Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward

Final Fantasy XIV has had this kind of strange track record. The main release nearly impaired Square Enix due to its tremendous cost and sudden failure, but the Japoneses company was able to toss a Phoenix Recorded on itself and be reborn with A Realm Reborn, making something that could be easily considered one of the best MMOs available. It’s one of the very number of MMOs that currently sustains its subscription-based model while some go free-to-play, not to mention putting new story-related content every few months. But it’s into the fray once more, since Final Fantasy XIV does have it’s first major expansion package that promises an extremely lengthy campaign and many more side activity to help partake in. With nine new areas to discover, eight dungeons to fight via, five trials to help team up on, 3 jobs to work and a brand new competition to replay as, Heavensward seeks to give players any bang for their greenback.

It should be noted which Heavensward is almost entirely conclude game content, and so those looking to jump right in without having finished everything up to revise 2.55 come in for a rude awakening. With that said, there are some new pieces of content that may affect new along with veteran players alike. For one, there’s a brand-new race called Au Ra. They were introduced ultimately game content (or at best one character had been) that Square Enix started rolling a couple months each time after A Realm Reborn‘s preliminary release, but ultimately we are able to play as being the race. There’s not much difference to these individuals besides a new look, and they also certain have a exclusive design. There are two clans for the Au Ra, 1 with bright guitar scales called Raen, and another together with dark scales called Xaela. Raen are, at least right away, built more in the direction of magic abilities though Xaela are more of a durability clan. The only criticism I have with this completely new race is that they will not play much of a function in the actual story. Yugiri makes a reappearance, but she is this is the only Au Ra to show up in the lengthy strategy. There seems to be a big missed opportunity, but I suppose it’s something that’s left for foreseeable future content.

The way Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn bring up to date 2.55 was over left us by using these an unbearably intense cliffhanger. So many characters known in addition to loved for the past five years seem to have disappeared or perhaps potentially met their own end. Unfortunately, solely three of these folks have their fates revealed, with all the remaining cast regarding characters still left towards the unknown. Heavensward isn’t with them, though; it’s almost an entirely segmented story which takes place in a whole new terrain partially separate from the actual events of A Realm Reborn. You will discover ties, though, because Garlean Empire does create an appearance and the Ascian organization is still looming in the shadows, but for the most part, that is about the new world of Ishgard and their struggle with your 1000-year war that has been warp speed on against mythical beasts. It’s also about recovering the status as being the Warrior of Light, restoring the blessing that was taken from you.

The narrative of Heavensward is by far the most captivating aspect. Both the factions (Ishgardians and mythical beasts) seem to live in a grey area where there are some evil doers amongst these, but most of them merely fight to protect their very own kind. It’s a 1000 year war exactly where hatred between each side rages on, but as some sort of neutral party, you’re free to explore the truth driving how it all grew to be to be. The strategy is lengthy, managing us close to 80 hours to complete the principle story and all of one side quests, although we only lightly touching after the end-game dungeons and trial offers. Progression is one of Heavensward‘s robust points as, provided that you do all of the side quests available, there is not much of a need to routine. There were only two cases where we needed to come back into a dungeon and grind to the next level. There is just so much new articles here that you won’t discover youself to be bored or underleveled. With that in mind, the mission structure for most of the marketing campaign is pretty basic. That boils down to either accumulating items, fighting predators or simply talking to another person. There is one relaxing quest where you must sneak up and rehearse an item on a particular enemy, but that’s a onetime adjustment. It’s standard for the MMO as it isn’t going to reinvent the steering wheel, but it could have removed with a couple much more interesting quests.

That being said, what shines the brightest are the dungeons along with highlighted side adventures. There are a number of one-off side quests that can be accomplished simply for experience as well as Gil, but there are multi-tiered adventures that involve comical as well as emotional twists. These kinds of not only dole out good quality equipment and Materia, but in addition tell stories that you simply actually want to dig deeper into and heroes you want to see much more of. Each area features one or two of these, thus there’s a good deal of content to keep you involved. Dungeons however are pretty much exactly what we’ve come to be expecting. You roll through different area which may have variations of enemies and environmental products, while facing three bosses that put up a good fight. There’s a solid eight fresh dungeons to venture by means of, taking anywhere between 20 or so to forty-five minutes each depending how well prepared the team is. The particular bosses are easily the guts point of the dungeons the majority of them require a great deal of thought and care to take care of them.

But if you’re in charge of the big, hulking bosses, then your new Trials are usually for you. Trials are usually singular boss battles that A Realm Reborn just about topped out on 30, each concerning incredibly complex challenges. There are five to be found in Heavensward, three that are an element of the main campaign with two Extreme Tests available at the end-game. Particularly, The Limitless Azure is by far the most fascinating, essentially putting you the clock as you face a massive enemy that can destroy the ground an individual stand on. While there are some straightforward mission to be located, there’s just so much quality content to expertise in Heavensward.

While there’s plenty of remarkable story-related missions to play as a result of, Heavensward also introduces three new jobs. They are broken down and well-balanced splendidly, introducing one particular ranged DPS (Machinist), a healer (Astrologian) and tank (Darker Knight). The Machinist is pretty straight forward in its battle nature, having a variety of abilities that are used at an offensive, prolonged ranged measure, while at the same time can make use of a turret that will episode enemies or aid allies. The Dark Knight can be relatable to other tanks with variations, such as applying MP on top of TP all night . his own combo established to help debuff and agro opponents. Finally, the Astrologian is a bit more focused on healing along with buffing other players, consequently knowing the various sessions you’re working with goes a long way. Each are generally strong additions to Final Imagination XIV, giving even more variation to the already amazingly large lineup of jobs.

Coinciding with the levels cap increase, you’ll find new job-related missions to defend myself against. So if you play to be a Ninja, Summoner, Bard or anything else, there will be six to eight more missions on the market to learn new skills and have additional story. The actual rewards themselves are beneficial, but unfortunately overall, the quest themselves will not be particularly amazing brand new additions. I move as a Black Mage and also the questline there is relatively poor. Up until the Level 58 quest, it’s mainly comprised of going to a specific location, confronting 1 or 2 foes and coming back, taking as little as 2 minutes. The final undertaking is fortunately better, have a challenging supervisor battle against a somewhat altered existing foe. There are a lot of employment for Square Enix to pass through, but the stories involving levels fifty in addition to sixty are a little dry.

With all that mentioned, arguably the best brand new addition in Heavensward is flying mounts. Traversal has become Final Fantasy XIV‘s thorn as, as it wasn’t necessarily everything that slow, it did take a fair length of time to get from position A to point T. In most cases, it’s much easier to spend hundreds of Gil for you to teleport as opposed to walking or riding there. In which changes with Heavensward, or otherwise to a degree. Heavensward is created around new multi-layered places, so instead of getting one large ripped plane, areas have got verticality to how they may be structured, forcing the ball player to find the appropriate route up and down. It can be a minor confusing to cross at first, especially places such as The Sea regarding Clouds, but it’s a good change to the formula. Flying makes traversal all the more enjoyable, even though it really does require a little bit of try to do so. This mainly comes down to finding in addition to attuning Aether Currents through equally exploration and web template modules. The only thing we wish was applied was the opportunity to fly in pre-existing spots. It’s understandable that the team would have had to rework the entirety of A Realm Reborn‘s areas to make sure player doesn’t discover cut off textures as well as places where they are clearly not meant to see, but having one of these limited to six completely new locations, even though they can be massive, is still a bit of a bummer. Regardless, Flying brackets are a step in the appropriate direction, making vacationing across the many gets Final Fantasy XIV has to offer a lot more quicker.

Closing Remarks:

We couldn’t have requested anything better than Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward. It comes packed with an incredible amount of content that could leave players weighed down in both quantity as well as quality. It contains a new storyline that’s hugely entertaining and rivals most RPGs in size, three new work that are more than allowed additions and traveling mounts that help transform traversal in Eorzea. It helps the level cap is increased and the further development is well organised, both in story and also the unnecessary need to work for levels. With that in mind, Heavensward isn’t perfect several of the side adventures do fall into your routine of get quests and bounties, not forgetting the somewhat lackluster job-specific missions. Fortunately, people are a small point about this massive package because it is the end game dungeons along with trials that will make an impression on fans. Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward eventually ends up being an incredible price, offering more information than we’ve come to expect in this era.