FINAL FANTASY XIV (Series)

Final Fantasy XIV feels like an MMO that anyone can get into, from newcomers to multiplayer gaming to veterans of MMOs past such as World of Warcraft or even Everquest. It manages to have an engrossing single player story that only gets better the further you progress in it (with the latest expansion as of this review, Shadowbringers, having what was arguably one of the best video game narratives released in 2019), an addictive endgame that ranges from activities such as extra difficult "savage" and "ultimate" raiding to questing and collecting new pieces of gear in order to make a fashion statement.

From hardcore to casual, those with no free time to those with plenty, and those that just want a good game to get lost in, Final Fantasy XIV has you covered.

You can treat FF14 almost like a single player entry in the FF series, it just happens to contain (heaps of) other players! Your character is actually important to the over-arching story of the game. You are THE warrior of light! All the cut-scenes in the raids have YOU front and center as the protagonist (with your party around you). With that in mind, it's more important to focus on the story itself, than trying to rush to Lvl cap to join a raid team like other popular MMOs would have you do. Another thing I really like, the old content is never made irrelevant... Players entering older expansions raid/dungeon content are scaled down and the abilities are limited to what they WOULD have access to at that level. The down side, it is slow... combat is slow... leveling is slow... the story is interesting, but paced out in such a way that you're gonna be doing a LOT of walking back and forth to simply talk to NPCs. It's a massive time investment that you might not be able to get the most out of if you have outside obligations... Still, fantastic game.