What are your favorite things about FFXIV?

[MoofiaBossVal]

Story

FFXIV is the only other JRPG besides the Trails series with a long running storyline and a definite end to the story in sight.

I love how Aldenard feels huge. You have two dozen different countries: Ul'dah, Gridania, Limsa, Sharylayan, Ishgard, Ala Mhigo, Thavnir, Werylt, Hingashi, Doma (Yanxia), Nagxia, Dalmasca, Bozja, Garlemald, etc. It feels huge. I also like how we get to see glimpses of all of these countries; I really liked the Kugane section even we didn't get to see all of Hingashi. I think that the Trails series does a better job developing each individual nation, but the Zemurian continent feels like there are only six nations on it total (Liberl, Crossbell, Erebonia, Calvard, Leman, and Arteria). in FFXIV, Aldenard really feels like a huge continent with lots of different nations involved. So FFXIV nails the macro worldbuilding, while Trails nails the micro, making the country feel like a place.

Villains actually die. Trails has a recurring anti-climax problem, where the henious villains who have committed mass murder usually tend to escape at the end of the game. In the worst case, the protagonists KO the bad guy... and then rather than killing him, they just walk past him and let the bad guy wake up an hour later and leave to continue haunting the series to its end. Furthermore, the main bad guy faction, Ouroboros, keep replacing members who do die, so you never feel like you are making progress. Meanwhile, in FFXIV, most villains tend to die within about 3 patches of being introduced. I feel like we're making progress, like we're ridding the world of the filth and making it better. The big bad guy faction, the Ascians were gradually reduced across the storyline and now there is pretty much only one guy left.

The soundtrack by Soken rivals the Trails soundtracks by Falcom JDK as my favorite game soundtracks ever. Soken's strongpoints are the recurring location themes/leitmotifs, and the vocal songs. I love how each boss fight in FFXIV has its own unique boss theme, and sometimes has different themes depending on the phase of the fight. Falcom JDK does overall better normal battle themes and setting the tone for the story.

Very few retcons, and the writers are very good at making everything seem connected all along. If I hadn't read dev interviews, I would have thought that the Crystal Tower and the HW WoD storyline were always setting up ShB all along.

Also, as SugarPuff said earlier, I like how the story is unashamedly optimistic and heroic, even if it touches on dark subjects.



Gameplay

Unlike WoW, I don't need to spend three hours every day doing chores to keep up. Each day I would have to world quests, a mythic + dungeon, do my visions, and so on. But in FFXIV all I have to do is show up on raid night with your potion and raid food and I'm good to go.

Reputation/beast tribe storylines: one of my favorite things about Mists of Pandaria was doing the reputation storylines, like the Serpent Riders or the Halfhill farm or the Shado-pan or the Dominance/Shieldwall storylines. But then in WoD they stopped doing those storylines for reputations. FFXIV still does them in beast tribes, and they are fun and flesh out the world.

[Ntol]

The story and the lore, and how the latter is integrated into the first.
I mean, the story is awesome, but it also does a great job of explaining stuff, so you always know why something is happening instead of "a wizard did it". Also, how each expansion keeps the storyline moving forward without a single retcon.

Apart from that, the glamour options and the option to marry other players.

[Shougun]

Job system would be the first thing I think of. I can't see myself playing any MMO that doesn't have either a job system or a hyper aggressive alt friendly system (and I've yet to see an alt friendly system aggressive enough to consider it 'hyper aggressive').

Following that would naturally be the music, story (with ShB having many moments I would have considered good for sRPG standards too, not that say other expansions like 2.0 story is bad, still very good for an mmo, but I wouldn't even begin to joke about comparing 2.0 story to say Mass Effect 1 story or something, ShB had me forgetting I was in an MMO a few times (in a good way)), clear understanding of their story (such that they can write 'with'/'smoothly around' issues if they have any, and often don't- unlike say WoW which has had major retcons multiple times), visual presentation 'style', FF nostalgia being played with, a nice underdog story (1.0 -> 2.0), a good deal on subscription (legacy), the normal jobs have a fun nuance but are not to be so horribly balanced that they aren't acceptable choices for content, crafting and gathering are significant content pieces which I don't use all the way but I just think is cool that it's a thing, a consistent schedule of content, and the general sense of theme park design (content will be eased later for more people to enjoy, whether the issue is lack of time or lack of desire / ability to play high skill). They also generally avoid, generally, hyper RNG mechanics that make games feel like lottery machines and even if it is present will often lower that when the content is older so it is more approachable when it doesn't need to last as long (where the worst offenders would be the stereotypical Korean mmos). Most content is made with a mindset that you don't need to dedicate your life to the game in order to enjoy it, I appreciate that as I don't have a lifetime to dedicate lol. MMO that has a lot of content but can be played by a busy person.

I think that's what I'd say at least in a general statement. Could easily expand on each point or make addendums or whatever but that's my short quip.

[Daniolaut]

Oh I'll add more to my list:

-The Final Fantasy fanservice.
Such as FFIII, FFXV, FFXIII, all the things they have done to reference another Final Fantasy game.

-I also like some things that werent in version 1.0, that are now in version 2.0, and I'm going to be real here, and say some "physics" make things that much nicer!

-I do like the addition of face paint, I would really like them to add the option for a player to unlock additional face paint with say 100 achievement points or 10 million gil or something to make items and currencies have more value, and reward invested players.

-I like how they finally opened up more creative gear designs. I really wish they would utilize more of their already created items and expand on all types instead of the same few sets. Like certain models of gear havent been touched sinced 2.0 or 3.0 and its a shame, because some of those are the most unique and creative.

-The chocobo saddlebag is basically a gods-send.
Going off that trend, the glamour dressor, crafting log, gathering log, fishing log, some of these things werent in 1.0 and I couldnt imagine XIV without them.

[MonsutaMan]

The Monsters.

I like the environment and monsters of nearly every game I play. FFXIV has awesome environments, and monsters.

For the most part, I am no longer a hardcore mmo player since around......XI Abyssea. Despite the $hit that DLC got, it was the 1st time nearly every job was included in end-game content. People did not care if you came BST, because the goal was proc, then defeat. After that, I got a taste of causal play, and never looked back.

What I like most about XIV, is the environments; they need to hurry up and add BST already so players like me can explore and take it all in......

[LaughingBanana]

How cute my Au Ra character is.

No, seriously, it's just so pleasing playing as her. Especially when I play around glamors and dress up. It's so nice, hahah.