FFXIV: Another helping

Hi all, here is my new Leonardo Da'Pimp outfit.

Ok, after another day or so of Final Fantasy XIV I will give you some more tidbits that fell out of my beard. The game could use some improvement. Some are saying its not good. Even going so far as to say it is a 'bad' game. This is not the case. It is an average game at this point with some flaws. Flaws that COULD BE addressed if the higher ups are in the right mood and the moons align. This might be more difficult though since there is no obvious way to send feedback to Square Enix in their beta. A rather glaring oversight on their part if they want to know how well their game is doing.

Ok, on my second day or so of the game I went about smacking some monsters in the face. Each monster has little colored symbols that resemble shields next to their name when you target them. Blue is easy prey, Green is decent challenge, Yellow is tough, and Red is Very Tough. Forget trying to take on the Red guys. They will eat your lunch and make you fall down and examine the nice textures of the ground close up. So I stuck with little dudes. Beetles, rats (yes rats, cliche), and sometimes a sheep. Very menacing sheep! Anyway after a hour or two of that I decided it was time to go find a shield for my Gladiator. As he was a tank job I thought it would be prudent to have something to block hits with. So I teleport back to Laguna Laboona (not actual name but more fun to say) and began hunting for an NPC to buy a shield. This was to turn into an epic journey the likes of which I had not fully prepared myself for. Not one vender in all of the city, all of the land, had a shield. Not one. I figured maybe one of the Hand guys had made one and were selling them. So I went around looking for the Retainers that sell people's stuff. I could not find them anywhere. After searching for an hour it turns out the they are kept in a separate zone in the city called the Wards. You have to zone into each ward and there they stand. Waiting around to let you browse their wares. That this was not immediately able to be seen from the city map made things incredibly difficult. Nor did any NPC specifically state which area the zone started in (Southern Islands btw). There was no Market Wards post on the map anywhere. So I wandered around aimlessly until I said to hell with it and went to the internet for help. After a bit of googling I discovered this secret yet not secret extra zone within the city. You might ask why didn't I think they would be in a seperate zone to begin with. Well seeing as there seems to be no loading zone area in the world map (unless you count the ferry which I will touch upon later) there was no indication that there would be a separate zone. This is some shitty design mechanics at play here that need to be fixed before they decide to ship this thing. People cannot read your mind Squeenix. Especially not those minds you have over there that made something like Cait Sith a reality.

Well after I found that secret market area there was still no shield to be found. Well maybe there was but you have to search EACH INDIVIDIUAL RETAINER. There is no search function, oh no. You have to go to each NPC and search them. One by one. This is not acceptable. Here is a deal breaker for me. If your economy is based on this system it will not work. Period. No one wants to stop and go through hundreds of NPC just to find one thing. Make a damn search function Square. C'mon!

Now after that little escapade I found out that the only shield vendors were in another city. Uldah. Across the ocean. Well not such a big deal as there is a ferry you can take that takes you to the other continent. After hopping aboard, waiting about five minutes, I was in the continent I needed. Then I needed to hoof it to Uldah. About a ten minute hike. I stopped along the way to attune with the other Aetharyte crystals there. Once you attune to them you can teleport to any of them all over the world. Kind of makes the ferry obsolete after one trip but whatever. I am sure the fishing guys like it. So I get to Uldah and it happens to have a Gladiator guild. Which I can't join. Yet I suppose. This here is another problem with FFXIV. No clear cut explanations of what you can or cannot do. It never says you can join once you get to a certain level. It leaves you in the dark. We need some info here. How do you join a guild? When can you join? How do you get guildmarks? Guildmarks, btw, are special currency that lets you buy things from that particular guild. It is not explained how you get these but I am betting being a member of the guild helps. There is far too much left unanswered in this game and no real way to find out. The opening cutscenes only setup some overarching story that you are supposedly part of. But nothing on what to do or where to go. For a new MMO this needs to be part of the starting experience. Even though I played FFXI for years I found it rather daunting just figuring out basics of the menu system and combat. Give us a tutorial mode of some kind, Squeenix. C'mon!

Well that is all I have for today. I will give you and update some time later. I am hoping things will smooth out over the next couple weeks.


A lovely sunset and some Roeg ass in your face.