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[General Article] Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn: Heavensward Review in Progress #1

SBFordSBFord Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129

Two years ago I dived into Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn not knowing what to expect. Turns out the game had gone through a complete revamp and it made great use of a proverbial phoenix down that are prevalent in the Final Fantasy series. You can read the 2.0 review here. If you are a masochist and want to relive how bad 1.0 truly was you can take a look at that boondoggle’s review here. The biggest difference between going into the review of Heavensward as opposed to A Realm Reborn is now the bar is raised. Can Heavensward keep the momentum going for FFXIV?

Read more of Rob Lashley's Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward Review in Progress #1.

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Comments

  • MrMelGibsonMrMelGibson Member EpicPosts: 3,039
    I also returned without having done the 2.1-2.5 story content.  I spent all of early access finishing it.  It was a real chore.  The story was good, but the 100s of fetch this, and talk to this guy and then after taking to him, take his groceries to this guy etc.  I could really of done without those.  It was really frustrating.  If they cut out these pointless stupid quests and just left the dungeons and primals.  It would of been fine.  Not to mention, locking the new jobs till you finish the story quest.  I think It would of been more tolerable if I could of done it as one of the new classes.
  • PulsarManPulsarMan Member Posts: 289

    As someone who loves the game, I hated that shit. 

    Teleport > talk to someone > Teleport, run 20 yards > Talk to someone > Teleport > Kill 6 bad guys > Teleport > and on and on. 

    It was, as you say, a real chore. I am glad to say that it seems they're delivering the story in a slightly different manner in the expansion. So far, I really like the feel. I hope you do too. :) 

  • evilizedevilized Member UncommonPosts: 576
    It took me about 2 evenings of casual play to go from 2.0 to 2.55. I didn't skip cutscenes.

    3.0 is a good storyline, as was the Dark Knight job quest 30-60. The 50-56 part of the DRK quest is a little slow but the end made it worth it.

    Overall I would say SE has another winner with Heavensward, though if four looking for anything other than a 100% themepark experience you should probably look elsewhere.
  • danwest58danwest58 Member RarePosts: 2,012
    While I agree that doing about 120 quest from 2.1 - 2.55 was a pain in the ass and boring; the storyline I did really like it.  Now my wife and I are just doing the storyline quest together while playing and we are having fun.  No plans to leave the game because of the quest because when all is said and done there is more content we love than we dislike.  
     
    O and and if you are one of them people that want a Sandbox game this is not it.  If you are upset that it is a lobby based game, meet some friends.  I rarely use DF right now because I have 30 some people on my friends list outside of my FC to call on, plus if I cannot find someone I can normally get 1 or 2 people from the party finder tool.  So if you dont want a lobby based game dont use the DF tool use the Party Finder and make friends.  Many people in this game will become your friend if you make that effort and not expect the game to group you up with people all the time.  
  • BillMurphyBillMurphy Former Managing EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 4,565
    Originally posted by danwest58
    While I agree that doing about 120 quest from 2.1 - 2.55 was a pain in the ass and boring; the storyline I did really like it.  Now my wife and I are just doing the storyline quest together while playing and we are having fun.  No plans to leave the game because of the quest because when all is said and done there is more content we love than we dislike.  
     
    O and and if you are one of them people that want a Sandbox game this is not it.  If you are upset that it is a lobby based game, meet some friends.  I rarely use DF right now because I have 30 some people on my friends list outside of my FC to call on, plus if I cannot find someone I can normally get 1 or 2 people from the party finder tool.  So if you dont want a lobby based game dont use the DF tool use the Party Finder and make friends.  Many people in this game will become your friend if you make that effort and not expect the game to group you up with people all the time.  

    I managed to get from 26 to 34 without having to do a single non-story quest. I finally now have to do some other questing and dungeons to get to the next story quest. But the ease of leveling to 50 is much appreciated. I hated the leve-quest grind before.

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  • HellboundHeartHellboundHeart Member UncommonPosts: 390

    "What started off as a daunting task of being “stuck” playing content I had no desire to play and I view as nothing more than a chore and part of my job actually became a joy. I watched as the team behind FF XIV honed their storytelling craft and stopped having you run willy nilly around the world to conveying a more cohesive and intriguing story while having you run around the world a little less willy nilly. I ended up completing the last quest in patch 2.55 right as they closed the servers down on Tuesday night to perform the final maintenance as head start ended and the official launch began. So yes I did spend the entirety of head start doing the old content but I had a lot more fun than I thought I would along the way."

     

    =================================

     

    This + 1

  • HellboundHeartHellboundHeart Member UncommonPosts: 390
    Originally posted by MrMelGibson
    I also returned without having done the 2.1-2.5 story content.  I spent all of early access finishing it.  It was a real chore.  The story was good, but the 100s of fetch this, and talk to this guy and then after taking to him, take his groceries to this guy etc.  I could really of done without those.  It was really frustrating.  If they cut out these pointless stupid quests and just left the dungeons and primals.  It would of been fine.  Not to mention, locking the new jobs till you finish the story quest.  I think It would of been more tolerable if I could of done it as one of the new classes.
     

    I like this.

    I was close minded like you. See, what I didnt know is the guy you 'brought groceries' to is probably, more than likely be an npc you'll rely on.

     

    [mod edit - light spoilers removed]

    So pay attention, these fetch npc's have great stories, you just are unlocking the pre req. I mean how can an npc know you if you never helped them at least once. Makes sense to me at least.

  • HellboundHeartHellboundHeart Member UncommonPosts: 390

    "On Cactaur I have been lucky and have dealt with limited queues and nothing that has extended past ten minutes. On the grand scheme of things while these service interruptions have made an impact, those impacts seem to be minimal."

     

    ======================

     

    I'm on Cactuar too !! Look : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HL4d8cXn-Q

    What FC are you in? Hell, we might be partner FC's LOL.

  • GrakulenGrakulen Staff WriterMMORPG.COM Staff LegendaryPosts: 894
    I'm in GreySky Armada
  • Scott_JeslisScott_Jeslis Member RarePosts: 637

    "Yoshi P has stated in a recent interview with MMORPG Editor in Chief Bill Murphy that you will earn enough experience from just doing the main story quests to get from 1 to 50."

     

    As a level 42 Warrior I hit level 43 during head start, did the MSQs for Level 43 and only got 1/3 of a level (ironically as Robert said with the Level 50+ quests). I did the measly one or two level 43 side-quests which did not help much at all. Now I'm back to leve-quests, duty roulette, fates, rinse and repeat. So I'm not sure what Yoshi-P was talking about exactly.

     
     
  • lobotarulobotaru Member UncommonPosts: 165
    ugh, they added more abilities to the damage dealers without tweaking their rotations at all. And by tweaking, I mean simplifying things a bit because we were already having issues with monks, dragoons, and black mages in raids getting hit by stuff they shouldn't because they were too busy paying attention to their action bars. Or more correctly, they're paying attention to almost everything, but the battlefield in order to perform their duty. Managing multiple dots and temporary damage buffs on top of position based damage boosts is a lot to deal with in addition to paying attention to heavy boss mechanics.
  • YashaXYashaX Member EpicPosts: 3,100
    Hmmm, sounds interesting I might have to give this another go. I have started the game several times only to quit quite soon into it because the initial questing was so inane. If I can basically just concentrate on the main story now I wonder if it will feel more like an FF game with multiplayer?
    ....
  • ZarriyaZarriya Member UncommonPosts: 446
    The Article Title is currently misleading, It does not talk about Heavensward as much as he talks about having to do pre heavensward content. Thsi game is for people not waning to blow through content and run to the next game so I am glad he appreciated it.  I hope articles 2 and on will talk about Heavensward.  That being said the article is fair and reads well. I look forward to his view on Heavensward.  I myself am enjoying it.
  • MrFryinMrFryin Member UncommonPosts: 21
    Originally posted by Benbrada

    "Yoshi P has stated in a recent interview with MMORPG Editor in Chief Bill Murphy that you will earn enough experience from just doing the main story quests to get from 1 to 50."

     

    As a level 42 Warrior I hit level 43 during head start, did the MSQs for Level 43 and only got 1/3 of a level (ironically as Robert said with the Level 50+ quests). I did the measly one or two level 43 side-quests which did not help much at all. Now I'm back to leve-quests, duty roulette, fates, rinse and repeat. So I'm not sure what Yoshi-P was talking about exactly.

     
     

    I know exactly what you mean. Often I would find myself at least a FULL level behind the MSQ and could not progress until I grinded out leve's/fates for a full level since I had already completed all the possible sidequest. I was kind of pissed off actually that I was not able to get at least to 50 during the headstart starting from 35 so that I could of then maybe tried one of the new classes on release day for everyone else and hit that fate group grind.

    Tell me all you want "oh you knew the expac was comming so you had plenty of time to prepare" but I didn't, and I took what the dev's said that leveling was going to be made easier/faster as truth but for me it didn't happen. Always stuck grinding in some way just like before the expac released.

    Anyways I can't wait to get into the new content and eventually try a new class.

  • LeiloniLeiloni Member RarePosts: 1,266

    I'm glad you mentioned how important and fun that level 50 story quest series is. I had not done *any* of those level 50 story quests ever. I hit 50 and promptly forgot about them and never realized there were so many benefits to doing them (XP, loot, story), so when the expac came out and I realized exactly how many quests I had to do, I knew it'd take a while. Here's the insanely long list for anyone wondering. It took me 4 days, although I could have spent more time on the game Weds/Thurs and done it in three. But that would require all night grinding. But I'm used to grinds and have a lot I want to do in the expact, so I juts buckled down and didn't get upset about it. However going from 2.1 to 2.55 quests (aka all of them) along with the guild XP boost buff, I actually got at least 3/4 of the way to 51. I'm not sure how you got so little XP, but doing only the story quests and associated dungeons, got me nearly all the way to 51.

     

    But, and this is a big but, I ended up loving it in the end. It's a truly epic story and I didn't even pay attention to every bit of text and every cutscene, because I did want to get through it fast. But I payed attention to enough that I understood and enjoyed the story quite a bit. Like someone on Reddit commented, it's the type of quality storytelling you expect from a single player RPG, not an MMORPG. It's a nice change of pace - and I haven't played previous FF games before this so I didn't have particularly big expectations. 

    Beyond that, I'm glad that SE is making so many efforts to preserve the level 50 content. Too many games make all previous content obsolete and rush players to max, but I like that all the dungeons and other content are still relevant, and that you have to spend so much time at 50 going through the story. It gives people more content to do which means they don't get bored with the game quickly, but it also nicely highlights the fact that the game was at 50 for a while, and forcing players to slow down a bit and actually consume some of that previous content is a great idea that I think more MMORPG's should learn from.

    As for any server issues, I haven't seen any at all. Nor are queues an issue. I play on Leviathan which is a well populated server, but queues are never more than a few seconds at most and during EST prime time when I play, I have not crashed once nor has my server gone down. So while some players have issues, it is by no means everybody. 

  • HellboundHeartHellboundHeart Member UncommonPosts: 390
    Originally posted by lobotaru
    ugh, they added more abilities to the damage dealers without tweaking their rotations at all. And by tweaking, I mean simplifying things a bit because we were already having issues with monks, dragoons, and black mages in raids getting hit by stuff they shouldn't because they were too busy paying attention to their action bars. Or more correctly, they're paying attention to almost everything, but the battlefield in order to perform their duty. Managing multiple dots and temporary damage buffs on top of position based damage boosts is a lot to deal with in addition to paying attention to heavy boss mechanics.

    No issues with drg here so far at level 57. No problems keeping up Blood Of The Dragon and Fang And Claw. I got it to 60 seconds on my FC dummy.

     

    ONE thing I DO hate is positional. Flank, behind, etc.

  • LeiloniLeiloni Member RarePosts: 1,266
    Originally posted by HellboundHeart
    Originally posted by MrMelGibson
    I also returned without having done the 2.1-2.5 story content.  I spent all of early access finishing it.  It was a real chore.  The story was good, but the 100s of fetch this, and talk to this guy and then after taking to him, take his groceries to this guy etc.  I could really of done without those.  It was really frustrating.  If they cut out these pointless stupid quests and just left the dungeons and primals.  It would of been fine.  Not to mention, locking the new jobs till you finish the story quest.  I think It would of been more tolerable if I could of done it as one of the new classes.
     

    I like this.

    I was close minded like you. See, what I didnt know is the guy you 'brought groceries' to is probably, more than likely be an npc you'll rely on.

     So pay attention, these fetch npc's have great stories, you just are unlocking the pre req. I mean how can an npc know you if you never helped them at least once. Makes sense to me at least.

    I have deleted out the spoilers in this but you REALLY need to edit that out. There are going to be people reading this comment thread that have not yet done the story and that's sort of a big surprise at the end, so it'd be really shitty if you spoiled it for them. Or maybe one of the MMORPG.com moderators can edit that for us? 

  • HellboundHeartHellboundHeart Member UncommonPosts: 390
    Originally posted by Leiloni
    Originally posted by HellboundHeart
    Originally posted by MrMelGibson
    I also returned without having done the 2.1-2.5 story content.  I spent all of early access finishing it.  It was a real chore.  The story was good, but the 100s of fetch this, and talk to this guy and then after taking to him, take his groceries to this guy etc.  I could really of done without those.  It was really frustrating.  If they cut out these pointless stupid quests and just left the dungeons and primals.  It would of been fine.  Not to mention, locking the new jobs till you finish the story quest.  I think It would of been more tolerable if I could of done it as one of the new classes.
     

    I like this.

    I was close minded like you. See, what I didnt know is the guy you 'brought groceries' to is probably, more than likely be an npc you'll rely on.

     So pay attention, these fetch npc's have great stories, you just are unlocking the pre req. I mean how can an npc know you if you never helped them at least once. Makes sense to me at least.

    I have deleted out the spoilers in this but you REALLY need to edit that out. There are going to be people reading this comment thread that have not yet done the story and that's sort of a big surprise at the end, so it'd be really shitty if you spoiled it for them. Or maybe one of the MMORPG.com moderators can edit that for us? 

    Someone already edited it lol. Just had to make the point, just didnt know which one to use.

  • LeiloniLeiloni Member RarePosts: 1,266
    Originally posted by lobotaru
    ugh, they added more abilities to the damage dealers without tweaking their rotations at all. And by tweaking, I mean simplifying things a bit because we were already having issues with monks, dragoons, and black mages in raids getting hit by stuff they shouldn't because they were too busy paying attention to their action bars. Or more correctly, they're paying attention to almost everything, but the battlefield in order to perform their duty. Managing multiple dots and temporary damage buffs on top of position based damage boosts is a lot to deal with in addition to paying attention to heavy boss mechanics.

     

    Healers and tanks have always had a lot on their plates so I don't really see it as a big deal that now the dps do too. 

  • LeiloniLeiloni Member RarePosts: 1,266
    Originally posted by HellboundHeart
    Originally posted by Leiloni
    Originally posted by HellboundHeart
    Originally posted by MrMelGibson
    I also returned without having done the 2.1-2.5 story content.  I spent all of early access finishing it.  It was a real chore.  The story was good, but the 100s of fetch this, and talk to this guy and then after taking to him, take his groceries to this guy etc.  I could really of done without those.  It was really frustrating.  If they cut out these pointless stupid quests and just left the dungeons and primals.  It would of been fine.  Not to mention, locking the new jobs till you finish the story quest.  I think It would of been more tolerable if I could of done it as one of the new classes.
     

    I like this.

    I was close minded like you. See, what I didnt know is the guy you 'brought groceries' to is probably, more than likely be an npc you'll rely on.

     So pay attention, these fetch npc's have great stories, you just are unlocking the pre req. I mean how can an npc know you if you never helped them at least once. Makes sense to me at least.

    I have deleted out the spoilers in this but you REALLY need to edit that out. There are going to be people reading this comment thread that have not yet done the story and that's sort of a big surprise at the end, so it'd be really shitty if you spoiled it for them. Or maybe one of the MMORPG.com moderators can edit that for us? 

    Someone already edited it lol. Just had to make the point, just didnt know which one to use.

    Yay, bueno lol! It is a good point, but I'm actually glad I didn't realize it until the story was over. It was a big "OMG they're genius" moment that made me appreciate the entire 1-50 story experience thus far.

  • falconhandfalconhand Member UncommonPosts: 50

    If you not like story, FFXIV is not your game. I love ingame story progression, so have no problem with this. For me leveling is all about the road to and not the end. And if some players having problems with watching the story, they will not like 3.0. Much more stories and unlocking all air points will take you wandering around and around on the map :)

    And for those wanting to play 3.0 with the new class and are new. Look for the old classes new jobs benefits from and level one from those to 2.55, unlock the new jobs in 3.0 city Ish Gard. Then start playing with the new job you like. There will be enough side quests, dungeons, leves and some fates to get tthe new job to 50 also and start the 3.0 story with the new job.

    Do not forget to give the 2nd old class also some level love ;)

    I am close to the end, did yesterday lvl 59 dungeon Library and in my group there was a Dark Night and a Machinist.

  • AlserianAlserian Member Posts: 1
    I thought at first when I came back to the game uhgg I got to finish my story line. you know what thanks SE fir making me go through the whole story it was fantastic and had a lot of fun. Keep up the good work!
  • fivorothfivoroth Member UncommonPosts: 3,916

    I only recently started doing the 2.1-2.5 storyline and I am halfway through 2.3 and the story is awesome and leaves you wanting to find what comes next. The actual quest gameplay is your standard mmo affair but the story is amazing and the continuity is great.

    i probably won't get to finish it the story by the end of the month as I am off on holiday but can't wait to see how the story develops.

    Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.

  • Soki123Soki123 Member RarePosts: 2,558
    Came back, changed my opinion to I like it, then realized I don t. It just gets stale to me after a week or so. It feels so bland. Deleted it finally off my comp, never to return. Back to some older games with soul.
  • fivorothfivoroth Member UncommonPosts: 3,916
    Originally posted by YashaX
    Hmmm, sounds interesting I might have to give this another go. I have started the game several times only to quit quite soon into it because the initial questing was so inane. If I can basically just concentrate on the main story now I wonder if it will feel more like an FF game with multiplayer?

    For my play through I rolled a healer and just spammed ddungeons and the main storyline. As I play very casually I always get rested experience bonus. That's before the buff. I am guessing now it will be easier as quests give more xp and dungeons pop instantly even for dps.

    Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.

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