FFXIV: Early Access!

Yes folks it began yesterday and yes my good friends it is plagued with problems. Those of you who joined me yesterday for fun in Diabolos have realized now that the server is plagued with downtime. However, I would not ask you to get mad at Square Enix because of this. Anyone who has played a fresh launch mmo should realize this now the first few days or weeks are always the rockiest . Why? It hasn't been tested under nearly the same strain during beta, as a full release would have. I'm actually kinda glad they had this early access period. I know it sucks that because of all these bugs and down times we're kinda wasting early access time but, let me offer you a rebuttle.

Would you rather have had an August 27th launch where everything was broken and even more people were in playing causing more issues? Yeah... didn't think so. Bugs aside I think those of us who are able to talk this process with a grain of salt are really enjoying the game. I usually hate tab-target mmos because they get boring fast. However, I'm actually have a lot of fun with FFXIV.

Here's my initial review.

Graphics: Nothing special outside of the environment. Outside the environment the graphics look really bad... I mean really bad... The armor looks poorly textured, texturization and animation feel stiff for npcs, etc... That being said The world itself looks fantastic, the monsters are varied, the environment looks spectacular, etc... The graphics problem may be solved when the implementation of the DX11 support goes live, or if it has gone live maybe some kind soul will release a HD texture pack. Naoki Yoshida and team support mods for the game.

Combat: Combat is a little stiff especially compared to TERA's combat but all in all its a deep immersive combat. I'm playing the monk and in no part do I feel like I'm just clicking and waiting for shit to happen. I'm actually having to position myself to get the best dps, which is a refreshing in between for tab-target mmos.

Story, Lore and Everything else: I'm not far enough into the story to judge how good it is but from what I've played so far I'm pretty happy. Finally an mmo with an enriching story is it as good as say FFX, FFVII and its main line counterparts debatabely no. But, from an mmo standpoint this is a real step forward. Soundtracks are varied and beautiful, as with all FF games the soundtrack is one of the best parts of the game and FFXIV: ARR does not dissapoint.

Well that's all for the preview. More to come soon for FFXIV: ARR.
If you're playing currently
IGN: Nodoka Miyazaki
Server: Diabolos
Class/Lvl: Pugilist/ 15

Come join me and my linkshell for some fun if you're looking for someone to play with !!