meirene » Reviews » FINAL FANTASY XIV Online
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If you are looking for high quality, bread and butter MMORPG styled gameplay, I strongly recommend FF14. Listed are positive, neutral and negative aspects of this game from my own subjective experience, in no particular order.

+ Relatively low amounts of bots as compared with many other MMOs I have played
+ Completely free of pay2win features (you're already paying a pretty penny). The FFXIV Online Store handles all in-game microtransactions, which mainly only allow purchasing of cosmetic gears, dyes, mounts, story skips and level boosts (it reduces a bit of grind, and is not p2w whatsoever)
+ Captivating story, at least among other MMORPGs
+ Unparalleled variety and quality of in-game music soundtracks, tip: turn up the volume :)
+ Graphics look beautiful enough, nothing too insane. /gpose feature allows for some tools to aid in-game photography, and community-made mods and shader packs can help further this area
+ Developers listen to player feedback to a reasonable extent, and lean towards focusing on releasing quality content instead of pumping out mundane trash
+ Voice acting on major/significant character lines, English voice acting can sometimes feel slightly off
+ Unless you enjoy intense grinding, majority of things in the game, including gear, material etc. can be obtained with mild to moderate amounts of grinding
+ The game is not fully focused on combat-related content, there is a wide variety of activities so that most players will find an area in which they can find enjoyment, including Photography, Housing, Crafting/Gathering/Gardening, Glamour, Roleplaying, and last but not least, Raiding
+ From personal experience, toxicity is extremely rare, especially compared to other MMOs I have played
+ Heavily involved community outside of the game itself, plenty of Discord servers and online sites for resources and guides on all aspects of the game
+ Raiding holds a significant scene in the endgame. Forming statics (persistent parties) to tackle raid and extreme trial contents is largely popular
+ In game system to create macros for various combat, crafting/gathering and roleplaying purposes
+ Good variety of character emotes, (cosmetic) minions and mounts, if those are of interest to you

= Sufficient options in character creation, was quite advanced in its early years, but slightly outdated now. Reasonable diversity in character races, though a few races may have compatibility issues with some gear customisation, but is being constantly improved upon
= Glamour system is fine personally, other players who are more deeply devoted to glamour do say it still feels a little bit restrictive
= Combat system feels extremely sluggish and mind-numbing for the first 50 or so levels, but as more GCD and OGCD abilities are unlocked and incorporated into your kit, combat will become faster and more engaging. Try not to be turned off at the beginning and you will find yourself a gem of a game
= No raytracing support in the near future, as the dev team have reasoned that not enough players will be able to take advantage of this for it to be worth investing in. Understandable, so not necessarily a negative

- Housing system features limited plots of land, for newer players it may be quite difficult to find an available plot due to high demand
- Standard subscription fee can be expensive for many prospective players, however there is an option for a basic subscription which places a limit of one character per Data Centre, and unless you have the time to invest in multiple characters, it is more than sufficient. Recently SE has expanded free trial to include the entirety of the Heavensward expansion as well as unlimited game time with the main restriction being a level 60 cap. That being said, I can vouch for that the cost is well worth the quality of new contents

~meikkyo
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