Final Fantasy XIV General Discussion Thread

I am! I’ve been playing to the exclusion of just about everything else since the expansion released. One of the tips I’d throw out on controller is to enable the secondary hotbars (I forget the exact option but it gives you additional skill bars on L2+R2 and then R2+L2) – if you end up buying the game, by end game you should be just about filling both those bars with little or no overflow.

The trial was expanded a few months back (used to be limited to level 20 and 2 weeks) and I think that was one of the best things they could’ve done to drum up interest. It ends up giving you a lot more instanced content and a better feel of the story and gameplay instead of locking progress suddenly after the first major boss instance. What server are you on and what class(es) have you tried?

edit to add: Anyone who is thinking of picking the game back up, Amazon currently has the PC expansion bundle (includes both Heavensward and Stormblood) for ~20 bucks.

https://www.amazon.com/Final-Fantasy-XIV-Stormblood-PC/dp/B01M3SP452/

Hi @LockerK! I’m not sure what server I’m on, but I’m fairly sure I chose the Aether data center (the one that is not “Primal”). What server are you on?

Thanks for the tip on the hotbars. I was looking for something like that last night but didn’t really understand the nomenclature.

Looking into trying it out on PC to compare. A great community is so important to me. So far, it’s been a breath of fresh air.

Yea, the community for this game by and large is extremely helpful to new players. There are going to be the occasional assholes but I’ve found they’re much less frequent than other MMOs. Unfortunately I’m on the Primal data center on Hyperion.

The nice thing about 14 (and one of the missing things that’s kept me from trying out ESO) is that everyone plays on the same servers and your account is fully portable between platforms – so you can play with your same character on both PS4 and PC. It’s nice to be able to move from the PC for more ‘serious’ content and then kick back on the couch when I’m doing gathering or something that requires a little less effort. One frustration with this is that your gear sets (important when you have multiple classes) and hotbars are stored locally so they don’t transfer over. Controller support on PC is fantastic as well if you want to try it there at some point.

The only restrictions I can think of are that you can’t link trials on multiple platforms, and if you purchase the base game from Steam, you’re locked in to that as your PC platform; none of the PC retailers sell Steam keys and it isn’t compatible with the base PC version. If you do stick with it and want a PC copy, I’d recommend going with the non-Steam option for sales like the one posted above – unless you have a bunch of Steam Wallet funds lying around to pay for the sub fee.

I love this game. I’m on Mateus in the Aether datacenter.

There are two types of expanded hotbars for controllers:
RT+LT and LT+RT (called the Extended Crossbar, I believe) - while holding RT, press LT to activate it and vice versa
RT,RT and LT,LT (called the W-crossbar) - double-press LT or RT to activate it.
You can use either or both at the same time.

I have a general hotbar set up for all classes for when I’m not fighting. It has things like teleport and summon chocobo on it. When I pull out my weapon, the hotbar automatically switches to a class-specific hotbar with my skills on it. I find that two hotbars of skills, with the more situational one accessed through the Extended hotbar is more than enough.

I did not realize this! Wow, that’s great. I assume that means making the one-time purchase twice, once for each platform, and then paying the monthly fee only once? Or is it better than that? ;)

Thanks, @Wyndwraith. I saw those when I was digging into the config, but didn’t understand what exactly they were.

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2020-05-23-final-fantasy-14-starter-edition-is-free-to-download-on-ps4

“Starter edition” free on PS4 if you get it before May 26th.

Is this the MMO that has been available on PS4 since around launch of the PS4 in 2013? Or was that Final Fantasy XI? I can’t keep these two straight. Whichever one it was, I was starved for playing any PS4 games at the time, and I remember trying to sign up for the free week trial or whatever, and I just couldn’t get the account to give me access to the game despite several days of trying.

I think the problem was that I already had a Square Enix account that I created because of Just Cause 2, so I couldn’t create a new one on the same email account, but when I tried it with that existing Just Cause 2 Square account, it kept giving me an error.

Finally I just said “fine, the grapes were probably sour anyway, you just saved me the trouble of tasting them.”

Final Fantasy XI was PC and PS2, later ported to XB360 but is currently only supported on PC. FFXIV was PC and PS3, launched in even worse shape than Anthem, was eventually shut down and relaunched in 2013. It was cross generation for a while but the PS3 version is no longer supported. Currently available on PC, PS4 and XB1.

Anyway it’s a great game now but playing through the original game and especially the patch content between it and the first expansion is a real slog. Like multiple hundred hour slog. Sadly you can’t just ignore the story and level up, you have to play through it in order to progress. There’s a rework on the way that cuts out a lot of the fat from everything before the first expansion and I’d highly recommend waiting for that later this year. Probably in patch 5.3 I think? But I haven’t been playing in a while so I might have that wrong.

Also yeah, square enix accounts are annoying and just creating one and registering the game can be a trial. It’s super hard to recommend this game to new players and I’m not trying to minimize any of that nonsense but once you get into the expansions the game is kind of amazing and the latest expansion is my favorite Final Fantasy game ever.

Yah it’s a real shame, there is a great game in here, but boy do you have to slog to get to it. That story line quest is just beyond hair pulling levels of frustration. Sooooo many freaking quests where you have to run 10 minutes, answer one question from an NPC, and then run back another 10 minutes. Waypoints you can port to are conveniently located to maximize your run times.

This game made me angry lol.

Patch 5.3 releases on August 11th after a two month delay due to WFH transitioning. This patch will include the main quest pruning as well as an expansion of the trial and starter editions. Both will now extend up to level 60 and include all the content from the first expansion, Heavensward. Free trial will still have the communication and market restrictions to combat RMT.

The story for this game is very good with some arguing that Heavensward is the best arc, so this is a big move. Combined with the change to base game’s main quest, it’s a great time to try Final Fantasy 14.

This is pretty cool. Was a big WoW fan for a looooong time, and never played this but have always heard good things. Will be fun to actually give it a real shot (and hopefully run off to the new shiny before 60 and I’m hooked). A little disappointing that it is difficult to party up with another free trial buddy though. But free is free.

FF 14 biggest problem, has been the absolutely horrible main quest, that you must follow before you can really get anywhere. If they meaningfully change that, then it’s something people should play. That quest string is so bad, that it literally kills any recommendation you could make for the game. 10 minutes of running, talk to one NPC, run 10 minutes. Repeat 500 times. Not even hyperbole. It’s infuriating.

Once you get past that initial idiocy of the main quest, it’s a pretty good game.

Loaded this up. VERY early impression is that it is really quite highly polished. I’m super picky about UIs (mucking with my WoW UI was most of the game) and this one is super clean and sharp. I know that is a silly standard, but…

It is of course very… FInal Fantasy… so that takes a bit of adjustment (for me). Dunno if I’ll actually play to the end or anything, but pretty cool for Square to offer such a large chunk of game without strings. And I’m glad I finally got to check it out.

FFXIV is up there with LOTRO when it comes to horrible quests that send you halfway across the world only to tell you to go back again the next minute.

Other than that, it is (and so is lotro) quite good.

Especially like the fact you can play -every- class on one character.

Wonder if the game has x-server matchmaking though?

Yes, there is cross-server matchmaking, currently limited to every server on your data center. They’re looking in to making things cross-center however they inherited a lot of technical debt trying to rapidly salvage something from the flaming corpse of 1.0.

Glad to see people giving it a shot!

I just started playing this last week. Wow! This is an amazing game. It’s the best MMO I’ve played out of all the big players (WoW, ESO, GW2 etc). It’s so polished and so well designed. The story quest pulls you through the game. I love the world and all the little details. Fantastic stuff.

Shhh. I’m focusing on GW2 for now because the expansions were the ‘right price’, and no subscription. I’m very afraid of enjoying FFXIV enough that I’m compelled to buy it and subscribe. What I have played of it was quite well done though. My daughter is hooked completely and grabbed the full set for $30 while it was on sale, and will likely subscribe once she exhausts the free trial offerings.

*whispers* Join usssss…

Showing off my white mage :)

The mailboxes in FFXIV are the best.

The new expansion, Endwalker was revealed earlier this month (maybe spoilers for Shadowbringers):

Release date is still a nebulous “Fall 2021” due to COVID delays - if we stand by the schedule that everything was pushed 3 months while they stood up WFH it should be a late September/early October release. Endwalker’s launch patch will be the conclusion of the Hydaelyn/Zodiark storyline and the rest of the expansion cycle will start a new story.

So far we’ve had a new healer revealed (Sage) and the second class will be a melee DPS. Expecting that reveal (along with more Endwalker details) to occur at the Digital Fanfest May 14-15.

e: Those of us with a PS5, the open beta will begin on April 13th. The PS5 version will be a free upgrade from the PS4 version (which itself was a free upgrade from the PS3 version).

From the conversation in the ESO thread - join us @Mark_Asher! :)