Category Archives: FFonline

Places I thought I would never revisit: Vana’diel

I don’t know what possessed me this last weeekend to do the unfathomable: re-install FFXI. Yes – that Final Fantasy, the first cross-platform MMORPG that ever was and cradle of my online gaming journey. When I left the game in 2004, I knew I was not to return. WoW was around the corner and I had spent entirely too many painful nights grinding the same mob together with random Japanese players who would only ever invite you back if you stayed for several hours of EXP grind. There was no soloing after level 16, death penalties were harsh and the acquisition of the most basic things, such as your class skills or a zone map, even harsher. FFXI liked to torture new players and frankly humiliate them too. The early gameplay was the opposite of motivating.

Over the years however, I heard much about how the game had become more beginner and casual friendly. A lot of expansion content was added and QoL changes happened, supposedly. New players kept giving the game a go long after it was new which always piqued my curiosity. Did SE really manage to make gameplay more tolerable? There is after all greatness to be found in FFXI: the graphics at the time were top, the scale and feel of the world, the small places, the cities, the soundtrack. They could be worth a second chance. Only one way to find out, I guess.

The 2024 FFXI experience thus far

This is not going to be an early gameplay review because frankly, after finally managing to log into Vana’diel after several hours, I required a week’s break to recover from the shock of the whole process. I had forgotten FFXI’s old adage: the first boss fight in FFXI is the account creation. And much to my chagrin the old Playonline launcher is alive and well.

Account management has never been this company’s forte but I am still surprised they didn’t bother to update the launcher situation for FFXI, when FFXIV is doing pretty okay in this regard. Instantly I was faced with an array of problems that were only tolerable thanks to my previous knowledge and already existing Square Enix account. Just to give you an idea of the hoops you’ll have to jump through before ever getting close to in_game:

  1. Create or have a Square Enix account (thankfully I could skip this!)
  2. Inside the account, create a FFXI service account with extra Playonline password
  3. Choose a subscription, realize you have to separately choose ‘Options’ which means the amount of player characters (you pay for each alt)
  4. Install the Playonline launcher (I used Steam) and launch in admin mode
  5. Meet the update boss; wait for several hours for the game to patch
  6. Meet the DirectX 8.1. boss; go and learn about how to enable legacy options in Windows (thanks Reddit!)
  7. Meet the Playonline launcher boss; navigate through several tiny menus which require different handles and passwords
  8. Realize ENTER is not a thing, figure out the bird cursor and whatever ‘O’ and ‘X’ mean on keyboard (there’s also something that looks like a sprinkle donut)
  9. From the Playonline launcher connect to the FFXI launcher? I don’t know what to call this step
  10. Accept a bunch of terms & conditions, from there enter the actual FFXI start menu
  11. Realize there’s still no settings to let you adjust the horrendous pixelated resolution and tiny window
  12. Google how to change resolution, learn where the config file is in the root folder of the game
  13. Realize everything crashed while you were googling because the game won’t allow Alt-tab outside windowed mode (adjust this too in the config file)
  14. Return to step 4. Start hating the repetitive Playonline jingle that plays incessantly
  15. Finally arrive back at the FFXI start menu, endure several more progress bars and accept some terms & conditions, again
  16. Create a character, learn hairstyles are still bound to faces and there’s still hardly any customization options
  17. Name ugly character, log in
  18. Listen to a 10 minute intro for your starter city (no, there is no skip)
  19. Stare blankly at the UI and return to googling things like ‘where is the context menu’? and ‘how do I adjust the rotating camera from hell’
  20. Log out immediately (actually it takes 30 seconds) and have a drink or three!

Now what do the kids say these days, I have the RECEIPTS for all of it just so you get the idea –

Now I feel like I earned an instant level 20 just for getting through that whole brain-melting ordeal! I don’t know how but they managed to make menu navigation even more tedious and confusing over the years. From the first look at ingame, not much has changed in the UI department either. It’s just silly that you require things like arrow buttons and (‘) to navigate the most basic stuff. They had 22 years to optimize the game for PC and there’s still an active enough player base to release regular content updates.

I have no idea whether this bodes well for what’s to come. Maybe it turns out to be true that you can progress reasonably well solo in FFXI today – or maybe this undertaking was one massive mistake. Time will tell, although I’m not willing to allow for too much of it. If I get killed by a worm or sheep right outside the city gates, again, I may decide that life is too short to give Vana’diel a second shot after all!

Cancelling my FFXIV sub

I’ve not played FFXIV in quite some time, in fact not since before the last expansion concluded. There are still parts of the late Endwalker MSQ I haven’t touched which is also why I’ve abstained from getting Dawntrail this summer. I kept waiting for my feelings to change on this but they have not – looking ahead, all I want to play is more Palworld, Once Human and other titles from the backlog. I imagine this will keep me rather busy the coming months and as long as SE aren’t fundamentally changing their endgame formula that’s that. I’m just rather done with collecting tokens and tomes for more gear.

Naturally, this brings me to the conundrum of my player house. I’ve written about the torturous process of obtaining housing in FFXIV and how it took me 8 years to acquire a small abode. So far, it never bothered me that I was still paying for the FFXIV sub, which is 13 bucks per month, because supporting the game made sense. However as I spend more and more time away from it, I feel less inclined to do so and Bilbo’s words are ringing ever louder in my ears: “I feel I need a holiday, a very long holiday, as I have told you before. Probably a permanent holiday: I don’t expect I shall return. In fact, I don’t mean to.”

Maybe it’s just time to wave the game goodbye and deal with the inevitable regret of losing my ingame real estate. It seems rather silly and trivial as I write this but many of us understand the time investment and attachment that goes with player housing. And yet, everything in the end must go.

I will be cancelling my long standing FFXIV subscription this weekend. In a way this feels like a farewell to classic MMORPGs as FFXIV was the last subscription title I was still paying for. I will have to dwell on this momentous fact some more, methinks…part of me feels compelled to light a candle or something!

For the time being, an old buddy of mine who’s sharing ownership of the house is still playing the expansion and will keep the plot active. This is good. No email notification about its impending demolition will arrive for some time. Sooner or later however, that day will arrive.

FFXIV: Not feeling the Dawntrail

At the start of this month FFXIV released its fifth expansion Dawntrail. The expansion comes with all the usual trimmings in same old FFXIV fashion: new classes, race adjustments or additions, new continents, +10 level cap, more dungeons and raids and of course the continuation of the famed storyline. Down the line, there will be lots and lots of tomes and tokens to grind in exchange for gear and more gear – a system that literally hasn’t changed in ten years and remains the repetetive endgame at the core of Eorzea.

Meanwhile SE have continuously increased the optional content (bloat) around it to a point where I have long lost sight of all the extra features and “games within the game” that make FFXIV rather overwhelming at times. Wanna dive into the various solo and deep dungeons of the game and relive some of that 8bit era nostalgia? Race chocobos and become lord of the Gold Saucer? Win every Triple Triad card game? Return to the old FFXI experience and grind your way through Eureka? Obtain a guild house and build a submarine? Level blue mage? Gain access to Diadem and become a master gatherer and crafter? Build up your personal island sanctuary? Obtain the different relic weapons? Pwn at PVP? The list goes on, completionists talk to your therapist first!

Why I’m not playing right now

To say that I’m not feeling the game right now would be an understatement. I haven’t bought the expansion as I’ve yet to finish the MSQ for Endwalker and I’m likely going to wait for a sale. Reading through the official expansion featurettte nothing strikes my fancy, it’s just a lot more of the same in abundance. Maybe my enthusiasm really ended with beating FFXIV’s unofficial endboss: the housing lottery.

For a moment I thought that leveling one of the new classes might bring me back; ranged magical DPS are usually my thing and the Pictomancer sounded fun in theory. But of course it isn’t – like everything in FFXIV nowadays, from three-page raid boss strategies to 100+ steps relic weapon guides, the newer the class the more nauseating the class mechanics and rotations. A quick look at a guide for dummies just told me two things: I don’t think I want to play a class with animations straight from Kingdom Hearts and I really cba to read 28-lines worth of infotext for a single spell. Much less do I care to commit all of it to memory. I am old – are you crazy?!

I really miss the days when MMOs were simpler. Maybe way down the line I can somehow rekindle my adventurer’s spirit and at least enjoy the new story quests and zone exploration in Dawntrail. Maybe the soundtrack is also worth listening to, that could be good.

The many problems of owning a house in FFXIV

Scrolling through my last few blog posts from two years ago, it occurred to me that I never talked about finally and I mean F-FINALLY getting a house in FFXIV. It happened on April 2nd 2022 in fact. I still know this because the momentous occasion warranted a tweet and big exclamation marks.

Now if you are at all acquainted with FFXIV, you will have heard about its notoriously deplorable housing system. Plots are very limited and before 2022 players would have to cycle through endless tabs of different housing zones in the game’s capitals just to learn if a plot was actually vacant. That was the easy part because then you would have to go and camp that specific plot for hours clicking its placard, together with another 20+ people, hoping the house would be released within an unknown multi-hour window and praying you’d be the timely clicker when it happens. It was truly humiliating.

For this reason many players gave up on housing in FFXIV before a somewhat useful change was rolled out in Endwalker. Instead of camping a placard, you could now enter the ‘lottery’ for your elected plot for a fee and then get notified if you actually won. It’s not a fix of all of FFXIV’s housing problems by a long shot but it solved one of its most egregious aspects. And so it happened that I too won a house after a new housing zone was rolled out in Endwalker. Only took me 8 years to beat the final boss in FFXIV!

And yet, new problems arise once you have your own house. Among them is the requirement to log back in frequent intervals, lest your hard-won abode be demolished by the ingame timer and returned to the lottery pool. 45 days doesn’t sound like much when you’re subscribed and actively playing but it’s short when you’re on hiatus. There’s also no real taking a break from the game and un-subbing for the summer. And I get it, inactive players sitting on land is irksome but that is just another issue the game is creating for the community through artificial housing scarcity.

Nobody in their right mind is going to give up a housing plot they waited 8 years to acquire. You bet am gonna log in every 44 days just to make sure I don’t lose my virtual real estate, even if I loathe the system. That is, until I’m fully fed up and done with the game anyway – a day I feel is slowly but surely approaching!

FFXIV: The much delayed Endwalker verdict

I finished the Endwalker questline sometime around Christmas so this post is laughably late, I know. I am terrible at keeping a schedule and should refrain from ever writing things like “more to come soon”. Alas, at least no one else is writing Endwalker reviews anymore, so I can leave my final impressions without haste. Needless to say at this point, this post contains all the spoilers in the known universe.

Endwalker is a great expansion. I wouldn’t go as far as some and call it the best ever, but it is another wild example of Square doing what they do best which is telling stories. Nobody, and I mean nobody in the world of MMO gaming comes close to their at times Simarillion-level epic storytelling. And oh, does Endwalker lay it on thick! Where Shadowbringers themes were already complex and timelines and parallel worlds would wreck player’s brains at times, Endwalker takes everything up a few notches. Each of the new main characters have at least three different names and as many lives. In fact, no one ever seems to be truly dead in this game as re-incarnation is a thing and we aren’t quite sure what spirits can still do from the forever lifestream. Once more, the warrior of light (WoL) manages to save the world, nay the universe, from ultimate destruction. Square really love the player hero trope but at least they’re going all in. Much to my delight, we also got to meet our old pal Ehmet-Selch much sooner than I ever expected. A special shout-out also to my new homie Hythlodaeus who was another greatly written character this expansion. There’s some fabulous dialogue in Endwalker, beautiful zones and epic battles. All in all, it was a very worthy conclusion to the past 7 years.

Endwalker chilling

That said, the expansion is not without hiccups, some of which I already mentioned in my last post. Pacing is a big one and so are the onerous new ‘follow me quests’ but I am also left with some chagrin about Endwalker’s antagonists. Color me surprised when we already faced and then finished the much hyped Zodiark at level 84. The whole Fandaniel and Zenos exchange was pretty bleh at that point and then Zenos just disappeared until the very end of the expansion, when the game suddenly shoves him back into the player’s face. Rather late into Endwalker we learn about this expansion’s real antagonist: an Entelechi called Meteion who later on becomes a hive mind which culminates in the ultimate destroyer of the universe, the Endsinger. This character goes from annoying and enigmatic to detached alien force and never makes for nearly as compelling a villain as some of the other FFXIV personas. There’s simply not enough time to develop this new character and make players feel either way about him/her/it. It doesn’t feel personal, maybe because it isn’t.

Endwalker Endsinger

What I did enjoy a lot was the Hydaelin prep encounter which featured a fantastic musical track. The Endsinger showdown also made for one of the most visually impressive encounters in the entire game at least. Unfortunately, they had to bring back Zenos after that and things went downhill from there. What would cause such a decision I cannot say but it was mind-boggling that Endwalker would force me into a cartoonish arena-battle with Zenos, not once but twice in a row, shortly after having been through the epic one-hour-or-so Endsinger finale. At this point I felt so deflated, I hated every minute of it. There was no satisfaction in watching Zenos finally get his silly ‘anime death’ – which was probably no death at all again. (I have this theory about Zenos being another shard of Hydaelin’s which would explain why the WoL can never really defeat him as they’re equally matched. I guess time will tell how wrong I am about that!)

Endwalker finale

So that was more or less the Endwalker MSQ before the game went back to its usual pace of tomes and token grinds. Square have been busy releasing updates and holiday events since December and I feel comfortable with the usual tune of things. I love the improvements to Bard and Black Mage and look forward to more 6.1 news soon. I need more bagspace badly and a house, surely I deserve as much after saving the entire universe!

FFXIV: Endwalker First Impressions (no MSQ spoilers)

As I am sitting in another queue at the FFXIV login screen, I decided I may as well put the time to some use and post. Endwalker has been out for a week now for us early access subscribers and it’s not been smooth sailing. Queues have been horrendous which puts a damper on a ton of people’s excitement. I don’t know how it is for US or JAP players but on my high-pop EU server, I either login at noon to be able to play 4-5 hours later or it’s not gonna happen. SE’s queuing tech is incredibly frustrating and you better not get an error during those four hours or chances are you can go re-queue from scratch.

And yes I know, the devs are doing what they can and the hardware shortages due to Covid have basically kicked us in the shins this year – it’s still soulcrushing to sit in fickle queues or get disconnected and have your planned playtime ruined for the rest of the day. I’m no FFXIV late adopter, I’ve been playing this game for 7 years and I really looked forward to Endwalker. Now it sounds like this situation may not be resolved for months. At least SE are communicating with the player base which goes a long way.

My VERY early Endwalker impressions

I’ve been able to get to level 84 on my BLM which is not far at all but has introduced me to the first three zones as well as the first two dungeons and first trial in Endwalker. I’m not going to spoil anything about the main storyline here but leave my overall first impressions which so far, are very mixed.

What struck me is how long this expansion takes to get going. There’s a great number of walking and talking quests before you ever get to see any action and there are pacing issues early on. There’s also an abundance of very long cutscenes that feel more self-indulgent than necessary. It’s clear the devs were having fun with the main cast but I got really tired listening to them exchange pleasantries and juvenile chatter after a while. I don’t know, maybe it’s just me getting impatient to get going after four hours of sitting in queues but I remember Shadowbringers feeling a lot more tight from the get-go.

endwalker cast

The other glaring thing for me is the lack of remarkable music tracks so far. The last expansion greeted us almost instantly with the fantastic themes of Lakeland and the Crystarium, yet I’ve heard nothing remotely as gripping in early Endwalker. I like the new combat tracks and there are some sweet, quieter tracks but nothing that gets the heart beating faster. Alas, I hope there’s a lot more to come and soon! Soundtrack is everything to me in this game.

Another thing that the devs seem to have had fun with is the whole new questing mechanic with NPCs following you around or alternatively you having to follow them and better not lose them. There are added stealth elements sometimes and I’ve had quests fail on me because I missed a cue or then the NPCs aren’t smart enough to join you in battle during the escort. While that can be dealt with, it throws me out of immersion having to do these ‘console gamey intersections’. This is a strong departure from classic MMORPG questing and it’s been used multiple times already in every zone I’ve been to. Clearly, this is a matter of taste but I don’t care for it personally, at all. I hate to think how much more of this is to come ’til level 90.

Now this might sound like I’m being mostly negative about the expansion so far. The truth is, I expect things to get a lot better and I’m confident SE will deliver. I do however also think that after the successes of Shadowbringers, this new expansion has an almost insurmountable amount of expectations riding on it. Add to this the somewhat ungrateful job of wrapping up the entire story-line since the beginning and dealing with all the lose ends. Not an easy task, so I will cut them some slack for having to cover that much ground.

endwalker moon

And that’s it, my very brief first report – several more to come. Above is one of my highlights for now, the moon vista in Endwalker which is truly stunning! This expansion has a darker theme overall which makes beautiful moments like that all the more magical.

FFXIV: Give me your tired and your poor

I think it’s safe to say that 2021 will go down as the year of FFXIV’s third coming. A Realm Reborn being its second coming literally, it was with the release of the Heavensward expansion that Square proved to the world they are still capable of creating wonderful RPG experiences with a mass market appeal – and that they can also deliver this experience as an MMO themepark. The title has been going from strength to strength since and has known a notable influx of new players in 2021, to the point where FFXIV is now officially Square’s most profitable Final Fantasy game in the entire series. The hype is so big that even the father of Final Fantasy, Hironobu Sakaguchi, has started playing the game this fall and is apparently racing through Eorzea like a champ. Good times.

Shadowbringers on Omega

Welcoming Captain Grim to Shadowbringers on Omega

Along with the increasing player base, many more well-known WoW streamers have jumped ship this year which has led me to follow Twitch for the first time ever. Honestly, I never expected that many grown up men to cry over an MMORPG (yes really, it’s everywhere on twitch and youtube), to the point of where several streamers confessed they had forgotten what this genre “was really about”. It’s been a real joy to watch these tired old WoW players discover Eorzea and break the shackles of toxicity that are Blizzard and their abusive shenanigans. And that isn’t even related to the Californian lawsuit, no – I am talking about the state of WoW and Shadowlands. This is where you’ll have to bear with me while I rant.

Against all better judgement, I joined a few old WoW guildies this late spring for the odd dungeon run and raid night. You could say the timing of my return couldn’t have been more ill-advised. Despite all the bad press that literally broke about two weeks after my resub (after 10 or so years), I decided I would judge the expansion myself and I really tried my best to find anything redeemable. But what I’ve encountered was a disgusting, manipulative shell of an MMO that is frankly insulting in the way it’s treating its playerbase and its players’ time. I cannot believe what passes for content in WoW nowadays, all the lazy micro-management and RNG-infested gear sub-systems and stupid re-grinds…for what? Raising another 0.5 item level on the third iteration of the exact same gear item or exact same skill conduit, so you can go have a shot at the third iteration of the exact same raid. Oh and shards and legendary slots and currencies and timers and cooldowns for almost everything! I’ve never known another MMO to grab such exclusive hold of its playerbase the way WoW does, by design and very deliberate engineering. And don’t get me started on the joke that is Oribos, lackluster circle in the sky hub, the Maw and Torghast. Nothing in WoW feels alive any more – 99% of the world is dead, pugs are toxic and players hate the devs. Now I understand why this community is so resentful; the hamsterwheel Blizzard have created demands constant playtime in a joyless world full of recycled, meaningless rewards. Heck, they don’t even design tier sets anymore.

If you ever felt MMORPGs were about the whimsy, world building, community, diversity and social interaction, WoW 2021 is not for you. Sadly, it isn’t even killing it on the endgame side of things anymore either. FFXIV has hundreds of epic fights and some of the hardest raid/trial encounters in the genre right now. There is not enough COPIUM in the world to keep me playing this game anymore. It is truly and veritably over!

FFXIV Community Highlights

No time in MMORPGs is more exciting than when the community is collectively psyched and waiting for the next expansion. Endwalker is three weeks away and you can feel the excitement in the air whenever you log into Eorzea. Especially since Yoshi-P’s recent media tour, where he gave a large number of streamers personal interview time, message boards have been ablaze with new info and speculation. I was personally very happy to hear that some of my most wanted class changes are going to happen and I love the new armor sets and class designs. Sage and Reaper make older jobs look like nubs.

ffxiv concert

Pop-up concert in Limsa Lominsa

The anticipation of Endwalker has led me to some personal milestones and discoveries too. For one, I’ve finally founded my own FC on Cerberus as more mates are flocking to the game. We’ve hit rank 8 last night and I am both antsy and weary in equal amounts for a shot at the housing lottery in 6.1. The housing system is my biggest gripe in FFXIV bar none and now that we have an FC, I would love nothing more than a (small) house for our daily business. Here’s to hoping fortune will smile on us come Endwalker.

ffxiv Dance Party

Dance Party at Slayers FC on Cerberus

Our server’s community has also been very lively of late with concerts, house parties and Halloween events. The clubbing scene is one of FFXIV’s many subcultures I had never looked into before. Having finally experienced a Halloween event, I am positively surprised as it was a completely enjoyable and friendly experience (with a live DJ via standalone webpage, no less). It’s interesting how effortlessly fun and joy are spread in MMOs when everyone’s having a carefree time. That’s what I’ve really come to appreciate so much about FFXIV; after so many years it can still surprise you and while it has all the trappings of a traditional themepark MMORPG, a bottomless well of side-activities and creative opportunities lie underneath. You never quite know what you may encounter next.

FFXIV: Useful sites and resources

My group of FFXIV friends on Cerberus EU has been growing these past few weeks. Returners and newcomers alike are flocking to the game and the excitement for Endwalker lies heavy in the air.

For sprouts (FFXIV newcomers) it can be an overwhelming start in Eorzea. The game is 8 years old and packed to the brim with different activities, some of which are their own game inside the game. I noticed many are struggling to find the proper resources to look things up, as it can be a bit difficult at times to find the best resource for something in FFXIV. Beginner’s guides (like this one) are fine for the first few days but you will quickly outgrow them. So below you can find my own (ongoing) list of recommended sites to help you navigate your beginner experience!

The FFXIV Link Collection

Basic info & MSQ

All things gear & progression

Side activities

Fluff & Collecting

FFXIV Status Update and my Endwalker Wishlist

FFXIV is all the rave right now and I’m liking it. It’s fun to observe some people’s new found enthusiasm for a game that you’ve enjoyed for a long time. There’s been discussions on twitter as to how long the ‘WoW trenders’ will hold but frankly, it doesn’t matter. Any influx of cash to FFXIV is great and supports the devs, whether temporary or not. Meanwhile, Yoshi-P showed how transparent communication and public apologies are properly done, over something they had no control over, no less.

Character Status Update

My three max level jobs are ready for the expansion. I don’t really have any goals left or gear to grind on my BLM, WHM and BRD as all of them are over ilvl 500 by now which is good enough for me. All three have some stage of the new legendary weapons which look shiny but turn tortuous fast. Even my retainers kick some serious butt by now, even if they still bring me back useless junk most of the time. My FC room is maxed out on deco items. My Chocobo, Dandelion, is well fed and happy. I’ve accumulated a lot of hours in Shadowbringers and it’s been a fantastic run – but now it’s time to look to a new expansion.

Shadowbringers BLM

Sometime during Shadowbringers, I gave up on BLM as my main after a couple of rushed, frustrating savage trials. I’m a bit sad that I fell out of love with the class but the lack of mobility and very strict rotation around Enochian are incredibly grating. I get that BLM is the highest raw DPS in the game but in order to get there, it requires so much prepwork and learning encounter positions by heart in advance that it ruins the fun for me. I like learning encounters as I go and being able to improvise, without falling out of sync with a 16-step rota that then locks you out of your most important abilities. This is also why I switched to BRD which is vastly different but also pays a high price for its mobility. I don’t think BRD party buffs are where they should be right now.

Shadowbringers WHM

That leaves my WHM which is the most well-balanced class and a truly enjoyable healer to play. I think it’s fair to say that no other FFXIV healing class comes close to WHM, no matter what some die-hard Scholars like to say. I am still on the fence about trying out Sage in Endwalker; maybe it’s time to finally try Astro, as big changes for that one are coming (and their glams are superb). The way I see it right now, Endwalker come I will level BRD first, then go WHM next and BLM third. Whatever else needs to get in line.

Endwalker Wish List

My personal Endwalker most wanted are as follows:

  • A house in Ishgard
  • Better glamour system, bigger inventory
  • BLM changes (kill Enochian rota, improve mobility)
  • Make BRD DPS suck less (OR proper party buffs)
  • Dragons (you can never have too many of them – can you?)

It’s been revealed that instead of a chaotic housing rush start of 6.1. there will be a lottery system for players who’d like a housing plot in the new residential zones. This is good news as the current housing situation is nothing short of tragic. The artificial scarcity and cumbersome plot hunt is one of FFXIV’s worst designs. Fingers crossed I’ll get a shot at a small or medium plot at last, after so many years of cramming deco items into a small single room. One can only hope and pray!

Up to this point, the SE devs have still not said a peep about glamour revamp or glamour expansion for Endwalker. It’s not just me who’s got their glamour dresser, plates and retainer inventories bursting with set gear and other fluff, so I sincerely hope they address this too. A game that specifically lets you play up to 18 combat classes (as well as other non-combat ones) on a single character cannot get away with a glamour system as dated and restricted as that forever. Physical item transfers need to go, the dresser needs to become unlimited and plates need to be 10 per job, not overall, at the very least.

We’ll see what other news come out before November 23rd. I’ve a feeling we haven’t heard all there is to know about new Endwalker features just yet!

Welcome to FFXIV: Don’t rush the MSQ

It’s official: everyone I know is trying out FFXIV right now, stubborn WoW evangelists included. And i’m not surprised, FFXIV deserves all the credit it’s gotten since Shadowbringers and it doesn’t look great over at Blizzard Activision right now. Many bloggers have commented on the current shit storm so I’m not going to say too much about it. Other than maybe this: while I’ve held both Blizzard and their upper management in low regard for years now, I never suspected just how foul the corporate C-level of Activision is. As if the contents of the lawsuit weren’t harrowing enough, all the other info pouring out on this has left me somewhat speechless. If it’s one thing I do not need in my life it’s my MMO gaming being directly or indirectly connected to some of the worst US government types. What the hell has happened to this industry if it hires such people? I am still processing.

With that out of my system, let’s get back to why you don’t want to rush your FFXIV beginner experience.

The journey is the reward

Coming from WoW which is different to FFXIV in how it runs its themepark content, I’ve had many friends reach out to me these past weeks asking how long exactly it would take them to catch up to current content. While I don’t like the reasoning behind the question in this particular case, I totally get it. My answer is therefore always the same:

I’ve been playing FFXIV regularly for 7 years now and I still don’t know half of the content going on in that game. Some stuff I’ve heard about and some I am still literally discovering myself. This is partly due to how the game has been developed with many of its core features added incrementally over time (and not always advertised in the best way either). It’s also due to the fact that, as also mentioned in my last post, FFXIV is just incredibly broad with lots of different activities to sink your teeth into, catering to a wide range of players.

What ties all these different activities together is the main story line in FFXIV, aka the MSQ. While WoW was originally designed with endgame in mind and lore fluff was added later, all aspects in FFXIV revolve around or get enhanced by its central narrative. The MSQ is a large part of why some people play and it serves as a fine guide through the leveling process as well. The primary NPCs have been the same since ARR and by now, they mean a lot to the developers as well as the community.

FFXIV united

That is not to say that there is not a max level with classic PVE endgame content waiting for FFXIV players. But that’s just it – it is happily ‘waiting’ for them. The MSQ is a central part of the game, so it’s really not something you want to rush through or skip if you’re trying to establish a long term connection with this MMO world. It is also just very fine content and storytelling that gets better and better after ARR (yes it really does and it’s worth hanging in there!). As for endgame and things like dungeons, trials and raids, they are literally not going anywhere. There will be time aplenty to do them with either your friends or in pugs and they won’t be decaying for years to come. I’ve explained how some of this works here but one probably just has to experience FFXIV to understand how smoothly it all works out.

Enjoy the world of Eorzea

As someone who is in FFXIV for its wider allures and relaxed atmosphere, I’ve personally come to love the MSQ. Between following the story as well as enjoying dungeons and raids, exploration, housing and glamour endgame (the real endgame *cough*), I feel the game achieves a great balance between different activities. I think some WoW players are worried that this means the game lacks cooperative content or difficult encounters, but once you tread into savage territory and above none of that applies. These features just don’t get advertised or emphasized nearly as much by the FFXIV community because they’re just that, features among many others (if you think FFXIV has no complex raids, I suggest checking out this channel and watch some savage guides). Eorzea is not a vessel for endgame raid content.

For further analysis and in case you’re currently still on the fence, I recommend this great rundown by Jesse Cox on Youtube. It’s one of the best, most detailed and fairest comparisons of WoW to FFXIV I’ve encountered. See you on the other side – we have Moogle hats!

(P.S. I am on Cerberus EU – feel free to say hi to Sylvara Fallstar any time! The server is currently quite busy but new characters can still be made if you try early mornings or after server maintenance (Tues 4am EST).