Four Things I’m Hoping Will Change In “A Realm Reborn”
So I never did make part two of that Final Fantasy XIV thing, did I? I guess I got so into it that I couldn’t notice anything wrong with it after a while.
Haha, no. That’s a lie. There’s a lot wrong with this game, trust me. Even after grinding myself into the ground, hitting the level cap, and joining a guild, there’s still a lot of things about this game that make me want to throw my computer tower out my three-story window. I wanted to make an article that chronicled everyting wrong with the game. But I realized that such an article would be so gargantual that it alone would bankrupt Stevesesy by quadrupling this website’s bandwidth fees. So I decided to narrow it down to just four things; four things that I’m praying for change in A Real Reborn.
1. Reworked, non-fatigue-based teleport system.
Well, I’ll give Square credit: the teleport system is a pretty brilliant idea. I mean, most MMOs force you to trudge your way through the world on foot, eating up hours upon hours of your time as you whisk by the same old landmarks over and over again. XIV has a simple teleport system in place that allows you to transport you and your party to places you’ve been before. The downside is that teleporting costs anima. You have one hundred anima to start, and the average teleport eats up about two to six of this currency apiece. Anima does regenrate, but only at the rate of one every four hours. On paper, this doesn’t sound like a bad deal. But you’ll be eating through the stuff rather quickly if you’re a regular player. It’s almost punishing to those who are committed to the game, and you’re sure to find people screaming for teleports in capital cities.
In fairness, this isn’t quite as bad as the fatigue system that was in place for ALL actions last year. Call it a remnant if you will. But it’s certainly one that needs to go. Because it leads into my next concern:
2. Quests that don’t send me halfway across the world.
Quests are a finnicky thing in FFXIV. The usual set up for MMOs is that you gather some quests in an area or at a nearby quest hub, and fulfill their requirements in the general vicinity. Instead, nearly all quests are obtained in capitol cities, and their objectives can sometimes send you on excruciatingly long journeys, oftentimes just to talk to a single NPC or slay a single monster. There is one chain of quests in particular called The Grand Companies which is a string of 15+ quests that force you to teleport from city to city, travelling halfway across the world each time to meet the objectives. By the time I was done with this line, I was down from 100 anima to about 30 in a matter of days. Maybe I just won’t log in for a week and build it back up.
…But keep these guys.
3. No more suicide areas.
For whatever sadistic reason, there are certain areas of the game littered with level 90+ monsters that you are required to go through to progress the story. Usually, you can walk by hostile monsters silently. But not these: they’ll aggro on you from a hundred feet away and one-shot your party before you can blink. I don’t know what they were thinking when they put these baddies in. Maybe they were placed there in preparation of a level cap raise (the current cap is 50) and were just forgotten about.
On the other hand, there is one area with these monsters that you have to stealth your way through to get to a legitimate boss fight. It’s all rather frightening when you experience it the first time, but it is very doable. I wouldn’t mind if they kept THAT one at least.
4. Better Crafting
I’ve never been as bored in my entire life as I have been when sawing wood in Final Fantasy XIV. You would expect it would take one or two clicks on a menu to chop down a tree or craft a shirt. But here, you’re going through menus upon menus to get these things done. It’s a slow, boring process to say the least. Here’s the best video I could find of it. It takes about one to two minutes to make one item, which then sometimes have to be processed into other items, of which you may need five or six different materials to create something with. Not counting the time it takes to collect these items, it can take anywhere from a half hour to an hour of menu-clicking to make one weapon. And that’s hoping you don’t fail and lose everything in the process…
That all said, I’m still pretty excited for the new version. And I still enjoy the game that exists now; it’s just some of the more bone-headed aspects of it that make me want to drown myself.
But here’s one thing that shouldn’t change.
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