΒ came to be what it is now is one of the most interesting in all of gaming — and certainly an inspiring example that demonstrates even if you release a completely broken mess of a game, it’s not necessarily beyond redemption.

Today, then, let’s take a look at the history ofΒ Final Fantasy XIVΒ as a whole, and in particular how it’s developed since the release ofΒ A Realm RebornΒ in 2013.

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Eorzean Diary

Eorzean Diary: Lonely Explorer

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One of my favourite additions to Final Fantasy XIV over time has been the randomly generated dungeon Palace of the Dead.

I actually like it specifically because it’s one of the few pieces of content in the game that can legitimately be run solo while it’s still “relevant” to you. Other dungeons and Trials in the game only really become soloable once they are so far beneath your character and item level that the only reason to run them is “for fun” or for the sake of their story, but Palace of the Dead is pretty much always useful for something or other, be it levelling an alt class or simply obtaining some endgame tomestones.

The other nice thing about Palace of the Dead is that it’s been specifically designed with soloing in mind, since it even has its own leaderboard for solo adventurers.

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Eorzean Diary

Eorzean Diary: The Benefits of Being Left Behind

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When I first started playing Final Fantasy XIV in A Realm Reborn’s open beta, I was keen to experience everything the game had to offer as soon as new things became available.

There’s a benefit to this approach, of course: coming into new things “blind” when no-one else knows what to do either allows the community as a whole to work together and figure things out for themselves, developing established strategies that simply become “the way things are done” from thereon.

But this also puts an undue amount of pressure on people, particularly in more “casual-friendly” content such as dungeons, non-Extreme Trials and even 24-player raids to an extent. If you weren’t there on that first day, expect to be admonished if you haven’t read up on an encounter beforehand; expect to be told to “watch a video”; andΒ don’tΒ expect any help. (Sometimes people will pleasantly surprise you, particularly in levelling content, but at level 60, this is unfortunately true for the most part.)

All that said, there is sometimes a benefit to being behind the curve, particularly when we come to the twilight hours of an expansion and await the next full installment in the game’s overarching storyline.

Continue reading Eorzean Diary: The Benefits of Being Left Behind →