Final Fantasy XIV Online: A Realm Reborn

 PC
User Score
7.8

Generally favorable reviews- based on 2236 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,673 out of 2236
  2. Mixed: 169 out of 2236
  3. Negative: 394 out of 2236
Buy Now
Buy on

Review this game

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
    • 10
    • 9
    • 8
    • 7
    • 6
    • 5
    • 4
    • 3
    • 2
    • 1
    • 0
    • 0
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
view
per page
  1. triffy
    Jul 28, 2023
    1
    Boring Slogfest. It’s boring. It’s repetitive. It’s not fun. I fall asleep and can’t play for more than a quest at a time. Apparently it gets good after 60+ or more. A Yawn Reborn is not for me.
  2. ersonic
    Jul 6, 2023
    0
    de los peores mmo que he jugado en mi vida. todas las misiones iguales. caminatas de 20 minutos para hablar con un npc y volver a caminar otros 20 minutos coger un objeto del suelo y que aparezca un bicho para matar. no tiene más durante 40 horas horribles.
  3. meru
    Jul 6, 2023
    1
    How long can your game be boring before it gets good?

    After my first hundred hours in the game, I asked my guild a question. (All of them are great people, by the way.) I asked these people who loved playing the game when the fantastic role-playing experience everyone was talking about will start. They seriously wanted to help me and totally understood the question. They had a    How long can your game be boring before it gets good?

    After my first hundred hours in the game, I asked my guild a question. (All of them are great people, by the way.)

    I asked these people who loved playing the game when the fantastic role-playing experience everyone was talking about will start. They seriously wanted to help me and totally understood the question. They had a discussion among themselves and could not decide if you had to drudge through 300 hours of boredom, or if it was more like 500 hours, before the game gets good.

    I was sad to tell them good-bye.    … Expand
  4. Egotwo
    Aug 23, 2022
    1
    A very boring game with "cheap" looking world. The story doesn't get any better, as some say. It's still boring. And boring again. Highly overrated. I gave it too much time because people said it gets better. But no, it's boring. I read all text, watched all cutscenes (boring).
  5. diamonxo
    Mar 20, 2022
    1
    This game has literally the worst launcher I have ever witnessed, I'm talking worse than the Epic Games store and Steam COMBINED. I can't even play the game because of constant errors trying to launch it and it's a shame because I'm sure the game is great, but I CAN'T PLAY IT. I've troubleshooted several times to no avail and researching for a couple hours has shown that quite a largeThis game has literally the worst launcher I have ever witnessed, I'm talking worse than the Epic Games store and Steam COMBINED. I can't even play the game because of constant errors trying to launch it and it's a shame because I'm sure the game is great, but I CAN'T PLAY IT. I've troubleshooted several times to no avail and researching for a couple hours has shown that quite a large percentage of players have had issues launching the game and playing in general. Not sure if it's because of the launcher that appears to be from 2007 with absolutely 0 updates performance wise or something else, but wow.… Expand
  6. mcbmg
    Dec 18, 2021
    0
    Purchased this game on Dec 11. I have been unable to get into the actual game. Spent a couple of hours trying to get server, then long 2500+ queues. I purchased it on Steam and requested a refund the same day and was denied. They include the download time, the time spent getting your character created and time wasted in queue. Do not buy this game.
  7. mugaro4201
    Dec 17, 2021
    0
    даже не старались хотя бы добавить русский интерфейс другие языки есть а вот русский нету
  8. Toldoth
    Dec 17, 2021
    0
    Hello,

    I tried to play the game and was not able to play as a new player since character creation was denied on all server.

    I asked for a refund and they denied it.

    This does not make sense to me. I can't believe that such a huge company cannot refund their customer when they are making such big mistakes.
  9. SmackyStarr
    Dec 15, 2021
    0
    Just don't bother. It's a great game but it's not worth the frustration of sitting in queue for hours, getting kicked out multiple times in the process, only to be kicked out of the game after finally getting in and then put back at the end of a 5k queue again. This game is unplayable right now.
  10. loliance
    Dec 11, 2021
    4
    Good remake of a terrible game.
    I would have rated it much, much higher(around a 8!) but I had to endure the 200Quest grind(post ARR) which is at level 50 and at the end of the expansion. Which has since been reduced but still the same issues remain,
    Post ARR story has poor immersion due to lack of voice acting, it's far too long, it's a lot of walking around with no real character    Good remake of a terrible game.
    I would have rated it much, much higher(around a 8!) but I had to endure the 200Quest grind(post ARR) which is at level 50 and at the end of the expansion. Which has since been reduced but still the same issues remain,

    Post ARR story has poor immersion due to lack of voice acting, it's far too long, it's a lot of walking around with no real character progression and it's forced on all users that will not pay for a story skip.

    Post ARR content was some of the worst I've experienced in an MMO, but it get's better with later expansions so stick with it!    … Expand
  11. jin40k
    Dec 5, 2021
    0
    queue > eror server > queue. naturally, in squaresoft, allegedly, no one knew about it and no one foresaw this
  12. Nihl
    Oct 29, 2021
    3
    Decided to give this game a try, coming from a content-starved WoW.
    And what can I say... it just bored me. Couldn't make past lvl 48.
    Combat was sluggish as hell, 2.5 sec cooldown on top of abilities needing to wind up animations before hitting felt awful to me. Speaking of animations... they're way too flashy. I couldn't distinguish anything while doing team content. Quests were    Decided to give this game a try, coming from a content-starved WoW.
    And what can I say... it just bored me. Couldn't make past lvl 48.
    Combat was sluggish as hell, 2.5 sec cooldown on top of abilities needing to wind up animations before hitting felt awful to me.
    Speaking of animations... they're way too flashy. I couldn't distinguish anything while doing team content.
    Quests were nothing to write home about. Absolutely boring.
    I didn't like the main story. At least until the part I was. Felt too generic. Maybe I played too many JRPGs back in the day to be impressed by yet another "chosen hero saving the world" story.
    All "world" zones are instanced. Many loadscreens.

    I really tried to enjoy this game but I couldn't even though I tried to force it under the idea it'd get better. But that's not how it works. A game should be enjoyable from the start.    … Expand
  13. rkarlberg
    Sep 29, 2021
    3
    Too many negatives! Level design is excellent - but the world is so empty. Monsters look very cool - but drop nothing and very little xp. Story is horrible - boring and too many long cutscenes. Forced dungeons are raids are awful.
  14. erazor2021
    Aug 18, 2021
    0
    If you don’t like the Trial / “Realm Reborn” take my word, you won’t like any of it…

    New players hope you are ready for 200+ hours of MSQ which is mainly reading text. I fell for the recent hype. To all the people who says “it gets better” seriously, what is wrong with you? This constant insincerity is what kept me going. IT DOESN’T GET BETTER (a least to the point it serves as a    If you don’t like the Trial / “Realm Reborn” take my word, you won’t like any of it…

    New players hope you are ready for 200+ hours of MSQ which is mainly reading text.

    I fell for the recent hype. To all the people who says “it gets better” seriously, what is wrong with you? This constant insincerity is what kept me going. IT DOESN’T GET BETTER (a least to the point it serves as a valid argument).

    I just finished Shadowbringers 5.5 MSQ, and let me tell you, this is an “interactive Novel” more than it is a video game.

    Sure with each expansion the game (novel) gets a little better, in terms of graphics, animations, storytelling, but the CORE of the game doesn’t change, it is still this outdated mmorpg tab targeting, with its main FOCUS on MSQ, which is basically walls of text.

    Your quests in order of occurrences is: talk, travel, click objects, kill NPCs, do dungeons/trials/story instances.
    They added one different mechanic in Stormblood lol, which is to “click stuff in FPS mode”.

    I can count the EPIC moments of the story in one hand! 3 of them were in Havensward and 2 in Shadowbringers (forget RR and SB).

    The main focus of this game is the MSQ, but the problem is; the MSQ is 90% fluff pointless writing and storytelling, you could cut out 80% of this writing and still get a concise accurate description of the story, albeit just more on point.

    What Square Enix is doing is inflating game time content with more and more text and sloppy animation screens, which I’m not kidding stretches the MSQ than it really needs to be. I’m not even talking about important background build up, I’m talking about content you won’t even remember because it served no purpose in the grand scheme of things. (Anything you wont remember a month from now isn't worth reading about).

    Because the MSQ is mainly storytelling, and single player orientated, why not just play better solo video games that are much, much better technically advanced in gameplay, like GTA 5, Witcher 3, red redemption 2, and hundreds of others titles?

    There were times I was so desperate to just “play” the game, because there is so few dungeons/trials and killing quests in-between all the walls of text.

    One could always pay a story skip potion, but the fact is MSQ is the focus of this game, the endgame is extra stuff. Players and Square have both said that MSQ is the focus of the game, and the more casual player base.

    WoW = focuses on repeatable endgame content after a short introductory (and often crap) storyline.

    FF14 = 200 hours of MSQ (at minimum) at which point you can cycle through some endgame content and get max ilvl gear fairly easily. But levelling others job/crafts, which has its own questlines seems be one of the most popular things to do.

    I won’t be buying Endwalker. People who enjoy reading fluff for hundreds of hours to see one good cutscene here and there, you do that, enjoy! I’ll watch it in a recap YouTube video and do more productive things with my life than read FLUFF MSQ content, which is intentionally used to extend game play time.

    “You can always make more money, but you can’t make more time” think about if you’re really enjoying that 200 hours or if you’re only enjoy small amounts of it. Whilst the epic moments were epic, the pain of going through so much unfun content to see it was not worth it. The balance is definitely not there.

    Even most fans think the post RR quests are so bad, yet square hasnt fixed it by just removing it for new players by using a short narration cutscene to bring players up to date for havensward. (And i heard it was even worse, oh dear God).    … Expand
  15. Volcharus
    Jul 24, 2021
    0
    first i shall say - support g-developers for problem character accounts is terrible!!!
    second - game is profoundly boring and dead long past ago in timeline our life!!!
  16. LeonieV2
    Jul 2, 2021
    0
    Achtung das Spiel klaut euch bewusst euro abo Zeit!

    1 Mit gezogenen Events die absichtlich eine längere Zeit benötigen als eigentlich nötig 2 Wer sich ein haus kaufen will zieht die arsch karte da ´die Grundstücke die eigentlich frei sind nicht sofort frei gegeben werden! sondern ein unsichtbaren Timer von 72 Stunden der zufällig verschwindet ich habe insgesamt mehr als einen Tag    Achtung das Spiel klaut euch bewusst euro abo Zeit!

    1 Mit gezogenen Events die absichtlich eine längere Zeit benötigen als eigentlich nötig

    2 Wer sich ein haus kaufen will zieht die arsch karte da ´die Grundstücke die eigentlich frei sind nicht sofort frei gegeben werden! sondern ein unsichtbaren Timer von 72 Stunden der zufällig verschwindet ich habe insgesamt mehr als einen Tag verschwendet und immer noch kein Haus da Cheater andauern schneller sind und die werden nicht einmal gebannt die verlorene Zeit bekommt man auch nicht mehr zurück.    … Expand
  17. eastman18
    Jun 18, 2021
    0
    Honestly the game is pure garbage. No PVP component, pure PVE and nothing else. Extremely slow early game.
  18. Midnightiris
    Jun 16, 2021
    2
    I think the game has a lot of potential, but there is a lot of parts of the game for me that are a turnoff.

    1. Leveling becomes so repetitive and boring, so I can't judge late game because the leveling was just so bad. 2. The UI is very bad, hard to navigate around and follow the map, not very user-friendly. 3. Toooo much teleportation, for it really ruins the game that I have to    I think the game has a lot of potential, but there is a lot of parts of the game for me that are a turnoff.

    1. Leveling becomes so repetitive and boring, so I can't judge late game because the leveling was just so bad.
    2. The UI is very bad, hard to navigate around and follow the map, not very user-friendly.
    3. Toooo much teleportation, for it really ruins the game that I have to teleport every time i have to hand in a quest, and you can't enjoy the world. You could run, but it is so far away every time.
    4. Dungeons, fate, and other content do not feel rewarding when leveling, because when you finally get a cool spell, you can't use it in the content, because you are too high level, even if you only do the main quest, it is kinda frustrating.
    5. Also super hard to install, not easy at all.
    6. The spells are awesome, but some spells feels useless when you get another spell, also too slow.

    I love the spells and animation, i just think the leveling experience is just too bad to continue, and I don't like that you have to get your character boosted to enjoy the content.

    All in all a game with potential, but is just too frustrating to play and not rewarding enough.    … Expand
  19. Chalkbrood
    Apr 20, 2021
    2
    MMORPGs are never good ever. Squenix never develops good games. you do the maths
  20. 2random
    Mar 20, 2021
    1
    Buy this, buy that, buy game, buy expansion, buy one more expansion, buy one more expension again, buy subscription every month. Then you have to spend 200 hours doing "fetch this- talk to that guy - fetch that" quests. Or buy auto lvl and buy skip quests. I can buy like a huge pizza and 2 years of WoW instead.
    Servers are filled with player-like bots. Most "people" just stand around    Buy this, buy that, buy game, buy expansion, buy one more expansion, buy one more expension again, buy subscription every month. Then you have to spend 200 hours doing "fetch this- talk to that guy - fetch that" quests. Or buy auto lvl and buy skip quests. I can buy like a huge pizza and 2 years of WoW instead.
    Servers are filled with player-like bots. Most "people" just stand around teleport area doing nothing. Havent seen anyone say a single word in global chat for like 2 months. It can take up to 2 hours to get into a dungeon. So fake. Every time I try to enter any server there is a fake "20 players login queue" message to make the game look more popular. In game community is extremely unfriendly. People would rather rage quit than explain boss tactics.
    Graphics are really bad. Even Lineage 2 looks better at this point.
    Music is good, though.
    So, in case you have 8(full party size) rich friends who can pay at least $100 each- you can have some fun. Otherwise, it's not worth it.    … Expand
  21. tremault
    Feb 3, 2021
    3
    it's hard going. controls are complicated, there is A LOT of reading, more than any final fantasy i've ever played and you're sent around doing busy work for a ton of NPC's that I really don't care about for a world that looks like hot garbage. many people love it but it's really not for me.
  22. yousuck1
    Aug 21, 2020
    0
    SucksSucks.,.................................................. ...................
  23. hithgor
    Feb 11, 2020
    3
    Unless you buy a story skip till the first expansion, you'll suffer the disgusting 60-ish hour-long fetchquests and a really mediocre story. After that, game's a solid 8 for gameplay and story.
    Would recommend adding an extra 10 euros to buying price for storyskip and watching brief recap on youtube.
  24. HafaNana
    May 28, 2019
    3
    I've been playing the game since launch with several breaks. The game can be a fun experience sometimes, but I cannot recommend playing it as it is intended by the developer.

    FFXIV has a new expansion released every 2 years. And you only need a couple of months playing the game for about 2 hours a day to do all the casual battle content of an expansion (released at launch and during the    I've been playing the game since launch with several breaks. The game can be a fun experience sometimes, but I cannot recommend playing it as it is intended by the developer.

    FFXIV has a new expansion released every 2 years. And you only need a couple of months playing the game for about 2 hours a day to do all the casual battle content of an expansion (released at launch and during the 2-year lifecycle). This includes time to watch main scenario cutscenes and to quickly read through main scenario dialogues.

    The game has very interesting HARDCORE BATTLE CONTENT, but I've decided to stop doing it for the following reasons:
    1. There is little amount of hardcore content (Savage Raids and Extreme Primals): 6 - 7 fights every 7 - 9 months.
    2. Progress through a Savage raids is artificially held back a lot due to weekly loot limitations, RNG and the amount of casual content grind required to gear up your character.
    3. It becomes repetitive very quickly. Fights are very rigidly scripted - to the point that you can write down the exact boss attack rotation.
    4. It's way too hard to find player parties for hardcore content. The game provides no efficient matchmaker or efficient tools to build communities (social networks) of reliable players or to filter out misbehaving players. Statics do on regular bases only hard content of the latest progression cycle (a new one starts every 7 - 9 months with the release of the next raid tier), because only this provides relevant rewards. Only about 10% of all active players manage to beat the last fight of a Savage Raid. In Stormblood two Ultimate difficulty fights have been released, that only about 1% of all active players were able to beat.

    Doing OLD CONTENT (of previous expansions) is not nearly as interesting as new one, because:
    - all actions (abilities) of a job (battle class) become available only when it reaches the current level cap;
    - absolute majority of game characters entering older fights through duty roulettes for daily rewards are overgeared.
    As a result older fights feel much more like easy grind than challenging and exciting action.

    PvP in FF XIV is a complete joke. It is unpopular to the point that Square Enix has to limit the number of available game modes (and rotate them each weak) so that the matchmaker can manage to find players for the available ones. There is no open world PvP either. PvP is also completely F2P: a free trial character can participate in all PvP fights (except for ranked matches) on equal terms with subscribers. It is plagued with cheaters and botters. Reporting such players to Square Enix has no effect. There are no efficient ways of communication between players: there is no VoIP in the game, and some of PvP modes have even text chat disabled (you can only use phrases predefined by Square Enix by pressing buttons/using text macros).

    The game is often praised for its CRAFTING system. While it is complex, it is also very repetitive at the same time. Players just use macros to automate the crafting process. If you decide to get into crafting seriously, you will need to level up all the crafting professions on a single game character in order to get all cross-class skills, as well as gathering professions for the supply of materials. And nobody is excited about gathering, because it's just a tedious grind. You don't need to level up crafting to be an efficient PvE/PvP player.

    The game is heavily MONETIZED. Expect to buy the base game and the latest expansion, pay monthly subscription fee and besides:
    - If you are a crafter or collect glamours (cosmetic gear for your game character) you will easily run out of inventory space. To increase it you are expected to hire additional retainers (NPC characters) for additional real money monthly fee. Retainers also provide additional bonuses for crafters. There are cosmetic items that can be bought only with real money. You need to buy Fantasia potion with real money to change the appearance of your game character significantly.
    - You are interested in housing? Be aware that your house will be destroyed if you unsubscribe from the game for longer than 45 days in a row.
    - The mobile app for buying/selling stuff on the in-game auction (Market Board) with in-game currency (Gil) has an optional real money subscription fee and a premium currency that are used to unlock transactions.
    - There are Scenario Skip and Job Level-Boost potions. Be ready to buy both or buy none. If you buy only Scenario Skip potion (there are ~584 main scenario quests as of patch 4.58) your progress will be too slow because of lack of experience points bonuses.

    Square Enix makes 50% DISCOUNTS on the base game and the latest expansion every year at different times on different digital stores (after several months cooldown since new expansion release). You also get all previous game expansions for free if you purchase the latest one.    … Expand
  25. Praise
    May 26, 2019
    1
    Horrible drawn out story with 1 dimensional characters you can’t force yourself to care about. Enjoy hearing “it’s only the first 30 hours then the story gets so much better!” Just for it to become slightly more tolerable. The fact that they sell story skips in the cash shop speaks for itself. Stay away from this WoW clone.
  26. Shperax
    Mar 12, 2019
    4
    This game had so much potential to be good.

    The only thing version 1.0 got right was the amazing combat system. This game removed it in favor of a WoW clone combat system. It feels soooo old. They did improve on the game on every other aspect but in these type of games the combat needs to hold up and the way they changed it just doesn't. 1.0 combat added into ARR would be a nearly    This game had so much potential to be good.

    The only thing version 1.0 got right was the amazing combat system. This game removed it in favor of a WoW clone combat system. It feels soooo old.

    They did improve on the game on every other aspect but in these type of games the combat needs to hold up and the way they changed it just doesn't.

    1.0 combat added into ARR would be a nearly perfect game. Its fun to check out the world and other game systems but once your done that your gonna wanna give it up quick in favor of a game with a better combat system.    … Expand
  27. Vectis99
    Oct 23, 2018
    2
    A mind-numbing beat-em-up over-saturated with aggressive, addiction-cultivating mechanics to the point of absurdity. The game relies heavily on social elements and can be a cute way to interact with distant friends, but this is about the extent of the games appeal and even it is abused to squeeze as notable a player count as possible using underhanded social-advertising driven tactics.A mind-numbing beat-em-up over-saturated with aggressive, addiction-cultivating mechanics to the point of absurdity. The game relies heavily on social elements and can be a cute way to interact with distant friends, but this is about the extent of the games appeal and even it is abused to squeeze as notable a player count as possible using underhanded social-advertising driven tactics. The game tries to be pleasant aesthetically but ends up looking rather bloated and cluttered. The extended and convoluted plot is bland, slow, and frustrating, with characters it is nearly impossible to become invested in. Avoid FFXIV if possible.… Expand
  28. moudoka
    Sep 14, 2017
    2
    I was a subscriber from patch 2.1, to 4.1. SE is a horrible company, zero customer service, and will steal from you if given half a chance. In ARR, the game was new, fun, and exciting. Heavensward came out, and it had a lot of elements that were not so good, but overall, the experience was fun. Stormblood came out, and honestly, I hated it. It's the same-old cut and dried danceI was a subscriber from patch 2.1, to 4.1. SE is a horrible company, zero customer service, and will steal from you if given half a chance. In ARR, the game was new, fun, and exciting. Heavensward came out, and it had a lot of elements that were not so good, but overall, the experience was fun. Stormblood came out, and honestly, I hated it. It's the same-old cut and dried dance routine, with nothing new. The new maps were nice, but they wore out VERY quickly until you can fly, then everything else becomes an utter waste of time. 50 bucks for Stormblood, when it's nothing more than Heavensward 1.5. Literally. Exact same raid system, exact same boring storyline that feels amateurish, rushed. Same stupid crafting scrip system that was hated in HW. You want a house? Well, too bad. Unless you are logged in on release day of the player housing, you get nothing. Free Company and personal housing mixed, reducing the chance of getting a house even more. Want to raid? Hope you enjoy wiping countless times because you missed a single step, killing everyone in the raid with you. Like 1-hit kills, no matter how much armor, HP, etc you have? Great, tons of them. Save your money, the subscription is a waste of time. There are almost zero content updates, save a drop every 3 months or so. Like holiday quests? Well, FF14's are trash, they last 15 seconds, and you're done. Zero effort anymore. Do not buy, or support this game until they make real changes.… Expand
  29. WdMac
    Sep 6, 2017
    1
    God awful questing and character progression. The entirety of the games content is locked behind the main story quest line. You cant do ANYTHING until the game lets you. Want to do dungeons with your friends? Too bad, the game wont let you until you do their lame story quest. Level doesnt matter as much as main story progression. This game commits the cardinal sin of becoming a chore toGod awful questing and character progression. The entirety of the games content is locked behind the main story quest line. You cant do ANYTHING until the game lets you. Want to do dungeons with your friends? Too bad, the game wont let you until you do their lame story quest. Level doesnt matter as much as main story progression. This game commits the cardinal sin of becoming a chore to play. The game will not let you progress and explore it under your own terms. This game is terrible.… Expand
  30. ZiNg31
    Feb 16, 2017
    4
    I had never played FF games before this. My best friend he is a huge fan of FF series. FF XIV, my friend recommended me to play this. I bought the game and had lot of funs! This is game something I like to play. The bad part was the online subscriptions expired. I was unable to continue playing this. The subscriptions really hurt this. It would be cool if they sell the game forI had never played FF games before this. My best friend he is a huge fan of FF series. FF XIV, my friend recommended me to play this. I bought the game and had lot of funs! This is game something I like to play. The bad part was the online subscriptions expired. I was unable to continue playing this. The subscriptions really hurt this. It would be cool if they sell the game for more money without subscriptions. I could see myself playing this for long time without subscriptions. I have ton of bills to pay including house, SUV, phone, cable and Internet. This sucks.… Expand
prev
Page:

Awards & Rankings

33
#33 Best PC Game of 2013
19
#19 Most Discussed PC Game of 2013
31
#31 Most Shared PC Game of 2013

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
83

Generally favorable reviews - based on 32 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 29 out of 32
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 32
  3. Negative: 0 out of 32
  1. Hyper Magazine
    Dec 28, 2013
    80
    Full of enough adventure, daring-do and chocobos to make any MMO fan happy. [Jan 2014, p.72]
  2. Gaming Nexus
    Nov 13, 2013
    85
    A Realm Reborn is such a substantial change from the original game that it merits a second look if you hated the first release. So much has changed for the better, and it has resulted in one of the most polished MMORPGs out there today.
    Read full review
  3. PCGamesN
    Nov 6, 2013
    80
    The completionist in me is nearly overwhelmed with the sheer amount of things to do in A Realm Reborn. Square Enix really do deserve praise for not only fixing the issues of the original game, but far exceeding their goal.
    Read full review
See all critic reviews »