Anyway, after all of that complaining on how difficult it was to start it, I felt like I should really put the work in to find out if it's worth it. Normally, I probably wouldn't do that. I don't have limitless time to fight with beta keys and sign-ins and other hooey. I've got enough stuff on my plate, and plenty of other games to keep me busy. ARR, though, is all part of Square Enix's fascinating larger character study; they are a company struggling to maintain their greatness by fits and tantrums of quality coupled with many a foot-shooting. They're the complex antihero that has become as difficult to love as it is to hate. I used to think they represented the Lucasfilm of the gaming business for their incessant need to replicate and repackage their goods while strip mining the nostalgia of their faithful. But for as much goodness that's produced and then how promptly they plant their collective head back their ass, I'm starting to think that they're the industry's Don Draper. I'll have to give it more thought.
So, naturally, I decided to play ARR drunk.
It was fitting. After all, the first few times I toyed with the beta, I didn't really get very far and, frankly, it was all very same-y. Pretty as it is (and it really is), the early going isn't that far removed from the structure of MMO mainstays like Warcraft: lots of fetch quests, plenty of "kill five of these" missives, a few dungeons, etc. For some reason, I must have felt the need to spice things up with a bottle of vodka and impending Monday morning shame. It certainly wasn't bad when I was playing it before, so it wasn't like I was going to have a lousy time. With my history of boozing with other MMOs has proven that I don't make the best team decisions, either, so even though it was a calculated move to try to enhance the experience, I knew that it wasn't such a great plan overall. Oh well, whatever.
It turns out that "enhancing" it wasn't even necessary, because by the time I was done with it, I was having a good time playing ARR. Good enough, even that I have some post-beta test sadness that lead to my searching for message boards this morning, which is also pretty rare. The odds of me shelling out fifteen clams a month to play it when it actually releases are still pretty long, but it's shaping up to be a pretty decent MMO for guys like me that don't often play them any more.
This praise revolves around the smart uses of classes in the game. Instead of picking a class when you roll a character initially, you can change your class --called jobs in Final Fantasies-- on a whim as long as you've unlocked it with a short quest and have a weapon in your inventory that's appropriate. Want to be the chief damage dealer? Pull out those brass knuckles. Does your group need a damage-soaking tank? Equip your sword and shield. You can generalize or specialize how you see fit, as long as you know up front that all classes start at the bottom at level 1.
But that's what I found most fun. I created a catman Pugilist initially. Since this is a beta and I really only like solo playing these games (counterproductive to a lot of content for stuff like this, I know), I wasn't really planning on trying any multiclassing because I just wanted to tear through the story content. After a few hours of doing just that yesterday, I took the plunge and picked up some Gladiator (tank) gear to see how it worked. Since you don't do quests over again that you've already completed, I had a darn good time figuring out the most efficient way to power level Fuglypants' into a respectable fighting state without them. If you're savvy with ARR's various monster hunting and open group battle opportunities, it took very little time to go from a low level chump to a character that parties could rely on to sponge up damage when necessary. I never really go for crafting abilities in these games (the time I spent mining copper in Warcraft are hours that I'll never get back), but I'm kind of psyched for the next beta phase to roll around so I can give armor forging a shot.
But there's certainly a downside to this, and it's my chosen ark of gaming choice. Great as it is to play an MMO on my huge beautiful television, it's just not made to be played effectively with a game pad. Exploring and fighting are fine at low level; your shoulder buttons help cycle through decks of commands, and it's serviceable, if anything. Communicating, though, is a nightmare without a keyboard. I was in a dungeon last night with a group of players that I couldn't effectively plan tactics with because I was hunting and pecking at letters on the PlayStation's dashboard keys. Lucky for me, these weren't particularly involved dungeons, but when I step back and look at the larger picture, it feels as though playing on a console is great if you like soloing, but PC will be the platform of choice for those that play well with others.
So yeah. Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. I'm already sick of typing all of that, but not quite sick of the game. Next time: sober (maybe)!
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