Final Fantasy XIV: You have to live there – Not for tourists
I have, of course, also done gear farming in earlier MMORPGs that I played passionately, but only to raid later. I have only farmed gear in MMORPGs that I “really wanted to play every day seriously” – games that I was practically married to, where I lived.
In games where I was just visiting, I never thought about engaging with these game mechanics and farming.
In Final Fantasy XIV, I don’t have that option of just “visiting” – if I want to experience the story, I have to pull myself together and farm tokens. Playing Final Fantasy XIV just as a “casual”, doing a bit of twinking and looking around is virtually not possible. You have to deal with the endgame of Heavensward.
Okay … then I’ll just play it right
So at some point, I decided: Okay, then I’ll play it “right.”
Only in one thing do I draw the line: In a fit of enthusiasm, I once looked at what I would have to do to start the quest for the relic weapons, the anima weapons.But the grimace of grind smiled so hideously at me that I trembled and collapsed during the quest acceptance and deleted the quest from the log.
And Stormblood is coming soon…
I admit: Even though the story and world of Final Fantasy are highly praised everywhere – I actually don’t want to experience the story. After listening to cutscenes for minutes after every quest, I am just too much of an MMORPG tourist, no matter how well done they are.
But: I’m excited for the next expansion of Final Fantasy XIV and the Asia setting!
To play the next expansion “Stormblood,” I have to complete the story! Because to get to Stormblood, you have to have finished the main story in Heavensward. Because: “Final Fantasy XIV Stormblood will also be story-locked.”
I am really curious to see how the colleague testers will manage this time.
After an estimated 300 hours of playtime, I can recommend Final Fantasy XIV Heavensward – especially for MMORPG veterans who want to engage deeply and thoroughly with a game.
It’s ideal for me to unwind. Spending two or three hours in the evening with the MMORPG to tackle an instance in a group or farm alone. The combat system seems a bit sluggish at first, but gets really fun over time. Especially the boss fights and instances are much more varied than what I experienced as a solo player in the base game.
Everything that an MMORPG offers besides combat, Heavensward does really well. Crafting and gathering I’ve enjoyed more in any MMORPG than in Final Fantasy XIV. Even fishing is cool. The card game “Triple Triad” is fun and ignites the collector spirit. Other activities like “Pet Battles” I haven’t tested yet in my playtime – a sign of how much there is to discover in Final Fantasy XIV.
So many features and activities
There are an incredible number of features: Like in WoW, you can collect “companions” and send them on missions. However, this part of the game is still not very complex at the moment.
When leveling up, there are bounties you can hunt. Dynamic FATEs work like events spread across all game zones. Or you go into the endless dungeon and blast through 10 levels at a time like in a dungeon crawler.
For Final Fantasy XIV, you also need to have a certain resistance to grind. Those who engage in this “anima weapon grind” must be hardcore. I wouldn’t enjoy that.
Those who prefer action and “something quick and new” might be better off with other MMORPGs.
You need to commit to Final Fantasy XIV. Just a quick visit – that hardly makes sense here. Those who invest in Final Fantasy XIV can expect an adventure.
The crafting in Final Fantasy XIV deserves its own article:
Why are there so few reviews of Final Fantasy XIV Heavensward? Is the game worth it? We took a look at that.
Two years after the release, still no review on Mein-MMO for Final Fantasy Heavensward? How is that possible?
Well, gaming journalists and Final Fantasy XIV: That’s a different story. The MMORPG is almost impossible to review.
Final Fantasy XIV: Story-locked – A nightmare for journalists
When “Heavensward,” the latest expansion for the MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV (PC, PS3, PS4), was released in June 2015, Kotaku’s MMORPG author, Mike Fahey, wanted to write a review of Heavensward. He prepared a testing diary, which he would end up failing.
The problem: To play the new expansion in FF14, you have to quest through the story of the original game. And that’s no easy task, as the main quest keeps growing with patches. You not only have to “normal quest” like in other games, but also go into instances and complete endgame content.
Because Final Fantasy XIV is indeed “story-locked.”
Fahey started a “log” on Kotaku for his Final Fantasy Heavensward review:
Heavensward was released on June 23, 2015. With early access, players could go in as early as Friday, June 19.
In the first entry on June 20, the tester wrote: “Oh no, I can’t even test it, I have to catch up first.” But don’t worry, I’ll catch up now!
In the second entry, on July 13, – almost 3 weeks later – it said: “Well, I started a new character to be a new class in Heavensward. The machinist started at level 30 and is now level 46.” – So he hadn’t played anything of Heavensward yet.
In the third entry, released two weeks later, on July 26, Fahey reported again: Yeah, I’m now level 54 and it’s pretty cool so far. I’m taking a break now and will check in again.
Final Fantasy XIV: Machinist
And that ended the review by the US site Kotaku on Final Fantasy XIV Heavensward. More than 1 month Final Fantasy XIV Heavensward – and he reached level 54 before he had to give up.
I can understand Fahey because I felt the same way.
Final Fantasy XIV Heavensward – What Metacritic says
Okay, to be fair, there were reviews for Heavensward on other sites. Metacritic lists 14 reviews for the PC version with an average score of 84%, while the PS4 version received 86% in 20 reviews.
The reviews presented the game, also stating how to assess the general quality – summarizing the most important points and that was it.
The verdict was: “Above average, strong story, good quests – maybe a bit monotonous.”
How many hours each tester spent on Heavensward, how far they got, whether they really reached level 60 and could fully test the MMORPG, we do not know.
Final Fantasy XIV Heavensward – A review – 2 years after the expansion’s release
I admit: I felt the same as the author from Kotaku. I also quit Heavensward the first time at level 54. I quested through the first zone – nibbled on the second, and checked out a third. That’s as far as I got in the summer of 2015.
In preparation for Heavensward, I had diligently completed the “old” main quests, defeated all Primals, and rushed through the quests to reach the new areas, but at level 54, the drive was gone. I was stuck somewhere in Heavensward.
Seeing nothing of flying at the beginning, quests are endless
I hadn’t seen anything of the awesome flying that was talked about beforehand.
Flying is unlocked in Heavensward for each zone separately as you explore and quest through it.
Heavensward felt like an endless series of quests that… well, just didn’t seem to end. Final Fantasy XIV is an old-school MMORPG. The quests often involve steps like “Go there and talk to him, then come back to me and I’ll tell you how it continues” or “Go there and kill 5 of those and then come back and I’ll send you back there, but 10 meters further left and then you kill 3 of the others.”
I persevered in 2017
Only at the beginning of 2017 did I get back into it and persevere. I put off questing at max level for a month, tried out various jobs for ages, did two or three mid-level instances with each class, got all jobs and classes to level 30 first to get into the Final Fantasy XIV groove.
Then I bit the bullet, went into Heavensward as a bard, and in a kind of trance state completed 400 or 600 quests, ran through a dozen instances, unlocked flying, and almost reached the endgame of Heavensward.
And yes: I’m pretty proud of myself.
It was actually quite nice, even if I felt like a noob the whole time.
Life as a noob at level 60
It’s a strange feeling to lag so far behind in an MMORPG as I do in Final Fantasy XIV. Because the game forces me into groups with players who are doing everything for the eight-hundredth time that is “new territory” for me.
Through the instance system of Final Fantasy XIV, the normal “level” and “quest” instances that one visits as a newcomer are also the grind instances for players who are already deep into the endgame and routinely complete a handful of them every day to get tokens.
That means for me:
In each instance I’m the “smallest” – other DDs have almost double my hit points
The often complex instances are barely explained to me as a newcomer, as everyone assumes I know them too, and maybe I’m just on a secondary account. Sometimes someone just mumbles “Do what everyone else is doing” or I get res’d in combat when I messed up some boss mechanic and looked at the rogue when I should have looked away. However, I’ve learned to inform myself beforehand through guides about the most important challenges.
At least I am welcomed as a newcomer in these groups, as my presence secures the veterans bonus tokens – I’ve never been scolded or treated unkindly, but I did feel like the guy under the healer in the forbidden DPS meters.
I notice my status as a noob not only in instances but also in the wallet of my heroine, a neat catgirl. In the auction house, there are certainly items I could buy that would help me, but they are too expensive and out of my reach. In the world of Eorzea, I’m a poor sucker.
Currently, I have almost completed the solo content and group instances, but I still lack the last quests that came with the newest patches. Because: Even after the release of Heavensward, the story continued to develop steadily. And: “Final Fantasy XIV Heavensward is story-locked.”
To enter the “last story instances,” you need ilvl 230 – the “standard token gear” fully equipped on all slots. Currently, I still lack 2 pieces – and that even though I have already been playing regularly for 3 months. Admittedly, not as long as when I was leveling up, but I’m still completing some daily tasks.
You can tell that Final Fantasy XIV is designed to give players something to do over the entire duration of the expansion, over 2 years. Those who only look in at the end have quite a mountain of content ahead of them.
Final Fantasy XIV is hardcore
I haven’t seen everything in Heavensward, but I’m not the only one. Because Final Fantasy XIV is hardcore. To experience the new main quests, you have to complete the previous ones. And to do them, you really have to “farm gear,” have a sufficiently high item level to complete the quests. Because the quests are tied to instances.
To reach the appropriate gear level, it’s all about farming tokens and exchanging them for gear.
Even after intensive play and daily routines in trials and quests, I still need another 2-3 days for the final steps.
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Final Fantasy XIV: You have to live there – Not for tourists
I have, of course, also done gear farming in earlier MMORPGs that I played passionately, but only to raid later. I have only farmed gear in MMORPGs that I “really wanted to play every day seriously” – games that I was practically married to, where I lived.
In games where I was just visiting, I never thought about engaging with these game mechanics and farming.
In Final Fantasy XIV, I don’t have that option of just “visiting” – if I want to experience the story, I have to pull myself together and farm tokens. Playing Final Fantasy XIV just as a “casual”, doing a bit of twinking and looking around is virtually not possible. You have to deal with the endgame of Heavensward.
Okay … then I’ll just play it right
So at some point, I decided: Okay, then I’ll play it “right.”
Only in one thing do I draw the line: In a fit of enthusiasm, I once looked at what I would have to do to start the quest for the relic weapons, the anima weapons.But the grimace of grind smiled so hideously at me that I trembled and collapsed during the quest acceptance and deleted the quest from the log.
And Stormblood is coming soon…
I admit: Even though the story and world of Final Fantasy are highly praised everywhere – I actually don’t want to experience the story. After listening to cutscenes for minutes after every quest, I am just too much of an MMORPG tourist, no matter how well done they are.
But: I’m excited for the next expansion of Final Fantasy XIV and the Asia setting!
To play the next expansion “Stormblood,” I have to complete the story! Because to get to Stormblood, you have to have finished the main story in Heavensward. Because: “Final Fantasy XIV Stormblood will also be story-locked.”
I am really curious to see how the colleague testers will manage this time.
After an estimated 300 hours of playtime, I can recommend Final Fantasy XIV Heavensward – especially for MMORPG veterans who want to engage deeply and thoroughly with a game.
It’s ideal for me to unwind. Spending two or three hours in the evening with the MMORPG to tackle an instance in a group or farm alone. The combat system seems a bit sluggish at first, but gets really fun over time. Especially the boss fights and instances are much more varied than what I experienced as a solo player in the base game.
Everything that an MMORPG offers besides combat, Heavensward does really well. Crafting and gathering I’ve enjoyed more in any MMORPG than in Final Fantasy XIV. Even fishing is cool. The card game “Triple Triad” is fun and ignites the collector spirit. Other activities like “Pet Battles” I haven’t tested yet in my playtime – a sign of how much there is to discover in Final Fantasy XIV.
So many features and activities
There are an incredible number of features: Like in WoW, you can collect “companions” and send them on missions. However, this part of the game is still not very complex at the moment.
When leveling up, there are bounties you can hunt. Dynamic FATEs work like events spread across all game zones. Or you go into the endless dungeon and blast through 10 levels at a time like in a dungeon crawler.
For Final Fantasy XIV, you also need to have a certain resistance to grind. Those who engage in this “anima weapon grind” must be hardcore. I wouldn’t enjoy that.
Those who prefer action and “something quick and new” might be better off with other MMORPGs.
You need to commit to Final Fantasy XIV. Just a quick visit – that hardly makes sense here. Those who invest in Final Fantasy XIV can expect an adventure.
The crafting in Final Fantasy XIV deserves its own article:
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