Final Fantasy XIV

Square Enix - Tested on the PlayStation 4 in 2021



"You really have to play Final Fantasy XIV", is one sentence I heard so often during the last few years. After some forays into the genre of MMOs, I was never really hooked, as some of the games were more or like just digital meetups with friends for me. So I was hesitant about Final Fantasy XIV at first. I didn't like many of the newer Final Fantasies, and I didn't have the greatest of experiences in Massive Multiplayer Online RPGs.

In the end, it was the free trial of this game that let me try things out. I mean, what can go wrong if I could basically play a fully fledged game for free? Oh my, things turned out quite differently than I had anticipated.

A Realm Reborn

This game is the direct successor to Square Enix' first MMORPG, "Final Fantasy XI" - although "successor" is a bit of a stretch, as the older game is still very much alive. Final Fantasy XI and XIV are known to have more intense storylines and better single player experiences than other RPGs. And indeed, this game is very much playable on your own.

The game plays on the lands of Eorzea, a place plagued with various threats and issues. The center of the story are three city states which each have their own issues. All together face the problem that some wild beings within their borders try to summon dangerous god-beasts that threaten to destroy the world. Additonally, a powerful empire tries to take over the lands while bandits and other thugs roam the countryside.

So every city-state has their own little army that is able to fend of the threats better or worse as well as some private mercenaries or adventurers that help out. And this is where the players step in with their individually created character who just happens to have a intense meeting with a powerful deity just as they enter the scene.

The story is laid out pretty good, and after a while and playing story mission after story mission, players will see lots of places in Eorzea and experience many of their inhabitants fates. There are quests that drive the story, while others are solely for collecting or item quests, yet many are accompanied with a extensive story. Most of the story is being told via textboxes, though.

But since this is an MMO, even with its heavy emphasis on playing story missions, there are some areas, mostly dungeons, that have to be played with other players. In that case, players can register in playing said event, and then a matchmaking process is going on in the background (with a rough estimation of how long it will take to have the players party ready), and then the dungeon and bosses are fight with this party of up to 24 players.

All in all, there is so much to play and experience in that game. The story is intense and pretty lenghty with lots of memorable moments, lots of side quests, building up trust in certain organisations, playing special missions with friends or other players, crafting stuff, playing against other players in certain areas. Well, of course it has to offer a lot, because the game costs a lot with a subscription fee every month. There is, however, a free trial version that allows players to experience the full base story up to level 60, which is can be up to 100 hours into the game. And then we haven't started talking about leisure in the Gold Saucer, a amusement park not unlike its similarly named variant in Final Fantasy VII.

The music has been composed by Masayoshi Soken, a long time employee of Square Enix, who had worked on several titles before, with some ties to Kenji Ito of the Mana series. The music bears some resemblence to the compositions of Nobuo Uematsu, and remixes of tunes made by Mr Uematsu have been done with much appreciation of the original music.

Final Fantasy XIV was initially conceived in 2010, but met lots of criticism upon its initial release. The game was completely overhauled and re-released, with new features being added ever so often. Even for the end of 2021, a new expansion was planned to be released. There is a very active community surrounding that game. During the main quest events, the ingame community is very understanding and friendly towards new players. In later dungons of later expansions, players are more focused on getting good gear and loot, and can be very harsh. But in general, the atmosphere within Final Fantasy XIV is a very welcoming one.

Given the initial age of the game, some visual aspects or assets may look outdated, but the scenery can be very beautiful. The framerate on the original PlayStation 4 console (which was the basis for my test of A Realm Reborn) mostly runs at 30 FPS (unlocked), peaking at 60 sometimes in closed areals. In heavily populated cities or at some certain hotspots where lots of people gather, the framerate can drop into the low 10s.

There are lots of different lands to visit, each with their distinct flora and fauna. Most areas can be traversed by foot, so if players desire, they can walk from one huge city to another one. It will take some time, though, but sometimes it's fun to just explore the scenery. We have a pretty extensive screenshot gallery available, where you can take a look into Faye Shin's adventures. Faye is my character in almost every game with an character that can be individually created.

Rating (A Realm Reborn)

Pro Contra
·Music
·Intense story for a MMO
·Vast areas with beautiful scenery
·Good pacing
·Configurability
·Visuals are sometimes aged
·Almost no voice acting
·Voice acting itself is pretty poor

85%

I was really surprised how much fun I had with this very first part of Final Fantasy XIV. Of course, playing the story of the original game only shows a fraction of what the game can be, so this review is going to be extended in the future.

Final Fantasy XIV offers a lot, is both easy to get into and also offers so much to experience and play. The story is surprisingly deep, the characters are fleshed out and there's lots of heart in this game. That's something that can't be said about many Final Fantasy games.

The very extensive trial period gives players the opportunity to take a long peek into the game. I was convinced and now i'm a paying customer.

Heavensward

Heavensward was the first extension released in 2015 after the games' first initial release in 2010 and a reboot some years after. I wasn't sure at first of how to cover this DLC, whether it should be treated as its own game or just an addon like in our Xenoblade Chronicles 2 review.

Basically, Heavensward is more of the same. The game mechanics remain the same, but the story, which revolves around the city-state of Ishgard. The theocracy has isolated itself from the other Eorzian nations around the time of the last great calamity. Its people waged a war for a thousand years at the time the addon started, and it was the job of the players and their entourage to help the city in this war.

Especially as the dragons are gaining support from other humanoid people who join the squad of the heretics led by an elezen called Iceheart, whom with the players had a brief skirmish at the end of "A Realm Reborn".

The game is again split into two sections; the first is Heavensward's main story, the second a transition to the next DLC, "Stormblood". It covers a siginificant amount of new areas to traverse and also helps bringing some loose ends from "A Realm Reborn" to its conclusion.

The free trial version of Final Fantasy XIV extends up to the end of Heavensward.

Rating (Heavensward)

Pro Contra
·Music
·Even more intense story
·Vast areas with beautiful scenery
·Voice acting is improved
·Visuals still a bit aged at times

87%

Although it is more of the same, Heavensward does everything a little better than A Realm Reborn. Voice acting is better (in english), pacing is better, the music is great (although the "Mission accomplished" jingle is a bit tedious) and the gameplay is generally lots of fun.

Sometimes, especially towards the end, matchmaking for story dungeons and bosses took some time, which is annoying when you're waiting for the intense moment to happen now.

But generally speaking, this is still a great game to enjoy, even as a single player.

Stormblood

The second expansion released in 2017 was "Stormblood". The story towards the end of Heavensward slowly evolves into this new story about the former countries of Ala Mhigo and Doma trying to get free from the Garlean empire, which occupied both countries a few decades ago. Both countries are supervised by prince Zeos, an especially cruel noble from the empire.

Again, like in Heavensward, the basic gameplay is mostly the same. The story is vastly improved in terms of presentation, with more voiced scenes playing. The story itself is also presented in a more complex way with two countries that lie far away from each other in need of freedom. Also, the visual presentation is somewhat improved, as Stormblood was the first expansion of Final Fantasy XIV that wasn't released on the old Play Station 3 game console.

Dungeons and bosses introduce a few new gameplay mechanics such as "Track & Field" style button mashing tasks at certain events. Also, at certain moments of the game, players need to control other characters than their individually created hero of light. The general gameplay hasn't changed since the initial release of "A Realm Reborn", though.

After the main story of that extension ended, Square released some additional story quests with new patches, and just as before, the game slowly transists into the next extension, "Shadowbringers"

This is the first extension that is not available in the free trial anymore, so this time players can expect that anyone in story driven dungeons is able to chat and communicate with each other.

Rating (Stormblood)

Pro Contra
·Music (Soken is incredible!)
·Even MORE intense story
·Scenery is now even more beautiful
·Voice acting is still improved
·Some cheap boss instakills
·Lengthy dungeons at times

89%

Before playing stormblood, I was warned that this extension is indeed incredibly intense in terms of story, but has some cheap bosses that do lots of nasty instant kills at times. And while this is true and some bosses seem less refined than in Heavensward, the bigger diversity in the scenery and some great boss designs didn't kill the fun for me in that regard.

In my experience this time, waiting times for bosses and dungeons was reduced compared to Heavensward, but since this seems to be a seasonal thing, your mileage may vary.

So again, Final Fantasy XIV improved with this exension. Especially the story and some of the characters are increibly well laid out and designed, it was lots of fun playing Stormblood.

Shadowbringers

Released in 2019, this expansion adds something new to the gameplay. Regular dungeons can now be played with a party of NPCs and does not necessarily require other real players anymore to finish the dungeon. This system is called "Trust" and ususally aides players with NPCs of appropriate levels. In there, gameplay is just as in dungeons with real players, but if the player character dies, the whole party will be reset to the last check point - which is difficult if players chose a class which is a bit low on defense.

Raids, meaining bosses with a party of eight characters, still have to be played with real other players, here the players cannot be exchanged with NPCs.

Other than that, the game itself is more of the same as seen in Final Fantasy XIV. There is an intense story that plays in an entirely different world plagued by light (which still resembles the original world especially from "A Realm Reborn" a lot). However, gameplay is not affected by the fact that the world is a different one this time, players can still move around in this world freely.

One interesting aspect is that the composer of this game, Masayoshi Soken, had to go to the hospital during the development of "Shadowbringers". This didn't stop him from composing, though. That's a sign of a very dedicated affinity towards his profession!

Rating (Shadowbringers)

Pro Contra
·Music (Soken is incredible!)
·We are getting used to this level of intense story
·Scenery is now even more beautiful
·Voice acting is pretty good by now
·Trust system difficult for certain classes

94%

At the time I started Shadowbringers, I was already fully in love with the game. And again, the team behind the game delivered utmost quality, a great story, great music and some interesting new features.

You know, I like making screenshots, and it was interesting experiencing a world that has no night cycle at the beginning - no more darkened cutscenes. But in the end, bringing the darkness back to this world was pretty intense and the story behind that brought me close to tears some times.

Considering all released extensions up until now, Final Fantasy XIV ranks amongst the best of all JRPGs, even if it is "just" a MMO. Everyone should have played it.

Endwalker

2021 was some year for Final Fantasy XIV. In the middle of the year, many players from other MMORPGs started to play Final Fantasy, and Square Enix was taken by surprise. The login times were severe for a couple of days, until Square Enix activated some measures that were initially planned for the release of "Endwalker", the extension that eventually released in December that year.

Endwalker is the addon that concludes the storyline initiated by "A Realm Reborn", and it indeed tries to resolve all of the story arcs that have been established so far.

Gameplay-wise, Endwalker does not introduce too many mechanics. The "FATE" system of Shadowbringers is still here, the main story offers several dungeons and three boss raids, where one can even be played with NPCs, a thing that usually is limited to dungeons. There is a new gameplay element during certain quests that requires players to stick close to NPCs as they traverse certain areas. During these events, players and NPCs can find special spots to have talks about certain events or locations.

There are also some new events where players are required to sneak up on some NPCs, kind of like in a stelath game.

The year Endwalker was released, Final Fantasy XIV was incredibly successful and remained to be what it always was. A story intense RPG with a MMO part on top and lots of friendly players. Especially for people who were part of the story since the game was released in 2013 posted how they felt sad towards the end of Endwalker. Even if Square Enix plans to expand Final Fantasy XIV even further, the story around Hydaelyn is over.

Rating (Endwalker)

Pro Contra
·Music (With more Uematsu tunes!)
·Story is concluded in a logical way
·More gameplay elements...
·...where one is stealth gameplay
·Some JRPG clichés towards the end
·Locations not as good as in Shadowbringers

91%

All is well. Final Fantasy XIV closes its Hydaelyn story in a professional, warm-hearted way with great characters. The gameplay remains rock solid (even if I don't like the stealth missions), the music great, visuals are stunning as always, Endwalker is just an almost perfect package.

However, in my opinion, it is not as good as Shadowbringers. Even if there are some great new locations available in the game, they are not as great as the whole new world presented in Shadowbringers. Sharlayan, for instance, looks almost like the Dravanian Hinterland from Heavensward.

Also, towards the end, Final Fantasy XIV uses some typical JRPG story elements that have been overused in my opinion. And there's a story arc that is being finished in a strange way and gets way too much screentime in the last few hours. It's just not as perfect as I've been used to in Shadowbringers, and so the rating drops a little. Yet, Final Fantasy XIV remains to be one of my favorite JRPGs of all time.

Three years later...

I started playing Final Fantasy XIV just like any other game I played in February 2021. It offered a very good single player experience, and I followed the main story. For about 250 hours, I enjoyed the world of Ætheris and let my player avatar, Faye, be the heroine this land needed.

I let her learn new classes, master some arts and eventually was done with most of the important story's quest. But then, her true adventures begun.

Together with some great friends in real life, Faye embarked on new stories. She joined the run on treasure chests, repeated some tasks over and over again to get hold of good equipment and items. She looked for treasures, and when she was on herself, she did smaller and bigger tasks for the non player characters that roam the world of Final Fantasy XIV

Faye learned to heal, to fight and to defend. For over 1000 hours within the game, she became valuable to her friends in the world and she became valuable to me as she allowed me to play with my own friends in the real world.

Rating (Final Fantasy XIV)

Pro Contra
·Music
·Story
·Gameplay systems are perfectly balanced
·So much content
·So much heart
·The game requires much of your time if played seriously
·Some limitations enforce grinding the same events
·Praetorium. Stop it.
·Some visuals look dated in 2023

97%

The content Final Fantasy XIV offers is impressive. And almost everything is combined with a great story, both little and big in their scope. But things are well written. The great soundtrack, the many locations - the world is great on its own and so incredibly vast.

There are so many great storys to do and so many gameplay systems to uncover that you could literally spend your whole life playing this game whilst almost never reaching the end of it all. But then, that's something of a massive multiplayer online RPG signature move.

It's easy to become completely engulfed by the game. Luckily, it's no real cash grab in terms of gameplay features. Of course, there are many things to pay real money for (including the monthly fee), but it's never something that would give players an advantage against others.

It's incredible what Final Fantasy XIV was able to accomplish after having such a troubled start in 2010. The game was known as buggy and was eventually shut down. But the team fixed the game and relaunched it to be one of the most successful, most intense gaming experiences ever created.

The rating is insanely high for a review here on rpg-o-mania. But as one of my friends said: Final Fantasy XIV could truly be the last game you ever need to play. And that is very much true for this game.

I'm still not finished with Final Fantasy XIV, but I felt the need to share the final thoghts after extensivee experience with you guys. Even if I still can't really compete with players who take XIV really seriously.

We'll never know where Faye might end up next!

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