I haven't posted here in years. I've played since the 1.0 beta and stuck through the 2.0 relaunch, but I drifted off around Shadowbringers and now mostly just come back for the story each expansion and drop it again.
WoW pulled me back into MMOs this year, which made me nostalgic enough to try 7.0. The story was about what I was warned about: new region, learn the culture, make friends, repeat, with the obvious villain in plain sight the whole time. Meteion again.
But what jumped out coming back was the zones. A lot of them feel empty, like everything's built out of boxes with a texture painted on. The tank quests put me back in Ishgard, and it's ten years old and still feels more alive than anything in Dawntrail, on the same engine with older tools. So I don't buy that the engine can't do better, the proof's right there.
WoW's engine is even older and they get more out of it because someone's actually art-directing the zones. And FFXIV doesn't even have its old excuse anymore. They always said they had to keep it light for weak hardware, but they upgraded the graphics in Dawntrail, they're cutting PS4 after 8.3, and barely anyone's on a potato going by the Steam survey. So what's the holdup?
Aether currents I also don't get. The pitch was that going on foot is more immersive, but immersive in what, if the zone's a flat box? And you don't get flight until you've basically finished the zone anyway, last current behind the MSQ. While I'm on it, is dynamic flying ever coming? GW2 did it years ago with the griffon and WoW took it for Dragonriding, and point-and-hover feels awful after that.
Combat I'm still chewing on. Evolved Mode mostly looks like they're combining buttons, at least on the jobs that barely changed, and we've had transforming combo actions for years, so it feels like something they could've done ages ago rather than a new system. It's not an easy mode, but why keep both modes if new jobs only use the new one?
What bugs me most is class identity. Every Paladin is identical, no builds, no choices. In WoW two people on the same class play completely differently, and you can be a healer, tank, or DPS depending how you spec. Here there's none of that. The line is that sameness is for balance and not leaving jobs out, but WoW has all that variety and still has genuinely hard content, so I don't buy it. If the worry is people getting turned away for the wrong job, loosen the damage checks instead of flattening everything. Let difficulty come from mechanics.
Honestly it stops feeling like the team can't do better and more like they aren't paid to. SE's been open about cutting costs and laying people off, and FFXIV's one of the few things that reliably makes money. Cheap zones, a lazy story, low-maintenance systems, that's what a stretched team ships. Ishgard's the tell. They know how to do it, they just don't seem to pay for it anymore.
Curious if people still playing feel the same or think I'm being unfair.
Continue reading...
WoW pulled me back into MMOs this year, which made me nostalgic enough to try 7.0. The story was about what I was warned about: new region, learn the culture, make friends, repeat, with the obvious villain in plain sight the whole time. Meteion again.
But what jumped out coming back was the zones. A lot of them feel empty, like everything's built out of boxes with a texture painted on. The tank quests put me back in Ishgard, and it's ten years old and still feels more alive than anything in Dawntrail, on the same engine with older tools. So I don't buy that the engine can't do better, the proof's right there.
WoW's engine is even older and they get more out of it because someone's actually art-directing the zones. And FFXIV doesn't even have its old excuse anymore. They always said they had to keep it light for weak hardware, but they upgraded the graphics in Dawntrail, they're cutting PS4 after 8.3, and barely anyone's on a potato going by the Steam survey. So what's the holdup?
Aether currents I also don't get. The pitch was that going on foot is more immersive, but immersive in what, if the zone's a flat box? And you don't get flight until you've basically finished the zone anyway, last current behind the MSQ. While I'm on it, is dynamic flying ever coming? GW2 did it years ago with the griffon and WoW took it for Dragonriding, and point-and-hover feels awful after that.
Combat I'm still chewing on. Evolved Mode mostly looks like they're combining buttons, at least on the jobs that barely changed, and we've had transforming combo actions for years, so it feels like something they could've done ages ago rather than a new system. It's not an easy mode, but why keep both modes if new jobs only use the new one?
What bugs me most is class identity. Every Paladin is identical, no builds, no choices. In WoW two people on the same class play completely differently, and you can be a healer, tank, or DPS depending how you spec. Here there's none of that. The line is that sameness is for balance and not leaving jobs out, but WoW has all that variety and still has genuinely hard content, so I don't buy it. If the worry is people getting turned away for the wrong job, loosen the damage checks instead of flattening everything. Let difficulty come from mechanics.
Honestly it stops feeling like the team can't do better and more like they aren't paid to. SE's been open about cutting costs and laying people off, and FFXIV's one of the few things that reliably makes money. Cheap zones, a lazy story, low-maintenance systems, that's what a stretched team ships. Ishgard's the tell. They know how to do it, they just don't seem to pay for it anymore.
Curious if people still playing feel the same or think I'm being unfair.
Continue reading...