I remember when the fantasy faded

When this game first came out it was essentially half a game sold at the full starting price. And following fans reaction of XIII this addition to the franchise didn't help matters very much and even had some people speculating the days people would buy Final Fantasy because it was Final Fantasy was drawing to a close. It was a different time, it was a darker time.

Then I saw all this 'A Realm Reborn' stuff being talked about and it seems like a bunch of people here play it. So I ask, did they fix it? Is A Realm Reborn XIV's savior? Has more people given it a chance or did most write it off like they did with XIII? What did you think went so horribly wrong the first time? 'Cause it sounds like they got lazy before.

If it is, I might actually consider playing it.
But for now I stand by the assumption that it's just a waste of monthly income.

Metacritic scores...

Final Fantasy XIV - 49/100
Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn - 79/100 (PS3), 83/100 (PC)

It's safe to say that yes, they turned it around. XIV started with a lot of EoFFers trying it out and an extreme few sticking around. XIV: A Realm Reborn started with a lot of EoFFers trying it out and even more joining since after discovering it was getting good reviews.

It's hard to pinpoint exactly what went wrong at the start of the first game, and some people might simply say "Everything". I would point to the extremely many bugs, the extremely slow UI, the awful market system (although I'm not sure the new one is perfect, it's definitely better) and a copy/paste landscape where you feel like you're walking through a very large hall of mirrors sometimes. The old game did have it's good sides, though, and I'd argue some things were better in the original (such as the crafting / gear system and arguably the battle system, if not the pace).

The old game at it's final patch (1.23) was actually really good, though. The change of producer/director helped FFXIV untold amounts, and once Yoshi-P's work started being progressed through to patches, it really started to shine.

That's a big leap, cool.

Sadly unless it has a free trial or goes Free 2 Play, I won't be playing because I'm broke and can't afford the monthly subscription.

It may not be worth your time, then, as I don't see it going F2P at all. FFXI is still subscription based even after all these years, and I believe there aren't many users at all, either. Perhaps when you have more disposable income!

Yoshi-P has stated that he rather stop the game than go free-to-play, a.k.a. pay-to-win. Though if you buy the game it comes with your first month free! There were some crazy ass sales going on too around the internet following Black Friday. PSN had it for 10$ at one point.

I played FFXI for 4-5 years before I stopped due to time issues, and I still look back on those times with absoloute fondness. FFXIV 1.0 was a big let down, especially after we loving played through the Beta and gave feed back on the bugs etc. Now, after a break and coming back to ARR in its Beta phase again I am in awe of the game and how much I adore it. Sure, it has its quirks and issues, but for me most games have these. What this game does have is FUN, a story that is interesting and FF relevant, and a whole lot of future.
The UK subscription is like £7.50 a month if you only want one character on a world. Since you can do everything on one char there's no need to have alts... unless you RP I guess. Personally for the amount of hours i spend on it it's the best value for money entertainment I could hope for :D
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