let’s talk…
Hello everyone I am Jmulls of Jmulls Gaming and welcome to my little corner of the internet!
Walkthroughs, First Impressions, Critique and Reviews for all things video games, by someone who loves video games!
In today’s video, I talk about a giant topic in MMORPG’s while focusing on Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail !
VOD Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@JMullsVODS-cb6up
Follow me on Twitch! : https://www.twitch.tv/jmullsg
Follow me on Twitter! : https://twitter.com/JmullsG
Follow me on TikTok! : www.tiktok.com/@jmullsg
Join the Discord!: https://discord.gg/WxHeyVxJhC
Contact me at: [email protected]
FINAL FANTASY is a registered trademark of Square Enix Holdings Co., Ltd.
© SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD. All Rights Reserved.
#ff14 #ffxiv #finalfantasy #finalfantasyxiv #live #livestream #pc #pcgaming
source
I like Dawntrail for it being unique enough from the other expansions.
It's basically the Hero's Journey but it's the Dawnservant stuff instead.
All in all, Dawn Trail could've been worse but I like it.
Though, it's mainly because of I started playing it on July 22nd instead of it's launch date. lol
I wonder if it would be possible to use the Data from your achievement log and use it as flag to unlock sets for your Glamour Dresser similar to how Calamity Salvager work and merchants for glamor relic weapons… … (at least i think they work that way)
I think even within what they do, things are too formulaic and there are things they can change WITHIN the limit / budget / tech ability they have.
The thing that kills me on the playing to safe / sticking to the formula is that once we got to ~97 dungeon it became super obvious what was going to happen because of the formula. First Promise was clearly going to be the next boss, so there's going to be a dungeon leading up to him and then him as a trial. And then there's only one other person with as unique model/voice showing up (Sphene), so it's really clear they are going to be the final boss with a final dungeon.
Basically, Mt Gulg (79) -> Vauthry (79/80) then Amarout(80) -> Hades(80);
Altiascope(89) -> Hydaelyn (89/90) then Dead Ends (90) -> Endsinger (90);
Dungeon Crawl to First Promise(99) -> First Promis (99/100) then Dungeon Crawl to Sphene (100) -> Sphene (100);
There was no twist to get a different big bad besides Sphene since it was too late. Endwalker dropped a twist with Meteion, but that was BEFORE the 87 dungeon. We were out of time, and they didn't drop a trial at 97 as the twist
Things that can't be changed easily if I sympathize with the Devs:
* There can only be 6 zones
* There can only be 3 trials
* There can only be 6 Dungeons (X1/X3/X5/X7/X9/X00) + 2 additional cap dungeons
Things that CAN be changed:
* How the 6 zones are made / split (DT did a little bit of mix up on this, so ok)
* When the 3 trials happened (DT did NOT mix this up which sucked. We had 2 zones? Time from Trial 1. Trial 2 at X9 after the X9 Dungeon. Then cap Trial after cap dungeon. They haven't mixed this up since Lakshmi in Stormblood, then they at least dropped Lakshmi at X7 and without a dungeon in front. That makes the story more interesting / not a 'i know exactly what is going to happen because mechanically we're out of time and we HAVE to have 2 more dungeons and 2 more trials). Putting the Trials in different spots (i.e. not exactly after finishing 2 maps, not always having the second one near end after the second to last dungeon) would help a lot.
Unpopular opinion but I honestly prefer Blue Mage and Beastmaster as they are than having them be regular jobs. While BST isn't out yet I honestly can't see BLU work within the current limited rotations in a way that wouldn't end up with it feeling like rdm or smn in some way. As someone who mained BLU in FF11 I was initially disappointed to hear it would be limited but I think I enjoy it far more in its current form, with all of its flexibility and power, than I would if it had a strict rotation and a handful of spells chosen from leveling. Even if those spells were "learned" it would I guess in a way feel forced, part of my enjoyment of the class was going out and learning spells, spending sometimes hours waiting to finally learn it felt rewarding. While some spells are now guaranteed in 14, it requires doing content synced, knowing which tools you need, what role you wish to fill, and in many ways fills that same feeling of accomplishment when you succeed and learn the spell, even if you'll never really use it. I guess I just find it more rewarding and fun to play when I have to consider what spells to equip to the content I'm engaging in, something I had to do in 11 as well. Yeah there are the standard givens but after those are filled there is flexibility and decision making. And I like that.
I really hope for BST they implement a system like in 11 where you have to consider your pets strengths and weaknesses. Different creatures were strong or weak to other creatures like vilekin being weak to birds but strong to plant monsters and so on. Things like that level of engagement can't be brought into the current iteration of FF14s main jobs and while your idea of having a limited aspect attached to a main job that still feels like it's taking something away from it. At least to me anyway.
Sorry, people shit all over 1.0 it has better cutscenes than current 7.0.
The 1.x incident has made these devs just decide to play it safe.
We understand how important the base code may be, but it is limiting what the game could be and it gets disheartening how they keep saying they can't do much about it.
Can't say I have any excitement for beast master, it will have to be something very special
We all have chocobos. Animal combat companions are in the game and pretending it is too hard to make for Beast Master is the devs lying out their asses.
Monster capture is a huge genre in general… most likely what will happen is some sort of solo game mode progression job system with monster capture mechanics. + monster arena. which is a final fantasy thing. I think blumage works as a limited job and honestly beastmaster is probably limited so people can enjoy limited job content with eaither job if one doesnt like blu etc. the regulators def have something to do with Beastmaster
I call some bs on this. Point being blizzard said the same thing for classic wow and they were able to unspahgetti it and make it happen
I mained a Warlock in my time in WoW. I used to think that game had bad pet ai. Then I swapped to 14.
I don't get why they don't just cease making more content for ff14 or at least slow down production to shift to making a new ff14 that maybe takes place in the future with a new engine that has less limitations. They could easily leave up the current ff14 until it is no longer sustainable to keep up the servers then they could sell it as a single player experience. They should have started development for a new ff14 after Endwalker since the story was done.
Funny thing is Enix does have other Dev teams that could make a new ff14 with some input by Yoshi P but they just refuse to do it and keep putting money into projects that flop x.x
A big problem that is going to happen, is that the game will get too out of date at one point and the game will be too big. There is only so much some one can add to a game and a dated one at that with as said, a limited engine. I just hope they try to innovate and they don't keep trying to keep ff14 when it is starting to die in the future on life support and can't give it a rest it deserves.
You can only allow so much freedom for a limited job where they plan to let you run around with a King Behemoth. But realistically, let's not forget how old Summoner pet AI hurt the job as a whole in the past. You can't balance a job and have it be satisfying to play if a large bulk of your damage comes from a mindless pet that would die to most, intricate mechanics. And the micromanaging was deemed a "burden" rather than "interesting/fun." In current encounter design/dance fights, player input is king. It's another reason DoTs have been taken away from most jobs.
all this foxus on job balance they should focus on making the classes fun.
The reason you can't play classes or jobs the way they exist in a game like FF11 isn't really a technical limitation. The original game engine was actually much more dynamic in terms of all the customization within classes and the ability to mix classes together in a way that was closer to what we have in FF11.
The reason that you can't play that way in FF14 is because the decision was made between 1.0 and 2.0 to make the game into something much more like World of Warcraft, which was a well-established paradigm that was being used in most MMOs at the time, and so it was easy to quickly program and implement.
So now, every aspect of the game is balanced around that paradigm. Gear follows the standard color-coded paradigm and it is acquired mostly by turning in tokens and occasionally getting a direct drop. Classes are tightly balanced in terms of DPS and utility to allow them all to be used in the raiding meta. I want to stress again that this is not a technical limitation, this is a balance decision that was made and which has been doubled-down on over the years, with the narrowing of class abilities and playstyles, the removal of cross-class abilities, stances, etc.
The real tragedy isn't that FF14 is like this, it's that the entire industry is like this. No one is ever going to make a game like Final Fantasy 11 again, where classes are allowed to be radically different and can be combined in sometimes game-breaking ways. No one makes games any more where you're allowed to make "wrong" choices, because it creates too much friction among players. Even in single-player games there is pressure to protect players from themselves and to protect the game from exploitation, so even in a game like Starfield you have the ridiculous idea of guns with levels on them, because it's a completely static and controllable power progression.
This is just what it is now. No one trusts themselves or players to not completely break the balance if they allow asymmetry of any kind.
My own fix on the limited job issue and balance is a simple one: The limited job roulette with its own rewards.
Like okay if it's hard to balance with other jobs give them their own bubble with their own content cues we can do with randos. It would breathe more life into jobs we level and forget
As for rewards: Why not glam like the beast master and blue mage glam that's not job restricted
As a long time SMN main your mention of pet AI in this game gave me PTSD :). But if they could work something out with Beastmaster/Hunter why not? As for Blue Mage collecting their own spells on the way and becoming a real job I wouldn't mind. They are out of ideas for job quests (not that I blame them they did so many and more and more jobs keep getting introduced) and this would be a novel kind of job quest framework. Picto is the big success among the new jobs so taking a few risks can pay off even if people at first were skeptical. Edit: And just want to say I love the new SMN. Yes I miss old SMN, sure, but having an easy job anyone can play well in new content is fantastic, the summons look good, and most of all my summons don't bug out and kill my dps anymore. If I get "bored" I can always alternate with some more complicated job. But the advantage of being simple-minded myself is that I am rarely bored.
I'll just identify the elephant in the room, the biggest issue for Final Fantasy XIV is……………………. Square Enix themselves.
The way Square runs its company where all the profits get thrown into a giant bucket with small hand outs to each studio does not help game design. It strains the developers and studios into this competition pit similar to the Hunger Games. Forespoken ate up millions of dollars from XIV that could have been used on developing XIV further. The same with FF7 remakes 1&2, and FFXVI. Sure Square got rid of a lot of its Western Studios (RIP Edios Stuidos, Dues Ex: HR). However the biggest issue for Square that's suddenly been rectified is their joint at the hip with Sony. Sony alone has pretty much kneecapped Square to some extent. The era of exclusivity is coming to a close and Japanese Business Practices need to be modernized across the board to even meet industry standards. Square's failures and thus strain on XIV is linked to Japanese Business Practices to an extent.
Even if lets say a new Final Fantasy MMO comes out, the issues with Square as a company will always sandbag the production of that game.
I honestly love limited job, as it done to keep the jobs true to what they are from older FF games. Like Dark Knight should have been a DPS, with skills draining HP to up damage, but in ff14 we have a tank due to heavy armor. Dark Knight's story is the best of the job stories but it's theme when looking back at FF4, it's just not the same. Blue Mage and Beastmaster would more then likely massively suffer the same fate if they wore core jobs. Having been a summoner player back in ARR and HW, pets wore janky as hell… Unless Beastmasters attacks are insta summon beasts for attacks or something like that, I expect them to suffer heavily from pet AI if they do use that.
Beastmaster could be good if they went back to revisit the Chocobo Companion system. They forgot it exists, though, just like gardening and grand company squadrons.
9:40
Man I'm sorry but most of the abilities Blue Mage can learn are worse than filler, they are never even used. You get a lot of fun stuff from the bosses and usually these feed into creating a chaotic "rotation" but out of 124 abilities it feels like 30 of them are actually used
Sadly this will never change. FFXIV is the only game keeping SE alive.
So i love Blu but when i think about it being used in regular content or roulettes i vant help but feel you'll loose something integral to the job. Which is its completely versatile spells. While alot of blus have similar spells, whistle, moon flute, mimicry etc. you will very rarely find two exactly the same. For instance i enjoy going "non-magic" blu focussing on things like goblin punch, missile, kick etc. while my friend likes to pretend hes ramuh with all the lightning spells. So when i think about how to make Blu work for say roulettes i realize you have to loose out on alot of thst randomness. Keep in mind is if they wanted to take Blu in its current state and just chuck it in.
Theyd have to restrict you to a Role, thats non negotiable the game is balanced and centered around it healers, tanks and Dps. Ok so either you'll get locked into a dps or in a more fovorable option you get to choose the role when quing up. Assuming they go with option B youd be given a load out based on the role you chose. There goes alot of fun spells you may have liked and it goes without saying but I'll sat it anyway the instant death/percentage health spells would not be allowed. So putting it in regular content i see removing what i think is very integral to the job's identity.
I think the best thry can do for Blu and beast would be to give them their own roulette where only limited jobs can apply. I also think it would be ok to give them access to things like Bojah or eureka