I’ve always been one to dabble with MMOs, but I’ve never really gotten all the way into any in the past. I used to play a bunch of Guild Wars and Adventure Quest (for which it’s debatable if it’s even an MMO or not), as well as browser-based MMOs like HoboWars and Kingdom of Loathing. However, it’s been a while since I’ve really lost myself in an MMO, despite having dipped my toes in a bunch of different ones.
As you can tell from my list up there, I don’t mind paying for a game (Guild Wars) or paying a one-time premium upgrade (Adventure Quest), but I’ve always shied away from MMOs with monthly subscriptions. One of my friends who loves Final Fantasy FFXIV has been slowly breaking me down for years, though, and a few months ago I decided to take the plunge, buying the deluxe edition with all current expansions and committing to 90 days of game time to give it a real shot. Well, a few months later, it’s easily one of my favorite games of all time.
The base MMO combat mechanics are enjoyable enough, and the story is great for an MMO so far (and, by all accounts, the game’s story gets much, much better than it starts, so that’s saying something). It’s nothing too crazy, but the fundamentals are extremely solid, and the world is filled with a variety of areas and biomes filled with charm. Now that I’ve settled in to the original game, though, I realize the true magic of FFXIV, which lies in the fact that it feels like a true living world.
For one, any time I’m in a town or hub with a lot of other players for any extended amount of time, I’ll find some other random player to mess around with for a few minutes with emotes and dances. This makes the game feel more lively when I have to run through a place I’ve already been a million times. That’s just the beginning, though.
Take The Gold Saucer, the renowned Final Fantasy in-game casino. In FFXIV, I can spend a lot of time in The Gold Saucer alone, playing fun minigames to earn enough currency to enter into that week’s jackpot. On top of that, there are GATEs, which are more involved minigames that remind me of Mario Party minigames. In one, you might have to stay on a platform for as long as possible without being crushed, while another might be a mini 3D platformer. These happen every 20 minutes, so you can spend a lot of time just doing these GATEs. The Gold Saucer has enough content for a respectable game by itself.
On top of that, a lot of the classes play extremely different. For example, crafting classes feel like you’re playing a different game, instead of just clicking a few buttons in a menu. This means that each class/job is a new experience (and indeed has its own questline). Considering that you can be any number of classes on a single character, FFXIV has an impressive amount of ways you can play, no matter what you’re looking for.
When you combine all of these different styles of gameplay with the housing system and all of the different social features, Final Fantasy XIV is pretty close to the mythical “all game” we’ve all dreamed of, where you can do everything you want within one game. Grand Theft Auto V comes close, with all of the different playstyles, but the massively multiplayer world of FFXIV (compared to GTA Online’s instances) gives it the edge, along with the fact that the campaign and the online are merged into one in FFXIV instead of being separate clients.
If you want an “all game” where you can play a bunch of different ways within a single game, give Final Fantasy XIV a try.
