Final Fantasy XIV: Difference between revisions

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Before the start of the game, the [[Steampunk]] Garlean Empire had set to use their overwhelming military force to conquer Eorzea, starting by razing the city-state of Ala Mihgo to the ground. The remaining four city-states- Limsa Lominsa, Ul'dah, Gridania and Ishgard- militarized to meet this threat, but before another shot was fired the Garleans mysteriously halted their advance, leaving the city-states with a large armed force and nothing to fight against. They banded together in an uneasy peace, forming the Guildleves System to employ these new mercenaries and investigate the secrets behind the Empire's sudden invasion and retreat.

[[Square Enix]] recently [http://lodestone.finalfantasyxiv.com/pl/topics/detail?id=ae8d667b53355d8ea364fafa44d5253e4362e17f apologized for the state of the game], and [[You Have Failed Me|replaced]] several key members of the development team. The new development team has greatly overhauled the game, addressing many of its original flaws, although the title isn't quite ready for primetime just yet. Said "primetime" will be coming in the form of ''version 2.0'', which will reportedly [[Nothing Is the Same Anymore|bring about sweeping changes to the way the game works, the game and server engines, and the the land of Eorzea itself]]--comparisons to ''[[World of Warcraft|Cataclysm]]'' have been made even by the devs themselves.

There is now a character sheet for this page in the works.

{{quote| '''Lalafell Female:''' Does your world want for a wealth of wordplay and wit? An abundance of alliteration, assonance aplenty and a soupcon of sibilance to seal the deal? Well, you were warned.}}

** Also applied liberally to otherwise nameless filler NPCs (Glowing Goodwife, Mocking Miner, Positively Pungent Pirate, etc.)

** Dalamud (the smaller moon) has been growing incrementally larger - and [[Bad Moon Rising|redder]] of late, as part of a recent storyline. Hopefully it'll return to normal once the Seventh Umbral Era is done.

*** That would be because {{spoiler|its not a moon. Its an artificial satelite put into place by the older and more advanced Garlean Empire. One of thier generals has gone rogue and is pouring magic from crystals into it to make it [[Colony Drop|crash down to the earth]].}}

* [[Beach Episode]]: Early August will be seeing the implementation of swimsuits via summer festival event. This news was announced with screenshots of female [http://static.finalfantasyxiv.com/topics/images/86/97/949_1.jpg Hyur and Miqo'te], and a [http://static.finalfantasyxiv.com/topics/images/86/97/949_0.jpg Roegadyn], sporting the new outfits on the beach.

* [[Bishounen]]: Every Elezen and a good number of Hyur. Of course you can play as one, too.

** Cat Boys will be added in a future patch due to fan outcry for Male Miqo'te and Female Highlanders and Roegadyn. Concept art for all of these and actual models for the male Miqo'te can be found on the offical forum.

* [[Cherry Blossoms]]: Appeared around the cities as part of the [http://lodestone.finalfantasyxiv.com/pl/topics/detail?id=f767124daabe5125df3a06968ccc12d93af54878 'Little Ladies' Day'] celebrations, presumably playing off the upcoming [[Japanese Holidays|Girl's Day]] festivities in Japan.

* [[Comm Links]]: Linkpearls are used just like in FFXI, you also stay in contact with NPC organisations with whom your character is signed linkpearls ones given you by their representatives.

* [[Counter Attack]]: A staple of the pugilist class.

* [[Dueling Games]]: The game was supposedly rushed out to beat a ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' expansion to market. This, combined with this game's extremely critical reviews resulted in this approach not turning out well for [[Square Enix]].

* [[The Empire]]: The Garlean Empire is a somewhat more realistic version of the trope than the usual, as it only managed to conquer one of the other nations before the remaining three banded together to stop the invasion more or less before it began. They have started to invade again with the latest patch, though, although it is implied that they have more [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|justifiable]] reasons for doing so this time (preventing the end of the world).

* [[Executive Meddling]]: Common consensus is that ''somewhere'' along the line, there's been some. The arguments are over just where, ranging from the theory that FF XIV was rushed out to beat a certain popular MMO's next expansion, to claims the developer replacements were an unnecessary move to give executives a scapegoat (or a publicity stunt).

* [[Expy]]: The playable races are, for the most part, visually very similar to those of FFXI, the same goes for a few monsters and beastmen. Some of the architecture looks similar as well: Gridania looks similar to Windurst in some ways, and Ul'dah is basically Aht Urhgan in the desert.

* [[Fetish Fuel Station Attendant]]: Yda.

* [[Five Races]]: Each analogous in appearance to XI's races, and each with two clans:

*** '''Midlanders''', standard human-types;

** '''Elezen''', the requisite [[Our Elves Are Better|pointy-eared]] race. They are split between:

*** '''Wildwood''', wood elves who live in the forest;

** The lack of an Auction House (and by extension the Market Wards) is getting this treatment as well. When the head of the largest community site for your game [http://www.eorzeapedia.com/2010/10/06/dude-wheres-my-auction-house/ goes on a rant about the entire economic system], you have a problem.

** And then there's the patched in "player history" system, which best described as an ad hoc achievement system and is publicly viewable. While the addition itself works fine, it also promptly exposed a number of stories made by Japanese "official players" playing the game as complete fabrications.

** Those capable of detecting the Echo's use (often by having the gift themselves) will occasionally recognise an unfamiliar person in their memories and realise what's going on. Those with this ability who haven't given their permission - such as Raya-o-Senna - of course consider this [[Mind Rape|very, very rude]].

** The game is also a little sneaky about its use. Prior to the Echo being explained when the player character is invited to join the Path of the Twelve, the Echo receives very little suggestion. As its use is preceded only by a soft 'whoosh' noise and a very subtle screen effect, often with no change in location whatsoever, it is only in retrospect that many players will realise certain events early in the story were actually their experiencing NPCs' memories.

* [[Lost in Translation]]: One that caused some major xenophobic [[Epileptic Trees]], the Japanese fanbase was "[[Blatant Lies|pleasantly]]" surprised to discover that Chocobos<ref>Always spelled チョコボ/Chocobo in both Japanese and English</ref> were renamed to the Kanji for "Horse-bird/馬鳥" by the development team. This, combined with the announcement of a Chinese release and the hiring of a Chinese localization team to translate it after the game was released, led to the [[Fan Dumb|natural]] assumption by some that the entire development of the game was outsourced to China. This is despite the FFXI development team basically transferring entirely to this game. Then, when the fanbase screamed bloody murder about this, they were renamed "Chocopos". Er, whoops. Thankfully, since the new producer took over, his first priority has been to keep players of all regions informed and listen to their suggestions.

* [[The Lost Woods]]: Gridania is in the middle of one.

* [[Meat Shield]]: Gladiators use heavy armor and shields, pugilists have a defensive stance. Incidentally, the more shield-based actions are actually a sub-class named Sentinel. This levels up separately from Gladiator despite the obvious pairing, as shields can also be used by the magic-wielding classes.

* [[Mismatched Eyes]]: Available to Miqo'te and Lalafell during character creation.

* [[Nothing Is the Same Anymore]]: [[Word of God]] states that this will happen in the storyline to increase the sense of danger and excitement in the world. From a meta perspective, this is also happening to the game, which is and will continue to undergo massive changes to mechanics and gameplay to try and fix the numerous issues it had at launch.

* [[Not Screened for Critics]]: Reviewers were asked not to review the game for about a month after release so that Square Enix could fix some issues they should have fixed in beta.

{{quote| '''Y'shtola''': "''Gods Forfend.''"}}

* [[Omniglot]]: Those possessed of the Echo, as a consequence of their ability to touch the souls of others.

** The Highlander Hyur also have only male adventurers, but females are planned to be playable as well.

* [[One Size Fits All]]: Bar a very few items.

* [[Power Crystal]]: Big ones called Aetheryte recover your HP and MP and let you start guildleve quests, small ones are elemental and used for crafting.

* [[The Power of Love]]: According to Brother E-Sumi, this is the reason {{spoiler|the mask made for Dunstan by Fye protected him from death during the Rite of Cleansing}}.

* [[Prestige Class]]: Patch 1.20 will add a "Job System" on top of the already implemented Disciplines. Jobs are more speciated variants of the game's base classes that can equip less skills at once, but have stronger equipment and personal abilities to compensate.

* [[Punctuation Shaker]]: Miqo'te. Nearly every person of this race also has an apostrophe in their name, supposedly something to do with easy address while hunting - except for the players, who aren't allowed them.

* [[Rage Quit]]: Perhaps the most dramatic [[Rage Quit]] in the history of video gaming, a shareholder who owned 1% of Square-Enix [http://www.pcgamer.com/2010/10/16/investor-ragequits-square-enix-over-final-fantasy-xiv-sells-1-of-the-company/ sold his entire stock portfolio] for $26M, stating, "First thing in the morning tomorrow, I intend to instruct those who manage my precious [[Square Enix]] stock to arrange to sell all of it. To Square, thank you for the enjoyment of your products up until now, with the exception of this last one. Goodbye." The sale caused a dive in Square-Enix stock, though share prices recovered inside the day.

* [[Real Money Trade]]: The highly controversial lack of an Auction House was supposedly to combat the RMTs that plagued FFXI, but as some on forums put it, it threw the baby out with the bath water. Note that RMTs are still in the game even without the Auction House.

** Also, in a testament to ''someone's'' stupidity, the RMT crowd were actually attempting to sell gil made during the ''open beta''. You know, after Square-Enix had stated categorically that characters and their possessions would '''not be carried over to the retail version of the game.'''

* [[Ridiculously Cute Critter]]: Moogles are back, Spriggans, little black fuzzy things, might qualify as well.

* [[Scenery Gorn]]: Should you survive a run to [[The Very Definitely Final Dungeon|Mor Dhona]], you'll be greeted by {{spoiler|the wreckage of the Garlean mothership from [[Where It All Began|the FMV opening]], encircled by the dessicated corpse of a dragon}}.

* [[Schizo-Tech]]: Swords, lances, axes, guns, cannons, airships, robots, walkers...

** In a city to the West of Limsa, there's a Roegadyn named "''Im''modest Mouse".

** In the Twelveswood surrounding Gridania, there is a type of Galago (monkey-creatures) called "Curious Galago".

* [[Solid Gold Poop]]: At the end of the Halloween event, it was revealed that the cookies given by the Imps were actually Chocobo dung. [[Go Mad From the Revelation|the reporter that discovered they weren't very happy]].

* [[Status Buff]]: Every class has some kind of way to increase their power in a fight.

* [[Stop Helping Me!]]: A recently added, non-optional tutorial is very much a case of this. The tutorial locks out ''all'' functions that haven't been introduced yet, however obvious, important, or innocuous. Further, it interrupts what was originally smooth narrative, and when it was first introduced, the locked targeting mode function defaulting to 'Friendly' meant that the combat section of the tutorial was actually impossible to complete with a gamepad.

* [[Stripperiffic]]: Subligars are already confirmed to return. In addition, some female versions of armor are a bit skimpier, and for some reason the base Elezen male outfit is some kind of inverted shirt--sleeves, but [[Walking Shirtless Scene|nothing on the torso whatsoever.]] The developers have also responded to requests for more sexy, or at least better gender defined, gear as requested by fans.

* [[Weapon of Choice]]: The weapon you use defines your current class. Equip a different weapon, and your Discipline changes. Also realistic is that you can effectively equip any weapon or piece of armor in the game at any Discipline Rank. Logically there is nothing stopping you from equipping that [[Infinity+1 Sword]]... except that considering you are a novice Gladiator. Thusly your "lack of skill" translates mechanics-wise as any degree of penalties to the weapon's effectiveness, meaning you're not even going to get [[Infinity-1 Sword]]-level performance. Incidentally, newer gear is requiring a certain rank and class to equip it, which may not be as realistic but makes balancing a lot easier on the developers.

* [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]]: If the various dialogues and hints are anything to go by, many of the {{spoiler|Garlean Empire's}} actions were done in order to ''prevent'' the end of the world and not out of malicious intent. Then again, they probably could do that without brainwashing people and conquering entire City-States.

* [[Word of God]]: Like XI, this game is very low on the details, such as what your Name Day and Guardians are for. To get concrete info to the public, the community site has Q&A topics called [http://lodestone.finalfantasyxiv.com/pl/guide/qanda01.html Ask The Devs]. Since the dev team shakeup, however, there's been much more open lines of communication, although since so much is changing there are often few specifics as to when changes will be coming.

* [[Zerg Rush]]: The maximum party size was initially 15. There are also plans for group vs group battles, of which 'Behests' have already been implemented. However, as of patch 1.17, the maximum party size has been reduced to 8 for exactly this reason; it was felt that [[Zerg Rush]] tactics took the strategy, and to a lesser extent, the fun, out of such large encounters.