We’ve seen a bunch of Massively Multiplayer Online games
come and go throughout the years. Many of these games have tried to use a
different play on the “pay to play” system that has made Blizzard a ton of
money in the last decade and some strayed off to try something a little more
unconventional. My brother convinced me to try Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn and I am not sorry that I have
thrown extra money at a well put together experience. We will fight the urge to
keep our money…
To start I played World
of Warcraft from December 2004 until the Fall of 2007 when I decided that
all the time I spent raiding had been undone when I picked up a green item
almost on par with my former raiding gear shortly after marching through the
dark portal. I haven’t really played an MMORPG seriously since save The Secret World because I’m a sucker
for Lovecraftian themes. Really, the first few areas of the TSW are pretty incredible but once I was
done with them I lost interest in the game. A
Realm Reborn takes all of that tried and true cool down based gameplay and
puts its own spin on things, starting with the most well put together story
line in an MMO. Ever.
Following the main story quests will take you to all of the
currently available regions of the world and you are the driving force behind
the story. In true Final Fantasy
fashion you are a warrior of light out to collect crystals and are the center
of the story. The individual leaders of the world request audiences with you
and your created character model is in all of the cut scenes. As a single
player RPG FFXIV:ARR is surprisingly
fulfilling and a better Final Fantasy
experience that the trio of the XIII
games. And that’s that. If you don’t want to play any more after you see the
credits you don’t have to, the story quests keep your equipment updated and you
eventually wear equipment fitting for your job (Dragoons get Kain armor,
Summoners wears horns, etc.) that ends in an epic raid dungeon with a slew of
boss battles. If you want more and wish to participate in raids and daily
quests you can continue with that too so you can be equipped well enough to
take on the challenges of the next patch.
Are you tired of waiting a long time in the Duty Finder for
a dungeon run because you are a damage role? All you have to do is talk to a
guild master and change your main hand weapon and your class changes to a tank
or healer role. You only really need one character on a server because they can
instantly change their class, and this goes for crafting and gathering
professions too. Yes, fishing rods are main hand non-joke weapons in this
world. Since each class has its own experience level, even the crafters and
gatherers, you will be occupied for too many hours if you want to master every
skill. Throw in class specific quests to unlock the greater potential of your
role every five levels to make it interesting and you may not ever get out.
If you like MMO’s. This game is good. The pace is much
faster than similar titles with hardly any downtime between encounters while
still being extremely friendly for solo play. If you haven’t been sold on it yet,
you won’t be. Yes, this is a time sink that will have you trying to optimize
your sleep schedule because dungeon runs can be done fairly quickly and
instances that are just a single boss battle (Trials) lend themselves to the “just
one more” mentality. What got me in the end was that you can play the game on a
gamepad (I’m playing on the Playstation 4 with a generic USB keyboard for
typing to people on the internet) while sitting on a couch. I have a very comfortable couch; the
experience is great being able to sit back and play on a big screen rather than
hunched forward over a keyboard staring at a monitor.
Give it a shot.
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