FFXIV is very casual friendly. It has a simple UI and it holds your hand through pretty much everything in the early content. MMO vets might hate that, but I appreciated it when I first got into FFXIV. Whereas most MMOs toss you into the world and expect you to sort through the countless vendors and currency types without any guidance, FFXIV does a good job of walking you through every aspect of the game.
I find the quest marker system in FFXIV to be extremely helpful. Main Story Quests (MSQ's) have distinctly different symbols than generic side quests. The UI in the top left of the screen also will always direct you to the next Main Story Quest so you will never get lost or forget what you're supposed to do to actually progress in the game.
The combat system is pretty simple compared to most MMOs and the gear progression is pretty much all linear. Min/Maxing isn't really a thing because there is no build variance among individual jobs. Tank gear always has strength and vitality stats as their primary stats. You're not sifting through 3-4 different sets of level 50 gear to compare and contrast stats and decide which is "optimal."
Experienced MMO players who want more depth from their MMO's might hate FFXIV, but I like that it's a solo-friendly and relaxed casual MMO.
Man, I love Final Fantasy, but I played all the way through the base content of 14 and couldn't have been more uninterested in playing more. Lot of people talking about how amazing it is now, but I can't imagine it has changed THAT much right?
That depends, what did you dislike about it? The voice acting, presentation, and story of the base content is painfully generic and I groan anytime my daily roulette puts me in a 2.0 dungeon. But all the expansion content has been amazing thus far. I've been engrossed in the game's story and lore since Heavensward.
However if you disliked how most quests involve going back and forth talking to people or killing however many mobs or how grindy it is, that's not really gonna change your opinion much. It's still gonna be an MMO at the end of the day. I won't sugar coat it, a lot of quests still require going from point A to point B just to talk to people, but I would say the difference is the expansions do a great job of framing those quests within a compelling story so that I am eager to see what happens after each main story quest.
@y2ken: I play through FFXIV exclusively through their matchmaking system. 99% of the time you get matched with people who know what they're doing and they're more than willing to help if you let them know it's your first time through a dungeon or boss trial. Only problem is that matchmaking can take a while if you are a DPS class. Tanks and Healers get matched almost instantly because they are roles that are in high demand. DPS always get long queue times.
As for Trevor. Sure he's a wacky asshole that says dumb shit. But that's a type of character that makes sense in this world i thought. Just like the characters in Fear & Loating in Las Vegas are complete douchebags that still fit that movie.
I remember that Brad just couldn't bring himself to fucking around in GTA IV because it wouldn't make sense for Niko to go on a killing spree and shoot rockets at random cars. GTA V gives you a character that lets even the most diehard roleplayer be okay with causing some chaos. That's a good thing for a crime series like GTA i feel. Also, it's been a few years so i might be disremembering, but aren't there some moments in the story where Trevor actually comes across as a pretty multifaceted, rational & reasonable guy in some scenes with Michael? It just seems like people just don't like unlikeable characters in their games. Deponia learned that same lesson.
My problem with Trevor is that I don't find him as funny as the game seems to think he is. I think creating a character that is self aware and that leans into the chaotic anarchy in GTA games doesn't work even in GTA's world. Being unlikable is fine if the writers know the character is unlikable. But nothing about GTAV's writing seems to know that Trevor is unlikable. They know he is despicable, but they think he is likeable because they pass off his psychopathic behavior as wacky and funny. Making him a family man who cares about Michael's kids and about loyalty doesn't really make him any more likeable or multifaceted to me because the writers seem to prioritize "wacky and edgy" Trevor over somewhat relatable Trevor. Also I know people praised the actor's performance for Trevor when the game came out, but I just find him hamfisted and over-the-top that seems completely out of place even among GTA's cast of caricatures.
I think the writers just completely missed the mark by trying to make Trevor some sort of commentary of GTA's playerbase rather than making him an actual good character. It seems like he was designed to push people's buttons, especially when they introduced him by him killing that biker dude from GTA4.
Don't expect you guys will read this but in case you do, you can stop at the gun store mid mission as long as it's not timed or something. Easy to restock ammo and armour there if you don't have time in the menu.
All the episodes were recorded months ago. Maybe the will figure it out in future episodes though.
I'm not a fan of the edited nature of this feature. A lot of great Giant Bomb bits come from them just fucking around and shooting the shit during down time and having Vinny edit all of those out is kind of a bummer to me. Just give me the raw feed, that's all I need. And plus, that would give both more content for this feature, and Vinny more time to make other content.
I appreciate the production. I don't want to watch them get the bus and the airplane a third time. You just have to trust Vinny and Abby that when they cut something, it's usually because nothing interesting or entertaining happens when they repeat boring mission steps after a fourth mission attempt.
I don't think this feature is cannibalizing time from their other stuff. They still pump out just as many quicklooks, playdates, livestreams, Sea Beasts and Mass Alexes as the West coast.
@stealydan: You just turned this into a "get it the moment it is on sale" kind of game to me
Loved Chivalry. REALLY dislike the crowd that setting tended to attract back then, let alone in 2019. And it can only get a LOT worse when the females patch comes out (let alone the skin color one).
Competitive online games tend to have utter garbage fanbases. Gamers tend to decry Blizzard and Ubisoft for "censoring" their freedom of speech by heavily moderating toxic behavior, but I sure would like to play my videogames without racist remarks plaguing my chat and and racist caricatures popping up in my kill feed.
@matabus: I've been playing games my whole life. I have never played a Mortal Kombat game. I didn't know who scorpion is either! You'd be amazed how many things there are in video games for people to not know and how it really doesn't matter!
Is it your job to be knowledgeable about games? Do you work for a website that has literally covered MK multiple times in the last week?
Being knowledgeable about games doesn't mean knowing everything about every game out there. Even Jeff has gaps in his knowledge about major franchises, and he's about as knowledgeable about games as anybody could realistically be asked to be.
Also, they don't spend their days watching each other's content. Why would Abby suddenly know MK characters just because GBW did a Ranking of Fighters and an Unfinished? Should the whole crew be Pooyan experts because of how often Jeff has played it on the site?
Also most gamers only know game trivia. I consider knowing how game development works to be game "knowledge." Game trivia is an overrated "skill." Abby has experience being in front of the camera and behind the camera as a producer and generally being a comfortable and sociable person who works well with other people in an improv environment. That's a more valuable skill than knowing game trivia. I'm not gonna pay for someone who knows a shit ton of game trivia, but has a poor camera presence and poor producer skills.
@fisk0: You can't have a character creator in the game, otherwise the game can't be called Sekiro. It would be like if Halo had a character creator and you could turn the Halo into a Square. Just make no stinkin' sense.
I mean, the Halo franchise has had multiple protagonists over the years, really don't see why they couldn't have a character creator in there either. Is Sekiro some kind of historical character? Every result I get trying to look it up just links to the game, in the quick look Brad just said he was called "Wolf", which could be generic and gender neutral like Sheppard in Mass Effect, but the hell do I know.
I'm just saying it looks like it has enough of the Souls trappings in there for me to miss the omission of the part I enjoyed the most.
I don't think he's a historical character. More that FromSoftware wanted to take a break from the freeform minimalist storytelling structre of their last five Souls/Borne titles. They've designed an actual character with a face and distinctive voice and a backstory instead of a random aimless adventurer like in Dark Souls.
I'm excited to see how traditional narrative storytelling pans out for them.
Wait, does this have a set player character? Brad never mentioned any kind of character creator, but did seem to reference you playing as a specific guy. A bit of a bummer if that is the case, always was the primary missing ingredient in stuff like The Surge and Lords of the Fallen to me.
Sekiro seems to be going for something a lot less different than the usual souls stuff. It looks more like a traditional videogame. More combat music throughout the levels, stealth meters, stealth attacks, bigger emphasis on story and cut scenes as well. Most of the loot seems to be general consumables rather than new armor and weapons. There is a proper jump button instead of a sprinting jump/roll. Also no stamina meter.
I think this is more of a traditional character action game than a Souls-like RPG.
MiniPato's comments