Review! Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn

System:  PC (also available on PS3 and soon to be PS4)
How far did you get:  Main story completed, Level 50 Black Mage, Level 15 Archer, Level 47 Botanist, Level 46 Goldsmith

Final Fantasy XIV version 1.0 was released back in 2010 to almost universal disgust.  Personally, I spent about a month trying to figure it out, but getting nowhere.  Quest lines were difficult to find and follow, crafting was confusing, and the combat was incredibly bland.  The disappointment was heard by Square Enix, and they chose to shut the game down in December of 2012, with the promise that the game would be back, new and improved.

I wasn't going to play Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn (FF:ARR from here on).  I didn't think the framework was good enough for them to be able to salvage this game.  After reading that beta testers were enjoying it, and remembering how much I love Final Fantasy, I decided to give it a shot.  Am I ever glad I did.

Square Enix didn't just build on the framework.  They completely turned FFXIV upside down.  The graphics aren't even the same.  They decided to use a more animated look, and the game is better off for it.   The battle system is flashy and fun.  Crafting makes sense now.  The quests are now laid out in a way that makes sense.  Everything that made FFXIV version 1.0 terrible is now fixed.  Even after playing the game since early access, I still can't believe how good this game is. 

On paper, it isn't that much different from any other MMORPG you may have played.  It borrows nearly every concept from other games.  However, it's refined all of them into near perfection and leaves out all the bad stuff.  Did you like the world events in Rift and Guild Wars 2, but didn't much care for the weapon switching and obnoxious combat?  Check out FFXIV: ARR's FATEs.  Very rarely are they in the way of other things you may be doing, and they are a lot of fun.  In fact, I'd say about half the community spends most of their time creating FATE parties and just running around looking for new FATEs to do, and there are a lot of them to do. Some FATE's even offer unique rewards, like minions and gear. 

The combat is similar to what you may be used to in games like World of Warcraft.  You map your skills to your number keys and let the attacks fly.  It seems fairly well balanced, though there is no way to know for sure currently, as there is no DPS counter.  Difficulty for world leveling is done fairly well.  Tanks don't die because they have a lot of HP and high defense, healers can heal themselves, ranged damage dealers kill things before they get hit and melee damage dealers do a lot of damage and can take a few hits, too.  These are things you've seen before, but it's still fun. 

Classes are done slightly different in FFXIV: ARR than most MMORPGs.  You don't really need more than one character, because your character can learn to do everything.  This includes all combat classes, gathering classes, and crafting classes.  All you have to is switch your weapon.  Gathering and crafting classes are actually classes all on their own, and are leveled just like combat classes, including their very own gear sets.  It's refreshing to play an MMORPG that will allow you to take control of everything yourself, if you're willing to put an extreme amount of time into it. 

The game doesn't have PvP yet, but it seems to be in the works.  The Duty Finder has a PvP option listed, and my Black Mage has spells that seem pretty useless in PvE, but would be very useful in PvP. 

Story quests follow a path the helps you see most of the areas in the game.  They take you to different areas in the world, and offer you a few side quests in each quest hub.  Each quest hub also has a Levemete, which is a place you can do levequests.  Levequests are short extra quests you can take to grab some extra XP when you find yourself a bit too low of a level to handle story quests.  You get a certain amount of allowances on these quests, though you probably won't blow through them until you start crafting.  Yes, you get levequests for crafting and gathering too. 

The Duty Finder is a tool that works similarly to World of Warcraft's Dungeon Finder.  You can use to queue for dungeons, primal battles, and guildheists.  Dungeons are exactly the same thing you've played in any other MMORPG.  Primal battles are fought against a single large enemy, and are unlocked through the main quest.  Guildheists are mini-dungeons, where you have one objective that you must complete with a group, and they are based on your level. 

That seems like a lot of ways to get XP, doesn't it?  Well, there's more!  You can also use your hunting log to kill certain enemies and gain extra XP.  About halfway through leveling, you'll gain access to one of the main companies, which has it's own hunting log to do, as well.  If that's not enough for you, you also get a sizable amount of XP just by exploring all of the areas of the game.  It has an achievement system, too.  

FFXIV: ARR is visually stunning.  While it's probably not on par with Guild Wars 2 or Rift on a technical level, I found it to be much more visually appealing.  It's an incredibly colorful game with a wide variety of things to look at.  Every race is very distinct, all of the armor properly reflects the class wearing it, and the enemy designs look great. 

The music and sound are great, too.  Check out a couple of tracks I personally enjoy.  The first is the theme for the main city Limsa Lominsa, and the second is Cortheus, a snowy tundra found in the 35-40 level range. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQHAUw3wb9U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbtWmze50ag

Crafting and gathering are a bit of a pain right now, but that has a lot to do with an undeveloped game economy.  Unless you have leveled all the gathering classes to level 50, crafting is going to be pretty annoying, and gathering takes a very long time to level.  I will admit that even though gathering is a long process, it's still not quite as bad as in some other major MMOs.  Crafting is fairly fun to actually do, as you have to try to even out quality and actual progress when making something.  Gathering, on the other hand, is busy work and nothing else.  Gathering is probably the only thing I've done in the game that I didn't particularly care for, as it's not only a boring time sink, but the rewards are pretty low as well.

In it's current build, FFXIV: ARR is the best apology I've ever gotten from a gaming company.  They turned something that was complete garbage into the best MMORPG on the market, and that not only takes time and dedication, it also takes respect for it's fans.  For the first time since FFX, I feel like Square Enix heard our cries and honestly wanted to make a game we would spend hours in.  I have, and will continue to do so. 

Rating:  96/100