Have you heard of the critically acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV? With an expanded free trial, you can play through the entirety of A Realm Reborn, the award-winning Heavensward expansion, and the award-winning Stormblood expansion up to level 70 for free with no restrictions on playtime.
Well, my friend has been playing this game for the past five years, so I’ve heard of it…A LOT. Now you have heard of it, too, dear reader. Oddly enough, I only started my journey in Eorzea a few months ago. Going in, I knew more about the nightmare real estate market and raid tiers than anything, so I jumped in blind to the FFXIV story.
A Realm Reborn
Like all sprouts, I started at the beginning with A Realm Reborn. At first, the constant back and forth between quests was tolerable. I appreciated the slow pace. Everything was new, and I was still getting my bearings. However, once I found myself in Mor Dhona, I felt myself burn out from the constant back and forth between the long stretches of areas. I complained to my friend, who laughed and reassured me that it was much worse a few years ago. A consolation prize, I suppose. However, it did nothing to stop the roots of burnout from growing, and I stopped playing.
After a two-month break filled with romancing a certain vampire spawn, my friend pointed out I was about ten quests from finishing the story of A Real Reborn. So, I sped through the final part of the expansion and landed in Heavensward. Now, I’ve added the Machinist and Red Mage classes to my repertoire and am having a lot more fun with the story and gameplay. Also, playing dress-up with my character has been great, but that’s another story.
Playing with People
At first, I found dungeons very intimidating; however, allowing new players to do them with NPCs was comforting. As I became more confident in managing my rotations and understanding gameplay mechanics, the thought of running dungeons with actual people became much less intimidating. Now, I’m usually found waiting for a dungeon party as I run around doing quests.
As a F2P player, I am locked out of many interactions. This caused problems because I was unaware that F2P players cannot privately chat with other players. As I sat on the benches in front of the Aetheryte at Brentbranch Meadow, a veteran player approached me and offered me some free minions. I tried to respond to them, but my messages would not send. I panicked, trying to message them back, only to meet a blank space. After a few moments, the player privately messaged me, “Your loss,” then teleported away. Cue the screaming from my bedroom.
After consulting with my veteran friend, we discovered that F2P players cannot privately respond to others. I probably looked like a total a-hole running around the kind stranger offering me minions as I struggled to speak to them. So, thank you to the developers for that nightmare interaction.
Overall Thoughts
Many players will make it a point to mention to new players that A Realm Reborn is the slowest, most difficult part of starting to play FFXIV. However, once you’re done with that main story, everything else comes easy. For other tips, our FFXIV guide has excellent reminders. Hopefully, you don’t burn out like I did.
Let us know about your experiences in Eorzea below!
