Source: 1UP
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It's only been 18 months since the release of FFXI: Treasures of Aht Urhgan, meaning that "expansion fatigue" -- the likes of which followed Square Enix's difficult and laborious Chains of Promathia -- had yet to settle in. Players were still "meriting" in Aht Urhgan's experience-fertile areas like Caedarva Mire and the Mamool Ja Savagelands, queuing up for the mass-scale battles of Besieged, and reaping the rewards of both the Assault modes and the Aht Urhgan-specific missions and quests. Treasures of Aht Urhgan, despite its popularity, had many issues and was considered by many to be too easy compared to Promathia. Besieged was a broken feature at best, plagued by overcrowding and tremendous latency and data transfer issues, while the relative ease of Aht Urhgan's high-level XP'ing areas meant that skillful play was put on the back burner in favor of high-damage "melee-burn" parties requiring much less timing, coordination, and precision. But Aht Urhgan was popular because of and despite these very reasons, and so it continued to thrive. Wings of the Goddess, by comparison (and based on what the game has thus far offered in its first, embryonic month of release), is little more than a light, content-free snack at best, and an unfinished glimpse of what should have shipped in the final retail box at worst.
Dec 14, 2007, 09:32 AM
