I am pretty sure I posted this here on the forums, but I said back then that when the CEO of one of the largest gaming companies and also an executive to one of the largest tech companies in the world rings you up to arrange a meeting, you don’t put him on hold.
Business is business. It’s just a matter of making the right move.
Alright guys and gals, I don’t get to post as much lately due to my schedule but I need to elaborate on just how much of a big deal this is for Xbox.
Even if you don’t like MMOs, FFXIV is GOTY material for the story and content alone. The story is widely regarded as the best story out of every FF out there. Yes, that’s including every single player mainline Final Fantasy. As for content? You can get around 500~ hours of content for FREE through the base game and first two expansions without paying for the monthly subscription. The game is so good that they know you’ll get hooked and sub to the game as well as buy the expansions.
Speaking of expansions, they are widely regarded as GOTY material and almost always sweep awards as well as have high Metacritic ratings.
I think it’s very obvious that Sony losing FFXIV exclusivity is a huge blow as the game has solidified itself as one of, if not the de facto MMO experience (although WoW is having a resurgence). They probably didn’t have to squeeze the reins as hard as they did for FF7R and FF16 because this game is so massive that the developers are constantly working on things, hindering development on the Xbox port (despite the Xbox port being announced years ago), and didn’t think Microsoft would keep pursuing the game. Now we have confirmation that Phil Spencer is the main reason the game is still coming, and he never gave up. People will downplay this but this is absolutely massive; everything said on stage with Phil is E3 worthy.
So yeah, do NOT sleep on this game. If you like just one of the following: MMOs, or RPGs, or deep and engaging stories, or literal thousands of hours of content, 200-500 hours of FREE content, solo or group content at your own pace, and so much more… please give the game a try. You won’t regret it.
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This post lines up with a lot of what I’ve heard and is pretty much the only reason I’m even considering it at all. Do you and/or @Brandon have any experience with this Duty Support NPC party system? I’m very averse to the idea of playing with people online so it would be a make or break thing for me.
How about the prevalence of collecting twenty bear asses? Is it like 20% cool stuff and good writing to 80% drudgery?
Thanks for your expertise.
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Yeah, if Phil was there in person I would think this is certainly some sort of contract that likely has some monetary exchange. A new Game Pass deal, marketing, dev support, or all of the above.
I’d really like to dive back into FF XIV. I own the base game plus Heavensward on both PC and PS4/5, but never even finished the base game content. I also refuse to pay a subscription for content other people are getting for free.
[quote=“binarymelon, post:125, topic:16670”]
Yeah, if Phil was there in person I would think this is certainly some sort of contract that likely has some monetary exchange. A new Game Pass deal, marketing, dev support, or all of the above.
[/quote]aI honestly wonder if xbox didn’t agree to help pay for some of the porting development costs to take some of the risk away for SE. They seem incredibly risk adverse so that might have been a way to convince them to make the jump. In exchange they might agree to not accept as many exclusivity deals and bring content that isn’t currently under agreement with Sony into a porting pipeline for Xbox.
Yeah, who knows. Maybe an Azure deal for new data centers.
Iv never been too interested in MMO’s partly because of what a long term commitment it can be but also the monthly subscription, I love GP but iv never been interested in a sub for just one game
That being said, the fact that they are providing so much major content for free basically guarantees I will give it a go, it being able to see done solo is also very appealing
We know Phil was showing his frustration with Square on that post showcase Giant Bomb chat as well as some interviews he did with some JP outlets too. So for him to appear on stage, verbally say they’re getting square game(S!!!), for the Square CEO to also say that, there will def be change I’d say.
I don’t know if they’ll actually -completely- eradicate “Switch/PS/PC” releases from them though, even Capcom did that this year with Mega Man (obviously that isn’t Square level, a skip is a skip though and the MMBN collection sold a lot) or Koei Tecmo does it quite a bit. But definitely Pixel Remaster level skips look like they’ll end.
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The duty support system is perfectly serviceable if you want a mostly single player experience. Dungeons will take a little bit longer than if you do them with players, because the npcs dont do optimal rotations and cant really pull multiple packs of mobs as easilly as players can, but you will 100% be able to get through the content with them. The only downside is they dont have Duty support for 8 man trials yet, except for one of them in endwalker, so whenever you reach one of those you will have to hop into queue with other people. But i do promise that the ff14 community is very friendly and helpful in general, and hope that this doesnt kill your desire to give the game a shot. They mentioned in the keynote yesterday that they are exploring new ways to expand the duty support system in Dawntrail, but they didnt elaborate on that as it is still early.
On the mob things, the most of an item that you will ever be asked to collect from mobs is like, maybe 5, rarely, and afaik quest items have a 100% drop rate from mobs.
Is it like 20% cool stuff and good writing to 80% drudgery?
For the Base game, unfortunately yes. The #1 problem for new players getting into the game is making it through the base game and into heavensward, which is where the story starts to get really good. Im not saying the story in the base game is inherently bad, but its very much slow establishing and world building until you near the end of it.
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I’ve heard that the writing in the expansions are really good. Like “Best in the whole series” good.
A few years ago I remember there being some kind of panel where some of the heads were speaking about the game, and when it was the main writers turn to begin talking (Her names Natsuko Ishikawa), she received a ton of instant praise. She couldn’t speak because the whole room was applauding her work in this game lol.
I wonder if that Ace Attorney next trilogy was a sign of “exclusive collection be gone.”
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Question for you all:
Do you think Dragon Quest Dai was an indication that something is brewing within the relationship between Square and Xbox before officially announce it?
Seems like it yes. I don’t think Phil’s talk with Square was as recent as like last week lol. And I don’t think Square added an Xbox version there because they felt like it.
I hope that this happens with Star Ocean 2 remake before November as well, DQ Dai looks only okay to me. Not sure if that should be expected though.
It did seem like a pretty big symbolic gesture for them both to appear on stage together. It almost seems like a declaration of peace.
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It’s similar to Double Fine acquisition. Of course it didn’t happen on that conference. It happened before and only the studio knew. It’s likely Phil waited for a showcase that has Square involvement, so this was it.
No star ocean 2 on xbox hurts. More so than any other game.
Financially, no. Quality, maybe? I am no fan so I wouldn’t know.
I think it’s both. Microsoft giving Square Enix a nice payday and the new CEO being open to it all. We’ll see how it plays out next year and beyond. As of right now, it’s nothing more than PR speak.
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I can’t speak for him, but not having Star Ocean 2 on Xbox hurts me on a personal level. It’s one of my favorite RPG’s and I’d love to get the 1,000 on it. If it doesn’t come, I’ll probably just break down and get it for PS4 (or 5 if I have one by then).
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