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Final Fantasy XIV is out now on PC and is scheduled for release some time in March 2011 for PlayStation 3. As the second Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG or MMO) in the Final Fantasy series (the first being Final Fantasy XI) Final Fantasy XIV will also be the first MMO to be released on PlayStation 3 (unless DC Universe Online gets there first). Sadly, despite the hopes of many games, the PC version of Final Fantasy XIV has had a pretty poor reception so far, generally focusing on a whole host of playability problems. So what’s gone wrong, and will Square-Enix be able to set things right in time for the game’s release on PlayStation 3 next year?

The review scores for the PC version have been the poorest of any of the main Final Fantasy game so far – and by some margin. PC Gamer gave it a score of 30%, while Gamespotgave it 40%. These are not the kind of review scores that are usually awarded to Final Fantasy titles, and they must be worrying the top dogs at Square-Enix – the 30 day ‘free’ game-time that you get with retail copies of the game has already been extended to 60 days free of charge, perhaps in the hope that people won’t simply desert the game while it’s in such a poor state. The main criticisms of both players and the media so far have been the terrible user interface, the high levels of lag, the controls, and an inefficient engine that requires very high stats to run even moderately well. Two of these concerns may not be a problem for the PS3 version of the game, and in fact may be partly due to the ‘console friendly’ design of the game. The keyboard controls are very awkward, and originally there wasn’t even a way to remap them, but playing the game with a joypad brings about much more intuitive experience – and hopefully this experience will be mirrored on the PS3 release. Also, the high specs needed to run the game may be partly because the engine has been optimised for PS3 and therefore needs a lot of work to get it to run well on a Windows PC – a similar thing happened with the PC release of Grand Theft Auto 4. Unfortunately, it’s equally possible that the PS3 version will have problems running smoothly too - indeed, the reason that Square-Enix gave for the delay of the PS3 version was that they were having trouble optimising it for the relatively low amount of RAM a PS3 contains.

Final Fantasy XIV’s other massive problem is that it’s going up against other MMOs like Lord of the Rings Online, Guild Wars and, most importantly, World of Warcraft. Many existing MMOs are now either subscription-free or totally free to play, which means Final Fantasy XIV will have to offer value for its £8.99 monthly subscription, but aside from that there are some serious flaws in Final Fantasy’s interface that make it very difficult to pick up and play. Part of the reason behind the massive backlash against Final Fantasy XIV is the sheer arrogance by which Square-Enix seem to have flown in the face of the tried and tested formulae of successful MMO games. Like it or not, World of Warcraft amassed its 12 million subscribers by being easy to get into while still fun and challenging to play. When you start up World of Warcraft for the first time you’re given a series of simple on-screen instructions, quest givers are shown with a giant question mark over their heads (which also shows up on your mini-map and full-screen map), and you’re broken into the game gently. Of course, if you’re an MMO veteran then you can largely ignore most of this but at least the option is there should you need it. If you want to buy new weapons, armour, food/drink, spells etc then you can just walk right up to an NPC and right-click on them to bring up the NPC’s inventory, which you click to buy. Likewise, to buy something from other players you just walk up to an auction house, search for want you want and click ‘Bid’ or ‘Buy’. To equip new armour or weapons you just right-click the relevant item. To check what you’re wearing just press C or click on the relevant icon in your toolbar. The list of quickly accessible features is almost endless. Blizzard knew what they were doing when they made WoW (and its subsequent revisions over the last few years) – they made it easy to get into and very hard to put down.

The real question then, is how did Square-Enix get it so wrong with Final Fantasy XIV? Did they simply ignore the precedents set by other MMOs and start from scratch? Or did they believe that their own methods would create a more enjoyable experience? Whatever the reason, in its current state Final Fantasy XIV is too hard to pick up and too easy to put down, and that’s not going to change with some light tweaking of the interface. A solid example of one of these problems is when you’re doing an early quest in one of the starting zones. Firstly, there’s little explanation of where to get quests from, and the map screen shows nothing of use and cannot be interacted with in any way. Eventually, you figure out that some of the NPCs will randomly have gameplay advice so you are then able to track down the quest giver, located outside of town. You get there, pick up a quest to kill some vaguely described monsters, and seek them out with the shoddy map interface. Finally, you find the enemies but you discover that you simply cannot attack them! The controls are so confusing and convoluted that it’s not obvious at first whether you’re making some mistake with the keys or whether you are doing something totally wrong. In fact, before you can attack the monsters you need to activate a giant floating quest crystal! Only after doing this can you attack the monsters. All of this could be put down to a steep learning curve if it weren’t for the fact that nothing is explained! You can spend 20 minutes vainly trying to kill the monsters you need to slaughter for a quest and at no point does the game let you know of the game’s arbitrary decision to make you ‘clock in’ before starting a quest.

No single one of that series of flaws is a major problem on its own. The problem is the sheer number of flaws in the game. Square-Enix will have to totally overhaul the entire interface and mechanisms of the game if they are to make it a success. That can be done, but can it be done in five months? With all the necessary testing and extra work, it may be that this is simply not possible and if that’s the case then they will surely have to delay the PS3 version further. What makes all the problems with Final Fantasy XIV a bitter-sweet pill to swallow is that the game has glimpses of absolute brilliance. The graphics, although they demand a high spec, do look incredible, and the massive open world is a joy to behold. The in-game cutscenes are very high quality, and the ease with which you can ‘respec’ your character by simply changing jobs is a welcome addition to the genre. However, these highly positive points are currently swamped with so many interface and gameplay issues that they are simply drowned out, which is a real shame. We had very high hopes for Final Fantasy XIV, which have been all but dashed by the poor quality of the PC game. We now live in hope that Square-Enix can fix the game in time for its PlayStation 3 release.

Have you played the PC version of Final Fantasy XIV? Do you think it can be ‘fixed’ in time for its PlayStation 3 release?