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.

(This is a review of A Realm Reborn specifically, including patch content. There doesn't seem to be another good entry on backloggd for this)

Whoo boy. Don't know how to feel about this one. I always said I would never get into MMOs because a whole bunch of stuff fundamental to the genre seemed like a huge personal turnoff. But discussion of this game is inescapable online, including amongst my friends, so I finally conceded, intending to treat it as a social activity...

...instead, I fell right into its gameplay loop, hook line and sinker, and forged ahead alone to pass the time. Maybe I had the reason to avoid it backwards all along. I don't really have the genre experience to say what's standard and what's FF14's specific innovations, so rather than comment on anything too specific about the gameplay I'll just say that... I'm enjoying myself. It's captured me at a time where I've otherwise felt pretty aimless about how to spend my time. Good job, I guess. The structure has an almost Skyrim-like quality for me, where I can bum around the world trying out a bunch of different skills, chasing up a bunch of different sidequests, killing time idly forever - except, like, a lot better, and with an actually good story attached.

For a reboot that saved the game and perhaps the franchise from oblivion, it's somewhat ironic that A Realm Reborn seems to now be considered the worst part of the existing experience, and while it's all I've experienced so far I have to hope people are right that it only improves from here. While the overall moment to moment gameplay and various optional systems are engaging me, the main story quest of 2.0 is full of tedious padding, and no amount of lampshading or plot justification makes that any more fun.

The patch content is significantly more compelling, but having to constantly stop and either queue or schedule 8-person raids, with no NPC support option like all of 2.0 had, kills pacing dead as you have to wait for real life obstacles to be able to play. I know that's, like, normal MMO stuff, but that's exactly part of why I always avoided the genre, and people like to talk up how accommodating the game is to a solo player - seemingly forgetting about this part.

Speaking of exaggerated recommendations, the free trial isn't quite as accommodating as the memes would have you believe. Inventory management without retainers is downright Sisyphean, and lack of access to the market board significantly hampers progress in crafting classes. Don't get me wrong, the sheer amount of content available for free is staggering by the standards of a paid game's free trial... but you're definitely not immune from stifling reminders that they'd really like you to buy the game.

EDIT 25/05:
Doing more ARR side content as I play through Heavensward, a note about the writing of the crafter sidequests occurs to me. Usually, the game's writing does a pretty good job of acknowledging context from other parts of the game, but these feel like an exception. They're written in isolation, not acknowledging your character relations, combat prowess or even other crafting skills, despite them being mechanically necessary to gather materials for crafting. It's an uncharacteristic and distracting dissonance.

Yeah Final Fantasy XIV is a game I actually really enjoyed. The combat, class system, and MMO aspect of the game made me really push through a realm reborn. I'm going to be mostly talking about a realm reborn so here it goes. Oh my god ARR is too damn bloated with fetch quests that I really takes a long time to get to the good stuff of it. If I had to be honest the game did not get good until the post game content of ARR which was a lot better and felt like everything was moving at a more faster pace. The story in pre ARR I didn't care for much but the story content leading up to the next expansion had me very interested so it felt it was worth going through all the tedious busy work. I'm definitely looking forward to Heavensward after finishing a realm reborn

It took me about 5 times before I was able to progress to a point where I could finally feel invested, thankfully it doesn't take too long to get to that point!

I really enjoyed going back to this expansion, I don't really enjoy the questing or general content but paying more attention to the story has my brain buzzing the yum sensors!

Paying attention to the story really pays off in different ways

Before starting my FFXIV journey I kept hearing how A Realm Reborn is really not that great and you just have to get through it to reach the parts where the game gets actually good, but tbh I disagree, I had a lot of fun playing through ARR. Is it the best MMO experience possible? LOL not even close, the beginning especially is way too slow and very formulaic. Were it not for my friends I would probably stop playing after just a few hours, but the game does get way better later and I had a lot of fun moving forward. If this is the rock bottom of FFXIV then I cannot wait for what the game has in stock.

After coming back and forth to this expansion for three months, I finally beat Realm Reborn and god damn, I'm just glad it's over. It's a slog to get through, and requires you to do multiple filler, pointless fetch quests. The story, at least to me, wasn't something that I was very invested into, but it's still important to pay attention to because it sets up later storylines. The dungeons also kind of suck with some good ones along the way. It also doesn't help that I played a terrible, boring class up until post game, which is admittedly my fault, but it did diminish my experience. Unironically, I would say the best part of Realm Reborn is around the post game where things actually get interesting for later expansions such as Heavensward, which I do plan to fully play, as it seems like a HUGE upgrade from A Realm Reborn.

I think the most fun I had with this part of the game was being with friends, going through raids and dungeons with them, and goofing off sometimes in the world. I'm not too sure what I should expect for these next expansions, but with the quality upgrade in Heavensward thus far, I am hoping I can have more fun times with my friends.

IMPORTANT NOTE I NEEDED TO INCLUDE: I named my character Jiggle Gainsborough, the sister of Aerith Gainsborough from FFVII. She's strong. Just thought I should share it.

A Realm Reborn was secretly FFXIV at its peak and I'm not joking. Like no, it was not the actual "best" expansion, but the sort of aura of wonder and discovery and community present was unlike anything in the entire game ever since, and honestly in most of MMOs since. It was a time when everything was a little harder, and a little clunkier, and a little less convenient. It was a time when the base Eorzea zones felt like a vast, beautiful world; when a glamour prism was a valuable object; when a rotation involved six buffs and thirty timers to juggle. Its story - especially the far overhated 2.x storylines - demanded patience, but rewarded the player with so much worldbuilding and personality and little explorations of the softer moments between people.

FFXIV after ARR became a better game, but it would never again have that sort of purity of vision. Every expansion since ARR has been FFXIV making itself a little more fun to play at the cost of shaving away a little bit of its soul, one streamlined mechanic and simplified dungeon at a time.

Quando eu era pequeno eu jogava um mmorpg que já era um pouco antigo pra época, seu nome: Silkroad. E mesmo que já houvesse muitos outros MMO melhores (exemplo WoW e o próprio FFXIV) quando eu jogava o Silk, ele era o único que conseguia me divertir. O jogo só funcionava pelos servidores piratas e esse era o que me divertia, a comunidade mantia ele vivo, os GM dos servers piratas se preocupavam em fazer algo bom para os gato pingado que tinham ali jogando e era realmente gratificante os eventos, as trades e tudo que você podia fazer pelo gerenciamento de alguém que estava fazendo tudo aquilo por amor e detalhe, nem era o criador do jogo.

Quando comecei FFXIV, foi uma sensação nostalgica. Os gráficos são belíssimos, mas tem algumas áreas que me lembraram do Silkroad e isso foi uma viagem pra mim. Só que, eu não estava nem perto de consumir o que de verdade é esse jogo em sua real substância. Um MMO completo, simplesmente perfeito, recheado com diversos conteúdos e como Silk me cativava na época, ele me cativou agora por ter uma comunidade engajada mas com a diferença de ter uma equipe por trás maravilhosa que está preocupada com os mais diversos conteúdos. FFXIV é um triunfo nessa franquia. Um jogo que todos aqueles que gostam de Final Fantasy com certeza deveriam jogar.

quite bloated with fetch quests and other mind numbing tasks but what really sucks about it is the sheer amount of quests like this in the msq. along with a very boring story and cast at least upfront, it can feel like a slog to get through at many points. however the last stretch of the game is VERY good with satisfying boss fights and gameplay sections along with a solid ending. gameplay throughout is generally good if not a bit too easy but that's changed by the end. overall i think it's pretty much the definition of mediocrity, if there was simply less filler the score would go up but if the gameplay wasn't as enjoyable throughout it'd be lower. just an ok experience and a decent setup for the rest of the expansions which i'm really looking forward to given all i hear about them.
5/10