5/5 ★ – zeffykins's review of Final Fantasy XIV: Complete Edition.

*Spoiler-free!* Play Time - A lot Total Score - 10/10 Story - 9/10 Gameplay - 8/10 Music/Sound - 11/10 Like Phoenix rising from Bahamut’s ashes, Final Fantasy XIV rose from a near-franchise ending disaster to becoming the crown jewel of the Final Fantasy name. But that is a story already oft retold, and now that the Final Days are upon us, I'd like to share my own thoughts on the experience. I began playing around December of 2019 and have maintained a sub since then. Through all this time, the game steadily rose to become my second favorite game of all time. Why do I love it so much? A few things: - It has the best storytelling in games, bar none. Please note that I didn't say “best story in games”! If I sat you down and gave you a summary of the events of the game, it won't have nearly as much impact. Because the story is just a small part of the harmonious whole: the music, the atmosphere, the dialogue, the voice acting, the visuals all contribute to the experience. Everything I love about the game stems from this. - Impeccable presentation where it counts, in moments of spectacle, in moments of calm, and in moments of lightheartedness. Some serious love goes into worldbuilding and lore and you can feel it permeate through the entire game. - It’s got something for everybody, regardless of skill level. The main story quests, generally considered the best part of the game, can be completed without even knowing what a gcd is. And then there’s content that will have your team dead on the floor on the first dps check because you don’t know what a gcd is. And then there’s content for people who don’t even enter combat at all: crafting and gathering, glamouring, house decorating, gold saucer, rp (kek). There’s tons and tons of content, and the most amazing part is that most of it, over the 8 years since ARR was released, is still active. - The music is just impeccable. Masayoshi Soken is a genius. Memorable, thematic, heavy on the leitmotifs, and unafraid to be experimental in genre. Of course, nothing is perfect, here are my gripes about the game: - The game is barely an RPG in terms of mechanics. All the races are the same in all but visuals, there’s very little customization in stats, and there’s nothing like various builds and equipment with different attributes. I always compare it to playing a hero shooter, where choosing another job is like choosing a hero with a different moveset and mechanics. Granted, this increases the accessibility of the combat. But the depth does leave a bit to be desired. - There’s no denying it, playing through A Realm Reborn is a slog. The high quality presentation prevalent in the later expansions is very notably lacking. Even worse, it lays extremely important foundations for the later parts of the game. That’s 100 hours of rough time (not ALL bad, mind you) to get to the real meat and potatoes. - The community. I hesitate to put this as either a pro or a con. Overall, it is a pretty welcoming community about 90% of the time. In the endgame, the ugliness rears its head above the surface a little more. However, the game is notorious for taking harassment claims a little (too) seriously, so people get the sense of passive aggressiveness rather than outright vitriol. However, you can get through the entire main story and most side content without speaking a word to anyone. A real toss up this one. - The game engine suffers from building upon age old code originally created for an entirely different game and accommodating to obsolete systems. I’m not savvy enough to go into the details but the limitations are noticeable, one example of which is the devs seemingly struggling to add glamour inventory space. The players have been hoping for a solution to this for a long time. A brief breakdown of the expansions of FFXIV A Realm Reborn 2.0 - 2.55: The Good - For a game charged with the herculean task of resurrecting a failed MMORPG launch, it does well to establish the setting, simultaneously presenting a fresh new adventure but always cognizant of the adventure that came before (in 1.0). The worldbuilding starts at minute one, and it well establishes the major players in the story, while laying seeds for further plot points and conflicts. And then culminating into a powerful climax. - The music bangers start here. Also laying the foundation for the future, with tracks like "Torn From the Heavens" and the Garlean themes to the Primal jams. - It's comfy. The expansion touches upon themes of heroism and adventure, and you really feel like a fledgling adventurer with a wide world to explore. The Bad - The story pacing is atrocious, with quite a bit of padding and some extremely strange plot decisions. Unfortunately many details in this padding may be relevant later, so it's difficult to recommend skipping. You can't do much but to bear with it and look forward to the payoff. There is a reason for the madness however, as a few of the major players in the next expansion are introduced here, in order to relieve that burden now instead of later. - The combat is achingly bad below level 50, which is the cap for this expansion. Being the oldest "version" of the game, this level range was subject to the least attention as the combat continuously became updated. Most dps jobs follow the same simplistic 1-2-3 combo rotation with little variation. - Fight design was also pretty barebones in this level range, but do have interesting mechanics that aren't often seen in later content. - The production quality is also notably weaker in ARR, due to being a rush job by yoship’s team and a presumably smaller budget. Particularly the animation and VA work (which was almost entirely replaced in HW). Heavensward 3.0 - 3.55 The Good - Dragons - Dragoons - You can really tell that the devs and writers are really coming into their own here. Extremely powerful and emotional main storyline with better pacing (a few hiccups here and there) and more daring visuals. Better yet, the seeds sown earlier begin to flower and take shape, while even newer seeds are planted. - The theme of vengeance and the unending cycle of suffering that it brings is really well focused here, and examined in many facets of the game - The VA changes are subjective across characters, but the VA production quality is objectively better in HW. - Music continues to hit, with the tearjerking “Dragonsong” to the climactic “Revenge of the Horde” to the earworm banger of “Locus” The Bad - Moogles - JK they’re alright - There are a couple of hiccups in the main story that grind the pacing to a halt, particularly the moments where you revisit some ARR plot points. - Combat mechanics and fight design are definitely improved, but not quite reaching its potential yet. Stormblood 4.0 - 4.55 The Good - It’s in Stormblood where the devs become comfortable and confident with their vision for fight design and begin experimenting with some really cool mechanics and accompanying visuals and presentation. It starts off with a bang in the Susano Trial intermission, and doesn’t stop there. - Tons of great content in terms of gameplay, Omega raids were fantastic, Ivalice alliance raids were fantastic, tons of trials and dungeons, including the Four Lords were great, and Eureka was a novel addition. - The music continues to get better! From the wartime ballad “Storm of Blood” to the uplifting triumph of “Triumph”, and the remixes of classics all throughout the Omega raids, Soken shines bright here. - Many might disagree with me on this, but the characterization in this xpac is really good, particularly with the two excellent female antagonists prevalent in the arc. There are misses though, Grynewaht was pretty limp, and Lyse...I still have mixed feelings about. The Bad - The most contentious expansion when it comes to the story, some hate it, while some enjoy it, but almost all can agree that the pacing is rough throughout. Spreading the locations across two areas on the opposite side of the world detracts from both narrative and gameplay experience. - The theme of war and oppression and its effects on the lives it touches is depicted well in this expansion. However, the resolutions I internally struggle a bit to be satisfied with. Of course, it’s a game, the enemies are clearer, and the world gets saved by heroes and everything is hopeful, but it touches upon a few real issues and solved it with unreal solutions Shadowbringers 5.0 - 5.55 The Good - The best storyline and narrative Square Enix has put out for Final Fantasy in years. Essentially a side adventure but one with massive revelations and crucial consequences. Most loose ends in the story so far are tied off here, while simultaneously setting the stage for the End. All the while telling a compelling self contained story with one of the greatest villains in video games. - Incredible fights, with the cinematic final trials in 5.0 and 5.3, with the latter being one of my favorite video game moments of all time experiencing it as current content. Bozja also became a playground for the fight designers to experiment with some fun novel mechanics (never forget the bloodbath of the Red Chocobo). - The team was tasked with establishing a theme of loss and despair, and they understood the assignment. - Soken at his peak. Incredible music all around. The Bad - The non-Main Story Quest content release post-5.0 was not as extensive as 4.0, and also focused on a lot of crafting and gathering content, which some people subjectively criticize. It could possibly be blamed on the pandemic. There’s a lot more I can say about this game and how much I love it, but really, you owe it to yourself to at least give a chance to the critically acclaimed mmorpg Final Fantasy XIV that has a free trial up to level 60 with no restrictions on playtime and including the award-winning Heavensward expansion.