To be clear, this is my most played game on steam now by a country mile. I am HEAVILY biased. If my hours in Team Fortress 2 count across both steam accounts I've owned in my lifetime, than by extension my time playing this game on and off steam does as well. This is, without a doubt, the most played game of my entire life. Thousands of hours on Warframe, Team Fortress 2, Terraria, the Souls Series, Monster Hunter in all its forms; all pales in comparison now.

I will not describe it all, but what I will say is that the game is slow to start, but unstoppable when rolling. Many people break out around the 'A Realm Reborn' expansion because of a lot of early monotony that is thrust unto you due to the design of the game back then. Battle classes at that level also lack some elements of spice, so it becomes hard to grip onto. However, any player who has passed the threshold struggles to berate the game for any sort of related misgivings; Endgame disciples of war and magic all have a niche to a team and a play-style tailored to them, even though many of them can be picked up fairly quickly with a low skill floor. Every expansion continues to add new and more interesting sauce to character kits and inventory. Feelings of progression are abundant, and really add to the feeling of forging ahead through the games several hundred hour story.

The story itself, which I will not cover fully due to the sheer magnitude of it that there is, ages like wine over the course of the average person's playtime. In its infancy, it is slow and dull due to having to set up many plot elements for future points. But when it does fall back on them, it's often a fantastic feeling of forward progression (aside from 'some' moments). I do not consider myself an amazing writer, but I have experience as a long-time-running game master and a couple of local awards for literary works. There were times the story lost my interests, or when I hated a certain scene at a certain castle with a certain roegadyn holding the building for two whole grueling minutes for lacking logic, but I cannot stress enough that these elements were almost completely overshadowed in time. There is a reason that villains in this game begin to overshadow even long-running series classics like Sephiroth. Natsuko Ishikawa, Kazutoyo Maehiro, Banri Oda have all contributed massively towards the creative expansion of what 'Final Fantasy' means to many.

And the soundtrack, holy ♥♥♥♥ the soundtrack.

To describe Masayoshi Soken's work as exemplary, does not even do him the justice he deserves. There are songs in this game that are shockingly good not even as video game musc, but as general listening songs. It would take you a serious search to dig around and find a person who has played through the entire game's story line who did not get emotional when 'Dragonsong' or 'Tomorrow and Tommorow' play in their respective scenes. The game's music, composed by Soken, Naoshi Mizuta and Nobuo Uematsu (also geniuses respectively), features a massive range of tunes and themes from Hard Rock songs performed by the Primals or full on orchestral arrangements. Every trial boss is given their own themeing, their stageplay and arrangement are carefully considered and the music is always that perfect layer of icing on the artisanal cake presented. Leitmotifs are ever present and expertly used to call back to certain relative elements in an area. Though it does not affect my opinion on the game, to know that Soken actively contested a cancer diagnosis while still composing for Shadowbringers is nothing short of incredible.

If you've gotten this far into this review from this random Steam friend, two questions; 'Why are you even bothering to read this?' and 'What's stopping you from trying to play it?'. Seriously. This game has a free trial that covers two whole expansions completely from start to finish. That is months of content given to you with no charge. The steam starter edition is prepackaged with a month of time, but you can play the free trial straight from the official website at https://freetrial.finalfantasyxiv.com/au/

My TL;DR on this game is that a numeric score isn't equivocal. It also does not accurately reflect what this game can mean, since in a oxymoronic way this game is very dependent on the interpretation of the player. There is really only one way you will find out if you like Final Fantasy XIV. Videos will not do it justice, nor will podcasts, nor will animations from creative YouTubers. You'll just have to give the free trial a shot and see if you're ready to take one step forward, come what may. It's not the game for everyone, but who it is the game for will have never known a time without it.

Remember that a smile best suits a hero.

[h1] Honestly, where do you even begin a review several thousand hours in? [/h1] [b] To be clear, this is my most played game on steam now by a country mile. I am HEAVILY biased. [/b] If my hours in Team Fortress 2 count across both steam accounts I've owned in my lifetime, than by extension my time playing this game on and off steam does as well. This is, without a doubt, the most played game of my entire life. Thousands of hours on Warframe, Team Fortress 2, Terraria, the Souls Series, Monster Hunter in all its forms; all pales in comparison now. I will not describe it all, but what I will say is that the game is slow to start, but unstoppable when rolling. Many people break out around the 'A Realm Reborn' expansion because of a lot of early monotony that is thrust unto you due to the design of the game back then. Battle classes at that level also lack some elements of spice, so it becomes hard to grip onto. However, any player who has passed the threshold struggles to berate the game for any sort of related misgivings; Endgame disciples of war and magic all have a niche to a team and a play-style tailored to them, even though many of them can be picked up fairly quickly with a low skill floor. Every expansion continues to add new and more interesting sauce to character kits and inventory. Feelings of progression are abundant, and really add to the feeling of forging ahead through the games several hundred hour story. The story itself, which I will not cover fully due to the sheer magnitude of it that there is, ages like wine over the course of the average person's playtime. In its infancy, it is slow and dull due to having to set up many plot elements for future points. But when it does fall back on them, it's often a fantastic feeling of forward progression (aside from 'some' moments). I do not consider myself an amazing writer, but I have experience as a long-time-running game master and a couple of local awards for literary works. There were times the story lost my interests, or when I hated a certain scene [spoiler]at a certain castle with a certain roegadyn holding the building for two whole grueling minutes[/spoiler] for lacking logic, but I cannot stress enough that these elements were almost completely overshadowed in time. There is a reason that villains in this game begin to overshadow even long-running series classics like Sephiroth. Natsuko Ishikawa, Kazutoyo Maehiro, Banri Oda have all contributed massively towards the creative expansion of what 'Final Fantasy' means to many. And the soundtrack, holy FUCK the soundtrack. To describe Masayoshi Soken's work as exemplary, does not even do him the justice he deserves. There are songs in this game that are shockingly good not even as video game musc, but as general listening songs. It would take you a serious search to dig around and find a person who has played through the entire game's story line who did not get emotional when 'Dragonsong' or 'Tomorrow and Tommorow' play in their respective scenes. The game's music, composed by Soken, Naoshi Mizuta and Nobuo Uematsu (also geniuses respectively), features a massive range of tunes and themes from Hard Rock songs performed by the Primals or full on orchestral arrangements. Every trial boss is given their own themeing, their stageplay and arrangement are carefully considered and the music is always that perfect layer of icing on the artisanal cake presented. Leitmotifs are ever present and expertly used to call back to certain relative elements in an area. Though it does not affect my opinion on the game, to know that Soken actively contested a cancer diagnosis while still composing for Shadowbringers is nothing short of incredible. If you've gotten this far into this review from this random Steam friend, two questions; 'Why are you even bothering to read this?' and 'What's stopping you from trying to play it?'. Seriously. This game has a free trial that covers two whole expansions completely from start to finish. That is [b] months [/b] of content given to you with no charge. The steam starter edition is prepackaged with a month of time, but you can play the free trial straight from the official website at https://freetrial.finalfantasyxiv.com/au/ My TL;DR on this game is that a numeric score isn't equivocal. It also does not accurately reflect what this game can mean, since in a oxymoronic way this game is very dependent on the interpretation of the player. There is really only one way you will find out if you like Final Fantasy XIV. Videos will not do it justice, nor will podcasts, nor will animations from creative YouTubers. You'll just have to give the free trial a shot and see if you're ready to take one step forward, come what may. It's not the game for everyone, but who it is the game for will have never known a time without it. Remember that a smile best suits a hero.