Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn Round One, FIGHT!

Early and Mid-Level Combat

After the recent conclusion of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn stage 1 of closed beta phase 3, Square-Enix has seen a plethora of feedback from the community on various online boards.  Testers have been jumping to the conclusion that the style of combat seen in the early and mid-levels of the game properly reflects the nature of combat the game will serve at its endgame. This is an obvious misconception that alpha and beta testers typically tend to arrive at.  However, some players have concluded that behind all of its typical modern MMORPG game mechanics, Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn may have just what it needs to take gamers by surprise.

The Actual Combat System

The complaints regarding repetition remains the same among beta testers – that the combat is repetitive and uninteresting.  Yes, you will certainly find yourself using the same abilities over and over – sometimes back to back, but what MMO doesn’t have its share of repetitive combat?

During Beta 3, myself and a couple of other players were lucky enough to try the first actual fight that required more than just the ability to press buttons, the Ifrit battle. This was by no means a ball-busting ordeal, however there were elements in this battle that first defined Final Fantasy XIV 1.0’s combat system and set it apart from its predecessor Final Fantasy XI. The low-level Ifrit Battle contains mechanics that seek to challenge the player’s ability to respond to changes in the battle environment and demands constant positional awareness and proper communication between the party of four.

TP (Tactical Points)

This in turn will demand players to maintain a level of knowledge and experience when aiming to excel at their chosen Class/Job.  For example, at many points during the Ifrit battle I found my TP on the brink of exhaustion. There were several occasions where I ran out of TP and had to stop myself from using abilities that consumed it for a period of time.  This alone warrants that good decision-making is required to maintaining a proper level of what is called “meter management”, and despite the illusion that combat involves excessive amounts of button-mashing and “face-roll” there will be a major emphasis on players having to use the right skills at the right time to ensure that they get the most bang for their buck.

Previous Games

The same can also be said about various other games in the genre. One for example, is the popular “true-action combat” game TERA Online. Despite its various in-game problems, it provides players with an interesting and engaging battle system. Movement, meter management, positioning, and properly responding to changes in the battlefield are all things present in Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. 

Veteran Final Fantasy XI players tend to often make comparisons between the combat of Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, often describing the ARR combat system as spammy and unimaginative.  Most importantly, the global cooldown of Weapon Skills has been a major topic of discussion among the players.  It’s important to note that this new combat system takes a fresh and modern approach compared to that of Final Fantasy XI.  Ability rotations, properly responding to enemies’ abilities, mix-and-matching buffs with your own skills, and properly positioning yourself are all aspects that need to be taken into consideration in this new Online Final Fantasy title. Yoshida and his team have definitely taken a more modern approach in the design of this fresh and innovative combat system.

Looks like someone didn’t incorporate movement in their strategy during 1.0’s Ifrit Extreme, and now they pray to the twelve for a raise… This also remains a factor in 2.0.

Classes and Jobs

Since the conclusion of phase 3, the Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn Beta testers have made their opinions and observations heard. The general consensus regarding skill sets of the Classes and Jobs have been a mix of negative and positive. 

Players criticize that Archer/Bard have been given an underwhelming skill set and deem that Pugilist/Monk combat is mindless and involves much button-mashing, providing an otherwise spammy experience. It is indeed easy to agree with such negative conclusions, but I must urge players to stop and note the intricacies of every skill and how various aspects of the combat can be manipulated to turn an apparently negative situation into a heavily favorable one.

Now for Bard, take into consideration that both poison abilities stack and that Bloodletter’s cooldown RESETS when EITHER of these two STACKABLE abilities crit on any given tick of damage… Oh yeah, and they can also play a support role. Good thing they can’t kite you when Square Enix introduces PvP. Oh wait..

Pugilist/Monk are on the same boat. Yoshida and team are making it so that abilities are recycled throughout the entirety of the game, a no-man-left behind ideology. There will be times where you find yourself spamming three abilities in a rotation, but this can be said about any other MMO. Players will also have to incorporate multiple abilities in any given instance as battles progress. 

During the early levels, you won’t find yourself doing much beyond accumulating experience points, and grinding the various low-level FATEs and quests the game has to offer in an effort to gain the levels required to participate in more difficult content such as boss battles and dungeons. The team at Square Enix has developed a game that smoothly transitions players from each stage to the next, allowing them to not only experience Eorzea through the early game content, but also reaching climax points for eager end game players that look forward to a challenging experience.

 Behind all of its “typical” modern MMO combat mechanics, Final Fantasy XIV: ARR conceals a combat engine that shows much promise, and it comes wrapped in beautiful visuals and breathtaking sounds.  Yoshida and his team aim to make an enjoyable game for the casual and hardcore gamer alike.