Intial Thoughts on FFXIV after 1 week~

[Mischievious]

Hello, I wanted to share my experience as a new player. I started the free trial on 7/21 and played the game for about 6 days. I got about 3 days and 9 hours of /playtime during that time. I found the free-player experience fantastic. I bought the game on 7/27 and then continued to play for a total /playtime of 4 days 18 hours 50 minutes on the end of 7/30.

I found it kinda annoying to have to redownload the 45GB game again when I decided to buy the game on Steam. I have a Steam library of 400+ games with several Square Enix franchises. I found it incredibly annoying not being able to buy the game on sale on Steam. I don't want to have every other numbered Final Fantasy game on Steam and not have FFXIV. I also want to buy the game's complete edition bundle but I can't upgrade my Steam edition. The cost difference between the FFXIV Starter pack and the FFXIV Online Complete Edition is 5 dollars right now. Just an annoying player experience.

I love the game. The RPG progression is fantastic. They are engaging and rewarding I always feel like there is something to do. The story is ok so far. I know people say that ARR is the worst and it gets better. I enjoy the voice-acted cutscenes they bring a depth to the world that wouldn't exist without them. I do wish there was more of them or that the game can get to the point where all cutscenes are voice acted. The lore is deep. I could and have spent a couple of hours reading and watching videos. The density and amount of worldbuilding are stunning. The atmosphere and music of the game are fantastic. I can't count the number of times I have just stood around and admired the scene. Noticing the music changes really sets the mood and tone and the shifting to boss music is quite EPIC. The jobs, in addition, are a fantastic way to allow for the player to explore the game's in smaller chunks while not requiring the need to make another character and play through the story again. DoH/L jobs are so fun to use and have a skill curve that is quite enjoyable to dive into. Or you can look at macros it's pretty awesome. Along with the UI customization being so robust. You can spend hours making everything just right. I spent at least 2 hours making a job UI with macros that would swap back and forth between the different UI's. Thank You Zelpa. The game's combat also feels great. It's a little slow at the beginning but after a couple of levels, you have quite a bit to combo and think about. There is so much content that is almost overwhelming. Dungeons are fun so far and people are so nice. It's quite a different experience having almost everyone be willing to explain something for a sprout. GC is quite fun and filling out the mission board is a blast, lowkey. I am a Second Storm Lieutenant and I just got to have a Squadron. I can't wait to own a house. I know I'm barely scratching the surface of the content that the game provides.

I do have some nitpicks that I would love to see addressed. With how awesome the experience is for being able to change and level different jobs. The amount of inventory space is just too limiting in the game, especially with high and low-quality gear. With the number of items and not knowing what will be useful later. I can't count the number of times I have sold an item to only need it 2 quests later or need it for a craft for my next piece of gear. Along with that note, please make the shops make more sense when you are selling items. Why do high-quality items sell for 2 Gil? It took an hour to farm all of those materials why is suddenly 20 of them worth 40 Gil. It's not rewarding especially when you don't have space. XP and turning in quests should be looked at. I should be able to turn in any quest for mostly any class that gives generic XP. This side quest for a level 42 that gives 10k XP doesn't feel good when I could give that XP to my level 10 job and make progression easier. I already finished the quest and the XP you get from the MSQ is more than enough to level. Why can't I speed up the process of leveling my other jobs? It feels even worse when my alt job is one level below the requirement and the XP reward would put me to the next level. Along with a good chunk of quests being hand in this item. Then hand that same item to a different NPC. Then talk to the first NPC. It feels like there are extra steps for no reason. Separately, I feel like there should be more rewards for completing smaller goals. For example, providing cheaper Aetheryte TP if you have attuned to all the shards in Eorzea or a minion for fishing at all of the locations. The hunting log doesn't feel rewarding as you progress through the ranks, I would love to see increased rewards and for them to go to rank 8 for level 80 content. Making the Lodestone more useable by showing completion progress would be amazing. Showing the amount of sidequest I have completed would just make QoL better. I watched the Zelpa video on mounts and I want there to be more mounts that show the hard and grindy achievements. Like catching every type of fish, or going to every location in the sightseeing log. I think those players should be rewarded as well. Not being able to sell on the market board freely is kinda annoying since the shops don't give you any value for your items. Please remove the single character restriction on the store. This makes it worse for no reason and I feel goes against the core principles of the game. I don't mind paying for content in the game but it feels like this is a slippery slope making it single character only.

I really do love the game and I'm invested in it. I have watched the No Clip Documentary and I have some understanding of how you made the fantastic game you did and the struggles that you had to endure. I wanted to provide some feedback from a new player to make this game grow and thrive. I got the game about 10 days ago and I spent about 5 days of time in the game playing. I really do enjoy the game. These are just some nitpicks or imperfections on an otherwise perfect experience. I am rooting for Yoshi-P and the team and I'm super excited to tackle late-game content. I'm going to try and beat every ultimate raid before Endwalker. I hope that I provided useful feedback. This is my progress so far.

https://imgur.com/a/3VdQbra

Thank you so much for your time reading this. Have a great day.

Thanks to Enkidoh for helping me condense the post.