if you dont level all the way to 80 without skipping cutscenes, you cant have an opinion about the game other than the looks of it.
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I’m not sure I agree with that.
If you don’t level to 80 then sure, you can’t really speak intelligently about the endgame. So in that case comparing to WoW’s endgame is kind of pointless.
But it’s also impossible to avoid the fact that FF14 asks you for a 100-hour time commitment before you get to that endgame. I think it’s perfectly reasonable for people to have an opinion on that section since it is such a large part of the gameplay.
It’s similar to what I tell people who demand that I watch X episodes of a tv show before I consider dropping it. “If it takes your show 40 episodes to get good, it’s not actually good.”
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yeah. i get that. i was just trying to make a blanket statement really.
its a fact ARR is the worst in ffxiv. OP didnt even get through that part.
OP cant even have an opinion on the gameplay because they barely have any abilities.
did OP try pvp? gold saucer? tons of trials, dungeons, and raids to go through with solid music.
sure, make it to end game is extreme but you honestly cannot play ffxiv for 2 days and have a full grasp on the game. thats like me starting wow, getting to level 30 and saying ‘nah. not for me. gameplay sux. story sux. nothing fun to do, etc’.
plus, the end of 5.0 was freaking awesome. everyone on the planet needs to get through it. lol.
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Well said.
However, while I’m not one of these defenders of FF, I can admit that I enjoyed my time playing when the current game was ARR. The combat is very solid, and for people that enjoy story driven it does an amazing job of it. My only beef was how similar it felt to WoW, in that once I reached end game it was more of the same. Not that it was a bad thing, just that I might as well have played WoW if end game was my focus.
I really do believe FF is a fun game that everyone should play at least once, but I can’t say that it’s a game that everyone will enjoy. If someone asked me what’s a good MMO to play, it’s easy for me to say NW at the moment since it feels like a game that I’m playing with a lot of other players.
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I’m not sure that this would work for everyone, but I think one solution to this would be for people to be more okay with just taking a break from the game. I think it’s perfectly fine to only play an MMO for a month or two when it gets new content and then stop playing until the next content patch. If you do that for both WoW and FF14 then you’ll almost always have something to play as you can play one game during the other’s off-season. That’s actually the reason I reduced my sub down to three months. I don’t remain subbed year-round in either game.
I think that WoW goes out of its way to make that difficult though. I mean, there are the obvious ways like the 6-month sub mounts. But they also have significantly more systems that require you to repeatedly log in on a weekly basis. It does a very good job of disincentivizing short sub windows.
I find that it’s a common attitude in the community as well. I’ve met WoW players who see it as a failing on WoW’s part if it’s not able to offer then something engaging every day all year round. I think that’s a bad expectation that makes the content drought worse than it is. (I will absolutely fault WoW for the current content drought. Shadowlands is progressing FAR too slowly.) I think more people would be happier with more modular subs, but that seems to be a bit of a taboo. 
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Completely agree. I took a 2-3 week break while playing other games, but when I came back I found myself loving the DK and started leveling one to 60. It’s something I could’ve done before my break, but it was nice to having something meaningful to come back to.
Everyone needs a break from this game every now and then. I wish more players understood this.
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I’m just returning from an almost 10 year break. I have to say, coming back with close to zero investment in the game makes it so much more enjoyable. Honestly, My only real grievance was that once you hit 50 you’re booted out of your current content and it takes an ungodly amount of work to unlock flight in BfA when compared to how much time you spend in it through level 50.
BfA and Legion were both really great experiences.
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Pretty much. Anyone going into FF14 thinking it’s going to replace WoW is playing the game for the wrong reasons. Go ahead and try something new, I’m personally glad I did and got to experience some amazing writing and new class experiences, but FF14 is not WoW, and WoW is not FF14.
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What would you tell someone that only played wow for 2 days and thought:
Sounds silly doesn’t it. Same goes for ff14.
I play and enjoy both for different reasons.
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FF14’s biggest issue is you don’t really get a sense of how the game plays for any class until 50-60+.
That’s a big investment to see if you’ll actually like the game or not.
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I agree.
I tried it for over a month and just felt like it was more a single player game.
And the grind to advance the main story quest is just boring.
Spend 2 hours running (or portaling) back and forth just to talk to people with no action in between unless you veer off just to kill things out of boredom.
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wow, I envy you. legion and MoP are my two favorite. BFA was also great, but people on these forums crucify anyone that enjoyed it.
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Did you try out the Lalafell EPR, I hear thats a big draw.
Silly, in a way, but I just love temples and old structures like that. I loved that vibe in BfA and wow, the music. really good music in that expac.
I actually had a hard time getting into SL after playing BfA.
My brief return/bender is coming to a close soon, but it’s been a largely positive experience returning with no investment or expectations. I just came with some spare time and a desire to build up a character or two.
woo boy.
Oh… you’re serious.
So stop logging in if the only reason is to keep a house. Other people want to buy houses in some areas and can’t because people do this.
Can’t wait for the new island sanctuaries. Even if not housing, I think they could be better than the actual in game housing system. And everyone can have/do it.
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I enjoyed the Proudmoore storyline a lot more than I thought I would. I know Alliance tend to complain about devs favoring the Horde, but I felt their campaign was more enjoyable in BFA.
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I actually did both! H and A. both sides were fun, but I am partial to the Horde, so I think I enjoyed that side a bit more. Regardless a really fun expac. And all the new systems!! Jebus! it was overwhelming at first.
Even in shadowlands there are so many ways to gear up.
Tell that to the players that think Korthia is the only path to gearing for casual play.
I think it’s important to separate out what BFA did well vs. what it didn’t.
Strictly gameplay wise, it started with basically a watered-down Legion. Initially I thought that would be fine since it meant it could build upon that base and create its own sort of identity from that. But then it just… didn’t do that and remained watered-down Legion. Which isn’t exactly exciting. I still maintain that the core of Legion is a fine base to build from, but you can’t just take the base and add nothing to it.
Story-wise I was actually more hyped for BFA than I was for any other expansion. I loved being a part of the War of Thorns, I loved reading the book and the online novellas, and I loved the Warbringers shorts. (Not to mention the other shorts they released like Old Soldier.) I was super hyped and super invested in the BFA story before it launched. And like you, I really liked Jania’s story in BFA. I think that BFA had a few stumbling points in its story (mostly towards the end) but I actually thought it was one of the stronger expansions in that regard.
Shadowlands by comparison has done virtually nothing to hype me. There are no shorts. The pre-patch event was just zombie-killing busywork. No novellas. I don’t think we’ve even had a fully rendered video since the launch trailer.
I think the gameplay in Shadowlands is actually better than that of BFA. But between the lack of hype and the incredibly slow pace of content progression, it’s difficult for me to really get invested in Shadowlands the same way I was in BFA.
WoW has always struggled to tell its story in-game, and Shadowlands is beginning to highlight that weakness pretty starkly. Without all of the outside methods of story-delivery it’s hard to remain invested in the story.
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Honestly, if you aren’t satisfied with FF14, WoW, New World or any of the other thousand of mmos out there, maybe it’s time you quit playing MMOs and instead get into Skyrim modding and create your own world.
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