My Life As A Gamer: Final Fantasy XIV-A Realm Reviewed (Part One)

How To Use This Series

This is my review of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. ("FF14" and "ARR", respectively.) It does not cover any of the expansions, as those will be reviewed seperately at a later date. Analysis of the game's narrative is covered seperately at my writing blog, the Study, called "A Narrative Reborn"; the narratives of the expansions is likewise not covered and will also be done seperately.

Here on the main blog I will talk about the design of the game, the mechanics of the game, my experiences therein, and only at the end will I address things like the Free Trial and recommend resources and channels for more information. There will be no spoiler protection. All content here is older than six months and therefore long past any need for such consideration; this is your notice.

If you do not care about the narrative other than how it effects gameplay, this post series is what you want to read. Vice-versa, the Study's parallel series. However, FF14 is a rare gem that successfully and competently incorporates a narrative into the gameplay and thus you must not skip it on a first-time playthrough or you lose context for your actions and future events get confusing for you.

Disclosure: I was not compensated for my time playing the game. I played on the Free Trial, did not use any recruitment codes, and I played on PC (but playing on Playstation 4 or 5 will be no different save for control schemes). I have no ties whatsoever to Square Enix or to any of their competitors. I am not being compensated for my writing of this review series or the narrative review series.

Introduction

Square Enix attempted to produce a second MMORPG for their Final Fantasy franchise. It didn't go so well, and in a rare show of prudence they pulled the plug on it. The final moments of the original version have become memorable in their own right. Square Enix would then put a new man in charge and relaunch the game. That relaunch in 2013 had a fantastic start and only got better from there, such that today it is threatening to dethrone World of Warcraft at long last and become the undisputed master of the genre.

The relaunch, labelled as "2.0", got subtitled "A Realm Reborn" and users logging into the game--either returnees from 1.0 or new users to this day--are greeted by this screen.

And when you enter the game you get this cutscene.

(Note: That man with the giant axe represents you, the player. You'll see him again in later trailers; in this cutscene he represents the Warrior Job.)

That leads us to rolling your man.

Character Creation

If you're used to min-maxing your character, you will have no need of such concerns here. Neither race nor sex nor culture matters to your character's performance, so the matter is purely a question of aesthetics, and FF14 has a character customization feature that is highly touted not just for MMORPGs but for CRPGs generally as being deep and varied.

• Hyur: Humans, available as Midlander or Highlander. The aforementioned audience-insert is a Male Hyur Midlander, called "Derplander" affectionately by the players.
• Elezen: Elves, divided into Wildwood and Duskwood clans.
• Miqo'te: Cat-people, split into Seekers of the Sun and Keepers of the Moon.
• Lalafell: Gnomes with the hearts of Goblins. Divided into Plainsfolk and Dunesfolks.
• Roegadyn: Big beefy boys and girls, split into Sea Wolves and Hellsguard.
• Au Ra: Dragon-people, split into Raen and Xaela clans.
• Viera: Bunny-folks. Female-only until Endwalker releases, and split into Rava and Veena clans.
• Hrothgar: Great Cat people. Male-only until further notice, but female will be made available in the future. Split into Helion and The Lost.

You are able to customize your character's hair color, hair stytle, height, skin and eye colors (and have different eye colors for each eye; Oskar von Reuntal fans take note) from a very broad--but finite--range set by sex, race, and culture. You can save that appearance as a seperate data file, and clone that file to the cloud, should you want to roll on another server for any reason.

The only fault, if you can call it that, is that you cannot create an ugly character. Even the most inhuman of races will nontheless be aesthetically pleasing to the eye, and most voices to the ear.

Your choice of initial playable classes is limited to eight, and which class you choose determines which city-state you begin play at.

• Gridania: Conjurer (healer), Lancer (melee DPS), and Archer (ranged DPS).
• Ul'dah: Thaumaterge (magic DPS), Gladiator (tank), and Pugilist (melee DPS).
• Limsa Lominsa: Marauder (tank) and Arcanist (healer/magic DPS). (We'll talk about the Rogue class later; for now, know that if you want to speed-run access to it, start in Limsa Lominsa.)

At Level 30, each of these classes transforms into an iconic FF Job, respectively: White Mage, Dragoon, Bard, Black Mage, Paladin, Monk, Warrior, Scholar/Summoner (explained later), and Ninja. Additional Jobs were added in various expansions, but Blue Mage (also explained later) is available as soon as you complete ARR's main story at Level 50.

You will also be prompted to choose a Patron Deity and a Birth Date, neither of which have any mechanical impact either. Pick what you like. Finally, you will be prompted to choose a forename and a surname--e.g. "Cornelius Lutz"--in the Western style by default; I do not know if Japanese players name their characters in the Eastern style or not.

Once you have a valid character name, you enter play and this cutscene or something like it plays for you. Do not skip this on your first time through. It sets the stage for the entire game, framing all actions you take and the scenarios you're contesting over, up to the upcoming (as of this post) Endwalker expansion.

You will then enter the city-state and begin play, and that takes us to Part Two tomorrow.