I'm pretty sure whoever called you that hadn't met me. Or just forgot.
True, but I couldn't pass up a chance to allude to Hokuto No Ken's Raoh.
That said, it made me happy when I saw "Tek's Law of Frugality" get mentioned in Sola's chat box yesterday. haha I seriously think there could be merit to turning that into Tek's Laws of Frugality and creating a fancy printed rendition of your laws to sell on Cafepress or Etsy or something.
But back on topic: If FFXIV is shaping up as nicely as I've been reading, then it makes sense for us to set up a ToJ guild, even if there's not overwhelming interest among current members. It's nice when we can build a new chapter with a "core" group of existing members, but sometimes we just have to start on the framework and bring in new members and help them get settled.
Might as well, and I'll go ahead and lead it. If nothing else I can simply keep people up with news, and keep an organized group in game.
This would be very cool. The jury's still out on whether or not I'll buy in and sub (though more out of practicality than principle at this point--I'm convinced it would be worth the money, at least for a while, but I haven't figured out where that money would come from haha), but I feel like the mere fact that I'm considering it speaks well for the game. That said, I'd be happy to help support the guild even I don't grab the game.
Seriously, this beta weekend was awesome. I got to a point where I got my Miqo'te (cat-inspired race)
looking respectable... with spectacles! I can't complain that the game also
striks me as pretty.
But, far more importantly, the class/job system totally kicks butt. The ability to change to any other class at will (after finishing the level ten quest of your starting class, and acquiring intro training from the other class instructors, that is) is superb. The fact that you can create hotkey-able loadouts, that don't take up primary inventory space, that can cause the class switch is too good. I rather like that the crafting professions are unique classes too. Then there are cross-classing options to take into consideration. It doesn't seem you have absolute freedom over mixing and matching all your favorite abilities, at least not at my point in game experience, but being able to pull key abilities from one class to aid another is awesome. For a hypothetical example (since I can't remember which abilities belong to which class), you can use an unlocked mage's ability to cast a defensive shell to help compensate for the glass jaw of the speed-striking pugilist class. It's super cool and super useful. Even though it's not totally open (in my limited experience), it's really nice to see so much freedom for how you play your character. Coming off of games where you have to choose a class, then choose a specialization of that class, and then choose specific things within that specification, it's nice to see a game granting you more freedom as you play rather than forcing you to continually narrow down what you can do.
The part where the game feels distinctly Final Fantasy, and in a way that reflects what I'd consider a more "classic" vibe, is also really nice. I love that you can unlock Black Mage, White Mage, and so on through the job system and then deck them out in attire reminiscent of the original game. This also carries over to the story/setting/narrative side of things too. Though, at my point in the game, it seems like I'm running a bunch of petty tasks, there's always looming overhead a promised doom. The game also has this warriors of light theme running through it. All in all, it really reminds me of the original Final Fantasy in all the right ways. But then borrows the job system of Final Fantasy III and the like, while improving it, and mixes it all into a combat system reminiscent of Final Fantasy XII, which always felt like it could be an MMO to me if not for being a single-player affair.
There's also the element of control, on a gamepad, that works. So often, I hear "adding gamepad support requires a game getting dumbed down." I don't see that being the case at all here. All the UI customization, absurdly many hotbars, and blahblahblah of conventional RPGs are present. Rather than simplifying the game for gamepad controls, they made gamepad controls capable of the complex requirements for an MMO. In the end, you get to choose what you like, and the existence of the choice doesn't seem to negatively affect either preference. Kudos to Squeenix.
In fact, I'm quite pleased with Squeenix on this one. It's unfortunate that FFXIV initially failed, but I'm very glad that, rather than telling consumers to just deal with it, they totally pulled the game, listened to fan feedback, and turned it into this MMO that even I want to subscribe to. That's pretty impressive. True, they're very much following the dollar, but I'm glad that following the dollar has led them here.
I'm looking forward to more beta weekends. I'm even looking into selling a couple games (an act I usually detest) to buy-in and get a sub started.
But seriously, seeing you in FFXIV would be awesome...
