Final Fantasy XIV, My First Impression

So, I've been a bit distracted lately.  Soon after Final Fantasy XIV was relaunched, a serious problem became apparent.  More people were more interested in the game than was expected and the servers could not take it.  Among other things, the sale of digital copies of the game was canceled and I had a bit of difficulty getting my hands on it.  Well, to be honest, I wasn't too vigilant in my search until I got annoyed that half the Walmarts and Gamestop didn't have it and eventually searched places in my county that did have it.  So, with a physical copy of the game, I began my adventure in Eorzea.

FFXIV:  A Realm Reborn takes place five years after the events of the flop of a game that was the original FFXIV.  I never played it, but problems were reportedly numerous and vastly unfinished.  Enough that three years later, the game was entirely rebooted in the form of the Primal Bahamut dropping out of the moon and firebombing the entirety of Eorzea.  Luckily, you the adventurer got teleported 5 years into the future so you weren't brutally incinerated in the Calamity.  (video might make more sense, and it is pretty amazing)

Starting off in character creation, we have five races based on the original player races of Final Fantasy XI, Square Enix's first MMO:  The Hyur (humans), Elezen (elves), Lalafells (midgets), Roegadyn (the big guys), and Miqo'te (cat people).  From there, you have two sub species of the races to finetune the stats of your character.  Customization for characters is pretty extensive, with a couple of throwbacks and references to the looks and styles of the original, which I did appreciate in creating my Dunesfolk Lalafell.

The last step of character creation is your starting class.  FFXIV has a flexible job system where you can switch classes later once you progress into the game, so this decision mainly just effects your first 10 levels and which nation (the forest city of Gridania, the port of Limsa Lominsa, or the desert commerce center of Ul'dah) you're a part of.  The starting classes are divided into the Disciples of War (combat based) and Disciples of Magic (mage classes).  Finally done, I started the game as a Conjurer, the main healing class of the game.

(Not my character, but just an idea)

The next 15 minutes made me glad that I don't have to make a new character for each class.  Unskippable cutscenes can be interesting the first time, but afterwards its just frustrating.  Its not too much of an issue, but for those that like making lots of alts or want to check out the different animations for each race it can be an a slight issue.  After a series of quest runs introducing me to the city, and getting me my first 2 levels, I'm finally heading out of Gridania for some monster slaying.

Combat in FFXIV follows the more traditional tab target combat style.  Target something, and use your abilities.  Global cooldowns, or the time between using different abilities, is set at one second, so slightly higher than other MMOs, but not too much of an issue for a caster unless your spamming instant cast spells.  Unfortunately, I haven't gotten too much into the Disciple of War classes, so I can't tell you how it translates their.  Outside of moving out of the way of enemy area of effect abilities, combat isn't entirely spectacular or unique, though it isn't bad.  Considering my main job is only level 16, I expect things to become more exciting as I increase my available spells and join parties.

Combat with the Thaumaturge at level 1

 A few story and class quest lines later, I make it to level 10.  With permission from the Conjurer's Guild, I'm free to join other guilds and change my class.  The job system is perhaps one of my favorite parts of FFXIV right now.  As a level 10 conjurer in Gridania, I went and picked up three more classes and their weapons/tools (the equipment used to switch to them): the botanist, the lancer, and the carpenter.  These classes have their own separate levels, so starting off, it puts me at level 1 one again.  However, starting at level three, I can pull select abilities from my conjurer job (Cure or Protect) for use as a lancer.  In addition, as long as I have a higher level job, I get an increased bonus amount of experience on monster kills on the DoM and DoW classes.  As the game continues, leveling side jobs will be important for unlocking the class upgrades.  (ex.  Lvl 30 Conjurer and lvl 15 Arcanist = White Mage)  But, that's gotta while to go still.

The Botanist and Carpenter are different though, and act as the gathering and crafting classes respectively.  Most MMOs keep these aspects of the game as a side talent your character is capable of doing.  FFXIV makes them a separate class with their own level, abilities equipment, and specific stats.  As soon as I got it, I started chopping down as many trees as I could as the botanist class, and quickly leveling up.  Gathering classes can collect different ingredients from nodes they find through their abilities, and can use different skills to increase their chances of successfully harvesting or increase their chances of finding high quality goods.  Its fairly basic, and gets repetitive quickly.  The crafting classes play a mini game with their abilities by trying to complete a good and increase its quality before their materials durability runs out, which can make it a bit more interesting as you figure out the best way to produce high quality items. However, I sort of stopped after noting how low prices were on the marketplace, and learning I couldn't even sell items on the marketplace before level 20 in the storyline quests.

Botanist at work

This review will be a work in progress as I level up.  Considering I'm only level 16 (level cap is 50) I've still got a lot of content to experience, and in two months, the first large patch will be released, adding even more content such as a housing system to the game.