Final Fantasy XIV (Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love The Grind)


I hate MMOs. Or rather, I did. I found the grind grating. I found the combat confusing. I found the stories sucked. After spending much of my youth trying to get into WoW, SWTOR, and Guild Wars 2 (to name a few) I simply decided the genre wasn't for me. This was around 2014. I was 18 years old. I have not played an MMO since, swearing off the genre in totality. That was until this year, when 26 year old me decided to embark on a quest, to play all the mainline Final Fantasy games. Originally I had gone into them expecting to write full reviews on each. That was before I stumbled into a roadblock. I finished XV first, finding it an overall pleasant, if somewhat unfinished, experience. I finished I next, appreciating what it did for RPG's as a genre and finding it still holds up. I finished XII (The Zodiac Age) and adored it's expansive world, vast class customisation, and combat. 

If you've played or read about Final Fantasy XII you may see where this is going. For those unfamiliar, it is often held as the gold standard of the "single-player MMO". You've got your levelling, you've got your end-game content, you've got your dungeons, raids (hunts), and grinding to meet the goals of the gear treadmill. Upon reading about the similarities between FFXII and MMOs in general, I realised that 2014 was eight years ago and that my tastes should not be beholden to a teenage feeling of distaste I once felt. In truth, MMOs are a different beast in 2022 in general, with various factors moving the genre forward. When I attempted to play WoW for instance, it was on it's fifth of what is soon to be nine expansions. Guild Wars 2 didn't have any expansions at all. Perhaps my love of Final Fantasy, specifically XII, could lead me to shed this aversion that had bared down on me for years. Perhaps it was time to step into the land of Eorzea, and become an MMO player once more. Could Final Fantasy XIV be not only a stepping stone in my path to play the franchise as a whole, but a launching pad through which I could finally understand this genre? In case it wasn't clear, the answer is a resounding -

Wait. First I must explain the disdain held by a young MelodicSavings. For my dislike of MMOs did not stem from aesthetics (although I must admit the similar art styles displayed at that time certainly did not help me see the nuances of the genre) but from the fundamental nature of the beast. The Grind. I simply could not abide by what I felt was a purposeless hamster wheel. In WoW I found myself struggling with the fact that all these world changing events were happening and yet nothing significantly changed. The Old Republic had me running through a story, changing things, yet few characters felt weighty enough to solidify an impact. Guild Wars 2, my favourite of the ones I tried, had me running around doing nothing in particular yet still seeing number go up. It felt as though The Grind permeated everything in this genre, from the gear I got to the world I inhabited to the story I was forging. The combat was something else I found never clicked, with every game feeling weightless and similar. Could Final Fantasy break this malicious feeling I possessed?

Final Fantasy XIV starts out innocently enough. You are an adventurer off to do some adventuring. You arrive in one of three major cities, a watery one, a sandy one, and a grassy one, depending on which class you selected during character creation. I selected gladiator because i'm boring, so my tanky Au Ra ended up in Ul'dah (the sandy one), ready to learn from the gladiators guild. At first, I felt my teenage cynicism creeping back. Yes, the Skyrim intro but in a sand place. Nice work squeenix. That was until I hit level 10. Up until that point it's doing relatively straightforward quests, typically vascillating between the main scenario and your chosen class quests which progress every 5 levels. While you're doing the busywork and being sent to kill overgrown bugs, you're experiencing a small slice of what this large world has to offer. Once you hit level 10 however, you are given carte blanche to learn whatever class you want, and able to switch between them with a quick swap of your primary weapon. A couple of levels later, you are given the ability to travel to the other two starting cities, meaning you can pick up every class in the game straightaway. Then you can level these classes that start out similar but branch off into their own unique stories, while carrying on the main quest, then before you know it you've unlocked the soul gems, upgrades to your classes at level 30 that unlock new abilities and a whole new, entirely unique to each class, quest chain. Then you find that those level 50 quests aren't so far away and that they give you two MORE classes with unique characters and stories. Then you realise that you've finished the main scenario of A Realm Reborn, experiencing the rise and fall and rise again of the scions of the seventh dawn and the land you inhabit as a whole, and then you fold your arms, contemplating the fascinating nature of using the demise of V1.0 as a storytelling tool. Then you realise (after a quick google) that you haven't made a dent in this game and the expansion packs are not even on the horizon yet. And so you continue on, acknowledging that combat and the overall story is a little cookie cutter, but finding yourself endeared towards the classically excellent characters thrown at you by the Final Fantasy franchise and the gamut of things to do, see, and work towards.

Ladies, Gentlemen, and Others, I am enthralled by Final Fantasy XIV. To the point where it has forced me to reconsider my stance on this genre as a whole. It is densely packed with systems, story, and enjoyable characters, along with a wealth of minigames and a surprisingly positive community. All these factors are packaged up with the best graphics the MMO genre has to offer along with a consistently gorgeous soundtrack. It is well worth your time, fan of the franchise, or genre, or not. Perhaps it can allow you to reconsider your previous biases and aversions through slick packaging and a wealth of content. It certainly did for me.

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