Home Archive Into the Maelstrom. Final Fantasy XIV Where is it now?

Into the Maelstrom. Final Fantasy XIV Where is it now?

by GH Staff

Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn launched last August following the demise of its predecessor and was met with critical acclaim. The game is genuinely good and Square Enix worked hard to bring a quality game to the market. A few games have done this since the crowning of World of Warcraft as king of MMOs, but have failed to follow up with a steady stream of content, Star Wars: The Old Republic and Rift are the most notable games to have failed to meet expectations after having some early success. Now that Square Enix has released Patch 2.2 ‘Through the Maelstrom’ the game still appears to be building around top quality content which is exactly why WoW has been the most popular MMO since its release in 2004.

Through the Maelstrom not only brings in new dungeons, raids and world bosses it added glamours which is the vanity system for A Realm Reborn, retainer ventures (what other game can you send your bank on a quest?) and new factions providing daily quests are all new features brought to the game. The game almost feels complete in this stage and Square is showing the potential the game still has to evolve even further. The game still lacks a deep PvP experience, and game Director Naoki Yoshida said that the only reason ‘The Wolves Den’ (a four versus four arena) was added was to satisfy the fans who had been requesting it, developers originally had no intention of adding PvP as they felt the game should focus more on a PvE experience. An eight or sixteen player battleground could really open the game up and give players more to do when they aren’t farming dungeons and raid bosses for tokens and gear or FATEs for their new relic weapon which is what I usually end up doing when I get on as that seems to be the most effective use of time in the games current state.

Final Fantasy XIV isn’t revolutionizing the MMO experience, but rather it is taking aspects of other games success and making it work for Final Fantasy. All the new content seems worth trying at least once which is very good, it gets players exploring the world and allows for great immersion into the games world of Eorzea. The game is not without its faults though, some awkward restrictions limit a players interaction. A player can’t send a private message while in a dungeon or a raid. For example, if a player is in the middle of a conversation while their dungeon queue popped the game won’t accept any messages after entering the dungeon. Even if the restriction was added to the game for a good purpose the actual execution of it has failed because the game is shutting you out from your friends temporarily. Fortunately changing this should be very simple and I don’t think this feature will be around forever.

The game has been out for 8 months and is really starting to come into it’s own, giving players a unique experience that won’t be found elsewhere. Eorzea is a beautiful world and it offers countless opportunities for adventure. The game’s flaws are few and far between and when it comes to MMOs Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn has brought some of the best gameplay experiences I’ve ever had, only World of Warcraft in it’s early years has brought me as much entertainment and satisfaction. See you in Eorzea adventurers.