The year has been filled with new and old IPs of great acclaim, yet few have fit such a category as Final Fantasy XIV. Resurrected from the ashes of its much criticized predecessor under the subtitle of "A Realm Reborn," the last numbered installment of Square Enix's legendary JRPG franchise represents a noble attempt at redemption than just a rerelease for the company. I was proud to sample just a small taste of what's to come for the full release while beta testing it on my PS3 this last weekend. I normally haven't ever held a great degree of interest in MMOs or have much experience with them. Can Final Fantasy find its stride in the MMO scape once more? That answer's a lengthy one.
What came before?
My thoughts on Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn admittedly come from someone who never once played Square Enix’s original version 1.0. In short, the game’s previous form didn’t leave players with the greatest of legacies from most reports. The MMO, still off the assembly line, gained a poor reputation for unintuitive user interface, clunky combat, bland environmental design, odd difficulty spikes, nearly impossible navigation, and a variety of bugs. Areas were a mess, lag was unavoidable, and the overall game design was a train-wreck. Following the already divisive reception of Final Fantasy XIII, nearly every review of the game told me to steer clear of it and after Final Fantasy XIV was declared broken by Square Enix themselves, I just about wrote it off. . . that is, until Square Enix’s offer for free Beta testing finally caught my eye this summer. I had heard many a positive word about the change of course that Square Enix had brought to the table with lead designer Yoshi-P (Naoki Yoshida) and after sitting down for a weekend to play it, I can say that he succeeded. While Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn may not be the freshest or most innovative MMO offering available, my experience with Final Fantasy XIV 1.5.9. proved to be quite enjoyable.
What was I expecting?
I was excited to get my hands on A Realm Reborn's Beta after seeing many of Naoki Yoshida's development letters and Alpha video walkthroughs thanks to their promises of a renewed Eorzea. (and especially one thing. . . ridable chocobos!) With a brand new graphics engine, new server allocation, environment redesigns, a completely different interface, easier content mechanics, altered jobs, and more, everything sounded great on paper, but would it work? Square Enix essentially committed itself to creating a whole new MMO, and I wasn't sure they would deliver. I tested the the dramatically improved A Realm Reborn 2.0 version in its fourth and final beta phase and so far, I'm quite pleased with my experience--especially having more classes available. Knowing full well that all character data would face deletion at the phase’s end, I chose to sample as big of a variety of classes and races as I could.
Where Did I venture?
The land of Eorzea is a rich, beautiful setting within the world of Hydaelyn. Even with the Beta’s limited expanse, which can be described as a forest, a desert, and an island, it showed me some of the most incredibly varied and amazing sights I’ve seen in a Final Fantasy and the world pulled me in more than I expected it to. The forest land of Gridania is a thick, lush sprawl of gorgeous, massive trees towering over the sky Endor-style, the deserts are wide-open plains filled with monsters and pretty starlit nights, and the islands are as breathtaking as from real photos. It’s unfortunate that Eorzea nevertheless lacks a particular depth to its towns and people, but its world had such a great amount of freedom for exploration, I ultimately overlooked it. Between all of A Realm Reborn's hilarious NPC dialogue, FATE events, quests and guild-levels, active players, and lush landscapes, I can't say that I didn’t enjoy myself and the world had plenty to offer. The lands may have just survived the calamity, but there is a certain vibrancy to the new world now. The UI is hardly obtrusive and takes a number of visual cues from Final Fantasy XII. It further helps that I don't have to navigate a ton of menus, and the game’s controls fit the PS3‘s controller nicely.
Who did I play as?
Any character is able to swap jobs at level 10, however, I wanted to get a feel for how each class starts off, so I made a hulking, troll of a Hyur Marauder, a fierce Roegadyn Gladiator, a graceful, elven Elezen Conjurer, and a nimble feline Miqo'te archer. The Marauder and Gladiator both felt fairly similar early on, but I ended up spending my time between the two with the Marauder, as I loved its heavier hits. For the Conjurer, ranged attacks worked nicely, but I liked being in the thick of things when I wanted to be. I also spent some time with the Leatherworker class, and though it was obviously less exciting than adventuring and exploring the gorgeous world, there were still enough quirks to it to be interesting.
Naturally, most of my time was spent as an Archer with my childhood love of Robin Hood and was more enjoyable than I expected, especially with my method of shooting and running like the catty coward I was. I eventually reached level 13 with my Miqo’te Archer and meanwhile I noticed was that undertaking multiple classes with a single character seems to provide good benefits to make it worthwhile. Players can take over skills into their other classes, as well as giving players an opportunity to try out new things without having to go through creating an alt. It helped that non-story, low-level quests from other cities were available when teleporting is unlocked, so there was a good motivation to explore these and start afresh with a new class.
How was the battling?
(Screenshot above from Japanese version)
The battle system is great, and the more I learned about it the more I enjoyed it. It was the perfect goldilocks formula of not being too slow or too fast, always giving players something to do but with enough time to think and react to the situations. Between dodging AoE attacks and getting into place for a Heavy Thrust or Bootshine, it puts good emphasis on movement and positioning, keeping things exciting. The game suffers some by following the standardized roles of defensive guy, healer, and the heavy hitter within battle, and it really needs more classes, jobs, equipment, and abilities, but the existing classes are very varied and fun to play.
Outside of battle, crafting and gathering mechanics are some of my favorite things about the game. The classes dedicated to these tasks, the Disciples of the Hand and Disciples of the Land, have a wide range of skills and equipment needed to accomplish their tasks. Due to this, creating items is an interactive and complex process, and learning how to make a quality item can be just as demanding as learning how to clear a dungeon. Building up these skills can be repetitive, but the payoff is worth it. The big qualm I’d have is with the game’s difficulty at acquiring gil, which is essential to using the high charges for teleporting places.
Some might complain that the game feels too generic, but even though the foundation does express that, there are points of A Realm Reborn that make it stand out. The highlights of my experience were a pair of instanced battles, both of which involving me fighting a flood of enemies with only NPCs to assist. In the first one, I had sixteen or so giant crabs after me and two NPCs helping. The second involved a Goobbue ambush, and I was assisted by a Miqo'te Conjurer. Both battles were fairly easy. All I had to do was attack and wait to be healed, but they were great introductions to the system. The latter of the two quests even offered a pinch of the game's story, which was great to see. It felt like a single-player Final Fantasy game during this first part, just one where you could have other help you out if you so desired.
Buddying up?
My impressions were very early on, but I hope this trend of solo content continues as promised throughout the game for us anti-social gamers who don't always feel like teaming up with others. While the game is certainly solo-friendly for the most part, there were quests that required brief team-ups. Fortunately, the duty finder seems to make this a less daunting process, even if it did require a bit of waiting. The usual ten-minute wait I had playing as an Archer (which appeared to be mostly due to a general lack of healers in the Beta) for the duty finder wasn't all that bad as the game is more than happy to let you go off and do something completely different while waiting, and it does guarantee a balanced party for everyone. Party quests were fun and usually successful, in terms of dishing out enjoyment, challenge, and successful completions, even with strangers. There were a few wipes against Ifrit, though. Admittedly, one of which was my fault because I'd forgotten to set the Limit Break action to a hotbar and the PS3 controls aren't overly conducive to doing such things mid-battle. My favorite solo activity, exploring, was pleasantly not hampered much at all by level. At only level seven, I was very underleveled for most areas yet I still managed to venture out into the wilds with level twenty enemies bearing down on me and miraculously surviving, the same even applied in level forty zones with foes that could likely kill me simply by looking at me. I eventually got killed plenty of times, but not before I could find a new safe zone with a giant Aetheryte crystal that could warp me back and forth between zones at any time. Sweet. Then I needed a load of gil to pay for the next trip. Not so sweet.
Note: Final Fantasy XIV’s PS3 version (the version I tested on) runs quite smoothly. It has some obvious limitations with graphics and user interface, but these were minor problems. The basic gamepad controls are fluid and effective, and I felt they were easier to use and more reliable than mouse and keyboard controls. A USB keyboard is still needed for text-based communication, though, but outside of tasks like attempting complex UI switches on the fly, the PS3 controls worked well. Those playing on PS3 will almost certainly want to attach a USB keyboard to chat, but everything else can be handled acceptably by the controller. It’s possible to get a bit lost navigating the UI on the PS3, but it grows significantly easier as time goes by. Since I don't own a computer capable of running most modern games (I own a Mac OSX), I'm glad this version worked so well.
Should You Visit Eorzea?
(Look everyone! A good Final Fantasy MMO!)
After spending an unreasonable amount of hours exploring the new Eorzea, questing in the wilds of Gridania and others, slaying things, and talking to dozens of NPCs, I proudly say that I like A Realm Reborn a good deal. While still clearly an MMO, I never felt forced into teaming up during my sessions. There were many times I thought to myself how much A Realm Reborn felt less like an MMO and more like the multiplayer of a standard Final Fantasy game. It was a perfect fit for the system, especially the controller support The landscape was mesmerizing and in spite of missing a number of final release features introduced to paid players, I did and saw new things each time I logged in. That speaks volumes from a person who’s never been highly experienced in or very interested in MMOs. With so many other games this year and a limited pocket-book, I don't know if Final Fantasy XIV will entice me enough to pay its online fees month after month. What I did play of it was a solid game though and probably the kind I could easily sink weeks of my life into. Only time will tell if it’ll build the kind of good community that World of WarCraft or other rivals of the genre have boasted, but it more than has enough content to keep its players happy in the long run. For now, at least, it’s a journey worth saddling up your chocobo for.
Note: (This game beta tested on PS3)