I’ve heard a lot of positive things about Final Fantasy XIV. People say it’s one of the best MMOs out there and with the new expansion on the horizon, I figured it was about time to jump in and see if the game stands up to the rest of the series. A Realm Reborn (which it is no longer called) covers the entire base game, and the title is certainly evocative of the game’s history.

Originally released in 2010, Final Fantasy XIV was a huge failure plagued with terrible game design and clunky user interfaces. As a result, the game was shut down in 2012 before returning with a new development team in 2013, which sought to rectify the core issues of the original game while building on its setting.

A Realm Reborn takes place in the fantasy world of Eorzea. After a great battle and resulting cataclysm, the people are in a state of recovery; Beastmen plague the great city-states and threaten the realm by summoning the Primals, elemental deities of enormous power. As if that wasn’t enough, Eorzea’s old enemies, the Garlean Empire, still lurk in the shadows plotting to invade once more. You enter this world as an adventurer gifted with foresight and chosen by the divine as the new Warrior of Light.

This storyline is not particularly strong, it’s clearly built off the backbone established by the weaker original release. Not only is the story generic, especially when compared to previous Final Fantasy games, but it is paced horribly. A Realm Reborn’s main quest line will take you through levels one through fifty, with a majority of this time spent doing meaningless activities that serve no purpose other than providing bursts of experience. This essentially boils down to having shallow conversations with NPCs scattered in various locations around the world.

Our major characters aren’t especially interesting either, with only one having any semblance of a character arc. Villains are slightly more interesting, however, they are still driven by basic motives that have been explored better by other characters in the series. If you’ve never played any other Final Fantasy, this might not be as big an issue. However, for me, I found myself more interested in simply progressing and customizing my character than anything.

In terms of gameplay, there are some great elements at play here. I enjoy how your character can play any class in the game by simply undertaking the corresponding job quest. Not only that, you can freely swap between them at any time allowing you to explore various play styles and builds without erasing previous progress. There are a myriad of fun accessory features such as the companion system, which can allow you to summon creatures that assist you in battle.

You can also spend time playing dozens of minigames to receive various rewards at the in-game casino, The Manderville Gold Saucer. Dungeons are quite fun, and like most MMOs, are worth exploring many times in the pursuit of rare gear or items that can be augmented to your heart’s desire to craft the coolest character possible. I also enjoyed the extremely diverse mount options – there’s everything from your standard Chocobo’s to magical robot suits.

I didn’t dive much into PVP, but it is another feature included here if you are so inclined. Guilds can be started after joining a Grand Company, which acts as your main faction. Once you unlock this content at around levels 20-30, you have access to limitless hours of content and some faction-specific quest chains. Each area also has hundreds of side quests and even time-exclusive events called Fates which can give you experience and reputation within your chosen Grand Company. This can then be redeemed for exclusive items.

Combat is what you would expect from an MMO for the most part. You’ll gain various abilities upon leveling up respective jobs, each of which fits into three main roles: Tank, Melee and Ranged DPS, or Healer. These abilities are then executed simply with hot keys or a click of a mouse. Some melee classes can combo specific abilities together for extra damage and effects, which injects some extra nuances into combat. Certain abilities also have enhanced bonuses based on your location. For example, I played a Lancer which thrives off attacking foes from behind.

However, despite these features, I found the combat system left a lot to be desired for me. A majority of the time you’ll simply be spamming the same few moves and clicking mindlessly until enemies die. Once in a while, you’ll have to think for a minute and move to dodge attacks. Although sometimes if you have strong enough gear enemies won’t even do enough damage to hurt you, making this irrelevant. Nonetheless, I still see the potential here. The few fights that do require you to employ all your abilities efficiently in order to survive were the high points of the game for me.

Presentation-wise, Final Fantasy XIV is quite strong. The score for the game is fantastic but this is a given for most Final Fantasy-related things. The graphics aren’t fantastic but they are serviceable with detailed enough environments and locations to explore. The game also runs smoothly on PC: I never had a single issue during extended play sessions or across the entirety of my time with the game. Load times are relatively quick and queues to log in rarely take more than a minute.

While I finished A Realm Reborn (or simply, the base game of Final Fantasy XIV) feeling rather unsatisfied, I wouldn’t say it was a complete waste of time. I remain optimistic that the first expansion, Heavensward, can build upon this base and deliver something truly unique. What is here is certainly not terrible, but I wouldn’t say I was ever surprised throughout my playthrough. Additionally, given this base game is available for free to try out it’s something I would still recommend, especially if you have a few friends willing to jump in with you.

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Final Fantasy XIV

$9.99

5

Score

5.0/10

Pros

• Great Music
• Job system
• Lots of content

Cons

• Basic, bland story
• Quests range in quality
• Combat lacks challenge