I began playing Final Fantasy XIV on January 23, 2022. I was bored and an MMO of any flavor that was fun to play according to anyone I talked to sounded right up my alley. It took me DAYS to get the game installed and credentialed because... Steam sucks and Square Enix isn't user friendly. They make great games, suck at implementing decent customer support. Video games... I'm used to this shit. I endured Sony for how long?
Anyway, I started playing with my husband and it's not an easy game to learn, even if you've played MMOs before. And if you're a console gamer? Well, it's better than Waiting Rooms on any given platform.
I found the people to be incredibly helpful and genuinely happy to help. I got into a guild recommended by a friend who had raided with us in WoW a bazillion years ago and has since moved on to some stupid Star Wars game. The guild, or Free Company, is small and mostly not chatty, unless you're doing things together. Get us into voice chat and no one shuts their mouths. It's fantastic. I love it.
I'm almost at max level on the White Mage I play, my main in any other game. She started out as a conjurer and then at level 30 became a White Mage, no real path there. She's a pure healer. Demand she do damage in a dungeon and you'll see tanks drop faster than a hooker on Nickel Night until they get the idea and pay the repair bills.
I probably would be 90 already if I refuse to game like I used to, to the exclusion of everything else. I can easily take a week off. I get stuck on things for days at a time. And now we will get into the things I hate about the game... besides crafting which is beyond retarded and horrifically expensive. The price for food and potions in the game cannot be understood until you try to make your own. Then it makes sense.
The first thing that needs to be explained is that you have several types of quests but the ones you should concentrate on are the Main Scenario Quests. Yes, with the exception of your class and job quests, to the exclusion of everything else. Trust me, you will not hurt in the XP department at all.
Remember, the only rule I have about playing a game is pick a class, and learn that class to the utmost level, so you know your spells and skill almost reflexively. THEN play alts and learn something new. And we get into my biggest pet peeve about the game. TOO MANY CLASSES GOING ON.
The first time I was offered to learn another class, which I would play on the toon I was already leveling, was at level 50 when I was offered a level 30 Astrologian (healer, which I was already playing as a White Mage), Samurai, Dark Night, Red Mage and something else, I can't remember, but it may have been Blue Mage or Dark Mage.
It's very hard to learn a game inside and out so that you're halfway decent at it. In that regard I love the Daily Roulette Duties to level these jobs (yes, that's what they call them). However, I've yet to meet precious few people who are expert at their class because they're playing too many others. Right now my White Mage is doing all of the MSQ. She's 87 and just started into Endwalker Content with my level 83 Dancer doing all of the side quests while also doing daily duties to level along. My Astrologian is 62 and takes her turn on days where I choose to phone a dungeon in and just hit regen and heal, or my Red Mage who I've just begun to enjoy. However, I would love to drop all of that and just concentrate on my White Mage. I want to know her ins and outs and everything about her healing power and frankly, I'm never given the chance to do so. So I'm almost face rolling any given encounter because I just need to keep the tank alive so we all live through it. All while being yelled at to also do damage. Yeah. Not cool. I'm a pure healer motherfucker, STFU and punch something.
It gets confusing because of the gear you haul around in your armory, that you're almost constantly having to clear out because of running dungeons and trying hard to keep track of who is wearing what. I actually hate it very much. I've accidentally sold so much gear I have been keeping for a lower level job. It seriously pisses me off.
Now, we will get into my biggest gripe about the game and one that I think the developers should seriously think about going ahead.
Letting the player play as one of the other hero NPCs in the game. I came upon this POS, worst idea ever in Shadowbringers when I was required, to advance in the Main Scenario Quest, or MSQ, to play as Thancred, a known rogue and in this instance, a Gun Breaker, to be honest, an awesome class that I love almost as much as Warriors. Here's the thing, I don't play melee classes for a reason. I really RILLY suck at it and in this game it's the Tanks that lead every single dungeon encounter.
I managed to get through that duty, as the encounters are called, and prayed I'd not have to do this again. I was warned I would, but what do they know? They've only ever played the game longer and better than I. Upstarts!
And then I got to the end of the Shadowbringers content and have to play as Estinien... another fucking melee class known as a Dragoon.
Looks cool, right? Must be so much fun to play. Not so much. It took me about 13-15 tries to get it and only because I let my husband sit at my desk and do it for me because he knows melee. At that point he was yelling because... You get to play the max level for the expansion, which was 80, and you only get a few of their abilities to fight with, none of which are adequately explained unless you're like me and haunt the wiki and watch videos about dungeon mechanics.
I STILL wasn't done with this shit. No, the final fight just before Endwalker content begins you have to play as no less that four other NPCs and use their classes and handful of talents. It's why I began clothing my Red Mage, I got to play Alisae and I want to play a pure caster. Stupid me, she's not a pure caster, she's a battle mage.
Alisaie and Alphinaud Leveilleur, Elezen twins are like my little brother and sister. I adore them. However, I don't want to play them and have like 4 of their abilities and an itty bity heal and no control over familiars or pets.
I will state this firmly. I don't like playing classes I've already decided not to play for the very good reason that I suck at them. Please take heed Square Enix, it's super pissing me off. I'm once again stuck because I can't figure out how to play Thancred as a sneaky thief just to I can advance one more rung in this game.
Now, on to the good stuff. Dungeons. Who doesn't love dungeon crawling? I live for it. I love that you can't really grind by killing stuff other than what's in your quests log. Too many games spent camping an area for XP is what made me quit playing altogether, but if I can't get to 90 through MSQ then screw your stupid game forcing me to do things I already chose NOT to do.
The dungeon mechanics ramp up as you level and right now, after being dragged through Tower of Zot on regular, all I can say is I never want to do Hard, Extreme, or Bat Shit Insane. When you are constantly AOEing the players, giving casters no safe ground to cast, you are almost demanding a wipe. They do offer the opportunity to go through the dungeons after level 60 with the NPC cohort of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn to help you learn mechanics. Even then, at the Tower of Zot, I think I spied Alisaie just shrug and die. It's why I watch a ton of videos and go through with the Trusted Companions, just to learn where to stand.
At the level I am now, when I do random dailies, I've gotten to know the lower level dungeons so well now, I may let my Paladin out. He's fantastic! A Hrothgar Paladin. Too bad the armor models suck for the race, which is only male right now.
I griped about the crafting and it's a legit bit of grief. You spend so much time and money on it, just like in any other MMO, but the horror of this is that so much of what you do is absolutely dependent on other professions. Gatherers like Botanists or Miners is really easy, and there are no limits to how many you can practice. However, there are clothes and tools for EACH ONE. And again, I mention this, only so much armory space.
I would love to take up cooking just so I could afford to eat instead of waiting for a serious dungeon run. Potions? OMFG just send in an arm and leg to whomever made it.
I don't complain because I'm not taking the time, energy, or gil (Eorzean money) to even look into it. Screw that, it's easier to head to any market and grab something off the board. Plus, it's way too easy to earn money in the game. Unless you're an armor whore, then you deserve to go broke and if you're into all the glamoring and
dying... get a fucking Barbie already.
There are too many other things to do in the game. They have events pretty often, which change from year to year (Hello, Blizzard, I'm looking at you). Also, there are several dungeons that I'm going to suggest we do as a guild just to stop and take a look instead of just plowing through mobs to get to the end. There is a Library from Heavensward that I desperately want to go through slowly, read stuff and just observe. Same thing with several cities I've not bothered to really tour, just going where I needed to go to get the content done.
Now, here's the real reason I love the game so much. Those of you who have known me a long time, and I've been MMO gaming for over 20 years, I love the story. It was hard to get immersed in EQ because it was all over the place. WoW had so much history and lore and you were almost forced to explore that for achievements in game to learn the history of the lands you were living in, and fighting for. If there is any more compelling story than that of Arthas Menithil and Sylvanus I've yet to see it. Until now.
These stories in each Main Scenario has made me cry. I wept buckets when I thought the Sultana had been killed. I worried when my cohort were split apart and it was just me and Alphie fighting on with little Tataru helping us as she could. I wanted to die when Papalimo sacrificed himself so that Eorzea would be safe. Knowing he'd gone into the fight always knowing what the outcome would be.
And the biggest baddie, the man I hated through two expansions, Emet-Selch. So torn by his story and hating what he was willing to do to avoid dealing with reality. Then I killed him, knowing he was the last of his kind and his parting words...
Remember... Remember us... Remember that we lived.
I broke down at my desk and wept like a baby. In those few words, I suddenly saw what drove him to the horrors he had perpetrated on so many. He didn't want to be forgotten, his people to be forgotten. You can understand, but forgiveness? Nah, the crimes are too many and too horrible. However, he's not the last, there are two more but they are no longer whole or save. When he gives up on the next to last one, about to be killed by your hand, and he just turns his back and does that off hand wave of his hand... I actually giggled just before we offed the guy. I will never like him, but there is a grudging respect given for his purity of vision. However, you guys know me, I can never forgive the inability to accept reality, and in the end, that's what really got him.
So, here I am, The Warrior of Light... which always makes me laugh, but I watched my boys play Final Fantasy often enough to respect the title, and I'm having the time of my life. I spent the afternoon yesterday with a guild mate, Amber Payne, who had me laughing so hard when we got to a duty where we couldn't click out of the cut scenes. It was three chicks and one guy, the healer, and he didn't say a word as we spent the interminable time cracking wise about the male Scions and how none of us would kick Gaius van Belsar out of bed as long as he was out of his Garlean armor. Then we all swooned over Thancred and Estinien (too pouty for my taste, but a fellow Elezen). I waxed poetic about Urianger's build once he was out of those robes. Holy shit, Elezen hotness. The poor lone man in the group just kept laughing at us and left the group with a jaunty, "Thank you, ladies". It was probably some kid who was embarrassed to his toenails.
I love the game and how immersive the story line is. Just stop making me play a class I don't want to play with none of the good shit they get to do. If I want to play a Rogue/Ninja/Shinobi, I'll roll one up, Same goes for Gunbreaker.
Look up the game if you're not playing. Be sure to go through the classes, how they start, how they branch and all of that. I just jumped in thinking it couldn't hold my interest long, but it did and I lucked into having chosen a pure caster class Conjurer. I like playing a caster. Even my Pally in WoW was a healadin, who was the lone player standing when we took Arthas down finally. Bubble up baby!
I play on the Malboro server, same name as always, Severine Wolfe. Come join us for fun. I'll be all to happy to heal up and bandaid your booboos. See you in game.
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