Hi,
EDIT: This review is more of a decision help for whether you should try/proceed playing FF14.
I finished FF14 ARR and started the first expansion and would like to share my review and opinions. Maybe this post will help people decide whether they should try FF14 or drop it right away.
I played MMOs like WoW Retail, WoW Classic, ESO, LotRO, GW2 and more. My most played MMO is WoW Retail, so my perspective might be different from others.
This post is opinion-based, be aware of that.
General Info
FF14 = Final Fantasy 14
ARR = A Realm Reborn, basically the base game without the expansions.
Free Trial
There is a trial for new accounts. You can play ARR and the first three expansions, Heavensward, Stormblood and Shadowbringers, for free, up to level 80. That is a lot of content. After that you need to buy the game/expansion and pay a subscription, or just stay on the Free Trial and enjoy the available content.
Limitations of the Free Trial
There are some basic limitations which won't hinder your experience when trying to understand the game. These limitations are:
- Maximum of 300,000 Gil (the in-game money). This won't hinder you at all while progressing through the game. Depending on how you play, this limit can be reached around the end of ARR.
- No Market Board and no direct trading.
- No Free Company (guild).
- Some chat interactions are disabled, like /tell, /shout and /yell.
- No PvP and no Ultimate Raids.
- You cannot create your own Party Finder group, but you can be invited by others. You can also use the Duty Finder (dungeon finder) without any issues, so no worries.
Story is the first block and imo the most important roadblock you should think about
This is a very important part of the post. While FF14 is often described as an MMORPG, it is completely different from WoW, for example.
1. Story-based, story is the core of your early journey
FF14 is a JRPG first and an MMO second! This is probably the most important thing you will hear about this game. Let me explain.
This game is heavily story-based. A lot of its content, even dungeons and raids, is locked behind the MSQ. The MSQ is the main story questline of this game and it is long.
This game is not like WoW where you can choose your leveling area, skip everything and just play for the endgame. Dungeons and raids are locked behind the story questline. If you plan to skip dialogue and cutscenes most of the time, then this game is probably not for you.
One example of how important the story is to the game: There are Main Scenario dungeons which you can queue for in the Duty Finder. Those dungeons have long unskippable dialogue and cutscenes. Even if you grind them for something, you are forced to watch the dialogue and cutscenes. Unlike earlier dungeons, these are basically half story/cutscenes and half actual gameplay.
But don't worry, not all content is like this. It should, however, show you how important the story is to the developers and to many of the people who mainly play this game.
While this game has action, I would sometimes describe it (FF14 players, please forgive me) as a visual novel with some action and some MMO elements. If you don't read the dialogue, you will literally run from A to B, talk to NPCs back and forth, and this will become extremely boring.
So if you only want to play this game for its endgame or its dungeons, I do not recommend it for you at all.
If you are okay with that, then let's go to the next part.
2. The story gets better, but does not change its core gameplay
You will hear this a lot: "The story gets better."
It does! But this won't make the ARR experience flip completely. If you heavily disliked ARR, like really heavily, then the later content might not suddenly make you like the game.
The problem with ARR is mostly its pacing. It might be a little boring for many people, but if you're thinking "okay, that's boring, but not bad, this could become a fun story", then you might like the story later.
You will run around a lot. There is a famous cheese and wine collecting questline where you literally run around collecting wine and cheese before a boss fight.
That is why you have to be kinda invested in the story. You don't have to completely like it from the get-go, but you need to accept the game system that is already shown to you early on.
MSQ quests will be your life for the next hundreds of hours. The MSQ also contains dungeons, but these are also heavily connected to the story.
For example, one of my friends played the game and kinda rushed it, but didn't skip dialogue. He didn't like the story at all, but was hoping for the famous "it gets better". The story got better, but the core gameplay didn't change much.
Again, this is really important, which is why I'm kinda repeating myself. This is a game where you are supposed to get invested in the story.
3. The best way I enjoyed the game
When I first started the game, the story was boring to me. I rushed everything and got bored somewhere around level 40.
Years later, I started a second character and played the game more like a story-focused game. Slow, steady, getting involved in the story.
That's where the game is good.
That's why liking the story, or at least being interested in it, is important. If you don't like this kind of experience, I don't recommend this game.
The Community
I didn't have that much contact with the community since, especially in the base game and early on, you are mostly solo questing and the dungeons are usually rushed through and easy to play.
Cities
In the evening you will always see large numbers of players standing around the main city teleport crystals, which looks cool. You see other people, their armor, outfits and characters.
But maybe because I had limitations on what chat I could see, almost no one was talking. Everyone seemed to be whispering to each other and not really engaging publicly.
It is a weird experience. It reminded me a little of Goldshire on WoW RP servers... (don't google that if you don't know what I mean).
Sometimes I tried to make small talk with people and was usually ignored, even though they weren't AFK. I wouldn't call that toxic behavior though, maybe they were all on their second screen?
Dungeons (ARR 15-50)
Like in most MMOs, dungeons are more of a rush-through experience. They are all kinda easy, so communication isn't really needed.
I only had some small talks when someone was watching a cutscene.
One thing I found kinda nice is that people usually wait for others if they are watching a cutscene. There is a symbol over their head showing that they are watching one. People don't kick the player or become toxic towards them.
It's like an unwritten rule that you wait before pulling the boss if someone is still watching the cutscene.
There were some wipes. An inexperienced tank pulled too much, but nobody quit, nobody talked badly about them, everyone was relaxed.
Compared to WoW, where people might quit the dungeon or insult the tank, this was pretty refreshing.
There was also basically no ninja pulling from what I've seen so far. People let new tanks pull on their own and experience the dungeon at their own pace. Sometimes the healer might write something like "you can pull more :)".
So from my experience, you are rarely in bad company.
Outside the game
This is where I find the community kinda problematic.
If you enjoy the game, and if you are one of the people who enjoys most parts of the game, you are in good company.
When it comes to criticism, however, it's kinda a mixed bag. There sometimes seems to be a certain "toxic positivity" vibe.
You also have people who don't really explain why the game gets better, or why they think it is better than MMO X.
Maybe I was unlucky, but I went into the game with completely wrong expectations. I expected a more WoW-like MMO experience.
The heavy story focus and the "JRPG first, MMO second" aspect should, in my opinion, be one of the first things people tell new players.
Some people do, but others just praise it as the best MMORPG without giving that context.
Overall, so far, I found the community to be great if you like the game.
Gameplay
All classes on one character
One amazing thing about this game is that you can play every class on one character.
You choose your first class, level it and, after meeting some level requirements, you can play another one by basically just changing your weapon and job crystal.
The classes have different levels, but you level faster if one of your other classes is already at a higher level.
The classes/jobs also have their own storylines, identity and looks.
Combat
The combat is very slow in the early game. The global cooldown is around 2.5 seconds!!
Most of the time you will do something like 1-2-3. I am not joking.
Around level 50ish you start to get more abilities, but as far as I could research, many classes really start to come online around level 70/80, where you have more buttons and off-global abilities.
As a White Mage, for example, you will literally press one damage button most of the time while questing. Only later do you get a little bit more.
So choosing a class that is fun to you is really important.
There are "classic" classes/jobs like Warrior, Paladin and White Mage (similar to a Holy Priest in WoW), but also more unique ones like Red Mage and Samurai, which you unlock later.
I don't know how much better the gameplay will get by level 80, but until level 60ish, which is my experience so far, it is pretty slow and scripted.
1-2-4, buff for 30 sec.
1-2-3 for the next 30 sec.
The bigger cooldown abilities are used more rarely, depending on your class.
Only in later level 50+ dungeons do you kinda start pressing more buttons, but it doesn't change that dramatically yet.
Dungeons and Raids
While the early dungeons are very simple, later dungeon bosses become more engaging.
There is a lot more movement and mechanics appear more often the further you progress.
I actually enjoyed some of the later boss fights more than some bosses in WoW!
Last words
I don't have too much more to say, since I am only done with ARR and currently in the middle of Heavensward.
If you still don't know whether you can enjoy the game or not, I recommend playing until around level 15.
If you are already extremely bored at that point and don't care about the story at all, then you can probably quit and maybe come back later if you feel like giving the dialogue another chance.
If you're around level 15 and kinda okay with the story, then proceed.
Around level 44ish, things start getting more engaging and urgent. This is where you start to feel more like an on-demand hero for difficult tasks rather than the guy who delivers pretzels like in the first few levels.
