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get used to what dungeons and
what playing in a party is like.PLUS SIZE
It’s understandable that those less
familiar with online games may
find the prospect of stepping into
an online Final Fantasy a little
intimidating. But there are many
reasons for giving it a go. The art
style is gorgeous, and because it’s
been worked on for such a long
time the world of Eorzea feels
like one of the most fleshed-out
in any Final Fantasy. It’s bursting
with life, and with no shortage
of fantastic renditions of your
favourite Final Fantasy everythings- from chocobo to summons,
returning monsters, and more.
Your custom character really
feels like your own, but still a
part of that world, and you’re
free to customise them to your
heart’s content. The various races
you can choose from include
many Final Fantasy series
favourites. One new race
will make its way to
the game alongside
Shadowbringers,
will also smooth over the playing
experience, even for the base
game, and those playing through
the Free Trial to level 35 (generous,
considering Shadowbringers ups
the level cap to 80 – if you fancy
a go, the trial is available from the
PlayStation Store).
2017’s Stormblood made the
game a lot less intimidating to
play, and Shadowbringers further
smooths out the rough edges,
combining things like MP and
TP into one unified resource,
rethinking hotbars yet again so
players aren’t dealing with too
many abilities at once, and adding
things like Barrier information
to character health UI. The
development team members aren’t
prepared to rest on their laurels,
and are constantly rethinking how
to make gameplay accessible.
Considering FFXIV has been
around in one form or another
since 2010, it’d be natural if it felt
bloated to newcomers, but in fact
each update has made the game
a little bit leaner, simply adding
more to enjoy rather than more to
slave over. To this day the crossbar
in the PS4 version of the game
(which is fully crossplay with PC)makes it one of the best-feeling
MMORPGs to play on a gamepad- and is a PS4 console exclusive.
TRUST ME
Already, FFXIV is one of the
friendliest MMORPGs for playing
solo. The main storyline stands
among the best in the series, and
for the most part you can follow
it through on your own. While
level requirements for the quests
range all the way from 1 to 80 as
you follow it through, you won’t
spend much time having to grind.
If you mainly play through as one
main job, you’ll level up alongside
the quests without much hassle
(though having multiple jobs –
essentially classes – couldn’t be
simpler in FFXIV).
It’s not until you have to take
on the odd dungeon or boss
that you need to team up with
other players, usually into aparty of four. Matchmaking is
generally pretty quick or easy,
and there’s plenty to incentivise
veteran players to join lower-level
queues to help less experienced
people out – for example, extra
experience points. It’s far from
the MMORPG grind you might
be thinking of, and can be enjoyed
in a relatively similar way to more
traditional Final Fantasy games,
just in a world full of other people.
But some of the updates coming
to 5.0 alongside Shadowbringers
refocus things for those used tosolo play yet again – even beyond
paring down any MMORPG
overcomplexities (something
Square Enix has been consistently
great about from new release
to new release). The headline
here is the new Trust system,
which allows players to get some
of the game’s NPC characters
to come into dungeons to help
them out. It’s not meant to
replace matchmaking for party
content wholesale (some of the
later dungeons can get quite
complicated and it would be hard
for an AI to keep up), but it takes
off a little of of the pressure of
playing with experienced players
early on in the game, and is a great
way for newcomers to FFXIV toNew jobs come to Shadowbringers, but Blue Mage is being added beforehand for free.FFXIV: SHADOWBRINGERS
“EORZEA IS ONE OF THE
MOST FLESHED-OUT
WORLDS IN FINAL FANTASY.”