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FInal Fantasy XIV for Xbox releases March 21, 2024.

LectureMaster

Gold Member
Xbox player, embrace the charisma of cat girls!

ffxiv-yshtola.gif
 

jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
The trial is like 70 hours or so, right?
The trial no longer has a time limit! You can play all classes up to level 70, and do all the story content up through the end of the Stormblood expansion.

The restriction is that you can't form a free party (partying up with others outside the regular dungeon zones), and you can't use the in-game marketplace to buy or sell things.

In comparison, if you take the free "Starter Edition" Game Pass perk, you're now considered a "paid player" and can never go back to your account being a free trial. You'll get 30 days of play time with the starter edition (nowhere near enough time to finish through Stormblood, unless you play maybe 12 hours a day), and after that you'll have to pay the monthly fee to keep playing.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
The trial no longer has a time limit! You can play all classes up to level 70, and do all the story content up through the end of the Stormblood expansion.

The restriction is that you can't form a free party (partying up with others outside the regular dungeon zones), and you can't use the in-game marketplace to buy or sell things.

In comparison, if you take the free "Starter Edition" Game Pass perk, you're now considered a "paid player" and can never go back to your account being a free trial. You'll get 30 days of play time with the starter edition (nowhere near enough time to finish through Stormblood, unless you play maybe 12 hours a day), and after that you'll have to pay the monthly fee to keep playing.

Oh wow that's good to know.

I have no point of reference, but is level 70 good enough to do the main game (sans expansions) ? Or is it a case where you'll hit level 70 after 20 hours of play.
 

Lokaum D+

Member
The trial no longer has a time limit! You can play all classes up to level 70, and do all the story content up through the end of the Stormblood expansion.

The restriction is that you can't form a free party (partying up with others outside the regular dungeon zones), and you can't use the in-game marketplace to buy or sell things.

In comparison, if you take the free "Starter Edition" Game Pass perk, you're now considered a "paid player" and can never go back to your account being a free trial. You'll get 30 days of play time with the starter edition (nowhere near enough time to finish through Stormblood, unless you play maybe 12 hours a day), and after that you'll have to pay the monthly fee to keep playing.
Draugoth Draugoth pls pin this on your post, very important info.
 

jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
Oh wow that's good to know.

I have no point of reference, but is level 70 good enough to do the main game (sans expansions) ? Or is it a case where you'll hit level 70 after 20 hours of play.
The original level cap was 50 (Heavensward expansion raised it to 60, Stormblood raised it to 70). If you are just doing the main quest (and a few side quests here and there) you'll realistically be level 50ish by the time you finish the game's main campaign. In fact, the game's main quest line has level restrictions, and you can't start the campaign's final quest until you reach level 50.

For some amount of reference, it took me about 100 hours to finish everything up through the beginning of Heavensward.
 
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adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
The original level cap was 50 (Heavensward expansion raised it to 60, Stormblood raised it to 70). If you are just doing the main quest (and a few side quests here and there) you'll realistically be level 50ish by the time you finish the game's main campaign. In fact, the game's main quest line has level restrictions, and you can't start the campaign's final quest until you reach level 50.

Awesome.

Surprised as Square's uncharacteristic generosity with this mammoth 'free trial'. I think that will be more than enough for me, but there's always the option to buy the other stuff later.
 

Lokaum D+

Member
Oh wow that's good to know.

I have no point of reference, but is level 70 good enough to do the main game (sans expansions) ? Or is it a case where you'll hit level 70 after 20 hours of play.
main game Realm Reborn quest are up to lvl 50, Heavensward 60 and Stormblood 70 and i dont think you ll hit lvl 70 after 20 hours of play time, its been a while since i played this for the last time, but i think u ll have to put at least 50/60 hours to get to 70 and that if u know how to lvl up fast, the good thing is that every other class ll lvl up a lot faster than your first class, like 2/3x faster.
 
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Is this fully cross platform? If so, as a loner on PS that was late to the party, I would love to team up with some early adopters on Xbox. The thing that turned me away initially is because people were already so deep into the content when I jumped in.
 

jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
Awesome.

Surprised as Square's uncharacteristic generosity with this mammoth 'free trial'. I think that will be more than enough for me, but there's always the option to buy the other stuff later.
The best way to maximize the free trial would be to play until every class is Level 70, and do the main story until you're at the end of the Stormblood expansion. In reality, that'd take you somewhere around 500-600 hours to accomplish. However, it'd be pretty repetitive getting all those crafting and gathering side-jobs to max level (especially without being able to use the market board).

My recommendation is that if you're just interested in the story - play the free trial (NOT Starter Edition) with a single class Lancer for life until you get to the end of the story, where you'll easily be level 70. Don't be afraid to pick a new job class at any time. Pick one or two side jobs you find interesting (Gardener, woodworker, etc) and try it out casually. At this point you'll be 100+ hours into the game, and if you want to continue just buy the latest version that includes the newest expansion pack and pony up the $15/month to keep going from there.
 
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Was just about to post this. The beginning of XIV is very slow and tedious.

You can skip A Realm Reborn for $11;

I understand…but disagree with this. Xbox folks. Play the game as it released and as intended. It will give you feels for how to play and introduce you to a lot of the upcoming content. Might be slow and tedious (for some), but not any less important. Please please please don’t skip anything. Anyone telling you to do that has been playing for too long to remember what it felt like to feel fresh.
 
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i dont recommend skiping RR, imagine starting the game, skipping RR and than queueing for The Dusk Vigil as a Tank or Healer witout knowing the basics of the game, it would be utterly chaos.

True, but nothing is stopping them from using the Duty Support system and running content with NPCs to learn the basics. Fates are also a great place to learn.

I understand…but disagree with this. Xbox folks. Play the game as it released and as intended. It will give you feels for how to play and introduce you to a lot of the upcoming content. Might be slow and tedious (for some), but not any less important. Please please please don’t skip anything. Anyone telling you to do that has been playing for too long to remember what it felt like to feel fresh.

My sprout just fell off.
 
True, but nothing is stopping them from using the Duty Support system and running content with NPCs to learn the basics. Fates are also a great place to learn.



My sprout just fell off.
Please don’t drive this poster away lol

Also…someone new to the game will never get your attempt at sarcasm (because that’s what it would sound like to someone who never played the game before).

Andddd…that’s why it’s important to play the whole game.
 
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Kumomeme

Member
Awesome.

Surprised as Square's uncharacteristic generosity with this mammoth 'free trial'. I think that will be more than enough for me, but there's always the option to buy the other stuff later.
thats why people call this is most generous free trial ever

up to lv70 basically you get over 200-300 hours of gameplay free(depend on playstyle and speed).

new player really fortunate. back in the day free trial only up to level 35. at first they bumped it to lv60(base game + first expansion) which is already very generous. now they bumped it more to another expansion to 70.
 
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graywolf323

Member
The trial no longer has a time limit! You can play all classes up to level 70, and do all the story content up through the end of the Stormblood expansion.

The restriction is that you can't form a free party (partying up with others outside the regular dungeon zones), and you can't use the in-game marketplace to buy or sell things.

In comparison, if you take the free "Starter Edition" Game Pass perk, you're now considered a "paid player" and can never go back to your account being a free trial. You'll get 30 days of play time with the starter edition (nowhere near enough time to finish through Stormblood, unless you play maybe 12 hours a day), and after that you'll have to pay the monthly fee to keep playing.
I’m still irritated because I’ve never been able to take advantage of the free trial solely because I beta tested OG FFXIV way back in the day 😑
 

jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
I’m still irritated because I’ve never been able to take advantage of the free trial solely because I beta tested OG FFXIV way back in the day 😑
Time to make a new account with a different email address and load it up! Or get it on Xbox, I suppose...
 
I understand…but disagree with this. Xbox folks. Play the game as it released and as intended. It will give you feels for how to play and introduce you to a lot of the upcoming content. Might be slow and tedious (for some), but not any less important. Please please please don’t skip anything. Anyone telling you to do that has been playing for too long to remember what it felt like to feel fresh.
It's slow and tedious for most, if not all. The community refers to ARR as a new player filter for a reason lol. Between the boring MMO fetch quests to the slow and stilted cutscenes, it's a rough ride for sprouts. That's why it's best to stick to the free edition, so you can get through the story at your leisure.

That said, I agree that it shouldn't be skipped. Just try your best to get invested in the story and storytelling. If you managed to play through FFXVI (16) then you're halfway there, honestly.
 
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It's slow and tedious for most, if not all. The community refers to ARR as a new player filter for a reason lol. Between the boring MMO fetch quests to the slow and stilted cutscenes, it's a rough ride for sprouts. That's why it's best to stick to the free edition, so you can get through the story at your leisure.

That said, I agree that it shouldn't be skipped. Just try your best to get invested in the story and storytelling. If you managed to play through FFXVI (16) then you're halfway there, honestly.
“The community refers to ARR as a new player filter for a reason lol.”

My exact point. You have the non-new player blinders on, and that’s going to drive new folks away every single time.
 
“The community refers to ARR as a new player filter for a reason lol.”

My exact point. You have the non-new player blinders on, and that’s going to drive new folks away every single time.
Man, I have been through this so many times over the past 10 years. Friend gets interested in the game > they start playing > they get bored at some point during ARR and quit, often without my involvement at all. It's not just the story, you know. Over the years the the job skills have been pruned and spread out over 90 levels, leading most (if not all) ARR jobs into having a 3-4 button rotation for FIFTY levels. That is objectively boring gameplay.

But I digress - I'm not here to argue and I already agreed that ARR shouldn't be skipped. I just think setting realistic expectations is important or we'll lose even more new players to the ARR filter. Blaming veterans wanting to help is nothing more than a scapegoat for ARR's problems.
 

Killjoy-NL

Member
I was pretty damn excited for this but I am pretty sure I won’t be doing more than the trial, after reading this thread.
If you love FF, all the expansions are worth it for the story alone.

Easily one of the best stories in any FF and the overarching storyline is concluded at the end of the last expansion, Endwalker.

It's practically a solo-MMO, so you can play at your own pace.

I'd be more worried about the GP-requirement on top of the sub fee, tbh.
 

kikii

Member
The trial no longer has a time limit! You can play all classes up to level 70, and do all the story content up through the end of the Stormblood expansion.

The restriction is that you can't form a free party (partying up with others outside the regular dungeon zones), and you can't use the in-game marketplace to buy or sell things.

In comparison, if you take the free "Starter Edition" Game Pass perk, you're now considered a "paid player" and can never go back to your account being a free trial. You'll get 30 days of play time with the starter edition (nowhere near enough time to finish through Stormblood, unless you play maybe 12 hours a day), and after that you'll have to pay the monthly fee to keep playing.
also u should add that u cant DM anyone with free trial and money cap is 300k (if it isnt changed) ^^
 

Xion_Stellar

People should stop referencing data that makes me feel uncomfortable because games get ported to platforms I don't like
Was just about to post this. The beginning of XIV is very slow and tedious.

You can skip A Realm Reborn for $11;


I would rather have people make their own impressions of the game rather set expectations for them on of how they should view or feel about ARR.

Telling people to pay money to not experience story content that's still relevant all the way to Endwalker isn't the welcome I would give a new player.
 
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Shake Your Rump

Gold Member
I played the game a few years ago. As others here have said, the gameplay is boring. It’s clicking buttons on cooldown over and over. They changed the core mechanics at some point, so MP is a timer rather than a resource. Entire class mechanics were neutered and homogenized. The original areas are barren and XP is given out at triple the rate. I was overleveled the entire time. Entire areas that once induced awe were skipped.

I think joining an MMO this late is just not a wise use of gaming time.
 
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Porticus

Banned
I would rather have people make their own impressions of the game rather set expectations for them on of how they should view or feel about ARR.

Telling people to pay money to not experience story content that's still relevant all the way to Endwalker isn't the welcome I would give a new player.

They are basically saying that what Bungie did with Destiny is good.
 

UltimaKilo

Gold Member
The trial no longer has a time limit! You can play all classes up to level 70, and do all the story content up through the end of the Stormblood expansion.

The restriction is that you can't form a free party (partying up with others outside the regular dungeon zones), and you can't use the in-game marketplace to buy or sell things.

In comparison, if you take the free "Starter Edition" Game Pass perk, you're now considered a "paid player" and can never go back to your account being a free trial. You'll get 30 days of play time with the starter edition (nowhere near enough time to finish through Stormblood, unless you play maybe 12 hours a day), and after that you'll have to pay the monthly fee to keep playing.

Isn't being unable to access the market place and join a party, a pretty big deal?
 

jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
Isn't being unable to access the market place and join a party, a pretty big deal?
Not really for story progression. You can join a party, but only in the game's instanced dungeons. It's been a while since I've done the trial, but you might be able to be invited into a party - just not invite others. Not totally sure on that.

Market board isn't a huge deal, it just saves a ton of time when trying to level up your crafting classes mainly. Most of the game's weapons, armor, etc. can be bought from NPC merchants, especially stuff that is under level 50 that's required for beating the game's original storyline.
 

March Climber

Gold Member
I played the game a few years ago. As others here have said, the gameplay is boring. It’s clicking buttons on cooldown over and over. They changed the core mechanics at some point, so MP is a timer rather than a resource. Entire class mechanics were neutered and homogenized. The original areas are barren and XP is given out at triple the rate. I was overleveled the entire time. Entire areas that once induced awe were skipped.

I think joining an MMO this late is just not a wise use of gaming time.
I agree with this post for one simple reason: FFXIV’s gameplay feel is much worse on controller. The game feels old. Like 2000s PC MMO old.

We will be stuck with 14 for a while though because they have a huge graphical update coming soon. I’m going to guess that we won’t even see an announcement of a new FF MMO until mid to late 2030s at best.
 

Xion_Stellar

People should stop referencing data that makes me feel uncomfortable because games get ported to platforms I don't like
The game feels old. Like 2000s PC MMO old.
That's not exactly a bad thing if you ask them but if you don't like the feeling your free to play other Japanese or Western MMOs that still get updated on the regular bases and I would love to recommend one except that they no longer exist. Your options are either WoW, FFXIV, or the plethora of P2W Koreon MMOs that somehow still get made and come out to this day.

We will be stuck with 14 for a while though because they have a huge graphical update coming soon. I’m going to guess that we won’t even see an announcement of a new FF MMO until mid to late 2030s at best.
At most your still looking at another 10 years of FFXIV MSQ so 2035 sounds about right so maybe the next MMO game will be FFIX or FFXX
 

Freeman76

Member
This game pissed me off sooooo much. Beautiful artwork and music, boring as fuck combat and quests, but I could live with that if the game respected your time more. The quests inbetween the main game and expansion is some of the most boring shit i can remember playing in any MMO and it went on FOREVER.

Annoyed me so much cos I had to do it access content I paid 30 quid for. Ruined it for me big time
 

kikii

Member
How solo-friendly is the main campaign? *not including expansions*
its pretty solo able just some dungeons for MSQ with others, and no need to care abt wipe or think that others thinks u are bad, if it wipes then it wipes, but hard to wipe at low lvls =)
 

March Climber

Gold Member
That's not exactly a bad thing if you ask them but if you don't like the feeling your free to play other Japanese or Western MMOs that still get updated on the regular bases and I would love to recommend one except that they no longer exist. Your options are either WoW, FFXIV, or the plethora of P2W Koreon MMOs that somehow still get made and come out to this day.
Just wanted to clarify, I'm not saying I dislike FFXIV as I had fun playing the game and it deserves it's spot as one of the big 3 MMO titles of the past decade(and this is coming from someone who has played a ton of MMOs). My post is more of a warning to people here who are going to try this out on Xbox with a controller. I'm saying I highly advise against using a controller for this particular game, because the controller feels much worse than KB+M for this game.

A lot of people don't remember, this game was technically a PS3 game, and most of the PS3 MMOs out there(the few that came to that platform) controlled really, really poorly or had massive amounts of input lag, terrible deadzones, and really bad ways of translating KB+M to controller in an optimal way.

It wasn't until mid to late-PS4 gen that MMO controller players finally saw a hint of light at the end of the dark tunnel of bad controls, with devs finally utilizing them correctly and taking controllers seriously so that the audiences for this genre can expand more.

Regarding the second part of your quote, there are a new wave of MMOs coming(from the east and west) and we have to see how they perform. I enjoyed Wayfinder closed beta and I'm looking forward to the full release later this year as it played amazingly well. Dune: Awakening just showed footage of their new MMO and it seems good so far. The ESO guys are working on a big new I.P. as well and will be announcing the project sometime soon. Path of Exile 2 looks way better optimized for console controls than it's predecessor. The new Vindictus sequel trailer looks incredible. Soulframe(from the Warframe devs) looks promising as well. Chrono Odyssey Soulslike MMO(why didn't anyone think of this) looks really promising. Light No Fire looks amazing too.

These games exist and are coming out. We have just had a long interim of time in the past few years where a lot of these devs were silent, because they realized with the recent MMO failures that you can't release a game with half-assed content, half-assed post-launch content, and a bad gameplay loop.
 

Xion_Stellar

People should stop referencing data that makes me feel uncomfortable because games get ported to platforms I don't like
Just wanted to clarify, I'm not saying I dislike FFXIV as I had fun playing the game and it deserves it's spot as one of the big 3 MMO titles of the past decade(and this is coming from someone who has played a ton of MMOs). My post is more of a warning to people here who are going to try this out on Xbox with a controller. I'm saying I highly advise against using a controller for this particular game, because the controller feels much worse than KB+M for this game.

A lot of people don't remember, this game was technically a PS3 game, and most of the PS3 MMOs out there(the few that came to that platform) controlled really, really poorly or had massive amounts of input lag, terrible deadzones, and really bad ways of translating KB+M to controller in an optimal way.
I started FFXIV on PS3 and it wasn't as bad as you say it was at least not to me and I wasn't a casual player either I did high end raiding with Coils and I did just fine.

I continued to play FFXIV on PS Vita (Remote Play), PS4, PS5 and even when I switched to PC I still play with a Controller only.

Regarding the second part of your quote, there are a new wave of MMOs coming(from the east and west) and we have to see how they perform. I enjoyed Wayfinder closed beta and I'm looking forward to the full release later this year as it played amazingly well. Dune: Awakening just showed footage of their new MMO and it seems good so far. The ESO guys are working on a big new I.P. as well and will be announcing the project sometime soon. Path of Exile 2 looks way better optimized for console controls than it's predecessor. The new Vindictus sequel trailer looks incredible. Soulframe(from the Warframe devs) looks promising as well. Chrono Odyssey Soulslike MMO(why didn't anyone think of this) looks really promising. Light No Fire looks amazing too.

These games exist and are coming out. We have just had a long interim of time in the past few years where a lot of these devs were silent, because they realized with the recent MMO failures that you can't release a game with half-assed content, half-assed post-launch content, and a bad gameplay loop.

I will hold judgement on the new MMOs until they actually release because the two current flavors are either MMO releases fumbled by Amazon games or MMOs that look promising but end up being just another P2W MMO
 
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March Climber

Gold Member
I started FFXIV on PS3 and it wasn't as bad as you say it was at least not to me and I wasn't a casual player either I did high end raiding with Coils and I did just fine.

I continued to play FFXIV on PS Vita (Remote Play), PS4, PS5 and even when I switched to PC I still play with a Controller only.
Realistically, there's no way for me to convince you that someone in 2024 trying out FF14 for the first time will have trouble with it's controller feel considering every other game around that person controls way better this decade, including other MMOs.
I will hold judgement on the new MMOs until they actually release because the two current flavors are either MMO releases fumbled by Amazon games or MMOs that look promising but end up being just another P2W MMO
It depends on what you mean by P2W (because people here throw around that term too much even when it's just involving cosmetics).
 
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