Final Fantasy XIV

by Square Enix

Product Features

• A persistent and evolving world with immersive storylines and well-developed characters
• HD-quality, real-time cutscenes
• Guild-based activities focused on catering to players with different gaming styles
• Both quick and extensive gameplay sessions, accessible in solo and group play
• A breathtaking musical score by renowned FINAL FANTASY series composer Nobuo Uematsu

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B002I0JJ2U
• Item Weight: 4 ounces
• Media: DVD-ROM
• Release Date: September 30, 2010
• Average Customer Review: 2.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (159 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,430 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)

Product Description

Platform: PC | Edition: Standard

From the Manufacturer

Product Description
Embark on the myriad journeys of an epic in FINAL FANTASY XIV, the revolutionary MMORPG from Square Enix. As denizens of the new and visually stunning realm of Eorzea, players will actively engage in compelling storylines narrated through high-definition, real-time events featuring the players' own highly personalized and versatile characters.

While exploring even the farthest reaches of this magnificent world, adventurers are given the freedom to entirely alter their gameplay experience by simply swapping out equipment, and realize objectives with or without the aid of others. The entire experience is crafted to accommodate the widest variety of play styles-from the lone mercenary with only moments a day to spare, to the legion of comrades campaigning for days on end, and every combination in between.

Join players from around the world in an adventure of infinite possibilities.

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Story The guardian gods and goddesses known as the Twelve watch over the city-states of Eorzea. These tiny nations carved out a history of blood and betrayal, forging and breaking alliances as each warred over territory and sought to impose uncompromising interpretations of their patron deities' will. The fate of the land would, however, soon change. Not fifteen years past, a new threat appeared from the north and east-the mighty Garlean Empire. With its fleets of behemoth airships and warriors brandishing weapons that spewed streams of fire, it crushed Ala Mhigo, the most powerful of the six Eorzean city-states. Galvanized by fear of a common foe, the remaining nations joined in a clandestine alliance. Fortunately, the dreaded invasion never came and an uneasy peace prevailed. Thus it was that Eorzea slipped into the Age of Calm. As the city-states continued to develop regular standing armies, a growing number of mercenaries and hedge knights found themselves without employment. Concerned at the rise in number of armed men and women resorting to acts of villainy to survive, several respected leaders gathered together to form a network of guilds. The guilds provided these lost souls with the chance to utilize their talents for the benefit of themselves and others. Through the foresight and resolve of these leaders a new industry had emerged-and the Age of Adventure had begun. Features A persistent and evolving world with immersive storylines and well-developed characters HD-quality, real-time cutscenes Guild-based activities focused on catering to players with different gaming styles Both quick and extensive gameplay sessions, accessible in solo and group play The freedom to entirely alter the gameplay experience by equipping any of a wide array of weapons and tools in the Armoury System, one of the foundations of the FINAL FANTASY XIV experience and the driving force behind character development A breathtaking musical score by renowned FINAL FANTASY series composer Nobuo Uematsu

Product Description

Embark on the myriad journeys of an epic in FINAL FANTASY XIV, the revolutionary MMORPG from Square Enix. As denizens of the new and visually stunning realm of Eorzea, players will actively engage in compelling storylines narrated through high-definition, real-time events featuring the players’ own highly personalized and versatile characters. While exploring even the farthest reaches of this magnificent world, adventurers are given the freedom to entirely alter their gameplay experience by simply swapping out equipment, and realize objectives with or without the aid of others. The entire experience is crafted to accommodate the widest variety of play styles—from the lone mercenary with only moments a day to spare, to the legion of comrades campaigning for days on end, and every combination in between. Join players from around the world in an adventure of infinite possibilities.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

208 of 233 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not sure if this technically qualifies as a game, October 9, 2010

By 

Leo Trevino - See all my reviews

= Fun:1.0 out of 5 stars 

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Final Fantasy XIV (DVD-ROM)

Going to get the strong points out of the way first. Graphics and music. As far as I can tell, that's about it. The cut scenes and story are nice, but they make up such a tiny fraction of the game they're barely worth mentioning.

As for the bad... it's pretty much every thing else.

UI/controls - This has been beaten to death, but I want to hit it one more time. Quite simply the worst UI for any PC game in the past decade. UO and EQ1 were leaps and bounds ahead of FFXIV in terms of the interface. There is no drag/drop, clicking rarely does anything, limited keymapping, and everything is buried behind several menus.

Combat - Sluggish and consists 90%+ of hitting 1111111. Threat is extremely broken in groups, ie you can get aggro for casting 1 spell even if you don't jump in until the mob is half dead. There aren't any special mobs or mechanics to deal with. You just stand there punching each other in the face until somebody dies. It's like Rockem Sockem robots online. Although the music kinda works against the combat because you're rocking out to a pretty hardcore battle theme while fighting tiny rodents and insects well into your 30's.

The world - The cities are actually really well done, albeit inconvenient. Once you get outside though you find a barren, empty world. There are essentially some random mobs thrown around and aetherite camps where you can activate guild leves. The few actual buildings and settlements are not functioning. They have NPC's who don't do anything and all the doors are locked. There aren't any really dungeons, unless you count being underground as in a dungeon. It's just the same mobs as everywhere else but now underground.

Economy - Sweet zombie jesus, this is quite possibly the biggest game breaker. The entire game is centered around the crafts based economy. Problem is there is no way to find what you're looking for except running around spamming or searching every retainer in the game one by one. The lack of a search function and mail system are killers. Weapon repairs are also a huge hassle. I've taken to buying multiple of the same weapon because you can only fight for about 2 hours before you have to go back to town and find a crafter to repair your weapon or pay astronomical fees to NPC's later in teh game.

Content - Content? Simply not there. The closest you'll come are guild leves which are essentially bare bones "Kill 6 of these things" dailies on a 36 hour timer. The story is interesting but you can only do the one for your city state and SE stated that you can't do the other 2 without creating a new character which would require an insane amount of time. Just watch it on YouTube. To compound the story problem the missions are relatively short, requiring you to do little more than run from cut scene to cut scene. There are no epic battles and all the mission mobs are tuned to be killed by crafters whos only take is Throw Rock which deals 1 damage.

Overall - It's no where near ready. Having played other MMO's in their beta phases I would have guessed that this game is still in alpha. Maybe in half a year to a year it may be fun but right now it is simply an exercise in frustration and what looks to be the longest grind to nothing since Lineage.

140 of 160 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars An exercise in frustration, October 2, 2010

By 

Nockolisk - See all my reviews

= Fun:1.0 out of 5 stars 

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Final Fantasy XIV (DVD-ROM)

I wanted to like this game, but I just can't do it. I've heard some people try to defend the game by saying that it's challenging or that it has a steep learning curve, but so far it's been easy. It's just been frustratingly slow and tedious.

Interface:
Horribly slow. Painfully convoluted. Everything is menu based. You'll have to wade through lists to do anything. Unfortunately, every new menu that appears takes a few seconds to appear. When you've made your selection, be prepared to reconfirm your choice up to 3 times, and wait again for your selection to take effect. Waiting seems to be the theme of the game.

Change equipment? Wait a few seconds. Also, be prepared to wade through your entire inventory, rather than just the items available for the particular slot you're changing.
Activate combat mode? Wait a few seconds.
Attack an enemy? Wait a few seconds.
Initiate a trade with a vendor? Wait a few seconds. Choose buy or sell? Wait a few seconds.
Want to walk through a door? Wait a few seconds.
Want to store some of your items on your retainer? Wait a few seconds for each item, after you've waited the few seconds for each of the several choices leading up to summoning your retainer.

Gameplay:
Oh, how I wish I could jump. Or that I wouldn't stop for half a second every time my character comes in contact with another. Or that npc's were processed separately from players so that I could actually talk to the npc I need without waiting tens of seconds for it to load in under the crushing server lag.

Tradeskills are largely similar to each other. Gathering skills are largely similar to each other. They're all very slow, and feature enough randomness to make them very frustrating.

Battle is a bit more fun, but there's nothing really special about it. It's a bit slow and I wish the camera wouldn't automatically swing behind my character when I start combat. Combat in other MMO's I've played feels more dynamic, mostly due to the interface lag present in this one.

I could probably go on, maybe I'll insert some positive?

Graphics:
It's pretty. There is an issue with repeated graphical elements in the environments.
The enemy designs are fantastic. There are many adorable creatures wandering the environments, though not much variety to them in the initial zones.
The animation is very well done for the most part.

Overall impressions:
I regret spending my money on this game.

100 of 113 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars At a complete loss., October 9, 2010

By 

Broktune - See all my reviews

= Fun:1.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Final Fantasy XIV (DVD-ROM)

I'm at a complete loss at what Square was thinking. Have they played ANY OTHER mmo's in the last five years? I say this because the UI is so, so bad. I am a veteran of the original EQ. That game's interface was entirely more user friendly than this piece of garbage. People constantly bring up WoW as a comparison. Shoot, bring up a free to play Korean mmo and you will find a better control scheme and UI. Sure, nice graphics.....big deal when the game is completely barren with nothing to do. For those who have played Fallen Earth, that game has more going on in the environments than ffxiv.

Square is lucky that they have the ff name to cling to and all the fans of the series. If this was a new mmo, like APB or Tabula Rasa, it would be shut down within a month. Shame on the people who blindly defend this game and all the flaws it contains. A company like Square/Enix needs to listen to their fans and not completely depend on brand loyalty.

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