Thinking of starting; how is it compared to FFXI?Follow

As the title suggests, I'm an old FFXI player (Xodious from Bismark) looking to jump to FFXIV: ARR. I've seen great reviews and heard good things about the game....I guess I'm just wondering...

-How is it compared to Final Fantasy XI? (I don't anticipate that it's a carbon-copy of the game, nor do I want it to be. Just looking to see if there's some common ground between the two.)
-Is leveling solo-friendly?
-Is making gil a constant grind?
-What's the endgame scene like?

lets remove FFXI.

-Solo friendly, yes. You will actually solo a lot, but do story mode. It is where the story is at :p through it you will do group dungeons of 4 members. They can be a butt, but once you understand the mechanics they usually are not that bad :D

-Making gil is stupid easy. They basically made it kind of useless. I farm here and there, but there is really no reason to. I don't craft (yet) so my gil is used for food, gear (I upgrade every 5 to 10 levels), repairs and teleports.

-Can't talk about endgame, because I'm still leveling. But it is easier stuff, to do harder stuff type of deal.

What makes it a Final Fantasy game:
-Races are basically upgraded versions of FFXI ones.
-Crystals
-Class/Job (but class job system is in no way like FFXI's).
-Final Fantasy stuff

More action-oriented fights, environmental mechanics plays a big role in every boss fight. Compared to FFXI it would be like a DD using different WSs ever 2.5 sec (global cool-down).

This also makes the fights more interesting (I'n my opinion) than the "engage, ws, killl" scheme most of us have lived with for 10 years in ffxi.

It's possible. XI is still going, though. So at this point XI's lifespan is theoretically infinite.

It's not the same game as XI. Not any better, not any worse, just different. Much how like both VI and VII are vastly different games, yet both are still enjoyable.

Disclaimer: I still play XI part time.

Couldn't speak on endgame at all yet but I can say the storyline quests and dungeons are fun. The new end game content coming out should extend the life of endgame and the housing system that you and your crew can eventually buy sounds pretty cool as well.

I'm guessing its this.. its an mmo--it has as much potential as square enix has money to throw into new content. So far so good for the couple of months i've put into it.

IMO, it feels more like a FF game then xi did... And I played xi for, well, lets not mention that. I think all vet xi players could enjoy the game. It is super easy to get into... looks great and the mechanics, although very different from xi, are fun (but may take some time to become accustomed too).

That being said, I wouldn't expect that you will come in and have the same experience like we did with xi. I can't yet put my finger on it, but it is totally a different beast. They did a very good job reviving the game and now that the 'new-born' phase is over (it ****ing and ****ing all over the place with launch issues), I would definitely recommend the game.

PS. If you do start up, I would suggest taking the time to tweek your UI/HUD right away. Made a world of a difference for me. GL!!!

Edited, Oct 25th 2013 11:00pm by chomama

The major differences that I have seen so far:

-There is no resale of used gear. Once you use it, you can't sell it. Most of it can be turned into materia or GC money after it is no longer useful. This is a nice gilsink that keeps inflation down.
-Everything except gear stacks to 99, and you have 600 spaces to put it all in (after level 16ish, early in the game) Crystals don't take up space.
-Crafting takes skill, and the interface to craft is a hundred times more user friendly.
-The level grind parties are much different. Instead of going to a camp with a group and fighting mobs, you join a group and watch your map until a FATE pops up, then rush there to fight mobs. You can be waiting for 10 minutes, or charge from one fate to the next. In this level grinding, skill and teamwork mean little; it's usually about doing damage before the mobs die. Imagine small scale version of the beastmen raids of the city at Aht Urhgan at all levels, without any advanced notice, in every non-city zone.
-There are no NM's. There kind of are in some fates, but not like FFXI.
-After you claim a mob, anyone else can still attack it. You'll still get full exp and drops as long as you do enough damage, and the other people attacking can also get full exp and kill credit if they do enough damage.
-Instanced fights are a big part of the game. They are much like BCNM/KSNM fights, except without the need for seals. Some are one big fight, some are extended dungeons with mini-bosses and a big boss. The duty finder lets you que up one of them, then go about your business doing something else. When a team is ready, you have a 45 second window to get back to your class and accept. You can also skip the duty finder and form a group up yourself. This is a huge improvement.
-It's too early to really talk end game. At this point, very few people are in full top gear, and that gear will likely be mediocre in six months.
-Making gil is much easier (except for the exploits), but spending gil is not necessary to make it to well geared end game.
-As far as solo, you can level up solo, but the main quest line unlocks most of the major features, and requires instanced group fights periodically, very similar to the FFXI missions, but with a lot more busy work running around.

The leveling isn't THAT bad since you get a 50% exp bonus for all your additional jobs. I just took LNC to 34 in 2 days for Blood for Blood and my playtime was pretty limited. If you dedicate 2-3 solid days for dungeons + FATES, you can easily hit 50 on a 2nd job.

This. It took 3 months of labor to get to 75 if you played steadily in XI back in the grindy old pre-Abyssea days. You can really push yourself and get to 50 in a week in XIV, but you'll hate it. Spread it out over three months like we did in the old days of XI and it'll go a lot better.

since everyone seems to be focus on the good I'll play devil's advocate.

Well in my experience, FFXIV needs a lot of work. Progression is far too linear. Global cooldown is a nice idea in theory but makes it more like busywork, spamming button presses for glorified auto-attacks. Position checking is very slow for a game that puts so much emphasis on positioning.

As for the story, it's a FF world for sure. The settings, music, and enemy design (the original ones) are all nice and creative. It has chocobos and crystals. That said, the leaders, main characters, and villains of the story line are all incompetent, borderline too stupid to live. Can't go on because of spoilers.

It will not last nearly as long as XI for a simple reason. FFXI had a niche with its focus on lateral progression. FFXIV focuses on vertical progression, ilvls, and smaller groups, making content last less time overall because once you climb to a certain point you never really need to go back ever, new content will eclipse old as a focus point, and at any given point, once you get to endgame, there's only a small amount of endgame available compared to a game like old FFXI. This system won't last as long with SE.

That said, the popularity of this game hinges on the next major update. It they add new progression paths, more means to exp, and enough endgame content, the game will be greatly improved and good to go for a while.

I went ahead and purchases FFXIV:ARR today, installing it now!

Honestly, I guess I'm just wanting to make sure the longevity is there, and by the sounds of the responses here, it has that. Reviews of the game have said the same thing.

To that end, I would argue that FFXI simply isn't as good as it used to be. Abyssea was fun, but it killed any form of ability needed in that game. Back in the sea/sky days, players would develop a reputation due to their performance in either experience points parties or in endgame. Now, anyone can get to level 99 in a day or two. It's too easy.

FFXIV, while I'm sure is imperfect, looks like a great start of something new. I'm looking forward to it!

It also dawned on me that it's almost an impossible question to speculate how long any MMORPG will last. Regardless, people said FFXI wouldn't last nearly as long as it did, and people are surely saying the same about FFXIV now.

Welcome to FFXIV!

I was happier than I thought I should be when I realized that XIV wouldn't have that .. ahem .. "feature" in it.

I tried to go back to FFXI after several years of not playing it. And the one thing that reached up and punched me right in the nose was the fact that I had absolutely no clue on the entire planet how my gear swapping was supposed to be set up anymore. I knew when I was playing actively... but not several years later. And it isn't exactly intuitive.

For someone like me that was a dealbreaker for returning to FFXI, because I knew I would probably never be able to perform to my potential with even the gear that I had (which was 24 levels out of date of course).

With XIV or WoW or SWTOR or whatever, all I really need to do is sit down for a little while and read tooltips. I quit SWTOR after 2 months. I'm 100% sure I could pick that game back up and be doing just fine again within an hour. FFXI? Definitely not.