Damn this looks fire. Leaving a comment so I don't forget, but I can't wait to make this.

I think a lot of the ideas here are exactly what I want from the game, since flying mounts and the overworld are my favorite parts.

But I also play specter and herald a lot and I don't wanna relearn how to use them after today's balance patch. We'll see how their rotations turn out but I'm not super excited for quickness herald anymore :(

So I've been waiting for this one for a while. I have many of the gripes that you do, and I will say that damn, if you don't like the combat and story, you won't like the game because there isn't much else.

But as an avid FF14 player, I think some of the more baffling decisions (shitty sidequests, boring world to explore) make more sense when you think of it from the FF14 writer perspective. FF14 has very epic moments, but something they always try to do (and IMO, works better in an MMO setting) is have VERY grounded sidequests to balance it out. In the MMO, the sidequests exist purely to expand the lore of the world and make it feel more connected overall, and the reward is the quest, not actual rewards.l. They are consistently just trying to flesh out communities and sometimes characters, as opposed to really being their own story.

The exploration is far more disappointing to me, but I will say that I suspect they simply put all their effort into the main story and it shows in the quality comparison mostly.

My personal gripes are mostly mob fights being too easy, since I regularly wipe them in around 10 seconds without giving them a chance to fight back. The boss fights are great but the awesome mob enemy variety and design from a game like DMC wouldn't even matter here because I can ragdoll the entire group to infinity.

I AM having a lot of fun with the game though. I'd give it a solid 8/10 at most currently. I played the majority alone, but restarted earlier this weekend to play with my girlfriend, and seeing it through her eyes (knowing nothing about the game or marketing) made me appreciate it more than through my own (me, who really devoured the combat, the demo, and all the promotional material).

It won't be my game of the year, but I don't regret my purchase. It's the kind of FF game I wanted, with a slightly disappointing execution.

One time I was at a camp in 7th grade for a week (a religious Christian camp) where my friend and I were NOT religious, so we were being bullied. I was so deathly afraid of getting bullied while taking a shit that I didn't poop until the 6th day. I honestly barely remember it but I snuck out in the night just to take a shit, and it was absolutely horrendous. Pretty sure it felt like trying to pass a big old hard fruit or something, it was the worst and took forever. 2/10 Do not recommend.

Thank you!

Yeah I love all the sylvari racial stuff! It looks good on both genders, though definitely moreso on female sylvari. It does get expensive though! I've spent a ton of gold on those sets.

This does look fantastic!

I have to corroborate this feeling. I feel like every balance patch makes me not want to come back as opposed to excited to try the new differences.

As a person who plays Herald, Specter, and Scourge pretty much exclusively I am scared of this patch lol

Looks great! I'm of the opinion that sylvari with any natural looking clothing is definitely one of the best fits in the game, and you chose a great color scheme. Is that the sylvari racial armor or something else?

Very cute but klee knowing how to drive a boat with a cannon on it is asking for trouble

Deeply love this demo. Especially Eikonic challenge, really wiped away all my worries about the combat. Very crunchy, a decent amount of skill expression while being easy to pick up at a moderate skill level. I've enjoyed going back through and kicking ass.

Don't forget even if you are only doing basic moves (no eikon) you have a lot more options than just mash square.

You have a closer with thrust/phoenix strike. You can weave every single strike with triangle (timing is tight but doable) and get extra magic bursts to do more will damage.

You can combine abilities to bring enemies into the air (charged shot and especially aerial burning blade work well for this too) so you can do different combos on them there.

All that stuff is doable after you get abilities halfway through the demo. On the Eikonic challenge you have so many options that you can easily tear through stuff doing only a few combos, even on bosses!

Yeah I totally agree with most of that. I think the thing that always gets me is cosmetic MTX stunting the design of all the in-game stuff which is so frustrating especially in single-player games. Like when Ubisoft got all crazy with MTX in the last few assassins creeds and it really felt like the shop made them grab every decent armor design and stuff it into the shop. Suddenly the "cool volcano armor from the lava boss" becomes "daddy's credit card" armor lol.

I think the only reason I still prefer the FF version is connecting the in-game gold system to real money drastically changes the economy in a grindier way, which isnt a thing in FF. Just makes things smoother so I feel like my sub time is being wasted on grinding for fake money to get real money.

It's definitely different strokes for different folks. I like that I can buy anything from the MTX store with Gold in Guild Wars 2, but as a person who has less time than money I prefer a game that is going to burn less time instead of more money (as long as it isn't exorbitant).

I think the reason FF14 never gets any hate for their expensive cash shop is that it isn't accessible in the game in any way, and all the stuff you can get arguably pales in comparison to what can be achieved in the game. There are already 100s of outfits (of the same quality) in the game, there are already hundreds of mounts gained through actual achievement. The cash shop is great for whales who want to show off their money but as a long time player I've never touched it, because I don't think I saw a single outfit I was interested in. And 70% of the actual stuff is old seasonal event things that players will get.

It's never really bothered me (as a person who hates even cosmetic MTX) because all proceeds go specifically to the game, and the stuff on there is super uninteresting.

Thanks, I'll check nofunallowed out as well.

I was thinking about the pact and I agree, the prices given seem to small. I was already planning on changing some of the approaches and descriptions to other attractions (seems to me like it's too easy to lose "mood" for doing things that the players don't really have a hand in) so I think a gold piece or 2 is a great change.

I would unironically wear that outfit with some aviators.

Disco Elysium, easily. I think about it daily, and it was just written so powerfully.

Personally, I prefer Pathfinder (2e for me, but 1e is tons of fun too).

I think the big thing that keeps me coming back to Pathfinder over 5e (I am running a game for newbies in 5e because they probably don't want to complexity) is that there are actual, hard rules for almost anything you might want to do in the entirety of the game. DnD is always advertised as "do whatever you want and the DM will tell you how it goes!" but the rules for 5e are so combat-focused and simplistic that the DM will inevitably end up homebrewing...well, 80% of the game unless you players or crazily combat focused. Whereas 2e has extensive and widely available rules for freaking everything and it makes it feel so much more like a world compared to 5e. Also, their adventure paths are so awesome and exciting compared to 5e campaigns IMO.

I also am not a big fan of WOTC lately, so that is helping me stick to Pathfinder. Also, they are very LGBTQIA+ friendly!

Really excited for Rowdy Rogue with martial weapons. Made one the other day and was disappointed in my best option being the longspear.