Should you play FFXIV? A review made in 2016!

[mirta000]

made a youtube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gh5IzdRWrUk

here are all the points written in text:

Okay, this is a video that I wanted to do for a while now because this is my favourite MMO. This is where I have found my MMO home and naturally I want to promote it. But if I didn’t paint the full picture, if I didn’t do a proper review, my video would have no merit. So this is FFXIV, the good, the bad and the ugly. Should you as a new player pick this game up? Well my bias opinion is YES. However let me go over the whole game point by point and let you decide for yourself.

Character creator. Verdict – bad. This does not get an “awful” verdict because there are still choices. But unlike in some new MMOs where you warp every little feature of your character here you’re mostly selecting from presets. Not World of Warcraft level of presets where you select a head and a hair cut, but more like “here’s 4 types of eyes”, “here’s 4 types of noses”. There is still some slider based customization with your height and boob size, but for the most part it’s simple choices to your facial details. Still it’s pretty rare to come across your own clone, however obviously chances of finding an identical person are far higher than in MMOs that use more facial morphing.

Early game. Verdict – uhhh. So so. The bad? You unlock abilities very slowly, meaning for a while you’re playing a one button class. Gameplay wise the game only started to interest me around level 30, when I unlocked my job and some people are not going to have the patience for it. The game is very new player friendly and will try to teach you about every single little thing. While some players find it annoying, it makes the game very new player friendly. So if you’re new to MMOs don’t be afraid of this one. In fact this one might be one of the smoother experiences entering the MMO genre.

Early group play. Verdict – so so. Once again, you’re not going to be playing the game alone.
Game pushes you into dungeons quite often and you absolutely have to do some of them for the story. At the same time the game gives rewards to max level veteran players to queue for those dungeons, so they do actually pop. It takes away veteran players abilities and scales their armour down so you will never be overpowered by a max level player. At the same time there’s a bonus for players if there’s a new player in the dungeon.
Sounds great, doesn’t it? But one major flaw when it comes to group play, and why it doesn’t get a good mark here is that story instances are solo player only. If you’re struggling with it, you can’t just get your friends to help. At the same time if you and your friend reaches the same point in the main story at the same time, you have to break your party and enter the exact same instance on your own. It’s done this way because there’s a huge focus on your character in the story, however it does leave a sour taste in new players mouths, especially if they start to struggle with the story content.

Open World. Not giving a verdict here, but rather will describe what to expect. The open world is used for levelling, fates (fates are events that happen spontaneously on the map and reward exp when they’re completed. Both level 50 and level 60 end game weapon arc makes you do them, so you will see high level people doing these events too. Fates, just like dungeons, level high level players down and take away any extra abilities that they have, so that both of you are on equal footing) and hunting (hunting is a max level activity where players seek out level 50 and 60 monsters that often require groups to kill for end game currency to buy gear with). Meaning it’s never completely bare. The world is rather small in MMO standards (Heavensward zones are much bigger, but once you unlock flying it will take you around a minute to fly from the start of the zone till the end), but it is gorgeous. To sum up – the world is not very big, but you will never feel alone and you should have something to feast your eyes on.

Past this point you’re probably saying “Mirta you are mentioning so much bad, how can you like this game?” Well let me get to why I love it then.

Story. Verdict – Good. Actually I want to say Amazing. So let us mention the bad points and then get to the good. First, you’re forced to do it. You absolutely can not skip it. Unlocks for a lot of the dungeons, the ability to have a mount, the ability to use the market board, it is all tied to the story. Second, it takes a while to ramp up. The first major event that gripped me was around level 30. The second one was at the end of the level 50 story content and then I loved all of it when it comes to level 50 to 60 story. Reason why it is so slow, and why I actually prefer this MMO for the story, rather than any other, is because you are directly involved in it. You develop relationships, the NPCs become your buddies. You actually care for them. And then when they die (if they die) it actually hurts you and not only your character.
It is also an ever going story. There are chapters. Update 3.3 closed the Dragon War chapter, but the next one will start weaving a new one. It is not like GW2 story as well, where content was temporary and you have no way of doing Season 1 anymore. When you start playing you will have the chance to go through all of it. And every 3.5 months there’s more! That’s probably the best and the worst about this game honestly. There’s a lot to catch up on as the story never goes away, but at the same time it is just SO GOOD.

Late game group play. Verdict – Good. There’s always room for improvement, but from what there is, it is good. So let me break this into categories.

Casual content – every patch there’s new dungeons. There are currently two 24 man raids at current end game (there were 3 at level 50) that were made to be done with randoms (the new one is actually quite difficult, but it is still not meant for raiders really, it was tuned for what the developers think an average player should be capable of), there are always story versions of trials and the new raid has a story version as well. So if you’re not into hard raiding, you will not be missing out on story. Heck you will not even be missing out on gear, as every second patch (patches 3.1, 3.3 and likely 3.5) is designed to give you options to upgrade your gear to the same item level as the raiders have.

Hardcore content – there are savage versions of raids and extreme versions of primals. This content tends to have enrages, is mechanically complex and will push your group to the limits. Whenever it comes out it always give you around 3 month advantage of the best gear in the game. However when I say it is difficult, I mean it. World’s firsts tend to take weeks to down a raid completely. Midcore groups tend to take months. Also unlike other MMOs, your raid party will consist of 8 people in total. Meaning it is easier to make a raid, as less people are required, but there’s greater responsibility placed on every single one of them.

Room for improvement – there tends to be nothing in between normal and tough as nails. And it has destroyed quite a few raid groups because of it.

Late game solo play. Verdict – Good. This game features probably the most interesting crafting and gathering systems that I have seen in any MMO, because when you equip a crafting or gathering tool, you equip it as a new class. You have to level your new class up the same way that you would do with a battle class (except not trough fighting, but trough crafting and gathering) and you do get just as many skills as you would on a battle class.
The developers also love to add new mini games, or just unusual things to do pretty much every patch. There’s the gold saucer, that is pretty much an in-game casino (except you don’t gamble real money, or even your in-game money, it has a currency on its own), there are chocobo races, triple triad card game, lord of verminion (a little strategy game with minions that you can collect in game), there are also quite in depth quest lines outside of the main story (like for example the Manderville quest line) that give you some pretty items to wear, minions and emotes. We are also getting palace of the dead on July 19th, which will be a dungeon crawler sort of thing, except that it will have a lot of levels, will have its own gear and abilities, there will be save slots for this content and you will be able to undertake it alone, or in a party up to 4 people.

Reliability. This is one of the reasons why I stuck with this MMO. It is really hard to find an MMO that would patch consistently, add a lot of new content consistently and would not break. I know what to expect of this one. I know that every 3.5 months I will get a new patch with around 2 hours of story, 2 new dungeons, 1 new raid (it will either be a 24 man casual raid, or an 8 man hardcore raid with a normal mode for casuals) and some extra unexpected thing (normally this is a new mini game, or some weird dungeon mode that developers are experimenting with). I know that the developers will not have to downsize, that my server will not get merged into other ones and that in October we will get a new expansion pack announced. Because vanilla patches went up to 2.5, I except the first expansion pack patches to go up to 3.5. Because the first expansion pack got launched with pretty much no bugs, or server interruptions, I expect the next launch to also be smooth. I know what to expect. I’m not fearing for the game that I’m playing, my only job here is to enjoy it.
And some people will see this as a bad thing. There’s rarely any surprises. Patches are pretty alike, except that the dungeon theme is always different and that the story keeps going. But… I like it. I came here from MMOs that had an unpredictable patching schedule and were always under the threat of closing down (Wildstar), from MMOs that turned their core market upside down with an expansion pack (Guild Wars 2), so to me, reliable is GOOD. I like reliable. I like knowing what I will get.

Commonly asked questions and complaints:

1. Am I not too late to jump into this train? I mean, the game is already 3 years old, how much life can it have remaining?

Final Fantasy 11 track record shows that Final Fantasy 14 will likely receive support from the developers for at least a decade. It is only this year that Final Fantasy 11 stopped receiving updates and it has been going since 2002. Because of the amount of people playing and the track record of 11, I’m going to compare the longevity of this game to World of Warcraft. So ask yourself, looking back, did you think that jumping into World of Warcraft at the end of Burning Crusade was too late?

2. Subscription fee is an archaic system that needs to go. I don’t see why I should pay for this game monthly.

It is completely up to you. There are plenty of free to play MMOs out there that you could be playing instead. However I rather this one kept the sub fee (and it likely will having in mind that Final Fantasy 11 still has it). Not because I’m elitist or want less people to play the game. I simply know that if it dropped it, the quality of updates would go down. No other MMO is putting out this much content every 3 months. I consider this game fully worth the price. However it is alright not to. It is alright to pass subscription MMOs simply because you’re against the model.

3. If I choose to play on a console, or on a PC with a controller, am I disadvantaged in any way?

No. The control system for controllers is fairly good and I have seen console players raiding alongside PC players just fine. You can do everything a PC player with a mouse and keyboard can do. Some things to note though – raid groups will want voice communication with you, as nobody types in the middle of raiding. Meaning depending on the software they use, you are at least advised to have a smart phone or a tablet with headphones and a microphone. Most raid groups will not insist that you speak though, so just headphones might be enough. Also if you’re planning to play this game on a console, I would recommend Playstation 4, instead of 3. Reasoning being, if you need to load somewhere fast (for example a hunt was called out), you will not make it in time on a Playstation 3. Also it is unclear how many expansion packs will still receive Playstation 3 support.

4. How long will it take me to catch up to the current players?

First of all, take your time and enjoy it. Secondly, probably around 100 hours. “100 hours?!” you might yell at me. Yes. The levelling in this game is fairly slow, just like it is in World of Warcraft and there’s a lot of story to get through. If you play something like 2-3 hours a day, you will probably be semi caught up on gear in a month. Something along the lines of how long it took me to level up to max level in World of Warcraft too. But please, don’t rush it. Don’t skip cutscenes. Immerse yourself into the game. It is true that the patches keep on coming and you might be afraid to fall further behind from your friends, but you only experience the whole story of this game once. And it is bloody worth it.

5. If it takes so long, how are people supposed to make alts?!

There is no reason to make an alt. You can level ALL the classes on one character. While gearing up takes a while, you can have two groups of classes geared up before a new gear patch hits easily. And when I say groups, I do mean groups and not just two classes. All the healers are one group for example and share all the gear, except for weapon. So no reason not to have Astrologian, White Mage and Scholar all at 60 if you like healing. All the tanks are another group, so no reason not to have Dark Knight, Paladin and Warrior all at 60 if you like tanking. The next group is caster with Summoners and Black Mages sharing the same gear. Bards and Machinists share the same gear. Either way, you catch what I’m trying to say 

6. Which server should I pick?

Do some research before picking a server. Final Fantasy XIV works on this weird system. If a server has a log in queue at that very moment that you’re trying to make a character, it will be locked out and you will not see said server as an option. This is why it is always best to be making your first character at complete night time. Most EU servers should be available after midnight for example until like 10-11 AM in the morning. Depending on the server you chose, some might be filled over capacity and will open up only for a minute or two after maintenance. Specifically the unofficial role player server Balmung and Australian favourite Tornberry. Unless you have friends there, or you have very specific reasons to be there (for example you’re Australian), I would suggest choosing a server that is simply open at nighttime. If you’re in Europe also read up about the servers first. Shiva is the unofficial German server for example, while Moogle is taken over by majority French people. Personally bias answer – go with Odin if you’re in EU. We’re a very heavily raiding server and that is the server where I have my guild. However a person from Phoenix would tell you to go Phoenix. A person from Ragnarok will promote Ragnarok. As most servers are quite full (with the exception of 2 to 3 low population servers) there are very few wrong answers to this question.

There. I gave you as full of a review on this game as I could. I hope that you can see why I like it and perhaps will consider trying it. Feel free to ask questions about the things that I did not touch, or perhaps didn’t give enough information on in the comments. I tried my best to give you as much information as I could, but having in mind how big MMOs are this is a very tough task.


I welcome critique on this. But with so much doom and gloom often appearing on the forums, I thought that this was pretty important to post.

[VictorTheed]

I thought you did a very good guide, I enjoyed the whole thing through and you have a soothing sweet voice so that kept me viewing to lol.

Only thing I think u should have done differently is you should have reviewed the glamour system, it's one of the coolest features in the game and as the old saying goes, " Glamour is the real end game".

[Joe_Schmoe]

Level sync should also be in there as well, probably in the "early group play" section. It's pretty much what makes learning to run group content possible. Without it, you'd get grossly overgeared players taking over the runs (a la WoW), forcing the new guys to just tag along for the ride, not learning very much. Pretty good guide otherwise. Bookmarked :]

[Anienai]

I will watch your video while I sit upon my porcelain throne and give you my thoughts.

[Eloah]

I support this review

[KitingGenbu]

OP, what's your native tongue?

[TheCurls]

The levelling in this game is fairly slow...

Are you sure you're playing Final Fantasy XIV?

[Derio]

I support this review. While I personally like the early leveling. I also like your point about subscription. I think this game having that subscription only model allows it to keep its consistency with patches and updates.

[Khalithar]

Nothing on crafting or gathering, that might be a system that catches the interest of some players also.

[Eul]

No review at crafting/gathering? This stuff is also what I really love and keep stay playing FFXIV.