I’m a huge fan of Final Fantasy, but I’m not so huge on playing games with other people. I tend to prefer single-player games. I’ve steered clear of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn for that reason! It’s an MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game. Try saying that three times fast!) so PEOPLE EVERYWHERE. People? In my game? I have to..have to..interact??? Scary!
However, my husband and I were looking for a game we could play together and FFXIV for PC is free up to level 35! So we figured we’d give it a try. It’s a game we can both play and have fun with! Try for yourself!
Despite my hesitance to play an MMO, I finally made an account. Nerves a-jitter, I downloaded and booted up the game to create my character. What race am I going to play? What color hair are they going to have? So many choices for every part of the body! The eyes! Nose! Ears! (Eventually I decided on a Lalafell for race and white hair amongst my many decisions.)
I’m not going to focus on character creation here though since most of it is personal taste. There’s a lot of information on FFXIV’s main site for help picking a class though! Please note, your class will determine your starting town. I started in Gridania because I chose Conjurer.
AND I LOVE IT. IT’S SO MUCH FUN. I’m really happy I decided to pick it up. I’ve been playing at least a little bit every day since I joined. Everyone has been so nice. I’ve noticed people tend to keep to themselves and ignore you or they are randomly nice. I’ve had someone run past and heal me before going on their merry way. It was super random but also super sweet. So my fears of interacting with others were unfounded.
THERE IS SO MUCH TO DO THOUGH. It’s actually a little overwhelming at first. There’s quests, there’s people running everywhere (NPCs and real people) and icons on your screen everywhere. What do you do first!!!!???????
Breathe. Remember it’s only a game. You can do this. I did it and you can too!
Below are a few things I’d like to highlight to make it a little less overwhelming.
Aetheryte Crystals
Giant Aetheryte Crystal: found in towns and in the field
This is the first thing I think you should do in town because it makes getting around A LOT easier once done, and will help you learn the layout of your hometown.
In towns and occasionally in the field, where enemies live, you will see these blue crystalline statues. They are essentially teleportation devices. Click on it for attunement! This means you’re able to teleport back to this crystal from other points on the map after you’re attuned!
The giant crystals (image above) you can teleport to from anywhere by clicking on it on the map (expensive though!), and the teeny ones are a part of a larger network to get around town with. The teeny ones (image below) you can only teleport to another one when you’re physically at the crystal.
Teeny Aetheryte Crystal—found only in towns
Quest Icons
Below are four icons you’ll see a lot in your adventures around FFXIV: the main quest, content unlock quest, sidequest and a repeatable quest icon.
The main quest will progress the game’s story and unlock more content such as being able to change classes, getting a chocobo or access to using airships. It’s easy to separate these quests from the others because it has a fire flourish shape around it. Content Unlock Quests progress your current class or let you unlock a new class. Just like its name, it unlocks content! For classes, at level 15, it will start unlocking new skills for you to use. For example, at level 15, I was able to unlock a water spell that I’d never have learned from leveling up alone.
Sidequests are simple, they are quests not related to the main story and repeatable quests are quests you can repeat!
I highly recommend at least doing all the side quests in your starting town. Like the Aetheryte crystal hunting, it’ll help you learn the map of your town and the surrounding field. This is critical because the more areas you recognize, the less overwhelming it gets! Otherwise, continue on with the main quests to unlock more and more content!
Still need help? Try out the guides created by Square themselves. They’re well written and cover a wide range of topics!
Happy playing! It’s never too late to try it. Just follow those little icons and crystals and you’ll be just fine.