Final Fantasy XIV Alpha Has "No Major Problems"

[Marshall Honorof]

Final Fantasy XIV Alpha Has "No Major Problems"

A short alpha test shows promise for the troubled MMO.

Fixing Final Fantasy XIV has got to be a daunting task. Not only is does it bear one of the most popular names in gaming and act as the spiritual successor to unusually terrible launch [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/118089-Square-Says-Final-Fantasy-XI-Is-Its-Biggest-Cash-Chocobo]. Square Enix has been hard at work preparing for a relaunch under the name A Realm Reborn. Although the game has only a few weeks left in its alpha test, word from the company indicates that all is well in the realm of Eorzea.

"The alpha test is also underway, and we're glad to say there have been no major problems as we begin taking in lots of player feedback," writes Naoki Yoshida, the game's director. November 1 saw the last archival save for character data, while servers will go down on November 11 and begin reopening a few days afterwards. The alpha test, which began only recently, has proceeded smoothly so far. This is good for Square Enix, given that the alpha test's abbreviated length does not allow much time to iron out many major issues.

"With all the changes that have come to pass, I realize that it must have been difficult for you, the players," admits Yoshida. "It's been a very turbulent two years for me as well, and the game has come to hold a very special place in my heart." Two years is a very long time to spend fixing an MMO, but Final Fantasy's parent company is very invested in keeping the franchise alive and up to usual standards. By the end of the month, gamers will know whether A Realm Reborn has acted like a good JRPG protagonist and saved a world, or whether this realm is better left in limbo.

Source: Siliconera [http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/57029-Letter-from-the-Producer-XXXVIII-%2811-01-2012%29]

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[dragongit]

they better hope this doesn't bite it big time. they did afterall already make a full fledged MMO and then scrap it. if even companies today don't sell enough copies while being marginally acclaimed like Sleeping dogs, and be in trouble, a failed MMO could be hazardous to SE. making KH3 or future FF games harder to produce.

 

[Sylveria]

FF11 and 14 are not JRPGs.. they're MMORPGs.

 

[Sylveria]

You have to admire their dedication in trying to fix this game, even if it was panned by almost everyone, the length they have gone through in order to please the fans is admirable to say the least.

I will not get it (not an MMO player) But I hope FF14 recovers from it's rocky reputation.

They aren't doing it to please the fans, they're doing it to make sure their gigantic investment isn't a total loss. I've said before and I'll say again, FF14 having the disastrous launch it had was because of the fans. Beta testing was nothing but "fans" who flamed anyone who dared criticize the game in any way because they choose to believe it was perfect from day 1.

 

[Raesvelg]

Actually, most of the alpha and beta testers I talked to while I was in said alpha/beta were saying things more like this "X is good, Y is good, the game needs A, B, C, and D at all before launch, and Q, R, S, and T need fixing."

Apparently the Japanese testers, on the other hand, were all kinds of fanboys. And apparently still are, sadly.

Seriously, it's an MMO that launched without an auction house. Or a search system.

The other problem with the alpha/beta, of course, was the practice SE had of requesting only feedback on particular systems as they were being tested. Which I understand cuts down on how much the programmers have to read, but doesn't really give you a very good idea of what's actually wrong with a game the scope of an MMO.

Being forced to say "Yes, the party system in and of itself works..." but leave off "...but you can't search for people to join it, can't easily equip your character, can't find anything to kill because the monsters are spread very thin, etc etc etc" is irritating for the tester, and foolish for the company.

 

[kyogen]

If FF XIV had succeeded at launch, I would have ignored it and stuck to the single-player entries in the main series. This whole redevelopment process, however, intrigues me. I plan on trying it out.

 

[l3o2828]

So, good news, an MMO i WONT play seems to be alright in it's alpha state...NOW COULD YOU PLEASE DEVELOP VERSUS 13 PLEASE?
PLEASE?

 

[cidbahamut]

You have to admire their dedication in trying to fix this game, even if it was panned by almost everyone, the length they have gone through in order to please the fans is admirable to say the least.

I will not get it (not an MMO player) But I hope FF14 recovers from it's rocky reputation.

They aren't doing it to please the fans, they're doing it to make sure their gigantic investment isn't a total loss. I've said before and I'll say again, FF14 having the disastrous launch it had was because of the fans. Beta testing was nothing but "fans" who flamed anyone who dared criticize the game in any way because they choose to believe it was perfect from day 1.

That's not how I heard it over in the FFXI community. Apparently all the beta testers left feedback saying "don't launch this, it's broken as hell and will fail because of X, Y and Z." Then the game launched and failed because of X, Y and Z because SE didn't heed their warnings.

The only reason the game is getting a remake is because SE refuses to allow their flagship franchise to have such a catastrophic failure in its line-up. What they're doing doesn't make good business sense. FFXIV had its chance and it failed spectacularly. It will never recover from that. Ever.

 

[Merlark]

They have done allot of work, but 14 was so incomplete it launched almost like a tech demo. we'll see. if they end up giving new players a trail period and it pans out i'd love to enjoy the world they made. the screen shots look allot better at least.

But as mentioned, Square loves to listen to their Japanese fan base. the game they like to play and what western gamers like to play is different.

when it came to 11 square ended up listening to their larger western game player based and the game became much better in my opinion but still remained rather true to its original play style, only with a few softer elements so you didn't take an arrow to the knee every time you died.

I still don't have allot of hope though, we'll see. Squares word means nothing to me now. the proof will be in their product, not their word.

 

[Tahmoh]

hopefully they dont ballz up the encode this time and it actually runs on systems that arent uber powerfull without chugging like a broken steam engine.

I may give it a looksy after it launches(again) just to see if its any good.

 

[Merlark]

when it came to 11 square ended up listening to their larger western game player base

Not really.

They completely redid the requirements for summoners, added systems in place to grant more experience to casual players with the exp rings and modes of play to do smaller parties and activity's that did not require strict party rules. they where not things the Japanese community where asking for.

They also adjusted difficulty for many really annoying CoP missions and changed the experience system to be more forgiving for solo play.

they did a good deal in my opinion. 11 was never perfect of course, but for a first MMO they kept the content coming and towards the end I at least felt more catered to in terms of play style. I do agree that they were unwilling to come down a bit on the requirements of their end game content but they did work in other gear and activity's that was nearly as good but flexible in the time investment by adopting point system rewards.

 

[Lvl 64 Klutz]

By the end of the month, gamers will know whether A Realm Reborn has acted like a good JRPG protagonist and saved a world, or whether this realm is better left in limbo.

I think your information is a little off-base. When the servers re-open after the 11th, it will still be the old game for people who want to keep playing it. As far as I know, there's still no official word on when A Realm Reborn will launch.

 

[EmperorSubcutaneous]

You have to admire their dedication in trying to fix this game, even if it was panned by almost everyone, the length they have gone through in order to please the fans is admirable to say the least.

I will not get it (not an MMO player) But I hope FF14 recovers from it's rocky reputation.

They aren't doing it to please the fans, they're doing it to make sure their gigantic investment isn't a total loss. I've said before and I'll say again, FF14 having the disastrous launch it had was because of the fans. Beta testing was nothing but "fans" who flamed anyone who dared criticize the game in any way because they choose to believe it was perfect from day 1.

This is not true.

There was a vocal minority who were like that, but I was involved in beta testing the game and the majority of us had problems with the game that we wanted them to fix. Most of them would get angry if you said the game was unfixable and had no redeeming features, but hardly anyone said it was flawless.

The problems came around when we believed the developers when they said that they'd be addressing our issues by launch. Most of us still believed that the game would turn out okay when it launched, and that everything was just a mess because it was beta. We remembered all the lofty promises they'd made a year previously, and we believed that they'd still put in everything they promised. How wrong we were.

Then there was the additional problem that most people who tested XIV had only played XI, or were at least big fans of XI, and so didn't have the same current-era expectations that the majority of MMO players do. So while we knew that the game had issues during beta, most beta testers didn't realize exactly how many other issues there would be in the eyes of the rest of the gaming community. For example, XI players don't mind grind, because XI is an EQ-era MMO and grind is a standard feature. But since most MMO players are used to more modern game design, the rest of the world hated the grind in XIV, even though the fans were mostly fine with it.

Anyway, if it turns out fun, I'll play it. If not, I've been over it for two years now and I'm perfectly happy with GW2.

 

[Ukomba]

they better hope this doesn't bite it big time. they did afterall already make a full fledged MMO and then scrap it. if even companies today don't sell enough copies while being marginally acclaimed like Sleeping dogs, and be in trouble, a failed MMO could be hazardous to SE. making KH3 or future FF games harder to produce.

No worries, I'm sure EA wouldn't mind buying them... or Disney...

 

[dragongit]

they better hope this doesn't bite it big time. they did afterall already make a full fledged MMO and then scrap it. if even companies today don't sell enough copies while being marginally acclaimed like Sleeping dogs, and be in trouble, a failed MMO could be hazardous to SE. making KH3 or future FF games harder to produce.

No worries, I'm sure EA wouldn't mind buying them... or Disney...

Maybe if Disney bought them out we'd get Kingdom Hearts 3 sooner.

 

[GTwander]

I, personally, think the problem with FFXIV was that it was far too similar in aesthetics to FFIX... which is probably my least favorite entry (besides X-2). Didn't play it back when you had to spam basic attacks, but even when I hopped in (on a 10$ copy, mind you) it was a fairly decent game, and different from many of the MMO clones out there - just not in a really good way.

I'd easily come back and give it a try when it goes into beta, and hopefully my legit copy of the original game will let me do so.

 

[Mylinkay Asdara]

when it came to 11 square ended up listening to their larger western game player base

Not really.

They completely redid the requirements for summoners, added systems in place to grant more experience to casual players with the exp rings and modes of play to do smaller parties and activity's that did not require strict party rules. they where not things the Japanese community where asking for.

They also adjusted difficulty for many really annoying CoP missions and changed the experience system to be more forgiving for solo play.

they did a good deal in my opinion. 11 was never perfect of course, but for a first MMO they kept the content coming and towards the end I at least felt more catered to in terms of play style. I do agree that they were unwilling to come down a bit on the requirements of their end game content but they did work in other gear and activity's that was nearly as good but flexible in the time investment by adopting point system rewards.

Now, if you ask me (which you haven't), I would say that those are all the elements that eventually led to a degrading of what made the game unique in this hemisphere and my eventual departure from a world I had known and loved because it had become something else, along with the majority of my LS of course.

If they were to make XIV more tuned to how XI started I might just have to fire my old LS back up to get to the screen again.