I never really played the 1.0 version of Final Fantasy XIV. I did, however, play the original open beta test of the game, and got turned off by some of the interface elements, along with the use of a software cursor, and various parts that felt like it made the game difficult for the player to switch between windows to check information, so I ended up not subscribing to the game. Cut to several years later – and A Realm Reborn comes out, and the game sounds like it’s turned around considerably. Combine that with some serious sugar about the game being talked up on the Axe of the Blood God podcast, and Noclip putting out an excellent two–part documentary on how Final Fantasy XIV got turned around, and this ultimately sells me on subscribing – the first MMO I’ve paid an actual recurring subscription to.
Except I ended up taking a while to get through the A Realm Reborn content – to the point that my New Year’s Resolutions were the thing that finally pushed me through into hitting Heavensward this year. I’ve gotten through the original part of the game, so it’s time to give my thoughts on it.
Suppose a core fault lies at the heart of A Realm Reborn. In that case, it’s that it’s got to re-introduce a whole bunch of players – both new players, original players who dropped off, and those who toughed it out, into the game’s world, so the plot line of the main game spends a lot of time doing continent trotting to just meet people. Then, finally, it can get into the main antagonistic plots of first, the threat of the Garleans and their invasion of Eorzia, and second, the Ascians and their even more cryptic plans for the world as a whole. Consequently, it can feel like this opening portion almost feels like padding, though it’s necessary to teach you the game’s geography, the in-world factions, and to get you linked up to all the various fast-travel points in the game so once the rubber hits the road, you don’t spend as much time bopping from chunk to chunk.
That said, there is a lot to do in this game. One of Final Fantasy XIV’s greatest strengths is that you can learn every job in the game. Every martial, every caster, every Tank, DPS, and Healer, and every casting job can be taken by the player. This is, frankly, wonderful. Not only does it help mitigate some of the toon-itis that other games sometimes have problems with, but it also addresses one of my minor nagging frustrations that I have with crafting in other MMOs – any and every person can learn to cook. Most people have to learn to cook. Why can’t my character? In Final Fantasy XIV – it’s not an issue.
Also, once the story really gets started at the halfway point of the title, I do feel that the narrative does a really strong job of centering the player’s character, enough so that I found myself not worrying as much about all the other “Warriors of Light” running around, and considering that as far as this story is concerned, it’s just about the story of my “Warrior of Light.”
Additionally, the player’s companions are well-written, and their performances are generally well-acted (I didn’t have the dislike that other players had with Sam Riegel’s performance as Alphinaud, but I understand why it wouldn’t work for some people). Ultimately, I ended up finding myself becoming much more attached to my character here in ways that I didn’t get attached to my characters in Star Trek Online, Elder Scrolls Online, or Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Online. This also meant that when I approached the transition point between A Realm Reborn and Heavensward, and the tone of the story got considerably more serious, the stakes in turn felt more personal.
There is still some clunkiness here in some aspects of the gameplay. I’ve tried playing the game on mouse & keyboard and controller, and the fundamental problem with playing the game on controller is that several of the classes have multiple rotations, and variations on rotations, which makes it really difficult to properly map out your abilities for a controller. Especially if some become less accessible when an earlier dungeon or duty pops up on your Levelling Duty Roulette. Speaking of those – while the game offers boosts in XP for taking certain job types on Roulettes to make sure there’s a well-rounded party – good luck having a boost that isn’t for Tank or Healer, which can be frustrating when you’re trying to level up one of the many DPS classes. The introduction of Duty Support, which puts some NPC Pawns alongside your character when you replay some dungeons, does help in this regard, but those aren’t universally available – especially on the harder iterations of some dungeons.
I did really enjoy A Realm Reborn, and I’m definitely looking forward to playing more Heavensward – but I have to warn you that this is a slow start, so you’re going to need to tough it out. But when it gets good, it gets very, very, good.
Now, the game has (as the memes have repeated) a free trial that will cover through Shadowbringers, but if you want to just pay for the expansions through Dawntrail and not worry about buying expansions later, there’s a pack that will get you all of that you can buy through Humble Store. This supports the site, and will also support Milk Crate Kitchen PDX.
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