PROS
+ Primals
+ Dungeons and alliance raids
+ Select cutscenes were really great and powerful
+ A few great, fun and lovable characters
+ Character customization features (glamours, dyes)
+ Collectibles (minions, mounts)
+ Emotes and the general virtual social atmosphere
+ The Golden Saucer
OK
o Voice acting is hit or miss - both in quality and how interesting the parts that are voiced are; most of the time it's not even available which is fine because things aren't important but then there are a handful of really cool moments towards the tail end of ARR that aren't voiced? Oddly inconsistent.
CONS
- High amount of filler in form of fetch quests such as having to go back and forth between places multiple times or collecting 2 animal skins and what have you.
- Lots of cutscenes. They get better in the later part of the game (Lv 45+) but for the most part, you're better off skim-reading or skipping them entirely because it's really not interesting and will burn you out.
- Gating of unlocking mechanics and classes via progress with the Main Story Quest // I really wanted to take a step back from it every now and then and play some other fun-looking classes but they were locked behind finishing ARR, so that made things more annoying as well. It gates people dedicated to crafting classes as well, so keep in mind you'll have to progress with it if you plan on getting to the higher levels of crafting.
- The monetization. Playing as a free trial account means you're severely inhibited (no party creation, joining Free Company or accessing the market), therefore requiring you to have friends with full accounts to make parties. Once you've bought the game, you won't have those problems anymore but there's still a monthly sub fee AND a cash shop. Yikes.
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I reached the end of ARR with 4 days 5 hours and 11 minutes of playtime, which of course included some idling, job quests and playing around in the Golden Saucer to a certain extent but is still a considerable amount of time to get through this seeing as I mainly powered through the MSQ. It would've taken even longer if I didn't have friends who had full accounts either to make parties with as the Free Trial is so limited that you can't make parties, join Free Companies or use the market. Definitely don't start this game alone because chances are you're gonna burn out hard and preferably bring along friends who have already bought-in or are willing to buy in to actually make it possible for y'all to play together. I do recommend anyone getting it to push through with the Free Trial as long as they can before buying in. My personal breaking point was Lv 52.
Looking back with the knowledge and the experience I had, I would've opted to buy an ARR story completion for $10 and then looked through the important cutscenes myself as the MSQ, despite some great moments, wasn't really a great experience as a whole.
All that being said, while I cannot endorse ARR and think it is overbearingly a slog, I do really love a lot of things about this game and consider myself quite hooked - which should tell you how strong the game is in other aspects. Looking forward to experiencing Heavensward, which is a highly-praised expansion in comparison, and having a better time story-wise.
+ Primals
+ Dungeons and alliance raids
+ Select cutscenes were really great and powerful
+ A few great, fun and lovable characters
+ Character customization features (glamours, dyes)
+ Collectibles (minions, mounts)
+ Emotes and the general virtual social atmosphere
+ The Golden Saucer
OK
o Voice acting is hit or miss - both in quality and how interesting the parts that are voiced are; most of the time it's not even available which is fine because things aren't important but then there are a handful of really cool moments towards the tail end of ARR that aren't voiced? Oddly inconsistent.
CONS
- High amount of filler in form of fetch quests such as having to go back and forth between places multiple times or collecting 2 animal skins and what have you.
- Lots of cutscenes. They get better in the later part of the game (Lv 45+) but for the most part, you're better off skim-reading or skipping them entirely because it's really not interesting and will burn you out.
- Gating of unlocking mechanics and classes via progress with the Main Story Quest // I really wanted to take a step back from it every now and then and play some other fun-looking classes but they were locked behind finishing ARR, so that made things more annoying as well. It gates people dedicated to crafting classes as well, so keep in mind you'll have to progress with it if you plan on getting to the higher levels of crafting.
- The monetization. Playing as a free trial account means you're severely inhibited (no party creation, joining Free Company or accessing the market), therefore requiring you to have friends with full accounts to make parties. Once you've bought the game, you won't have those problems anymore but there's still a monthly sub fee AND a cash shop. Yikes.
----
I reached the end of ARR with 4 days 5 hours and 11 minutes of playtime, which of course included some idling, job quests and playing around in the Golden Saucer to a certain extent but is still a considerable amount of time to get through this seeing as I mainly powered through the MSQ. It would've taken even longer if I didn't have friends who had full accounts either to make parties with as the Free Trial is so limited that you can't make parties, join Free Companies or use the market. Definitely don't start this game alone because chances are you're gonna burn out hard and preferably bring along friends who have already bought-in or are willing to buy in to actually make it possible for y'all to play together. I do recommend anyone getting it to push through with the Free Trial as long as they can before buying in. My personal breaking point was Lv 52.
Looking back with the knowledge and the experience I had, I would've opted to buy an ARR story completion for $10 and then looked through the important cutscenes myself as the MSQ, despite some great moments, wasn't really a great experience as a whole.
All that being said, while I cannot endorse ARR and think it is overbearingly a slog, I do really love a lot of things about this game and consider myself quite hooked - which should tell you how strong the game is in other aspects. Looking forward to experiencing Heavensward, which is a highly-praised expansion in comparison, and having a better time story-wise.