Journals from Eorzea: A Realm Reborn
“Have You Heard Of The Critically Acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV With An Expanded Free Trial Which You Can Play Through The Entirety Of A Realm Reborn And The Award-Winning Heavensward Expansion Up To Level 60 For Free With No Restrictions On Playtime?” is a meme/copypasta/free advertising tactic that I’ve heard and engaged with for a few months now. Partially because I’m still salty I got through the level 35 trial and decided to buy the game back when the most recent expansion went on sale, which was around last year. But that aside I recently got back into Final Fantasy XIV and decided to pick up where I left off and go full “let’s make a journal documenting my progress leading up to the release of Endwalker, the upcoming expansion in November.” And seeing as how we’re right back in a largely quiet period of releases, so I might as well.
If there’s one thing about the game that I’ve noticed compared to every MMO I’ve ever played, everything is in service to the story. Characters, factions, locations, and the like are established and used to full effect and this is the part of the game that’s the setup. But to the point: the base story of A Realm Reborn is largely a simple story about how you, a random adventurer, get swept up in the broader power struggles of Eorzea, a nation still recovering from a straight-up apocalypse five years earlier (the in-universe justification for the A Realm Reborn launch) and the occupying Garlemald Empire and some shenanigans with the neighboring beast tribes summoning their Primal deities for good measure. It’s…largely fine. It does what it’s supposed to, which is set up the characters and setting for future stories, but good lord it takes forever to get interesting.
However, I can safely say that it picks up big time once you hit level 40 or to use narrative beats: once you get to the Ishgardian outpost of Coerthas. There you deal with a small sampler of the themes of loyalty, faith, and religious persecution that will most likely be ever-present in Heavansward. By the time that’s done, it’s straight towards the final stretch of plot beat after plot beat leading to an excellent finale for the base 2.0 story. I’m making my way through the 2.X patches now and while things have slowed down a bit, it’s still dealing with the aftermath of that final stretch, and this kind of continuity is rare in games these days outside of Destiny 2 and it’s wider arcing narrative. And while I’m personally not that big on slow-burn storytelling, when it’s done well I can get into it, which it is here. But there’s also the job quests to get through which ease things up.
That’s right, even your game mechanics serve a purpose to the story, and it’s kind of great. You go through your base class’s story followed by your job quest line that goes all the way to level 70. I went Gladiator to Paladin because I play as the tank for my main role in MMO’s these days and I’m a Final Fantasy 4 Mark, I know what I like. Part of my motivation to get to Heavanswatd as soon as possible is so I can unlock Dark Knight and get that sweet, sweet Edge. I’ve also taken to play as Samurai as my off class because it’s a nice change of pace and I already have a look ready for it. It also leads you to realize that you can play all combat and crafting jobs on the same character. As someone who’s played a lot of these games, the fact that I don’t have to maintain at least two separate characters at all times is a godsend and it helps in making my character feel like my character. I love this feature to pieces and it’s as simple as changing weapons. I’ll definitely futz with it more, but for the purposes of getting through the Main Story, I’m just sticking with Paladin for the time being.
The main reason I decided to write about FFXIV this week is that I joined a friend’s Free Company (Guilds for the uninitiated) after they brought up how it was active and I was playing anyways. They got me through the Crystal Tower raid series and the story of climbing this ancient, monster-filled tower from the times of an ancient empire was pretty good. Plus it introduced G’raha Tia, who’s an absolute dork and I love him.
As far as first impressions go: Final Fantasy XIV is a really, really slow burn. But once it kicks into gear it just goes and doesn’t let up. I’m super excited to see what the expansions have to offer because my goodness the foreshadowing is so thick you could cut through it with a chainsaw. And before I go: The Soundtrack by Masayoshi Soken is absolute FIRE. Especially the themes in the Primal Fights.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLp8wVLfe6XSTFJxZhrx07TSIrz3E5DPlQ
