not the most engaging story(especially with that fucking wine quest) but still a good read. took me around 2 1/2 weeks to finish. lahabrea is my beautiful lovely wife.
Being able to replay this with full context and attention of the game has been a great joy. Picking up pieces that get recontextualized throughout the entire story is incredibly exciting and I appreciate the start more than ever.
Meeting all the characters I've come to love over the past year or two all over again has been real special. And since I played A Realm Reborn on Japanese at first, actually hearing the infamously bad voice acting was at the very least very interesting, because of how beautiful some of its voice performances are in later expansions. While this is something bad specific to A Realm Reborn, it does give me greater appreciation for the game as a whole.
Undoubtedly, there's a lot that's not good or straight up bad about the first part of Final Fantasy XIV. Tons of fetch quests, sequences that don't matter and characters that have little import or are actively making the experience less enjoyable. Unfortunately, this does hold A Realm Reborn back from a higher score, but more importantly than its faults, I love what it does well.
This first, long section of this masterpiece of a game is often written off as simply bad and slandered to hell and back and sometimes even called skippable. But what I found in connecting the big moments and its important characters, is a story that does its best to save what had come before. And by doing so, it's able to set up fascinating setpieces of its world that open up countless storytelling possibilities for its sequels, or expansions. A Realm Reborn isn't perfect, sometimes it's not even good, but it's essential. You're able to appreciate Final Fantasy XIV to the fullest if you experience this imperfect entry to a perfect game.
Meeting all the characters I've come to love over the past year or two all over again has been real special. And since I played A Realm Reborn on Japanese at first, actually hearing the infamously bad voice acting was at the very least very interesting, because of how beautiful some of its voice performances are in later expansions. While this is something bad specific to A Realm Reborn, it does give me greater appreciation for the game as a whole.
Undoubtedly, there's a lot that's not good or straight up bad about the first part of Final Fantasy XIV. Tons of fetch quests, sequences that don't matter and characters that have little import or are actively making the experience less enjoyable. Unfortunately, this does hold A Realm Reborn back from a higher score, but more importantly than its faults, I love what it does well.
This first, long section of this masterpiece of a game is often written off as simply bad and slandered to hell and back and sometimes even called skippable. But what I found in connecting the big moments and its important characters, is a story that does its best to save what had come before. And by doing so, it's able to set up fascinating setpieces of its world that open up countless storytelling possibilities for its sequels, or expansions. A Realm Reborn isn't perfect, sometimes it's not even good, but it's essential. You're able to appreciate Final Fantasy XIV to the fullest if you experience this imperfect entry to a perfect game.
One of the best MMORPGs of all time.
Before starting my FFXIV journey I kept hearing how A Realm Reborn is really not that great and you just have to get through it to reach the parts where the game gets actually good, but tbh I disagree, I had a lot of fun playing through ARR. Is it the best MMO experience possible? LOL not even close, the beginning especially is way too slow and very formulaic. Were it not for my friends I would probably stop playing after just a few hours, but the game does get way better later and I had a lot of fun moving forward. If this is the rock bottom of FFXIV then I cannot wait for what the game has in stock.
This review contains spoilers
with the way most people talk about this expansion, starting it felt incredibly overwhelming and daunting. i didn't know how long it would take me to get through it considering most people i know thought it was a slog to get through and not very engaging. coupled with the fact that this my was my first time playing an MMO or even starting a game that racks up multiple hundreds of hours upon completion, i was even a bit scared, but maybe keeping my expectations that astronomically low ended up benefitting ARR quite a bit.
i had my fun with it, especially since i had friends to play and experience this with. the gameplay, while not among my favorites, was not nearly as bad as i thought it would be. i went into this thinking my friends were going to carry me for the majority of it and that it would be a pain to play but i'm getting the hang of it more and more and while definitely not the best at it, i'm having a good time.
in terms of world building and setting, it has all the intrigue it needs to have at this stage of the story. i liked the way the pieces are put together and how the politics between nations is explored and to see what everyone's motivations are. world building isn't a huge aspect i focus on though. it always helps when it's well implemented and it feels like the characters belong in their world but the characters themselves is what i give most weight to.
i liked quite a few characters and dynamics between characters a decent amount. while some characters served their function and left more abruptly than others and aren't always handled the best way they could've been, it establishes all we need to know and while maybe not favorable, it was never downright bad. a lot of the characters that are more prominent obviously still have a lot more left to offer and more development ahead of them and i am looking forward to see where their paths lead. what i already got seemed promising or even more than promising, with some even having pretty stand out moments and an already noticeable character arc. the antagonist cast is what i'm hoping to get even more focus on in the next expansions since i do love my antagonists and i hope i get more invested in a lot of its cast soon. i am definitely attached to some but i can't wait for this story to really hook me and give me more of what we got at the very end of ARR. everything that came beforehand was necessary to even get the climax we got, but i want to be even more invested than i currently am. i have no doubt though that that'll happen though (also i love alphinaud and thancred with all my heart).
a solid start that has plenty of flaws if you really want to get down to it, but in the end it pleasantly surprised me in many ways and i think the good outweighs the bad here. it didn't blow me away but it gave me a good foundation to work with and left me wanting more.
i had my fun with it, especially since i had friends to play and experience this with. the gameplay, while not among my favorites, was not nearly as bad as i thought it would be. i went into this thinking my friends were going to carry me for the majority of it and that it would be a pain to play but i'm getting the hang of it more and more and while definitely not the best at it, i'm having a good time.
in terms of world building and setting, it has all the intrigue it needs to have at this stage of the story. i liked the way the pieces are put together and how the politics between nations is explored and to see what everyone's motivations are. world building isn't a huge aspect i focus on though. it always helps when it's well implemented and it feels like the characters belong in their world but the characters themselves is what i give most weight to.
i liked quite a few characters and dynamics between characters a decent amount. while some characters served their function and left more abruptly than others and aren't always handled the best way they could've been, it establishes all we need to know and while maybe not favorable, it was never downright bad. a lot of the characters that are more prominent obviously still have a lot more left to offer and more development ahead of them and i am looking forward to see where their paths lead. what i already got seemed promising or even more than promising, with some even having pretty stand out moments and an already noticeable character arc. the antagonist cast is what i'm hoping to get even more focus on in the next expansions since i do love my antagonists and i hope i get more invested in a lot of its cast soon. i am definitely attached to some but i can't wait for this story to really hook me and give me more of what we got at the very end of ARR. everything that came beforehand was necessary to even get the climax we got, but i want to be even more invested than i currently am. i have no doubt though that that'll happen though (also i love alphinaud and thancred with all my heart).
a solid start that has plenty of flaws if you really want to get down to it, but in the end it pleasantly surprised me in many ways and i think the good outweighs the bad here. it didn't blow me away but it gave me a good foundation to work with and left me wanting more.