sign's review of Final Fantasy XIV Online

sign

Abandoned

sort of like world of warcraft if the barrens was 200 hours long instead of 15 and you couldnt roll a character that didnt have to go to the barrens and everyone yelled at you for skipping the quest text, not because it's actually relevant for the quest design or anything (no mankrik's wife here) but because narrative payoff is the only way the game ends up being "worth your time."

everyone ive ever known who liked this game considered themselves ~too good for~ wow, everquest, runescape, ffxi, second life, other infinitely more interesting mmos. they simply do not have the context to understand they are paying a monthly subscription for boxed mashed potatoes. i don't think that's coincidence. every character is mechanically and narratively identical and nobody cares. they just want to gpose and read the worst high fantasy dialogue ever written. or they're fully aware they play it for sunk cost reasons, and keep at it anyways. sad!

consider whether you are having fun playing the video game or having fun fumbling transgender women

9 Likes

Reviewed on Jun 15, 2024

1 Comment

theia

10 days ago

i still have a fondness for ff14 after playing it for so long, mostly the friends and connections and memories i have from playing with other people. the gameplay is pretty serviceable, good at times even, but i do think there's something to be said for the general quality of its instanced content and presentation -- at least until you've hit the point where you realize that every facet of the game is functionally identical and cynically replicated with a new coat of paint each expansion and patch cycle to accommodate the fact that you are on that content hamster wheel when you're playing ff14. fwiw, there are a lot of longtime players who do recognize that the game is slop (i played with a lot of 'em), and they do play other MMOs (wow and ff11 being the most common ones, and some fotm picks) and other games and even engage in activities that aren't media consumption. i think it's maybe the most vocal of ff14's fans that give the impression that the fanbase is composed entirely of artistically incurious people who form their opinions of any given piece of media based on the fan art people make of it while making sure to tell everybody that it's kino as hell peak fiction or w/e that they MUST PLAY NOW (also i did have fun playing ff14 to a certain point! but *i* was the transgender woman being consistently fumbled lmao)