The new expansion is finally out for Final Fantasy 14 and oh boy is it a hoot......when you manage to beat the login boss. So as I've previously discussed in other threads, FF14 has had a major boom in popularity lately thanks to WoW being ass and most of it's content creators coming over to FF14. When a content creator moves to a game, so does their audience if they aren't already there. This has causes FF14 to explode, to the point where they've more than doubled their daily active userbase.
With unexpected popularity surges, comes log in problems. So in the lead up to Endwalker, Yoshi P and the devs have been hard at work trying to increase server capabilities as well as add new servers. They have made several posts warning players that they have not been able to obtain new servers due to shortages and not being able to get engineers to travel due to covid limitations. They have apologized and YoshiP has done his best with what he had available.
So it's no surprise that when you try to log into 14 you get a que that ranged from 4-10k players in front of you. This overloads the log in server and people get kicked out of their place in line. Again YoshiP has issued statements and apologized and offered everyone with a paid subscription to the game a full week of free playtime, with a promise that if loggin's don't stablize by then, they will give out more free time until the player base can log in without too much issue.
Endwalker then. They said it was going to have 30% more cutscenes and story that Shadowbringers and they were not lying. When I finally logged into the game successfully (which was not easy) I met up with the Scions of the Seventh Dawn to set out on the next adventure, which turns out to be a boat ride to a new island nation. We are introduced to a new waifu and a new city which you are forced to explore. The cut scenes are needlessly long and filled with excess dialog that REALLY REALLY made me want to skip them. Because that's my problem with a lot of the story telling in FF14. Some people enjoy the slow pace and the build up of the story, but for me I see it for what it is. Padding. Lots of shit where nothing fucking happens because the longer it takes the more gametime you'll pay for. Slow build up is fine sometimes, but that build up should be presented in gameplay not in overly long none-viced cutscenes that just drag. There is a reason why I skipped a shitload of the cutscenes throughout my leveling in FF14 in the first place.
Two hours, it took two hours of introductionary cut scenes and tours of the new city (which has a very nice layout and i like the city a lot) before the game finally told me to fucking fight something. The story itself is a bit lost on me because i did a lot of skipping and that's fine because it's my own fault. But I do get the jist of it even if i don't completely get the gravity of the situation. However if the gravity of the situation is dire, then that further highlights the problem of the narative being so slow paced. Monsters are invading and the world is on the cusp of destruction in a new calamity, but sure I'll fucking help this shy merchant sell his fucking fish right now, I have the time I guess.
I'm now 6 hours into the game and I've not yet leveled up once, and I have not yet unlocked a new dungeon. So a lot of the "new" in Endwalker I can't yet comment on. I'm really really trying to watch the story this time around but if this pace continues i'm just gonna watch a lore summary on youtube and skip it all so I can actually play the game.
All that bitching aside, I do feel like fans of the story so far are really going to enjoy what Endwalker is doing so for that I don't doubt that people will be showering the game with 9's and 10's in their own reviews. And gameplay wise it's still fantastic, some of the new UI decisions are fantastic like the new map when traveling via aethernet is great. The new classes look cool as shit, and I've heard nothing but good things about how they play.
Hopefully in a week or two the log in issues will be over and the game can be played without a 4hour queue lead up.
With unexpected popularity surges, comes log in problems. So in the lead up to Endwalker, Yoshi P and the devs have been hard at work trying to increase server capabilities as well as add new servers. They have made several posts warning players that they have not been able to obtain new servers due to shortages and not being able to get engineers to travel due to covid limitations. They have apologized and YoshiP has done his best with what he had available.
So it's no surprise that when you try to log into 14 you get a que that ranged from 4-10k players in front of you. This overloads the log in server and people get kicked out of their place in line. Again YoshiP has issued statements and apologized and offered everyone with a paid subscription to the game a full week of free playtime, with a promise that if loggin's don't stablize by then, they will give out more free time until the player base can log in without too much issue.
Endwalker then. They said it was going to have 30% more cutscenes and story that Shadowbringers and they were not lying. When I finally logged into the game successfully (which was not easy) I met up with the Scions of the Seventh Dawn to set out on the next adventure, which turns out to be a boat ride to a new island nation. We are introduced to a new waifu and a new city which you are forced to explore. The cut scenes are needlessly long and filled with excess dialog that REALLY REALLY made me want to skip them. Because that's my problem with a lot of the story telling in FF14. Some people enjoy the slow pace and the build up of the story, but for me I see it for what it is. Padding. Lots of shit where nothing fucking happens because the longer it takes the more gametime you'll pay for. Slow build up is fine sometimes, but that build up should be presented in gameplay not in overly long none-viced cutscenes that just drag. There is a reason why I skipped a shitload of the cutscenes throughout my leveling in FF14 in the first place.
Two hours, it took two hours of introductionary cut scenes and tours of the new city (which has a very nice layout and i like the city a lot) before the game finally told me to fucking fight something. The story itself is a bit lost on me because i did a lot of skipping and that's fine because it's my own fault. But I do get the jist of it even if i don't completely get the gravity of the situation. However if the gravity of the situation is dire, then that further highlights the problem of the narative being so slow paced. Monsters are invading and the world is on the cusp of destruction in a new calamity, but sure I'll fucking help this shy merchant sell his fucking fish right now, I have the time I guess.
I'm now 6 hours into the game and I've not yet leveled up once, and I have not yet unlocked a new dungeon. So a lot of the "new" in Endwalker I can't yet comment on. I'm really really trying to watch the story this time around but if this pace continues i'm just gonna watch a lore summary on youtube and skip it all so I can actually play the game.
All that bitching aside, I do feel like fans of the story so far are really going to enjoy what Endwalker is doing so for that I don't doubt that people will be showering the game with 9's and 10's in their own reviews. And gameplay wise it's still fantastic, some of the new UI decisions are fantastic like the new map when traveling via aethernet is great. The new classes look cool as shit, and I've heard nothing but good things about how they play.
Hopefully in a week or two the log in issues will be over and the game can be played without a 4hour queue lead up.
