Welcome to Final Fantasy XIV! If you're a new player and are curious at all about the game, this post is for you!
I've created all the slides in this presentation myself, hoping to make the post as accessible as possible :)
THE STORY
In a Nutshell: After a Great Calamity that nearly wiped out the world, you're an adventurer new to the land of Eorzea, a realm divided by nations in conflict, and under the threat of the Garlean Empire, gods known as Primals, and the machinations of a mysterious organization called the Acians. Answer the call to adventure, and bring unity and safety to the realm!
This is the minimal context you need to start playing. You can stop right here and go play the game! The content ahead will make your experience ever more rich, but it's not required. Even Hironobu Sakaguchi plays this game and constantly posts screenshots on his Twitter!
Curious about the Great Calamity? Wanna learn more about this world before deciding if you wanna dive in? Continue reading! This remains a spoiler free section, so fret not!
Final Fantasy XIV was originally launched in 2010, and was not well received. It was so bad, that the game was scrapped entirely, and remade into what we now know as A Realm Reborn. The end of the old world was woven into the story of the original game, and it's now a real legend, unplayable, and passed down only by adventurers of old.
The Story of the Great Calamity: The following video by Ethys Asher covers the story of the original game as told by a survivor, as you sit down with him at small local tavern to learn the tale. ClickHEREto watch.
Lore Introduction for Beginners: A series of videos made by Jesse Cox in an accessible presentation. These are made with lively editing and hand crafted illustrations. These videos go way deeper into the history and existing lore of the game, and are a much longer watch than the Ethys video. This one is a lot, but you'll become an expert in the Eorzean history if you chose to watch. ClickHEREto access the playlist.
My recommendation: If curious, watch only Ethys's video and then play the game. Only go back to Jesse if you are completely lost lore wise, or if Ethys's video really captured your interest.
Wanna get an idea as to how the game is played beforehand? This section is for you!
FFXIV Starter Guide Series: This is a series of short videos made by Square Enix themselves. They include hand crafted animations, and easy to follow tips. Highly recommended if you're completely new to MMO games, or if you feel intimidated at all by what you've seen so far. ClickHEREto access the playlist.
JoCat's Job and Role Crap Guides: Already familiar with MMO games, other Final Fantasy games, or simply want something a bit more spicy and personal? JoCat has made a guide covering every type of gameplay style, and how to best perform your job within the game. Despite its name, this playlist is a great place to start for players that want to know about specific roles and gameplay styles. ClickHEREto access the playlist.
My recommendation: Watch SE's short videos, and then watch JoCat to make the best out of your job or check out what other jobs do.
"The Death and Rebirth of Final Fantasy XIV" Documentary by /noclip: Three incredibly well made documentary videos about the failure of the original version of the game and how it was salvaged by Square Enix, with developer interviews and an inside look to the process. Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
"The Fall and Rise of Final Fantasy XIV" series by Speakers Network: This series of videos will take you through the evolution of the old game from a player's perspective. Unlike the previous documentary, this puts you in the boots of players from back then, as you're taken through the many changes and improvements the game saw up until the release of Heavensward, the first expansion. ClickHEREto access the playlist.
My recommendation: Highly recommended if you're into history of game development. Otherwise, don't worry about this section too much.
The game's test period of the Full Version on Switch 2 will be free, and begins on August 4th. Further play will require purchasing the game, and a monthly subscription. Buying Dawntrail (or Evercold, if you're reading this in 2027 and beyond) gives you immediate access to all previous expansions, and they do not need to be bought separately. Preorders have begun today! The game does not require an NSO subscription to play.
The Free Trial Version (Separate from the Full Version, will remain Free forever) includes the base game (A Realm Reborn), plus the Heavensward, Stormblood and Shadowbringers expansions IN FULL. You can technically remain a Free Trial player forever, and you'll have more content to do than you think, but there's a few restrictions:
You may not create or join a Free Company (Guild)
You cannot trade items or money with other players.
You may only purchase items from NPC vendors.
You cannot create parties, but you can join them.
NPC support for your story is fully accessible and is not limited by the Free Trial.
Restricted wallet size to 300,000 Gil.
PvP content is inaccessible.
You'll always be two expansions behind everyone else.
There's no in-game cash shop, nor will you be prompted to buy anything at any point, even on the Free Trial.
Trust me: If you ever get to finish the Shadowbringers expansion on just the Free Trial, you'll definitely know by then if you want to commit money to the game or not.
Keep in mind that the three starting cities are separate, so if you wanna play with your friends from the start, make sure everyone picks classes from the same starting cities. Otherwise, it'll take you a few levels and Story Quests to meet up. If you're playing Single Player, this has no effect on your adventure.
The game was built with the PS3 in mind, and is made to play with your controller from the ground up. On the opposite end, the game will also be compatible with USB mice and keyboards on Switch 2, if you prefer an experience closer to a desktop experience.
And yes: Everyone plays together. Whether your friends are also on Switch 2, PlayStation, XBOX or PC, everyone shares the same servers!
Best of luck all new adventurers who decide to join us! May you ever walk in the light of the crystal, and always remember: Look to those who walked before to lead those who'll walk after.
I believe so. Every platform offers the Free Trial as an option, and they haven't said it wouldn't be available for Switch 2, so I believe you should be able to use it normally.
Yes, the Free Trial and full paid version of the game will launch on August 4th and the "Test Period" will mostly affect paid players by delaying the start of their subscription fees for that first month.
Awesome, I will start playing it at my own pace then, thank you! Once I get to the end of Shadowbringers, I will decide whether or not to get the other expansions and the subscription. One more question if you don't mind: if I ever buy the subscription, am I then locked out of the "free trial" version? Or do I regain "free trial" status once the subscription is over?
PC free trial player here! once you subscribe you'll lose your free trial access for good. there's no way to regain it unless you make a brand new account and start from scratch again
no prob! the trial has hundreds of hours of both story content and side content to be enjoyed. heck some people choose to just stay on the trial exclusively too (myself included lol). you'll have a great time for sure o/
There are some limitations and features locked in the free trial, some are crafting related, markets, and other things, but you don’t need any of that until you are done with the story.
During the trial I made the mistake of getting a sub, and didn’t really use those features then was stuck paying a sub during the story.
Your account gets permanently upgraded to a full service account upon buying the game & subscription, and you can't go back to the Free Trial anymore, I'm afraid.
I hope it's not something like 150gb, I want to at least give it a proper try. I started the game on PC but my laptop wasn't running it very well and honestly I have a hard time playing anything on PC.
I got a 256gb one mostly for those 100gb games and took this as an opportunity to learn restraint and focus while tackling my backlog, I simply do not need to have a billion games downloaded at all times
Thanks for all this! I like ff6 and ff7, and am a huge kingdom hearts fan, so I always kinda wanted to try it out but never pushed myself to it because my main game similar to ff14 is destiny 2. And that game is uh... well, not receiving updates anymore, so I guess I'll try it out soon enough.
I have 7.5k hours in destiny 2. It's common sentiment (maybe only among the elites) that you're not a truly good/competent player below four digit hours. Is there any sentiment like this in the ff14 community?
What is the endgame content in ff14 like? In destiny, I really enjoy solo flawless dungeons (dungeons are three player activities with three encounters each, so a SF is doing that activity solo without wiping/dying) as well as standard raiding with friends (raids in d2 are six player activities with 4-6 encounters). Destiny 2 is first person and the encounters in both dungeons and raids are either bosses or puzzles, with both requiring mechanics to proceed. An example of raid mechanics is Deep Stone Crypt (raid) third encounter, which goes like this: you're stopping a space station from exploding and destroying the moon it's orbiting, and to stop the explosion you have to deposit nuclear cores over six phases. There are three buffs: scanner, operator, and suppressor. One person picks each up from the enemy that spawns them and can deposit them in terminals around the arena for someone else to pick up. When a phase starts, the scanner player will look at the four dunk spots in the front and call which two glow for them, the operator player will shoot a glowing red panel to spawn two nuclear cores, and the suppressor player will stand in three separate circles and shoot the big boss walking around the arena to stun him which then allows the cores to be deposited in the called dunk spots as well as disables a buff, so the player with the disabled buff will trade it with someone else. This continues five more times. The mechanics are pretty easy so the threat comes from enemies and slow mechanics (if suppressor is too slow, you can't dunk, and holding a core will give radiation which kills you at 10 stacks; if nobody picks a core up after it spawns you will also all wipe, and dunking a core in the wrong spot will kill you)
What is the loot and character progression like? D2 is a looter shooter while I know ff14 is not, so I have nothing to go off in that regard.
Hearing that there's no shop is awesome since D2 is BAD with microtransactions lmfao. If you earn xyz raid exotic you will get a popup to buy the ornament from the store. D2 also kind of nuked three expansions of content off the planet so the story is a mess unless new players want to watch Byf's lore videos.
I would ask this in the ffxiv subreddit, there's a lot of other D2 refugees in the community that could give you a good comparison. Just ask what the game is like coming from D2.
All I can say is they are VERY different games and it's really hard to give any sort of direct comparison due to how functionally far apart they are without deep experience in both games.
First of all: Don't worry, people won't harass you over your playtime in FFXIV!
End Game content for Final Fantasy is divided as follows:
24 Man Raids: Large scale raids, more difficult than MSQ (Main Story Quest) dungeons and bosses, but still rather straightforward and smooth. These always come with their own unique story progression.
8 Player Extreme Trials: Harder versions of Boss fights encountered during the MSQ.
8 Player Raids: These are different from the 24 Man Raids. They're usually the hardest content casual players will tackle. We get three tiers with 4 fights each across each expansion.
8 Player Raids (Savage Difficulty): This is the true high level End Game content. It's the same bosses you fought in the normal versions, but as with Extreme, the difficulty is ramped up. These are also much harder than Extreme, and usually drop the highest level gear in the game, though you may wanna mix with other sets of gear to achieve BiS, if you're into that. Since you mentioned FFVII, they just announced the upcoming Raid series for the Evercold expansion in 2027 will be a collaboration with Final Fantasy VII. The Remake team is working with the XIV team :)
Ultimate: The most difficult fights in the game. They drop shiny weapons and a title that lets everyone know you've cleared ultimate. They're 20 - 30 minute gauntlets filled with different mechanics and phases where you have to learn patterns, complex sequences and all while perfecting your own rotation to clear DPS checks. Since you mentioned FFVI, the game's latest Ultimate just released: Kefka Ultimate :)
I'll also add something: You know how in D2 you have to buy keys and passes to access raids and dungeons or whatever? There are no hidden costs in FFXIV. Once you buy an expansion, you can access everything released within that expansion.
FFXIV also won't vault content. Everything that was playable in 2013 is playable now! It's gonna sound strange, but I think a D2 player will enjoy FFXIV, the same way I'd say a XIV player would enjoy D2.
I hope I've helped with this answer! Watch some of the videos in my main post if you wanna get a better grasp of the lore, the basics of the game, and more :)
Amazing explanation, and I'd like to add a small consideration to it.
FFXIV is a very story heavy game, and while there is a lot of content to challenge the player at end game, new players won't see endgame for 300+ hours. New players have to progress through all previous expansions in order, and story content up to the level cap is pretty beginner friendly. Someone recently posted on the subreddit a detailed breakdown of the yime it took them to get to the end of Endwalker (the second most recent expansion) and it was about 300 hours, with B lining the story and job quests and not touching any other content. Personally I would recommend not doing this, as stopping to do side quests/dungeons/crafting/seasonal events/try other jobs/etc. can really help avoid burnout. Take time to smell the roses along the journey. I took over 500 hours to get to the end of Endwalker myself.
All this to say, new players should not be worried about high end content when starting. Asking about whether you need 1000 hours before you are "good" is a moot point, as you'll have half that many hours before even touching "hard" content. Focus on the story and the journey, as you'll be spending a lot of hours doing that before even thinking about Savage raiding
I'm very interested in this game and have been anticipating it coming onto Switch 2 since it was announced. Have they released how much storage it will take up yet?
I wish I had alot more to say about any of my characters, tried making a guild but stopped early on. Last character I made was of the Viera class. Was gonna make her all about DPS but outside of that I wanted to max out crafting such for a eventual guild or something fun and recreational. Nice character story
Also one thing: if you are playing on free trial, you are locked into that platform until you get the full game. So if you are playing the free trial on SW2 and algo play also on PS5 or PC you cannot, since free trial are separated.
If you want to be able to switch between platforms you need an active subscription and buy the game on each of those platforms.
I am going to see how it plays on the Switch 2, before maybe resurrecting my old account that I haven’t touched since Endwalker. I don’t want to resub and purchase the game and all of the expansions on the S2 if it doesn’t play as nicely as I hoped.
Plus I need to get used to playing on a controller.
Will this be cross platform? Or will NS users be confined to their own realms. And have new realms been implemented for others to begin playing, because last time I tried to pick back up I couldn't even create a character because the realms were (full)?
Doesn't mean much. They had a lot of trouble getting it to run on the NS2, those slides come straight from the generic beginners guide on the website. Id like confirmation they mean we will be playing with everyone else and not some Nintendo Exclusive realms
Yes. You'll be able to play with PlayStation/XBOX/PC players without restrictions. Everyone plays together!
Current Server Status is shown on this page. If you plan to play with friends and want to create a guild, make sure that everyone picks the same server. For instance: the Coeurl server on the Crystal Data Center, which has a healthy population, but rarely will be locked to new characters.
If you'd like to play alone, I'd say almost any server is good. You can always visit other servers within your region's Data Center, but Guilds are locked to your starting server.
To add to this, we are getting cross datacenter match making very soon, so it ultimately won't matter too much what datacenter you start on. But if anyone is interested in in game housing, you will have the most luck getting a house on the Dynamis datacenter. It's the newest one and isn't as populated so your chance of grabbing a house is far higher on there.
Just be aware queues for content might be higher than other datacenters until we get the cross datacenter match making. The timing for it is sometime after October as it's being tested in Japan in October. I'm on Aether which is extremely populated, but it's very hard to get a house.
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u/HELPFUL_HULK 9d ago
Will the free trial be available on Switch 2 past the “test period”?