Final Fantasy XIV Online - Mandatory Pain(fun)ful Steps

Channel:

Andrew Mullens

Subscribers:

821

Published on March 10, 2023 5:51:00 AM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HO-Sw40_GY4

Game:

Final Fantasy XIV (2010)

Duration: 41:04

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In the massive sea of Role-Playing Games, Final Fantasy will always stand out to me as the gold standard of its time and even today. I first learned of this series through the PS1 with Final Fantasy VII, It's this game that led my interest in RPG games to really increase and throughout this gamer life I've gone over all of them except for the first one on NES which I have to see what its like one day. I was unaware that there was a MMO Final Fantasy game aside from Final Fantasy XI but the discovery of this one will lead to a first for this PlayStation 4 & PlayStation 5 talk series as both a normal episode and a rant, Rants will have a symbol to mark what really irks me.

Originally a flop in 2010, Final Fantasy XIV Online goes back to August 2013 on the PS3 with this PS5 edition I'm using being released on May 25th 2021. It's story takes place exactly 5 years after the events of the failed 2010 version where we are a adventurer during the "Seventh Umbral Era" and with the benefit of having bought the Collectors Digital Edition I managed to snag a 30 day free trial play period which is a point which will be covered in the rant segment.

There's 8 playable races and among them, I selected the "Hrothgar" which were added in the Endwalker expansion pack as this race of feline fighters are well adapted with a two-handed weapon and have a knack being in the face of enemy groups. Unique to FF XIV Online and something that threw me off first is that auto-attack when you select a enemy and your character automatically attacks with a basic swing of their weapon or burst of magic from a book/staff as FF always was a go to for the turn based planning of attacking in a party but I managed to adapt to it after a few tries. By holding R2 or L2 down you can select skills to combo against a enemy and it takes practice but the Berserk bonus with a Hrothgar really lays the enemies low.

The Job system also does give me pause as you'll have to mold your character to adapt to how you want them to play and looking up guides, each race in FF XIV Online can preform as more than one different "job" with, again for a MMO there being three main types which are Healer, DPS, and Tank. Like ESO and other MMO games there can be guilds and something called "Free Companies", These work like guilds but you can only be in 1 at a time, and have unique perks such as a Company Chest for storage and additions to increase damage or so-forth. Similar to ESO there are dungeons and trials and require good cordination alongside knowing that this game will massacre all players in your group even on normal so practice and determination is key.

But for all that's unique and good, FF XIV Online has just as many bad points and the first one relates to the screen which is the interface.. *Holy shit* have I not seen a Interface as bad as FF XIV Online's and this is from someone who once did Black Besert (the WORST MMO ever), There's so much on screen at once that it was tough to keep up and the fact that FF XIV Online uses computer internet style browser controls to select stuff by tapping the touchpad is.. just so stupid that I can't in my life figure out why you'd actually set it up like that.

The map system and how the minimap works? *Dear lord* does it piss me off so much and I resorted post-video to just having the map through "travel" menu option on the screen transparent so I could see where I'm going as the icons of quests, etc are so damn small it was hard to see. Zone chat is frustrating to use as it requires using the touchpad then you tap triangle to bring up a keyboard then you press x twice.. unlike a normal MMO where you simply select zone chat and type then send you know.. like ANY normal mmo?

The free trial I mentioned? Yeah I got that with the purchase of the Digital Collector Edition for 69.99 instead of 200 dollars in the Mega March Sale. What really does affect this game is the fact you must be a paid subscriber to play a game that is 60 dollars and has almost 100 dollars worth of expansion packs.. Yes Square Enix I love you to death with how the FF series stands out but that requirement is *Stupid, and in my eyes, very predatory* considering that Elder Scrolls Online does not require ESO Plus by default anymore, That paycheck must not be big enough for the devs to eat I guess..? It's a alright MMO, though I'd imagine it might be offputing to some due to said issues.

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