Final Fantasy XIV Beta

I'm going to take a break from complaining about Sc2, to complain about another game.



Please note this is just a beta test right now, and the full version of the game probably isn't going to be anywhere near as bad. However I still have concerns regarding the complete game during it's initial launch.

I've been playing the beta since the day after it's open beta release. It's not that very good of a game as is. The problems are immense, which is sadly a huge understatement.

1. The lag.

This is really my biggest problem with the game right now. Everything lags, and takes a very long time to do. Something as simple as changing your weapon takes a really long time because it's so laggy. Actions are extremely delayed, when you attack an enemy. It's just everything is slowwww. Seriously if you want to play this expect a lot of time wasted just doing simple things like crafting an item.

2. Changing weapons.

This is really an annoying one, coupled with the lag it is just frustrating, and extremely redundant. When you change weapons it takes a long time to switch out the weapons because of the lag, and then once that's done. You have to set all your skills again. Each class has a set of skills related to that class, and once you change your weapon of a different class type all your skills are reset. So you have to set up ALL your hotkeys over again. It's quite annoying and makes me too lazy to change weapons most of the time.

3. Unresponsive mouse, and commands.

The mouse delay is huge and choppy. When you look through your item list it's really hard to select a single item then look at it. It's really hard to explain it's more like a you have to try it for yourself to see. It's just god awful and it's a huge problem right now in the beta. I generally enjoy good mouse accuracy, but that is no where to be found on FFXIV.

4. Crafting is unforgiving.

Crafting items is really tough in this game. Not only do you need a bunch of obscure items from all the crafting classes but you also need a lot of luck, you also need crystals which are only obtained from fighting mobs, or buying them from other players. Which is really hard if you're just starting out, especially since you're a crafting class and not really set up for combat. The chances of failing are really high, and when you do fail you lose all the items involved in the crafting process. You're then rewarded with an extremely meager amount of experience. It's just not worth it. Also to make matters worse when you fail synthesizing items there is an odd chance one of the crystals you are using will explode and get this... IT DAMAGES ALL THE EQUIPMENT YOU'RE WEARING!!! Right now crafting is just a joke and should be avoided.

5. Quests are redundant.

I really hate MMO's which are "Go here, kill X monsters, get paid X amount of money, and repeat". FFXIV is pretty much just that. Minus the main story quest. I really hope there is more to the full version of the game. I've heard rumors that there is, but we'll see.

6. The Map.

Navigating on the map is completely impossible because you can't move the map or zoom in and out. You have to constantly press M to bring up the map, or close it when you're walking around. This is because the map also doesn't follow you around when you walk. It stays stationary all the time. It's also zoomed in pretty close, so seeing a location from far away is impossible and you have to blindly navigate your way through the world if you want to find something. I've walked in a direction for like 30 minutes only to find that I've went the wrong way.

7. The game itself.

This game just doesn't feel ready at all. I can't see how the game is going to be ready by the 22nd of September. It's just REALLY bad, and I don't think I can do it any justice in this blog by explaining it. It honestly seems like a really shitty port of the Ps3 version. People have told me the game is a lot better played on a controller, which is dumb since I'm on PC and I really prefer the mouse/keyboard set up.

I also don't like the lack of races, and character creation options. It seems really lacking and everyone just ends up looking the same of that specific race.


I could really go on complaining about this game all day, but I'll just leave this as is. I'm getting frustrated just talking about the flaws in this game.