inhale
The amount of content you can get for free in this game is insane.
Is there any other game that gives out hundreds of hours of content for free without any poking and prodding for micro transactions the entire time?
How well can you play it solo?
Edit: don’t know why I got downvoted. It’s an Online game and I’ve always loved FF because they are solo JRPGs, so I think it’s a very valid question.
I’m a huge single player Final Fantasy fan, and while this game is highly regarded by people who play it, I regretted making a purchase on it.
If you are a fan of MMORPGs and want a Final Fantasy skin on yours, great this is probably for you. but as someone who hadn’t touched the genre since it was a novelty, I loathed playing this game. It feels more like a chore than a modern Final Fantasy entry. The story is so chopped up, my immersion is broken by the limitations of an MMORPG, that I couldn’t follow the supposedly great writing. The best part of the game for me was the fashion, social, and customization, but the cool stuff requires IAPs. The players who pay get an avatar to call their own, and your trial and base subscription tier character will be a clone of those wearing the common gear for that level of progress.
I would recommend not investing time in this game.
How far did you get?
Like the other replies have said, it’s now very solo friendly. You might have to party up here or there, but for the most part the MSQ (Main Story Quests) now offer a path to bring in NPC characters to help you through dungeons and the like. So if you are just in it for the story and simply don’t want to play with people, then you can do pretty much all of that solo.
HOWEVER, this is not a community like WoW where it’s toxic as hell. Everyone gets extra rewards if they play a dungeon with someone who has never done it before so it’s actually nice to have a newbie in your party, and generally people are super chill if you say “hey, it’s my first time” when going into a group activity.
Just a quick extra note, that people who have not completed up to a certain point in the MSQ are tagged with a little sprout next to their name, the only time I have ever seen people get a /kick was for hassling a sprout.
Oh yeah, good call.
That’s good to hear about the /kick. The last time I saw someone get kicked was years ago during a Prae run (back when it was still an 8-man) where the person was not actively helping do the activity. They’d just stood around while everyone else did the work. And then they had the audacity to say to US that it was OK because Prae was easy now so they didn’t need his help anyway. While true, you don’t get tomes for free, bro, and after a couple of bosses we kicked him out.
For OP: Yeah, Sprouts designate someone as a newer player so everyone knows they may be seeing or doing some stuff for the first time.
As someone who has been playing for years, I still perk up when I see a Bonus (first timer) because I’m usually working on something, even if it just helps me finish my weeklies faster
If you want to pay attention to the story, it’s more or less mandatory to play solo.
Large swaths of the main story are basically a visual novel, interspersed with 4-player dungeons that are easily queued for or completed with NPCs. They have remastered the early dungeons to use an updated friendly NPC AI that makes it a very viable way to complete the game.
You can do all the story alone. It’s like 100-200h of gameplay without even touching side content. Some spent 1000h+ on free trial without this last expansion.
However there is some limitations for trial account : you cannot whisper, access auction house, join guild, etc. Theses limitations are mostly done to avoid bots using free trial.
EDIT: I missly undervote you, it’s fixed : sorry for that ! FF14 is wonderful if you like FF universes. It may have some of the best plots and villains of all games! Don’t be afraid by the “online” aspect, main quest is really like a classical RPG. And it’s free so give it a try.
It is very solo-friendly. There are some story beats which require you use the dungeon finder, but it’s very painless and the community is supportive of first-timers, so there’s no stress.
Oh hell yeah
Shadowbringers is the best expansion, if you want some high-quality writing it’s worth a play through. The prior two expansions (Heavensward and Stormblood) are also good, it’s just getting through ARR and the pre-HW story that is rough.
Absolutely perfect timing. I just introduced my brother and his girlfriend to it. He played for an hour yesterday and liked it. I’m psyched that free players have full access to all races during character creation now.
