not even done yet but jesus christ this is so miserable, i am literally only able to do the droll sidequesting msq content by turning my brain off for an hour or two at a time and skipping every line of dialog because if i invest any more thought than that into this game i feel like i might never want to play another video game in my life. it is insane how dragon quest 10's first version bodies everything arr sets out to do effortlessly when it came out a year earlier and also wasn't a second draft like a realm reborn is. if ff14 ends up being something like xenoblade 2 where it doesn't even get nearly good enough to make up for how much time you waste to get to the "good" part i am so sincerely never playing a game on suggestion of my friends again.
my au ra is cute at least though
my au ra is cute at least though
dawg i thought it would be more tolerable to go back and replay this with how shadowbringers adds a lot of context to what's going on in the plot and retroactively makes arr's writing a lot deeper but no this shit just SUCKS
Bit late to the party with this one but my friends have gotten me into Final Fantasy XIV; i'm having a good time being in this world and interacting with people but man is this initial campaign a slog. There's apparently never been a better time to get into FFXIV due to sheer amount of content available now and if you pay, you can skip past this initial story altogether, but for free trial players and those that want to experience the full story, a realm reborn is your only in.
For those that don't know, this massive and now hugely popular MMORPG started as a disastrous 2010 release that cost square enix a fortune and nearly sunk them - a realm reborn is the 2013 release that completely replaced and remodelled the original, establishing a foundation that would go on to be one of the biggest comeback stories in the gaming industry's history and a quintessential MMO adored by millions. Unfortunately, however, a realm reborn presumably still carries a lot of the original release's problems and it is very clear that this is a game salvaged from another. Even after years of small improvements and quality of life features that I have been able to take advantage of today, getting through this is still a lot of work and a lot of commitment.
In terms of its strengths, it is absolutely worth commending that this is a game that does actually work on a lot of fundamental levels, the world is very cool and full of great design and visuals for its time. The level of customisation around your character, your controls, your preferred playstyle and UI is near endless, you really can make the game work for you - though granted I believe much of this was added later and it used to be more basic. The popularity of the game now also means that you can streamline the experience to a great extent and blast through it with the help of exp bonuses and the support extended by more experienced players. I myself am a pirate roegadyn and im having a good time roleplaying this hardened former pirate captain on a quest of redemption - it fits the maelstrom and their goals nicely and allowed me to get more invested, even if the story itself is asinine.
So on that note, this is where the game massively falls back - the story and characters are incredibly shallow and weak, the stakes and motivations feel contrived and lacking in impact, the pacing between quests is atrocious, the sheer amount of busywork and chores involved take tedium to new heights (and it was worse before ARR!) and unfortunately, the performances, writing and combat do leave a lot to be desired. If you're looking for a competent jrpg story to invest yourself in, look elsewhere or just get through this as fast as humanly possible, because with only the rarest of exceptions, it is not worth it at all. The tropes of classic final fantasy games are there in full effect but feel watered down or shoehorned in, many of its most important characters have 0 development or actual purpose to serve to the world and at many points the plot simply doesn't make sense - such as when it throws in a completely unnecessary twist villain late into the story or when your friends just kind of...materialise and help you take down lahabrea in the lifestream? You really have to forgo logic or any sense of tangible plot to try and follow along. All of this combined with some very basic character animations and drawn out sections of dialogue and cutscenes that very much insist upon themselves despite having little to say make this experience feel akin to playing a d&d campaign run by an ai.
At its best, ARR can have its share of fun boss fights (many of which, particularly in the late game, did receive major changes in fairness) some passable moments of drama, tension or stakes such as when the waking sands is attacked as well as some great music and emergent gameplay by nature of it being an MMO. Importantly, it also serves as the introduction to the games' major expansions, now the highlights of the experience which I very much look forward to delving into! Being done with ARR does feel like being released from shackles but I have a feeling it will be very worth it by the end!
For those that don't know, this massive and now hugely popular MMORPG started as a disastrous 2010 release that cost square enix a fortune and nearly sunk them - a realm reborn is the 2013 release that completely replaced and remodelled the original, establishing a foundation that would go on to be one of the biggest comeback stories in the gaming industry's history and a quintessential MMO adored by millions. Unfortunately, however, a realm reborn presumably still carries a lot of the original release's problems and it is very clear that this is a game salvaged from another. Even after years of small improvements and quality of life features that I have been able to take advantage of today, getting through this is still a lot of work and a lot of commitment.
In terms of its strengths, it is absolutely worth commending that this is a game that does actually work on a lot of fundamental levels, the world is very cool and full of great design and visuals for its time. The level of customisation around your character, your controls, your preferred playstyle and UI is near endless, you really can make the game work for you - though granted I believe much of this was added later and it used to be more basic. The popularity of the game now also means that you can streamline the experience to a great extent and blast through it with the help of exp bonuses and the support extended by more experienced players. I myself am a pirate roegadyn and im having a good time roleplaying this hardened former pirate captain on a quest of redemption - it fits the maelstrom and their goals nicely and allowed me to get more invested, even if the story itself is asinine.
So on that note, this is where the game massively falls back - the story and characters are incredibly shallow and weak, the stakes and motivations feel contrived and lacking in impact, the pacing between quests is atrocious, the sheer amount of busywork and chores involved take tedium to new heights (and it was worse before ARR!) and unfortunately, the performances, writing and combat do leave a lot to be desired. If you're looking for a competent jrpg story to invest yourself in, look elsewhere or just get through this as fast as humanly possible, because with only the rarest of exceptions, it is not worth it at all. The tropes of classic final fantasy games are there in full effect but feel watered down or shoehorned in, many of its most important characters have 0 development or actual purpose to serve to the world and at many points the plot simply doesn't make sense - such as when it throws in a completely unnecessary twist villain late into the story or when your friends just kind of...materialise and help you take down lahabrea in the lifestream? You really have to forgo logic or any sense of tangible plot to try and follow along. All of this combined with some very basic character animations and drawn out sections of dialogue and cutscenes that very much insist upon themselves despite having little to say make this experience feel akin to playing a d&d campaign run by an ai.
At its best, ARR can have its share of fun boss fights (many of which, particularly in the late game, did receive major changes in fairness) some passable moments of drama, tension or stakes such as when the waking sands is attacked as well as some great music and emergent gameplay by nature of it being an MMO. Importantly, it also serves as the introduction to the games' major expansions, now the highlights of the experience which I very much look forward to delving into! Being done with ARR does feel like being released from shackles but I have a feeling it will be very worth it by the end!
This review contains spoilers
A weak start would be an understatement. This game is so incredibly tedious simply because of how the story is told, by all means the story is honestly quite engaging and can be very interesting at times. But most, if not all the time the story gets ruined cause you have to deliver milk and get wine. They tried so hard to stretch this game out by making you do the most boring fetch quests known to man. It's sad because whenever an interesting plot point or story happens I get really into it, like its actually so good in those scenarios. (especially cid's backstory and graha tia's story, absolutely amazing)
the community and the gameplay def save this game, the gameplay really grew on me. I played dragoon and I had the time of my life jumping around like a fucking idiot. Gonna unlock more of the classes as soon as possible, thinking sage or dancer.
there's so much to do in this game and so many enjoyable scenarios i've had outside of MSQ that I don't think it'd be fair to only rate it on my story experience. The dungeons were fine, not amazing but just ok. The bosses were great, garuda and titan being my favorites cause of how banging the soundtrack is and how interesting the phases can be.
i had fun most of the time, none of that because of the MSQ.
Getting into heavensward soon, and I have a feeling i'll enjoy it way more than this. Also the OST is so fucking good in this game they creamed on it.
the community and the gameplay def save this game, the gameplay really grew on me. I played dragoon and I had the time of my life jumping around like a fucking idiot. Gonna unlock more of the classes as soon as possible, thinking sage or dancer.
there's so much to do in this game and so many enjoyable scenarios i've had outside of MSQ that I don't think it'd be fair to only rate it on my story experience. The dungeons were fine, not amazing but just ok. The bosses were great, garuda and titan being my favorites cause of how banging the soundtrack is and how interesting the phases can be.
i had fun most of the time, none of that because of the MSQ.
Getting into heavensward soon, and I have a feeling i'll enjoy it way more than this. Also the OST is so fucking good in this game they creamed on it.
TOO DANG LONG
Playing this to get to the good part of the game but it's all worth it cuz gold saucer is the best thing ever
i think its incredibly interesting how the second most popular mmo of all time has such a disastrously unapproachable basegame. every time i have to engage with arr content ingame i cant help but think to myself "this was considered enough of an improvement from 1.0 to keep the game going??"
it does make sense, they wanted to take a much more story-focused approach to an mmo, and to make a story with that kind of longevity they needed to haul ass when it came to worldbuilding and laying down the foundation for a story, but that absolutely does not make those 100 or so hours any less of a slough. im glad i managed to stick with the game, later content is fantastic and i've met some great people, but oh my fucking god it is impossible to suggest to friends who arent immediately sold on the gameplay/systems outside of the story (good thing jobs below 50 are boring as fuck too............ god i hate summoner)
it does make sense, they wanted to take a much more story-focused approach to an mmo, and to make a story with that kind of longevity they needed to haul ass when it came to worldbuilding and laying down the foundation for a story, but that absolutely does not make those 100 or so hours any less of a slough. im glad i managed to stick with the game, later content is fantastic and i've met some great people, but oh my fucking god it is impossible to suggest to friends who arent immediately sold on the gameplay/systems outside of the story (good thing jobs below 50 are boring as fuck too............ god i hate summoner)
Nah, man. This is boring.
never again. i enjoyed the world building though. and getting to learn how an MMO works for the first time was neat :)
I have been playing this basically nonstop for a few months. As far as a review goes that's pretty succinct, but God help you if you think I come here to be succinct.
The big thing you will hear about the Fourteenth Finals Fantasy repeatedly is that is has "The Best Final Fantasy Story." It will be worded in that exact way, an implicit admission that the standards we are judging it by are so low that you need a whole archeological team to find it. I am writing this review about specifically A Realm Reborn content, but I've gotten all the way through to the postgame story of Stormblood, and I have yet to obtain the elusive "best final fantasy story" despite having 300 hours in this thing. The fans who try to sell you on it this way are doing the game a disservice, and that's a shame because it's good! I like it a ton! But if it doesn't get good until Shadowbringers you cannot sell it to people who don't like MMOs. You just cannot do that.
This is most evident in ARR because the story is simply terrible. I will write about Heavensward next, which is where I actually start liking the main story, and I think it's starting to get there by the time you hit the expansion, but there is just nothing good to say about anything pre-credits here. There's ungodly amounts of filler. The villains are completely not a factor until three seconds before you fight them and they spill their entire Deal on you, which are all broadly-drawn cliche'd motivations. Very few of your pals or other important NPCs really have much development. Everyone is just constantly praising you to absurd hights for doing things like "delivering two letters" so that even when you start killing gods the reaction is exactly as strong.
On that note, there was definitely like one writer on this thing who noticed how incredibly gross the whole "beast tribes" thing was because every once in a while someone will correctly note that the city states' governments are incredibly evil and it's just kind of brushed aside because the plot has to happen. Or sometimes it's all about mind control but other times it's about them being afraid or whatever. This inability to deal with its own themes will continue through the expansions, I suspect.
BUT since this is an MMO, it's not all about the mains story. Final Fantasy is kind of always at its best when it is an unholy mix of melodrama and comedy, and there's plenty of room for smaller scale stuff that has a lot more fun with both here. The Hildibrand questline in the postgame, in particular, manages to take a genre of slapstick that I have literally never had work for me anywhere else and just nail it. There's a shitty "man in a dress" bit but otherwise it's very funny and good. The crafting and gathering storylines are pretty astonishingly fun for having your superhero main character just do extremely normal stuff for a while.
Frankly all of this is secondary to the real game: fighting big bosses while cool music plays. And the music kicks ass. The Shiva trial? Astounding music. Amazing stuff. Even manages to portray character through the musical transition. There are so many absurdly faithful homages to other games in the series, which I like because I am a brainless oaf who claps like a seal when I see they put the cerberus boss in the world of darkness like in FF3. I can live my dreams of being a catboy twink in the game. This is all great. This is all upside. I have never gotten deep into an MMO before so most of the mechanics are entirely arbitrary nonsense to me but gradual changes over the game's long life, and cultivating a reasonable community, has made that not much of a problem! These are all great accomplishments.
This is a big enough game that I don't feel the need to sell anyone on it. You can already play the free trial featuring the award-winning Heavensward expansion. It's also too big to really cover in the sort of extreme depth that part of me would like. The real purpose of this document is just to whine about the fanbase needing to calm down and stop pretending this thing's the greatest of humanity's literary achievements and since I will never accomplish that, I am at peace. Go with Hydaelyn my friends.
The big thing you will hear about the Fourteenth Finals Fantasy repeatedly is that is has "The Best Final Fantasy Story." It will be worded in that exact way, an implicit admission that the standards we are judging it by are so low that you need a whole archeological team to find it. I am writing this review about specifically A Realm Reborn content, but I've gotten all the way through to the postgame story of Stormblood, and I have yet to obtain the elusive "best final fantasy story" despite having 300 hours in this thing. The fans who try to sell you on it this way are doing the game a disservice, and that's a shame because it's good! I like it a ton! But if it doesn't get good until Shadowbringers you cannot sell it to people who don't like MMOs. You just cannot do that.
This is most evident in ARR because the story is simply terrible. I will write about Heavensward next, which is where I actually start liking the main story, and I think it's starting to get there by the time you hit the expansion, but there is just nothing good to say about anything pre-credits here. There's ungodly amounts of filler. The villains are completely not a factor until three seconds before you fight them and they spill their entire Deal on you, which are all broadly-drawn cliche'd motivations. Very few of your pals or other important NPCs really have much development. Everyone is just constantly praising you to absurd hights for doing things like "delivering two letters" so that even when you start killing gods the reaction is exactly as strong.
On that note, there was definitely like one writer on this thing who noticed how incredibly gross the whole "beast tribes" thing was because every once in a while someone will correctly note that the city states' governments are incredibly evil and it's just kind of brushed aside because the plot has to happen. Or sometimes it's all about mind control but other times it's about them being afraid or whatever. This inability to deal with its own themes will continue through the expansions, I suspect.
BUT since this is an MMO, it's not all about the mains story. Final Fantasy is kind of always at its best when it is an unholy mix of melodrama and comedy, and there's plenty of room for smaller scale stuff that has a lot more fun with both here. The Hildibrand questline in the postgame, in particular, manages to take a genre of slapstick that I have literally never had work for me anywhere else and just nail it. There's a shitty "man in a dress" bit but otherwise it's very funny and good. The crafting and gathering storylines are pretty astonishingly fun for having your superhero main character just do extremely normal stuff for a while.
Frankly all of this is secondary to the real game: fighting big bosses while cool music plays. And the music kicks ass. The Shiva trial? Astounding music. Amazing stuff. Even manages to portray character through the musical transition. There are so many absurdly faithful homages to other games in the series, which I like because I am a brainless oaf who claps like a seal when I see they put the cerberus boss in the world of darkness like in FF3. I can live my dreams of being a catboy twink in the game. This is all great. This is all upside. I have never gotten deep into an MMO before so most of the mechanics are entirely arbitrary nonsense to me but gradual changes over the game's long life, and cultivating a reasonable community, has made that not much of a problem! These are all great accomplishments.
This is a big enough game that I don't feel the need to sell anyone on it. You can already play the free trial featuring the award-winning Heavensward expansion. It's also too big to really cover in the sort of extreme depth that part of me would like. The real purpose of this document is just to whine about the fanbase needing to calm down and stop pretending this thing's the greatest of humanity's literary achievements and since I will never accomplish that, I am at peace. Go with Hydaelyn my friends.
To call this a slow start would imply that it picks up before the build up to Heavensward. The entirety of ARR felt like a struggle between telling a coherent story and making sure fans got enough fetch quests for their dollar. Most players will likely spend their time questioning whether the current main story quest has anything to do with the main story. Any semblance of momentum, pacing or tonal consistency is absent. Between the narrative pretending your dungeon quests were completed without other players and a questionable story structure, it becomes painfully clear that this story does not want to be an MMO. Were this a concise narrative that focused primarily on contributing to the worldbuilding and storyline, it would be adequate at best . There’s nothing particularly noteworthy about what it accomplishes. Utilizing familiar JRPG tropes, the execution leaves a lot to be desired. The scenes themselves range from decently done to what the FUCK is this voice acting.
This isn’t to say I hated absolutely every minute of the game. The towns offered enough variety to keep you interested in seeing what else the game had in store. Narrative aside, some of the dungeons toward ARR's climax were solid. Beyond that, it’s hard to praise anything about ARR that can’t be attributed to the systems that are present for the service as a whole. While I don’t hate FFXIV as a whole, I'd hardly call this a compelling introduction to Eorzea.
This isn’t to say I hated absolutely every minute of the game. The towns offered enough variety to keep you interested in seeing what else the game had in store. Narrative aside, some of the dungeons toward ARR's climax were solid. Beyond that, it’s hard to praise anything about ARR that can’t be attributed to the systems that are present for the service as a whole. While I don’t hate FFXIV as a whole, I'd hardly call this a compelling introduction to Eorzea.
It's a solid start to an exciting story. If you are not opposed to the usual grind of MMO's, I would stick it out. The story is a bit slow, but with each new expansion the story just gets better and better.
i loved playing a realm reborn, but once i got through some of the other expansions it truly put into perspective how Okay it is. still, very lovely, and i enjoyed the beginning of ffxiv more than every other mmo ive tried.
GUNDOBALD CLEARS UR FAVES
I enjoyed maybe 5 hours of the 40 I played of this. Heavensward better be worth it
ARR walked so Cold Steel 2 could run
I paid to SKIP this.
Being able to replay this with full context and attention of the game has been a great joy. Picking up pieces that get recontextualized throughout the entire story is incredibly exciting and I appreciate the start more than ever.
Meeting all the characters I've come to love over the past year or two all over again has been real special. And since I played A Realm Reborn on Japanese at first, actually hearing the infamously bad voice acting was at the very least very interesting, because of how beautiful some of its voice performances are in later expansions. While this is something bad specific to A Realm Reborn, it does give me greater appreciation for the game as a whole.
Undoubtedly, there's a lot that's not good or straight up bad about the first part of Final Fantasy XIV. Tons of fetch quests, sequences that don't matter and characters that have little import or are actively making the experience less enjoyable. Unfortunately, this does hold A Realm Reborn back from a higher score, but more importantly than its faults, I love what it does well.
This first, long section of this masterpiece of a game is often written off as simply bad and slandered to hell and back and sometimes even called skippable. But what I found in connecting the big moments and its important characters, is a story that does its best to save what had come before. And by doing so, it's able to set up fascinating setpieces of its world that open up countless storytelling possibilities for its sequels, or expansions. A Realm Reborn isn't perfect, sometimes it's not even good, but it's essential. You're able to appreciate Final Fantasy XIV to the fullest if you experience this imperfect entry to a perfect game.
Meeting all the characters I've come to love over the past year or two all over again has been real special. And since I played A Realm Reborn on Japanese at first, actually hearing the infamously bad voice acting was at the very least very interesting, because of how beautiful some of its voice performances are in later expansions. While this is something bad specific to A Realm Reborn, it does give me greater appreciation for the game as a whole.
Undoubtedly, there's a lot that's not good or straight up bad about the first part of Final Fantasy XIV. Tons of fetch quests, sequences that don't matter and characters that have little import or are actively making the experience less enjoyable. Unfortunately, this does hold A Realm Reborn back from a higher score, but more importantly than its faults, I love what it does well.
This first, long section of this masterpiece of a game is often written off as simply bad and slandered to hell and back and sometimes even called skippable. But what I found in connecting the big moments and its important characters, is a story that does its best to save what had come before. And by doing so, it's able to set up fascinating setpieces of its world that open up countless storytelling possibilities for its sequels, or expansions. A Realm Reborn isn't perfect, sometimes it's not even good, but it's essential. You're able to appreciate Final Fantasy XIV to the fullest if you experience this imperfect entry to a perfect game.
Thanks Pixilizer for flying me everywhere and ensuring I don't go completely insane.
I don't know why I did this to myself.
I don't know why I did this to myself.
This review contains spoilers
with the way most people talk about this expansion, starting it felt incredibly overwhelming and daunting. i didn't know how long it would take me to get through it considering most people i know thought it was a slog to get through and not very engaging. coupled with the fact that this my was my first time playing an MMO or even starting a game that racks up multiple hundreds of hours upon completion, i was even a bit scared, but maybe keeping my expectations that astronomically low ended up benefitting ARR quite a bit.
i had my fun with it, especially since i had friends to play and experience this with. the gameplay, while not among my favorites, was not nearly as bad as i thought it would be. i went into this thinking my friends were going to carry me for the majority of it and that it would be a pain to play but i'm getting the hang of it more and more and while definitely not the best at it, i'm having a good time.
in terms of world building and setting, it has all the intrigue it needs to have at this stage of the story. i liked the way the pieces are put together and how the politics between nations is explored and to see what everyone's motivations are. world building isn't a huge aspect i focus on though. it always helps when it's well implemented and it feels like the characters belong in their world but the characters themselves is what i give most weight to.
i liked quite a few characters and dynamics between characters a decent amount. while some characters served their function and left more abruptly than others and aren't always handled the best way they could've been, it establishes all we need to know and while maybe not favorable, it was never downright bad. a lot of the characters that are more prominent obviously still have a lot more left to offer and more development ahead of them and i am looking forward to see where their paths lead. what i already got seemed promising or even more than promising, with some even having pretty stand out moments and an already noticeable character arc. the antagonist cast is what i'm hoping to get even more focus on in the next expansions since i do love my antagonists and i hope i get more invested in a lot of its cast soon. i am definitely attached to some but i can't wait for this story to really hook me and give me more of what we got at the very end of ARR. everything that came beforehand was necessary to even get the climax we got, but i want to be even more invested than i currently am. i have no doubt though that that'll happen though (also i love alphinaud and thancred with all my heart).
a solid start that has plenty of flaws if you really want to get down to it, but in the end it pleasantly surprised me in many ways and i think the good outweighs the bad here. it didn't blow me away but it gave me a good foundation to work with and left me wanting more.
i had my fun with it, especially since i had friends to play and experience this with. the gameplay, while not among my favorites, was not nearly as bad as i thought it would be. i went into this thinking my friends were going to carry me for the majority of it and that it would be a pain to play but i'm getting the hang of it more and more and while definitely not the best at it, i'm having a good time.
in terms of world building and setting, it has all the intrigue it needs to have at this stage of the story. i liked the way the pieces are put together and how the politics between nations is explored and to see what everyone's motivations are. world building isn't a huge aspect i focus on though. it always helps when it's well implemented and it feels like the characters belong in their world but the characters themselves is what i give most weight to.
i liked quite a few characters and dynamics between characters a decent amount. while some characters served their function and left more abruptly than others and aren't always handled the best way they could've been, it establishes all we need to know and while maybe not favorable, it was never downright bad. a lot of the characters that are more prominent obviously still have a lot more left to offer and more development ahead of them and i am looking forward to see where their paths lead. what i already got seemed promising or even more than promising, with some even having pretty stand out moments and an already noticeable character arc. the antagonist cast is what i'm hoping to get even more focus on in the next expansions since i do love my antagonists and i hope i get more invested in a lot of its cast soon. i am definitely attached to some but i can't wait for this story to really hook me and give me more of what we got at the very end of ARR. everything that came beforehand was necessary to even get the climax we got, but i want to be even more invested than i currently am. i have no doubt though that that'll happen though (also i love alphinaud and thancred with all my heart).
a solid start that has plenty of flaws if you really want to get down to it, but in the end it pleasantly surprised me in many ways and i think the good outweighs the bad here. it didn't blow me away but it gave me a good foundation to work with and left me wanting more.
is it the best ff14 has to offer? absolutely not
it is better than most people say? yeah
it is better than most people say? yeah
PROS
+ Primals
+ Dungeons and alliance raids
+ Select cutscenes were really great and powerful
+ A few great, fun and lovable characters
+ Character customization features (glamours, dyes)
+ Collectibles (minions, mounts)
+ Emotes and the general virtual social atmosphere
+ The Golden Saucer
OK
o Voice acting is hit or miss - both in quality and how interesting the parts that are voiced are; most of the time it's not even available which is fine because things aren't important but then there are a handful of really cool moments towards the tail end of ARR that aren't voiced? Oddly inconsistent.
CONS
- High amount of filler in form of fetch quests such as having to go back and forth between places multiple times or collecting 2 animal skins and what have you.
- Lots of cutscenes. They get better in the later part of the game (Lv 45+) but for the most part, you're better off skim-reading or skipping them entirely because it's really not interesting and will burn you out.
- Gating of unlocking mechanics and classes via progress with the Main Story Quest // I really wanted to take a step back from it every now and then and play some other fun-looking classes but they were locked behind finishing ARR, so that made things more annoying as well. It gates people dedicated to crafting classes as well, so keep in mind you'll have to progress with it if you plan on getting to the higher levels of crafting.
- The monetization. Playing as a free trial account means you're severely inhibited (no party creation, joining Free Company or accessing the market), therefore requiring you to have friends with full accounts to make parties. Once you've bought the game, you won't have those problems anymore but there's still a monthly sub fee AND a cash shop. Yikes.
----
I reached the end of ARR with 4 days 5 hours and 11 minutes of playtime, which of course included some idling, job quests and playing around in the Golden Saucer to a certain extent but is still a considerable amount of time to get through this seeing as I mainly powered through the MSQ. It would've taken even longer if I didn't have friends who had full accounts either to make parties with as the Free Trial is so limited that you can't make parties, join Free Companies or use the market. Definitely don't start this game alone because chances are you're gonna burn out hard and preferably bring along friends who have already bought-in or are willing to buy in to actually make it possible for y'all to play together. I do recommend anyone getting it to push through with the Free Trial as long as they can before buying in. My personal breaking point was Lv 52.
Looking back with the knowledge and the experience I had, I would've opted to buy an ARR story completion for $10 and then looked through the important cutscenes myself as the MSQ, despite some great moments, wasn't really a great experience as a whole.
All that being said, while I cannot endorse ARR and think it is overbearingly a slog, I do really love a lot of things about this game and consider myself quite hooked - which should tell you how strong the game is in other aspects. Looking forward to experiencing Heavensward, which is a highly-praised expansion in comparison, and having a better time story-wise.
+ Primals
+ Dungeons and alliance raids
+ Select cutscenes were really great and powerful
+ A few great, fun and lovable characters
+ Character customization features (glamours, dyes)
+ Collectibles (minions, mounts)
+ Emotes and the general virtual social atmosphere
+ The Golden Saucer
OK
o Voice acting is hit or miss - both in quality and how interesting the parts that are voiced are; most of the time it's not even available which is fine because things aren't important but then there are a handful of really cool moments towards the tail end of ARR that aren't voiced? Oddly inconsistent.
CONS
- High amount of filler in form of fetch quests such as having to go back and forth between places multiple times or collecting 2 animal skins and what have you.
- Lots of cutscenes. They get better in the later part of the game (Lv 45+) but for the most part, you're better off skim-reading or skipping them entirely because it's really not interesting and will burn you out.
- Gating of unlocking mechanics and classes via progress with the Main Story Quest // I really wanted to take a step back from it every now and then and play some other fun-looking classes but they were locked behind finishing ARR, so that made things more annoying as well. It gates people dedicated to crafting classes as well, so keep in mind you'll have to progress with it if you plan on getting to the higher levels of crafting.
- The monetization. Playing as a free trial account means you're severely inhibited (no party creation, joining Free Company or accessing the market), therefore requiring you to have friends with full accounts to make parties. Once you've bought the game, you won't have those problems anymore but there's still a monthly sub fee AND a cash shop. Yikes.
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I reached the end of ARR with 4 days 5 hours and 11 minutes of playtime, which of course included some idling, job quests and playing around in the Golden Saucer to a certain extent but is still a considerable amount of time to get through this seeing as I mainly powered through the MSQ. It would've taken even longer if I didn't have friends who had full accounts either to make parties with as the Free Trial is so limited that you can't make parties, join Free Companies or use the market. Definitely don't start this game alone because chances are you're gonna burn out hard and preferably bring along friends who have already bought-in or are willing to buy in to actually make it possible for y'all to play together. I do recommend anyone getting it to push through with the Free Trial as long as they can before buying in. My personal breaking point was Lv 52.
Looking back with the knowledge and the experience I had, I would've opted to buy an ARR story completion for $10 and then looked through the important cutscenes myself as the MSQ, despite some great moments, wasn't really a great experience as a whole.
All that being said, while I cannot endorse ARR and think it is overbearingly a slog, I do really love a lot of things about this game and consider myself quite hooked - which should tell you how strong the game is in other aspects. Looking forward to experiencing Heavensward, which is a highly-praised expansion in comparison, and having a better time story-wise.
This review contains spoilers
Really liked the base game so far, very excited to see where it goes in the expansions. The ONLY plotline that really bothered me was being sent around to prepare a god damn feast while everyone is perfectly aware of the primals. Like. WHAT WAS THAT?? It was funny tho
honestly i'm just glad i finally finished ARR so i can experience the good shit
Depois de ANOS sendo bombardeada com propaganda desse jogo por amigos meus (e uma tentativa no free trial antigo), resolvi dar outra chance ao tão aclamado MMO.
O começo foi dolorosamente lento, mas tudo valeu a pena. Os personagens que te acompanham são muito cativantes, a trilha sonora linda, e o gameplay por si só é bastante divertido (adoro ser black mage).
Tudo isso vai amenizando a frustração causada pelas inúmeras "quests iFood" (apelido carinhoso que dei para toda tarefa que exigia entregar itens para personagens) e o vai e vem entre bonecos.
A história melhora bastante quando se aproxima da metade final, e os patches caminham em uma direção ótima, também. O final me fez ter certeza de que queria continuar em Eorzea.
Além disso, passei a ter ainda mais carinho pelo jogo depois que li sobre seu desenvolvimento, que é uma história realmente impressionante!
E claro, minha experiência se tornou consideravelmente melhor com a companhia de amigos, que me guiaram e ajudaram a aproveitar o máximo do começo de FFXIV (shoutout especial pro @ryuk0tsuki!!!).
Hoje, posso dizer que esse jogo teve um impacto extremamente positivo na minha vida, e definitivamente quero tentar ficar em dia para curtir Dawntrail no lançamento! :)
P.S.: precisei dar uma pausa bem longa no jogo por motivos externos, meu tempo real de gameplay foi bem mais curto que o registrado :'D
O começo foi dolorosamente lento, mas tudo valeu a pena. Os personagens que te acompanham são muito cativantes, a trilha sonora linda, e o gameplay por si só é bastante divertido (adoro ser black mage).
Tudo isso vai amenizando a frustração causada pelas inúmeras "quests iFood" (apelido carinhoso que dei para toda tarefa que exigia entregar itens para personagens) e o vai e vem entre bonecos.
A história melhora bastante quando se aproxima da metade final, e os patches caminham em uma direção ótima, também. O final me fez ter certeza de que queria continuar em Eorzea.
Além disso, passei a ter ainda mais carinho pelo jogo depois que li sobre seu desenvolvimento, que é uma história realmente impressionante!
E claro, minha experiência se tornou consideravelmente melhor com a companhia de amigos, que me guiaram e ajudaram a aproveitar o máximo do começo de FFXIV (shoutout especial pro @ryuk0tsuki!!!).
Hoje, posso dizer que esse jogo teve um impacto extremamente positivo na minha vida, e definitivamente quero tentar ficar em dia para curtir Dawntrail no lançamento! :)
P.S.: precisei dar uma pausa bem longa no jogo por motivos externos, meu tempo real de gameplay foi bem mais curto que o registrado :'D
Only reason I got through this game was because of my friends, and more than half of them quit before beating this expansion. The story was bad even for the basic Final Fantasy "collect the crystals of light" story telling, and while that's only scratching the surface it really doesn't get much deeper than that. Not to mention the boring dungeons and mundane gameplay that really doesn't get half good until the next expansion. Some classes still aren't even remotely fun and I'm the third expansion. The best part of this expansion is how A Realm Reborn actually came to be, and I highly encourage all who don't already know its story to look into it. There's an incredible documentary series on it with developer interviews and it's overall very fascinating and inspiring.
I'm also not going to act like the next expansion Heavensward is as amazing as people make it out to be. It's severely over hyped as most media tend to be, but it is of a much higher quality than ARR in almost every regard and I personally did find myself more invested in its narrative and characters, not to mention the dungeons which do become a lot more fun, especially in the post game. However I personally can't find it within myself to tell some poor soul to play through this pile of shit to get to what comes directly after. The third expansion Stormblood isn't even good either and not going to lie it has a lot of the same pacing problems ARR had.
Post stormblood update: This fucking sucks
I'm also not going to act like the next expansion Heavensward is as amazing as people make it out to be. It's severely over hyped as most media tend to be, but it is of a much higher quality than ARR in almost every regard and I personally did find myself more invested in its narrative and characters, not to mention the dungeons which do become a lot more fun, especially in the post game. However I personally can't find it within myself to tell some poor soul to play through this pile of shit to get to what comes directly after. The third expansion Stormblood isn't even good either and not going to lie it has a lot of the same pacing problems ARR had.
Post stormblood update: This fucking sucks
Most of the enjoyment I got out of this game was in spite of the game itself but then it remembered it was a final fantasy game and gave me about 5 hours of the coolest anime protagonist shit imaginable
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This game literally gave me multiple existential crises. Heavensward please be good
you know what i don't need to reiterate the flaws and the bs. what needs pointing out is, it is delightful to be a catperson. a tail? emotive ears?? i also have a big pompadour. my fur? pink. my pronouns? unsupported lol. i'm gonna transtasia into a hrothgar after hw which will make all the gendering more bearable
edit 1/12/2023: after a break of half a year, i went back and wrapped up 2.1-2.5. the pacing got so much better. some good storytelling. i am excited to continue unto heavensward.
edit 1/12/2023: after a break of half a year, i went back and wrapped up 2.1-2.5. the pacing got so much better. some good storytelling. i am excited to continue unto heavensward.