Fortunately, in many ways, I am better-equipped than many people to spend hours on end at home. Even in a small-ish apartment, I’m easily amused by things which don’t require a lot of space or movement. Things like books, musical instruments and, um…MMORPGs.
I spent over a year on World of Warcraft. By that, I mean that the game keeps track of how long you’ve been logged in and I topped 365 days which, at the time, amounted to more than 2% of my life. I should probably shudder thinking about it, but it was also incredibly good entertainment per dollar and I got to spend a lot of time with good people, some of whom I actually know.
Yes, I did a lot of flower picking in this game.
All things, good and otherwise, eventually end. It got to the point where I’d sit down to log in to WoW and just…couldn’t. It was a very social experience and, as the people I cared about drifted away from it, I had less and less reasons to stay. The social side of it masked the fact that, in many ways, it wasn’t a very good game, or more to the point, it wasn’t a very good story. I’ve played worse, but I’ve also played much, much better stories.
I’m a latecomer to Final Fantasy, in that the tenth installment of the series was my first (mind you, that was almost twenty years ago). It was fascinating to me because the “game” aspect of it was almost beside the point. It was a story, a movie almost, and it was beautiful. It was the most moving game I’d every played and the internal logic of it was very different than anything I’d played before.
Next up was FFXI, which, as it turns out, was/is an MMO. I tried it and it was…not good. It didn’t feel like Final Fantasy; it felt like a regular MMO in Final Fantasy drag. Maybe if I’d stuck to it longer it would have got it’s hooks into me, but the beginning experience was a slog, especially so for those of us who like to level up solo. It was pretty, but I don’t have a lot else to say about it.
Now, Nicole is very old-school when it comes to Final Fantasy. VI and IX would top her list, but she’s played all of ‘em up until the one where I started. She recently picked up a PS4 so she could play the VII remake coming out next month and she noticed that there was a free demo of FFXIV. She’s not an MMO player, but she decided to give it a shot and asked me to join here.
It turns out she’s still not an MMO person. I, on the other hand…
I was really afraid that this would be another WoW at best, or even another FFXI. For the first fifteen levels or so, it easily could have been. It was pretty, but it was a fifteen level tutorial that could have come from any MMO. It wasn’t bad, but there wasn’t anything about it that screamed “Final Fantasy” either.
It all changed when I got to the banquet. Everyone gets to the banquet around level fifteen. It’s where the game really starts. You get access to the world outside of your starting area, and you get your first glimpse at the overarching storyline. I won’t try to describe, but I will say it’s good, and it’s very Final Fantasy.
It may seem like a small thing, but the character creation is important to me. I get into the role-playing aspect more than I probably should, and if I don’t like the way “I’“ look, it’s hard for me to get into the game. City of Heroes is still the gold standard for this in my opinion, but the FFXIV character generation options are outstanding. It’s also incredibly easy to alter the look of your gear so you can look the way you want to.
And who wouldn’t want to be this dashing fellow?
In fact, that’s far more “story” than there is “game”. Once things get rolling, the numerous cut scenes are what glue you to the FFXIV more than the gameplay. For someone who spent as much time in WoW as I did, this was a welcome change of pace. At the end of the base game, there’s something like fifty straight minutes of cutscenes and they’re brilliant.
The game itself is, for the most part, pretty easy. The dungeons were much more forgiving than what I was used to. I got some grief as a healer for spending all my time healing; things are tuned so that the healers are expected to contribute to the damage because no one hit is going to put the tanks into much trouble. It’s more about movement and knowing the mechanics than pure damage and healing throughput.
It’s also a game that can be played, so far at least, largely solo. The times you do have to group with other players are relatively painless and not so frequent as to be a big deal. By the time you get to the third expansion, you can even choose NPCs to fill out your party rather than grouping with other real players. For those of us who aren’t feeling especially social, this is brilliant.
Let’s talk about the NPCs for a bit while we’re at it. Unlike other MMOs I’ve played, the core group of NPCs genuinely feel like your friends as opposed to quest-givers and plot devices. You spend far, far more time with Minfilia, Thancred, Y’Shtola, Papalymo, Yda, Urianger, and especially Tataru than you do with any NPC in WoW. They go on quests with you, they banter, and they make mistakes that are in-character for them. They’re the best part of the game and I look forward to every interaction with them.
Y’Shtola gazing deeply into my eyes…or into the distance, and just happened to move my character in front of her. But hey, you can have capybara pets!
So, yeah, it’s an MMO with all of the baggage that entails. But it’s a story-driven, well-written, well-designed MMO that avoids the majority of what I don’t like about MMOs and has everything I love about Final Fantasy. The story of the game has continued to develop over all three expansions. The ending of the original game, setting up the segue into the first expansion, was some of the most brutal but effective and honest storytelling I’ve ever seen in a game.
If you’re looking for a challenging MMO with deep strategy in large groups, this may not be your cup of tea. I’m not saying the game doesn’t have that; I just haven’t experienced it because that’s not what I’m playing for. What I’m getting is an incredibly rewarding story experience that I never expected to find in an MMO.