ARR Press Reviews

[Don Katsu]

Forbes finished their review 9.5/10

[miokomioko]

Forbes finished their review 9.5/10

The only negative thing the guy said about it whatsoever was about everyone just FATE-grinding to 50.

[djzombie]

which is kind of a valid concern, you get huge amounts of xp from them for very little effort in comparison to just grinding quests. and it doesn't really teach group mechanics cause its just a giant clusterfuck of bodies and spells while enemies die everywhere.

[Damane]

which is kind of a valid concern, you get huge amounts of xp from them for very little effort in comparison to just grinding quests. and it doesn't really teach group mechanics cause its just a giant clusterfuck of bodies and spells while enemies die everywhere.

ecxept that everyone refuses to invite healers into FATE groups! but in all honesty they should up the exp reward on primal/dungeon/leves/guildheist upon repaet and scale them up for persons with higher levels, so a lvl 15 guy and 40 guy get the same % exp amount filling up their exp bar otherwise i dont see people progress through story quests easyli.

[Lucavi]

Link to forbes?

[Stromgarde]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/games/20...orn-review-pc/

[Slycer]

I'm glad that it's a good review, but the way that review was written make it sound like the guy just wants to get quoted on the game's box. Like, for one example, he says the game "excels" in the story area, and his support for that was basically the fact that the game has a story at all. Makes me wonder if he actually played the game through to the end of the story.

[Kurokikaze]

[link deleted]

[Ksandra]

It must also be pointed out that most reviewers aren't just looking at the story as a rpg, but as an mmorpg. And most of those have dick for storylines.

[Slycer]

OK, let's try this again.

Relocated a lot of the posts to random praise or complaint threads where it made sense to do so. Some were just comments about how the thread was going off the rails, so I just got rid of those now that it's been re-railed. There were some great points made but it didn't make sense to leave a couple of posts here because they fell completely out of context, so I just moved everything after the post above.

From the OP: "Let's keep the clutter to a minimum." People are coming to this thread to find review links and discuss reviews, and literally the entire second half of the thread was completely off-topic.

Rather gouge your eyes out than read the story? Post here: http://www.bluegartr.com/threads/117...-forward-to-it
Think the story is the best thing since sliced bread? Post here: http://www.bluegartr.com/threads/117...looked-forward

Got a comment or feedback about a review, or a new review to link to? Then you're in the right place.

[Insanecyclone]

[djzombie]

i really dont get what that guy was saying about no realtime dodging so theres no feeling that you just escaped danger. cause thats exactly what you're doing by moving out of the targeted spell area. i dont know what could feel more like escaping danger than avoiding a spell that causes a complete party wipe and reset.

[Ksandra]

i really dont get what that guy was saying about no realtime dodging so theres no feeling that you just escaped danger. cause thats exactly what you're doing by moving out of the targeted spell area. i dont know what could feel more like escaping danger than avoiding a spell that causes a complete party wipe and reset.

I would imagine he's referencing the fact that sometimes when you get out of the red, you still get hit (aka the lag issue). So you aren't dodging in realtime as the server isn't coping with it in real time.

[Lucavi]

i really dont get what that guy was saying about no realtime dodging so theres no feeling that you just escaped danger. cause thats exactly what you're doing by moving out of the targeted spell area. i dont know what could feel more like escaping danger than avoiding a spell that causes a complete party wipe and reset.

Play TERA. You'll understand.

[Spider-Dan]

i really dont get what that guy was saying about no realtime dodging so theres no feeling that you just escaped danger.

Many newer RPGs (particularly western RPGs) play more like FPSes, where you dodge by actually dodging. XIV dodging is not done by moving out of the way of the attack, but out of the way of the red circle preceding the attack.

[Meresgi]

Considering how hard it seems for people to dodge big red circles/lines, having a dodge like TERA would probably be even worse since it requires reading a tell, not to mention TERA dodge was prone to lag as well or just broken (for anyone who didnt get immunity frames, lulz archer).

I disagree witht he whole "armoring pieces isnt interesting on its own". Gathering is boring as shit, but crafting is pretty damn fun to me, and far far better then any other game's crafting system. I do kind of wish the mini games from 1.0 for gathering were still there....but then again I fucking hated getting random shit because I didn't sense where to put my axe on the tree to get a log and instead got syrup. I like having the window to ask "Wtf do you want from this tree? Ok.lets see if you have the skill to get it"

[Aelfinn]

Play TERA. You'll understand.

I'd really rather not.

[6souls]

Inside Gaming - 9/10

Spoiler: show

In two decades of gaming, I’ve never seen a turnaround as drastic as Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. The original game, released in 2010, was directionless and willfully ignored any MMO innovation since Final Fantasy XI’s release in 2002. A Realm Reborn, on the other hand, not only rounds up every great MMO feature we’ve seen in the last decade, but manages to improve all of them to create the smartest and most attractive MMO I’ve ever played.

I know, I know, it’s hard for me to believe, too.

Realm Reborn does so much right it’s hard to find a starting point. The core gameplay won’t shock you, especially if you’ve spent a few hours with the standard-setting World of Warcraft. From 10,000 feet, the games look nearly identical—you do quests to gain experience, craft items for yourself and others, and enter dungeons that provide focused combat around familiar tank / healer / DPS mechanics. Nothing too exciting yet, but Realm Reborn’s success is more in its execution rather than its innovation.

Take the class system for example. Similar to Final Fantasy XI, you can change your class at any time by simply changing your weapon. Each class retains its own level too, meaning that you can go from a max level healer to a level 1 DPS in an instant. But here’s the smart bit—true to Final Fantasy’s job system, you can pull in abilities from other classes on top of those in your current class. In this way, Realm Reborn provides a real incentive for leveling up other classes aside from your main. For example, the Swiftcast ability allows to you insta-cast any spell once every three minutes. That’s awful handy as a healer, but you need to level up a DPS class to 26 to get it.

That might sound like artificial goals to encourage grinding, and it may very well be, but Realm Reborn offers so many different activities—and all of them enjoyable—that leveling just becomes an excuse to participate in the game’s content. For starters, the writing and story in Realm Reborn are incredibly good, and story is generally the last thing I care about when it comes to MMOs. The overarching main quest has you protecting Eorzea (that’s the mystical land of Final Fantasy XIV, by the way) by joining a sort of national security agency. The other characters in this agency are charming and the various cases you investigate don’t always end predictably. I became genuinely interested in what happened in the story of the game, which is an outright first in any MMO for me.

There’s still plenty of Final Fantasy left once you exhaust the main quest too. Each class has its own storyline as well, with new arcs opening every five levels. Every class also has a unique hunting log that awards bonus EXP when killing a certain amount of specific monsters (which brings to mind Lord of the Rings Online). Realm Reborn even incorporates world events similar to Warhammer Online and more recently Defiance. Called FATEs for some reason, these events will have you and whoever else decides to join in attacking a single large boss, killing as many small enemies as possible, or protecting an NPC as he / she runs through enemy-infested territory. As in other games, it’s a spontaneous way to earn a hefty chunk of experience on a whim if one pops up next to you.

All that leveling comes to a head in Realm Reborn’s dungeons, which are on par with World of Warcraft’s when it comes to complexity and difficulty (and I say that as someone who considers WoW’s dungeons the best around). The dungeons start off basic, but eventually work up to enemy combinations that will push your crowd control skills to the limit. Bosses require tactics beyond the typical tank ‘n’ spank approach too, with my favorite being a giant flan that you have to blow into small pieces by kiting over floating bombs.

If terms like crowd control and tank ‘n’ spank don’t mean much to you right now, Realm Reborn also offers mini dungeons called “Guildhests” that teach players the basics of MMO combat. They introduce basic concepts like “don’t stand in the fire” first, and eventually scale up to prioritizing targets, crowd control, and pulling specific monsters out of a pack. Given that MMOs have been around for more than a decade, it’s strange that they’re only now starting to add in-game resources to learn the MMO ropes. TERA made some headway in this regard with tutorial missions but Realm Reborn is finding better ways to welcome the newbies.

Newcomers will also appreciate how goddamn gorgeous A Realm Reborn is. On levels both technical and artistic, Realm Reborn both looks and sounds amazing. It beats the production values of any MMO around, taking that title away from TERA in my book. Draw distances are amazing, textures are crisp, and animations convey fantastic personality from both the tall, lithe Elezen to the squat, pudgy Lalafell. Music is likewise amazing, setting the tone of exploration or combat perfectly. Typically I mute MMO music in under an hour to play my own, but even twenty hours in I was still listening to the game’s soundtrack. Even the sound effects are well done. Spell effects and weapon clashes make large battles (especially in the FATEs) sound like a sugary, anime version of Lord of the Rings.

There’s more to the game’s presentation than the bits on screen and sound from the speakers. This is the first game from Square Enix I’ve played in a long, long time that really feels like Final Fantasy. It’s more than the simple appearance of series regulars like cactuars and chocobos. The larger, scarier monsters look like concept artist Yoshitaka Amano’s drawings come to life. Recurring summons Titan, Ifrit, and Ramuh make appearances too and look especially incredible—as though someone reached into Final Fantasy VI and turned those sprites into high polygon models that live and breathe. Though visuals, tone, humor, and a million other touches too numerous to mention, Realm Reborn captures a Final Fantasy spirit that’s been dormant since Final Fantasy IX. As someone who grew up with this series, logging in to A Realm Reborn feels like visiting an old friend, which marks the first time I’ve ever felt sentimental about an MMO.

Don’t take my universal gushing until now to mean the game is without fault, though. Login and stability issues plagued the game’s opening week, and while that’s to be expected of any MMO launch, it’s still not fun to spend two hours trying to log in. As of writing, those issues are all but gone, but they’re still worth noting. Additionally, cross-server grouping isn’t in the game at launch, meaning you’re restricted to only players on your server for dungeon groups. I have tons of friends that I’d like to group up with and can’t. This is a problem that’s been solved by other games, and it’s the only big way that Realm Reborn feels behind the curve.

Really, more than any concrete issue, Realm Reborn’s biggest drawback is that no part of it is uniquely new. It’s superbly built and produced, but every feature in the game can be traced back to another MMO from the last five years. If you’re a stickler for new or experimental game mechanics, you won’t find them here.

What you will find is the most mechanically broad, content dense, and goddamned gorgeous MMO ever made. If you’ve enjoyed any MMO of the past decade, there’s something in Realm Reborn for you. And if you’ve enjoyed them all? Well… just remember to take a shower once in a while.

http://www.insidegamingdaily.com/201...reborn-review/

Famitsu - 39/40

Nova Crystallis - 9.5/10

Spoiler: show

The vast odyssey that has been the creation, destruction and now rebirth of Final Fantasy XIV has finally come to an end. Three years on from the game’s original, fractured release, Square Enix has managed to pull together something most companies wouldn’t have even attempted – a full mea culpa reboot of the game. Many believed it couldn’t be done, but here we are with the failings of the original version behind us – and what we get is an MMORPG filled to the brim with enough content and narrative to satisfy old and new fans alike.

While this isn’t Square Enix’s first attempt at turning the beloved Final Fantasy series into an online experience, the difference between A Realm Reborn and Final Fantasy XI is significant. Unlike its predecessor FF14 attempts to set its three facets of design – story, gameplay and graphics – on an equal footing. These three things have come together to create what might be the most accessible pay-to-play MMO to date – and for good reason.

Rather than relying on a boat-load of melodrama driven by fop-haired androgynous heroes, A Realm Reborn’s story presents a much more mature narrative to its audience that pairs well with artwork led by Akihiko Yoshida. In Final Fantasy terms, the game is closer to the Ivalice series of games than anything else – something I consider a resounding endorsement.

Set five years after the end of the original FF14, where the realm was effectively razed by the long-dormant primal Bahamut, ARR weaves a new tale that harkens back to those past events, somehow managing to cater to the few who did spend time in the original FF14′s world along with newcomers. As an adventurer appearing in this new era, players will explore the world in its period of reconstruction. By piecing together past events between the coming of Bahamut and the present age, conflict is ever apparent as the Beastmen tribes – worshippers of the primals like Ifrit and Titan – the expansive Garlean Empire and the Ascians seek to throw the realm into strife.

Even without having experienced the original release, the story eases players in and paints the narrative in a style that mirrors your typical epic Final Fantasy. Unlike most MMOs, ARR’s story is thrust to the forefront of the game and leads characters along through various locations, allies and unpredictable villains while giving a sense of importance to your character as he or she joins the Scions of the Seventh Dawn, lead on a task to protect the realm. Lending to its merits as a single-player friendly experience, it’s not uncommon for NPCs to join in to help you tackle giant or multiple hordes of creatures, often giving you direction on who to take out first in group fights. The story behind ARR is interesting, often complex, and masterfully bolstered by an excellent localization – it’s a mature FF that I can certainly appreciate for its depth.

While your character remains silent aside from some minor dialogue choices that show up here and there, the rest of the game is heavy on text – though also light on voice acting despite offering up several language choices. The decision to only voice a handful of the cutscenes is somewhat disheartening, but the story itself is quite grand as it deliberately takes the player from one new location to the next.

The core of ARR’s gameplay is the typical MMO affair – instead of a pre-set character, players will select one of eight classes, each starting them off at specific city-states around Eorzea. For example, if you decide to roll an Archer, you’ll start out in the forests of Gridania, or if you want to be a Gladiator you’ll end up in the desert city of Ul’dah. Each class falls into general MMO jobs such as tank, damage dealers, and healers. Although you’ll start with one core class, come level 10 you’re basically free to move on to any of the other starter classes you’d like – each available on a single character. Come level 20, you can join one of the game’s three Grand Companies – special “guilds” that offer specific missions and access to your own personal chocobo.

Upon reaching level 30 FF5-style job classes become unlocked, although you’ll need to level another base class up to level 15 in conjunction with your level 30 character. Leveling Gladiator to 30 and White Mage to 15 causes the Paladin job class becomes available, for instance, which allows for a bit of mixing and matching of abilities such as Cure and Protect – two abilities normal Gladiators don’t have access to. Another example lies with the Archer class, which requires a level 30 Archer and level 15 Pugilist to obtain Bard. Whichever path you choose, it’s important to consider these job upgrades as it lends greater abilities as the game ramps up difficulty in the later dungeons and enemy encounters.

Combat itself is reminiscent of most MMOs with sets of skills that fill a convenient hot bar. Each skill is earned through leveling, with specific skills dropping as you reach certain heights. Skills are based on classes so as an Archer I had various bow skills with varying levels of Technical Points (TP) needed as well as damage it would deal to an enemy. In place of Final Fantasy’s usual ATB system, ARR relies on skill cooldowns – a limiter that also applies to items and other abilities. Depending on the class, pairing certain skills in succession allow for bonuses – such as the Pugilist who can perform a special strike after hitting two skills in a certain order before it.

Players are offered two forms of control on both formats – keyboard and mouse or gamepad. You might think the controller would prove limiting, but Yoshida and his team have clearly worked hard to create a sensible, smart gamepad control scheme – the result being the Cross Hot Bar. By holding down R2, skills and items can be accessed with ease and controlling the player character happens just as it would in a single player game. Keyboard is still arguably the way to go if you’re comfortable with it, but if you’d prefer a pad this is at least a viable option.

The game provides many different outlets for gaining experience and levels – quests, downing enemies, random happenings known as Full Active Time Events (FATEs) and instanced dungeons. Quests are simple enough – they’re indicated by a specific marker over NPCs and the main story quests have their own special icon as well. Available quests will be lit up in gold while higher level quests will be locked out with a red icon. Upon completion of a quest, the icon switches to green and you’ll be able to collect rewards such as experience, gil and even special items. Realistically you can gather an entire wardrobe for your character simply by going through quests, saving up your gil for more important things like travel or other items.

Although the main story of ARR can be completed solo, there are instanced dungeons both part of the narrative and optional that require the cooperation of other people. Dungeons won’t be available until around level 15 when the player is sent to Limsa Lominsa. From there, the story hits you with three different dungeons in a row but they’re beautifully done and generally a blast to go through, depending on the human element of your team of course.

Dungeons and some other instances are populated by use of a Duty Finder that pulls random people to satisfy the needs of a tank, healer, and two DPS players. Once the party enters a dungeon, things are fairly easy going, with specific goals to be met in order to reach the often difficult final boss in each area. The Duty Finder is an interesting idea, but ultimately the lengthy wait to get into some instances and the tendency for some people to abandon early tend to hamper the experience. This especially becomes evident in the later, higher level dungeons as players quit out should things not go their way, or one person in the group brings down the experience for everyone else.

ARR’s visuals are often quite stunning, the vast world of Eorzea laid bare to explore across forests, coastlines and even the high desert. The world features a day/night cycle and weather conditions shift dynamically. Whether you’re traversing the tree-shrouded city-state of Gridania or enjoying the view by the sea in Limsa Lominsa, the world of ARR is full of life and the new engine built exclusively for use in the game looks and runs beautifully on both PC as well as the PS3 system. Watching the light filter through the trees provides a small sense of realism in a game world that looks equally as lived in and is peppered brilliantly with the fantastical musical talents of Masayoshi Soken whose score is apt for a mainline Final Fantasy title.

If you’re a fan of the FF series, ARR has a lot to offer, with fan service and cute nods rampant throughout the game. Such winks are often tailored to the realm in their own way, subtle or otherwise. I found myself intrigued by the Tiny Bronco, Limit Break and Materia systems pulled from FF7; musical cues from FF2; and of course the much-publicized Magitek armor straight out of FF6. Love it or hate it, ARR has pulled from some of the series best and adds a little familiarity to the game for those long-term fans of the series.

Should we consider ARR an apology? That I don’t know – as the reach of the original game was quite limited, so toxic was the early word of mouth. Claims of brand damage and other hyperbole were probably a bit exaggerated, but it was clear Square Enix felt the drive to right what was wrong – and they succeeded. It’s now a matter of if the players stick around and pay subscription fees to make the effort worthwhile – but Yoshida and his team can rest easy knowing they took a damn fine swing whatever the outcome.

Whether you’re a MMO fan or simply a Final Fantasy fan, I wholeheartedly advise you to give ARR a shot. It may surprise you – something about its myriad of gameplay options, level of polish and spell-binding narrative recall that Squaresoft magic that has been missing for all too long.

Most impressive of all is that that Yoshida’s team managed to pull all of this off in a little over two years – a feat that was largely unexpected, given Square Enix’s apparent struggle with timely development. It’s a little humbling to know that one of the best FF titles I’ve experienced to date was constructed in such strange and stressful circumstances, but you know what they say – pressure makes diamonds.

http://www.novacrystallis.com/2013/0...reborn-review/

Gematsu - Recommended

Spoiler: show

Taken within the context of Final Fantasy XIV’s original, ill-fated release, Naoki Yoshida’s A Realm Reborn is a spectacular turnaround. Square’s once clunky, unwieldy online role-playing game is now, relatively speaking, the bastion of accessibility, ease and convenience.

And for the sake of ease and convenience here, this brief review, which will detail our thoughts on the game in general, will end with a Discussionist. Feel free to ask questions about anything game-related: from mechanics to materia, from dungeons to loot drops.

Adam

In its own parlance, then, Final Fantasy XIV has ‘leveled up’ – it’s now a stronger, more diverse, and more useable piece of software. But it’s also software that you might’ve used before – fetch quests, grinding, dungeons and crafting lie at the heart of its skillset. Indeed, Reborn is mostly by the numbers: kill, collect, craft.

And that aforementioned accessibility comes at a price: the vast majority of Reborn’s core grind is incredibly easy. I say this, of course, as a long-time Final Fantasy XI player – a game in which attracting even a single additional enemy mid-fight would guarantee almost instant death for almost everybody involved.

So, if you happen to hold a nostalgia for the way those numbers are packaged, as I do, A Realm Reborn might just be the grind for you. In a genre that now draws so heavily from a particular blueprint, it’s difficult to describe Reborn without describing so many of its counterparts – meaning you’re more likely to be drawn to the game’s world than you are to its mechanics.

You might find the idea of riding Chocobos, killing Ifrit or making materia in world inhabited by swaths of land to explore and players to party with far more appealing than the game itself – which, although well-executed, does little to distinguish itself from its contemporaries.

And it would seem that Yoshida knows this, too. Reborn is undoubtedly a love letter to Final Fantasy staples: materia, summons, Biggs, Wedge, Chocobos, Magitek – these are what define Eorzea. It’s a smart decision, and one that helps the game set itself apart from other games in the genre.

These are far more than mere references, too. Materia can be attached to slotted gear to boost its stats, Chocobos and Magitek armor are mounts, and summon fights – known as Primals – are instances designed especially to test a parties co-ordination and skill. A stark contrast to Realm’s quest-to-quest grind, it’s these fights where the game truly shines.

Using context as a differentiator, then, is prominent in A Realm Reborn. Fates – world events where players gather to kill large numbers of enemies spontaneously – dungeons, quests and instanced events are merely a repackaging of the same theme: endless killing.

Fortunately, Reborn’s combat is incredibly fun. Role-playing staples of tanking, healing and damage dealing very much define the game’s mechanics. Threat management – known as enmity, hate or aggro – area-of-effect attacks and pulling are constant considerations of a successful part, and that’s just at a surface level.

These mechanics don’t merely inspire or inform Reborn’s approach to co-operative combat – they dictate it. Indeed, these aren’t roles decided by the community at large, they’re almost mandated by the game itself. The Duty Finder, a dungeon matchmaking system, will only start an instance once it’s found a tank, a healer and two damage dealers.

A Realm Reborn is seemingly designed to be a ‘horizontal’ game – it’s not about spending hundreds of hours to grind one job to an inflated level cap. This is evidenced by class-swapping, which can be done by simply equipping a class-specific weapon after unlocking that class at the corresponding city. With a click of a button, then, a level 50 Paladin can become a level 1 Conjurer.

Thankfully, this doesn’t entail much effort. Each class has its own abilities hot bar, meaning you’re not forced to change or re-arrange your abilities every time you switch. Gear, too, can be saved as sets. Should I decide to change to a Black Mage, I simply click the assigned gear set icon. Jobs can’t be changed in dungeons or whilst in combat, though.

If you happen to be particularly committed to a particular class, though, A Realm Reborn’s journey to Mount Level Cap is certainly a brisk one. It took me the course of a week to reach level 50 with my Paladin, with others telling me that they had “been level 50 for days”.

Adam’s verdict

Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn ultimately feels like a foundation, a solid framework for greater things to come. Its beautiful environments, Final Fantasy-infused world and solid mechanics create an experience that’s fun to play – it just might not create an experience that you want to stick around for in the long run. At least, not yet.

Matt

Aside from possessing all of the bearings of an expected Final Fantasy game, A Realm Reborn is a new, fine-tuned product that is practically inviting you to play it. As Adam noted, the game is a lot easier and forgiving than its genre predecessor, Final Fantasy XI, but don’t count the difficulty (or lack thereof) as a negative just yet.

A Realm Reborn is designed to take players who are completely new to the MMO format and turn them around into experienced adventurers who will be able to constructively work with others in party settings. If you’re an experienced player of the genre hailing from games like World of Warcraft, Guild Wars 2, TERA, or even Final Fantasy XI, the first twenty levels might feel a tad too tired. If you enjoy it enough to continue thereafter, the game will open its gates to a variety of extremely fulfilling content.

Starting at level 15, players will be able to unlock Sastasha, the first real dungeon. Sastasha is a great entry level, full-length experience with only a few mechanics designed to ease newbies into thinking about how intermediate and expert dungeons may function later on. From that point forward, the dungeons become more challenging and the game starts to reward your character with more complex and intricate skills to use. The difficulty might seem casual at first, but by the time you’re attempting dungeons such as The Sunken Temple (level 35) you would have long forgotten about how easy this game once pretended to be.

Dungeons do a fantastic job of challenging players to work together as a group. The game ensures each player has a job to do and effort between everyone must be equal to succeed. DPS classes will constantly be forced to change their attack targets to time-sensitive objects and enemies. Tanks always have to be mindful of their position as well as where the boss is facing in relation to the group. Healers can become very stressed for mana during high damage fights and must manage their MP consumption wisely.

For your efforts, the dungeon bosses will always reward the players with gear, and thanks to the intuitive Need/Greed/Pass system, you don’t ever have to worry about someone stealing your equipment if you’re the only member of the party who can use it. The dungeon will also reward you with additional treasure chests potentially containing loot if you explore the roads less traveled, instead of rushing straight to the end.

To shift gears completely, A Realm Reborn’s crafting system is a whole new beast compared to that of its competitors. As opposed to simply gathering materials and clicking a few buttons to make items, gathering and crafting have been turned into mini-games in which efficiency and skill is required. If you excel at it, you can craft high quality items that offer bonuses and fetch more gil on the market. As an Armorer, I spend countless hours per day slamming my hammer down forging cuirasses, helmets and shields. The surprise: I actually enjoy it. As someone who has never cared for crafting and gathering in any MMO, Final Fantasy XIV has me spending an equivalent amount of time between slaying monsters, and making items in which to slay monsters with.

Matt’s verdict

Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn delivers some of the most satisfying content not usually found in MMO’s at launch. Despite the easy entry levels, the game promises to please as we look toward its bright and hopeful new future.

http://gematsu.com/2013/09/press-sta...a-realm-reborn

[Hyan]

Additionally, cross-server grouping isn’t in the game at launch, meaning you’re restricted to only players on your server for dungeon groups.

.... :/

[Hellfury]

http://www.pressfire.no/anmeldelser/...al-fantasy-xiv

wrong language, but rough summary "Holy hell, they did it!"