Episode 19: Final Fantasy XIV Part Two—Life After Level 15

Episode 19: Final Fantasy XIV Part Two—Life After Level 15

Platform: PC, Playstation 3/4

Release Date: August 27, 2013

Difficulty: Moderate

Current Amazon Price: PC download $24.99, PS3 $19.99, PS4 $31.38

Podcast: Download, iTunes, PodOmatic

 

Terra’s Review:

Here be trolls. WWE trolls.

• At last we can travel freely from one city-state to another! This was especially exciting to me because it opened up whole new areas of the world map to mine in. Seriously, I really love mining.
• We also got mounts, starting with a chocobo. Other mounts become available as rewards for being subscribed for a certain amount of time or as rewards for playing a certain class—Conjurers can get a unicorn.
• The storyline after the three introductory dungeons gets a little repetitive in how it’s structured: Go to the good guy’s home base. Get your mission. Be sent all over the place to solve people’s minor problems before getting to resolve your mission and run the dungeon that comes with it. From reading spoilers, it seems like that will change after the upcoming boss fight with Titan. I hope it does.
• We’re in a weird position: We each have level 50 characters and are able to do some of the open world end game stuff, like Hunts, but are still only about halfway through the storyline. So, sorry to anyone who got stuck with two level 50s who had no clue what to do in some of the lower level story dungeons!
• Related: Just being level 50 means nothing. All it means is that someone has managed to gather a lot of experience points. So noobs, remember that if someone gives you crap. And level 50s who do give people crap, try leveling up your social skills.
• Crafting is almost as fun as mining. We both probably spend way more time crafting or gathering than we do progressing the storyline or running dungeons. (Okay, fine, some days I spend 100% of my time mining.) Taking the time to craft and gather adds to the game’s content and is one of the reasons why we’re taking out time getting through the story. Also, crafting and gathering can make you some very nice money!
• Half the fun is the virtual people watching! Who is shouting at who in Limsa today? Who’s decided to run around in their underpants? Who decided to name their character Princess Fluffybutt? At least 24 people on different servers, that’s who.\
• Yeah, we're still totally obsessed with this game. 

Music Credits: 
FFXIV OST 
RPG Roundup Theme Song: "Video Game Theme," J. Arthur Keenes Band. Creative Commons Attribution License.

Episode 12: Final Fantasy XIV Part One—From the Eyes of Noobs

Episode 12: Final Fantasy XIV Part One—From the Eyes of Noobs

Platform: PC/PlayStation 3

Release Date: August 27, 2013

Difficulty: Moderate

Current Amazon Price (PS3): $28.48

Current Amazon Price (PC Download): $14.99

Podcast: Download, iTunes, PodOmatic

Lightning's Review

Lightning’s character is pretty in pink! (If you squint closely, you’ll see that Alyssa is a level 24 conjurer, which means that we’ve, uh, been doing quite a bit of work on this game since recording the episode).

Part II coming up when we finish the main storyline, and hopefully we can also provide a PS4 review then. Until that time:

Things We as Noobs Have Learned About Playing an MMO:

• Everybody Poops. But don’t tell that to your party when you’re in a dungeon! (This was some tank, not us.)
• You can level up for weeks without actually getting anywhere in the storyline. Hey, it happened to us!
• “Black Market Crafting Rings” are not only kind of fun, but they also save tons of money.
• MMO elitism regarding pixelated characters in a fictional world. We thought this was supposed to be…fun? And not a job?
• All Tanks and all Healers are either incompetent or are actually trolls. According to Free Company chat and internet message boards, anyway.
• Lots of people like to run around in their underpants. 

 Terra's character has no pants. But everyone knows that leather speedoes make awesome armor!

 

Lightning’s impression: Having stayed away from MMO’s until now, I am nevertheless impressed with Final Fantasy XIV. The graphics are spectacular, the music is immersive, and the gameplay addicting, whether you’re putting a gil turtle to sleep in a guildhest or chopping down logs in the forest. If you’re interested in MMO’s but haven’t played one, this would be a good one to start with, especially if you’re already familiar with the Final Fantasy series. The game is also good for lone wolves – you have to mandatorily party up in dungeons, but you can find help (be it good or bad) using a Duty Finder. It might have helped that we partied up, but we got into Satasha dungeon and found two other players almost immediately! 

Despite naysayers regarding the PS3, I’d say go with whatever platform you’re comfortable with. I’m more of a console gamer, so I was right at home using a controller. I also have a clip on keypad and a full blown keyboard to plug into my USB port if I’m feeling chatty, but for the most part I’m happy with sprawling on the couch and playing on the big screen. The PC graphics are very pretty, though, and I would recommend the PC if you need better targeting precision or are doing something complicated like running a Free Company.

Music Credits:

RPG Roundup Theme Song: "Video Game Theme," J. Arthur Keenes Band. Creative Commons Attribution License.

FF14 original and A Realm Reborn soundtracks