XIV has wonderful music, gorgeous outdoor and indoor graphics. It has a great customization option, ability to have last names, really cool weather effects and cool monster designs. The reason(s) I am not playing it are I hated the successive zoning (even in cities,) the monster clumping, and lack of wardrobe options along with their GCD are things I disliked.
I like FFXIV and WoW for different reasons.
FFXIV Positives:
- Fantastic story. Shadowbringers expac has honestly been the best MMO story I’ve experienced ever.
- The ability to level multiple jobs on one character.
- Fun high-end content (EXes and Savage raiding) with usually pretty engaging mechanics.
- Fun job mechanics on several classes. Admittedly some are more enjoyable than others (though this is always a personal preference).
- Spell/ability/casting animations are well done, if a bit flashy when all put together.
- The art style and detailing on the armor is chef’s kiss
- Crafting and gathering is pretty unique though not for everyone.
- The community is actually really great. Sure it has its trolls, but I’ve had more overall positive community experiences in FFXIV than in other MMOs.
- Decent character creation in some respects (good range of color options, for example). Could use some improvement, though.
FFXIV Negatives:
- Glamour and housing systems are pretty bad, though at least it has a housing system. Still, if you’re used to transmog (or costume systems from pretty much any other AAA MMO), glamour is just awful to work with.
- SE really needs to learn how to design healers better. The three healing jobs are very samesy.
- Raids do not feel like raids in the same way they might in WoW. They are all boss-in-a-box one-off encounters, and SE could stand to be a lot more creative in how they utilize boss arenas.
- Inventory system is kind of a nightmare. This ties partly into the glamour system. The whole thing needs an overhaul desperately.
- Character creation needs improvement.
- Not very alt-friendly in many ways, especially as the MSQ is 100% required.
WoW Positives
- Collection systems that are designed to be very alt-friendly (and even encourage alts) - mounts, pets, transmog appearances, etc. I probably spend 70% of my time just doing casual collection-related activities.
- Highly polished raid and overall encounter design. Really just stellar.
- Open world. Zones are not instanced from one another, like in FFXIV. Also, several zones make use of verticality really well, to give flying some meaning (though they haven’t really done this in recent expacs).
- Fun, diverse class design. Especially healers for me, which is in stark contrast to healers in FFXIV.
- An honestly timeless art style.
- I like the talent system. It’s customizable without burying me in options.
- I really enjoy the Timewalking events.
- A wealth of content with (IMO) a lot of replayability for alts, given the many leveling paths (though this significantly narrows WoD-onward).
WoW Negatives
- I really wish Blizzard would back away from the hyper-linear leveling design they’ve leaned into since WoD. I really hate that I’m essentially forced through the same sets of quests from 110-120 if I want to do anything at endgame, and then the catch-up with all the required post-120 quests is extremely annoying as well. It’s nice doing it the first time on my main, but for alts…
- Character creation is really showing its age, though I’m stoked for the changes that are coming with SL and really hope it means they’re going to expand it further in the future.
- Blizzard’s obsession with removing content from the game is a pretty big drawback for people like me who play pretty casually but would like the opportunity to get to all content at our own pace (even if it’s outdated when we do).
- Time-gated flying… it’s a pain in the patooey. Though at least it’s account-wide once you unlock it. >_<
- Allied races requiring exalted rep. Augh!
- WoW’s story used to be great (Wrath/Cata were the pinnacle, IMO). But now it’s just… boring at best and nonsensical at worst.
- The current gearing system is horrible. Whether it’s titanforging, corruption, or whatever, it’s really just a horrible experience. Also, speaking of gear…
- I really miss class-unique tier sets.
2 Likes
Ion had nothing to do with it.
'Nuff said.
Skäl
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They have greater respect for their players and their time.
Instead of putting obstacles and time sinks into the game at the class/spec/role/rep levels - they completely remove those and allow complete access to all of those on a single character.
They also listen to their players more.
Thanks for that one, it’s a good video showing why so much “modern music” (even if the video focuses on films, WoW and many other things are no different) feels … well, unmemorable.
The start of it where they ask people to essentially play out the tune of several films (Star Wars, James Bond and Harry Potter), only for them to be at a loss for the Marvel films explains the problem perfectly.
I even threw a little thought experiment on it – can you hum a theme from the Lord of the Rings film trilogy? I can, but it took a surprising amount of effort because it still largely plays it safe. You can certainly recognize the tune when you hear the first few notes, but without that little aid it was definitely a bit of a struggle to conjure up the memory.
In any case, powerful and daring music is something that the Final Fantasy series has NEVER lacked… and FFXIV is no exception. Heck, you could even say they’ve made it an expectation of the JRPG sub-genre.
So rather than picking out a selection of tunes, here’s an interesting little compilation of them:
Needless to say FFXIV, has taken FULL advantage of the series’ pedigree in this area… not to mention huge chunks of the existing themes at its disposal.
There are savage raids but end game raiding and end game mythic plus style dungeon running is much less of a focus in FFXIV than in WoW
I’m by no means a “good idea” gal, but I keep hoping for something new and exciting for MMOs. The action RPG types like Tera and Black Desert were cool ideas, but were the typical eastern grind fests that I just don’t care for. GW2 was a game changer with the level scaling which I’m so glad FFXIV and WoW have both utilized.
I’m holding on to hope for some new jazz
Never played it, but looking at screenshots its graphics don’t feel nice to me. They’re higher detail sure, but the muted colors and shading give them this flat, generic very “CG” feeling which strongly dulls the game’s appeal to me.
Squeenix should’ve leaned harder into anime stylization IMO, would’ve worked better.
Yes, FFXIV doesn’t have myth+, obviously, but it does have savage trials, savage raids, casual raids and new trial bosses and new dungeons. It has new content instead of artificially inflated content.
I heard now you can do dungeons with AI bots, who are very GOOD and also have a cool story or something.
That is something I’ve long wanted in Wow, where I have to go group with strangers just to unlock Kul’tiran and would rather just do it alone.
I last played it before that came along, trying to trudge through the MSQ (main story quest) and sometimes having a particular dungeon unlock of the story where I’d wait forever and could not find other players. So I really should try it again now.
On thing I LOVE about it is that my 'lil tarutaru (whatever ) girl is a Dragoon, but then she can switch to the fishing job as well as the mining job! It is like she is a different character “class” then, who only does that. It adds a fun complexity, with really having no need for an “ALT”, if you don’t want to have one. Stuff like fishing is also far more complex than Wow too, of course.
It also runs far better than Wow, while looking better, on my at least 7 year old computer build that only runs Linux (both run great, in Linux with Wine, but FFXIV has FAR higher FPS with view distance set low. Wow, meanwhile, well render things far too far way still, so I get 12 FPS in BoreAllUs, but 38 plus when I go outside of it.)
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I believe the ‘grind’ aspect of things will always be there to keep people logging in and coming back. It’s this psychological ‘trick’ to our brains to ‘setup a goal and achieve that goal’ kind of thing.
Maybe the next phase, as people in the industry see things heading to, is VR? Imagine walking around Azeroth as your character 
.
I’m also looking forward to a fresh take in the MMO space, but until then I would love for WoW to evolve and incorporate aspects of what’s working from other games in the genre (which what I see happening).
Not sure if it has been mentioned before but, one thing I liked in FFXIV is what they implemented for some dungeons in their shadowbringers expansion: The Trust System.
Basically you can choose any role (tank, heal, dps) and enter a handful of the dungeons with AI controlled party members and do the dungeon at your own pace. It was not a perfect system but it was pretty handy to me to learn those dungeons (especially while tanking)
now, to be fair… FFXIV can get away with such system because more often than not dungeons are pretty much scripted and damage is predictable (unless you have party members doing stupid things).
This is kind of a silly question. Its loved because it belongs to one of the most successful and popular game franchises in existence and has one of the best stories (HW and Shadowbringers) in the MMO genre, has devs that are passionate about the game and listen to their players and has fun and engaging class design and gameplay.
Also, this current trend of bashing on it because it “looks too anime” or “it’s only for weebs” is not valid criticism against the game. All it does is make it obvious that you clearly havent played the game or think every anime is Pokemon and DBZ or both.
TL;DR: Its loved because it’s a great game.
4 Likes
i loathe anime, and so predictably i loathed ff14
The story is outstanding.
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I agree with this, and would like to add a few things:
14 Pros:
- More universal glams. Stuff like event based, themed from other games, etc. You never feel that even if your job armor looks dumb, you are stuck choosing between ugly and less ugly.
- Has a pretty good cosmetic cash shop with stuff worth buying.
- Crafting system is amazing, if you care about it. The most in depth and involved crafting system in any MMO I’ve ever played.
- Job balancing. At the very high end in damage, there’s something like a 10-15% variance between the worst dps and the best. This is pretty impressive. Every job is viable.
- Dying system for gear. This is almost enough on its own to put it over the top. The ability to customize your character appearance in this way is incredible.
14 cons:
- As you’ve already brushed on it, so many broken or jury-rigged technical systems that clearly are implemented in a way to accommodate old busted code. Pages and pages of “X gear of DoW 1” or Y gear of DoW", and “You can’t do that when you’re busy” when all you have open is your glam plates. It’s not a huge deal, but it definitely gets annoying.
- Once you’re done with your weekly lockouts, aside from leveling alt jobs (which is finite once you’ve finished them all) there’s really nothing to do. And since everything can be done on just one character, your weekly lockouts are all done at one stop. No doing raids multiple times to get gear for your alts. Even the artifact grind has thus far been omitted, as well as the deep dungeon. After Tuesday or Wednesday, I’m all done.
- Small group content, outside of treasure chest farming, is also nonexistent and also pointless. There’s no reason or challenge to compete 4-man group content once you’ve finished it outside farming weekly tokens.
- Every job only plays one way. There’s no customization, and you are your role as that job no matter what. And because of that, there really are very few classes.
- One character does it all. Sometimes, a class fantasy has an aesthetic presence with it. Sometimes, I want to be an Au Ra Dark Knight, but not necessarily am Au Ra Ninja. Being linked to one character, and the prohibitive nature of alts, means class fantasy takes a hit.
WoW Pros:
- Tons of evergreen content such as M+ and lockouts that are tied to character, not account. You can absolutely enjoy coordinated small group content that is both challenging and rewarding.
- Raids have a more gradient skill level than 14. 14 has normal, which is pretty much braindead, and then savage, which is like mythic. There’s no in-between for different skill levels. WoW has scenery mode, normal, heroic, (of which you have the amazing flex mode), and mythic for the real high end players.
- The world is much much more alive, thanks to evergreen content and also phasing technology. It rarely ever feels, even in older zones, like you are playing a single player game.
- Specializations. You can be a paladin, and play it the way you want to play it with talents. And your role can change within the same class for many classes. This flexibility makes it easier to prevent becoming bored, and allows for more immersive class fantasy.
- Alts. Sometimes you just want to be an Orc warrior. And sometimes you don’t want to be an Orc Rogue. The good news is, you don’t have to. Be an Orc warrior, a blood elf rogue, and an undead warlock. Express each character with its own class as a unified identity.
WoW cons:
- Class balancing. It’s bad. It always has been. But with as many classes it has, it’s no wonder. Sometimes you want to play a demo lock, but it’s just not viable because you either get an interrupt and pay for it with dps, or you get dps and no mythic plus team wants you.
- Hamster wheel. I listed the evergreen content as a pro, but it can also be a con. Too much gear progression and farmable progressively improving gear means you can very easily find yourself falling behind everyone else if you take a few days off. And world quests, which giving you content to do, can feel like a chore.
- Can’t match ANY transmogs. Due to the lifespan of wow, is limited in that there’s very few gear outside of deliberate sets that actually match. Old gear looks terrible compared to new gear, in regards to detail and polygon count, that it’s jarring.
- Rush rush rush: Mythic plus is amazing, but it lacks the deliberately tactical and planned execution that old heroics used to have. It can be a bit frustrating when time is the biggest enemy, and cheesing a mechanic is the solution vs slow strategy that lets you utilize your whole tool kit to succeed.
- Gear catch ups can make you feel completely displaced after a break, or make you feel your previous accomplishments were pointless. It feels great to work hard for that M15 gear, but it feels bad when in the next patch it makes that gear drop from M0 in the next patch cycle.
1 Like
1st and last debatable, that being said “Newer” doesn’t really work for me considering the combat and graphics look/feel older. The GCD system in the game is slow and clunky
It handles a lot of things a lot better than WoW like story, characters, immersion, music and class variety. One character can be every class. Player and guild housing…Long and complicated rotations if that’s your thing.
I’d argue it does some things worse, too, though. Inventory management is a chore because of the game’s spaghetti code. There are also no “builds” to speak of. You will end up playing your class the same way everyone else plays that class.
FFXIV is a good game. The devs take it very seriously and pour a lot of passion into it and it shows. But some parts of it are too janky for me to play for long (and it’s janky because of the previous team).
Why do you hate anime? Would you also hate movies or books because you dislike one?