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Adventure Into – Eorzea - Final Fantasy XIV

Although I’m not a full, hardcore Final Fantasy lover and lore nerd I fully appreciate each of the games in the series (Especially Final Fantasy X, who doesn’t love the almighty Tidus laugh and Blitzball?!). The one game I have completely fallen head of heals for however, is Final Fantasy XIV. I’ve tried so many MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) games before but this one, somehow, just keeps pulling me back being somewhat of a staple in my steam library. History Today we’re going to be talking about Final Fantasy XIV A Realm Reborn and the brief history of the series. The Final Fantasy series has been around since 1987 in Japan, where it stated as a turn-based RPG (Role Playing Game) it grew in popularity and a few years later, in 1990, the English version was released to the public where still it grew! The turn-based formula has been a solid staple for a lot of the series, the first deviation from the formula, (as well as genre of game) Square’s first of two Final Fantasy MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) created in 2002, Final Fantasy XI. Final Fantasy XI dropped the turn-based system for a more active system and allowed players from all over the world to connect and explore the world in parties and enjoy the story that the Final Fantasy series was known for. But this wasn’t going to be their first rodeo with an MMORPG, as in 2010 Final Fantasy XIV was released and was a vast graphical and performance improvement on its predecessor with all new systems and jobs, people loved it. This however was short lived and didn’t do too well, and the game took a drastic turn in terms of story line by literally plummeting a moon down on the world that, in story terms, destroyed a lot of the land whilst concluding the story of Final Fantasy XIV (Known as version 1.0) in November 2012. But this wasn’t the end of FFXIV at all! With so many stories to be told, a world to still be used and a dedicated team leader Naoki Yoshida we get fast forwarded 5 years in game time and the game was revived into Final Fantasy XIV A Realm Reborn (Or version 2.0) in August of 2013, once again with more graphical and performance improvements and a huge story overhaul that was truly needed. The Game When you launch you’re greeted with a simple main menu and very Final Fantasy-esk music chiming in the background, (and will actually change depending on the expansions you have!) you will then be thrusted into the character creation, one of my favourite parts even if it isn’t as detailed as other MMOs. Once your character is suitably looking, you will have the choice of the standard base game classes 2 Tanks, 1 Healer and 6 DPS’ each based in their respective starting zones.

·         Limsa Lominsa, the city of pirates, beaches – Marauder, Arcanist

·         Ul’dah the rich and merchants, desert – Gladiator, Pugilist, Thaumaturge

·         Gridania very …down to earth people, forests – Conjurer, Archer, Lancer

Once you’re situated into a world one of the MANY cutscenes this game has to offer will start giving you the general gist of the current situation and once completed, you’ll arrive in your starting town ready to get going! Now that we’re finally into the game itself we get the choice to play with either a controller or keyboard and mouse, this is because the game is also on PS4 and has extremely good controller support for an MMO, however, for this I will be using the standard KB+M. Since this is the tutorial I will rush through and allow you yourself, to learn and I will jump past this section. Once tutorial is over you’ll then be put into the world with other people and can properly start your adventure, getting quests, items, fightin’ critters and following the story of The Warrior of Light. The main part of the gameplay is simple and easy to pick up especially as you level up, getting more intricate as you reach the higher levels of 60-70. However, Final Fantasy XIV is still slower than other MMOs with a global cooldown of 2.5 seconds on standard skills and longer for other skills, which can feel particularly sluggish if you’ve come from WoW with a lot of procs (programmed random occurrence) and movement. Aside from the global cooldown though, the skills are all pretty unique with some beautiful animations that fit your level. I also absolutely love running boss fights, from the hard modes to the extreme and savage, it’s a great challenge with friends and randos! But it’s not only that, there are so many other activities you can do in this game that aren’t all about fighting and defeating creatures; you can actually take up a more tame job such as a crafter or gatherer, race Chocobos, play cards, buy and decorate a house, transmogrify your outfit into something adorable or even take a break during your big adventure to play an RTS (Real Time Strategy) instead! There is so much more this game offers you than just questing and fighting and it’s all so well incorporated into the world and lore that you can get absolutely lost in it and experience/enjoy it all! The Ups and Downs The biggest downside of the game is the monthly subscription system. Although personally I feel like I get my money’s worth every month with the amount of playtime I put in and will continue to put in, I know that’s not the case for everyone and can be a huge put off. Other than the price when it originally re-launched on the PS3 there were many limitations though recently they’ve started streamlining it a lot more (Since they had also stopped support of the PS3 in 2017) whilst keeping phenomenal console support which is very impressive. To give the subscription credit, it is cheaper than a fair few subscription games and comes with a couple of options, one being cheaper than the other, 1 character per world or 8 characters per world. The newest expansions are also bundled in the previous ones, so you don’t need to pay for them individually which is pretty awesome. But before even getting the game and the expansion you can play a free trial that allows you to level up all the way to 35 with every vanilla class giving you a small insight into it each one as well as saving you money since it’s an unlimited time trial, however some features are taken out so bots cannot make use of it such as creating parties, trading and mailing. But the biggest thing for me personally is that it’s not pay to win at all, there is pay for convenience but it’s purely optional other, than that it’s just lots of very cute and aesthetic looking things! The Mog Station (as the shop is called) has lots of cosmetic only items such as clothes, mounts, housing so if you want that cute mount ‘just cuz’? You get it! You want that boost because you don’t like that class at early levels? You get it! All in all Final Fantasy XIV has been an amazing experience and probably my favourite MMO out there. It’s is a staple in my library, and I will hopefully be playing it long into the future with the way it’s ever evolving! Thanks to the amazing team behind Final Fantasy XIV and of course, the players that make the experience as special as it is!