At a Tokyo press conference today, Square Enix CEO Yoichi Wada gave a few very candid statements about FFXIV stating, “The Final Fantasy brand has been greatly damaged.“, adding “We’ll continue with our reform work, which basically amounts to fully redoing the game, and hope to revive the FFXIV that should have been released.”
Wada of course was referring to the horrible release of FFXIV when it launched last year back in September chock full of bugs, crashes and game-play issues. The one month trial offer has been extended indefinitely, making FFXIV in essence a free-to-play title for the time being as Square Enix continues to completely revamp the game. Then of course there’s the PS3 version which has also been delayed until further notice.
However I don’t agree with Wada’ statement about FFXIV greatly damaging the Final Fantasy series, if anything the damage was done to Square Enix itself. Launching a title prematurely, especially a MMORPG title, is no way to win fans over and make players think twice before buying another MMORPG developed by Square Enix.
I am glad my statements are now verified and not just troll words in a blog. This is true, the game was horrible all due to the simple reason of project management. IN FACT, this title has gone down the tube after FF7, In FF1 – 7, the license was under Nintendo, and the developement team was a very specific group of talented people. After, the license got sold to SEGA/SONY. Well, let’s just say 8 was a clone with modern skin to feel like 7, and 9 was a anime WTF is this crap fest. NOTHING redeemed itself. 10 was a PS2 “look at my graphics” fart fest that used the name to promote a horrible game. The story and theme never evolves, just the graphics. Then a wild 11 online appears. The face you went from a solo rpg to a mmorpg that requires you to solo and DIE often, the crowed was VERY specific. This also was a copy and paste of FF elements, and never stuck true to it’s roots. The multiplatform license means it was DOOMED to stay at PS2 graphic level for its lifespan. Sadly, lots of bored asians with money are the only ones keeping this horrible title alive. They patched it DEATH, and instead of nerfing the content to be more “wow” like, the nerfed the players, so that a lvl 80 can help a lvl 1, but the lvl 80 EQ turns inot lvl 1 EQ, which is a huge facepalm.
After that, well, good job SONY/SEGA, you have proved you are horrible directors of games. Greedy devs to the core that do not give to shites to you. Look at Warner brothers Agreement with the Matrix online, COntractors got rich, player suffered a crap product, and Sony shuts it down on the hardcore fans. Your a dumb fool if you still buy their games, and yes you as the consumer have the power, but your all wow playing sheep.
This game has in my opinion done really badly, and i think the final fantasy games have gone downhill recently, the best news that has came out of them is Final Fantasy X being re-released for the PS3 as that is one of the most entertaining ones.
The game tried to be too innovative and also it behaves like it belongs on a ps3 controller. If they UI in an MMO isn’t sacred to the developer then nothing else will matter.