Final Fantasy XIV Online

Game: Final Fantasy XIV Online
Company: Square Enix
Genre: MMORPG (Massive Multi-Player Online Role Playing Game)

Discription
The Age of Adventure Has Begun
Join players across the globe as you enter a stunning world of endless opportunities. Gather a band of steadfast companions and battle ferocious creatures in the wilds; hunch over an anvil and forge a wondrous blade of legend; relax in a tavern with friends and swap tales of your latest exploits.
The story of Final Fantasy XIV is founded on the path of your adventures (Source: Back of the game case)

Rillean's Comments:
Alright so I am obviously not a professional rater . . . at least yet, and the professionals all seem to agree that this game . . . leaves much to be desired. I have found many times that as a casual gamer I will actually disagree with the raters, and for the first few days I was ready to argue that this was an awesome game. However, after the initial new game craze wore off I found myself feeling cheated. There is no doubt that the game is beautiful, I mean no one will deny that the graphics are gorgeous, the characters are well built and look great (or gruesome if that is what you want) and the cut scenes are amazing. But once you get past all of that the game leaves so much wanting. The first thing I noticed that seemed lacking was the quest limit. My friends and I partied up, grabbed our levequests. After finishing our eight tasks we found we were not allowed to do anymore until the quests reset which only happens every 36 hours. Okay no problem we will just kill some mobs (non quest creatures that can be found around the realm) and gain experience that way. Ah another catch, mobs do not offer experience when you are in a group. O yeah and due to this being release week everyone is still in the level one areas killing everything they see so there is nothing to kill anyway. Okay admittedly that last one is not necessarily the designers fault but it was still a problem. And the level gap that existed between the different areas also made it difficult to decide when to move on to the next area.
The other major problem that I have with the game is the crafting system. Most items require you to obtain ingredients from other professions or at a high price from vendors. Now while this and of it self is not a problem in my book the actual crafting method is more or less a game of chance. Granted higher skill levels make you more likely to succeed it in no way assures victory. And if you fail you loose everything that went into making it and that means you loose a lot of money.
Okay now to some positives. The game is beautiful (sorry I have to keep coming back to this but it is stunning for an MMORPG to look this good). The party system is very flexible allowing the groups to be large or small. The flexibility of the weapons and class system is great (changing your weapon changes your class). The designers do admit they have problems (you think with a rating of 4/10 from gamespot?) but they say they are working on fixing what the players have told them about. If this ends up being true then I will be more than willing to do another review, but for now, this game needs work.

Ratings:
Graphics: 10/10
Interface: 4/10
Game Play: 0/10
Story: 5/10
Music: 9/10
Total: 28/50