Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn - A W.O.W. Competitor?

System: PC/PS4/PS5/ OS X

Year: August 24, 2013 - Present

ESRB Rating: TEEN

Genre: MMORPG

So I want everyone reading this to know that I played this game from beta to release and after release along with still playing it from time to time. I have a level 30 character but I will say that I haven't completed the first main story from the original release, so that is as far as my review will be going today. I might update my review once I have more time to play along with if I get further into the game, but I am reviewing the game with the knowledge of what I have played up until now.

So Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. What I can say is that from beta until release date they did a lot of work on the game to make sure that it was as ready as it was going to be. I was very happy with the game that came out and while yes it did have a lot of patches after release, there is only so much you can do while something is in beta with only so many players until you release it to the world and see just how they break it. Break it they did in so many way, but in a way that was good so that those bugs and systems got fixed right away. There were so many patches in the beginning that I don't even remember what they were about, but what I do remember is that they made for an even better game in the long run.

Now onto the game, of course its like most MMORPG where you are the chosen one that is going to defeat the evil being. The difference here I think is Square's story-telling. They just know how to tell a good story to where it doesn't matter that everyone else is doing it, you feel that you really are the one.

Also each class feels like a truly different class, no two feel the same. Not only that if you want to, you can simply swap classes by changing your weapon, which I have to admit is super nice. Not everyday do you want to tank, but also everyday do you want to healer or dps, so switching on the fly like that is super nice. Its the same for non-combat classes like jeweler and such. You just switch them out and in as needed. As seen below is an image of all of the combat class when I was playing.

The battle system itself is turn based, just like most JRPGs. Not much to say on it other than you wait for your gauge to built up, you do your action and its the same for the enemies. The magic system is the same. Curtain skills or magic abilities take longer than others, same as always. So there is nothing really new here other than its cleaned up along with looking much nicer than the older systems did back in the day.

This is what a set-up on a computer could look like when playing. You could also play with friends from all over, even if they were on a different system. It was truly a fun experience from day one for me and my friends that played it.

You could also easily gain levels from 1-15 very easily so it seemed to not be hard for anyone that was just starting the game and I think that is still true to this day. After 15 it does start to get a bit grinder, but if you do your hunt log book, your character could get a decent amount of experience from that. Once you get to 30 though, then the best way to get experience is from dungeon runs sadly.

The character customization options in this game are pretty extensive. There are a number of races to pick from, and after that you can spend hours making your character just the way you want them to look. I know that a lot of people love spending time on this screen, so again points here to Square on this one.

Now here comes the big issue for a lot of people, the game itself is that of a full game which you can now play I believe to level 30 for free. The for free I believe does come with some strings attached, like maybe not being able to add friends, etc. Also the full game price is just the base game, not any of the expansions which are 39.99 I believe. So you also have those and the game after that to get everything that a normal player has is 14.99 a month. So that is not something everyone can afford, but I will say that it does help the game a lot with what it is able to do with fixing bug and the events they run.

So at the end of the day I have to give it a 3.5/5 for the battle-system still being the same and the price point.