I played through the entire main story of Final Fantasy XIV in TWO MONTHS (A Realm Reborn, Heavensward, Stormblood, Shadowbringers, and Endwalker). In this video, I share my experience playing FFXIV for the first time and what it’s like being a newbie in 2022. Also, if you want to play together, my character’s name is Oliver Benley and I’m on Behemoth! This video is SPOILER-FREE! If you haven’t played FFXIV, you can start your free trial here: https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/
🟣 TIMESTAMPS —
0:00 Playing All of FFXIV in 2 Months
0:54 What Convinced to Play FFXIV
3:02 What I Thought of the Main Story of FFXIV
5:43 Playing FFXIV Solo
11:26 The FFXIV Community
14:57 The Main Story of FFXIV
19:10 Being a Newbie to FFXIV
22:22 What About PVP?
22:44 Compared to World of Warcraft?
27:12 Now What?
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▶️ VIDEOS/LINKS I MENTION
My Favorite FFXIV Dungeon Guides by MTQCapture
https://www.youtube.com/c/MTQcapture
Luncarcon
https://www.lunarcon.net/
Jesse Cox
FFXIV Lore for Beginners – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaQ__5ZBwBc
15 Years of WoW vs 1 Year of FFXIV – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5T-mcLYBnKc
The Story of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Z6Srs4wpzI
Noclip – FFXIV Documentary
Part 1 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs0yQKI7Yw4
Part 2 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoOI5R-6u8k
Part 3 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONT6fxiu9cw
FF14 – 2022 Complete Beginner’s Guide!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpCHUAixES4
FINAL FANTASY XIV: Starter Guide Series
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCMxiSH1Otw
source
The "mmo stuff" like the (normal mode) raids, trials, and alliance raids, in each expansion has its own side story and some of it is as good as the MSQ so you should definitely check that out. Also might want to drop a discord link somewhere because it's easier to start a community that way these days. Especially a cross-server one in XIV.
My wife and I play together and I am always there to help her out so she feels comfortable with the mmo side of things.
We actually just started a free company that we want to be a place that newcomers can feel welcomed.
She herself has only just beaten stormblood but I’m all caught up with msq.
We should at least become friends in game. Rayne Stormbreaker is my character’s name in Excalibur my wife is Kiteria O’Frey.
FFXIV has such good side content and it keeps getting better every expansion.
I'm a hard-core jrpg fan, my favorite game of all time is also Chrono Trigger and I'm a big fan of the Tales games.
I'm the kind of gamer who will unlock a new town and then talk to every npc in it. So, when side quests open up while I'm doing msq, I do them, immediately. I love it because the sidequests often flesh out the area I'm visiting and you learn so many neat details that the msq would never go into.
It used to be that you had to complete a full side quest chain to unlock the aether currents, but now, they just give you the aether current on the first quest, so you're not forced to continue, but I do because I wanna see where the story is going.
Pretty much every zone has two really long side quest chains that unlock a joint sidequest chain that resolves or adds to both stories. Raktika has one of the best side quest chains in the game. I highly recommend doing it. It also unlocks a tribal quest if you're into that.
Ngl, the joint sidequest chain in Garlemald had me in tears. It's so frickin good and well-written and I'm so sad that the majority of players won't even bother doing it. The level of quality of EW's side quests just blew me away. Something optional and very missable has NO RIGHT being this good.
I will say that I really like how the msq has optional scenes and dialogue depending on what side content you've completed. There's one cs in EW that references all the side content and can be anywhere from 5 mins to 20 mins long depending on what side content you did. I love little acknowledgements like that, especially since I had done literally everything and so mine was really long.
This is a great video! I still have my sprout, but I started months ago. I remember how overwhelming each new thing was. A friend took me into pvp frontline for the first time a few weeks ago. I was so incredibly overwhelmed, but, also? I had SO much fun. Frontline is 24 vs 24 vs 24, which means its chaos and running around and fighting in the most fun way possible. But the first time I went in, I didn't realize that ALL of my skills were replaced with a very specific subset of level 90 skills and pvp only skills. I didn't know where to find these skills. I didn't know the expectations. I didn't know who to target or how to stay alive. And still I went back because for the first time, I wanted to get better in a pvp experience. Additionally, PvP gives some great gear. BUT I also understand not being interested in PvP, so this is purely me stating how incredibly overwhelming new systems in FFXIV can be, especially those that don't have any parallels in the rest of the game.
"I don't want to be that person that messes up."
Please try to let go of this thought. FFXIV is extremely accommodating to newcomers and there are plenty of experienced players who will give you some key pointers if you ask for them.
It's absolutely not like WoW, and if someone gives you flack for it, you can report them.
Welcome to Eorzea!
I recently started as well. Just finished the base heavensward expansion.
As someone who’s played since open beta it still delights me to see new sprouts and newbies. It warms my heart to see their joy and wonder at this incredible world. I don’t even mind if they make mistakes/cause wipes, cuz we were all there at some point 🥰
As a person who started FFXIV 5 years ago, never be afraid to tell the party you are doing a first run. Most of us realize that means a blind run and are more stoked to see your reaction to the story in the dungeon rather than be mad you don't know the mechanics already.
Realm Reborn is my favorite part. Everything before Garuda is kinda meh, but then it just kicks up after that.
Not to mention that the ARR patch quests cover some of the highest stakes events in the entire story.
On top of that EVERYONE has their favorite character. And that character was probably introduced, or existed, in ARR.
Point is ARR does a lot. So much has happened since then, that a lot of the veterans forgot.
my main complaint about the trust/duty support is npcs cant rez my dumb butt XD
FF 14 is new player friendly mmo, unlike other mmo I used to play stupidly player alway cry out for top dps
When my sprout icon went away I asked my FC why… and I wanted it back lol. Totally felt ya on that
Going in blind is the most fun. My friends and I don't worry about anything other than the enjoyment of dungeons. I really like doing 24 man raids alone since my friends don't like the raids.
Wow in 2 months… im going on 7 months and just finished shadowbringers main quest..
I've been playing this off and on since 2014, and I always come back to it. Now i've been playing it nonstop for like 2 weeks, literally just leveling up classes to 30 to unlock the additional classes. Be nice to have someone with whom to play.
I and my BFF love helping new players. It's nice to relive the story though a new person's excitement. I actually just had a friend start a few weeks ago, and we have been trying to run dungeons with her, etc. – and I am even tanking for her, so I can kinda pause the dungeon and be like, hey let my friend read the stuff. I also geek out with her about the story because it is SO good, and I love talking about it. I'm not sure what data center you're on – but if you happen to be on Aether, let me know, so we can say hi! We are on Siren. 🙂
Just jump in with people. It's an MMO with a great story not a great story with MMO aspects. Enjoy it at its fullest. Don't look stuff up, don't worry about doing something wrong or inconveniencing people, don't be intimidated by playing with people. As someone who has played since 1.0 I've met a total of 3 toxic players over that entire timespan and two of them were during the peak of the wow refugee wave which has now passed. You could argue the majority of the community is too nice. Players wont expect you to know everything, they'll let you experience it, slow down if needed, give pointers if necessary. You also don't have to worry about cutscenes as 99% of the time people will let a newbie watch before they continue.
Great video! I'm glad you enjoyed FFXIV, I had that exact same "I can't believe this has been here the whole time" thought when I finished Heavensward. Honestly I just wanted to hear you gush about the story, going over some favourite characters and story moments. But I understand this video was moreso meant to showcase your experience with the game as a new player. Maybe in the future you will make more FFXIV content. +1 sub
FFXIV is tied as one of my two favorite games, the other being Chrono Trigger, so I have to plant this little bug in your head now because it's been on my mind since I started playing XIV way back in 2014.
Can you imagine how awesome it would be for them to do a Chrono Trigger crossover raid? Final boss is Lavos and everything? It'd be fucking WILD.
I wish people would give this game a try even with the free trial I've been playing since 2019 and I've had a lot of fun with this game in the last 10 years the story how everything comes together and even interacting with other players it is a game I can't wait to come back to this game if you're going to join free company be very careful I've had a bad experience with it I got which hundred for no damn reason
I think an important distinction to make between a lot of other MMOs and FFXIV is that FFXIV is an RPG-MMO, while a lot of other MMOs are MMORPGs, it sounds like a very small difference, if that, but it's actually pretty big. FFXIV places being a great RPG first, being an MMO is secondary to that, currently the you do have to interact with others during HW patch cycle content, Stormblood content and the Crystal Tower raids back in ARR, but outside of that you're not forced to interact with others if you don't want to, and instead of pushing players to interact more, the devs and writers have been providing an excellent range of story and side content which you can enjoy on your own.
A lot of other MMOs place so much importance on their group content like raids, especially on the hardcore end, and ultimately don't care for writing as compelling a story as much as providing a lot of that hardcore content for a specific subset of their community. That isn't to say it's a bad thing to design an MMO that way, but it's definitely not as appealing to players who want a more time-friendly experience, or a strong story experience. Sadly, a lot of people look at FFXIV as though it's a game like WoW which historically hasn't respected the players time as much as FFXIV has, nor has it had such a strong focus on narrative, so people fear FFXIV for the sole reason that it's given the label of MMO and i hope the push to make as much as possible into solo AND/OR group content will allow more of those players to make a push to start the game. It's absolutely worth it, and I'd honestly say that by not giving it a go, people are missing out on one of the best stories in gaming, if not in general.
Started like 2 weeks ago and now I'm halfway through storm blood. It's so much fun
While I understand the anxiety of not wanting to be that person that screws it up? Most people are very understanding if you don't know the mechanics and will let you fail if that's what you want. They may just send out a hint on what to do, but it's typically pretty vague since there is a limited amount of time to explain. And if you do fail even after they explain? Most of them will apologize to you thinking they didn't explain well enough.
And I had the same reaction when I lost my sprout icon in ShB – "OH no! People are going to think I know what I'm doing or understand everything about my job, current content, etc". haha
2 months!!! Hot damn!!!
Thank you for sharing your experience! I too started playing FFXIV this year, but I'm taking it much more slowly. I've only just started getting into Heavensward. Still, I can relate to your new player experience and your anxiety about playing with others in new content. Definitely the community is the best I've ever met in any game – they have been so helpful, kind, and understanding for newbies, as long as you're humble and willing to learn. I wish you all the best as you continue your FFXIV journey!
I gave you a like because you said your favorite rpg is Chrono Trigger. Magus is my favorite character.
I've been playing since Heavensward was the new expac and I love seeing people getting into the game and discovering a love for it. This was awesome to see <3
Great review. I'll be sending this to my friend who is on the fence.
2 week can do
Since you said you want to go back and check out things you missed AND you said you're into lore, you should check out a series called the Scholasticate (12 quests total). Big picture: it's the story of how Ishgard's founding myth got past down through the generations from one archbishop to the next. There are a couple of requirements, one of which you've done for certain. (1) you must finish Heavensward. (2) You need to finish the Hildebrand questline from 2.x — not that Hildy is in this, and it's a very serious quest line, but you need to meet someone first from that questline before you can do this one. (3) You need to complete the level 56 quest Keeping the Ledger from the NPC named Mathye in the Jeweled Crozier (market) area of Ishgard (x: 6.3, y: 9.4). Mathye also offers the first quest in the series titled Contradicting Convictions. Anyone into FFXIV lore in general and Ishgardian lore in particular should do this series.