Shadowbringers is better than your favorite FF

[Jolkien]

do pwople think it will be gaas, with mp hocks given yoship background, or pure single players?

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He always wanted to make a singleplayer game but got put in charge of saving FFXIV from the disaster that 1.0 was. Other people in the industry told him if he went into MMO he'd be stuck there forever. Something to that ffect, you can see it all in the three part documents of NoClip on FFXIV on Youtube.

 

[MaverickHunterAsh]

200 hours to get to the best stuff (which is SHB), the other xpacks are great and ARR has its fair share of greatness (usually the dungeons and trials) amid the good and dull. In no sense imaginable are you waiting 200 hours to get to something good.

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Fair enough, but the general consensus seems to be that the first 50 hours are the "worst" (and by worst I don't mean it's terrible, just that people seem to agree that's the chunk that's mostly dull/grindy/a slog) and I definitely don't have time to give any game 50 hours to get to the good stuff. Five? Sure, maybe. Fifty? No way. Especially when I'm not into MMOs anyway and try to avoid ever playing anything online with randos in general.

I would love to see what all the Shadowbringers hype is about, though. MMOs are hardly known for their strong narratives, so the fact that so many say this is one of FF's best is really intriguing to me because that's a high bar indeed.

 

[Jolkien]

Fair enough, but the general consensus seems to be that the first 50 hours are the worst and I definitely don't have time to give any game 50 hours to get good. Five? Sure, maybe. Fifty? No way. Especially when I'm not into MMOs anyway and try to avoid ever playing anything online with randos in general.

I would love to see what all the Shadowbringers hype is about, though. MMOs are hardly known for their strong narratives, so the fact that so many say this is one of FF's best is really intriguing to me because that's a high bar indeed.

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You can always try the free trial and see if you like it or not and give the game a fair shot if you're interested. You can play for free until you reach level 30, on any of the class (or all of the them if you want). There's a lot of the original story that is excellent with long part that's for sure.

 

[MaverickHunterAsh]

You can always try the free trial and see if you like it or not and give the game a fair shot if you're interest. You can play for free until you reach level 30, on any of the class (or all of the them if you want)

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True enough! I wouldn't mind doing that when I actually have an opening in my gaming "schedule," haha. Can you solo most or even any of it? That's a huge part of any potential appeal for me.

 

[TDLink]

Fair enough, but the general consensus seems to be that the first 50 hours are the "worst" (and by worst I don't mean it's terrible, just that people seem to agree that's the chunk that's mostly dull/grindy/a slog) and I definitely don't have time to give any game 50 hours to get to the good stuff. Five? Sure, maybe. Fifty? No way. Especially when I'm not into MMOs anyway and try to avoid ever playing anything online with randos in general.

I would love to see what all the Shadowbringers hype is about, though. MMOs are hardly known for their strong narratives, so the fact that so many say this is one of FF's best is really intriguing to me because that's a high bar indeed.

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Think of it like this. FFXIV is 4 complete games, that if you're mainlining the story each take roughly around 50 hours:

A Realm Reborn is a 5/10 game with select moments of much higher quality (mostly towards the end).
Heavensward is a 9/10 game.
Stormblood is a 8/10 game.
Shadowbringers is a 9.5/10 game.

Personally I would wait until March/April. They've announced that they are going to be deploying a patch that aims to thin out ARR and make it quicker to get through. How exactly, we don't know yet, but anything would be better than what is currently there.

If you don't like MMOs, the free trial won't convince you. All the good stuff comes later, unfortunately.

 

[Jolkien]

True enough! I wouldn't mind doing that when I actually have an opening in my gaming "schedule," haha. Can you solo most or even any of it? That's a huge part of any potential appeal for me.

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You can solo everything except when the game send you in a dungeon or trial (against Primals ie: Espers/Summon etc). Built in match making you will wait 10-20 mins if you play a DPS if you play a healer or a tank you get pretty much instant queue. And you can keep doing other stuff like siequest etc while waiting if you're DPS it's not like you're staring at a screen.

 

[Sibylus]

Fair enough, but the general consensus seems to be that the first 50 hours are the worst and I definitely don't have time to give any game 50 hours to get good. Five? Sure, maybe. Fifty? No way. Especially when I'm not into MMOs anyway and try to avoid ever playing anything online with randos in general.

I would love to see what all the Shadowbringers hype is about, though. MMOs are hardly known for their strong narratives, so the fact that so many say this is one of FF's best is really intriguing to me because that's a high bar indeed.

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Eh, "general consensus" is misleading. ARR and its patches have dull stretches, but it also had a metric ton of fun dungeons, trials, and raids that are still enjoyable to play. It was a good base that has been continually topped.

 

[TDLink]

Eh, "general consensus" is misleading. ARR and its patches have dull stretches, but it also had a metric ton of fun dungeons, trials, and raids that are still enjoyable to play. It was a good base that has been continually topped.

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How fun that is depends really on how much people enjoy the very typical MMO-style battle system. Either way, I would say the game is overly-limiting until you get around late 30s at least. You don't even have more than a few skills, regardless of the class you play, until then.

 

[Sibylus]

How fun that is depends really on how much people enjoy the very typical MMO-style battle system. Either way, I would say the game is overly-limiting until you get around late 30s at least. You don't even have more than a few skills, regardless of the class you play, until then.

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Tastes will differ on the core MMO conceits, of course. And Level 15 is the first time the game really opens up in my estimation, when you're at last allowed into your first dungeon and the steady XP and mechanics stream they unleash.

 

[Rubblatus]

True enough! I wouldn't mind doing that when I actually have an opening in my gaming "schedule," haha. Can you solo most or even any of it? That's a huge part of any potential appeal for me.

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If it helps, imagine an SNES era Final Fantasy game, except all the larger dungeons of the game and the really large set piece bosses are group content. That's it. Everything else is solo content. Shadowbringers specifically goes one step further with an NPC teammate system for Shadowbringer's dungeons, but the story trials still require queuing in the group finder.

 

[Dreamboum]

serious question, because i see a bunch of titles listed in the op, is this better than fft? Zen

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Yes it's better than FFT.

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The best that FFXIV delivered will never ever come close to what FFT did. I love Shadowbringers but I love it in the context of a MMO doing great things. FFT is still in a different league that FFXIV tried to reach but never succeeded at, being an expansion

 

[Rei Toei]

I'm intrigued, mainly because I really didn't like XIII and XV, but I don't have time for an MMORPG/grinding towards this specific DLC. Maybe when it's less time-consuming to get there or when the economy crashes or something.

 

[Fraxin]

The best that FFXIV delivered will never ever come close to what FFT did. I love Shadowbringers but I love it in the context of a MMO doing great things. FFT is still in a different league that FFXIV tried to reach but never succeeded at, being an expansion

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I agree.

I really like FFXIV, but in terms of story, FFT is still much better.

 

[Hamchan]

200 hours to get to the best stuff in XIV (Shadowbringers) but Heavensward and Stormblood are still the best Final Fantasy content made since the PS2 era and will be worth playing for any Final Fantasy fan.

 

[Acquiesc3]

The best that FFXIV delivered will never ever come close to what FFT did.

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I love FFT but curious what you mean by what it "did"

Yeah they're pretty different genres/games but the elements that can be compared FF14 surpasses it hands down.

 

[The Last One]

I just finished it and I fucking looooooved it. What an amazing final act, is my favorite Final Fantasy in the last 15 years. The thread is wrong because it's no my favorite of all time but still, amazing game.

Better than Tactics since this was the last thing discussed.

 

[Sword Familiar]

Naw, I'm good. I can't make that kind of gaming commitment to get through this in a reasonable time as it stands. If it wasn't sub based with base fee as it is now I might have tried it. Then I could at least chip at it from time to time without worrying about paying too much for it.

 

[Mendrox]

Still waiting for that skip button so that I can finally play Heavensward. Fought King Mogry last I think but I just can't do that anymore with all that useless stuff inbetween ARR and HW

 

[AzureFlame]

I reached 80% of the story and this is bullshit, it's great but what's ruining it for is the characters models.

 

[The Last One]

I reached 80% of the story and this is bullshit, it's great but what's ruining it for is the characters models.

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Tbh the best parts of the story are the last 20% so the best is yet to come for you.

 

[Cordelia]

Why wait several years for Remaster when you can fight Ruby Weapon in two weeks :)

 

[SoundLad]

Naw, I'm good. I can't make that kind of gaming commitment to get through this in a reasonable time as it stands. If it wasn't sub based with base fee as it is now I might have tried it. Then I could at least chip at it from time to time without worrying about paying too much for it.

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Trial version lets you level every job to lvl35 for free, if you like.

 

[Scuttlefluff]

I adore Shadowbringers, finished all the content and it was my GOTY next to Sekiro and RE2.....

...But I don't prefer it to FFVI or VII, sorry.

 

[kennyamr]

yes.
I will repeat my statement again and again.
It is.

 

[Sword Familiar]

Trial version lets you level every job to lvl35 for free, if you like.

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Sure, for trialing purposes that is fine, and I might try that eventually, but there is still a huge time investment (tied to subs that run out even if you don't use them) I'll need to be able to get to the content that is being praised in this thread. I can't justify that with my current situation.

 

[Skyfireblaze]

After finishing Shadowbringers and now moving on to the patch-content two days ago I wholeheartedly have to agree, as much as I love FF VIII, FF IX and FFX (and X-2) to bits to varying degrees, FF XIV as a whole is just mindblowingly amazing, especially the beginning and the end!

Spoiler: Shadowbringers 5.0 Ending

The cutscene where you beat Hades / Emet-Selch made it all worth alone, the moment where your character manages to control the light with the help of Ardbert, then gets up again and the Shadowbringers theme kicks in, this moment made me feel like a kid again watching Dragonball Z when Goku turned Super Saiyan the first time, it made me cheer for my character like no other time before.

Yes ARR could be a bit of a slog and I fully understand people who don't want to or simply can't bring up the time commitment to sit through it so I'm fine with the team trimming it down, though for me personally the "slog" made what came after all the better.

Yes at time pre level 50 I was also frustrated but in the end it really felt like I took a journey with my character, a journey from a nobody to a hero and that my character and the world grew organically to where it is at the moment and I feel not many games manage to do this.