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Thread: Starting FFXIV in 2021     submit to reddit submit to twitter

  1. #1
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    Starting FFXIV in 2021

    I used to be really into FFXI. I last played FFXIV when it was still 1.0, which turned me off MMORPGs ever since. I installed the current version a week ago to check it out. It's been kind of fun to casually play to experience the story for the first time. My question is, is it actually worth it to start FFXIV now or should I just forget about it? I don't think I know anyone currently playing.

    Also, the FFXIV fonts and menus look sort of familiar. I wonder where I've seen those before...

  2. #2
    The Fucking Voice of Actually
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    Now is a good time, moreso than past expansions.

    For MSQ/Storyline purposes, the recent expansion is critically acclaimed, so you have that to look forward to. The next expansion is due this year, and we're hoping it'll be just as much a banger.
    For endgame, the raids are good. Unlike XI, it is a treadmill though, always new gear, no sidegrades or specs.

    PVP is fine, more fun as a group than solo. Generally balanced, presently phys ranged are weak atm after being godlike in previous expansions.
    If you like math puzzles, you can try to figure out crafting rotations and melds on your own. Or you can just copy from the community and market PVP. It's in a good place.

    There's collectibles all over the place, mounts, minions, orchestrion rolls, triad cards, barding, glamour, achievements. Plenty to keep busy.


    Basically, XIV is where WoW would be, if Blizzard didn't keep fucking up.

  3. #3
    Sandworm Swallows
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    Yeah, starting it now has tons and tons of story and content to get through which is all quite good. Once you catch up on everything (which will take a while if starting fresh) it may end up start to get boring to you depending on your goals in the game, but it is at least great until you get through everything.

  4. #4

    Sweaty Dick Punching Enthusiast

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    The game is free to play up to level 60 and includes the full Heavensward expansion so you might at well enjoy the totally free 100+ hour JRPG experience.

  5. #5
    Falcom is better than SE. Change my mind.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Anoat View Post
    The game is free to play up to level 60 and includes the full Heavensward expansion so you might at well enjoy the totally free 100+ hour JRPG experience.
    Basically this. My only real complaints about FFXIV are...

    1. Guilds (FCs) don't offer much due to everything being being an instance. Though that might be just me personally considering how GW2 functioned.
    2. The Stormblood (expansion after Heavensward) story fucking suuuuuuuuuucks
    3. After you're done leveling endgame can be kinda dull
    4. Some jobs feel like a clusterfuck of skills.

  6. #6
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    Game's great, I play it all since 2.0. However I would like to point out some drawbacks just to be a devil's advocate. The points above me are also correct and I resonate but I feel it's fun to complain here:

    This game will not truly let you scream "i'm better than others". At most, assume you're absolutely decked in the latest gear, you'll only be marginally worst than the top geared players. I'm not sure of the maths exactly but i don't think i am wrong in this statement (even if you apply materia to all your gear the differences are hardly felt. for example a full spell speed geared black mage might get 1 or 2 spells out faster per rotation), but besides gear, it's all about knowing your rotation and doing them while knowing the encounter.

    Gear wise, currently the highest item level in the game is 535, and this is reserved for weapons from the hard mode content. You can easily buy a set of walmart 510 gear off auction house, and farm weekly currency for 520 gear. The gap is minimal.

    This is not strictly a problem, as it's good design in a sense that you'll never be left out no matter when you join the game. It's a good thing. In fact, current endgame besides doing PvE content can be described as glamour and housing.


    The gear, is boring. There is absolutely NO special effects to any gear besides some select crafting sets. Getting gear is all just about the looks, and the item level if you need upgrades.


    In XI, you could stand in Jueno back in the old days with your Duelist Chapeu, or PLD AF2 body, or Apocalypse and people will look at you in awe, and you can feel good out of that. You won't get that here. As I said, it's not that important or bad, but sometimes it's good to show off you know? I'm not sure what the current-era of FFXI is like or how rare/valuable some item could be these days, so I can't bring up any examples, or whether this point still exists.


    The game is virtually drama free, you'll be hard pressed to find anything flame worthy (current hot topics would be people that buy/claim multiple housing). At best I recently had a dumbass who was furious that I kept my tank stance on during an encounter as an off tank, when I was no where overtaking the main tank in hate. But he was really, really passionate you know? Like, you really had to try to start some sort of drama (in party chat) over it. Since the game was so drama free I was more than happy to engage and entertain him, trying to point holes in his nonsense plea for me to take off my tank stance. I miss proper flaming over something that matters, you know? i.e. MPK, HNM stealing, Ninja Looting ...


    Once you catch up and become levelled, the game can be treated as "sub for a month when patch hits, do everything, unsub and wait for next patch" if you don't enjoy tooooo much, but still want to play. Each patch will give you quick catch up gear so you'll be content ready in no time.


    I play all the time as I enjoy collecting things and just doing random instances. It's also got a beautiful soundtrack, and it's visually pleasing. And if you're a fan of FFXII, Nier Automata, FFVI, there's content relating to that stuff. As well as being able to collect gear to dress up as Advent Children Cloud, FF8 Squall, FF9 Zidane, FF10 Tidus/Yuna (I think that's become online shop items, I forget) etc, it's all very pleasing and enjoyable for me.

  7. #7
    Falcom is better than SE. Change my mind.
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    Oh thanks. That reminds me of another I missed: The housing system in this game is probably the worst I've seen implemented in any game. High demand, not enough plots/ward, the same account can own multiple houses on the same server if they have a FC/more characters, and so on.

    They tried to make a compromise by adding a single-room apartment buildings in each ward which I believe 30 available rooms/ward in it. However those aren't much better and taken up rather quickly as well.

    If you're not a fan of housing it's no big deal. But for a lot of people it was something they wanted since 2.0 came out and kind of got it along with a slap in the face.

  8. #8
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    Shadowbringers, the current FFXIV expansion, is one of the highest rated Final Fantasy games in the past 10+ years.

    No endgame content is required per se, all of the super difficult stuff is 100% optional. Gear scales heavily in the players favor so if you gear up higher you will be that much more of a badass, even in older content.
    Enjoy yourself and the story, players are generally very helpful though like all games youll get some bad seeds.

    Just have a good time and go at your own pace

  9. #9
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    I dunno why people are always down on Stormblood, the ARR storyline always felt the weakest to me and the content was the most basic mechanically and grinder then anything afterwards - just the 2.0 stuff, the 2.x's got more interesting.

    And I feel like there's still prestige items - some mounts and ultimate raid weapons are still pretty rare.

    There no shortage of little niggles - plenty of typical JRPG bullshit depending on your tolerance and some of the fawning over the player character can get pretty silly are the first couple that spring to mind - but there's still enjoyment to be had.

  10. #10
    Falcom is better than SE. Change my mind.
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    For me I didn't like SB because it's basically what the core story was. Garleans need to be stopped, we need to form an alliance to fight back, etc. etc.

  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by Brandson View Post
    I used to be really into FFXI. I last played FFXIV when it was still 1.0, which turned me off MMORPGs ever since. I installed the current version a week ago to check it out. It's been kind of fun to casually play to experience the story for the first time. My question is, is it actually worth it to start FFXIV now or should I just forget about it? I don't think I know anyone currently playing.

    Also, the FFXIV fonts and menus look sort of familiar. I wonder where I've seen those before...
    My opinion is going to be a little bit of a contrast to the high praise going around, but its personal experience from someone who just failed to be able to separate their want for XI 2.0 even though I know it was never XI 2.0 and never would be . My experience is 2 expansions old and while I know nothing major has changed in the Itemization department(Which was my biggest turn-off), I'm sure many classes probably play differently than when I played. So take all I say with a grain of salt considering my experience with the game amounts to literally everything now currently covered in the "Free trial".

    So, Right off the bat, regardless of anything else I say, my recommendation would be to try the Free trial to level 60, you'll know real quick if you like the game or not that way.

    That said, I couldn't find sustained joy in the game when I played. The minute to minute combat of each class was too similar to be enjoyable, the endgame treadmill burned me out, and the biggest one being the itemization was absolutely bare minimum, Endgame isn't about stats its a dress-up simulator. Raids weren't satisfying to win, they were just team jump rope where if 1 person in your group messed up 1 mechanic it was an instant wipe GG, idk if anything has changed but that "challenge" wasnt fun for me at all, so Raids were a bust too. Progression had weekly lockouts which makes meaningful progression locked behind timers. I found myself on most days back then sitting around the Housing district staring at my helper selling stuff and wondering why I still paid for the subscription. All there really was to do was level a craft (Which was a weird pyramid scheme of leveling a craft to sell gear to other crafters), do your daily Duty Roulette wheel/Strike Playlist, or AFK in the Mog House District.

    But it wasn't all bad, even though I didn't like most of the core parts of the game even i still managed to have a LOT of fun while playing. The music was fantastic and I thoroughly enjoyed all of the content I did the first time around, the story was great, the graphics beautiful, the FF nostalgia was nice for those who are into that sort of thing, and seeing familiar (albeit hollow shells) FFXI monsters roaming around was neato. That first couple weeks when SMN just unlocked Bahamut Mode was probably the most fun I had in that game too, made me actually enjoy playing SMN for a little bit. The Behemoth fight being an absolute mess still managed to be fun and it even gave you a cool little glamour item. I can't stress enough the game is not bad, at all, just wasn't what i wanted in an MMO.

    XIV 2.0+ Is NOTHING like XIV 1.0 if thats your worry, its also nothing like XI, so you'll really have to try it to see if you like it.

  12. #12
    Ridill
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    Quote Originally Posted by Athas View Post
    I dunno why people are always down on Stormbringer,
    Thanks for making me confused as hell for a sec.

  13. #13
    I trusted Zet and this is what happened
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    Quote Originally Posted by Corrderio View Post
    Basically this. My only real complaints about FFXIV are...

    1. Guilds (FCs) don't offer much due to everything being being an instance. Though that might be just me personally considering how GW2 functioned.
    2. The Stormblood (expansion after Heavensward) story fucking suuuuuuuuuucks
    3. After you're done leveling endgame can be kinda dull
    4. Some jobs feel like a clusterfuck of skills.
    I liked Stormblood

  14. #14
    The Fucking Voice of Actually
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    I'm fine with Stormblood.
    That said, the Doman half of the MSQ is better than the Ala Mhigan half.

  15. #15
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    Kind of depends on what you're looking for.

    For me, XIV is fun to approach casually - the main story is worth playing through, and there are plenty of other things to do if you want. If you're already enjoying doing that, then by all means, keep going. Any group stuff you need will be handled via Duty Finder, and even if you aren't keen on that (as I'm not) it ends up not being a big deal. There are ample resources for doing some research beforehand, and folks queueing for that know what they're in for. While YMMV, I had no bad experiences, and Shadowbringers standardized being able to do dungeons (though not trials) with a party of NPCs if you want.

    On the other hand, endgame has a very different core appeal to it than XI's does. If you're looking for something with the same hook, it's not going to line up.

  16. #16
    Falcom is better than SE. Change my mind.
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    Also one another thing is like someone said earlier the game is free up to Heavensward. That should give you a decent feel of what the game is like since I can't think of any significant changes made in the other 2 expansions that aren't in the free version of the game.

  17. #17

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    There are some restrictions on the free trial to note. You are limited on how much gil you can carry. You can’t send /tells. You can’t start your own party or join an FC. That’s all anti RMT measures. But there is still a ton to do.

  18. #18

    Any changes I'd make to the game would pretty much be rooted in combat and/or gearing. Significant portions of an MMO, for sure, but I do feel most of the storytelling, art, and music is spot on. It's not a bad game, but I don't fault anyone who subs for a month or two, does their thing, then takes time off until the itch strikes again. Top end time gating pretty much encourages it, imo.

  19. #19
    Falcom is better than SE. Change my mind.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Anoat View Post
    There are some restrictions on the free trial to note. You are limited on how much gil you can carry. You can’t send /tells. You can’t start your own party or join an FC. That’s all anti RMT measures. But there is still a ton to do.
    I wish this was a toggle option in the game

  20. #20
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    Quote Originally Posted by arus2001 View Post
    Any changes I'd make to the game would pretty much be rooted in combat and/or gearing. Significant portions of an MMO, for sure, but I do feel most of the storytelling, art, and music is spot on. It's not a bad game, but I don't fault anyone who subs for a month or two, does their thing, then takes time off until the itch strikes again. Top end time gating pretty much encourages it, imo.
    Even Yoshida himself encourages it. He mentions all the time that he'd rather have people play a bit and then take breaks when they feel like it so they can always enjoy the game when they're playing, instead of feeling forced to play and have it be almost like a job.

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