Final Fantasy XIV is technically 11 years old. Launching in 2010 on PC with plans for a PS3 release months afterward, FFXIV was not met with much critical acclaim. In fact, it was met with disdain. The game was so broken on so many fundamental levels that Square-Enix made the tough decision to literally nuke the game world and reboot it three years later.
In 2013, I got my first taste of FFXIV on the PS3 when I lucked out and got a beta invite. Still somewhat fresh from FFXI, the quality of life changes were numerous. The game played faster, the combat was more involving, I didn't need to stock arrows as an archer. I was instantly hooked. At the end of September of that year when the game officially relaunched, I was there day one and blew through the main story. Left with nothing to do, I began leveling jobs and doing post-content dungeon runs to improve my gear. Knowing how addicted I was to FFXI, I was afraid I was getting addicted to FFXIV all over again, so I made the decision to delete my character and cancel my subscription about two months later. That... was a mistake.
It turns out, I couldn't shake the pull of FFXIV, and I ended up starting up all over again a year or two later when the first expansion Heavensward (3.0) was released in 2015. Because I had to redo everything I did in A Realm Reborn (2.0), I sacrificed pretty much all my free time to get back up to what I was doing. With the main storyline finished, I went back to leveling the other jobs and once again got burned out. I quit yet again, but this time did not make the same mistake of deleting my character. I merely canceled my sub and moved on.
In 2017, SE released FFXIV's second expansion with Stormblood (4.0) and this one was epic. More new jobs, more new dungeons, an Asian-inspired world and storyline, I was once again hooked. This time, I had no more catching up to do, so I didn't feel the same amount of pressure to keep playing. After finishing the main story, I tried to level up my other jobs to get them to the level 70 cap, but I lost interest a few levels before I got there. Even though I played it a good amount of it, I felt it easier to break free.
With the third expansion Shadowbringer (5.0) release in 2019, for the fifth time I started up my subscription again. I found myself enjoying this story more than any previous expansion, but I did have several issues with all the reworks they did to the jobs and combat. Once I got acclimated, I found the game even easier to play and tore right through the storyline. I tried once more to get my other jobs up, but once the first patch 5.1 released, something changed. I couldn't even finish getting through the first new cutscene. I just up and quit and started enjoying other games again.
Now in 2021, a new expansion Endwalker (6.0) is scheduled to release this fall. On top of that, a PS5 beta is scheduled for April and my friend even said he'll play it with me, so I got compelled to start up the sub again and work on getting caught up. It took longer than I thought to get caught up on the story, and now I'm currently working through my jobs to get them into the Shadowbringer content.
My current feelings on the game are that I want to keep playing, but I'm constantly feeling the pull by other games as well. I started Bravely Default II a week or two ago, and it doesn't help that I simply can't get into that game much, but that's another blog entry. Unlike my first year or two, I don't let the game consume me that much where I don't do anything other than play FFXIV. I still take breaks to read and I still take my nightly walks. I still have PS5 games I want to play, and there are other big games that are coming out soon that I'll want to get into, but so far, my desire to get the other jobs up to 80 seems to be pretty strong. If only Bravely Default II was better...
We'll see what happens, though. I'm waiting for the right game to come across that will finally make me quit FFXIV for a while, but it's also going to be harder as I kinda want to keep playing to justify the six month sub I just paid for. I'm really enjoying getting reacquainted with all the jobs again, and I can't wait to take them through the new dungeons. I've also really enjoyed experiencing their own storylines, and when I look at it that way, it's not really just a "I got to grind everything!"
Even though I'm trying not to play as much, it is a game that's technically incomplete on my backlog. I'm hoping that Endwalker might be the final expansion based on the name and how the current Shadowbringer story has ended, but I heard them say they might run it another five years, which would mean at least two more expansions. FFXIV has been the most costly game I've ever played. The base game, three expansions, at least four years of sub services... I'm trying to determine if it's really all worth it, but the way I'm looking at it is I've invested so much time in the game that it would almost be a waste to not see the game through to the very end. If Endwalker isn't the end, maybe I might have to reevaluate. Can FFXIV really last another 10 years? Will it finally make the move into free to play? If that's the case, it would make playing it another 10 years a much easier decision. Even so, the trend seems to be six months on, a year and a half off. That seems like a reasonable place to me.
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