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

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!

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.

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

I will be talking about FFXIV: A Realm Reborn exclusively now.

I've recommended this game several times to my friends, and even if the game is mechanically fun, it takes a long time until it gets good, same with the story, but even worse, I am aware of how many times Square/CB3 remade ARR, and how many filler quests they removed and readapted, but its never enough, its a really tough experience for newcomers.

And even if the game does a good job setting everything for the future and providing OK content, it's just very boring.

The story is really meh until the end, when it gets just a little better when its all about geopolitics, but nothing remarkable.

Minus a half star for being an MMO. Endwalker could massage my balls and id still give it a 4.5 max
My character was a WHM hyur with a mullet and a big mustache wearing a wifebeater and shorts named Michael Rackpipe. Every cutscene with me was very silly, i cant wait until i get the jorts glamour pants.
I did every single (non class) side quest and there is 0 differences between them and 99% of the main quests. I skimmed maybe 75% of the dialogue, and still fail to recall most characters names because the story was so boring until the level 46 quests.
Dungeons were barely dungeons, most of them were just straight lines. The only one i can say I actually liked was the haunted mansion one that i dont even remember the story purpose of. I heard a buncha horror stories about the end dungeon but that shit only took 30 min lol. I used NPCs for everything except the final boss.
The highlight of the entire campaign was rhitahtyn, who apparently got entirely redesigned bc he was too easy and the queues were longer than the fight LMAO.
Ill play the rest of the 2.X MSQs after i escape the pixel remaster mines, i was just home for a week and finished the battlepass earlier than i thought i would, so i decided to check out this cause it’s technically free.

I’d heard so much praise for XIV I was shocked when I came to this the first time, tried it for 20 hours and found it completely dull. I was baffled by all the love for the game everywhere I went. I heard it “gets good” in the expansions but I couldn’t see how you could really build something great out of this? A while later a small community I’m in was starting a new play along and convinced me to try again. I started having a bit more fun. I fell behind the group a bit but kept going. The narrative was still poor. Characters have a lot of words to speak but little of substance to say. There are hundreds of basic quests often involving travelling or teleporting between two places, walking a bit, fighting some enemies (combat mostly consisting of slowly auto attacking and cycling through commands waiting for health bars to go down and cool-downs to refresh). Party dungeons are a little more fun for having people with you, but again it’s all repetitive and basic. I finally got to the credits and felt such a relief, only to find there was a whole ‘post-game’ storyline as long as the first part. Here came some more characters with the tiniest bit more personality, people actually doing things in cutscenes. Is this the good stuff I was promised? Apparently not. It climaxes in a series of 24-man party dungeons bigger and harder than the others, and these really highlight what a mess it is. The screen is already so full of icons, text, buttons, names, especially on PS4, and now surrounded by all these players all using their own flashy abilities, you can barely see what you’re fighting. It doesn’t really matter, it’s just the same thing of watching bosses terribly high health points slowly decrease til you win. I will say the AOE zoning elements are kind of cool, when your character’s slow little legs and lengthy sprint cool-down let you escape.

The player community, particularly help threads online and the novice chat (which the game takes a long time to put you in) is really this game’s only saving grace. I’ll probably never understand their enthusiasm for this game beyond a virtual space to hang out with friends, a Second Life without the sex stuff (mostly?).

Here we are 100 hours later. I know for the unlikely reader this all sounds terribly hateful, I know. Honestly I only hold enough hatred for the game to rant this negativity here rather than let it out where people are having a good time.

Somehow I am walking out of this still interested in trying the expansions, but for now, I don’t want to think about it at all.

Final Fantasy XIV is a game that increases exponentially in quality, but that unfortunately does require starting at the bottom of the curve. A Realm Reborn is a typical, I would even say uninspired, JRPG story to which I was only paying half attention to the majority of my playtime. However, the gameplay itself is very fun and satisfying in classic MMO fashion, and packed together with some legitimately interesting worldbuilding the game managed to hold my attention long enough to get to the 'good stuff' - and thank goodness for that, because it's only going up from here.

I played this game for so long under the presumption that it gets better later on in the story, so this is only for ARR.

-The gameplay is boring and unbalanced (I spam dragon kick for dps, as it is overpowered)
-Ability variety is lacking compared to other RPGs
-The story is completely braindead and uninteresting.
-Cutscenes are only afforded the occasional model pivot, desynced mouth moving, and RARELY they get shitty voice acting.
-Most ARR multiplayer activities are dead. (can take hours to launch in depending on the time of day)
-Completely lacking thematic and story elements.
-Most enemies are total health sponges.
-The main plotline is filled with so much filler nonsense that it will take so much time to beat even though there is hardly anything going on (I must have spent well over 40 hours doing fetch and delivery quests).
-Monthly sub model.
-They will not shut up about fantasy politics.

If I was forced to think of anything that this game did correctly, I would say that it did a good job doing a cosmetic/transmog system.

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.

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)

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

post endwalker review:

its still pretty mid, but after beating endwalker and knowing details that were previously unknown enhanced the experience
arr does have its moments, one that stuck out to me in particular was the final battle against lahabrea and the little undertale-esque moment that happens (i know this game was pre undertale but idk how else to describe it)
the dilly-dallying is still ridiculous though and really dampens the urgency that the game is trying to convey
all in all its alright but ffxiv gets soooo much better with later expansions and does a lot of tropes used in arr better with future expansions as well