Realm Reborn
This is mainly for the lovely Hinano. Anyhow my brother's beta for FFXIV ended up reactivating this weekend, so I managed to pop in and try it out.
Do note this is only based on a couple hours of gameplay. So I can't say I know everything about the game or how it completely works. But this is my opinion from what I have seen.
Needless to say the graphics is freaking beautiful. Then again that's something that SquareEnix always does well. I wish I took more pictures but it would just be scene orgasming in the end. Either way, it gets big points for that.
Though one downside is the character building. To me it was rather limited. Especially after being spoiled by Phantasy Star Online 2. Pretty much it's like Sims where you get to pick a nose/ear/face type and that's it. While to me I'm used to getting sliders and tons of options to make very custom looks. Neither the less, I got Whyt made as a tiny raced people. Because I will bite kneecaps. Also I made her have derp eyes.
Anyhow, the game play is pretty straight forward. You get put into three different towns based on class. Once there you pick up missions and story quests. I managed to get to level three before even killing one thing. Seriously the game is very generous at the start. There are a lot of fetch/delivery quests that will guide you about the city. It is helpful since it shows you were to go on your mini-map over just saying good luck get lost!
Also the game is very smart with how the journal works. You will be able to have mission objectives to the right of your screen. This means you won't need to dig in logs or inventory bags to see how finished it is. It's just right there to read.
So it is very generous with missions and making things nice for you. That said, once I looped the city I ended up back at the adventurer's guild. This finally let me fight something. Well... I could have before but there was random quests to be had!
The combat is simple as well. It's your general click attacks and it will occur sort of thing. So far I didn't run into any spells with a recharge that was more then the casting animation itself. With that it seems more fast paced. Also alone that line, regen occurs very quickly. I hardly ever had to sit or take a breather even as a mage.
Probably the neatest thing is that you can run into random events while roaming the field. These are called Fates. Anyone in the area would be able to help in it, benefitting in the experience and loot. They are televised on the map so it's easy to find them and help out.
In the few hours I played, I managed to jump up to level 8. Without needing any party assistance. Which is surprising as a mage. One of the best things is that doing the missions got me a almost complete set of beginner armour.
One of the things I liked is that there are many check points littered in the town and field. Once you activate these, you will be able to teleport them. You also get a Return spell that lets you go back to the starting town. Which can be helpful for the quests or just having gone too far out in the field.
Maybe the biggest thing about it is that the game made me want to keep playing. The story was a bit slow at first but was interesting for an MMO. I'm not sure if it's an open story or will end like with Knights of the Old Republic. I liked the combat and it didn't feel like the usual fight something then sit. Which is always a big plus for me. Sure sitting is fine once and a while but seriously, not every fight please.
Anyhow, that's how I saw it from my few hours of play. I'll maybe be picking it up for a bit. See how it goes for a few months at least. :)