Admin: A Final Fantasy XIV Review Series Comes

I'd been playing the Free Trial for Final Fantasy XIV. I recently finished the story for the relaunch of the game, A Realm Reborn, and I have moved on to the first expansion, Heavensward.

While playing the game, I'd been taking notes on both the gameplay and the narrative. It's time to share what I observed, but I'm going to break up those observations and commentary thereupon. Gameplay will be here at the Retreat. Narrative will be at the Study. I will post those observations over this coming week until I am done. I will repeat this when I complete every expansion in turn, and I intend to play the upcoming Endwalker expansion when it launches in November (and I will abandon World of Warcraft when my paid time runs out in January).

For those wanting a TLDR, I'll do you a solid and give it now: It is a Final Fantasy JRPG first and a MMO second. It is a very good Final Fantasy game, a worthy brother in the franchise, and very friendly to casual play so if you are a busy adult you will get far more value for your time with this game than its competitors.

It is not flawless--the misuse of "nation" to mean "state" is everywhere, for example--but it is worthy of your time and money and you will be entertained by people that do not hate you. If you want more details, come back tomorrow.