We’ve been trying to find something new to play together, since we’ve kind of had enough of the games we have been playing. League changed enough that we need time away from it, and Diablo…well, actually, we just stopped playing it for a bit after I couldn’t get the hang of the necromancer.
Last weekend, Shane came to me with a choice: World of Warcraft, or Final Fantasy XIV. He thought an MMORPG would be a great thing for us to try—much more relaxing than League, and similar to Diablo but with a social aspect.
It didn’t take me long to pick Final Fantasy. Because chocobos and moogles.
Trial and error
I had never played an MMORPG before, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I signed up for the trial version, because:
- I wanted to make sure I was going to like it
- It lets you play until you reach Level 35 in every class anyway
I had started a character on Shane’s PS4, but I hadn’t gotten too into it. I decided to recreate my PC character based on the first iteration.
I picked Miqo’te because cat person, and I picked archer because I’m a Sagittarius and I like to be predictable like that. I also chose Diana as her name, partly because it’s the Roman equivalent of Artemis the archery goddess, and partly because Wonder Woman.
After roughly half an hour of customizing, I was off to the chocobo races.
Keep it classy
This is really the first Final Fantasy game I’ve played aside from World of Final Fantasy, so naturally, I had no idea what I was doing. Where was the turn-based combat? The abilities? The stacks?
It took a little while to get the hang of my character’s class, and the fact that she was all on her own, but then, I really started to like her.
The biggest struggle I had at first was figuring out what my range was, but once I got that (and the concept of buff first, shoot second), it was much easier! Go figure.
Then, just to make it a little more interesting, I found out I could multiclass.
Adding to the mix
One of the things I really like so far about Realm Reborn is that it lets you multiclass.
I didn’t discover this until after I had decided it was my most brilliant idea ever to create a bunch of new characters for each class so I could save up for a house. Obviously, having one character that can play multiple classes is a much better way to do it.
My first thought was that it would be funny to become an alchemist and then a goldsmith, but then I learned about Carbuncles and how they follow you around and attack things for you.
Now I think I may have gone a little overboard.
I haven’t finished the main story, or even gotten my chocobo yet, but I have eight different classes on the go: archer, conjurer, botanist, rogue, goldsmith, alchemist, thaumaturge, and arcanist.
It’s a lot of tedious work, but when each town has more or less the same low-level quests, leveling up gets a little easier.
PC or PS4?
Generally speaking, I don’t like comparing gaming platforms because they all have something unique to offer. In this case, though, it’s the something unique that makes the difference.
As I mentioned earlier, I had originally started playing Realm Reborn on Shane’s account on his PS4. However, I had found it difficult to get involved in the game because the controls were a bit confusing and I struggled to target things.
That really isn’t helpful when they have no problem targeting you back.
Using a mouse ended up making a world of difference because I could just move directly to the thing I needed to target. As much as I love the PS4 (and being able to sit on the couch to play), the PC is my platform of choice for this game.
YOUR TURN
