Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn

Played it on: PC
Available on: PC, PS3, and PS4
Played it for: 30 hours

RATING: 9.0/10

While I've never been the biggest fan of MMO games, I have always loved Square Enix's Final Fantasy series. So when I heard Square was rebooting their famous flop Final Fantasy XIV, I was slightly apprehensive, but they promised truly great things. So I decided to delve in. It's very hard to describe Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, but it definitely delivers quite the punch. After playing for some indiscernible amount of time, it hasn't become boring or grindey, the graphics are still beautiful, the music is grand and well-fitting, and in short, Square delivered quite the powerful do-over.

The most noticeable feature of this game is its stunning world design and animation. Square is rather famous for its dazzling graphics in any game it has a hand in creating, but it's nice to see this kind of change in the MMO scene. The only comparable graphics are those in Guild Wars 2, but FFXIV:ARR distinguishes itself with a familiar, flashy flair that has come to define the series. The three different starting areas in the world of Eorzea are each gorgeous in their own way, from the the breezy shores of La Noscea, to the wide open deserts of Thanalan, to the beautiful greens in the forests of the Twelvewoods. ARR is certainly never short of a feast for the eyes.

The gameplay of ARR keeps the game fun simply because of the variety. The five races available for play are all very distinctive, with the Hyur and Elezen representing the humans and elves respectively, the Lalafell being a smaller race adept in magic, the Miqo'te being a dexterous, cat-like race, and the Roegadyn being the large, muscular race adept at the physical arts. Each of these races also has two variants, such as the Highlander and Lowlander for the Hyur, which determine starting attributes. While each race can be adept at just about all the classes, they stay very distinct in both appearance and nature, with natural talents for certain classes. This allows the gameplay to be quite customizable with unique flair, but still create an environment that is open to all players. This lets the game feel good and worth replaying in order to explore all the different races.

The starting areas are based off of the starting class the player chooses. The three nations each host a variety of guilds which are specific only to that nation, and players will have to progress to level ten in order to choose a secondary class, and to the level 14 main story quest to travel to the other nations and explore what they have to offer. Once the player levels up enough in their classes, they can also cross-class some of their abilities, which really gives the character a more solid, unique feel. On top of the Disciples of War and Disciples of Magic, there are also professions the character can choose to do known as Disciples of the Hand and Disciples of the Land, which allow the player to create better gear, create potions, or gather those ever precious materials for both. While it's currently still better to find gear from tough dungeons, the passive classes can still be great for getting money off the markets and making better gear than the average questing item, so it's very worthwhile to participate in one of these illustrious guilds.

The combat in ARR is just like the combat from any other MMO, targeting an enemy and using hotkeyed skills to best them in a duel, but at least it's made exciting for the player. The enemies are very creatively designed, the the abilities the classes unlock upon leveling up begin to have more to offer, including buffs, debuffs, changes in fighting style, and healing. This becomes crucially important in later boss fights, where an intimate knowledge of buffs and debuffs is necessary if the player wants to survive very long. In general, however, even though ARR doesn't deviate from the general MMO combat, it still has that added flair of the Final Fantasy franchise. It's quite possible to play for hours on end and not realize where the time goes.

Experience and leveling in the game is quite reasonable. Experience earned will be attributed to whatever class is currently equipped, which is changeable just by equipping the weapon or tool of the class in question. Why one would do a weaver's guild quest and then give the experience to their pugilist, I don't know, but it is possible. Most of the experience in the game, however, is gained through major quests and FATE events, which are dynamic events that happen around the worlds of Eorzea. Different FATEs are for different levels, and if the player is more than six levels above the recommended level of the FATE, they are offered the option of "Level Sync," with which the player will keep their current health value and experience, but only be able to use their class abilities up to whatever level they sync to. This prevents extremely high level players trolling the lower level players by taking all the experience in the low level FATEs. This helps keep the game balanced and fun for the community.

The only gripe I currently have is with the game's Limit Break system. It doesn't include room for solo players at all, forcing the player to find a party of at least 4 players to use a Limit Break, a powerful move that can severely damage enemy units, or heal the player and party. What's even more annoying is the full Limit Breaks, which require a full party of 8 players. These moves are truly devastating to boss enemies, and can even revive knocked out team mates if a White Mage is present. Unfortunately, famous spells like Meteor are only usable with a party of 8, and White Mages can only use this revival spell with the same condition. This is frustrating. What if the player has six friends who play the game? Is the mass revival spell any less useful than if he had seven friends who played? No, it's arguably even more useful because each party member's contribution is all the more necessary. This system is not at all game breaking, but it would be nice if more of the community was considered in the decision on this system.

Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn is a huge step up from their previous failure to deliver on the original Final Fantasy XIV. The graphics are beautifully stunning, enemies are well placed and well balanced, each of the Eorzean nations are distinct and endearing in their own way, the races are vibrant, and the classes are balanced and easy to switch between while keeping the characters unique. Given that the game is still very new, I look forward to seeing further updates to the game and its progression as it moves forward.