A lot of people may not know this, but Final Fantasy XIV was released way back in 2010, the same year Final Fantasy XIII came to North America and PAL regions. I know it completely flew over my head, as I generally hear about any Final Fantasy in development.
As it turned out, Final Fantasy XIV was another MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) like its predecessor, Final Fantasy XI. But upon its release for Windows OS, it was universally slammed by critics, being called a broken game, filled with glitches, and even claims the game was only half finished when released. Due to the negative backlash, numerous apologies have been made and Square Enix CEO Yoichi Wada admitted that “the Final Fantasy brand has been greatly damaged” because of the game.
However, there is hope for the game yet. Back in October 2011, Square Enix announced they were completely overhauling the game, with plans for the game to be rereleased in mid-2013 under the new name, Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn.
What’s important to remember is that a lot of these reviews acknowledge that the game actually had potential, even if it was executed very poorly. After perusing the website, the thing that interests me most about the game is the job and class system. Changing your class is as simple as changing your weaponry and armour, giving you a high degree of customisation. Should this be executed better, it could make for a truly unique online experience. This is without even mentioning the different races you’re able to play as. On top of all that, the world that the story unfolds in is quite rich and fascinating.
Square Enix has already released a beta testing road map to the public, detailing a four phase plan, beginning last year with alpha testing on PC. The alpha testing has since concluded, and beta testing will begin this month with PC, and PS3 to follow in the third phase. They are currently accepting applications for beta testing for those interested on either platform.
With any luck, we’ll soon be trying the beta ourselves, and seeing whether or not Square Enix has successfully saved this debacle of a game. There is hope for Final Fantasy XIV yet!
Sources:
Game Informer
eu.finalfantasyxiv.com
au.ign.com
For more discussion about Square Enix, check out our Squaresoft Revival: 3 Games Square-Enix Need To Bring Back. KRS2 has also been getting his hands dirty with the Wii U, check out his first impressions.
I actually played the FFXIV 2010 Beta and was absolutely stunned by its visuals. It didn’t lag on my PC much either, even with the cluster of people around. Can attribute that to SquareEnix’s stunning engine and engine team. Character creation was awesome, loads of features to customise your looks. And the starting cutscene (with whatever race I was playing, I landed in a forest. A pretty forest) eyegasms @.@
Visuals aside there was so much wrong with FFXIV gameplay… Leveling felt like a grind (Korean MMO grind), skills weren’t that impressive, I personally couldn’t figure out how to craft, lack of tutorial / guides and uninteresting NPCs…
While it sounds great that they’re going to make massive changes,
and from what I hear and see it actually sounds promising, unfortunately
I’m tied with another MMO (Guild Wars 2) to bother with the Beta. And if they’re going to try the $60 + subscription route again, I don’t think I will bother with FFXIV Reborn at all.
I think it’s too late for SquareEnix to grab another chunk of the MMO market, I mean look at the competition… TERA and The Old Republic coverted to free-to-play, Guild Wars 2 is semi-free-to-play, Planetside 2 launched free-to-play, and WoW is a 9-million monster subscription that SquareEnix will -never- dent.
MMO is a risky genre, if there’s no innovation then there’s no incentive to play it. Here’s hoping the Beta will be a success.
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