Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn review and MMORPG history: Game/Life Balance U.S. Podcast Ep. 024
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Cody bit the bullet and started playing Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, his first massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). He and Jon welcome special guest and FFXIV fanatic Brad to talk about the game, MMOs, and more.

Show Notes:

• Jon tries to trick Brad, this episode’s special guest, into thinking they’re actually going to talk about pro wrestling for an hour

• Cody and Jon welcome special guest Brad to the program, since he’s been playing Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn since its inception and thus knows a ridiculous amount about the game and its extremely unique history

• Full Gamer

• Jon explains a bit about the massively multiplayer online RPG (MMORPG) genre and typical play styles of its players

• Brad explains the history of Final Fantasy XIV and why its initial release was unsuccessful, including graphical limitations and experience point caps

• Learn why Square Enix decided to try to re-launch the game and how they listened to fan feedback rather than simply shut it down

• Hear about the final days of the “original” release of Final Fantasy XIV, and how a cataclysmic event was coordinated with their server shutdown timeline to create an awesome in-game epic battle that served as an “ending” to the game before it was re-launched

• Jon discusses his MMORPG history, including Everquest and World of Warcraft, and how it impacts his view of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, especially considering the social aspect of the games

• Brad and Jon agree that Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn is a World of Warcraft “clone” in a way, based on its carrot-on-a-stick adventure/reward system

• The biggest differentiation between FFXIV and other MMORPGs from a gameplay perspective is that you can “do everything” and master multiple classes, which is not possible in many other MMOs

• Why did neither Cody nor Brad enjoy World of Warcraft when they played a free trial, but they were hooked when they played a similar (to a newcomer) Final Fantasy MMO?

• The story in World of Warcraft “is there if you want to engage with it as the player,” but it’s not integral, according to Jon, as opposed to the highly integrated and elaborate story in Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn

• Brad and Cody discuss some of the amazing puns in the game and the clear care taken to make story elements entertaining and memorable, including Metal Gear Solid references of all things

• Everyone gushes about how awesome the soundtrack is, and why you should probably listen to it on YouTube

• To add some balance to the conversation, Jon mentions a few features in the game that he didn’t know about until very late in the game, such as unclear quest indicators and other minor “unexplained” systems that make it more difficult to play certain classes due to the fact that it’s a more complicated game than WoW and other MMOs

• Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn is coming to Xbox One! Cody explains why it took so long, and when it will become available

• Brad tells a hilarious story about a raid partner named Arnold Schwarzenegger whom most of the players on his server blocked at some point

• Jon briefly discusses Free Companies (FFXIV) versus Guilds (WoW) and Level Sync in FFXIV, and Brad talks about how Level Sync works in later raids and dungeons

• Brad talks about the most hardcore raid parties and how they literally schedule their lives around playing FFXIV raids

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