Expectations Too High?Follow

See, this is where FFXI lacked. Yes, it felt like Final Fantasy because it had all of those jobs, but what effective role did most of those jobs have?

DD.

So many damage dealers. Hardly any mages/support. There was a far overabundance of DD, and FFXIV was able to fix that (at least by the end of 1.0) for the sake of balance.

Warrior was a hybrid tank/DD. Can tank a group of mobs pretty effectively.

Paladin was a good tank for solo mobs. Good for holding the primals, story bosses. etc.

Dragoon was your standard DD. Kill-kill-kill do spike damage, fun times.

Monk in FFXIV played radically different from Monk in XI. It wasn't just a copy of DRG with fists, it was a magic close-range damage dealer. Consider it magic punches. You can swap your WS to do either physical or magic damage. Fighting a golem boss that has crazy defense? No problem, fists of fire and help out the BLMs.

White Mage is your healer and secondary nuker/dispeller. (Only if the party was doing well HP-wise though.)

Black Mage is your traditional nuker.

Bard is your buffer/support and secondary damage in-between.


Now, what would those jobs you mentioned play a role in this balanced effort? We only have two mages. White Mage and Black Mage, so we have a lack of magicians from the spot. There's not really any debuffers, so they added Arcanist into the mix. Now Ninja would be cool because it would be "the dual-wielder", makes sense that they would add it. Blue Mage, with its enemy abilities, can probably fill in whatever is needed. (They were good DD and support in FFXI.)

Where would Red Mage fall in? In FFXI, they became the "refresher". The developers certainly didn't intend for them to become support, but that's what they did, and that's all they were really good for. Jack of all trades, master of none doesn't really fit well into an MMO. A job has to be good at something, or you'll get passed on for someone who can do your job better. Why take a RDM to heal when a WHM can do it better? Why take a RDM to nuke when a BLM can do it better? Why take a RDM to support when a BRD can do it better?

It's not mine or your problem to solve this, but that's my reasoning on why Red Mage is probably not their first priority.




Edited, May 29th 2013 9:33pm by UltKnightGrover

Edited, May 29th 2013 9:34pm by UltKnightGrover

I'm going to reiterate what I said earlier:

The thing that helped develop Final fantasy beyond being a one-shot game is that its franchise elements became part of the series greater lore. For every other game and example you put for that does not have the term "Final Fantasy" on it, I would agree with your argument. However, when it comes to Final Fantasy, its gameplay elements took from the lore and the stories that it involved itself with.

Just to throw out more examples.

FFIII and FFV's Crystal Job system.

FFVI's Esper system and FFVII's Meteria system.

FFVIII's Draw and Junction system (Major point on this one as the system actually is a key story component.)

These are argued as some of the best games in the franchise, and their gameplay mechanics are seeped in the lore and story of the game.

Even the other FF games still do it to varying extents.

So when I say they need to emphasis the story. I mean it needs to bleed into the game-play as well. You're more than fine to disagree on the importance of it in the field of games and MMOs, but Final Fantasy was once a standard-setter when it came to both, and it was because they valued their story in all things. If they keep their game lore in mind, even when working on the mechanics of the game, they'll do fine.

Final Fantasy is no World of Warcraft game. The players will not be forgiving of a sub-par story and realm. It's what the franchise is known for. If they create game-play that surrounds it, like they have done time and again, they'll succeed in making the game-play enjoyable as well. But everyone, and I mean everyone will wind up debating game-play mechanics. They have in previous final Fantasy games and they have done so in every MMO without fail, including World of Warcraft, which, agian, has defined and redefined their combat mechanics multiple times.

...which is exactly why I pointed out about 30 posts ago that gameplay and story are intertwined and that the story and narrative are a part of the gameplay, but then several different people shunned that notion, claiming the two to be mutually exclusive. Sometimes these boards can be very frustrating to post in.

I just want to try and recapture the feelings and fun I had in XI. I was really disappointed to hear that XIV was doing poorly and ended up not getting released on ps3 (wasn't a pc gamer at the time). Revisiting Zam so many times, sparingly, finally paid off and I found out about ARR. I've been searching the internet for anything and everything I can about it, and so far it looks amazing to me even though I'm on the outside looking in.

Yes, my expectations might be too high. I don't know if I'll find the same enjoyment like I did years ago on Seraph in XI. I think, for me anyways, my enjoyment stemmed from the friends I made within and outside of my LS. Experiencing the new and unexpected things with a sense of wonder, like I'm not sure if I'm actually ready to be in this zone was great to me. If this game can be like XI was to me, which was a journey that I enjoyed all the way through and not a race to endgame like other games I have tried I'll definitely be a subscriber for years to come.