FFXIV is one of the shittiest games ever made.

[GothGirlSupremacy]

Let me tell you why this game sucks.

1) As an MMORPG, it sucks.

Now you may be thinking, "but MMORPGs already suck" but this one takes suckitude to a whole new nadir. I would say FFXIV barely qualifies as a game in some cases. Yeah yeah, you have your standard overworld that you will never die in, your dungeons that will have tanks that take twenty minutes to walk from one end of the hallway to the other, trials or raids that take place in the same room with a new background, but dig it even deeper and you see the flaws. The gameplay is clunky and feels jank. It has this absolutely autistic global cooldown enforced that is a genuine 2 second delay with few abilities off the GCD depending on your JOB. When you select your JOB you'll see all these really cool and impressive looking bars and such on your screen eye-fucking you and think "wow, this is gaming" but I'll spoil it: just about every single class and role follows the same looping pattern. You hit this ability, then this ability, then this ability, then finish with this ability. In case you ever forget, Square-Enix is kind enough to make your next ability glow like a firework so you can engage in this riveting game of Simon Says. Also there's an invisible barrier on the overworld that reminds you to stay on the main track. Garbage.

2) There's no customization, talents, skills, feats, what-have-you among the JOBS.

Part of what makes an MMORPG fun when it comes to the gameplay, at least in the decent ones, is the aspect of player expression. Differentiating your class from someone else's in ways that sees you both under the same umbrella but with different approaches. This shit doesn't exist in FFXIV. The "stats" you get are so minor and stupidly passive that you could probably ignore them entirely. Like it was mentioned above, every class having the same general gameplay loop gets compounded further when it hits you that every single class will be playing the exact same way in the end. There's one set rotation with the only "choice" really being whether you need AOE or single target. It's soulless. I do enjoy when reading people that play this game seriously talk about the classes and roles like any of it actually matters. One day when they graduate to a real game they're going to be in for the time of their life. There's no better way to describe FFXIV than: "a game so fundamentally basic that even girls can enjoy it." And that makes me angry.

3) "It gets better after 200 hours, trust me."

This is my favorite defense of this slop. The belief that after 200 hours of following this inane, aggressively retarded storyline you'll get this Eureka moment and start to love it. You won't. A ton of these characters you meet in the near universally-agreed bad base game story are present throughout the various expansions. A new player that is advised to blitz through the cutscenes and text to get to "the good expansion" will thus have zero fucking clue what's going on or why they should care. Ask yourself if when reading a book series if you start with the second or third book and how well that works out. It's dumb. It's also a huge trap because the storyline itself, which I took it upon myself to spoil, is pretty mediocre. I've no clue why this game's story gets the praise it does. I'm guessing most people don't even know themselves, they naturally assume with the millions of cutscenes you're forced to endure something decent must have been hit by now. Also be sure to set aside time because some of these cutscenes approach Kojima lengths of absurd. We're talking 40-50 minutes straight. I'd rather be tortured by a serial killer or be forced into a conversation with one of these dour German fucks.

4) The community is full of weirdos.

Usually I don't give a shit about communities in MMORPGs but FFXIV is one special case here that it has to be mentioned. When you go around main cities and hubs you'll notice this disturbing trend: a lot of people don't really play this game as a game. They're sitting around, in these really fag looking costumes and shit, dancing or talking like teenagers at their homecoming event or probably ERPing in private messages. If anyone here as a yung buck ever endured things like Habbo Hotel or IMVU you'll know exactly what to expect. All the races look goofy too. I don't tend to mind JRPG oddness but the graphical style sincerely repulses me here. Also when you begin this game your character has this really annoying green sprout next to their name and because the community in this game feels like you've invaded some online sect of the Stepford Wives you'll get random messages by what I can only assume are queers larping as catgirls offering you help. Eventually I started to reply to these messages with a stiff, "no fuck off." I got reported for toxic behavior and sent warnings. Fuck 'em.

And that's why this game is trash. I gave it a good and honest shot about 2 years ago hoping to find something to enjoy in it but was consistently letdown and very rarely does it hit me but this is one of those times I do feel like I wasted hours of my life that will never ever return. MMORPGs generally love to waste your time but this game not only wastes your time but has the audacity to call it "content" while it does so. And the gameplay doesn't make up for it, the classes are boring, the main sell of the storyline is infantile and the community will one day be busted as a human trafficking ring.

People that actually play or enjoy this game are great because you can tell they've never played anything else so they truly have no frame of reference or taste of quality otherwise. When I read someone loves FFXIV I like to give a little arrogant chuckle and then pray to Santa Muerte that their entire family is executed on film for their insolence.

If this convinced you to never pick this piece of shit up then I have done my earthly duty as a human-being full of compassion.

[Hando]

I tried out FF11 back in the day. Can say with confidence that it was one of the worst gaming experiences I've ever endured. I imagine this is a similar affair with improved graffix.

[rusty_shackleford]

The only class that feels unique is blue mage, and it's restricted from being used in most content. Classes are used for neither archetype nor niche protection, they might as well just be cosmetic with how much they actually matter due to how similar they are.
Agreed, shit game, one of the worst MMOs I've played with very few redeeming qualities.

[somerandomdude]

Gays, troons, and 40 year old lonely cat ladies love it, so it has a market. Decline game marketed to decline people.

[J1M]

It's a degeneracy containment zone that became too big and started influencing things outside its walled garden.

[Kalarion]

I tried out FF11 back in the day. Can say with confidence that it was one of the worst gaming experiences I've ever endured. I imagine this is a similar affair with improved graffix.

You have lost your fucking mind.

[GothGirlSupremacy]

Holy shit, Kalarion talked.

[Cedric]

Good music though.

[GothGirlSupremacy]

Don't test me, Ed.

[Nanafuse]

I think the base game's story is fine. It's even better if you never play with real people.

[Derringer]

MMO's either rely on gatcha or sandbox elements to carry their 'content' and 'updates', the only ones I ever especially cared for were the Diablo clones but that's just because they feel more involving in the end, not that they're especially good or fun.

[GothGirlSupremacy]

Well there's a whole rant to be made on how MMORPGs and their modernized ways are all trash and time wasting to keep you on a long leash/subscribed as long as possible when they should've been a spiritual successor to MUDs and try their best to replicate a tabletop experience. Vertical gear treadmills always suck.

[rusty_shackleford]

Dungeon & Dragon Online's reincarnation feature is probably one of the better forms of 'progression' in any MMO. Beats out any sort of 'vertical' or 'horizontal' progression IMO.
You just start over with a minor bonus based on your previous life. The game isn't centered around rushing to X level and repeatedly doing content, but doing content at all levels.

[Fedora Master]

Never play gook mmos

[GhostCow]

Everquest was literally the only good MMO. Shadowbane was almost good though.

[Klerik]

Final Fantasy 7-10x2 are what im most familiar with and they are my favorites. They are where the genre shined its most positive aspects brightly. Those being, experiencing an alternate reality with comfy game mechanics using late 90s technology.

I didn't get a chance to play FF11 on ps2 back in the day and im sad I missed the oppurtunity because it seemed like it might have been alot of fun. I did get to experience World of Warcraft during it's peak however.

[KnightoftheWind]

MMOs are largely successful because of their world building, and the sensation of playing with friends and hundreds of internet strangers on one server. The gameplay itself is nothing special, below average even. The modern age is all about "escapism", and MMOs offer that fix and allow you to live vicariously through your digital avatar. An idealized version of yourself that you control every aspect of.

FF XIV in particular, being that it's made in Japan, depicts a more idyllic version of our world. Where globohomo and demographic change isn't an issue, where beauty and objective truth haven't been stamped out by irony and by soyentists and bugmen, and where beautiful women and Herculean men live side-by-side and quest for glory and honor. Haven't played FF XIV myself, but I gather at least some of that is accurate. People want from FF XIV what they can no longer get from modern life, even the trannies and degenerates create idealized versions of themselves that are more HECKIN VALID' than their real world crossdressing. The MMO ultimately becomes their reality, and they wish to impose their fictional avatar onto the real-world.

[GhostCow]

FF XIV in particular, being that it's made in Japan, depicts a more idyllic version of our world. Where globohomo and demographic change isn't an issue, where beauty and objective truth haven't been stamped out by irony and by soyentists and bugmen, and where beautiful women and Herculean men live side-by-side and quest for glory and honor.

Herculean men

[KnightoftheWind]

See that's where my comment about trannies comes in. But it seems you can in fact play as a beefed-up chad character if you wanted to.

[GhostCow]

See that's where my comment about trannies comes in. But it seems you can in fact play as a beefed-up chad character if you wanted to.

I have played the game and there's not really any way to make a male who's not a bishonen

[Klerik]

Koreans and Japs are really cookoo for femboys so it doesn't surprise me.

[KnightoftheWind]

Most anime feature teenage characters, it's rare to see a man over the age of say 26 that's bearded and has a family. Those are usually reserved for "hotheaded warrior" or "leader of bandits" type characters. Adversaries that are usually thwarted by the protagonist, often with great ease.

Korea is worse than Japan, with most popular men in their media wearing as much makeup as their female counterparts. It's a perverse obsession with the feminine.

[Klerik]

Women make-shit-up while men paint their face.

[KnightoftheWind]

Women make-shit-up while men paint their face.

"It's not makeup, it's paint!"

[Klerik]

Women make-shit-up while men paint their face.

"It's not makeup, it's paint!"

[Nanafuse]

bros just make a catman lol