I Gave Final Fantasy XIV a Third Chance

I first tried Final Fantasy XIV in October 2020. Like everyone, I wasn’t going out much.

I was burnt out on World of Warcraft. I had also recently completed Final Fantasy XV so an MMO with Final Fantasy worldbuilding and storytelling was right up my street.

I created a Hyur (now a Miqo’te thanks to the free Phial of Fantasia) Lancer after looking up some class videos and deciding that Dragoon was the job for me. I have always enjoyed starting with a melee DPS in MMOs with most of my playtime as Retribution Paladin in WoW and Thief in Guild Wars 2.

I was initially worried about the story being locked behind group content at times. Coming from WoW I had a very mixed experience with random party content. I was happy to find that people in the groups that I joined were helpful and happy to teach me mechanics and help me improve.

The sprout icon next to my name was part of what made me worried initially as it showed the other players that I was new, unskilled, and unworthy to be at their party. But the reality was every player I met patiently waiting for me to watch cutscenes, explaining anything I needed to be aware of in the fight and even advice on when to use certain abilities.

The culture of ensuring sprouts get to experience content properly is wonderful to see, especially with all the new players joining from the Xbox launch recently.

I still haven't joined in on any organized content and my free company is not very active but almost every random group I have joined in my almost 30 days of playtime has been friendly, patient, and welcoming.

And with all that said, honestly, I cannot remember why I stopped playing this time. I was into the post-ARR content. This was a bit of a slog to get through and it felt like progression was stalled. I wasn't invested in any of the characters at this point, certainly not to the degree I am now. I was enjoying the game overall, just not enough compared to other games at the time.

All of this and not wanting to pay for multiple subscription MMOs early into a career change and moving house led to me putting it down for quite some time.

Trying Again

This was a much shorter attempt at getting back into the game. I saw a couple of different videos on YouTube of people raving about the story from Heavensward onward. I gave it another go I knew I was not too far from the start of Heavensward after all.

Again I had an overall positive experience but I played even less this time. Life essentially got in the way again and as I was still playing other games like WoW at the time 2 subscription fees just felt wasteful.

I did get into Heavensward, though admittedly I did not get all that far. I did level up some crafting and gathering professions a little too at this point. The story missions and overall management of crafting and gathering are excellent. They are more than just another way to get some pre-raid gear and leveling them is genuinely enjoyable. I was mainly just completing crafts to level up at this point however so it felt a little tedious, to say the least.

I enjoyed traveling through Dravania with Estinien, who had previously been my favorite part of the Dragoon storyline, and Ysayle. Alphinaud was also starting to grow on me. I found him to be arrogant and idealistic to a fault in ARR, though he was growing from the events unfolding.

I note Alphinaud never loses this idealism but his character growth and understanding of the realities of the world make this trait far more endearing today.

If I had given the game another day or so at this point I think I would have been all in. The reason I say this is because the quest I had just picked up but did not complete was A Knights Calling. For anyone who does not know or has forgotten this is the quest that unlocks The Vault.

I did not know what was around the corner and honestly did not expect to pick up FF XIV again after putting it down a second time.

An (un)fortunate Turn Of Events

Around the end of December 2023 and early January this year I started to experience some health issues. By early February I was pretty much housebound and could not spend much time on my feet or even sat up. An overreaction from my immune system it seems was causing swelling and severe pain in my legs.

I could not spend much time at my PC and while Palworld and completing Final Fantasy X again I required something meatier to get stuck into.

My doctor put me on new medication and told me it was going to be a few weeks. It ended up being about 8 weeks before I was moving about comfortably again.

Then I saw a video about playing Final Fantasy XIV with a controller, an MMO I didn't have to sit at my desk to play, which I already know I enjoyed at least in part seemed like the perfect solution to the immense boredom I was facing.

So I renewed my subscription, loaded up my character, and after rearranging the UI to work with the controller in a way that was comfortable for me I continued.

A new feature was available, I had heard about duty support mainly in comparison to WoW's new follower dungeons. Every time this has been an option since I chose it for the first playthrough as it makes the content so much more immersive.

So we entered the Vault. We defeated the knights that barred our way and then a cutscene played. The bad guy is getting away and we are going to have to give chase, standard stuff I thought.

I was wrong. This was not just another cutscene.

I will avoid spoilers for anyone who has not yet played through this. I will say that this was a defining moment in my experience.

Up until this point, these confrontations had always gone a certain way. One of my favorite parts of Final Fantasy storytelling is how well they telegraph story moments. You kind of know where things are going, and when there is a shock you look back and you can see the hints along the way.

Tidus doesn't trust Seymour, Tifa is worried about Cloud's state of mind and something fishy is going on with the Crystal Braves.

We might not work out exactly what is going to happen, but we had suspicions that all was not as it seemed.

All that to say at no point did I expect that cutscene to end how it did. The following quests had a weight to them I was not expecting.

When I said if I had played just 1 more day last time I would have been in it till the end this is why. The writing had been good until this point for the most part, but now I was personally invested in the outcome. Thordan and his knights had to be stopped.

From here it felt like every aspect of the game got better and better. This has continued until Endwalker. I won’t go into detail about every aspect of the game I love as this article would become a novel.

I know this is a common opinion, but the best part of the game is the story and the characters are all amazing. Thancred and Urianger were characters I didn’t care all that much about until Shadowbringers I'll be honest, but since then Thancred especially is one of my Favorites.

I am not a fan of every change don’t get me wrong. What happened with Yda and Papalymo along with Lyse’s reveal felt a little clunky and rushed.

Some aspects were great the first time. Losing to Zeos the first time was great and made the stakes that much higher, but with Ranjit it felt cheap.

These moments in another game might not have been quite as jarring. In WoW and GW2 we lose fights like we did to Rajit maybe once an expansion at least. This is how they show just how strong the bad guy is.

It's quick and lazy writing like Star Trek writers having a character beat up Worf to show how strong they are.

These moments stand out more here because of how high the bar has been set.

Shadowbringers and Endwalker are both stories that I wish I could erase from my memory and experience again for the first time. I wish I could meet and get to know each of the scions all over again.

I think the last time I felt like this about a game was The Witcher 3. This was the first in that series that I tried. It was also another game I had to try multiple times to get through the beginning but completely fell in love with by the end.

The Takeaway

I have pre-ordered Dawntrail because this game has me hooked.

What has kept me playing is the found family aspect of the Scions story. I don't think any game has made me quite so joyful. Moments of everyone coming together for the greater good, and just genuine goodness that we see all too little in the real world are everywhere in this game.

I think we all play games for escapism at least in part. Darker storylines RPGs like Cyberpunk, Fallout, and The Witcher are among my all-time favorites. The contrast to real life can be good, the day might be hard but at least you don't have to fight a deathclaw on the way home.

Final Fantasy games in general and XIV in particular offer escape into a much brighter world than the one we live in feels like sometimes. Yes, the characters are hopping from one world-ending threat to another, but however hopeless it seems you can't help but believe they will all be okay.

I cannot wait to see where the next 10 years of Final Fantasy XVI take us and I hope to see many of you on the journey.