Square Enix's Final Fantasy XIV Saves Its Profit Margin

[JarinArenos]

Sorry, but I wasn't talking about the settings. It's the gameplay that has stagnated in my view. You must of heard of the complaints around 13 being one long tunnel and how the combat was simply pressing one button over and over. It was the last game I bought for my 360 before I sold it because I didn't feel as though I was playing a RPG anymore.

Fair enough. The gameplay stagnating is a legitimate issue, and I have heard complaints about XIII's battle system. I thought you were talking about settings, based on how you were saying X was "good", but too different from IX. My mistake.

X's battle system is something I count as its only redeeming feature. The thing is, the battle system doesn't need to be the focus. It's my opinion that good story and characters can save a release from somewhat weak gameplay (see: FFIX, FFFXII) but no amount of eye-candy battle system can save an RPG from lousy characters (see: XIII). Admittedly, 13 had nothing BUT eye-candy, and dropped the ball on gameplay too.

 

[KingdomFantasyXIII]

So... consoles aren't the devil after all, Square? That's fantastic... Making a quality game ensures people will support it? That's wonderful...

... now let's see if you learn the right lessons.

It's almost like... if you make good games then people will buy them.

The problem with these statements is that FF14 ARR makes it's profits from SUBSCRIPTIONS, not console sales. Hell, FF14 ARR has sold less physical copies than JJBA Battle game. Don't you morons know how MMO sales work?

In fact, their console sales of FF14 ARR has been the weakest of the sales group.

Sorry, but I wasn't talking about the settings. It's the gameplay that has stagnated in my view. You must of heard of the complaints around 13 being one long tunnel and how the combat was simply pressing one button over and over. It was the last game I bought for my 360 before I sold it because I didn't feel as though I was playing a RPG anymore.

Fair enough. The gameplay stagnating is a legitimate issue, and I have heard complaints about XIII's battle system. I thought you were talking about settings, based on how you were saying X was "good", but too different from IX. My mistake.

X's battle system is something I count as its only redeeming feature. The thing is, the battle system doesn't need to be the focus. It's my opinion that good story and characters can save a release from somewhat weak gameplay (see: FFIX, FFFXII) but no amount of eye-candy battle system can save an RPG from lousy characters (see: XIII). Admittedly, 13 had nothing BUT eye-candy, and dropped the ball on gameplay too.

You really don't know what character development is, do you? I bet you think such characters from "The Last Story" are deep and well written because they are likable by that logic? You know, despite the fact that none of the characters have development or any form of backstory leading to some of the most one dimensional characters I have seen in an RPG. Oh and BTW, if you don't like the auto attack button, here is some suggestions:

1. Don't use it
2. Go into the settings and fix it so you don't have to use it.

I'm sorry I have to be associated with such shallow fans of the series.

 

[JarinArenos]

Sorry, but I wasn't talking about the settings. It's the gameplay that has stagnated in my view. You must of heard of the complaints around 13 being one long tunnel and how the combat was simply pressing one button over and over. It was the last game I bought for my 360 before I sold it because I didn't feel as though I was playing a RPG anymore.

Fair enough. The gameplay stagnating is a legitimate issue, and I have heard complaints about XIII's battle system. I thought you were talking about settings, based on how you were saying X was "good", but too different from IX. My mistake.

X's battle system is something I count as its only redeeming feature. The thing is, the battle system doesn't need to be the focus. It's my opinion that good story and characters can save a release from somewhat weak gameplay (see: FFIX, FFFXII) but no amount of eye-candy battle system can save an RPG from lousy characters (see: XIII). Admittedly, 13 had nothing BUT eye-candy, and dropped the ball on gameplay too.

You really don't know what character development is, do you? I bet you think such characters from "The Last Story" are deep and well written because they are likable by that logic? You know, despite the fact that none of the characters have development or any form of backstory leading to some of the most one dimensional characters I have seen in an RPG. Oh and BTW, if you don't like the auto attack button, here is some suggestions:

1. Don't use it
2. Go into the settings and fix it so you don't have to use it.

I'm sorry I have to be associated with such shallow fans of the series.

Well THAT was a lot more vitriolic response than I expected. Wrong side of the bed this morning? Or is this just your default state? Baffling choice of cheap shots to take, too, considering that I cited liking games that had solid character development arcs (FFIX, and XII). (Incidentally, Last Story felt like a mashup of "top 10 fantasy cliches". Go play Xenoblade; it's better in every respect).

But no, I dared attack your precious XIII, so I am a heathen that must die? Sorry, if I don't see hints of any sort of character sympathy by 20 hours into the game, I bail and spend my time elsewhere. Seriously, the only tolerable thing in that game for me was "offensive racial cliche" man.

Also, having to dig into a novel's worth of datalog reading for ANYTHING to make sense is bad storytelling.

 

[Fox12]

So... consoles aren't the devil after all, Square? That's fantastic... Making a quality game ensures people will support it? That's wonderful...

... now let's see if you learn the right lessons.

It's almost like... if you make good games then people will buy them.

The problem with these statements is that FF14 ARR makes it's profits from SUBSCRIPTIONS, not console sales. Hell, FF14 ARR has sold less physical copies than JJBA Battle game. Don't you morons know how MMO sales work?

In fact, their console sales of FF14 ARR has been the weakest of the sales group.

Sorry, but I wasn't talking about the settings. It's the gameplay that has stagnated in my view. You must of heard of the complaints around 13 being one long tunnel and how the combat was simply pressing one button over and over. It was the last game I bought for my 360 before I sold it because I didn't feel as though I was playing a RPG anymore.

Fair enough. The gameplay stagnating is a legitimate issue, and I have heard complaints about XIII's battle system. I thought you were talking about settings, based on how you were saying X was "good", but too different from IX. My mistake.

X's battle system is something I count as its only redeeming feature. The thing is, the battle system doesn't need to be the focus. It's my opinion that good story and characters can save a release from somewhat weak gameplay (see: FFIX, FFFXII) but no amount of eye-candy battle system can save an RPG from lousy characters (see: XIII). Admittedly, 13 had nothing BUT eye-candy, and dropped the ball on gameplay too.

You really don't know what character development is, do you? I bet you think such characters from "The Last Story" are deep and well written because they are likable by that logic? You know, despite the fact that none of the characters have development or any form of backstory leading to some of the most one dimensional characters I have seen in an RPG. Oh and BTW, if you don't like the auto attack button, here is some suggestions:

1. Don't use it
2. Go into the settings and fix it so you don't have to use it.

I'm sorry I have to be associated with such shallow fans of the series.

oh my, rather pretentious today, aren't we? The game was broken before. It made no money. They owned their mistake and fixed it. Now it's making money. That's commendable to me. Just because several people have an opinion different than yours doesn't mean you need to throw a hissy fit.

 

[KingdomFantasyXIII]

Sorry, but I wasn't talking about the settings. It's the gameplay that has stagnated in my view. You must of heard of the complaints around 13 being one long tunnel and how the combat was simply pressing one button over and over. It was the last game I bought for my 360 before I sold it because I didn't feel as though I was playing a RPG anymore.

Fair enough. The gameplay stagnating is a legitimate issue, and I have heard complaints about XIII's battle system. I thought you were talking about settings, based on how you were saying X was "good", but too different from IX. My mistake.

X's battle system is something I count as its only redeeming feature. The thing is, the battle system doesn't need to be the focus. It's my opinion that good story and characters can save a release from somewhat weak gameplay (see: FFIX, FFFXII) but no amount of eye-candy battle system can save an RPG from lousy characters (see: XIII). Admittedly, 13 had nothing BUT eye-candy, and dropped the ball on gameplay too.

You really don't know what character development is, do you? I bet you think such characters from "The Last Story" are deep and well written because they are likable by that logic? You know, despite the fact that none of the characters have development or any form of backstory leading to some of the most one dimensional characters I have seen in an RPG. Oh and BTW, if you don't like the auto attack button, here is some suggestions:

1. Don't use it
2. Go into the settings and fix it so you don't have to use it.

I'm sorry I have to be associated with such shallow fans of the series.

Well THAT was a lot more vitriolic response than I expected. Wrong side of the bed this morning? Or is this just your default state? Baffling choice of cheap shots to take, too, considering that I cited liking games that had solid character development arcs (FFIX, and XII). (Incidentally, Last Story felt like a mashup of "top 10 fantasy cliches". Go play Xenoblade; it's better in every respect).

But no, I dared attack your precious XIII, so I am a heathen that must die? Sorry, if I don't see hints of any sort of character sympathy by 20 hours into the game, I bail and spend my time elsewhere. Seriously, the only tolerable thing in that game for me was "offensive racial cliche" man.

Also, having to dig into a novel's worth of datalog reading for ANYTHING to make sense is bad storytelling.

>Go play Xenoblade; it's better in every respect).
I already did and thought it was better than FF8-13. But that does not take away from my point about the 13 charcaters


>liking games that had solid character development arcs (FFIX, and XII).
FF9 had some good character development, but there were practically just as much characters that didn't get character development like Quina, Enko and Amarant. Plus Freya was a missed chance after disk 1. FF12 characters were FAR worse as Vaan and Penelo had nothing to do with the story and Fran was just an outlet for explanation.

Lightning, Fang, Sazh and Hope were developed pretty well while Snow and Vanille were very weak.

>Sorry, if I don't see hints of any sort of character sympathy by 20 hours into the game, I bail and spend my time elsewhere
The first 20 hours were character oriented! THey were the character development Between Lightning, Sazh and Hope. Fang had a bit in the first half a bit later in the second half, but you get my point. You seriously were not paying attention.

>Also, having to dig into a novel's worth of datalog reading for ANYTHING to make sense is bad storytelling.
Dude you barely had to use that thing to understand what was going on. I used it like 3 times and I was able to get the gist of what happened in the story. The Datalog is just extra details.