#Final fantasy xiv review trial

Despite this apparent difficulty, the story of Endwalker is something that I do not believe will be experienced in video games again. The character ultimately flounders within the overarching plot to the disappointment of many fans. This is made very clear by one particular fan-favourite character brought back, set to have a central role in this expansion from the trailers and preceding quests lines Ishikawa seems to struggle with understanding their storyline. The earlier expansions ( A Realm Reborn, Heavensward and Stormblood) seem to be missing for much of the plot compared to characters featured within Shadowbringers.

Many characters featured heavily in the original game. But Ishikawa does seem to struggle with returning characters from beyond her previous writing scope.

Throughout the extended playtime of Endwalker, players are given plenty of time to get to know characters new and old while discovering many truths about the forces of light and darkness, Hydaelyn and Zodiark. Continuing her work from Shadowbringers, Ishikawa continues to bring further depth to all of her returning characters, especially the ongoing villains, the Ascians, who continue to change into characters the player can connect with rather than the classic one-dimensional hooded villains. Ishikawa does a fantastic job bringing the Final Fantasy XIV story to a resounding crescendo. Still, since writer Natsuo Ishikawa took over with the acclaimed Shadowbringers expansion, there was hope that this would not be similar.Įndwalker quickly brings players back into the story with the Final Days set to be ahead with the player's Warrior of Light and the Scions of the Seventh Dawn, Eorzea's last hope. We know that endings to great ongoing stories can be difficult with recent history. But can the team led by Naoki Yoshida move this recent popularity even further with the release of Endwalker after several delays and content cancellations?Įndwalker is the accumulation of the ongoing story that began in 2013 with the relaunch of the game, and it sets out to wrap many of the loose threads created throughout its time and create a world for new stories for the next ten years of content.

#Final fantasy xiv review trial

Who could have expected that a game that had to be relaunched would be at a point four expansions later where Square Enix couldn't sell the game anymore due to player congestion from the overwhelming community response to its most recent expansion, Endwalker.Ģ021 has been an amazing year of growth for Final Fantasy XIV with a swell of support from the franchise leading to many players picking up the game for the first time (including myself) thanks to the games free trial period (which I am sure you have heard about). But the Square Enix team decided to bring the realm back to life with the appropriately named Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn in 2013. Final Fantasy XIV was originally released in 2010 to minimal fanfare a troubled launch and an inconsistent gaming experience would generally lead many MMOs to an early grave along with many that had come before and many that were yet to come. It is not often that video games get a second chance.