I haven’t touched a Final Fantasy game in a little while. Well, one that isn’t a sequel based on a mistake (looking at you Final Fantasy 13 1-3). Why did I just jump into this game? To play with friend of course. Seeing my friends play it did make it look fun, but looks can be deceiving.
FF14: A Realm Reborn is a redesigned version of the original. FF14’s first release was said to be terrible. It wasn’t worth playing based on player reaction and Square quickly went back to the drawing board to redesign FF14 to make the game more fun and fixed many of the problems that plagued the game. They came up with FF14: A Realm Reborn. How does this new redesigned game fair? Let's find out!
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When you boot up the game, you are given a very nice story cinematic that shows a dragon destroying the world and then being sealed away by a mage. Five years later, the continent of Eorzea is in peace and much of the land has been restored. Behind the scenes the evil Garlean Empire plans to reignite an ancient war. If that wasn’t problematic enough, there are monster tribes who are trying to summon their demon deities to take over the world. You as an adventurer must stop all this from escalating into a repeat of five years ago. The initial story is interesting, but your actual participation in it all is pretty dull.
After making a character (with the nice character creation offered) and choosing your class, you’ll start off in one of three cities. The initial quests are a little different, but they all converge into the main story eventually. Most quests consists of fetching items, talking to Non-Player Characters (NPCs), and dancing in front of them with emotes. Some quests do have voice acted cutscenes to explain the story, which is nice for a Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO), but most of the main characters look average and their personalities are flat. You may actually forget what's actually going on in the story. From what I’ve experienced, some of the important characters, such as royalty, are of the race of baby elf people (the Lalafell). Seeing a two foot baby in armor commanding everyone was cute at first, but when they were shown having major roles, I was unable to take the story seriously.
The beginning quests are dragged out to the point of torture. If you’re patient though, you’ll be able to go into dungeons at about level 13. Dungeons are designed with teams in mind. It’s actually fun going around with friends killing monsters. The best part being that each person must play their role. A healer and tank are both necessary for a smooth run. Dungeons can be accessed through a queuing system where players (or a team) can instantly teleport and do a dungeon quest. This alleviates the issue of finding a party to finish a dungeon quest a player can't solo. Dungeons do have mini bosses and big bosses in them, but they’re mostly just push overs in terms of challenge.
The gameplay is where I had the most issues. First of all, the interface is a complicated and tedious mess. The mini compass map is useless and the bigger map, though better, had issues as well. Teleporting crystals have different names for teleport locations, making it a very confusing and annoying method of travel. Teleport Crystals aren't tagged to let you know you either missed or got it either. You WILL find yourself editing the interface in some way to your liking. You’ll have to in order to see your screen and fix your controls! Once you’ve tackled the interface, you’re off to actually do things. I played the PC version and used a PS2 modeled controller for the PC. I found it a little more comfortable than using a keyboard, but it wasn’t an easy solution.
In order to fight, you must face the enemy, press X (or A on the Xbox controller), to select the enemy. Press X again to initiate attack mode, then hold either L2 or R2 (Triggers for 360 controller) to bring up your combat menu to attack monsters. If you want to lock on, you have to press in L3. Not holding those triggers and pressing one of the face buttons will result in your character exiting combat mode, allowing the enemy to get some free hits in.
The combat system is your typical World of Warcraft set up with cool down skills. Dodging is dependent on your status and there are attack ranges. Archers and mages can shoot from afar and some enemies can’t reach them right away. There is manual dodging, but it’s only needed when the enemy performs an area of effect attack where either a cone, rectangle, or circle appears on the ground and you must move out of that area to avoid getting hit. The combat system is nothing new and will get boring if you’re the type of gamer that prefers a more active battle system.
If you don't want to do much fighting, you can always go for creating items to either sell or use. There are several crafting classes; such as alchemists to create potions, the culinary class to make buff inducing food for players, and weaver to create cloth armor. Many players who want the best equipment for their class rely on these crafting classes for items and equipment and it isn't bad if you're looking to do something aside from fighting.
Gaining experience to become stronger is made easier through doing the many quests and instances scattered about the regions. Although fighting is mostly what you'll be doing (depending on the class you're opting for), quest give a lot of experience to help with the grind to the next level. Some of the non-fighting quests include gathering items, talking to NPCs, or using a certain emotion in front of them.
The best attributes of this game are its graphics and art style, along with its soundtrack. The graphics are superb and the characters look nice and pretty. The monsters look vicious and distinct. The cities and landscapes are very nice too. The character animations are pretty cool too. The game soundtrack consists of amazing orchestrated tunes along with some throw back remixed songs that were influenced from past FF games. Also for an MMORPG, I haven’t run into any glitches either, which is good.
There are a few things that grind my gears about this game. The battle system is the main thing that made my experience with FF14 a drag to play. I’ve played a ton of World of Warcraft clones and to be thrown into another game with the same type of battle system gives me a sense of déjà vu ( that been there, done that feeling). I’ve gotten used to games like Phantasy Star Online/Universe, Mabinogi, Vindictus, Tera: Rising, and Dark Souls. Those games have an active battle system where players use their reflexes to manually dodge and attack. I feel more engaged in the game when fighting monsters in those games because I actually have to put effort into dodging and attacking. FF14’s battle system is very stats based. Thankfully, there is a level sync system that downgrades characters to a certain level so they don't completely over power enemies and quests. The real challenge of the game doesn't actually come about until you're near the level cap, around level 45 to 50.
“Play it like a Final Fantasy game! Don’t expect an action combat system in a Final Fantasy Game!”
Final Fantasy’s combat system has always changed from game to game, getting closer to being an action RPG rather than sticking to a turn based one. FF13’s combat system, particularly 13-2, had a unique fast paced combat system that kept battles interesting. Even FF15 is opting for an action combat system this time around. FF14 on the other hand borrows heavily from World of Warcraft. It may look like Final Fantasy, but plays a lot like World of Warcraft. If you’ve played several PC MMOs over the years, such as World of Warcraft and Perfect World, you too may get bored of this game fairly quickly.
Another thing that bugs me is that it’s a pay to play game. It’s $30 for the PC version of the game and about $13 to $15 a month (you do get the first month free). The only reason I see this game being a slightly reasonable purchase is to play with friends that don’t have a good PC, but have either a PS3 or PS4. The biggest selling point of this game is probably because it’s one of the few cross-play MMOs on the PS3 and PS4. That means that people on the PS3 and PS4 can play with people on PC. This is an amazing feat for Square-Enix to do and I applaud their decision to make the game this way (although they've done this before with FF11). Playing with friends did make the game a little more fun.
Other than that, this game is definitely not worth your money or time (in my opinion). If you have a good PC, stick to playing the many free to play games available out there. Many modern free to play games offer much better battle systems and game play experiences than FF14. Just do a little research before downloading the game.
FF14 isn’t terrible by any stretch of the imagination. It’s just boring and average at best. Aside from its graphics and soundtrack, FF14 offers nothing amazing to push this genre forward. If you have a good PC, you can get a far better experience from one of the many free to play online games out there.
Final Fantasy XIV fans can now properly benchmark their PCs and check out some of what's coming to their game this summer.
Today, during a pane at PAX East, Square Enix announced the release date of the next expansion Dawntrail, on top of the editions and more.
The MMORPG will arrive on Xbox consoles on 21st March following its open beta, with Square Enix releasing further details on the launch in a new Lodestone blog post.
Not only is Game Pass required to play the game in full, but FFXIV Coins will be required to make purchases - a new currency not used on PC or PlayStation.
What's even the point if they're doing everything possible to convince people NOT to play?
At this point, it just seems like it was incredibly tedious to bring it over. And they're punishing Xbox for it.
Problem is, it's affecting the players.
Not sure if this is Xbox looking to squeeze the anticipated wait for the game, Square pilot testing a new strategy they're looking to implement for their next MMO (regardless of platform), Square creating a case so it underperforms and Microsoft doesn't ask for newer games like this, or Square passive aggressively being dissatisfied with the terms of its presence on Xbox. Some combination, perhaps.
Either way, it's just odd. It looks to me like Square and Microsoft are just looking to extract more money from the community. Not that it's Xbox necessarily, but there could just be a sort of "grandfathering" in on PlayStation/PC.
JBlaze226,
On this issue, sure. But it doesn't really seem like either party is innocent broadly. They do require you to have an Xbox online sub + the monthly sub for the game itself, don't they?
Sounds like both are looking for a payday.
From the article.
"FFXIV Coins will first need to be purchased from the Microsoft Store. Then, when players log into the game on Xbox, these coins will be credited to their Square Enix Account.
When playing on Xbox Series X/S, "payments will be handled using FFXIV Coins only," reads the blog post.
On PC and PlayStation, purchases can be made directly from the Final Fantasy 14 Online Store or Mog Station without the need for an extra currency. It's unclear why Microsoft requires this extra barrier to entry."
It reads like it's a MS and SE decision to have two barriers. MS is most likely going to get a cut of the coin sales if it's been handled through the MS store too.
This is only an issue on xbox.
On PC and PlayStation you don't have to pay for an extra subscription to play the game or any extra currencies.
It's only xbox that you have to pay for gamepass to play the game and have this currency.
Ummm yes, you do have an SE Subscription to play the game even after buying it on PSN and I'm sure PSN is required to play the game as well.
TriniOutsider
"extra subscription" aka gamepass.
You don't need PlayStation Plus to play on PlayStation.
@trini
You actually don’t need PSN subscription to play FFXIV
“Final Fantasy 14 does not require PlayStation Plus to play online, so each person playing should have a separate Square Enix Account linked to their own PlayStation Network account.”
https://www.shacknews.com/a...
Bad idea. Kind of at the point its almost like a repeat of FFXI on the 360 with it requiring Gold to play.
Greed greed nothing but greed. Anyone who willingly plays 14 on Xbox is a bona fide sucker.
It was a mistake to port it to xbox.
Having to code the games for two more platforms that are never going to attain the player base to pay for the extra development costs is going to lessen the quality of the games development for everyone.
So Microsoft is not satisfied with the game going to Xbox, they also want to milk it.
Starting quests are "boring" to introduce new players of the final fantasy games to the game and to show you the basics of the game itself, including combat, talking, guilds, etc.
You can adjust the interface and HUD displays in the menu. Simple as that. You're just nitpicking now.
I have been playing this game for quite a while and it does have it's slow moments, but the overall fun factor is good. Dungeons are always rewarding, and having multiple classes on the same character is always nice.
I'd go on, but there are too many things that you insist are bad when almost all MMO's do it. For example: Deliver X items to this person, or Kill x amount of monsters. Or have you never played an MMO before? At least they took the time to build this game from the ground up to make it entertaining. Your review sounds like it's trying to hate the game for any reason you can think of.
In case you wanted to know my levels to know how long I've been playing:
Marauder lvl 39
Gladiator lvl 25
Conjurer lvl 17
Blacksmith lvl 26
Goldsmith lvl 25
Miner lvl 30
I was one of the original legacy players from 1.0 and I did enjoy 1.0 even with all it's flaws there was plenty to keep you occupied even with the lack of content.
With 2.0+ I say if you are a fan of the fun FFXI offered you will enjoy ARR enough to justify the money as you can do alot in this version of FFXIV in comparison to 1.0.
I think it's very conceded to just straight up tell everyone it's not worth THEIR money just because your taste is not met with ARR. You should have left it at your opinion and left out the FOX news style of telling people what they like and don't like.
I get my $10 bucks per month back as I play more than 4 hours a month which is far cheaper than going and watching two movies in a month which I do also.
I've played many free to plays and they are shadowed in comparison to the new content being put out constantly with ARR. It's worlds apart now then even when it was released (2.0 - 2.3). Hell on may 24th they are putting out what would be a WOW expansions worth with 1 new town 3 new dungeons and a new Crystal tower run and new gear with higher item levels. If you can't play more than 4 hours a month then yes this game is not going to be justifiable to your wallet but if you can it's more than worth it as the game just keeps growing month to month.
I respect your opinion and I am truly sorry that it doesn't fit your tastes as a gamer. I do not respect your choice to try to sway other's opinions about the game as they can give it a try themselves and make their own educated decisions based on their own tastes.
The more active users the better the game becomes as they will have the funding to add more and more content.
First of all, FF14 is not a clone of WoW, it's an evolved or modern take on their first MMO FF11. FF11 came out one year before WoW, so let's get that straight. In any MMO does anyone play it for the story? If you really cared about an amazing story and hand crafted quests that push you to do every single one then you'd be better off playing a single player game. Quests in any MMO are created to give you exp and level you up. Within the first day* of playing you can get from 1-15 and start doing dungeons which are the pest parts of this game in my opinion. Then there's the battle system, FF14 uses a hybrid of active and timed based. You still have to dodge and evade aoe or cone attacks from various enemies. I personally think it's perfect, it works great and FF14 introduces many tweaks that make it feel unique, you explained it better than me. It isn't like WoW where you and an enemy are locked in place and there's no point of running away, so all you do is spam your skills and get hit until you or the enemy is dead. Finally, the monthly payment. Do you have any idea how poisonous free to play is? FF11 is still pay to play to this day because it's still WORTH PLAYER'S TIME AND MONEY. I don't think anyone want's to pay $1 for a pack of materia or $5 for a mount and $3 for costumes. I prefer that it's pay to play because it mitigates the trolls present in game and I don't have to end up dropping $15+ a month to fully enjoy the game. Yes most often then not, the cash items are optional or there's a grindier procedure to attain them but regardless in F2P MMO's they either put obstacles in your way to make the game more grindy so you pay to remove said obstacles. Or the cash shop items let the people who play, feel fully free in the game opposed to people who don't pay. I'm glad FF14 is P2P because I never feel limited in the game, and I hope it stays P2P for another 5 years+ like FF11. I'm sorry you didnt enjoy the game as much as I did. Frankly, I never paid for a MMO in my life, I just played F2P ones. The experiences I've had in F2P MMO's vs. the experience I've had here is night and day. My 30 day trial for the PS4 version will expire in a few days. I'm planing to subscribe all summer, because this truly is an amazing game.
I like how throughout your whole review, you never told anyone that FF14 has a one character do everything system. If you want to be a different class, then instead of creating a brand new character and losing the reputation of your main, you can pick up that class on the same character. The game allows players to have one character and use EVERY class on the same character, EVERY COMBAT CLASS and EVERY CRAFTING/GATHERING class on one character. I hate how in other games I have to create a new character just to try out different classes. Not many games have this system where you can do EVERYTHING on one character. This alone is a huge* selling point to players who like this system like me not many other MMO's do this. And the ones that do, don't reach the same quality as FF14. If anyone enjoyed the combat in FF12 which I though had the best combat system in all the final fantasies, then you'll love FF14.
Technology isn't advanced enough to create an MMO with gameplay like Kingdom Hearts or Devil May Cry. And I mean like fully MMO not MMO-esque games like Vindictus or Warframe. If there are games like that, please tell me, I honestly want to know. If there aren't maybe you should lower your expectations next time reviewer.
I have this game on ps4 and I, unlike some people really enjoy this game. The 5/10 rating is complete garbage, I can sense personal hate he may have with the game in the way hes analyzing it. A realistic score in my opinion for this game is a 8/10. They could of done better with the character models, feels like you are playing with dolls. But other than that the game is very fun.
Idk. I'm a pretty massive FF fan for sure but I've never played a MMO. I honestly don't like the idea of playing with hundreds of other people, I rarely if ever play mp, and despise subscriptions. That said I'm really digging FF14 on ps4. It feels like 12 with other people around. I love the graphics, lore, and world design. The combat is fun and engaging, fates are cool, the quests are pretty boring but quick enough to keep you moving forward which is great. Best of all I can play most of the game solo. I love that flexibility. I prob won't sub after my first month unless I can't beat the main quest in that time but if I didnt work so much I could easily see myself diving in for 6 months nonstop. Its classic FF to me. I just wish it was fully voice acted and had a stronger main quest with far more story.