I was just browsing the Google Play Store and I am getting frustrated seeing games being tagged with the genre, but aren’t actually simulating anything. E.g. Idle Miner/Mining Tycoon (can’t remember name). Nothing in the game is accurate or even tries to represent real life. It even has cartoon graphics. Now I’m not getting mad about the games themselves, just the fact that they are being labelled as sims. Anyone else annoyed by this?
The newer games still have the same general story elements and themes that were characteristic of the entries you’re used to, but the combat is more like an action RPG. The sky pirate one is FF12(my personal favorite one) and Lightnings entries are FF13. Since 14 is an MMO you’ve really only missed two main-series games.
I’m waiting on the latest entry, FF16, to be released on PC so I’m no authority, but from streams I’ve watched the combat is pretty similar looking to the Devil May Cry series.
You can play most of it solo, aside from some of the major boss fights, and it’s both a “greatest hits” nostalgia trip and a damned good FF in its own right once you get into the Heavensward expansion and beyond.
I agree completely and generally describe it as a single-player MMO experience. It does a great job of incorporating the FF storytelling into an MMO environment and I personally love it. I haven’t played since they massively condensed the ARR content a few years back.
At the end of the day though, an MMO and a traditional RPG play very very differently and attract a very different audience so I usually give it an asterisk.