that was quick, I feel like it just started, I guess the release is soon

i was so excited for this till i herd about the exp limit you can earn each day thats just a dumb idea

no big loss. hopefully the actual game is better than the beta is. at this point i doubt it.

I really wanted to check this out, and I played it for a few hours, but with all the issues I was having with performance (yet another Nvidia user with shit FPS) I fell away from it.
 
There was another update for it, but since Square decided to go with torrents and to distribute it, I didn't want to deal with the hassle of waiting two days for the damn thing to download.
 
So sad, because it looks like it could be a cool game if that's your sort of thing.
 
If anything at least I can get that hard drive space back.
 
EDIT: And yes I know it was a beta.

I never even got it. Despite signing up for both CB and OB. 
 
:Edit: well it looks like my signup for OB finally worked right after posting this. Guess I'll check it out while I wait for Vindictus.

It's slow, obtuse, and for the visual fidelity it provides, it runs like garbage.
 
I'm not sure how much of that can be fixed before release, or ever.

" It's slow, obtuse, and for the visual fidelity it provides, it runs like garbage.  I'm not sure how much of that can be fixed before release, or ever. "

Not going to play this

" that was quick, I feel like it just started, I guess the release is soon "

Well, I would say so far, that FF14 is better than Aion was at this same stage in life... and I see it progressively getting better at a rate faster than Aion did. So, that's at least something. It's not going to compare or compete with WoW, but I don't think anyone ever expected that. I'm still on the fence over whether I want to play it when it goes live. I would probably be dropping my Ragnarok online subscription if i did play FF14. So that's where I'm at, gotta decide if I like it more than RO.

This is for coming out for PC this month right? Not PS3?

" @pyromaster222 said:

" that was quick, I feel like it just started, I guess the release is soon "

Comes out on the 30th I think. "

I chuckled at the "keeping pace with user complaints" part. Wouldn't recommend anyone pick this up day one, I'm giving the game six months and checking on it again when the PS3 version releases. If the client they put into open beta is any indication, the retail release is really looking like open beta round two.

I played the beta, and I'm glad that I did; I know now that I won't have to spend money I'd later regret.

As someone who played FFXI for a year and half, then moved on to WoW, I was super excited for this. But after pumping at least 10 hours into the beta I can safely say I never want to play this game again. As amazing as the character animations and cutscene integration is, the interface and menus are proportionately abysmal. I didn't think it could get more clunky than FFXI, but having to open up the main menu and click a tiny button in order to interact with ANYTHING in the environment is just... what? How do you design a game like that today?
 
I know it's a beta, so I won't fault the combat for being unresponsive and the action bar for randomly clearing all my buttons. But when I realized I had to go through at least 3 different menu systems and 10 confirmation screens to craft goddamn orange juice, I knew this game wasn't for me. I'll be trying out Vindictus on the 15th, instead.

In contrast to most of the opinions here.. I love this freakin game. I've played for quite a few days so far and am loving almost every minute of it. 
 
Yeah the menus are slow to deal with and the game has its problems, but I'm sure those will be ironed out soon enough. I use to crash frequently in the game and now I might crash once the entire time I'm on. The game itself is the most addictive MMO experience I've played.. the people in my linkshell aka guild are really friendly and we've been learning a ton about the game.  
 
If you're into MMORPGs.. definitely give this one a shot. Remember though, that you'll have a to have a pretty decent rig to run it. I'm running a Core 2 Duo 3 GHz with 4GB RAM and a geforce 9800 GTX+ and I'm able to run it smoothly at fairly low settings.

Do not plan on playing this ever

This was incredibly broken and clunky even for a beta. I won't be wasting any more time on it until there have been massive improvements to UI and optimization, among other things.

From what I've played it's been pretty broken so far.  Most times when I attack a mob the connection rate drops to 0, and since you have to hit the attack button every time to attack, you sit there while it murders you.  Any time that I actually manage to kill something, the connection fails altogether and I get booted (note, it's not my internet.)

The reviews for this game won't be pretty. The game is def. NOT a step up from the current MMO's available or coming out. It caters to its crowd and doesn't venture far from that. It has a lot of good from my beta experience, enough so that I will get the CE edition and play the game for a good long while, but it is a technical mess in so many ways. 
 
From user interface problems, to a LOT of missing explanations, and a VERY steep hurdle to get over when you start it just won't be reaching the same accessibility and popularity as WoW or even its predecessor FFXI did. There's a chance though that when the PS3 version launches many issues that will hamper this game now will be addressed, and it's at that point the game will be worth looking at for a mass appeal. Right now it's just going to leave a lot of people disappointed. 

This game is pretty atrocious, and I say that as a fan of both Final Fantasy XI as well as the current generation of post- World of Warcraft massively multiplayer titles. They could not have been more wrong about what people consider to be "fun" in this type of game, and I have little doubt that some people's jobs are going to be on the line once the three-month-onward subscription numbers come out.
 
MMOs don't get second chances.

Beta was bad. 
Performance,design and everything was just out of date and under developed. 
Some things I like,like the cut scenes but the way the story is presented to you and the quest along with the steep difficulty curve make this I giant no. 

Yeah. As a former FFXI player, this beta has way too many issues right now. After being so perplexed by the ridiculously complicated UI, I reactivated a WoW trial and was shocked at how playable it was in comparison. 
 
It's a pity, because if SE had paid attention to any of the gameplay advancements made in the MMO genre in the last seven years, this coulda been awesome. Instead, they've managed to raise the barrier to entry even higher and alienate potential players, myself included.

I've played the beta a little, and watched and learned from my brother playing the beta a lot.  I played FF11 for a few years and really enjoyed it.  It was a very "hardcore" MMO.  Then I went on the play WOW on and off for almost 5 years now.  I can safely say that FF14 will not appeal to players looking for a WOW experience.  But I for one am glad of it.   A change of pace is just what the doctor ordered.
 
 I can see this game having a smaller, close knit and more mature community.  The interface for the game is nothing like WOW and will probably turn off a lot of people.  But I think fans of Final Fantasy will like this game.   The story aspects of the game are great.  But once you get to the end game there might not be much reason to keep playing. 

Changed my pre-order from collector's edition to standard.  Now i'm thinking about canceling.

I can't believe no one is talking about how you can only play the game for like 8 hours a week, then they castrate your character with a culminative XP penalty until you just stop earning XP. That's all I have heard about this game. Oh, and them apparently copy and pasting parts of the game over and over again.
 
Assuming where I read those things was telling the truth, I don't know why anyone would want to buy this game.

" I can't believe no one is talking about how you can only play the game for like 8 hours a week, then they castrate your character with a culminative XP penalty until you just stop earning XP. That's all I have heard about this game. Oh, and them apparently copy and pasting parts of the game over and over again.  Assuming where I read those things was telling the truth, I don't know why anyone would want to buy this game. "

"  But I think fans of Final Fantasy will like this game.   The story aspects of the game are great.  But once you get to the end game there might not be much reason to keep playing.  "

The game is both intriguing and baffling, and not in many good ways.

The beta ends on mai B-day.

No matter what you think of the game, playing it with a controller will make it twice as good. Menu clunkyness goes away, movement is better (combat takes a small time to get used to on the controller, but since you are limited to how much can be on your bars it ends up working decently). So get that 360 or PS3 controller first.
 
Beside the controls, this game seems to have a steeeeeeep learning curve. Almost no guidance on the multi-class system (which seems to be the core feature of this game), hard to find merchants who sell the items you need to change classes, forming parties takes way more effort than it should, and macros...ugh the macros.  

For those that don't know, when you change classes it resets your action bar. There is no reason the game couldn't remember that. So you are forced to create a swap macro for each class type to include actions and what equipment to wear.
 
It is unfortunate, because I think underneath the clunky UI, lack of tutorials, and seemingly no instructions there looks to be a pretty nice FF MMO. This is one I will take another look at some time next year to see how it has progressed. But hey, at least there isn't a server swap ticket system!

ATI user here and the performance is fine for me. I have every setting at max except for depth of field and ambient occlusion which are turned off and my frame rate is smooth.

im a final fantasy fan and ive been waiting about 10 years now for them to make another final fantasy game that doesnt suck. what's the hold up?

The comments on the article could be an article themselves. Multi classing? Fatigue levels? 8 hours weekly limits....

Sounds crazy.

This video does a pretty good job of explaining the fatigue system:
 
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abE09-tqhoM

" @crusader8463 said:

" I can't believe no one is talking about how you can only play the game for like 8 hours a week, then they castrate your character with a culminative XP penalty until you just stop earning XP. That's all I have heard about this game. Oh, and them apparently copy and pasting parts of the game over and over again.  Assuming where I read those things was telling the truth, I don't know why anyone would want to buy this game. "

So you visit Sankaku Complex too? XD But what I heard is that there are two "types" of leveling up, and the other one, the most important to keep the flow of the game, does not have any restrictions. But I didn't play it yet. It's installing right now, it's been installing for the last 20 minutes. Seriously. 20 minutes and it's at 65%. WTF. "

If you are an ATI user you need to upgrade to the newest ATI drivers for the game to be stable. 
  
Proper in-game explainations and tutorials to help completely new players are very needed in this game. NPCs are not marked, that is to say, a vendor is not marked with (Armor Vendor) beneath its name - which could be rather helpful. And the UI is completely stuck in the gamepad system, which should be a no-no for a keyboard and mouse PC MMO. To me it seems that they did not have design manager that realised that.

I was able to play this game for about an hour before I could not take it. I am not sure if it was a fault of it or mine, but I don't think this will be an MMO I get into.

Watching the opening movie convinced me to play Final Fantasy XIV.
Looking at the price of a computer that could really actually play XIV made me decide not to.