Yesterday myself along with seven other Warriors of Light marched into Castrum Meridianum, disabled their security system, marched into the Pratorium and destroyed the Garlean’s Ultima Weapon. This was the climax of the major storyline of Final Fantasy XIV and once completed brings you into the endgame content of this MMORPG.
If you read the previous article I wrote about the MMO Trap, you know that my thoughts on MMORPGs are that they ultimately run stale if you do not have a consistent group of people to play with. FFXIV is the first MMORPG I have played in which I can say I have completed the main storyline and reached end game content. I wanted to write about the reasons I believe this is.
First and foremost the storyline is actually compelling! The characters and plot line in FFXIV is thorough and they have managed to create characters that you actually care about in the story. I won’t reveal any major plot points but their are parts betrayal and people need to be rescued and overall this provides great motivation to keep pushing on. I believe voice acting in particular adds to this sense of urgency, as well as the full-motion-video (FMV) sequences.
Another reason is that level grinding, when necessary didn’t feel like a complete chore. Their are some instances in which you have to level grind in order to proceed in the story. This tends to be where often I would loose interest in the game. In FFXIV it is quite easy and painless to level up if you know how to. FATE Grinding and running the correct instances offer bonuses to experience points and make leveling up quite easy. Also, the only real point I felt like I had to “grind” for experience was between levels 46-49 in which I had to grind through cause their was a large gap in levels for the story quests. I felt that this was odd, but since I was so close I trudged through. Again this grinding took approximately 3 days of playing to accomplish, so nothing major.
In seeing the previews for the new content being releases for patch 2.2 and in seeing how they transition from completion of the main story into end game content it seems they already knew how to keep players hooked. They are keeping the same compelling content from the main storyline into this new content they are adding. This is outstanding news and actually providing me a reason to play regardless of whether or not I have a consistent group to play with. I would love to have that group, but should it not happen, the great content the folks over at Square Enix are generating should keep me interested for the future.
The only danger in this model is that going and leveling up a new character provides little difference in the game experience. I feel like other games (WoW in particular) have spent more time in creating unique perspectives of a similar plot line. In FFXIV you get a worldly perspective fairly early in the game, and it stays that way throughout the remainder. “Replay” value as it were is diminished in this sense. Luckily, leveling 2nd and third classes is even easier and faster than the first.
What do you think? Any other MMO’s that provide a similar storyline experience? Post in the comments!
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