Where that wound up being an underwhelming reveal tossed aside near the end of the game and not followed up on at all, here, we get to see the ruins of the great city and its people, still desperately clinging to their country’s pride even though the person to whom they had entrusted their safety has directly betrayed them without a care. The least spoiler-y example I can give is that the destruction of Garlemald at the hands of its own ruler in order to further increase their own power is pretty clearly a parallel to the similar destruction of the Empire in Final Fantasy XV. This story takes some inspiration from past Final Fantasy titles, and in pretty much every case it puts those inspirations to even better use. Endwalker knows exactly what to do with each of its story elements to maximize their effectiveness and make me ugly cry, and so I did, several times. How did it do?įinal Fantasy XIV: Endwalker is, to say it upfront and briefly, a masterpiece.Ĭoming from such a tough act to follow and having the weight of over twice as many subscribers at launch as its predecessor expecting great things, it is simply the most well-crafted gaming experience I had this year. This expansion was promised to conclude the story that began in A Realm Reborn, tie together all of the story threads yet unbound, and usher in the next ten years of Final Fantasy XIV. The downfall of its biggest competitor and the attention of many prominent content creators led to an enormous population spike for the game despite the development team’s inability to secure additional servers due to said pandemic and other factors, to the point where the game is now considered to be the most popular MMORPG in the world.Īnd then it exploded all over again with the launch of Endwalker in December, which very quickly became known for login queues of thousands of people and wait times that could last hours. The game has rebuilt its reputation to the point that a large percentage of its fanbase was furious that its previous expansion, Shadowbringers, was largely snubbed by awards shows that year despite the opinion that it was one of the best iterations of the entire franchise.Īnd then, despite the pandemic causing a massive content slowdown that delayed the next expansion by six months, Final Fantasy XIV has utterly exploded in 2021. Over the following eight years since its launch, the newly-christened Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn has managed to be possibly the greatest comeback story in the history of gaming, with each successive expansion receiving even more critical praise and commercial success. Originally launching as a buggy, broken, near-unplayable mess, the entire game was scrapped less than two years after launch, and rebuilt from the ground up by Square’s 3rd Creative Development Team under the direction of Naoki Yoshida. In case you’re somehow unfamiliar, Final Fantasy XIV has a rather complicated history to its name. This reviewer has completed the MSQ and unlocked flying in all zones, but has not interacted with any post-game content, discussion of which will be in a separate piece.) ![]() (Reviewer’s note: This review is specifically on the topic of the Main Scenario Quest content of Endwalker.
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