I Replayed Final Fantasy XIV 1.0 For This Review

I changed into my crafter jobs that I could record some specific footage for this video but I realized I didn't have any armor for it leaving me without any clothes whoopsy doodle I thought I can quickly fix that with a Teleport to gdna to visit the shops upon arriving not 30 seconds into the city I got immediately catall welcome to Final Fantasy 14 [Music] everyone Final Fantasy 14 is a difficult one to talk about how do you comprehensively cover an MMO there's so many facets and so many things to do I'm going to do my best but there's going to be a lot of stuff that I'm going to gloss over or not go super in-depth on because frankly after existing for over 10 years it's impossible to do everything now a lot of my gameplay footage that's going to show up in this video I'm just reusing a lot of my old twitch streams of me playing it so I apologize for my face cam showing up throughout the video but that's going to save me a lot of headache for capturing footage and you get it right like you understand that I'm why I'm using all that okay yeah thank you I appreciate it so thank you for understanding me reusing my old twitch streams of me playing Final Fantasy 14 and don't make fun of my hot bars as we continue through every Mainline Final Fantasy game please like the video subscribe and set the notification Bell to all for all future RPG videos Final Fantasy 14 begins as how most MMO RPGs do with character creation there are many robust options here plenty different races hairstyles Cosmetics none of these have any effect on gameplay though they're all just on how you want to look you can also choose your beginning class which as we'll see doesn't matter a whole lot and your starting City there are three beginner cities that mostly slightly alter the start of your story before they all converge into the same singular main plot if there's one thing that 14 does really really well is that it ensures that you know you're playing a Final Fantasy game your starting cinematic with your character puts you front and center you're an adventurer the hero of this story and and anything and everything around you excretes Final Fantasy the way the music swells at the end of the opening narration readying you for your prolonged Journey capped with something familiar comforting and Majestic a God I'm getting ahead of myself I'll talk more about music later I promise gameplay of Final Fantasy 14 is very similar to many other MMO RPGs combat gives your character a wide array of ability that you can rearrange however you want on as many hot bars as you want in addition to an auto attack that always deals minor incremental damage abilities and stacks are on sort of a cooldown so you can't just Spam them there are also many abilities that are off this Global cooldown allowing you to use them in between your sequence of attacks whenever you need those have longer cooldowns several seconds to minutes at a time every playable job has a designated order of attacks they'll have an opener attack and then another attack that would do more damage if used immediately after the first ability then a third attack that is more potent if used after the first two this combo of attacks dictates your general flow of combat and choosing when to use your off cool down abilities or extra attacks in and around this flow is how you become more proficient in any given fight on top of this some attacks have more potency depending on where you strike them from the sides front or behind so on top of maintaining your rotation of abilities you're also maintaining positionals of course enemies aren't going to just stand there and take it they'll constantly be retaliating with attacks of their own you'll see cast meters sometimes giving you an opportunity to use a defensive skill or possibly interrupt their attack they'll constantly drop area of effect attacks with orange cones or circles indicating that danger is about to land this along with your positional attacks on some jobs keeps you moving and engaged in the combat even in the early game when there aren't a whole lot of attacks to use combat is frantic and demands your attention on top of all of this every class has a resource to manage for spellcasters this is Magic points for paladins it's faith for ninjas they have ninky for certain attacks along with maintaining their speed buff it's like this for every class some attacks require whatever resource to be used other weaker attacks will fill that resource so to recap in any given fight this is what you have to deal with perfect your rotation 1 2 3 combo with off cool down abilities maintain your resource watch for enemy attacks to interrupt get into positionals for attacks that needed don't stand in bad if you're a tank watch her ARG gr and absorbing tank busting attacks if you're a Healer keep every idiot in your party who won't get out of AOE attacks healed up while also pinging in for extra damage whenever you can all while watching the boss and paying attention for what their next attack back is going to be it's a lot all at once explaining this to any new player will make it seem so overwhelming and daunting it's mystifying that anyone could ever play such a complex game which they would be right however Final Fantasy 14 does an excellent job of methodically introducing new abilities mechanics and how combat goes as you play and level up so rest assured it isn't difficult to figure out your character and role because you are well trained to do so even at the highest levels this is an MMO RPG which means you'll primarily be doing combat so is the combat any good yeah it's quite good I'm no expert in MMO systems so I can't really go in depth on the nuances or compare it to other systems but I've always enjoyed every battle it's pretty much standard fair for MMO combat now with the abilities and avoiding dangers but it's very well done if I had to give the biggest compliment I could to the combat system is that it all comes so natural and works so well that it's very easy to hit that flow State the mental capacity of where you're not thinking hard or aware of what you're actively doing you're just doing it your actions your moving M your responses it all becomes automatic instinctual natural even in harder more intense endgame trial bosses the mechanics of it all and the responses from your finger movements and mouse clicks practically move on their own without your conscious input it's fantastic you still have to pay attention certainly but your actions become their own and carry you through every encounter so yes overall the primary gameplay of the combat mechanics is excellent it's slow to build due to the nature of it being an MMO but it stays engaging throughout every single job is different enough but the simulator are un verial enough between each one of them that its intuitiveness lets you easily play or swap to any one of the jobs but it's not without issues first off just look at it it's a chaotic Whirlwind of effects and numbers popping up it's a constant barrage of flashes and explosions Sparks particle effects it's visually busy beyond recognition at some point your brain learns to filter these out and ignore them it gets multiplied when playing in any kind of party or Raid someone who's never played this game would look at all this nonsense and think what the hell is happening and you know what I'm playing the game and I can't even parse every single action that's happening because of the Cavalcade of flashy effects and what you're seeing is with the amount of effects turned down in the settings there's also a certain floatiness to the combat every single attack and ability has an animation and sound effect with it but it lacks a weighty punch or connection with the target most of the attacks you can do while freely moving around sliding along the ground while the animation plays out in full which makes sense mechanically even enemies hitting back with devastating blows isn't really felt by the player aside from seeing your health bar go down I understand that this is more due to the limitation of MMO design but it's a nitpick gnawing at the back of my mind with every single elongated fight these are minor complaints of an otherwise excellent game that's fun to play I enjoy all the fights that happen especially once you get into bosses of Dungeons and raids this is when you're in fourman parties for dungeons 8man parties for some Dungeons and trials or up to 24 people for big raids these always have the most exciting invigorating fights as every single previously mentioned battle mechanic all show themselves at the same time something that Final Fantasy 14 does extremely well is that even during these massive hectic fights the visual language is always consistent and makes it clear what you need to do even in your very first attempt at any boss the stacking arrows the tank busting attacks the push aways when things are falling on to you or parts of the Arena are going to fall away it's very well done and intuitive and most players don't even realize how much they're able to naturally react thanks to how well the game has taught them over the course of play speaking of the best part of adventuring is the plethora of dungeons trials and raids trials are essentially major boss fights relevant to the story dungeons are fourman parties going through an area that contains three boss fights each dropping new equipment of the related level raids are endgame major fights either 8man or 24 man that's a series of very tough boss fights these are intricate engaging and have a lot going on you can't rest for a moment as there's basically no downtime or room to breathe it's great some of the best fights in the game basically every single Quest fight or random trash mob is finger food to tide you over into the main course of the game all of these Dungeons and raids there are too many amazing boss fights for me to highlight even the weakest of them are still great they're all just that good they're still fun to revisit and redo which you'll find yourself doing often if you're someone who uses the Dy roulette for random parties in the endgame which I'll talk more about in just a bit but of course I'm me so I find flaws and everything I praise and genuinely love and with Final Fantasy 14 even though I really like the boss fights in the dungeons I find one of the game's biggest issues to be the dungeons themselves they are so wholly uninteresting boring and archaic mechanically visually they're fantastic with tons of different Aesthetics set pieces and background elements that add to what's going on I'll never Tire of looking at any given dungeon but actually playing them is lame think of what the word dungeon invokes in any Final Fantasy game or heck any RPG a layer a domain of interconnecting Pathways all leading to some sort of boss or Grand Event at the end maybe there's locked doors or optional areas or at the very least a dead hallway that offshoots from the main path that at least leads to treasure Final Fantasy 14's dungeons do none of this their design is a linear hallway where you fight a bunch of non-threatening trash mobs that basically exist to waste some time until you get into a boss fight Arena then another hallway another boss fight hallway final boss that's it that's every done dungeon maybe you hit a lever along the way or have to right click something but it's pretty much the straight path the dungeons themselves have become trivial each one plays out exactly the same the tank runs forward and grabs as many groups of monsters as they can then everyone uses AOE abilities until they all die and keep doing this until you get to the boss fight so why have the random monsters in between at all for experience points couldn't those points just be redistributed to the bosses and then just do away with the middleman altogether some early game dungeons particularly those in The Realm Reborn tried to do something interesting with this level design with revisiting previous rooms or having to unlock the path forward through keys and mechanisms but his expansions came and more dungeons added they got to be homogenized to the point where you can do any single one of them with your brain entirely un autopilot you know how sometimes you put something on your second monitor to have something to distract yourself with Final Fantasy 14 dungeons are the opposite it is the second monitor distraction while you watch a streaming service of your choosing or maybe a favorite YouTuber boss fights great but the dungeons themselves are outdated boring and aren't even trying to be innovated upon in the slightest maybe I just feel this more because I'm one of the players that does the endgame grind that thing every MMO provides you once you've hit maximum level and you've completed all of the story content which this is another thing Final Fantasy 14 does very well it has a consistent schedule of patches after a new expansion's release to give to players new high-end dungeons trial boss fights new eight-man raids new 24-man raids and the super difficult super rewarding Savage variations of those raids the dungeons are basically set up to get you good enough equipment to attempt the harder raids and because some of the pieces of armor you can get from The Dungeons just look cool and everyone wants to look cool after you've leveled up to the maximum your progress then becomes the overall power of your equipment and items denoted as eye level every new raid in Dungeon has a minimum eye level requirement before you're even allowed in the door like a bouncer making sure you look hip enough to enter the nightclub these high-end raids do provide the most powerful gear you can possibly get at the time but if you don't have enough ey level to even attempt them then you start the tomstone grind every 14 player has been here and knows the feeling how it's arduous how you're doing the same things over and over for minial upgrades just to see whatever is new Dungeons and raids do drop new equipment yes but none of it is guaranteed it could be drops for an entirely different job or you're competing against another party member for the same Armory piece only to lose the die roll and I always roll bad however what is guaranteed our h tomestones are a currency you acquire through doing the dungeons raids and trials that you can accumulate and exchange at a vendor this lets you get the appropriate ey Lev items you need to do the new fun things so even if you miss out on a chance drop in a dungeon you're at least making progress towards some new piece of equipment anyway but there are two different tomestones ones you get from dungeons in certain trials and a higher value tostone that you can only get from the 8 and 24 man raids this all means having to do the same same dungeon over and over and over and over again to get enough tombstones to get enough eye level to attempt the new raid and then when you're finally in the new raid you'll be doing that over and over and over and over again for the superior tombstones for an even higher power boost don't worry though there was a means of getting extra tombstones every single day thanks to the duty roulette every single time you log in you can enter a queue for a randomly picked dungeon and the game will couple together an appropriate party for you and your job this is also a way to make sure players who are looking for party to do whatever dungeon is that they need to have a way of finding people pair it up for them automatically sometimes you'll get to do the high-end dungeon you wanted anyway sometimes you'll help some newer players in lower level ones it doesn't matter the reward is the same a nice bag of Gill and some tombstones there's a catch to it all everything you're doing to collect tombstones the dungeons the trials the raids the duty roulettes to Get Enough Tom stones to do the high-end trials and raids to get the superior tomestones there is a limit to how many tomestones you can earn per week it's the game's way of Peace feeling the best possible equipment out so that you don't blow through everything available in a 30-hour marathon session you irresponsible gamer you there is a significant time investment it takes to ensure your character has the highest level gear and the coolest looking weapons and some people will do this for multiple jobs per character and once a new patch comes out that releases the next tier of raids and trials all that Superior tomstone Equipment then gets downgraded as a new wave of equipment becomes available all that stuff you got that you could only get so many tombstones a week for well now it's readily available for anyone to get now start getting the new tombstones for the new equipment the end game is a hamster wheel that never stops it makes it feel like you can never get off new story missions also have eye Lev requirements so you need to make sure you're getting good enough stuff just to play this story and you also want to be powerful enough to do the super hard raids and trials because that's where your friends and guildmates are and frankly those are some of the most fun but that constant grind of getting tomestones doing roulettes then upgrading to the next thing can be so tiresome this comes with the issue that Final Fantasy 14 only has vertical progression AKA numbers go up which makes sense people like it when their numbers go up their damage numbers maximum hit points are seeing the eye level increase further and further it also means don't get too attached to any one piece of equipment you've ever acquired because it's going to quickly be outclassed and replaced look I like seeing numbers go up it's one of the most serotonin inducing things in any RPG but I think there's room to explore horizontal progression equipment and gear that is used for specific scenarios imagine ones that enhance certain abilities or ones that specializing in a particular kind of defense or damage reduction remember Elemental resistances remember when that was a thing that mattered a lot of these are preferences not overly blaring technical faults I love Final Fantasy 14 and would easily recommend it to anyone but I would also give caution to players of what the end of the game is like monotonous boring dungeons duty roulettes every day and that tomstone grind look I'm just nitpicking here I don't think any of these things are strictly poor even a knock against the game a lot of it has to deal more with the modern design of MMOs than necessarily against 14 itself to be clear I still like Final Fantasy 14 a lot and I think it's one of the best MMOs I've played in a long long time maybe ever again I want to reiterate the raids trials the extreme and Savage versions of them I love doing those the challenge is fantastic and there's always a lot going on attempting these for the first time with a new group is very fun as everyone works together to try to figure out the puzzle of how to win however and this may be the greatest strength of what Final Fantasy 14 has to offer this is only one way to play the game there are so many other things you can do and ways to enjoy yourself and they're all fantastic much like pretty much every other MMO RPG this also has crafting it also has one of the best crafting systems I've seen based on my narrow experience creating any item is not finding a recipe Gathering all the ingredients for it and then clicking craft having whatever piece of equipment materialize in your pocket in an instant after watching a bar fill crafting is nuanced and requires decision making like you would during any combat scenario only without having to keep your APM above 120 as you work with any crafting recipe you're spending a resource to work the item closer to completion and succeeding at creation at the same time you can also spend that resource to increase the chance of the item coming out as a highquality version for weapons and equipment high quality ones all have better stats and are worth much more on the auction house much like a a battle you have a unique action bar for abilities to use during crafting these do things like increase your success rate get an extra action or two or risk additional resources at a shot at higher quality I love this I never felt so involved in the crafting experience the thought process behind each action weighing the risk and reward reminded me so much of the same brain stimulation I would get from a traditional turn-based RPG they've successfully made crafting into its own game and not just a side distraction where you mindlessly click and wait to fill bars not only that you can get all kinds of crafter specific gear tools armor gloves all of it all which add to your stats and abilities to help you be a better crafter it's possible to get as fulfilling a progression as a crafter as it is any combat job and for some people it is all they do and wish to do is craft things for other people whether that's for friends for guildmates or for profit if that isn't incentive enough there are multiple zones exclusive to Crafters in Final Fantasy 14 sure there are Dungeons and raids for everybody else while Crafters get zones tailored specifically toward them places like the diadem or the firmament exists solely for Gathering materials you need for any and all crafting jobs by becoming a gathering based job these are additional jobs like Miner or botanist which exist to get you materials for your crafting job on top of that there are entire story based quest lines for each of them being a crafter in Final Fantasy 14 has as much thought and effort put into it as it does any other way to play the game I realize I already talked about the endgame grind the cycle of doing dungeons to increase item level to do raids to do harder trials to do harder raids and the never ending Chase of making numbers go up but there's a saying in the Final Fantasy 14 Community the true endgame is glamour there are thousands of pieces of equipment in the game and many of them are quite frankly ugly plus there's also that loss of individuality where if anyone is going after the same endgame weapons and armor then everyone ends up looking the same thankfully glamour prisms exist these allow you to change any weapon or armor piece to look like a different weapon or armor while maintaining its stats this lets people customize their characters to look exactly how they want they can be as elaborate or as simple as anyone chooses for example my main job is ninja but I don't want to look like a ninja I frequently glamour so that I look more like a thief which usually means taking whatever gigantic thigh sized ninja daggers and making them look more like well like daggers this could also mean that you go into dungeons or raids with nearly naked cat boys or bunny women there are so many players who simply enjoy the play of dress up they like making new outfits saving multiples of them for whatever occasion whether that's for roleplay purposes or just for the pure enjoyment of it beach outfits casual wear recreating Famous Final Fantasy heroes or other pop culture icons in the game or just wanting to look as cool as they feel in their head it's great and gives a lot of incentive for rerunning dungeons you've done previously even if it's lower level equipment you'll never need it might look cool and maybe you hold on to it for future glamour use but there is another endgame design play style that many others have taken up and that's decorating their house much like many other MMOs Final Fantasy 14 offers player housing all of differing sizes which can be used for an individual or for an entire free company Guild to use as a meeting house or a hangout spot and the sheer imagination of how people have decorated their houses is astounding everything I'm showcasing here is a small small sampling of houses that were made by people in my community I asked on stream if I could see their houses and these are some of the things I've been shown these are dream houses from anything from gigantic war room like libraries to Cozy conversation pits to calming bathouses with vegetation and Greenery everywhere some people also like to make shrines to their favorite NPCs and have fantastic taste for it brilliant users have transformed their houses to have things that they shouldn't these upstairs Loft areas people have found a way to force it by cleverly using other pieces of furniture to create it for comparison this is my house yeah I haven't exactly put a whole lot of effort into it at least not yet but I want to mine is so ashamedly sparse compared to what other people have been able to achieve every other house I see is outright inspirational I have so many ideas of how I want to decorate my house thanks to everybody else creating truly magnificent pieces the ability to Glamour and pick your clothes and to furnish your houses how you want allows for incredible forms of creative expression I find the outfits and the guild houses to be just as valid as a way to play as it is to do all the endgame grinding and high-end rating it's an excellent part within Final Fantasy 14 ah oops how'd that get there jokes aside I fully realize that these aspects of the game are pretty much playing The Sims in a fantasy MMO setting but I think that's great it allows people different Avenues of play because all of these are just as valid as a way to enjoy the game as it is to be someone who World firsts the newest Savage raid and what makes it all so brilliant is how all these ways of play are intertwined with each other all of the combat jobs can slay enemies and run dungeons to get different crafting materials for the crafting jobs while also getting equipment for glamour those crafting jobs can also create unique pieces of equipment solely for Glamour and some even create all new furniture that people can use for their housing people are willing to use the Duty Finder to run older lower level dungeons just to get specific items or materials or whatever which also means it helps fill parties for newer people looking to run that dungeon everything feeds into each other and makes any singular person performing any job feel like that they have a purpose usefulness or even goals to achieve whether that's hitting maximum item level showcasing their drip in the streets of limo linsa or cushy rooms with mood lighting for people to RP sexual encounters in on the balong server there are so many professions to find expertise in and so much Variety in the way all the different jobs Play It's to run out of things to do with so many jobs and new ones introduced with every expansion it's tempting to try out some of the other ones and probably one of the most brilliant things that Final Fantasy 14 introduced since its launch is that you can be any and every job you want all on the same character you can freely swap between any job any class any profession and progress them as you wish all you have to do is change your equipped weapon throw on an Axe and you're a warrior swap a spear and boom now you're a Dron a wand makes you into a black mage a sewing needle makes you into a weaver A Single Character can be everything there is no need to make multiple characters for every job you want to try and the additional benefit to this is that it's much easier to level up any new job you've taken up after your main one remember the Duty Finder you can use that for your new job for quick leveling and all additional jobs get a passive experience bonus for every other job that you have at maximum level if you want to run a dungeon with some friends but you lack a Healer with a single click you become one if you get exhausted of the endgame grind instead just want to make some money to furnish your house in an instant you're a crafter because of this it's absolutely possible to get every single job to its maximum level in order to do this it would require someone who is absolutely committed nearly deranged outrageously grinding where all other social functions cease an absolute homebody whose life prioritizes leveling up over spending time with loved ones someone who would rather live in the world of aoria rather than their own you know who you are I haven't even talked about the story yet have I ah jeez okay um this is hard to do because there is literally over 10 years worth of story what with all the expansions so rather than give a precise overview of all of it it's going to be better and easier if I just talk about them in really broad terms as of this video there are essentially six Final Fantasy 14 stories all with their own characters villains and story arcs but all six fall under an umbrella of an overarching narrative they all have their own thing going on but they all contribute and build upon a singular narrative that is persistent throughout the entire game the base game around Reborn introduces this decade long story and establishes the foundation of the world of aoria there are three kingdoms that must unite against the neighboring Garian Empire who wouldn't you know it is kind of evil and wants to rule the world while your character arrives as just a simple Adventurer it becomes clear very quickly that you are basically one that can hear the calls and messages of the literal goddess herself hyolin this gives you the power of the echo which lets you see contextually important flashbacks and gives you the power to fight like 400 different Godlike beings throughout your run and it just so happens that your first major task you need to do is to find the crystals of the elements at least this game has six of them instead of four it also introduces the main cast that will be following you on your journey the Scions of the Seventh Dawn these are your allies that will assist you in battles and move the plot forward while you stare silently until you agree to do something with a stoic nod the Scions are manilia the Headmaster of the group Rogue turned gunbreaker daddy THD the Inseparable pair of papal Lio the Black Mage and yida the monk yisha who is better than everyone and she knows it the wise uran who speaks in cursive in the twins alphano the tryhard and aliz who doesn't have time for your [ __ ] the typical Final Fantasy style plot is what you can expect in Realm Reborn familiar foes like Ifrit Titan and Shiva stopping the Empire and taking down the Ultima weapon it's fine it does a decent job of setting things up and establishing the world and there's nothing wrong with some by the Numbers plot it isn't the strongest showing of the entire game but it's also inoffensive with no real complaints I can Lodge against it aside from the old voice acting was not great such Devastation this was not my intent while it wasn't anything to write home about the following story bits that lead into the first expansion I found to be some of the game's best story alphano forming the crystal Braves the dinner party with the Sultana of UAH raan's rage The Fallout of it all this was the first time I had to emotionally prepare myself for what's to come as Final Fantasy 14 gave a prompt beforehand with several cutcenes are about to play in sequence would you like to proceed those who know you know this leads into into the very first expansion Heaven's word I found this story absolutely excellent it introduces my favorite city of the game with ishgard the forceful might of the great worms and the Menace of the blood draon is denian I love how the story begins with yourself and alphano in complete desperation looking anywhere for assistance and allies the feeling of hopelessness and having nothing and trying to figure out where do we go from here was compelling almost as compelling as my new boyfriend Emer Heaven's word is filled with fantas ftic powerful moments that are remembered to this day such as having to fight the Knights of the Round the battles with nidhog and quotes that can still upset any Final Fantasy 14 player to this day a smile better suits a hero the next expansion in story comes way of storm blood this one essentially has two main plots happening at the same time on one side you have the Liberation and restoration of the land of Doma which is filled with Samurai and ninja it also has the resistance of Al amigo the homeland of ralon that is still battling to reclaim its land from the still evil Garian Empire it also introduces zenos of the Empire a prominent villain that you will love to hate this is also where Final Fantasy 14 really starts to cement their narrative style and does it well the pacing of cutcenes and gameplay events establishing enemies and allies and also starts to give way more Spotlight to your Supporting Cast of NPCs Heaven's word was excellent and storm blood is where they really figured it out which all sets up shadowbringers a fan favorite having been the warrior of light for years saving everyone around you and defeating evil and all that shadowbringers flips the table on you there is too much light in the world and imbalance is tearing it apart it needs you to become the warrior of Darkness ironic that this world of light is also where some of the darkest moments in imagery of the game happens I do wish that being a warrior of Darkness was a bit more provocative than its name since ultimately you still just end up doing good guy stuff for the good of everyone instead of something that's a little more morally ambiguous thankfully shadowbringers continues to absolutely nail its storytelling with fantastic enemies NPCs and characters that you can't help but love such as the crystal exarc the last expansion was the appropriately titled end Walker remember how I said each expansion had its own story arc all under the big umbrella well this is where it all comes to a head everything finishes an end Walker all the plot threads that began 10 years ago finishes here hundred of hours dozens of plot points hundreds of NPCs are all represented and make an appearance it truly captures that feeling of everything you've been doing everything you've been working towards has all led to this and by God they somehow pulled it off it all worked the fake out final villain the actual final villain the Heartbreak of having to see once trusted allies fall anyone who's been staying with Final Fantasy 14 who then had to do that one specific ending walk knows exactly what I'm talking about and how it was impossible to not shed tears during the whole thing it culminates into a fantastic story worthy of the Final Fantasy title it's worth playing through and seeing how it all unfolds that's no simple task since there's a lot but damn if it isn't worth it I definitely wouldn't call it Flawless as there's a lot of clunkiness and irritating filler I think there's something we all need to admit when it comes to Final Fantasy 14 story though it's Bonkers absolutely ridiculous like Kingdom Hearts levels of completely stupid convoluted and indecipherable it has [ __ ] like literal God summons secret evil societies alternate Dimensions brainwashing numerous world-ending threats characters die but come right back godamn time travel the difference is that 14 has earned these levels of ridiculousness because of how well it built up to it but it's still way out there there's also a very noticeable shift in Focus as the story continues from expansion to expansion at the very start with were born you are the hero the warrior of light the one everyone is relying on to save the world you're at the center of it all and there's a wide cast of characters supporting you but as the expansions came that Focus became less about you the hero and more about the Myriad of NPCs around you which is cool because the character development done for people like thaned alfano yoa Aran and so many more has been excellent they went from merely role filling Supporting Cast members to full-fledged characters that are fascinating and push the story forward there are even some quite cool Story battles where you get to control one of the Scions seeing their abilities and giving you a small taste of how that job plays I quite like these they're a nice change up and puts you in control of their often external sometimes internal struggle this has also made the player more of the supporting character to them you're still the chosen one and you're still the one who needs to do everything and defeat every monstrous evil entity that comes your way but you're more of a pass of side character than they are these days not necessarily a bad thing since you can only do so much with a silent player made protagonist it's more that it's so much more intriguing to see how the story plays out with all of them instead of your involvement which I'm fine with literally every single one of them is cooler than me except alphao if for some reason you get tired of all of these things to do there are other ways of trying something different yes there's the main story raids dungeons glamour housing crafting PVP but you can just go to the gold saucer and play mini games for hours every week earn prizes new glamour do mini quests of their own maybe you just want to play some triple Triad and then you realize you can get new cards from almost every single dungeon boss maybe you miss how MMOs used to be and want something that plays closer to Final Fantasy 11 well that exists thanks to Eureka a difficult Zone that's all about changing experience and Elemental resistances Bosa also gives a different way of playing with its own extensive storyline that's as strong as some of the main story plot there's also more randomized dungeons with the Deep dungeon there's so much to do and to see it's almost impossible to run out of things to play there's no easy way to segue into this part so I'm just going to say it the music is so good there are hundreds of music tracks trying to pick and choose favorites would make this video last longer than it took to make it so many of them are excellent sticking in your mind long after you log off the entire soundtrack has won dozens of awards and set records for good reason it's the sheer variety of different musical genres that elevates it as a whole above your typical video game music you'll hear plenty of your standard epic Orchestra tracks that are perfectly befitting of any fantasy [Music] RPG but you'll also hear metal music what is it like when you pull back the cut Li every wrong songs bordering on [Music] techno goofy silly songs to whatever the hell you call this every expansion pack has its own main theme and makes liberal use of motifs throughout the adventure it provides an extra sense of cohesiveness tying every step of the plots together it works even better when later parts of the game have story points that call back or involve previous chapters their theme motifs swelling back in using an audio cue to remind you when and where the call back happened equally brilliant is that the music is used to aggressively drill into your head that this is indeed a Final Fantasy game the long running themes of the series are used liberally and to Divine results there's the usual you can expect the crystal Prelude plays at the character select [Music] screen the Battle Victory Fanfare sounds after defeating a major boss and when you level up the theme of Final Fantasy is also used a lot often feeding itself into one of the other classic songs and of course that battle theme Baseline that I love so much shows up [Music] everywhere the use of these familiar motifs is a reminder nearly every step of the way that yes you are playing a Final Fantasy game and a Mainline one at [Music] that often I see discussion of people claiming that final Fant Fantasy 14 or Final Fantasy 11 don't count as quote real Final Fantasy games because they're online MMO RPGs not true single player playthroughs which I disagree wholeheartedly they're absolutely Final Fantasy games and worthy of being Mainline entries if you need to hear something as pedantic as that I think it's a defense mechanism there are tons and tons of fans of the final fantasy series but they don't count into the online ones why though I get it have the biggest barriers to entry nearly everybody is online these days so I hardly find that to be an excuse but there is a monthly subscription fee to play them which yeah that sucks for whoever needs to hear it having not played any of the online Final Fantasy games doesn't make you any less of a final fantasy fan it's okay if you haven't these claims that the MMOs don't count isn't to discredit their Merit it's more to protect their own Miss misguided sense of being a true fan or not which is silly it's okay if you haven't played every single one I consider myself to love and adore the final fantasy series I've never finished Final Fantasy 15 am I suddenly any less valid of a fan to you to myself not at all the MMOs are Final Fantasy games and with the case of Final Fantasy 14 an incredible one at that besides most of the prominent arguments of it not being a real Final Fantasy game are rendered moot these days not a true single player game having to play with others not so much anymore remember all of those NPCs that we talked about way earlier Final Fantasy 14 has since introduced the trust system which allows you to take NPCs into Dungeons and instances with you these are your party members they'll be able to fill any party role that you're not ensuring that you can always and quickly get into dungeons whenever you need to Plus in most of them taking these other NPC party members with you you lets them be more of a character they'll often have small little quips and dialogue with each other and you throughout the dungeon it adds to them even more but you're also not missing out if you don't run it with them one of the biggest complaints having to play with others is mostly addressed you'll still need to for a lot of the raids and endgame stuff mind you but if you're looking to just experience the story you're good to go and if for some reason 14 still isn't an actual Final Fantasy game to you AB stop you right there because Final Fantasy 14 is the most Final Fantasy game of all of them I've already explained how it has all the Staples that appear in most Final Fantasy games swords sorcery a clash of machinery and sci-fi technology against bows and Spears Chocos boal there's an Empire that's evil you have to fight the Ultima weapon there's a sid who is super zatty tons of stuff like that but 14 also has dozens upon dozens of references call backs and material to every other Final Fantasy game you can put Materia into your weapons and armor you can go to the gold saucer and play mini games like triple Triad one of the first mounts you get is magitech armor you can get the outfits of several different Final Fantasy characters a lot of the raids are based directly off of other Final Fantasy games one raid is dedicated entirely to fighting familiar bosses from the other games Gilgamesh kefa Garland the Phantom train my favorite raid series of all time is where you team up with Fran and travel to the orbon monastery where you must battle characters like mustadio and Thunder God Sid this isn't just a fun call back to Final Fantasy Tactics it has all new story written by the tactics original writer and essentially creates a new epilog for that game through this raid and as far as I'm concerned this is canonical and it's wonderful these all have new Arrangements of all of your favorite Final Fantasy songs from these games too fight familiar bosses with familiar themes that magitech armor you ride it plays teris theme while you're on [Music] it I know there's usually a lot of arguments about which Final Fantasy game has the best soundtrack but to be frank 14 unfairly wins because it not only has its own extensive fantastic musical score it also has fantastic Arrangements of all the best music from every other Final Fantasy game all bundled up into one I am under No Illusion of what all is it's fan service it plays the heartstrings and memories of everyone who has played the series at all with constant callbacks guest appearances even just cheeky little name drops 14 has become its own phenomenon and its own right bringing in thousands of new players to the series as a whole with much for them to learn and discover about previous games like how many people are playing this and didn't realize that matoya was a callback but for those who have played all of the other Final Fantasy games there's so much love joy respect an adoration for every other entry put into just this one it all demonstrates what Final Fantasy 14 is it's a Final Fantasy game for the fans of Final Fantasy and no other game comes close I truly believe that anyone who enjoys the final fantasy series should absolutely play through Final Fantasy 14 which I realize is a big ask since I'm basically saying dude you should totally play this 350 hour RPG anyone who outright dislikes the MMO RPG genre will not have their mind changed but anyone who is remotely interested will find something to love it could be the story the characters the world itself the crafting the Glamour the decorating the raiding the community or that one street on limo linsa we're not supposed to talk about whether you've played every other Final Fantasy game from the start or only played one or never played one before at all Final Fantasy 14 could end up being the game for you I love Final Fantasy 14 I've played a handful of MMOs over my my time and the only one that's ever stuck with me is this one I've been playing it for over 10 years now I think it might be in my top five Final Fantasy games of all time it's great it's fantastic it has the potential to take over your life and it's worthy of every single word of praise it ever gets but it used to be a huge piece of [ __ ] the notoriously bad M Mo so horrendous they had to kill it off to rebuild a new an appalling blend of dumb design choices that failed from day one there are just as many memes about how bad it originally was then for as much as it's loved now when Final Fantasy 14 first launched it was stupid boring and already outdated and I played it I mean I played it back when it came out yes but I mean I played it again for this video I still have my original copy of the game I installed it made a Home brw Server booted It Up made a character logged in and started playing it I'm going to do my best to show you exactly how bad it was now I could not have done this on my own because I really don't know anything about programming or making my own servers or anything like that so I want to give a huge shout out and thank you to fellow YouTuber slurp L derp he has an entire Channel dedicated to painstakingly trying to recreate Final Fantasy 14 1.0 on the server side he's able to do things and showcase things that I never could and I messaged him and he gave me a lot of help and a lot of tips on how to get this set up so a huge gracious thank you to slurp L derp I'll put a link to his channel in the description please check them out and again thank you slurp for helping me do this the first thing to do is the same as any other MMO and that's to create my character I honestly forgot how few options there used to be back then only five races and only a handful of options for hair face face in the like get used to everything you're seeing here though because every other NPC also used this exact character creator so for every shop owner questgiver or guide looks exactly like player made characters the exceptions are the main story NPCs of course but everybody else exactly the same starting classes are still the same though pugilist conjurer Marauder and the like we can still pick one and choose our starting City and away we go now this is a homemade server and it isn't running 100% a lot of things are not functional at all so a lot of the gameplay you're going to see is at best approximations of how it was and anything I can't show will have to be anecdotal so towns are missing NPCs combat and damage isn't quite working shop transactions don't exist yet etc etc it's still incredible that I can show this at all though so I hope you understand some of the limitations therein welcome back to Ula how it was over a decade ago the first thing you'll notice is that everything still looks quite nice it graphic Al holds up and the style maintains itself granted it helps that it hasn't changed a whole lot so it's still familiar but even for back then it's pretty good on a related note the cinematics in 1.0 are also really really good the cinematography and presentation really holds up this entire cut scene of a gobble going loose and attacking is wonderful and it's all shown in a single uncut take for several minutes which was the style at the time I wouldn't mind seeing a return to this form in moderation anyway current players of Final Fantasy 14 will find Ula to be very familiar albeit with one major exception the entire city is one zone it isn't divided up into sections you can walk the entire city and there isn't a single loading zone in it at all in fact that's how the entire world is when you step outside no load screens this makes the entire world feel seamless and connected it's a bit immersive when you can play without any kind of interruption and I think I missed that feeling to a degree of course there's massive downsides to that such as having to play Final Fantasy 14 1.0 for as open and seamless as the world is it meant lag issues at the time were abor absolutely nothing was instanced which meant trying to go into a dungeon-like area or cave would still have other players running around attacking monsters that you needed but perhaps the most paradoxical thing about the seamless world is that 1.0 would only display about 20 characters on screen at a time so no matter where you are in the world the city or outposts or otherwise you would only see at maximum 20 people this is not limited to players it takes NPCs into account so the busiest Street in all of UA or limo lensa or gdna between all the shops and vendors and questgivers and players is 20 people this is a massive multiplayer online RPG only 20 people is a humble Gathering multiplayer online RPG now there is a good reason for this well not a good reason but an explanation remember how I said it still looks pretty good that's because Square really really wanted it to be the best looking MMO RPG on the market and frankly in 2011 it was it looked incredible with detail not even comparable with anything else available do you remember how this was basically Square's design philosophy starting in about 2005 or so they were convinced that they could make the best looking games of all time the best CG movies and that above all else no matter what their games would be eye candy and that alone makes them worth playing it's a ridiculous and shallow mentality That Grew From their arrogance of having the best looking PS1 games and that infected their development of Final Fantasy 14 the original system requirements for 1.0 were ludicrous at the time not many people were able to hit the recommended specs let alone being able to run every graphic option at maximum they couldn't display many characters at once because systems couldn't handle more than that there is so much put into the environments alone that there wasn't much room for or anything else this is the most infamous example this is my character centered the screen and made up of 8,000 polygons it has shaders real-time Shadows anti-as edges blah blah blah blah blah you know what else is made up of just as many polygons this plant they had literally tried so hard to make the best looking game possible that the small environmental details were given as much emphasis as the actual players there were not enough system resources in the world to make it run smoothly don't worry they did eventually learn their lesson with this and fix it which is how we eventually ended up with these grapes now you'd think with this much emphasis on the world itself there must be so much love and attention given to every single zone well about that let me show you something you see this right here the grass the hills the rock formations if I were to just run for a while this way and you will find the exact same grass Hills and rock formations and oh yes you can find it again in an entirely different spot these massive zones were basically constructed from building blocks large pre-made squares that were literally copy pasted around to fill it out it was easy to feel like you were getting lost because you keep passing by the same landmarks over and over again and that's because you were if all the landscape looks tiresome and irritating to navigate you're correct but it gets even worse look at this no jumping you cannot jump it also means you cannot climb up slightly elevated edges and you cannot fall down in kind of edge whether it's 20 ft or 2 in to move the camera you use the j j k and l keys on your keyboard it's like they forgot the mouse exists right so obviously the meat of any MMO is in its combat system and so few people have actually seen how the battle system used to be so here you go combat again this is a home brew server that is isn't 100% functional so any enemy I spawn is named Warf rat and damage isn't actually dealt but you'll get the gist of it the first thing you should notice is that when Final Fantasy 14 first launched there was not an auto attack your first ability or the one key is your base attack that means for several levels and a couple hours of gameplay all you can do is finger bang your one key mindlessly until the enemy dies it's also just numbingly slow the actual attack animations the pace of fighting the coold down of a abilities there just isn't anything interesting about it being a spellcaster doesn't really help much either look how long it takes to cast the most basic blizzard spell plus once you get to higher level abilities you'll find that they don't have any kind of area of effect indicator you can't actually see exactly how wide a radius any spell or attack will affect you just have to guess sure it gets slightly better at higher levels as you have more options like defensive techniques or positional attacks but that does not change the arduous Hill to climb just to get to that point even moving and running around is just so slow on one hand I do kind of like how particular and precise the combat is every weapon swing has a weight behind it each hit more impactful it's also easier to comprehend and keep up with everything happening on screen it reminds me of Final Fantasy 11's Combat on the other hand it reminds me of Final Fantasy 11's combat there just isn't enough going on especially in the early game to retain interest this probably could have worked and been acceptable if this game released and say 2003 or so not 2010 to be frank the MMO landscape had evolved and changed significantly all because of World of Warcraft it became the standard of what people expected in the main competition that Final Fantasy 14 would have to go against it's like the original team acted like it didn't exist they did already have a pretty successful game under their belts with Final Fantasy 11 and for whatever reason they said let's just do that again learning nothing and I truly mean that everything up about 1.0 design is taken straight from Final Fantasy 11 look at the interface the HUD the way you interact the controls it's practically a copy paste from 11 which makes sense because they still had to design the game to be playable on a console controller remember this was also supposed to come out on PlayStation 3 it never got there even more obnoxious is just trying to sell items out of your inventory to vendors I can't emphasize how bad the UI is it's so delayed and everything takes so long every single button press takes 2 to 3 seconds to load that includes the button to open the menu selecting the submenu you'll want and Confirmation boxes to select yes or no it doesn't sound like much but those extra seconds really add up imagine you've been killing monsters and now you've got a backpack full of random junk that you can sell for some extra money so you go to whatever NPC to sell it all there is no way to sell everything all at once you must sell each item individually one at a time and in doing so you must open the menu wait a couple seconds select the item to sell wait a couple seconds be asked if you're sure you want to sell the item and click yes wait a couple of seconds and then it's sold do this for every single item in your inventory down the entire list doing so took no joke approximately 30 minutes just to clean out your backpack space it gets worse when creating your character you choose your starting class these are the same as they are in current Final Fantasy 14 Gladiator Archer archinist and the like these then allow you to dig evolve into familiar Final Fantasy jobs Gladiator becomes a paladin archinist becomes a black mage Lancer becomes a draon except in Final Fantasy 14 1.0 jobs did not exist there was no Warrior no White Mage no ninja no monk so straight away one of the most serious defining features the jobs were not present in 1.0 whatever you started as you stayed as that through the highest level jobs were not added in until patch 1.21 however 1.0 did introduce the ability to freely change between the classes instead of having to make multiple characters to play any class one character can be all of them this was pretty revolutionary and at the time allowed for some flexibility and replayability you can change your equipment to instantly become any other class only you are only allowed to do that while in a safe Zone like a town instead of wherever you want it does mean you have a wide variety of things to play and ways to spend your time which turns out is very very limited perhaps you're familiar with the concept of rested experience this is another thing that World of Warcraft made standard when you're logged off and not playing you accumulate rested experience which is an experience Point bonus that gets larger the longer you are off it's a sort of catch-up mechanic if you're not able to play as much it means when you do log on you'll be able to level up faster than usual it's a brilliant way to avoid frustration when trying to keep up when you have a busy schedule Final Fantasy 14 1.0 has the exact opposite of rested experience it has experienced fatigue the more you play the more you fight Monsters the more you do dungeons the less and less experience you'll gain to the point where you'll earn zero this limit resets on a weekly basis even if you spent an entire single day jamming hard on 1.0 you wouldn't be able to make any meaningful progress until 7 days later I've been trying to wrap my head around this as to why a system like this exists and my honest best guess is that at the time there were a lot of reports of people playing MMO RPGs until they actually died like those stories of players going to internet cafes and playing for 40 hours straight and Keeling right over maybe this was Square's way of trying to Stave that off after all the title screen even says please don't forget your friends and family it gets worse the questing system itself was fundamentally broken it was brilliant in theory but of course none of it really worked 1.0 used the leaves system to give you quests you talk to an NPC and you get guild leaves battle leaves and faction leaves these were your quests Guild leaves are your main story quests battle leaves pretty much means go kill X number of things and faction leaves were randomly generated quests selected from a pool of available ones which is kind of cool it can make sure you're always having something a little different to do every day it also means it's all just straight up grinding they're pretty much all some form of kill stuff until we tell you to stop only without any kind of context or story reasons to do it there aren't engaging NPCs or little side stories to enjoy it's just kill stuff this is of course limited by the fatigue system so you can only do so much of it anyway and if you finish them all or don't like the leave quests available to you they will refresh every 36 hours you have to to wait an actual day and a half just to have more random quests to play this is it this is the only questing system in 1.0 you don't have a choice even worse perhaps the unthinkable happens you've chosen a battle leave and you're off fighting some goblins or something or in my case more craar and suddenly you get disconnected from the server which was frequent back then because the servers were unreliable messes and should that happen whatever battle or faction leave you are on automatically fa s and you cannot attempt it again for another 36 real hours well that's okay maybe we can take a break from the endless slaughtering and do some crafting instead I actually remember thinking 1.0 crafting system being pretty good it wasn't just to pick a recipe from a list and waiting for a bar to fill you had crafting techniques skills and abilities not much unlike how it is today it let you be better at crafting higher quality or multiples of Whatever item even the Gathering skills had a sort of miname element to them so you got to at least be a little more involved in the process are there problems with it oh absolutely the mini games were dumb and frustrating instead of fun crafting faired better but there was not any kind of in-game recipe list you had no way of knowing what you can make with your materials the only way to know what goes into what is to use an outside resource like a Wiki website or to just guess through a lot of trial and error oh hey you know what that's exactly like Final Fantasy 11's crafting system but you persevered through it all and have a ton of high quality items you'd like to sell for some cash good luck with that as there is no Auction House of any kind are you kidding me even Final Fantasy 11 at least had that and they didn't copy one of their better ideas the only way to sell your stuff is to set your character up as a bizaar stand in one place in town and hope somebody sifts through your belongings and find something they want to buy this resulted in a lot of people all loitering in the same area while they were off at work or school or whatever as a buyer it meant waiting through dozens of people standing around hoping to find the single item you wish to buy because there is no way to search all the sellers for whatever thing it is that you want you just have to look but remember 1.0 would only allow so many people on screen at once so you have about 20 shops you can look for and they'll phase in and out of existence good luck finding anything worthwhile if you weren't able to shop for the stuff you want you'd suppose You' just check one of the other cities for their seller and see if you can find it there you find yet even more Final Fantasy 14 1.0 limitations 14 uses a Teleport system once you've discovered any major city or outposts Crystal you can teleport directly to it in current Final Fantasy 14 this costs you a small amount of money in 1.0 it uses a currency known ASA you must spend Ena to teleport anywhere it costs four Ena points to teleport anywhere within the same region as you teleporting to an entirely different region would cost six Ena you you have a maximum of 100a and the only way to get more is to wait for it to slowly regenerate you accumulate Ena at a rate of one point every four real hours teleporting from Outpost to city or from a battle leave Quest spot back to a city means running out of Ena shockingly fast and there is no other way to get it back aside from waiting it wouldn't surprise me if this was eventually meant to be monetized so that you could just buy morea with real money someday but that's besides the point so tell teleporting is limited but that's fine because there are other ways of fast travel for example walking and that's it there is no other form of fast travel when 1.0 first launched it didn't even have chocobos to ride that didn't happen until patch 1.19 there was an awful lot of walking very slow walking through boring literally repetitive zones and sometimes just awful ill designed zones the most famous example of this is the black shroud this is the map screen of the black shoud as we know it today a large Lush Forest this is what it was in 1.0 a confusing Labyrinth of the same looking Crossroads and having to constantly recheck your map to make sure you're going the right way there's a lot to complain about but like most games even bad ones it's always more enjoyable when you play it with friends and 1.0 does have a friends list and of course the major problem with it you can only add people to your friends list if they are within your immediate vicinity imagine starting out in different cities with a bunch of your friends only to realize that some of you are going to have to make the Long Walk journey to get to one of the other cities just so you can add each other to your friends list to see when the other person is even online which may not even be all that much because remember after about 8 solid hours of experience gain you're done for the week and this is just the stuff that I remember there's probably a ton of other irksome problems that irritated people into uninstalling it was so bad and got so many complaints that Square Enix just didn't charge people a monthly fee for a long time just to make up for it it sucked but it did have some good parts to it it did Lay the foundation for a fascinating world I like the areas the concept of ether rites and the Echo and the 12 and all that nonsense and the story stuff that was there was still quite good the game was so bad that square had to kill it off with patch 1.23 lasting just under 2 years but it wasn't just shutting it down they worked its cancellation into the story of the game itself it was a huge event where players in game could see the end of the world coming and as that clock ticked down it hit zero and all players everywhere were permanently logged off those players also got to see an incredible cinematic made just for the end of the game showcasing a massive war breaking up between the heroic Forces versus the garam malt Empire seeking Conquest with Bahamut wreaking havoc across the land and the plan to seal bohamed away forever fails and the last thing players saw was several important NPCs Vanishing or burning up leaving their Fates unknown and thus in only one year Final Fantasy 14 relaunched in August of 2013 now appropriately titled A Realm Reborn reworked tweaked fixed improved and just made to be fun again it's an incredible story an absolute travesty of a product pushed out in a state that it should never have been in and remodeled into one of the best most successful MMO RPGs of this day it's still going strong with new expansion packs coming new jobs new quests new stories and new NPCs to love and hang out with it's evolved into being a critical piece of final fantasy's Rich history not just as a series but as a product more people started their final fantasy Journey with 14 than any other game they've made friends Partners loved ones and continue to play it every single day because there's still so much to do whether it's grinding out those highle raids and dungeons becoming the most profitable crafter you can be finding the best looking outfits to become a fashion icon or being a superb interior designer that people look to you for inspiration for literally millions of players Final Fantasy 14 isn't just a game it's a way of [Music] life I love Final Fantasy 14 well now I do I absolutely hated it when it first came out serious go back and watch my Final Fantasy 11 video you'll see the similarities but now easily within my top five Final Fantasy games of all time and I think the most impressive thing that I did today was that at no point did I tell you that the critically acclaimed MMO RPG Final Fantasy 14 has a free trial which includes the entirety of a real of born and the award-winning expansion back Heaven word and now also includes the expansion back storm blood with game play all the way up through level 70 for free with no restrictions on playtime [Music] oh

Channel: ProJared

Views: 256,979

Keywords: projared, projared final fantasy, history of final fantasy, projared controversy, projared response, final fantasy, final fantasy xiv, final fantasy xiv review, final fantasy xiv 1.0, final fantasy xiv 1.0 review, final fantasy xiv 1.0 gameplay, final fantasy xiv 1.0 all cutscenes, why was final fantasy xiv 1.0 so bad, final fantasy xiv gameplay, final fantasy xiv full review, final fantasy xiv fanfest, final fantasy xiv dawntrail, final fantasy xiv spoilers

Id: iU8biK4FNCw

Length: 66min 7sec (3967 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 09 2024