I was willing to forgive so much because so much had gotten better. What I've now realized in hindsight is that A Realm Reborn was only great relative to the disaster of FF14's original launch. Starting from the beginning and playing catch up comes with its own problems, too. So much of what has made Final Fantasy 14 special to me is that I've experienced it as it's happening. Unless you have the patience and commitment to sit through nearly 100 hours of story just to get to Shadowbringers, you're going to be missing out on the fundamental appeal of FF14-that sense of grand adventure I have been on for more than six years. World of Warcraft, comparatively, is a mess of paradoxical timelines that barely make any sense.īut I don't think my FF14 journey could have the same impact if I were to begin it now. It's an almost singular achievement that Square Enix has managed to weave a coherent and compelling story across years of an MMO. I gawked as villains once thought dead returned to life, marveled over new revelations about the lore of Eorzea, and agonized over the uncertain fate of favorite characters. FF14 does a remarkably good job of bouncing between fun fan service and gutting plot twists that have sometimes left me speechless.
#Final fantasy 14 steam or not tv#
Like any excellent TV show, I've developed an intimate relationship with the main characters and the world of FF14 along the way.
Everything is connected, so truly understanding Stormblood's rebellion and character arcs requires knowledge of events that came before.
#Final fantasy 14 steam or not update#
Unlike World of Warcraft, where until recently expansions were largely isolated from each other, FF14's story is a consistent thread that leads from each update to the next. As a lifelong Final Fantasy fan, it was brilliant and I immediately fell in love with it. Square Enix improved on everything, resulting in a gorgeous, accessible MMO with an uncommon emphasis on storytelling. Though I never played the original FF14 much, the relaunched A Realm Reborn version was a revelation at the time. The developers even wrote the demise of the original version into the story, an apocalypse that ended the old world and birthed a new one. The original FF14 was a disastrously awful game and, to Square Enix's credit, they spent a good few years rebuilding it as an entirely new MMO. When I first started playing, it was back when it relaunched as A Realm Reborn. MMOs are intimidating games to get into, but I think FF14 might be the worst of them. At best, it makes me sound like a weird elitist who wants to hoard all of FF14 to myself-a sad MMO hipster who is terrified of other people liking the same thing I do. Yes, I'm aware of how ridiculous that sounds.