~1.5 year of FF14 Review

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08-29-2025, 04:37 AM
mikeco-lagoon

~1.5 year of FF14 Review

INTRO
My thoughts in 3000 characters post limit. Purely subjective! Sharing so maybe some suggestions might be heard!

My opinion is a random gamer that got curious about FF14 and decided to give it a try!

Last thing! Had a bug when I installed FF14. It broke my map/minimap. Pressing "M" did not open map, no minimap. Reinstalled and wanted to try no map!

Free Trial til my main level capped and MSQ capped. So no marketboard! Played ARR to end of STB with no teleport and map. After STB, I would stick to this no map/minimap for MSQ only.

REVIEW
First of all, this game is fun! I mean games are meant to be fun!

What is fun about it?
Community
I like that the community is very friendly to new players! I got a lot of help during my playthrough, and I think that makes the game very fun to return to!

Story
I like the story a lot so far!! Halfway into DT. Some are better written than others, I think overall, they all worked out to make me want to play more. There is a lot of character growth, and I obviously see the devs have biases.

MMO Experience
There is a little bit of everything for everyone to do! I think this is the main addiction for me! There is a lot of things to do, and being able to do anything any time is great!

I love the discovery and world of FF14. I played without map, so exploring the world is so rewarding. It does get worse as you progress the game though, more on that later!

What is not fun about it?
What's up with crafting?
After lvl 60(?), most gears in crafting menu are purchasable from NPC? Part of the fun is reaching a new heights, and discovery. Crafting should be important and have more rarity that creates a gameplay loop for DoL/H.

Worldbuilding quality decrease
I can't explore the world if the journal doesn't give me the proper info. "Talk to X" where? Which way is X? I want to immerse in the world, not forced to follow icons or open map! Most of ARR was looking at low-pixel signposts, sun direction, and asking players for directions and that was so fun! New expansions was hard to find ppl and zero signs. Maps get larger and more empty. More isn't better. Many starting areas are memorable because it was denser and connected better!

Too many quests
Side-quests that don't do much seems like a chore. The gils and exp don't line up! It should be able to help level my low-level classes. Too many meaningless quest hides the good one. More long fun quests that connect to the world like Manderville Questline pls! Give me deep questlines for other main characters I've met! And other ways to level different classes.

That's my review! Thanks for reading.
08-29-2025, 04:45 AM
Ysera_Brynat

Quote:

Most of ARR was looking at low-pixel signposts, sun direction, and asking players for directions and that was so fun! New expansions was hard to find ppl and zero signs.

This is very interesting and I didn't notice that!

Thanks for your post, I liked it :)
08-29-2025, 04:49 AM
Jeeqbit

The gear that is purchased from NPCs is "low quality". It is worse than that crafted by players, which is usually "high quality". It's worse than another item of the same item level.

The sidequests may be chores but they usually give you a sense of what life is like for the residents of a given village, so I like them personally. However, there are too many for most new players to bother with now that we have base game + 5 expansions.
08-29-2025, 05:05 AM
mikeco-lagoon

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeeqbit

The gear that is purchased from NPCs is "low quality". It is worse than that crafted by players, which is usually "high quality". It's worse than another item of the same item level.

The sidequests may be chores but they usually give you a sense of what life is like for the residents of a given village, so I like them personally. However, there are too many for most new players to bother with now that we have base game + 5 expansions.

Fair, I think most HQ gears are given out as MSQ rewards too! I think crafting may benefit more from being able to craft unique items like Boss weapons. Maybe for clothing? They had a bit with Allagan gears, but dunno why it got dropped.

Also fair, the lore itself is rewarding. I think it would nice to know the quests yielded higher exp for lower levels without level restrictions like if I wanted to do a HW quest, but my main is 100 and everything is 1 then I lose out exp. Maybe also know what 'kind' of quest i'm getting into? Lore quests, job quests, lengthy side-story quests?
08-29-2025, 05:34 AM
Jeeqbit

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikeco-lagoon

I think crafting may benefit more from being able to craft unique items like Boss weapons. Maybe for clothing? They had a bit with Allagan gears, but dunno why it got dropped.

Although Extreme trials drop weapons, eventually crafters are able to craft them - except the crafted versions are able to glow, so a lot of people grab those for looks.

Quote:

I think it would nice to know the quests yielded higher exp for lower levels without level restrictions

There is a quest sync system for higher level sidequests and beast tribe quests, but they didn't make it retroactive yet, so that's something they could do.

Quote:

Maybe also know what 'kind' of quest i'm getting into? Lore quests, job quests, lengthy side-story quests?

Lengthy quests or ones that unlock things usually are blue, but I agree they could use some additional colors such as green for job quests, and a symbol for a quest series.