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
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  1. Unoskd
    Sep 7, 2023
    6
    The main story quest starts off very slowly.
    The dungeons feel like they stretch on endlessly and, in my opinion, are rather tedious and somewhat boring in their design.
    It's only when you reach around Level 35 and travel to Coerthas that the story starts to get interesting. It picks up again later when you directly attack the Garleans, etc. That's all good storytelling, but as I said,    The main story quest starts off very slowly.
    The dungeons feel like they stretch on endlessly and, in my opinion, are rather tedious and somewhat boring in their design.
    It's only when you reach around Level 35 and travel to Coerthas that the story starts to get interesting. It picks up again later when you directly attack the Garleans, etc. That's all good storytelling, but as I said, the beginning feels incredibly sluggish.

    Graphics are a mixed bag.
    Customization options for playable characters definitely need improvements, particularly in the areas of facial features, body size (in the case of the Elezen the neck), and long hairstyles.
    Personally, I'm not a huge fan of the nature and creatures in the world. The animals look unnatural, with some having twisted spines and the landscapes sometimes appear a bit colorless and static.

    Player housing is great, but I don't like that players are forced to maintain a subscription if they want a proper house instead of just an apartment. Additionally, it's very annoying that you can't place an unlimited number of items and that you can't freely place items on top of other items.

    7/10, solid game, but there's plenty of room for improvement.    … Expand
  2. Ser3ndip1ty
    Aug 22, 2023
    5
    Good traditional MMO. Good 100 hours in with friends chatting. But to be honest, most of time playing the game itself is boring.
  3. giorgicorgi
    Jun 17, 2023
    5
    I think I've met more people in this game than I have in any other game. Great MMO, great soundtrack, great people
  4. MazrimTaim14
    Jul 31, 2022
    6
    It is a vast improvement from 1.0 but still trying to get in strides.

    Story is somewhat underwhelming for the time needed to invest in and gameplay is not too bland. I know the story picks up , quality of changes incoming and the jobs are just pre-50 but judging ARR on its own is more fitting than judging it for the potential improvements it will have later on. all in all, its a    It is a vast improvement from 1.0 but still trying to get in strides.

    Story is somewhat underwhelming for the time needed to invest in and gameplay is not too bland.

    I know the story picks up , quality of changes incoming and the jobs are just pre-50 but judging ARR on its own is more fitting than judging it for the potential improvements it will have later on.

    all in all, its a good foundation for what is to come    … Expand
  5. Gawkers53
    May 27, 2022
    7
    This was my first MMO after Neverwinter, which I hadn't played for quite some time. It's a pretty solid game on its own. It has a fairly decent story, nice graphics, etc. And the music is very good. Overall, it's a pretty average game. Though, suffice it to say, the rest of the game after A Realm Reborn is much, much better.
  6. DarkwingSchmuck
    Mar 3, 2022
    6
    Final Fantasy XIV improves upon Final Fantasy XI in every way -- so much so that it renders Final Fantasy XI completely obsolete. Final Fantasy XIV also bears the strongest narrative in the franchise since Final Fantasy X by a wide margin, which makes it all the more disappointing that its nature as an MMO holds it back from being a much better overall package than what it is.

    All the    Final Fantasy XIV improves upon Final Fantasy XI in every way -- so much so that it renders Final Fantasy XI completely obsolete. Final Fantasy XIV also bears the strongest narrative in the franchise since Final Fantasy X by a wide margin, which makes it all the more disappointing that its nature as an MMO holds it back from being a much better overall package than what it is.

    All the typical trappings of an MMO are present -- including premium paywalls, tedious grind, the inability to play your own way or offline, and server issues. Furthermore, while the game features vast open maps, this is dulled by an over-reliance on boring fetch quests. The actual "game" feels more like a checklist of useless busywork than anything else.

    Simply put, Final Fantasy XIV does not elevate itself beyond its genre. If you are not a fan of MMOs, Final Fantasy XIV will not change your mind.    … Expand
  7. ataak
    Feb 23, 2022
    5
    I imagine this is what being in a cult is like.
    The game is not bad, but the people in it makes it worse than it is.
    As long as you agree that everything is " absolutely awesome, the story is epic, and bunniebois are super cute" you are golden. If not, you are in for a rough ride.
  8. popPunker
    Feb 22, 2022
    7
    O jogo é bacana, mas te obriga a fazer TODAS as quests principais e são MUITAS, então acaba ficando muito massante, não adianta tu ter várias formas de upar, pq as quests são obrigatorias pra tu chegar no end game, então mesmo que tu evite elas durante o leveling, vai ser ter que fazer uma hora ou outra.
    Não tem legenda em português, a historia é um dos maiores pontos positivos desse    O jogo é bacana, mas te obriga a fazer TODAS as quests principais e são MUITAS, então acaba ficando muito massante, não adianta tu ter várias formas de upar, pq as quests são obrigatorias pra tu chegar no end game, então mesmo que tu evite elas durante o leveling, vai ser ter que fazer uma hora ou outra.
    Não tem legenda em português, a historia é um dos maiores pontos positivos desse jogo, então não ter legendas prejudica muito a experiência.    … Expand
  9. runjumphug
    Feb 15, 2022
    7
    Completed FFXIV: ARR and most of the optional quests.

    Playtime: 3D12H. Bard w/ some archer, samurai, and red mage. Very slow, generic, and Japanese story wise, but I enjoyed my time. Hopefully it picks up in the expansions.

    Bard's ability to perform your own music is awesome.
  10. Wweald
    Nov 14, 2021
    7
    ARR has some issues, but it's still a very good game if you're a fan of mmorpgs. It starts off quite slow, like all mmos but it feels especially slow in this one. But once you start running dungeons and trials it feels great. The story drags on a lot at parts but is quite a good story on it's own. Great music, great visuals. Tons of fun and insane amount of great content with the free trial.
  11. mirg
    Jul 17, 2021
    5
    Yoshi and the team did a great job improving the game from the original but they used too broad a brush. The best features from 1.0. are still missing even after so many years, things like belt glams for instance are still not there in this version and are infact being removed, which is sad to see.

    The problem with this product is that yes it's entertaining at first but after a few    Yoshi and the team did a great job improving the game from the original but they used too broad a brush. The best features from 1.0. are still missing even after so many years, things like belt glams for instance are still not there in this version and are infact being removed, which is sad to see.

    The problem with this product is that yes it's entertaining at first but after a few years of playing it from expansion to expansion it's clear the product is suffering from stale, repetitive, and restrictive systems and choices. Yes there can be multiple things that one can go into why they enjoy it as with many games but the thing is this game is simply getting less and less enjoyable with each decision made to make it more focused on the catering towards those that rarely play the game which causes less and less reasons to care about investing your time into continue playing the game.

    Yes, they did provided a reason to have invested your time into the game during the transfer from 1.0. to 2.0 but after that there is less and less reasons to bother doing so especially when you consider that nearly everything in the game as of this post is simply lacking in content to do once you've done all the previous content and have reached "endgame" which as of right now the "endgame" is simply you running through bozja to get your blade weapon and running through Eden's Promise, that's it.

    I'm bored, so bloody bored. I got all the beast tribes, got everything to max, got basically all achievements as well as the mounts too. now with the end of shadowlands it's clear to me that this game isn't designed for hardcore play instead it's more designed with casuals in mind. which i'm not saying there is anything wrong with being a casual but when it comes to a mmorpg if there is no fun to be had for hardcore players too then what's the point?    … Expand
  12. naughtywolf3
    Jul 9, 2021
    7
    It's alright. Not the biggest fan of it, but I'll give it a 7 just because it doesn't deserve any lower.
  13. 6oni
    Jul 9, 2021
    6
    the main problem is that it is an mmo, mmo combat (important since it is the basis of the game), mmo missions (you know ..),
    there are people but they all go to their own way,
    same area, same clothes , same weapons, there is no strategy to plan,
    it's just, I remember that! I applaud ..
  14. ElaineMes
    May 6, 2021
    7
    This is a rewiev based of my memory since the actual ARR experience isn't available anymore!

    FFXIV: ARR is the 2013 "remake" (if you wanna call it like that) of FFXIV Online which failed ridiculusly back in 2010. ARR improved on alot of issues sourrounding the game by either changing massive portions of it's game or outright replace them. It also delivered many new things to this game    This is a rewiev based of my memory since the actual ARR experience isn't available anymore!


    FFXIV: ARR is the 2013 "remake" (if you wanna call it like that) of FFXIV Online which failed ridiculusly back in 2010.

    ARR improved on alot of issues sourrounding the game by either changing massive portions of it's game or outright replace them. It also delivered many new things to this game such as normal raids and alliance raids. Aswell as new jobs and dungeons.

    The story is a continuation of the original with many new characters, enemies and allies. Gameplay and combat has been replaced entirely. From what used to be a bad immitation of FFXI it made itself anew by adding a Tab-target system of combat. Whilst it was a big improvement overall it did suffer from balancing issues.

    Overall a very solid new start for this game wich would be the foundation for the game in years to come.    … Expand
  15. Raidutilities11
    Mar 8, 2021
    5
    FFXIV is a decent game but the grimy problem with the FFXIV elite community (Balance discord leader and accomplices): https://youtu.be/MHNz7VSHRgw --- https://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1srk4pr
    That's what made me give it a lower rating
  16. WCM320
    Feb 6, 2021
    6
    It's fine for a MMO.

    It really did kind of leave out the best part about the prior FFMMO.
  17. dislexicpotato
    Sep 14, 2020
    7
    Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn does a good job at learning from the mistakes of its former version, with an interesting world with plenty of things to see and do. However, the game has more filler content than any Final Fantasy game to date, with the vast majority of A Realm Reborn's content consisting of boring fetch quests. If you want to feel like a delivery driver or a messenger,Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn does a good job at learning from the mistakes of its former version, with an interesting world with plenty of things to see and do. However, the game has more filler content than any Final Fantasy game to date, with the vast majority of A Realm Reborn's content consisting of boring fetch quests. If you want to feel like a delivery driver or a messenger, then you will absolutely love this game. The music is fantastic and visually the game is decent, but the main thing holding back A Realm Reborn is simply the fact that the content in the base game is very repetitive and uninteresting.

    Thankfully, Square Enix knows this and has learned from it with the Final Fantasy XIV expansions being significantly better with content that is much more interesting and enjoyable. Do not be put off by A Realm Reborn, force your way through it and enjoy the expansions that follow.    … Expand
  18. javi82_vlc
    Apr 13, 2020
    7
    Spanish is the second world language, ahead of English. I find it great that it is translated earlier into Swedish or Danish (I have nothing against it) but, it seems to me a lack of respect for Hispanic followers. After 10 years, they have had more than enough time to perform a translation (even if it is bad)
  19. mijxero
    Apr 9, 2017
    7
    This is a tough one to review. It has a very solid classic MMO feel to it, which is a plus for me. The community is the best I have ever seen. While the story itself goes from okay to really good, the quests attached are terrible. To get into the level 51 areas you probably have to do 20 hours of fetch quests, running back and forth, and just generally boring quests. It is a shameThis is a tough one to review. It has a very solid classic MMO feel to it, which is a plus for me. The community is the best I have ever seen. While the story itself goes from okay to really good, the quests attached are terrible. To get into the level 51 areas you probably have to do 20 hours of fetch quests, running back and forth, and just generally boring quests. It is a shame because everything else is great, you just have to ask if you are willing to push through the boring quests to enjoy the gem hidden within.… Expand
  20. TsukasaHiiragi
    Jan 2, 2016
    5
    After playing FFXIV beta and deciding it was a train wreck, I never played the game up until getting a 30 day account via humble bundle and I've been playing constantly each day enough to warrant a fair review, as with most MMOs your always going to get fanboy reviews with 9 or 10s, and you're going to get haters with 0s which this game doesn't deserve both, FFXIV is a solid 5 because itsAfter playing FFXIV beta and deciding it was a train wreck, I never played the game up until getting a 30 day account via humble bundle and I've been playing constantly each day enough to warrant a fair review, as with most MMOs your always going to get fanboy reviews with 9 or 10s, and you're going to get haters with 0s which this game doesn't deserve both, FFXIV is a solid 5 because its just average, sure it does several things right, but also does several things wrong. FFXIV still suffers from the Ver 1.0 trainwreck but has at least headed in the right direction since then, but still there is a large room for improvement.

    Some of the greatest issues are mostly for new players such as making gil, its very difficult for new players to make any descent money since most of the original methods for making money are either over farmed, or dead resources that no one really uses anymore, and with veteran players having countless millions of gil, its created a massive rift in the game, with certain features such as housing clearly showing these problems - having to pay upwards of 4 million+ for a basic house, and perhaps as high as 70 million for a large house is obnoxious, it more or less prevents new players from ever owning a house, garden and all that fun stuff.

    Another problem is with questing, simply put - there isn't enough quests, with the primary source of levelling with grinding fates and repeating dungeons which honestly, does get boring quite fast - then times this via the amount of jobs you want to level and you get a really grindy game with honestly, little in the way of content to show for it. The saving grace is that at least when you unlock an advanced job, at least that doesn't start at level 1 at least - crafting and gathering are also both quite grindy and boring, especially at higher levels when you start to need cross job materials so your either forced to buy from other players, and lets face it - alot of these items are not going to be cheap in a player driven economy, or forced to grind it out yourself - which again, adds to more grindfest - veteran players though will probably tell you that ultimately this is one of the few ways you can make large amounts of money later in the game, assuming you can stick with the game long enough.

    Questing and combat does have issues as well, with casters suffering from a 2.5 second timer on all offensive spells, plus a global cool down which honestly, feels like the combat is slightly on the slower side compared to melee fighters who have no cast times on skills. The cool downs for magic users feels a tad excessive to be really honest, especially during fates when 2.5 seconds is actually a really long time when casting a spell at a target just for a few melee players to decimate the mob you was targetting in less time.

    Another issue is with the fact that some of the quests I would say haven't been properly balanced, some quests are either stupidly easy or stupidly difficult - these are almost always story quests which have balance issues. Also, there isn't any banks, there is a retainer which is kinder like a bank but you don't unlock that until later in the game so for new players. Zone design ranges from great to poor, many zones at least are well designed but personally I never liked the Gridania zones, they feel too cramped and far too many aggro monsters compared to other areas and finally, lag is also a major problem in FFXIV, lag spikes are deadly for squishy characters.

    Overall, the game can be fun to play at times if you can stand the monotony of the typical Japanese (excessive) grind, there are many more issues with the game that I could easily mention too but there are also positive points about FFXIV, so I would say that this really is a game that isn't for everyone, but since you can get a free 14 day trial, this could be a game you'll totally enjoy, or hate but at least with the trial, your not losing anything.    … Expand
  21. eialici
    Sep 12, 2015
    7
    This would have been a great game if they had included voice acting for dialogues which, sadly, they did not.

    I see reviews and people claiming that the story is well written and sorts and that creating a voice dialogue for every scene is ridiculous. The story might be well written but I did not buy a game to read, I buy a game to play, Remember, Skyrim has voice acting for all    This would have been a great game if they had included voice acting for dialogues which, sadly, they did not.

    I see reviews and people claiming that the story is well written and sorts and that creating a voice dialogue for every scene is ridiculous. The story might be well written but I did not buy a game to read, I buy a game to play,

    Remember, Skyrim has voice acting for all scenes and that was in 2008. We are living in the 21st century, not in the 80's,    … Expand
  22. SynKazama
    Jul 13, 2015
    5
    FFXIV as a whole offers a great story, beautiful world, great music and production values. By gaming standards it's very good. By MMO standards, it's actually quite bland and really offers nothing new to the genre or fails to even rehash anything that made MMOs great.

    From a veteran's perspective (10+ years playing various MMOs): Jobs are overly balanced to the point where they don't    FFXIV as a whole offers a great story, beautiful world, great music and production values. By gaming standards it's very good. By MMO standards, it's actually quite bland and really offers nothing new to the genre or fails to even rehash anything that made MMOs great.

    From a veteran's perspective (10+ years playing various MMOs):

    Jobs are overly balanced to the point where they don't differentiate well within their trinity (Tank,Healer,DPS). Everything in the game has been designed around equality, which is odd seeing as how, like FFXI, all jobs are accessible on a single character and players are encouraged to level multiples.

    Character progression slows to a near standstill at cap with virtually no options for how you build and play your character. Unlike most other MMOs there are no talents/skill trees/ branching or specialization in either skills or equipment. All skills and abilities are automatically learned along the way, and for equipment It's simply a straight vertical climb up the iLVL chart which also offers next to nothing in terms of choice.

    Raid content is repetitive and heavily reliant upon dodge and enrage mechanics. While raids can be difficult, it is generally because people fail to execute a very mechanical formula such as failing to meet DPS checks or remembering phase changes and specific positioning.

    Dungeons are simply a means to level and gain tokens to exchange for the basic pre-raid iLVL requirement gear. There are no valuables or collectibles (besides glamour items, furniture and minions) to be obtained. No usable rare and unusual items exist at all in the world.

    Crafting provides almost no advantage to character development as equipment is, in 95% of all cases, sub-par to raid and token gear. It can be used to earn an equally useless income by crafting consumables and glamour items but ultimately provides little to be desired.

    Both of the above are done in an overly cautious means to prevent RMT (Real Money Trade).

    Despite the recent news and reviews, open world is no more dangerous than in 2.0. Players can still take down 3 enemies at a time with literally no open world danger aside from going AFK.

    The most glaring issue is in all of the limitations imposed by SE that prevent people from continuing to grow at their own pace. Nearly everything is gated by timed lockouts and access. Even gathering jobs can only obtain the most important resources at specific intervals. These serve the purpose of delaying content consumption between the patch cycles and to balance the progression levels of the player base.

    Although the attempt to level the progression of the player base is likely done to prevent elitism, it's backfired in a sense. Instead of being judged on their progress in the game, players are more often ostracized for lack of coordination, response time and general skill.

    It's first expansion Heavansward offers almost nothing new to the genre either. The largest changes made to the game are a graphics refresh (DX11), open world flight, new dungeons, new jobs and a level cap increase. In other words, very standard fare for an MMO expansion. Once the world is seen, story played through and dungeons crawled it leaves very little for veteran MMO players to enjoy.

    If you're new to the MMO genre, looking for a casual place to hang out online with friends, really into role playing or just have a very limited amount of time to play, FFXIV may be hands down the best choice. But if you're a hardcore MMO player, raid junkie, or want to become a PvP god we're a little out in the cold right now. Hopefully 2015/16 will bring back some of the great sandbox MMO features many of us miss.    … Expand
  23. Panserbjorne39
    Jun 4, 2015
    6
    I have a level 50 Warrior (tank) and have played the game for about 3 months. Here's my review:
    Beautiful to look at but at it's core is a relentless never ending grind. Toxic community full of former WoW goons and griefers. There are some good players out there of course, but there is a ton of griefing and harassment that take place. RMT and bots are running rampant atm.
    Full of    I have a level 50 Warrior (tank) and have played the game for about 3 months. Here's my review:
    Beautiful to look at but at it's core is a relentless never ending grind. Toxic community full of former WoW goons and griefers. There are some good players out there of course, but there is a ton of griefing and harassment that take place. RMT and bots are running rampant atm.
    Full of pointless fetch quests and travel time sinks even after level cap. Tab target combat with 3 second globals is boring and all jobs feel the same. Dungeons using insta-wipe mechanics and rigid adherence to trinity remove all semblance of skill or fun.
    Some very cute moments but they don't outweigh the monotonous grind of a WoW clone like this.
    Dungeon queue for DPS jobs is insanely long. At level 50 I quit the main story arc and went to crafting because I just couldn't take the grind any more. Crafting is great, and probably the best I've seen so far in an MMO. But at the end of the day, action and combat are what keep me interested in a game so I will be cancelling my sub this month.    … Expand
  24. braindamage
    May 18, 2015
    6
    a ok game ruined by bad game design, the design of this game turns the community into the game it to foul impatient piece of shi , I played ffxi online back a long time ago and never ran into the grief laden piece of chunks, I do in this game man,

    play it with a group of friends if possible also about time to ditch the ps3 don't you think,, it holds the game back the story is    a ok game ruined by bad game design, the design of this game turns the community into the game it to foul impatient piece of shi , I played ffxi online back a long time ago and never ran into the grief laden piece of chunks, I do in this game man,

    play it with a group of friends if possible

    also about time to ditch the ps3 don't you think,, it holds the game back

    the story is really hard to keep a track of in between all the dumb stuff you have to do in the meantime between missions, but the game is ok, not the story but the game play    … Expand
  25. PeterRJG
    May 6, 2015
    5
    This is pretty much the mini-review I wrote for mmorpg.com so it is a bit of a copypasta. Anyhow, here goes:

    I'm not sure what game these people here who say "excellent game" or "best thing ever" are playing. Maybe they're shills or trolls. Maybe they're easily amused. Maybe they get off on doing simplistic, repetitive, tasks. My bet is with the easily amused factor. Anyhow - my take    This is pretty much the mini-review I wrote for mmorpg.com so it is a bit of a copypasta. Anyhow, here goes:

    I'm not sure what game these people here who say "excellent game" or "best thing ever" are playing. Maybe they're shills or trolls. Maybe they're easily amused. Maybe they get off on doing simplistic, repetitive, tasks. My bet is with the easily amused factor.

    Anyhow - my take on this in pro and con form:

    Pros: * It's pretty * Vibrant music * Well designed and animated character models * Switching jobs and classes on the fly is a new twist - largely in theory though * You can track your character through SE's FFXIV website. It's a neat touch.

    Cons: * Mindlessly simplistic combat mechanics - you mash the same two/three buttons from levels 1 through to 50 irrespective of class or job. In other words, it shows its console heritage * Everything is on the same cooldown timer * Combined, the above two points quickly devolve into boring and repetitive combat * Can't skip the cutscenes/theater after character creation. This aspect gets old quickly * No zone or global chat channels. You're in a heavily-populated though silent world. * /tells are worthless as most people have them disabled due to rampant gold spammers * Most characters look the same - everyone gets the same quest reward gear * You can't mail alts money or gear or materials. You need to join a guild with a company chest open to do this, or trust a friend to do it for you * If you play a DPS class, expect long waits to do instances * Quests are the usual kill x amount of this, or gather x amount of this to hand in. No real innovation here * This is a subscription only game and it's debatable it offers anything over and above many free to play alternatives. Very debatable. All up, 5/10.    … Expand
  26. SpookySpartacus
    Jan 29, 2015
    5
    It's a good MMO overall, but it falls short of being great by any means.

    To put things into perspective: I didn't play FFXIV 1.0 and I haven't played an FF game in years before this. I have, however, played my share of MMOs, both sandbox and themepark: ArcheAge, WoW, Guild Wars 1 and 2, SWtoR. I'm not an FF fanboy by any means, but I would call myself somewhat jaded by the MMO industry    It's a good MMO overall, but it falls short of being great by any means.

    To put things into perspective: I didn't play FFXIV 1.0 and I haven't played an FF game in years before this. I have, however, played my share of MMOs, both sandbox and themepark: ArcheAge, WoW, Guild Wars 1 and 2, SWtoR. I'm not an FF fanboy by any means, but I would call myself somewhat jaded by the MMO industry of late.

    After putting in about 40 hours I have to say, plain and simple, I got bored. I didn't even reach the endgame, but already I was yearning for... more. More exploration maybe would have helped. More variety surely would have. FFXIV ARR has good content, enjoyable classes, fun crafting minigames, and I liked the FATE system even when it was repetitive. The idea of hunting down monsters for rewards is a nice twist, too.

    Really though, that's where the game ends and should have begun. There's no difference in this class system compared to any of the other games I mentioned above (with ArcheAge being the only possible exception). It could just be me, but I'm perfectly okay with making a new character to try out a different class, and that's essentially what you are doing whether you admit it or not - when you take a new job, your level goes back to 1 and you start over, accomplishing the same end through slightly different means. There's certainly nothing new about the questing, other than that the quests were honestly a whole lot easier than I expected, which partially led to the boredom I've experienced and ultimately in putting the game down for good.

    I like to think that this game is the same skeleton of the traditional themepark MMO (quest hub system, group and raid finder for parties, the good ol' leveling and crafting grind we know and hate) with the pretty colors of Square's AMAZING Final Fantasy universe painted all over it. So if you like that, this is a game worth looking at because at it's core, everything is present and shown off very well.

    The bottom line is that the MMO gamer picks up an MMO, as he or she has done time and time again, and plays it looking for something that improves on that design while still presenting the traditional elements in a way that is... well... palatable is a good word. If the amount of people still playing SWtoR is any indication, we will put up with any amount of bugs and terrible graphical quality as long as the GAME is fun. A lot of people will happily take that same formula in stride when it looks and feels this much better. However, the MMO gamer who's looking for the next new hit, the next fun, innovative game, will not settle for the skeleton model any more. We'll play it to see if we can tolerate it and when we can't find anything new and exciting in it, we'll move on and never look at it again.

    Sadly, that's what I'm going to have to do with this title - move on and never look at it again.    … Expand
  27. Kyuurai
    Nov 21, 2014
    5
    This game was once a 10 in my opinion but now Square is just recycling old content.
    The endgame is just terrible.
    Do you like mindless grind of old content that you already did 1000 times just to get a new weapon that is going to be your BIS? Then this game is for you. They did the same to the crafting professions. They added something called "desynthesis" needed for the newest recipes    This game was once a 10 in my opinion but now Square is just recycling old content.
    The endgame is just terrible.
    Do you like mindless grind of old content that you already did 1000 times just to get a new weapon that is going to be your BIS? Then this game is for you.
    They did the same to the crafting professions. They added something called "desynthesis" needed for the newest recipes etc. You basically have to level your crafting once more in order to make those new recipes.

    This game is going downhill. All the critic reviews are from the "good times".
    Don´t look at the 2013 reviews. Go for the 2014 ones.    … Expand
  28. Winterlight212
    Nov 13, 2014
    7
    I initially gave this game a very good review, and I regret jumping the gun. New Review having played for a few months now: 1) Slowest combat of any MMO I have ever played (2.5 second global cooldown, compare that to WoW's 0.5 second global cooldown; now imagine drinking tea between spells). 2) As a result of extremely slow combat pace, there is no complexity or diverse rotation, there isI initially gave this game a very good review, and I regret jumping the gun. New Review having played for a few months now: 1) Slowest combat of any MMO I have ever played (2.5 second global cooldown, compare that to WoW's 0.5 second global cooldown; now imagine drinking tea between spells). 2) As a result of extremely slow combat pace, there is no complexity or diverse rotation, there is no complexity in dungeons or boss mechanics, because the pace of combat is so slow you would have enough time to anticipate nearly anything that comes your way.

    3) No public chat channels, and no standard intuitive chat interface, in fact you can't even set reply as the R key, it must be set with CTRL or ALT, really? As far as no public chat channels I mean no "General" or "Zone" or "Map" or "Trade" sort of chat channels as you may see in other games. You can create a private channel, though you have to go all the way to an NPC, read through some text, and can't even name it what you want because they are apparently anti-everything (i.e. very controlling), and won't let you use most words to name your private chat channel.

    4) The actual gameplay, aside from the extremely slow combat, just feels like an outdated Final Fantasy game that tries to be dramatic, and ends up being redundant. What I mean is they try to impress you with flashy spell/sound effects, and music, but then the actual gameplay is so redundant that you are just wandering aimlessly to try and repetitively grind the same quests over and over (literally, you repeat the same quests over and over, not even joking there, it is the exact same set of quests, with the exact same name, and the exact same objectives).

    5) Dungeons are very straightforward, in fact so straightforward that I would say there's absolutely no challenge whatsoever, which goes hand in hand with the slow combat limiting the complexity of ANYTHING in the game at all, but again no surprise here. As far as how the dungeons look, I was not impressed, they were all largely just going through "tunnels" of some sort or variation, and killing pretty much the same set of 5 different monsters up until the boss fights, which also were pretty redundant as well.

    6) Again with redundancy: Everyone looks the exact same. Why? Because there's pretty much only a few templates for gear of each type, which is why most people end up looking the exact same.

    7) Healing is a complete utter joke. I cannot emphasize this enough, as it is truly tragic, because I absolutely love healing. Zero complexity here, and again I think a big reason for that is the pace of combat, which means there is no need for a diverse range of options for healers, which is why it ends up being redundant as well.

    8) As many other players have noted: Zones feel extremely small, and I agree.

    9) Extending on the previous point: The FFXIV world is not an open world, it is divided up into many different instanced type zones. What does that mean? It means that if you go to a new zone, you will see a loading screen when entering that zone, because the world is not interconnected. Even more interesting is that even just within the same city there are multiple instanced zones, which is laughable to say the least, because it makes the city feel even smaller.

    In conclusion: Too small, too slow, too repetitive, and the game director is now talking about implementing "marriage," which is fine, but then he went on to say that it would exclude gays. Really? I mean come on, even Electronic Arts has plenty of gay relationships in their games, who cares if two male or two female characters want to get married? Are the Tea "Patriots" and Ugandans and all the radical ignorant populace of the world going to teleport in and suddenly crash the servers every time two male or two female characters get married in some undisclosed location? No. Does it destroy straight relationships who will have no idea that gay marrying is going on somewhere far, far away in some undisclosed location? No, because they won't even know, because it's not their business, and it's not announced, so they would not know, yet they feel the need to control what everyone does and thinks, which is ironic coming from these "Patriots" claiming to be "Pro-Freedom," really now... the ignorance is astounding. If Yoshida didn't want this to be an issue, he shouldn't have implemented marriage in the first place, at all, period. As for the rest of the game: Garbage. If you like garbage, you might like this game, I say might because garbage flavor can vary, you might not like this particular flavor of garbage.    … Expand
  29. aatassi
    Jul 31, 2014
    7
    + : nice graphics. story driven, different classes, housing, permanent updates,
    different platforms (PC, PS3, PS4)
    - : subscriptions

    Game-play : 6/10, graphics : 8/10, background : 7/10, lifetime : 7/10
  30. x_ares_x
    Jul 22, 2014
    5
    FFXIV is an amazing feat - Square Enix did the unthinkable; they resurrected a previously doomed video game. With that being said, the resurrection leaves players like me wanting more. Before I get any "WoW fanboy!" responses, I *have* played World of Warcraft, but I've also played Final Fantasy 11, Guild Wars 1 & 2, Rift, Star Wars the Old Republic and many, many more MMORPGs. To say I'mFFXIV is an amazing feat - Square Enix did the unthinkable; they resurrected a previously doomed video game. With that being said, the resurrection leaves players like me wanting more. Before I get any "WoW fanboy!" responses, I *have* played World of Warcraft, but I've also played Final Fantasy 11, Guild Wars 1 & 2, Rift, Star Wars the Old Republic and many, many more MMORPGs. To say I'm a fan of one is to say that for one reason or another, I'm a fan of them all.

    What FFXIV isn't is a terrible game. It's not a bad game, it just has few qualities which make it stand out from the crowd and justify the monthly subscription.

    Pros would be obviously the graphics - the game's simply stunning to look at. The sound is great, music is great. A plentiful amount of pets and mounts. The game is pretty decent to play. FFXIV has a really good story and the community for the most part is somewhat friendly. It's nice to be able to move from one class to another just by swapping out your weapons.

    The darker side, or cons of this game however would be that with weapon and class swapping comes fewer spaces in inventory and fewer quests. Inventory stays the same no matter how high your level and there is, at this time no way to increase it unless you hire retainers - you get two of those at the most, after their inventory is full, you're out of luck. Main quests are limited in number which leaves the player seeking out something called Leves. Levels too are limited by how many you can do, depending on how many you have "saved up". You have credits which act as Leve currency, which will cot you 1 credit per Leve taken on, regardless of whether you're successful or not. Dungeons are mediocre at best, for the most part. As with most MMOs, if you're not a tank or a healer, get ready to wait in queue for a while, if you can figure out how to access the queue system - or as far as that goes, how to use the Glamour (read transmogrification) system, or even how to make or even use Materia. Unlike other MMORPGs, Square makes everything into a quest - do you want to make your armor stronger? You need to obtain Materia. How do you obtain Materia? Wait until 18 and quest the ability to change old gear into Materia - ah, but again, it's not that easy; no, again, you have to wait until your "spirit bond" with that piece of gear is at 100%, which might take a while, depending on how often you're in battle. However, let's say you finally completed the quest and have obtained some Materia, now to slot it - but how? That's right, another quest. However, even after you've successfully done these two quests and you have Materia and you're all set to slot it.... you get hit with the information that you can't slot it because the piece of gear you're wearing is for your current level which is 30, but your craft for that respective piece of gear is only at level 10. Let me clarifiy; if you plan on slotting Materia, you better keep your crafts (yes, CRAFTS) on par with your current class's level. You will also need more than one craft leveled as well, if you want to cover all of your gear. If you want to place Materia into your main gear if you're a plate-wearing tank, that will mean you will have to level Armorer for your armor, Blacksmith for your weapon/shield and Goldsmithing for your accessories at minimal. At the rate one craft depends on another for materials, you better be ready to level them all or shell out whatever the other crafters want for those much needed leather materials you will ultimately need. Raids are uninspiring and boring. The 2.5 second global cooldown encompasses almost every move, even stuns, which leaves one apprehensive at times on using abilities because the boss at any second could use a special move which needs to be stunned and ultimately isn't stunned because the tank's abilities are on cooldown - and so the group is wiped.
    The public quest system known as FATEs is another thing that is rather bothersome. When you join a FATE, you have to willingly, temporarily level down via Level Sync. However, your abilities do not scale with your level, they just become unavailable if they're higher than your current level. Have a new favorite ability you got at 35? If you're in a level 12 FATE and you're synced, better get ready for it to be temporarily disabled. These are not all of the flaws I see in this game, just the ones which bother me the most.

    Despite what I have posted here, I don't find the game terrible, I just feel that some of the systems and ideas in the game are not as user friendly as they could be. Aside from that, this game does nothing different than any other MMORPG hasn't done before it, it just doesn't seem to be able to do it as well. Can I recommend it? I'm sorry, I can't - not when there are far more user-friendly MMORPGs out there which have been around for so much longer and therefore have so much more content. Give this one a year and check back then - the game may have gotten better.    … Expand
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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
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