Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn

After playing Forsaken World since closed beta, I thought it was time to switch games. I like Forsaken World because the gear and other things where gorgeous. However, like most Perfect World Entertainment games, it was a bit lacking in more way than one. Getting to be a top player was pretty much impossible unless you spent thousands of dollars on Zen in order to buy gear items in the cash shop. I digress, so let me continue.

A friend of mine alerted me to the fact that a MMORPG for the Final Fantasy series was going to be released soon. I only ever watched someone play one of the very first Final Fantasy games, so I wasn't too enthusiastic about the game as he was. Not to mention you had to buy the game and pay a monthly fee. I immediately had a flashback to my World of Warcraft days. I am still cringing on the many times I was ganked by OP players while I quested.

The thing is, I am broke. I work at a gas station, so it isn't like I get paid a lot of money. In fact, I only work four days a week and only get paid $7.75 an hour. My weekly paychecks aren't even $200.00. Not to mention I am still paying off my student loans, which takes up most of my monthly earnings. I might as well just wipe my ass with my Bachelors Degree, which is all it is good for at the moment. No one is hiring in my area and with my anxiety/depression/bipolarism I can't find the courage to move to somewhere where businesses are hiring.

My point is, I really can't afford to play this game. However, my friend talked me into it so I purchased the game and have been playing on the free month it comes with. When that free month is over, however, I will probably stop playing. Here are some pros and cons about the game so far. In my own opinion of course.

Pros

• Graphics. Amazing graphics. This is the most important thing for me in a game. Probably because of my choice in profession....
• Class interchangeability. Many people like creating multiple characters in order to play the different classes. Not I, however. I don't like having to switch characters. I don't like having to earn money and store items on different characters. I like to have one character, one bank, and one place for all my in game currency. With FFXIV, you can become every class in game on one character. All you have to do is visit your wanted class's guild and take the quest. After that, it is as simple as equipping the weapon. You can even change gear sets on the fly.
• Multiple class skills. Once you have learned to be a certain class, you can use some of that classes skill on a different class. For example. I learned to be an archer. Archer's cannot heal. However, I also learned to be a conjurer. Conjurers can heal! Therefore, I can use the conjurer heal skill on my archer! This doesn't work with all skills, however.
• Environment interactivity. Yup. You can sit in chairs and on benches. When you run by an NPC, they turn there head and watch you run by. Even the chocobos will track you with their head. FFXIV also comes equipped with automatic doors. Simply run up to a door and it opens for you. When you walk on wood, it sounds like wood. When you walk on carpet, it sounds like carpet. When you walk on metal, it sounds like metal. There is room for improvement though. Take Guild Wars 2 for example. When you run through grass, it moves with your character. Your footing follows the landscape in GW2. Like if you step up on a rock, only one foot will step up onto it until you move the rest of the way onto it.
• You can play on a PC or a PS3. It doesn't matter if your on a PC or PS3, as all character can play the game together. This mean you might be in a dungeon with someone who is on a PC and someone who is on a PS3.

Cons

• Gear aesthetics. Ugh. The gear in this game is so ugly. It is drab and boring. Even the higher level gear seems to be lacking. FFXIV needs to take a few gear design pointers from PWE. Forsaken World and perhaps even Battle of Immortals to be precise.
• Marketplace. FFXIV make it difficult to sell things over the "auction house". You can buy things off the marketplace right off the bat, but to sell you have to hire a retainer. You can only hire a retainer after level 15 and after you have completed three dungeons and a series of main quests. After that you can only summon your retainer at a summoning bell.
• You have to pay a monthly fee, as well as buy the game.
• Teleportation fees. Oh. My. Gawd. I have never played a game with such expensive teleporting fees. Even with the Free Company discount, I was still broke. You will squander thousands of gil by teleporting only a few times. Be prepared to run. Be prepared to run a lot. Be prepared to run everywhere. Just keep running, just keep running, running, running....
• Did I mention the monthly fee? It is $12.99 for one character per server. If you want to have more than one character per server, be prepared to pay a larger sum of money per month.
• Traveling via the chocobo porters is annoying. With as many different chocobo keeps as you have to transfer to to get to your destination, you might have well just teleported. Its like your flying somewhere, but you have to have 10 layovers from Oklahoma to Texas. There is no straight through flight.
• Gold spammers. Expect your chat to be filled with nothing but gold spammers. NOTHING. BUT. GOLD. SPAMMERS.

I have noticed that when you have to "use" and item, your character proceeds with what appears to be a wedgie picking animation. Then whatever you managed to pick out of your butt gets tossed into the air nonchalantly where it proceeds to explode into rainbow colored pixie dust.