PSA: It's not so difficult and pricey to get into FFXIV !

oakenhild · Jul 3, 2019

Sitting in the queue to give it a try on the trial account.

First impressions are that everything that is a website is extremely outdated and sketchy (mogstation doesn't invoke much confidence in security, etc). The launcher feels outdated as well. Once in the game, it's fine. Selecting which data center you connect to is bizarre as well.

I picked a preferred server, as the double xp sounds pretty good to me (particularly after hearing that ARR is a slog).

ZeroX · Jul 3, 2019

This map is so confusing

It's been an hour and I haven't gotten anywhere

TheMan · Jul 4, 2019

Pygrus said:
The issue is when you look at it as a solid chunk. Sure for us who have been playing since the start, we looked back at the chopped up patch content as not much. I've had a decent amount of friends who just stoped playing at around level 50 when they realize how much they need t go through to get to heavensward.

looking back, this is pretty much what happened to me. I was almost convinced by the OP to resub, but after reading through more impressions I was reminded why I quit the game in the first place. Think ill save that cash for the summer sale instead.

Khrno · Jul 4, 2019

OP you should add that the Free trial covers those "30 hours" and I'm not sure until what level/when in the MSQ you stop progressing.

leng jai · Jul 4, 2019

What a lie this thread title is.

FairFight · Jul 4, 2019

Ploid 6.0 said:
FFXIV and the various SE account sites ad to the confusion. Did you try the mogstation? Can you put your PSN or code there?

https://forums.eu.square-enix.com/showthread.php?t=254578

FINAL FANTASY XIV: Mog Station -ファイナルファンタジーXIV: モグステーション-

FINAL FANTASY XIV専用サービス管理ページ「モグステーション」です。

secure.square-enix.com

Yeah I can log into mogatation without issue. There's no record of my PSN purchase. My PSN account is linked to my square enix account. I've tried password reset on the 2 email address I have on the chance that my initial account was tied to a different address. I'm just hoping square customer support can do something because as now I just wasted 20 bucks on a game I can't play. Thanks for taking the time to reply. Hope to join the community soon.

VexationStation · Jul 4, 2019

Trying to get through the 2.x content caused me to just flat out quit earlier in the year.

PRAY, RETURN TO THE SANDS. Go talk to some dude who is also far away and here is a time wasting task because this is filler content. Repeat that at least 5x. Then wait in line for a fight no one does anymore.

Sasaud · Jul 4, 2019

I don't understand the complaints about the price, i played the free trial to lvl35 then i bought the starter edition for 15$ which gave me a 30 days subscription + heavensward expansion.
I just started heavensward and i still have 22 days left in the subscription so at maximum i would need to buy 2 more months and the extra expansions and i'm done, And the game is amazing btw so it's well worth it.

Gallows Bat · Jul 4, 2019

It's fun but my god is it slow. Got to about half way through heavensward as a paladin, also played around with Red Mage and Dark Knight. I must have played well over one hundred hours and I don't think I was even halfway to getting to the "fun" endgame stuff. Combats okay at higher levels but it's still nowhere near as good or polished as WoW.

Ploid 6.0 · Jul 4, 2019

FairFight said:
Yeah I can log into mogatation without issue. There's no record of my PSN purchase. My PSN account is linked to my square enix account. I've tried password reset on the 2 email address I have on the chance that my initial account was tied to a different address. I'm just hoping square customer support can do something because as now I just wasted 20 bucks on a game I can't play. Thanks for taking the time to reply. Hope to join the community soon.

You have a better chance than me of getting your stuff at least. I've tried many times to get access to my FFXI account. The last time I tried it came down to remembering the phone number I registered the account with over 10 years ago. The customer service guy tried to keep me trying but I tapped out.

Rosol · Jul 4, 2019

It can be worth it, anymore since they went down to 2 dungeons per patch from 3 it doesn't feel like there's enough content that's new for the 13$ a month. I enjoyed this game the most years ago when lvl 50 content was challenging - now days every dungeon and fight is a cake walk till you get to the savage and hard end game fights. The game does have great levels and music. For new players crafting and the like really won't help you much till they're max level, so it's not really as good in that respect like it used to be. I never thought the "story" was really that good in this game or any of the expansions that people rave about - the world is detailed and beautiful though. I honestly think the lvl 1-50 path is worthwhile though after that you need to like the game a lot to proceed. It is sort of showing its age, the end game rinse and repeat has me somewhat burnt out on it.

Zeel · Jul 4, 2019

Mantrox said:
Forget FF then..
Get into EVE Online, it's free!

EVE Online is a masterpiece and one of the most complex game ever made, but that's also the problem with it, you pretty much need to have no life to really delve into it.
If you have the time for it, awesome, but you really need to have fucking time.

Cellsplitter · Jul 4, 2019

I agree with OP. If you like Final Fantasy you owe it to yourself to at least download the trial.
The music alone is worth the sub.

Mendrox · Jul 4, 2019

VexationStation said:
Trying to get through the 2.x content caused me to just flat out quit earlier in the year.

PRAY, RETURN TO THE SANDS. Go talk to some dude who is also far away and here is a time wasting task because this is filler content. Repeat that at least 5x. Then wait in line for a fight no one does anymore.

Yeah I have the same problem! Let us skip that stupid content and just unlock the fights. Give us recaps for the stuff inbetween. Done.

Melkezadek · Jul 4, 2019

ZeroX said:
This map is so confusing

It's been an hour and I haven't gotten anywhere

It's definitely confusing. A lot of the time I'm running around, trying to find the NPC to turn in the quest, even though I'm right on top of them according to the map. The topography isn't really obvious.

Make sure you're atuning to every crystal you see. Using the PS4 touchpad, you can select your quest and display where it is on your map. From them, I choose the nearest attuned crystal and warp there. As you complete quests and amass gil, the price for teleporting around becomes negligible.

FairFight said:
Yeah I can log into mogatation without issue. There's no record of my PSN purchase. My PSN account is linked to my square enix account. I've tried password reset on the 2 email address I have on the chance that my initial account was tied to a different address. I'm just hoping square customer support can do something because as now I just wasted 20 bucks on a game I can't play. Thanks for taking the time to reply. Hope to join the community soon.

My friend is going through this exact issue. After several emails of miscommunication, he ended up calling them. It took 2 hours of being on the phone, but eventually it was resolved. Their account linking/sitting has always been a confusing mess. I have 2000 crysta on an account I've never had service on and I can't get it switch over to my real one. Had the same issue when I played FFXI.

It's all very convoluted and was a big reason why I didn't bother continuing my sub originally. With the release of Shadowbringers, their customer service is swamped. For the quickest to any resolution, I definitely recommend calling them.

Kwigo · Jul 4, 2019

Melkezadek said:
It's definitely confusing. A lot of the time I'm running around, trying to find the NPC to turn in the quest, even though I'm right on top of them according to the map. The topography isn't really obvious.

Make sure you're atuning to every crystal you see. Using the PS4 touchpad, you can select your quest and display where it is n your map. From them, I choose the nearest attuned crystal and warp there. As you complete quests and amass gil, the price for teleporting around becomes negligible.

In the patch notes they mentioned they added an icon to the quest icon to show if the thing you're looking for is above or under you, this should already help a lot in some places. But yeah, you gotta get used to the map (which is still way better than the one in 1.0 according to what I've been told!)

ezodagrom · Jul 4, 2019

lunatique said:
The "I don't have time for MMO"excuse has always been silly to me.

It's not like you need to min-max at endgame to enjoy the story. It's like your regular open world games length.

The "I don't have time for a MMO" excuse is a perfectly valid one when said MMO has a monthly fee.
The monthly fee adds a sense of obligation to play, it feels like the money is going to waste when not playing.

Apathy · Jul 4, 2019

In 2019, it's really hard to convince people to pay a sub for an MMO, specially when the game itself isn't free or that you got so many expansions. I would love to play but I don't see myself doing it knowing the cost

Tunichtgut · Jul 4, 2019

If i could just start with Shadowbringers, i would like to try it, but no, i can't go through ARR again, did it once, hit max Level and never touched it again, cause the Story was so boring. (Also lost my account).

Is there a way, like in Wow, when you buy the new Expansion, to start with appropriate Level?

ParmeSean · Jul 4, 2019

Tunichtgut said:
If i could just start with Shadowbringers, i would like to try it, but no, i can't go through ARR again, did it once, hit max Level and never touched it again, cause the Story was so boring. (Also lost my account).

Is there a way, like in Wow, when you buy the new Expansion, to start with appropriate Level?

There are jump potions but i would recommend to do Heavensward because its great

Kain · Jul 4, 2019

Mmmm It does sound difficult and pricey op

gaogaogao · Jul 4, 2019

I cant believe its cheaper to ship a disc from france than to buy this game in america
happy 4th yall

Tunichtgut · Jul 4, 2019

ParmeSean said:
There are jump potions but i would recommend to do Heavensward because its great

Thanks, but nah, neither Heavensward or Stormblood do appeal to me, don't care about the themes/world at all. Shadowbringers is the first one i'm interested in.

Gamer @ Heart · Jul 4, 2019

Apathy said:
In 2019, it's really hard to convince people to pay a sub for an MMO, specially when the game itself isn't free or that you got so many expansions. I would love to play but I don't see myself doing it knowing the cost

People keep saying this, but as I pointed out earlier, I just don't see it.

If you buy the complete edition with the base and all expansions off sale, it's 60 dollars. Add 2 months of play time along with the free month, more than PLENTY of time to get through it all unless you ignore it, the total comes to about $85 dollars. The cost of a special edition of a regular game or a game and season pass. $85 dollars for 4 huge RPG storylines and 6 years worth of content and updates

How is that prohibitive? People create a narrative in their head and don't actually break down what your getting. As if to pay for a sub MMO means committing to it for a years.

Tunichtgut · Jul 4, 2019

Umm, so, do i understand this correct? If i just wanted to play Shadowbringers:

- Shadowbringers 40 €
- Story boost 25 €
- Level boost 25 €

i would need like 90 Euros? Why didnt they just do it like in Wow, where with new Expansion you get a level boost?

Lump · Jul 4, 2019

I have a base Realm Reborn game from a while ago, but haven't subscribed in a while

I looked at the Machinist (and its new revamp) and it looks like my style. If I just get Shadowbringers, a $25 Level 70 boost for Machinist for a brand new character, a $25 up-to-Stormblood story complete thing, and a subscription, am I ready to go into Shadowbringers content to play with people I know from work? Or is there a bunch of pre-req stuff I would have to do first?

EDIT: I forgot to include the $25 story boost thing.

Apathy · Jul 4, 2019

Gamer @ Heart said:
People keep saying this, but as I pointed out earlier, I just don't see it.

If you buy the complete edition with the base and all expansions off sale, it's 60 dollars. Add 2 months of play time along with the free month, more than PLENTY of time to get through it all unless you ignore it, the total comes to about $85 dollars. The cost of a special edition of a regular game or a game and season pass. $85 dollars for 4 huge RPG storylines and 6 years worth of content and updates

How is that prohibitive? People create a narrative in their head and don't actually break down what your getting. As if to pay for a sub MMO means committing to it for a years.

You do have to commit a lot to playing an MMO. Dude, I played wow for ten years because I actually had the time to play. Paying a sub makes you feel like you need to log in and keep playing, and put aside other games. Working + gf + friends leaves little time, unlike when I was in hs/college to play an MMO. So yes, a sub very much makes people feel like they are wasting money if they don't long in

Dalik · Jul 4, 2019

Tunichtgut said:
Umm, so, do i understand this correct? If i just wanted to play Shadowbringers:

- Shadowbringers 40 €
- Story boost 25 €
- Level boost 25 €

i would need like 90 Euros? Why didnt they just do it like in Wow, where with new Expansion you get a level boost?

Shadowbringers is 35€, wow is 50€.
Level boost is 50€ past the first one.
Xiv is also intended to be played as whole, the story isn't disconnected like wow expansions.

Lunatic · Jul 4, 2019

I'd happily continue to pay the sub to keep one of the very few bastions against P2W/lootbox predatory tactics in the MMO genre going.

StereoVSN · Jul 4, 2019

Yeah, I don't think I am going to spring for it. $40 for Shadowbringers (I think right now $32 through greenmangaming). Plus $50 for level and story boost plus say another $30 for couple months subscription. I can get 6-12 games (between $10 and $20 per) for that much right now on Steam sale, and I can guarantee I won't be able to keep focused on just FFXIV.

Although it is tempting.

Chasing · Jul 5, 2019

Lump said:
I have a base Realm Reborn game from a while ago, but haven't subscribed in a while

I looked at the Machinist (and its new revamp) and it looks like my style. If I just get Shadowbringers, a $25 Level 70 boost for Machinist for a brand new character, a $25 up-to-Stormblood story complete thing, and a subscription, am I ready to go into Shadowbringers content to play with people I know from work? Or is there a bunch of pre-req stuff I would have to do first?

EDIT: I forgot to include the $25 story boost thing.

Yeah if you really want to get into the current content immediately.

Mockerre · Jul 5, 2019

Always wanted to play it, for the story/music/feel, because I'm a huge FF fan. Got the trial, but the cluttered HUD is a no-go for me :/

Lightning Lord · Jul 5, 2019

Mockerre said:
Always wanted to play it, for the story/music/feel, because I'm a huge FF fan. Got the trial, but the cluttered HUD is a no-go for me :/

The HUD is fully customizable.

Boddy · Jul 5, 2019

StereoVSN said:
Yeah, I don't think I am going to spring for it. $40 for Shadowbringers (I think right now $32 through greenmangaming). Plus $50 for level and story boost plus say another $30 for couple months subscription. I can get 6-12 games (between $10 and $20 per) for that much right now on Steam sale, and I can guarantee I won't be able to keep focused on just FFXIV.

Although it is tempting.

If you boost you can easily do it in the first month and you don't have to focus on just ff14 afterwards.
You could just take a break until the next story patches are out.

Terraforce · Jul 5, 2019

>Not difficult
>Requires grinding to level 50
>Gets better after 30 hours

Not sure what your definition of "difficult" is, but it doesn't match with most people.

Mockerre · Jul 5, 2019

Lightning Lord said:
The HUD is fully customizable.

Not in a user-friendly way, I'm afraid. Spent 10 minutes in the menus trying to set something up and then quit ;) I'm on PS4 btw.

Kwigo · Jul 5, 2019

Mockerre said:
Not in a user-friendly way, I'm afraid. Spent 10 minutes in the menus trying to set something up and then quit ;) I'm on PS4 btw.

Dunno about PS4, but on PC it's one of the best MMO HUDs simply because of how easy it is to create whatever you want with it.

KeRaSh · Jul 5, 2019

Terraforce said:
>Not difficult
>Requires grinding to level 50
>Gets better after 30 hours

Not sure what your definition of "difficult" is, but it doesn't match with most people.

Things can be incredibly easy but take a lot of time.

astro · Jul 5, 2019

KeRaSh said:
Do you not understand the difference between difficulty and time investment? Things can be incredibly easy but take a lot of time.
Not sure what your definition of "difficult" ist but if it's shared be most people then most people have the wrong definition.

Difficutly doesn't have to mean the content is hard, it can mean "the time investment makes it difficult for me to even consider playing".

KeRaSh · Jul 5, 2019

astro said:
Difficutly doesn't have to mean the content is hard, it can mean "the time investment makes it difficult for me to even consider playing".

You don't have to beat it in a day. Play it in a way that fits your schedule. It doesn't have to be hard unless you make it hard for yourself.

astro · Jul 5, 2019

KeRaSh said:
You don't have to beat it in a day. Play it in a way that fits your schedule. It doesn't have to be hard unless you make it hard for yourself.

That's just dismissive of reality.

The time sink to get through all the story content is huge. It's obvious why many would find that difficult.

KeRaSh · Jul 5, 2019

astro said:
That's just dismissive of reality.

The time sink to get through all the story content is huge. It's obvious why many would find that difficult.

Well, kinda. There are real money purchases that can be made to skip the previous content. If time and money are both problems then there's nothing anyone can do.
I know these things can vary from person to person. Which situation do you use as a baseline to grade the difficulty of entry then?
I admit my initial comment was way more snarky than it needed to be. I'll edit it as such.

Ferrs · Jul 5, 2019

Lunatic said:
I'd happily continue to pay the sub to keep one of the very few bastions against P2W/lootbox predatory tactics in the MMO genre going.

I dont think FF model is that much better tbh, especially when they still have a DLC shop even after buying the base game, each expansion and paying a monthly fee.

Abominuz · Jul 5, 2019

I am interested to come back again, but how are the low levels is it a wasteland? I left after the first expansion.

Kwigo · Jul 5, 2019

Abominuz said:
I am interested to come back again, but how are the low levels is it a wasteland? I left after the first expansion.

There are A LOT of people in the low level places and queue times for dungeons are great. YMMW though since I'm playing a healer.
99% of the time I'm waiting less than 5 minutes when I need to do a specific dungeon, most times it's almost instant.
I think I waited once for maybe 25 minutes, but I think there were server issues at that moment.

Qvoth · Jul 5, 2019

Healer queues will be the shortest for a while though, we have a new tank and dps job after all

Abominuz · Jul 5, 2019

Kwigo said:
There are A LOT of people in the low level places and queue times for dungeons are great. YMMW though since I'm playing a healer.
99% of the time I'm waiting less than 5 minutes when I need to do a specific dungeon, most times it's almost instant.
I think I waited once for maybe 25 minutes, but I think there were server issues at that moment.

Great to hear! And another question do you play on PC. Because i play on the PS4 pro and always wanted to try healer. But i am afraid it will suck because of the control scheme. Is it doable?

Kwigo · Jul 5, 2019

Abominuz said:
Great to hear! And another question do you play on PC. Because i play on the PS4 pro and always wanted to try healer. But i am afraid it will suck because of the control scheme. Is it doable?

I play on PC. WHM should be doable on PS4 rather easily though, I'm mostly using 7 skills and the other ones are situational. Keep in mind that I'm currently only level 60 though.

Basically, you need to cast Regen, Medica II, Cure, Cura, the new instant heal that uses a lily, Aero and Stone the most. Then you need Esuna, Assize, Holy, the AoE Heal, Raise and that's mostly it. I'm heavily using macros tho, for instance I have the same hotkey for Tetragrammaton and the Lily-consuming heal, since I mostly use them for quick "holy shit he's about to die" heals, and if I don't have any lilies, than it uses tetragrammaton which has a 1min cooldown. And for Raise I have a macro that casts swiftcast first so that the raise is instant. Also I constantly target the main tank and use macros to target the target of my target for DPS skills (basically: cast aero and stone on the mob my target is targetting).

I might be forgetting some stuff and there's certainly some stuff I'll be getting in the next 20 levels, but on the top of my head that's it. The most difficult thing on console might be to switch targets, I don't know how that works.

Edward · Jul 5, 2019

It was never the difficulty or price that keeps me from playing it more than a week when a new expansion it's that nobody i know plays it and it sucks playing a MMO by yourself.

Wispmetas · Jul 5, 2019

It really is the best MMO I ever began playing. Got free starter edition a while back thanks to Twitch Prime.

Really wanted to pay the subscription now to get back to it, but I'll be going out on holiday in two weeks, so I decided to wait a bit.

Also, levels 1 to 35 are not really that bad, the gameplay is quite fun in my opinion, much more fun than WoW for me.

EDIT: One thing that annoyed me a bit was changing jobs, I was expecting to keep my level and just have to do that jobs missions to get the abilities, but I really have to level up the job from the beggining...

PSA: It's not so difficult and pricey to get into FFXIV !

Unshakable Resolve - One Winged Slayer

One Winged Slayer

Story Director

User Requested Ban

One Winged Slayer

Story Director

I left my heart on Atropos

I left my heart on Atropos

I left my heart on Atropos

▲ Legend ▲