Final Fantasy XIV

Did you know that the critically acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV has a free trial, and includes the entirety of A Realm Reborn and the award-winning Heavensward expansion up to level 60 with no restrictions on playtime?

Ah, Final Fantasy XIV, perhaps the most well-known MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) after World of Warcraft. The game has a long history. It first came out in 2010, but that game was considered pretty bad by most people. The game went through a major reboot to version 2.0, which came out in 2013. From then, the game has only steadily increased in popularity, continuing even to this day.

I have tried FFXIV all the way back in 2013, but I didn’t stick with it for long. Now I’ve returned and am well into the game, having beaten the base game and moving on to the expansion content. This might be a half my thoughts and half how the game works kind of review. There is a lot to say about this game, so there might be more than one part to this.

Find it (somewhere) on the official site. Yeah, the navigational part of the site could use some work.

Final Fantasy XIV can feel a bit odd for being an MMORPG. There is a strong single player component that includes a lot of cutscenes. While it is possible to rush to the end, I really wouldn’t recommend it. You will miss out on so much of the game since the story is first and foremost here. You have some story cutscenes for nearly everything you unlock from dungeons to normal features of the game, like the ability to get a haircut.

Trying to rush to the endgame is also difficult because you have to go through everything in order, and you’ll probably just feel frustrated that way. I think it’s best to treat the levelling process like a single player game, only with the occasional forced group content. Take your time going through the story quests. Enjoy why you’re doing the things you’re doing. Talk to the NPC’s and get to know them. There is pretty much several full length Final Fantasy games in here all with their own story and fun cast of characters, so enjoy it like a single-player final fantasy game. Play some mini-games and do some sidequests.

As for the gameplay of the game, it is still in the old style of tab-targeting MMORPGs. It might feel dated now, but it works solidly enough. Combat is hitting your ability hotkeys. There is a global cooldown of 2.5 seconds, though you can make it faster with certain stats. For the most part, you want to do your skills in the correct order while avoiding the enemy’s telegraphed attacks. It gets more complicated in later content, but for the most part, the main story content is easy enough to complete.

As for quests, it is linear follow what the game tells you to do. Your objectives will show on the minimap, so for the most part, you’ll know what to do. It’s not complex, and there are a lot of quests that just send you from one area to another. I did hear someone say that those travel quests are meant to be the downtime where you ruminate on the plot that just happened, and I think that’s an interesting way to look at it.

There are multiple ways to get around. The most common of which is probably just teleporting to the teleport points. You can also get a mount (which can only be unlocked after doing a certain main story quest, so do those main story quests!) Sometimes, it feels like the design quests taking you from place to place because they just expect you to teleport everywhere.

The game still looks great. It is showing its age, but the atmosphere, locales and characters all look great. I have to put special emphasis on the facial animations of the game. They are amazing. Being a Final Fantasy game, the music is also fantastic. You had a sample of what’s available up above. The game is just chock full of great music and songs. Everything comes together to make a great total package.

As for endgame, I am not there yet, so I can’t comment on what that’s like. But you will always be able to play the older content thanks to the roulette system. Roulette is pretty much a random dungeon, so later players will still get early content, so they’ll help you through all of the early stuff. There are also a lot of players doing old content without using over-powered gear that you can try to join, too.

Overall, the community of the game is friendly. Of course, there are a lot of different kinds of players, so what you experience might be different. But I will say that in other games, people multibox (play multiple characters at the same time) to gain an advantage in combat. In Final Fantasy XIV, people multibox to be a full band. Yes, you can play music in this game. I haven’t unlocked it yet so I’m not sure how well it works, but people so just put on full concerts within the big cities.

Final Fantasy XIV is a solid game that is solidly Final Fantasy. You have crystals, chocobos, magitek and more. Treated as a single-player Final Fantasy with multiplayer dungeons and raids, it will be engaging and fun. The gameplay might feel outdated by now, though. And I have a whole lot to say about UI and some other parts of the game having to do with various systems.

I guess those will come in the next segment. I am having a lot of fun and looking forwards to what comes next in terms of the plot and characters.

Find it on the official website.