a bad story, badly told, experienced through the re-animated corpse of a video game that no longer exists. 2.0 doesn't have the dramatic and mythological death of 1.0, but as you run through silent zones all alone talking to absolutely no one, playing with skill trees balanced for an endgame four expansions away, you realise it is equally dead and gone.
mmos are social moments as much as they are video games, and the moment of time that was a realm reborn has long gone. to play it now is to simultaneously understand how a game that was heralded as the greatest redemption story in history is now seen as an albatross around ff14's neck. the half measures put in place to 'solve' this only highlight the problem more than solve it, as now it's quicker to get through, but the rhythm of the zones is absolutely killed as side quests are less than useless, the sense of space is obliterated, and the ratio of time spent watching awful cutscenes as opposed to playing the video game slides drastically in the wrong direction.
that said, the video game? is good! the world is beautiful and delightful to explore, the simplified rotations are still enjoyable and the faster levelling means you aren't taking too long between getting new skills. the lack of cross-class skills is a huge shame however and does feel like a piece of the game's soul is ripped out, the core identity of a job system streamlined away in the (probably justified) cause of endgame social convenience. but there is a joy to exploring eorzea and running dungeons that all the streamlining in the world can't kill.
the same cannot be said for the story, which is a car crash of multiple decisions made due to the reality of this game's nightmare development, that nonetheless conspire to ruin my life. cutscenes are stock animations and textboxes, so everything takes ten times too long and i can't button through fast enough. but the dialog itself has been localised by satan, so you have to slow down to read the most overwrought purple prose without tripping over it. the story is meant to be a tragic tale of struggle after a world ending calamity, but they're reusing all the assets from the last game so bahamut's casualty list is reduced to one old guy and every unnamed town NPC's entire family. it simultaneously wants to be a serious political study of navigating deep rooted conflict between nations and people, but it's also a cartoon for five year olds where the solution to every problem is "believing in hope" and you're the most special boy ever who has solved every problem look the president is here to throw you a party.
it does not work lmao. there are a few bright spots. i enjoyed a few job quests, specifically marauder and bard. rogue had a great little ending where it turned into lupin the third. the villains in gaius' tokusatsu squadron, inexplicably, all get more character work than any of the heroes despite having about two scenes each. this leads to hilarious situations where the most sympathetic characters in the game pour their heart out and make their tragic case while your guy doesn't react and silently murders them in the name of peace, because he is an mmo protagonist.
but aside from that i truly was dreading every cutscene. simply i am here to ride around on cloud's motorbike and do some damn tab targeting. and on that front it still delivers. there's even a few standout dungeons like aurum vale that has actual mechanics in the environment or the final bombastic praetorium assault. genuinely delightful moments, windows into oh right i fucking love final fantasy when the music is going off and there's an airship and also organization xiii is there for some reason.
so it is what it is. three stars. it's a video game. however mad and/or bored i got i was compelled to keep playing, because it is fun to hit a boss with DOTs. it is fun to pull like twenty guys into AOE range and feel immortal. please lower the teleport costs by the time i get to 7.0
mmos are social moments as much as they are video games, and the moment of time that was a realm reborn has long gone. to play it now is to simultaneously understand how a game that was heralded as the greatest redemption story in history is now seen as an albatross around ff14's neck. the half measures put in place to 'solve' this only highlight the problem more than solve it, as now it's quicker to get through, but the rhythm of the zones is absolutely killed as side quests are less than useless, the sense of space is obliterated, and the ratio of time spent watching awful cutscenes as opposed to playing the video game slides drastically in the wrong direction.
that said, the video game? is good! the world is beautiful and delightful to explore, the simplified rotations are still enjoyable and the faster levelling means you aren't taking too long between getting new skills. the lack of cross-class skills is a huge shame however and does feel like a piece of the game's soul is ripped out, the core identity of a job system streamlined away in the (probably justified) cause of endgame social convenience. but there is a joy to exploring eorzea and running dungeons that all the streamlining in the world can't kill.
the same cannot be said for the story, which is a car crash of multiple decisions made due to the reality of this game's nightmare development, that nonetheless conspire to ruin my life. cutscenes are stock animations and textboxes, so everything takes ten times too long and i can't button through fast enough. but the dialog itself has been localised by satan, so you have to slow down to read the most overwrought purple prose without tripping over it. the story is meant to be a tragic tale of struggle after a world ending calamity, but they're reusing all the assets from the last game so bahamut's casualty list is reduced to one old guy and every unnamed town NPC's entire family. it simultaneously wants to be a serious political study of navigating deep rooted conflict between nations and people, but it's also a cartoon for five year olds where the solution to every problem is "believing in hope" and you're the most special boy ever who has solved every problem look the president is here to throw you a party.
it does not work lmao. there are a few bright spots. i enjoyed a few job quests, specifically marauder and bard. rogue had a great little ending where it turned into lupin the third. the villains in gaius' tokusatsu squadron, inexplicably, all get more character work than any of the heroes despite having about two scenes each. this leads to hilarious situations where the most sympathetic characters in the game pour their heart out and make their tragic case while your guy doesn't react and silently murders them in the name of peace, because he is an mmo protagonist.
but aside from that i truly was dreading every cutscene. simply i am here to ride around on cloud's motorbike and do some damn tab targeting. and on that front it still delivers. there's even a few standout dungeons like aurum vale that has actual mechanics in the environment or the final bombastic praetorium assault. genuinely delightful moments, windows into oh right i fucking love final fantasy when the music is going off and there's an airship and also organization xiii is there for some reason.
so it is what it is. three stars. it's a video game. however mad and/or bored i got i was compelled to keep playing, because it is fun to hit a boss with DOTs. it is fun to pull like twenty guys into AOE range and feel immortal. please lower the teleport costs by the time i get to 7.0
From what I've seen, it seems that the ARR campaign of FFXIV is considered as basically an extended tutorial/prologue that puts a lot of pieces in place for the later, far better parts of the game, which has me excited because what is here is already pretty solid stuff! I was particularly fond of the way it was so easy to just mess around with the different classes in the game without much in the way of a penalty beyond the time taken to level that class up, with a lot of systems in place to make that experimentation relatively painless. The story content had its ups and downs here for sure however, lots of very slow, aimless content near the start where nothing feels as if it's happening and while some of that is remedied by how pretty the scenery is, it's still dull, especially since a lot of it takes place before you actually get enough combat abilities for things to feel interesting.
Fortunately, things do get interesting towards the end once the pieces are in place and things actually start moving, with everything that takes place after the Coerthas storyline being full of cool setpieces and a steady sense of progression that culminates in the final hour and a half being especially great in this regard. The dungeons do an especially great job at keeping things interesting, with the way they quickly morph into a frenetic dash through waves upon waves of enemies being fun to deal with, especially with a group of friends all working together to make their way through these cooperative dungeon crawls. By the end of the campaign, I can safely say that I'm incredibly interested to see where stuff goes from here.
Also, I get to run around as a catboy in a dress so it's just inherently a good game.
Fortunately, things do get interesting towards the end once the pieces are in place and things actually start moving, with everything that takes place after the Coerthas storyline being full of cool setpieces and a steady sense of progression that culminates in the final hour and a half being especially great in this regard. The dungeons do an especially great job at keeping things interesting, with the way they quickly morph into a frenetic dash through waves upon waves of enemies being fun to deal with, especially with a group of friends all working together to make their way through these cooperative dungeon crawls. By the end of the campaign, I can safely say that I'm incredibly interested to see where stuff goes from here.
Also, I get to run around as a catboy in a dress so it's just inherently a good game.
Disclaimer: I got the game for the social aspect and was extremely disappointed by the lack of it. No one in this game ever interacts with others. The world feels empty and dead despite hundreds of players romping about.
It's essentially a single-player game masquerading as a multiplayer experience. It looks great, I'll give it that, but if you don't have friends who play ffxiv, steer clear.
Everyone probably talks in linkshells or discord. Because why would you ever interact with someone outside your circle of friends in a multiplayer game right?
Total garbage (I guess this applies to all MMO's now).
It's essentially a single-player game masquerading as a multiplayer experience. It looks great, I'll give it that, but if you don't have friends who play ffxiv, steer clear.
Everyone probably talks in linkshells or discord. Because why would you ever interact with someone outside your circle of friends in a multiplayer game right?
Total garbage (I guess this applies to all MMO's now).
My opinion about this game hasn't really changed much, it's after all one of my favorite games ever. But I cleared an Ultimate yesterday and there's still a spring in my step about it
One day I'll give it the review it deserves
One day I'll give it the review it deserves
This review will mainly be concerning A Realm Reborn, and not Final Fantasy XIV as a whole; just want to get that out of the way off the bat.
It cannot be understated what an absolute success story that Final Fantasy XIV has been for Square Enix. It is at once, an underdog story into an absolute titan of the modern gaming landscape, essentially one of a select few, and dwindling crowd of MMORPGs, and of them, it is barely a competition of which one is on top. And all of this came after one of the worst conceivable launches of a game in history. I think in many ways, we forget how devastating the initial launch of Final Fantasy’s second go at the genre truly was. A boring, poorly controlling slog of a grindfest that alongside an ongoing disdain of the franchise at the time through games like XIII and general internet reactionary thought of “weird japanese games” this once historic franchise was at its arguable lowest point.
A Realm Reborn, in many regards, is a miracle game. While indeed, reusing what they could salvage from the original release, this was a from the ground up start from scratch. A game that is essentially putting together a last ditch effort to make something worthwhile from some truly rotten ingredients. All in a very strict schedule of just a couple of years, including the ending of the original game that becomes the basis for the entirety of the rest of XIV. And miraculously, it succeeded, and would only continue to succeed more and more. A new expansion is on the horizon this year, and after its wildly popular conclusion to its decade long story, it feels like a celebration to truly appreciate how far it has come.
All of this is well and good. And with that context, it becomes a lot easier to appreciate what A Realm Reborn is. That being said, as anyone can attest to who has played it; it is a tough pill to swallow. While XIV is an incredibly fun game when you’re going through dungeons, testing out job classes, and fighting bosses; this game is about as rough as it can get. Much of the meat of the game’s main campaign is about as basic as it can get, following mostly boring fetch quests that even now the team is still weeding out, a decade after the fact. Dialogue that you at some point realize you can just skip and understand what is going on just fine, and a distinct lack of polish, and many points where it feels like you aren’t doing much of anything, it certainly lacks a lot of the luster that the future expansions have seemingly been able to boast.
That said, when you do get the opportunity to actually participate in this game, by golly is it a lot of fun. I’m not particularly familiar with the genre, but XIV is such a social game, and trying out the different classes and running the many dungeons the game has to offer is a treat. Even this early on, Masayoshi Soken, the game’s composer is already a highlight of the game. Making some of the best compositions in a series that might just be the crown jewel of video game soundtracks, with not just beautiful fantastical pieces, but a wide variety of musical styles, genres, and tones. This matches well with the game’s gorgeous art direction which, while at times feeling bland, are laboured over with such attention to detail and weird little quirks that make them instantly recognizable. And the game does get to end on an incredible note, with a final confrontation that feels as epic as something like this could be leading up to. After doing shit like having to search for wine ingredients, having a satisfying final confrontation with a big ass weapon is satisfying, and well earned.
But that is not the end of A Realm Reborn, oh no, there is an entire post game, about the length of the regular campaign waiting for you. Somehow the post game suffers almost the exact same cycle that the base game does, with a particularly grueling first half being a section of game that even with my understanding of the game’s creation, I still cannot defend, even with some fun trials. But after a while, you can tell the reigns are in control. Literally the instant you fight one of the game’s bosses, the game is in full swing, and it starts to get going, and it is really good, ending yet again, on another fantastic climax. Leading up to the next expansion, and where XIV truly becomes what it is today. While I have only just barely started Heavensward yet at the time of writing this, you can notice the difference in quality almost immediately, and it has me jazzed. But this is not that story, at least not yet.
A Realm Reborn, is a mess, the best part of the game I experienced was a reworked solo boss fight that only got put in as of late 2021; nearly an entire decade after its initial launch. It is boring, clunky, very bloated and was even more so on its release, and yet in spite of all of that, it does work, it is compelling. While I have pretty close to no desire to return to it, as I’m sure many of XIV’s playbase would agree with, it needs to be celebrated for what it is. A momentous turn around of a true failure of a game. There is an argument to be had that XIV might be on the same level of success as VII is at, and that simply would not be possible if A Realm Reborn was truly the sum of its worst parts. I think it helps that this, along with two other expansions that are essentially full games, just are free to play, with almost little to no strings attached to the offer as well, making that initial tough sell, a lot easier to swallow when you aren’t paying a dime for it. And there is a reason they even can do that, it's because the team behind the game isn’t just confident, but they very obviously love what this game has become. This is the definitive modern gaming underdog story, and while not perfect, playing this with a friend and dicking about MSQ is something I wouldn’t trade for the world. Heavensward is almost certainly going to blow my socks off, but for now. Yeah. I guess I do like XIV, you weird little game you.
It cannot be understated what an absolute success story that Final Fantasy XIV has been for Square Enix. It is at once, an underdog story into an absolute titan of the modern gaming landscape, essentially one of a select few, and dwindling crowd of MMORPGs, and of them, it is barely a competition of which one is on top. And all of this came after one of the worst conceivable launches of a game in history. I think in many ways, we forget how devastating the initial launch of Final Fantasy’s second go at the genre truly was. A boring, poorly controlling slog of a grindfest that alongside an ongoing disdain of the franchise at the time through games like XIII and general internet reactionary thought of “weird japanese games” this once historic franchise was at its arguable lowest point.
A Realm Reborn, in many regards, is a miracle game. While indeed, reusing what they could salvage from the original release, this was a from the ground up start from scratch. A game that is essentially putting together a last ditch effort to make something worthwhile from some truly rotten ingredients. All in a very strict schedule of just a couple of years, including the ending of the original game that becomes the basis for the entirety of the rest of XIV. And miraculously, it succeeded, and would only continue to succeed more and more. A new expansion is on the horizon this year, and after its wildly popular conclusion to its decade long story, it feels like a celebration to truly appreciate how far it has come.
All of this is well and good. And with that context, it becomes a lot easier to appreciate what A Realm Reborn is. That being said, as anyone can attest to who has played it; it is a tough pill to swallow. While XIV is an incredibly fun game when you’re going through dungeons, testing out job classes, and fighting bosses; this game is about as rough as it can get. Much of the meat of the game’s main campaign is about as basic as it can get, following mostly boring fetch quests that even now the team is still weeding out, a decade after the fact. Dialogue that you at some point realize you can just skip and understand what is going on just fine, and a distinct lack of polish, and many points where it feels like you aren’t doing much of anything, it certainly lacks a lot of the luster that the future expansions have seemingly been able to boast.
That said, when you do get the opportunity to actually participate in this game, by golly is it a lot of fun. I’m not particularly familiar with the genre, but XIV is such a social game, and trying out the different classes and running the many dungeons the game has to offer is a treat. Even this early on, Masayoshi Soken, the game’s composer is already a highlight of the game. Making some of the best compositions in a series that might just be the crown jewel of video game soundtracks, with not just beautiful fantastical pieces, but a wide variety of musical styles, genres, and tones. This matches well with the game’s gorgeous art direction which, while at times feeling bland, are laboured over with such attention to detail and weird little quirks that make them instantly recognizable. And the game does get to end on an incredible note, with a final confrontation that feels as epic as something like this could be leading up to. After doing shit like having to search for wine ingredients, having a satisfying final confrontation with a big ass weapon is satisfying, and well earned.
But that is not the end of A Realm Reborn, oh no, there is an entire post game, about the length of the regular campaign waiting for you. Somehow the post game suffers almost the exact same cycle that the base game does, with a particularly grueling first half being a section of game that even with my understanding of the game’s creation, I still cannot defend, even with some fun trials. But after a while, you can tell the reigns are in control. Literally the instant you fight one of the game’s bosses, the game is in full swing, and it starts to get going, and it is really good, ending yet again, on another fantastic climax. Leading up to the next expansion, and where XIV truly becomes what it is today. While I have only just barely started Heavensward yet at the time of writing this, you can notice the difference in quality almost immediately, and it has me jazzed. But this is not that story, at least not yet.
A Realm Reborn, is a mess, the best part of the game I experienced was a reworked solo boss fight that only got put in as of late 2021; nearly an entire decade after its initial launch. It is boring, clunky, very bloated and was even more so on its release, and yet in spite of all of that, it does work, it is compelling. While I have pretty close to no desire to return to it, as I’m sure many of XIV’s playbase would agree with, it needs to be celebrated for what it is. A momentous turn around of a true failure of a game. There is an argument to be had that XIV might be on the same level of success as VII is at, and that simply would not be possible if A Realm Reborn was truly the sum of its worst parts. I think it helps that this, along with two other expansions that are essentially full games, just are free to play, with almost little to no strings attached to the offer as well, making that initial tough sell, a lot easier to swallow when you aren’t paying a dime for it. And there is a reason they even can do that, it's because the team behind the game isn’t just confident, but they very obviously love what this game has become. This is the definitive modern gaming underdog story, and while not perfect, playing this with a friend and dicking about MSQ is something I wouldn’t trade for the world. Heavensward is almost certainly going to blow my socks off, but for now. Yeah. I guess I do like XIV, you weird little game you.
FFXIV is a phenomenal game, but only if you go into it with the right expectations. There are other MMOs that may have better gameplay, but FF14 has the greatest storyline of any MMORPG I've seen. The game is more akin to a single-player JRPG with MMO components. While there are dungeons, raids, and boss battles, most of your time with this game will be spent traveling to locations, talking to NPCs, and watching cutscenes. It's not your standard MMO experience, and if you don't enjoy slow burn stories and reading, this probably isn't the game for you.
With that being said, this is absolutely the type of game for me. The world is incredibly immersive, the gameplay is satisfying, and the overarching narrative is enthralling. It's easily my favorite MMORPG, and one of the best games I've ever played.
With that being said, this is absolutely the type of game for me. The world is incredibly immersive, the gameplay is satisfying, and the overarching narrative is enthralling. It's easily my favorite MMORPG, and one of the best games I've ever played.
And so the journey begins...
What makes a good MMO? That was a rhetorical question. Quite frankly, I have no clue. When it comes to these things, my only real experience prior to FFXIV was Toontown and Club Penguin, with only the former having RPG elements. It was a simple game, and I sank hundreds of hours into it as a kid. Since then, the concept of MMORPGs fascinated me, but rarely did I ever feel the motivation to actually get into one because I knew the time investment would be great, and I lacked the proper motivation to try.
FFXIV has become bigger than anyone could have really imagined back in 2010. A game that was plagued with technical issues, terrible UI, and just plain boring gameplay. I wasn't there for it, but I've heard the horror stories and watched analysis videos. Those were dark times. It amazes me how Yoshi P quickly turned things around. A Realm Reborn was, as the name suggests, a new beginning for this game; a rebirth that kickstarted one of the most interesting and successful comeback stories in gaming. Despite the hype, what ultimately convinced me to try it is my love for the franchise, and, as a new player who jumped on the free trial bandwagon, I have some thoughts so share.
First of all, it took me a long time to finish A Realm Reborn. Not because the story is actually that long, but because I kept taking really long breaks. As someone who's pretty much a MMORPG noob, a lot of XIV's systems and its UI felt very overwhelming from the start. I had to consult Google on multiple occasions just to figure out menial things like how to change my hotbar size. It admittedly turned me off, initially, but as I kept trudging through the main story quests and started getting used to things, I found myself getting into a cathartic rhythm. I was genuinely enjoying my somewhat relaxing newbie experience at first, but, I'm not gonna sugarcoat it... it's true what veteran players say: ARR is a slog. This is something that I didn't really come to terms with until I got about halfway through the MSQs, and this is where those multiple long breaks come in. I would be playing this game for an hour or two at a time and then just forget about it for a few months.
ARR focuses on worldbuilding, and this is what it excels at. You're definitely not going to get a top-tier FF story here (at least, not yet, as I have been told). It all feels like set-up for bigger things to come, and this is definitely exemplified with some pretty foreboding foreshadowing in its ending. By that point, I was fully on board. I would say that in terms of story, ARR took a solid 35-40 hours to "get interesting," and even then, it's still not as balls to the wall as one would expect or would probably hope for. But the small taste I got of Eorzea's vibrant world and its political struggles was enough to satisfy my curiosity for what's to come.
You know, I really didn't think that I'd ever get invested in another MMO quite like I did with Toontown. While these are two very big contrasts, there were times while I was playing this game that I felt that same sense of childlike wonder and intrigue I experienced with TT. There's just something that hits quite different with these massive online worlds that you just don't feel with other games. It's this sense of community; a sense of belonging. You feel like you're there and like you're a part of this world; moreover, you feel appreciated, especially with how welcoming this community is. I'm still not sure what makes a great MMO, but perhaps this is a start. I truly look forward to where this journey through Eorzea's bustling world will take me next and beyond.
My thoughts on the post-game patches:
Patch 2.1 - A Realm Awoken
Patch 2.2 - Through the Maelstrom
Patch 2.3 - Defenders of Eorzea
Patch 2.4 - Dreams of Ice
Patch 2.5 - Before the Fall
Without Post-Game Patches: Light 7/10
With Post-Game Patches: Decent 7/10
What makes a good MMO? That was a rhetorical question. Quite frankly, I have no clue. When it comes to these things, my only real experience prior to FFXIV was Toontown and Club Penguin, with only the former having RPG elements. It was a simple game, and I sank hundreds of hours into it as a kid. Since then, the concept of MMORPGs fascinated me, but rarely did I ever feel the motivation to actually get into one because I knew the time investment would be great, and I lacked the proper motivation to try.
FFXIV has become bigger than anyone could have really imagined back in 2010. A game that was plagued with technical issues, terrible UI, and just plain boring gameplay. I wasn't there for it, but I've heard the horror stories and watched analysis videos. Those were dark times. It amazes me how Yoshi P quickly turned things around. A Realm Reborn was, as the name suggests, a new beginning for this game; a rebirth that kickstarted one of the most interesting and successful comeback stories in gaming. Despite the hype, what ultimately convinced me to try it is my love for the franchise, and, as a new player who jumped on the free trial bandwagon, I have some thoughts so share.
First of all, it took me a long time to finish A Realm Reborn. Not because the story is actually that long, but because I kept taking really long breaks. As someone who's pretty much a MMORPG noob, a lot of XIV's systems and its UI felt very overwhelming from the start. I had to consult Google on multiple occasions just to figure out menial things like how to change my hotbar size. It admittedly turned me off, initially, but as I kept trudging through the main story quests and started getting used to things, I found myself getting into a cathartic rhythm. I was genuinely enjoying my somewhat relaxing newbie experience at first, but, I'm not gonna sugarcoat it... it's true what veteran players say: ARR is a slog. This is something that I didn't really come to terms with until I got about halfway through the MSQs, and this is where those multiple long breaks come in. I would be playing this game for an hour or two at a time and then just forget about it for a few months.
ARR focuses on worldbuilding, and this is what it excels at. You're definitely not going to get a top-tier FF story here (at least, not yet, as I have been told). It all feels like set-up for bigger things to come, and this is definitely exemplified with some pretty foreboding foreshadowing in its ending. By that point, I was fully on board. I would say that in terms of story, ARR took a solid 35-40 hours to "get interesting," and even then, it's still not as balls to the wall as one would expect or would probably hope for. But the small taste I got of Eorzea's vibrant world and its political struggles was enough to satisfy my curiosity for what's to come.
You know, I really didn't think that I'd ever get invested in another MMO quite like I did with Toontown. While these are two very big contrasts, there were times while I was playing this game that I felt that same sense of childlike wonder and intrigue I experienced with TT. There's just something that hits quite different with these massive online worlds that you just don't feel with other games. It's this sense of community; a sense of belonging. You feel like you're there and like you're a part of this world; moreover, you feel appreciated, especially with how welcoming this community is. I'm still not sure what makes a great MMO, but perhaps this is a start. I truly look forward to where this journey through Eorzea's bustling world will take me next and beyond.
My thoughts on the post-game patches:
Patch 2.1 - A Realm Awoken
Patch 2.2 - Through the Maelstrom
Patch 2.3 - Defenders of Eorzea
Patch 2.4 - Dreams of Ice
Patch 2.5 - Before the Fall
Without Post-Game Patches: Light 7/10
With Post-Game Patches: Decent 7/10
Well, I did it. I've finally beaten ARR. It was about 100 hours, but I've done it. I think when most people say ARR is bad, what they mean is its not as good as the later expansions that they've been playing for years. ARR has plenty of problems and there are plenty of times when I got tired of the fetch quests and MMO filler, but the high points are pretty high. When the story gets going it's really good. Finishing the patch quests has me really excited for Heavensward because what they left us with is really good. I played all of the base game as a warrior and loved it, but I got hit with tank anxiety pretty bad in the patches for some reason so I fucked off and leveled dragoon to 50 and I don't regret it dragoons are cool as shit. Excited to hear the new voice acting, I've heard its a lot better.
I played nearly 7hrs of this game only to find out it only gets good 50hrs in… I’ll save it for another day but so far as much as I loved the look and atmosphere of Limsa Lominsa, the quests were very boring, all just farm stuff…
first mmo to hook me. fun w friends!!!
Só mais 72 horas patriotas, pra acabar o tutorial.
There have been many times I've tried to give MMOs a chance and I thought maybe there'd be something for me in this one considering how much I typically love Square but honestly this game feels so un-square like. It's like... A circle type game or something idk.
did not read a single line of dialogue
the sole reason for what was undoubtedly the happiest time of my life. this game really had it all for every type of human being out there and fostered the most lovable and unique community ever. this game may have been taken over by redditors, babies, and baby redditors but the memory of that magestic fleeting period of time will remain intact in my soul forever.
This review represents the entirety of FFXIV, not just a realm reborn. Same goes for log hours.
The pinnacle of “it gets good after 40 hours”
FFXIV is the only MMO I can consistently play and enjoy. It’s amazing to see the dedication a team has put into this after all these years and the game is just constantly getting better. The job system and character creation is great, and it’s an awesome single player experience too because of the games focus on story. That story focus though means that if you really want to enjoy the weight of the later expansions you need to start from the beginning with a realm reborn because the story continues all the way through. A realm reborn isn’t horrible, but it’s nowhere near as good as the later expansions. I respect it for what it is, and I wouldn’t tell anyone to skip it. They’ve also trimmed a lot of fat from the expansion with patches and updates.
The longer you play the game, the more you will appreciate it. It’s easily the most time I’ve ever put into a game solo and with friends.
The pinnacle of “it gets good after 40 hours”
FFXIV is the only MMO I can consistently play and enjoy. It’s amazing to see the dedication a team has put into this after all these years and the game is just constantly getting better. The job system and character creation is great, and it’s an awesome single player experience too because of the games focus on story. That story focus though means that if you really want to enjoy the weight of the later expansions you need to start from the beginning with a realm reborn because the story continues all the way through. A realm reborn isn’t horrible, but it’s nowhere near as good as the later expansions. I respect it for what it is, and I wouldn’t tell anyone to skip it. They’ve also trimmed a lot of fat from the expansion with patches and updates.
The longer you play the game, the more you will appreciate it. It’s easily the most time I’ve ever put into a game solo and with friends.
I just sampled this as part of the Xbox beta test, since I've always been curious how a game like this works on console and just generally how a Final Fantasy MMO was implemented.
My first impression was how flawless and smooth everything ran. I don't know why I expected bugginess or sub-optimal performance, maybe because it's a beta test but everything looks fantastic with tons of frames and I didn't experience any kinds of bugs or roughness.
My second impression was how totally they just lifted basically everything in this game directly out of World of Warcraft. WoW did more or less the same thing with Everquest, but at least made major improvements with elements like maps, quests and NPC interaction. In the opening hours at least this feels much less like an evolution of the formula and more like a reskin.
Speaking of skins, the UI is really bad. I had heard a lot of good things about how they managed to make this PC game playable on a controller. I can confidently report those things were wrong; this is a terrible experience. You can really tell this UI was designed with a mouse in mind; everything on the screen -- which is A LOT OF THINGS -- is "clickable" which is an unnatural and counterintuitive interaction on a controller. It seems like they haven't done anything to simplify the UI or cut down on the superfluous interactable elements. I was very disappointed with this aspect but I'm sure that with enough practice one could git gud enough with it to move around the world confidently. I can't imagine it's a ever particularly fluid experience, though, everything just takes way too many steps.
Years of EQ and WoW completely depleted my love for MMORPGs so I was never going to start an FFXIV account and really dive in, but I'm super glad I got the chance to try it out finally. It's awesome they're finally bringing this to Xbox and that the dozens of Final Fantasy fans that don't own a Playstation will finally be able to join their friends.
My first impression was how flawless and smooth everything ran. I don't know why I expected bugginess or sub-optimal performance, maybe because it's a beta test but everything looks fantastic with tons of frames and I didn't experience any kinds of bugs or roughness.
My second impression was how totally they just lifted basically everything in this game directly out of World of Warcraft. WoW did more or less the same thing with Everquest, but at least made major improvements with elements like maps, quests and NPC interaction. In the opening hours at least this feels much less like an evolution of the formula and more like a reskin.
Speaking of skins, the UI is really bad. I had heard a lot of good things about how they managed to make this PC game playable on a controller. I can confidently report those things were wrong; this is a terrible experience. You can really tell this UI was designed with a mouse in mind; everything on the screen -- which is A LOT OF THINGS -- is "clickable" which is an unnatural and counterintuitive interaction on a controller. It seems like they haven't done anything to simplify the UI or cut down on the superfluous interactable elements. I was very disappointed with this aspect but I'm sure that with enough practice one could git gud enough with it to move around the world confidently. I can't imagine it's a ever particularly fluid experience, though, everything just takes way too many steps.
Years of EQ and WoW completely depleted my love for MMORPGs so I was never going to start an FFXIV account and really dive in, but I'm super glad I got the chance to try it out finally. It's awesome they're finally bringing this to Xbox and that the dozens of Final Fantasy fans that don't own a Playstation will finally be able to join their friends.
worst game I've ever played hands down
(Actually beat on 6/20/23)
Finally getting around to this. It only took me several years, a new pc setup and matching with someone over Hinge to convince me to get back into this mess.
Playing as a femroe monk as that was the character I had made 4(? I really dont wanna think that I started and made this character that long ago...) years ago, I decided to swallow the pill that is FF14.
Generally just bee-lining the main quests is fine, although it was always hard to gauge EXACTLY when things would start to pick up story or gameplay wise so let me try to boil when exactly certain gameplay mechanics or ideas popped up that fired at least a few neurons because it does take a long while before you get to the meat of the story (arguably even in this expansion you don't really get but so much).
Before that lemme sum up my previous experience of just: Start main quest -> look around for main quest -> find other quest -> just do whatever basic quests were around -> loop -> 2 years pass -> try to play some stuff with friends -> walk across the entirety of a continent and a server to reach my friends in Gridania. I didn't really beeline like I had thought I was gonna do and just got mired in what I 'thought' I would have needed to do to understand FF14.
Firstly, all of this is from the experience of a Pugilist starting out in Thanalan/Ul'Dah so the experience will differ if you start in Gridania or Limsa Lominsa, my first dungeon was around level 15. This doesn't sound too bad but you have to do quite a bit in the surrounding area, some local politics-type beats, and you have to jump continent to La Noscea. Doing the main quest and job stuff this isnt too hard- however it will be a lot of back and forth from one place to another and trying to remember the map layouts surrounding the city. Admittedly, trying to remember the layout of Western and Northern Thanalan took much longer than I would like to admit. Doing mainline stuff primarily, the first and second dungeons are nearly back to back so its not as sparse feeling as the beginning grind might lead you to believe- you dont start out being able to do dungeons but once you get to your first the duty finder, they become a bit more prevalent. Story wise a bit more starts to progress as soon after you complete your first few dungeons, and you're able to meet the Scion of the Seven Stars- a group of people relevant to the end of the origin FF14 and that old guy I keep seeing disintegrated. I can say with certainty I've heard of at least half of these characters prior and have seen the spread cheeks of at least three, so I started to pay a bit more attention to what was happening around this time.
Around level 20 I finally realized there were symbols above the 'hunting log' creatures. DO THE HUNTING LOGS. There was so much exp nabbing these I couldn't believe. Also, more games need creature logs! Look forward to when I finish XB3: Future Redeemed (in a few weeks, hopefully). Finally it was around this time that I kinda got used to the cycle of things- those long trips between places didn't feel too bad. Maybe this is Stockholm Syndrome. However, it also dawned on me I really didn't need gil for too much at the moment, so I felt fine just teleporting or taking the chocoboporter whenever I needed to. Previously I was pretty conscious on sparing as much Gil as possible until I knew I needed something good but it really doesn't matter. By the way! Check all the Chocoboporters and Crystals you can!
Around level 25 was when things seemed to have slowed down mission wise but my moveset seemed a little more robust, and a few levels later, I was given the chance (as part of the MSQ) to join a free company. I haven't done too much regarding this and I don't entirely understand the point but once joining I was given a quest to redeem my chocobo! Finally a free mode of transportation! But more importantly, I found the achievement trading guy in Gridania and was able to get my first companion- A tiny Gilgamesh.
...i didn't know this existed but I really needed it.
Finally once I hit level 30 things started to click in a bit better- my actual job as a Monk unlocked and I could use a few more moves as I leveled up. The overall idea of how quests were structured started to kick in, and I had a much easier time getting around thanks to my new chocobo, a much greater mass of wealth and just a better understanding as to where to go.
Unfortunate for me, starting to understand what the quest structure meant realizing the next 10 levels or so were just clearing out a backlog of Minfillia's chore list across the three starting regions of the game. At the very least this cut down on the cross-regional travel but goddamn are a lot of these back and forth. There are some intriguing stories and lines interspersed throughout these mini arc such as the Ala Mhigo, but as part of the main quest it just feels very bloated. At least there's a dungeon or a primal fight every few levels to spice things up, and I do have to commend the community- I've yet to had a bad experience thus far. Granted these are just main story dungeons I'm going through for one time but its been pleasant seeing others enthusiastic to just get through a dungeon, they're super pleasant to go through. Hell, we even had a bungle midway through Stone Vigil but the game's generous in its respawn mechanic so it was just a matter of retrying a mob or boss that went awry.
Around level 40 a fourth region unlocks, the Coerthas! Around this time the quests start to get a bit more interesting, despite some back and forth still. I'd heard the name Haurchefant quite a few times but don't have much context for what he does so his presence/dialogue here juxtaposed against some of these other hoity-toity Elezen which made him stand out- talking with my guide about him made me interested in seeing whatever he ends up doing.
From here it was basically a snowball through the rest of the msq, chugging through to the final major region of Version 2.0, Mor Dhona. Shoutouts to both FF14 and Xenoblade 2 for having a mountainous, industrial region wrought with imperial forces using Mor in its name.
Unfortunately around level 48 despite all best efforts we hit it. The plateau. Only a handful of quests until the end, but sadly I'm just too low leveled! Despite there being quite a lot of exp to go around I did think it was a bit bullshit the exp yield didn't just mainline you to the end of MSQ- I was thinking the endgame stuff for main story stuff would require you to be about level 45 rather than 50.
After a bit of grinding I was able to reach level 49 and do some of the last few quests only to get to- another quest with a level requirement. This time regarding the 'item' level of your character. I'm hoping this makes way more sense later in game but for right now it really doesn't sound like it makes any sense. I guess it's to make sure your armor is up to date? I've got no idea how to quickly get these up to a reasonable level, especially in the free trial that keeps me locked out of trading and accessing the market? It's a weird system and I do have a lot of hang ups with what you can and can't access with the free trial. I get its free but like would it kill Square to allow you to create a party? Or to at least have limited access to the market board?
FINALLY, we reach level 50 AND get a strong enough item level to begin the last chunk, after some last minute hunting log shenanigans. These last few bits are pretty cool- although I feel like they have functions and requirements that are introduced way too late and just impede progress. Usually whenever you want to introduce new requirements for big set pieces you'd want to introduce them early or midway through a campaign and ease players into getting used to them but stuff like the exp curve slowing down and the item levels just feels really bad when I was really gunning to get the last few missions done. Maybe adding in all the job class quests helped with leveling early on and definitely the hunting log helps fill in exp but I was really confused as to why these last quests just jumped up in requirements so fast. At the very least these last few bits were pretty fun, running through the corridors of The Praetorium and the outside rim on Magitek is pretty neat and the two last bosses are neat enough.
I think the most I can say about ARR is that its neat enough that I can understand why people latched onto it when it dropped and why it kept those users attracted enough to continue into expansions to the extent that the FF14 team could actually make the game they wanted to in Heavensward onward. Even in these later chunks it felt like the team was getting more ambitious and comfortable with where they were taking the cast and world. It's just a long opener muddled with walking back and forth to quest markers. Still, I thought it was fun to see how my character was progressing and seeing all the characters that I only heard offhand altogether here was cool. Looking forward to (well, firstly the preshow quests of) Heavensward!
Finally getting around to this. It only took me several years, a new pc setup and matching with someone over Hinge to convince me to get back into this mess.
Playing as a femroe monk as that was the character I had made 4(? I really dont wanna think that I started and made this character that long ago...) years ago, I decided to swallow the pill that is FF14.
Generally just bee-lining the main quests is fine, although it was always hard to gauge EXACTLY when things would start to pick up story or gameplay wise so let me try to boil when exactly certain gameplay mechanics or ideas popped up that fired at least a few neurons because it does take a long while before you get to the meat of the story (arguably even in this expansion you don't really get but so much).
Before that lemme sum up my previous experience of just: Start main quest -> look around for main quest -> find other quest -> just do whatever basic quests were around -> loop -> 2 years pass -> try to play some stuff with friends -> walk across the entirety of a continent and a server to reach my friends in Gridania. I didn't really beeline like I had thought I was gonna do and just got mired in what I 'thought' I would have needed to do to understand FF14.
Firstly, all of this is from the experience of a Pugilist starting out in Thanalan/Ul'Dah so the experience will differ if you start in Gridania or Limsa Lominsa, my first dungeon was around level 15. This doesn't sound too bad but you have to do quite a bit in the surrounding area, some local politics-type beats, and you have to jump continent to La Noscea. Doing the main quest and job stuff this isnt too hard- however it will be a lot of back and forth from one place to another and trying to remember the map layouts surrounding the city. Admittedly, trying to remember the layout of Western and Northern Thanalan took much longer than I would like to admit. Doing mainline stuff primarily, the first and second dungeons are nearly back to back so its not as sparse feeling as the beginning grind might lead you to believe- you dont start out being able to do dungeons but once you get to your first the duty finder, they become a bit more prevalent. Story wise a bit more starts to progress as soon after you complete your first few dungeons, and you're able to meet the Scion of the Seven Stars- a group of people relevant to the end of the origin FF14 and that old guy I keep seeing disintegrated. I can say with certainty I've heard of at least half of these characters prior and have seen the spread cheeks of at least three, so I started to pay a bit more attention to what was happening around this time.
Around level 20 I finally realized there were symbols above the 'hunting log' creatures. DO THE HUNTING LOGS. There was so much exp nabbing these I couldn't believe. Also, more games need creature logs! Look forward to when I finish XB3: Future Redeemed (in a few weeks, hopefully). Finally it was around this time that I kinda got used to the cycle of things- those long trips between places didn't feel too bad. Maybe this is Stockholm Syndrome. However, it also dawned on me I really didn't need gil for too much at the moment, so I felt fine just teleporting or taking the chocoboporter whenever I needed to. Previously I was pretty conscious on sparing as much Gil as possible until I knew I needed something good but it really doesn't matter. By the way! Check all the Chocoboporters and Crystals you can!
Around level 25 was when things seemed to have slowed down mission wise but my moveset seemed a little more robust, and a few levels later, I was given the chance (as part of the MSQ) to join a free company. I haven't done too much regarding this and I don't entirely understand the point but once joining I was given a quest to redeem my chocobo! Finally a free mode of transportation! But more importantly, I found the achievement trading guy in Gridania and was able to get my first companion- A tiny Gilgamesh.
...i didn't know this existed but I really needed it.
Finally once I hit level 30 things started to click in a bit better- my actual job as a Monk unlocked and I could use a few more moves as I leveled up. The overall idea of how quests were structured started to kick in, and I had a much easier time getting around thanks to my new chocobo, a much greater mass of wealth and just a better understanding as to where to go.
Unfortunate for me, starting to understand what the quest structure meant realizing the next 10 levels or so were just clearing out a backlog of Minfillia's chore list across the three starting regions of the game. At the very least this cut down on the cross-regional travel but goddamn are a lot of these back and forth. There are some intriguing stories and lines interspersed throughout these mini arc such as the Ala Mhigo, but as part of the main quest it just feels very bloated. At least there's a dungeon or a primal fight every few levels to spice things up, and I do have to commend the community- I've yet to had a bad experience thus far. Granted these are just main story dungeons I'm going through for one time but its been pleasant seeing others enthusiastic to just get through a dungeon, they're super pleasant to go through. Hell, we even had a bungle midway through Stone Vigil but the game's generous in its respawn mechanic so it was just a matter of retrying a mob or boss that went awry.
Around level 40 a fourth region unlocks, the Coerthas! Around this time the quests start to get a bit more interesting, despite some back and forth still. I'd heard the name Haurchefant quite a few times but don't have much context for what he does so his presence/dialogue here juxtaposed against some of these other hoity-toity Elezen which made him stand out- talking with my guide about him made me interested in seeing whatever he ends up doing.
From here it was basically a snowball through the rest of the msq, chugging through to the final major region of Version 2.0, Mor Dhona. Shoutouts to both FF14 and Xenoblade 2 for having a mountainous, industrial region wrought with imperial forces using Mor in its name.
Unfortunately around level 48 despite all best efforts we hit it. The plateau. Only a handful of quests until the end, but sadly I'm just too low leveled! Despite there being quite a lot of exp to go around I did think it was a bit bullshit the exp yield didn't just mainline you to the end of MSQ- I was thinking the endgame stuff for main story stuff would require you to be about level 45 rather than 50.
After a bit of grinding I was able to reach level 49 and do some of the last few quests only to get to- another quest with a level requirement. This time regarding the 'item' level of your character. I'm hoping this makes way more sense later in game but for right now it really doesn't sound like it makes any sense. I guess it's to make sure your armor is up to date? I've got no idea how to quickly get these up to a reasonable level, especially in the free trial that keeps me locked out of trading and accessing the market? It's a weird system and I do have a lot of hang ups with what you can and can't access with the free trial. I get its free but like would it kill Square to allow you to create a party? Or to at least have limited access to the market board?
FINALLY, we reach level 50 AND get a strong enough item level to begin the last chunk, after some last minute hunting log shenanigans. These last few bits are pretty cool- although I feel like they have functions and requirements that are introduced way too late and just impede progress. Usually whenever you want to introduce new requirements for big set pieces you'd want to introduce them early or midway through a campaign and ease players into getting used to them but stuff like the exp curve slowing down and the item levels just feels really bad when I was really gunning to get the last few missions done. Maybe adding in all the job class quests helped with leveling early on and definitely the hunting log helps fill in exp but I was really confused as to why these last quests just jumped up in requirements so fast. At the very least these last few bits were pretty fun, running through the corridors of The Praetorium and the outside rim on Magitek is pretty neat and the two last bosses are neat enough.
I think the most I can say about ARR is that its neat enough that I can understand why people latched onto it when it dropped and why it kept those users attracted enough to continue into expansions to the extent that the FF14 team could actually make the game they wanted to in Heavensward onward. Even in these later chunks it felt like the team was getting more ambitious and comfortable with where they were taking the cast and world. It's just a long opener muddled with walking back and forth to quest markers. Still, I thought it was fun to see how my character was progressing and seeing all the characters that I only heard offhand altogether here was cool. Looking forward to (well, firstly the preshow quests of) Heavensward!
A psyop.
espancamento games
To start off this monetization style was designed by Hitler. Not sure what kind of game deserves the unholy trio of money siphoning that is price for game + subscription + microtransaction store, but it ain't this one. The often applauded mentality of FFXIV's creator that one should play other games; that this one doesn't intend to jam its claws in you like many live service titles do, that the world will always be there waiting for its heroes to come back - is at odds with the aforementioned subscription model and comes across as a bit cynical. Yeah the game will be waiting for you as long as you pay up motherfucker, your monthly just renewed and you're burned out? May as well play the month out, don't wanna waste that hard earned coin do we? No pressure though! This of course isn't enough, The Heart of the Party that is Blizzard deserves yet another commendation for inspiring its competitors to stoop to the same level with the addition of a microtransaction shop, except the majority seems okay with this implementation because... it's not in-game? A 5headed loophole perhaps and I've seen claims that it's not as bad as others but I'm sorry, 7 fucking USD for a tea drinking emote? We've gone way past micro ladies and gents, I better get a stat boost every time I take a sip or you're taking the fucking piss. Sure I'm not so much of a dreamer to think that a live service game can continue servicing on LOVE™ alone like those 5 people still playing Guild Wars 2 (please no one tell them that it also has a shop with gold buying), with it needing server maintenance, events, updates, usual speak. But for the 3 or so months that I've been playing, every event has been an almost complete joke, crappy series of whocares cutscenes with a small reward attached, maybe a cosmetic item or 2 that fail to serve as anything other than a thing to flex on new players a year from now as a "look what you can't get ;)" before they promptly ignore you for looking like a goddamn clown. The event going on as of time of writing is admittedly the best one because you can get the funny chubby pokeymans, but... this is their 10th anniversary, an outlier and something that should've arguably been grander, and yet all they did was make you grind through old content for event currency. Maybe it would be unfair to compare it to gacha games considering their immense revenue, though I'm left wondering still what all this asking money is for; a hope that Dawntrail won't be Dawnfail, or maybe the slightly touched up visuals that were recently announced? You guys all have mods right?
Since ranting about shitthatdoesntmatter inevitably calls for the "just get more money" rebuttal, how's the game itself? Yet another modern MMO where the leveling experience is a slightly annoying rash that hopefully will go away one day if ignored enough, with only actual challenge awaiting in lategame trials and raids? Don't answer that of course, and for anyone remotely initiated that's not a flex of gamercred; it feels like a more casual, multitask-encouraging experience by design and that's not always the worst thing. Here and there I'd come across praises how XIV allegedly revolutionized the genre for people, and some of that speak I'd echo even; while maybe not a pioneer in this regard, it does feel better not running all the way back to the dungeon or a boss after a wipe ("social experience" as WoW players would call it) or having your goldbag guillotined just for wanting to respec. Eyebrow raising though is that those same people will complain about the "gather 10 bear asses" type of quest design so infamous for the genre, which I'd agree is largely basic and sucks, so how does XIV solve it? By making you gather only 3, brilliant. I jest a bit, story context makes it better but not everyone gives a damn about the story. Thinking about how many missions boil down to going to a purple circle or interacting with a marker which makes a couple of hostiles spawn (usually 3) brings forth depression, there's very little variety. On top of that playing this thing like a usual MMO, grabbing every sidequest one comes across, is the biggest mistake you could make as they give fuck all rewards and it's just infinitely wiser to push the main scenario along or at least do almost any of the other side activities like the random blue circles on the map which still give more experience for less time and effort. The main stuff alone will overboost your primary job, so I wondered what the situation is like on one of the preferred servers that give a significant +exp, made a char after which the first guild quest granted me about 5 levels on completion which genuinely reminded me of playing some private server or a game at its death door. Can see how this would make leveling side jobs much less of a hassle later on but it fucks up any shred of balance and fun. And naturally since everything's so easy it deemphasizes working with other players most of the time so they only ever get /pets if one likes the shape of their rabbit ears and not because they actually helped.
A lot of the lauded main story is very snooze inducing, there's so much backtracking working as a de facto fantasy world postman in a setting where telepathic cellphones exist (or something like that). It also reaches some genuinely embarrassing lows, like throwing away macguffins of unlimited power off the side of the cliff (surely the dimension hopping dementors following our every move won't dig them up?). The weird kicker here being that... I kinda like it? Stockholm syndrome sadly kicked in and maybe all this can be taken with a couple of salt masses. Admitting to your mistakes is one thing but also canonizing them in a successful way is another; the 1.0 version was such a shitshow that it had to be burned down, with a meteor very literally. What's left is a new beginning, a chosen one story that appears like a seemingly thankless job, in its downtime you're left listening to constant whimpers of your companions; and honestly why? Why would elf grandpa give his life away for the thousands of face 1 hime cut lizards and fair-haired not-Y'shtollas spamming the bee gees dance in Limsa, while calling me basic for picking a midlander in a world with felines and bunnoids? Why give away everything so this ungrateful scum can still complain about CBU3 not adding more than 4 faces; that they still can't separate facial hair or horns or ears from mug types, tech-illiterate peasants unable to comprehend how hard it is to master this otherworldly technology. How many more cries about not being able to change eye color without paying real $$$ must we listen to, this asshole, entitled community really believes that a world with mechs and spaceships should also have colored contact lenses? Never expected the Postman of Light's job to give me an existential crisis; it's thankless and at times unbearable but somebody has to do it, a lightbulb moment that finally helped me realize how Death Stranding fans can enjoy such a horrible looking game.
The combat lacks punchiness of some others in the genre and is known to give eye crust in its snailish starts, but feels more like an elaborate dance later on as you're constantly cycling through skills, weaving them between one another without even looking at their cooldowns; I missed that feel when you finally memorize all 30 keybinds for your abilities and slam them so methodically like you're piloting a spaceship. With Linkin Park in my veins and an unending will to compensate I stuck with the dark knight for the most part because casting abilities with names like EDGE OF DARKNESS and THE BLACKEST NIGHT is in my M.O; tanks in this game would make Warthunder jealous, their mere presence making enemies mald in furious anger as they mumble AM's hate monologue while being unable to target anyone but your flesh carapace of mithril steel; the drawback to insane sustain and option to aggro everything with a press of a button being of course the ability to also do a lot of damage, carefully balanced. And as the combat gets more involved so does the narrative, maybe insisting far too much at times at fishing for soyface YT thumbnails with fairly constant references to the rest of the franchise, but some of it does work (an encounter with a certain wandering ronin and an order of knights were highlights). Like habitually stated the postman's journey DOES get more interesting in the expansions and this rating is more so for their starting experience, but it's not a wholly "it gets better after x hours" scenario since many of my complaints still ring true and I'm not sure how long I'll keep going at it. Currently running through Stormblood and it kinda fucks but the burnout is real (Takedown to be specific as the bi-yearly replay started).
I questioned if I would turn into that annoying type of Steam reviewer with this kind of rambling. More than 300 hours in and a lot about the game bothers me, will there be enough good to mention even? Suppose I'll turn to the saying of a wise man who once noted that "playing an MMORPG these days really just boils down to what kind of dick you want to suck". Other than the monetization, nothing in this is offensively bad but the highs aren't that high either. So what else are you gonna play if you need the fix? World of Peacecraft is a dead horse so used to beating it developed M tendencies, while Classic is a shadow of not only vanilla but also its 2019-20 self. Old School Runescape is fine enough but if the wi-fi in your retirement home goes out you're fucked. No other MMO is being played and if you see anyone saying otherwise they're probably a federal agent so watch yourself.
Since ranting about shitthatdoesntmatter inevitably calls for the "just get more money" rebuttal, how's the game itself? Yet another modern MMO where the leveling experience is a slightly annoying rash that hopefully will go away one day if ignored enough, with only actual challenge awaiting in lategame trials and raids? Don't answer that of course, and for anyone remotely initiated that's not a flex of gamercred; it feels like a more casual, multitask-encouraging experience by design and that's not always the worst thing. Here and there I'd come across praises how XIV allegedly revolutionized the genre for people, and some of that speak I'd echo even; while maybe not a pioneer in this regard, it does feel better not running all the way back to the dungeon or a boss after a wipe ("social experience" as WoW players would call it) or having your goldbag guillotined just for wanting to respec. Eyebrow raising though is that those same people will complain about the "gather 10 bear asses" type of quest design so infamous for the genre, which I'd agree is largely basic and sucks, so how does XIV solve it? By making you gather only 3, brilliant. I jest a bit, story context makes it better but not everyone gives a damn about the story. Thinking about how many missions boil down to going to a purple circle or interacting with a marker which makes a couple of hostiles spawn (usually 3) brings forth depression, there's very little variety. On top of that playing this thing like a usual MMO, grabbing every sidequest one comes across, is the biggest mistake you could make as they give fuck all rewards and it's just infinitely wiser to push the main scenario along or at least do almost any of the other side activities like the random blue circles on the map which still give more experience for less time and effort. The main stuff alone will overboost your primary job, so I wondered what the situation is like on one of the preferred servers that give a significant +exp, made a char after which the first guild quest granted me about 5 levels on completion which genuinely reminded me of playing some private server or a game at its death door. Can see how this would make leveling side jobs much less of a hassle later on but it fucks up any shred of balance and fun. And naturally since everything's so easy it deemphasizes working with other players most of the time so they only ever get /pets if one likes the shape of their rabbit ears and not because they actually helped.
A lot of the lauded main story is very snooze inducing, there's so much backtracking working as a de facto fantasy world postman in a setting where telepathic cellphones exist (or something like that). It also reaches some genuinely embarrassing lows, like throwing away macguffins of unlimited power off the side of the cliff (surely the dimension hopping dementors following our every move won't dig them up?). The weird kicker here being that... I kinda like it? Stockholm syndrome sadly kicked in and maybe all this can be taken with a couple of salt masses. Admitting to your mistakes is one thing but also canonizing them in a successful way is another; the 1.0 version was such a shitshow that it had to be burned down, with a meteor very literally. What's left is a new beginning, a chosen one story that appears like a seemingly thankless job, in its downtime you're left listening to constant whimpers of your companions; and honestly why? Why would elf grandpa give his life away for the thousands of face 1 hime cut lizards and fair-haired not-Y'shtollas spamming the bee gees dance in Limsa, while calling me basic for picking a midlander in a world with felines and bunnoids? Why give away everything so this ungrateful scum can still complain about CBU3 not adding more than 4 faces; that they still can't separate facial hair or horns or ears from mug types, tech-illiterate peasants unable to comprehend how hard it is to master this otherworldly technology. How many more cries about not being able to change eye color without paying real $$$ must we listen to, this asshole, entitled community really believes that a world with mechs and spaceships should also have colored contact lenses? Never expected the Postman of Light's job to give me an existential crisis; it's thankless and at times unbearable but somebody has to do it, a lightbulb moment that finally helped me realize how Death Stranding fans can enjoy such a horrible looking game.
The combat lacks punchiness of some others in the genre and is known to give eye crust in its snailish starts, but feels more like an elaborate dance later on as you're constantly cycling through skills, weaving them between one another without even looking at their cooldowns; I missed that feel when you finally memorize all 30 keybinds for your abilities and slam them so methodically like you're piloting a spaceship. With Linkin Park in my veins and an unending will to compensate I stuck with the dark knight for the most part because casting abilities with names like EDGE OF DARKNESS and THE BLACKEST NIGHT is in my M.O; tanks in this game would make Warthunder jealous, their mere presence making enemies mald in furious anger as they mumble AM's hate monologue while being unable to target anyone but your flesh carapace of mithril steel; the drawback to insane sustain and option to aggro everything with a press of a button being of course the ability to also do a lot of damage, carefully balanced. And as the combat gets more involved so does the narrative, maybe insisting far too much at times at fishing for soyface YT thumbnails with fairly constant references to the rest of the franchise, but some of it does work (an encounter with a certain wandering ronin and an order of knights were highlights). Like habitually stated the postman's journey DOES get more interesting in the expansions and this rating is more so for their starting experience, but it's not a wholly "it gets better after x hours" scenario since many of my complaints still ring true and I'm not sure how long I'll keep going at it. Currently running through Stormblood and it kinda fucks but the burnout is real (Takedown to be specific as the bi-yearly replay started).
I questioned if I would turn into that annoying type of Steam reviewer with this kind of rambling. More than 300 hours in and a lot about the game bothers me, will there be enough good to mention even? Suppose I'll turn to the saying of a wise man who once noted that "playing an MMORPG these days really just boils down to what kind of dick you want to suck". Other than the monetization, nothing in this is offensively bad but the highs aren't that high either. So what else are you gonna play if you need the fix? World of Peacecraft is a dead horse so used to beating it developed M tendencies, while Classic is a shadow of not only vanilla but also its 2019-20 self. Old School Runescape is fine enough but if the wi-fi in your retirement home goes out you're fucked. No other MMO is being played and if you see anyone saying otherwise they're probably a federal agent so watch yourself.
Tortura peniana games.
Vá para o ponto B, depois ande até o ponto C, volte para o ponto A, após isso, caminhe até o ponto D, logo, ponto E, após isso tudo, retorne pro ponto C e conclua a missão.
(Tem umas 30 missões desse tipo)
(Tem umas 30 missões desse tipo)
a tese desse jogo sobre manifestações materiais de inconscientes coletivos é muito genial. por mais que os primals das expansões sejam melhor desenvolvidos, a fundação do ARR já foi fortíssima
completei: história, todos os trials no extreme, bahamut até o T7
completei: história, todos os trials no extreme, bahamut até o T7
ARR gave me HIV. Ending was great tho
[Review of 2.0, A Realm Reborn]
After 7 months, I finally got around to getting through my first proper experience of an MMO. However, I feel a bit mixed on this personally, but from what I can gather this chapter of the game sets up for what could be a lot better story in the future expansions.
Of course, with hindsight of 10 years ARR seems like a really drawn out, 50-hour long tutorial for the rest of the game. Most of the MSQs in this chapter boil down to meaningless fetch quests; about 70-80% of them are just like this. This is especially the case in the beginning and middle of the chapter. The highs of ARR are very few and far between. It gets quite cumbersome to do them at times, so I can't quite put my finger on why people stuck through this in 2013 but also it must be way better than whatever catastrophe 1.0 was.
That's really my only criticism, however. What I can appreciate about these sloggish MSQs is that they allow for so much open ended-ness with how you want to play the game. It opens you up into a universe of opportunities. Want to (mostly) solo the entire chapter as a Tank like I did? Go ahead, or if you wanted to you could also experiment with other Disciples as well. Want to host a fashion show instead? That sounds fun, go for it; or just stick with the clothes that give you the best stats and not worry about appearance at all. Want to just explore the environments before actually delivering whatever pipe bomb the MSQ forces you to deliver to an NPC's mailbox? Be my guest. (Oh, by the way, the scenery and soundtrack of this game are absolutely phenomenal. How they managed to pull it off in an MMO is crazy to me). There's so much you can do in this chapter alone, (fitting for an MMO at least) and I'm sure it'll carry over into the next expansions I play, whenever I get to them.
What's even better is the game doesn't really penalize you for doing anything outside of the MSQ either. Changing your job/class doesn't take anything except the time it would take to level up that class again starting from level 1. The community for the game is always receptive and nice, especially for Sprouts like me. At any given moment, it doesn't really feel like you could get bored of having nothing to do.
Towards the end of ARR, the story actually starts to pick up and it's super solid to me. There's more to come given that I'm playing this for the first time in 2023, so with what ARR sets up for I'm optimistic that it'll be able to top off what exactly happened now.
With how much the XIV community oversells this game, I was reluctant to finally step foot into it. But now I don't regret it at all. 7/10. Can't wait.
also i got to run around as a catboy in fruity outfits so it's just already an amazing game lmao
After 7 months, I finally got around to getting through my first proper experience of an MMO. However, I feel a bit mixed on this personally, but from what I can gather this chapter of the game sets up for what could be a lot better story in the future expansions.
Of course, with hindsight of 10 years ARR seems like a really drawn out, 50-hour long tutorial for the rest of the game. Most of the MSQs in this chapter boil down to meaningless fetch quests; about 70-80% of them are just like this. This is especially the case in the beginning and middle of the chapter. The highs of ARR are very few and far between. It gets quite cumbersome to do them at times, so I can't quite put my finger on why people stuck through this in 2013 but also it must be way better than whatever catastrophe 1.0 was.
That's really my only criticism, however. What I can appreciate about these sloggish MSQs is that they allow for so much open ended-ness with how you want to play the game. It opens you up into a universe of opportunities. Want to (mostly) solo the entire chapter as a Tank like I did? Go ahead, or if you wanted to you could also experiment with other Disciples as well. Want to host a fashion show instead? That sounds fun, go for it; or just stick with the clothes that give you the best stats and not worry about appearance at all. Want to just explore the environments before actually delivering whatever pipe bomb the MSQ forces you to deliver to an NPC's mailbox? Be my guest. (Oh, by the way, the scenery and soundtrack of this game are absolutely phenomenal. How they managed to pull it off in an MMO is crazy to me). There's so much you can do in this chapter alone, (fitting for an MMO at least) and I'm sure it'll carry over into the next expansions I play, whenever I get to them.
What's even better is the game doesn't really penalize you for doing anything outside of the MSQ either. Changing your job/class doesn't take anything except the time it would take to level up that class again starting from level 1. The community for the game is always receptive and nice, especially for Sprouts like me. At any given moment, it doesn't really feel like you could get bored of having nothing to do.
Towards the end of ARR, the story actually starts to pick up and it's super solid to me. There's more to come given that I'm playing this for the first time in 2023, so with what ARR sets up for I'm optimistic that it'll be able to top off what exactly happened now.
With how much the XIV community oversells this game, I was reluctant to finally step foot into it. But now I don't regret it at all. 7/10. Can't wait.
also i got to run around as a catboy in fruity outfits so it's just already an amazing game lmao
ARR is really boring. The story is really boring. The gameplay before 50 is really boring. However once I was at 50 and I got to do more content, I could see what this game could be and that pushed me forward. I wonder how many people would actually complete ARR if it wasn't free nowadays.
I don’t like MMO’s, but I’ll admit that this was ok. It’s a little better than FFXI and some other MMO’s, it’s still just not for me, but I’d still give it a 6.5/10.
I can see how people think this is a rough start, especially if you know what awaits you further on, but honestly this part of the game only grew on me as time went on and I think the slow burn is quite charming
a quaint modern mmo experience, the best the market seems able to offer as of right now. almost fell asleep just walking around gridania tbh