FINAL FANTASY XIV
Steven Messner: Final Fantasy XIV is the most consistently excellent MMO I’ve ever played. I started back in 2013, with the relaunch, and have consistently played for seven years. What keeps me coming back isn’t just the memorable boss fights and beautiful locations, though. It’s that Final Fantasy XIV tells an emotionally gripping story that just keeps raising the stakes. Case in point: Its latest expansion, Shadowbringers, takes players on an interdimensional journey to a parallel universe while somehow also keeping a tight focus on the characters that I’ve come to love over these past seven years.
What makes this the best ongoing game in 2020 is down to how scientific Square Enix is with updates. While other MMOs have big ups and downs, FFXIV’s expansions and updates are always on an upward trajectory, adding more new dungeons, satisfying endgame activities like raids, and a hearty helping of episodic story quests. Even though the pandemic delayed it, the 5.3 patch was worth the wait. It offered a surprisingly emotional climax to the main Shadowbringers story as the narrative shifted to begin laying the foundations for next year’s expansion. I love this game, and I love how Square Enix has created such a wholesome and positive relationship with its fans.
James Davenport: Final Fantasy XIV represents one of the strangest eras of my life. I don’t care for mainline Final Fantasy games, I don’t usually play MMOs, and yet I played the pre-condensed A
Realm Reborn all the way through to the end of Shadowbringers in two months. It was compulsive play at first, something to do in a depressive bout, but it gripped me.
Final Fantasy XIV’s story is as heart wrenching, subversive, and surreal as videogame storytelling gets, and the best expansion by a mile is part of the free package now. Heavensward is a bleak real-world analogy where two warring nations interrogate their shared history to find out where their hatred for one another first took root. Characters are driven by dogma without foundation, epic journeys end in empty denouements, and characters are plagued by sheer exhaustion and sorrow more often than convoluted twists and betrayals. And once it’s done, there are two excellent expansions that follow. I play FinalFantasyXIV strictly for the story and the game supports it.
FINAL FANTASY XIV TELLS AN EMOTIONALLY GRIPPING STORY