Final Fantasy XIV
I have learned not too long ago that Final Fantasy XIV (14) the mmo, has a free trial! I signed up through Steam and have played a few days so far. I have to say that its true when people say that this is good. The design is good, the story is quite interesting and engaging, and gameplay isn't too bad. That's saying a lot for a mmo in my opinion. The game is about $50 and is available on PC ($25 for digital download!), PS3, and PS4. You have to buy it and then pay a monthly fee of $15. I would probably buy it only to finish the story since I don't have the time nor want to pay a monthly fee. I hardly play mmo games so paying a $15 monthly fee feels like a waste. But I really do want to keep playing this so its quite conflicting for me.
This game is like other mmo games with all the quests, races, classes, and so on. Its just in a Final Fantasy setting. The trial is bit limiting so you can't do everything. You only have 14 days and can only level up to level 20. You can make one character per server, and think they will be deleted if you don't purchase the game after 90 days. If you purchase the game you get 30 days of gameplay with it which is good. The character creation is not bad either. You have a lot of traits you can customize, but not a lot of options. Funny enough some of the NPCs have the same hair styles so its kind of weird if your character has the same hair cut.
So depending on what class you start off with with determine what city you start in. I chose Gladiator and the Gladiator guild is in Ul'dah, the desert area. There's Gridania, the forresty place, for dps classes like archers. And Limsa Lominsa, the seaside area, for the magic classes. Quests level 1-15 will differ depending on where you start, but after that you have access to the other cities and the main story will be linear. Each city has their own story so I think its worth experiencing all three. I have to say having started in the desert area was good since I got quite interested in one of the main NPC characters. Each city you meet a NPC a number of times during the main quests and each are different in each city. The one in the desert area is named Thancred. These characters are part of an organization which you will eventually learn about in the game.
If you are a fan of Final Fantasy games then this is great for you. There's chocobos, moogles, airships, materia, magiteck, etc. Its like all the games in one kind of! The neat thing is that you can actually change your class easily with your character so there's no real need for alts. To change you just switch your main weapon to that of the class associated with it. Class also includes the typical crafting jobs in mmos like cooks, and blacksmiths. You can unlock them all and have your character do everything. Downside is that you have to level each individually so that can be time consuming. Speaking of levels, the cap level is 50.
The game seem to be ever expanding since there have been some big patches that adds more dungeons, and main quests. Though I think they're are just extras or "epilogues" kind of material since the last quest in the main quest line summaries a final mission/battle. Obviously there's a kind of "its not over yet" kind of ending to keep having new material.
Overall, I am quite impressed with this mmo. I don't think I've ever been this impressed with an mmo. I just hope it will keep being good if I eventually do buy it.The game runs well and I haven't had any issues or bugs. Graphics are great too. The game does feel like the typical jrpg game rather than a mmo because of the story, but that's a good thing in my book. Would highly recommend giving the trial a try!
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