Final Fantasy XIV: First Impressions

I started playing FFXIV seriously around the end of May 2021. I’ve now had fun with many aspects of the game as a whole and feel like I can make an informed review overall about the game that I’ve pretty much been happily sucked into!

1. The story is amazing!
   • Honestly this story is second to absolutely none. I’ve played many games that were pretty heavy on story and lore (ESO, The Witcher 3, Horizon Zero Dawn, Journey, Abzu) and FFXIV is honestly the only game that’s made me cry a lot. I mean this in the best way though. I’ve happy cried, sad cried, it’s-3am-and-I-should-be-in-bed-but-the-story-is-so-good-and-I’m-exhausted cried. Even though it’s an MMO, it definitely is an RPG first and the story is robust. Don’t skip cutscenes, please.
2. The community is very friendly and among the healthiest I’ve been a part of.
   • The commendation system in multiplayer content like dungeons and raids is something I really love and wish other games would implement. I really like commending someone when they’ve done a good job (or conversely was having a bad time of it and I wanted them to feel better). The players are super patient and I really haven’t encountered much toxicity. It’s been super refreshing.
3. Combat mechanics do take some getting used to but they are really cool.
   • The biggest thing is snapshotting. It is rough (and I still mess the timing up sometimes) but rewarding when you get it right. The mechanics in this game are like a dance and very satisfying when executed in the correct way.
4. High fantasy element is a plus
   • Magic, flying mounts, pixies, outer space?! I’m here for it.
5. Everything the game has released is still relevant, even ten years later.
   • The day before I posted this I queued into a trial instance from their base game for one of my daily roulettes! It was pretty unexpected, but it’s still really cool that literally everything is still relevant.
6. All of the jobs are basically balanced and mostly intuitive to play. No additional notes here, pretty self explanatory!
7. The game makes sure you know when you are encountering a grind (relics, Eureka/Bozja) but otherwise allows you to plan out how you spend your game time really well.
   • The game is also really great at telling you when you’ve done something wrong in an instance because you’ll either get a vuln stack or you’ll die! If I miss a hint for a solo instance I generally figure that out pretty quickly. This game is great at making sure you don’t waste your time.
8. You save IRL $! (No gacha, mostly just paying for subscription and inventory space with retainers)
9. Glamour is the true endgame.
   • There’s even a website called Eorzea Collection where people post their glamour ideas – they are all pretty amazing!
10. Game relevant discords and guides are plentiful.
    • There are a couple central “hubs” of information coming from groups of people that work incredibly hard to provide resources.
    • The Balance Discord – overall resource for rotations, melds, and gearing for all jobs.
    • Aether Hunts – Hunts help you gain currency to buy a multitude of things in game such as mounts, minions, orchestrions, triple triad cards… the list goes on.

What’s your favourite thing about FFXIV? Let me know in the comments!