FF14 - worth playing or wait till FF15?

[Tequila]

I gave FF14 a try a few days ago and while not thrilled with the boring combat I was really impressed with the graphics especially the night time lighting. The UI out of the box was very polished and overall the game ran smooth on a single GTX 970.

This is the first ever FF game I've tried. It came out in 2013 but FF15 is due in September of this year from my understanding. So is FF15 an entirely new game where you have to start over at level 1 or is it an expansion?

Also does the combat in FF14 get more exciting as you level up? This is my only gripe about the game so far at level 14 Archer. Combat is extremely dry and boring especially killing one at a time with no AOE.

I also hope there are some good dungeons in this game.

Thanks much

 

[cbrunny]

FF14 is a MMO.

FF15 is not.

They'll be completely and entirely different in just about every way, at least as far apart as can be in the Final Fantasy series. They're essentially different sub-genres.

FF14 gets better after level 15. You'll know if you want to stick it out by the time you're level 30 or so. End game is fun, albeit time consuming. Hope you have plenty!

 

[nurturedhate]

Also ff15 has no set release date for PC at this point. Seeing as this is the PC Gaming forum I thought it was worth mentioning.

 

[zinfamous]

this is where the FF number naming system (Well, wouldn't call it a system) became confusing.

FF is a single-player ~fantasy role playing game that has been around for 25 years now.

2 of them were MMOs...I think FF 11 or 12 was the first one? and this FF 14 was the 2nd one.

Rather than distinguish them somehow, they just sequentially number them without even a real subtitle.

I never played their MMOs and haven't played an FF game since PS2 (they went off the rails with FF X) so none of the new ones look like any kind of FF game that I am familiar with.

 

[sweenish]

FF was Squaresoft's last attempt at keeping the doors open when it first launched, hence the name.

More than a "single player fantasy RPG," it's usually been more about pushing the JRPG boundaries and telling massive stories.

Lately, since about XI (the first MMO one, by the way), other JRPG's like the Persona series have done a better job of experimenting with JRPG tropes, albeit partially because they don't change the whole thing up every game.

FF XIII has been my personal low point. I'm one of those guys that actually enjoyed VIII.

I wish the MMO ones were separated, too, though. I also want them to just announce a PC version of XV.

 

[zinfamous]

FF was Squaresoft's last attempt at keeping the doors open when it first launched, hence the name.

More than a "single player fantasy RPG," it's usually been more about pushing the JRPG boundaries and telling massive stories.

Lately, since about XI (the first MMO one, by the way), other JRPG's like the Persona series have done a better job of experimenting with JRPG tropes, albeit partially because they don't change the whole thing up every game.

FF XIII has been my personal low point. I'm one of those guys that actually enjoyed VIII.

I wish the MMO ones were separated, too, though. I also want them to just announce a PC version of XV.

D:

While I think X killed the series, VIII was worse overall--but at least it had an open explorable world.

X killed it for me because it was on rails and really twisted the knife with the massive emo protagonist and never looked back. It had a great battle system, though.

 

[Tequila]

FF14 is a MMO.

FF15 is not.

They'll be completely and entirely different in just about every way, at least as far apart as can be in the Final Fantasy series. They're essentially different sub-genres.

FF14 gets better after level 15. You'll know if you want to stick it out by the time you're level 30 or so. End game is fun, albeit time consuming. Hope you have plenty!

Ah cool, I didn't realize that about FF15 not being an MMO.

Thanks for all the replies!

 

[xantub]

D:

While I think X killed the series, VIII was worse overall--but at least it had an open explorable world.

X killed it for me because it was on rails and really twisted the knife with the massive emo protagonist and never looked back. It had a great battle system, though.

Since to me what matters the most is the battle system, I think X is my favorite FF. And I think the protagonist in XII and XIII are more emo.

 

[pathos]

Since to me what matters the most is the battle system, I think X is my favorite FF. And I think the protagonist in XII and XIII are more emo.

Did 12 or 13 even have main protaganists? 13-2 and 13-3 did, but 12 and 13 didn't really, and that was part (but only part) of their problems.

I actually give 10's main character a break on his emo though. He actually has far more reason to be emo than pretty much any other ff14's protag (at least in any ff games I've played).

It's been years since I played it, but iirc

Spoiler

Main character gets yanked 1000 years into the future, and finds out even his home town isn't around anymore, it's just a big pile of rubble now. Then he finds out his dad beat him here, and was transformed into the monster thats destroying the world, and killing thousands of people. Then he finds out he's expected to take his dads place, and become the world destroying monster himself. Then, he finds out the girl he likes real end of journey will be her death, and everyone but him knew it all along. Then, last he finds out he actually wasn't pulled out of the past to start with. He was just a projection, living in a simulation of the old zanarkand. And, the ones responsible for keeping the simulation running, are tired and want to stop. So, no matter how the journey ends, his end result is getting his "life" snuffed out when the spirits cut the power to the simulation.....

Rather than blaming Tidus for being emo, perhaps you should blame square enix for laying it on to thick. His whole life is a train wreck.

 

[Tequila]

Well I must say that I really regret not playing this game when it first came out. I was a bit turned off by the anime look to some of the characters and lack of creature races like iksar/ogre from EQ, but once you get past that the game is incredibly fun. My Archer is 26 now and will work more on my pugilist so I can grab Bard at 30. I was getting a little tired of the dps dungeon queue times so I also went Conjurer. It was soooo painful leveling to 15 but once I got there it was nearly insta queue time! I shot up from 15-22 in a couple of hours doing dungeons. You get a nice bonus for your other classes that are lower than your highest class!

Unfortunately you have to keep doing the main story line to unlock all dungeons. At first I was a little upset after reading about that but it works out well because I just use my Archer to run around and do those main quests and get a nice chunk of xp doing so and add in a few quests on the side to top off the next level. Then I switch to my Conjurer class and just do dungeons.

This system of leveling up all classes/jobs on one character is brilliant. You just have to find a way to deal with the boredom of combat in the early levels with casters. Pugilist on the other hand is actually quite fun already and I'm only 10.

 

[JeffMD]

Ff14 is great except that the relic weapon quest are designed to be super grindy. Also it doesn't have as much things to do on downtime, and new content is slower than say, warcraft, and being a lot newer it's missing out on old content you can revisit.