I just heard on the 8-4 Play Podcast that FF14 was having a free trial thing on PS4 and sure enough it was right. It seems to only last 2 weeks, up to level 20, and have limitations, but it's something I've always been curious about.

Is anyone else going to do this? It would be nice to get some free trial people to form a party since no one will know what's going on.

I'm downloading it on PS3 now. Hopefully it works with DS4 because I don't have any working DS3s around...

Hmm. I didn't think this was a limited window thing. I had heard the trial version was released though.

Great MMO though if you are into Final Fantasy stuff.

Most of the early levels are solo stuff but the dungeons start unlocking at level 15. I'm not sure if there are restrictions on trial characters that have to do with Duty Finder or partying up for dungeons etc.

Have fun! And if you are an experienced MMO player, keep in mind the early levels are always boring compared to the late game. :)

Anyone with a PC account tried this to see if we can access our accounts on PS4 without buying another copy?

I've played most FF games, but I have no experience as an MMO player. The thing that I can't deal with are keyboard controls and abilities that map to 1-9 and the "F" keys above that. FF14 has to use a controller on the PS4 so I should be fine in that regard.

I played Terra for a bit on my laptop and it I couldn't really run it (old laptop) but I really enjoyed the active combat. I'm hoping FF14 has some kind of active combat like FF12 and their gambit system.

@golguin: Its very much MMO combat. You have hot bars you have skills you use said skills and wait on cooldowns.

@golguin: I'm kind of like you and that's part of the reason I've enjoyed playing FFXIV on consoles. The combat isn't anything that original for MMO's, but being able to play with a controller (and good controller control scheme) makes all the difference in the world.

And while it is still based around waiting on cooldowns, it's a bit more active than some MMOs. There's lots of active movement in boss encounters and some of the classes require you to be aware of positional advantages. I think it's more active than FFXII honestly.

@golguin: Yeap I play with a controller on PC. Wouldn't have it any other way. Just feels more like a game and fun getting the muscle memory down with a controller.

Played FFXI on PC with controller as well.

Edit: Oh, didnt see the last sentence about active combat. Yea this doesn't really have that sort of combat. Its a more traditional tab-targeting system. It's active in the sense that you might need to move around a lot for later content, but that is just for positional attacks and dodging AoEs.

I'm an archer so I've been moving around quite a bit during combat, but I'm curious to know if facing the enemy or standing still while performing my action has any impact on the damage or accuracy, because it seems like I can just keep running backwards while performing my actions.

On a side note the auto attack on the bows seems slow. Are you meant to constantly cycle between special attacks? What's the point of auto attacking with a bow?

Xavier Woods approved!

@golguin Yeah the auto attack is basically your base dps, it'll fire regularly even if the animation doesn't play (unless you're out of range). So yeah in general you should be constantly cycling between your different skills.

@golguin: Hmm. Well Archer/Bard is actually the one class I haven't capped lol But one of the strengths of Archer is being able to move freely while still performing actions. Again, this is much more important later on when you are constantly moving. Standing still or facing the target should not affect damage/accuracy assuming the skill doesn't specifically say it does in that skill's tool tip thing. I haven't played Archer enough to unlock Bard (the "Job" it unlocks when you reach lvl 30 as Archer and 15 in Lancer or Monk or something) but I think it involves using Songs/Buffs while nearby party members and this is where the movement comes into play.

Auto-attack isn't really something you'll pay attention to. It just happens in the background. All of your primary attacks and actions will be from manually executing a skill. As I mentioned earlier, it may seem slow or simple at the start because they really ease new people into it by drip feeding them skills and keeping everything straightforward and not overwhelming. At level 50, most jobs seem to have around 32-ish skills to use, some are cross-class skills from other classes/jobs.

So what I'm basically saying is: You won't get to this sort of stuff in the Free Trial. The good and interesting bits of the game and classes start to show up around level 30 when you unlock your "Job" with more skills and get to slightly more complex dungeons. Some Jobs become more interesting and fun to play at earlier or later levels than others but by 50 (the current level cap) they are all fun and unique. You can still experience the great environments and music though.

@golguin: if you're not directly facing your target you will not auto attack, and the angles can be fidgety at times, which is why I keep auto face target on because it will always correct your positioning

@golguin: It doesn't really make a difference. If you fire off a skill it'll still have the exact same chance of hitting the enemy even if you run in the opposite direction. Archers suffer from that more than most classes, as they're one of the only long range classes that can keep moving while they attack. (It doesn't help that archery is associated with precision aiming.) If you lock-on to the target (I think it's R3 by default) you'll stay facing the enemy and strafe around them, but that also slows your movement down, so when I play a Bard I find it better to just deal with the awkward animation. Just pretend you're doing trick shots.

Auto attacking does extra damage but it shouldn't be leaned on. Your skills are you're damage. Specifically with Archer/Bard its mostly about your DoT's or Damage over Time skills and later on after you unlock Bard at level 30 it turns into much more of a support class. And as far as moving/positioning and accuracy go you're only going to really have to worry about that kind of stuff as you approach the end game. Accuracy isn't even really a factor until end game but it is also governed by its own stat.

Actually, as a Bard, along with Monk, Ninja and probably Dragoon as well auto-attacks are a fairly large portion of your damage. Especially with the buffs you get to either you speed or for archers, the 2 additional hits per auto-attack buff. As a mage though, it's pretty much worthless.

There are certain skills or traits that synergize well with the rest your abilities and help bring everything together, they're kind of like the last piece of the puzzle and some come as late as level 50. For Archer/Bard, this is River of Blood at level 48.

Not to say you have to reach level cap to decide whether you like this game, just something to keep in mind. The core of combat is still based around traditional tab-targeting and a global cooldown on most skills, some of which may be affected by a minor but noticeable amount of server latency and as a result combat may feel "floaty" at first.

The damage from auto-attacks for non-caster classes is substantial enough to make sure you're not facing away from the enemy for any prolonged period of time. But typically you won't have to think about it too much as long as you are using your skills and have the option "Automatically face target when using an action" enabled under Character Config > Control Settings > Target > Target Settings.

Hope you enjoy your time with it. I typically blaze through quest text and story stuff in MMO's but I found myself stopping to read some it here, this game's got a lot of personality and polish to it. And the community is actually better than most in terms of helping out and being patient with newcomers, though you may still run into a few bad apples just like anywhere else.

This is just something I've noticed, but is the story for FF14 present in the early mission? I've reached level 11 and most of the quests seem to be kill this and pick up that and the text is just about helping people. I think the story missions might currently involve the Archer's Guild (I'm an archer) a they want me to prove myself. There was a scene with some dude saying I was fit to be an archer and then he left. There is also something about looking for a suspicious person who's arrival coincides with more monster activity.

EDIT: Maybe the free trial status hides story progressing missions? I don't seem to be able to do any christmas stuff.

I'll activate the "Automatically face target when using an action" and see how my movement is affected since I'm constantly running away from things as I'm activating my attacks.

@golguin: I think you might be doing the Archer's Guild/class quests. Those are their own separate thing that you'll do every five levels as you level up. The main story quests have the "!" above their head except it looks like a flaming meteor thing.

@golguin said:

Use your own discretion, but I prefer Legacy Type movement for this reason (camera based instead of character based). You'll also run towards the screen instead of slowly backpedaling, pretty nice for dodging scary red circles on the ground.

Ah, I see. That would be the Chasing Shadows quest. Checking online it seems to be a lv 5 quest and I'm already level 11. I guess I've somehow been doing all side quest except for main story missions.

It seems like it was already set to the way I prefer, which appears to be Legacy Type movement. The other movement is way too slow and directional based. The auto lock on with R3 mimics the slow movement with the camera locked on the enemy if that's what a person wants, but I sure don't want that. Why would anyone want to slow their movement and mobility?