The first true MMORPG is something very special for everyone, as several colleagues have already reported. MyMMO editor Sophia also has a unique relationship with her first MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV, even though it took two attempts and a half-naked, dancing cat boy to entice her.
What is Final Fantasy XIV?
- Final Fantasy XIV 1.0 was released in 2010.
- The 1.0 version was rebooted in 2013 under the leadership of Naoki Yoshida due to deep-rooted problems.
- Since then, the MMORPG has been on the rise, and along with the reboot A Realm Reborn, four expansions have been released so far.
- The main features are the mandatory main story, diverse jobs, and 8- or 24-man raids.
- Final Fantasy XIV is a pay-to-play theme park MMORPG.
Here you can watch the trailer for the upcoming expansion Dawntrail, which will be released in summer 2024:
My first attempt at starting Final Fantasy XIV – or was it?
The first years of Final Fantasy XIV were really wild: an premature release, flower pots with the same number of polygons as player characters, the copy-paste world… If you want to delve into the details, I would like to recommend the three-part Noclip documentary on YouTube.
I bought the Starter Edition of Final Fantasy XIV at AnimagiC 2011, back when it was still in Bonn. About 10 minutes before, my parents had called me: I had received my desired study place. Since I had to pass an admission procedure, I wanted to reward myself with something at the event and stumbled across the very spartan Square-Enix booth back then.
I didn’t know anything about how technically demanding the game was or that it was in a real crisis. But I knew: Final Fantasy is a great brand and my best friend loves Final Fantasy VII so much. Then this part can’t be wrong.
Only at home did I realize that I didn’t actually own the right device for the game. Even the character editor stuttered on Dad’s old work laptop. IBM Thinkpads were simply not meant for more than a few hours of Sims 2 or doing homework.
And so my first excursion into Final Fantasy XIV ended in a not even fully rendered forest.
Over 30 FPS and half-naked Catboys
For five years, my only point of contact with Final Fantasy XIV was the irregular newsletter. The disc gathered dust in its packaging. After studying, I started my traineeship at the anime, manga, and J-Culture magazine AnimaniA in 2016.
As a part of this, I came across a test disc for Final Fantasy XIV Heavensward. After a bit of back and forth, I dove into Eorzea for the first time in 5 years.
A Realm Reborn was still a tough nut back then. I definitely need to play a character from level 1 again to understand the new simplified leveling process. But back then, everything was infinitely tedious:
Killing ladybugs here, transporting wine bottles there, helping merchant ABC. It was boring. And the Scions of the Seventh Dawn really got on my nerves…
I stayed because I met great people. Above all Benkei
. Benkei was then a sturdy Miqo’te man who danced half-naked on tables in the game’s adventurer guilds. His stated mission? To recruit new members for his Free Company aka Guild.
I was so perplexed by the show that I actually stuck around. Benkei, who now plays a cat girl named Enrei, is the reason I bought the game with a new account. Since then, I’ve almost always been subscribed – but of course voluntarily.
Final Fantasy XIV made me laugh. And cry. When I finished the Shadowbringers expansion, it was three in the morning. My neighbor, an elderly woman in her 80s, approached me the next morning with the question of whether I had broken up with my boyfriend.
I received a similar question from my now new neighbors when I finished the Endwalker expansion. That too happened around 2 AM, and I had to cry like a baby. And then laugh again. And cry again.
Seven Years going Eight – My Comfort Game
At the moment, I’m feverishly trying to romance all companions in Baldur’s Gate 3, but whenever I have a Gale/Astarion/Halsin/Wyll/Karlach-free minute, I jump back into Final Fantasy XIV. I’m currently in 6.3 and working my way through the frosty landscape of Garlemald.
I’ll likely pre-order the new expansion Dawntrail again. But by summer 2024, I still have plenty to do and don’t have to worry about content deserts: My crafters are not all level 90 yet, I should update my gear, possibly start a new job, and of course, I need to farm mounts, play treasure maps, and finish the Manderville quests.
I absolutely need to start from scratch again and experience the current new player experience. But I want to recommend this game to everyone who hasn’t tried it yet. Today, you don’t have to spend a cent until level 70 and can play (almost) all content.
- Here’s the free trial (via finalfantasyxiv.com).
Final Fantasy XIV is my personal comfort game. I can start it and feel right at home. And that’s been the case for almost eight years now. By the way, I’m still partly friends with Benkei aka Enrei and the group from back then. I even met two of them at the last fan festival in London.
I have nothing planned for tonight. Maybe I’ll invite them to some treasure maps. Or we could do a catboy and girl swimsuit run like some other players did recently:
Final Fantasy XIV: Cat-boy players meet for an alliance raid – and exclusively in swimsuits
