Exactly, like most of the playerbase does not disagree that the combat at first is slower compared to most MMO's and requires time to build up. Most of us realize that it is a investment, we realize the start is a bit slow, but know that the combat gets sooo much better later on. So, I am doubting that Josh got any real hate for that comment.
@@imaran1303 me and a friend started playing together. He was constantly complaining about the combat till we got to 60.... Then his brain did a click with the mechanics, and even though we were still 20 lvls before max level, we got an actually difficult bossfight and he was like: "OMG THIS IS ACTUALLY HARD..."
@@imaran1303 To be fair, bad early game combat is not a good way to hook people to the game. Pressing the same 3 buttons with a lot of downtime for the first 40-60 levels is a massive downside. I know that eventually it gets good, but it should start good and get better over time. Considering that you also have to level the other jobs eventually, you are going to have to grind from 1-80 without the MSQ xp. Leveling a second class is a horrible experience. From level 1-50 you basically have to do the same dungeons over and over again (or PotD, which is worse) and it doesn't really get better after lv50 either.
@@hileutewie I dunno, I enjoy the slow start, because it gives you a good start to learn each class. As a example, Gunbreaker or Dancer takes too long to learn, simply because you start with most of your kit with no idea how it connects, I spend several minutes reading through abilities trying to figure out my toolset. I would bring the counter-argument that people should have some patience, to allow a game to ease you into a class and the systems that you will need to manage. Also, I never had a problem with leveling, I started a new character for the new Sage class coming up and intend to make it my main and have leveled BLM/RDM/SMN(SCH)/WHM/SAMURAI/NIN/AST/DRK/GNB/DNC to 70 and that took me less then 3 weeks. And I dunno, I am doing my first PotD, and I am actually enjoying it, but that may change after a while. I think, that judging a game by the start alone is wrong, much how judging a game by the ending is wrong. Example: Mass Effect, the series was amazing, was the ending crap? Yes, but that does not mean that the entirety of the game was crap.
@@imaran1303 I never said you should judge a game by its start. I said the problem with such a slow start is that the new player experience becomes shit and there is no denying that. Dancer is literally one of the easiest jobs in the game. All you do is to press the glowing button. GNB is a 1-2-3 class with another 1-2-3 rotation. Not necessarily difficult. Honestly speaking, I can't think of any MMO that actually has difficult combat, FF14 in particular isn't difficult. If you are overwhelmed with combat mechanics that never exceed 45APM (perfect use of the kit) then I don't know what to say. Majority of the classes don't even come close to 45APM and are closer to 35-37ish.
If anyone is new to the MMO genre you might actually find the slow start to combat very helpful as I did. I've been playing for a couple months now and I found that the game slowly feeding me new abilities helped me learn the general combat and my class specific combat far easier than it could have been. However, it was a tad to slow, but not enough to stop me from having fun and playing for over 200 hours now
FFXIV was my first ever MMO, and I appreciated the slow start for similar reasons (I still laugh at the shear panic I had at just trying to figure out how to kill a little ladybug as a lvl 3 CJN). However, as a veteran player now, I story/lvl boost my alts because it's too slow now (though I do have one I'm using to reply old content to refamiliarise myself with story I've long since forgotten, and don't want to NG+). I wish there was a better compromise (that didn't necessitate the cash shop)
FF14 was the first MMO I properly got involved in (I do not count my days of Runescape's free trial, nor do I count the 2 hours of WoW I played on a friend's computer), and I agree with you. My first go through ARR I actually found myself really enjoying myself, and found it easy to pick up in digestible chunks, and found the early game fetch quests/go kill X quests helpful for exploring the starting area. Having had to play through ARR a second time though, I can certainly understand the tedium though.
I've never played an mmo before, and was wondering if I should start with FFXIV. Your comment seems to suggest so, so I'll definitely go play it and see if it interests me
The number one feature from FFXIV that I wish more games would take is allowing me to switch classes on the same character. Such a simple feature really makes everything so much better.
@@LongToad I mean can you really think of an in game reason for not doing it? What should stop your character from stop using magic, pick a sword and learn to use it?
These days you have to be careful because all of the cosplay dress like a baby mentally ill children have an autistic outburst if anything negative is said even if it’s fact or truth.
@@awesst7247 nearly no FFXIV players would ever hate on you for this take. Everyone knows it's true and it is an often brought up issue with Yoshi-P that they try to address over and over.
I'm 2weeks in. Lvl 40 monk. I'm on tha PS4, siren server, and I'm having to much fun. There's 5 of us total who play. 1 player a few months. 3 of us 2 weeks and 1 just about to start lol.
As a long-time FFXIV player, one of the things I most appreciate about it is the incredibly consistent/ predictable update schedule for more content. The project lead has said more than once that he wants his game to be something you can take a break from, and come back to down the road.
9K hours in the game. 102 mounts (where maybe 5 or 6 are from the store), done with all the extreme trial mount farming, got all the HW Relic weapons and now work on both Bozja and ARR (because no thank you Eureka), all classes at lvl 80, minimum gear level is 520 thanks to crafted gear, finally have the Demi-Ozma mount, AND I STILL HAVE SHIT TO DO! I love it~ Also: "This is where I will get hate in the comments, FFXIV early game is very slow" Yup.
You watch these videos for a simple reason. You like the game and you want to affirm that you like something good by watching people who agree with you because it makes you feel good.
Some of your scenes have very low fps, I assume this is because your settings have the standard setting "restrict fps when client is not active". You can find this setting under Display in system settings. Hope this helps! Yes, this is a "feature" to save your computer's resources while you're tabbed out of the game, but for someone tabbing in and out of a recording program, it's just a hindrance XD
If people don't mind ability spoilers, one tip I have is for those who have cleared Palace floors 1-50. if you join as a job (upgraded class) and queue into floors 51-60, you auto-scale to 60 so you can see how better the combat gets
@@kayabayunreu6092 Oh there's a lot of players. Just gotta find the right people to play with unless you like playing solo then that's fine too until you need to run dungeons
@@roguenpc5574 I want ask too, why everytime I want create account always get error if already done and everytime i want create another account don't get the verification code, I already create it with different email 3x, sorry for bad english
@@roguenpc5574 If you haven't played past ARR, you haven't seen the game at its finest. The stories in the expansions are absolutely amazing, the amount of VAing increases, there's flying, huge gorgeous zones, combat gets much more intense and there's tons of stuff to do. The first expansion Heavensward is really great, but the latest expansion Shadowbringers has to be one of my absolute favourite games of all time. It seriously gives the rest of the franchise a run for its money. The animations in Shadowbringers are phenomenal and the story is one of the best I've ever seen.
You watched it probably to make sure that the guy who made the video didn't end up misrepresenting the game which can be easy to do if you don't push past ARR. Imo Heavensward is what changes the game. I firmly believe that if ppl can make it to HW then they're hooked. With update 5.3 there's no reason why ppl can't try out the game and experience it first-hand.
@@Altearithehi im from india and i just got a new broadband connection of 500mbps upload and download speed . Is it going to be enough to play it without any lag?
Just wanted to point out you said you'd show off Hrothgar and Viera later and never did. For those wondering, they are Tiger/beast male only race and Bunny girl race respectively.
@Eisal Folm Welp... both Male viera and Female Hrothgar have been confirmed Male Viera will come out with Endwalker and Female Hrothgar will come with 6.0
@@arandomcheese Edit, not for long, due to time constraints they could only get one side of it out in time, male viera are coming in november with 6.0 female hrothgar down the road soon after
As someone who has tried many mmos with friends and has never really been able to get into them, the story in ffxiv has really grabbed my attention and allowed me to really get into it. The combat is indeed pretty basic at the start but as someone who always feels overwhelmed when I see massive hotbars full of icons its been very nice to slowly build up to having more skills. Thank you very much for this video, it convinced me to give the game a try and I am really loving it, and finally have a game I can play with all my friends!
I started FF14 in August 2020. It's my first MMO and FF game, so all of it was a brand new experience for me so the early game monotony didn't really bother me that much because basically everything I was doing was new for me. Having now finished Shadowbringers and catching up to the current patch now, the whole experience has been absolutely delightful. That being said, I really like the point you made how veteran MMO players would be more off put by the slow start than an MMO newbie like me. The biggest thing is to come into the game with a lot of patience and just enjoy the ride. The game is much more rewarding that way.
As someone who's played WoW from classic to cata, skip MoP, then WoD to BfA and now tried Shadowlands, as well as played GW2 from release to its 2nd xpac without a break, and only starting FF14 at the beginning of 2020; it's a remarkable MMO. Incoming wall of text why (and this isn't even going through every part of the games). WoW for me has lost its charm, I've tried going back but it just doesn't satisfy me the same way. I thought FF14's combat would be an issue, but after experiencing tanking SoS extreme (one of its newest trials/single boss fights in last patch, which is... lost for words to describe how amazing it is) and now experiencing DPSing in normal raids; WoW's raiding experience and combat is struggling for me to be compared, especially when each boss in FF14 is worthy of a last boss in a raid on mythic in how epic it is. And it has MAAAANY bosses, old bosses that can still be played as if they were somewhat new. FF14's bosses are masterpieces onto themselves. Sure, just like WoW they have a continuous theme (boss has tankbuster, boss does a huge AoE you have to diminish its damage), but there's so much more to them. Each boss fight feels GRAND, big effects, NEW effects and animations even, lots of telegraphs and movement, epic voice acting, cinematic epicness, music being tailored for these fights and some getting soundtracks that after doing them a while, each note you can sub-consciously know what part of the fight you're in. The bosses are literal dances you learn and repeat until you perfect them, and each job (class) and role makes the dance different. Each part of the dance you fail will punish you severely and it gets more punishing each time you do. Its combat is "slower", but by god does it get way more depth than WoW. WoW has a fast GCD, but what I realized when I got back to WoW is that it's actually not to its benefit. It's so fast WoW can't have too many abilities or complex rotations or it simply gets too much. FF14 on the other hand has perfected the pace so that just playing a tank like paladin you got about 9-10 abilities to rotate for damage, nevermind 2 additional of those being buffs for two different rotation styles and some abilities are combos or activated by certain ones, etc, then you got mitigations and a whole buttloud of utility. But its DPS alone matches a main DPS class/spec in WoW and when you go for DPS in FF14 it only gets crazier from there. And that's not to discourage anyone who's casual (although you may wanna perfect your keybinding game), the slower GCD is what makes it more possible for your brain to process more depth and the pace feels really nice. Now GW2 is hard to compare to either, it's very different. Imo GW2 does quite a few things better which I miss, such as fates in FF14 is a far cry from event system in GW2 and both WoW and FF14 can't even try to compare to its open world and how engaging it is. The combat and bosses (as well as raids) is quite fun in GW2 as well and very engaging. Here you got even fewer abilities but each matter and if it's not your cup of tea, then try out classes that gets the option. Not to mention FF14's menu, bag and selling item management is abysmal compared to WoW or especially GW2 where its ease of use should be the standard for a lot of games. But it's manageable, atleast the crafting bit of this game is a game by itself than a secondary thing you "just do" which even GW2 suffers. That said what made me stop GW2 is I miss the vertical progression and that new patch brought something significant and meaty to last for a while, which sadly, GW2's content doesn't after repeating it for a while and a lot of their new stuff to unlock (the transmog/glamor game) is behind its store. You can convert gold to gems to buy things, but it's not as fun farming stuff simply for gold instead of farming something for what it drops. If they'd fixed that then I may still play it cause its content is fun, but that's the bane of being a B2P MMO with no sub. Either way, FF14 is definitely worth giving a try if you've played either of these MMO's, maybe not so much if you still love GW2 and never liked the WoW style of MMO, but if you're like me that can appreciate both, you can appreciate FF14 or if you simply played WoW, then for me there's merit in playing it, even if the more eastern/anime style might be off-putting at first (it was for me), you get over it or atleast realize there's a lot more western fantasy than you thought. Only thing WoW is way better is the dungeons and their replayability, but hopefully FF14 fixes that in the future. And then not to talk about the story, GW2 offers a more engaging one than WoW, but FF14's story makes both look like fanfics and WoW's a children's book to the Lord of the Rings saga, FF14 being the latter, and imo beats many single player games with story focus. Which helps in connecting with the world, the bosses you fight, the areas you go to and it overall just feeling more mature.
I recently started this game based on a recommendation from a friend. Played a few hours but didn't get into it. I then picked it up again after being frustrated with Destiny 2 and fell in love. I dropped a few hundred hours into it in a matter of like 3-4 weeks and still super into. Definite recommend.
Is it easy to understand because when I played destiny 2 I deleted it because I never knew what I was doing. Or maybe tell me which video to watch to understand before downloading.
Destiny 2 felt very disjointed to me and dailies were frustrating to get done with the speed runners you had to keep up with. I liked some of it, but I'd rather just play Warframe if I was to play something similar. Been playing FF14 for years now and can't wait for the next expansion coming. You're getting in at a great time. the current stuff is awesome.
The path from coin-picker-upper to god-slayer is a long one but it is so satisfying. If you're looking for instant gratification don't play FFXIV. If you're looking for a game that you will devote years of your life to, give it a try.
If you're willing to devote years of your life then just play WOW. That is the thing, WOW is the top when it comes to mmos but I don't wanna spend 10 hours per day on a game giving that i'm 21 years old.
@@HayatoEvoker Maybe your server was toxic. I play WOW on a fully packed server with some great people. I’ve had numerous interactions with extremely helpful and friendly strangers in game as well. The fact is no other MMORPG can top WOW’s gameplay and graphics. Period.
I started in Spring 2020 - despite the *coughcough*-situation going on this was certainly a good year for finding and falling in love with a new game - after 13 wasted years of WoW (no, I'm not exaggerating...), and a little Guild Wars 2 on the side. You are right about the slow combat during beginner levels: I have maxed out all my jobs and I can tell you, its a shock every time again when I run low level dungeons in sync-mode and lose what feels like 90% of my skills! And yes, this game is about the adventurer's journey: you start out as some no-name nobody, you make yourself known as being reliable and, as is stated in one of these low-level quests, people come to you with more dangerous jobs later on. And I absolutely dont mind cutscenes, I enjoy them actually and I find them helpful for the whole immersion thing. Having said that, this game is not for everyone, you're totally right there. For me it was blessing: I started with a free trial (back then is was till you reached lvl 35, but you could switch to the other jobs and level them, so there was a lot of game time involved), but after a single day I got myself the complete game with all expansions. They were at a discount, too, which helped ;) And I haven't looked back since.
I've played dozens of MMO's - an embarrassing amount of MMO's - FFXIV is hands down my favorite. Period. One of the best plot lines of any video game I've ever played, super nice community, gorgeous graphics and music, everything on one character, best crafting system, ect...
As someone who's had absolutely no experience with MMOs prior to FFXIV, the slow start was a pretty good thing for me. I was constantly overwhelmed by all the things I could do and it was a good thing that I didn't need to concern myself with minute long rotations in the beginning. Levelling up your second class you will leave that stage of slowly pressing three buttons rather quickly because you have a EXP boost for every class that isn't your strongest one and a few other ways to boost it even more.
One thing I'd like to say about FFXIV is that the devs clearly love the game and support the players. So often they will see the players take to a particular aspect of the game, even when it was just some minor throwaway element, and their response is "You like that? Ok, we'll explore it further". I don't know of any lead game designer as beloved by the player base as Yoshi-P.
2 years later and you are still completely right. ive started playing near the end of heavensward and i feel extremely lucky to have found a game where the team genuinely cares about the game and its playerbase. the game has some faults, i would never deny that- but this is a true product of passion, love and talent ive spent a lot of time playing other games where the devs didnt give nearly as much of a damn: overwatch (1 and 2), tf2, even wow. i dont regret that time (cumulatively over 6k hours with tf2 sitting at 4k of those) but i do feel sad these games and their playerbases were treated like shit by greedy corporations. tf2 could have been THE fps, overwatch was supposed to be the chosen one, as for wow watching as blizzard made terrible decision after terrible decision was too much for me i had to drop it. i spent good money on overwatch (both 1 and 2) because i was invested in the game's rebirth and success, but after the pve lies reveal i dropped it out of self-respect. im not saying all this to rant about games i loved, just trying to make a point: we are lucky to have such a dedicated, passionate and caring team working on XIV as corny as it sounds, ffxiv is one of these things i'm genuinely glad i got to experience in life and makes me glad i was born. its not the only thing, and i wouldnt tell this to people who know me irl since they wouldnt understand. but i feel as though i can say it to someone who gets it. anyway tldr i agree LOL
"appreciate the journey more than the destination" Lord knows I follow this advice closely. I've had the the game over a year now. It's my first and only mmo. With breaks I've had at least a year of subscription and I just finished heavensward. 2 reasons for the slow progress; firstly I'm easily distracted and I love the side content. So much to do and they each have their own mini storyline that makes it all fun. And the market is a blast. Knowing that the items you make were actually purchased by another living person rather than a machine is great for those who like business management games. I actually prefer crafting to dungeons and fighting. Secondly I like having the main questline there. It gives me a sense of purpose like there's always something important to do that must be done compared to the side quests that feel more like a bonus. I know there's endgame content and all the side quests I'm doing now will still be there but I just like having that main questline there so I'm in no hurry to finish it. It's an awesome game.
Yeah I think this was something left out of this review...the non-combat roles are just as robust as the combat classes. Complete with their own levels, quests and abilities. Quite remarkable, really. Get tired of fighting all the time? Level up your fisherman skills for a while, or become a chef, or pick some flowers lol. It's actually much more engaging than it sounds.
I have started playing it by the end of october. I'm taking my time to play it and I am not disappointed at all! It's my first MMO so I was a bit scared about not fitting in and screwing up my team in the dungeons. But so far, I only had one "bad" experience with other players (in Cutter's cry where I discovered the one-shot death by walking into a sand hole i didn't notice :p My party was not happy because I didn't know how to respawn. I was scolded a bit but not in a big way so i was ok). The community is generally really nice and willing to help the new players like me. So far, even though ARR is considered the weakest part, I am enjoying it a lot. You can easily find people for the dungeons and there are ton of things to do... like really, between the long main quest ,the side quests and dungeons to do , the games in the Golden Saucer and so on, you can spend hours and hours in the game. For those of you who are like me, a casual player, i confirm that this MMO is the best to start one since the game teaches the mechanics little by little and the story and the general universe of the game is really developped and interesting.
Downloading it right now, I hope it works out for me as a game because i'm dealing with a lot of shit medically and could really use an escape that's not a competitive FPS shooter.
@@maxoweenie I'm on Primal ( Famfrit ) my character's name is Deebee Cooper , hit me up! If you can't cause of the data center thing I understand, take it easy!
What are you dealing with, can I ask? I'm a dialysis patient myself. Had a heart attack a couple years ago, too - have 3 stents in my heart. Also, diabetes. Yup, I'm a wreck. I game to relax, and if you need a stranger to talk to about what you're going through, I'm a good one. Let me know, for reals.
"I'm gonna get a lot of hate for this, the combat is great...... eventually" I had to convince my friends to suffer through the first 30 levels just to get the job stone and actually have fun xD
"I'll get hate for this.... the combat's good EVENTUALLY." me: no no you're right and you should say it like I get getting moves slowly but come ON obviously I had enough fun at lower levels to get to where I am now (maxed out DRG, level 73 RDM, etc.) but I imagine I stuck around for the story over combat lol
I would also like to add that the Devs for this game are amazing, for example not to long ago they added in flying to the 2.0 areas(The starting areas if you will) the devs did this in their own time as a gift to the players
Also when the Vierra and Hrothgar races came out, due to system and time constraints, old helmets hadn't been modeled. The team freely spent time doing hundreds upon hundreds of assets and just added them into a patch.
I've been playing this for over six years and I've never found another MMO that I have considered as high quality as this. It's a great starter MMO but also has enough end game content such as dungeons, Raids and extreme trials (Boss fights) to keep you hooked. The gear progression is satisfying and the game is always recieving new patches with more stuff to look forward to. (The new expansions are entire new games worth of content) The social aspect is brilliant, people on your friends list, free companies (Essentially Guilds), player housing that you can decorate and open up to others. The friends you make will quickly become one of your largest reasons for logging in. The story and lore are rich and interesting, and there are also seasonal events with free items to get. Many of which are outfit pieces that you can use to dress your character up how you want with the glamour system so you can look how you want whilst being able to still play everything. This is a great game, please please try it!
@@IWantToStayAtYourHouse Not entirely sure where you started, but there should be a server English players usually flock to when playing JP, not that it really matters except for the FC you play.
Personally, I liked the slow burn kind of start. Starting as a nobody adventurer with a weapon, one attack skill, and a dream. Doing minor tasks to build your skill set and reputation, which become grander and grander with each one. The best part is that the world takes notice! Your story inspires your fellow adventurers and songs are written about you. You even get fans! Your people respect and love you while your enemies dread and fear meeting you on the battlefield. It makes me feel important to the world. Like I really am the Hero. Which makes certain losses hit even harder...
"Starting as a nobody adventurer with a weapon, one attack skill, and a dream." I remember when WoW was like this. It has changed a lot. I left in Cata, and recently was convinced to come back. I started a new character and I find it amazing how soon I was recognized as a champion. Do the NPCs not realize that this character is only an hour old?
these things may or may not be intentional, but I really enjoy how they use they meta in the story, like in the beginning, I almost think that the tedium is almost a test of us, to see if WE the player is deserving of becoming the warrior of light just like our character needs to help the starting city to be on their journey. there are other examples, but after watching this video, that really stuck out to me in retrospect
GW2's customization spoiled me when I played it during one of my FFXIV breaks. It's hard for me to like FFXIV's customization now as a result. Game itself is still fun tho.
Started playing this a month ago. First ever multiplayer RPG ever! Has been great fun to build up and figure out how to play in team rather than solo all the time!
@@markiss69 honestly I’d just stick with the free version unless you are desperate to join a FC or use retainers I ended up buying the full version to join my FC but otherwise there is loads to do without it I would deffo try it out though. As someone who likes story heavy it’s the ideal MMORPG for me
Would def recommend for new players, the story is great! After playing since before ARR, I’m getting bored of the redundant content. However the new expansion might change my mind! Just my opinion though!
I wish I had the experience of playing each xpac and patch on release. MSQ catch up is too long at this point and ruined my enjoyment. Similar to Scarra's recent playthrough, I couldn't take so much text and errands in Stormblood and skipped. Shadowbringers is so much better in all regards.
Your criticisms are all on point. I tried this game in like 2014-15 got to level 20 and tapped out cause i felt it was excruciatingly boring. I went back to wow after that, then around the time of dreanor I soft quit WoW and looked around for another mmo to fill my time. I was seeing all the buzz for FXIV: Stormblood and was confused by it cause of my initial experience. After no luck on finding any MMOs I found enjoyable I decide to give FF a second shot (also after seeing the consensus on the early game being boring) and sure enough once i got through the initial content slog, the game had a hard shift and I got invested. Now its my primary mmo. Also cause how content drops are paced it actually give me windows to take a break and not which I find keeps the times i am playing refreshing.
Great review and I highly agree that the game doesn’t have a good start. First 10hrs of the game is boring. That’s what I thought at first though, when I started this game almost 2 yrs ago. But then I changed my mindset, and played the game and tried to look at the journey and experience going through everything rather than catching up quick. I did everything the game has to offer except for savage and ultimate until I caught up. And man it feels great and nostalgic tbh. When you go back to those old zones, it felt great and you actually starts missing the days when you were just new and everything was so exciting still because there were a lot to cover and adventure to take. Right now, Im an ultimate raider, cleared all the hardest raids and content the game has to offer and i didn’t regret that I took my time with this game. People who wants to play this game shouldnt have their mind set on catching up quickly. Trust me, it’s the journey going there that’s great about this game, the story, characters and plot twists that you’ll encounter along the way. The world is very well developed, the sidequests, although not so important and you wont miss out anything on the story if you didn’t do it, are still great and adds to the character and world building. But the sidequests are a must though, it’s just to good and you’ll know more about the world of eorzea and its people.
And don't forget to join the seasonal events, more often than not, they short, fun and worth your time since they give prizes that'll stick to that character like outfits, maybe mounts, or emotes!
You're not wrong about the combat. It starts off VERY slow, especially with its longer than normal global cooldown. It's not until you get off GCD abilities to weave in between them that it starts becoming more engaging.
I've played FFXIV for years, and I really adore the game. The beginning is definitely slow. Both the story and the combat take a while to get going, but once they do, they're both very satisfying to me. One of FFXIV's really solid strengths is its world and lore. The starting zones are filled with environmental storytelling, with even the names of certain places having lore-based history. For instance, outside the starting city shown in the video, there are a set of seemingly unimportant steps outside the gate. These are called The Eighty Sins of Sasamo. It's named after a princess of the country who tried to overthrow the king. Her punishment was to walk those steps eighty times a day for eighty days. On the very last day, after completing her final step, she fell over dead from exhaustion. It's the sort of thing that doesn't need to be there, but it is. The world is filled with little bits of history like that. The other big thing to me, other than some of the mechanical aspects, is just how few bugs there are in the game. The lack of bugs in this game has spoiled me on just about every other MMO. Everything works, every time. There are tiny bugs here and there, but they're few and almost never impactful to 99% of players. Nothing feels half-assed. Some systems may feel a bit unsatisfying, but they're never just slapped on there. Every job is viable in endgame, almost to a fault. You can take any job into the most difficult of endgame content and never be hampering your team. On the other hand, the jobs feel almost too balanced. None bring anything special to the team. In an effort to make sure no one is left out, they've also made it so that nobody is special. I'm someone who appreciates a bit of jank in my jobs/classes. I like abilities that have niche uses, or are kind of useless but feel very true to the class fantasy. There used to be those elements, but they've been removed over successive expansions. To a new player, they'd never even notice it, so I'm probably just being a salty vet. With the free trial, it's extremely easy to try the game out and see if it clicks. It's certainly not for everyone, but if it's for you you'll be glad you tried it out. Oh, and please try to ignore how awful the account creation process is. It's awful, and this is the IMPROVED system. SE, it's 2021. Stop using the best system 1995 can provide.
The fact they are not creating expansions as regularly as other games is exactly why they are succeeding. The common old formula creates "content". Content at a pace over 90% of players can not keep up with just ruins the game. You end up with crazy power creep and idiots making excuses which are decades old autistically.
@Colin Deal There are two core problems MMORPG's face. One is the Old Server Problem. This is when the economy has inflated to a level new players or even regulars who have been playing for years can not keep up with. This problem is always caused by the same types of crooked practices. Leveling is made impossible past a specific level. Which results in the higher level items which are valuable being forever out of the reach of most players. In the game Shaiya leveling from 50 to 60 was impossible. In Fly for Fun leveling from 50 to 60 were extremely prohibitive levels. Every game which decides to give new players the option to start at a higher level looses most of their player base. Because, the few people who actually succeeded in the game suddenly feel like their effort was wasted. So that does not solve the problem. Adding a method so players will get a percentage more experience for partying results in a few percentage of the user base who were not previously max level to reach that level without loosing users. Adding new skills to every class breaths new life into a game encouraging players to start a new character from level 1 to enjoy the new content. Some also just Skill Reset without creating a new character enjoying the new content that way. Particularly, good Aoe skills added to classes which previously did not have them helps these classes out quite a bit.
Just started yesturday, put in 8 hours and am at lvl 18 arcanist. Honestly really liking it so far. I decided to go in slow with this one unlike with others (wow, eso) where I usually rushed through everything. I've been doing every single quest and reading every text prompt and, ngl, the story is fairly interesting even fro the get go. Also I appreciate the slower start especially in terms mechanics. It has been very helpful for learning the skills and experimenting with the best order, as well as practicing managing casting, dodging aoe and healing. Still I thumble my buttons more often than not so good thing there's more time to get used to them.
important for new players: this is a game developed as a final fantasy first and a mmo second. so dont complain about rushing the story and complaining about no content. the story is the content
There’s an story required dungeon that is also on the daily dungeon roulettes, that is 75% cutscenes at about 45 minutes a run. And is IMMEDIATELY followed by an hour and a half string of cutscenes to end game. Trust me. We know
Ive recently picked up this game and i gotta say, its acually a quite enjoyable experience. I really enjoy how you can pick up every job on one character, which made me put some acual effort into creating my main. Only lvl 30 at this point, but now that ive unlock my advanced job the combat gets quite a bit more interesting. Excited to see what the game has in store
Over 2000 days of subscription, and here I am watching videos of "should I play?" He's right though, its a slow start. And as someone who started in 1.0 back in 2011, I can confirm that while very pretty, original FFXIV was a beast of a game that made computers of the time (launched in 2010) a hell of a rough time. Even today, playing what little of Legacy is available for play, my brand new gaming rig feels the squeeze in densely packed areas. Current FFXIV is very friendly to PC's though, with a myriad of options to allow even rather weak PCs to play and still have a good time. And with third party shaders that, while not officially supported by SquEnix, are permitted to continue existing and can really make the game look just as good as any current game. Not bad for a game originally from 2010 and redone in 2013! And yep, story is key. I do wish at times that players could experience the Legacy content again, despite the horrors of Legacy gameplay, as it had some solid stuff. Not to mention watching a MOON descend on you and knowing that the game will end when it hits and there is nothing you can do about it... that was some unique stuff I will never forget. Expect to have many inter-weaving tales told as you journey from "random idiot bumbling their way into town" to "hero and savior of countless legions, liberator of lands across time and space, and stealer of pants." Not bad for a game I picked up on a whim in early 2011 thinking "Hm. Cute catgirls. Well I can give it a try."
If there's one thing that's crazy unique and high quality about this game is its soundtrack, especially as the expansions move along. Soken is a musical madman that dabbles in all sorts of genres and seems to be able to pull off amazing shit 90% of the time. If you've never listened to this game's soundtrack just search "ffxiv ost" and listen to some of the examples.
Totally this. You get the banging rock theme sung in gobbiespeak "Metal" from the Alexander raids, the J-Pop "Oblivion" from Shiva, and the booming orchestra of "Worm's Tail" from Shinryu. The music in boss fights is so stellar with such a variety it's ridiculous.
Don't need to watch this. Already know the answer is hell yea. 2021 is gonna work to bring us into the next expansion. This year is the most important year for the current expansion. The next updates will all work towards whatever the next plot line is. Which I assume is gonna deal with that big cliffhanger they just left us on in 5.35
When I first started playing this back in August 2020, I had to force myself to play for three straight weeks because my best friend and boyfriend told me I wasn't giving it a fair chance.... well, now I'm addicted. I play it ever single day for hours on end. Not to mention that I have two characters. xD
@@off-meta-michael What job are you playing? Some are quite slow at the start but you can change whenever you like so maybe try some out? It doesn't take *too* long I don't think, I started two months ago and I've already finished the msq and I'm working on levelling new jobs. There's a slow point at level 50 but after that it's so bloody gooooood.
This was _exactly_ what I was looking for, I've been bouncing off of FFXIV every other month. I felt like I must have been losing my mind, the early game was so unapproachable and boring, but I'm glad to know that I wasn't alone in that opinion. I'm level 51 now, I'm starting to get a feel for the game, so I'm just going to keep pushing through it.
Bought a usb splitter, keyboard and mouse and I've been loving it for the past couple days. Only level 25 but I've been really enjoying it on ps4 despite it being pretty slowly paced. I had an old character that only had a couple hours in but I didn't mind paying that 1 month to start again and try it out properly this time and I'm super happy I did.
I knew this would not be your kind of MMO, and yet you made one of the best and most accurate review of the game I have seen. Great review! A lot of reviewers and influencers covers the game's story and combat in praises but completely brush over how crushingly slow both aspects are the beginning, and how long it stays that way before picking up the pace. FFXIV is my favorite MMORPG and yet I find the game really hard to recommend due to those issues.
Small nitpick, you said you were going to talk about the other two races and didn't do that. Good, clear and concise vid overall. I've certainly been side-eyeing FFXIV for a while now and I love the more classic look you can give your characters. If anything though I like making multiple characters, giving them their own personality and flair. FFXIV has a player base that is rather...I'll say "quite immersed" in the game even for an mmo to a point that makes me a bit concerned.
After the reworks, I made a new character just to try out the story again from start to finish. Taking it very slow, it took me about 200 hours to reach the end of Shadowbringers, about 30 to 40 was the initial slog. While less than 25% of the experience in my case, I did take it rather slow, so you can get through it quicker with less detours.
Should you play? If you like an MMO you can play solo, but can also team with people for fun content, yes, absolutely. It's lots of fun and quite pretty. Been playing since the dark ages of the original release of the game's alpha, and it's changed a LOT. The game also plays very well on controller, something a lot of MMOs don't do well if at all, which is nice.
This man showing paladin gameplay the entire time, I see you. (gladiator i know but it BECOMES the paladin). Literally my favorite class because of the wings...... omg the wingsssssssssss..............
I actually am gonna try the free trial of this game--had a bunch of discord buddies talk me into it, but I saw this vid and wanted your opinion too. Glad you mentioned it's got a slow start so I'm forewarned. X'D
For me the very long cut scenes is one of the reasons I liked this game. The story is amazing for me and unexpected, couldn't wait for the next part. And I stayed level 20 for weeks, doing all the stuff that apparently ppl find tedious, for me the early discovery and selling things on the market were really enjoying. I even bought my own home at lvl25. I went to all kind of places and I was never in a rush to get to the end game, which I never reach yet tbh, but there isnt a week I dont think I maybe should pick it up again, its just too much games on the market and I want to try all kind of games, so its hard to dedicate to a game that deserves dedication, Im afraid to dedicate too much time to on one game after wow. I really missed a lot of good games cause all I played was WoW, so now Im a really careful to give all my time to 1 game, but for sure ff14 is a great game which I cant forget and maybe I have to decide to give it some of my time again.
Haha, you sound like me describing my playthrough of Skyrim (never did "beat" the game, but I loved every min of those 1k hours I spent doing my own thing). I love that the devs stress that taking a break from FFXIV is a good thing. That they're happy for players to do other things in between patches. And I like that when you play, you're doing what you enjoy. There's so much content-plenty for each player to find something they enjoy, and just vibe.
I been seeing this mmo EVERYWHERE 😭 seems so fun and welcoming?? It’s a shame that my laptop can’t handle it Here’s hoping to get a better gaming(?) desktop some where next year so I can see what is all hype about
I will give it a try. I like the idea of slowly progressing, it gives you time to know the game better. I was looking for a game to start and i found BDO while it had the season servers. Although it sounded good for new players to close the gap, it was very overwhelming and stressful. You can reach the lvl in a day but you still know nothing about the game.
I still do some martial arts, and i keep up with a healthy diet and work out often. I miss teaching martial arts, hopefully when covid is over lessons can return for everyone.
Thank you for this. As someone with almost 6k hours into the game (in slightly over 2 years) I can safely say that this is more than just an MMO to many people. For anyone who might be wondering: It is never too late to start, don't be intimidated by the endgame or by the "race" to get there. Enjoy the small details and the slow growth, and the slight increase in difficulty with every passing dungeon and trial. Play it like you play any other FF game, and enjoy the ride. And as a side note, I laughed a little when you said "I'm gonna get some hate for this" before talking about the combat system, but honestly, you won't get any. Every FFXIV player (that I know of, at least) knows that the combat, before a certain level (for some classes it's 60, for some 70), is quite dull and almost tedious. You're gucci, lol. :)
One thing I would like to add to this video, is that A Realm Reborn (ARR), is considered to be the worst part of the game. The expansions are where this game TRULY shines. ARR focuses heavily on worldbuilding and making your character important in the world. Whereas in the expansions, your character already has the reputation from ARR, making for the ability to tell FAR more interesting stories. So even if ARR turns you off, especially story wise, try to stick around! The first expansion, Heavensward is one my favorite game stories of all time, and Shadowbringers is even better!
Short answer YES. But honestly you summed up exactly how I feel about the game and how I described it to anybody I try to get into it, extremely slow start but the biggest and most worthwhile build-up out of any MMO out there.
Very true, but that said, I don't get pissed about it. I'm happy when I play because I enjoy just about all of the content. Make it a lot easier to tolerate some sprouts being doofuses when I don't feel like I'm doing chores the rest of the day.
Okay im sold, am getting it now just for the stories. I knew bout ffxiv since its first release but didn't bother to play em (cause i was still in highschool back then and couldn't afford em lmao) forgotten bout it now this video got recommended to me, and man im sold.
Watched this right after your "100 hour" video. I love that you addressed and restated what you said in that video in regard to a slow start. I just started the free trial and I'm really digging it, just wanted to see what you had to say about it. If the MMO Guru says it's a good choice, then I'm happy with my choice!
"The combat is great... Eventually" As someone who's dealt with level jumpers, I think this is a good thing. As you level up, you gradually learn new skills and the game gives you time to figure them out and work them into your gameplay instead of overloading yourself with a load of different skills that you have no idea how to use.
This is how pretty much every mmo does it. The difference is that ffxiv does it insanely slowly, that's why every review points this out. It doesn't take 10 hours to learn how to click 2 buttons.
Eh, to be honest I used to think this way but I stopped eventually because bad players will always be bad and good players will always be good. I know people who have leveled every job from scratch and are still awful at every one of them. And on the other side I could pick up jobs (i.e. the expansion jobs that literally start level jumped by default) and be good at them somewhat quickly just because I take time to read all the skills and research and practice. That's why I still side with people who say the process from 1 - 60 or so is way too slow. A good player doesn't need anything even close to that time to learn their job, and the bad players are still going to be bad no matter how long they spend with it.
@@mattsharp6708 More to the point if you grind the teaching process down to 1 10,000 of ideal speed then most people are going to have difficulty retaining it. Slowing down a tutorial to such extremes makes it much harder to learn not easier.
The first chunk of the game took me 5 times quitting and restarting over a 5 year course to FINALLY get through.... it was absolutely brutal and now I'm a super active end game player who draws almost exclusively FFXIV art.
Probably not gonna come back to see this but, ARR and a bit of HW got reworked recently to make the first 50ish levels less of a story grind. and the dungeons got made a bit more straightforward
I think XIV's biggest weakness right now, is that each new expansion brings new jobs. These jobs are all locked behind at LEAST finishing 2.0 A Realm Reborn base game. This can take hundreds of hours if you play it slowly. As a current player, who has kept up since day one, this is no problem. As a new guy just coming in, wanting to say, play Dancer, they have to go through TONS and TONS of content as a class they don't want to play before getting to what they wanted to do. With the way the game is set up, I'm not sure how they could approach this in a way that would make all jobs easier to get too as a new player. While I agree that XIV is one of the best new MMO player friendly experiences, it's also slowly becoming one of the worst new player experiences if the thing you wanted to do is gated by the new expansion. Regardless, XIV is probably my most played game of all time, and at least in my top 10 games of all time. Highly worth a shot as the first 60 levels are free. Even if you don't like it, you lose nothing by just trying.
At least SAM, RDM, DNC & GNB aren't locked behind MSQ! :3 I've always seen these jobs as rewards instead of required. Someone speeding through might see it as an inconvenience, but every job that's gained by leveling or in HW can be done by another job that's available at character creation ^^ (Save for ROG/NIN but that isn't really required for anything below EX/Savage). If anything, I say that gives them a goal to work towards!
@@Dar_Rito I totally agree with you. I'm a new player who only started about a month ago. It took me over 3 days of gameplay to get through a realm reborn as a paladin and now I've switched to red mage. It definitely feels like a reward and like I've earned the privilege to play this class. I noticed since switching brand new players are asking me questions very frequently even though I'm still a sprout. It's a good feeling
@@GamingDualities The UI is customizable and the global cooldown gets better as you progress, plus most jobs get plenty of off globals to weave between globals. Also melee dps classes tend have a faster GCD closer to 2 seconds at end game.
I will say it's the perfect game for WoW people looking to migrate. Veterans of that game will expect some tedium early on. The thing is, the boredom is extremely short lived especially if you get invested in the story, and the "boring parts" are still better than WoWs "boring parts" by a country mile.
I had to restart the game 3 times. First time: I got bored of the combat system. I quit with level 6. The second time: I got bored of the long cutscenes. I made it to level 20 these time. And now.... I am having a blast with Stormblood content with 3 level 60+ jobs :))) The hardest part is really reaching level 35 and finishing ARR content. But things really get better after 51+. This is now my favorite game and I can’t stop playing it
I just found your channel and came here to see what you say about my fav MMO. LOLOL the "I'm gonna get some hate for this, the combat is great... Eventually." ...so true
Put simply... Begining of ARR is good (tutorial), middle is aight, gets you to know the characters well, end of ARR level 35/40-50 is very good compared to the begining.... Then there is HEAVENSWARD... That's amazing, everything else after that is better
The problem is that ARR takes literally forever and its a poor experience, so poor that most people quit after 50 hours because they want to commit self harm due to how bad the questing is and how long it takes to "get to the good stuff". Its an unfortunate reality.
@@jonathansoko1085 I see what you mean, personally I enjoyed realm reborn regardless of the endless fetch quests, the environment and the dungeons were a blast for me as it was my first mmo. But yes sadly many people will turn away from it due to the reasons you stated
@@k2x598 The sad thing is, people are not willing to take their time and enjoy a journey, it all about the destination, is this case endgame. But thats not what FFXIV is about. If you sit there counting the hours it take to get to max level... well, then you might try something else :( I dont really get people who expect to be 1st class warriors and heros from day 1 - the slow pace is actually whats logical.
Lol back when ARR came out there wasn't much to do at end game so they paced the shit out of the story to stall players progress and make sure they didnt rush to end game. Today it just feels awful compared to the expansions so much so that they had to make that part of it F2P due to poor new player retention.
The beginning of the game had me bored beyond measure and wondering why would people pay money for this game, but I kept at it because I wanted to play with my friends who were already end game, and lemme say, about halfway through ARR I was hooked in, no turning back now. My soul belongs to this game, I live for my catgirl, I am so incredibly invested in this story and all these characters, I love playing my class and learning new ones, and also I can't stop fishing for some reason
December 2020: Queue of 12 December 2021: Queue of 12,000 - on a quiet morning I get the feeling that the expanded trial including the entirety of A Realm Reborn and the award-wining Heavensward expansion up to level 60 for free with no restrictions on playtime... worked.
I'm sure enough people have mentioned it already, but you didn't mention how the crafting is its own combat system. That's a huge draw for a lot of people, and leaving it out hurts a lot. I think the video should also go over the endgame in more depth so they know exactly how much is there for them and how worth it it is.
I think that's probably something people should know, yes! The crafting system is pretty fun and engaging, with a lot of dedicated content and a ton of special plots just for it! I was shocked by how different it was when I first started playing, but it's definitely worth a mention.
I love this game. I recommend people play it. *but...* "Slow start", in terms of the story, to me, includes all of the content before the first expansion. I found most of the story content and delivery jaw-clenchingly bad until late in the content between the base game and Heavensward, and it wasn't until the content between Heavensward and Stormblood, when the cosmology started opening up, that I really fell in love with the game. Of all the games I love, it's definitely the most flawed, to me, but I do love it and am in it for the long haul. Something else worth noting is that this game does not take itself particularly seriously. It's a far cry from games like TERA, but when there's an opportunity to have a tie-in to another Final Fantasy game or even just another Square-Enix game, FF14 bothers to give it only a token connection to this game's lore. Don't get me wrong - I've enjoyed many of the FF series' recurring elements, but references are one thing and retrospectives are another. This game feels like two games in one, at times - one that takes itself seriously and attempts to have a cohesive setting, as seen in the MSQ, and one that's wacky fun-times, which is pretty much everything outside of the MSQ.
Initially wrote a bad review to ffxiv, I was wrong. gave it another shot after watching this vid, and I am glad I did. Very good story, combat engine, and character development. Thx Josh for doing an honest video of Final Fantasy 14. I will be playing this game for many enjoyable hours I'm sure. Peace
I've been playing FFXIV since back in 2014 and I've always had a hard time NOT recommending the game to friends, but I had a small group that I was constantly playing with the entire time. I was recommended the game directly by a friend of a friend and the leader of one of the biggest guilds on the server I still play on. Because of this I've never really thought about how others might view the early game as I had a very social experience in my first several months, then a few weeks ago I made an alt character and started from scratch just for the hell of it and oh my god is the gameplay tedious for the first 50 levels. Sure it starts to pick up when you reach the end of the story of ARR but holy hell I had forgotten how dull combat was until real mechanics started to get introduced into fights.
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"I'm gonna get some hate for this, the combat is great... Eventually."
The entire playerbase: "I mean you're not wrong."
Exactly, like most of the playerbase does not disagree that the combat at first is slower compared to most MMO's and requires time to build up. Most of us realize that it is a investment, we realize the start is a bit slow, but know that the combat gets sooo much better later on. So, I am doubting that Josh got any real hate for that comment.
@@imaran1303 me and a friend started playing together.
He was constantly complaining about the combat till we got to 60....
Then his brain did a click with the mechanics, and even though we were still 20 lvls before max level, we got an actually difficult bossfight and he was like: "OMG THIS IS ACTUALLY HARD..."
@@imaran1303 To be fair, bad early game combat is not a good way to hook people to the game. Pressing the same 3 buttons with a lot of downtime for the first 40-60 levels is a massive downside. I know that eventually it gets good, but it should start good and get better over time. Considering that you also have to level the other jobs eventually, you are going to have to grind from 1-80 without the MSQ xp. Leveling a second class is a horrible experience. From level 1-50 you basically have to do the same dungeons over and over again (or PotD, which is worse) and it doesn't really get better after lv50 either.
@@hileutewie I dunno, I enjoy the slow start, because it gives you a good start to learn each class. As a example, Gunbreaker or Dancer takes too long to learn, simply because you start with most of your kit with no idea how it connects, I spend several minutes reading through abilities trying to figure out my toolset.
I would bring the counter-argument that people should have some patience, to allow a game to ease you into a class and the systems that you will need to manage. Also, I never had a problem with leveling, I started a new character for the new Sage class coming up and intend to make it my main and have leveled BLM/RDM/SMN(SCH)/WHM/SAMURAI/NIN/AST/DRK/GNB/DNC to 70 and that took me less then 3 weeks. And I dunno, I am doing my first PotD, and I am actually enjoying it, but that may change after a while.
I think, that judging a game by the start alone is wrong, much how judging a game by the ending is wrong. Example: Mass Effect, the series was amazing, was the ending crap? Yes, but that does not mean that the entirety of the game was crap.
@@imaran1303 I never said you should judge a game by its start. I said the problem with such a slow start is that the new player experience becomes shit and there is no denying that.
Dancer is literally one of the easiest jobs in the game. All you do is to press the glowing button. GNB is a 1-2-3 class with another 1-2-3 rotation. Not necessarily difficult.
Honestly speaking, I can't think of any MMO that actually has difficult combat, FF14 in particular isn't difficult. If you are overwhelmed with combat mechanics that never exceed 45APM (perfect use of the kit) then I don't know what to say. Majority of the classes don't even come close to 45APM and are closer to 35-37ish.
If anyone is new to the MMO genre you might actually find the slow start to combat very helpful as I did. I've been playing for a couple months now and I found that the game slowly feeding me new abilities helped me learn the general combat and my class specific combat far easier than it could have been. However, it was a tad to slow, but not enough to stop me from having fun and playing for over 200 hours now
thats precisely why its so slow
FFXIV was my first ever MMO, and I appreciated the slow start for similar reasons (I still laugh at the shear panic I had at just trying to figure out how to kill a little ladybug as a lvl 3 CJN). However, as a veteran player now, I story/lvl boost my alts because it's too slow now (though I do have one I'm using to reply old content to refamiliarise myself with story I've long since forgotten, and don't want to NG+). I wish there was a better compromise (that didn't necessitate the cash shop)
FF14 was the first MMO I properly got involved in (I do not count my days of Runescape's free trial, nor do I count the 2 hours of WoW I played on a friend's computer), and I agree with you. My first go through ARR I actually found myself really enjoying myself, and found it easy to pick up in digestible chunks, and found the early game fetch quests/go kill X quests helpful for exploring the starting area.
Having had to play through ARR a second time though, I can certainly understand the tedium though.
I've never played an mmo before, and was wondering if I should start with FFXIV. Your comment seems to suggest so, so I'll definitely go play it and see if it interests me
@@rysea9855 If you do, and are on any server I've a character on, lmk and I'll happily offer whatever help you'd like
The number one feature from FFXIV that I wish more games would take is allowing me to switch classes on the same character. Such a simple feature really makes everything so much better.
Phantasy Star Online has done that for years, but yeah most games don't allow you to.
FFXI had that as well, it's why I loved it so much.
It's a little too convenient for me. I prefer there to be some consequences in games, otherwise choices feel meaningless.
@@LongToad when the 'choice' is just 'roll an alt and spend even more hours of your sub forced to redo everything' its not a real choice
@@LongToad I mean can you really think of an in game reason for not doing it? What should stop your character from stop using magic, pick a sword and learn to use it?
"This is where I will get hate in the comments, FFXIV early game is very slow"
the FFXIV community: "FACT."
Back in 2013 before skill trimming you had tons of abilities by the time you hit lv 20.
These days you have to be careful because all of the cosplay dress like a baby mentally ill children have an autistic outburst if anything negative is said even if it’s fact or truth.
I'm 45 hours in and can confirm it's still slow. Looking forward to hitting the expansions as I've heard they're better.
@@LainPuzzlewell Awesome! I'm almost there man. Enjoy Stormblood 👍
@@awesst7247 nearly no FFXIV players would ever hate on you for this take. Everyone knows it's true and it is an often brought up issue with Yoshi-P that they try to address over and over.
Alrighty. Here comes the start of my FFXIV journey, and there go my grades this semester.
Boy is it a grind at first. Stick with it and don’t rush. Enjoy the ride.
Push through the first expansion, please, it is worth it later. Good thing they cut some fluff to begin with.
I'm 2weeks in. Lvl 40 monk. I'm on tha PS4, siren server, and I'm having to much fun. There's 5 of us total who play. 1 player a few months. 3 of us 2 weeks and 1 just about to start lol.
@@Lotzo Woo! Glad to have y'all here! Level 50 and on the story gets craaaazy!!!
Yeah I’m scared to start since I’m suppose to be studying for my SAT...
As a long-time FFXIV player, one of the things I most appreciate about it is the incredibly consistent/ predictable update schedule for more content. The project lead has said more than once that he wants his game to be something you can take a break from, and come back to down the road.
9K hours in the game. 102 mounts (where maybe 5 or 6 are from the store), done with all the extreme trial mount farming, got all the HW Relic weapons and now work on both Bozja and ARR (because no thank you Eureka), all classes at lvl 80, minimum gear level is 520 thanks to crafted gear, finally have the Demi-Ozma mount, AND I STILL HAVE SHIT TO DO! I love it~
Also: "This is where I will get hate in the comments, FFXIV early game is very slow"
Yup.
Sounds like you wasted 9k hours of your life playing this. This game has no base and is a complete money pit.
@@jebbus1497 all MMOs are money pit
@@polinttalu7102 indeed
I envy you, I haven't been able to stick to an MMO in ages.
@@jebbus1497 at the very least it's not p2w
After 1.22k hours in this game, I still dont know why I watch videos like these.
FFXIV is a fantastic game, no cap.
Cap?
You watch these videos for a simple reason. You like the game and you want to affirm that you like something good by watching people who agree with you because it makes you feel good.
He has potato graphics
@@shuyo6073 "no cap" means they're not lying. "capping" is an expression dating back to the 1980's.
@@shuyo6073 tik tok user be like
Some of your scenes have very low fps, I assume this is because your settings have the standard setting "restrict fps when client is not active". You can find this setting under Display in system settings. Hope this helps!
Yes, this is a "feature" to save your computer's resources while you're tabbed out of the game, but for someone tabbing in and out of a recording program, it's just a hindrance XD
I was wondering why it seemed to be running like 1.0 lmao
If people don't mind ability spoilers, one tip I have is for those who have cleared Palace floors 1-50. if you join as a job (upgraded class) and queue into floors 51-60, you auto-scale to 60 so you can see how better the combat gets
Yes, the answer is yes
Give me a good reason to return. No hate but meh, maybe my attraction to the game has died off 😞
I want to try this game, there are still a lot of players playing?
@@kayabayunreu6092 Oh there's a lot of players. Just gotta find the right people to play with unless you like playing solo then that's fine too until you need to run dungeons
@@roguenpc5574 I want ask too, why everytime I want create account always get error if already done and everytime i want create another account don't get the verification code, I already create it with different email 3x, sorry for bad english
@@roguenpc5574 If you haven't played past ARR, you haven't seen the game at its finest.
The stories in the expansions are absolutely amazing, the amount of VAing increases, there's flying, huge gorgeous zones, combat gets much more intense and there's tons of stuff to do.
The first expansion Heavensward is really great, but the latest expansion Shadowbringers has to be one of my absolute favourite games of all time. It seriously gives the rest of the franchise a run for its money.
The animations in Shadowbringers are phenomenal and the story is one of the best I've ever seen.
Why do I watch this video? I have 800h in this game
366 days of play time... I think i have issues...
@@krissb.2553 or you just found a good game
Lul 2920 here thats only counting steam time. Id say I have atleast another 800 on ps3 and another 1200 on ps4 ez
ikr, i'm just here for the comments
You watched it probably to make sure that the guy who made the video didn't end up misrepresenting the game which can be easy to do if you don't push past ARR. Imo Heavensward is what changes the game. I firmly believe that if ppl can make it to HW then they're hooked. With update 5.3 there's no reason why ppl can't try out the game and experience it first-hand.
You can watch the 12 minute video to help him out.
But yes, Play it.
Thanks dude :)
The only issue i have is that im not sure if it can be played in my country due to servers...Mauritius in the indian ocean
@@JoshStrifeHayes try it? He mentioned the free trial that’s really nice so just try
@@dogerhenriot5004 Oceana datacenter is confirmed for 6.1, so I hope you can play when that is released :3
@@Altearithehi im from india and i just got a new broadband connection of 500mbps upload and download speed . Is it going to be enough to play it without any lag?
Just wanted to point out you said you'd show off Hrothgar and Viera later and never did. For those wondering, they are Tiger/beast male only race and Bunny girl race respectively.
So they're locked behind a single gender? Kinda weird but ok.
@@arandomcheese It's basically lore, They are the only races to be single gendered.
@Eisal Folm Welp... both Male viera and Female Hrothgar have been confirmed
Male Viera will come out with Endwalker and Female Hrothgar will come with 6.0
@@arandomcheese Edit, not for long, due to time constraints they could only get one side of it out in time, male viera are coming in november with 6.0 female hrothgar down the road soon after
Bunny girls eh? I guess I'll have to try this game, lol.
As someone who has tried many mmos with friends and has never really been able to get into them, the story in ffxiv has really grabbed my attention and allowed me to really get into it. The combat is indeed pretty basic at the start but as someone who always feels overwhelmed when I see massive hotbars full of icons its been very nice to slowly build up to having more skills. Thank you very much for this video, it convinced me to give the game a try and I am really loving it, and finally have a game I can play with all my friends!
I started FF14 in August 2020. It's my first MMO and FF game, so all of it was a brand new experience for me so the early game monotony didn't really bother me that much because basically everything I was doing was new for me. Having now finished Shadowbringers and catching up to the current patch now, the whole experience has been absolutely delightful.
That being said, I really like the point you made how veteran MMO players would be more off put by the slow start than an MMO newbie like me. The biggest thing is to come into the game with a lot of patience and just enjoy the ride. The game is much more rewarding that way.
Same!!! The community overall is super sweet as well :)
As someone who's played WoW from classic to cata, skip MoP, then WoD to BfA and now tried Shadowlands, as well as played GW2 from release to its 2nd xpac without a break, and only starting FF14 at the beginning of 2020; it's a remarkable MMO. Incoming wall of text why (and this isn't even going through every part of the games).
WoW for me has lost its charm, I've tried going back but it just doesn't satisfy me the same way. I thought FF14's combat would be an issue, but after experiencing tanking SoS extreme (one of its newest trials/single boss fights in last patch, which is... lost for words to describe how amazing it is) and now experiencing DPSing in normal raids; WoW's raiding experience and combat is struggling for me to be compared, especially when each boss in FF14 is worthy of a last boss in a raid on mythic in how epic it is. And it has MAAAANY bosses, old bosses that can still be played as if they were somewhat new.
FF14's bosses are masterpieces onto themselves. Sure, just like WoW they have a continuous theme (boss has tankbuster, boss does a huge AoE you have to diminish its damage), but there's so much more to them. Each boss fight feels GRAND, big effects, NEW effects and animations even, lots of telegraphs and movement, epic voice acting, cinematic epicness, music being tailored for these fights and some getting soundtracks that after doing them a while, each note you can sub-consciously know what part of the fight you're in. The bosses are literal dances you learn and repeat until you perfect them, and each job (class) and role makes the dance different. Each part of the dance you fail will punish you severely and it gets more punishing each time you do.
Its combat is "slower", but by god does it get way more depth than WoW. WoW has a fast GCD, but what I realized when I got back to WoW is that it's actually not to its benefit. It's so fast WoW can't have too many abilities or complex rotations or it simply gets too much. FF14 on the other hand has perfected the pace so that just playing a tank like paladin you got about 9-10 abilities to rotate for damage, nevermind 2 additional of those being buffs for two different rotation styles and some abilities are combos or activated by certain ones, etc, then you got mitigations and a whole buttloud of utility. But its DPS alone matches a main DPS class/spec in WoW and when you go for DPS in FF14 it only gets crazier from there. And that's not to discourage anyone who's casual (although you may wanna perfect your keybinding game), the slower GCD is what makes it more possible for your brain to process more depth and the pace feels really nice.
Now GW2 is hard to compare to either, it's very different. Imo GW2 does quite a few things better which I miss, such as fates in FF14 is a far cry from event system in GW2 and both WoW and FF14 can't even try to compare to its open world and how engaging it is. The combat and bosses (as well as raids) is quite fun in GW2 as well and very engaging. Here you got even fewer abilities but each matter and if it's not your cup of tea, then try out classes that gets the option. Not to mention FF14's menu, bag and selling item management is abysmal compared to WoW or especially GW2 where its ease of use should be the standard for a lot of games. But it's manageable, atleast the crafting bit of this game is a game by itself than a secondary thing you "just do" which even GW2 suffers.
That said what made me stop GW2 is I miss the vertical progression and that new patch brought something significant and meaty to last for a while, which sadly, GW2's content doesn't after repeating it for a while and a lot of their new stuff to unlock (the transmog/glamor game) is behind its store. You can convert gold to gems to buy things, but it's not as fun farming stuff simply for gold instead of farming something for what it drops. If they'd fixed that then I may still play it cause its content is fun, but that's the bane of being a B2P MMO with no sub.
Either way, FF14 is definitely worth giving a try if you've played either of these MMO's, maybe not so much if you still love GW2 and never liked the WoW style of MMO, but if you're like me that can appreciate both, you can appreciate FF14 or if you simply played WoW, then for me there's merit in playing it, even if the more eastern/anime style might be off-putting at first (it was for me), you get over it or atleast realize there's a lot more western fantasy than you thought. Only thing WoW is way better is the dungeons and their replayability, but hopefully FF14 fixes that in the future. And then not to talk about the story, GW2 offers a more engaging one than WoW, but FF14's story makes both look like fanfics and WoW's a children's book to the Lord of the Rings saga, FF14 being the latter, and imo beats many single player games with story focus. Which helps in connecting with the world, the bosses you fight, the areas you go to and it overall just feeling more mature.
Woah, such detail, well done!
@@merai4024 fr tho
@@lsoso3873 im confused about what you said, whats fr?
@@merai4024 "for real"
@@tjongdavid1921 whats wrong with "The Glacier"? especially being original, have seen only once in the last 6 years.
Should you play FF14 in 2021?
Short answer: Yes.
Long answer: Sickness must be purged so yes.
THIS WILL BE A MERCY
@@dustintheslayer DOWN WITH YOU
SLOPPEH!
SUCH DEVASTATION
I recently started this game based on a recommendation from a friend. Played a few hours but didn't get into it. I then picked it up again after being frustrated with Destiny 2 and fell in love. I dropped a few hundred hours into it in a matter of like 3-4 weeks and still super into. Definite recommend.
Is it easy to understand because when I played destiny 2 I deleted it because I never knew what I was doing. Or maybe tell me which video to watch to understand before downloading.
Hahaha I legit just downloaded this cause im burnt out on destiny 2
Destiny 2 felt very disjointed to me and dailies were frustrating to get done with the speed runners you had to keep up with. I liked some of it, but I'd rather just play Warframe if I was to play something similar. Been playing FF14 for years now and can't wait for the next expansion coming. You're getting in at a great time. the current stuff is awesome.
Lol everyone I've talked to got into FF 14 because of destiny 2 burnout
@@NeonVulcan boutta download it because im burnt out on d2
The path from coin-picker-upper to god-slayer is a long one but it is so satisfying. If you're looking for instant gratification don't play FFXIV. If you're looking for a game that you will devote years of your life to, give it a try.
Wow, this one did it for me. Thank you 😊
If you're willing to devote years of your life then just play WOW. That is the thing, WOW is the top when it comes to mmos but I don't wanna spend 10 hours per day on a game giving that i'm 21 years old.
@@vonbl3 you play WOW if you want a toxic community and poor support from Activision Blizzard
@@HayatoEvoker Maybe your server was toxic. I play WOW on a fully packed server with some great people. I’ve had numerous interactions with extremely helpful and friendly strangers in game as well. The fact is no other MMORPG can top WOW’s gameplay and graphics. Period.
@@cugglymonster No other MMORPG can top WoW's graphics? lol. The point and click combat system is kind of outdated as well...
This made me want to go keep playing FFXIV, but patch maintenance had other plans
Same dude, same
@Dave Wavy yeah, you can blame square enix for that
I started in Spring 2020 - despite the *coughcough*-situation going on this was certainly a good year for finding and falling in love with a new game - after 13 wasted years of WoW (no, I'm not exaggerating...), and a little Guild Wars 2 on the side. You are right about the slow combat during beginner levels: I have maxed out all my jobs and I can tell you, its a shock every time again when I run low level dungeons in sync-mode and lose what feels like 90% of my skills! And yes, this game is about the adventurer's journey: you start out as some no-name nobody, you make yourself known as being reliable and, as is stated in one of these low-level quests, people come to you with more dangerous jobs later on. And I absolutely dont mind cutscenes, I enjoy them actually and I find them helpful for the whole immersion thing.
Having said that, this game is not for everyone, you're totally right there. For me it was blessing: I started with a free trial (back then is was till you reached lvl 35, but you could switch to the other jobs and level them, so there was a lot of game time involved), but after a single day I got myself the complete game with all expansions. They were at a discount, too, which helped ;) And I haven't looked back since.
I've played dozens of MMO's - an embarrassing amount of MMO's - FFXIV is hands down my favorite. Period. One of the best plot lines of any video game I've ever played, super nice community, gorgeous graphics and music, everything on one character, best crafting system, ect...
As someone who's had absolutely no experience with MMOs prior to FFXIV, the slow start was a pretty good thing for me. I was constantly overwhelmed by all the things I could do and it was a good thing that I didn't need to concern myself with minute long rotations in the beginning.
Levelling up your second class you will leave that stage of slowly pressing three buttons rather quickly because you have a EXP boost for every class that isn't your strongest one and a few other ways to boost it even more.
One thing I'd like to say about FFXIV is that the devs clearly love the game and support the players. So often they will see the players take to a particular aspect of the game, even when it was just some minor throwaway element, and their response is "You like that? Ok, we'll explore it further". I don't know of any lead game designer as beloved by the player base as Yoshi-P.
2 years later and you are still completely right. ive started playing near the end of heavensward and i feel extremely lucky to have found a game where the team genuinely cares about the game and its playerbase. the game has some faults, i would never deny that- but this is a true product of passion, love and talent
ive spent a lot of time playing other games where the devs didnt give nearly as much of a damn: overwatch (1 and 2), tf2, even wow. i dont regret that time (cumulatively over 6k hours with tf2 sitting at 4k of those) but i do feel sad these games and their playerbases were treated like shit by greedy corporations. tf2 could have been THE fps, overwatch was supposed to be the chosen one, as for wow watching as blizzard made terrible decision after terrible decision was too much for me i had to drop it. i spent good money on overwatch (both 1 and 2) because i was invested in the game's rebirth and success, but after the pve lies reveal i dropped it out of self-respect. im not saying all this to rant about games i loved, just trying to make a point: we are lucky to have such a dedicated, passionate and caring team working on XIV
as corny as it sounds, ffxiv is one of these things i'm genuinely glad i got to experience in life and makes me glad i was born. its not the only thing, and i wouldnt tell this to people who know me irl since they wouldnt understand. but i feel as though i can say it to someone who gets it. anyway tldr i agree LOL
@@117lyrics And 2 years later my opinion hasn't changed in any way. Glad you are enjoying it too. :3
"appreciate the journey more than the destination"
Lord knows I follow this advice closely. I've had the the game over a year now. It's my first and only mmo. With breaks I've had at least a year of subscription and I just finished heavensward. 2 reasons for the slow progress; firstly I'm easily distracted and I love the side content. So much to do and they each have their own mini storyline that makes it all fun. And the market is a blast. Knowing that the items you make were actually purchased by another living person rather than a machine is great for those who like business management games. I actually prefer crafting to dungeons and fighting. Secondly I like having the main questline there. It gives me a sense of purpose like there's always something important to do that must be done compared to the side quests that feel more like a bonus. I know there's endgame content and all the side quests I'm doing now will still be there but I just like having that main questline there so I'm in no hurry to finish it. It's an awesome game.
Yeah I think this was something left out of this review...the non-combat roles are just as robust as the combat classes. Complete with their own levels, quests and abilities. Quite remarkable, really. Get tired of fighting all the time? Level up your fisherman skills for a while, or become a chef, or pick some flowers lol. It's actually much more engaging than it sounds.
I have started playing it by the end of october. I'm taking my time to play it and I am not disappointed at all! It's my first MMO so I was a bit scared about not fitting in and screwing up my team in the dungeons. But so far, I only had one "bad" experience with other players (in Cutter's cry where I discovered the one-shot death by walking into a sand hole i didn't notice :p My party was not happy because I didn't know how to respawn. I was scolded a bit but not in a big way so i was ok). The community is generally really nice and willing to help the new players like me.
So far, even though ARR is considered the weakest part, I am enjoying it a lot. You can easily find people for the dungeons and there are ton of things to do... like really, between the long main quest ,the side quests and dungeons to do , the games in the Golden Saucer and so on, you can spend hours and hours in the game.
For those of you who are like me, a casual player, i confirm that this MMO is the best to start one since the game teaches the mechanics little by little and the story and the general universe of the game is really developped and interesting.
Downloading it right now, I hope it works out for me as a game because i'm dealing with a lot of shit medically and could really use an escape that's not a competitive FPS shooter.
if you’re on the aether data center, lmk! i’d be down to play with some newbies for a few hours and help ya around
@@maxoweenie I’d join too
@@maxoweenie I'm on Primal ( Famfrit ) my character's name is Deebee Cooper , hit me up! If you can't cause of the data center thing I understand, take it easy!
i can make a new character on primal, i’m constantly making new ones ahah. i’ll hit u up if i do and ur online!
What are you dealing with, can I ask? I'm a dialysis patient myself. Had a heart attack a couple years ago, too - have 3 stents in my heart. Also, diabetes. Yup, I'm a wreck. I game to relax, and if you need a stranger to talk to about what you're going through, I'm a good one. Let me know, for reals.
"I'm gonna get a lot of hate for this, the combat is great...... eventually"
I had to convince my friends to suffer through the first 30 levels just to get the job stone and actually have fun xD
Why am I watching this even though I play it every day HAHAHAH
Because... that's what we XIV players do =D
You're mine kitayuki
"I'll get hate for this.... the combat's good EVENTUALLY."
me: no no you're right and you should say it
like I get getting moves slowly but come ON
obviously I had enough fun at lower levels to get to where I am now (maxed out DRG, level 73 RDM, etc.) but I imagine I stuck around for the story over combat lol
I would also like to add that the Devs for this game are amazing, for example not to long ago they added in flying to the 2.0 areas(The starting areas if you will) the devs did this in their own time as a gift to the players
Also when the Vierra and Hrothgar races came out, due to system and time constraints, old helmets hadn't been modeled. The team freely spent time doing hundreds upon hundreds of assets and just added them into a patch.
I've been playing this for over six years and I've never found another MMO that I have considered as high quality as this. It's a great starter MMO but also has enough end game content such as dungeons, Raids and extreme trials (Boss fights) to keep you hooked. The gear progression is satisfying and the game is always recieving new patches with more stuff to look forward to. (The new expansions are entire new games worth of content)
The social aspect is brilliant, people on your friends list, free companies (Essentially Guilds), player housing that you can decorate and open up to others. The friends you make will quickly become one of your largest reasons for logging in.
The story and lore are rich and interesting, and there are also seasonal events with free items to get. Many of which are outfit pieces that you can use to dress your character up how you want with the glamour system so you can look how you want whilst being able to still play everything.
This is a great game, please please try it!
How do you make friends on ffxiv? I dont have any mic and also I play on japanese server bc im in australia lol
@@IWantToStayAtYourHouse Not entirely sure where you started, but there should be a server English players usually flock to when playing JP, not that it really matters except for the FC you play.
Personally, I liked the slow burn kind of start. Starting as a nobody adventurer with a weapon, one attack skill, and a dream. Doing minor tasks to build your skill set and reputation, which become grander and grander with each one. The best part is that the world takes notice! Your story inspires your fellow adventurers and songs are written about you. You even get fans! Your people respect and love you while your enemies dread and fear meeting you on the battlefield. It makes me feel important to the world. Like I really am the Hero. Which makes certain losses hit even harder...
Come, a smile better suits a hero :)
@@Bee-es1ys That hurt right in the feels.
"Starting as a nobody adventurer with a weapon, one attack skill, and a dream."
I remember when WoW was like this. It has changed a lot. I left in Cata, and recently was convinced to come back. I started a new character and I find it amazing how soon I was recognized as a champion. Do the NPCs not realize that this character is only an hour old?
Sounds very epic, but that is exactly why i quit, its painful for me, too boring and slow.
these things may or may not be intentional, but I really enjoy how they use they meta in the story, like in the beginning, I almost think that the tedium is almost a test of us, to see if WE the player is deserving of becoming the warrior of light just like our character needs to help the starting city to be on their journey. there are other examples, but after watching this video, that really stuck out to me in retrospect
The answer is obviously. I just hope you get better frames than this guy.
I get better frames and I play it on a Mac lol
@@derwaat3623 uh, what?
I feel like giving to his Patreon so he can get a better PC
It could be his recording quality being shit.
@@rebelsroguesco She gets a better framerate, and she plays on an Apple Computer.
i love how someone outside of ffxiv says we have a high detailed character creator and if you speak to any ff player they just want more xD
*cries in vieara-hairstyles*
GW2's customization spoiled me when I played it during one of my FFXIV breaks. It's hard for me to like FFXIV's customization now as a result. Game itself is still fun tho.
I’m woefully unprepared with my ocd to make a character.
Started playing this a month ago. First ever multiplayer RPG ever! Has been great fun to build up and figure out how to play in team rather than solo all the time!
Should I buy it? I never played an mmo rpg
@@markiss69 bro u can get the base game and first expansion and play for free. U got first 150 hours of gameplay for free.
@@AstonMartinStig yeah im playing the free version
@@markiss69 honestly I’d just stick with the free version unless you are desperate to join a FC or use retainers
I ended up buying the full version to join my FC but otherwise there is loads to do without it
I would deffo try it out though. As someone who likes story heavy it’s the ideal MMORPG for me
Would def recommend for new players, the story is great! After playing since before ARR, I’m getting bored of the redundant content. However the new expansion might change my mind! Just my opinion though!
I wish I had the experience of playing each xpac and patch on release. MSQ catch up is too long at this point and ruined my enjoyment. Similar to Scarra's recent playthrough, I couldn't take so much text and errands in Stormblood and skipped. Shadowbringers is so much better in all regards.
Your criticisms are all on point. I tried this game in like 2014-15 got to level 20 and tapped out cause i felt it was excruciatingly boring. I went back to wow after that, then around the time of dreanor I soft quit WoW and looked around for another mmo to fill my time. I was seeing all the buzz for FXIV: Stormblood and was confused by it cause of my initial experience. After no luck on finding any MMOs I found enjoyable I decide to give FF a second shot (also after seeing the consensus on the early game being boring) and sure enough once i got through the initial content slog, the game had a hard shift and I got invested. Now its my primary mmo.
Also cause how content drops are paced it actually give me windows to take a break and not which I find keeps the times i am playing refreshing.
Great review and I highly agree that the game doesn’t have a good start. First 10hrs of the game is boring. That’s what I thought at first though, when I started this game almost 2 yrs ago. But then I changed my mindset, and played the game and tried to look at the journey and experience going through everything rather than catching up quick. I did everything the game has to offer except for savage and ultimate until I caught up. And man it feels great and nostalgic tbh. When you go back to those old zones, it felt great and you actually starts missing the days when you were just new and everything was so exciting still because there were a lot to cover and adventure to take. Right now, Im an ultimate raider, cleared all the hardest raids and content the game has to offer and i didn’t regret that I took my time with this game. People who wants to play this game shouldnt have their mind set on catching up quickly. Trust me, it’s the journey going there that’s great about this game, the story, characters and plot twists that you’ll encounter along the way. The world is very well developed, the sidequests, although not so important and you wont miss out anything on the story if you didn’t do it, are still great and adds to the character and world building. But the sidequests are a must though, it’s just to good and you’ll know more about the world of eorzea and its people.
And don't forget to join the seasonal events, more often than not, they short, fun and worth your time since they give prizes that'll stick to that character like outfits, maybe mounts, or emotes!
You're not wrong about the combat. It starts off VERY slow, especially with its longer than normal global cooldown. It's not until you get off GCD abilities to weave in between them that it starts becoming more engaging.
I laughed and told my buddy after completing ARR, the tutorial was over and we can finally start playing 😂😂😂
@@roguenpc5574 I mean... You're not wrong >_>
I've played FFXIV for years, and I really adore the game. The beginning is definitely slow. Both the story and the combat take a while to get going, but once they do, they're both very satisfying to me.
One of FFXIV's really solid strengths is its world and lore. The starting zones are filled with environmental storytelling, with even the names of certain places having lore-based history. For instance, outside the starting city shown in the video, there are a set of seemingly unimportant steps outside the gate. These are called The Eighty Sins of Sasamo. It's named after a princess of the country who tried to overthrow the king. Her punishment was to walk those steps eighty times a day for eighty days. On the very last day, after completing her final step, she fell over dead from exhaustion. It's the sort of thing that doesn't need to be there, but it is. The world is filled with little bits of history like that.
The other big thing to me, other than some of the mechanical aspects, is just how few bugs there are in the game. The lack of bugs in this game has spoiled me on just about every other MMO. Everything works, every time. There are tiny bugs here and there, but they're few and almost never impactful to 99% of players. Nothing feels half-assed. Some systems may feel a bit unsatisfying, but they're never just slapped on there.
Every job is viable in endgame, almost to a fault. You can take any job into the most difficult of endgame content and never be hampering your team. On the other hand, the jobs feel almost too balanced. None bring anything special to the team. In an effort to make sure no one is left out, they've also made it so that nobody is special. I'm someone who appreciates a bit of jank in my jobs/classes. I like abilities that have niche uses, or are kind of useless but feel very true to the class fantasy. There used to be those elements, but they've been removed over successive expansions. To a new player, they'd never even notice it, so I'm probably just being a salty vet.
With the free trial, it's extremely easy to try the game out and see if it clicks. It's certainly not for everyone, but if it's for you you'll be glad you tried it out.
Oh, and please try to ignore how awful the account creation process is. It's awful, and this is the IMPROVED system. SE, it's 2021. Stop using the best system 1995 can provide.
That's insane that ff14 went from the 5th rank mmo to #1 in less than a year with no major expansion
ya i know eh? i played ff14 when it first came out and gave up, now i'm like SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY
The fact they are not creating expansions as regularly as other games is exactly why they are succeeding. The common old formula creates "content". Content at a pace over 90% of players can not keep up with just ruins the game. You end up with crazy power creep and idiots making excuses which are decades old autistically.
@Colin Deal There are two core problems MMORPG's face. One is the Old Server Problem. This is when the economy has inflated to a level new players or even regulars who have been playing for years can not keep up with. This problem is always caused by the same types of crooked practices. Leveling is made impossible past a specific level. Which results in the higher level items which are valuable being forever out of the reach of most players. In the game Shaiya leveling from 50 to 60 was impossible. In Fly for Fun leveling from 50 to 60 were extremely prohibitive levels. Every game which decides to give new players the option to start at a higher level looses most of their player base. Because, the few people who actually succeeded in the game suddenly feel like their effort was wasted. So that does not solve the problem. Adding a method so players will get a percentage more experience for partying results in a few percentage of the user base who were not previously max level to reach that level without loosing users. Adding new skills to every class breaths new life into a game encouraging players to start a new character from level 1 to enjoy the new content. Some also just Skill Reset without creating a new character enjoying the new content that way. Particularly, good Aoe skills added to classes which previously did not have them helps these classes out quite a bit.
Just started yesturday, put in 8 hours and am at lvl 18 arcanist. Honestly really liking it so far. I decided to go in slow with this one unlike with others (wow, eso) where I usually rushed through everything. I've been doing every single quest and reading every text prompt and, ngl, the story is fairly interesting even fro the get go. Also I appreciate the slower start especially in terms mechanics. It has been very helpful for learning the skills and experimenting with the best order, as well as practicing managing casting, dodging aoe and healing. Still I thumble my buttons more often than not so good thing there's more time to get used to them.
important for new players: this is a game developed as a final fantasy first and a mmo second. so dont complain about rushing the story and complaining about no content. the story is the content
If we're talking about longest cutscenes Star Ocean: Last Hope. Sat there for almost an hours for an ending scene + credits and more scenes
There’s an story required dungeon that is also on the daily dungeon roulettes, that is 75% cutscenes at about 45 minutes a run. And is IMMEDIATELY followed by an hour and a half string of cutscenes to end game.
Trust me. We know
@@SquabsMcGee it's so wild that they thought prae was a good idea. So damn happy they never did that again
@@SquabsMcGee Praetorium baby.
Ive recently picked up this game and i gotta say, its acually a quite enjoyable experience. I really enjoy how you can pick up every job on one character, which made me put some acual effort into creating my main. Only lvl 30 at this point, but now that ive unlock my advanced job the combat gets quite a bit more interesting. Excited to see what the game has in store
Over 2000 days of subscription, and here I am watching videos of "should I play?" He's right though, its a slow start. And as someone who started in 1.0 back in 2011, I can confirm that while very pretty, original FFXIV was a beast of a game that made computers of the time (launched in 2010) a hell of a rough time. Even today, playing what little of Legacy is available for play, my brand new gaming rig feels the squeeze in densely packed areas.
Current FFXIV is very friendly to PC's though, with a myriad of options to allow even rather weak PCs to play and still have a good time. And with third party shaders that, while not officially supported by SquEnix, are permitted to continue existing and can really make the game look just as good as any current game. Not bad for a game originally from 2010 and redone in 2013!
And yep, story is key. I do wish at times that players could experience the Legacy content again, despite the horrors of Legacy gameplay, as it had some solid stuff. Not to mention watching a MOON descend on you and knowing that the game will end when it hits and there is nothing you can do about it... that was some unique stuff I will never forget. Expect to have many inter-weaving tales told as you journey from "random idiot bumbling their way into town" to "hero and savior of countless legions, liberator of lands across time and space, and stealer of pants."
Not bad for a game I picked up on a whim in early 2011 thinking "Hm. Cute catgirls. Well I can give it a try."
If there's one thing that's crazy unique and high quality about this game is its soundtrack, especially as the expansions move along. Soken is a musical madman that dabbles in all sorts of genres and seems to be able to pull off amazing shit 90% of the time. If you've never listened to this game's soundtrack just search "ffxiv ost" and listen to some of the examples.
Totally this. You get the banging rock theme sung in gobbiespeak "Metal" from the Alexander raids, the J-Pop "Oblivion" from Shiva, and the booming orchestra of "Worm's Tail" from Shinryu. The music in boss fights is so stellar with such a variety it's ridiculous.
Don't need to watch this. Already know the answer is hell yea. 2021 is gonna work to bring us into the next expansion. This year is the most important year for the current expansion. The next updates will all work towards whatever the next plot line is. Which I assume is gonna deal with that big cliffhanger they just left us on in 5.35
When I first started playing this back in August 2020, I had to force myself to play for three straight weeks because my best friend and boyfriend told me I wasn't giving it a fair chance.... well, now I'm addicted. I play it ever single day for hours on end. Not to mention that I have two characters. xD
I haven't been able to get past a few days of trying it. I'm so bored! Sucks that it takes so long for it to get any good at all.
@@off-meta-michael What job are you playing? Some are quite slow at the start but you can change whenever you like so maybe try some out? It doesn't take *too* long I don't think, I started two months ago and I've already finished the msq and I'm working on levelling new jobs. There's a slow point at level 50 but after that it's so bloody gooooood.
Try to at least get to heavensward expansion, the story is amazing. Admittedly, the content in ARR is slow, but better than it used to be 😂
This was _exactly_ what I was looking for, I've been bouncing off of FFXIV every other month. I felt like I must have been losing my mind, the early game was so unapproachable and boring, but I'm glad to know that I wasn't alone in that opinion. I'm level 51 now, I'm starting to get a feel for the game, so I'm just going to keep pushing through it.
You still playing?
@@ChrisParkerLFC Yeah! I’m even making TH-cam videos about FFXIV now, lol.
Bought a usb splitter, keyboard and mouse and I've been loving it for the past couple days. Only level 25 but I've been really enjoying it on ps4 despite it being pretty slowly paced. I had an old character that only had a couple hours in but I didn't mind paying that 1 month to start again and try it out properly this time and I'm super happy I did.
Race is not a purely aesthetic choice, every race has their own starting stats (granted they don't really make a difference in the late game)
I knew this would not be your kind of MMO, and yet you made one of the best and most accurate review of the game I have seen. Great review! A lot of reviewers and influencers covers the game's story and combat in praises but completely brush over how crushingly slow both aspects are the beginning, and how long it stays that way before picking up the pace. FFXIV is my favorite MMORPG and yet I find the game really hard to recommend due to those issues.
Just started this game a few days ago. Played every other FF game so it was destined to happen eventually.
How does it feel so far?
Small nitpick, you said you were going to talk about the other two races and didn't do that. Good, clear and concise vid overall. I've certainly been side-eyeing FFXIV for a while now and I love the more classic look you can give your characters. If anything though I like making multiple characters, giving them their own personality and flair. FFXIV has a player base that is rather...I'll say "quite immersed" in the game even for an mmo to a point that makes me a bit concerned.
Maybe by 'later' he means after he's finished the trial content and (possibly) subscribes? Later video, I mean.
It's a very fair conclusion you give. It starts extremely slow, and that's its mayor drawback. Once you get through it you'll be so rewarded.
After the reworks, I made a new character just to try out the story again from start to finish.
Taking it very slow, it took me about 200 hours to reach the end of Shadowbringers, about 30 to 40 was the initial slog.
While less than 25% of the experience in my case, I did take it rather slow, so you can get through it quicker with less detours.
Thank you for this. Really. I was on the hedge whether to get this but you convinced me, who has been playing MMOs for more than 15 years now.
Should you play? If you like an MMO you can play solo, but can also team with people for fun content, yes, absolutely. It's lots of fun and quite pretty. Been playing since the dark ages of the original release of the game's alpha, and it's changed a LOT. The game also plays very well on controller, something a lot of MMOs don't do well if at all, which is nice.
Thanks for the honest review I think im gonna go for it!
This man showing paladin gameplay the entire time, I see you. (gladiator i know but it BECOMES the paladin). Literally my favorite class because of the wings...... omg the wingsssssssssss..............
I actually am gonna try the free trial of this game--had a bunch of discord buddies talk me into it, but I saw this vid and wanted your opinion too. Glad you mentioned it's got a slow start so I'm forewarned. X'D
Just a heads up if your playing from now on for a few weeks and maybe months it will be overly busy
For me the very long cut scenes is one of the reasons I liked this game. The story is amazing for me and unexpected, couldn't wait for the next part. And I stayed level 20 for weeks, doing all the stuff that apparently ppl find tedious, for me the early discovery and selling things on the market were really enjoying. I even bought my own home at lvl25. I went to all kind of places and I was never in a rush to get to the end game, which I never reach yet tbh, but there isnt a week I dont think I maybe should pick it up again, its just too much games on the market and I want to try all kind of games, so its hard to dedicate to a game that deserves dedication, Im afraid to dedicate too much time to on one game after wow. I really missed a lot of good games cause all I played was WoW, so now Im a really careful to give all my time to 1 game, but for sure ff14 is a great game which I cant forget and maybe I have to decide to give it some of my time again.
Haha, you sound like me describing my playthrough of Skyrim (never did "beat" the game, but I loved every min of those 1k hours I spent doing my own thing).
I love that the devs stress that taking a break from FFXIV is a good thing. That they're happy for players to do other things in between patches. And I like that when you play, you're doing what you enjoy. There's so much content-plenty for each player to find something they enjoy, and just vibe.
I been seeing this mmo EVERYWHERE 😭 seems so fun and welcoming??
It’s a shame that my laptop can’t handle it
Here’s hoping to get a better gaming(?) desktop some where next year so I can see what is all hype about
You can play it on ps4 so your gaming pc doesnt have to be thaaaat good
I ran it on medium settings on a 5 year old office laptop. If your cpu can handle DirectX 11 you can play it.
I will give it a try. I like the idea of slowly progressing, it gives you time to know the game better. I was looking for a game to start and i found BDO while it had the season servers. Although it sounded good for new players to close the gap, it was very overwhelming and stressful. You can reach the lvl in a day but you still know nothing about the game.
Did ya enjoy it? How'd it go?
Josh, you and your content rocks. I think fondly of your Skyrim Bard adventures, and I look forward to your future stuff. Cheers.
I got the trial last night. Excited to try it out this weekend
Damn to think i used to have martial arts lessons from you lol
I still do some martial arts, and i keep up with a healthy diet and work out often.
I miss teaching martial arts, hopefully when covid is over lessons can return for everyone.
Thank you for this. As someone with almost 6k hours into the game (in slightly over 2 years) I can safely say that this is more than just an MMO to many people. For anyone who might be wondering: It is never too late to start, don't be intimidated by the endgame or by the "race" to get there. Enjoy the small details and the slow growth, and the slight increase in difficulty with every passing dungeon and trial. Play it like you play any other FF game, and enjoy the ride. And as a side note, I laughed a little when you said "I'm gonna get some hate for this" before talking about the combat system, but honestly, you won't get any. Every FFXIV player (that I know of, at least) knows that the combat, before a certain level (for some classes it's 60, for some 70), is quite dull and almost tedious. You're gucci, lol. :)
One thing I would like to add to this video, is that A Realm Reborn (ARR), is considered to be the worst part of the game.
The expansions are where this game TRULY shines.
ARR focuses heavily on worldbuilding and making your character important in the world.
Whereas in the expansions, your character already has the reputation from ARR, making for the ability to tell FAR more interesting stories.
So even if ARR turns you off, especially story wise, try to stick around! The first expansion, Heavensward is one my favorite game stories of all time, and Shadowbringers is even better!
ARR goes really slow until the very end but then they hit you with the infamous 1 hour cutscene and shit gets super real
I had no idea the free trial was that much content. definitely going to give it a chance
Short answer YES. But honestly you summed up exactly how I feel about the game and how I described it to anybody I try to get into it, extremely slow start but the biggest and most worthwhile build-up out of any MMO out there.
"With every single new mechanic explained and documented, youll never be sure of what does what" :KEK: tell that to duty finder
Very true, but that said, I don't get pissed about it. I'm happy when I play because I enjoy just about all of the content. Make it a lot easier to tolerate some sprouts being doofuses when I don't feel like I'm doing chores the rest of the day.
Okay im sold, am getting it now just for the stories. I knew bout ffxiv since its first release but didn't bother to play em (cause i was still in highschool back then and couldn't afford em lmao) forgotten bout it now this video got recommended to me, and man im sold.
This video convinced me that I should go delubrum savage again tomorrow
Watched this right after your "100 hour" video. I love that you addressed and restated what you said in that video in regard to a slow start. I just started the free trial and I'm really digging it, just wanted to see what you had to say about it. If the MMO Guru says it's a good choice, then I'm happy with my choice!
Thanks for the up to date video :)
Haven’t tried the game yet but I’m downloading the free trial now. 14min left
Yes please! We'd love to have you
I was like "haha you have the same intro as that other guy I watc-- wait."
"The combat is great... Eventually"
As someone who's dealt with level jumpers, I think this is a good thing. As you level up, you gradually learn new skills and the game gives you time to figure them out and work them into your gameplay instead of overloading yourself with a load of different skills that you have no idea how to use.
This is how pretty much every mmo does it. The difference is that ffxiv does it insanely slowly, that's why every review points this out. It doesn't take 10 hours to learn how to click 2 buttons.
@@Greenleaf_ Not even gonna refute this because it's just factually false for the sake of hyperbole.
Eh, to be honest I used to think this way but I stopped eventually because bad players will always be bad and good players will always be good. I know people who have leveled every job from scratch and are still awful at every one of them. And on the other side I could pick up jobs (i.e. the expansion jobs that literally start level jumped by default) and be good at them somewhat quickly just because I take time to read all the skills and research and practice.
That's why I still side with people who say the process from 1 - 60 or so is way too slow. A good player doesn't need anything even close to that time to learn their job, and the bad players are still going to be bad no matter how long they spend with it.
@@mattsharp6708 More to the point if you grind the teaching process down to 1 10,000 of ideal speed then most people are going to have difficulty retaining it. Slowing down a tutorial to such extremes makes it much harder to learn not easier.
The first chunk of the game took me 5 times quitting and restarting over a 5 year course to FINALLY get through.... it was absolutely brutal and now I'm a super active end game player who draws almost exclusively FFXIV art.
Probably not gonna come back to see this but, ARR and a bit of HW got reworked recently to make the first 50ish levels less of a story grind. and the dungeons got made a bit more straightforward
I think XIV's biggest weakness right now, is that each new expansion brings new jobs. These jobs are all locked behind at LEAST finishing 2.0 A Realm Reborn base game. This can take hundreds of hours if you play it slowly.
As a current player, who has kept up since day one, this is no problem. As a new guy just coming in, wanting to say, play Dancer, they have to go through TONS and TONS of content as a class they don't want to play before getting to what they wanted to do.
With the way the game is set up, I'm not sure how they could approach this in a way that would make all jobs easier to get too as a new player.
While I agree that XIV is one of the best new MMO player friendly experiences, it's also slowly becoming one of the worst new player experiences if the thing you wanted to do is gated by the new expansion.
Regardless, XIV is probably my most played game of all time, and at least in my top 10 games of all time. Highly worth a shot as the first 60 levels are free. Even if you don't like it, you lose nothing by just trying.
At least SAM, RDM, DNC & GNB aren't locked behind MSQ! :3 I've always seen these jobs as rewards instead of required. Someone speeding through might see it as an inconvenience, but every job that's gained by leveling or in HW can be done by another job that's available at character creation ^^ (Save for ROG/NIN but that isn't really required for anything below EX/Savage). If anything, I say that gives them a goal to work towards!
ffxiv biggest weakness is too much UI and global cooldown 3 seconds
@@Dar_Rito I totally agree with you. I'm a new player who only started about a month ago. It took me over 3 days of gameplay to get through a realm reborn as a paladin and now I've switched to red mage. It definitely feels like a reward and like I've earned the privilege to play this class. I noticed since switching brand new players are asking me questions very frequently even though I'm still a sprout. It's a good feeling
@@GamingDualities The UI is customizable and the global cooldown gets better as you progress, plus most jobs get plenty of off globals to weave between globals.
Also melee dps classes tend have a faster GCD closer to 2 seconds at end game.
@@Dar_Rito FFXIV is not made to only play one certain job, you need to give up this old wow ideas. :3
I will say it's the perfect game for WoW people looking to migrate. Veterans of that game will expect some tedium early on. The thing is, the boredom is extremely short lived especially if you get invested in the story, and the "boring parts" are still better than WoWs "boring parts" by a country mile.
It absolutely isn't. It offers none of the things that made people hooked on WoW for decades.
Extremely long cutscenes
Looking at you Prae, with your non skippable >.>
O yes. But yet I do find myself in there multiple time every treasure trove again!
I had to restart the game 3 times. First time: I got bored of the combat system. I quit with level 6. The second time: I got bored of the long cutscenes. I made it to level 20 these time. And now.... I am having a blast with Stormblood content with 3 level 60+ jobs :))) The hardest part is really reaching level 35 and finishing ARR content. But things really get better after 51+. This is now my favorite game and I can’t stop playing it
I just found your channel and came here to see what you say about my fav MMO. LOLOL the "I'm gonna get some hate for this, the combat is great... Eventually." ...so true
8k hours into the game and I can confirm it; yes, it sucks on the starts, but oh boy it gets better. And I mean it, it gets WAY better.
Put simply... Begining of ARR is good (tutorial), middle is aight, gets you to know the characters well, end of ARR level 35/40-50 is very good compared to the begining.... Then there is HEAVENSWARD... That's amazing, everything else after that is better
The problem is that ARR takes literally forever and its a poor experience, so poor that most people quit after 50 hours because they want to commit self harm due to how bad the questing is and how long it takes to "get to the good stuff". Its an unfortunate reality.
@@jonathansoko1085 I see what you mean, personally I enjoyed realm reborn regardless of the endless fetch quests, the environment and the dungeons were a blast for me as it was my first mmo. But yes sadly many people will turn away from it due to the reasons you stated
@@k2x598 The sad thing is, people are not willing to take their time and enjoy a journey, it all about the destination, is this case endgame. But thats not what FFXIV is about. If you sit there counting the hours it take to get to max level... well, then you might try something else :(
I dont really get people who expect to be 1st class warriors and heros from day 1 - the slow pace is actually whats logical.
Lol back when ARR came out there wasn't much to do at end game so they paced the shit out of the story to stall players progress and make sure they didnt rush to end game. Today it just feels awful compared to the expansions so much so that they had to make that part of it F2P due to poor new player retention.
The beginning of the game had me bored beyond measure and wondering why would people pay money for this game, but I kept at it because I wanted to play with my friends who were already end game, and lemme say, about halfway through ARR I was hooked in, no turning back now. My soul belongs to this game, I live for my catgirl, I am so incredibly invested in this story and all these characters, I love playing my class and learning new ones, and also I can't stop fishing for some reason
I just bought the game and now I’m watching this while it downloads lol why am I like this
December 2020: Queue of 12
December 2021: Queue of 12,000 - on a quiet morning
I get the feeling that the expanded trial including the entirety of A Realm Reborn and the award-wining Heavensward expansion up to level 60 for free with no restrictions on playtime... worked.
It worked so good, new players can't even get the trial anymore...
And I was so happy to see that they added male viera. D:
I'm sure enough people have mentioned it already, but you didn't mention how the crafting is its own combat system. That's a huge draw for a lot of people, and leaving it out hurts a lot. I think the video should also go over the endgame in more depth so they know exactly how much is there for them and how worth it it is.
I think that's probably something people should know, yes! The crafting system is pretty fun and engaging, with a lot of dedicated content and a ton of special plots just for it! I was shocked by how different it was when I first started playing, but it's definitely worth a mention.
i'm laughing that you showed off a queue of 12, because the endwalker announcement made them jump up to like, 4,000
And now mfs even stopped selling the game temporarily because there are too many players for the servers to handle 🤣😭
I love this game. I recommend people play it.
*but...*
"Slow start", in terms of the story, to me, includes all of the content before the first expansion. I found most of the story content and delivery jaw-clenchingly bad until late in the content between the base game and Heavensward, and it wasn't until the content between Heavensward and Stormblood, when the cosmology started opening up, that I really fell in love with the game. Of all the games I love, it's definitely the most flawed, to me, but I do love it and am in it for the long haul.
Something else worth noting is that this game does not take itself particularly seriously. It's a far cry from games like TERA, but when there's an opportunity to have a tie-in to another Final Fantasy game or even just another Square-Enix game, FF14 bothers to give it only a token connection to this game's lore. Don't get me wrong - I've enjoyed many of the FF series' recurring elements, but references are one thing and retrospectives are another. This game feels like two games in one, at times - one that takes itself seriously and attempts to have a cohesive setting, as seen in the MSQ, and one that's wacky fun-times, which is pretty much everything outside of the MSQ.
Initially wrote a bad review to ffxiv, I was wrong. gave it another shot after watching this vid, and I am glad I did. Very good story, combat engine, and character development. Thx Josh for doing an honest video of Final Fantasy 14. I will be playing this game for many enjoyable hours I'm sure. Peace
I've been playing FFXIV since back in 2014 and I've always had a hard time NOT recommending the game to friends, but I had a small group that I was constantly playing with the entire time. I was recommended the game directly by a friend of a friend and the leader of one of the biggest guilds on the server I still play on. Because of this I've never really thought about how others might view the early game as I had a very social experience in my first several months, then a few weeks ago I made an alt character and started from scratch just for the hell of it and oh my god is the gameplay tedious for the first 50 levels. Sure it starts to pick up when you reach the end of the story of ARR but holy hell I had forgotten how dull combat was until real mechanics started to get introduced into fights.