It’s been 5 years since Eorzea was reborn like a phoenix from the ashes, the ashes of chargrilled disappointment from the Final Fantasy fan base.
I tried the initial 1.0 and couldn’t bring myself to play it after the first hour or so and returned as a beta player when 2.0 was available for testing. I eventually jumped back on board when 2.0 was launched as A Realm Reborn (ARR) with a new director and completely new gameplay.
Along with the new game I switched to a new role – no longer as a bow wielder now I am a healer.
In the past 5 years there were ups and downs with the game for me. It is a MMORPG, so there is no way you can avoid other players. Your co-existence with other Warriors of Light brought variety and sometimes hostility, especially when you are a new healer or simply a healer trying new contents. Mostly though, the community in FF XIV is very helpful. And because of this there are more players willing to pay it forward for new players. What I learnt from other mentors in my Free Company (FC), I passed them down to newer players in the FC and sometimes players in the Novice Network (a chat channel for more experienced players (mentors) to help out newer players (sprouts) and returning players (flowers)).
Player base has no doubt expanded each year with the game and naturally expectations from players are getting higher and higher.
There were talks of the game getting formulaic and boring as it marched past its 5th year. Certainly there are times that I felt lost about what I want to do. But to be fair to the development team, they had tried a lot of things, some more successful than others, but they had tried a lot of things. Sure every patch or expansion is about new dungeons, new primal fights, new alliance raid and new high end raid. But along with the extremely well written story, these are the core features. If we look pass this and look into the different attempts the developer made in the last 5 years, there are lots of new additions to the game that people have forgotten because we are starting to take things for granted. For instance:
· The relic weapon questline (initially from ARR)
· The Gold Saucer (ARR)
· The Hildibrand adventures (initially from ARR)
· The postal Moogle questline (ARR)
· Beast tribe quests (Initially from ARR)
· Riddle quests (ARR)
· The new job Ninja in an ARR patch
· The start of PvP instances (Initially from ARR)
· Treasure hunting (Initially from ARR)
· Hunts (Initially from ARR)
· Flying mounts (Initially from HW)
· The crafting and gathering scrips system (initially from Heavensward (HW))
· The collectables (Initially from HW)
· Side story primals (Initially from HW)
· Deep dungeon (Initially from HW)
· Company workshops, airships and voyages (Initially from HW)
· The Diadem (HW)
· The Aquapolis (HW)
· Grand Company Squadrons (HW)
· Custom Deliveries (Initially from HW)
· Wanderer’s Tales (Initially from HW)
· Swimming (Stormblood (SB))
· Fashion Reporter (SB)
· The Land of Eureka – start of relic armour (SB)
· Doma reconstruction (SB)
· Grand Company Squadron Command Missions (SB)
· Ultimate tier high end raid (SB)
· The new Blue Mage job in an upcoming SB patch
And these are just some of the playable contents that the development team added bit by bit throughout the 5 years. That does not include tweaks, additions and consolidation of gameplay related to these additions to keep the experience fresh.
Certainly, we all want more and certainly not everything added was our cup of tea, but to be fair a lot of work was put in to make the in game experience as unique and varied at the same time for its subscribers.
My time in Eorzea was quite solid and I enjoyed it every time I logged in. Of course there will be days that are quieter, especially when there are new games being released of a patch is approaching the end and players are waiting for new contents. But for me I can confidently say that my last 5 years in the game were well spent, especially through the game I get to know and meet a lot of great people that I wouldn’t have met if I was just playing some solo offline game by myself.
With the new expansion being announced, I am sure the development team has a number of tricks up their sleeves. People might criticise it as more of the same old thing but the fact is that throughout the five years there were lots of innovations and new ideas being implemented. As for all games and all genres there will always be a core structure, but simply focusing on the core structure and forgot about all the other additions or just taking these new additions for granted and complaining about nothing new in the game would not be a fair assessment of the game or the development team.
I am planning to stay as long as I continue to enjoy it, and probably try out things that I haven’t tried out before. I hope that my friends would stay too as FF XIV will not be the same without them. I look forward to marching into the uncharted lands in Shadowbringers and I hope I would see everyone there too.
