(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!