NecrosaroIII
Ask me about my terrible takes on Star Trek characters
I started FFXIV about a month or so ago. I finally got to the beginning of Heavensward today and already would rank this as one of my favorite games in the series. The main story is one of the strongest in the franchise already, and I love the characters. The people who go around saying this game is one of the best in the series definitely are on to something. The grandiosity of the setting, overall plot and characters (already some of them like Y'shtola, Hildibrand, Raubaum, are amazing characters). I haven't been engrossed in a game's story like this in 15-20 years.
For those that haven't played, this is probably the most linear MMO ever made. It's very much structured like an offline game. The bulk of the game's features and world are gated behind the main story, unlocking as you go along. To me, that's fine since I basically want to play this game as one big single-player RPG. It's definitely atypical for the genre. This means that in order to play the upcoming Endwalker expansion, you'll have to play through essentially 4 games worth of content in order really get to the meat and potatoes.
Again, I don't mind this. However, structurally this means that FFXIV feels more like it's own series rather than one game. Based on how ARR played it feels like ARR is FFXIV-1, and Heavensward is FFXIV-2. By the time the narrative ends in Endwalker (allegedly), there will be essentially five games in the series in order to build the world and tell the struggles of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn. Of course, it's going to have one of the best stories since it has time to breath and build on itself.
FFXV, on the other hand, only gets one game to establish its setting and characters. In 50 hours or so, you get the full story of that game's world. Meanwhile in FFXIV, I have already spent about 120 hours and by my estimates, I've only experienced about 25% of the story. There is still so much world building and character development to come.
So I guess what I'm saying is that FFXIV is like a TV series, not a movie. It gets the benefits of constant development and room to grow, so comparing it to other FFs isn't "fair".
For those that haven't played, this is probably the most linear MMO ever made. It's very much structured like an offline game. The bulk of the game's features and world are gated behind the main story, unlocking as you go along. To me, that's fine since I basically want to play this game as one big single-player RPG. It's definitely atypical for the genre. This means that in order to play the upcoming Endwalker expansion, you'll have to play through essentially 4 games worth of content in order really get to the meat and potatoes.
Again, I don't mind this. However, structurally this means that FFXIV feels more like it's own series rather than one game. Based on how ARR played it feels like ARR is FFXIV-1, and Heavensward is FFXIV-2. By the time the narrative ends in Endwalker (allegedly), there will be essentially five games in the series in order to build the world and tell the struggles of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn. Of course, it's going to have one of the best stories since it has time to breath and build on itself.
FFXV, on the other hand, only gets one game to establish its setting and characters. In 50 hours or so, you get the full story of that game's world. Meanwhile in FFXIV, I have already spent about 120 hours and by my estimates, I've only experienced about 25% of the story. There is still so much world building and character development to come.
So I guess what I'm saying is that FFXIV is like a TV series, not a movie. It gets the benefits of constant development and room to grow, so comparing it to other FFs isn't "fair".