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.

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

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

(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.

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