FINAL FANTASY XIV Online Reviews

While Dawntrail had a rough go 7.3 has been a sharp rebound. The voice acting, the animations, new style quests. The dungeon was without a doubt the best I saw in 12 years of playing this game.

Game plays well as an MMORPG and that it is easy to pick up and put down with no pressure to keep playing. Main scenario quest is long and if you don't like reading you may struggle to get into the story however it has massive payoffs as you go through each expansion. My suggestion would be to take advantage of the free trial as you get access to base game ARR/Heavensward/Stormblood.

This is a good classic style mmorpg especially when they dont make many anymore. If you dont like soulslikes or survival games labeled as an mmorpgs try this out you may find you like the genre. My only personal complaint is I started the game years after it came out. There was significant menu and currency bloat from years of additions. So as a new player there was a lot of unnecssary things or stuff in places you wouldnt expect as they got added over time.

Classic, legendary and an original model of online gaming success. A bit of a greedy merchandising, but you can play without that fuss.

I do not recommend getting into this game on Steam, get into it off the website where you get free trial up to level 70 with zero restriction on playtime. I regret getting into it on steam because I definitely didn't have the time to play it... steam is greedy for only offering 30 days to play when you can get hundreds of hours of gameplay off the website for free before you have to start paying up for it.

Writing this review after over two years of having quit playing the game in patch 6.3 and just looking in on the current state of the game(patch 7.3). I'll get the positives out of the way first. The music is amazing and worth purchasing all the soundtracks. Some of the best boss fights I've had in any mmo. The story of 6.0 and prior is something I'll remember forever, #1 best story I'll ever experience in a game and I'm old AF. Kudos to the writers and developers for giving me lifelong memories I'll cherish and I can't forget the friends I made along the way. Onto the bad. Well, it's no secret that this game has the same criticisms today, as when I started in 2017. The patch cycle is a ritual at this point. It's the same cadence and content. They don't iterate enough and so the content ends up being extremely shallow and boring, not enough to keep someone subscribed. Why do tomestones still exist in a game that markets playing all the jobs on one character? Want to play other jobs? The gearing system itself discourages this, especially if you savage raid. As well, each savage tier lasts way too long, and the gearing takes way too long. These devs are obsessed with having handcuffs on the playerbase. If blizzard can learn why can't you? Since Shadowbringers the jobs and combat has got more and more homogenized and easy. The devs have this philosophy of wanting every brainrotted, lazy, brat of a player being entitled to every piece of content in the game regardless of their skill level. This has shown itself in the general dumbing down of the jobs and combat across the board. The story. After 6.0 I was prepared to say goodbye to the main cast that had been around for 10 years. Their character arcs and stories were over, nicely wrapped up with a bow in 6.0 in which was a definitive ending by the words of the very same characters. Well... that didn't happen. When I expected new faces, I got the same. The problem with this is you can't build a players investment into a character when you've already cashed out on it and finished these characters stories. They literally gave speeches that summed up their character arcs near the end of 6.0. Maybe Square sees these characters as a brand now, and so the current playerbase must suffer through fanfiction in the main story because I'm not sure where you go with these characters when their stories are already finished. This was one of the reasons why I lost all investment in the story. Which gets me to my biggest problem with the game. The devs and community. Devs haven't and never have, listened to the western playerbases criticisms. It blows my mind that the same criticisms I've had with the game the entire time I played it are STILL a problem: Roulettes, msq roulette, level sync issues, job abilities too spread out making low level content boring, tomestone cap, boring dungeons, boring zones, blue mage, deep dungeon that never iterates enough to truly be special, etc. It's also obvious to us that the game is a testing bed for finding talent within the company, which are then whisked away to other projects. This game makes Square money, finds them talent, and none of it goes back into the game. I'm not saying that people should have to work on the same thing their entire career, but replace talent with equal or greater talent, have a consistent writer, it is a bad look to your players for the quality to be all over and signal that the game doesn't deserve high quality talent on it. And FFS could the localizers widen their vocabulary. In regards to the community. It's morphed into this toxic positivity, gaslighting, and entitled playerbase. I've seen this happen real time in spring of 2021 when WoW players started abandoning their sinking ship for Shadowbringers. No it wasn't just Asmongold, he jumped on the train that summer. Youtube was full of tons of videos of WoW content creators playing FF14 in the spring of 2021 and I remember seeing more and more players online as well. This all happened during Shadowbringers largest content droughts. Good for Square, but it was purely market conditions. This led to me seeing a more and more anti-wow playerbase emerge. Were these the same players all along or new players? I'm sure it was a combination of both. This happened during probably the best story expansion the game got and it brought a new face to the forefront, the toxically positive anti-criticism and supremely gaslighting playerbase, who LOVE THE GAME. This extremely vocal playerbase showed up all of a sudden thanks to the success of Shadowbringers story quality. They're [b]insufferable.[/b] For a brief moment their game was the best and the hubris followed and exists to this day. This along with Squares online policy and policing has created a suffocating game to play in. You can get banned for making another player "feel bad", yea prepare to walk on eggshells. Like asking someone why they aren't dpsing and just standing around in the dungeon/raid. You're just supposed to say nothing, ignore it, struggle through or risk a ban. Just go search about this and you'll have years of stories. As well no criticism of the game is allowed, you'll get dogpiled online from every FF14 lover including the very same toxic positive content creators on the internet. These people didn't exist prior to Shadowbringers. It's as if the playerbase prior to Shadowbringers isn't wanted in the game anymore. I could go on and on honestly, I have enough playtime to justify it. It makes me wonder what the game would look like in an alternative universe where it wasn't dumbed down after Stormblood. Right now though, the game is so stagnate it's clearly obvious they don't have the funding, nor the talent, to revitalize the game. The developers are statues, story direction is abysmal, and none of the ancient problems are being addressed, nothing will probably change. At this point, for how long the story is to get to and experience what I enjoyed about it, 3.0 to 6.0, it's probably 400 hours. That decision is up to you... just play something else.

Bit of a slow burn, but it is well worth your time. It also has one of the most generous free trials in ALL of the industry (you can potentially play hundreds of hours without even paying a dime). Endgame raids are a lot of fun. That being said, I do recommend getting the client version of the game (not on Steam). Also having friends who also play this game also helps.

cat boys, bunny boys, lizard boys, long boys, short boys, beeg boys, Zenos boy.

This was a game I used to love for a very long time and always returned to for years. Now, there is nothing to enjoy about it anymore. SquareEnix is taking money from the game to put into other flops without uplifting it, basically feasting on the loyal fans after it releases half-baked content. The community has gotten worse too. From the degenerate roleplaying niche who only care about ERP, to toxic positive gatekeepers. What was once a game I excitedly played alongside others became a game I barely enjoy playing alone doing the same daily grind of crafting, roulette and then log off, because there is nothing fun about the game anymore. I have finally left it for good, unable to convince myself that it is worth a continuous sub on top of paying for whatever meaningless expansions they come out with in a few years. I do recommend new players to give it a try just once, not with the expectation of hoping for meaningful relationships because I doubt you'll find it, but for the story when it was actually good. But to keep holding onto it? No. Not anymore. Goodbye FFXIV. You were once a great joy.

So, FF14. Been thinking about writing a constructive review for people thinking about getting into this game. Obviously this will be opinionated to my experience with MMO's (WoW, LOTRO, FFXI, ESO, Etc.). I will be honest that these viewpoints are going to be through the lens of how I feel at end game. The game is quite an experience, but this experience is dictated by the MSQ (main scenario quests). For those who don't know, 14 prides itself with having a more linear experience when it comes to quests and story telling. There are side quests, yes, but side quests in this game are about as pointless as farming level 1 hogs in WoW. Class quests can be fun and obviously blue quests will have a little excitement since they unlock content of some kind. MSQ will be your main playtime though, as it tells the story and keeps higher level content locked until it is completed. The MSQ: Brilliant story telling. AMAZING cut scenes. You're part of an epic that tells a grand tale of growth, struggle, and rising up to the turmoils of the world. Not too much else to say here. Most players can easily agree that the story of 14 is world class and easily justifies playing it if storytelling is your cup of tea. So, how is the MSQ gameplay? Very hit and miss. Majority is the standard formula "run here and get this, then come back to me". Whether "this" is an item, killing a target, or talking to someone, it will be the majority of gameplay in the MSQ outside of dungeons and raids. This sounds boring, but I would argue the story will keep you pushing through a lot of the slog (be warned ARR/base game is a bit stale and dated, but the DLC are all amazing in their own rights). I only have one complaint about the MSQ and unfortunately the complaint doesn't go far because of the necessity of the quests. As mentioned above, content is gate locked by completing specific sections of the MSQ. This is by design so that the story makes sense and to ensure you don't feel lost down the line. The drawback to this design is the time dump required to get to late game content. If I had to estimate (this is assuming you stay engaged and pay attention to the story AND play casually) it can take about 1 year to get through the entirety of the MSQ, maybe 1.5 if you take healthy breaks from the game. Gameplay/Dungeons/Raids/Classes: The whoa factor of this MMO. In most MMORPG's you have to make a lot of characters to enjoy all the classes the game has to offer. FF14 encourages having a single character that can play all classes (you're able to swap class by equipping the weapon of that class). This is also on purpose because the monetary design of 14 has many features/mounts/emotes locked to the individual character and not the account. RAIDS AND DUNGEONS BABAY Yea so this is actually what kills me about this game. You're first time playing this content will be a GRAND show of drama, intense gameplay, and playing your class rotation like your life depends on it. It's AMAZING and will keep you hooked as you play through the MSQ. The issue here is when you get to end game.... Those reading this that have played the game forever can probably relate. FF14 is designed to keep you entertained as you experience everything for the first time, but once you have experienced it, and played it again, then again, and again more, then some more, a certain reality starts to set in. THE UGLY The spark fades quickly after you reach end game and have played most dungeons and raids. The issue, for me at least, is the repetitive nature of gameplay mechanics in the game. Fights are scripted, and once you've done a fight 5 times, you start to realize the bosses have the same rotating mechanics. The same can be said for your class. There is no real consideration to ability use once you get used to an encounter. You play your class to the cadence of the boss, repeating the same skills, in the same order, over, and over, and over again. This has been whats lost me after Dawntrail. Unless you get in to hardcore raiding, the magic starts to get lost. Content becomes less and less, and dungeons and raids start to feel as stale as the repetitive class rotation you perform as your brain autopilots through your dailies. Square did a great job on making this game accessible to a casual audience by making content a song and dance to be performed in a specific pattern. Unfortunately, this design just doesn't perform well on an end game stand point because it starts to feel like you're playing the same song on dance dance revolution for the 500th time. This results in memorizing patterns rather than critically thinking about how to handle a fight. This same sentiment carries to the hardcore scene as well. You're just upping the difficulty of your dance dance revolution song, adding more patterns to memorize rather than any meaningful mechanics to work through. SO, im just a peanut-brained idiot that got bored and decided to make a review for this game. My opinions are just my opinions. Do I recommend you play through this game at least once? Yes! Do I think this is a game leaves a lot to be desired after playing for a while? Yes. Thats my main point. The game feels more like a single player story game. Once you've played the content once, you've already experienced most of what it had to offer. Anything after that is just mindless gameplay for the sake of trying to get loot that has a 1% chance of dropping. That or you do the true retirement and go into RP, but thats a whole-nother discussion. Anyway hope that helps