How does original FFXIV compare to the expansions?

[OhnoozeMyToes]

As you can see I'm still a low lvl and I'm what a lot of people in this game call a WoW refugee.

I'm not rushing through trying to get to endgame stuff. Instead I'm just enjoying the game and cruising along. But I am curious how the game changes as it goes.

[disturbedcobra]

ARR wasn't the greatest but improves during the 2.x portions. Heavensward was probably FFXIV's main shining expansion that casually went up and down but was definitely higher during it's 3.x portions. (The Vault(lv57 dungeon) was a pain). Stormblood definitely lacked what Heavensward had but definitely made up for it with it's beautiful scenary and music which were at least on par. Though Shadowbringers looks to become a contender for the best expansion yet, for ffxiv, if everything they do pans out how it should. I look forward to what's to come. All my personal opinion I might add.

[JWag12787]

ARR wasn't the greatest but improves during the 2.x portions. Heavensward was probably FFXIV's main shining expansion that casually went up and down but was definitely higher during it's 3.x portions. (The Vault(lv57 dungeon) was a pain). Stormblood definitely lacked what Heavensward had but definitely made up for it with it's beautiful scenary and music which were at least on par. Though Shadowbringers looks to become a contender for the best expansion yet, for ffxiv, if everything they do pans out how it should. I look forward to what's to come. All my personal opinion I might add.

From my understanding, however, ARR (2.x) is a VAST improvement upon the 1.x system, which was a huge win overall. I am glad they've made such significant progress over the years, and over the expansions, to find ways to make it work and improve on it

[disturbedcobra]

From my understanding, however, ARR (2.x) is a VAST improvement upon the 1.x system, which was a huge win overall. I am glad they've made such significant progress over the years, and over the expansions, to find ways to make it work and improve on it

The thing about the overall changes, they carryover from one expansion to another so only those that were part of the transition during their releases will have seen the difference. Those barely joining will only see the overall system changes that came since Stormblood as that basically piggybacks off the Heavensward changes.

[GenBroadaxe]

The ARR story (1-50) is a bit more generic story wise compared to the expansions. A lot of that is due to it having to do a lot of world building and set up since people would be coming to it without having played 1.0, but the story kicks up the intrigue in the patches that run up to the Heavensward expansion. I think Heavensward has the tightest story since it's focus is purely on the conflict in Ishgard and then Stormblood has the most sweeping one since it focuses on conflict on a more global scale. Enjoy the ride though! This was my first ever MMO and I've enjoyed every step.

[Sandoria]

ARR was fun but a lot of the world and side adventures hadn't been fully fleshed out. Stuff like Glamours, Challenge Log and the Golden Saucer didn't exist yet. The difference wasn't as jarring as classic to current day WoW (that doesn't even look like the same game) but it's come a long way in feeling like a more complete world.

[Conquistadork]

As you can see I'm still a low lvl and I'm what a lot of people in this game call a WoW refugee.

I'm not rushing through trying to get to endgame stuff. Instead I'm just enjoying the game and cruising along. But I am curious how the game changes as it goes.

Compared to ARR, the endgame right now is super fun in terms of gameplay, what I mean is that jobs feel more fleshed out and fun to play than they where on ARR, an example of this is summoner, the story has it's ups and downs but in general is actually interesting, FF14 is the only MMO that I actually care about the MSQ.

You can be sure that things will change for the better as you advance in the story and lvl your character.

[disturbedcobra]

As you can see I'm still a low lvl and I'm what a lot of people in this game call a WoW refugee.

I'm not rushing through trying to get to endgame stuff. Instead I'm just enjoying the game and cruising along. But I am curious how the game changes as it goes.

I also just noticed that you are GLD. That is actually one of the worst jobs early on also, but gets way better Post-50. It is a rough climb but gets so much better as you get leveled. CLEMENCY FTW!!

[DumdogsWorld]

Well, since you're asking for an opinion, I'll give you mine. This likely means a lot of people won't agree with me. *shrugs*

ARR, before the two level 50 8-man dungeons at the end, is kinda just a back story at this point. You get to see why your character becomes the Warrior of Light, the Champion of Eorzea, etc, in the first place. However, there's quite a lot of fetch quests between dungeons and trials. I personally didn't mind it all, but others hated it with a passion, and still do.

Between the end of ARR and the start of HW exists a lot of patched-in quests. From the looks of how and when they did some of the HW lore and character reveals in some of those patches, I would speculate that Square Enix didn't initially know what they were going to do for HW. If they did, they may have been struggling to find a way to tie HW and the base game together. The early patched-in quests were filler. There's no beating around the bush on that one. Eventually, they start to "build up" to HW, but only after a horrible grind. If you don't let your spirits get crushed, you'll be in for a reward.

First thing you'll notice when you get into the first overworld zone in HW is that the zones are HUGE. Not particularly packed with content by any means, but still fun to explore for a bit. Stormblood keeps up with this trend. As for the story, the expansions still have lots of quests in-between dungeons and trials, but they obviously tried a bit harder to make the questing more interesting. More solo fights, more dialogue, more cutscenes, and a lot less fetching. Although, there is still fetching. Just not as much fetching as before.

Gameplay-wise, it's pretty much the same as ARR, except scaled upward like many other leveled MMOs. Many of the mechanics you find in later ARR dungeons return in the expansions, except they hit for higher numbers. Learn your new job abilities, do your job quests, keep up with the mechanics, use decent gear, and you'll be fine.

[whiskeybravo]

Well, the thing is, base ARR isn't really the same as it used to be. A lot of job/combat/side content changes throughout the expansions have somewhat shifted how the game plays through ARR. The core of the game is still the same of course, but leveling itself is quite different than it used to be (acquiring skills and what not), and the challenges themselves have been somewhat eased from their original difficulty.

That being said, if you are enjoying it thus far the expansions add a lot to the experience and I would definitely recommend getting them once you get there. I saw something recently about HW expansion being free? Might want to jump on that if it's still up.

Yup, first expac free for 10 more days https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...4d62177375d0f2